June 22, 2015 KME Digital

Using the Box Method to Organize

You want to get organized. You need to get organized. But if you’re a linear thinker like me, you want everything at arm’s reach ALL. THE. TIME.

So, what ends up happening is that you’re constantly surrounded by stuff. Clutter. Crap. And then you start telling yourself “I should really get organized.” And then the cycle continues again. And again. Sometimes I go through this several times in a day.

Does your place look like this? It's a storage room that Janet Schiesl recently reorganized.

Does your place look like this? It’s a storage room that Janet Schiesl recently reorganized.

Well, our friend Janet Schiesl over at Basic Organization has an awesome suggestion for how to break the cycle of good intentions and endless clutter. She calls it the Box Method:

Empty everything from a confined space: like a kitchen drawer, dresser drawer, desk drawer, closet shelf, bulletin board, glove compartment, purse. . . I could go on. Put it all into a cardboard box. Write the date on the box. Stash that box not-too-far-away. Now as you need an item, go ahead to get it, use it and when you are done put it back in the space. I think you’ll find that you use the same items often and leave a lot of things in the box. As time goes by you’ll see that a lot of what you are storing is stuff for someday. How long will you keep stuff for someday? One month after you filled the box consider that you haven’t needed those items for 1/12 of the year. Could you do without them? Could you make due with something else? Can you let that stuff go?

 

And here's the "After." Not bad, huh?

And here’s the “After.” Not bad, huh?

Sounds good to me! Because if I know anything, it’s that what I usually do (moving stuff to different locations aggressively enough to make it feel like “work” is being done and then abandoning the process to deal with the next crisis) just doesn’t work.

So try it out! Let us (and Janet) know how it works.

C.

By the way, Janet is our go-to person for packing services. Not only can she help you get through the seemingly impossible task of prepping your home for relocation, but she can also help you craft your environment into a peaceful place conducive to productivity. Really, you can’t afford NOT to get your life in order these days.

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