I recently spoke to Janelle, who loves her very busy lifestyle. She works full-time, is a wife and a mom of three young children, ages 8 months, 2 and 4 years. Her husband travels for business during the weekdays and is only home on the weekends.

Janelle is involved in community projects, church activities and volunteers her time at a charitable organization in her town. Her schedule is literally packed to the max, but she says that she absolutely enjoys everything she does.

She has been very unhappy, however, with the state of her home. Janelle really doesn't spend any time getting rid of clutter, putting things away, properly storing or cleaning up. In fact, she's too embarrassed to invite anyone over, too overwhelmed to try to start getting it organized and she can't imagine how she'll ever find time in her busy schedule to get the situation under control.

Her family budget doesn't permit her to hire a professional organizer or a housekeeper at this time, but that's OK. Janelle can get organized despite this fact.

I compiled some organizing ideas that are already helping Janelle, without her having to give up doing anything that she loves to do. If you live a super busy lifestyle, these five tips could definitely help:

1. Schedule in 30 minutes a day, first. Before scheduling anything into your calendar for the week, begin by filling in 30 minutes of organizing time each day. Then, schedule other appointments around that time, rather than trying to fit in organizing among all of your other plans. By doing this, you're committing to getting organized. Since you're making an organizing appointment, you're indicating that doing so is just as important to you as your other scheduled appointments.
2. Give yourself just one organizing project. During that scheduled 30 minutes each day, focus on just one project. For instance, on Monday you may use that time to write out your bills. On Tuesday, perhaps you'll dust all of the rooms. On Wednesday, you can weed out your filing cabinet.
   
   You get the idea. Focusing on one thing at a time, will help you get that particular project done, rather than jumping from one thing to another randomly.
3. Have a one-hour family organizing event each Saturday or Sunday. This event should include you, your spouse and any children over the age of 5. Perhaps you can have someone baby sit any children under 5 during this time, so you can actually get something done. Even just an hour of family organizing time each weekend, will add up to 52 hours of family organizing time each year. That's a lot of time, and you can get a lot accomplished. Have a theme each weekend, like organizing the family room media cabinet, weeding out the kitchen cabinets or putting toys no longer used into the donation box.
4. Get yourself a notebook. Write down all the organizing projects you'd like to get done. It doesn't have to be in any particular order and all you have to do is keep adding to the notebook, line by line, anytime you think of something you need to get done. By doing this, you won't forget about anything you want to do and you can choose one of these tasks to do each day. Every time you actually complete something, check it off or stick a star sticker next to that task. Do something fun for yourself and your family every time you accumulate 5 new checkmarks or stickers. This way, everyone will stay motivated.
5. Don't expect miracles. If you have a busy lifestyle, you're not willing to give up any of your activities and
   you can't hire someone to help, you can't expect your home to be perfectly organized all the time. However, you can complete projects if you commit to the '30 minutes each day' plan, and your home could look presentable. Once you acknowledge this fact, you'll be able to progress and find happiness in everything you are able to accomplish, instead of fretting over everything that still needs to
   be done.

by Maria Gracia - Get Organized Now! http://www.getorganizednow.com FREE Get Organized Now! Idea-Pak and E-zine, filled with tips and ideas to help you organize your home, your office and your life, at the Get Organized Now! Web site.