More Clutter Control Tips

It’s often said that neat desks can be suspiciously neat, and that only cluttered desks are indicative that their owners are really getting any work done. While that is true to a certain extent, it’s also true that (1) cluttered desks are indicative of cluttered minds, and (2) it’s far too easy to lose track of important stuff if everything’s all jumbled atop your desk or any other place.

Whether you’re in the office or at home, chances are you’re waging a constant, never-ending war against clutter. Here are some clutter control tips to help you put some order into your life and get more done with less trouble.

1) Don’t just dump stuff where it’s convenient, even if you’re really busy - put things in their proper place. Taking a little time out to do this every time, no matter how busy you are, will definitely save you a great deal more time (and heartache) later on.

2) It might be a good idea to invest in storage containers if you haven’t already done so. For all you important things, filing cabinets might help, or, better yet, buy large plastic sliding drawers, which combine the durability of the usual metal filing cabinet with light weight and translucency (which makes it easier to peek inside without necessarily having to open the drawer).

3) Don’t forget to label your storage. This will enable you to know what’s in which particular box and you won’t need to go rifling through every single box in search of whatever you need.

4) All the storage boxes and nooks and crannies in the world won’t help you if you don’t have a good system of prioritizing things and putting stuff away where it belongs. We’ve all heard those funny (or perhaps painful) stories of people who’ve painstakingly taken time out to put some order into their chaotic workspaces. After organizing everything, they have to mess it all up again because they are frantically searching for things they couldn’t locate. Ideally, only your most important things should sit on top of your desk (of course confidential or high-security items are exceptions to this rule) or close at hand.

5) Lastly, once every few months, take a weekend out to go through your storage containers (i.e. filing cabinets, boxes, chests, drawers, bins, etc…). Some things you might have thought important might not actually be so important after all, and you might want to consider moving them to the basement or some other area to free up space. In addition, you might want to see if everything’s in good condition - batteries may have burst, for instance, or mice might have made nests in some boxes. You’ll want to be able to deal with these and other such problems ASAP.

Organizing yourself will help you live a less stressful life.  When you know where everything is, all the rest falls into place.  Just remember that organizing all of your clutter of years of collecting it doesn’t happen overnight.  Don’t get stressed over decluttering.  Take your time and do it right.  In the long run you’ll be happy to have everything in it’s place and well labeled.