Chances are that if you’re reading this one of your New Year’s resolutions was to finally Get Organized! You’re encouraged because every magazine in the supermarket checkout line has a cover screaming,”25 Tips to Get Organized in 2005”, “Secrets to an Organized Family”!!! To cash in on your resolution (along with 50 million other people) this Sunday’s newspaper will be full of ads for storage boxes, bins, drawers and baskets. Are you motivated? Well…STOP!
Do you really need to add to your clutter by buying more magazines? You’ve done it before; you know what they’ll say. Did it help you get organized the last time? Ah…those tempting Rubbermaid containers. Just owning a stack of them will get you organized. Hmmm, what did you do with the one’s you bought last years? Still stacked in the garage?
Before you can fill those wonderful boxes and bins you need an Action Plan. The plan needs to consist of a reachable goal, a deadline and a set of steps that will lead you to your goal. Think small.
Instead of declaring you’re going to organize the whole house; decide which area bothers you the most, i.e. I’m going to organize the office because I want to be ready for tax time. My deadline will be January 31st. In order to do this I need to; purge old records, collect receipts, check stubs, pay roll stubs. To do this I need to clean off my desk. To clean off the desk I need; file folders, labels, 4 hours of time to do this.
Be realistic about how much time you’ll need, and then double it. Eight hours looks pretty formidable doesn’t it? Okay, break that down to smaller steps. I will work on my office project for 25 minutes every weekday in January. Guess what! By the end of the month you’ll be done, with 20 minutes of your time left over.
By purging and gathering like items together you will know what you will need in the way of containers. You’ll know the size (large for sports equipment, small for loose batteries) and number needed. Now you may go out and get those containers that will change your life.
Happy New Year & Happy Organizing! - Jane
