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piles of stuff
Jun. 10th, 2014 09:44 amA professional organizer in an article in Real Simple magazine said (among other things) "A pile habit is partly about entitlement. We have a conversation in our head about how tired and overworked we are, so we feel justified in going for the short-term fix - drop object in pile - rather than the real solution." One assumes the real solution is to put the object away or recycle it. He mentions the commonplace thing that you should deal with papers immediately, instead of pile them He gives a limited number of options for dealing with papers - scan, shred, or file. That seems simple, until you remember that one has to set up the devices for the first two options. It's easy to put junk mail into the recycle bin without other prep (I always open the solicitations before doing so, because they sometimes include non-recyclable items as "gifts"). Otherwise, not so easy.
I like the expression the husband of a friend had about her piles - he called them "mulch piles." I don't use mulch, but it's my impression that it starts out in a big pile and then gets spread where needed. A lot of my piled papers stay in piles because of the needed actions. For example, I have the program from a concert I attended a month ago sitting on my desk, because I made some scattered notes on it about the composer, but want to look on Youtube and find his other works, log into my youtube channel and add them to my lists, log out, read the wikipedia article about him (if any), and so forth. I suppose it's possible that I could have used this time to do so instead of posting. And how about mending piles? I have a pillow case with a ripped seam. In the deal with it before piling it way, I would have taken it into the attic (where the sewing machine lives), threaded the machine, and fixed it. Maybe it does make sense to do things right away. I could try it for a day, but before I can get started, I really do have to go through piles of piles - somewhere underneath one (presumably) is the library book that is due today. What I must NOT do is just pick up the piles and put them back. I have learned over time that a missing object hides under the new pile once the old pile is moved.
I like the expression the husband of a friend had about her piles - he called them "mulch piles." I don't use mulch, but it's my impression that it starts out in a big pile and then gets spread where needed. A lot of my piled papers stay in piles because of the needed actions. For example, I have the program from a concert I attended a month ago sitting on my desk, because I made some scattered notes on it about the composer, but want to look on Youtube and find his other works, log into my youtube channel and add them to my lists, log out, read the wikipedia article about him (if any), and so forth. I suppose it's possible that I could have used this time to do so instead of posting. And how about mending piles? I have a pillow case with a ripped seam. In the deal with it before piling it way, I would have taken it into the attic (where the sewing machine lives), threaded the machine, and fixed it. Maybe it does make sense to do things right away. I could try it for a day, but before I can get started, I really do have to go through piles of piles - somewhere underneath one (presumably) is the library book that is due today. What I must NOT do is just pick up the piles and put them back. I have learned over time that a missing object hides under the new pile once the old pile is moved.
