One of the questions potential clients ask me most frequently is, "How long will my organizing project take?" Each time, I answer in the same way: there's no way of knowing for sure. That's not an attempt to skirt the question or be evasive in any way; it's the truth. It can be extremely difficult--if not downright impossible--to accurately estimate the time required to finish an organizing project.

Here are a few explanations as to why estimates don't work, why organizing sometimes requires far longer than you might think, and how to prepare ahead for a project so you can do it as efficiently as possible.

First: it's not like the TV shows
Television shows like "Clean Sweep" and "Mission: Organization" have brought a lot of attention to organizing in recent years--and in my book, that's a good thing. Many people who might have otherwise struggled with disorganization for much of their lives have been inspired by these shows to take control of their time, their space, and their stuff.

The downside of the TV shows is that they offer a very abridged look at a process that can take hours, days, weeks, months, and sometimes years. Getting--and, moreover, staying--organized doesn't happen in neat 30-minute chunks. It can be motivating to see the changes that happen on these shows, but it's crucial to remember that for every minute of work you see in a show, there are hours of work that actually had to happen.

Why don't estimates work?
At the most essential level, organizing is little more than a series of dozens (sometimes hundreds) of decisions: what to keep, what to toss, where to put things, what to label them, what containers to buy, how to structure your day, how to deal with maintenance, and on and on. For some people, these decisions are a snap to make; for others, they're akin to torture. In my experience, no two people make decisions in the exact same way or require the same amount of time to make them.

So when a client calls and asks how long it'll take to organize a home office, I can only say, "It depends": it depends on how much and what kind of stuff is in the space, what the client's goals are, and how the client makes decisions. Until the work gets underway and we get clear answers to these questions, time estimates will be outright guesses at best (and disheartening inaccuracies at worst).

Other reasons work might go slowly
Though the need to make an ongoing series of decisions is, to my mind, the number one reason organizing work often takes so long, there are other factors. Sometimes I'll start a project with a client only to find that something that needs to happen--say, the removal of an unused desk in order to bring a new filing cabinet in, or the OK from a boss, spouse, or other interested party in order to move forward--is delayed. Any tasks dependent on that delayed task also get pushed back.

Sometimes life gets in the way: illness will keep you in bed for a week, preventing you from sorting through the stuff in the garage as you'd planned to do, or work gets so busy that it's all you can do simply to stay above water--forget about devoting time to organizing. And sometimes the detailed tasks of a project--creating labels for a new filing system, entering data into a computer program, or packing up the car with things to donate to charity--just take longer than expected.

How to make the most of your organizing time
Though you might not be able to predict (or sometimes even control) the amount of time an organizing project will take, there are a few things you can do to make the most efficient use of the time you do dedicate to the project.

First, make sure you're well and truly ready--physically, financially, emotionally--before you begin. If you're just recovering from serious illness, don't try to jump into a project that requires physical exertion or contact with dust, mold, or other irritants. If you're planning to hire someone to help with the project, or if you'll need to buy new furniture or supplies to finish, make sure you can cover the project costs without having to put your finances in jeopardy. And if you'll be working on something that might be emotionally draining--sorting through things that belonged to a loved one who's recently died, for example--make sure you have the support you need throughout the project.

Second, give your project a realistic scope. Rather than aiming to reorganize the entire house, choose one room to start with; instead of revamping all of your work processes and systems at once, pick a few areas of focus, such as your filing system and your daily task list.

Finally, aim to do some prep work before you physically begin the project. I always encourage my clients to begin by strategizing and creating some guidelines: for example, they might spend some time making a list of how long to keep different types of papers before they start weeding out filing cabinets, or brainstorming tasks they could hand off to an assistant so their workday isn't perpetually crammed too full. Doing this basic decision-making up front can save time--and repeated decisions--once the project is actually underway.

Organization doesn't happen overnight--but then, neither does disorganization. Try not to be dismayed if an organizing project takes longer than you thought or hoped it would; just remember to limit the scope of the project, make sure you're ready for the undertaking, and get some of your decision-making done up front. You'll save time and frustration, and will be more likely to stick with your project to the end.