Last year’s trip was amazing! Yes, the desert was dusty. Sure, I was really underdressed for the occasion. Absolutely, my lack of alarm clock made it difficult for me to get up for the 6 a.m. burning down of three five-story lighthouses whose walls were packed with pyrotechnics. There was just one teeny, tiny problem: every time I needed a glowing LED fishnet, or bicycle brake wrenches, or a glorious pastel tutu, it was impossible to find. Stuff was in bins in my tent, outside my tent, in other people’s tents… it was utter chaos.
This year, I vowed to return, to bring order to Burning Man. Nice, comforting, calm order.
First let’s clarify: I am not OCD. I just like things neat and organized. Things should be in their proper places. And they should be clean and neat, without a speck of dirt on them. You want to be able to access what you want, when you want it. And not need to wash your hands afterwards. While camping.
Pack things separately
One of the first rules of Burning Man is: the dust is everywhere. So you want to pack every article of clothing separately in a plastic bag. Every shirt goes in its own gallon-size Ziploc bag. Every pair of pants gets its own Ziploc. Contact lenses? All go in one Ziploc. Socks? Ok, I cheat a bit: six pairs of socks go into one gallon-size ziploc.
At first, this sounded onerous. Secretly exciting, of course, but still a lot of work. It wasn’t. I just took my shirts, folded them up, and popped them in bags, squeezed the air out, and sealed the bag. It went by lickety split!
Choose the kind of Ziploc bag that does not have a slider. Choose the ones you press and close, and make sure they have some extra plastic lip above the sealed part. We’ll get to why in a few minutes.
Label every bag, with a little tag
Burning Man is a “leave no trace” event. That means every single thing that you bring in, you have to bring out, down to the last gum wrapper, scrap of paper, or snozzberry wrapper. Since everything you own is now in neat, orderly plastic bags, stick a label in each bag telling what’s in it. “Contact lenses,” “Socks,” “Grammar Girl T-shirt,” “Fungal infection creme.” I just fold a bunch of scrap paper in 8ths, tear it to get a bunch of little rectangles of paper, and write on each rectangle.
Now you can look at a bag, see what’s inside (or see the label if the contents are mysteriously invisible), and only open the thing you’re looking for. When it’s time to re-pack, every single plastic bag has a label telling you exactly what goes where. It’s super convenient.
Even better, I keep the bags with the labels from year to year. Then next year, the bags themselves tell me what to pack. Did I say it’s super convenient? It’s actually super super convenient!
Gather related bags on loops of string
Now that you can be sure not a single. Solitary. Speck. of. Dust. Will. Touch. Your. Things, you need to organize! Otherwise you’ll just have a big pile of plastic bags full of socks, underwear, and costumes with pointy bras, all jumbled together. While that works for a Madonna video, you want your life to be easier, so when you need that combination back-scratcher, nose massage tool, you can go straight for it.
Now grab a hole punch and punch a little hole in the top of each bag, above the seal. Put it towards the edge of the bag.
Next, take all your related bags and run a string through the holes on the bags. Tie the string into a loop, and you now have a loop that has all the bags related to one area. I have all my shirts on one loop; my underwear and socks go on another; my toiletries like toothbrush, toothpaste, contact lenses, and anti-fungal creme on their own loop; and so on.
Voila! You’ve got what’s a chest of drawers, only without the chest and without the drawers. Instead you have loops of string, you lift up your Clothing For Hot Weather loop and you can instantly browse through your sun hat, your sun screen, your sun jacket, and that oh-so-unfortunate swim suit that you’ve kept since college, even though you are never, ever going to fit into it again. Or maybe I’m just projecting.
If you want to go for the advanced version, instead of threading your cord directly through the holes you punched, put a carabiner in each hole and put the carabiner on the loop of cord. Now you can clip and unclip any item to take it out of your camping closet and put it back in.
Gather loops of strings on a carabiner
You’d think that now you would be as organized as it’s possible to be, right? Almost! There’s still the question of how to carry everything. It’s easy: gather all your loops and clip them all to a single carabiner. Just life that carabiner, and your entire camping closet is at your fingertips, all at once. After all, you never know when you’ll need to duck behind a 20-foot art installation and change into furry, zebra striped pants.
If you want to see a picture of my camping closet in action, zip on over to http://ift.tt/2usV39g and check out the picture.
Camping is a most unfortunate activity, in which we have to commune with Mother Nature. And you know what that means: mess and dirt. Ick. By putting your items in separate Ziploc bags, labeling each bag, then stringing those bags onto loops, you can create a closet for camping. You’ll keep all the mess safely sealed away. You can quickly find anything you need, even when you’re late for the how-close-to-the-bonfire-can-the-skyjumpers-land contest. And if you’re coming to Burning Man this year (2017), say “Hi” to me at Ranger Outpost Berlin at 3 o’clock and C. Just remember: what happens at Burning Man stays at Burning Man.
This is Stever Robbins. Follow GetItDoneGuy on Twitter and Facebook. I run programs to help people develop the kick-ass business skills they need to create an extraordinary life. If you want to know more, visit http://ift.tt/1l2uWN6 or join my personal mailing list by texting GETITDONE to 33444. You’ll also get a free copy of my secret book chapter on how to build relationships that help you succeed.
Work Less, Do More, and have a Great Life!
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar