How To Stay OrganizedHow To Stay Organized: Organize In Advance At times when you suspect that you’re about to have an instant influx of gifts or other items into your home, “pre-organization” can prevent stress.
See Tips For Reducing Stress.
If your children receive many gifts throughout the year, it's better to organize in advance. For instance, if you're expecting new clothes or toys, make room. Take this time before-hand to sort through your child's clothes and toys to remove what you don't want or need anymore. This way, when the fun of the event is over, you don't have to worry about having a bunch of new toys spilling over. You'll be prepared and your home can easily welcome the new additions. How To Stay Organized: Leave Empty Space Leaving extra space in rooms, drawers, and on shelves not only looks good, it makes it easier to get things in and out. This is especially good if you are a bit clumsy. ;) Don't stuff everything you can into your spaces. Make it visually appealing. Before you consider buying more storage units, try to find new uses for what you have in other rooms of your house. If you haven't already, consider reducing the amount of stuff you have altogether. How To Stay Organized: Less Is More Reduce what you own and use it until it wears out. Choose less, but higher quality and longer-lasting toys for your children. Many of my daughter’s toys and learning activities fit in with the theme of my home and passion: old Fashioned living and simple living. Many of my favorites are the old fashioned, wooden toys. I provide plenty of non-electronic and non-expensive toys and games for my daughter. Thankfully, she is extremely imaginative and creative. She doesn’t even need toys to play. She pretends that her hands and fingers are people, animals, and other objects. Many people aspire to have a bigger house. We aspire to have a smaller house. Our house is much larger than we need as a family of three, which takes a greater effort to keep organized. We purchased this home and property because it was such a good deal. It was a foreclosure. Home foreclosures are a great opportunity to cut someone's unwanted liability and save several thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. How To Stay Organized: Everyone Should Do Their Share It is important to me that everyone in our home does his or her share. I began to instruct my daughter in child organization at about age three. It has been very rewarding. I often get comments about how clean, organized, and serious she is. A friend once commented about my daughter (at age 4) actually turning off the light in the bathroom at church when she was through. She did more than just comment, she stood there for several seconds in disbelief. How funny! :) In my house, not cleaning up after yourself is a big no-no. That doesn’t mean that as soon as you put your drinking glass down, I run over, swoop it up, and wash it. It means that within a considerable amount of time, you should clean up or properly put away what you are no longer using. How To Stay Organized: Remove - Restore - Replace What can be trashed, donated, sold or restored? Remember, we often keep things we don’t need anymore because we’re emotionally attached to them. Go ahead and do what you have to do. Search and destr... I mean declutter. :) Remember to regularly go through your kids' clothes and clear out what doesn't fit anymore. Get rid of broken toys, badly stained clothes, etc. That goes for your own clothes and household items. As long as these items are in your home, they tend to get mixed in and thrown around. You don't need these useless items taking up space and making your goal to declutter even more challenging. I once kept using an old vegetable peeler long after it had been too dull to be effective, simply because the thought hadn’t crossed my mind to get a new one. I got used to its dullness and just accepted it. When I finally bought a new one, it was wonderful! It was so worth it to spend a couple of bucks to have such an improvement! Repair and restore what you can instead of buying another new item or throwing it away. Sometimes I pick a day to make all the small repairs around the house that I can. While I've got the glue out, I fix everything that needs glue, etc. Cleaning as I go is a natural factor in everything I do. I notice it the most when I have company, when I'm cooking, and when I am doing activities with children. Make a seamless effort along the way to clean. Undue what you are doing as you are doing it. It's like pushing Play and Rewind at the same time. It may take some multitasking skills, but do what you can. By the time the casserole is in the oven, bam! The kitchen is clean. Maybe just a little finishing touches. By the time the parents are ready to pick up their children, shazaam! The activity area is clean, the kids are clean, and you can just sit back and conduct simple, non messy play until it's time to go. In my opinion, that's the only way to go! How To Stay Organized: Grooming For Perfection Keep going for your desired look and experience. Keep re-arranging and decluttering over time until you figure out the way you want your home to look and operate. I wanted my daughter to have a better place for her books in her bedroom. I tried mixing and matching different cabinets and things from other rooms in the house. But, it just didn’t look right. The main problem was that my attempts were all from one perspective (that I had to match what I put the books on with her wooden bed). I changed my perspective. I found two, white shelving units and put them at the ends of a white table she already had in her room. Yes! It was the look I wanted and she has six shelves for her books. Her room is decluttered and I'm satisfied … for now. ;) Stress Management Techniques
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