Work with Someone. Whether you work with a professional organizer
or a friend, having two (or more) people will help you to accomplish
at least 3 times what you could alone. Also, making plans with someone
else will establish a definite starting time to protect against procrastination
and force you to make whatever plans are necessary to make effective
use of that time. Many of my clients tell me that scheduling a session
got them to be more motivated and excited about making a change in their
lives.
Stay Focused. Undoubtedly many distractions will arise as you
start going through your stuff. If you allow yourself to act on every
distraction, you will not get any more organized. Create a category
for "To Be Done," place anything that needs attention into
that category and continue organizing. Later, after you have made progress
organizing, you can come back to the TBD's and quickly dispatch them
one after the other. Follow the first one through to completion (if
possible) before starting on another.
Start with the Big Picture. Do macro-sorting before doing micro-sorting.
It's important to not get bogged down in details at the beginning. Start
with broad, general classifications, and sort everything into those
categories. You can always go back later, create sub-categories, and
further sort as necessary.
Label Everything. Put a clearly legible
label on everything, even temporary sorting bins. You may spent hours
sorting something, and, if the job is too large to finish in one day,
come back to it days or months in the future. If things are not labeled,
you will have no idea what you have already sorted and what you have
not. People spent considerable time re-examining stuff that has already
been processed.
Also, if you are working with someone else, it is doubly important
to label, so that your partner can quickly and clearly understand how
things are to be sorted. In our work as professional
organizers, we are always careful to put detailed labels on everything,
because we know that someone else will be using those labels to locate
things.
Follow Through. Once you make a decision to get rid of something,
make sure you remove that item from the premises as soon as possible.
Make this a priority! Deliver unwanted items to a charity and take bags
of paper to recycling as soon as you can. This will free up the physical
and emotional space taken up by these objects. Furthermore, if the object
stays around for too long, especially if it is not labeled (see "Label
Everything," above), it is likely that you'll end up going
through it again in the future.
Be Aware of Emotional Issues. As you organize, you will be going
through many of your possessions, and it is possible that you will have
some emotional response to some of the items. This is normal. You may
encounter photographs of deceased loved ones, photographs of ex-lovers,
reminders of painful or joyful times in your past. You may feel sadness,
fear, anger, joy, shame, or other emotions. The combined emotional effect
of many different items can sometimes be overwhelming.
Regarding the emotional issues, we recommend following the saying "Feel
the fear and do it anyway." The same advice applies to any emotion.
If you have a strong emotional response to an item, you may not be ready
to let it go. In you're uncertain, put it in the TBD box, and continue
organizing.
Specific Suggestions
When working with paperwork, remember that the statute of limitations
for tax documents is seven years. Anything older than that can usually
be chucked with no worry. Also, banks, stock management companies, credit
companies, and other institutions that send monthly statements usually
send you an end-of-year summary. If you have that summary, all the statements
of that year are redundant, and can usually be shredded with impunity.
Be aware when you use the "S" word. It is generally
not a good idea to keep something just because you might need it someday.
If you haven't opened a container for years, or since the last time
you moved, then the territory is ripe for reduction!
When you are considering getting rid of something, ask yourself how
difficult it would be to replace if you do ever need it in the future.
A chronic tendency to hold on to too many things comes not so much
from the fear that you'll need it in the future, but from the fear that
if you ever need it, you will not have the resources to obtain it. It
is sometimes freeing to let something go, because that says that you
trust yourself to be able to get something if you ever need it in the
future.
