30-Day Organize-athon | Day 29: Get Organized Mindset Shift #1: Adopt OCI-OGO

30-Day Organize-athon 29

Welcome to the 30-Day Organize-athon!

Today and tomorrow we’re going to prepare for the end of the 30-Day Organize-athon by making two incredibly important organizing mindset shifts.

They will help you to preserve the organizing gains you’ve made over the past month – for life!

Day 29: Get Organized Mindset Shift #1: Adopt OCI-OGO

Step 1: Decide to adopt OCI-OGO (pronounced oh-see oh-go) in your life. This stands for One Comes In – One Goes Out: every time something new comes into your home, car, handbag, briefcase, closet or life – something old goes out.

Here are some examples:

  • When you buy a new item of clothing, you donate or discard an old one from your closet.
    HINT: Only have enough hangers for your existing clothes – that way you’ll have to get rid of old things to make room for new ones.
  • When you buy new shoes, you donate or discard an old pair.
  • When the kids receive a new toy, they give an old one to a child who doesn’t have as much as they do.
    HINT: Have a donation basket for kids’ clothes and toys and encourage the kids to make contributions.
  • When you receive the latest magazine in your subscription, you automatically put the previous one in the recycle bin. (‘But I haven’t read it yet!’ you say. Do you want to feel pressured to read everything, or to be happy and calm? Let it go.)
  • When you buy a new book, DVD or CD, you donate an old one to the library.
    HINT: If you buy a lot of books, DVDs or CDs, have a dedicated library donation box.
  • When you file your latest statements or papers, you discard, archive or shred out-of-date papers from your files.
    HINT: File papers in reverse chronological order so you can easily remove the oldest ones from the back.
  • When you buy a new cosmetic, you toss out an old one.
    HINT: Make-up has a shelf life. Use it, and then be happy to lose it.
  • When you receive a gift, you find something you no longer use or love and give that away.
  • When you buy a kitchen gadget or utensil, you donate or discard at least one old one.
    HINT: Having fewer, but more useful, utensils will make it easier to find what you need and use what you have.
  • When the kids get a new backpack, drink bottle, game, or whatever, they discard or donate an old one.

You get the idea.

Step 2: Read over the examples again to check that your mindset has shifted!

And you’re done!

Got an Extra 5 Minutes?

This is such a radically powerful idea that you might want to create some reminders for yourself.

Write ‘OCI-OGO’ on several cards or post-its and place them wherever you need reminders, eg:

  • Inside your closet
  • On your shoe-box tower
  • On your kitchen drawers
  • On the kids’ toy boxes
  • On your credit card; etc.

Now you’ll get to enjoy new things without any increase in disorganization or clutter in your home. Stuff will flow through your life rather than accumulating into a quagmire of clutter. How cool is that!

Note: This post is adapted from my article: My Magic Formula For Staying Clutter-Free For Life (Or: How To Avoid Organizing Entropy)

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I’ve put together a special 30-Day Organize-athon | Getting And Staying Organized Q & A post.

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Then please leave a comment below to say you’ve completed today’s task.

See you tomorrow for your final 30-Day Organize-athon task: Get Organized Mindset Shift #2!

[Image by aussiegall]

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