ORGANISING - who knows ....how to decide how to be and stay organised????

Not sure if anyone is interested in more details about this, but I have photos of my November 2021 planner that I just made.

Here's the cover, all ready to be decorated. Includes a USA quarter (not for scale of course, but because I enjoy flaunting my wealth).


Here's the interior of a typical two-page spread:


Here's a close-up of the stamps done for a typical day. I have a "scrabble" tile set, and another non-brand stamp set. I use two colours.


Finally, when there's an extra page or two, I sometimes label it for myself with the word "NOTES" or even stars or a "double word score" tile.


I may use a sharpie marker or something for other text and/or for decorations. For example, August's calendar had a simple "woven rug" style decoration.

I believe the tendency to be organized (a place for everything, and everything in its place) is a recipe for Heavenly Bliss, if those with whom one dwells share this passion/belief/ability; alas, I am one of those people but married to a drop-it-anywhere kind of guy...in 37 years he has passively and pleasantly resisted all attempts to get him on board.  

Just wanted to mention this aspect: you cannot change other people; it's hard enough to change oneself XD

We aren't perfect, so expecting to be perfectly organized could be a fools errand.  Especially when you figure in the OCD factor and count the cost of, for example, others avoiding you because you expect a specific perfection from them, even as you are far from it in other ways.

That said, you couldn't run a successful business, teach a class, build a rocket stove mass heater and so on without significant organization.

My buddy teased me because he thought I spent as much time on my shop [up to a point] as I did using the shop.  After I helped him assemble a collection of tools, he said he understood why I did things like:  built a rack over my table saw, to hold push devices; built swinging racks to hold and display layout tools; dedicated areas to layout, router equipment, fasteners, hand saws and so on.

Long ago, I worked out of boxes. A lot didn't get done, because it was very inconvenient having to find, use and put back the tools. The more readily available they were, the more the tools got used. Just like a kitchen with a cabinet area for drinking glasses, plates and so on.

As noted, convenience and organization can go hand in hand. For example, I watched my wife pull things out of the lower kitchen shelves to get to what she needed, put things back, use the item, then pull things again to put the item she used away again.  Because of that [and for other reasons], I rebuilt the entire kitchen. That included doing away with all the lower shelves and replacing them with drawers. Now, she need only pull a drawer open, grab what she needs, then close the drawer and perform the task she pulled the item to complete.

Cris Smith...I am a very organized person and I learned so much from your post!!! Thank you!

Cris Smith wrote:As far as organizing "stuff" my motto is:  "A place for everything, and everything in its place."  

What helped me most was I found Fly Lady.  Her principles and advice made it so easy for me to accomplish what I had to do.  Mostly she helped me learn how to get it done.

Back then, she recommended putting your shoes on before you do anything else.  That is the one thing that stands out that I think helped me.

Even today, I look back at that time and am so glad I found her group on yahoo.

Here is her playlist on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheFLYLADY/playlists

If you saw me now, you would realise why I am reading about organisation. I am sitting in a small room, laughingly called my study/craft room/occasional bedroom, surrounded by boxes of food and kitchen equipment. We are having a new kitchen fitted later this week so until that happens, my ideas of being organised are just dreams. I can't wait to put things in their proper places. I will also use the exercise to get rid of "stuff" which has already been helped by the bottom dropping out of a box when I picked it up resulting in the breakage of several items of crockery which are not essential.
Normally, I too rank my fiction books in alphabetical order of author's surname and dvds are also in alphabetical order - it just makes it so much easier to find what you are looking for.
I have learned not to tidy up after Mr Ara because he leaves things out of place to remind himself to do something.
Maybe by next year I will have an organised house.

Ara Murray wrote:If you saw me now, you would realise why I am reading about organisation. I am sitting in a small room, laughingly called my study/craft room/occasional bedroom, surrounded by boxes of food and kitchen equipment. We are having a new kitchen fitted later this week so until that happens, my ideas of being organised are just dreams. I can't wait to put things in their proper places. I will also use the exercise to get rid of "stuff" which has already been helped by the bottom dropping out of a box when I picked it up resulting in the breakage of several items of crockery which are not essential.
Normally, I too rank my fiction books in alphabetical order of author's surname and dvds are also in alphabetical order - it just makes it so much easier to find what you are looking for.
I have learned not to tidy up after Mr Ara because he leaves things out of place to remind himself to do something.
Maybe by next year I will have an organised house.

I feel your pain; we have been in the middle of a kitchen remodel for 6 months! Living full of plastic shelves and bins of kitchen gear and foodstuffs...

We've downsized dramatically and currently have zero storage space. Literally none. I've been going nuts with all kinds of things all over the floor in boxes and bags and today I had the most amazing idea. I started sorting all the random things into gallon ziplock bags. I'll keep them in under-bed bins, because that's the only storage space we have. It's around 20 categories of stuff that is now out of sight, but easily retrievable. Eventually we'll have drawers and shelves, but for now I'm sooo relieved.

Many of the replies to this thread mentioned down-sizing and getting rid of "stuff," all of which makes good sense.  I've been down-sizing since 2006 when I sold my 6-bedroom 3-bath house with 2-car garage and left the corporate world behind to take up solo sailing, though I did put far too much of my dry-land "stuff" in a storage unit while I was out to sea.  After only 6 months of sailing up and down the Pacific coast from San Franciso to Vancouver, B.C. and down to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, I gave up my dream of sailing around the world like Joshua Slocum because I found out I was too claustrophobic and couldn't walk enough on the 37-ft deck to overcome it.  So, I sold the yawl and bought a used motorhome.  It offered a good deal more living room and storage space, and when I wanted to take a long walk, I only had to pull off the road and step out.

I had to be really organized to outfit both the yawl and the RV and find a home for every tool and personal item, sufficient food for a long trip, and maintenance supplies.  It wasn't difficult for me as I'd been highly organized in my career as a CPA where I had many clients and had to keep each client's paperwork and projects separated and secured.  I only allowed one client's papers on my desk at a time and put everything back in the client's file before starting on the next client's work or at the end of the day or the end of the project.  At home I was a little less organized and tended more to "selective clutter", but I always knew where everything was.

Now I'm building a homestead, agribusiness, and permaculture community and am having a problem with staying organized and productive with my time.  I've reached an age, 77, where my short-term memory is not what it used to be, and I can no longer remember where I left stuff last.  If I don't put stuff away in its designated place after each use, I have to spend precious time trying to find it again.  Often, I'll remember seeing the wanted item only a day or two before I needed it, but I couldn't for the life of me remember where I'd seen it.  Sometimes I'd find it exactly where I'd first looked (or rather overlooked it).  I guess my eyesight is going too, because I don't always see what's right before me.  Getting old is very frustrating.  LOL!

I have a catch-all room / pantry / feed room that is getting more and more cluttered and crowded every day.  I need to move everything out and build floor to ceiling shelving around the perimeter of the room.  That's been on my to-do list for a couple of years now but keeps getting pushed down as higher priority projects are added to the list.  Right now, installing a rain catchment system on my barn roof and assembling a greenhouse before the end of summer are more urgent.  Only 20 days left of summer!!  Hopefully, this winter I'll finally schedule time to build the shelving.