dorm room let me try out a principle I thought up the last time I was
staying away from home. At that time I noticed my bed & breakfast room was
a horrible mess, after only 2 days, and I was having trouble finding
stuff. I realized there's only one solution to that for me - the same
exact solution as for me at home. And that's attention to flow, and
processes. I realized I should set up a mini version of my home system
whereever I am, *even if only for one night*. I already know how to use
it, and so it's just a matter of setting up each of the components. And
here is that minimal set:
* A place for clean clothes
* A place fpr dirty clothes
* A clothes chair for the ones that don't fit either category (see the
limbo laundry entry)
* An inbox (for when I come home from a day at the conference and want to
just dump stuff - in this case it was just the corner of my desk)
* A garbage and/or recycling within easy reach.
* An out box - a location I put stuff that I want to remember to take the
next day.
* A "going home" out box. This is the only element that is special to the
away from home scenario. Here I put stuff I don't need to think about till
it's time to go home.
* A "temporary support" location, for things that I will need to make use
of for short-term projects.
These show that I'm now definitely leaning towards the "take everything
out of your suitcase right away" side of the issue. In about 15 minutes,
once all those things were in place, my UWO dorm apartment was a
functioning helpful organism, just like my home and office (well they are
that some of the time)
One additional thought I just had: if you're remembering various things
you want to pack a few days before a trip, why not toss them in your open
suitcase? It's taking up space anyway, might as well use it as a bin -
then the distance to move the stuff before you repack will be particularly
short.
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