Get rid of the Box of Miscellaneous Stuff

photo credit: Elsie esq.

One of the biggest challenges for someone who works long hours, is both single AND lives alone, like I do, is to find time to clean up our apartments, keep them organized, do chores, laundry, and maintain a livable place. As you may have read before, I’m keeping a strict work schedule and a fairly good degree of separation work/home. Thus, I take at least a few hours a week (in one day) to clear up my clutter.

I mostly use Friday nights to clear my desk at the office and do some filing, but I usually reserve now Sunday nights to try and organize both my desk at work and my home. I end up doing some grocery shopping, preparing lunch and dinners and rarely do I get enough time to sort out mail, file receipts and put away flyers that are really not relevant.

So what I ended up doing most of the time was to throw everything in what I called The Box of Miscellaneous Stuff. That cardboard box that I would, at some point in my day/week/month/year, go through and clear out. Well, today (Sunday) I have spent the majority of the day doing exactly that.

I think it’s important for me to recommend to get rid of the Box of Miscellaneous Stuff, at least once a month. [EDIT - I forgot to mention that I use my recommended One Item, One Action process to clear the Box of Miscellaneous Stuff]. Otherwise, you’ll end up missing important deadlines, accumulate receipts that should be filed, etc. I’m paying for not having done it in a few months now, I have THREE Boxes of Miscellaneous Stuff. But I can claim a small victory today. I have cleared Box 1 and I’m halfway through Box 2. AND I’m done laundry.

How is YOUR Sunday going?

Related posts:

1. On working from home and office setup
2. Start working on chores right away
3. Devote one day to organization and cleanup
4. On working from home and multi-tasking
5. Miscellaneous and quick post