Do Your Bad Organizing Habits Follow You to Work?

Generally, the organizing methods you use at home are the same ones you use to take care of your office, and probably every other area of your life.

Look at all of the things that upset your life such as not being able to find things when you need them, never having room to store things or having a closet that is packed so full that everything is wrinkled when you put it on. Now take a look at your office setting and I bet that you have the same problems. You can't find things when you need them. Things are lying all over because you want to keep them handy but you don’t know where to put them, and your file cabinets are so full that the papers won't slide out anymore without pulling ten more papers along with it.

This can create a mental imbalance in your life.

You become overwhelmed. You don’t know how to correct it, and when you try you tend to go to the extreme of trying to correct it all at one time, creating a circle of messes that all need to be cleaned up in one way or another. You now have feelings of guilt, failure and total inadequacy because you know that you could have everything organized and in it's proper place.

This is usually when you decide that you have had enough of living like this, it is time for a change and that you need a system to help you change.

Organization is having a system to live by in which you set a routine to have everything in its own place. It is a habit that you are creating for yourself to help you live life to the fullest and be able to do the things that you enjoy.

With a little planning and goal setting, it can become a reality. You can gain control and live life without feeling guilty.

Start by looking in your home. This should be a welcoming, comfortable sanctuary. Go through one room at a time and write down all of the things that bother you in that room.
For example; dresser drawers that won't close because they are too full, clothes in the closet that are always wrinkled, junk under the bed that you haven't seen for years and dresser tops full of old perfume, after shave cologne's etc.

Now that you can see it all on paper, you can easily decide where to begin to organize.

Using the bedroom example again: Eliminate the clothes that do not fit or that you have not worn in over a year. That will be a big improvement! Now eliminate items that are too worn or you simply don’t like the fit. Aha! More room!

Now where and how can you condense what is left? Can you use storage boxes on shelves or under the bed? Condense things into one drawer?

You can approach your office in the same way.

Eliminate all of the papers in a file that are no longer needed. Put on to discs anything that can be saved in this way to eliminate some of the paper. Color code and label all your files. Put notes on the outside of file folders if there are papers in another folder that pertain to this file.

See, you are on your way to organizing your life! Soon you will have every room finished, your office will be immaculate, your vehicle will fit in the garage and you will have a smile on your face because you are in control of your life.

Posted July 24, 2008, filed in How I de-cluttered, Clutter Control Products, Organizeit Projects, Living Simply