Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter

Excavation

I’m not one of those kids who grew up wanting to be an archeologist because of Indiana Jones, but sometimes my work is very archeological, though what I discover are people, not civilizations.

Recently, I’ve been helping a family empty out the apartment of an elderly relative. At first glance, it appeared that maybe there was a little hoarding going on—not unusual for someone in her 80s who had lived in the same apartment for 50 years. However, it quickly became clear that the daunting piles of plastic bags in the corners were in fact quite organized. One bag was labeled “Con Ed 2005,” another “Notes 2009.” This made sorting easy: Toss the Con Ed bills, but because she is a writer, and her family wants to archive her work, the notes stayed.

I often find that there are systems behind what appears to be clutter or disorder, but they just aren’t quite making it to the finish line.

For example, there are several ways the plastic-bag filing system could have been more organized. However, even her imperfect system achieves one of my main goals in any good filing system: the ability to quickly purge outdated things.

Look around your house. What basic systems do you have that you could take to the next organizer-approved level? Are your recipes all in one place but not organized by type? Are your socks in a drawer, but not paired up? Do you have a bunch of art supplies stored in random bags? Can you make things a little easier to access, a little nicer looking? You might buy something at the Container Store, but you might have a shoebox or a jelly jar that will work perfectly.

Systems evolve naturally, but sometimes it just takes a little effort to make a functional system into an elegant system.