Maintaining Organization

At some point, you've probably buckled down and organized your paper clutter.  You got rid of irrelevant papers and files, you started new file folders, you put paperwork in its place.  Two weeks later you couldn't find your desk for the new mess that had accumulated. 

While getting organized is tedious, it isn't difficult.  I've always found that maintaining organization takes more effort. 

Why?

Because once you force yourself to sit down and get organized, you can get through the task in a few (or perhaps, several) hours.  Maintenance requires daily effort.  Like maintaining weight loss, maintaining organization isn't about willpower.  Instead, think of keeping organized as a habit, similar to brushing your teeth. 

Chances are that you don't complain about spending two minutes brushing your teeth every day; so, your goal in staying organized is to make it a habit. 

• Make it a habit to put all paperwork (mail, school notices, ads or articles torn from the newspaper or a magazine) in a single box/bin/basket.  This isn't a clean-up technique.  This means, you tell your kids, spouse, roommate, etc. to put paperwork in this basket instead of handing it to you.  This also means that you don't drop the mail on the kitchen table, you drop it in the bin.
• Select a time, say while the dishwasher is running or after you've said goodnight to your kids, to sit down and go through the papers.  If the bin isn't already at your desk/file cabinet/checkbook/calendar/recycle bin, bring it to this location and sit down.  Don't sit in front of the television as a bribe for doing this task - it will take you longer. 
• As you touch each piece of paper, record dates into your calendar, write checks, file papers you need to refer to again, toss those papers you don't need.  As you file papers, you can update the folder by tossing out older paperwork. 

You may grumble that you don't have time for this.  This habit of going through your paperwork will take no more than fifteen minutes a day, five days a week - you can probably give yourself the weekend off.  You can also avoid feeling overwhelmed by paperwork because you haven't maintained your organizing system and now you have months (or years) of paperwork to go through.

One bin + 15 minutes of daily effort = less stress and more organization