Give yourself 5 minutes, when you return home, to take care of anything you brought home with you. I mean anything. Put your keys and handbag in a specific spot. Put away your coat and shoes. Take care of receipts, mail, and other papers. Find a home for new purchases or other stuff. Do this every time you enter your home so it becomes a habit. This helps prevent piles of clutter from growing, and helps you stay organized.
Give yourself permission to throw away anything that is broken, damaged, rusty, bug-infested, mildewed, torn, stained, or incomplete. Toss these items without hesitation. You’ll get rid of clutter and free up some space.
Situational disorganization is when our organizational systems are temporarily derailed, or when we’re temporarily overwhelmed by life. A few examples are when one has to downsize in less than 3 months, when one has to clean out the family home to prepare for a sale, or when one inherits a mass quantity of things all at once. In these situations I’d recommend asking for help from a Professional Organizer.
School’s out and the kids are home all summer. Here are a few tips to help keep things organized.
1. Schedule daily organizing time. Require participation from every child and play their favorite songs to motivate them.
2. Label children’s clothing bins, toy bins, and book bins with words as well as images, to reinforce where items belong.
3. Instead of leaving unfinished projects out, have an open space on a book shelf or in a cabinet for them to be stored.
Eliminate duplicates to reduce clutter. Why have ten of something, if three will do? Why have three of something, if one will do? Look around your home for duplicates. How many can you eliminate? To prevent the need to purchase duplicates in the first place, have an assigned home for items that tend to get misplaced or lost. Label each assigned home to clearly identify it’s location.
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