How to complete 5 small things each week
In your organisers, write down the bottom of each page 1 thing you want to complete that day. Then test yourself to complete all 5 things.
These are not life altering events, just little tasks that you’ve been meaning to do but never get around to.
With 52 weeks in the year, that’s 260 little tasks you can do in 2010.
Quick & cheap ideas to freshen up your home interiors:
- New cushion covers can change a look quickly and cheaply;
- Photo frames – buy some modern frames to replace your old ceramic or folk art frames; the difference is amazing.
- New place mats for the table;
- Flowers or potted colour is cheap and cheerful;
- Put the winter throw & blankets away;
- A few new accessories or runner on the table or just a new lamp shade in a fresh new colour changes the look;
- Buy a modern magazine holder;
- Also, simply replacing your back door mat, excites those of us who don’t have a life.
Pegs – they’re cheap & useful
- seal opened packets of food (particularly cereal and chips etc.)
- seal packets of dry pet food
- great on the end of the rolled up toothpaste
- glue one to the pantry door to hold a pen
- attach one to your organiser front cover to hold a pen on the inside cover
- secure the doona to the doona cover to help get the cover on (an extra pair of hands)
- can be used for craft
- musicians use them to hold their sheet music to stands
- Here’s a new one: you can use them to hang out your clothes!
Set a limit
We buy magazines for many reasons – a casual read, decorating inspiration, meal ideas or an excuse for a cup of tea and tim tam…
Why do we have to keep them indefinitely?
If you’re the type that HAS to keep them all, you have to set yourself a LIMIT.
There are many magazine holders on the market, most generally hold around 30 magazines. THAT’S HEAPS! If your magazine holder is full, each time you buy a new magazine, you’ve got to get rid of one!
It’s called the ’1 in 1 out’ rule.
Speed Limits are there to stop us crashing – setting limits for your ‘stuff’ will stop you ‘hoarding’.
Handle it once
One of the rules of organising: “handle it once”.
I can hear my dad saying, “Don’t put it down put it away”. Little does he know, it’s now one of the organsing tips we teach people. Not quite in the same tone.
No matter how you say it, it means the same thing. Reduce the time you handle and think about something.
Dealing with Mail, is a perfect example:
You would be suprised how much time, and thinking, is wasted when you bring in the mail, open it and then place it in a pile for later. Then later, you might sort it into more piles: throw out pile, file pile and keep pile. Then the next day when the piles have grown and have blended back together, you have to start again.
A good sort says :- pick it up, action it and finish with it.
* Open the first letter, electricity bill, write in my.organiser when it’s due and file it in the due this week pocket of the respective week.
* Birthday invitation, write in my.organiser and one week before the party a reminder to buy the present and card, then file invitation in the due this week pocket.
* Council clean up notice, go through my.organiser and write in all the clean up dates, go back to the weekend before and make a note to get stuff ready. THROW OUT THE NOTICE!
You have now saved soooo much time by only handling this mail once. Now you have spare time for a walk or a coffee with a friend.
This rule is not only for mail, it is for everything you (and everyone else in the house-hold) pick-up.
When you pick up a pair of shoes at the back door put them straight on the shoe rack not just in the laundry. When you give your son his ironed clothes make sure he hangs them straight up, not put them on the bed only to be needing an iron the next day.
Do you have a present box?
How many times have you had to race to the shops to buy an unexpected birthday present or gift.
A simple way to be organised is to set up a ‘present box’ at home – you can use an unused picnic basket, a drawer, a box on a shelf…
Use your mobile phone to get organised
As we’re all aware, mobile phones are no longer just phones. Mobiles have many functions we don’t use but there is one we think is great. Most phones have a ‘reminder’ or ‘calendar’ function which works in conjunction with an alarm. Instead of writing little notes to yourself, that you inevitably lose, or forget to take with you, take a moment to learn this function. If there’s something you need to do tomorrow put it in the ‘reminder’ and set the alarm for first thing in the morning so you remember to do it. If you need to pick up the drycleaning on Wednesday put it in and set it to remind you on Wednseday. If you need to take cakes to a cake stall on Thursday set it to remind you on Wednesday so you have time to bake. You wont forget those little things any more.
Opt out of phone book delivery
Phone books are big and take up space and most people look up information on the web. Opt out of phone book delivery and save the environment and a shelf in your home.
Visit the Sensis site or call 1800 810 211, option 2, then option 7.
Ask to opt out of both the yellow and white pages directories if you wish. They will also ask why you want to opt out. The environment is a good reason.
How long is a piece of string?
Not as long as it should be if it’s in a tangled mess. Keep your ball of string in a clip lock bag, snip the corner off and pull the end of string through the corner. You’ll never have a knoted, tangled mess again. Cheap & simple.
How to stay focused when you’re trying to organise
When the organising bug hits you, don’t get distracted or you’ll lose interest.
When people are trying to organise a room, the biggest distraction happens when you come across items that don’t belong. You then leave the room to return those items and very quickly you’re distracted and you stop what you were doing.
IF THIS IS YOU – THE ANWER IS EASY. When organising a room, have an empty box or washing basket on hand. If you find items that don’t belong in that room, toss them in there and deal with them later. That way you stay focused on the job at hand.
[Some of you will know we say handle things once, but not when you're working on a whole room. Handling things once is for every day items.]
10 minute organising ideas
How many times have you said that you don’t have time to get organised. Break it down and you’ll eventually get there:
-
UTENSIL DRAWER: Empty it onto the bench. Remove what’s broken or you don’t use. Wipe it over and put items back.
-
BED-SIDE DRAWER: Empty onto bed, remove what you don’t need or shouldn’t be there and put back.
-
UNDERWEAR DRAWER: Empty onto bed, remove undies with no elastic, bras with 1 underwire – wipe out drawer and put back.
-
LAUNDRY CUPBOARD: Remove empty bottles and samples you’ll never use. Group like things together.
-
UNDER KITCHEN SINK: Remove everything, wipe it clean. Remove rubbish and stuff you’ve shoved under here and group like things together.
-
VEGETABLE CRISPERS: Remove, wash in hot water, wipe over bottom of fridge and put back your 1 good carrot!
-
PEN & PENCIL DRAWER: Remove everything, wipe it over, put back only pens etc. that work. You don’t need 100 pens!
-
COOK BOOKS: Be ruthless! Remove any cookbook you don’t use.
-
LINEN PRESS: Make sure your towels that you use all the time are on the shelf at eye level.
-
COMPUTER DESK: Keep only what you use at the computer in the desk drawers. Group like things together.
Clip Lock Bags
We don’t know who invented these, but we wouldn’t be without them in our organising kit. They’re great for organising so many different objects. Any area where you’ve got lots of pieces thrown in together, just by separating some items makes life easier. Here’s a few ideas:
- The craft cupboard: perfect for dividing all that creative junk
- Toys: toy cars, fridge magnets, leggo, K-nex etc. We had a big case of K-nex which the kids always had trouble finding the little white connectors, so I divided some pieces with clip lock bags, which helped them find them and more importantly from losing them. You don’t have to bag up all the blocks, just some like tyres in a bag, or all the corner connectors etc. They’re also great for barbie clothes or should we say her accessories, shoes and bags etc. Again just to divide the tiny pieces from the clothes, makes it easy for little ones to find them.
- Food: They’re great for freezing things like meatballs and sausage rolls, where you just want to pull out a few and leave the rest in the freezer. They make great disposable icing bags, simply fill with icing and seal, then snip the corner off and there’s your bag.
- In the Pantry: plastic spoons, plastic forks,
- In the Laundry: spare shoe laces, shoe polish, bobbins to the sewing machine, divide your threads into colour groups…
- In the Bedroom: costume jewellery, hair elastics and clips, nail polish
- Mini First Aid Kits: throw one in their sports bags, or your bag for netball etc.
** Teenagers have also found another use for clip lock bags. See ‘How To Organise’ for surviving a teenage party!
Stair Basket
Most people with stairs in their house, pile things on the steps ready to carry upstairs. At $44.95, this new product from Howards Storage, will make your pile look fashionable and make transporting easier. (you can order these on-line at HSW and in-store).
We know a few clients that might be thinking they can get one for every step of their staircase – don’t even think about it!
