Organizing As A Way of Everyday Life

Organizing is something not everyone admits to being good at.  In fact, most people find that the task is daunting to say the least.  Being a busy working mom is hard enough, without the task of trying to be organized.  I'm here to tell you, however, that being organized can become part of your everyday life.  It can help your day-to-day life run more smoothly, even freeing up some much-needed and deserved free time.

All it takes are some simple life changes and routines that you would be willing to try out.  These, along with simple tips and suggestions, will get you on your way to being that super-organized person you want to be. 

Are you ready to tackle the organizing demon that is always there to confront you?  If so...keep on reading and please feel free to share tips of your own.

...Step 1:  Declutter

The first step to becoming organized is to stop the collection of clutter.  You may need to set aside a good chunk of time to declutter your home for the first time, but once you have done this very important first step, keeping it that way is so much easier (more on maintaining a clutter-free home in later blogs).

Make three piles:  a trash pile, a keep pile, and a donate pile.  Decide which of your belongings goes into which pile.  Be ruthless:  do you REALLY need to keep old copies of every magazine you subscribe to? 

Once you have your three piles, then you need to put them somewhere.  My mantra is and will always be:  "a place for everything, and everything in its place".  The trash pile is easy..simply put it in a garbage bag and toss it.  The donate pile can be  bagged in a similar fashion or put into cardboard storage boxes to keep until you find a worthy organization to donate to.  Finally, the keep pile must now be put back.

The key here is to find a suitable place for all of the "keep" items so that they may easily be returned to that place.  Clothes are best kept in the closet, for example, while you may use various things such as baskets, boxes, etc. to house the rest.  I rely heavily on decorative baskets to keep many things such as books, magazines, dog toys, etc.  You simply have to find the containers/places that are right for your own needs and the needs of your household.

If you look at the big picture, once everything in your home has a designated "space", your goal for day-to-day living is to make sure that those items are always returned to that special place you have set aside.  It should become habit.  For example, always returning your car keys to the little dish beside the front door should always be something you do automatically.

In the blog entries to come, I will go into more detail about setting aside special "places" for everything, and give you some tips on containers, places to keep things and more that you can do to slowly find your perfect "space" to put all of your things.  I will also pass along some ideas that may be useful as you set about organizing your home, office, calendar, etc.

I'm a busy working mom like you, so I understand that you want to find the easiest, and less time-consuming ways to be organized.  Let's explore those together.