Life Organization Tips: How to be Organized in Life
As a busy working mom with two kids and a packed schedule, I constantly battled cluttered counters, overflowing closets, unsorted papers, and endless to-do lists. Feeling scattered across too many responsibilities gave me major anxiety! Finally after forgetting to send the permission slip for my daughter’s field trip one too many times, I realized nothing would change without taking control of my chaos except organized life.
Implementing customized organizational systems brought peace to my home and mind. Read on for my road tested tips on exactly how to get organized across your whole life once and for all!
Set Up Systems That Work For You
Resist assuming some perfect formula for organization exists. Everyone’s habits, preferences and lifestyles differ. Maybe you adore pretty containers and labels like those Instagram accounts. Or perhaps that approach feels too cutesy and high-maintenance for your taste.
Evaluate your current struggles. Make notes about exactly where and why things currently feel disorganized for you specifically. Don’t compare! This step allows creating personalized solutions for your reality.
Identify small changes addressing your unique friction points. If paperwork always gets buried on your desk, what sort of simple filing system would make handling it easier for you daily?
Then consistently build habits following the routines you designed around those organizational systems. Checking weekly that they still work or if any adjustments might help.
Prioritize Your Schedule Wisely
Between work, family, friends and general life admin, days fill quickly to the brim. Without purposeful time management, we bounce around reacting versus intentionally spending energy on what matters most.
Map your responsibilities – Compile a thorough list of regular commitments related to your roles and relationships. Include needs of children, partners, work duties, volunteer groups, necessary appointments etc. This inventory allows assessing realistic windows for adding priorities in.
Schedule priorities first – Block off chunks of time for essential priorities like work projects, healthy meals, physical activity, passion projects or special one-on-one time higher up in each week before filling in other activities. Morning and evening routines also impact how smoothly days go!
Use Eisenhower Matrix – Categorize each task on schedules as urgent/important (do now), important but not urgent (schedule to prevent becoming urgent), urgent but not important (try to delegate) and neither urgent nor important (eliminate!). This maximizes productivity and minimizes stress.
Declutter Every Space
Nothing sabotages neat homes faster than piles of stuff everywhere. Decluttering by location brings order making it easier to then maintain.
Start with hotspots – Identify most troublesome high traffic spots like countertops, desks, dining tables. Sort item by item, discard trash, file papers, designate homes for essentials.
Category by category – Moving through your home zone by zone, use boxes/bins to sort belongings. Group by kitchen goods, clothes, toys etc. Assess each item if used/sparks joy. Donate excess accumulations.
Buy furniture that provides sufficient organized storage options if needed. Wall mounted drop zones in entryways, racks to hang tools in garages, customizable closet systems all help rein in everyday items into proper places.
Streamline Your Finances
Few situations feel more frustrating than realizing you hold numerous forgotten subscriptions while struggling to pay an overdue bill. Monitoring income and expenses with easy systems prevents such scenarios.
Use budget apps – Link all credit cards and bank accounts to services like YNAB or Mint for automated transaction categorization. Easily generate spending reports anytime.
Auto pay fixed bills – Set recurring payments so essential costs like rent, utilities, loans, memberships are never late. Review only variable spending.
Schedule weekly money reviews – Quickly scan categories for errant charges and balance levels proactively rather than leaving until end of month surprises hit. Adjust variable costs earlier to prevent debt.
Organize Your Digital World
Phones and computers hold so much of our lives – photos, critical documents, account info, connections. Losing access causes nightmare scenarios. Basic maintenance keeps it running smoothly.
Back up files – Use cloud services like Google Drive or Dropbox to store files off devices safely especially financial records, identification docs and precious photos.
Unsubscribe email lists – Scroll through your overloaded inbox and say goodbye to annoying spamoffers or publications you never read anymore. Feels so freeing!
Bookmarks & Password Manager – Save sites you access often to organized browser bookmark folders rather than 100s of open tabs. And secure passwords safely away from prying eyes.
Meal Prep to Minimize Decision Fatigue
Another sanity saver as a busy parent involves prep cooking proteins, grains and produce on less hectic Sundays to use throughout busier days ahead.
Menu plan first – Figure out recipes for each week’s breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Include planned leftovers and freeze extra portions.
Grocery shop for full ingredients needed all at once to prevent repeat trips to store.
Chop produce, cook proteins for easy reheating like grilled chicken, hard boiled eggs, quinoa.
When dinner times strikes, turn to prepared ingredients rather than scrambling under hangry pressures or resorting to takeout.
Create Easy Inventory Systems
Whether food staples, household goods or personal products, who hasn’t experienced the frustration of using up something at the worst moment. Simple inventory habits prevent this.
Shopping list pad – Keep paper pad posted on fridge with pens handy for family members to instantly jot needed items before forgetting.
Necessities inventory – Track usage of staple products like shampoo, toothpaste, cleaning supplies. Log when you refill/restock so aware before out again.
Designate landing zones – Give commonly lost smaller items a dedicated visible station by entryways or tables. Family drops keys, sunglasses, wallets consistently in FIRST spot seen walking in!
With some assessment of where your unique organizational shortcomings exist paired with personalized systems tackling those areas, uncluttered order gets introduced across every aspect of daily life. Doesn’t it feel fab already?