flodnak stole “You can’t organize clutter,” but here are some other important principles.
Empty horizontal surfaces are VALUABLE. It took me a long time to figure it out, but it’s so true. If your desk is clear, it’s instant workspace and you don’t have to waste time on cleaning it up first. If your floor is clear, you can access all parts of your office without tripping over things. More importantly, empty horizontal space is the thing that creates the impression of a clean, ordered space. You simply cannot acheive this effect if all your horizontal surfaces are covered with stuff, even if it’s neatly-organized stuff in tidy stacks and boxes.
If you put it away, you can always take it out again. I don’t know about you, but I have this weird psychological aversion to putting things away. I always think, “But what if I need it again???” I have to tell myself, “Geez, dummy, then you take it out!” If you’ve put it away where it belongs, it’ll take hardly any time to get it out. If, on the other hand, you’ve left it out, you’ll probably waste much more time in the long run because it’s gotten lost under other stuff, knocked over, spilled on, stepped on, crumpled, tangled, etc. Everything in your office should have a shelf space or drawer space where it belongs and that’s where it should be every second of the day that you are not dealing with it directly. That even goes for things that people often leave out on their desks, like staplers. (Seriously, unless it’s an exceptionally beautiful stapler and you really enjoy looking at it, put it away when you’re not using it.) If you find that you don’t have room to put your things away, buying shelves and boxes and organizers can help, but it’s even more important (and cheaper) to get rid of things you don’t need.
If spingears’ suggestion works for you, that’s great, but I tried it with kitchen stuff, and it didn’t like it. Here’s my counter-suggestion:
If you do not need it, it must go. Not in a box. Not on a shelf. Not in a pile. It must be GONE. Put it in the trash with the banana peels so you’re not tempted to pull it back out, or take it out to your car to give it away. This applies to small stuff, too. About a year ago, I did something I’ve never done before. I got rid of writing supplies. Anything cracked, chewed on, or out of ink: trashed. I chose a small number of pens and pencils to keep. But old habits die hard; my pencil holder was crammed full, so I dumped it out and started over. The ridiculous wad of pencils and pen that was left (I couldn’t hold them all in two hands) went to the office supplies closet at work for other people to use. I haven’t missed any of it!
If you find yourself breaking into a panicked sweat at the thought of throwing things out, set yourself a goal of throwing out or giving away 20 things a day. (Or 10, or 30, or whatever seems reasonable to you.) That seems like a lot, but count every single object: big things (free up lots of space, yay!), small things (still fill out the quota, but easier on the psyche!), even tiny things (old receipts, bent paperclips, granola bar wrappers). Anything you don’t need that you get out of your office counts. It doesn’t take a lot of time. Just be consistent about getting rid of X things every day. Start with the easy, obvious junk, and as you discover the value of the space and order that you’re revealing, it will get addictive.
Five minutes makes a difference. Every evening before I walk out of my office, I spend five minutes cleaning up. Actually, that’s a lie. Most days it takes less than thirty seconds. But I stop working 5 minutes before I have to leave for the bus. I file papers that belong in the file cabinet, and recycle the rest. Books go back on the bookshelf. My mug and tea kettle go to their shelf. I throw any empty bottles or cans into the recycling bin. Office supplies go back in the drawer. If my desk looks grungy, I give it a swipe with a damp paper towel. That sounds like a long list, but each task takes mere seconds, and if I’ve been good about putting things away throughtout the day, there’s very little to do. And believe me, this tiny investment of time and effort pays off bigtime.
Writing a dissertatation is not an easy thing, and motivation is a bitch. Dragging your sorry ass into your office and flipping on the light to find a soul-sucking chaotic jumble . . . Well, it doesn’t help. As a habitually messy person I still get a pleasant shock every morning when I open the door of a tidy, serene office. It’s as though cleaning fairies have come in the night! It gives me a burst of energy and makes coming to work a whole different experience.
For your home office, if you don’t have a well-defined end of the workday, maybe you want to make it your settling-down-to-work ritual. Set a timer so it doesn’t become a procrastination thing, and spend 5 minutes (or 2 or whatever) putting things away and tidying up. (You can throw out your X things, too, if you’re doing that.) Then you can sit down to a clean workspace and attack your work.
Hope this helps! Good luck with your office and your dissertation!