Organization complete!
Well, Muse fans, if you’ve been wondering what’s happened to me the last few days, well, I’ve been wondering too. I seem to have gotten lost in a maze of organizational frenzy, which is an oxymoron if there ever was one. For a full week–seven solid days–I’ve been sorting, tidying, discarding, and arranging. One full banker’s box went to the shredder, two more to recycle, and another two were donated. That’s not to mention the 20 gallons of trash that I actually discarded.
And you should see my office now! It’s clean and neat and organized to within an inch of my life.
OK, I didn’t really risk my life, although I did experience several near-fatal paper cuts. Five of them, all on the same three fingers.
It was quite an experience. I told you I’d hired an organizer (Mira Gold) to help out. She spent five hours with me on Saturday, digging through files, sorting out drawers, even wiping down closet shelves. She had some great ideas and suggestions too, for all those niggledly little bits and pieces of flotsam and jetsam that littered my desk. You know, those very important scraps of paper with an idea or phone number or password or date scribbled on it. The ones you don’t dare file cuz you’re afraid you’ll lose them. Well, they now have their very own box on the side of my desk. It’s a nice wooden “in box,” and believe me, it’s a lot easier to go through that one box to find something than to sort through piles and piles and piles of stuff on my desk.
So what have I learned from all this? Well . . .
- Keeping on top of things is way easier than playing catch-up. And even if I do stay on top of things, it’s still worth while to sort through them once in a while.
- Organizers aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. At least Mira wasn’t. She was right in there with me, with the dust rag and furniture polish and vacuum cleaner.
- Just because someone has a system or an idea, that doesn’t mean it’s the right one for you. Mira had plenty of ideas and suggestions. Some we implemented, some we adapted to suit me, and some we just tossed out. Mira said she actually enjoyed it when a client participated in designing systems, rather than taking what she said as gospel. Then she’s more confident the system will get used, and will actually work, than if she just “imposes” something. On the other hand, it’s worthwhile listening to all the ideas with an open mind, because there’s likely to be something in all of them that you can use. (I think this applies to just about everything.)
- If you have a place for something, it’s easier to put it away than if you have to invent a place for it every time. Mira made me look at every piece of paper, and then would ask me where it went. If I didn’t know, or if it didn’t have a place, we made one for it.
- Space management requires time management, and vice versa, and they both require commitment and self-discipline. If I put my bits of flotsam and jetsam in the wooden in-box, I need to remember to check it regularly. If I keep my on-going projects in a hanging file on my desk instead of in piles, I need to take them out and put them back. And I need to remember to work on them. Which means I need to keep track of them on my calendar.
- I have to make time to keep up the systems we’ve created, yet by creating those systems, I have more time and energy for other things, and I’m not stressed and worried that something is going to fall through the cracks.
So now I’m all neat and tidy and organized. My office is now an office again, instead of a giant storage closet. The next step? New paint (I’m thinking greens with rust and cream accents; something lively and soothing at the same time), crown molding and shampooing the carpet. And maybe a new window treatment. And a new bookshelf. And a new printer and computer and . . .
But the worst part is over!
