Organisation tips for the New Year

[Andsoforth]

I’ve got brilliant tips from these threads in previous years. Anyone feel like sharing their newly discovered, or tried and tested organisational tips? Or the ones that weren’t as successful?

• Setting up birthday reminders in my phone calendar - I’m years behind the curve on this but it has made such a difference. Particularly as cards have fallen out of favour for most of my circle and it’s all about the WhatsApp messages.

• Stocking up on stamps is something I don’t bother with anymore, as the price always goes up a few pennies and I have to buy extra stamps anyway.,

• My car has never been tidied since I took the bin out, and kept a roll of bin bags in there instead. I do a quick clear out while I’m waiting outside schools and for some reason my brain manages to take the bag out with me - somehow the thought to empty the bin never quite made it through my tangled neurons.

• 15 minutes on a Sunday afternoon setting up my planner for the week (the trick is the really nice cup of coffee) is turning me into a competent adult. I go down a checklist to find emails I’ve missed, photos of appointments, things I agreed on WhatsApp and then forgot… so it all ends up in the planner on Sunday.

I sort out outfits for the week on a Sunday.
Everything on one hanger for each day, including underwear.

Set breakfast things before going to bed

Make up dump bags for slow cooker for easy mid week meals.

I also shred un needed post when it arrives.
Saves a build up of cluttered letters.

I do the same as you on a Sunday to plan for the next week but I add my DH in the mix! I make him sit with me so I can check his plans and add anything he might have forgotten to tell me or vice versa. We also use a shared apple calendar which has been so useful. He puts all of his on call shifts on it so I am no longer surprised when he comes home on a Monday night and tells me he is on call for the week!

Putting pet food on a subscription is a small win. As is the monthly scheme with the vet as I never forget when flea/worm treatment is due,

I love these threads OP, thank you for starting one.

I’m starting a new job in the new year and going from p/t back to f/t after 23 years.
I’m really hoping to pick up some great tips here.
I’ll come back and post some of mine later.

Take photos of party invitations. Buy and wrap gift so it's all ready and waiting.

Write down now what worked for Christmas this year and what you want to do differently.

@SteveHarringtonsHair write a 3 week meal plan. You don’t need to stick to it but it’s a good fall back.

DH and I a WhatsApp group called kids party where I send all the party invitations. Our kids are at that age where some times there are 3 or 4 parties in one weekend.

Unsubscribing from most emails and either not giving out email addresses in shops for receipts (looking at you JD Sports), or set up a different email address for them so they don't clog up my proper emails.

Thankyou @upfucked
I have meal planned in the past and found it very useful. I’m planning on doing more slow cooker meals too so the food dump bags @grayhairdontcare sound perfect too 👍🏻

I need to setup birthday reminders as I've been too reliant on fb but I hardly go on there now and keep missing birthdays!

Pretty much all appointments go on phone calendar with 2 alerts set, depending how far in advance the appointments are I'll update the alerts as the time gets nearer.

Write down now what worked for Christmas this year and what you want to do differently. YES! I keep notes on phone of Xmas, birthdays, holidays etc etc what I did at the time and what I want to do differently next time.

Unsubscribing from most emails and either not giving out email addresses in shops for receipts (looking at you JD Sports), or set up a different email address for them so they don't clog up my proper emails.

I have THOUSANDS of unread emails across several addresses if anyone can gimme tips on how to sort this hit me up! Drives me nuts. I am trying to keep a "work" email address relatively tidy but it all needs a damn good sort out.

This one is probably the opposite of organisation but it works for me. Just sharing in case it might help another chronically disorganised person.

I don’t organise my paperwork - I dump all my receipts in an envelope per month (named) and jot down any important ones. They get shoved in my paper drawer along with almost everything else, except the really obvious important ones (birth certs, car tax) that are left to sit on my Very Important metal file box.

I only tackle the drawer when it won’t close, and then just take out the most obvious rubbish. I have a hole in my head where paper organisation goes, and if I try to stay on top of it regularly I throw out the wrong things and end up with a million file categories.

But when it’s an occasional job I can generally hit the high notes of
• recognising out of date junk
• fishing out tax receipts
• shoving back in things that could matter
plus everything is roughly in date order and easier to locate than you’d think.

But because I’ve now accepted that this is my actual method, I’ve stopped making piles in other places, or absent mindedly shoving things out of sight. I’ve been doing it this way for the last year and I’ve not mislaid anything, been able to locate receipts, find birth certs for school applications etc.

I did get help from a more competent friend to set up my “Very important file” which basically contains what we need to grab in a fire.

Shared online calendar with family members. DH and I both share a Google Calendar and everything goes on it so neither of us can argue we didn't know about a meeting/appointment/excursion etc.

Always keep a stash of sellotape, wrapping paper, stamps, blank cards etc and a box of generic presents for last minute gifts. I'm quite strict with regifting if DDs are given something that they won't use it goes in the present box (with a post it stuck to it saying who it was from so it doesn't accidentally get given back to them!) I only buy plain red or gold wrapping paper and have a constant stash of it, that way it's good for birthdays as well as Christmas.

Meal plan every week on a Sunday before shopping on the Monday so we know exactly what we're having before we go to the supermarket.

Set up a schedule for household tasks eg Monday: vacuum, Tuesday: clean kitchen, Wednesday: clean bathroom, Thursday: dusting, Friday: laundry, Saturday: change bedding, Sunday: tidy living room and bedrooms etc.

Thanks OP watching with interest!

It may seem a bit leftfield, but since IPlayer came along, I have no late nights for any tv programme. Much easier to do things and be organised if you have consistent and regular sleep.

@ThreeRingCircus I love the idea of red wrapping paper for everything.

I’ve started keeping my shopping list in the notes app on my phone instead of my previous method which was to write it out, and leave it behind when I went shopping.

I got very excited to realise you can make the list tickable too.

Do you have Alexa? It's been a godsend for this.

Everyone adds items to the shopping list on Alexa as soon as they notice they are needed (as easy as 'Alexa, add bananas' - you don't even have to say 'to my shopping list') & voila, list is ready to go on your Alexa app at any time.

Made a huge difference to us, especially the 'why didn't anyone tell me we were out of ...?'

I downloaded stylebook from the advice of someone on here. You photograph all of your clothes and bags shoes etc then it lets you create outfits with them.

It's a massive faf taking all the photos but i am better dressed for it. Plus I can log an outfit every day and anything that's not worn for over 12 months it shows me so I get it on vinted.

Love your paperwork idea OP. That's exactly the sort of thing I need.

If you can't face meal planning, just run last week's plan again. Whenever you make extra to freeze, or buy an extra pack of sausages for the freezer, write them on the future meal plan for next week. Having a couple of slots already filled makes it less onerous, even if you juggle the exact days later.

Where do you write your meal plans down? I use notes on my phone but also trying to stay off my phone a bit more!

I set a reminder for getting cash out 2-3 days before needed (cleaner) as was ending up faffing about regularly trying to find some.

I had a huge declutter last year and that’s made me more organised, it’s like organising my physical place has also cleared my mental space a bit! Lots easier to find things, tidy up etc. I’ve found a charity which collects, so I book a slot when they’re in my area and do a ruthless possessions cull!

Start to organise the next nights dinner while cooking dinner eg getting meat out of freezer to defrost and mixing marinade.

I also use spare time when making dinner eg while waiting for veges to cook to message my friends. They all seem to do the same as it’s the one time of day when we tend to respond quickly to each other!

Can you persuade your cleaner to accept bank transfer and then you don’t even need to get the cash?