ESL Podcast 468 - Organizing Your Office
disorganized - messy and being very difficult to find things; with things not grouped by type, so that one doesn't know where things are
She owns hundreds of CDs, but they're very disorganized, so she can never find the ones she wants to listen to.
to crack down - to become very strict; to begin to make someone follow rules
The police used to just give people a warning when they drove too fast, but now, the department is cracking down and giving people very expensive tickets.
pack rat - a person who saves everything and never wants to throw things away, even if they aren't very useful anymore
What a pack rat! His house is filled with old papers, like movie tickets from three years ago and newspapers dating back to the early 1990s!
to turn over a new leaf - to have a new beginning; to begin a new phase in one's life, usually to try to change one's habits and do something better
Each year, on January 1st , she says she wants to turn over a new leaf and start exercising, but she never goes to the gym for more than a few weeks.
to accumulate - to increase in quantity over a period of time in a particular place; to add more and more of something to a given space
A lot of snow accumulated around our house last winter.
to put (one's) mind to (something) - to commit to something; to decide that one will do something, especially if it is difficult or unpleasant
Playing the violin can be difficult, but if you put your mind to it, I'm sure you can succeed.
clutter - a mess; many things that are in an area where they do not belong and need to be put away
There's so much clutter on the floor that we can't even walk into our teenage son's room!
pile - a group of many objects that are on top of each other
They threw their dirty white clothes into one pile, and their other dirty clothes into another pile.
file - a group of papers related to a particular project or client, usually kept together in a folder
Do you have the file for our most recent sale to the Acme Corporation?
to sort - to organize objects, grouping them by size, type, age, color, or some other characteristic
He sorted his unwanted clothes into three groups: too small, too old, and too ugly.
to purge - to throw something away; to get rid of something; to remove or destroy something
When he started his new diet, he purged his kitchen of all foods with added sugar, fat, or salt.
filing cabinet - a piece of furniture made of metal or wood with large drawers that can be locked and are designed so that special folders hang from the top to hold files
This filing cabinet has all our files for the past year. Anything older is sent to storage.
to make room for (something) - to make space for something; to move one's things so that something else can be put in its place
They had to sell some of their office furniture to make room for the new baby in their small apartment.
to triage - to decide which things are most important and must be handled immediately, and which ones are less important and can be handled later
When the bus hit a large truck, many people needed medical care, so the nurses had to triage them.
overflowing - with too much of something, so that it cannot all be held inside a box or another container
Whenever it rains a lot, the swimming pool in their backyard starts overflowing.
to label - to put a small piece of paper with a written description onto another object, so that it is easy to know what that object is
Before you put food in the freezer, please label it with today's date.
essential - very important; critical
The ability to work calmly in stressful situations is essential for a surgeon.
to-do list - a piece of paper where one has written down the things that one needs to do
Each morning, she makes a to-do list, and then draws lines through each item as she finishes them during the day.
task - something that one must do, especially when it is part of a large project
If we're going to clean the kitchen, our first task is to wash the dishes. Then we can clean the counters and floors.