Getting organized

Thank you for the blogging ideas!  I will use all of them soon, but today I want to talk about Patti's comment.  She wanted to  know what kinds of things I do to organize.

I am constantly trying to organize things because I am so bad at it.  Now I can organize some things very well.  But other things are just bad...like household organization.  But my constant quest for peace has taught me a few things.  I think I'm probably a hopeless case, but here are a few ideas that have worked for me:

Household notebook:  We have a three ring binder on our kitchen desk that holds our calendar, neighborhood directory, activity schedules for different things we're in, etc.  This notebook really works well for us.  I found this idea and printable calendar pages at the extremely helpful Organized Home.  There are so many different pages that can be printed:  emergency information forms, freezer inventory pages, meal planning pages, etc.  They have a related website at Organized Christmas.

"Fifteeners":  I once read a book I think is called Getting Organized.  (I have the older edition.)  In this book, I learned about "fifteeners."  The author's point is that cleaning a whole room can seem pretty daunting.  She suggested setting the timer for 15 minutes and cleaning for that long.  Then stop for that day.  It does help to break it down into smaller chunks.

5 Minute Room Rescue:  Fly Lady suggests tackling your worst room by cleaning it for 5 minutes each day for 27 days.  This worked great for me until I got a couple of days behind and the clutter started to rebuild.  But I plan on trying it again because it did work so well and I loved being able to see the progress I was making.

Only Touch Things Once:  This tip comes from my husband.  His premise is that the mail should be brought into the house and taken care of right away.  He says there is a lot of wasted time and clutter if the mail is put down, picked back up, sorted, acted on later, etc.  He's right, but this is almost impossible for me to do.

And that is what it comes down to for me...Many of these things are almost impossible for me to do.  I like being organized, but I don't like what it takes to get there and I can't seem to make myself stick with it.  If anyone has any tips for that, I'm all ears!

Comments

[Sheri]

No tips for that one, I'm just like you are. I do really good for a week or 2 then I get behind and you know what they say about getting behind! I love the web site for organizing lists though, that's great. Thanks! Now I have to go find them and fill them in.
Sheri

[Sheepish Annie]

No help here either, I'm afraid. I'm an absolute train wreck! But the "system" works for me, I suppose. Even if it means sorting through nine billion things to find the phone bill. If I put it away, I'll never locate it!

[Kaye]

Those are some great ideas. I've been to Fly lady before. Its a great website.
I'm very good at lists and actually organizing a room or area or system. My problem is getting started or sticking with it. The intentions are oh so good!

We should all share how we are organizing things over the next month. Some great ideas are bound to flow.

[Rachel]

I don't have any good hints, either. I'm somewhat organized, but I think that the only reason I can do it is because clutter drives me insane. I agree with your husband's philosopy of touching something only once, I do the same thing.

[patti]

Oh I am excited about that binder! I saw one advertised on Real Simple's website, to keep all sorts of family information together. Now you know I would rather spend my money on something else, so I am going to go to your website to download forms! Thanks so much!

The thing about touching something only once- we had a nurse that challenged us to do that when we were setting up our table to scrub a case. It really did help! I just got one of those mailmate shredders from Staples and it really does help out with the mail situation- I have it right in the kitchen and if something is junk it goes right into the shredder. You don't even have to open it because it'll shred the whole thing in one shot. I love this and would highly recommend to anyone who finds junk mail a problem!

[Debby]

It's neat to see someone else have the Fresh Start feeling early! There's something about putting away the Christmas decorations in January that makes me want to sweep everything clean and go minimalist (which will never happen, but I think it's the feeling of being stuck inside all winter that does it).

I've been thinking about Knitting Goals for 2007 and am going to post those soon. But I thought I'd share a tip with you that has been helping me lately: to try to put away as much as possible before you go to sleep. Just before Christmas, life was insane with work and trying to get ready for Christmas and keeping up with the regular chores...on the nights I left everything around I'd wake up feeling overwhelmed. But if I took a little time and put all the dishes in the dishwasher, hung up the clothes inside the closet, put books and magazines away, and got rid of that pesky mail, things were that little bit less cluttered and it made me feel much better. You could set a time limit like you said in your post. Even 10 minutes before bed can make a big difference.

Happy New Year Beth! And oh, I'm working on that hoodie again! In the home stretch!!

[Katie]

I LOVE the household notebook idea! I have a half-baked one, based on Fly Lady routines, that I do still keep a monthly meal schedule in. B ut other than that, it gets very little use.