It’s past time for us to admit that we all require assistance in arranging our lives. Doing all of this will be a bother, but remaining organized will make life easier in the long term.
Consider how simple it will be to locate the items you require and avoid last-minute problems.
Here are 20 pointers to help you arrange your life at home, at work, and everywhere else.
1. Write Everything Down And Don’t Rely On Your Memory
We can all agree that remembering things is difficult for the majority of us. Put things in writing or in a digital notepad like Evernote if you wish to remember them.
Keeping your to-do lists, lists, and other information is written down allows you to refer to it at any moment, even if you’ve lost track of your own name.
2. Make Back-Ups Of Everything
Make a backup of your computer files and duplicates of your car and house keys. Scan your IDs, passports, and bank account information as well, then store everything in a secure folder on your computer.
Keep all of your financial paperwork, birth certificates, land titles, and insurance policies in one folder, ideally in a safe.
Related: Easy And Proven Ways To Stay Organized At Home
3. Practice Mise En Place (Putting In Place)
Chefs, both in and out of the kitchen, are exceptionally well-organized individuals. What’s their secret? Everything has a place there. They sort their clothes, wrapping paper, crafts, cleaning supplies, and other belongings into designated bins or closets at home.
They’re taught to organize their workspaces in the kitchen so that every movement is conserved and they know where all of the ingredients are.
This will take some time, but after you’ve done it, you’ll notice how much easier it is to find what you need when everything in your home has a home.
4. Scan And Back-up Your Photos
Are you afraid you’ll lose the last copy of your childhood photos? Are you tired of your coffee table is cluttered with heavy picture books?
To minimize space and ensure that you don’t lose these priceless memories, get the photos scanned. They can even be scanned at a local printing shop.
5. Clean Up Regularly
The best way to remain organized is to allot certain hours of the day the de-cluttering and cleaning up. (Tweet this quote) It doesn’t have to be a large chunk of time either, as 15 to 30 minutes a day is enough.
Related: Productivity Boosting Time Management And Organizational Skills
6. Keep The Hotspots Clean
Every home and business has a clutter hotspot. The sink, dining table, cubicle, nightstand, and bedroom drawers are all common candidates.
Make a note of these locations and clean them up on a daily basis.
7. Get A Money Management App
Clutter is a problem in every home and office. Sinks, dining tables, cubicles, nightstands, and drawers in bedrooms are all common suspects.
Keep track of these locations and clean them up on a regular basis.
8. Recycle And Donate
Is your closet stuffed with unopened goods and clothing with tags still attached? Do you have a lot of books on your shelf that you haven’t read yet?
If you haven’t read, worn, or used whatever it is, chances are you won’t utilize it at all. Give them to a good cause or sell them on eBay.
Goodwill offers a lot of donation centers, and the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) may pick up your donations as well.
Related: Simple Work-Life Balance Advice
9. Donate Or Throw One Thing Before Buying Something
Try this experiment: before you buy something new, get rid of something old or inactive.
Alternatively, if you’re a chronic pack rat, throw out one old item per day until you run out of options. I guarantee you’ll have less clutter in your life if you do that for a month.
10. Check The Expiration Dates Of Canned Goods And Medicine You’ve Stocked
Expired canned goods and medicines are not only unpleasant to eat, but they are also harmful to your health. Remove it from your cupboards as soon as possible to reduce clutter and make way for new supplies.
Do you have any doubts about an item’s expiration date? Visit EatbyDate for a comprehensive database of food expiration dates.
11. Learn To Delegate Cleaning And Organizing Tasks
It will be easier to tidy your home if you work together. Examine your to-do list for tasks that you can assign to your spouse and children. Make a list of each family member’s tasks and distribute it to them.
Every week, go through the list with them to ensure that everything is completed.
Teach your children how to organize themselves so that you don’t have to clean up after them every day.
Maybe it’s mowing the grass or making sure the wiring behind the TV and computers aren’t tangled for your spouse.
Related: Time-Management Tips That Will Help You Achieve Your Goals
12. Create A Centralized Family Or Work Information Center
You’ll need to cooperate with your family and coworkers to keep track of schedules and chores.
Use a synchronized calendar software in which any member of your team or family may add fresh updates, schedules, and tasks that are visible to all members.
This minimizes scheduling conflicts and ensures that everyone is aware of one other’s activities and whereabouts. You can also use large whiteboards for this.
13. Practice Putting Things Away Immediately
All of your hard work building a specific location for your belongings will be for naught if you don’t use it. Things can quickly pile up if you have children, sometimes in as little as a few hours.
Keep your home (and life) in a calm and organized state by putting things away as soon as you’re done with them.
This technique just takes a few minutes, but it will save you a lot of time in the long run when it comes to cleaning.
Related: 15 Tips for a Happier and More Fulfilling Life
14. Create A List Of Your Passwords In A Safe App Or Offline File
Passwords play a critical role in maintaining your privacy and security. Unfortunately, using the same password for everything is insecure, whereas having a variety of passwords is secure but difficult to remember.
Using software like LastPass, which allows you to create a single password to secure all of your other passwords, you can centralize your passwords and critical data.
15. Unsubscribe From Unread Email Newsletters, Magazines And Other Subscriptions
If you’ve subscribed to a number of newsletters, blogs, and other online publications but haven’t received an email from them in three months, simply unsubscribe.
In any case, you’re unlikely to read any of their content. Unsubscribe from unread publications, catalogs, and junk mail while you’re at it. It’s a complete waste of money and space, especially if you don’t intend to read them.
16. Create An Inventory And Don’t Over Stock Supplies
Make a list of your cleaning and toiletry products to ensure that you don’t run out and don’t overspend.
You could believe that having too many supplies is a good thing, but if you don’t have enough storage, all those extra supplies are only taking up valuable space.
Office supplies, canned products, and toiletries all fall under this category.
17. Label Stored Food and Perishables
When was the last time you opened your freezer and discovered an unidentifiable Tupperware of food? It’s not only simply cooked food that goes unseen – juice, condiments, and sandwich spreads can all go unreported until you’re left wondering what that odd green ooze is.
Put a label on every good in your fridge with the expiration date, name, and quantity or size to reduce food waste.
18. Create Daily, Weekly And Monthly Schedules for Cleaning
Make a cleaning schedule for yourself. Having a “cleaning day” where you clean everything at once is really taxing.
Distribute jobs fairly, so that dishwashing is done every day, vacuuming is done once a week, and window cleaning is done once a month.
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19. Get A Task Management App on Your Smartphone
To avoid forgetting unexpected errands and jobs, download Trello or another task management tool to your smartphone.
20. Create a Weekend Bucket List
Keep a list of things you want to do so you can refer to it on rainy weekends instead of wasting time deciding what to do—or just giving up and watching reruns at home.
Whatever task you choose, keep in mind that you won’t be able to entirely organize your life in one sitting.
Be patient since this is a long, never-ending procedure. Simply resolve to become more organized right now, and then take small measures until you achieve some sort of order in your life. It won’t be long before you’ve made it a habit.