Welcome to the 30-Day Organize-athon!
Today and tomorrow we’re going to prepare for the end of the 30-Day Organize-athon by making two incredibly important organizing mindset shifts.
They will help you to preserve the organizing gains you’ve made over the past month – for life!
Day 29: Get Organized Mindset Shift #1: Adopt OCI-OGO
Step 1: Decide to adopt OCI-OGO (pronounced oh-see oh-go) in your life. This stands for One Comes In – One Goes Out: every time something new comes into your home, car, handbag, briefcase, closet or life – something old goes out.
Here are some examples:
- When you buy a new item of clothing, you donate or discard an old one from your closet.
HINT: Only have enough hangers for your existing clothes – that way you’ll have to get rid of old things to make room for new ones. - When you buy new shoes, you donate or discard an old pair.
- When the kids receive a new toy, they give an old one to a child who doesn’t have as much as they do.
HINT: Have a donation basket for kids’ clothes and toys and encourage the kids to make contributions. - When you receive the latest magazine in your subscription, you automatically put the previous one in the recycle bin. (‘But I haven’t read it yet!’ you say. Do you want to feel pressured to read everything, or to be happy and calm? Let it go.)
- When you buy a new book, DVD or CD, you donate an old one to the library.
HINT: If you buy a lot of books, DVDs or CDs, have a dedicated library donation box. - When you file your latest statements or papers, you discard, archive or shred out-of-date papers from your files.
HINT: File papers in reverse chronological order so you can easily remove the oldest ones from the back. - When you buy a new cosmetic, you toss out an old one.
HINT: Make-up has a shelf life. Use it, and then be happy to lose it. - When you receive a gift, you find something you no longer use or love and give that away.
- When you buy a kitchen gadget or utensil, you donate or discard at least one old one.
HINT: Having fewer, but more useful, utensils will make it easier to find what you need and use what you have. - When the kids get a new backpack, drink bottle, game, or whatever, they discard or donate an old one.
You get the idea.
Step 2: Read over the examples again to check that your mindset has shifted!
And you’re done!
Got an Extra 5 Minutes?
This is such a radically powerful idea that you might want to create some reminders for yourself.
Write ‘OCI-OGO’ on several cards or post-its and place them wherever you need reminders, eg:
- Inside your closet
- On your shoe-box tower
- On your kitchen drawers
- On the kids’ toy boxes
- On your credit card; etc.
Now you’ll get to enjoy new things without any increase in disorganization or clutter in your home. Stuff will flow through your life rather than accumulating into a quagmire of clutter. How cool is that!
Note: This post is adapted from my article: My Magic Formula For Staying Clutter-Free For Life (Or: How To Avoid Organizing Entropy)
Organize-athon FAQs
I’ve put together a special 30-Day Organize-athon | Getting And Staying Organized Q & A post.
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Then please leave a comment below to say you’ve completed today’s task.
See you tomorrow for your final 30-Day Organize-athon task: Get Organized Mindset Shift #2!
[Image by aussiegall]
I really giggled when I read this today because this morning our free local paper arrived and I went to “dump” it in the magazine basket near our sofa (as I was sorting all piles of paperwork). I caught myself sitting on the sofa and weeding out the last edition of the free local paper and putting it in the recycling before I even realised what I was doing. I like the idea of the reminder of OCI-OGO (oh-see-oh-go) in places that will jog the memory as I imagine it will be more automatic in some areas than others, and changing habits is difficult to sustain, so the more help the better!
Say it to yourself (and to your family) as a reminder too, Amanda. That will help set the habit. 🙂
Done. Very useful!
Done