Home Organization Meets the Big, Bad Wolf

February 15th, 2012 Office, Paper & Productivity

You’re rollin’ along in your home, perfectly calm, perfectly peaceful, until suddenly the Big Bad Wolf comes knocking at your door. Who summoned the Big Bad Wolf? It wasn’t me! In seconds, calm is disrupted, chaos ensues and stress levels skyrocket and home organization is kicked to the curb. Ick. What are your Big Bad Wolf habits that come knocking at the door and cause chaos to reign?

Here are 3 Big Bad Wolf habits & 5 Simple Solutions to Fix Them:

1) Drop it like it’s hot. Do you drop things wherever you happen to be: the counter, the couch, the floor? This often creates stress when you try to get back out the door when you can’t find what you need. Create new habits by giving your stuff a home and place it there every time. Make sure you create the “home” close to where you are naturally dropping things so you don’t have to work too hard at a new habit.

Dropping keys? Put up a key hook.

Purse on the floor? Another hook!

Mail on the counter? Add an attractive basket to place a cap on how much piles up.

Shoes kicked off everywhere? Buy a big basket and kick them off there. You’re already kickin’ it, might as well kick in one spot.

2) Paper Pile Up. Don’t let this happen to you. I see paper piles as well as bags & bins of paper all the time as the majority of my clients bring me in to help with paper stress. First, get that basket for the incoming papers that are piling on the counter. From there, process your paper into an “Action System.” For tips on how to set up your action files, read more here.

3) Decisions, decisions (and a lack of making them). When you don’t make decisions on what to do with your stuff, those items pile up. They end up sitting on shelves, filling garages, piling up on beds, overflowing offices and crowding out guest rooms. If it wasn’t easy to make one or two decisions, it’s certainly no fun to go back and make a room full of decisions. That’s when people get overwhelmed and that’s when my phone rings.

If you don’t know where to put it or how you will use it-pass it on.
If it’s broken, get it fixed or throw it away.
If you want to get some money from it, sell it or take it to an eBay trading assistant who will do it for you.
If you got it as a gift but you don’t like it-regift it, donate it or sell it and buy something you like.
If you have duplicates-pick the best and get rid of the rest.