The Quest for the Desk: How to unearth a desk that’s buried under rubble.

Sorting Strategy

• Step 1: The ‘move elsewhere’ box (for loose change, batteries, screws, nail clipper and other misc. ‘gak’ that doesn’t belong in this room)
• Step 2: The ‘rough sort’; use the R.A.F.T. method (Read, Act, File, Toss) with 3 trays and a recycling bin
• Step 3: The ‘laser sort’; use the K.I.V. method (Keep It Visible) with step sorter and colour ‘hot’ files

Tip 1: Name that file
When naming files, always go with the first word that comes to your mind to identify the group of papers. Attempts at making the wording too fancy can create problems when you are trying to find it later and you can’t remember what you called it. Keep it simple.

Tip 2: Cut the article, chuck the magazine
Instead of keeping the whole magazine, quick-reference the contents page and select and cut out the articles of interest. File them in a labeled accordion file so you can find them later. You won’t have to ask yourself why you saved the magazine in the first place.

Tip 3: Easy, breezy book sorting
When sorting through a large collection of books, keep them on the shelves during the purge process to make it quick and less overwhelming. Pull the ‘no-brainers’ (books that are damaged or irrelevant to your current life) off the shelf first and box them for charity. You can donate them to a library or sell them to a second-hand store. Next, be ruthless; if you’ve already read it and don’t need it as reference, let it go. In the end, the only books left on the shelf are the ‘diamonds’.

This tip is from episode 7, Click to view the Episode Summary