The Impossible Dream – my home office gets decluttered

The Impossible Dream – my home office gets decluttered

I have been working on this project for over four months yet still am not even close to being „finished“.

After taking on my clothes, I am ready for „The Impossible Dream“ – my office. Even though I allowed myself thirty minutes this morning to take a tiny step (I played hooky from my Italian class.), I got caught in the guts of organization chaos. Disorganization causes fragmentation in thought and actions and I was jangled.

Even though I try to avoid placing things on the floor while cleaning & organizing, I get stuck every time. The best plan would be:

1) organize the large surfaces first (like the desk and floor)

2) flat surfaces need to be decluttered, everything has to find a home

3) THEN is the time for the interior surfaces like drawers, shelves and containers.

So, going back a step, I shall work in this order:

1) the desk

2) my worktable (Who can work on that thing?! It is always cluttered. Bwah…)

3) the floor

4) the shelves

5) the containers still left after my first purge

The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down. Proverbs 14:1

I am definitely becoming a master in the “art of wastebasketry”. Even though my worktable is a cluttered hodgepdge, I am undaunted. Somehow, my tossing skills are getting better each day. It doesn’t “hurt” anymore!

One new rule I’ve set for myself is: Never have to move something to get to another thing! If something is not easy to put away, it generally gets put on some free surface until I have time. Yeah right. Like I have time for that. (We all know I don’t want to sacrifice the time!)

For those who are overwhelmed by their clutter, here are some great ways to get started, five minutes at a time:

1) Throw out any useless scrap pieces of paper lying around or on top of your desk.

2) Start clearing a starting zone. What you want to do is clear one area. This is your no-clutter zone. Put everything in its place. Now, keep this area uncluttered! Extend your NO-CLUTTER-ZONE daily. Clear off flat surfaces first.

3) Pick up 5 things, and find homes for them. These should be things that you actually use, but that you just seem to put anywhere, because they don’t have easily-reached locations.

4) Finish Each Task -- Completely. Of course you will need to sort things into categories (e.g., toss, recycle, donate, give to friend, put in storage). But here's the crucial part: Once you have decided where something is going to go -- take it there. Never keep bags for charity or boxes for friends in your home to deliver later. Do it now. Finish the process.

5) Put away files that aren’t being used every day.

6) If possible, position your desk so that it’s close to a window, away from a door.

7) Keep a file on your desk separated by the dates of the month (from 1 to 31). Underneath the relevant dates, slot in your to do’s, paper messages of calls to return, letters to type out, etc.

8) Try to limit the personal items on your desk. These can be one framed photograph of your family, a pot plant (NOT two), etc. Whatever keeps you motivated and feeling happy. Just be sure that it doesn’t take over the majority of your working space.

9) Keep your desktop folders organized. Set up and name folders on your desktop for each new project that you’re working on.

10) Try to stay paperless. We live in a world today where most things are electronic. If you don’t need to print something out – don’t.  Rather, save it on your computer under a desktop folder for easy access.

Get into the habit of clearing your desk at the end of each day. It will make the idea of coming in to work the next morning a pleasure.

Create a 30-day list.

The problem with decluttering is that we can declutter our buns off but it just comes back because we buy more stuff. So fight that tendency by nipping it in the bud: don’t buy the stuff in the first place. Create a 30-day list, and every time you want to buy something that’s not absolutely necessary, put it on the list with the date it was added to the list. Make a rule never to buy anything (except necessities) unless they’ve been on the list for 30 days. Often you’ll lose the urge to buy the stuff and you’ll save yourself a lot of money and clutter.