BS: Tips for Getting Organized

Subject: Tips for Getting Organized
From: SharonA
Date: 23 Mar 02 - 02:51 PM

Well, spring is here, even though it may not feel like it in your neck of the woods (I know my woods' neck is still pretty cold!). With spring, of course, comes Spring Cleaning time.... and, boy, have I got a lot of *stuff* to clean, put away, etc., etc.

I can use all the advice I can get on the subject of organizing one's *stuff*, so if anyone reading this has come up with a system that works for him or her, please post it and help me get out from under this pile of *stuff*!!!

Thanks,
Sharon

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 Mar 02 - 02:57 PM

Decorate a room, it's a sure fire way of discovering all the extraneous crap piled up in corners, and a great excuse for moving it around. I'm doing the main bedroom, and boy, have I shifted a whole heap of old jumpers!!! Mind you, the cats seem to like sleeping on them, so they may stay another season.....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: Wyrd Sister
Date: 23 Mar 02 - 03:07 PM

Separate emotional baggage from emotional litter. Baggage contains things you may need on the journey/when you arrive: litter is just messy and depressing.

Sort little and often, and throw out something every day, even if it's only a couple of pieces of paper.

Go with the moment - if you feel like sorting out but it's a strange time, so what? Put on some energising music and go for it.

Sort a small, achievable area, and try to keep it clear (OK, at least until you start another bit!)

Take a trip to the charity shop/dump straight away, that day. Don't start to fill a box you'll take later.

Good luck!

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: Celtic Soul
Date: 23 Mar 02 - 03:17 PM

Chuck, chuck, chuck...and then, do some chucking. After that, clean.

I know, seems rather simple, but it has always worked for me.

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: gnu
Date: 23 Mar 02 - 03:17 PM

One room at a time and only one room per day. Take EVERYTHING out. Clean the room. Clean everything you return to the room. A lot of stuff may end up in the yard sale. And, you may end up with a redecorated house... with the same stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: SharonA
Date: 23 Mar 02 - 03:42 PM

Oooh, Wyrd Sister, the "emotional baggage vs. emotional litter" concept really hits home!!

Thanks, all, for responding so quickly. Please send more!

Specific questions: How long do you need to save receipts? Is there a limit to how far back in time the IRS can audit you, or do I need to keep old tax stuff forever?

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: Sorcha
Date: 23 Mar 02 - 04:59 PM

One room at a time.
If I haven't seen it, used it, or worn it in "X" amount of time, it's gone.
I keep recipts until the Warranty is expired, and write the date I bought an appliance on the instruction booklet.
Tax stuff only needs to be saved for 7 years.
Shred or burn anything with an account number on it.
If you can't stand to get rid of it, pack it away for a few months then decide.
(It's all a sham--you should see the dirt in this house.....when you live with Animals, you become immune to a certain amount of dirt and hair!)

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: Hollowfox
Date: 23 Mar 02 - 05:00 PM

I think the receipts need to be kept for seven years. I'd call the IRS early in the morning and ask. They're less swamped with telephone calls then, and they'd probably be glad to get a simple spring cleaning question instead of a complicated income tax one.
Whatever you do, focus on the immediate small task you've chosen, not the Big Picture. The thought alone of that overwhelms me at my house. Right now, I'm spring cleaning my bedroom. After I grab some cd's and get my miserable tail into the bedroom, the first thing I do is make sure the bed is made. This keeps crud off the sheets, and gives the impression of a large clean space. Then I take all the clothes etc. that have somehow piled up at the foot of the bed, and I sort them, put them away, and deal with the various and sundry other stuff. Then I do the floor on the right side of the bed..you get the idea. Over the years I've boxed up clutter and labeled it DWIL (Deal With It Later), and now I'm paying for it. I have found that I can comfortably go through a box in the time it takes to watch a movie on television. James Bond movies are the best. You watch the splashy beginning. When things get boring/stupid in the flick, you sort stuff. When sorting starts to turn your brain to lint, there's usually a spiffy chase scene or something. and so on.
It helps me to have an idea where to get rid of stuff. Clothes to charity, paper to recycling or fireplace, books and records to the Mudcat Auction *g*. It is a grand feeling to fill the ol' minivan with sacks of clothes, etc. and deliver the goods to somebody who can use it. It even feels better than the clean room.

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: Amos
Date: 23 Mar 02 - 05:00 PM

The first rule is Do Somethig Now, even if it is just throwing out one over-washed set of undies or washing one window. Repaeat until end of mood! :>)

A

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 23 Mar 02 - 05:14 PM

Mostly get rid of stuff. Amazing how it accumulates. "Gonna need this some day." Well, when 20 years has gone by and you still haven't used it, you probably could really use the cubic footage.

Just had an epiphany a couple weeks ago, sitting in bed on a Sunday morning. That lovely antique loveseat that I've been moving around for 27 years -- it's never going to get reupholstered in my lifetime. And what's more, even if I DID get it reupholstered, I have no place to put it. (It's had a piece of plywood and a tablecloth over it for the past 20 years.) Gonna convert it into little pieces of green paper with dead presidents on them. The loveseat and a few more pieces of impedimenta. As soon as our favorite antique furniture dealer can get his truck down our driveway without losing it in the mud.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: Peter T.
Date: 23 Mar 02 - 07:42 PM

I am emptying a house. Worth considering (focussing on paper):

Put all photo albums, letters, nostalgia items in one place, file, box, marked WALLOW. Don't try and file any of those in between sorting anything else, they will eat up all your time, decision making. Deliberately set aside time to look at them.

Put things into some container of some kind. Don't have stray pieces of paper, junk, etc. Even a box marked DON'T KNOW is better than stray bits.

Paper files. The important thing is not to spend your time doing detailed files, unless you like doing it. It will take forever, and you will get bored and stop. Stay at a higher level of generality. The best thing I ever did was to shift from filing cabinets to those small upright magazine fileboxes (labelled). This is infinitely faster than making detailed special individual files, and you can find anything there in seconds.

Always use new file folders if you have to use file folders. You will feel better. Use big magic markers to label -- no more than two or three words.

Marks and Spencer's rule: throw out is the default -- hold up the piece of paper, etc., and say, if this disappeared would it be a problem? Could it be replaced, would it matter, etc.

Paper management people say that one reason why people leave flies, etc., all over is that they are afraid that if they go into storage, one will forget about them, and not do what needs to be done with them. Put these files in a box or drawer marked "TO BE LOOKED AT", so you won't forget them. (Then you will forget them, but it doesn't matter, they never get done anyway, but you will lose the clutter and the anxiety).

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: Sorcha
Date: 23 Mar 02 - 07:52 PM

Peter, "leave flies"???? LOL!

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: Peter T.
Date: 23 Mar 02 - 08:00 PM

For BUZZ, see BUZZ.

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: Mudlark
Date: 23 Mar 02 - 08:01 PM

Boy, do I need this advice!!! I did one little bit, cleared one little space, threw away one or 2 things...and it was so traumatic I haven't been back at it since. I have a friend who periodically goes thru all closets, drawers, etc, with 3 boxes,,,,save, toss, charity shop. Sounds easy...why can't i just DO it?

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: John Routledge
Date: 23 Mar 02 - 08:05 PM

"Freedom From Clutter" by Don Aslett - an American - is as the name suggests a guide to getting rid of clutter.

The book is mainly light hearted but the hurtful aspect of hanging on to clutter because you feel you have an emotional attachment to it is fully explored.

Very highly recommended but "horders" may find it slightly harrowing :0)

Good Luck John

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: Melani
Date: 23 Mar 02 - 10:43 PM

The first step for me in getting organized is to get off Mudcat and get to work.

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: Sorcha
Date: 23 Mar 02 - 10:56 PM

"get off Mudcat......" LOL! I have been 'Catting in between chores for a while. Do a chore, check the Cat, do a chore, etc. Finish a Chore, check the Cat Big Time.....

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: SharonA
Date: 26 Mar 02 - 05:44 PM

John Routledge: Thanks for the recommendation of the book. I have several books on getting organized that are buried, unread, somewhere underneath all the clutter.... :^(

Melani: "Get off Mudcat", huh? That's hard enough, but the "get to work" part is really tough (particularly since it's "work"!)

Thanks again, everyone. Please keep those tips, encouragements and empathies coming!

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: Sorcha
Date: 26 Mar 02 - 05:56 PM

Hey, Sharon, how about a little jealousy to help you out? I am almost done inside........nyah, nyah! (Then if the weather will cooperate, I get to start outside......)

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 26 Mar 02 - 07:11 PM

Find a woman' they are good at organising you, but some of them are no good bexause they orgamise you too much and give you a hedache (always moaning) (saying thins like " we need new curtains etc" even if there is nothing wrong with the ones we have got, why asre women so interested in curtains and wasting money ie "Tracy has got some new curtanis" so what " well we have to get some" laod of crap and big waste of money!

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 03:03 AM

"I think the receipts need to be kept for seven years. I'd call the IRS early in the morning and ask. They're less swamped with telephone calls then, and they'd probably be glad to get a simple spring cleaning question instead of a complicated income tax one."

ER..... no. Call us just after lunch. We're fed and happy, the post has been dealt with (most calls come in the morning, just after the post has been openend) and whatever you do, DON'T CALL US AT 5 MINUTES TO GOING HOME TIME!!!!

I like the idea of the Wallow box.... mine is a whole room.....

LTS - living a life of clutter and books.... didn't realise we had half of those books!

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: SharonA
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 09:52 AM

Sorcha sez: "Hey, Sharon, how about a little jealousy to help you out?" I'd rather have a little helper to help me out! When you're all done with your place, c'mon down... and bring a shovel to dig me out from under my mess!

Ya gotta understand... my "wallow box" is my entire apartment! (Well, okay, my apartment and my storage locker and my car...) One of my musician-friends has even immortalized my *stuff* in song! My favorite line from that song: "There's no room for the dust"!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: GUEST,MAG at work
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 01:57 PM

I made a start by hiring my entire church youth group to schlep over next Monday, first day of spring break, and do yardwork until they drop. At the moment my garden does not give me joy. When it gives me joy, and spring fever fills the air, my mood lifts enough to start shovelling. Knees willing.

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: pattyClink
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 01:59 PM

Peter,good advice. But my 2 cents on putting ALL memorabilia in one place is 'Don't'. Had one of those boxes stolen (who knows why?) and another time had my special box contents sold at a garage sale by mistake. Painful to lose all that special stuff in such a stupid way, so I'd rather keep it split up a bit.

For other paranoids: SCAN ALL the family photos, put on cds, and mail copies to relatives. You'll never all lose your irreplaceable photos to a fire, flood or f*-up.

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: SharonA
Date: 29 Mar 02 - 02:36 PM

Great advice, Patty, whether it's for us paranoids or for anybody else! That rule about having an off-site back-up doesn't just apply to computer documents!

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: brid widder
Date: 29 Mar 02 - 08:19 PM

Today I moved my 87yr old mum from the flat she's been in for 15 years to a new bungalow...clutter?...mess? you couldn't imagine!! now I realise my own dependence on mountains of junk is hereditary.

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: Art Thieme
Date: 29 Mar 02 - 11:59 PM

As Mick might say,

DON'T MOURN---

JUST DO IT!!!

Joe Hill (via Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: Hrothgar
Date: 07 Apr 02 - 03:48 AM

To hell with tidy people, I say!!

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 07 Apr 02 - 03:51 AM

A tidy house is the sign of a boring life.

According to that, I should be the most interesting person on the planet!!!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 12:10 AM

Clean only ONE room at a time.

Don't leave until it is CLEAN!

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 07:55 PM

Keep all dishes in one cupboard, keep all linens in another, keep paper goods in another. In otherwords, do not practice co-mingling which leads to cluttering.

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: Gypsy
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 06:05 PM

Best way for me to clean out....help someone MOVE. Am helping mom move out of state.....really is getting me going on my own home. And, doing a room a day is a bit ambitious...Rooms are big. I go by A cabinet A drawer, etc. Anyone can clean one drawer a day. And you can stick with it that way. Oh yeah, if it is in your closet and doesn't fit....it NEVER will. Out with it!

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for Getting Organized
From: SharonA
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 06:43 PM

Thanks, everyone, for the continuing tips. Please keep 'em coming!

One of my problems is that I need Places To Put Things. For instance, I have five particle-board bookshelf units, four metal shelf units and an entertainment center – all of which are disassembled – that would be great Places To Put Things if only I had the floor space to assemble them (and a muscular friend or two to help me!). But the floor space is taken up by the *stuff* that needs to go on the shelves!!! :^(