3 Keys to Organizing by STYLE

Photo: Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

There are many strategies and nuances we can use when we decide to organize by STYLE, but since today is Three Keys Thursday, I'd like to distill organizing by STYLE to its simplest components. This blog has plenty of posts and charts that can provide details on each of these key principles, but when we're drowning, we just want to grab the nearest life jacket. When the clutter is winning and you feel as though organization is as far away as a rescue ship is from the Titanic, it's time to get back to the basics.

• Claim your styles. Decide which personal style and which organizational style best describes you. You may have traits of others as well, but begin by identifying, well, what you most identify with.

• Decide which one dominates. I'm an I need to see it/Drop and run person, but typically, my I need to see it style prevails. If I keep that in the forefront of my mind when I clear clutter and restore organization, I'm more likely to set up a plan that works long-term.

• Choose the right tools. Although my I need to see it style is typically dominant, my personal style feeds my organizational style and vice versa. Consequently to break the drop and run habit, I need to find tools that allow me to see what I need. Closed, opaque storage systems (like the traditional file cabinet) don't work for me. Away is forgotten, and I revert to dropping and running so I can see what I need to do and organization goes out the window. If, however, I do something as simple as using a file box with an open top, putting things away is easy, and, though they're more out of sight than they'd be on top of my desk, they're easily accessible. In addition, I can see enough of them to satisfy my I need to see it personal style.

Grandiose plans are wonderful in theory, but expensive and difficult to maintain in practice. When you're feeling overwhelmed, go back to basics. What are your styles, and what are they crying out for?