What to Keep Track of When Documenting Your Project

This week I’ve decided to do a series of posts about how documenting your project, whatever it may be, can be extremely beneficial to your progress. This is Part 2 of 3. [EDIT: This was intended to be a four-part series. I've decided to save the fourth post for much later. ]

Photo by joelmontes, via CC 2.0

Before you even begin to track your project, you need to make sure that you know you what you’re setting out to accomplish.

First Set Smart Goals, Write it Down

One of the most obvious first steps is to set good goals. Envision the end result that you’d like to achieve with this project down to the last detail. With this in mind set your “ultimate” long term goal. Write down all the different aspects of this goal, and more importantly describe what the accomplished goal should look like.

For example, for this project I set the following goals:

• All Floors and surfaces are cleared and visible.
• All doors can open fully and shut properly.
• When a house party is possible.
• When 75% of our belongings are organized and in their place.

Once you’ve detailed the big picture, break the beast of the project down into smaller, more manageable goals and tasks. Make sure you write these down as well. While I don’t have these smaller goals posted publicly, I keep track by using a list of all the rooms in the house then breaking each of the rooms into areas. Read the rest of this entry »

Why You Should Document Your Big Project

This week I’ve decided to do a series of posts about how documenting your project, whatever it may be, can be extremely beneficial to your progress. This is Part 1 of 3. [EDIT: This was intended to be a four-part series. I've decided to save the fourth post for much later. ]

Photo by joelmontes, via CC 2.0

When you are taking on a huge project like this one it is easy to feel overwhelmed, or to feel like you’re not moving forward. I’m not just talking about trying to clean out an extremely cluttered home. I’m talking about any project or goal that will take more than a few months to complete or achieve.

One of the best things you can do is to keep track of the progress that you make, whether it be through journaling, blogging, creating a photo album or scribbling in a spiral-bound notebook.

You may be thinking that your project in and of itself is time-consuming and energy-sucking enough that documenting it would just add more to your plate unnecessarily. But here’s why I think putting in that extra time and effort will be worth your while: Read the rest of this entry »

On Deciding What to Give and Keep

At some point while writing up daily updates on my progress it dawned on me: you all don’t know how exactly I’m doing it. Sure, you see all the great before-and-after pictures and hear about the process in little bits and pieces, but you don’t know the methods I’ve been using in case you want to work on your own ‘Stuff Project.’

And so I’d like to dedicate Thursdays to such tips and methods. Again I’d like to reiterate that I am NOT a professional organizer; I am just someone working through trial and error on a personal project.

I’ve received many questions in the comments about how I make decisions as I sort through items. Lizzy asked:

How are you deciding what to keep? Is your family ok with you making executive decisions on what clothing to keep and what to donate?

When I come across an item I ask myself a few questions that I’ve decided to illustrate in the following chart that more or less applies to most items.

The most important thing to keep in mind when answering these questions? Be honest and realistic. If something is broken and can be fixed, will it be worth your time and money to fix it? If it is, will you actually do it in the next year?

If something is in your keep pile, you can trim down your stuff even further: Do you have more than one of this item? Do you need to have more than one? If not, give away the duplicates. Do you have a designated place for this item? If you do, put it there immediately. If not, make one. If you can’t make one or if you don’t have space, give it away.

Some items are very obvious and don’t need to be thought out in this process. For example, you know immediately to throw out rotten food or old makeup. You know immediately that you’ll need to keep your passport and social security card.

This process can more or less be adjusted to suit a variety of items. For example when dealing with clothes, replace “Is it broken” with “Is it ripped, torn, or soiled?” If it’s a collectible item like a photo or if it’s part of a prized collection, then its ‘use’ could be thought of as whether or not the item is displayed or kept appropriately.

The process doesn’t apply to paper sorting however; I’m not quite sure if I can articulate that one.

Executive Decision?
Despite the situation that is my cluttered home, I am extremely fortunate to have a family that wants a clean house and fully understands that to achieve this goal we must shed a majority of the items we’ve acquired with our hard-earned money. My family knows and has seen over the past few weeks that I have the skills to organize the house. And as a member of the family I have an honest grasp of their values, their aspirations, and how their time is realistically spent. Although it hasn’t been said explicitly, I think my family has placed a huge amount of trust in me with this project because of this combination of skills and understanding. For this, I am very grateful.

That being said, there are a few guidelines I’ve been given by them, i.e., a list of things to keep at least until they get to sort through it. Some items on the list include:

• Photos
• “Love Letters” that my sister and I used to write to our parents
• Audio cassette tapes (to be digitized later)
• Sewing supplies and materials
• Jewelry

I set these items aside in their own crates, containers or boxes. Hopefully my family will find some time to sort through these before the project is complete.

When I sorted through the clothes that were essentially the bricks to the Wall of Stuff, I tried to use my memory and best judgment to determine if the clothes had been used within the past two years, or if it was an item that is common in a family member’s wardrobe. If I wasn’t sure, I put them in boxes labeled “Giveaway until proven to keep.” This could mean one of a couple of things:

1. The item goes out the door unless (or until) a space is made for it. For example, when I get to a closet, I’ll empty it out and we’ll refill it with the items we really want to keep. We can only keep what we have space for.
2. If/when we have a yard sale for all our stuff, we’ll be able to actually see all the items we’re getting rid of. Each person in my family may be given a certain amount of “money” and will have to “buy back” their stuff. For example, I could make articles of clothing worth $1, give $50 in singles to my sister and she’d have to buy back the stuff she wants to keep. I forgot where I first read about this, but it seems like a good idea and quite an interesting way to think about the value of your things.

If ever you’re not sure about an item, keep it and have someone else decide what to do with it. One of the worst things you can do is to throw something away of value to its owner. Again, I’m very fortunate that my family trusts me to make these decisions, but if I’m really not sure on something that belongs to them, I consult with them first.

Important Organizing Tools

At some point while writing up daily updates on my progress it dawned on me: you all don’t know how exactly I’m doing it. Sure, you see all the great before-and-after pictures and hear about the process in little bits and pieces, but you don’t know the methods I’ve been using in case you want to work on your own ‘Stuff Project.’

And so I’d like to dedicate Thursdays to such tips and methods. Again I’d like to reiterate that I am NOT a professional organizer; I am just someone working through trial and error on a personal project.

I remember how weird it felt on day one of the project when my very first task in purging all of the stuff in our house was to go to a store and buy stuff. But I knew that having the right tools is very important for organizing effectively and efficiently. Here are some items that I consider to be must-haves starting with what you wear. Read the rest of this entry »

Basic Methods for Sorting Through Clutter

At some point while writing up daily updates on my progress it dawned on me: you all don’t know how exactly I’m doing it. Sure, you see all the great before-and-after pictures and hear about the process in little bits and pieces, but you don’t know the methods I’ve been using in case you want to work on your own ‘Stuff Project.’

And so I’d like to dedicate Thursdays to such tips and methods. Again I’d like to reiterate that I am NOT professional organizer; I am just someone working through trial and error on a personal project.

When I go through stuff, I separate them into three main categories:

• Stuff to keep
• Stuff to giveaway, sell, or donate
• Trash

Trash is the most obvious of the bunch. This is where all the old papers and broken items never to be fixed again go. If we don’t want it and if it’s not in good enough condition for someone else to use, it goes in the garbage.

I find that 13-gallon kitchen bags are the best. The common 33-gallon trash bags are too big that once they’re filled they can be extremely heavy and troublesome to carry from a room to the garbage bin. Read the rest of this entry »