Getting Organized
August 9th, 2005 by Steve Pavlina
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I added another article to the free articles section called “Getting Organized.” This is an updated version of an older article called “Clean Up That Mess” which I wrote in 2000.
This article provides a basic method for cleaning up clutter and organizing any physical space, such as an office, kitchen, or garage.
I think the main cause of clutter is a failure to systematize decision-making about where items should go. People who experience pervasive clutter problems almost invariably lack an intelligent system for deciding where each new object that enters their environment will end up. There’s no clean pipeline where objects enter at one end and are assigned convenient storage at the other end, so the net result is an environment that looks physically clogged. The ongoing processing of physical objects is random, haphazard, and ineffective. Sometimes the clog becomes too great, and the person eventually invests hours clearing it, only to begin re-clogging the very next day.
I see the accumulation of clutter as a form of procrastination — when you procrastinate on deciding where things should go, they pile up. If you know exactly where an object goes, and its location is convenient, you’ll usually put it away and avoid turning it into clutter. But when you have too many items with no conveniently assigned homes, you’re far more likely to pile them or toss them in unsuitable locations, resulting in clutter.
I’ve been using a structured organizing system for at least five years now, and I have no persistent clutter problems. My office is largely self-organizing. What I like most is that it actually takes less time to be clutter-free. If you learn to prevent the accumulation of clutter, you needn’t waste time de-cluttering.
Enjoy the article: Getting Organized
August 9th, 2005 at 5:58 am
“My office is largely self-organizing.”
And what of the rest of the house? You have children as I recall, as do I. How do you personally deal with that? It’s tough when they’re too young to pick it all up by themselves all the time, so we try to strike a balance between picking up after (when circumstances make it difficult for it to be done by out 3-year-old) and making him do it himself (which does often work, but is slow).
August 9th, 2005 at 6:20 am
Steve – I think you are right, but there are also differences between people’s organization style. For example, I have this sickness called, “out of sight, out of mind.” I like all the info relating to a current project to be visible and not filed. Once I file it, I have said goodbye to it. When I have many projects going at once (most the time) I run out of desk space to display it. Yep, I am a stacker, too. I know my system is flawed because I never have enough open space! I hate filing things…..I would be interested in any ideas you or your readers have for curing my “everything out” organization personality!
August 9th, 2005 at 6:51 am
@Rich: My kids are a bit too young to understand (ages 5 and 2), but my 5-year old is gradually coming to understand that if she keeps her room neat, she can spend more time playing. Whenever her room gets messy, she has to stop and clean it up before doing anything else. The kids having messy rooms while they’re young, however, doesn’t keep me from getting my work done. Aside from a few soft toys which are kept in a corner of the room, the kids aren’t allowed to bring their toys downstairs to play with. If they want to play with their toys, they must do so upstairs.
Now if I could just train my wife to go along with this, all would be well.
@Lisa: It sounds like you’re using physical objects as a surrogate to-do/reminder list. As David Allen writes in Getting Things Done, that’s a big no-no. You’ll waste too much mental energy this way. I wouldn’t call it a sickness as you say, just a bad habit.
The solution (as David Allen explains in GTD) is to put all the physical stuff in convenient, accessible storage and have everything represented on one of the lists in your system (projects, next actions, someday/maybe, etc.). Then when you do your weekly review, you’re reminded of those projects and can pull out the materials when you’re ready to work on them. There’s no need to have materials from other projects in sight when you aren’t actively working on them.
I have about 100 ideas/projects on my Someday/Maybe list, but the materials for these ideas are nowhere in sight. I can scan the list in a minute and recall all those projects to see if I’m ready to begin any of them. But I’m not distracted by them when I’m doing my regular work.
“Out of sight, out of mind” is a good thing. It keeps your mind clear. But to bring important projects back into mind, put them “in sight” by adding them to your GTD system (where you can look at them when you decide to). This was they won’t physically clutter your environment and distract you needlessly.
August 9th, 2005 at 8:20 am
The methods of getting organized may vary from people to people since there is no one size fit all here… Whatever that works for you is the way to go… Getting the habit going is probably more important than the method itself… Picking up the mess right after you leave it… sort out the paperwork everyday before you leave the office… Put your goodies away after you are done a shopping trip… I have been a messing girl and still try to train myself not to lay my shopping bags in the hall way for 15 days. For majority of us, once we get the habit going, the size of the clutter will go down. Box or cabinet, it’s just a personal preference.
August 9th, 2005 at 10:15 am
I had read Organizing from the Inside Out…and really liked the idea of having a space for everything… it works nicely with the GTD approach to having an organization where you track things… A large part of the physical clutter seems to be from not having an idea of what you should “do” with things… regardless of it where a broken down laptop should go, or where to store the latest ideas you had.
August 9th, 2005 at 9:01 pm
Steve – I love organizing and have been an amateur student of it for a couple of decades now. However, loving it and being good at it are two different things – clutter has always been the culprit. After a major career and life transition in 1998 and another in 2003, my stuff had become a disaster area and I seemed to be chasing my tail moving things from one place to another ad infinitum. Someone turned me on to the idea of routines for major de-cluttering due to the trap of getting really motivated, trying to do it all at once, and then getting burned out in the middle of the declutter project. I was referred to a site called Flylady.net last october and my lifestyle has transformed and the clutter is slowly going away. So, for deep down life-long clutter-a-holics, I have one word – Flylady! Thanks, Anton
PS – I just stumbled across your site the other day and am getting so much from it that I’m making it my homepage for this stage in my transition. Really great material for me during this volatile mid-life transitional period in life. Thanks again – Anton
August 10th, 2005 at 2:08 pm
Steve, only a few words:
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
… for an outstanding article!!!
August 18th, 2005 at 12:15 pm
Steve,
I appreciate your ability to cut to the chase. I read Morgenstern’s book and you summed up the main ideas well.