14: Step 2: Sorting. Strategies for Sorting Your Things
Sorting Strategies. We are going in depth with each of the 7 Steps to Organizing (almost) Anything. In this episode, we are focusing on Step 2, which is the Sorting Step in an organizing and productivity project.
In this episode we talk about:
- Why learning how to sorting is an important skill
- The importance of categorizing items in a way that isn’t too complicated
- The effort you put into sorting items now, will pay off later when searching for items
- Examples of Main Sorting Categories and Subcategories
Mentioned in this Episode:
Episode 1: 7 Steps to Organizing (almost) Anything
https://theorganizedflamingo.com/7-steps-to-organizing/
Episode 8: Step 1: Assess. The Power of Planning Ahead
https://theorganizedflamingo.com/8-step-1-assess-the-power-of-planning-ahead/
The Organized & Productive podcast is brought to you by The Organized Flamingo and hosted by Stephanie Y. Deininger. For those of you who love the thought of organizing & being more productive, but don’t know where to start or constantly up against hurdles that don’t let you advance the way you want to, this podcast is for you!
Review full show notes and resources at https://theorganizedflamingo.com/podcast
Connect with Stephanie
https://www.instagram.com/theorganizedflamingo/
Review the Transcript:
I think many of you will relate to this. It's easy to accumulate a lot of stuff over the years, and not even be aware that it has piled up. One day, you just look around and realize how much stuff you really have. Whether it's digital stuff or physical stuff, it doesn't matter what day you look under your bed, or you opened up your digital files and realized, oh, my gosh, I have a lot of stuff. Okay, now what, all right, you're ready to start decluttering, maybe you're ready to engage in an organizing journey, like, become more organized? Well, that's great. But before you do that, you need to sort through the items that you want to keep that you want to let go of that you want to donate or sell, and you need to figure that out, you most likely are not going to be throwing everything away. That's a topic for another day. That's a different type of organizing and situation. So for most of us, it's when one day you're just done, you're over it, or you need to downsize and you know, you have to let go of stuff. But before you start letting go of stuff, you do need to declutter, and you do need to sort through the items. So that is what we're talking about today. Welcome to today's episode, where we are talking all about sorting, some strategies, and some tips that I have for you about the importance of knowing how to sort through your things, and some practical tips that I think will help you along the way. Welcome to the organized and productive Podcast with your organized Flamingo. I am your host, Stephanie, a professional organizer and productivity expert, ready to explore the right organizing and productivity solutions for you. Yeah, well, then let's go. Okay, so before we dig too deep into the sorting conversation, let me just give a quick reminder and disclaimer for anybody that may be listening to the podcast and just joined us during this particular episode. And also a reminder for our community, that sorting is part of our seven steps to organizing almost anything process. So here at the organized Flamingo, we have a seven step process. And we do outline it in an overview episode, which is episode one of this podcast. And so we will put it down in the show notes for you to quickly access that, I would recommend that you listen to that really quick episode first, and then come back to this one. And or go to step one after that one. And then step two, which is this one. So in our seven steps of organizing almost anything, we outlined seven different steps that get you to an organized and sustainable organized system. And we the seven steps are not necessarily all new on their own. But the way we framed them is particular to us because we do it kind of in three phases. Step one is its own phase, you should always start with step one, which is the assess phase. And there's a whole podcast episode devoted to that. So feel free to listen to that steps two through five, can be interchanged, depending on what your end goal is. So for example, if your end goal is to have an aesthetically pleasing space, then you might be starting with the container step first, which we will talk about later in another episode, instead of the sorting stuff, which we're talking about today. Because for you, the most important thing is for it to look pretty to be visually appealing. But for other people, there may be downsizing, they're moving, they don't need it to look pretty, they just quickly need to let go of stuff because they're downsizing or they're moving and go through that process. So for them. And for you that then you want to start with the decluttering phase, which is the next step that we will talk about now. So it really depends on what your end goal is. And that's why this second phase of the seven steps are there seven steps, three phases, we're on phase two, the four steps within phase two can be interchanged. We just happen to talk about Saudi next because it's the natural, the most natural part most people have when they're trying to get organized. They're trying to figure out okay, what do they have first, before they start decluttering before they start buying the bins and the baskets and the system and, and getting new shelving like that usually comes in that order. And that's why we did we're talking about it this way. But just so you know, steps two through five can be interchanged. If you're more of a visual learner and this podcast, this particular episode is just becoming more overwhelming, head over to our shop, which is the organized Flamingo dot shop. We do have guides there. And we outline all of this for you for all of you who are visual learners, you can just quickly download our guides and then that will outline the phases there because we all learn a little bit differently right? And but if you're an auditory learner, like a lot of you are, then this podcast episodes, just take notes. And hopefully this will help you visualize the entire process. Okay, so now that we've got that out of the way, we're in step two. And because these can be interchanged, I am just talking about how, for most people, sorting comes next. Okay, and the reasons why sorting comes next. And so let's talk about the importance of sorting. When you categorize your items, you can see how much of each item you have, and make, say, a lot easier to decide what you want to keep up with what you want to let go of. So that's why categorizing your items, which is another word for sorting is so important. And a very important skill to have, which I'm going to do a quick sidebar, but a very important one about categorizing and sorting and the importance of this skill. There is a book by an author named Anna Crowley reading, and the book is called Google it a history of Google, how to students his mission, to organize the internet changed the world. If you have not read this book, and you're into organizing and productivity on your personal time as well, not just because you're trying to get more organized than this book is for you. It's a really good book, it talks about really, obviously, the founders of Google it, how it came about, but how important it is to learn the skill of organizing and more particular sorting, because when you know how to sword, then naturally, you will also learn how to look for things in time. So eventually, when you start practicing and creating that habit, it becomes easier and easier. So let me read to you a short part of the summary of the book, Larry Page and Sergey Brin started out as to Stanford through college students with a wild idea. They were going to organize the world's information. From that one deceptively simple goal, they created one of the most influential and innovative companies in the world. I mean, how cool is that? And although you may be at this point, thinking, Stephanie, why are we talking about Google, I just want to organize my pantry or my closet, or my digital files, I get it. But that's just for me to outline and highlight how important and how useful the skill of categorizing, of sorting of organizing is to your organizing project and mission and journey as a whole. I mean, yes, you can take it all the way to creating a tool that will help the masses to find things, like information like Google, yes, you can take it to that level. But this is my way of just saying that it's very important skill. So don't miss out on this particular step. Okay, so now let's bring it back to real life, to the everyday person like you and me. And let's talk about sorting in your own personal life. So we talked about the importance of sorting. Now let's talk about examples of how we can go about this. In the sorting step, you will identify the items you have, and grouped them together based on your desired outcome and ease of finding it when you need it. So in this exercise, again, we do have our guides that you can download, if it's easier for you to just quickly download it and do the exercise that way. But write this down. So this is a part where you're going to need to figure out okay, why do I normally need to look for things like what do I need normally? What do I normally need. So you'll start kind of, you know, writing those things down. This makes it easier for you to find what you need quickly when you need it. And it'll keep your space clutter free and save time, of course, in the long run. Okay, so some quick practical how tos when you do this step. And remember, we talk about both digital items and physical items. So from your closet, like your clothing, to your shoes, to your pantry, to your digital files. So this can be utilized for either types of things. So first things first, we like to empty, empty space. I know this part can be very tedious for a lot of people overwhelming, because you don't really want to necessarily, like take everything out. But it's really important that you do because when you take everything out, you start with a clean slate in the space, but also, all the items will be in one space, some of the stress, excuse me, some of the systems out there like the Konmari method. There.
She's really big on that. There's a couple other systems out there that are really big like that, you know, you have to do this step. I don't necessarily think you have to do this step, but it really, really help hopes, okay, so for the purposes of what I would recommend is that yes, you should empty this space out. So if you're organizing your closet, take all of the clothing all of the items from the closet out and put them in your prep station. And we also talked about PrEP stations over in step one, which is the assess phase, and how to do that, the power of planning a little bit. So a prep station is just where you have a space that is open, it's your project area, it's open, it's available to you, as you work through your project. So if you're emptying your pantry, your closet, then your prep area is where you're emptying it all out. So it's not all over the house, or all over space, or your office and the digital space, you're going to do the same thing, you're going to empty all of your folders out and put them in one central space, I would recommend a holding folder where you put everything in, so that everything again is in one space. Okay, now that we are getting into the actual sorting, the sorting into piles will depend in category piles or categories will depend on what you're trying to achieve here, I would pick one main category, I would recommend that you pick one main category, that's general general enough, and then sub sub subcategories after that, and do that exercise after. So if you really want to be quick about it, I would just do some very main cuts of some general categories. And some examples of that are, for instance, in your closet, it would be by color, by weather type. Those are very main general categories. So these are the greens. Here's the yellows, the whites, the blacks, the patterns, very general categories in your kitchen. Some examples are, these are where the utensils are, like eating food storage, very general, we're not getting into the baking, we're not getting into the spices yet. It's just Is it food? Like Is it edible? Is it you tent? Dishware? Is it storage containers out very general categories. Same thing in your digital area, same thing we're going to do a general category is it if you're a photographer, you know, all like digital media, like pictures, movies, etc, you know, all a very general category. And then we then go to subcategories after you finish that whole process. So as soon as you you know, you maybe do a timer, you know, do it quickly get your general category over with. And then we can start with our subcategory. subcategories are the categories that go under the main category, right, but they are in the family of the main category. So in your closet, if you organized it by color, and you have all the greens that maybe you do, like green, dark green, maybe you do it the subcategory could be by fabric type, you know, do you just choose different subcategories. We don't recommend going more than three, maybe up to five subcategories, because it starts to get overwhelming to retrieve because now we're starting to think about the retrieval process. You can go 20 subcategories in. But if you don't remember subcategory, 19, because let's say in your kitchen, let's go back to the kitchen example. You did it by food, and then spices but and then you did after spices you did for baking and for baking Italian and for baking like different types of you know, Mexican food. And then now it's like another subcategory. And it's when you make enchiladas and it's like Sub Sub Sub Sub Sub, whenever you need that one particular spice for something else, you won't be able to retrieve it because you're so in the nitty gritty, that is you just forgot that it's there and you just buy double doubles and duplicates. Okay, so that's why we don't really go too deep. We just go deep enough for you to remember next time you need it, and it's general enough, but also contained into subcategories that are just not too deep, if that makes sense. Okay, so now we've gone through our category sorting, everything's in categories. Now. This is a really good time before the next phase, which is normally the declutter phase, which is what we're we will talk about next in the next episode of this series. Step three decluttering. Again, these can be interchanged. For some of you, you will do decluttering first that you won't even go through sorting because you just need to get rid of stuff like right now, because you're moving downsizing or whatever it may be so for some of you this will be you know, first or second, but to get ready for the decluttering and regardless of what the next step is for you and your needs. This is a great opportunity to quickly go through any items that are visibly broken and expired are no longer needed. This is like a quick, quick visual, this is not the actual decluttering phase, this is not the actual go through everything. This is just if you held something, you can visually see it and see that it's broken expired or it's no longer needed, then go ahead and let that go. And that's it. This particular step to me is one of the most fun, I love sorting. It's really fun for me. But I also know that a lot of people struggle with what system what categories to go into some of you like for your craft room, right? You have, do I put scissors under, you know, cutting or, or for if you're a quilter, or sower like do I put it in, like there's just so many categories that that some of these rooms and spaces can have that it gets overwhelming. And this is where you either hire a professional to help you decipher what best system works for you. Or you talk to a friend or you just kind of start to really do a trial and error. But again, you know, of course, a professional will be able to ask you the right questions and all that. And because it's the sorting category, sorting and categories, step can be overwhelming for some of you. But for like for people like me, and for anybody that's listening, sorting is really fun. I enjoy finding that the stacks and the where it should go in the category phase, I just find it super fun. Okay, and last thing is clean the surface the area after you're done with the sorting step, what that means is just kind of clean around, I really am a big advocate advocate that after every step, you do a quick little cleanup, it encourages you and motivates you for the next step, because it's like starting a new phase. It's exciting, it's nice and tidy and clean, and prepares you for the next phase and holds the momentum to continue. Because you still have a couple more phases, right? The decluttering the contained finding the container and then finding a home. So you still have a couple more steps left. So you know clean up after like after every phase, and I find that it helps clients people that community continue that momentum. Okay, well, that's it for the sorting step. If you have any questions, we are always here to help. So just send us a message tag us over on Instagram at the organized Flamingo or just email us you'll find all of our information down in the show notes. But the next the next part of the steps is step three, which we identify as Declutter. And then after that we will do designate and then contain. So look out for those episodes in the series. And if again, if you're more of a visual learner, you'd rather just read it and kind of read through it, you can either go to our show notes, which will take you to the blog post that is associated with this episode. So if you're more of a reader, or you can head over to our online shop, which is the organized Flamingo dot shop, and download any of our guides, so that you can just quickly print be done and work through the exercises on your own that way, and as you sort through your physical and digital items. Keep in mind that the effort you put in now will pay off later when you are looking for something specific so your future self will thank you for it, I promise you. And until next time, happy organizing. Thank you for listening to the organized and productive podcast with the organized Flamingo. If you enjoyed today's episode, I would love it if you'd leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast player. It helps with letting people know that we're here. For full show notes and resources head on over to the organized flamingo.com/podcast Happy organizing.