Thursday, January 17, 2008
How To Get Organized-Finally!
When it comes to getting organized, we're our own worst enemies. We keep things because we persuade ourselves we'll need them—even if we haven't used them in five years and don't quite know where we've put them. There seems to be a security factor in just knowing they're around... somewhere.
But that turns out to be misplaced; it's our inner-hoarder talking. What most of us really need is a personal push to get organized, an experienced personal organizer to separate us emotionally from the possessions we no longer need and that clutter our minds as well as our space.
To get some tips on overcoming our worst string-saving instincts, I turned to a top professional organizer, Mia Lotringer, who runs C'est Fini! in Los Angeles (www.cestfini.com). What follows are her suggestions.
Highlights are below. To see all the details, go to this link:
- Open your mail every day. Or make a weekly appointment with yourself—and don't break it!—to open all your mail and pay all your bills.
- Set up a weekly appointment with yourself to do the food shopping—and create a meal plan for the week with all the necessary groceries—so that you won't need to go to the grocery store all the time.
- When you pick up your mail, always throw the junk mail out immediately. That leaves a smaller pile to contend with.
- Shred everything with your name, address, and any personal information, especially credit card offers and anything with your social security number.
- Once you have looked at a paper, take whatever action is needed right away.
- Always put the ball in other people's court. . . .
- Get virtual: anything that you can keep as a document on your computer, do! . . .
- Organize your computer. Try to get files off the desktop—they are visual clutter. . . .
- The biggest obstacle between you and your organized self is your fear of throwing things out. . . .
- Get over the emotional roadblock to getting organized. You must be willing to throw things out! . . .
- Go through your items quickly and make snap judgments—that first inclination is generally a good one. Then repeat the process. . . .
- If you really can't throw things out, I suggest staging those items out of your life . . . .
- If you are a frequent traveler, have a travel bag all ready to go, with toothbrush and miniature toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, body cream, liquid body soap, sunscreen; razor; brush/comb. . . .
- Create a To Do or task list, if possible on your PDA. . . .
- Get a PDA. . . .
- Do not get overwhelmed. . . .
