I resisted it for 3 years.... — 3 years ago
Okay, any of my students will tell you that my office was a DISASTER! It looked like a bomb exploded in there, with no rhyme or reason to the various objects that were scattered around on every available surface.
I finally broke down at the end of this school year and declared war on the clutter. How did I do it?
Step 1—Evaluate what you need in your office, and what you don’t.
Step 2—Evaluate which of the things you DO need in your office need to be the most readily accessible (e.g., does it have to go in your desk, or is it better off in a filing cabinet?).
Step 3 - Get rid of anything that you don’t need in your office - bring it home, throw it out, give it away—just get it OUT of your workspace
Step 4—Organize according to the priorities that you identified in Step 2.
Step 5—Decrease the areas that you tend to clutter. For me, I removed a spare table from the office that I was always piling things on, and replaced it with two 4-drawer filing cabinets.
Step 6—Create ONE limited amount of space in your office for things that need to be dealt with or filed away, and make sure that area is clear before leaving work at the end of the day or week. I have a “to deal with” slot in my file folder on my desk.
Of course, there are other ways to do this, too, but this method has REALLY worked for me. So far, I’ve stayed organized and not let the clutter reclaim my office.
