Today's goal: Skip the mistakes.
Have you ever noticed that your great organizing ambitions fizzle after a day? It might be because you've been too ambitious, too perfectionistic [Ed. note: Guilty!], or not intuitive enough. Today, we have a new guest post, from professional organizer Janine Adams, owner of Peace of Mind Organizing and president of the St. Louis, Missouri, chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers. She specializes in helping those of us who are chronically disorganized and also blogs on organizing on her own site, so be sure to check it out. Questions for her? Comment below and I'll get them to her.
We all make mistakes. Getting organized isn’t a precise exercise and there are lots of ways to approach it. But there are some things people tend to do that will actually undermine their efforts. See if any of these ring a bell:
Mistake #1: Storing things far away from where you use them.
Organizing systems need to be simple and convenient. Store things where you use them. The more steps it takes to put something away, the less likely it is to get put away.
Mistake #2: Buying organizing products before weeding stuff out.
For lots of people, the most fun part of organizing is going to The Container Store (or equivalent) and picking out products. That’s great, but wait to do it until you’ve after you’ve purged your stuff, so that you know what you need. Most of my clients have lots of bins and baskets before I ever get there. And they still have clutter. Save money by buying exactly what you need and nothing more.
Mistake #3: Not paying attention to your piles.
If you have stuff that piles up in a certain place on a consistent basis, maybe you need to use that particular spot for storage. A pile can become perfectly acceptable if you store it in a pretty container.
For example, my husband leaves the dogs’ leashes on the table by the front door, rather than crossing the room to put them away. (I clearly had made Mistake #1 when deciding to store the dog leashes across the room from the door.) The pile of leashes was unsightly. I put a cloth-lined basket under the pile and now it’s an acceptable storage system. If you’re consistently leaving things in a certain place, there’s usually a reason and it’s usually convenience. Rather than fighting it, make it work for you.
Mistake #4: Delaying decisions.
Clutter is nothing but delayed decisions. Don’t pick up a piece of paper and put it right back down because you can’t decide what to do with it. Instead, decide to decide. Make that decision and then act on it. Get into the habit of making decisions about your stuff and you’ll keep clutter at bay.
Mistake #5: Trying to be perfect.
It’s kind of ironic that perfectionism can lead to clutter, but I’ve seen it over and over. Perfectionists don’t want to start the organizing process until they know exactly how they’re going to do it. They feel the need to know what systems they’ll put into place before they even start the process. While the perfectionist waits for the perfect system to materialize, the clutter accumulates. And overwhelm sets in. Rather than striving to be perfectly organized, I encourage you to try to be just organized enough so that you can find what you need without undue stress.
Life is messy; don’t try to make it perfect.
[Ed. note: Man, I feel called out! Janine, you nailed me! Perfectionist, unrealistic organizing plans, etc. But there is one place where I feel like I've made progress:
Today, I was at Bed, Bath and Beyond with my girlfriend, who is going to let me organize her room as my Christmas present this year, and she asked, "What do you think we'll need to buy? What will we need to spend?" I replied that I thought first we needed to figure out what to keep, then we could figure out what to buy.
There seems to be hope for me yet!
What about you? Which of these mistakes do you make regularly? Which have you learned to stop doing?]
Monday, November 10, 2008
Thursday, November 6, 2008
30-Day Organizing Challenge: Day 10
Today's challege: Let it go.
I've written about letting go in this blog before, but never in this context. Today, guest blogger and organizing expert June Bell takes on the challenge of how to determine what needs to stay and what, though you love it, needs to go. For questions or advice on organizing issues, feel free to email June directly at junebell at aol dot com. To suggest more subjects for the challenge, comment below.
Should it stay or should it go?
In my last post, I nudged you toward organization by suggesting you start small. That was the encouragement some of you were waiting for.
But for others, the mere suggestion that you toss what you don’t need induced panic, denial and other fearsome emotions. If that describes you – and if it does, you’re definitely not alone – you may need to take a different approach to organizing.
Remember that “getting organized” is not equivalent to “getting rid of all my stuff.” Organizing is not merely purging – it’s about finding ways to make your environment a place where you can function efficiently,and be surrounded by what you love.
For many people, letting go of unneeded items is much easier if they know that this “clutter” will find a good home elsewhere. This knowledge was a huge help last week to Linda, one of my clients.
We spent a morning emptying her kitchen cabinets and examining the contents. On the shelves above the fridge, she found a dusty tortilla warmer, an unopened box of blue and white tile trivets, an electric can opener and an iced-tea maker. Some were wedding gifts older than her teenager. Others were purchased with the best intentions, used once and then relegated to culinary Siberia.
She agreed she did not want or need these things but wavered on saying goodbye to them. After all, she’d kept them so long. She might want them again someday. Some were wedding gifts. Some were from her deceased mother-in-law.
Then Linda realized that her cleaning woman, Lupe, had a large network of friends who would not only gratefully receive these items but would also appreciate and use them. She quickly filled two large plastic storage bins with her surplus and set them aside for Lupe.
Here are some suggestions on how to ease the sting of letting go of stuff you don’t want or need:
Find someone who needs it more than you do. Give that polka-dotted scarf to your niece for dress-up. Donate your old PC to a teen mentor program. Or list your stuff on craigslist or freecycle with a note that you’d like them to go a charity or school.
Don’t confuse an object with a person. You will always fondly remember your favorite aunt regardless of whether you keep the itchy mustard-color afghan she knitted for you years ago.
Consider an item’s karma. Hanging on to love letters from a two-faced, cheatin’ SOB creates a little cloud of funk in your home. Ditto for gifts you hate, clothing that’s too small or outdated and items you don’t like anymore. Let go and go on.
Next week: I’ll show you how to team up with a friend to make organizing easier and even, yes, fun.
[Ed Note: I'm curious: What do you have the hardest time letting go? Is there something people are always telling you to get rid of? Why do you keep it?]
I've written about letting go in this blog before, but never in this context. Today, guest blogger and organizing expert June Bell takes on the challenge of how to determine what needs to stay and what, though you love it, needs to go. For questions or advice on organizing issues, feel free to email June directly at junebell at aol dot com. To suggest more subjects for the challenge, comment below.
Should it stay or should it go?
In my last post, I nudged you toward organization by suggesting you start small. That was the encouragement some of you were waiting for.
But for others, the mere suggestion that you toss what you don’t need induced panic, denial and other fearsome emotions. If that describes you – and if it does, you’re definitely not alone – you may need to take a different approach to organizing.
Remember that “getting organized” is not equivalent to “getting rid of all my stuff.” Organizing is not merely purging – it’s about finding ways to make your environment a place where you can function efficiently,and be surrounded by what you love.
For many people, letting go of unneeded items is much easier if they know that this “clutter” will find a good home elsewhere. This knowledge was a huge help last week to Linda, one of my clients.
We spent a morning emptying her kitchen cabinets and examining the contents. On the shelves above the fridge, she found a dusty tortilla warmer, an unopened box of blue and white tile trivets, an electric can opener and an iced-tea maker. Some were wedding gifts older than her teenager. Others were purchased with the best intentions, used once and then relegated to culinary Siberia.
She agreed she did not want or need these things but wavered on saying goodbye to them. After all, she’d kept them so long. She might want them again someday. Some were wedding gifts. Some were from her deceased mother-in-law.
Then Linda realized that her cleaning woman, Lupe, had a large network of friends who would not only gratefully receive these items but would also appreciate and use them. She quickly filled two large plastic storage bins with her surplus and set them aside for Lupe.
Here are some suggestions on how to ease the sting of letting go of stuff you don’t want or need:
Find someone who needs it more than you do. Give that polka-dotted scarf to your niece for dress-up. Donate your old PC to a teen mentor program. Or list your stuff on craigslist or freecycle with a note that you’d like them to go a charity or school.
Don’t confuse an object with a person. You will always fondly remember your favorite aunt regardless of whether you keep the itchy mustard-color afghan she knitted for you years ago.
Consider an item’s karma. Hanging on to love letters from a two-faced, cheatin’ SOB creates a little cloud of funk in your home. Ditto for gifts you hate, clothing that’s too small or outdated and items you don’t like anymore. Let go and go on.
Next week: I’ll show you how to team up with a friend to make organizing easier and even, yes, fun.
[Ed Note: I'm curious: What do you have the hardest time letting go? Is there something people are always telling you to get rid of? Why do you keep it?]
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Staying Serene--and Productive--on Election Day
It's a beautiful sunny day here in San Francisco--a respite from the days of pouring rain we've had. That's cause enough for excitement, but the election has me more giddy than I can communicate. There's a sense of hopping enthusiasm in my every action today, an election-based ADD. Right now, I'm fighting the urge to go outside and see how long the wait is at my polling place--to document it like the reporter I am. This feels historic in so many ways, and there's at least one ballot measure here in California that will effect my life personally. My mind keeps jumping from my work to daydreams of what will happen if my candidate wins, if that scary ballot measure passes, if voters--any voters--are kept from the polls.
I'm distracted. All I want to do is be with friends and watch the results roll in. It turns out that I'm not alone. Starting yesterday, I saw comments from other freelancers all over the country--and in other countries--reporting a similar lack of focus, an inability to do work. The brilliant freelance writer (and Canadian) Diane Selkirk calls it Election Distraction Disorder.
It turns out I don't have ADD. I have EDD.
And if you do, too, you may be fighting with yourself to work, or to play hookie. In any case, getting paid work done may be a challenge for you today. So I asked other self-employed people what they're doing to treat their EDD. Here are my favorites:
* Work on election-related stories: Friend and former j-school colleague John McGrath reports, "I've been doing nothing but work on elections stuff for the past month--helping write the programs that will supply the NYTimes.com [where he works] with updated election data--called races, exit polls, demographic data, etc., for the whole country, down to the county level--every few minutes throughout the evening and night tomorrow. Which is the perfect cure for EDD--have a job that requires you to be drowning in election data all day, every day."
To translate this to freelancers, you can use your election obsession to brainstorm and pitch stories based on the election. It doesn't have to be literal: Interesting personalities, trends, etc., are all fodder for the query mill. This will give you an excuse to think about the election and work on your marketing.
* Use work to distract yourself from EDD: Writer Earon Davis reports that work is the only think keeping himself sane right now. "My EDD is too powerful," he says. "The only reason I'm getting my work done is that it helps keep my mind off of the elections for a brief time. This is a stressful time - dealing with lots of fears about the elections. It feels like the stakes are unusually high. So, I do as much work as I can - and then get updated with the Internet, TV and even radio."
* Reward yourself: My friend and fellow freelancer Kimberly Olsen and meditation teacher Algernon D'Ammassa both are using the carrot-and-stick approach to EDD. "If I complete a specific task (say, write 500 words for a story I'm working on), I can then watch 15 minutes of CNN or check pollster.com," says Olsen. You can also set a timer and write/call/work for 15 minutes and watch TV for 5 minutes or whatever you decide. That way, you know you're getting work done and you're getting your politics fix.
* Vote early: Massage therapist and freelance writer Ramona Turner reports that she voted by mail so she could put her part of the election behind her and move on. Some are combining this with...
* Limit your TV/radio/political blog time: Freelance writer and designer Mariann Garner-Wizard looks at the 24-hour political news stations this way: "The talking heads can only be repeating themselves now -- the play has started, and we can only wait for the dust to settle to see who comes up with the ball." In other words, you aren't missing anything. Really. It's okay to just work for a few hours.
Then there are a big group of people who are waving the white flag.
"I'm no longer attempting to stem the disorder," reports financial journalist and fellow j-school alum Charles Keenan. "The major papers, Huffington Post, Daily Kos et all are like crack, so I might as well feed the addiction. After all, it's been a while since we've felt this good of a vibe in a presidential election. Time to indulge."
If you're endulging too, here are some sane ways to do it:
* Make it official. Take today off. Look at your calendar and reschedule what you have planned. Greg Poulos, president of Bluefin Productions, reports that he's taking off the last half of Tuesday off and Wednesday morning, as well.
* Volunteer for the causes you believe in: It's not too late to join last-minute electioneering. If you set aside half the day or even just an hour of your day for your favorite candidate or cause you can give yourself a political outlet, do your part, and still be able to concentrate the rest of the day.
* Remember, it's your right to care about the election: One of the joys of living in a democracy is that we have a say in our government. We should be engaged and excited. "Don't fear EDD!" urges life coach Cindy Eubanks. "This is an historic time in our country--a presidential election like no other we have seen. Allow yourself the hours leading up to the election and the day after to immerse yourself in it without guilt. This is a time to pay attention!"
As for me, I have a bunch of interviews scheduled and will do them. I'm with Earon. I want to distract myself. And what better way than with income-generating work, and thinking about other things that are important. Plus, I wrote this blog post.
How are you dealing with your EDD?
I'm distracted. All I want to do is be with friends and watch the results roll in. It turns out that I'm not alone. Starting yesterday, I saw comments from other freelancers all over the country--and in other countries--reporting a similar lack of focus, an inability to do work. The brilliant freelance writer (and Canadian) Diane Selkirk calls it Election Distraction Disorder.
It turns out I don't have ADD. I have EDD.
And if you do, too, you may be fighting with yourself to work, or to play hookie. In any case, getting paid work done may be a challenge for you today. So I asked other self-employed people what they're doing to treat their EDD. Here are my favorites:
* Work on election-related stories: Friend and former j-school colleague John McGrath reports, "I've been doing nothing but work on elections stuff for the past month--helping write the programs that will supply the NYTimes.com [where he works] with updated election data--called races, exit polls, demographic data, etc., for the whole country, down to the county level--every few minutes throughout the evening and night tomorrow. Which is the perfect cure for EDD--have a job that requires you to be drowning in election data all day, every day."
To translate this to freelancers, you can use your election obsession to brainstorm and pitch stories based on the election. It doesn't have to be literal: Interesting personalities, trends, etc., are all fodder for the query mill. This will give you an excuse to think about the election and work on your marketing.
* Use work to distract yourself from EDD: Writer Earon Davis reports that work is the only think keeping himself sane right now. "My EDD is too powerful," he says. "The only reason I'm getting my work done is that it helps keep my mind off of the elections for a brief time. This is a stressful time - dealing with lots of fears about the elections. It feels like the stakes are unusually high. So, I do as much work as I can - and then get updated with the Internet, TV and even radio."
* Reward yourself: My friend and fellow freelancer Kimberly Olsen and meditation teacher Algernon D'Ammassa both are using the carrot-and-stick approach to EDD. "If I complete a specific task (say, write 500 words for a story I'm working on), I can then watch 15 minutes of CNN or check pollster.com," says Olsen. You can also set a timer and write/call/work for 15 minutes and watch TV for 5 minutes or whatever you decide. That way, you know you're getting work done and you're getting your politics fix.
* Vote early: Massage therapist and freelance writer Ramona Turner reports that she voted by mail so she could put her part of the election behind her and move on. Some are combining this with...
* Limit your TV/radio/political blog time: Freelance writer and designer Mariann Garner-Wizard looks at the 24-hour political news stations this way: "The talking heads can only be repeating themselves now -- the play has started, and we can only wait for the dust to settle to see who comes up with the ball." In other words, you aren't missing anything. Really. It's okay to just work for a few hours.
Then there are a big group of people who are waving the white flag.
"I'm no longer attempting to stem the disorder," reports financial journalist and fellow j-school alum Charles Keenan. "The major papers, Huffington Post, Daily Kos et all are like crack, so I might as well feed the addiction. After all, it's been a while since we've felt this good of a vibe in a presidential election. Time to indulge."
If you're endulging too, here are some sane ways to do it:
* Make it official. Take today off. Look at your calendar and reschedule what you have planned. Greg Poulos, president of Bluefin Productions, reports that he's taking off the last half of Tuesday off and Wednesday morning, as well.
* Volunteer for the causes you believe in: It's not too late to join last-minute electioneering. If you set aside half the day or even just an hour of your day for your favorite candidate or cause you can give yourself a political outlet, do your part, and still be able to concentrate the rest of the day.
* Remember, it's your right to care about the election: One of the joys of living in a democracy is that we have a say in our government. We should be engaged and excited. "Don't fear EDD!" urges life coach Cindy Eubanks. "This is an historic time in our country--a presidential election like no other we have seen. Allow yourself the hours leading up to the election and the day after to immerse yourself in it without guilt. This is a time to pay attention!"
As for me, I have a bunch of interviews scheduled and will do them. I'm with Earon. I want to distract myself. And what better way than with income-generating work, and thinking about other things that are important. Plus, I wrote this blog post.
How are you dealing with your EDD?
Thursday, October 30, 2008
30-Day Organizing Challenge: Day 3
Today's goal: Create some structure
One of the things I've heard from many of you is just having some kind of structure for your office or personal space can be overwhelming. Where to start?
I thought I'd share some of the organizing systems that work for me:
Email
I'll do a whole post on this another day, but one of the great boosts to my serenity came when I stopped being a slave to my pinging email. I look at it once a day, and now I have all the newsletters, emails from flaks and emails from specific groups to which I belong sent to their own email folders. That way, most days I only have the most pertinent emails in my inbox. My rule is, with most emails, that I either have to act on it today or file it--or I can delete it. But it doesn't stay there forever, and I don't forget to respond to people anymore.
Filing
I know it's a bad word for some, but I actually love filing, because it means that all the stuff that's sitting around has a place to go--and if it doesn't belong in a folder for a story assignment or a client, it sits on my desk till I face it. Since I hate piles, this works for me, but your mileage may vary. (It also means that the piles to the left and right of my monitor I mentioned before have been there for quite some time.)
Mail
We've touched on email, and now I'll touch on the stuff that comes into the house every day through the snailmail slot. My rule with these is this:
* If it's junk mail and has my name on it, it gets shredded.
* If it's a credit card or donation request I don't want, it gets shredded.
* If it's a catalog, it gets recycled.
* If it's a receipt for a tax-deductible business expense, it goes in files labeled for each category according to my accountant's wishes.
* If it's a personal receipt (for instance, from the grocery store, from dinner out, etc.), it gets shredded.
* If it's a personal piece of mail I won't need for taxes, I scan it and shred it.
* If it's a personal letter from a friend or loved one, I put it on my bulletin board or file it away in a box in my closet.
Planning my Day
I rely utterly on my Franklin Covey planner and on a weekly workflow list I draw up every Sunday night(another post will be coming on this, too). At the end of every day (usually around 10 p.m., when I should be unwinding), I flip to my weekly workflow plan and add my to-do items to my list for the next day. That way, when I sit down at work in the morning, I don't spend time trying to decipher the important items from the urgent-but-unimportant items. This is a system I adopted after quite a few crises on my end.
We've talked about what works for me, now for the things that don't:
Magazine storage: My magazines, which I refer to for work, are busting or from everwhere--under my bed, under my desk, under other tables, etc.--and I don't know how far back I should keep them before I can toss or donate them.
Book storage: I get books for stories, usually written by people I've interviewed. Or I get books for my own development (Telling True Stories, The Elements of Style, How Race Is Lived in America, Six-Figure Freelancing and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People all jockey for space on one sad shelf in my office, but some books are still in storage because I don't have room for them.)
These are some of the things I'll be working on improving over the next month.
What systems work for you and which give you trouble?
One of the things I've heard from many of you is just having some kind of structure for your office or personal space can be overwhelming. Where to start?
I thought I'd share some of the organizing systems that work for me:
I'll do a whole post on this another day, but one of the great boosts to my serenity came when I stopped being a slave to my pinging email. I look at it once a day, and now I have all the newsletters, emails from flaks and emails from specific groups to which I belong sent to their own email folders. That way, most days I only have the most pertinent emails in my inbox. My rule is, with most emails, that I either have to act on it today or file it--or I can delete it. But it doesn't stay there forever, and I don't forget to respond to people anymore.
Filing
I know it's a bad word for some, but I actually love filing, because it means that all the stuff that's sitting around has a place to go--and if it doesn't belong in a folder for a story assignment or a client, it sits on my desk till I face it. Since I hate piles, this works for me, but your mileage may vary. (It also means that the piles to the left and right of my monitor I mentioned before have been there for quite some time.)
We've touched on email, and now I'll touch on the stuff that comes into the house every day through the snailmail slot. My rule with these is this:
* If it's junk mail and has my name on it, it gets shredded.
* If it's a credit card or donation request I don't want, it gets shredded.
* If it's a catalog, it gets recycled.
* If it's a receipt for a tax-deductible business expense, it goes in files labeled for each category according to my accountant's wishes.
* If it's a personal receipt (for instance, from the grocery store, from dinner out, etc.), it gets shredded.
* If it's a personal piece of mail I won't need for taxes, I scan it and shred it.
* If it's a personal letter from a friend or loved one, I put it on my bulletin board or file it away in a box in my closet.
Planning my Day
I rely utterly on my Franklin Covey planner and on a weekly workflow list I draw up every Sunday night(another post will be coming on this, too). At the end of every day (usually around 10 p.m., when I should be unwinding), I flip to my weekly workflow plan and add my to-do items to my list for the next day. That way, when I sit down at work in the morning, I don't spend time trying to decipher the important items from the urgent-but-unimportant items. This is a system I adopted after quite a few crises on my end.
We've talked about what works for me, now for the things that don't:
Magazine storage: My magazines, which I refer to for work, are busting or from everwhere--under my bed, under my desk, under other tables, etc.--and I don't know how far back I should keep them before I can toss or donate them.
Book storage: I get books for stories, usually written by people I've interviewed. Or I get books for my own development (Telling True Stories, The Elements of Style, How Race Is Lived in America, Six-Figure Freelancing and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People all jockey for space on one sad shelf in my office, but some books are still in storage because I don't have room for them.)
These are some of the things I'll be working on improving over the next month.
What systems work for you and which give you trouble?
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
30-Day Organizing Challenge: Day 2 Part 2
Let's add another goal as we start this challenge: Make a deal with yourself
When I think of organizing, I think of drill sergeants. It might be the result of regular cleaning binges after long, frustrating standoffs between my dad's (and, okay, my) obsessive collecting and piling of things on any horizontal surface in my family home and my mother's desire to have a place clean enough for friends to pop in. Finally at her wit's end after months of polite requests that my dad, my sister and I put stuff away, my mother would stand in the middle of the chaos, fists on her hips as she barked orders for where to put this pile and how to sort that pile.
So, yeah. Organizing. Good times.
My point is that starting this kind of organizing venture can be done gently and lovingly, towards ourselves and everyone else involved. We can cultivate forgiveness for our resistance and applaud ourselves for the small steps we take in the direction of a cleaner, more organized space.
So let's all agree to a few things right now:
We will not do this perfectly.
We will not cover every organizing problem you have in the next 30 days.
We will not emerge from this challenge wholely calm and thrilled with our space.
What we will do is learn a little something about why we don't organize and a few tricks to make organizing a little simpler and a little less painful.
Deal?
When I think of organizing, I think of drill sergeants. It might be the result of regular cleaning binges after long, frustrating standoffs between my dad's (and, okay, my) obsessive collecting and piling of things on any horizontal surface in my family home and my mother's desire to have a place clean enough for friends to pop in. Finally at her wit's end after months of polite requests that my dad, my sister and I put stuff away, my mother would stand in the middle of the chaos, fists on her hips as she barked orders for where to put this pile and how to sort that pile.
So, yeah. Organizing. Good times.
My point is that starting this kind of organizing venture can be done gently and lovingly, towards ourselves and everyone else involved. We can cultivate forgiveness for our resistance and applaud ourselves for the small steps we take in the direction of a cleaner, more organized space.
So let's all agree to a few things right now:
We will not do this perfectly.
We will not cover every organizing problem you have in the next 30 days.
We will not emerge from this challenge wholely calm and thrilled with our space.
What we will do is learn a little something about why we don't organize and a few tricks to make organizing a little simpler and a little less painful.
Deal?
30-Day Organizing Challenge: Day 2
Today's goal: Face your overwhelm.
Those of you who asked for help with overwhelm and getting started: This post is for you. It's a guest post from the fabulous June Bell, a professional organizer and family coach who helps individuals and families make the best use of their time, space and place. She welcomes follow-up questions and comments at junebell at me dot com, or leave comments here.
Hi to everyone who’s in the process of getting things in order. I’m a colleague of Heather’s and a professional organizer who will hold your (virtual) hand as you start on the road to a more functional space, whether it’s a wallet or a home office.
Getting your chaos under control can be daunting. You can spend a lot of time psyching yourself out by agonizing: Where do I put all this stuff? What should I keep? What if I need what I throw out? Where the heck do I start?
No wonder so many of us live amid clutter, even as we talk about how much we hate it. For many people, complaining about mess is much less stressful than doing something about it.
In this post, I’ll ease you into organizing with a few small steps that will produce tangible, inspiring results:
Schedule. Set aside an hour when you know you won’t be interrupted and feel most alert and focused.
Start small. Choose a contained space such as a makeup bag, handbag or wallet, pencil/pen holder, kitchen “junk drawer” or your underwear or sock drawer. I’ve been working with a client who’s learning to organize her entire home. We started with a coffee table because she sees each time she enters or leaves the house, and having it clear affirmed to her that she could beat her clutter.
Remove all the contents from your targeted space and dust or wipe out your container. Now, examine the contents.
Ask yourself: What do I need and use most often? Retrieve those items and put them back. If you’re organizing your wallet, for example, you’d need cash, your driver’s license, credit, ATM and insurance cards and maybe a work ID or a special photo.
Lighten up. Weed out clutter – old receipts and empty tubes of lipstick, old business cards and dry pens. Do you really need five photos of your nieces? A first-aid kit? A Matchbox car?
Tweak. You may discover that you need a place in your purse for receipts. Add an envelope to hold them, or designate a pocket of your handbag. If you’re always hunting for a screwdriver to fix a kitchen cabinet, consider moving it from the tool shed to the kitchen drawer.
Appreciate your work. Admire your lighter handbag. Note how much more easily you can find your keys and your sunglasses. By organizing one small space, you’ve given yourself a taste of success. If you like how you feel, why not tackle another drawer?
If you feel uneasy about letting go, my next post is especially for you.
Those of you who asked for help with overwhelm and getting started: This post is for you. It's a guest post from the fabulous June Bell, a professional organizer and family coach who helps individuals and families make the best use of their time, space and place. She welcomes follow-up questions and comments at junebell at me dot com, or leave comments here.
Hi to everyone who’s in the process of getting things in order. I’m a colleague of Heather’s and a professional organizer who will hold your (virtual) hand as you start on the road to a more functional space, whether it’s a wallet or a home office.
Getting your chaos under control can be daunting. You can spend a lot of time psyching yourself out by agonizing: Where do I put all this stuff? What should I keep? What if I need what I throw out? Where the heck do I start?
No wonder so many of us live amid clutter, even as we talk about how much we hate it. For many people, complaining about mess is much less stressful than doing something about it.
In this post, I’ll ease you into organizing with a few small steps that will produce tangible, inspiring results:
Schedule. Set aside an hour when you know you won’t be interrupted and feel most alert and focused.
Start small. Choose a contained space such as a makeup bag, handbag or wallet, pencil/pen holder, kitchen “junk drawer” or your underwear or sock drawer. I’ve been working with a client who’s learning to organize her entire home. We started with a coffee table because she sees each time she enters or leaves the house, and having it clear affirmed to her that she could beat her clutter.
Remove all the contents from your targeted space and dust or wipe out your container. Now, examine the contents.
Ask yourself: What do I need and use most often? Retrieve those items and put them back. If you’re organizing your wallet, for example, you’d need cash, your driver’s license, credit, ATM and insurance cards and maybe a work ID or a special photo.
Lighten up. Weed out clutter – old receipts and empty tubes of lipstick, old business cards and dry pens. Do you really need five photos of your nieces? A first-aid kit? A Matchbox car?
Tweak. You may discover that you need a place in your purse for receipts. Add an envelope to hold them, or designate a pocket of your handbag. If you’re always hunting for a screwdriver to fix a kitchen cabinet, consider moving it from the tool shed to the kitchen drawer.
Appreciate your work. Admire your lighter handbag. Note how much more easily you can find your keys and your sunglasses. By organizing one small space, you’ve given yourself a taste of success. If you like how you feel, why not tackle another drawer?
If you feel uneasy about letting go, my next post is especially for you.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
30-Day Organizing Challenge: Day 1
Today's Goal: Get your priorities straight.
As I look around my office, here's what I see:
* A pile of magazines (all for work!) tumbled in with the baby books I need to send to my nephew in Germany. Naturally, this is under a table. Of course.
* A three-tray stackable system with a bunch of stuff to shred, a bunch of stuff to file and/or scan and then shred, and clean paper for the printer (so I can add to the other two piles).
* Piles of papers to the right and the left of the monitor I'm staring at right now. One contains tons of story ideas, articles clipped from newspapers, Post-It multicolor tags, a disposable camera, my keys, the container for my makeup brushes (of course), my keys and an iPod case. The other contains a magazine from a friend, the TV remote, an envelope containing a contract for a story I'm filing today (Gee, maybe it's time to mail that), two copies of a magazine with my story in it, letters from my student loans and files for stories I'm currently working on.
* A monitor riser that holds notes for a new story, my planner, a timer, magazine renewal notifications, an iPod dock, my vitamins and my giant calculator.
In my bedroom, under the bed is crammed with old New Yorkers I haven't read but can't bear to part with. My bedside table holds books, copies of yoga kriyas for insomnia I got for an article and promise myself I will one day use, Kleenex, Advil, Chapstick and moisturizer.
There are shoes all over the floor.
Yeah, you could say I need an organizing challenge.
The ironic thing is that this is a vast improvement for me. As a child, there was a strict close-your-door policy for my bedroom. As I previously mentioned. I was quite a dramatic child. Part of that drama was a flamboyant disregard for order or cleanliness. No one was going to tell me how to keep my own room. There was literally a path from my door to my bed, and often things crunched under my feet as I traversed it.
Over the years, pride curbed my messy ways. There are only so many dirty looks I could get from my dorm roommate. Only so many fights I could have with roommates over dirty dishes. I recall a wooden cutting board that broke in half under the weight of all the neglected cutlery and dishes.
Today, I wash dishes to calm my nerves and file to distract myself when my energy has left me. I actually like to organize. But I don't always do it.
I'm gladdened by the number of people who have shared similar challenges. I have found my (messy) people!
So as we get started, I'm excited about what we're about to do. I've lined up some great professional organizers to answer questions I can't, and plan to share the organizing tips that have made a difference in my life.
But first, it's time to figure out what I want to get out of this. I suggest you do the same, if you're following along at home. My priorities:
* Revisit the organizing strategies that have worked in the past.
* Carve out time for incremental improvements in my organizing.
* Find a system that fits with my organizational style.
* Find some techniques to deal with clutter/organizing overwhelm.
* Reflect on why I resist organizing.
* Learn some new tricks to keep clutter in control.
* Optimize my desk for productivity and profitability.
* Have some fun with it!
I do believe that last one is possible. After all, it's a new challenge, literally. It's a chance to direct my creativity into a realm I think is utterly uncreative.
What are your priorities?
As I look around my office, here's what I see:
* A pile of magazines (all for work!) tumbled in with the baby books I need to send to my nephew in Germany. Naturally, this is under a table. Of course.
* A three-tray stackable system with a bunch of stuff to shred, a bunch of stuff to file and/or scan and then shred, and clean paper for the printer (so I can add to the other two piles).
* Piles of papers to the right and the left of the monitor I'm staring at right now. One contains tons of story ideas, articles clipped from newspapers, Post-It multicolor tags, a disposable camera, my keys, the container for my makeup brushes (of course), my keys and an iPod case. The other contains a magazine from a friend, the TV remote, an envelope containing a contract for a story I'm filing today (Gee, maybe it's time to mail that), two copies of a magazine with my story in it, letters from my student loans and files for stories I'm currently working on.
* A monitor riser that holds notes for a new story, my planner, a timer, magazine renewal notifications, an iPod dock, my vitamins and my giant calculator.
In my bedroom, under the bed is crammed with old New Yorkers I haven't read but can't bear to part with. My bedside table holds books, copies of yoga kriyas for insomnia I got for an article and promise myself I will one day use, Kleenex, Advil, Chapstick and moisturizer.
There are shoes all over the floor.
Yeah, you could say I need an organizing challenge.
The ironic thing is that this is a vast improvement for me. As a child, there was a strict close-your-door policy for my bedroom. As I previously mentioned. I was quite a dramatic child. Part of that drama was a flamboyant disregard for order or cleanliness. No one was going to tell me how to keep my own room. There was literally a path from my door to my bed, and often things crunched under my feet as I traversed it.
Over the years, pride curbed my messy ways. There are only so many dirty looks I could get from my dorm roommate. Only so many fights I could have with roommates over dirty dishes. I recall a wooden cutting board that broke in half under the weight of all the neglected cutlery and dishes.
Today, I wash dishes to calm my nerves and file to distract myself when my energy has left me. I actually like to organize. But I don't always do it.
I'm gladdened by the number of people who have shared similar challenges. I have found my (messy) people!
So as we get started, I'm excited about what we're about to do. I've lined up some great professional organizers to answer questions I can't, and plan to share the organizing tips that have made a difference in my life.
But first, it's time to figure out what I want to get out of this. I suggest you do the same, if you're following along at home. My priorities:
* Revisit the organizing strategies that have worked in the past.
* Carve out time for incremental improvements in my organizing.
* Find a system that fits with my organizational style.
* Find some techniques to deal with clutter/organizing overwhelm.
* Reflect on why I resist organizing.
* Learn some new tricks to keep clutter in control.
* Optimize my desk for productivity and profitability.
* Have some fun with it!
I do believe that last one is possible. After all, it's a new challenge, literally. It's a chance to direct my creativity into a realm I think is utterly uncreative.
What are your priorities?
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