Hello and happy weekend! I know many of you have made your way here via yesterday’s Proverbs 31 Ministry’s Encouragement for Today devotional or because you are participating in the Swap and Hop hosted by Proverb’s president, and my friend, Lisa TerKeurst. If you have no idea what I am talking about on either of those points, scroll down to yesterday’s post and you can get caught up! Or click here to read the devotional entitled Spring Cleaning.

Now ladies, I must tell you that I was totally game for this whole Swap and Hop thing. As Lysa and I chatted about it over the past few weeks, I looked forward to meeting new cyber friends, seeing their organizational dilemmas, reading other women’s solutions and picking a gal or two to try to assist personally with any solutions I could offer. I never dreamed that I would have such a tough time choosing!

This morning, I feel a little like I did when we picked kickball teams in my childhood neighborhood circa 1974. I always hated being the captain. Should I pick my best friend? The fastest runner? The furthest kicker? The new boy so he didn’t feel left out? Decisions, decisions!!!

Well, that is how I feel today!!! I want to choose you all! So here is my solution. Since so many of you wrote about and took snapshots of similar dilemmas, I will pick one of these areas to zero in on. I will still choose a winner or two for a free copy of my latest book The Complete Guide to Getting and Staying Organized. This will be announced after sundown Sunday or first thing Monday morning so check back to see if it is you!

Now, on to the solution…

The first thing I noticed when hopping over to view your posts is that so many of you are at such a loss as to what to do with your ”stuff”. And by “stuff” I mean the many piles I see. Piles of paper, piles of kids’ items, piles of assorted kitchen clutter, why, even piles of fabric!!! Do you know what all of those piles are? They are the result of two little words that you have ingrained into your homemaking vocabulary. Two words that you must rid yourselves of if you want to bust up those piles. Those awful two words ladies are….

“For now”

You know, “I’ll set this junk mail here for now.”

“I’ll place these toys and trinkets over there for now.”

“I don’t know what to do with all of this ______(you fill in the blank) so I’ll lay it here for now.”

Girlfriends, our “for nows” are ruining us! And do you realize that every pile is just a stack of unmade decisions? The first time I read that statement years ago in an organizational book it was a revelation for me!!

Now, many of you wrote that you do not know what to do with your stuff. Part of the problem is that you have not made a decision about where it will go. Thus the piles of “for now”. The bigger part of the problem, however, is not where to put the stuff. It is that you have too much stuff. So, first let’s learn to do a little dejunking, ridding ourselves of the unnecessary clutter. With what is left, we’ll find a place other than the dreaded culprit piles of “for now” where they currently lodge. And take note: the following system can be used in one room—for you gals with that cluttered home office, messy toy room or catch-all kitchen—or for the really brave at heart, in the entire house!

Dejunking Basics

So here is how this works. First, you’ll need five boxes, (Or, if you are tackling a really big room or area, bins or laundry baskets.) They will hold items that you come across that belong somewhere other than where they are at the moment.

Label the first box Put Back. Inside of it place another small lidded container such as a shoe box or plastic tote. This box will be used to collect the items that are out of place in your home. The smaller container will hold items such as pens, pencils, barrettes, and coins so they don’t get lost in the bigger box.

The second box will be labeled Take Back. This will corral all of those items in you home that don’t belong to you and need to be returned somewhere. You know, library books, rented DVD’s, a shoe from your son’s friend who spent the night last week, a pan from the sweet lady fom church who made your family brownies two months ago, etc..

The third box will be used for garbage. Label it Toss or Trash. Line it with a garbage bag so that when it becomes full, you can tie it up and transport it to the trash can. If you are a family that recycles, you can also have a box or bin for that purpose too.

Next, you’ll want to have a box for those items that are still in good shape, but no longer needed or wanted at your home. Label this one Charity or Garage Sale. You can even place price stickers on your things at this point if you will be holding a sale. If you will donate your belongings to a charity or homeless shelter, as a box fills up, seal it and put it in your vehicle to be ready to drop off next time you are near a donation center.

The last box in the bunch will be labeled Nostalgia. More on this in a minute.

Before starting, please determine that you will be ruthless. Promise yourself that if you have not used it, needed it (but couldn’t find it), worn it, or enjoyed looking at it in the past year—then you’re going to LET IT FLY!

Haul your boxes into your problem room. Position the boxes in the middle of the floor. Beginning in one corner of the room, pick up an article, and ponder the following:

• Is this item out of place? Place it in the Put Back box.

• Does this item need to be returned to someone or somewhere? Into the Take Back box it goes.

• Is this item in such dire shape that it is no longer usable? Then place it in the Toss box. If it is made of metal, glass, paper, or plastic, it goes in the recycle bin if you are going to add this step too.

• Is this item in fine shape but no longer needed by anyone in our family? Into the Charity or Garage Sale box it goes.

• Now here is the final question: Is this item no longer needed by anyone in our family, but one of my children (or my husband) is so attached to it that if I pitch it now, they’ll be emotionally damaged for life and, yes, someday they will be on national TV spilling their guts to Dr. Phil about my cruel actions? Then into the Nostalgia box it goes. All of your kiddos can have a few nostalgia boxes with favorite “keeper” items. I like to attach a note to the item such as “You wouldn’t fall asleep without this stuffed turtle by your side” or “You carried this little lunch pail on the first day of school.”

Once your question and answer exercise is finished, look down in your hand? Is the item still there? It must be:

A. Something you actually want or need and ….

B. It must be located in the proper room of the house.

Continue making a sweep around the entire room, following the same procedure with each item you encounter. Check every drawer, shelf and closet. Make certain you are taking inventory of everything you own. Be ruthless! Every so often empty out the boxes—put back the out of place items, throw out the trash bags, transfer the storage and nostalgia items to a box that can be placed in permanent storage, and keep on truckin’! What seems like an overwhelming task will soon gain momentum.

Crank up some music you enjoy or pop in a book on cd to help the time pass more quickly. And if you are like me, you’ll discover that this concept works best when following the buddy system. Junk busting is easier with a friend who is, unlike you, not emotionally attached to your stuff. They will help you decide objectively what you will keep and what you will pitch, give away, or sell. When you come to the Tupperware deviled egg holder your Aunt Tillie gave you ten years ago that you never use, your friend will grant you the courage to get rid of it, offering their full assurance that Aunt Tillie will not suffer irreparable harm because of your decision.

Now, with what is left, you need to think logically. Just having things arranged all ‘neat’ does not necessarily mean they are arranged in a user-friendly and organized manner. You want to place items back according to their frequency of use.

For those home offices for example, decide what items you pull out and use most often. Place them closest to your work desk. I mean so when you are sitting down typing away or making phone calls, you will not need to get up, walk across the room, reach up or dig in a pile or drawer to find them. In fact, go through and make a list on a notebook or legal pad of all of the items you need to do your daily work. Then assign them each a number of priority. Make the number ones things you use daily, number twos the ones you use most days but not always, number threes those you only get out once a week or so, and so on. Once you have given your items their assigned numbers (usually five categories are enough meaning each item on your list will have a number 1 through 5 after it) begin putting things back.

First things first.

Acting as if your desk chair is the center of the universe, orbit your items around the room beginning with all the number ones first. Then go on to the number twos, etc….Place them according to how often you use them. Really think through your work patterns—where you do what you do and place items accordingly.

Then you can shift to ‘neat and tidy’.

Then you can purchase baskets and bins, cubbies and crates. Don’t just go to the office supply store and buy a bunch of cool looking organizational items and then return home and try to find what items will fit nicely into them. That is backwards. Think logically. The proper plan of attack is to:

• Decide what items you really need and which ones you don’t(dejunking process),
  
• Then determine how often you use them (priority number ranking excercise)
  
• Then purchase your organizational tools.

For you gals who had the messy counters. Do this in a mini-version. Be ruthless about what you must keep. Then, rather than make a list of specific items such as in a home office, list by priority the categories of stuff you seem to save. Maybe it will be:

#1 Kid’s school items

#2 Bills and correspondence

#3 Fliers and coupons

#4 Out of place items, etc….

Then you go through and craft a system where you can put these rotating items (you’ll always have items in these various categories, just not the same items each week.). Again, think logically and in order. Give each category a basket, a handy-dandy plastic stacking paper holder, a folder, a slot, a drawer, etc…Then make it a habit, just like washing the dishes or taking out the trash, to deal with each of these categories on a regular basis. Take care of the papers–sign those slips,transfer the info to your calendar, etc… pay the bills, return the out of place items to their proper location, etc..

You see most of us get frustrated with ourselves and fuss and fume at the dear members of our families, wanting them to stop creating clutter and get with the program.!

The problem, dear sisters, is we have no program in place to get with.

Taking time to dejunk and re-think your work patterns can help solve this dilemma. You can do it! I have faith in you!

Happy organizing!!!!

Karen

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 12th, 2008 at 12:09 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.