Jeffrey Mallon, Professional Organizer
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Creating Systems is Organizing

This is the process that I use to develop a New System in your space.

  1. Determine your vision for your space: Establishing a vision will provide you direction and help to set priorities. Staying focused on your vision will assist throughout each step in the process. Most previous attempts at ‘getting organized’ have been sabotaged from the beginning because the goal to “Get Organized” is not tangible and therefore unattainable.

  2. De-Clutter: Having a clear vision is essential in the de-clutter stage, if it does not support your vision it does not belong in the space. An objective perspective is invaluable because we all become attached to our belongings. At one point we purchased them but along the way we allow our possessions to own us. There are methods to help even the most compulsive packrats to de-clutter.

  3. Apply the 80/20 Rule: You use 80% of your things 20% of the time. You use the other 20% of your things 80% of the time. We will identify the 20% of your things that you use 80% of the time in your space.

  4. Develop a New System that brings your vision to your space: The New System needs to support the items that support you. We will focus on creating user friendly locations for those 20% of your items that you use 80% of the time. We will make it as easy as possible for you to put the items that you use all of the time back where they belong.

  5. Communicate the new system to all who will use the space: There will be a place for everything (that you use) in the New System and everything will have its own home. This is all well and good but how will it ever stay that way. This is when the labeling occurs so that everyone who uses the space will know where to store the items after using them.

  6. Establish a habit of working within the new system: At this point we will have established and implemented a system that brings your vision to your space. It will take a while to form the habit of using your new system. The emphasis here will be asking yourself the question, “Does this belong here?” and the discipline to put the item back where it belongs. There is a very nice reward for your hard work. Once you have established the New System as a habit you will maintain your space without even realizing what you are doing.

  7. Sustain: Our lives continue to evolve and you need to be prepared to make adjustments to your System as things change. You will introduce new items into your space, you will change your personal preferences on how you spend your time, technology will likely change and it is important to know that your system needs to be dynamic so that it can evolve with you.