1. In all your closets take the hangers and hang then backwards. When you wear something hang it back up the correct way. At the end of a season all the hangers that are still backwards are the clothes you do not wear; donate them to a local shelter or clothing bank. This will lighten your load of clothing and make packing up your out of season clothing easier as you have already sorted through them.
2. At your front door area make a spot where you place or hang your keys, keep your sunglasses, mitts hats, gloves, sunscreen etc. so that you have everything you need at your finger tips for when you head out for the day. Make sure each family member has their own spot so they can do the same. This makes getting out of the house easier and fast as you are not rushing around looking for your keys or gloves.
3. Make it a habit to take the mail to a designated paper area, meaning a place that you go through your mail and sort and file it. Try not to open your mail until you know you have the time to go through it all at once (this will stop the piles of papers you have all ove your house) and are able to take papers to correct areas of the house if needed; office, filing cabinet, kitchen etc. If you create a paper station even better. Use hanging files to create sections for specific papers; bills, coupons, taxes, receipts etc. Use this station daily and make it a weekly task to go through the folders and take the actions needed; such as pay a bill, make a phone call, file paper away.
4. Every night before bedtime get into the habit of having a tidy up time for 10 minutes. Get all the family members involved, at any age, and put away items that are in the living room and take items to where they belong if not supposed to be in the living room. Take all toys and other items that are designated for bedrooms with you when heading up to bed.
5. Make it a habit that everytime you leave a room you take something from it to return it to its home. We are human and we will always leave things laying around as we were in a hurry or got distracted by something else. This will lessen the amount of tidying up you will do in one given time throughout the day/week.
6. If you have children make it an after school routine, you and the children go through their back packs, go through agenda, empty out the lunch bag/thermos, complete homework and then prepare their back pack with all the needed books and homework for the next day. Make your child's lunch for the next day while they are doing homework and keep it in the fridge until the next day for them to take to school. This will make the morning go by easily and with less to do.
I hope you have found the above tips/actions helpful. Try one tip at a time, when you feel comfortable with it add another one and so forth. We need to do things step by step not all at once, we will set ourselves up to fail if we do.
As a professional organizer I am always looking for new ways to support my clients and to create easy and organized routines in their lives. If you have a helpful tip please share it with us.
Thanks for stopping by, from Serenity Organizing Solutions, we want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Safe and Healthy New Year.
