I would love to blog every day. It is probably NOT going to happen because I can’t make myself stay up late enough, or like today, get up extra early to write.
I found these writing prompts online and thought I might pick and choose a few to write about!
Day one -- What are my 5 best organization tips?
1. Keep a list – without a list, my day runs willy nilly through 24 hours. To keep myself organized, I use a steno notebook. I make a list for every day with a list of tasks – some work oriented tasks, some personal tasks. I usually start my list on the weekend for the next week and as the week goes along, I can add things . . .and if I have extra time on one day, I can do a task from another day. I LOVE marking through the items as they are completed!
2. Have a place for everything. If you have more things than places to store them, start slowly donating these items to an organization that can use them (Salvation Army, Local Furniture bank). I must admit that this is a difficult thing. When we moved into this house 2.5 years ago, we donated about 12 pick up truck loads of stuff to the Salvation Army, the Community Furniture Bank, and to Habitat Restore. I have had to re-purchase a few things -- NOT many -- but a few. I try to clean out cabinets and closets about once a year. I need to work on my kitchen cabinets soon!
3. Sort your clothing in your closet by color and by type of clothing. My shirts are not sorted like the rainbow (ROY G BIV) -- mine are blacks, reds, greens, blues, oranges, pinks, etc. I have all my pants hanging together and all my dresses hanging together and all my skirts hanging together. If I'm wearing separates, I can quickly grab a skirt or pants and a shirt or I can quickly sort through my dresses. I highly recommend spending several hours (when you have it - ha! - was bored on the one snow day!) ironing everything in your closet. It is so much easier to get ready in the mornings. I need another ironing day SOON!
4. Every night before I go to bed, I try to take five minutes and straighten up our main living space. Our kitchen and family room are one big room. If those two rooms are neat and tidy, I feel so much better. We have a basket for Emma's toys if she is visiting. We keep several blankets in the room because we keep our house cold. I try to fold those and place them on the back of the sofa and chairs. This isn't a true organization skill but it makes me "feel" more organized. It is that thought of everything having a place. This is MUCH easier now that we have an empty nest. Even when our kids were at home, I designated a "back pack barn" which was under an end table by the sofa. When they were finished with homework, the backpacks went in the backpack barn (all the way through high school!).
5. What about attic and garage or basement storage? My hubby is in charge of those spaces and we don't organize in the same manner BUT he shares his space with me which is nice! We have a couple of shelving units in our garage where we store tools and Mark's fishing equipment and yard tools, etc. We keep the crockpots (I have THREE and NEED three!) on the top shelf along with the electric skillet and the food processor. I don't have enough storage space in our kitchen but these items "have a place." Our attic is used for ALL sorts of storage. We've been in this house for 2 1/2 years and this winter Mark had a brilliant idea. He strung lights down the center beam. We only had a couple of single light bulbs in the ceiling and it was so difficult to find items. I have decorations for every season and a tub of Fiesta/Cinco de Mayo decorations and tubs with ribbons, etc. The attic was a dark abyss. Now with the lights, organization is SO much easier because we can actually find things. Use spaces like attic and garage wisely. Build shelves. Add lights. Buy freestanding shelves at Home Depot or Amazon. You can easily organize and store all thing things that you don't need on a daily basis.
I'm not an organization expert by any stretch of the imagination. Right now, I need to organize my computer and put documents in folders. I need to organize many other things BUT I try to tackle a little at a time. I think that is the true key to organization -- tackle one project at a time! I always feel so good when I finish an organization project and can find things!
What are your favorite organizations skills and tricks?
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