As much as I love having an organized desk space to work at,
my desk is often covered in papers. From bank statements to community service
forms to old homework assignments, they all end up on my desk to not be touched
again for sometimes months. This is not only messy but it is very unpractical
for actually finding anything.
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| Before |
Thankfully, Marie Kondo, in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, has an effective solution. Her
strategy is simply to throw away everything you don’t need (Kondo 96). Despite
the ease in saying this, it can be hard to get rid of something you ‘might need
someday.’ I know I personally struggle with this. I automatically believe that
everything is important and thus has to be kept.
To help people like me who think that nothing should be
thrown away, Kondo states how to determine what needs to be saved. “I recommend
you dispose of anything that does not fall into one of three categories:
currently in use, needed for a limited period of time, or must be kept
indefinitely” (Kondo 97). For me, this meant most of my pile of papers had to
go, only keeping those that I needed to either do something with or I was
actually using for something. It was honestly a little sad to get rid of so
much but it was a huge step in getting rid of my constant clutter.
Though getting rid of most of my life in papers helped my
organization, it wasn’t the full solution. For this strategy to remain
effective, I would need a new way to organize my papers, a way to prevent
future piles. Kondo, of course, has a technique to do this. She suggests using a
vertical storage container, so your papers are stored standing up, instead of
in a massive pile (Kondo 97). Vertical storage is key to this working. Not only
does it offer up more desk space, it also provides ease in locating all of your
important papers. The whole method has been extremely successful for me and I would
recommend it to anyone who also deals with a mess of papers.
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| Vertical Storage Strategy |
How do you deal with all of your papers? Is it effective or
does it just lead to a mess like mine did? Also, if you try this strategy, let
me know how it works out for you!
Kondo, Marie. The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up: The
Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. Trans. Cathy Hirano. Berkeley: Ten
Speed, 2014. Print.
This is a great strategy to use! A few years ago, my room used to be a disaster, but then I decided to put an end to things and throw out everything that I didn't need. My room went from looking like someone had broke in to looking like a jail cell!(Jail cells have nothing in them, so naturally, they're neat) I recommend stuffing everything into your closet and closing it, so then it gives an illusion of neatness since you can't see it. Be careful when you open your closet after doing this though, you might get crushed. That way you can keep all of your stuff and still be "neat"!
ReplyDeleteThanks Binh! Throwing away useless things is a great strategy for keeping an organized space. I like the closet idea (because I like keeping everything) but I think it's good for me to part with stuff sometimes. Also, I just organized my closet and it's still surprisingly neat and I'm hoping to keep it that way!
DeleteI love the verticle storage idea! I'll have to dig out those magazine boxes we had at Lake Youngs haha! It definitely would make everything a lot easier through because you wouldn't have to sift through everything and create more piles. I'll probably try to have three verticle boxes for the different categories that Kondo classified and try to organize my desk that way!
ReplyDeleteThank you Jackie! I love the idea so much too! Haha you'll have to tell me how it goes!
DeleteThat's a great organizational strategy! I can't believe the thought of putting excess papers in those vertical storage bins hasn't crossed my mind! That's probably because there is a huge pile of probably 100+ papers laying around in a corner in my room... Your post really inspired me to go out and get those vertical storage bins because my dad has been nagging me about cleaning up my mess of papers. I would recommend to throw away things when you don't need them anymore, and to throw them away immediately, or else it'll become a disaster and you won't be able to find ANYTHING.
ReplyDeleteThank you Melissa! It's so much more effective and has helped me stay organized so much better!
DeleteI like to think I am pretty organized, but sometimes I can get really messy and unorganized. This is a great technique to organizing papers! I like to keep my papers in separate folders so I can easily find them.
ReplyDeleteThat's also a great strategy Jasmine! I'll have to give that a try as well!
DeleteIf you have ever seen my room/backpack before I clean it, it is basically just piles of old homework or handouts that I seem to like to collect for some reason just in case I have need it. I will definitely try putting them into a more organized situation such as a box only designated for loose papers. Thanks for the inspiration! :)
ReplyDeleteYou are so welcome Sierra! Instead of collecting papers I just store the ones I need and discard the rest (:
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