January is three things to the retail world: White Sales, Get Healthy and Organize Your Life. Take a look at your flyers: Canadian Tire has all their Rubbermaid bins on sale, Old Navy has their workout gear on sale and the Hudson’s Bay is selling off towels.
And there is something about January that spurs on the clean-out mode. Perhaps is it the long stretch from now until Spring, or the excesses from Christmas – both food and things – that get us focused on cleaning, organizing, and reducing. I don’t really know why the white sale traditions in January. Perhaps it is because you had to burn the sheets unwanted holiday visitors slept on?
I watch Hoarders (the TV show) sometimes and cringe always because I was raised by a consolidator. (which we think would be a great reality TV show – match up a hoarder and consolidator in one house and see who goes crazy first). But have you noticed – those who have big houses with lots of space have difficult wrapping their arms around the problem of clutter. Why? Because they have been free to live without unfettered for years – free to collect and gather and store without real implications.
I can tell you – as the manager of the warehouse for my company – the same is true in business. If your business plan calls for a 20,000 square foot warehouse and you have a 40,000 square foot one, watch out! Soon you will have the thing full and wondering where the next incoming shipment will be stored until needed.
Any mistake, poor system or bad decision without dealing with the ramifications will get hidden in your warehouse or closet. And you’ll find yourself looking for space to store your necessities. And while Rubbermaid bins are not going to fix our warehouse, the concept is the same.
Deal with the mistakes, fix the poor systems, review what you’ve got and throw out the valueless.
January 9th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary: Reenergized by beginning my clean-out plan.
The Daily EO 