What kind of organizer are you?

Organized chaos, all the way. I live in a complete mess, but I know where everything is and I can always find what I need. If I clean, things get lost... so I usually don't bother.

Important things are kept within arm's reach in the place I'm most likely to need them. Less important things are lumped in piles of vaguely similar stuff.

Hope that's what you were looking for

My computers (home and work) are nicely organized with folders, email flags, etc. I keep my area at work fairly well organized too, especially when it comes to projects I'm working on that require an insta-status report whenever my boss asks. I whip out the file, glance at my notes, and report.

But at home it's a different story. I used to have filing cabinets, but I never consistently used them. Now I don't have them and just try to live my life as paper-free as possible, because if something's on the computer I know I can find it, but if it's lying around the apartment, it's anyone's guess whether I'll be able to lay my hands on it again. Especially if I've cleaned up in the meantime (that doesn't happen too often).

I organize by piles, boxes and folders. I actually have open-topped boxes on a metal rack that I toss things into. I know me well enough to know I won't actually put certain things away like reference materials for my stories-- I'll just get it out again. To me, it's like making the bed. Why bother?

I try to keep things together, but I think my problem is that I do too, too many things. So each of those things should have it's own space. But they don't. I am much happier when everything has it's place and can go BACK into it's own place. But space keeps thwarting my efforts to pretend I'm more organized and less lazy. I tell myself that when we are in our premanent dwelling, I will shell out and make my office the organized space it ought to be.

My computer is well organized, with files and folders and such. Rarely 'misplace' things on the computer.

I also need to figure out some sort of system of storing the miscellenous notes to self-- things like quotes, reminders, research and such that currently just gets littered around on half sheets of paper and sticky notes. This system-- not working.

My biggest problem with organization is actually my mantra/ mindset: There has to be a better way. I am regularly and continually tweaking the system I do have. Always.

Organized Chaos, I like that description. I'd always called my "organized chaos" being a slob, but I like that title better.

upsidedowngrl said:

Do you live in Organized Chaos? (I Do in my office, but the rest of the house has to be ORGANIZED and in order.)
Is there any organization for you at all?

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Definitely not organized chaos. But I'm not neat either. When I was in the army, I had people there tell me I needed to get organized--to the point where I took a class on it!--because I was messy. When I got out of the army, someone at work told me she envied my organizational skills. I was thinking, "I'm not organized! I'm messy." I later ran across an eye-opening article that said organization didn't necessarily mean you were neat.

What I've learned over the years though is that I need to keep the system simple. The more complicated it is, the more likely I am to stop using it. I ended up getting a filing system from The Container Store, which has four color-coded categories. I had my doubts about it, but at the time, I was desperate enough to try it. It turned out to be just what I needed. While I was going through every piece of paper, I was amazed at how many duplicates of things I had; they'd been stored in several places so I had no idea I had more than one! Now when I need something, I go right to it.

I took the same idea to my computer. With it, the focus was on naming conventions. When I created a file, I had to consistently name it with something meaningful and include the date: Auctions_Mar 2008. It also had to be consistently saved in the right places. Now I can do a random sweep of a folder, see instantly if there are any old files and review and archive or delete as necessarily.

At work I'm very organized, always thinking about productivity, being effective and trying to find ways to make work life just a bit easier for everyone. Communication is an extremely important part of that. I give answers straight away, I expect people to do their job and I ask any questions I think necessary at any given time.

At home I am organized chaos. It's almost never neat unless I've just been cleaning, but I do have specific places for all my stuff, it's just that anything I'm using migrates to the sofa or kitchen counter. And the dishes are never done. Last week my mother visited and she and I have different ways of organizing things. Now (well, when she left) my apartment is clean, but things are just not where or how I expect them to be.

Sometimes if I have a hectic schedule or am in one of my more 'ambitious' phases I keep a day planner and can be very organized in my private time as well. Actually making an effort to take notes on stuff and remembering the correct dates, times and places where I'm supposed to go. I maybe even keep a watch on me. ;-) This still does not transfer to cleaning up my apartment which I only do when I can't stand the mess any longer.

When I travel I'm a control freak. I need to know the where, when and how and I always keep backup plans.

In school, if I'm serious about a subject, I keep very neat notes with color coding and everything.

I have dueling organization habits. In some ways, I live in controlled chaos. In others, I have organized things within an inch of their lives. For example, I have closets stuffed with things I haven’t seen in years and my living room always develops a plethora of piles of “valuable” things. My craft room, on the other hand, is ultra organized. Everything has a place and is labeled and color sorted.

In my craft room, when I finish with something, I put it in its place. In my living room, I’m not always too concerned about where it lands.

I also have this odd quirk about wall décor. I cannot function in my classroom until I get the posters and decorations up. I can ignore the mounds of boxes strewn around the classroom, but I need to create an environment before I can work in it.

Of course, this could all just be my ADD coming out. I say my organization habits make me an original. Others say I’m either messy or anal retentive.

I'm less organised chaos, and more like chaotic chaos. I can usually find stuff pretty quickly amongst all the piles of random stuff scattered about the place, though.

Organized chaos. My bosses never understood how I managed to keep everything in relative order considering the chaos that was on my desk everyday. But I never lost anything.
At home it's different, probably because I'm not confined to one desk. My chaos is spread a little around the house. I'm still trying to work out a system to keep my story ideas and notes well organized. I think I'm getting better at it.

There might be a linear relationship between age and the desire for organization. Time moves faster as I get older, so I might die of old age trying to find things in my disheveled office of 20 years ago.

my room usually looks like a mess, because i am annoying type of organizer. you know, when you sit with pile of papers and try to sort them out but you can't figure out where to put certain something because it fits two categories? so you end up leaving it back at that pile.
i practice minimalism, and it works perfectly, until i go to computer and try to sort it out. too many art, writing etc - references and other useful stuff i do not use and forgot i even have.

use it or drop it into abyss.

but when i manage to organize everything, my room/closet/life look so perfectly clean from sh*t, that i have an urge to stuff it with something meaningless again.

The word organised does not exist

zombies are never organized, and this is a long dead zombie.

Organized organized.

I used to work as an accountant, and I was the one who organized and made sense of my client's paperwork, so I am a professional organizer. Some of them would hand me many boxes of paper (which contained all the invoices, receipts, credit card slips, bank statements, credit card statements, etc. for the year) and tell me to have at 'er. And I created beauty out of their chaos. By the time I was done, I could put my hands on any specific piece of paper anywhere in their filing cabinets in about ten seconds or less. Usually less.

My life now is mostly paperless. What papers we do have are still severely organized. My computer holds the majority of my files, and it's organized organized. I can locate any given file in five seconds or less, usually less. It's only the rare file that I haven't used in a few years that takes longer to find.

ETA: Labels like "anal retentive" were invented for people like me. Also see detail oriented. Also see twitchy in the middle of a mess.

L M Ashton said:

Labels like "anal retentive" were invented for people like me. Also, see detail oriented. Also, see twitchy in the middle of a mess.

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^ LOL - Yep, we were definitely separated at birth.

(but in a neat, tidy and organized way)

Cool thread, but very old. Closing it.