30-Day Organize-athon | Day 29: Get Organized Mindset Shift #1: Adopt OCI-OGO

30-Day Organize-athon 29

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  • When you file your latest statements or papers, you discard, archive or shred out-of-date papers from your files.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.

Leave Your Comment Below…

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]

Michele | Get Organized Gal

Michele is into writing, books, simplicity, love, TV, productivity, and staying thin in a world of chocolate.

104 thoughts on “30-Day Organize-athon | Day 29: Get Organized Mindset Shift #1: Adopt OCI-OGO”

  3. Arielle says:

    This is a great system to keep in mind, & I am really going to strive to implement this “one comes in, one goes out” plan.

  5. Patty says:

    I am going to try to incorporate this into a mantra – along with my main one! Really good suggestions.

  7. Michele Connolly says:

    @Debby: Always keep what you need to for tax reasons etc, but when you file NEW stuff, get rid of what’s NO LONGER NEEDED.

    So if you keep 12 months worth of credit card statements, then when you file the latest month you can discard the oldest month. When you add your tax papers for the latest year, you may be able to discard papers from the oldest year.

    Hope that helps. 🙂

  8. Luca S. says:

    This is a good idea. I need to eradicate the mind to keep them all. Because I finishe dmy free space too! 🙂 Ok, ready for it!

  10. Judith says:

    What a great concept! I am trying to get my nearly adult kids to take this on board, too, so that they can also be clutter free. Thank so much for the tip!

  11. Debby Sapp says:

    In America, we need to keep our tax records (and so, our bank statements, etc.) for years. I don’t see how we could discard one statement for every one we get in. Can you put more words around that?

  12. Janelle says:

    I’ve done this with my clothes (just enough hangers, like you said!) but I have a hard time with my books & the kids’ toys. I feel guilty getting rid of my kids’ toys especially when they say “Oh! I love that!” but I know they never play with it. Plus, I don’t want them to struggle with clutter when they are out on their own!

    OCI-OGO!

  20. Raleigh says:

    Mindset shifted to OCI-OGO!

    Love this idea especially for my miss keeps-the-lot and all her art work.

    Can the rules bend though? If we are still gathering items that are needed in one area of our life, can something ‘go’ from a different area?

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