Do you have a \u201djunk drawer\u201d?\u00a0 Or several?\u00a0 It\u2019s these places where things collect that don\u2019t have a better place to live.\u00a0 We all have items that don\u2019t quite fit in with another category.\u00a0 These things can eat away at us or simply accumulate in a particular space (or everywhere).\u00a0 They can cause a lot of frustration and might even stymie us from moving forward on those things we could deal with.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no question these things are annoying.\u00a0 It can make us feel stuck and sometimes stupid \u2013 why can\u2019t I figure out how to deal with them?\u00a0 And we all have these things \u2013 we get to a point that we aren\u2019t quite sure what to do with them.\u00a0 What do I do with this?\u00a0 Where do I put that?\u00a0 Often we then just throw them altogether somewhere \u2013 hence the junk drawer.\u00a0 Or, in my case, I have a folder in my file cabinet called \u201cEtcetera\u201d and no junk drawer.<\/p>\n
The first question to ask yourself is how do you behave when a space starts to get cluttered.\u00a0 We all have a different approach.\u00a0 I tend to become bothered by it and find time to go through it.\u00a0 I regain control of that space fairly quickly.\u00a0 On the other extreme, some people are either rather blind to it or are so frustrated by it they ignore the growing mess.\u00a0 And we easily keep adding things to that pile or file so it does keep growing.<\/p>\n
Most organizers are adamant that you never have a junk drawer or an \u201cEtcetera\u201d file.\u00a0 Although I understand their point, what is more important is how you responded to the question above \u2013 \u201cHow do you behave when a space starts to get cluttered?\u201d\u00a0 If you avoid dealing with that space and keep adding to it, then it is a better idea to find a different way to handle those random items.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t recommend a junk drawer generally \u2013 even if you are someone who deals with it promptly when it starts to fill up.\u00a0 Undeniably, figuring out what to do with those things can be frustrating \u2013 for all of us.\u00a0 Before you tackle handling these random things, organize the things that are more clear and straightforward.\u00a0 The oddball things are best saved to the last in the organization process.<\/p>\n
So, you want to figure out how to deal with those random things?\u00a0 Ideally you want to pull them all together.\u00a0 Also, if you have other things that need organizing, deal with that first.\u00a0 You want to avoid having too much around you when you work on the puzzling, random things.<\/p>\n
As with all organizing, it\u2019s about figuring out various factors that I sum up with the term categories.\u00a0 This is defined by how we use things, where we use them, how often we use them, and on and on.\u00a0 The idea is to have the categories \u201cbig\u201d enough to make it worth making a category \u2013 for instance, it rarely makes sense to have a folder in your file cabinet with 1 piece of paper in it.\u00a0 While on the other hand, you want it to be \u201csmall\u201d enough category that things won\u2019t get lost amid all the other things \u2013 for instance, a work file is often too large since there are so many different facets and it would be more effective to have it subdivided.<\/p>\n
When you are looking at those random things, consider what categories they might fit into. \u00a0Sometimes this means thinking more broadly \u2013 you didn\u2019t consider that this could be memorabilia or whatever.<\/p>\n
There is value in walking away sometimes from trying to figure out the place for these random things.\u00a0 When we are frustrated, it\u2019s more challenging to think clearly \u2013 and it\u2019s better to set it aside for a while.\u00a0 You can make a list of these things and look at periodically and consider options.\u00a0 Or ask a friend or two for their ideas on how to categorize them.<\/p>\n
I recommend a basket or bin for those unknown electronic components and items that belong to something else but you can\u2019t remember or find \u2013 then they are all together when you figure it out.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t let those random things stop you from organizing what you can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My confession \u2013 I have a file called \u201cEtcetera\u201d for those papers that don\u2019t fit elsewhere. We all have the oddball things that don\u2019t quite fit elsewhere in our home \u2013 yet we can handle them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,8,5,7,17],"class_list":["post-1176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-organizing","tag-behavior","tag-discipline","tag-household","tag-procrastination","tag-spaces"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7p82c-iY","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1176"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1179,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1176\/revisions\/1179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}