By now, hopefully, you’ve had some time to think about Tenet 1 in obtaining an organized office. You’ve thought about how you want your office to look. And you’ve looked at pictures and solidified your vision of how you want to feel when working in your space.
Perhaps you want it to have a vibrant feel like this
Or a serene one like this
Perhaps the space it isn’t so grand. It could be a corner of the kitchen, or the back of a spare bedroom. The size of the space or where the space is doesn’t matter. What matters is that you have identified a space where you can manage the house or run your business. Having a vision for that space is a key component in getting it organized.
Remember, having a vision does 2 important things:
- It helps you see what you want from your space.
- It helps you make decisions easier when you are organizing on what should stay and what should go.
With your vision in the forefront of your mind, you’ll more easily be able to discard and remove whatever doesn’t fit your vision.
And with your vision in tact you can look at the next tenet in getting organized. It is a concept that sounds trivial but I think it is the most important step towards organization – of any kind.
It is understanding that everything must have a home.
To say it isn’t enough. You must really understand the importance of every thing having a rightful place in your beautifully envisioned space.
Understanding this concept doesn’t mean you miraculously have an organized space. But when you truly believe that things in a space belong somewhere – in a “home” – you put things away, follow through on tasks, and use systems to keep you tidy. The area feels light and you feel less overwhelmed.
Simply put: you reduce your tendency towards clutter when you treat this tenet like gold.
When you don’t, chaos and clutter ensue. Clutter is all the stuff you have that doesn’t have a home that is in the wrong spot. {Or all the stuff you have that is in the right spot but is in excess so it is bulging out of drawers and busting through drawers. Too much, even in the correct home will create chaos.}
Chaos is easily created when you put something down on a flat surface like a desk or a counter without regard to where the best home for that item is. {Hint: it is never on a flat surface!} When you use flat surfaces to store your stuff, things pile up, and you can see and feel the weight of it. Importantly, when things are not in the right home it invites in more clutter.
Clutter breeds clutter.
The best way to combat it is by remembering that everything must have a home. A logical home that makes sense for the functioning of the space. This is especially pertinent in an office, where you are running a household and managing/juggling so much. Instead of making the office a dumping ground for piles of clutter, give everything from permission slips to mail, bills to investments an appropriate place to live – so you can find them again, when you need them, without stress and frustration. And reduce the tendency towards clutter.
When the “everything must have a home” rule is revered, things runs more smoothly. Period.To help you get organized in your office, and treat this tenet like the powerhouse tool it is, ask yourself these questions every time something comes in, and take these steps in finding a home:
1.Do I need to refer to this again – soon?
If yes, you’ll probably want to assign the graduated sorter as the home for it. If not, recycle or trash.
2. Do I need to archive this, keep it for taxes, or in general save it for infrequent referral?
If yes, then it’s home is the filing cabinet or a file box of sorts. Remember to color code for file tabs for easier identification. And use this filing system for anything tax related. If not, you guessed it – recycle or trash.
3. Is this a bill that I have to pay in a timely manner or a correspondence to which I need to address quickly?
Set up a bill paying/response center and keep all of your bills and correspondences separate from the rest of the mail. Keep them in a place where they are not so out-of-site-out-of-mind. Having a home for bills and the like is such an integral part of running an efficient household. Once the correspondence is dealt with you can toss the paper. This goes for bills, too. But if you feel more comfortable saving it, file it in the appropriate place and purge at the end of the year.
4. Is this inspirational, motivational?
The home for things like this is on a wall, or sitting on a shelf. Keep in your view items that make you happy to be in your space.
5. Is this something that belongs somewhere else?
Move it there! You may need to work at what is the best home in the new space but knowing it doesn’t belong in your office is a good first step. {And that goes for any area you are organizing: stay true to the vision of the space and keep only things that belong there.}
6. Is this clutter, or something that is of no real use?
The home for items like this is in the trash or recycle bin!
Make your mantra be “Everything must have a home”, and say it often to remind you of this important tenet.
It is a key step on your path to an organized space.
