Outgrowing Organizing Systems – Where do I go from here? Part 2

So one day, not too long ago, I wanted to make some jewelry and went to get beads out of my bead container.  It was then that I recognized what I had was absolute insanity!  

Granted, it had started out organized.  I had all the metal pieces (findings, metals spacers, wire, etc.) in one container.  Mostly seed beads and smaller items were another.  Everything else, however, was crammed into yet another Tupperware box.  

Have you ever come to that point, where you understand you’ve outgrown your old system?  Maybe you knew there were some decisions to be made, but weren’t quite sure how to proceed.  It’s actually simpler than it may appear; there are just two questions you must ask yourself. 

• You want to keep this stuff organized, but what is it you hope to accomplish by doing so?
• How is it that you look for things?  That is, how do you sort things in your mind as you’re working with them?

 Some possible answers are that folks want to save space, some might want to save time, you might want everything at your fingertips or you might want just the few things you need available right now.  When we look for things we might look for them by name, by date, by size, by color, by shape, by function, etc.  

Your personal answers to these questions make a great deal of difference in how you organize what you’ve got. 

 Getting back to my example, I’m very visual, so I want to see all of my possibilities at once.  This means that I can’t be so concerned about saving space, and I understand that.  Also, I tend to look for stuff by color, so it needed to be sorted that way.  The resulting new system consisted of several stackable containers, each labeled with the colors within.  I left several sections empty in each container to allow for expansion (read: new purchases!)  This is very important or you will outgrow your new system far to quickly.   Make sure to do some careful counting, measuring and figuring before you go buy up a bunch of new organizers, lest you come home with something that doesn’t suit your needs (Who needs MORE aggravations?) 

For the jewelry findings category, which tends to have a lot of not immediately discernable small items, I not only labeled the outside of the container, but put labels on the inner sections as well.  This is in keeping with my goal of being able to SEE all of the possibilities at once. 

It doesn’t matter that this takes up a bit more space than the old system, because it’s much more useful and enjoyable to use now.  No more dumping everything out onto the table to dig through and find what I need! 

So remember, consider carefully what it is you hope to accomplish in your organizing and then think about how you personally search for things.  You’ll be much more pleased with the results.

Sincerely,

Sandy 

P.S.  Next time I’ll share some few tips on choosing the best organizing containers for your needs.

About the Author

Sandy Huntress is a successful educator in the arena of organization. She has authored three popular ebooks: 16 Secrets of Naturally Organized People, Decluttering, Demystified, as well as, Paper, Paper, Everywhere (And You Can’t Find a Thing!)

For more tips and techniques like the ones in this article, plus your FREE copy of Decluttering, Demystified, please click here: http://www.secretsoforganizedpeople.com.

Making Humbucker Metal Spacers (keeper bars)

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