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!

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

How to Tackle Organization For the Home Without Feeling Overwhelmed

By Wendy Mitchell 

If you are quickly becoming frustrated with all the clutter that exists in your home, you probably know that you need to institute some form of organization, but you are probably feeling a little overwhelmed with where to start. The clutter that exists in your home did not form overnight and the task of tackling that clutter will take some time. While you may be feeling like organizing your home is a lost cause, there are some key tips that can help you tackle the task without feeling overwhelmed.

Start small. While you may be desperate to get your home organized as soon as you can, trying to tackle too much at once can quickly kill any ambition you may have started with. You will want to choose an area that you can tackle in a short amount of time so you can feel like you have accomplished something. Whether it is the junk drawer in the kitchen or the pile of mail on the table, tacking something that will end up with a positive result will give you the encouragement needed to tackle the next task.

Take on the keep it or chuck it attitude. While nearly everything in your home will hold at least some sort of sentimental value, you need to be serious with the things you really need to keep. Your need to keep everything is more than likely what got you into all the clutter that you are now tackling. Now comes the time to actually start purging stuff. Be honest with yourself and be strong enough to get rid of the stuff you really do not need. It will help improve the look of your home while giving you another vote of encouragement at the same time.

Make a plan. For those larger areas that require much more attention to get them organized, you may need to formulate a plan of attack. Areas such as your closet or even the basement may require some form of storage units to assist with your home organization. Take the time to do a preliminary assessment and determine what you need. When you are ready to tackle the task you will have all the tools needed so you can tackle yet another task with success.

For More Easy To Use Tips To Get Organization For The Home Please Visit organization-for-the-home.

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Why Organization For the Home Can Help Relieve Stress

By Wendy Mitchell 

We all know that our home is supposed to be our sanctuary, a place that we go to relax and regenerate ourselves after a stressful day. Yet all too often, our stress levels tend to increase when we get home when we are faced with even more tasks that need our attention. Whether it is our kids asking us to help them find their favorite shirt for school the next day, or trying to figure out what to make for dinner, our dream for a relaxing evening usually turns into anything but. Organizing the home can actually help reduce stress levels by being able to find everything just when you need it. Here are three key tips that explain why taking the time to organize your home can help reduce your stress levels allowing you to live a happier life.

First, you will feel relaxed. Odds are, every morning and evening in your home is spent in a frenzied blur. Whether you are trying to find your kids books and shoes so they are ready to leave for the bus, or finding the last ingredient for dinner that you could have sworn you had in the closet but can not seem to find. Being always in edge and in a constant state of frenzy always adds to your stress levels, even if it may be on a subconscious level. When your home is organized, you will actually feel calm and relaxed when you walk in the door because everything has its place and can easily be found by member of the family. This leaves you the ability to take care of yourself so you are ready to tackle the tasks of tomorrow.

Second, cleaning becomes a breeze. When your home is unorganized, the task of cleaning each room becomes much more cumbersome. Whether it is something as simple as vacuuming the rugs or dusting off the furniture, clutter can make a simple task much more difficult. When your home is organized and clutter free, the amount of time it takes to clean every room of your home is drastically decreased. This leaves you more time to handle the other tasks in your home that you really want to do.

Lastly, you have time to do what you really want to do. When your home is unorganized and full of clutter, you end up spending most of your time trying to tackle the most important tasks in your home that keep everything running. Whether it is paying the bills, cleaning or tackling the task of finding a missing piece of clothing, you never seem to have any time for yourself. When your home is organized, everything has its place and tasks can be tackled quickly. This frees up time in your schedule so you can do what you really love to do. Whether it's your favorite craft, or just having the time to read the newest best seller, home organization frees up time so you can do what you really want to do.

To Start Today With These Easy To Use Home Organization Tips and Get Control Of Your Clutter at http://www.squidoo.com/organization-for-the-home

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Easy Methods to Keep Up Organization For the Home

By Jill Borash 

When you really consider it, making your household organized is the simple part, it is sustaining it as organized that poses the most problematic challenge. You at last got all of that paper off of your kitchen counter but what is the way you keep it off? Once everyone has finally gotten their things and their rooms coordinated, how do you continue to keep yourself, your kids, your family members organized? Keeping your organization for the home is not as hard as you may believe it is. It merely involves a bit of considering and action.

The starting thing that you must do is prepare a plan. How often do you have to keep up with particular organising tasks? Daily? Weekly? Bi-weekly? Monthly? Yearly? Decide on which of your organization for the home jobs fall into each of these categories and list them out in that method. Working over the mail may be a everyday project. Paying the bills might be a weekly or bi-weekly task. In order for you to feel as if you possess an organized house, resolve what needs to be done when.

Once you get this list, maintain it in a principal position which you look at frequently or add it to your calendar. Be sure that you schedule in time to your life to be certain that these things get finished. For your monthly and yearly organization for the home jobs, associate a date with them. Commit in your calendar when you will make those items done by or when you will start out working at that organizing labor. Making the plan is good but you have to be sure that you act on that plan.

Another matter which is great to do is to have regularly scheduled organizing meetings with yourself. I understand that might sound silly but bear with me a second. Holding a weekly meeting with yourself might aid you in understanding what has gone straightforwardly that week, what has not, and what you might have to correct and where you must spend extra time for the forthcoming week. This does not need to be prolonged, 10-15 minutes should be enough time to make it worked out. This meeting time is a grand time to figure out if there are areas of your plan that are not effective and the way to fix them. It aids you in keeping on top of your progress and to continue going.

Maintaining your organization for the home plan in position does require a trifle of exertion and planning but the tiny quantities of time you spend preserving it as coordinated adds up to not having to reorganize your household all over again in 6 months or a year. All you must do is acquire a plan, stick to it and carry through with yourself. Additional assistance for your home at http://www.YourHomeIsOrganized.com.

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