- Take a moment to identify what frustrates you the most and start there.
- Find an organizing style and pace that suits you. Organization is only maintainable if it fits into your daily life.
- Divide & conquer – cut an organizing project into manageable pieces. For example, do one cabinet, shelf or closet and finish that space before you move on to the next.
- Every item must have a home of its own.
- Resist the urge to procrastinate! With clutter, there is no ‘later’, there is only ‘more’.
- Good enough is good enough – procrastination is often a form of perfectionism. Just aim for progress.
- When tackling clutter, start with an honest evaluation of your stuff. Be brutal – if you don’t need it, use it or love it, get rid of it.
- Every minute you spend planning your day saves you 3-5 minutes later on.
- Pare down your commitments – it is critical for life balance to learn to say no.
- Set goals & deadlines – it’s harder to make progress when you don’t have a plan.
- Make chore checklists – it works for kids & grown-ups too!
- Make to-do lists and prioritize your day. Even if you don’t get everything done, it’s gratifying to see the check marks pile up.
- Limit your daily to-do list to a maximum of ten items and no more than two large tasks.
- If you are feeling overloaded, identify the three or four most important activities on your calendar and cancel everything else.
- Spend ten minutes cleaning out your e-mail. Delete junk mail, forwarded jokes, anything you no longer need.
- Keep your tools as close as possible to wherever you use them.
- At least once a year, host a party – there’s no better motivation than company coming!
- When you purchase an item, you consider the prce. Consider also, where you will store it. If an item doesn’t have a home, you either don’t need it, or need to eliminate something else to make room for it.
- Label everything – it helps not only to find things, but it allows everyone to help with maintenance.
- Group like items together in whatever way makes sense to you.
- Clean out your car. Take a trash bag and empty it out. You’ll be surprised at what a difference it makes.
- Clear off your desk. Once you have a clear space to work, you can organize everything that used to be piled on it.
- Don’t put it down, put it away.
- Save only the articles, not the whole magazine.
- Make a chore chart. Everyone in our household should share in the household chores. Make a chart and list the family members responsible for each age-appropriate chore. Make sure to include a reward system to keep everyone motivated.
- Go through your living and storage spaces once each year to purge and sort.
- Take advantage of storage products (boxes, bins, racks, hangers, etc.), but only after you sort and purge.
- Use see-through containers whenever possible and label everything so you know what’s in them without having to open them.
- Know yourself and find systems and tips that work for you. For example, are you more motivated in the mornings or evenings? Do you prefer to do a project in one long stretch or in a bunch of small pieces?
- Imagine you’re moving. If it’s not worth the effort and expense of packing it and moving it to a new house, then it may be time for that item to go.
- Pull the first ten file folders from your filing cabinet. Go through them and get rid of anything outdated or no longer useful. The next time you have a few spare minutes, pull ten more files.
- Clean out your medicine cabinet. Anything you haven’t used in months should go.
- Schedule quiet time. Turn off phones and e-mail. It’s not healthy to be accessible 24×7.
- Schedule and delineate specific time for work, home and play.
- For cooking and baking, get out everything you need. Put each item away as you use it. That way, you’ll never get half way through and realize that you’re missing an ingredient. And, when you’re done, most of the clean up is already done – you only have to wipe the counters. This works with craft projects and getting ready in the mornings too.
- Set limits. Your personal and family time should be at least as important as work time.
- Make a list. Take ten minutes to brainstorm all of the tasks that need to be done today or even this week. Once you have it all written in one place, it’s much easier to manage.
- Do a laundry basket tour of your house. Spend ten minutes walking around collecting things that are out of place. Spend another ten minutes putting the collected items back in their proper home.
- Organize a drawer. Any drawer that’s bothering you, spend ten minutes emptying it out. Decide what to keep and arrange it so that similar items are stored together.
- Take 15 minutes at the end of each day to pick up and tidy the house. This will dramatically ease your weekend workload.
- Open mail over the recycle bin – always eliminate junk mail immediately.
- Don’t rely on your memory – make a to-do list. You can’t be relaxed or serene if you’re thinking, “Don’t forget the dry cleaning. Stop at the bank. Got to send that e-mail this afternoon.”
- Sort incoming paper daily – don’t let it pile up. The same is true for e-mail.
- Files in your computer should be stored to match your paper filing system – same categories and file names.
- Store inactive files elsewhere. Only keep at your desk what you currently need.
- Keep a list of birthdays, anniversaries and other important dates. Buy all of your greeting cards in advance once each year. Keep them in order by date and they can all be pre-addressed and stamped. You’ll save tons of time.
- Make mornings as smooth as possible by pre-planning the night before. For example, pick out tomorrow’s clothes tonight, pre-pack lunches & backpacks.
- To keep track of lessons, appointments and other family events, keep a large family calendar in a central location. Each family member should have their own color and can be responsible for keeping their information updated.
- If you haven’t worn a piece of clothing in more than a year, donate it.
- Keep only what you can currently wear (because of size, style or season) in your main closet. Everything else should be stored elsewhere.
- Keep a box in your attic or basement marked ‘donation’. Any items that are in good condition, but are no longer useful to you should go into the box. When the box is full, call your favorite charity for pick-up or delivery.
- Highlight the expiration date on coupons for easier sorting and purging.
- Only store what you use daily on bathroom and kitchen counters. Everything else can be kept out of sight.
- Think vertically to take advantage of wasted space. Choose containers that are stackable. Hang hooks or shelves to get stuff off the floor.
- Stock every bedroom with a clothes hamper and a wastebasket.
- Use a desk organizer to keep pens, paperclips and other office supplies in check.
- Make a reference list of phone numbers you call regularly to avoid having to look them up each time.
- Pick a room, any room. Ten minutes isn’t enough time for a hard-core cleaning, but it’s plenty of time for picking up and maybe some light dusting.
- Keep focused on your values. Align your expenditures of time, energy and money with your values throughout the day. The more you focus on your values, the more likely you are to express them through your actions.
- Ask for help! Work with a friend, a family member or an organizer to help you stay motivated and positive.
may 28 2013 ∞
may 28 2013 +
may 28 2013 +