Addicted to organizing devices?
by Christine Martell on May 30, 2009
in Creative Small Business
I think I may be an organizing-device-aholic. I first noticed it right before I moved to Oregon. I had a yard sale of the things I wasn’t going to move across the county. Just before it started I looked out the window and noticed the entire lawn was covered with everything from boxes to shelving, baskets to all kinds of things that hold paper in various ways. Everything out there had to do with my eternal quest to find the magic device that will suddenly make me organized in a socially acceptable way.
Organizing anxiety
Here is my pattern. I am overwhelmed by stuff/objects/paper or if I am honest the emotions around feeling out of control. I’m like a shark with blood in the water. It starts my quest to make the feelings stop. Trolling from store to store looking for the magic device that will make all the overwhelm stop. I have a local circuit, and a larger one that includes the meccas of The Container Store and Storables. I’m not really fond of shopping, so I can only troll for awhile before I just buy some usually cheap option to try. I bring it home and attempt to stuff my life into the device of the day. A short time later, there is a worse mess around the device since it never really worked in the first place.
Last week I excavated my office by Dancing with the Space Monster and ended up with a divide. The half of the office that has transformed into my studio area was a breeze to set up. Things that I love and inspire me just fell into place.
On the other side where the ‘business’ stuff was supposed to go, I had no idea what to do. And what did I have there? The infamous pile of organizing devices. Only this time they weren’t offering salvation. Instead they were serving up a big dose of stuck.
Just tell me what to buy to fix it!
I had a session scheduled with Jennifer Hofmann of Inspired Home Office. Perfect, she can tell me what to buy to solve my problem. Only, it didn’t quite go that way. No, she had other ideas about what might really be going on. Here was the turning point. Jennifer innocently asks, ” Christine, how many projects are you working on right now?” I have no idea. Not only do I have no idea, I’m not really sure how to think about it. She’s wondering how much volume I am looking at. I feel like she has just uncovered the core of my flaws.
Office as mirror of business
I have had an army of people trying to help me turn my business around. More than once it has been suggested I don’t really have a business model. Yesterday, a coach spoke the core truth to me- I don’t really understand the fundamental value exchange in business. I have an abstract understanding, theoretical underpinnings, but no real concrete understanding of how things get organized and actualized in the world. Other than product creation— I’m really good at that.
So now I think I am finally at the bottom of the pit, understanding the depth of my challenge. Ready to stop trying to find the magic organizing device, and starting to organize what really needs to be organized. Taking my strengths and using them to develop a structure for bringing my products into the world in different ways.
Remedial organizing
Jennifer helped me make a plan. Get rid of all the organizing devices for now and start with a clean table. Begin a discovery process to figure out what I am working on. Just how many projects do I have? Start with one container for all the paper I need to sort. How much current stuff do I need close by?
Seems easy. But I am an organizing device addict. I am fighting the urge to go trolling for new magic organizing systems.
Where do you put the cats?
One thing that is clear. I have to make spaces for my cats. If I don’t they walk all over the piles of paper, sit on what I am working on, and drink my paint water. 
I have one extra chair, and have been fairly successful in training them to go sit on it when I tell them to. Problem is there are two who hang out with me. And the one on the right is relentless in sneaking up to lie on the laptop keyboard. Esp if the chair has the other one in it. Because they can’t come close to each other. No distance must be maintained.
So I am looking for ideas. I’m tempted to start trolling for cat furniture (they have a lot in other rooms, trust me), but I think that is probably just transferring my quest for organizing devices to a new thing. Instead, I thought I’d try asking what other people do who have pets in the office. Especially cats who are a bit devilish?
Back to sorting
The table is almost empty. Luckily my sister in coming to visit next week, so I have no choice but to keep moving forward since the guest room has all the excess mess in the middle of it right now. The next lesson in The Gentle Art of Clutter Clearing arrives on Monday, and the Organic Business Manual class starts. It’s hard to change these life-long patterns. I am committed to it though. Piece by piece, deepening levels of insight all the time.
I sympathize with your organizing device dilemma! I have a thing for small decorative boxes — as if somehow one day I will open one of these beautiful objects and find the solution to all my problems inside.
I have found that making room for the cats on my chair helps, but, I work on a laptop in a comfy lounger, feet up and kitties snuggled around me. A nice tall cat tree might help — put it in a corner so they can supervise as needed.
I have a side table that my kitten kept knocking the piles off of — and here was my big secret. After enough aggravation, I discovered that I didn’t need to keep even 1/4 of what was piled right there, and there was money (literal cash) hidden in the pile. Talk about the universe sending me a message! I’ve cleared it out, and it’s so much more peaceful now, speaking specifics to me instead of chaos.
@Amy Crook:
I love little boxes also. If I find the magic solution in one of mine, I will share it with you. Hoping for any day now.
You know, I could move one of the the cat trees in here to at least see if that might work. I ended up with a space between my table and the wall that doesn’t really work for anything else. I get so tied into thinking I have to find the perfect solution then leave it there. Guess I really don’t, it can all be a big experiment.
I suspect you are telling a tale so true! I’m just about to start sorting that big pile that gets knocked over. Better empty the recycle bin to make more room.
Christine, I empathize COMPLETELY with your organizational device addiction. I can’t tell from what you wrote if (or how much) you have my problem of needing the devices to *look* pretty or not. What I’ve done in the past is to use empty cardboard boxes or whatever is lying around as temporary holding places for different groups of things…once I’m clearer on what needs to go where and how much space it needs, *then* I’ll go look for the nice container. The only caveat is that you have to keep going steadily, or the temporary holding bins start to become permanent.
Also, have you ever read David Allen’s “Getting Things Done”? It’s brilliant, although you have to watch out because setting up and implementing his system fully can get us organizational addicts even more overwhelmed if we focus too much on tweaking the system. If you do it as he intends, the system becomes almost invisible and you focus on the actual “stuff” of your life.
To be honest, I don’t follow the system myself, but one ideas that I got from it was incredibly helpful–the brain dump.
Basically, you set aside a nice chunk of time and get as much out of your head as possible, and keep adding items as they occur to you. Once you feel like most of the stuff is out of your head and on paper (or computer), you organize it into subjects that are meaningful to you in an actionable way. Then you have a system in place for “ubiquitous capture”–as things come up, you note them in the appropriate place. You no longer have to expend energy trying not to forget things…it’s all where you know you can find it right away.
I can go into more detail if you want–but you may know about GTD already.
As far as the cats? If you figure out a way to train them, please let ME know!
Christine,
In looking at your photos I was reminded of the photos you use in your VisualsSpeak business. Looking at them, what do they represent to you? I actually am surprised that you needed someone else to point out the “business side”. Have you thought of looking at other offices (in terms of design) to “see” how you want your business to look. Perhaps from there you can begin a discussion of why one design makes you more confortable than another. Take some pictures of those you like and try to analyze what each means and how that can be translated into a “mission statement” for your business, and a means of organizing your business plan.
@Virginia Yonkers:
No matter how expert we are at anything, I still think we are blind to our own stuff. It’s all so complex and intertwined with the physical challenge combined with emotional and everything else. Just a slight tweak to a suggestion, or hearing in another context can make all the difference. My husband for example, has been reminding me weekly about how much of this stuff he has been telling me for years.
I do think you are right in I should be using my own processes more for my own process!
@Michelle Russell:
I can’t even begin to get near attractive combined with everything else. In my dreams!
I haven’t actually read GTD, although I have read about it and heard David Allen speak. There might be more there than I realize, I have found all the discussion about email protocols to be rigid, so I never looked further. What do you do when your dumping place starts to eat the cats?
You can move a mountain one shovel at a time… sounds like you are excavating apace.
As far as kitties go, how about the good kitty of the day gets the chair and the bad kitty gets the boot … I mean, the other chair? We only have one kitty and she likes a nondrafty spot with a good view,preferably warm and toasty with sunshine if available. Otherwise, she sleeps in my bed … or in a den-like closet!
I love your studio, btw. If I were a kitty I would hang out there for sure just for the feel. Serene but looks posed and ready for work somehow, a seriously wonderful vibe even in a photo!
@Barbara Martin:
The universe must have heard you. I was walking down the street and a neighbor had put a looks-like-new Kitty cave out with a free sign. So having a new cat cave appealed to the inquisitive devilish one. She can also sit on top of it and look out the window. The Queen couldn’t be bothered with something so silly, so she keeps the chair. Day one, considerably less cat battles. Any no one walked across my wet palette. Yea!
I have to say that the creative side of your office is looking FABULOUS, so you should congratulate yourself for at least getting that far. Looking at the business side, though, is making me cringe in solidarity with you–I won’t even post what my desk and surrounding work area look like right now. Although I haven’t done it in a while, if you can I second Michelle’s idea of using the GTD principles to get things flowing and organized again. When I went through it the first time, it worked well for me. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a way to stick with it. But at least it can get you organized initially and I like how he has you thinking about the big things you want, rather than spending all your time managing the tiny stuff.
Anyway–I have no words of advice other than to say that I feel you. And I have NO advice on the places for the kitties. Fortunately Pichy has found a plastic bag on my office floor and that has become her home of choice.
@Michelle and @Michele I have been listening to a GTD audiobook while continuing to go through stuff. It is getting easier to discern what to keep and what to let go. Implementing concepts from GTD is going to take a bit for me to figure out how to get from here to something that might work. Some good stuff. I like the connection to what is important, and the idea of a someday list. I know I’m struggling with discerning what is an actual current project and what I think I should be working on. The discipline to keep it up would be challenging, unless it can be connected firmly to practices that are already solid.