Just follow these 2 rules and you'll be on the road to being super organized!

[messinmyhead]

Ok my friend is ridiculously organised. I'm not. But I really want to be. Every year or so I'll get my self all motivated, buy planners and lovely pens, download apps. I'll keep the momentum going for about a week or two before I go back to my slothenly ways till the next time.

Fed up and frustrated I asked my friend for only one tip, one thing I could do which would make a difference. She gave me 2 and an analogy which I thought I'd share and see if other organised people would agree.

According to my friend, I'm doing it all wrong as I'm trying to do what she's doing or what advice online I'm reading. It won't work for me because my life and my personality is unique to me.

It's like cooking. Two people make a roast from a recipe and the end result gives a roast but they look a bit different from each other, they both taste delicious but different. There's differences in both of them.

And this analogy she uses for being organised. I need to create my own style of organised for me. It'll take practice just like learning to make that roast but I'll find my own methods, preferences and tweaks to suit my life and personality.

The two tips were:

1. Wake up early
2. Never stop doing something, anything. Just do it. Stop thinking!

That's it!

@BogRollBOGOF

I'm pinning my hopes on reincarnation...

Failing that, get a cleaner. Move out, visit the house occasionally to admire it.

I found the key to organisation during lockdown - go through all of your stuff & get rid of most of it! It’s much easier to tidy a house that isn’t full of stuff you don’t even really want.

It’s definitely not that simple!

That was a quote fail and now I can’t find the quote.

Best tips for many reasons!

@Chunkymenrock

Best tips for many reasons!

Oh quote fail too!

I love your friend's advice. I used to live next door to an organisational powerhouse and she'd have agreed with the "don't think about it, just do it" tip. I was the thinker, she was the doer. Guess who had the tidiest house? 🤔

My hard-won tips:

1. Declutter. If you bring something new into the house, try to remove something old. Like if you buy a new jumper, search out and chuck an old jumper you never wear.

2. Have strict, but easy to find, places for things everyone uses (like sellotape, batteries, etc).

3. Stop being a perfectionist. You won't get the entire house clean, tidy and organised in a day. But you could sort out the junk drawer in the kitchen.

I remember reading something about organisation. It was about the styles and why some didn't work for others
eg

bathroom shelves
one person, lots of small baskets, everything has its place, everything goes away iummediately it is used.
person 2, small baskets don't work, they never get roudn to putting things away as it means taking time to sort into the baskets. For them 2 large baskets work, basket one all things belonging to dh and basket 2 all things belonging to me, then things get immediately dumped into the basket .

I suppose it is micro organised versus macro organised.

or my dh study.
he had loads of drawers/cupboards etc but everything sits in piles on the floor. Eventually he realised he needs to SEE the stuff, so we put up shelves, and now everything sits in piles on the shelves. He knows exactly where everything it, but if out of sight he loses it.

Along with this I would say - what matters to you is individual. To mean, at the end of the evening, sofa cushions straight and coffee table cleared, and I feel like I am in control of the house. Not bothered by the pile of newspapers in the corner, or, when kids were little, a train set left out over night.
But for someone else, it might be the toys on the floor is the thing they need to feel in control of the house, all toys away in the evening.

Find what you need and what works for you

1. Make the boring stuff into a routine so you don’t need to think about it any more.

So, a basic online shopping list that gets repeated every week, then you can add the fun bits to it. Do certain chores on certain days. I only iron on a Sunday morning. Meal plan on Monday and share to the family on WhatsApp.

1. Write your daily To Do List as you’re waking up over your morning coffee, then decide the order you’ll do them and cross each one off.

I'm really organised and wouldn't say I do either of those things although I do think different approaches work for different people. My main tip is to do stuff when it needs doing, don't put it aside to do 'later as it can easily turn into another thing to remember.

DS comes home with something from school that needs signing or organising?Fill it in, details on calendar and straight back in bag to go back to school the next day. Same with things like insurance renewals, post to file etc. Do it as it arrives and it never turns into a job.

I'd also say don't be a martyr and share the work- I'm not the only person living in this house so I'm certainly not going to be the only one managing it. Things might not be done how I'd do them if others take admoj or cleaning jobs on but they're done.

Don't make lists if you're not gonna read them. Then you'll just be wasting more time doing unnecessary lists

@messinmyhead I think your friend is right. Thise two tips are great bit won’t work
With me. I like a lie in and do not want to give them up And I also like doing nothing aometimes. BUT my tips are

• when you see something that needs doing/put away and your head tells you to ignore it and do it later - YOU DISOBEY and do it there and then. You create a new circuit pattern.
• list of things that needs to be done but without a strict timescale and you tick as you go along.

But really I have learnt that I do not want to be organised organised. I just want some more order at times. That is tip no three: decide who you are/want to be

One tip I found useful is: don’t just put one thing away. If you go to tidy something away, look around and find 5 things to put away.
It’s something small but has stuck with me. It’s amazing how much difference 5 things makes to a space like a countertop, but it’s still a small, manageable amount and isn’t overwhelming.

@Stopsnowing

I have a vision of everyone jumping out of bed early and then being in perpetual motion throughout the house/day with hands always full.

Yes, and it’s spectacularly depressing. Do you really want a life where you’re squeegeeing the shower even as you’re in it, and unable to walk from one room to another without thinking ‘What is out of place and needs to be carried there?’

I'm super organised but I hate waking up early!

For me lists and routines are the key.

Definitely not getting up early! I wake up naturally around 9am and never get going before 10am. I will then be awake and productive all day. If I get up at 7am I'll be tired and less efficient.

Hmm, I can't follow either of those rules every day. I like sleeping, thinking and not doing things!

My tips are:

• write a to-do list of not more than three things, then do them.

Then do something pleasurable.... before writing the next list of three. (Other tasks can be noted elsewhere if they are likely to be forgotten but not on today's list.

• invite someone round at least once a week.

There's nothing that spurs me into action more than anticipating guests visiting. It's amazing how much can be done then!

I keep my routine simple.
I walk the dogs, have a coffee and get the house looking reasonable enough to let a visitor in without panicking! This means beds made, bathrooms clean, dishes done and dog hair hoovered up.

Then, in my mind, anything else I do that day is a bonus 😁

This is where I make a handwritten list - my favourite chore - and take great delight in ticking stuff off as I go. I usually pick one thing to do per room, but sometimes go a bit mad and do an exclusive on one room.

And if nowt else gets done, at least I know I can let the vicar take a pee without panic!

OHIO
Only. Handle. It. Once..
So post opened and auctioned. I have a large bulldog clip that paperwork goes into.
Keys hung straight up.
DH will pick something up and put it down with the vague intention of putting it away later, this can be weeks later!
Everything has a place, decluttering is your friend…if you have to cram something into a drawer then you will leave it on top.
One in, one out or better still one in, two out.
I don’t buy unless I can ( in my mind’s eye) remove the item it’s replacing.
But the best I heard was the “Toothbrush” effect. Everyone knows where their toothbrush is because it always goes back in the same place!

I agree my friend is coming over tomorrow. I have planned what needs doing in the morning and cleaned kitchen and put out veg for soup tomorrow. While that is cooking I am going to tidy the dining room. Left sitting room tidy tonight so just need to whizz vacuum around all of downstairs.
I clean the basin and wipe the loo every morning anyway.

Stop trying to do stuff in 0 time.

Doing stuff (organising, bills, packed lunches, shopping etc) all takes time out your day. Make sure there’s time in your day to do it.

(That might be the same as ‘get up early’. I don’t get up early.)

I read a book called the Toothbrush Method. The theory is that you always know where your toothbrush is. It's in a container next to your bathroom basin. Even if you move house, you get your toothbrush out and you know exactly where it goes. And when you've used it, you put it back in its container. You don't go and leave it on the loo cistern or anything because it has a recognised place and it easy to put away.
Hence the rest of your things should be organised with storage so close to the usage that its easier to put it away than leave it out.
I try to do that but apparently slob genes run deep!

Tip 2. Spend less time reading about cleaning, and more time actually, you know, cleaning.