Eight Efficient Organization Tips for Your Busy Life
If you run a small business or you manage your family’s household, you know that time is a precious commodity, one that you never seem to have enough of. And despite your best efforts, you can’t create time. So how do you save it and make yourself more efficient?
Here’s eight tips to help you organize your home or business:
* Start small. If your home or office is completely disorganized, don’t try to accomplish everything at once. Start with a single project or location and work forward, building on your successes.
* Group similar things together. It’s the only way you’ll know how much of something you have and when you’ll need more. Having multiple storage locations is a recipe for frustration and breeds a chaotic environment.
* Once you’ve purged your possessions and streamlined the storage space, use an electronic label maker to label the shelves, drawers, boxes, and bins; it’s a great way to maintain the organization you’re worked so hard to create.
* Store things where you use them. If you charge your phone by your bed, then that’s where the charger belongs. The printer paper and ink refills should be stored next to the printer and the glasses in the kitchen should be stored next to the refrigerator. You’ll be most likely to stay organized when convenience dictates the designated storage spaces in your home or office.
* Use one kind of storage container. Having uniform hangers, folders, bins, and boxes eliminates the visual noise. You’ll feel calmer when you can view your possessions without focusing on a mess of mismatched containers.
* Put things back where they belong. Whether you’re talking about toys or tumblers, return them to their rightful place when you’re finished using them. It takes a few minutes a day to stay organized; eliminating clutter build up is the key.
* Use a simple filing system. Even in this digital age, there is still plenty of paper traveling about. If you find yourself inundated with paper clutter, a simple filing system will ease the mess. Make sure to keep your filing process as easy as possible. You will be less likely to adhere to a complicated system.
* Create a landing zone. Daily-use items such as keys, cell phones and wallets are easily lost. Set a basket or a tray near your doorway for an easy location to drop these items when you come in the door. That way, when you need them again, you’ll know where to find them.
Once you’ve gone through all that work, you probably won’t ever want to do it again, so now comes the hardest part: keeping everything clean and organized. It’s much easier than it seems, though: in fact, you can keep everything clean with what feels like minimal amounts of work. For example, instead of striving for perfection and going through big cleaning sessions every once in a while, just clean up 15 minutes a day. After 15 minutes, stop. You’d be surprised how quickly you get to perfection with such little effort.
Every time you leave a room, take one item that doesn’t belong there with you. And, every night, reboot your office to make sure you come back to a clean workspace in the morning. A few minutes a day is all it takes to keep everything clean and organized for the long haul, and once you’ve worked it into your daily routine, it’ll be so easy to keep up you won’t even notice you’re doing it. Good luck!
