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 - When you file your latest statements or papers, you discard, archive or shred out-of-date papers from your files.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]
I will have to print this and read it daily for it to sink in.
How do you decide when you have enough?
There’s a difference between people who have closets full of clothes and those who have enough for a week, ladies who have shoes to match every outfit and those who have a work shoe, dress shoe and sneaker. Do the latter ones throw out one because they get a new one? I’m just wondering.
Great idea. All tasks finished.
This is a great one! Done! 🙂
I have adopted this mindset – thanks!
Never gave it a nickname before, but have followed this for awhile now. Will have to up my game though! 🙂
I’ve decided to adopt OCI – OGO ….so have completed today’s task ….
Keeping the time frame short works great!! Much less internal debate about letting stuff go. Donated items go in the trunk of my car so I won’t look at what’s in there & rethink it…..& reclaim it!! This feels like losing weight…that I don’t want to ever ‘find’ again!
Added a monthly tickler task to read this reminder. It will take time for this to sink in and become habit. Completed 29 of 29.
I will try this OCI-OGO. It’s not a new concept, just something that I have never done.
I need a mindshift
I don’t think I can promise that I will do this 100% of the time, but I do see the value of it and will definitely be practicing it exponentially more than I did before this challenge.
implenting the mindset now, hope to make it a habit soon!
Not sure how to count this one done. I’m in the throw out almost every thing mode right now.
I can see this as a great thing for toy control!!!
Interesting that I received a cd in the mail yesterday called “Making the Shift”. It’s about developing a new mindset!
I like the comment to Raleigh that the ‘one out’ doesn’t have to be a match for the ‘one in’. Clutter is clutter…so removing it from anywhere is what’s important.
See you tomorrow!
I’ll keep that in mind for whenever I buy new things.
I sure hope i am able to hold up to this one!
And I hope everyone recycles when they downsize
Easy to remember, harder to implement, but I will do my very best! Actually, I don’t buy that much anymore, so less comes in, more come out is a good mantra until my house is empty to my taste!
Need to remember this one.
This is a great rule!
I will do this in every area but crafting. I sew, crochet, and craft a lot but fortunately I stay on top of my projects and I have places for everything. This is one area that never gets disorganized. Instead I will strive to finish one project before buying anything for a new project, that way there are less raw materials hanging around.