Organizing: Stay in your Target Zone!

What does it mean to Stay in your Target Zone?

When you are organizing a room, a space or even a junk drawer – your “Target Zone” is that area you are organizing.

Everytime you walk out of that space – you are taking a chance of not walking back into it! Why?  Sometimes because being in that space you are organizing is very overwhelming. If you walk away from it, then you are taking the chance that you will talk yourself into not going back in!

But what will more than likely happen is that you will walk into another room and see things in that room that need to be taken care of.  Usually when you have psyched yourself into finally tackling your clutter problem…then you are gun ho to get moving…and you will look at everything in your home with a different eye.  Believe me…. it happens!

The other big reason is because you lose valuable time running each and every item to the room it goes to.  Instead of taking 2-4 minutes to run each item down to the basement or out to the garage – just set that item into the pile where it belongs.  It might be in the black trash bag, or the white donate bag.  Maybe it is an item that you are going to store, or it may be an item that just needs to be moved to another room.  But by putting it in the pile, you will save that time. Then at the end you use a 1/2 hour and take it all and put it where it goes.  This is a good time to utilize your family to help you get all the things where they should go.

I have another post about Staying in Your Target
Zone.
You will be amazed at how this simple step can help to keep your focused on the project at hand.

Target Zone

Stay in your Target Zone

When you are trying to organize a room, what is one big stumbling block?  For many it is getting side tracked. You pick up a basketball that doesn’t belong in the kitchen and walk it out to the garage where it does belong. Then what happens? Let me tell you…..

You see what a mess the garage is and get over whelmed and think you need to work on it.  You pick up the new package of toilet paper that got left in the garage to take it up to the bathroom.  You get to the bathroom and screek because it is such a mess and the tub has a ring around it and the kids left the toothpaste on the floor without a lid on it. So you grab your supplies to clean the tub….and so on and so forth.  Well, forget ever getting back to that kitchen today….and so your kitchen has made no progress.   So what is the solution to organizing without “drifting”.  Stay in your Target Zone.

What is a Target Zone?

Your Target Zone is the area you are working in.  That room, or area or small space that you have designated “I’m going to organize THIS today”.  Once you leave your target zone you are open to anything and everything that grabs you and pulls you away from your mission.  When you are in “organizing mode” usually you are ready to go and your mind is in …”Let’s get this Done” gear.  So everywhere you look you see things that you need to work on.  We want to do it all Right Now.  But that isn’t possible.

How Do I stay in my Target Zone?

It is actually easier said than done when you are organizing. Like I said there are going to be items that do not belong in the space you are working.  What you need to do before you start is set up a box or a  bin.  You have your sorting cards to help you sort your piles, but for your “move to another room” card…you will need a box, or two.  Rather than taking that basketball to the garage, simply put it in the box that goes somewhere else.  Then you are not leaving your Target Zone.  It will help you tackle the space you are working on.  Focus is the key. You are focusing on one space right now.

Results of staying in your Target Zone

The main result is that you will have an organized space in the place you have targeted to accomplish that day.  But you will end up having a box or pile of other items that you have to find homes for.  Allow yourself time at the end of your organizing of your Target Zone to take that box and drop off the items in the rooms or places that they belong.  An easy thing to do it to leave that box sitting full of stuff and you have another mess.  I just had someone recently leave me a comment that she had a similar box that she cleared out of one room and stuck in her laundry room (I think). She ended up leaving it there for 2 years and was saying she had to go back and go through it.  My comment to her was that if she has not missed the items in that box for 2 years….it is time to get rid of the entire box.

Think Target Zone

Think Target Zone when you go to organize your next area.  Even make yourself a sign that says it.  STAY IN THE TARGET ZONE!  You can even make it a little game with yourself. When you are tempted to go take something to another place…say to yourself, “Oh, I can’t go out of my Target Zone!”, and stay put.  Just put that item in your “move to another room” box.

How To Organize Your Home

Organizing – Where and How do I start?

When you see a room like this…it is easy to not do anything because you just don’t know where or how to start. You just sit down and think, How Do I organize my home?

Start Small

You have to take a tiny piece and just start there.

You can’t think..”I have to clear this whole room”, you can start by saying, “I want to clear off this chair so I can sit down.” Then you need to start the sorting process.

Make Fast Decisions For Each Items

You have to make a lot of decisions, and you need to make them fast. If you spend 10 minutes trying to decide if you want to keep the smelly old backpack that your daughter used in kindergarten (she is now in college)..because you remember buying that backpack and you remember her first day of school and how she was scared, and you remember walking her there and how nice her teacher was and…..and….and….. You get the point. You need to pick it up and try not to apply the memories to that piece. You STILL have the memories, no one is going to take them from you. But keeping a backpack that is falling apart and smells because at one point in its long life it was left out in the rain and then got thrown in the garage…isn’t going to help you remember that day any better. You can take a picture of the backpack if that would help you to let it go. But you need to take seconds to decide. That helps you to take the memories out of the picture(at least a little bit).

Target Zone

But you just take one thing at a time and make a decision. Does this belong in another room? (If it does, put it in a box or bin that goes elsewhere. Don’t physically walk it to another room because you will get distracted. STAY IN YOUR TARGET ZONE!!! (That is the chair you are working to clear)
Do I need to keep this? – Do I love it? I can’t live without it.
Can someone else use this more than I can? Will it enrich someone else’s life?
Is it something that should be stored? (Christmas, Halloween decorations)
Is it something that can be thrown away? Broken items, missing pieces, worn out.

Don’t overwhelm yourself. Start small. Clear just that chair. Then if you have the time and energy (many times seeing some improvement can help to “jump start” your organizing engine.)
Don’t try to bite off more than you can chew….remember what your mom told you, “Take small bites so you don’t choke.”