Oh, just put it in the office

Where should I put this?
I dunno. Just put it in the office.

I've been keeping up with my quest to deal with 5 things in my office each day. It's been a week and it's going well. I have even (gasp!) filed some papers - and I HATE filing. I'm a piler, not a filer, man!

However, there is a big challenge coming up. We are having a birthday party in a few weeks and do you know what happens when we clean up for a party? We dump a whole bunch of stuff in there. That's an OK strategy if it's just a temporary holding location (for things like the infant car seat, for example). But what happens more often than not is that the stuff just sits there... and sits there... and sits there...

I'm not sure how this party will affect the cleanliness level of the office. What I do know is that I had the floor of my office clear twice last year, and parties are what undid that good work.

Office Decluttering: How's organizing 5 things a day going?

It's getting to the end of my first week of office decluttering, using my new strategy of dealing with 5 things a day. It's going really well, I'm quite amazed at myself. Here's the thing - I could wait and wait and procrastinate and forget about it and get around to doing it... never. Or, I could start myself on a system that works for me. Why does this work for me?

Dealing with 5 things a day is not intimidating.

It's that simple. I do not have the time to set aside a weekend to clear out the office. Some days, I don't even have a 5-10 minute chunk of time to do a quick tidy - because I never know when I will be interrupted. But 5 things - I can do 5 things. Whenever I'm changing the baby, I'm looking around the office, figuring out what to deal with next. Because I have set an achievable, realistic goal, I meet that goal. I mark that achievement on my calendar. This reinforces the achievement and encourages me to meet my goal again the next day.

And this, THIS is how a majorly gigantic procrastinator accomplishes anything. Don't get intimidated by the enormity of the project, just work at it a little every day and things get done. Suddenly your office is clean, or you have a PhD. Don't get me wrong, any member of the general public would not call the current state of my office "progress" but I don't care. It will make a difference eventually.

On 2012 things for 2012

I did it! I got rid of 2012 things in 2012.

As usual for me, it came down to the wire. It was Dec 31 and I needed a few more things to hit 2012. I was holding a sleeping baby who didn't want to be put down. I knew there was a box in the basement that needed sorting, I had intended to toss some things from it to hit 2012. But ugh, the baby was cramping my style and impeding progress.

I asked The Husband if there was anything he could get rid of. And he stepped up! He went downstairs, got one crate of his old school stuff, and started going through it. Buh bye, old university stuff.

So we hit 2013 things out of the house in 2012. Yay us! But then I made him stop and wait for Jan 1. No sense overachieving when I'm starting again at 0 the next day. (Such a bad attitude, for shame!) Having things ready to go in the new year made for a good January 1 and a good start to the year.

One empty crate down. SO MUCH more stuff to go...

This was a good exercise for me. I am definitely doing it again this year - 2013 things for 2013. I'm at 135 things so far. Not great, but it's something.

My office is a disaster

Ugh.

Do you have a space in your house that has no defined purpose? If so, do you find that spot is a catch-all for clutter?

In my house, this is the office. It is a room full of junk. It's where we put things when we don't know where to put them. It's where things go when we want to deal with them "later." Guess when later happens? As I am a disorganized procrastinator, let me tell you that the answer is - rarely!

I need to clear this room out. It needs a purpose. I'm not yet sure what it should be. We don't need a whole room as an office right now. It could be a playroom, or a bedroom for one of our kids. Or a crafty space. But I can't do anything with the room in its current state (except change the baby, since we stuck the change table in there). The first step is dealing with all the junk in there.

The thing is, it's a pretty big task. And I've got a 4 month old, which limits my productivity and REALLY limits any sustained effort. But I have a plan. I'm going to put away 5 things a day in that room.

So it'll probably take me 2 years to clean out the room, but at least I'll be chipping away at the problem instead of ignoring it (or making it worse!).

I started today. I put away a hat for the baby, a pencil, a bib clip, and a couple of other things.

Baby steps...

What's your house's trouble spot? How do you deal with it?