Life Got Crazy. Clutter Happened. Now What?

Jae's Home Office De-Cluttering Journey ~ Part 2

Welcome back to my home office, where I am ready to begin my de-cluttering journey by opening this drawer.

Now, why should I bother with whatever is tucked away neatly, inside of this drawer when I have all sorts of cluttery messes sitting right out in the open all around me? Shouldn't I want to get rid of those visible messes first? After all, it is due to the visible messes that I have been avoiding this room. The answer to “why the drawer” can be found in how these annoying in-my-face messes began.

Fade back to August of 2005.

Yes, three years ago. No, my office has not been a cluttered mess since then.

Actually, it looked much worse when I first moved in, and for quite awhile thereafter. The problem has always been that the physical dimensions of this office are much smaller than the one I had moved out of. And, that previous office had been smaller than the office I had before that, in California. The continued, forced downsizing created a lurking clutter problem waiting to take over. This is the same problem that is faced by many retirees as they move from a house to a condo; or as a college student moves from home to a dorm room or shared apartment.

Since my husband and I moved to this place during a particularly busy time, I did some quick-fixes so I could at least find things and function. But as professional commitments picked up, the neatness factor deteriorated quickly. And, it soon became apparent that the main reason for that deterioration was due to a lack of storage space. In each of my other offices, I had a walk-in closet. The only closet I have here is two-thirds of your typical bedroom closet. The other third is taken up by a water heater.

So, as I open this file cabinet drawer, I am in search of ways to reclaim storage space. And of course, the only way to do that is to purge any papers that are no longer necessary.


Now, this is something I will actually enjoy, which is another reason I'm starting here. I love to throw things away. My slogan has always been, “When in doubt, try to find a reason to throw it out!” And as computer storage space has increased and become more dependable, I proclaim that slogan with even more fervor in my voice. I think this “toss it” attitude is probably because I had parents that never threw out anything. When my father died, my sister and I found his pay stubs from the depression years. No, I am not making this up!

But, I do digress.

I also want to reclaim some storage space in my bookcases. And as you can see by the open places on those shelves, I have already started the process.


This is probably the hardest thing for me. Both my husband and I love books. Whenever we move, there are more boxes of books than anything else. In my bedroom, there are two bookcases, plus a bookcase-headboard full of our favorite fiction books. My goal here is to open up at least three shelves worth of space. (I guess I'll be making a few more donation-visits to my local library.) I am sure that there are several options that reclaiming this shelving space will offer me. I will ponder those options while sorting through the papers from that filing drawer.

Now, here are the three piles of papers/files that I removed from the top drawer.

I'll probably put back about a third of this. And most of it will eventually be in binders.

(I love binders! We'll talk about the joy of binders next time.)

But for now, let's take all of this stuff to a place where there's more room to spread out.

WARNING!
If you carry clutter into another room.
Be sure you carry it all back out again.
Otherwise, you'll have two cluttered spaces.

So, the three piles have become one very tall pile, and I have started the sorting process. Opening each file and reviewing each sheet of paper, I sort them into one of four basic piles.

REUSE
These papers have a clean side. I will use them to print out drafts.

RECYCLE
These are non-confidential papers with both sides used,
and file folders that are very ragged.

SHRED
These are old confidential materials.

and

REFILE.

An hour and a half later, here is the result. Note that we now have six piles instead of four.


The two upper left piles are papers and file folders that I will reuse. The upper right pile goes into my recycling bin, and the lower right pile gets shredded.

Then there's a new category. The papers in the middle bottom row need to be looked over more carefully. Several things in that pile sparked some creative ideas for me. So, this is a pile of inspiration to look over at my leisure, with my feet up, and a cup of tea nearby.

The last pile goes back into the drawer.


I am thrilled to have reclaimed 12 inches worth of filing space. And there is the possibility of at least another 24 inches of space to be reclaimed from going through papers in the bottom file cabinet drawer and

these plastic file drawers behind the closet door.

Yes, it will be the same process all over again ~ meaning another three to four hours of sorting. But it will be worth it. And while I sort, I will be envisioning how all of this will be nice and neatly tucked away in perfect order using ...

Binders,
Box Bottom Hanging File Folders,
and
Decoratively Disguised Storage Ideas.

So, I invite you to stop by again soon.

Many thanks to those of you who have left comments
and shared stories about your own organizing journeys.

Peace & Light,
Jae

When Life Get's Crazy ... Clutter Happens

Jae's Home Office De-Cluttering Journey ~ Part 1

Considering that one of the services I offer through my Life Coaching practice is to help people de-clutter and organize their offices and living space, what I am about to share with you is ironic, surprising, and ah ... somewhat embarrassing. But ~ most of all ~ it's annoying on a daily basis.

This is my home office.

Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “What is she talking about? That's looks like a nice, inviting place to sit down. Why is this embarrassing or annoying?” But, the real questions that should be asked are, “What's wrong with this picture? Where is the floor? Where is the left wall? Where is the rest of the room?" Let me broaden the perspective for you.

Note the pile of clutter on our left.

Here's a closer look at that pile of stuff.
Not much floor space left, huh?

And here's another viewpoint.
Note the additional mess on the top of
the file cabinet beneath the window.

“But my desk is fairly neat,” Jae trys to console herself, pitifully.

And that fact would be a great relief if I didn't have to turn
toward this other mess in order to exit the room.

Christmas paper in July? Really, Jae!

We won't even discuss the vacuum-in-need-of-a-belt, which sits to the left of that pile of stuff on the floor. I just couldn't bring myself to include it in the picture. But then the Organizational Coach part of me felt guilty about not telling you the complete situation.

Now, anyone who has ever worked with me in my previous professional life as an Administrator can tell you that I absolutely hate a messy workspace.

BVS, who worked with me at the NYS Legislature and later at a lobbyist group, would tell you about the times I would stand up in the midst of a crazy day and declare the next 20 minutes to be a “clean up our space” break.

SAC, with whom I also worked in a couple of different places, would certainly recall a particularly challenging time in a basement office when I needed to organize my surroundings before I could even think about writing a promo piece for a workshop.

And when my old friend LBD ~ who has her own professional cleaning service ~ faced an apartment cleanup that included a home office stacked high with decades of papers and old office equipment, I was the first person she thought to call to manage the clean-out and organization of that room.

After all, having moved 27 times in my adult life ~ four of those cross-country relocations ~ I feel at home when creating order out of chaos. Which leads me to the question that I need to ask myself. This is the same basic question I ask all of my clutter clients.

“How did your space get this way?”

This question is not asked with an accusing, wagging finger to make us feel even worse about our surroundings than we already feel. Rather, the question is meant to help us “Victims of Our Own Clutter” (aka VoOOCs) bring an awareness to how we have been living day-to-day ~ to the life challenges that we probably have been dealing with that have fostered our personal "environmental dilemma" to occur.

These challenges can come in many forms.

They can be Physical. Like an injury, a chronic or long-term illness, or the last months of a pregnancy. Maybe we're under a lot of stress, and thus having trouble sleeping, which affects our energy level and our ability to keep up with household chores.

They can be Emotional. Like a personal loss of some kind ~ the death of someone close to us, the loss of our own job, or a family members', which affects our household income. Maybe there are other unexpected changes in our way of life ~ like having to move unexpectedly, or make room in our home for a family member in crisis. Any of these situations can bring on a depression, which makes physically dealing with even simple household tasks seem totally overwhelming and exhausting.

There can also be Intellectual challenges: Like an unusually heavy workload. Maybe there's a big project at work that's forcing us to do a lot of overtime. Or too many term papers and final exams clumped together at the end of a semester. Or the duress of having to learn a new computer program that's been forced upon us due to a system upgrade.

As I typed those questions that I would ask clients, I realized that there was at least one question in each category to which I answered a resounding, “Yes!”

Hmmm.

And the next question I ask my clients is: How long have you been dealing with these life challenges? Weeks? Months? Years?

Hmmm. I think I need a nap.

But, the point to all of these questions is to help us to give ourselves a break about how the mess got here. Now, it's a matter of how we get it un-messed, so that each time we walk into our particular messy space, we won't have to cringe anymore, or avert our eyes, or simply stop going in there. (I'm typing this on my laptop as I sit on my bed in my nice, neat ~ and thus relaxing ~ bedroom).

So now it's time to make a plan of action. Averting eyes, and avoiding spaces in our homes takes a lot of energy. Might as well use that energy to start the cleanup. As with any journey, it starts with one, simple, first step.

I anticipate this de-clutter journey to my nice, neat ~ and thus relaxing ~ home office space will take at least a few weeks. I'm being realistic here. I know it is a small space, which in a perfect world should take about a weekend to straighten up. But, I have a busy schedule that's subject to change depending on my clients' unexpected schedule changes. So, I'm preparing myself for the worst-case scenario.

And, I don't want to simply clean up the visible mess. I want to make the necessary changes to accommodate how I want to use this space. This means doing a careful analysis of the office's shortcomings and making appropriate changes as I go along. While this approach may take longer, it will help me to avoid a new clutter taking root. (Clutter is kind of like a weed, huh?)

So, friends, I invite you to join me on this de-cluttering journey, to be my witness and ~ if you would like ~ my support group, through leaving some encouraging comments here at Healing Circles.

This is something I always suggest that my clutter clients do ~ to have at least one person that they can turn to for support and/or help when they start feeling like this clean-up project will never end. There's nothing like having company in our misery ~ I mean our organizing joy ~ to keep us moving along the path to our vision of our perfect space.

You may want to start making your own personal space organizing journey. All of us here at Healing Circles can support each other. We'll have our own VoOOC support group.

But, I've talked enough. Now it's time for me to actually begin. I've been thinking about this too long. It's time to do it! And, I begin ... not here ...

and not here ...

but here ... inside this file drawer.

Stop by in a few days to find out why I decided that this should be the first step on my de-clutter journey.

I look forward to hearing from you.
To leave a message,
simply click on "comment" below.

Peace & Light to you,
Jae