How to Find More Time, Part Five — Possessions

This past weekend, we finally packed up all of the Christmas decorations, so that our condo could be restored to normalcy. Only problem was…we were packing up more decorations than we had unpacked at the beginning of the season. And room is our storage space was getting slim, what with all the books I had piled up that I kept meaning to bring to the Montclair Book Center…and all the clothing I had stuffed into bags that I kept meaning to donate to charity…

Sometimes, it feels as if I’m drowning in clutter. And that’s what makes it so damn hard to find anything I do need when the situation calls for it (such as the gym membership pass I finally gave up looking for last night).

Argh.

So we’ve already gone over Plans, Priorities, Personality, and Pests. Thank the lord that the next pillar in Laura Stack’s Find More Time is Possessions.

Some of the best tips from this chapter:

• Devote each weekend to a different aspect of clutter. The plan Stack draws up for herself is closets on weekend one (and my pantry, hall closet, linen closet, and bedroom closet sure could use some tidying up); paper items on weekend two (such as magazines, catalogs, coupons, and receipts); reaing on weekend three (though her suggestion of getting rid of a niggling reading pile entirely horrifies me); correspondence on weekend four; storage on weekend five; and things that need fixing on weekend six.
• For the love of god, keep your kitchen organized. This is a tough one for me, and she lists steps that should be taken, such as making frequently used items more prominent in placement; freeing up counter space; and throwing out what you know you won’t eat. I wonder what she’d say about all that junk mail spilling over on the kitchen table.
• Set up an effective office space. One that doesn’t look like mine, with old books and sheet music and recycling in various piles on the floor, things strewn across the top of the desk, wires mixing it up where my feet go…

If you keep up with the first bullet point, everything should follow. So it looks like I’m going to need to roll up my sleeves and tackle my closet problems this weekend. I trust you’ll hold me accountable.

Next pillar: Paper.