Organizing Plain & Simple: A Ready Reference Guide with Hundreds of Solutions to Your Everyday Clutter Challenges - Softcover

Smallin, Donna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1580174485 ISBN 13: 9781580174480

Verlag: Storey Publishing, LLC, 2002

Inhaltsangabe

Take control of everyday disorder. With strategies for everything from keeping track of mittens and scarves to combining two households, Donna Smallin takes a personalized, nonjudgmental approach as she explains how to assess different situations and decide where to start organizing. Whether you’re craving a more functional closet, having trouble planning meals for your family, or trying to make sense of your finances, this straightforward guide offers proven techniques for living an efficient and clutter-free life. 

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Donna Smallin is the author of many Storey titles with a total of more than 928,000 copies in print. She is a frequent contributor to major national women’s and home magazines and has been a guest on the CBS Early Show, Better TV, HGTV, CNN, and Fox & Friends, as well as numerous radio programs. For the past decade, Smallin has been a spokesperson for such companies as Bissell, Kaboom, Staples, 3M, Keurig, and others. 

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Organizing Plain & Simple is a lifesaver, a treasure chest of clutter-control advice. Best-selling author Donna Smallin brings sanity back to your household with room-by-room, tried-and-true organizational techniques to ease the burden of managing your money, house, time, family – and life's big changes.

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Chapter 4 - Staying Organized

Staying organized is even more challenging than getting organized, because you have to train yourself to do things differently. It takes twenty-one consecutive days to establish a new habit, by making a conscious effort every day not to do the same old thing. Once you've uncluttered your home, staying organized involves picking up, putting away, and discarding excess stuff on a regular basis.

Simple Everyday Strategies

The best way to stay organized is to take care of today's things today. It's easier to keep up than it is to catch up. Procrastinating usually makes more work later, not to mention more time, more stress, and sometimes even more expense. Following are some simple everyday strategies for staying organized by taking care of the little things.

- Don't put it down, put it away. Before you put something down, ask yourself, "Is this where it belongs?" In the beginning, it will feel like work, but if you keep after yourself, it will soon become second nature to put things away. Take dressing and undressing, for example. Even when you're in a hurry, remind yourself that it takes just a minute or two to put away clothes after undressing - far less time than it takes to pick up and put away several weeks' worth of clothing. And it's not just that time and work you save when you put away clothes immediately. How often have you had to launder or iron an article of clothing because it was left on the floor overnight or for a week?

- Lay down the law with household members. Whoever makes a mess is responsible for cleaning it up - now, not later. That means everyone cleans up their own bathroom mess, their own kitchen mess, and their own bedroom mess. Set minimum standards at first, especially for younger family members, then raise the bar.

- Unclutter as you go. Every morning or evening, walk through your home for five minutes with a basket or tote bag in hand, collecting stray items and returning them to their rightful homes. When you go to the basement, attic, garage, or upstairs or downstairs, take something with you to put away. When you file something in a folder, flip through the folder to see if you can toss anything. A few minutes here and there every day can add up to uncluttering in no time.

- Leave your "campground" cleaner than you found it. Make it your policy never leave a room without improving its appearance. Toss the newspaper in the recycling bin. Straighten pictures and lampshades. Close cabinet doors and drawers. Put dishes in the dishwasher. Make your bed after your morning shower or breakfast - it not only makes the room look nicer, it feels nicer to get into a made bed. If you share a bed, make it a rule that the last one up makes the bed. If you get up earlier every day, you may never have to make the bed again!

- Make it easy to stay organized. Designate a "drop off" box for library books and videos that need to be returned. Keep a "put away" basket in a central location, or one in every room, to collect things that belong elsewhere. Make putting away a daily family chore. (And if you get unexpected visitors, you can use these receptacles to pick up and stash clutter in a hurry.) If you find yourself picking up the same areas over and over again, see if you can come up with a simple, practical solution for preventing or reducing future messes. For example, if your kitchen counter is littered with empty beverage bottles and cans, move the recycling bin closer to that area.

- Make standard "to do" or "to remember" lists. Make lists for anything you do on a regular basis, such as closing up your summer home or packing to go to the beach. File all of these lists in the same folder in your filing cabinet. Or, if you prefer, keep individual lists with related items so that you'll be sure to find them when you start looking for your stuff. This technique works for the smaller things in life too. For instance, in your gym bag, keep a list of what you need to take with you. That way, you won't waste energy thinking about what you need every time, and you'll never end up at the gym without your sneakers or a towel.

- Set limits on recyclable items. How many plastic shopping bags do you need to save? How many empty margarine tubs and yogurt containers are enough? Being frugal is fine, but if you have more than you need, you're wasting valuable space rather than money. Keep just a few and recycle the others. Do the same with cardboard boxes, rubber bands, twist ties, and similar items you've been collecting.

- Buy less. Do you really need more stuff? Think twice about buying things that require extra upkeep, such as knickknacks that have to be dusted regularly and clothing with special washing instructions. Think three times before buying souvenirs; take photographs or keep a journal instead.

- Simplify your life with the 80/20 rule. Most people use only about 20 percent of what they own. The other 80 percent is just taking up valuable space, getting in the way, and causing more work than is necessary. In other words, it's clutter. Keep your home clutter-free by making a conscious decision to surround yourself with only the things you love and use.

Minimizing Paper Pile-up

If there's one thing that clutters up a home fast, it's paper in its many forms. The best strategy for avoiding paper pile-up has three parts.

1.Limit the amount of incoming paper.

2.Develop a system for storing paper items.

3.Recycle regularly. Keep trash cans handy wherever unwanted paper tends to accumulate.

Junk mail and catalogs are like door-to-door salespeople. Occasionally, you're interested in what they're selling, but more often, you're annoyed at the intrusion. The difference is that you can be as rude as you like to junk mail and catalogs. If you have piles of unopened mail offers, solicitations and catalogs, dump them. Don't even give it a second thought, because you know you'll get more.

Sort and open mail daily into five categories: not for me, action items, to read, to file, and trash. Immediately discard junk mail. (This is easiest to do if you open your mail near a trash can or recycling bin.) Don't even open it; you know it's junk. Place items to be filed in a folder labeled "To File." Place items to read in a folder labeled just that, then take it to your reading place. If a piece of mail requires action, you don't have to respond immediately, but try to minimize the number of times you handle it. For example, put mail you need to take care of today in a folder labeled "To Do." Place mail for other household members into labeled stacking trays or a vertical file. This is also a good place to keep your filing, reading, and "To Do Today" folders.

When you receive bills, save only the bill and payment envelope. Throw away the outer envelope and advertising inserts. If you can't bring yourself to just toss them, scan quickly for information that may be interesting or relevant, then toss them. Be sure to read any important notices. Take bills to the place in your home where you write out the checks for them. Create a simple system for storing bills, such as a folder labeled "Bills to Be Paid" or a large, labeled envelope that you keep in a drawer.

File regularly to avoid build-up of paper clutter. Do it daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly, depending on the volume of paper. If you don't file regularly, at least put all items to be filed in a "To File" folder or basket. As you file something, flip through the folder to see if something else can be thrown out. Once a year, purge old folders and papers from your filing cabinet. Put only what you really need to keep in long-term storage.

Beware of the paper clutter you create. Think twice before duplicating documents on the copier or printing out e-mails. Use the copier only when absolutely necessary. Store e-mail messages in folders on your computer, or simply make a note of the...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Storey Publishing, LLC
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2002
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1580174485
• ISBN 13: 9781580174480
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 320
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: WordUnited GmbH; distribution@wordunited.com; ; Theodorstrasse 105; DUSSELDORF; 40472; Deutschland