More on Organizing in 2008

When I lived in Dallas I was a MOPs leader at our church and I loved it. One of my favorite things about it was the awesome speakers that we had. Once, we had a speaker and professional organizer come in to talk about getting our houses organized. Her name is Debbie Miller and I believe she took some of her ideas from a lady named Patty Chirico. I posted one of the ways that she said to go about this yesterday on Works for Me Wednesday. She had several principles to go by and I really find myself going back to this information when I am ready to take charge of an area or even a room.

First, grab a timer and a bottle of water. You’ll need trashbags, grocery sacks, zip lock bags, a marker, paper and music. Once you have that then let’s get started. These are all her principles and she based them on the book of Genesis. . .but I have a hard time thinking that God thinking of cleaning out your closet when he authored Genesis. Hmmm. . .so we will just take the way she organized rather than the Scripture that she coupled it with.

1) Pick a room or area and say the amount of time you want to spend on that. Set the timer and when it reaches that time either take a break or step away from it for a day or so.
2) Separate everything into 3 categories
a. keep b. give-away c. throw away
Pray for discernment and courage to do this. This is where the trashbags come in :)
3) Combine everything into like and similar items. Categorize where they will be used. This is where you break out the zip locs and even some baskets or containers.
4) Evaluate high and low priority as well as high and low usage
5) Assign: Find a place for everything based on what works best for you.
6) Take Authority over your paper work. This is where yesterday’s post came into play.

I hope these few simple tips help. When I am tackling something I go back to the sheet she gave us that day and focus on that. It really has helped me to stay focused and to really declutter some areas. If you don’t know, I am a pack rat in recovery. . .still attending meetings though! Hope this works for you and gives you a great start to 2008!