TLC Meets STYLE

 A few weekends ago, I opened a cupboard in our downstairs hallway to get something and something else – I don’t remember what – fell on the floor. Mind you this was not a Fibber McGee closet packed to the gills in a haphazard fashion. It was organized -- or at least it had been -- but my drop and run style had begun to contribute to its deterioration.

So, I decided to straighten up a little. Well, you know how that goes. I started by pulling out the things that weren't where they belonged, then began to dig deeper in a quest to see if the original plan was still a good fit for the space.

Before I knew it, I had the contents of nearly half the closet spread out on my dining room table. Once I could see everything that needed more definite homes, I began to put things into categories. Then, I raided the container stash in my basement and selected the ones that both fit the space and were the right size for the things I needed to store.

Easy peasy.

Several hours later, I had reconfigured about half of the closet. I tossed a bunch of stuff I no longer needed, moved infrequently used items things out of this particular prime real estate into new locations, and updated the plan for the space based on what it now needed to hold.

STYLE in action. What did that look like?

Start with Successes: I began by leaving the things that were working alone. This kept the task manageable. Besides, there was no reason to start from scratch when some of the systems were working. That made it easier to...

Take small steps toward improving the space, and then...

Let it go! Laying everything out and sorting by category made it clear what belonged and what didn't. That made it easier to remove anything that didn't need to be in prime real estate and toss any duplicates, outdated/expired items, and things that I no longer needed. Then, I could fix the issues and say,

"Yes, it has a home!"for everything in the closet. Most of what I removed from the closet at the outset needed a home, and some of the things stored there no longer needed to be there. Letting go of the latter made room for the former, and adding new containers made the whole thing work. And that brought me to...

Easy upkeep. The prize at the end of the process. :-)

I love the changes I've made. Not only does everything look better, but it's easier to find things and just opening the closet doors makes me smile. And the best part?

Nothing falls on the floor when I open the door.

Tried and True Strategies

 If you've been reading this blog for more than five minutes, you know that organizing by STYLE is about choosing the strategies that work with our personal and organizational styles. But, sometimes, there are super strategies -- ways of doing things that work across all (or at least most) personal and organizational styles. 

Here are three of my favorites. 

Consistent locations. One aspect of my mom's favorite organizational maxim ("a place for everything and everything in its place"), logical, consistent homes are time savers. If we know where it goes and we get in the habit of putting it there (no matter what "it" is), we don't waste time and energy searching every nook and cranny for the thing we need.

Give it 5. Have an overwhelming task? Set a timer for five minutes and tackle it. You won't finish, but you'll make a dent, and, once you get started, you just might keep going and get more done than you expected. Getting started is often the hardest part, and promising ourselves to work for just five minutes can help us clear that hurdle, 

Backwards to-do list. Some days, we have to make a special effort to focus on our accomplishments. Those are backwards to-do list days -- days when, instead of writing down what we need to do, we write down what we've accomplished as we accomplish it. A load of laundry in the washer? Jot it down. Dinner in the slow cooker? Add it to the list. One shelf in the closet reorganized? Write it down. At the end of the day, instead of having a partially checked-off list, we have a list of everything we've done. It's a small difference in list-making that can make a big difference in motivation and that can help us to focus on what we've accomplished instead of what we've left undone.

How about you? What's your go-to organizational strategy?

3 Keys Thursday: The "M" Word

 When I write about organizing, I intentionally avoid using the "m" word. In my mind, both "mess" and "messy" have judgmental connotations, and a lack of judgment is at the heart of organizing by STYLE. Here, we are all works-in-progress, getting better one piece of paper, one organizational system, and one space at time.

In addition, those of us who struggle with organization are hard enough on ourselves. Personally, I find that judgment, head-shaking and finger-pointing by those who (allegedly) know better tend to make me do one of two things: dig in my heels, or throw up my hands in defeat, certain things will never get better. And these actions run counter to the ones we need to take to make things better. 

So, on those occasions that necessitate action, we need to skip the labels (except the ones that go with our styles) and use the mindsets and strategies that we know work. 

• Remember that it's a process. Sorting and re-organizing take time. Keeping this in mind at the outset can help us to be patient with ourselves as we take small steps to improve the situation. 

• Aim for maximum impact. Seeing progress makes it easier to be patient with the process. Sometimes this means being counterintuitive and starting small, since small piles and projects yield clear space and finish lines faster than big piles and tasks that take all day. If you have limited time, start with either the project you think you can finish in that time frame, or the one that's annoying you the most.

• Stick with your styles, but don't let them run amok. No matter your style, make sure you have style-specific supplies on hand before you start. Otherwise, your organizing session is likely to end poorly, either in systems that won't work in the long term or defaulting to whatever created the piles in the first place.

Sometimes, life hands us clutter. Other times, it appears on its own and grows over time. Either way, we can emerge victorious. 

Thursday Thoughts (on a Friday): Domino Organizing and System Failures

 For the second week in a row, I missed my self-imposed Thursday deadline and am (apologetically) writing this post on a Friday. Today, however, I am officially on fall break (as of about three hours ago), and I am giving due consideration to which organizing projects will make the cut for what is essentially a four-day weekend. 

Inside? Outside? Visible surfaces? Insides of drawers and closets? All are vying for my attention. 

A couple of weekends ago, I whipped the most odious offenders into shape, but I somehow didn't manage to get to my dining room table, which has become a holding zone for wayward and homeless items (and not for the first time). Consequently, that tops the list, in tandem with the counter in my office. 

Why in tandem? Because the system I'm using to keep track of my work files is working. Unfortunately, it's currently headquartered on my dining room table. Clearing the counter in the office (of a pile that was created when I removed a piece of furniture) means creating space so I can move the work files into the office, which will also clear space on the dining room table. 

Ah yes. The infamous domino organizing. 

Leading the charge in all of this clutter is, as usual, the homeless items. When a few odds and ends start to pile up, it's usually because I need to find them a home. When it goes beyond that, I can almost always put the offenders into categories, which helps me to identify a system that's not working.

Which is exactly the case here. 

Fortunately, I have some ideas. 

But it's definitely a process -- one I am looking forward to digging into.