Getting Organised...Little By Little, Persistency & Consistency

All other things being equal, life is easier and less pressured if you're proactive, tidy and organised; but, as far back as I can remember, I've always struggled to be this. I could have a work or living area looking like a bomb had hit it without even thinking about it, unaware of the mess I was making, and after it had built up, thinking "how did this happen?" Having had time to think, there are several reasons for this and I've finally come up with a couple of ideas that seem to work.

It wasn't that I didn't care; I think one of my issues was an all or nothing attitude - things were either in a mess or perfectly ordered. No middle ground. This desk at work, room at home, or car interior that was full of junk strewn everywhere was going to be subject to THE big clearout, THE big clearup, THE big cleanup, looking spic and span for evermore...I was going to knuckle down big time - when I found the time. Of course, it never worked out like that; I simply couldn't keep it up.

One idea is the middle ground - it doesn't have to be perfect, just not too bad and ergo easy to make perfect - if I want to - no pressure and easier to be consistent. If I can just keep everything in one place - even if it's a large area and do something, anything, no matter how small to stop a mess building up, then it's easier to keep all nice and tidy. Do a little often, which is the case with many other things really, keeping my email inbox down to a manageable size for example by deleting emails I know straight away I don't need.

Another is using things such as files, boxes, tubs, cupboards - pretty much anything which makes it easier, and so I have with a couple of recent purchases, one of which I've covered in another post - the toolbox I bought at a carboot sale. Since then, I bought the organiser on the right for £1 to hold nuts, bolts and assorted other small items - another nifty bargain I thought.

Consumables

Spares

The plan is to keep all my bike stuff in one of 3 places depending on what it is: tools, spares, or consumables (eg cloths, degreasers & lubricants). The tools and consumables are examples of everything being in a specific order, whilst the spares in the picture above just all get chucked into the kitchen cupboard in no particular order just to keep them in one place and not all over the house. I might further sort them by type etc as they increase and when I find more space. As I said, this seems to work and I'll be happy if I can just be consistent, which is where the do something, anything no matter how small comes in to make it easier.