The four-box method is a popular one for organizing, uncluttering, and taking control of a home office. It works because applying the four-box method forces you to pick up an item and decide immediately what you want to (or should) do with it. You will have to decide if the item in your hand should be thrown away, put in another room, placed in long term storage, or sold, given away, or recycled. You’ll then have to put that item in the appropriate box. Forcing you to handle an item and immediately make a decision about it helps you instantly see, deal
with, and eliminate the gunk in your home office.
With the four-box method, sessions can be short too. It only takes a few minutes to bring four cardboard boxes into your office, a few minutes to label them, and then a half hour or so to work through a small closet, a couple of drawers, or a cabinet or two. Another 15 to 20 minutes dealing with the boxes, and you’re done!
Tip: When you’re out shopping, ask retailers if you can take home some empty cardboard boxes; many give them away happily. This not only helps you prepare for degunking sessions, but will also keep you focused on degunking while you’re shopping. (Be careful not to let the boxes become gunk though--use them quickly!)
If you can look at an item, hold it in your hand, understand that you haven’t used it in a year or more, don’t like it, or won’t use it, and then put it in the box of items to give away or sell, you’ve made progress. If you can hold an item in your hand and understand it’s clutter, like a stack of magazines or books you’ve read, perhaps you can get rid of those too. Maybe you can even get rid of that old computer or printer that hasn’t worked in years. Whatever you do, everything you get rid of is one less thing in your home office you have to deal with.
The four-box method is also designed so that a single session can be performed in a few minutes for a small area, to an hour for a larger one, or for an entire day or weekend for an entire room. The immediate gratification you’ll get from cleaning out a drawer or closet will also motivate you to continue to other closets, cabinets, drawers, or rooms, if not to simply fill up a box that will be donated to charity. Finally, the four-box method works because it’s about moving stuff around. As you
start to move things around, you’ll start to feel the freedom of having less to dust around, store, wash, pack if you move, trip over, and to clean.
Note: Make sure you’ve completed Step II, gathered up a few empty cardboard boxes, and thrown away everything you can before continuing.