Now it seems silly to call taking a shower a habit, but it is.  When you start to think of your home and your stuff, what do you do routinely to keep it going?  Some have great habits for certain areas but not so much in other things.

If the house maintenance is lack luster, here is how you can improve it.  First, make a list of the things you think you must do to keep the house going, the minimum.  On that list consider, taking out the trash, taking out the recycling, laundry (and then putting it away), doing the dishes, food shopping, cleaning the bathrooms.    Some of these things may be no brainers for you but I can assure you that for most it isn’t that simple.  Make the list.  Also make a list of the things next in line – such as vacuuming the whole house, dusting, cleaning the floors, changing sheets.  These are the things that you really would like to add to the maintenance list.

Habits are doing something routinely and consistently.  How often do you want to do the above things?  Add next to each item how often; daily, weekly, monthly.  With that list, look at your schedule at a higher level.  What is your schedule each day of the week?  When do have time at home?  What are better days to do things that you may not like?  And trust me, most people despise doing most of the things on that list but to maintain your home, they are needed.

It takes 3 weeks to establish a habit.  Maybe more!  Grab a fresh calendar and make it the home maintenance calendar.  Fill in for the next month each of those tasks on the days you have decided to get them done.  To take it a step further, these are chores.  Who else in the family can help?  Assign them a pen color or highlighter color and use that on the tasks.

As an example here are some ideas;

Daily: All dishes done by end of dinner, check trash and recycling and empty if full, make beds, wipe down table and counters

Mondays: Pay bills that are due in the next week, sweep kitchen

Tuesday :  Dust

Wednesday: Wash kids clothing and put away

Thursday: Clean bathrooms

Friday: Wash all other clothing, change sheets

Saturday: Vacuum all, fold all other clothing just washed, food shopping

Sunday: prep for week ahead

Hope this helps you with getting some good home habits established!

Tackling the garage is not an easy one.  It usually involves heavy lifting, getting really dirty and a lot of time.  So the key is planning it.

First, set aside a day and then pick a rain date!  Plan a fully day if it is really fully.  Enlist all family members and friends that love you.

Second, supplies.  For trash – make sure you get the contractor bags.  If you feel you will be dumpster trash level, order one to be delivered.  You will also need brooms, dustpans, leaf blower, cardboard boxes for recycling or donations., and some basic tools on hand and probably some new bins that stack well with lids.  You can always return them if you don’t use them but I find that they are needed for seasonal decorations, grouping items, storing misc items.

Third, park the cars on the street and take advantage of the driveway to create sorting stations.  You can either pick up an item and decide if it goes or stays and then place in a category or pick up an item, place in the category and then go through that category when all is sorted. The result is the same and you may do some of both.  Sometimes you need to see the large pile of gardening pots to realize you can’t keep them all and then you can pick the best ones out of the lot.

Here are some the categories you will have:

• Tools
• Chemicals
• Gardening
• Lawn Equipment
• Sports
• Toys
• Camping
• Seasonal
• Car Maintenance
• Bikes
• Recycling/Trash

After sorting it all, decide where the best spot in the garage is for each category depending on use and quantity.  This is when you may need to make a shopping list as you may realize you don’t have adequate shelving, hooks, bins or other.

Also, think about what may not have to live in the garage so you have room for the musts.  There also may be something you want to move in that isn’t – creating a mud room area or storage for paint, etc.  Get a visual on that amount so you can map a spot out for that.

Go vertical!  Take advantage of wall space and even ceiling space if you have the height.  There are tons of wall and ceiling solutions and specialized companies that do just this.

Label each closed bin!  And then label each section or shelf.  It may seem silly but it will really help with putting things back and maintaining the space.

Remember safety, chemicals are best away from pets and children and locked up.  And, adhere to proper disposal.

Last tip is to chalk out your car spot.  If this is the goal to maintain a clear spot or two, chalk it so you really see that you can’t infringe on that space.

So, go to your garage, go to work on it so your car can make a go of getting in there!  Good luck!

If the room is in need of some major help, start with the clothing.  Go through it all and let go of items that you hate, are damaged or don’t fit and will never fit again.  Organize by how you wear them and color coordinating them is visually pleasing.  Make sure there are a few hooks or a chair or something to place clothes that will be worn again in the next few days.  If not dirty but not going to be worn again soon, put it back.

Attack all the décor and stuff on every surface within the room; this is all the frames, decorations, papers, cups, etc – let go of anything you don’t use or like.  Have items in the space that bring joy to you and that help you relax.  The bedroom isn’t ideal for bills and projects and anything with bad memories.  Clean everything and display things nicely.  Make sure there is a basket to hold things that need to go elsewhere and a space for the daily jewelry or other – a decorative tray works well.  Also, depending on how much you read, appropriate shelving or a basket to hold reading material should be placed close to the bed.

The bed is the biggest item in the room.  Make it look nice.  If you can afford new bedding and pillows, do it.  You will be happy you did.

So, how do you maintain the space?  Here is a list to keep and post.

Daily:

• Make the bed
• Replace clothing that can be worn again
• Place dirty clothing in the hamper (make sure you have one)
• Bring all cups to the kitchen
• Place all reading material on the shelf/in the basket – which ever you have.
• Make sure trash is in the trashcan (yes have one someplace, in the master bath is fine)

Weekly:

• Do the laundry….and fold it….and put it away – yes, all are key to maintaining the space!
• Change the sheets
• Empty the garbage
• Replace items to the rest of the house that ended up in there
• Put away jewelry worn for the week

Monthly:

• Dust all
• Vacuum the room, try to do the bottom of the closet too (planning to do this will help you tidy up the shoes and hang up anything that has fallen)

Yearly:

• Wash Curtains
• Go through clothing to let go of items you no longer like/wear

If you do these simple tasks on schedule, your room will be master bedroom you will enjoy being in and be a space that can start and end your day right.

If you enter in one door and guests enter in another, you can truly make the guest entry simple and hazard free.  The other one, well this is an ever present challenge in most homes.  If it is one door fits all, then you truly have a challenge.  I honestly believe a successful mud room/entry area has to be at least the size of 2 walk-in closets to have enough room to manage a family (take note if you are building a home!).  I hardly ever see that amount of room so stuff is stuffed all over.

Like all other spaces, you must determine what the purpose is of the space.  What must be stored there to support those activities? The first step in organizing any space is to go through it all.  Weed out all those shoes and coats that are not being worn, trash, papers that weren’t processes, purchases not processed and so on.  Support the current season, not all of them.  As nice as it is to have all the coats and shoes plus together, unless you are a single person, space just doesn’t support that.

Here are some tips by type of item to set-up in your entryway:

1.  Coats – current season only, take over a guest closet or get a free standing portable one for the basement to house off-season’s and give yourself a to-do when the switch must be done
2. Shoes – again, current – being worn shoes should be here – not every shoe in the home.  Cubbies, baskets, behind the door racks work best.  Lining them up on the floor usually just takes up way too much room.  If you have a double closet, set the floor up with half having shoe shelves and half having open floor to line up the every day/larger shoes (make sure the doors can close.)
3. Sports – with kids and even active adults, sport equipment items end up here.  The best solution is to line hooks up on one wall of the garage and establish totes to house each sport or each child’s items.  Larger items can be stood up or put on shelves under the hooks.  One gym bag could find a home in an entry way via a hook or over the door hook but multiple people’s bags or items is just too much.
4. Drop zone items such as purse, keys, mail do end up here.  A wall cubby system works well if maintained daily/weekly.  Stackable trays or baskets on a narrow console table can be a good system too (you could also use the space under the table for shoes).  The key is to identify what you really need in that space and give everything a bin/home.
5. Backpacks.  These take up a lot a room.  I find the easiest solution is a cubby system where they sit on a table of sorts above the shoes.  Or, another console table that they can rest on.  Hooks lower work well but stick out due to size so if a narrow spot, hanging backpacks there will create more trouble.
6. Label…if you or family members have a hard time remembering what goes where, create labels even if you use the temporarily to create habits.

The nicer it looks; think nicer furniture, pretty wall color, art, real rug not just a mat, the more inclined you will be to keep it organized.  So, go through it all, determine what has to live there to function daily and then create homes for each of those items.  Then make it look nice and maintain it!  A pretty and organized entry is a safe and usable entry.

I haven’t met one person, friend or client; that feels good about just throwing something out.  I feel it is in our nature to want to help, to reuse or repurpose.    You may already have an organization that you help – get a complete list of items they will take.  If you don’t, do some research about organizations and agencies and see what hits home.  Find something that uses the goods or the money raised from selling the goods in a way you like.

Freecycle and Craigslist can be easy and fast ways to just gives things away for free to someone that just wants it.  Salvation Army, Goodwill, Captain are some organizations that sell your items for programs.  A further step is organizations that take certain types of things for certain programs, i.e. office products for unemployed to reenter the workforce (office attire is often part of this too like Dressed for Success), or kitchen and household items for domestic violence victims to restart their lives and old towels/sheets for humane societies.

If something has life and use left it in and you have some time, find something to donate to.  It really will make the letting go process much easier and much more rewarding.

We are all busy.  We all have commitments that we want to do and those we don’t want to do.  Emergencies happen and everything but the critical things are done.  Do you want to get more organized but think you have no time to do it?  Think again.

Here are a few facts I include in my “Organizing 101” presentation:

• Americans waste nine million hours      per day searching for misplaced items, according to the American      Demographics Society.
• The Wall Street Journal reported that the average U.S. executive      wastes six weeks per year searching for missing information in messy desks      and files.  (That translates to just      one hour per day!)
• Cleaning professionals say that      getting rid of excess clutter would eliminate 40 percent of the housework      in an average home (National Soap and Detergent Association)

So, you will actually save time being organized.  You first need to invest the time though to save time.  Prioritize your organizing projects.  Then, put 2 – 2hr sessions in the first week to organize.  Any less at the start of the project won’t move you in the right direction.  If you can continue, then do so.  If not, 2 – 1 hr sessions a week until you are done.

Putting these in your schedule may be hard but find the time.  If you force yourself to invest in your project, it will limit the time you have to do other things forcing you to be efficient and effective with that time.

Good to-do lists and planners that you use daily are a must.  So, give it a try and schedule that organizing project.  Tackling that and managing your time better will make for a better, more organized you and home!

So many people tell me what they have gotten done but in the same breath tell me all the things that have slipped or been forgotten.  That is called life!  I constantly remind them that prioritizing is good.  The important stuff gets done.  Who cares if the summer clothes are still in the open tote in the corner of your room.  When the important stuff is done and life settles down, you will find the time.  And if you don’t?  Well, you will have a head start for switching them next Spring.

I personally look forward to the New Year (the holidays are done!) because no matter where you are in life, it is considered a fresh start!  On this snow day, I am keeping busy with the stuff that got put aside the last 6 or so weeks and planning out my next year.  How do I do that?  Well, I go through those outstanding to-do’s and prioritize them or slash them.  Really look at what hasn’t got done and make a decision – does it really need to get done?  What do you want to do next year?

Honestly, the truth is some to-do’s don’t get done for really good reasons (I don’t mean the clothes, that really is just a busy thing).  Maybe it is taking that training class for your job; you didn’t do it. Well, maybe you didn’t because you really don’t want to further yourself in your current position; you want to change positions or even careers!  The New Year is the perfect time to map that out and start making some moves in that direction.  Maybe you didn’t get involved in an organization.  Could it be that you are not passionate about it?  Find one that you are and start there.

The New Year is a great time to celebrate what you did achieve throughout the year but it is an even better time to look at what didn’t get done and why.    Life gets us busy and life throughs curve balls but you can always pick that ball up and throw it in the direction you want.  Use this lull between Christmas and New Year’s to make a few lists – what you did do, what you didn’t do and what you want to do in 2013.  Make a plan for what you want to do and move forward, always.  And when life stalls progress, accept it, work it out and then pick that plan back up when you can!

Organization is all about good habits.  There is no right way to organize your clothing or no right way to pick names for your files.  It is what works for you to find what you are looking for when you are looking for it.  But, once you “pick” that way, it has to be maintained.  If you have picked “Allstate” for your car insurance papers and “Insurance” for your home owners and file your new car insurance cards in the “insurance” file, you won’t have them in the right spot when you go look for it.  That is just one example.

When I work with anyone on an area, there are a lot of questions asked to determine the system appropriate for the items and that individual.  So, how do make a good habit?  Here are some tips:

1. If you are picking a new spot for something – label it!  You can always remove it later but for a few weeks have it prominently labeled.
2. Inform everyone that it affects what has changed.
3. If it a new “chore”, i.e. you do laundry randomly but want to do it every Friday now, put it as a standing appointment for 4 weeks to make it a new habit.
4. Or, make up a Monday- Sunday standing list of specific things to be done on that day.  Monday – bills, vacuuming, change sheets; Tuesday – school papers, bathrooms, and so on.
5. A once over through the house each night to make sure all is replaced and in “order”.
6. Use Post-it’s like they are going out of style – put reminders where you need to see them to maintain your new habits.
7. Enlist help – ask friends or family to check and hold you accountable on your new habits.

Ho hum no more, habits will have!

I find sometimes the little tweaks are what make the biggest change.  Some recent examples I have done are adding over the door hooks for closets, adding 2 nails on a wall to hang a gripper used by a shorter client, adding a command hook on an interior cabinet door for oven mitts, adding a tack and Ziploc to collect box tops on the interior of a cabinet door, putting spices by the oven, and so on.  These are just some things I have done in the last 2 weeks!

So, you get the idea.  The little tweaks that you can do can make a difference daily.  And usually, these little tweaks are so cheap.  Here is a list of things to consider that may be just what you need!

1. Add a bowl/basket where you place your keys and phone
2. Add a command hook anywhere you need to hang something and don’t have a hook
3. Add over the door hooks to stage the next day’s clothing or to hang up items to be re-worn
4. 4 under the bed plastic containers can mean you have enough space in your current room!
5. Utilize a shopping tote and hang it by your exit door to house all the things you can’t forget
6. Binder clips…. Oh I love these! Clip together coupons, bills to pay in order they are due, group your takeout menus, use a tack with on and hang a category up easily and keep if visible, and so on
7. A binder with clear sleeves… all those notices, calendars, info you need “out” so you can see them can be easily and more beautifully stored in a binder – just park that binder on the counter and you have it all at your fingertips
8. A basket for all the magazines you still need to read
9. A shoe organizer by the door
10. A large pencil cup!  Why are pens and pencils lying around?  Grab a mug that is a keepsake and you don’t use and put it out where you can use it and it can be useful!

I hope something above proves useful.  Or gets your mind working to find your own “little tweak”!

So, it is time to get it ship-shape!  An organized pantry yields the following: using what have, saving money from duplicate purchases, no waste on expired products, saves time in gathering items for meal, independence for kids to grab things themselves and lastly; just a visually pleasing arrangement!

To achieve an organized pantry, follow these steps:

1. Empty EVERYTHING!
2. Wipe down and clean the pantry (who knows when this was last done).
3. Consider painting it white or a light yellow to make things more visible.
4. Go through each item and remove the expired products (the Food Bank will except items 18mos past the date except baby food/formula).  Although I agree most things don’t “instantly” go bad but the truth is, you haven’t used it up to now and when will you do this whole process again??
5. Purge out anything that does not look healthy, that is stale, that you will not eat!
6. Sort like with like – the pasta and sauce together, the canned goods, the snacks and so on.
7. Place items into the pantry taking into account the qty you typically have, how often you use that type of item and who will be reaching for it.
8. Consider storing bulk items/ baking items in clear containers. Square containers take up less space than round ones and fit more efficiently.
9. Some handy “tools” I always use in the pantry – stacking shelves so you get more surface to place items, lazy susans for spices or sauces, clear shoe organizers with the pockets mounted on doors to house snacks, small seasoning packets and the like, baskets/rectangular bins for items that you take out of boxes (I always take out bars and individually packaged items), binder clips as chip clips keep things really sealed and fresh.
10. At a minimum, try and label each shelf with the types of items on that shelf.  Whenever taking out a bulk item and placing in a container, you must label that container.  If you change them often, consider the new Post-it’s that are full stick – they work great as labels.
11. Consider mounting a clipboard with a pad in the pantry to write items that you run out of.  Grab that list weekly and add it to the shopping list.
12. Remember to rotate old items to the front to use before newer purchases.
13. Maintain the homes of the items within the spot you have dedicated.

These steps will yield a pantry that will be organized and works like it should.

Go tackle yours today!