Being organized increases productivity in your professional life and
pleasure in your personal life.
Whether at home or at
the office proven methods for organizing allow you to best utilize your space,
reduce stress, get more done and have more personal time.
If you need ideas for
organizing specific areas in your home visit our
room by room
page for great organizing tips for every space.
If your disorganization is due to
unmanageable clutter, visit our
eliminating clutter
page for helpful de-cluttering advice.
If filing systems have eluded you,
and your buried under paper, visit our
paperwork page for useful guidelines for getting out from under the
paper tiger.
If Keeping your children organized seems
like an impossible task visit our
children
pages for suggestions on homework, chores, and handling extra curricular
activities.
If getting ready for the holidays
puts you in a tail spin, visit our
Holidays and Events page for great ideas
for planning your next occasion.
If you are having trouble keeping up with
the bills while accumulating late fees and finance charges, check out
our finances
page for helpful hints and
strategies.
If you find yourself dreading an upcoming
vacation because of the anxiety of planning or packing for your trip, visit
our traveling page for terrific packing tips
and simple itinerary planning.
Organizing your
home and your life can seem like a daunting task. If you take it one
step at a time, one day at a time, you'll notice a consistent change for the
better in every aspect of your life.
One book on the subject that I love is
Organizing from the Inside Out, second edition: it helps it’s readers to create a plan of action based on needs and goals
and offers basic ideas for making space. It addresses the specifics of
organizing workspaces, home offices, living spaces, and storage areas and
gives the permission and encouragement that most of us have been waiting for
to get rid of things we'll never use again.
General Organizing
Top 10 Things Every Home Needs to Get Organized
A family Calendar that everyone can see and add to.
White board or chalk board for leaving messages for one another
Laundry baskets in every bedroom and bathroom
Garbage cans in every room
A paper shredder
A Gift wrap storage center
-
In drawers, on shelves or hanging. It doesn’t matter. Just keep it all
together and easy to maintain.
Greeting card & stationary center.
It can be a box or a drawer. This will end the problem of buying cards and
losing track of them before it’s time to use them.
Small plastic bins.
They keep lots of small things organized together and
they stack to maximize space.
Tickler Files
- sit out on your table,
desk, or counter to hold action items used every day such as:
TO DO
TO PAY
TO GO
TO FILE
PHONE LISTS
COUPONS/GIFT CERTIFICATES
Notebooks
I like to use notebooks to organize my thoughts and the little bitty papers
i seem to jot on throughout the day. Little things can clutter your brain and your desktop, tabletop, and counters
if there is not a place to write down and store them it will only get worse.
I like notebooks because:
• You can leaf through pages to find things easier than looking through a file
folder.
• It is easy to pass by outdated papers and toss them out.
• It Uses nearby shelf space instead of distant file drawer space.
Home Control Journal -Supplies: notebook paper, dividers, dividers with
pockets, business card plastic pages.
A home journal
is a place to store all the things that make your home run
efficiently, plus some of those tricky little papers that float around your home.
Journal categories include:
• Phone lists • Home Maintenance - names and numbers of your favorite companies, handymen,
etc. Get Business card plastic pages from an office supply store for this section. • Activities around town - keep a list of favorite places to visit or places
you want to visit, with hours of operation and phone numbers • Baby-sitter information with emergency numbers, favorite foods, bedtime
routine, etc. • Wish List - when you see something you might like for your birthday or
holiday gift, jot down what it is and what store advertises it. • Gifts Bought & for whom (keep track of what gifts are in your closet
already)• Books to read • Movies to see/rent
Add any sections that fit your life!
Manuals/Warranties/Receipts Notebook
When you make major purchases, staple the receipt to the manual and tuck it
into a page protector sheet. If you have a lot of “stuff” as I do, you can make several notebooks divided by
categories such as “electronics”, “kitchen appliances”, “tools and outside stuff”, etc. Or you can organize by
room of the house where the item is kept.
Holiday Notebook
Holiday Categories include: • Holiday Card List • Present/recipient list • Gifts received / Thank you notes written (check off when you write the
thank-yous) • To Buy / Bought - keep a running list of things to buy people as they
mention a favorite activity or item. Also keep a list of gifts you purchase during the year, but may be forgotten
in a closet.
Some of these tips may seem a bit overboard but you will be amazed at how
handy they will become the first time you need to look for something
contained in them.
it helps it’s readers to create a plan of action based on needs and goals
and offers basic ideas for making space. It addresses the specifics of
organizing workspaces, home offices, living spaces, and storage areas and
gives the permission and encouragement that most of us have been waiting for
to get rid of things we'll never use again.