Organizational Wisdom

[AmyBoz]

I'm re-reading Julie Morgenstern's "Organizing from the Inside Out" and came across something that struck a chord with me. Basically, she says that organization shouldn't look the same for everyone. She says "If a person can find what they need when they need it, feels unencumbered in achieving his pr her goals, and is happy in his or her space, than that person is well-organized."

I like that. The top of my desk isn't perfectly clean right now, but it functions for me at the moment, so I'm not going to worry about it. The roll-top desk in the living room is NOT functioning for me, so that is where I'm going to focus my energies.

[AmyMCGS]

I really like that book, too. And I totally agree with that idea-- if it works for you, it's organized.

That also goes along with some of those silly little sayings you see~ "Creative Minds are Rarely Tidy" springs to mind. I've always felt like that was me- my desktop isn't perfectly straight, but I can find anything I want.

[canadian gardener]

I think neat looking and organized are two different concepts.

Don Aslett once referred to it as the difference between going on a real dejunking, and what he called a neatspree.

Neatspree, just concentrates on tidyness without understanding the reason why you have one thing and not another. A neatspree just gets rid of stuff, useful or not, sort of a severe simplicity thing.

Dejunking done right, simply pares down the useless, in favour of keeping the useful. It looks at why you have a thing, what it does for you, and once you've pared it down, how to store it for easy access.

[Heather]

I have and love that book. I remember reading that and thinking....ah ha, she's right!