Making Sense in Organizing Your Space
Those of you who know me are well aware that I’ve been re-arranging my office on and off for years. It’s not because I have nothing else to do, it’s because I can’t quite nail down where I want things to go. And yes, it may have something to do with the fact that I keep acquiring stuff to add to my collection of action figures, books, or posters/artwork and other memorabilia. I like having my fan trinkets on display because it helps me see what I have and it makes me feel good about walking into my space and seeing the many visuals from various TV shows, books, and movies. Some people don’t like that, and that’s okay because my office isn’t their space, it’s mine, and it’s somewhat of an extension of my personality.
And while I’ve read Marie Kondo’s “Magic of Tidying Up” years ago, I’ve felt like something was missing. Yes, she has some great, insightful, and useful tips when it comes to organizing things at home. (Folding/rolling up clothes to make more space, etc.). However, to me, there’s more to it than asking myself, “does it spark joy?” Especially when it comes to books, there’s no way I’m keeping just five books on my shelves; sorry Marie, I read, a lot.
Seriously!
At the beginning of the month, I went on a little reading binge, some of the books I’ve read deal with clutter and human tendencies. That, in return, made me think about my organizing style and where to go from there. It’s not a one-size-fits-all process, exactly as I outline below.
Enter: Gretchen Ruben’s ‘Outer Order, Inner Calm’ as well as Cassandra Aarssen’s ‘The Clutter Connection’; they are two highlights of my binge-read this month.
I started with “Outer Order, Inner Calm: Declutter and Organize to Make More Room for Happiness” by Gretchen Ruben (author of ‘The Happiness Project’ and ‘The Four Tendencies’). One of the things I liked about this book is it’s organized in simple chapters and sections, all easy to refer to long after you’ve finished the book. There’s pictures, lists, quotes, top ten tips for creating outer order, and a list of books for further reading at the end.
The book is quite clutter-free, easy to follow, and has a lot of helpful tips to get organized. There are tips on how to deal with your closets, evaluating your clutter, and so on. One useful piece of advice is assigning each day its own task which spreads the workload, so you don’t get bogged down by house chores over the weekend and not have enough time to enjoy yourself and get some rest. Of course, I don’t fully agree with all the tips, such as ‘don’t get organized’, where Gretchen helpfully notes that “your first instinct should be to get rid of stuff. If you don’t own it, you don’t have to organize it”. While technically true and useful thought, it’s a bit weird and somewhat simplistic, however, that’s what makes it an interesting tip nevertheless. Sometimes you have to ask yourself, “do I *really* need this item?”, hopefully, you’re still in the shop or have yet to hit the ‘buy now’ button when asking that question.
The irony is that just as outer order contributes to inner calm, inner calm contributes to outer order.
Gretchen Rubin
Not 100% of the tips in every book are going to be useful to everyone, and that’s perfectly fine, but ‘Outer Order, Inner Calm’ is full of so many of them that even the pickiest of the readers will find a few useful tips. Bonus: it’s a book you can read in one sitting.
Moving on to: “Clutter Connection: How Your Personality Type Determines Why You Organize the Way You Do” by Cassandra Aarssen. The book is a *must* read for anyone curious about the way they organize their things. Face it, we all have stuff (clutter), and it’s organized in specific ways that may not make a lot of sense to other people or even to ourselves. Some of us like to have it out in the open, some of us prefer to have our stuff hidden. We all have our organizing systems (to an extent), and Cassandra Aarssen nails them, breaks them down and provides useful tips (with pictures & other visuals) to help you get on your way to a de-cluttered space and a breath of satisfaction when all is said and done.
It’s a relatively quick read, filled with lots of great examples and images to illustrate each ClutterBug organizing style perfectly. There’s also plenty of easy breakdown lists to refer to after you’ve read the book. There’s a short quiz to find out your ClutterBug organizing style (it’s also available on the ClutterBug website, so you can get a head start before you get the book). After you’ve read ‘The Clutter Connection’, you’re quite well armed and all set to get going with the organizing in the style that most suits you.
Only you can know what kind of environment makes you feel happy.
Marie Kondo
And this is why I don’t think you should live according to taking organizing tips from just one person/book. What works for other people may not work for you. There is no ‘one size fits all’ organizing book, much like there isn’t one ‘diet’ that works for everyone 100%. Most of these solutions are more of a ‘one size fits most/some depending on circumstances/other factors,’ including the books I mentioned here. However, once you gather the information from multiple sources, you can make better decisions once you adapt it to your style. I certainly have!
What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself
Abraham Maslow
Knowing that I’m a Bee when it comes to my ClutterBug, I now understand why I organize the way I do and why I’m constantly re-organizing my office. But, armed with Rubin’s, Aarssen’s and even Kondo’s words of advise, I can carve out my own style.
