Sifting through the stuff...

Sifting through the stuff last night, I find there are main categories of materials in the garage:

1) materials for a state nonprofit group for which I am an officer 

2) materials for my personal gourd art fascination

3) toys and belongings for my son who is now grown and lives in Columbus, Ohio

4) materials for family gatherings and celebrations (ice chests, holiday decorations, tools)

5) pantry supplies of canned goods and cooking materials

Gathering materials by category into zones may be a good place to start this process of organizing. The back right hand corner tends to be the gourd art space, whereas the back left corner is where the holiday decorations are kept. Officially setting zones would clarify what goes where. 

Essential Questions

An essential question is the one question that drives a project. It is a higher order question that is determined once enough information is located to build a puzzlement in the mind of the researcher. What puzzlement, or curiosity, does the research have about the topic?

Right now, I am beginning to be puzzled by the idea of what factors would lead to a garage that.s in the shape mine is at the moment?  What is the most efficient way to make order? What would I do with the space once it is cleared out?

Currently, this is my garage space (I'll address the studio spaces at a later time). It is a typical space for one car with a door to the interior of the house, double-doors at the back that lead to a printing studio (one door is blocked by a table), and the pull-up garage door. Every surface is piled up with stuff as you saw in previous posts, as are the shelves and the interior floor space.

Bins of organization efforts

Bins are a solution, especially the see-through variety. By using the see-through kind of bins, I can make labels I can tape to the inside so it's seen on the outside, but does not fall off. This may be the way to go. That way everything I want to keep in protected from being crushed and from general dust/dirt that accumulates from non-use because although I do not use everything I own everyday, I do want it handy when I DO want to use it!

Target, $5.99, 18 quart

Psychology of Disorganization

Hoarding is a version of clutter mania. An interesting article by Randy Frost and Rachel Gross explains in its abstract the hoarding can be linked to perfectionism, a trait of a gifted thinker. It can also be linked to obsessive behaviors and a scarcity mentally (a just in case scenario). Hoarders tend to have family members who hoard as well -- a pot calling the kettle black?  Or the garage desk a pantry?

Types of Research

Questions can be prepared according to the type of research a person is doing.

Descriptive research is about how things are now. 

Questions could be: How do people in my neighborhood arrange their garages? 

What purpose do garages serve in our society? How is clutter addressed in the media?

Historical research is about how things were in the past.

Questions could be: What factors prompted the need for garages in the first place?

How did garages come be attached to homes instead of a separate building? 

How was clutter addressed in my grandmothers' time?

Experimental research is about cause and effect. It is about how one action results in another.

Questions could be: What psychological effect does eliminating clutter have?

How much time is saved locating items when they are in labeled bins? 

Which organizing system makes the most efficient use of garage space?

All of these types of research may have a part in my current project since aspects of each will be addressed.

Believe it or not, this is better than it was!

Asking Good Questions

Questions can become monotonous. When that happens, and the research efforts stagnate, it is time to expand into other types of questions to change the point of view of the topic....a change of perspective.

Quantity Question

How many ways might a garage be arranged?

Reorganization Question

What would happen if I built a second garage?

Supposition Question

How would the amount of garage stuff change or be different if I give up my art studios?

Viewpoint Question

How would my garage be interpreted by a Generation Xer?

Involvement Question

If you had a garage of stuff like mine,what would you do?

Forced Association Question

How is my garage like the world of politics?

Evaluation Question

What is the ultimate value of an organized garage?

My Garage

Clutterness

Merriam Webster defines clutter as "a large amount of things that are not arranged in a neat or orderly way : a crowded or disordered collection of things" I guess that would describe the current circumstances in my garage and studio.   I think it is interesting to think that clutter is both a verb and a noun. I can clutter an area by placing many unrelated items in that space. The items in that area are called clutter.

Another interesting thought worth noting is clutter rhymes with flutter, mutter, sputter, strutter, splutter, stutter, putter....

This makes me think of the Name Game, a song by Shirley Ellis:

Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy is a list of the 6 levels of learning, from basic facts to creating something new. Bloom's 6 levels of learning are directly related to 6 levels of questions that correspond to each level.

For example, the 6 levels of learning:
Lower Order Thinking [LOTS]
Remembering (basic facts)....What is the clutter in the garage?
Understanding (define terms) ......How do I define clutter?
Apply (use facts to take action).....How do I show the areas of storage in the garage?

Higher Order Thinking [HOTS]
Analyzing (see patterns)...What categories of equipment would pieces of clutter fit into? Sort clutter.
Evaluating (make judgments)....What criteria does the best job of sorting obvious materials and miscellaneous clutter into bins?
Create (make a new point of view)....In what way can the garage be organized to store items I want to keep?

Questions as a Driving Force

Questions are the driving force of research. They target the research efforts toward a goal. At first the questions are broad, but as the research continues the questions become more specific and the information becomes more detailed. Asking the questions out loud uses the brain's ability to work behind the scenes to help a research notice information in odd places that probably would not have been noticed beforehand.

For this blog's topic, the questions should begin with
Why do I want to sort the stuff in my garage?  What ways can stuff be organized? How important is sorting stuff to being able to find it later?  What purposes do organization serve?

This set of benches, sit atop each other, appear to have had order
at one time. See the labeled bins?

Welcome!

Welcome to my garage and studios! Embarking on an organization project is challenging, but certainly rewarding in the end when everything has been categorized, put away, and tidy with a precision miter.

As of today, these rooms appear to have been picked up and shaken (the result of installing a new driveway, patio, French doors, and stairs). While the workmen worked, the files and cabinets and detrimus of an artistic lifestyle were shuffled around without mercy. Now, it is time to find order in an un-ordered environment!

Stuff just got put helter skelter to get it out of the workmen's way!