Get Organized at Home

Here are a few ideas to help you Get Organized at Home.

New Year’s Day is just around the corner – well it feels like it – the years fly by so fast, pretty soon we will be plummeting toward Christmas and the year will be done again. I know it’s only February, but if this year is anything like the last, it will fly!

If you’re going to make resolutions, every day is the time to be doing so. You may find some of these resonate with you.

Get organized at home

This post was the first in a series of posts about New Year Resolutions Ideas. My goal for the year was to simplify and organize my life better so that I could enjoy life more “a year from today”.

So I started planning my goals for the year ahead, and I created my own New Year Resolutions Ideas in the following areas:

• Get Organized at home – get my clutter under control
• More quality time with my sons
• Give my children the most essential life skills
• Get my daily / weekly and monthly to-do lists organized
• More looking after myself holistically – pampering, me-time, fun and enjoyable activities.
• Nurturing my friendships and relationships with family
• Financial goals – overcoming those credit card debts within a year from today
• Improve my internet presence and make a real difference with what I put on the world wide web.
• Improve my health and well-being – reduce my stress – get a work/life balance

My Goal Number One when I wrote this post was to get my clutter under control and get organized at home.

Get organized at home

How did I do?

I like looking back on my old blog posts. It’s an opportunity to see how well I’ve done at goal setting and achieving.

I have to say things really have improved at home since I wrote this post in 2014. I’ve certainly got my clutter under control. I’ve pared back my wardrobe and my son’s. The linen cupboard has been rejuvenated. I’ve thrown out kitchen paraphernalia galore and tossed piles of magazines that were over 10 years old. I regularly walk around the house looking for things to donate and I keep a very large bag in the garage to accumulate these things till my next trip to “Savers” to donate them.

I have a couple of “hot-spots” where I allow myself to accumulate things – three baskets in different rooms where “things” that don’t have a home get put, till I find them a home. Belongings are not scattered throughout the house. As we walk in the door, we put things away (or in a hot-spot) and not strewn about.

I’ve developed a routine for doing the dishes (I don’t have a dishwasher) which isn’t onerous on any of the household members. I do one sink of dishes in the morning – I come home and he’s put them away and the sink sparkles. This has stopped a lot of arguments from him who gets home earlier than I and didn’t like arriving to a sink full of dirty dishes. I know this might sound crazy to you organized housewives, but it was something that took me years to get under control.

I routinely employ “just 5 things” to keep on top of messes before they become overwhelming.

If you too are interested in simplifying your life so you can get a better balance, here are some ideas that might help you to break down your own goals or re-invigorate your New Year Resolutions:

• Call the charity collection people and make a booking – this sets you a date to aim for.
• Use up all the “planet-friendly” shopping bags you’ve accumulated over the years and bag up all your “clutter”. Clutter consists of the things that have sat in cupboards or on shelves for years and never been used. Go into each room with a bag, and collect anything that you haven’t used in the last year or so. Put these aside for the charity collection.
• Together with your children, sort through their toys for items that can be donated. This is a great activity that your children can learn. During this exercise, you teach your children that others are not so fortunate, and this activity can become a beautiful exercise in generosity. Put these aside for the charity collection.
• Pare back on everything in your closet. Strip out all of the things you can’t wear, whether this is because they’re too small, too large or out of style. This includes all the knickers, pantyhose and socks that have holes! These go in the rubbish bin.
• Donate the shoes and clothes in good condition that you don’t or can’t wear.

• Clean up after the holiday season. Take the Christmas decorations and tree out to the shed or basement or attic before the 6th January. Don’t put away any decorations that are shabby or broken. Take a note of what you’ve got and what you may need. Take advantage of the stocktake sales events to pick up replacements or new decorations at bargain basement prices.
• Take big things that you use infrequently to the garage for long term storage. Just make sure you remember that you have these things! Take a photo with your phone and store the photos in a folder called “Things in storage”. Remember to check this folder before you make any large purchases.
• Utilize your storage effectively – for instance, put all office supplies in the one place/storage-unit, rather than have them in many places throughout the house.
• If storage is a problem, consolidate your existing storage or (if your house can fit more furniture), buy a storage unit or 2 (I like the Ikea Expedit/Kallax 5×5 unit for its versatility and excellent storage – the use of the vertical space is so handy)
• Start your List-making. Lists are a great step toward helping you identify your goals.

• Once the Charity Collection has taken away your donations, continue to de-clutter and get rid of stuff you just don’t use – Have a free yard “sale” every other week. I’m lucky enough to live on a busy corner. Everything I don’t want can be put on the kerb and disappears within minutes!

Making New Year Resolutions is an important task we undertake each year.

It gives us hope that we can make some real changes in our lives. But the time of year is only a number, a date. It doesn’t really help you to start a resolution on 01/01 or any other date, UNLESS you have an action plan in place and make a real commitment to achieving these goals.

Your goals need to be SMART. Make sure they aren’t vague and unrealistic. They need to be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-oriented.
Your goals determine how successful, or unsuccessful, you will be in your life

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One of the major reasons we fail to stick with our New Year Resolutions is that we fail to develop an action plan. It’s all very well to have a lovely list like I’ve provided above, but without a WHEN and a HOW, without the action plan, we can easily fail to achieve our goal.

The attainment of your goals is a significant contributor to your own self-worth and self-confidence. Sadly, if we fail to plan and carry through on our New Year Resolutions, we can also contribute to a sense of failure and self-loathing. Please, for your own well-being, don’t make any New Year Resolutions unless you put a plan in place.

Start with a list, then break that list down into smaller lists, then break that down into easily achievable baby-steps.

Good luck with re-invigorating your New Year Resolutions and I hope you find some ideas among the pages here.

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• Meet The Founder
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• Stuff and Clutter
• Coping With Difficulties
• Get Organized
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Looking for more ideas on how to get organized? Check out this page for inspiration.