The Quick Way To Organize? Get A Box!
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Nov 10, 2010
Many years ago I obtained the services of Lisa DeVeau of Completely Organized to come in and help me learn how to keep my space neat and how to organize my files better. Over the course of 3 weeks, in 2-hour increments, she showed me a lot of techniques and did help me greatly, and I still use most of those techniques even now.
However, there are times when I still get overwhelmed with stuff just piling up on my desk and getting on my nerves. I start feeling cramped and closed in on, and I don’t have the smallest desk in the world. I did have to add a table, though, to help me with a lot of the paper I still seem to accumulate, and I work for myself.
When I really need a break from all of this and want to get it done in a hurry I go back to the old “box” method. That is, I get a big box and I shovel everything on my desk into it. Well, everything that I can; there are a few things here and there that aren’t going anywhere, but everything else goes into the box.
Immediately I usually feel pretty good, but I know my job isn’t done. The next step is to go through every single thing in the box and put it somewhere. This now forces me to read papers that I might have just laid down. It forces me to take those extra business cards that I didn’t hand out to anyone and put them back in the box, and to log the information of those whose business cards I got if I believe they could be an important contact down the line. It forces me to take change that I’ve just put down and store it either in my accumulating money jar or my actual change can that I use whenever I go out.
On and on, it forces me to address things that I’d put off because I felt too busy to do otherwise. I felt that I had to continue performing for whatever reason and not take any time out to take care of what aren’t necessarily the little things. After all, some of those papers on my desk turn out to be bills that I hadn’t put in my bill area; that’s never good.
All of us need to declutter at some point in our lives. We can either take the time out to do a little bit every day or every week, or we can try to get it all done at once. Finding ways to help change your perspective as quickly as possible can’t hurt; maybe you can try my box method, and maybe you’ll find that you can use it in other ways as well.
I like this method of organization, it puts all of your stuff that you need to organize in one spot and then you can focus on just one thing instead of everything.
I planned on doing some organizing today, but I don’t think I have a box. Even a pile on the floor sounds like it would work just as well.
Thanks Keith. Man, it’s amazing how well it can work, probably because you immediately feel less cluttered when all that stuff is out of your space. I have to say, though, that creating a pile on the floor has never worked for me; I’m not sure why, but I tend to just leave stuff there, especially if it’s not blocking my way.
My floor pile is used for trash as I’m going through my pile. It makes my husband crazy, but why would I get up each time I need to throw something out (or shred)?
That’s an interesting system, Jeannie; if it works for you, then by all means.
My chief creating officer does the same, electronically.
How? Well, he has one of those monster 30” Apple monitors, and his desktop is usually completely covered with icons (as all creatives, he has some pretty pathologic problem with “order”), to the point that to find something specific you have to open a Finder window and sort the Desktop files my date, no lie…
So yeah, when he wants order, he makes a new folder on the desktop, called “old desktop”, and moves 90% of the desktop items in it.
The difference is that it takes months for him to go through “old desktop” and put some order into chaos. And sometimes he ends up with “old desktop 2” and “old desktop 3″…
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That’s funny Gabriele. I have a folder called Desktop Stuff for certain things, but otherwise I hide the icons on my desktop so I can see the pictures I have on there instead.
This is definitely my strategy when my desk becomes to cluttered. The most important thing to remember with this method is that the box must be dealt with. Haha.
You can’t have box after box piling up without going through them, because you now have a whole, new kind of clutter.
Great post. I enjoyed it!
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Thanks Faydra. And you’re right, when I pull everything off my desk into the box, I then go through it at that moment instead of just moving clutter elsewhere.
I like the box idea Mitch! It is an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ approach. Also a good way to jumpstart decluttering/organization task with immediate results.
Rachel Lavern
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Thanks Rachel, but it’s not supposed to be “out of sight” as much as “look at all this stuff, let me get to it and put it where it needs to go”. 🙂
I have a large drawer for this stuff, a collapsible plastic crate for the larger stuff and a cardboard storage box (meant for file folders) for the smaller stuff… what happens is I forget about all of them til it comes time to tidy the next lost of clutter from my desk. Oh – and I have a ‘tidy’ folder on my desktop. It’s cluttered!
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You’re killing me, Val! Still, at least you do have some kind of system to help you out. My system works great for my desk, but there are times when I just have tons of stuff in other places and I have to figure out what I want to do with it.
Good thoughts Mitch!
I’ve always been fond of the “Deal with each item once” school of thought. Basically, when you read a letter or report, respond to it and file it; don’t put it on a pile for later unless yuo don’t have all you need to complete the task.
I said I’m fond of this method, not that I’m good at it. When I DO use it, it seems to help.
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That’s how these things work, Allan; if we use them, it’s amazing how well they work for us. I’m just as bad, but I’m trying to be better.