Your Organizing Coach

Haiku about Clutter

I wrote a whole little book full of these. Here's one:

It's so frustrating
The intractability
Of solid objects

 

 

Block photo by me

Organizing Philosophy for the Holidays

The current economy may end up making this year's holidays less stressful, just because we won't be  shopping and traveling as much. But if you find yourself feeling stressed by holiday planning and the looming prospect of a new year, keep these in mind:

• Make lists to prevent tasks from being forgotten in the chaos. Keep the list for next year
• If list items aren't coming to mind, reflect on past fun holidays and visualize what you want for this year. Make your lists and make it so
• Do a little bit everyday, starting now
• The company of friends and family is the most important part
• You can decide right now to relax and enjoy yourself no matter what happens

Snowman light photo taken by me in San Francisco.

Organization = Self Respect

I read an excerpt from Sandra Felton's recent book, Organizing for Life, on Amazon today (and I put it at the top of my Amazon list in the left column). I have quite a few of her books and I like all of them. As a reformed "messie," she brings insight and compassion into the problems disorganized people face.

Felton's theory is that messy people treat themselves poorly by not being organized. They say they don't want to spend the time and energy to put things in order, but they then relegate themselves to lives full of chaos. She writes: "They are happy to show you how they do without the things other people who recognize their worth and dignity provide for themselves."

Being organized, then, isn't about doing things "right" or living the way others expect you to. It's about respecting yourself enough to create and maintain an attractive and supportive home and life. It's something you do because you are worth it.

I recommend Sandra Felton's books. She has lots of original, clever decluttering tricks, such as the Mount Vernon method for tidying up a room.

The Art of Slow Living

Slowing down to combat the stress and dehumanization of modern life isn't a new concept, but it's been taken to greater and more charming heights by Ella and Bruno Contigiani. Their "slowmandments" offer tips about avoiding multitasking and hurrying and a few more novel and Italian-inflected ones, such as the ones below.

"Write your text messages on your cell phone with no symbols or abbreviations and get in the habit of starting with “Dear…”

"Don’t force yourself go shopping; most probably there is enough food in your cupboard to make something tasty for dinner"

This wonderful sentiment is on their home page:

To stay for all your life a free thinker: this is the meaning of Slow living; to have the courage to stop, ponder and made your own choices before external events and trends will sweep you away.

Criteria for Decluttering

It's simple. Whenever you're torn about getting rid of something or keeping it, ask yourself these two questions:

1. Do I need it?
2. Do I love it?

If the answer is yes to either one, you keep it.

How to Optimize Space

Although I still have websites, the blog is the place where I put my new content. The websites are ridiculously hard to a not-too-computer savvy person like me to edit. The blog, by contrast, is easy as pie (thanks, Typepad!).

However, there's some valuable content on the sites that people aren't seeing as much because my traffic is coming here rather than there. So, today I'm sending you to an article I wrote about using your space.

If I rewrote that article today, I would add this bullet point:

• Use Your Stuff as a Guide. Do you have an inbox on your desk that you never use? Some people don't use their inboxes because putting things in there is like dropping them into a black hole in space (that's a whole 'nother subject). But others don't use them because they just don't work. A client of mine uses her desk for all kinds of tasks, only a few of which involve paper. So a standard 8.5 x 11 inch inbox doesn't work for her. What she really can use is a big colorful basket next to the desk to accomodate stray pieces of clothing, oversize books, a bag of stuff to be returned to the store, a beach ball(!), children's artwork, etc.

Perfectionism or Death

What's the biggest problem with perfectionists? It's that they don't know they have a problem!

Perfectionism is a habit that people are proud of, even when it causes them anxiety and trouble. This New York Times article describes how being a perfectionist can lead to mental health problems and even suicide, not to mention garden variety unhappiness and stress.

In the areas of time management and organizing, I see people abandoning or not taking on projects at all because they don't believe they can do them perfectly. Or spending disproportionate amounts of time on tasks that are very low priority, but capable of being "perfected," while avoiding more important, unperfectable tasks.

The article mentions several aphorisms that perfectionists live by, such as, "Never accept second best." Another one I hear a lot that I disagree with is, "Anything worth doing is worth doing well." Baloney! Plenty of things are worth doing just adequately so you can get on with the really important stuff.

How to be messy and organized

How to be messy and organized. At the same time. A contrarian view, perhaps. Organizers get sick of having to inform people that being organized and being tidy do not necessarily co-exist. The organized part refers to an underlying system that helps you function. It can be more or less detailed, depending on how much effort you’re willing to put in and what kind of results you need. The tidy part is about looks. It’s also about how an environment feels to you.

People who are messy on purpose revel in being immersed in their possessions. They are inspired by seeing all the possibilities around them. People who are tidy get distracted when there’s too much visible at once. They need to shut off all those possibilities when they want to focus on getting a particular task done.

This is an important distinction. A common misconception about tidy people is that they are dry, dull and boring. My view is that they can get overloaded with ideas and plans provoked by what they see around them because they find it hard to ignore. Messy types seem to be able to tune into the inspiration of stuff and then tune out their environments entirely, so they can happily work at a cluttered desk and not even notice what’s next to them.

So the question is: what kind of environment do you prefer to work in? If it’s a messy one you can still have a system, it just may not be apparent to anyone else. How do you keep everything out but still have access to all of it, not endanger self and others by its placement?

• Plenty of open shelving, with shelves placed as close together as needed
• Literature holders with lots of cubbies for paper and other things
• Apothecary cabinets have many small drawers that can be turned into cubbies by removing the drawers
• Rolling carts with wire drawers that pull out are handy
• A big table instead of a desk to give you more horizontal space
• A laptop computer to save desk real estate. Or a flat screen monitor with the CPU on the floor
• A big bulletin board

Myths About Being Organized

When I taught organizing skills at adult school, I devised this matrix to bust some myths about organized people. I did it because I realized that many students, although they'd paid money and were attending the class, had some negative ideas about what being organized means.

I also knew that my students weren't going to get very far if they thought that the place they were going wasn't any fun! Or that they couldn't be themselves; they'd have to become like "those people."

You can make any task in life into drudgery or into a satisfying and pleasing activity. I can guarantee you that if you think organizing is drudgery, you won't do it.

 

What are organized people like?

 

                               

Myth: Organized People…	Reality: Organized People…
Are perfect	Have systems that work
Are neat	Know where things are and know their things all have homes
Like things out of sight	Have things in the most logical place
Are   obsessive	Perform   regular, but minimum, maintenance
Are slaves to routine	Know how to get the systems back up and running when the unexpected happens
Are rigid	Build contingency time into their schedules
Memorize everything	Write things down in a place they can easily find them again