Organise your life and your home

By taking just a few minutes every day, you can soon organise your  home and your life. Do you think it’s impossible? Let me tell you what works for me.

We have it much easier these days. Think about what our mothers and grandmothers had to put up with if they wanted to keep their homes and their lives in check. Just by spending a few minutes a day, you can make the world of difference.

You’ll find plenty of online articles that archly  suggest that you create a weekly schedule, such as every Monday you clean the bathroom or whatever. How boring. I couldn’t stick with that sort of schedule for long. I think I’d die of boredom.  They do have one thing right though – by designating certain days of the week for specific – but not too specific – tasks is a great idea as long as there is flexibility.

So every Monday, take five minutes or fifty – whatever time you choose to make available – to move something. You might:

• Move your body. Take a walk, sweep the floor, change the bedlinen, anything that makes you get a touch more exercise than you usually would
• Spot something that isn’t where it should be? Is your vacuum cleaner put away? Are the books all askew on the shelf? Move just one or two things that make your home neater and more organised
• Are the kitchen counters free? Can’t that toaster that you haven’t used for weeks live in a cupboard?
• Move some dust – get out the feather duster, put some music on and dance around the house dusting and exercising as you go
• In one room,put everything where it should be
• Choose your own ‘something to move’

Keeping the clutter under control is Tuesday’s task. Take a look around – is there anything that needs to be tamed today? Just tame one thing every week. For example:

• Is the refrigerator untidy? You’ll find that it has more space if you straighten and tidy the contents
• If the laundry basket is bursting at the seams, put a load of laundry into the washer
• Are weeds overtaking your garden path? Take ten minutes to tame them
• Clear the clutter from your desk
• Bathrooms almost always need taming
• Tame some tangle – the wires that charge your devices or that tangle of necklaces
• Talking to myself here,but the cupboard under the sink…..

Many years ago, spring cleaning was essential – giving the house a really good clean. So boring. So on Wednesdays wash just one thing.  You might:

• Clean the windows – or call the window cleaner 🙂
• Clean that grubby mark that’s on the sofa
• Something I often forget – put the shower curtain into the washing machine and freshen it
• Wash the windows. Life is lovelier when the light shines through
• Wipe the kitchen cabinet doors. If they’re already clean and sparkling, clean the insides of the doors
• Clean your keyboard, screen and mouse

Unless you are the most clutter-free person on the planet, there’s bound to be something you can get rid of today to make your home cleaner and tidier. You decide, but here are some ideas:

• You know all those supermarket plastic bags that will come in handy one day? Will they? Do you really need so many?
• Donate clothing you never wear, books you’ll never read or surplus household items to Goodwill
• Is there something in your home that’s broken that can’t be fixed? Just throw it out
• Do you have paperwork from years ago that you’ll never need again? Toss it
• If you’ll never again read those magazines, give them to your local doctor for the waiting room or throw them into the recycling bin

Does this sound a little too regimented so far? Well, on Fridays make it a free-for-all and just do one small job that’s been overlooked. For example, I might:

• Get out that shirt I never wear because its button needs sewing back on. Either fix the button or give the shirt to someone else who will
• Clean all the mirrors in the apartment
• Take a look at the bottom of the clothes closet and rehang items that have slithered their way off their hangers
• Take a look in the fridge and put anything that needs using soon into a specific area or onto one shelf
• Clean the oven … OK, maybe that’s going a bit too far

Many of us do the grocery shopping on Saturdays so it’s a good idea to keep ‘saving’ in mind. There’s saving money of course, but think about saving water, the planet, resources too. Every Saturday, save just one thing (or more if you wish). For instance:

• Depending on your budget, put a  little money away every Saturday. It may just be a dollar, it may be ten – whatever suits you. Stash it somewhere – in a glass jar in the freezer, in your underwear drawer, between the pages of a dictionary – you decide. If you put away ten dollars every Saturday you’ll have $520 after a year to treat yourself
• Put a house brick, or a soda bottle full of water or sand into your toilet cistern. You’ll use less water when you flush!
• Recycle or repurpose just one thing.
• See to one thing that will reduce your electricity consumption such as cleaning air conditioner filters or those coils at the back of the fridge
• Check and correct the tyre pressures on the car to save gas
• Make one thing today that you’d ordinarily buy – a pizza, a gift, a greetings card, a loaf of bread….

If you’re American of course, make that ‘savor’. (Twenty years in the States and I still use English spelling). Life isn’t all about cleaning, organising and keeping yourself fit. So on Sunday, think about doing something to make your home more pleasing or your life more pleasant.

• Take a walk into your garden or down your street or in your local park and collect flowers, ferns or small branches of leaves. Arrange in vases to cheer up your room
• Buy or grow houseplants (from the pit of an avocado or mango is a good idea) or buy a potted herb for your patio or kitchen windowsill
• Have a bubble bath, complete with scented candles, soft music and a good book
• Bake a cake or maybe a batch of cookies. Your house will smell wonderful and you’ll be giving your family and yourself a treat. If you don’t bake, make your treat – maybe an ice cream sundae or a banana split. It won’t make your house smell as good as baking but you’ll enjoy it
• Take your lead from the girls in that carefully-chosen photograph above and open a bottle of wine 🙂

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jackie Jackson, also known online as BritFlorida, is a highly experienced designer and writer. British born and now living in the USA, she specialises in lifestyle issues, design and quirky stories. You can see a wide range of articles here, or visit her website Tastes Magazine. See The Writer’s Door for more information.