Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter

Resist the Big Gesture

While we were taking our annual Christmas Day hike my 17-year-old daughter shared her vision of the future, “I’m gonna get a blue pickup truck” she said proudly. I’m her mom, and no fun at all, so I felt compelled to say: “Okay, so first you should apply for your learner’s permit.”

I get it. By nature, I’m a dramatic person. I appreciate the grand gesture, the big transformation, a big reveal. But it is a trap. Process is important.

Recently, I was with new clients who’d had a grand vision. They had gotten rid of a huge space-hogging worktable and built some storage up high. The only problem… the storage they built wasn’t nearly enough for what had been housed in the original worktable. Even if it had been, some of the things needed to be easier to access.

I often wish clients would call me in earlier, so I could urge them to slow down. Sometimes a system has evolved that is imperfect, perhaps unattractive… and yet, it is a system that functions. So, while yes, you might not want a huge table in the middle of the room anymore, you might need to analyze what purposes it is serving. Yes, it’s a worktable, but it’s also a desk. Yes, you can build storage for completed projects up there and put files over here, but where will the frequently used supplies go? Where will you sit?

I don’t want to stop anyone from realizing their vision… I just want them to approach it in a more methodical way. To me, the first step is always an inventory. What do you keep in this piece of furniture that you want to jettison? Whether it’s your grandmother’s china cabinet or an old file cabinet, if it has stuff in it that stuff will need to go somewhere.

You’ll say, “Oh, most of it I’m giving away.” Great! Do that first. Eliminate the freebie note cards, recycled manila envelopes, salt-cellars, old files for the stuff that is now all online. This includes everything that you used once upon a time but now just takes up space. You must do that elimination first, because often there ends up being more to keep than you thought.

Next comes sorting, making an inventory and organizing the rest. You might realize that you need more file drawers than you thought but less space for office supplies. But only by going through this process will you know exactly what you’ll need to store and how much storage space you’ll need.

Organizing is more of an art than a science. Yes, I can measure the length of your longest jacket and how many inches you have devoted to short and long hanging items when you re-do your closet, but there are a lot of variables. How easy is something to access? Can you see everything?  Yes, you want your space to look less junky, but having things laying around with no place to go will look worse than that old credenza you are dying to get rid of. Go ahead, dream… but remember, dreams are usually realized after much planning and persistence. And before you can be a beautiful girl with a blue pickup truck, you must pass your road test.