The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Organized Fast Track
The Core Advice You Need to Get and Keep Your Life in Order
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Publisher: Mike Sanders Cover Designer: Kurt Owens
Executive Managing Editor: Billy Fields Book Designers: William Thomas,
Executive Acquisitions Editor: Lori Cates Hand Rebecca Batchelor
Development Editor: Susan Zingraf Indexer: Johnna VanHoose Dinse
Senior Production Editor: Kayla Dugger Layout: Ayanna Lacey
Copy Editor: Krista Hansing Editorial Services, Inc. Proofreader: John Etchison
ALWAYS LEARNING PEARSON
Contents
1 The Fast Track to an Organized Life
What Is Organized, Anyway?
Organizing Myths and Misconceptions
One Right Way—Yours
Components of an Organized Life
Controlled Clutter
Robust Routines
Organized Spaces
Well-Managed Time
Where Do I Begin?
Start Where the Shoe Pinches
Decide on a Target Component
Set Up Control Central
2 Gearing Up for Self-Change
Discover Your Organizing Style
Your Clutter Tolerance
File It, Pile It, or Deny It?
Your Time-Management Style
Overcoming Personal Roadblocks
Excuses, Excuses
No Time to Plan? Plan to Fail!
Identifying and Setting Goals
Define the Goal
Break It Down
Face the Goal
Study Setbacks
Self-Coaching and Accountability
Be Your Own Cheerleader
Finding Support from Others
3 Kicking Clutter to the Curb
Causes of Clutter
Delayed Decision Making
Deferring Action
Denial
The STOP Clutter Method
The Clear-a-Thon
Assessing Household Storage Options
Setting Up Temporary Holding Areas
Sustaining the Clutter Clear-a-Thon
Establishing Clutter Preserves
4 Clutter Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
Conquering Your Clutter Demons
Sentiment
Scarcity Thinking
Perfectionism
Procrastination
Rebellion
The Miser
Setting Up Clutter Checkpoints
Designate Space
Set the Time
Set Conditions
Exploring Deacquisition Strategies
Borrow, Don’t Buy
Utilize Online Access
Make the Most of What You Have
Buy Good Once
5 Habits, Routines, and Activity Centers
Getting Your Habits on Your Side
Anatomy of a Habit
Habits for an Organized Life
Building Routines into Daily Life
Crafting Robust Routines
Automating Life’s Activities
Creating Activity Centers for an Organized Home
Essentials of an Activity Center
The Household Launch Pad
6 Routines of an Organized Home
Housecleaning and Home Maintenance
Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Seasonal
Managing Meals and Menus
Menu- and Meal-Planning Basics
Shopping Tips
Keeping Order in the Pantry
Wardrobe Planning and Clothing Care
Planning Family Wardrobes
Creating a Laundry Activity Center
Crafting Clothing-Care Routines
7 Crafting Organized Spaces
Assigning Household Real Estate
Location, Location, Location
Hot Zones and Black Holes
Clever Containment Strategies
Storage Options High to Low
The World Beneath
Look Up High
On the Walls
Double-Duty Doors
Organizing Multiuse Spaces
8 Organized Spaces, Room by Room
Organizing Kitchen and Food-Storage Areas
Setting Up Kitchen Activity Centers
Creative Kitchen Organization Ideas
Bringing Order to Bed and Bath Areas
Creating Blissful Bedrooms
Bathrooms That Work for You
Creating Orderly Family Rooms
Activity Centers for Shared Spaces
Storage Ideas for Entertainment, Books, and Music
9 Tuning Your Time-Management Skills
Boosting Your Calendar Power
Create a Single Calendar
Basic Routines for Time Management
Shared and Household Calendars
Crafting To-Do Lists
The Master To-Do List
The Daily To-Do List
The Supercharged To-Do List
A Procrastinator’s ABCs
Take Action
Break It Down
Create Momentum
10 Conquering Household Paperwork
Creating a Home Office Center
Establishing Financial Routines
Mail and Paper Handling
Bill Paying and Financial Management
Filing
Setting Up Household Filing Systems
Action Files
Basic Files
Classic Files
Quick Tricks to Conquer the Paper Pileup
11 Getting Organized in the Workplace
Surviving an Alien Organizing Style
Time Management
Space Allocation
Clutter Variances
Controlling Workplace Clutter
On the Desk
In Your Space
Managing Data Clutter
Organizing Office Spaces
Making Your Office Work for You
The Organized Computer
Office Routines and Time Management
Building a Workaday Routine
Creating Calendar Checkpoints
12 Handling Bumps in the Road
Get Family Members on Board
Set the Standard
Consult, Don’t Confront
Establish Household Routines
Get Organized for a Move
Create a Move Planner
Label Everything
Pack Me Last
Plan Holidays and Celebrations
Set Up a Holiday Planner
Break It Down and Begin Early
Stockpile Gifts and Greetings
Last-Minute Company
Reclaim Your Organized Life
Revamp Your Control Center
Corral Creeping Clutter
Learn from Your Mistakes
Appendixes
A Organizing Resources
B 10-Step Organizing Plan
Index
Introduction
“I’ve got to get organized!”
Does that statement sound familiar? Take heart—you’re not alone. In recent
years, the world has exploded around us. We have more stuff and less time,
multitasking is the new normal, and always-on communications lengthen
our day and multiply our responsibilities. In a world where VHS tapes share
shelf space with DVDs and Blu-ray discs, most of us scamper to keep on
top of our stuff, our space, and our time.
This book is designed to help you get organized fast. Focused on building
the core elements of an organized life, it will help you find your own path to
better home and personal organization. You’ll get a quick grip on the skills
you need for successful self-change, then use them to set goals and
overcome obstacles as you get organized.
You’ll learn how to cut clutter and keep it from coming back, how to build
routines to speed everyday activities, how to bring order to your spaces, and
how to manage time. Finally, this book will help you take aim at household
paper, get organized in the workplace, and teach you what to do when you
go off the rails.
How This Book Is Organized
To set the stage, Chapters 1 and 2 zero in on what “organized” is and what
it isn’t, lay out the core components of an organized life, and map out your
first steps on the road.
Chapters 3 and 4 take aim on clutter. You’ll learn a simple method to blast
through clutter decisions, craft a plan to cut clutter house-wide, and review
strategies to prevent it from coming back.
Habits, routines, and activity centers take center stage in Chapters 5 and 6.
You’ll get up-to-speed with these household wonder workers and learn to
put them in place to streamline every aspect of life at home.
Chapters 7 and 8 bring order to spaces around the house. You’ll learn how
to assign household real estate and how to create activity centers room by
room for an organized home.
Time and money come into focus in Chapters 9 and 10. You’ll tune up
time-management skills with calendar and to-do lists, create a home office
activity center, and establish filing and paper-handling routines to bring
order to your financial life.
In Chapter 11, you’ll take your new organizational skills to the workplace,
learning how to handle different organizing styles, control workplace
clutter, and build organized spaces and routines to support you throughout
the workday.
Chapter 12 covers bumps you’ll encounter in the road—those special
challenges that throw you off the rails. You’ll learn ways to bring the family
on board, cope with a move, celebrate the holidays, and survive crisis
cleaning. Finally, you’ll learn how to reclaim your organized life quickly
when you fall behind.
Extras
Beyond the chapters, this book has two appendixes that provide organizing
resources and a 10-step organizing plan. You’ll also find the following
sidebars throughout the book—brief bright ideas that point out shortcuts
and cautions along the way.
SPEEDY SOLUTION
These sidebars provide quick tricks designed to boost your organizational prowess in
record time.
ROAD HAZARD
These sidebars point out hidden dangers that could slow your progress to an
organized life.
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to agent Marilyn Allen, whose sharp eye and expert
matchmaking led to a new partnership with Alpha Books, and to editor Lori
Hand, whose enthusiasm and warmth made the writing process a pleasure.
On the home front, housekeeper Denise Older kept life on an even keel; her
expert collaboration on efficient home-management methods was
invaluable to this book.
As always, there would be no book without the support and enthusiasm of
my husband, Dr. Stephen Ewer, who lives with a writer and makes it look
easy! Finally, I am deeply grateful to my grandmother, Helen Betty
Townley, for a lifetime of homemaking inspiration and an ocean of tender
love. You’re my muse, Mamma!
Trademarks
All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be or are suspected of
being trademarks or service marks have been appropriately capitalized.
Alpha Books and Penguin Group (USA) Inc. cannot attest to the accuracy
of this information. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as
affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.
Chapter
1
The Fast Track to an Organized Life
In This Chapter
• Understanding what it takes to get organized
• Discovering the essential skills of an organized life
• Deciding where to begin
• Setting up a control center that supports you
Getting organized is a journey, not a destination. As with any kind of trip, to
get there quickly you need to know where you’re starting and where you
want to go.
This chapter puts you on the fast track to organization by helping you sort
out what it means to get organized. In the pages to come, you’ll get
acquainted with the basic components of an organized life and begin the
process of getting organized—fast.
With a good idea of your destination, you’ll be ready to pick a starting point
and set up a command center for support. Ready? Let’s get organized!
What Is Organized, Anyway?
Most of us have no trouble defining what it means to be disorganized
because the evidence is all around us. When it’s hard to get out the door on
time because necessary household items such as car keys, handbags, or
children’s homework are nowhere to be found, or when bills go unpaid
because they’re mislaid or lost, it spells disorganization.
Understanding what it means to be organized, on the other hand, can be a
bit more difficult. In a nutshell, you picked up this book because you want
life to be easier. That desire to live more simply, directly, and freely is at the
heart of what you mean when you say you need to get organized.
Depending on the individual, the process of getting organized may involve
clearing clutter, getting control of time, revamping storage, establishing
new routines, or all of these things. The precise mix varies from person to
person. Someone with a clutter problem will take a different road to
organization than a person who needs to improve time-management skills.
The secret to getting organized fast is focusing on your own challenges,
abilities, and goals, and creating your own unique path to an organized life.
What will it take to move you from where you are to where you want to be?
To clear the way forward, let’s examine some myths and misconceptions
about the organizing process.
SPEEDY SOLUTION
For a quick start to a more organized life, carry a small notepad with you at all times.
Each time you remember an item you need to buy or a task you need to do, make a
note of it. Using a notepad or smartphone to track fleeting must-do items saves time
and frees your brain for more important work. Trap them now to tap them later!
Organizing Myths and Misconceptions
Sometimes efforts to get organized can get hung up on inaccurate ideas of
what organization is and how you achieve it. See how many of these
statements about organization you agree with:
• Getting organized takes a lot of time.
• You have to buy stuff to get organized.
• Organized homes are neat and tidy.
• Organizing systems are really complicated.
Surprise! None of these statements is true. All of them express commonly
held misconceptions about the process of getting organized.
Does it take time to get organized? Sure it does, but a lot less than the time
you spend fighting the day-to-day effects of disorganization.
Getting organized is like riding a bicycle. When you’re just learning to ride
a two-wheeler, you have plenty of false starts and stops, and you wobble a
lot. But soon enough, you find your balance. From that point on, all it takes
to go is a tiny push on the pedal.
Yes, you’ll invest some time in the beginning stages of getting organized.
But just as with that bicycle, your efforts will move you along far more
quickly than they did before. Once past the first part of the learning curve,
an organized life takes very little time to maintain.
What about expense? Well, who doesn’t love visiting a store devoted to
organizing products? Wandering down the aisles, it’s easy to imagine living
a serene and organized life. But oh, the price tag! Specialty organizers can
carry a hefty price tag, so you decide that you can’t afford to get organized
—not this pay period, anyway.
Nonsense! While organizing products offer clever and useful solutions to
many common problems, buying them is not a prerequisite to getting
organized. Their place in the organization process comes after the hard
work has been done of cutting clutter, evaluating household storage, and
making educated decisions about the requirements of your space and your
stuff. None of these activities costs a dime, and neither does getting
organized.
Can you tell an organized space by the way it looks? Be careful—organized
is not a decorating style. Despite the efforts of home magazines to convince
you otherwise, there’s no such thing as an organized housing style.
A minimalist home can look great on the surface but dissolve into chaos
when you open a drawer or search for a filed paper. On the other hand, a
cozy country house, complete with scattered belongings and children’s toys,
can be a beautifully organized home that supports the daily life of the
family that lives there. Know an organized space by the way it works, not
by the way it looks.
What about all those complex organization systems out there, the ones with
mission statements and planner pages and checklists? Yes, they do exist,
and for many people they represent an effective path to organized living.
However, structured get-organized systems are not the only route to the
goal. By all means, make use of them if they work well with your
organizing style, your goals, and your budget. But if all those little check
boxes make your skin crawl, take heart! You can achieve the same results
with nothing more complicated than a simple spiral notebook and a pen.
One Right Way—Yours
Another factor can trip you up when reaching for better home and personal
organization: the guru. Browsing the bookstore or surfing online, you can
encounter testimonials about this method or that writer or workshop, and all
of them are glowing. “Gee,” you say to yourself, “if it works for them, it
has to work for me!”
If you’re lucky enough to hook up with a method that meets your personal
organizing needs and preferences, it’ll be a match! But problems arise when
you try to shove your square peg into their round hole. Experiencing
setbacks when everyone around you appears to be making great strides
forward can throw you off the path altogether.
The fastest way to create an organized life that you can live with is to know
yourself. Your goals, your strengths, and your challenges all affect where
you’ll start and how you’ll travel down the path.
This book helps you determine your own clutter tolerance, filing
preferences, time-management style, and taste in routines to help you craft a
custom get-organized plan that will work for you—and work quickly.
ROAD HAZARD
When you’re fed up with a disorganized life, it’s tempting to go on the organizing
equivalent of a crash diet, changing everything in your life at once. Resist the urge!
Just as with weight loss, the secret to organized success is slow, steady progress. Save
your energy for the long haul so you can sustain the journey to an organized life.
Components of an Organized Life
Getting organized means different things to different people. Some folks
hope to be more productive. Others want help with their clutter, and still
others are looking for ideas about how to run their households more
efficiently.
Meet the “core four”—the essential components of an organized life:
• Controlled clutter
• Robust routines
• Organized spaces
• Well-managed time
These four elements of an organized life work together like highly
synchronized acrobats. Each component contributes directly to the others;
together they make up an interlaced set of skills, habits, and tools for
effective living.
Looking at these components in our own lives, each of us brings a different
mix of strengths to the table. One person may have a well-developed sense
of time yet live a life burdened by clutter. Another, a neat freak, may have a
cleaning schedule that would rival an executive housekeeper’s yet never
manage to make it to appointments on time.
That’s why each of us will have a slightly different definition of what it
means to get organized. The final goal is the same, but the specific steps
any of us will take are dictated by our individual strengths and shortfalls in
these four areas.
To get organized fast, we’ll bolster the components that need strengthening
while drawing on the power of those that currently serve us well. The goal
is to create a well-balanced, flexible set of skills to carry out and support
our organized life.
Controlled Clutter
Clutter is an inescapable aspect of modern life. Simply put, we are
surrounded by stuff! The ability to manage and control the physical items in
our environment is a baseline requirement for an organized life.
Clutter is the sand that gums up the smooth workings of day-to-day
existence, and it has a direct impact on the other components of an
organized life. Clutter affects your use of time; for instance, if you misplace
the keys, you’ll be late to the meeting. It multiplies the effort needed to
clean and maintain your surroundings. It prevents you from enjoying the
peace and order of your own home.
Bringing clutter under control, and instituting new mechanisms to keep it
that way, is a threshold step to getting organized. This book shows you how
