Clearing Clutter Using Kaizen

Clutter is something many of us deal with nearly everyday. It is not something most people think too much about. Most people will do "Spring Cleaning" and get rid of a ton of "stuff", then feel like they accomplished something big. That is one way to do it, but let me present an alternative that may be much easier and applicable to anyone who has one minute of free time.

Perhaps you don't like to make a full day project out of your clutter cleaning habits. Doing it using the Kaizen method will allow you to make this an ongoing task, but your journey and results may be more manageable - and perhaps even more meaningful. After all, we can all make "ONE" minute of free time a day.

Example

To start, I will go clean out some paper, junk mail and other knick knacks collecting on my desk. If you take the concept of Kaizen and apply it to clutter, then the smallest step you can take is to remove one item from your clutter.

Removing One Piece Of Paper

• Look at the contents, it contains some notes I wrote a few days ago.
• Decide if I still need it, in this case I don't.
• Put it in the paper recycling bin.
• If you need the paper, then file it where it belongs.

That's it. Was that so hard? Why don't you try it. Find one thing in your clutter and remove it. If you still need it, file it away or put it where the thing belongs. All this took was one minute, or less, of your time.

Repeat this step daily and you will have a much less cluttered work space. Most likely, you will not stop at removing only one piece.

The Catch

If you have failed to keep this good habit in the past, I ask that you determine how many pieces you want to remove DAILY and keep to it. The key to this is to form a daily habit that you will do over and over. After a week or two, you will notice a big difference in your life and how you deal with clutter. Keep it up for a month or two and you will have formed a life changing habit.

Do you deal with clutter? How have you tried to deal with the problem?

For additional links and tips follow me on Twitter. If you would like to contribute to this blog or to any of the FrugalNYC blogs in any way (guest posts, articles, ideas, interesting links, advice, financial assistance, or anything else), feel free to contact me via email.

Photo: country_boy_shane