The Spring Cleaner's Guide To Data Management

It is that time of the year again - the dreaded spring cleaning which precedes the Chinese Lunar New Year. It is also funnily enough the time when I feel the most inspired. Always count on painful experiences to spawn creativity.

This year, spring cleaning inspired an article on data management basics. Read on for a 5-minute overview of data management!

The Superficial Cleanse

Honestly, I used to cut corners. Everything had to look spick and span on the outside. It didn't matter what was underneath. Who would be rude enough to open up your storeroom, cupboards and drawers anyway, right?

I got away with ...

• Keeping stuff thinking I will use it one day
• Hiding messes in different random boxes and calling it a system

Some people may refer to it as a organised mess where only the user knows where to look.

No one used to be interested when I was young, single and childless. But for some weird reason, since having a child, parents, in-laws and parents-to-be love prying into how I arrange and store my son's growing needs, my latest shopping, and my husband's gadgets.

With interest came visits ... horror ....

Then came remote working ... and the strange ideas that something must be wrong if I am not flaunting big empty walls with artistically arrange photos or a huge collection of books.

2021 was the year I was left with no choice but to take this whole spring cleaning exercise seriously.

The Reality

Like a crime scene investor, I opened every door, every drawer ...

We had countless unemptied bags. I had a good laugh at the number of travel adapters I owned - enough for 10 travellers packed into my different suitcases and travel bags at all times. A part of me must have been traumatised by work-related travel to be this excessive. Imagine finding bags of gifts we bought from abroad ... gifts I never got round to giving because I was never around enough ...

I loved stationery as a kid but 10 years' worth was too much! In my defence, my husband had casually stored them in random shoeboxes and tossed them into the highest shelves in the house. I only found them when I climbed a ladder this year.

My husband had bottles of perfume abandoned in kitchen drawers, conveniently placed on the washing machine and dining table. He did not fancy using the bathroom so I would find bottles in just about anywhere except the vanity room. He asserted he had no personal space of his own and insisted on claiming the kitchen drawer. Right ...

While at the kitchen, I noticed many abandoned packets of snacks. We bought them to survive COVID-19 movement restrictions but everyone fancied a different flavour and got bored of consuming the same snack. I had cupboards filled with partially consumed snacks which would expire soon. How wasteful!

Our wasteful behaviour wasn't restricted to food. I stumbled upon a bag of brand new swimwear for my son. It had been mixed into yet another paper bag of other things. Alas it was too small and no longer useful by the time I found it.

We had a lot, or should I say, we held on to a lot. We officially ran out of storage space despite the number of cupboards and boxes we had.

The Deep Cleanse

Bigger boxes are not going to make things better. I needed a different strategy.

[1] Purge the system of things that aren't needed

It was a vicious cycle to keep things. Every year, I took them out, wiped them, dried them, and put them back. Such a chore!

The only way to break the cycle was to eliminate them. I will no longer sweat over maintaining or storing them. I'm done. If I have not used it, I won't keep it.

From this day forth, I ask "Why do I have to keep it?" and not "Why do I throw it away?".

[In the data world, they call this data deletion and archival.] 

As I toiled, I was secretly hoping to find hidden treasures like my precious albums of baby pictures. But alas, they are truly lost. Gone are my thousands of photos ... but thankfully I did find a few collages that brought a smile to my face.

Looks like I had figured out what were my favourite moments and never needed so many photos to appreciate the memories to begin with. :)

[In the data world, they call this data aggregation. Pro tip: Don't store every detail if all you needed was a summary.] 

[2] Classify and group what you choose to keep

By the end of 1 week, I had purged about a third of what I had but never got round to using. By the time we got through everyone's belongings, half of what we owned was trashed or recycled. Half!

Half gone, half more to sort. It's time to classify and group what remained. It's time to play the matching game. Open box, pick an item, toss similar items into the big box.

[In the data world, they call this data extraction. Pro tip: Only extract what you need so you don't waste time cleaning data you don't need later.] 

No more boxes with random things! No more empty or semi-empty boxes. No more boxes with 1 large item.

I felt a little obsessive compulsive ensuring only objects of identical category and height made it to each box of approximately the same width, height or expiry dates. But hey the results were worth it! This basic repetitive process improved space utilisation, search and retrieval, and in the future disposal of expired stuff. You could think of it as "No small or irregular sized or expired items in a oversized box.". It's pretty obvious if you got it right.

[In the data word, they call this data normalisation.]

Clothes had to be moved around between wardrobes. My husband had grabbed a bunch of ironed clothes and stuffed them in one closet regardless of who owned them. Argh ... he was trying to be helpful. I found some of my favourite clothes that had gone "missing" trapped in my husband's closet. Work clothes were then separated from the 'real home clothes', and rearranged by owner, type, fit, length. All this work-from-home is blurring the lines!

[In the data world, they call this data profiling.]

By the time I was done, I knew exactly how much I had, where to look every time, and when I needed to reorganise for more storage.

[3] Give what remains a good scrub as if they will be used immediately

It was obvious we had neglected our possessions. Some had lost their shine and was in terrible need of a proper wipe down. Others had misplaced parts and could use some basic do-it-yourself fixing to become good as new.

The devil on my shoulder wanted to save the cleanup for another day. "Why don't you clean it or fix it only when you need it?", it said. But I knew us all too well.

We never considered using anything that wasn't in a "ready-to-use" state when we needed it.

If it's worth keeping, it's worth fixing.

We had to ensure whatever we had was "fit-for-use" if we were resolved to use what we retained.

[In the data world, they call this data cleansing. Pro tip: No one likes cleaning so expect lots of grumbling, denial, resistance. Everyone has a different standard for cleaning. Some need help to get a head start. So engage a dedicated cleaner to get the bulk of the cleaning done quickly if you have to.]

I was starting to look like a maniac determined to conquer the mess! All repurposed shoe boxes had to go so they would no longer be confused to hold shoes when they were used to store random things. In their place, I had a fixed number of matching boxes and labels ... not more, not less. It became crystal clear if our old habits were seeping back ... that lone unpacked bag ... that last bit of shopping that can't fit into the box.

Everything looked better packed neatly, looking sparkly and identical in the right boxes. I felt a sense of calm looking down at the boxes which were comfortably filled (not stuffed) and stacked. OCD at its best!

[In the data world, they call this data loading. Pro tip: If you load dirty data, you will get reports with dirty data. And don't even think about loading a mix of clean and dirty data. Your report will stink like the dirty moldy data! ]

[4] Rearrange with accessibility in mind

Thank goodness the dirtiest part of spring cleaning was finally over.

But I was not done. Beyond pretty and standardised, I wanted my home to feel natural. Old habits would take over if we didn't embrace our personalities and provide a little freedom.

As I placed the boxes back into the cupboards, I remembered the boxes of stationery and bottles of perfume. We can't and won't use what we can't see or reach. I never knew what I might find on the top shelves.

Shared possessions needed to be in shelves accessible to all. Personal possessions were best stored in places where users would naturally use them so they would grow to respect and love their personal spaces. Fingers cross people ...

I had painstakingly created a system. It felt lighter and intuitive to me at least. I knew exactly which cupboard to open to find anything I wanted the first time every time.

Fewer things laid out differently but consistently provided me with new inspiration, not stress.

I had moved from feeling "I don't have enough" to "Actually I have way more than I needed. I just didn't know I had them."

It was such a relief to finally stop searching and start getting on with what I wanted to do.

[In the data world, they call this data accessibility. Pro tip: No one likes to be policed 24x7. Personal spaces to play around with data keep everyone happy and creative. When the owners get their dose of freedom, no one creates messes in other common or personal spaces.]

The Teething Issues

For now, I was the only person with a blueprint of our possessions in my head.

Only time will tell if we pass the tests ...

• Will my husband know which cupboard to open to look for something without assistance?
• Will I find clutter building up beyond their personal spaces?
• Will the boys find joy and spend more time in their personal spaces?

[1] Finding what we need on the first try

The personal spaces were easy to spot so they grew to enjoy them independently. Common spaces took some adjusting to figure out things were kept in specific boxes among related and targeted shelves. They had to search in the obvious areas within their line of sight rather than random places. Not too difficult but still nonetheless different from picking whatever they needed from possibly many different places.

[2] Learning to play by the rules

Over the next 2 weeks, I was asked countless times "Where did you put this??". I persisted with showing them where things were instead of bringing things to them. I hated nagging but found myself nagging each time I found items left in the open or casually slipped into the wrong boxes. It wouldn't be sustainable if I was the bottleneck. Everyone had to chip in with similar expectations of 'what is ok and what is good'.

[In the data world, they call this data monitoring. Pro tip: Get real, you can't change everyone and everything overnight. It's going to be a journey of continuous improvement to change years of learned bad habits.]

It got better over time. I found fewer stray items and was equally reminded not to buy festive clothes for my growing son. On most days, boxes will be complete, uniform, accurate, fit-for-use.

For now, in the spirit of no wastage, I shall restrict myself to making the best of what we have. We are still working on working through the soon-to-expire snacks (no thanks to COVID-19 hoarding), one cookie and pasta sauce at a time. Maybe over time, we will not have duplicate packets of flour and pasta. Maybe over time, we won't be eating recently expired food. Maybe over time, my son won't be squeezing into the clothes he had outgrown before wearing.

[In the data world, they call this data quality which is measured by completeness, uniqueness, consistency, timeliness, accuracy, conformity.]

The New Rules & Processes

It sure took a lot of patience and work to create a sense of order.

So none of our efforts go to waste, here are some of the new rules we live by:

• We will no longer have random boxes for random things.
• We will not add new boxes to store more. If you absolutely need it, consult Mama.
• We will use/consume what we have before buying more.
• We will return things to their rightful places.
• We will unpack our bags daily and sort the items into the right boxes.
• If we can't or won't fix it, we won't keep it.
• For others to respect our personal spaces, we must be personally responsible for it.
• Ask 'Why must you keep it?", not "Why must you throw it?"
• If you haven't used it and haven't tried looking for it, you won't need it so don't keep it.

 [In the data world, they call this data governance.]

Will we succeed? Only time will tell but it's looking pretty positive at the moment.

• I am calmer.
• I am shopping less.
• We have more space to move around and have fun while mostly trapped at home during a pandemic.
• Former mess makers are reminding me of my own rules.

The final point is a clear sign of change!

Summary

There you have it - an introduction to data management, all while spring cleaning :) Anyone who is capable of spring cleaning is capable of managing data.

You may not be in an equally dire state so here's a reminder of some of the tell-tale signs to watch for and what you can do about it.

Running out of storage space?

You're keeping more than you need. Remember sometimes all you need is the aggregated version.

Frequently unable to find data you clearly own?

You're missing a sensible accessible system.

Copies of the same data spread stored across your IT landscape?

You're missing personal spaces for people to feel in control and free.

Can't stop cleaning of data?

You've got a cleaning bottleneck. If it's humanly impossible to clean by hand, explore professional data cleansing tools to. Beyond the initial deep cleanse, the rightful owners have got to step up.

Finding dirty data after you've just cleaned it?

You've got a handful who aren't collecting data to the same quality standards.

Finally ...

If you are going "You never know when you may need it.", then you are not going to need it so purge it!

Have a Happy Lunar New Year!