New Year, New Start - 7 habits of organised people
How tidy and organised are you? Not quite where you'd like to be? Well the New Year is a great time to make some changes. Here are seven habits tidy people have in common. Adopt even one or two of these suggestions and you'll be on your way to having a calmer living environment in 2021.
Make your bed every day and encourage others in your house to do the same. "If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed." William H. McRaven said in his book, Make Your Bed - Little Things That Can Change Your Life....And Maybe The World. His premise being that the accomplishment of this one simple task gets your day off to a good start, setting the standard for what's to follow.
Deal with paperwork/electronic mail as it comes in, don't let it pile up, discard unwanted fliers in the recycling as soon as they arrive. Open letters straight away, removing the envelopes and separating into " Action" or "Filing" folders. Dedicate 30 minutes per week to dealing with the contents of these two folders. Recycle magazines and free press (anything you haven't got round to reading), on a weekly basis. If it hasn't been looked at in that time, it can't be that interesting!
Kitchen clearing & Meal Planning Make sure your kitchen is clear and tidy from your last meal, before you start preparing the next. If you don't the clutter and chaos will only get worse and the chances are, you won't have the clean things that you need to hand, slowing down the whole process. If your kitchen could do with some more serious attention, have a look at my guest blog for Jenny Tschiesche, Lunchbox Doctor, How Cluttered Is Your Kitchen?
Start meal planning this year. Sitting down once a week and taking the time to plan lunches and evening meals for your family cuts out the stress and saves time each day. It makes shopping easier, is likely to lead to you eating healthier meals and ultimately cuts down on food waste. Click here to download my free weekly meal planner and guide.
Short bursts of regular tidying, prevents the problem getting out of hand."Train" your whole family in tidiness so that you don't feel like you're the only one trying to keep a tidy house. Dirty cups and plates on the work surface, whilst the dishwasher stands empty. Sound familiar? It's not too much to expect people to put their own dirty cups and plates into the dishwasher; the clothes that need washing, into the washing basket; hang up towels to dry after showering and children to pick their toys up off the floor and put them into boxes or baskets, when the've finished playing. Yet how many of us do this on behalf of our family members for the sake of tidiness (and our sanity)? You shouldn't have to! The longer you continue to clean up after others, the longer they will rely on you to do it, so stop now! Set a timer for 20 minutes, make a game of it for kids and part of the daily routine for all.
Keep on top of the washing, don't let it pile up or overflow. Compared to the past when the washing process took a whole day, it now takes a matter of minutes to put a load into the washing machine and turn it on; equally to move it from washing machine to tumble dryer (if it's not going outside). If you did only this one thing today, you'd feel as though you've done something towards keeping chaos at bay. Does your laundry system work for you? Are the baskets you use to collect dirty washing in the best place?
Do you have a good process in place for drying wet items as well as the equipment you need?
Keep an orderly wardrobe, remove and dispose of dry cleaning plastic bags and metal hangers immediately; don't put back clothes or shoes that are in need of repair; don't store multiple sets of "DIY" clothes. Never hang clothes up outside of your wardrobe (unless airing for a few hours), or leave piles of clean laundry sitting out on surfaces, instead of putting them away.
The New Year is a great opportunity for a clothes audit, now's the time to weed out the items that you haven't worn for the last year. Separate them into piles for selling, bags to be donated to charity and bags to be put out for textile recycling.
Put things back where they belong, if you do this straight away when you've used something, clutter won't collect! When you leave a room, take the things that don't belong there with you and encourage your family to do the same.
What plans do you have for your home in 2021?
What would you like to change?
Jo Hall is a Berkshire based Declutterer & Organiser working on site 🏠 and supporting clients virtually 👩💻
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📸 Photo Credits: All images by Jo Hall featuring Less Is More projects.