How to Get Rid of Chaos and Clutter

How to Get Rid of Chaos & Clutter

Chaos exists when disorder is allowed to persist.

1© 2013 Keno R. Mullings.

Objectives

1. What is Chaos?

2. What is Order?

3. The SSUM Approach to Order Management

© 2013 Keno R. Mullings. 2

What is Chaos?

Chaos is the absolute lack of order.


What Chaos?

Chaos is not natural.

Even waves crashing on the shore have harmony even though it seems like chaotic harmony.


What is Chaos?

Chaos exists when disorder is allowed to persist.

Place a sheet of paper on a table where it shouldn’t be and leave it there


What is Order?

Order is doing what should be done when it should be done.


What is Order?

Order is when people and STUFF are where they are supposed to be when

they are supposed to be there.


What is Order?

Order is the absence of chaos.

If you have problems with order it is guaranteed that you have problems with

time, money or both.


Your Mission…

Your mission should you choose to accept it…

Achieve and maintain order!


The SSUM Approach

Stop Seen Unseen Maintain


The SSUM Approach: Stop

Stop the activities promoting chaos and causing disorder

The goal here is to stop the insanity


The SSUM Approach: Stop

Don’t pile another dirty dish! Don’t leave another piece of clothing

on the floor! Don’t put another paper out of place!

STOP NOW


The SSUM Approach: Seen

Give away, put away or throw away everything that is Seen that is out of order



The goals here are… Quick gratification Free your mind of visual clutter Free yourself from the bondage of

STUFF A clean healthy atmosphere



Even if you have to pile STUFF into boxes, get rid of all visual evidences of clutter

Don’t get bogged down with the little things



Give away or throw away as much STUFF as you can

If you haven’t used it in over a year then it must go!



Pretend that a VIP will be walking through your house in a few moments

After you have removed every sign of chaos then dust the furniture, sweep the floors and vacuum the carpets


The SSUM Approach: Unseen

Give away, put away or throw away everything that is Unseen that is out of order

The goals here are… Freeing your mind from mental clutter Peace of mind A clean and healthy everywhere



Now it’s time to go through the little things

I recommend making a list of 100 things that every member of the family will keep. Make a list for your business and house as well.



Even if you can’t live with 100 or less personal things (and really you should be able to), the exercise will help you determine what is really important and what is not

…yes a pair of socks counts as 1 item



Give away or throw away STUFF After you have removed every sign of

chaos in the unseen places, dust the furniture, sweep the floors and vacuum the carpets


The SSUM Approach: Maintain

Maintain the order It would be really discouraging if you

spent all this time defeating chaos and creating order only to have things go back to how they where or even get worse



Like money and time you need to tell STUFF where it should go or it will settle in the place of least resistance.



Use bins to triage paper so that they are in the process of being recycled, acted upon or filed.



Mail All new unopened mail

To Do Things to get done

To Read Things to read before shredding/recycling

or moving to “To Do” or “To File”



Bills Schedule payment

Receipts Scan (Shoeboxed/Evernote), shred,

recycle To File

File away once per week



Kids Put away once per week

Stuff to put away Put away once per week


Summary

Chaos exists when disorder is allowed to persist

Use the SSUM approach to get rid of chaos and clutter


Summary

If there is no order then you put your money and time at peril

Do what you can when you can and when you can do what you can


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Contact Info

Connect: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kmullings Follow: http://twitter.com/KenoMullings Consult: http://TheMullingsGroup.com Call: (617) 299-6871

© 2013 Keno R. Mullings.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/kmullings

http://www.linkedin.com/in/kmullings

http://twitter.com/KenoMullings

http://twitter.com/KenoMullings

http://themullingsgroup.com/

http://themullingsgroup.com/

How to Get Rid of Chaos and Clutter

Self Improvement

Transcript of How to Get Rid of Chaos and Clutter