Using the Box Method to Organize
Using the Box Method to Organize.
Whenever you try to organize and eliminate the unnecessary, do these dreaded questions arise?
- Should I get rid of this?
- Will I need it someday?
- Will that day ever come?
Here’s a method I suggest to my clients. An experiment really.
- Firstly, empty everything from a confined space: like a kitchen drawer, dresser drawer, desk drawer, closet shelf, bulletin board, glove compartment, purse. . . I could go on.
- Secondly, put it all into a cardboard box. Write the date on the box. Stash that box not too far away.
- Finally, if an item is needed, simply get it, use it, and then return it to its original location.
I think you’ll find that you use the same items often and leave a lot of unused items in the box. Eventually, as time goes by you’ll see that a lot of what you are storing is stuff for someday. How long will you keep stuff for someday?
One month after you filled the box, consider what you haven’t needed. In six months realize the items you haven’t used for 1/12 of the year! Surprisingly, there may be quite a few items. Could you do without them? Can you let that stuff go?
Whenever my clients use this method they are often quite surprised at what is left in the box.
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Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
I love this, Janet! I have often suggested my clients think about the things they use (and don’t) but have never suggested this box method. I am absolutely going to try it.
Isn’t a great idea? hopefully it will help you get rid of those kitchen gadgets that you thought you might need but never used. Should also work for any room in the house.
Judith Kolberg coined an industry term, the “Ripening drawer,” which sounds similar to what you’re suggesting. I love the idea of storing things away with a future date and revisiting them later to see if anything was missed. If not, those are potential items to be released.
Yes absolutely, could be shoes, shirts, the list is long.
I definitely agree with this approach. As Linda said, Judith calls it the “ripening drawer” and I call it “letting things marinate.” I use this concept hand-in-hand with the idea of trusting that the public library can guard “my” books and the art gallery can safeguard “my” art, and so on. The less we are hung up on possessing things we’re not using, and the more we can trust that if we need something, it will be there (in the box, or farther away), the more we can enjoy our lives with less clutter.
You’ve illustrated how easily we can get a reality check regarding how much we actually use certain things.
If we are attached to some items and put them in box, hopefully time will prove that they are really not that important if they sat there for more than 6 months without being touched.
I love this suggestion. Another tool to use for people who want to hold onto everything. They don’t have to make decisions until they can prove to themselves that they don’t need certain items.
Yes absolutely. When they hire us to declutter, it will make them trust us more during the process.