I love this letter from one of you! These principles really do work and I love seeing them applied to other situations. There is so much value in making progress without causing a mess of stuff that has to be dealt with later.
Hi Dana,
I’ve been following you since 2016. I’ve written in a few times because your system just works. And not only does it work in a home, I started applying it to my job.
I work at a library, and I just took over a long neglected collection. The books need to be weeded and updated and the task is just completely overwhelming. I started doing what I thought was right and then I thought about what you always say. Do the easy stuff first. And there are easy things. There are books with a dot on them that show they’re over 20 years old which means they’re really grubby so people don’t want to check them out. So I did that.
And then I thought of your final decision rule and realized that I was doing a lot of: pull books from shelf, sort books into piles according to what to do with them, act on piles, rinse and repeat. My desk was a mess, the collection was still overwhelming… the piles kept bleeding into each other… It’s all the stuff you talk about.
I have a new system now for weeding. I take a laptop and a cart with me and when I pull a book from the shelf, I do everything I need to right there in the stacks and stick the book on the cart to be withdrawn. It takes about the same amount of time to work through a weedlist, but the workflow isn’t backing up on my desk!
Slowly but surely, the collection is fitting into its container better, and the shiny new books are circulating so much better than the grubby old ones were. And best of all, the piles are staying off my desk. I’m now considering what other areas of my job can benefit from this method!
Allison
I love this! But it does make me sad that the “grubby old books” are being removed. At least at my library, they are being replaced by new books with grubby content. Blah. However, the main point of her letter rings so true. Your method does work in all kinds of areas! And…actually…you have made decluttering FUN for me.
My first job was at the Winnipeg Public Library as a page who put the books back on the shelves and shelf read to make sure the books were all in the correct order. I loved constantly being surrounded by books. This post is really bringing me back to that time.
Yesterday, I worked on my yard and garden while listening to Podcast 259 (The Thing About Maintenance) where Dana talks about how to apply her steps to the outdoors. It was a great reminder not to wait until you are finished a project before doing the upkeep.
I love how these steps can be applied to so many aspects of our lives. Thanks, Dana (and Allison)!
Love this!
I’ve applied this to my job too! I tend to be orderly at work, but have taken it to a whole new level thanks to Dana’s advice! Great post!!!
I am working on the master bedroom. I’ve been emptying closets and cleaning the floor inside them. Today, I emptied several storage pieces. I made my decisions right then and there, filled some donate bags, and dh put them in the car. So, we can drop them off at GoodWill next time we need to go out. It was exhausting and took hours and will take several more days(!) to get to the finish line. I was stunned at how much excess clothing I had stored out of sight(for years!). It was easy to say goodbye to stuff I didn’t know I had. I found I had little or no attachment to older items. At this rate, I will have lots of empty containers and only stuff I currently wear. I think we will donate as soon as the back seat is full.
I am a teacher, and I used Dana’s method in my classroom. I now have cupboard space that is organized with labeled baskets (a la Take Your House Back!)…I have sorted information in binders…and most importantly, I do a 5 minute pickup at the end of each school day to make sure everything is back in its place…especially on my desk!
Of course, we are in lockdown and remote learning, but I also do the same for my desk at home each day “after school”, so my teaching space at home is also kept decluttered!!