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As I mentioned in the “user info” section of this blog, some of our suggestions are more in-depth than others. We usually try to stick with pretty simple things that might only take a few minutes, but today’s suggestion for Something Good is definitely going to take more effort than that. In fact, I’m going to go ahead and create a two-part series for the information so that it’s more easily digestible. Today’s part can take as little or as much time as you’d like. I imagine I’ll probably spend about an hour with a pencil and paper making notes and creating ideas.
Today’s suggestion for Something Good is to pick a room in your house to reorganize. Perhaps you’re a step ahead of the game, and you’ve got everything in order. If so, then good for you! If not, perhaps these ideas will help you get where you want to be. I know I will definitely be using these suggestions to get my office in order. As a matter of fact, the need to be able to actually use my office as more than a glorified storage area was the impetus for today’s post.
Oddly enough, I actually really enjoy organizing things. I’m a fiend for any type of container, and I go goofy for labels. It’s probably some sort of illness. I’ve long thought that if I could have my own business going to other people’s homes and organizing their rooms, I would be thrilled. All the sorting and categorizing appeals to my analytical side, and the arranging and decorating appeals to my creative side. Like with so many other things, however, it is so much easier to do this stuff for other people than in our own homes!
I’m putting a stop to that today, by dong Something Good and whipping that darned office into shape! I’ve had great success in the past when I’ve used the method outlined in Julie Morgenstern’s book Organizing from the Inside Out. Her approach is a pretty common-sense one, which makes it all the easier to implement. She really stresses that you should make your system fit your needs and your way of thinking; but you can use these steps to guide you as you go.
Rather than just jumping in head-first (which was sort of my plan until I remembered this book), take a step back to decide what it is that you’re actually going to need to do. Morgenstern breaks it down into: analyze, strategize and attack. In analyzing, you should be figuring out what it is that you really want to do with the space and what it is that’s currently keeping you from doing just that. By analyzing what is keeping you from being as productive as you’d like, you can work around these issues as you reorganize your space. For example, maybe you are having trouble getting work accomplished because you’re forever looking for files in the clutter on your desk. Or maybe you’ve begun to dread cooking because your kitchen setup is so inconvenient. Take some time to identify what is and is not working in the space.
Once you’ve got a clearer picture, then it’s time to strategize and create a plan and a timeline for getting things in order. Strategizing includes using what Morgenstern calls “The Kindergarten Classroom Model.” Just like a kindergarten classroom, you want to divide your space into activity zones. Since I’m going to be organizing my office, I might want to include zones for my part-time job, freelance writing, web activities, and household documents. Again, it’s a matter of finagling the system to fit your specific needs and style.
Once you’ve determined your strategy, then you can attack the mess to sort it and rearrange it in a way that’s going to make sure you can reach the goals you’ve set for the space. So many times we can’t keep up with the clutter because we never stopped to analyze and strategize before we attacked it.
So, today’s suggestion for Something Good is to take these steps to prepare to organize a room in your house. I’ll be working on this stuff myself this week, and maybe I’ll share a little about how my adventure is going. My real hope is that this will inspire some of you to take control of the clutter that is trying to take control of you. |
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