“Getting organized” can be a lifelong pursuit — especially if you share space with one, two, or three or more people. So here’s a bit of advice: the way to reach organizational harmony is to design a system (or systems) that can be easily learned and understood by everyone. Maggie Lee supplies support to Little Bellas’ massive program operations, which is responsible for making sure every piece of hardware (i.e. tools, water bottles, bikes, helmets, rubber chickens etc.) and software (jerseys, t-shirts, socks) gets delivered to all 92 (and counting!) Little Bellas programs. She also brought an organizational design philosophy to Little Bellas that’s logical yet reflective all at once. Quite simply, organizational strategy to Maggie is a creative means to enable people to do their best work. She is one of the reasons why Little Bellas rolls flawlessly forward, like a well-oiled bicycle chain silently shifting between its cogs.
For anyone who struggles with getting organized in their own lives, Maggie, who holds a master’s degree in environmental education, leads us out of the virtual woods of our conscience and down a path toward greater peace of mind.
What’s most important for good organization?
Little Bellas: Do you think being organized is a metaphor for something?
Maggie Lee: I think culturally we do assign it something like, if you're organized — if you have a clean house — that puts you higher in people's opinion of you. I don't really feel like my organization style is intended for that purpose. My goal is functionality.
LB: Why do you think so many of us struggle with organization?
ML: I think it's because we set unrealistic expectations. Part of what I try to do is prioritize organizationally what will have the highest impact on my day-to-day. It’s helpful to figure out what I’m interacting that's causing me the most like angst on a daily basis. Maybe it's your closet, maybe it's your bathroom, maybe it's just where you keep your keys, because it doesn't have to be your whole house. I don't really organize my sock drawer — like it's not organized, it's just all in there. I also don't fold my fitted sheets — no one sees your fitted sheets; I just kind of ball them up. That's not something I'm interacting with enough where it matters.
Where there’s a problem, there’s a solution
LB: Before you headed off to grad school, you spent the summer of 2021 as a Little Bellas program lead in the mornings, and then as part of Little Bellas’ operational team in the afternoons. What was that like?
ML: I remember the office that Emily (longtime friend and coworker at Little Bellas - ed.) and I shared was air conditioned and Sabra's (executive director – ed.) office was air conditioned, but the middle, where all the supplies were, was not. It was attic space and it was very hot.
All of the supplies were stuffed under the eaves in the closet, and you'd have to crawl back under the eaves where you’d bang your head on things. But we made it happen and it was really fun.
LB: The way that first job with Little Bellas came about is a curious story that starts with Sabra seeing something in you that perhaps no one else saw. Can you tell us what happened?
ML: It's kind of funny. I told Sabra this in my interview with her for my current job that when I first applied, I applied for a mentor position. She fully interviewed and hired me for a different position. I was like, “Did you know that I didn't actually apply for this job?”
She's like, “Yeah, I know. I just thought I needed you to do this job.”
Maggie realized her superpower for organizing things at a young age, but there’s a lot more to her than just putting things into containers and labeling them. Little Bellas saw this too.
ML: When I returned to Vermont after grad school, I saw this position as an opportunity to still be involved with the meaningful work of getting kids outside and connected with nature in a meaningful way, but also being able to step back a little bit from the intensity of doing that every day, because that really wasn't sustainable for me professionally or personally.
And I’ve been into putting things in containers and organizing boxes and drawers my whole life. That was a fun activity for me as even a child; I loved labeling things. I think I got my first label maker when I was 10 or 11, and I bedazzled it. My parents still have that bedazzled label maker and I still use it.
No place for “My way or the highway”
“The first thing that comes to mind about Maggie is how intentional she is about keeping everything clear and easy to navigate. She truly loves creating systems, everything has a place and reason! She always has everyone else in mind when she's keeping things in order. It's all about making it easier for our people to succeed. And not to mention, she's the color-coding queen!”
— Rachel Ciancola, director of operations for Little Bellas
ML: When I think about how to organize things, I'm thinking about how it works for me, but I also have had to think about how it needs to work for the people who interact with my approach. Making it more universally accessible and thinking about how this system can be as obvious and clear as possible so that somebody else can figure it out (and not take years to understand it). It needs to be intuitive to them.
So that's the gold standard. It's not for me; it's also for everybody else who might be interacting with my system.
Where do the rubber chickens go?
Little Bellas’ storeroom used to be a riot of program materials, sponsor products, and general miscellany, all of which must have a place. Heading into the wilderness of Little Bellas’ storeroom, you might have expected to run into hobbits or maybe the White Rabbit frantically searching for a Little Bellas t-shirt, size small. And it’s not only what goes into the storeroom, but what comes out of it as well, because that affects upcoming programs.
These days, thanks to Maggie, the storeroom is a sanctuary of precision and efficiency. Not only is everything in its right place and properly labelled, but the names are the same whether they’re printed on whiteboard tape (it’s a real thing!) on the side of a bin or entered into a digital medium.
How Little Bellas got organized
For the first time ever, Maggie is sharing the blueprint to her organizational system that connects the physical with the virtual and uses a language that’s understood by all.
- Start with your physical space and determine what’s there.
- Create categories based on type (for example, t-shirts, jerseys, color powder, name plates, bike tools, stickers, and of course, rubber chickens)
- Establish a naming convention that will be used in all the places those items appear: supplies database; inventory sheet; purchase platform, storage containers etc.
TIP: it doesn’t need to be the prettiest name because it needs to be more like a universal code. Little Bellas organizes items by brand because a lot of products are from specific brands. A brand may have variations, for example, there are Borah jerseys for mentors and for participants. Each of those jerseys have names like “sprinkles” or “doodles.” So the container name might go like Borah-mentor jersey-doodle-Large. Everything has its own labeled box.
- Use colors to visually separate categories (humans process visual cues faster than text so Maggie relies on colors to communicate)
- Use, review, revise or tweak system as necessary
If you're inspired to turn clutter into clarity, Maggie gives us all permission to put perfection in the “discard” pile (no one sees your fitted sheets so stop folding them). Her thoughtful organizational systems show us all how simple strategies can transform chaos into calm. With intention, creativity, and a little color-coding magic, she helps Little Bellas — and all of us — thrive.