Welcome to Mission #4 of our 52 Get Organized Missions.
If you’ve got your finances sorted now after completing our previous mission (Get Organized Mission #3: Organize Your Bills) then you’ll be happy with this week’s change of pace.
This week’s task involves a mindset shift.
Our aim is to raise the barrier for accepting into your life a source of mental and physical clutter for many people – the ‘freebie’.
Your challenge this week is to spend your 30 minutes:
- Learning how to distinguish the freebies that add to your life in net terms
- Deciding to say NO to all the others.
Remember – you only have to spend 30 minutes to complete the basic mission. If you want to go further check out the Extended Organizing Mission Options below.
Ready?
Get Organized Mission #4: Forgo The Freebies
One of the fundamentals of the Get Organized Wizard philosophy is:
The less of anything you have, the easier it is to get organized and stay organized.
The problem with freebies is that although they may not cost you money, they always cost you in other ways, including time, added clutter and greater barriers to personal organization. Occasionally a freebie is worth the cost; most often it’s not.
Your mission this week is to adjust your mindset so that before you accept any freebie into your busy life, you ask yourself four questions:
Q1: How much money must I spend to get the freebie?
- Do I have to buy particular items or spend a certain amount to ‘qualify’ for the freebie?
- Is the qualifying purchase something I need?
- Is the qualifying purchase worth the price independently of the freebie?
Case Study:
- Don’t spend $100 on beauty products you don’t need to get a free $60 lipstick, if all you really want is the $60 free lipstick.
- Do simply buy and enjoy the $60 lipstick!
Q2: How much time must I spend to use the freebie?
- Do I have to read it, assemble it, learn how to use it, invest time to get value from it?
- How much benefit can I expect from investing that time?
- Is the benefit worth the time?
Case Study:
- Don’t pick up the magazine at the gym or department store just because it’s free if the information quality is poor or the articles are disguised advertorials. It will waste your precious time.
- Do borrow or buy a good book or magazine if you want quality information.
Q3: How much mental clutter will the freebie create?
- Will I feel pressured to use the freebie once I have it, even if it’s not something I’m immediately focused on?
- Will it add an item I don’t genuinely care about to my mental to-do list?
- Is the benefit of having the freebie worth the mental clutter?
Case Study:
- Don’t sign up for newsletters in exchange for free e-books, reports or PDFs on topics that aren’t already top-of-mind for you. Keep your focus on what’s important now to save yourself distraction and concentrate your precious mental energy.
- Do search – and pay, if necessary – for highly relevant, good quality information when you’re ready to use it. It will be worth it in terms of saved mental energy.
Q4: How much physical clutter will the freebie create?
- Will I need to store the freebie?
- Will it create visual clutter in my home, office or life?
- Is the benefit of having the freebie worth the physical and visual clutter?
Case Study:
- Don’t accept your friend’s discarded 237-piece Lladro collection just because ‘it would be a shame to let it go’. Unless you will use/love/enjoy it, it’s cluttro.
- Do let someone else with a yen for Lladro enjoy it, and fill your life with only things that you love.
Dos & Don’ts
- Don’t fret over losing out on stuff. Take a look around – you probably already have more stuff than you can use, read, slather on your face, or enjoy. More will come.
- Do enjoy the feeling of freedom and clarity you get from saying no to things that don’t earn their place in your life.
Extended Organizing Mission Options
Want to go beyond this 30-minute organizing mission?
- You can apply these principles to things on sale, too. Compare the sale price with the total cost:
TOTAL COST = MONEY COST + TIME COST + MENTAL CLUTTER COST + PHYSICAL CLUTTER COST. - If you have kids, this is an excellent mission to discuss with them. In this age of excess, teaching children to assess the value of things means equipping them with a useful skill.
- If you have a cache of free stuff languishing in drawers, the garage or your hard drive, why not take this opportunity to let it go. Create some extra time, space and clarity for yourself.
Ready, Set, Go!
Remember – move quickly, act fast, don’t overthink.
Before You Go – Please Check In
You’re now accountable to your organizing mission-mates! Once you’ve completed this week’s Get Organized Mission please add a comment to let us know you’ve done your assignment and you’re keeping your commitment.
(Click ‘Comment’ at the very top of this post or scroll down to the bottom. Depending on how you’re viewing this post, one of those options will be available for you.)
And see you back here next week!
Update
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Click here to sign up for 52 Organizing Missions.
Image by koka_sexton
Done! Just the nudge I needed to clear a lot of freebie make up and shampoo samples. So much better…
Happy to say this is another one I already do! 😀
This is one I’m proud to say that I don’t do. I hate freebies. Most of them are silly anyway.
Check.
:: deep breath :: Just cancelled all bar two of my magazine subscriptions. Ok, so they’re not exactly freebies (although I admit that the freebies that sometimes come with them has been temptation to remain subscribed for a while). But the section about free magazines in a doctor’s waiting room really inspired me – to be honest, I realise now I’m reading some of them just because I feel like I should rather than me actually enjoying them. It’s like flooding my head with “cheap-ish” information I don’t actually need. The two I’ve kept are two heavily related to the industry I’m trying to break into so I don’t feel too bad having them around. But from now on I’m going to buy magazines and books only on an “as I need/want them” basis rather than reading “just because”.
@Crystal: I love your three questions – especially the third one! I bet a lot of people could save themselves stress and clutter if they used those questions too. M 🙂
PS I posted a note about your 3 helpful questions on my Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/GetOrganizedWizard
This was hard to figure out for me! I don’t usually go ‘shopping’ unless it’s something for the kitchen or the girls.
Finally I realized that YES I can put this into action and on Saturday I wrote three little questions on a post it and stuck it in front of my bank card in my wallet.
Can I afford it?
Do I need it?
Where will it go?
I’m finding this applies to my grocery trips AND to buying second hand clothes for the girls.
Last year, I discarded all the old kids meal toys and free items that were taking up space. I no longer bring home any of those cute little advertisement freebies – unless it’s something that I can really use. When they are offered I either decline, hand it to someone else, or toss. So nice to not have a bunch of plastic “thingies” lying about. Done.
This concept is something I have been giving a lot of thought to. Most “freebies” aren’t so free. I can gladly forgo the majority of freebies.
done
This one is tougher than it looks, kind of goes to a deeper psychological level! I have no problem sorting through the piles of stuff my mom “finds” for us and donating the bulk of it to goodwill, but it was a lot harder to get rid of the “free” stuff that we’ve collected. I have intentions to use the stuff, but never actually do use it, so tossed some and put some on “probation” – meaning I moved it right in front of my face and gave myself two weeks to use it, then whatever is left will be tossed or donated. We have TONS of free samples from the pet expo. I feel I’m done with this one because of the changed mindset!
This really spoke to me “Keep your focus on what’s important now to save yourself distraction and concentrate your precious mental energy.”
At first I thought that I had gotten over being lured in by the freebie because in a lot of ways I have, but then I realized that my “to read” basket has thing in it that I’m only marginally interested in. Plus I get newsletters and other subscriptions in my email that I never look at, so I just unsubscribed to those.
My newest bad habit is going to the library and getting too many books, or putting a bunch of books on hold. I have found that if I have too many I don’t enjoy any of the books because I feel pressured to read them so I can get on to the next book. I weeded out a bunch that I will return. I kept 4. We’ll see if that’s too much now that the weather is improving.
boom… got rid of the freebies… took me abt 14 minutes.. great!
Done, a few weeks ago actually. This post is right on the money. I signed up for a bunch of free magazines that I don’t have time to read. Every time I get one in the mail, I start stressing. Freebies definitely are not always fun to get. I’m much pickier now about whether I want free things.
work consistantly on elimating emails. Elimnating each day. keep them under 30. My mil likes to bring me coupons for “free” items so we struggle with that.
Got it!
Forgo the freebies and all the stuff that comes with it…….it costs you time,
thought, and pressure to remember……it’s free??????
I don’t generally buy anything just for the freebies. Not that I haven’t done my share of grabbing random junk-drawer-stuffing uselessness, but I’ve already gotten out of the habit of taking the “no purchase necessary” stuff, too. I don’t have room for one more thing in my house, so I don’t have much trouble at ALL saying no to family/friends offering their freebies, either. But, my incoming emails are way out of control. Years of online shopping have thrown me into an insane amount of e-newsletters, articles, coupons, sales ads, and promos of that sort. So today, I took my 30 minutes to kill 23 onine email subscriptions! It doesn’t do much to pare down the 10,000+ emails sitting there, but it will sure go a long way to slowing down the growth!
As a mindset shift this one is always in progress. I’m ruthless with some things (coupons and flyers), pretty good with others (toys) and terrible with a few (shoes in particular). But I’m learning to say no.
got it!
RT @JeriDansky: RT @MicheleConnolly How can you say no to a free tuba? http://wondermark.com/585/ PS Here's how: http://is.gd/8qpW5