Clean Up Your Life - Clean Up Your Mind
Listen to a talk on today's subject.
It’s time to get organized. No more mess. No more frustration. No more going to the store to buy things you KNOW you already own because you can’t find them.
Your outside is a reflection of your inside. If you’re in a cluttered space it means you’ve got a cluttered mind. Get rid of the clutter and you will clean up your thinking!
I’m going to show you the most powerful way to clean up any cluttered space… FAST!
But first let’s look at what keeps people from getting organized. There are two reasons you don’t get your space organized.
First you might be afraid if you put everything out of site you won’t be able to find things when you need them.
Second, when you start the cleaning up process (because you don’t want to lose things) you often get bogged down in organizing. What started as a simple job turns into hours and hours that you don’t have.
The method I’m going to share eliminates both of those problems. You will never lose things again. And best of all you will be done in less than half an hour!
Too good to be true?
It’s not. Follow these directions and you will be amazed.
Here’s what you need.
A recording device. (an app on your phone is good).
Twenty identical boxes. I like to use the plastic kind with closable lids. I also like them to be pretty big so they will hold most objects. Take a sharpie and mark each of your boxes from 1 - 20 so that each box has an individual number on it.
You’ll need a Google or Microsoft storage account of some kind. It must be a place you can store documents that you can search later. It’s especially handy if you can search from your phone.
Here’s what you do.
Go into the space that is a mess and filled with tons of objects that need cleaning up. Let’s say it’s your garage.
Pull out your recorder. Open box one and start throwing stuff into it without regard to if it makes sense or not. Every time you drop something into box one speak into your recorder what you just did.
It might sound like this:
“Rusty screwdriver; box 1.”
“Tire Iron”; box 1”.
“Plastic halloween pumpkin; box 1”.
Keep going until you completely fill box one to the brim. Then repeat the process with box 2, 3, and so on until you get all boxes filled. This will take you only about 20 minutes in most cases.
Take a step back. Look at your garage. I bet it hasn’t looked that good in years!
20 matching boxes all in a row. No clutter anywhere.
But I know what some people might think. How will you find your stuff?
That’s the best part.
Sit down at your laptop. Open your online document and type a heading for “Box 1”. Play back your recording and type under your heading every item you hear. Do the same thing for all 20 boxes.
What have you just done?
You now have a SEARCHABLE document, stored in the cloud, accessible from your phone, where you will know exactly where every item in your garage is located. If you search in your document (for me I press CTR F) for “screwdriver” you will immediately see “rusty screwdriver” sitting neatly under the heading for box 1.
Hundreds of items. Packed away neatly in boxes. Every one you can access in moments by checking your phone. It doesn’t get any easier than that.
You can add items any time. You can remove items any time. Just make sure you always remember to record where on your document. After about six months pull up your sheet and look it over. You will notice a lot of junk you threw in those boxes you’ll probably never need.
Print your sheet off and simply cross off anything you think it’s OK to throw out. Do you really need that rusty screwdriver anymore?
Take your sheet out to the garage and dump all the junk. You haven’t seen it for six months anyway. Let it go.
Update your sheet.
I used this system (when I had a big house) for well over a decade and I can’t tell you how great it worked. Especially for those rarely used hard to find tools and objects.
Update your sheet. Organize your life. Clean up your thinking.
I gotta run. Got to get ready to head up to Sifu Brown's for the Kamiza. Need my original Black Obie.
Where is it? (Clicking on my phone).
Got it. Box 9!