What My Goats Taught Me About Organizing

I’m lucky enough to call the Pacific Northwest my home. I have a small hobby farm filled with chickens (who really run the whole place), goats (who believe fences are merely suggestions), and alpaca (who provide endless entertainment and delightfully soft fiber).

One of my favorite farm rituals is opening the gate to a pasture I’ve been keeping the herd out of and watching them run, leap, and frolic into it. This past weekend was the big day. The grass had grown so wild and tall, it turned into one of those lift, push, and hope-the-gate-doesn’t-break-under-my-weight situations. I managed to get it cracked just enough for my impatient crew to squeeze past me in all their excitement.

The organizer in me assumed the goats would stop at the thick, delicious grass right near the entrance and work their way inward. But if you know goats, you know “methodical” is not in their vocabulary.

Instead, they rushed past all the obvious treats to go straight for what they really wanted: the tender, wild blackberry shoots growing way out in the middle.

And you know what? It reminded me that it’s okay—more than okay—to go straight for the win. The thing that feels good. The thing you’ve been craving. You don’t have to start at the beginning. You just have to start.

Is there a pile of “stuff” you’ve been putting off dealing with? Don’t look at the whole thing. Instead, find one or two things that would feel so satisfying to put away. Just do those. That might be all the momentum you need to keep going. And if it’s not—that’s okay too.

If you’re not ready to go at it alone and you want support, reach out. I’d love to chat about how I can help—whether in person or virtually.

Here’s to your version of the blackberry bush.

Happy Organizing!

Chloe B.