Week Four: Maintenance & Tweaking
We have arrived at the end of the month, how are you doing? Last week we covered the all or nothing attitude. Have you had a chance to purge at least one area in your trouble spot? Let’s assume you have finished purging at least one trouble spot in your room. (Remember we are using a room as an example)
Before you can maintain, you need to recognize what it is (and possibly why) you pile up what you do.
The following is a personal list of my problem items and my theories as to why they pile up: I assure you this is the “short” list.
Pens- I covered my problem with writing instruments last week, love them!
Paperwork/mail, magazines- setting aside to deal with “when I have time.”
Laundry- wash, dry, fold, put away, not so much.
Fabric- new hobby, good sales, no preparation for storage before it starts to pile up.
Crafting supplies- see above
Yarn-see ‘fabric’ above
Kitchen Equipment, including cookbooks- Love to cook and everything that goes with it. I maintain that I was a chef in another life…
Can you relate to any of these? The first three can be laid at the feet of “I’ll do it later” syndrome. The last four, a type of mild hoarding; which is in retrospect frightening.
Time for Combat:
The “I’ll do it later” syndrome is most easily tackled by working on behavioral changes. As you know it generally take 30 days of repetition to change a habit.
Pens-stop buying; to assist in this gather all the pens in the home, warning you may be appalled at the accumulation; after that not buying should be a bit easier. Use the same sort methods we’ve already spoken of: Keep, Donate, and Toss. Limit the number of areas you keep multiples.
Paperwork/mail/magazines-do your paperwork as soon as you get it, then complete the life cycle, mail and file. Mail, toss junk mail immediately and deal with the rest before the day is out. Magazines, determine which one(s) you will actually read and eliminate the rest. Now you can take an online version. Having accomplished the first part; only keep six months/year of issues at a time. Strip out what you are interested in and recycle. If the magazine is intact consider donating them.
Laundry-try to complete the entire cycle of laundry one type at a time. I know, I know, this is hard to do if there are more than two of you in the house. Consider this, you could do all the whites one day, start the darks before you go to bed and start the next day a bit ahead by having one load dryer ready to start off. The point here is to get it from the hamper to the drawer in the easiest way possible.
Fabrics and crafting supplies-best advice finish what you start and use up what you have. If you haven’t used it or don’t think you will use it sell or donate it.
Cooking appliances and cookbooks-use what you have. Same goes here if you don’t use it; sell or donate. I am still working on this. Here is an example: I have a ricer. It makes super smooth mashed potatoes. I like my mashed potatoes chunky, my husband likes them smooth. I keep the ricer for him, and because I can use it on other foods, squash especially. Do I really need it; probably not but am I ready to part with it, no. It’s always a work in progress.
Does anyone need tons of cookbooks probably not? The internet will supply most people with more than enough recipes to keep them busy.
So how to maintain once your finished your room? Control your trouble points/items. Be aware and make your own unique controls. This will take trial and error. Sounds boring, I know. Try picking one item at a time, start with the one item/thing that has the biggest pile and work back from there. As with anything worthwhile this is going to take time, how much will depend on the individual.
Tweaking enters the equation as an individual’s circumstances change. Tweaking is all about making small adjustments to the system you have in place. Babies, re-entering the work force, retirement, care-giving grandchildren, you get the idea. Being flexible will make your life easier to manage. Keeping up with organizing depends on the time you have to start it and maintain it. When circumstances change so will the way you manage your trouble spots. If you are super busy and you see your paperwork piles growing beyond your original control system obviously it is time to “tweak” that system to reflect your new circumstances. Tweaking is an evolving process and how cool is that! This is great news because it means that the only time you need to start over from scratch is if the system you use just doesn’t work at all.
So all this (in a perfect world) has brought us full circle. The room is clean, purged and organized to suit you the individual. You have learned that a truly clean room/home is based on identifying your organizing “style’, successfully purging the excess, making an organizational plan that works for your space, the need to control your trouble items, and finally how to maintain your room.
Most of us are afflicted with the same syndrome; the “get to it later” syndrome. How about you? Let’s face it, life is messy and busy. Tackle one “hot item” at a time and remember be kind to you! We all need to stop trying to convince ourselves that our homes need to look like a magazine. We live in our homes; we have children, pets, husbands…heehee, messy, messy, it’s called life. Relax and enjoy it. Besides, who has time to clean, festival season is just around the corner, we have henna to mix and pattern books to update! Do me one favor, try to gather and keep your henna supplies in order and you will be one group of items ahead!
I hope at least some part of this has helped.
Thank you and have fun!
Michelle :D
( Michelle, thank you so so SO much for writing these articles for us. I know the tips you have given have already helped me, and can help so many more :) thank you thank you thank you :) )
No comments:
Post a Comment