Today I want to talk about an area of the office that may just be one of my favourite things to organise – your computer!

Because we can’t see computer clutter as obviously as we can see physical clutter, we often don’t realise it’s there but believe me, it’s still affecting you.

How does it affect you?

When you open your Inbox and feel drained at the sight of all your emails, when your computer runs slow because there are so many photos on there and when you click into your Google Reader and can’t BELIEVE how much some people post because you went through your blogs for 3 hours yesterday and now there are 127 unread items yet again!

Sound familiar?

We’re going to look at 4 places where you can declutter electronically. Today we’re going to look at two and next week we’ll discuss the other two:

Free downloads

We (especially women) like fr.ee things, don’t we? Buy one, get one f.ree sales come to mind… As a result, we download anything and everything we can find that’s for fr.ee.

If it’s fr.ee, it’s got to be good, right?

No, actually, it’s not all good. Not only are you cluttering up your computer but you can’t possibly use all the things that are out there because we live in an information-overload society.

I wish I could say that I’m immune to the addiction to F.REE stuff but I’m not! I am much better than I was but I still find myself entering my email address far too often for my liking.

At one point I had about 6 different grocery shopping lists on my computer (all fr.ee downloads) and 10 different versions of a to-do list. None of them quite worked for me so I made my own and deleted all of them.

Email

Mmmm, email.

My clients need help with email more than any other thing in their office, and paper’s a close second.

That’s because email’s so fast and because we don’t use it correctly. Did you know that for every email you send out, you get at least two emails back?

So how do you know if your emails are a problem?

The quick answer is if you spend more than 30 minutes a day on email.
90% of people waste an extra hour a day on email that they don’t have to. That hour translates to SIX WEEKS a year. You read that right – six weeks!

Get familiar with the delete key (my favourite key on the keyboard) and start deleting. Delete immediately once you’ve replied to an email and don’t file unless you absolutely have to.

Disable all the notifications from social networking sites like Facebook.

I only get friend requests, messages and notes on my wall in my inbox. The rest I’ll see when I choose to log on. (No, I don’t get Facebook on my phone but that’s another article for another day)

Here again, decide on your comfort level for emails and make sure you work your system until you can breathe again. Personally, I set a daily goal of deleting at least 50 items so once I’m done with my inbox, I go through my Sent Items and delete, delete, delete

As a matter of interest, how many emails are in your inbox right now?

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Marcia Francois is a time management coach and speaker who inspires busy women to break out of overwhelm, make the most of their time and take purposeful and focussed action so they have the time and freedom to live life to the full. Visit http://purposefultimemanagement.com for your free Time Management Purpose Pack.

You know how there are places in your home that bug you everytime you look at them, but because you don’t see them regularly, they don’t bug you enough to sort them out?

Yes?

Well, that’s my linen cupboard.

In my old house (which I actually need to stop hankering after…except that it had tons more storage than this one) I had space to store linen and towels in each of the bedrooms.

Not so in this house.

When we moved here and started unpacking, I was horrified at how little storage space there was.

I got a few quotes to add extra cupboards here, there and everywhere (mainly the kitchen) and when I saw how much money it would cost, I thought, “no way am I spending money to store more stuff”.

That’s how the decluttering and organising journey began.

And this blog, 5 years ago in 2006

Anyway, so now the babies’ linen and towels are all stored in their room, I have one shelf in the guest bedroom for an extra duvet cover, sheet, pillowcases, set of towels and a thick quilt.

And one cupboard in our bedroom for the rest.

There is also a tiny drawer in the main bathroom for hand towels and bath mats, and another tiny drawer in our room for hand towels for our bathroom, also known as the smallest bathroom in the world.

But let’s show you the main linen cupboard.

Nothing to write home about but that’s the thing.

It doesn’t have to be.

So often we think everything has to be picture perfect to be organised because of the rooms and spaces we see on TV and blogs.

Not so.

Function first and then form.

Also, my own personal organising guideline is if it’s for the inside of a cupboard it can be less pretty than if it’s on show, like on a shelf.

Of course, if you can do pretty on the inside, go for it.

But don’t go and buy lots of pretty things if you have perfectly good and functional boxes/ baskets.

Back to you.

Where do you store your linen? And how much do you have?

Also, do you have any personal organising guidelines?

The first thing I have done to simplify my life is the beginning of the purge. I made a deal with my older son that if we went through all his toys and got rid of anything he didn’t use he would get a prize. In the end we came up with 3 bags full of toys to take to the charity shop.

Starting this week I haven’t bought any unnecessary items into the home. I am endeavoring to use everything up in my fridge before it goes bad by making my lunches and creating meals out of the contents of my fridge.

Emails, wow do I have a lot of them. Just checked my emails and there are 1250 emails that I haven’t deleted or sorted yet. I have begun the process and the way I will do this is to do it every time I get a few minutes during the day. Whilst doing this I am unsubscribing to the mail I don’t want to receive.

I started to de-clutter the area I need to the most, the front door. Here I have simplified my life by creating an area where there is a place for everything. I labeled the shoe rack with everyone’s name so that each of us has a place to put our shoes.

From Shoe and Bag Chaos

To organised launch pad clearly labeled

Looking forward to my next e-mail on how to simplify my life.

WOW, Samantha – I can’t believe the transformation – you are doing a great job. Well done!

Don’t you love Samantha’s front door organising makeover? What’s the last thing you organised in your home?

My babies don’t go to daycare; we have a nanny who comes in every day to take care of them.

She is fabulous at caring and loving our children but her standards for keeping my place tidy is not the same as mine.

So every Sunday I do a bit here and a bit there to “restore the order” but I’ve been itching to get properly stuck in for weeks now.

I didn’t even consciously plan it but yesterday and today I went through each of my kitchen cupboards, the fridge and freezer, the laundry and a miscellaneous dresser.

I decluttered a bit (when you do it regularly as I try to, it’s not as bad) but mainly re-organised.

Where things weren’t working, I tweaked and tried some new systems.

I must add… it really wasn’t my intention to do all of that – there were two cupboards in particular that were driving me nuts. This was one of them…

However, once I started, I got in the zone and I believe if you’re in the flow, go with it.

And I did.

The point is that momentum always moves you forward and makes the rest of the task seem easier.

The whole thing didn’t take that long – probably an hour on each of the two days.

Have you been in the zone lately? What was your latest organising project?

If you blog, please feel free to share the URL to your organising project in the comments

PS I know I missed posting yesterday but I really wanted to unplug on Good Friday so I’ll make it up on 1 May

PPS And now, I hope the zone stays with me as I need to start packing for our holiday!

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway

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One of the ways that makes it really easy to adhere to the one in, one out rule is as simple as this -

An empty Pampers box that lives in my laundry.

It stays there all the time.

Throughout the week if I find anything I no longer want or need, and that is in good enough condition for someone else to use, I toss it into the Pampers box.

The babies’ nanny knows to check this box and that she can help herself to anything she finds there.

I have a once-a-week cleaning lady who also checks the box. I try and be fair (when I remember) and do my decluttering on a Tuesday so the two of them can decide amongst themselves who gets what.

If Dion declutters any clothes, we put those in a bag for the gardener with his name clearly marked, but it also goes into the Pampers box.

I love our really easy system because everyone knows where to put things and I don’t have piles of things all over the house.

My one condition – I don’t keep things longer than a Friday.

If there are still things remaining (funny how it’s always all the corporate gifts ) by Friday morning, out they go with the rubbish.

What is your system for constant decluttering?

I like to think of a few small things I want to do around the house every month.

I thought it would inspire and motivate you to also think up a few things and tackle one small thing every week.

This is how you purposefully create a sanctuary at home. By making decluttering and organising a regular, and not just a once-off event.

For Feb my tasks are:

1. Weed out the shoe organiser behind the door in the study.
2. Declutter books.
3. Take the gazillion discs to the computer place and get them to transfer everything onto my external hard drive (they only charge R200 for all that!)
4. Errands – drop off baby clothes at the hospital, return friend’s necklace and get together with friend (Maddy!!!) to give baby gift for 2-month-old

What are your 4 organising to-dos for Feb?

P.S. If you’re ready for about 1.5 – 2 hours’ organising over a whole week, have a look at organising your home

This weekend I have a question for you – what’s no longer serving you?

Sometimes we keep on doing things simply because we’re in the HABIT of doing them and not because they actually serve us anymore.

Let me explain.

You go through a really busy period at work and work until 6pm every night. After that, it’s become a habit so you continue to do so EVEN THOUGH there’s really no need.

But it’s no longer serving you.

You could be enjoying the extra time at home with your family, exercising, taking up a new hobby, etc.

Or you might have a bookshelf full of books you don’t like or need to have.

It’s no longer serving you.

Or you have piles of baby clothes that your children have outgrown and you know full well you’re not having any more childrn.

They’re no longer serving you.

One more…you have 5 sets of bed linen for your guest bedroom. You have guests twice a year and never even get past set 3 on the shelf.

That’s no longer serving you.

So this weekend, my challenge to you is to jot down 3 – 5 things in your life that are no longer serving you.

And let them go.

They can be anything from kitchen utensils, crockery and table linen to old appliances to bad habits or time commitments.

Anything.

What’s no longer serving you?

First, let’s talk about what mental clutter is.

My definition is this:

mental clutter is anything that keeps your brain busy and buzzing so you can’t focus on what you need.

thoughts you don’t need, that don’t serve you or are good for you

Often when you feel overwhelmed, a large part of the overwhelm is actually mental clutter.

For example

1. worrying about things you have no business worrying about, like what someone thinks of you
2. overstepped boundaries
3. time commitments that no longer serve you
4. procrastination instead of eating the frog
5. shoulds  “I really should serve on the PTA” “I should be taking my kids to a playgroup” etc.
6. unfinished business
7. indecision. I’ve said before that indecision = clutter. This is true, too, of mental clutter. E.g. I had to do a presentation recently to one of two clients. I had a choice about how to approach it and which client to work with. The decision beforehand was mental clutter for me because I was going to and fro on which one to do. Once I made the decision, I had clarity and a clear mind.

My 5 favourite ways to reduce or eliminate mental clutter are:

1. Make decisions faster

As I said above, all that to and fro with “should I do this?” or “should I do that?” is a whole lot of mental clutter going on.  I know it’s more difficult for some of us but try not to over analyse things too much and just go with your gut.

2. Make a master list

A master list is the most effective way to empty your mind of to-dos. If your mental clutter is made up of things other than tasks, then I suggest you journal or start a personal blog.

3. Exercise

When my mind is racing with hundreds of things, there’s nothing quite like going to the gym and exercising hard. It works even better when you really have to focus, like if you try a new type of class or a class with a different instructor.

4. Strengthen your boundaries

If you constantly feel drained and worn out by all the thoughts going through your head, especially when they relate to certain people, you may want to strengthen your boundaries.

E.g. From now onwards, I choose to interact with Person X in this way. Or I will only socialise with Person Y under these circumstances.

5. Unplug from social media

That’s right – unplug from the sources of noise in your life. Switch off your cell phone, stop going on Facebook and Twitter, stop reading blogs for a while until your mind is quiet again.

What do we do when we get lost while driving? We switch off the radio.

If you’re a little lost amongst the mental clutter, switch off the noise.

This works particularly well for mental clutter arising from relationship issues.

Do you have a lot of mental clutter? What are your favourite ways of reducing mental clutter?

Dublin, Ireland, 2008

When I say the words “mental clutter” …

1. what do you immediately think of?

2. do you struggle with mental clutter?

3. which questions regarding mental clutter would you most like me to answer?

Don’t overthink this – leave me your comment to one, two or all of the above questions

I have half a post done but want to make sure I answer all your questions.

If you’d like help creating a life you absolutely love, contact me about my coaching services.

In South Africa, we’ve been enjoying summer weather for the last month.

I felt I had to go through my winter clothes and do some good decluttering.

There is nothing as satisfying as seeing all these empty hangers and these piles of clothes ready to be donated.

I used my “rules” for decluttering clothes and got rid of clothes that:

1. I hated… for whatever reason…colour, style, etc.
2. didn’t look good on me
3. didn’t fit properly
4. I’d kept over from last winter and still didn’t fit

Here are the 3 piles!

What a fantastic feeling

If you’re inspired to go through your clothes, post a comment and let me know.

How often do you go through your clothes to declutter them?