Optimize Your Kitchen Organization and Simplify Your Life

The kitchen is easily the busiest room in our homes. From cooking and entertaining to a place for your kids to do their homework, play board games or work on their arts and crafts projects. It can be easily overrun with art supplies, outdated spices and unused or damaged utensils. 

Go through your kitchen and appropriately discard anything you don't use, along with any food or spices kept in the kitchen that are beyond their expiration dates. Then take everything out of your cupboards and drawers, and clean inside them. This would be a good time to replace any cupboard and drawer liners with fresh, new ones. 

 

Store your pots and pans, nesting the pots and pans together to conserve space. Make sure you keep the matching lids for them. This is also a good time to make sure handles are securely fastened, so keep a screwdriver handy to tighten down skillet handles or pot lids if necessary. 

You can keep your dishes near your eating area or your dishwasher to shorten meal preparation or cleanup time. Plastic storage containers should be inventoried to ensure each has a matching lid and that they are free from cracks or other damage. You may decide to store them near your refrigerator to ease meal cleanup time. 

 

You could alphabetize your spices and keep them on a spice rack or in a nearby cupboard on a revolving rack. Store food items that you use on a daily in a place you can easily grab them when needed. Organize your pantry so that similar canned goods are in the same place and can be found easily when it’s time to cook meals. You can use airtight food storage containers to lengthen the shelf life of your foods.

If you have small appliances on your kitchen countertop that you don’t use on a regular basis, you could store them in a nearby cupboard or pantry. A storage cabinet for those appliances that are used on a regular basis keeps them out of site and dust free.

Tips for Differing Standards of Tidiness within a Household

Family life and having roommates are both rewarding, but each can also be a challenge at times. One of these times is when you are trying to find a balance between keeping everyone happy in areas where they differ.

When some members of your household are neat freaks, and others are more suited to audition for a hoarding television show, it is not an easy task for everyone to live together. Here are some tips on how your household members of various levels of organization can dwell peacefully together.

Have a Group Meeting

The most important tip on how to negotiate this dilemma is to keep your lines of communication open. Hold regular meetings to discuss the issue. Make it a time where everyone can input and try to keep it light-hearted and as fun as possible.

Decide on Common Goals

Although some family members or roommates may be drastically more or less comfortable with disorganization than others, there are sure to be some common goals you can all agree on. Some of these might be to have a regular group clean-up time, or to keep the living room clean since this is where your visitors spend most of their time when they are over. Choose deadlines that everyone can agree on, and talk about a minimum level of cleanliness that everyone agrees is important.

Decide on a Reasonable Compromise

Perhaps the messiest individual of the group simply may not be able to stay consistently organized, nor leave things spotless all the time. Maybe as a group you could choose certain rooms that need to be tidy, and others that are not so important.

Bedrooms are generally an area where organization can be left to one’s personal choice. This way, if someone has items that need to be put away but they don’t have time to do so immediately when they return home, they know that they can put the bags in their own room or another appointed "messy zone" until they have the time for it.

Make other compromises such as letting family members or roommates switch their cleaning duties with someone else if they are running late from work or have an especially busy day ahead of them.

Let Each Person’s Strength Be Highlighted

No two people are alike, even in the same family. Everyone has different strengths, and this can be capitalized on when you are creating your cleaning schedule. Perhaps one of the household members loves cleaning the kitchen after supper, while another prefers more time-consuming but less frequent tasks such as vacuuming. Create the schedule to cater to everyone’s likes, dislikes and natural abilities.

It can be a challenge to live with someone who is at the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to household organization, but there is no need to let it destroy your relationships or living arrangements. Stay focused on what you love about each of your roommates, whether it be family or friends. Appreciation for each other and a commitment to working together will help you to live in harmony while taking responsibility together for the home you live in.

 

Listing Your Way To Efficiency

 

Checklists are the greatest way to get organized for any occasion. Most of us make a grocery list before going to the store, why not make a list for everything else in life? The benefits greatly outweigh the time that it may take to make one. The more checklists that you make, the quicker you will get at it. Following are some general ideas for checklists:

Checklist for everyday: Start your mornings by making a list of all the things that you need to accomplish each day. Carry it with you and mark each item off when completed. This will give a great feeling of accomplishment and closure.

Household maintenance: Develop a household maintenance list divided into months. Check the list a few months in advance to see if you need to schedule specific maintenance people to do a job for you. 

Weekly cleaning list: A weekly cleaning list should be developed and hung on the wall for everyone to see. Beside each job include the person's name that is accountable for the job that week. Make sure they mark off the job when completed. 

Car Maintenance checklist: Schedule times when you need to make appointments for an oil change and general car maintenance. 

Developing checklists for your life will go a long way in reducing stress. Having a list will also make it easier to assign tasks to other people in your household. The great thing about these checklists is they can all be stored on your computer and printed out as needed. Or if you prefer, create a special binder for all of your checklists. Once you start making checklists, you will wonder how you ever lived without them.

8 Steps To Managing Your Time

 

Are you an individual who can’t seem to properly manage your time? If you are having problems at home or at work, there is a good chance that your problems may be caused by your inability to properly manage your time. The good news, however, is that there are a number of steps that you can take to improve your time management. In fact, eight simple steps that you can take are highlighted below.

1 – Know That You Have a Problem

Knowing that you have a time management problem is the first step in changing your behavior. Although it is typical to be late for work or a social event on occasion, it is something that should not be happening on a daily or a weekly basis. If it is, it is time for you to realize that you may have a problem.

2 – Decide To Change

Knowing that you have a time management problem is important, but wanting to change is even more important. You need to set goals for yourself, as these goals can help to provide you with a source of motivation. Sample goals include showing up to work on time for a whole month, being on time for all dinner dates, and so forth.

3 – Stick To Your Goals

Creating a number of time management goals for you to meet is advised, but it is important that you don’t give up right away or when you are faced with complications. Setting goals simply just isn’t enough, you need to stick with them.

4 – Create Daily Task Lists

Creating a to do list for yourself is an easy way to properly manage your time. In fact, it is one of the easiest approaches that you can take. Outline what you need to do throughout the day. Be sure to list your tasks in order of importance.

5 – Rely On Time Management Tools

Properly managing your time is important, but it can be hard for many individuals to get use to, especially right away. If you are one of those individuals, you will want to consider using time management tools to your advantage. In fact, did you know that many cell phones and computers come with alarm clocks, alerts, and so much more?

6 – Learn How To Say No

In all honesty, there are times where you may not be able to refuse a project at work or a task at home, but try to not take on more than you can accomplish. If you must, look into using outside help. In the home, this outside help can come from a housecleaner. At the workplace, this outside help can come from a coworker.

7 – Get Organized

Organization is key to being able to properly manage your time. If you are unorganized, you are likely to waste a large amount of time. For example, in the workplace you can waste time by searching for lost or misplaced documents. The same can be said for the home; if you are unorganized, you can spend hours searching for your glasses or car keys.

8 – Consider Hiring Professional Help

As previously stated, if you are overwhelmed at home, you may want to call on a professional housecleaner. In addition to taking this approach, there are other professionals that you can target. There are individuals and companies who specialize in teaching others how to effectively manage their time and stay organized, such as professional organizers.

What Are The Benefits of Decluttering and Organizing Your House?

 

I have a question for everyone reading my blog today. What is clutter?

• Clutter is anything in your home or office that does not serve a purpose or function in your life anymore.
• Clutter may include items in your home that are broken or nonfunctional.
• Clutter may be material items in your home that you do not need or love.
• Clutter could also include unnecessary duplicate items in your home.
• You may be surprised to realize that having too many storage containers that aren't actually being used in your home may add to your existing clutter problem. That is the main reason it may be suggested that you declutter your home "first." Then, it should be easy to figure out exactly how many storage boxes to buy and specific sizes you may need.
• Clutter could also consist of accumulated items of trash to be thrown away or removed in an appropriate manner. 

Now that we know what clutter is, why do you think our homes accumulate clutter?

• Clutter may be caused be delayed decisions.
• You haven't taken the time to decide on appropriate areas to keep your specific items in your home.
• Procrastination: maybe you feel overwhelmed about organizing or decluttering your house.
• You may be experiencing that frustrating "all or nothing" feeling about home organization. For example: you may think to yourself, "I will never have enough time to get my organizing projects done. There is just too much to do. So, why should I even start?"
• Maybe, you have a very busy family schedule and you haven't been using a good weekly/monthly planner for routine chores/tasks in the home.
• Possibly, the family doesn't realize your home organization goals and you may get easily distracted with many interruptions throughout the day. It may be very helpful for you to communicate your short-term and long-term organizing goals with your family. You may decide to have family members participate in your plan. This may be especially important in helping to keep your home maintained after you have everything set up the way you like it.
• You may have felt the lack of energy or motivation to complete organizing projects in the past.
• Often times, a major lifestyle change may cause a change in the normal flow of organization in your home. Here are a few examples: a birth or a death in the family, new marriage or a divorce, job relocation, or health problems.

How can clutter affect your life in a negative way?

• Clutter can take up lots of extra space in a home. Think of how much more additional space you may have available after you get rid of any unnecessary clutter.
• You may be using a lot of your valuable time to take care of all the material things in your house.
• You could be spending extra money for duplicate items that you have been purchasing because you haven't been able to find the things that you were looking for in your house.
• Many people say they lack energy because they are tired of maintaining all the material things they have accumulated over the years.
• They don't have enough time to take good care of themselves or to enjoy their favorite hobbies and outlets.

What are the positive benefits of home organization and decluttering your house?

• You will be able to focus on things that you enjoy, such as: exercise, hobbies, good nutrition, etc.
• You may find that you have more time to spend with family and friends.
• Hopefully, you won't have the need to purchase unnecessary items because you will have easy access to your items and be able to find everything when you need it. You will learn how to find "the right place for everything in your home."
• You may really enjoy the big bonus of having more space in your home once you get rid of your clutter.
• An organized house, free of clutter, may help you save time when you need to do your routine daily/weekly household chores.
• I find that I focus and concentrate better and feel more productive and less stress with work when my house and office are organized.
• You may increase your confidence to invite your friends over to your home again.

Baby Steps and Goals for Getting Your Home Organized

I find that most people can increase their productivity by simply organizing their belongings around their house and office. I will mention some tools that may help you when working on your specific goals to organize your life. 

 

It is so helpful to initially formulate a plan. Many of us set goals that are too broad and unrealistic when first embarking on any area of our lives.

 

In order for this plan to go smoothly, you need to have realistic, specific goals that are well-defined and written out. It is essential to set long and short term goals. For example, your long term goal could be getting your home organized in a year's time. Your short term goal could be getting one room in order each month. 

 

After you have your goals in mind, write them down on paper and put that paper in a place where you can view it often. Knowing target goals in your mind is not enough; they need to be in a place where you can view them often, so you are constantly motivated to achieve your specific goals.

 

Finally, you need to determine why you want something.  It's not enough to simply want to get organized in your life. You need to know why you have this motivating desire. Without wanting something whole-heartedly, it will be difficult to achieve it.

 

While the above tips may seem simple, it is surprising how many people set out to achieve a significant life change without knowing what they want to get done. The simplest and yet most motivating force to achieving your goals is knowing where you are going and why you are going in that direction. Follow these tips, and hopefully you may organize your life faster than you ever thought possible.

Getting your home environment more organized may certainly help you to find a happy balance in your everyday life. Things may seem more controllable, less stressed and pleasurable. However, many of us may currently feel so fragmented and overwhelmed because we aren't achieving that sense of balance when our home surroundings are cluttered and disorganized.

We may never seem to have sufficient hours in the day to get everything completed. Taking the time to make creative changes in your life can really mean the difference between simply struggling each day or enjoying your life to the fullest extent.

Learn to take control of your physical environment. The less time you spend running around searching for things, the more time you will have for what is significant to you. 

Prioritize what is in fact needed and important to you. Be decisive about what you keep. You have a finite amount of space. Use the "real estate" for those things you need and treasure.

Eliminate what you don't need. Not everything has to go the way of the dumpster. You may decide to donate to a charity or sell the items and allow yourself the freedom from feeling guilty or wasteful. If you aren't using it, chances are someone else can enjoy the items. 

Remember to contain or store things properly. Consider where you would look for items routinely and what type of like or similar items can be contained or stored together. Make a good habit of scheduling time to maintain your new organized surroundings! 

Designing Your Own Organizing System

By reading my blog you are taking a step closer to getting your home and your life more organized. Have you been feeling the clutter in your life is getting out of control and more chaotic? Do you waste a lot of valuable time searching for items around your house? I know for myself, even with being home so much more throughout last year during the Pandemic, I feel like I don’t have enough time in the day to get things done like I used to in the past. I think a lot of the reason is because I am cooking even more now throughout the whole day, which means more meal preparation and clean up time afterwards. 

It seems like before the Pandemic, I had more of a consistent routine daily/weekly schedule. Do you ever think how much better your daily life would be if your house was really organized? I have read so many wonderful books and articles about organization throughout the past several years. 

Sometimes it is easy for life to seem to get somewhat out of control, such as with all of the changes in 2020. You may feel overwhelmed with so many daily responsibilities to accomplish, without enough time for you to relax a bit. You may even begin to feel anxious and depressed about the situation. 

Maybe you actually started to spend money on shelving units, bins and containers, hoping to bring order to counteract the chaos. Don’t lose hope or motivation. You can turn your situation around. Start with a small, manageable project that won’t take too much time. Be consistent and keep going with this reasonable project until it is completed. It could be cleaning out and organizing one kitchen cabinet or drawer. Successfully finishing smaller tasks will help to build your confidence to tackle larger projects. 

It is very important to understand that organizing is not all about throwing things out, but about identifying what is important to you, prioritizing and maintaining access to what you routinely need. Clutter control and finding the ideal storage area for your individual items are important keys to good organization. Home organization requires patience and consistent efforts. However, the end results are so rewarding.

By learning helpful organizing skills and techniques, you can begin to restore order and balance in your life. Organizing your home and cleaning may provide comforting, peaceful order to your life. 

When families collect too much stuff, the unnecessary clutter can interfere with the tranquility and calmness of the home environment. Too much clutter can actually cause feelings of despair and frustration. Clutter takes up a lot of precious space in your home that could be used much more efficiently.

One of the first things I learned when I was studying to become a professional organizer was the major importance of assigning everything in your house a specific place or “home” so that you will know exactly where to find that item in the future when you are searching for it. This is a good habit to teach all of your individual family members.

You could start in your foyer/entryway area of your house and place a small basket or dish to hold your keys. A larger basket set on an entryway table could temporarily hold library or school books, so they don’t get lost and remain quick and easy to find. A coat rack could nicely hold your seasonal coat and purse. 

I know you can think of several areas throughout your house for organized storage of various items. In the bedroom you can use drawer dividers for socks and tiny items. I have found useful, multi-purpose ottomans to store many things, such as seasonal throw blankets in my bedroom. They are also handy to store excess books. 

In my own closet, if I find clothing that I haven’t worn for a year or is no longer my size, I decide if I want to sell or donate those items or store them. I use slim color coded hangers to display only the clothing that is currently my size and that I plan to actually wear often.

One thing I routinely do with my kitchen items is to try to donate a small appliance at the time that I purchase an upgraded model. I have a small kitchen with limited counter space. I do a lot of cooking every day, so I try to prioritize things carefully in my kitchen. It takes a decent amount of time, but I need to really maintain order inside my small kitchen cabinets for adequate storage purposes.

I find that my dining room table can easily get cluttered with excess grocery supplies or with mail/bills, etc. It definitely is a fabulous habit to keep your kitchen and dining room table clean and free of all clutter. Hopefully, you may have a spare desk or even a dedicated cart of some kind to keep your mail and bills, along with your writing supplies, calendars, notebook and menu planners. 

I keep at least three boxes in the house labeled the following:

1.) Donate

2.) Sell

3.) Put Away

Then when I straighten out rooms throughout the week, it makes it easier to keep things tidy and organized.

There a few things to consider when you are deciding to donate items, such as:

1.) Have you used the item in the past year?

2.) Do you have duplicate items?

3.) Have you upgraded to a newer model?

4.) Are you holding onto the item just for sentimental value?

Part of organizing is deciding what is important to you and finding an appropriate place for your items, so your home can be maintained in an easy manner. You will reap the benefits of a calm, happy, “clutter-free” home environment. Hopefully, you will have more available quality time to spend enjoying your favorite things and more relaxation. Organizing is not about throwing out a lot of household items or buying lots of storage containers.

Don’t feel guilty for accumulating a lot of stuff over the years. Developing a unique smart organizing system that will work for you and your whole family will certainly help you maintain your household.

To create a lasting, successful organizing solution, make your system fit your personality so you feel comfortable with your home surroundings. Create neat order, clear surfaces, simplify your life by designing your own organizing system unique for you and your family!

Step-By-Step Goals For Organizing Your House

The truth is you can really increase your productivity a great deal by simply organizing your belongings around your home and office. Here are some tools to help you when first starting on your goal to organize your life. It is so important to develop a plan. There is nothing that is more potent to achieving your goals than having a specific plan to start off. 

A lot of people set far too broad goals when first embarking on any area of their life. In order for your plan to succeed, you need to have realistic, precise goals that are well-defined and written out. It is a good habit to set long-term and short-term goals. For instance, your long-term goal could be getting your whole home completely organized in a year's time. Your short-term goal could be getting one room in order within a month. 

After you have your goals in mind, write them down on paper and put that paper in a place you can view it often. Maybe you may want to use a planner notebook or a digital app. Knowing a target in your head is not enough; it needs to be in a place where you can view it often and constantly motivate you to achieve your goals. 

Finally, you need to determine the reason why you want something. It may not be enough to simply want to get organized. You need to know why you have this desire. Without wanting something whole-heartedly, it will be harder to achieve it. 

While the above tips may seem simple, it is incredible how many people set out to achieve a target without knowing what they want to get done. The simplest and yet strongest force to achieving your goals is knowing where you are going and why you are going in that direction. Follow these tips to help you get organized and enjoy the process!

Planning Baby Steps For Getting Your Home Organized

You can increase your productivity dramatically by simply organizing your belongings in your home. I will describe important tools to help you when deciding on your goals to organize your life. 

The first major step is to create a plan. There is nothing that is more essential to achieving your goals than having a good plan. Often times, people set nonrealistic goals when first embarking on changing any area of their life.   

In order for your organizing plan to work successfully you need to have understandable, realistic goals that are individualized and written out. It is a good idea to set long and short-term goals. For example, your long-term goal could be getting your total home organized in one year's time. Your short-term goal could be getting one room in order within a month. 

After you have your goals defined, write them down on paper and put that paper in a place where you can view it often throughout the week. This should easily motivate you to achieve your goals.

Lastly, you need to determine why you want your house to be organized. It is helpful for you to know why you have this desire. 

While the above ideas may seem simplistic, it is amazing how many people set out to achieve positive changes in life without knowing what they specifically want to get done. The simplest and strongest force to achieving your goals is knowing where you are going and the reasons why you are going in that direction. Hopefully, if you follow these tips you will organize your life better than you ever thought possible.

10 Baby Steps To Getting and Staying Organized

By Elvie Look 

Do you purchase magazines that talk about ways to get organized? Do you look through them, enjoy the pictures, but do not seem to have the energy to do them? Do you look around your home and wonder "where do I start?" Do you feel the task is over whelming? If you do feel over whelmed, chances are you will do nothing.

So, let's do baby steps. Here are ten small things you can start on that can make a difference, and will give you the feeling of accomplishment, not failure. You don't even have to do these all today. Try doing one step a day for the next ten days:

Paper: seems to mount up and soon get out of control. If you have a paper delivered to your home everyday, plus flyers, plus mail and magazines, this can instantly become clutter. Blitz through your home collecting up all newspapers and magazines and put into your recycling bin. You should keep only current reading material in your magazine rack or basket. I keep one magazine basket in both of my bathrooms, and one in the living room. Rotate your magazines, and put your older issues in a donation bag or into your recycling bin. Collect up all mail, paper receipts, notes, appointment slips, etc. that you have tucked into cupboards, on the counters, your purse, on the table, and put them all in one central location like your desk. You can even organize them into piles - like with like. All your receipts in one pile, bills in another, etc. Just by putting into one central location will eliminate that scattered feeling.

Kitchen Counters: Clean off your kitchen counter top. If you have papers there, collect them all up and take them to your office or your desk. You can deal with them later, but if you have a clean kitchen counter, it will feel and look instantly gratifyingly, clutter free and organized. Take time now to remove everything that does not belong on your kitchen counters, wash up the dishes, scrub the sink and make it shine.

The Floor: is not storage space. Do you have clothes lying around? Go through now picking them up and putting them away in their respective rooms, closets or into the laundry hamper. While you're at it, throw a load of laundry in. If you have clothes that need folding, do that and get them put away.

Toys: If you have children you should get them on board with collecting up toys and putting them into their toy station or play box.

Entrances: Attack your entrances by organizing your foot wear neatly, hanging up all your coats and removing anything that does not belong in this area. If you have sports equipment, homework and backpacks, put them into the rooms they belong.

Home for purged items: Create a bin or box for "donation" and one for "garage sale." Have a place for them. As you clean up and organize, you have a place to store things that you no longer wear or use. This prevents them from accumulating in your closets and becoming clutter in your home.

Start Purging: Now set a goal everyday to be "purge conscious." Getting organized doesn't mean stripping your home of things you love or use. You just need to be conscious of the things you are not using or are outdated, cracked or broken. Make decisions daily and put these trinkets or items into your bins. You still have time to retrieve them if you change your mind and made a mistake. But put them into the bin and just see if you will even miss them. Just by purging one thing everyday will take away the overwhelming feeling and start you on the road to de-cluttering your home and closets. It could be a shirt you never wear, a trinket on the side table that is just collecting dust, or a bowl that has a chip in it.

Bulletin Board: Create a bulletin board to post your messages, appointments, coupons, phone numbers, pictures, receipts, "to do" lists, instructions, etc. Just by making a home for these in one central location removes a lot of clutter.

Stay Organized Organizing Secret: Every activity must have a station. Every thing must have a home. Take a moment to consider what is becoming clutter - most likely it doesn't have a home or activity station. Give consideration to some place you can make a station for that activity. For example, If you con't have a desk or office for doing your bookwork, then it will pile up onto your dining room table. Make a station for this activity, either a nook where you can put a table or desk. Or, a basket with a lid that can store all of supplies like your cheque book, calculator, pens, stapler, bills. If it has a home, it won't become clutter.

Stay Organized Organizing Secret: Make the most of every step. Never walk by dirty dishes on the coffee table, or wrappers, empty pop cans. If you are going by, pick it up and take it with you. If you are going downstairs, take a load of laundry, if you coming upstairs, bring up the folded clothes and put them away.

Elvie Look is an Entrepreneur, Expert Organizer, Cook and Seamstress. She provides organizing solutions, tips, menus and recipes at: http://www.elviesessentials.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Elvie_Look

Organize Your Office And Reduce Clutter In Your Home

By Sasha Jenkins 

If your home, particularly your office, has become too cluttered it may be time to eliminate some of that clutter and get more organized. There are a few basic and simple things you can do to organize your home and your office.

Organizing Your Office And Paperwork

The office is an area that can get particularly cluttered with mail and paperwork. Get a document organizer to help organize your paperwork. You can find document organizers for both digital and paper files, so you can scan documents and keep them online or get a file cabinet where you can store them. Sometimes a combination of the two is the best fit.

If your desk is buried under a pile of paperwork you may benefit from a desktop document organizer. This type of organizer can help you keep your paperwork neatly sorted and safe. There are a few types of organizers that fit into this category, so shop around until you find one that fits your desk and your style of work. Everyone works a little differently; if you don't take this into consideration when buying a desktop organizer it may not work for you the way you had intended.

There are stacking organizers that allow you to easily access and store paperwork in different levels so you can sort your documents and neatly store both the organizer and the documents right on your desk. There are also desktop organizers that allow you to sort and divide your documents horizontally instead of vertically. It's just a matter of preference.

Organizing Other Areas Of Your Home

If you have other areas of your home that need to be better organized, but they look particularly daunting, just start small. Start cleaning and organizing one section at a time so it isn't such an overwhelming project. Those little things add up quickly to make a big difference over time.

Another thing that can help you keep your home organized is to put things away when you are finished using them. This includes things like recycling. Read your mail, paper or magazines and recycle them as soon as you are finished. Clip articles you want to keep and store them in a designated space. Don't be afraid to get rid of things. Really think about how much you need some of the items in your home. If you truly never use them maybe you don't need to keep them.

Little changes in your habits will make a difference. Making the effort to get more organized will help you save time, reduce frustration and create a better feel in your home.

Use Sasha's online guide to learn more about the different types of document organizers available and discover how they can help you organize your home office: Document Organizers

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sasha_Jenkins



 

Simple Tips To Help Organize Your Life

By Sasha Jenkins 

Has your life become stressed and a mess? By utilizing a few simple organizing tips you could reduce your stress and get your life back on the right track.

Get A Calendar

Keeping a family calendar out where everyone can see it and has access to it can help reduce your stress and keeps everyone in the know about what is going on this week. If you find that you often have a lot going on each week and usually forget one or more task or event you really need to use a family calendar. The best ones are ones that are large enough to fit every ones schedule on the same calendar. That way when something comes up and you go to check your calendar you have a clear picture of what is happening and when so you can better schedule yourself and the rest of your family. You can even take it a step further and color code your calendar by importance of event or by person.

Write Things Down

A lot of times we forget important things until the last minute. One way to improve your memory and better organize your life is to write down important things like grocery lists, errands that you need to run or appointments that you need to keep. The act of taking time out of your day to actually write down what you need to remember makes you far more likely to remember it.

Clean Your Refrigerator

You may not know it, but there is likely something going to waste in your refrigerator right now. When is the last time you cleaned out your refrigerator or pantry? If you take the time to do a quick clean of your refrigerator, no more than 15 minutes each week, you will waste less of your groceries and have an easier time deciding what to have for dinner. By regularly tossing the things that are expired you keep a mental inventory of what is on hand and what is not. This may be one of the most important organizing tips for your kitchen.

Lay Things Out The Night Before

Often times when people wake up in the morning they are running late. To make your life a little easier lay your things out for the next day the night before. Choose your outfit and set it out so that you can easily get dressed without wasting time standing in front of your closet for half an hour. Have the kids gather their home work and books and put their back packs by the door so they are ready in the morning and nothing important gets left behind. This one simple change in routine can save you lots of stress in the morning so you can start your day off on a positive note.

Using these simple tips to help organize your life can help save you time on a regular basis.

Another great thing you can do to better organize your life is to use document organizers for your paperwork. Read Sasha's guide on organizing documents to discover how things like a travel organizer can make your life a little easier: Travel Document Organizer

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sasha_Jenkins

10 Clutter Habits To Break

By Elvie Look 

Even though I am a bit (just a tich) of a neat freak and love being organized, you may be shocked to know that I do not get up in the morning and wonder "hmm, what can I organize today?" I really don't think about it at all because organizing has become a "habit," and a habit is when you do something without even realizing or thinking about it.

Getting organized is really about developing good habits. I've shared about some of those habits in my articles 10 Baby Steps To Getting And Staying Organized and Best And Worst Habits Of An Organizing Junkie. For example, a good habit is to never walk by garbage or dirty dishes without picking it up.

But there is more needed to be successful in keeping an organized and clean home.

Let me illustrate it this way:
How successful would you be at losing weight if you ate healthy food ALONG with junk food? If you enjoyed a wonderful spring salad and herbal tea along with a greasy burger and fries?

Or, while teaching your children the good habit of saying "Please" and "Thank you," would you disregard their bad habit of belching at the table, or interrupting you when you are talking to someone?

You get my point. You need to develop good habits ALONG with "unlearning" or "breaking" some bad habits. You won't be successful unless you work on BOTH.

Bad Habits To Break:

1. Eating anywhere in the house and leaving your tracks
2. Not putting away tools after using them
3. Ignoring the mail
4. Leaving dishes in the sink or on the counter
5. Dropping clothes on the floor
6. Not making your bed
7. Taking the last and not replenishing
8. Keeping something that is broken or you no longer use "just in case"
9. Leaving projects unfinished
10. Procrastinating

Ok, so we know change is necessary, but that is easier said than done. Habits don't change overnight, so let's look as some practical ways to make this doable.

How To Change Your Habits:

• Pick and admit one bad habit you have that is contributing to your situation. Recognition and admission is half the battle. And notice I suggested only "one." If you try to work on all of your bad habits, it may be too much and you will give up. That's not what we want, so let's just work on one at a time.
• Make things convenient to help break that habit. For example, if you always drop your clothes on the floor, then do two things - install a clothes hook right where you are dropping them, on behind the door, and put a clothes hamper for dirty clothes there. Now you have no excuse for them being on the floor, if you are wearing them again, they go on the hook, if they are dirty, they go into the hamper.
• Enlist help from your family. If you leave dirty dishes on the counter, then get the family to all help. You can even set the timer for 15 minutes, and get everyone involved to help do the dishes for just 15 minutes. Having the timer makes it seem like a short time, they can spare 15 minutes, plus you are teaching them some good habits.
• Reward yourself. If you are struggling with making your bed every day, then allow yourself one day a week when you don't have to make it. Give yourself a "cheat" day or a "day off." Now you can play that day, and not feel guilty, but back on track the next day.
• Put your Tasks into bite-sized pieces. If you have the bad habit of procrastinating, then perhaps the tasks need to be broken down into smaller ones. For example: if you want to organize your garage but just can't get started, then break it down into small chunks. Such as - clear out all the garbage in the garage. Now that task isn't so overwhelming and makes it doable. When the garbage is cleaned out, then move onto another small task such as take all the recyclables to the depot. Then you can purge tools you are not using. Just look at ways to break it into smaller tasks.
• Put it in writing. To help you with dropping your bad habits - put up a message to remind you, either on your fridge, your bulletin board, your screen saver on your computer. Just a little visual to keep you on track.
• Remember your goal. Think about getting to where you want to be in life. You don't want to be stuck in the same rut you are now, you want to move forward, you want to be more organized, on top of things, you don't want to feel overwhelmed or like a failure anymore. Visualize your new life, and you will get there.

The Wrap Up

One key way to breaking a bad habit is to replace it them with a good habit, a specific task. One little task each day. You don't need to do this on your own. Let me help you, let me inspire you each day with one little organizing tip. Just doing one thing a day makes a world of difference. Don't wait, one tip a day into your inbox will help you get organized even if you failed in the past. Start The Journey NOW! Go to http://elviesessentials.com/oneaday

Elvie Look: Your Professional Organizing Coach who is helping people get organized with her easy tips and suggestions. These systems help the busy mom, businessman or woman,  entrepreneur or student learn the keys to organizing in simple, actionable and manageable steps. She teaches how to get organized and maintain your organized space while carrying on your normal busy life. She is the author of "21 Steps From Chaos To Calm and "One-A-Day" Tips "http://elviesessentials.com

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