I’ve been thinking “in systems” since I was quite young. At times it felt like my brain would crave structure in the form of any sort of rules; anything from the intricate solving of puzzles, to creating new efficiencies in my everyday life. I’ve never not loved exploring puzzles; crosswords, Rubik’s cubes, Tetris, they all hold a special place in my heart. I even would take their concepts to apply in my everyday experiences like ‘tetrising’ certain things into their best fit spot, or connecting the dots to get something challenging to completion in the most efficient manner.
Some systems I came up with were not healthy or helpful for anyone, but some would actually make a difference. So even before I could put words to it, I was busily coming up with systems and rules for all sorts of things. And this little girl in high school, tasked with the chore of getting her little sisters to actually clean up their disaster of a bedroom, was up for that challenge. So there I stood in the doorway of my two little sister’s cozy bedroom feeling as if I were in a Jillian Jiggs storybook. Their room was the definition of chaos and a chore, absolutely overwhelming. But thank goodness it was also a puzzle. One that could satisfy the eye, once it was completed.
My sisters were young enough that they were still impressionable but old enough that they could actually do the work–as long as they were interested. First was the system, what would be the most simple and straightforward way to tackle the randomness and clutter? My eyes were instantly overwhelmed, so I remember deciding that we had to bring everything together, in one place. So we did just that, we brought all of the piles and bits and whatever together into a big pile. The only thing we pulled out as we came across were bits of clothing–which we tossed on the bed. The giant pile was satisfying,I remember noticing that we could get a glimmer of what a clean room could be.. If we looked away from the floor.
The second part was to make it fun, make it a game. I knew my sisters would much easier engage with me if it were gamified so the game went, choose a category and pull everything of that kind out of the giant pile. We would work together on that category until its all put away. One by one we chose a category, until all that remained was unwanted rubbish. And so we would sweep it up.
The last part was to make it repeatable. I wanted an easy way to re-engage with this system, so that when the time came again to clean up their room, we could get started easily. And eventually, I dreamt of them being able to do it on their own. And so, one of my sisters was never that motivated to create a giant pile with me. I knew at the time that she was watching a lot of Dora the Explorer. She was obsessed. So that is how “The Dora” came to be. Tackling tidying by making the mess central and bringing it all together became known as “The Dora” in my family. To this day, my sisters will still create Dora’s as a method to tidying up their room. And I use it too.
The thing with systems is that they have to work for you. And you need to be open to changing them once they are no longer serving you. If you are open to discovering new systems that are the best way for you to declutter or tidy, then all of sudden managing your things will feel a whole lot easier. What systems are working for you now?
