De-Clutter Everything

by Kerul Kassel

It’s time to stop complaining about the clutter that surrounds you. Berating yourself for not getting rid of that stack of vendor catalogs from 2005, or the employee timecards from last year, or the paint samples from the local company that never got off the ground, won’t motivate you to get rid of it all.

Keep in mind that clutter can reduce focus, energy, effectiveness and efficiency. Maybe it’s the clutter making you feel overwhelmed this week? Then it’s time to clean house. Take advantage of these easy practices to get your “stuff” organized and prevent clutter from happening.

Cleanse yourself of clutter.

• Remember: Clutter is obvious. If reps, customers or even your employees visit your office, they’ll recognize your obvious organizational problem. It may impact the way they conduct themselves with you.

• Massive clutter may be just too overwhelming to handle. Make a list of the areas that bother you the most, and break those areas down into tasks.

• Schedule a specific cleanup time of 1/2-hour or 45 minutes, put it on your calendar and follow through. Use a timer, and when your time is up, schedule the next time. If you get carried away, and work for longer, great! Before you’re done, decide when you’ll work on the tasks again. The progress you see will motivate you to continue.

• If paper clutter is the issue, recognize that stacks of printed documents take up a lot more room than documents in a file on your computer’s desktop. Research has shown that we don’t look at 80 percent of paper that’s accumulated after it’s filed, stacked and/or piled up.

• Recognize how you’ll feel being free of clutter. It’s like inspirational rocket fuel! Just think how easy it will be to find things.

Prevent it from happening again.

• Be judicious about what you subscribe to, and be ruthless about recycling mail when you can, even before you open it.

• Put things away as soon as you’re done with them. Make sure everything – price sheets, color swatches, special-order forms, whatever – has a home to return to, the same place every time.

• Devote 10 minutes every day to de-cluttering. Clean the top of your desk, address issues that are pending with your store, and read the material you’ve saved for when you have a quiet moment. If you can’t find 10 minutes, do it two or three times a day for five minutes at a time.

• Stock multiples of the same item in different places for convenience sake: scissors, pads of paper, pens and pencils, important phone numbers and business cards, for instance.

• “One thing in, one thing out” is an efficient method for preventing bulging file cabinets, overstuffed drawers and spilling-over bookcases. Put something away and at the same time, remove an item that is never used, not appreciated or expired. “One in, six out” is an even more effective practice if you haven’t purged in awhile.

Before you accumulate your next piece of clutter, ask yourself if you really need it, if you’ll really use it and if you have room for it. Resist the impulse to accept or keep things that aren’t a definite “Yes.” Keep your space streamlined and you’ll feel better about yourself and your ability to perform your job.  

Kerul Kassel is the best-selling author of Stop Procrastinating Now and the upcoming Productive Procrastination. She is the founder of New Leaf Systems, a consulting firm dedicated to creating higher performance outcomes and business profitability. For more information, e-mail Kerul@newleafsystems.com.

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