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 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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. |
