Project #1 – Operation: Organize Le Boy

So, the first project in the Simplify Your Summer series is called Operation: Organize Le Boy. Perhaps you are lucky enough to have a member of your family who is of the male persuasion. I happen to have one, and he shall be referred to herein as The Boy (since we are being fancy-pants I shall use the pigeon French and call him Le Boy).

Le Boy likes to play games of the electronic variety. He plays them often and he owns many. These games and game systems come with a lot of accessories like headphone thingies, wiry-type knotted rats’ nests, and the Internets. Needless to say, Le Boy had made quite a mess in our home office. Exhibit A:

Exhibit A: Le Boy's Desk/Shelf Area

But, Le Boy had made a valiant effort. He had storage boxes. He had bins. He had shelves (see Exhibit B). But, he just wasn’t taking full advantage of what those things had to offer.

Exhibit B: Le Boy's Bookcase

Here is where I stepped in to offer my expertise. “Please,” I pleaded, “can I help you organize your office?”

“Sure,” he sighed, “knock yourself out.” And so the fun began.

The first step in any organization project is what I like to refer to as PURGING. First, remove everything from what you will be organizing (while you’re at it, take this opportunity to clean/paint/refresh the area). Take a good, hard (and honest) look at what you will be putting back. Do you really need four sets of iPod headphones? Do you really need to keep every birthday card everyone has ever given you? If the answer is “yes,” that’s fine. Just know that you have to make a designated place for it in the finished space.

If the answer is “no,” get rid of it. This is usually where most people have a problem. People are very attached to their stuff. I mean, I know it took me a long time to get rid of the wrapper that held the Sweet Tarts that the boy-in-my-senior-class-in-high-school-who-I-was-desperately-in-love-with-but-wouldn’t-give-me-a-second-glance gave to me. (Alas, that’s a story for a different day.) It was hard, but I threw it away.

Unless you have a 10,000 square foot house, you’ve got to be able to part with some things. If you have trouble making decisions about items or feel like you’re too attached to the stuff to make a decision, enlist the help of one of your friends. Outsiders will be able to talk you through each decision to see if you’re being logical about what you keep or what you purge.

Also, if the answer is “no,” try to recycle or donate as much as you can. Try not to throw everything in the trash (please luff the Earf as we only have one).

Luckily, Le Boy had already been through the purge stage by the time I got to him. His items just needed some fine tuning.

I like to call the second step in the process GROUPING. This is where you take the mess and begin to make it make sense. Here’s a big note, though. If you’re helping your own Le Boy to get organized, make sure he’s in on this step. The organization of the final space has to make sense to his Le Boy brain, otherwise he’ll never be able to maintain it. Also, it helps in actually being able to tell one kind of wiry-type knotted rats’ nests thingamajig from another.

Subdivide and conquer.

After you have everything grouped, it’s time for CONTAINING. Seriously, contain the mess. It’s so much more visually appealing. There are lots of great options nowadays for organizing. Boxes, baskets, bins–you name it. And, they’re usually very affordable. For the best visual impact, buy a bunch of the same type of container. During your containerizing stage, you may need to divide and subdivide items so they are more easily accessible within the larger storage bins. This is the issue that kept Le Boy from wanting to use his storage boxes. He felt like he had so many small items, that if he stuck them in the boxes, they’d just end up in a tangle. Which they did. So, we worked on subdividing within each box and bin. For this we used the container within a container method. These inner containers don’t have to be fancy. Use recycled jam jars, take-out plastic containers, even old business card holders.

Cables are subdivided within the gaming bin.

For Le Boy’s project, we used plastic zip bags to contain individual cords that went back into the larger gaming bins. This way, they will be easily identifiable as gaming cords and ta-dah…no more rats’ nests. We put the gaming items he would be accessing regularly in one of the boxes over his desk.

The last step is what I like to call COMPOSING. This is really what you’re doing. You’re composing your visual space. Here’s where you really get to be an artist. Use art concepts like balance, negative space, and color. And, don’t forget, when you’re putting everything back into your space, leave room for art or other treasured objects.

Here are the final results from Operation: Organize Le Boy:

Exhibit A: Now with more tidiness!

For the bookshelves, we were sure to include some artwork and family photos (and yes, that’s a Mexican wrestler mask).

Exhibit B: Now with more Lucha Libre!

So to recap, the steps of organizing (as made up by moi) are:

1. PURGING
2. GROUPING
3. CONTAINING
4. COMPOSING

And, for goodness sakes, try to make it fun. Try organizing in your underwear. Or make some cupcakes to eat during a 10-minute break. Or eat cupcakes in your underwear.

Just keep in mind that a little bit of time invested now will help you to have a hassle-free and happier home later on. Until next time, happy organizing!