It’s a new year with new resolutions. What is it this year? Lose weight? Write that novel? Get a better job or become an entrepreneur? Keep to a budget? Take that dream vacation? Find your keys when you need them?
Whatever your resolution is, it helps to be organized.
The more I think about what I do, the more I realize that I teach people how to be organized enough so that they can pursue what matters. What matters to you right now that you have not been able to pursue because of being disorganized?
You can be organized! Let this year be the one!
And go ahead and take a year to work on getting and staying organized. Just getting organized doesn’t help in the long run. You need a way to stay organized. The best way to do that is to start with the way you think about being organized.
Let me offer resolutions for this year that if you do them, you will be organized!
Be a Gatekeeper
To reign in the chaos, only allow things into your home that have a destination.
For example, that new sweater you bought, do you have a place for it? That new cool gadget? That book?
Whatever it is, have its home decided before you bring it in.
And on the flip-side, it is okay to allow things to leave your house. Start a box or bag for giving away items to your favorite charity and then take them there when the bag is full.
You are the gatekeeper for what you bring into your space and what you remove from your space.
Cover Your Tracks
I love reading cozy murder mysteries, where it is more of a puzzle than the gore.
Years ago I was reading one, and the mystery was solved because the culprit left a particular clue behind, a candy wrapper in a meticulously kept house.
I looked up from my book on this particular hands-off parenting day and looked around to see what my children had been doing.
- They slept in their beds last night (unmade);
- they got dressed (pajamas on the floor);
- they ate breakfast (cereal on the counter and bowls in the sink);
- they played a board game (game left out on the floor);
- they watched a show (the television was on);
- they worked on a project (artistic remains on the kitchen table);
- they read a few books (again, on the floor);
- they ate lunch (sandwich making remains on the counter);
- and now they were outside playing.
But not to grouse on them alone, I could see my tracks as well!
We all had a wonderful relaxing day and left an amazing trail behind us to prove it.
This year, be more aware of the trail you are leaving behind you and cover your tracks.
Mount Vernon Your House
This is a method I think first mentioned by organizer Sandra Felton. It’s supposedly how Mt Vernon is cleaned. The maids come in and systematically go around the mansion, picking up each day where they left off the day before.
In your home, start somewhere, anywhere, and use the Organizing with G.R.A.C.E. method to process all that you own, one thing at a time.
- Gather the items.
- Remove whatever you no longer need or want.
- Assign a place for everything left.
- Contain the items in the space they were assigned.
- Experiment by doing it all over again.
And as you go through this process, make sure you are giving yourself access to what you need when you need it. I talked about this in How to Define “Being Organized.”
Clean as you go.
The floor, a drawer, a cabinet; two minutes, fifteen minutes, an hour, three hours; daily, a few times a week, weekly – you decide.
The point is to be consistent and make it through all of your home and when you have done it once, start all over again to see what worked and what didn’t.
That’s it! Do those three things this year and you will be amazed at how quickly you will be organized.
And then, you can make lovely meals to be healthier; you can write that novel; you can begin to search for that perfect job; you can. . .
Enjoy!