Palais Professional Organizer

Posts Tagged ‘clutter’

Creating meaning

This post from Apartment Therapy on how to keep love letters inspired me to show you guys what I do for momentos and memorabilia (see below). It is really important to protect what you love and at the same time to not overload your space.

I think this balance all comes down to meaning. How to create it and how to recognize it.

Ask yourself if an item means something to you. Then you’ll know whether to keep that item. If it doesn’t have meaning for you then is it a gift? I guess that is a philosophical question I don’t have an answer to…I also can’t answer how you create meaning in your space. But you can. If you ask these questions of yourself.

Your home tells your story

Ultimately we are concerned with our spaces because they tell the story of our lives. When someone walks into our space why are we concerned about how it looks? I believe it is because we know it reflects a lot about us…it tells the story of who we are. We put up pictures of where we have been, who we have been there with and who we love.  I think our homes are also aspirational – or they can be. They can show where we are steering our future.

What speaks least speaks loudest

Often what is missing tells as much as what is present. Our homes and offices give many clues to our nature. They reveal meaning as much as they lend meaning. So blank walls tell as much of a story as overflowing files.

Becoming a good storyteller

Creating and expressing meaning in our lives and our homes takes awareness and invention. Like any good storyteller you can begin by asking good questions to bring definition to your home and therefore its character.

With each item you bring in ask:

1. Does this add to my life?
2. Do I love it?
3. Does it help me create the life I want as I move into the future?
4. Is it completing my vision?
5. Is it useful to me?
6. Does it enrich my experience of life?
7. Does it inspire me?

Our stories begin to take shape when we answer these questions.

Even items that once only had banal use such as a stapler are now infused with meaning and creativity. You can even get a stapler in the shape of …almost anything…!

Love what you bring into your story.

I say this to point out that you don’t have to have anything in your space that you don’t love or that doesn’t really reflect your personality.

Creating a storybook

What you keep and how is part of your story. Here’s an idea for a storybook which will prevent clutter and help you keep your story straight. You can put love letters in, or just memorabilia of any kind.

Aaron brothers has this sketchbook that works perfectly as a storybook or you can order it online (for a lot less). I paste notes or cards into it with rubber cement as I get them. If a neighbor leaves a funny note, it goes in, birthday cards I love go in, special event tickets, stubs etc. You get the story.

Simple stories are best

I don’t make it fancy. Everything just gets thrown in haphazardly and sometimes I jot a note down.

Canson sketch book

Dr. Who, Amy and Vincent Van Gogh, season 5 of "Dr. Who" (Credit: BBC)

Creative clutter?

I think there is a creative kind of clutter that is fantastic in its inspiration. There is no plan and yet there is a plan underneath somewhere, emerging slowly…grey and then will burst into color. The color of a full blown creative idea. Put all the clutter away, all the grey away…no color will emerge.  I think this kind of clutter is to creative visual artists (could be an accountant or a designer) what a strict plan is to linear minded types (could be a dancer or an engineer).

Nutty professor meets messy painter

An example of this was demonstrated beautifully in Dr. Who in episode 9, “Vincent and the Doctor.” Assistant Amy and the Doctor go back in time in the Tardis to help Van Gogh fight a dangerous alien that only he can see (“I’m mad but I’m not stupid”).

Upon entering Van Gogh’s apartment the apologies begin. He says, “Sorry for all the clutter,” and “I’ll get it sorted properly at some point,” and things of that nature.

The room is full of all of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings including “Starry Night.”

“Some clutter” mutters the Doctor under his breath. Indeed.

If you can call paintings that take your breath away clutter.

Beautiful, artistic and necessary clutter.

When we have a lot of clutter and feel really disorganized we usually have been doing things the same way for a long time. This kind of intertia is a killer!

But…it can be scary to break out of our patterns. Sometimes a direct attack on the issue at hand isn’t the best way to go. A direct attack would be to plan out a whole new way to get rid of the clutter including tools, timing and tasks.

Another option is to try doing something completely different. Take an art class, go to a different genre of movie (Toy Story 3?!) and see it on a Monday afternoon, do your workout outside one day if you always go to the gym, dress up like Ginger from Gilligan’s Island (just an example)…

Any kind of change-up can influence you to make other changes. Before you know it you may get inspired to rearrange your office or try that new project management tool. Maybe you’ll go through your inbox with a new set of eyes or hire that virtual assistant.

Sometimes it is better to let yourself be influenced and inspired in this indirect way rather than forcing solutions.

Paintball anyone?

Connecting with my book, The Art of Happiness

Right now I’m reading The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler. I don’t know if I’m any happier yet but I have even more understanding and compassion than I already did (the DL is big on compassion) for those lacking in the letting go gene.

Cutler explains the Dalai Lama’s perspective on our inability to connect to one another, our lack of intimacy and our connection to our “stuff” in the following passage:

“He (the Dalai Lama) even theorizes that the physical contacts we have with objects in our environment, from cigarettes to jewelry to waterbeds, act as substitutes for intimacy (pg 80).”

Well…that explains quite a lot doesn’t it?  The shopping, the materialism, consumerism…lots of other isms I can’t think of right now. It also explains why when it is time to let go of the stained shirt, the torn pants and the tarnished ring it can become nearly impossible. You’ve  developed a relationship with these items,  and maybe you feel they know you better than anyone else does. They are friends, family even.

Maybe…what do you think? What are your reasons for keeping too much stuff around you? Or if you know someone who has clutter, why do they have problems letting it go?

Kangaroom photo storage tray

There is a fabulous organizer in Texas who reviewed a great product today – http://organizenrefine.blogspot.com/ – and now I’m going to pass it on to you:  Kangaroom Photo Storage Trays. These “trays” are only $40 and hold 400 4×6 photos. The photo above doesn’t show the feature I love most but if you go to their website you’ll see that each of the tabs on top holds a photo and opens up into its own section. So you can put a photo in as a label for that section. No more searching and wondering what photos are in what box or labeling with a labelmaker. And the boxes are nice enough to have out on a dresser or counter so it doubles as a display piece. This product is the perfect solution to photo clutter.

As a society we are printing less photos these days but most of my clients have a backlog of photos they don’t know what to do with. This photo clutter is one of the biggest concerns people have. If putting photos into albums is too much of a project for right now these trays are a great option. You can still sort and organize them by event or year(s) and make decisions about albums later. Or if you already have albums and don’t know what to do with the remaining photos this is a great option.

If you hate photos and you keep everything digitally – my hats off to you! Buy one for a friend or family member – this is a great gift!  I’m not an affiliate – just to be clear – I just love this product.

If you end up purchasing it let me know how it works for you. If you have favorite photo organizers let me know what they are – I’d love to hear from you.

Sometimes I think organizing is all about getting rid of the noise.  Visual noise distract and pull our focus just like auditory noise. Noise is just another form of clutter really…Looking around your office, what looks noisy? What doesn’t belong? What is pulling focus? If you don’t love it, it isn’t making you money and isn’t useful it can probably go. Keep clearing a little at a time until you hit the right note.

Experiment with fire (Photo by Everyone's Idle)

Sometimes I’m working with a client and I’ll propose a new way of doing something that just doesn’t sound great to them. Like, throwing papers in the recycling bin instead of stacking them up for months.  I’ll say, “Well…maybe you can try it as an experiment, since what you’ve been doing so far hasn’t been working.” Sometimes this tack works and sometimes not.

But I like the idea of an experiment. I use it on myself all the time…I don’t have to do “x” this way forever. I just have to try it and see if it works. Getting up at 6:30am to exercise. Cutting eggs out of my diet. Cutting sugar out of my diet. Opening the mail as soon as it arrives. Being nicer to so and so. Ha!

Becoming a little scientist in your own life allows for a little distance, a little breathing room. You can go from, “I’ll never, ever do that” to “Ok…maybe I’ll try it.”

Who knows…maybe you’ll discover the cure for cancer. Or at least the cure to your clutter.

Two teddy bears rescued from the trash (by an adult). Photo by Nina Toessinger

I was working with a new client today who has twins. I wonder why she needs an organizer? Ha! Her girls are 7 and when we started in on their room they were excited to help. The thing that I found remarkable was that it was so easy for them to decide what to keep and what to get rid of.  Actually, this is not unusual. (Though my client assured me it is not always that easy!)  My clients who have kids find that their kids have no problem letting go when it is time. They immediately knew which teddy bear they loved, which pair of pajamas, which dress…and which ones they were over. There was very little deliberation.  Sure there are those few tattered stuffed animals they cling to and that is ok. I’m not at war with sentimentality. But they are very clear about those things that are dear to them, there are few – and the clutter at large that can go.

When do we lose the ability to make decisions in the moment? Even when it came to the idea of gifts: “Uncle Dave gave that ballerina bunny to us – but I hate it – it goes.” They understood that their room was theirs and if they didn’t like something then they didn’t have to keep it. I would love to hear your feedback on this. Do you know when you started having trouble making decisions about what stays and what goes? When the clutter started to pile up in your life? What makes it hard to make those decision?

Getting and being organized is all about making decisions. If you meditate on this you’ll find that most of your clutter and disorganization is the result of putting off decisions. Storage units are essentially stores and piles of unmade decisions.

This kind of thinking is what gets us into trouble:

“Oh, I’ll figure out what to do with that stuff later…I’ll decide what to do what that table Aunt Sally gave me….uh..hmhehrph…soon.”

“And… I can’t stop to think about what to do with that piece of paper right now – I’ll figure it out later.”

I  think that the bane of our existence is all the decisions we have to make. Every blessing comes with a curse. The more options the more to decide. Career or kids? Or both with a nanny? Cereal or smoothie? Or eggs? Or egg whites? Um. Is it too early in the day to start drinking?

If you can narrow down those decisions you have to make all the better. Make them and make them quickly and you will know where you stand. Others will too. The fence is expensive, frustrating and the decisions will get made for you. That is no way to live. Take the consequences for the decisions you make and be at peace with them. You will find there are more rewards than downsides for a straight and narrow path. Rather than trying to have everything and gaining nothing at all – you will gain the things you want the most and let the unimportant fall by the wayside.  That is the kind of organization I hope for you.

It can be very difficult to work on a problem that is so overwhelming and so pervasive in your life – the papers, the obsolete processes, the clutter.  When it is everywhere you turn you are in deep.  The decision to embark on the process of organizing that which seems to be resistant to organization  – well, it is just not an exciting decision to make. (Well, it is to me but that’s a whole different issue.)

That’s the thing about getting your stuff, your financial papers, your business organized – it is different from embarking on other, much more sexy projects such as learning to play guitar or starting a new business. People are not thrilled to do it. There isn’t excitement at the start.

They just want the problem to go away.  Which it won’t.  At least not without their participation.  I believe it is so difficult to start getting organized – because it is about realizing the reality of this ditch you are in. Because only after that reality check can you (sometimes quickly sometimes slowly) begin climbing out of it.

Organizing is not about getting through what Seth Godin calls The Dip (the boring or hard part of an exciting project or process). It is about getting out of a well-worn ditch.  Getting the traction to do so – that’s what I’ll talk about next.