LITTLE things that help keep you organised?

[starrychime]

There's a lot of threads about cleaning routines, 15 min sessions etc which I love to read but never get round to following (one day, one day I will!)
Wondered if anyone has some little hints and tips that make things just a little bit easier about the house?
I use paper plates for morning toast, lunchtime sandwiches etc as I HATE washing up (no washer) - and it keeps it down a little bit.
Also keeping a small Ikea drawer sorter in the bathroom with DD's bobbles and clasps so they're to hand in the morning helps a bit.
Anyone else have any little tips?

I try to remember to use taking the milk bottles out as a trigger to water the plants (with the milk bottles...)

I keep an inventory of what's in the freezer, drawer by drawer stuck to the outside of the freezer. This stops me running out of things or accumulating too many packets of sausages!

I made a cardboard pocket which lives behind the calendar and all school letters and info about appointments etc go in here after being noted on calendar.

I have separate notebooks for lists e.g one for packing lists, one for Christmas and one for birthdays, parties and other celebrations. It's much easier than making lists from scratch, I can write myself useful notes ready for next time and look back and see what presents I gave in previous years.

Marking place. I'm very unorganised.

Done more paper work today. Great post.

I use my blog to keep my make lists and Christmas lists.....I find public humiliation a great incentive for action

I have put a laundry bag in each child's room for dirty clothes, which they have learned to use, rather than the 'floor-method'. And they never got the hang of getting dirty things to the laundry area.
My amazingly organized best friend does 4 things when she gets an invitation to a wedding etc: - Writes it on calendar, - sends email to her hubby - books babysitter, - puts invitation on corkboard. I do none of the above and am usually a frantic wreck on the day of the occasion.
I have finally learned not to press play on the answerphone as i walk through the front door - even though the light is blinking frantically. There are a lot of more urgent things to do when I walk in that need immediate attention, and dealing with the message just adds to the confusion. I'll get to the message in a quiet moment when i have time to deal with it. Same applies for opening letters. Let them wait.

thanks for this - I am very unorganised so need lots of tips.
I do sort washing into different coloured crates - one for each DS - as soon as it comes out of the tumble drier so it's easier to put away.
Whenever I do sort something out - meal planning, paperwork etc, it always makes me feel much better so I don't know why I just don't do more of it!

I like to deligate! We have a five min tidy before we leave the house in the morning and it involves all the kids. We swoop room to room all making beds, putting pants in the washing basket, dishes in the washer etc. When I get back from the school run, I can get on with other house stuff.

Wipe clean board with lists and more lists.

Sitting down with family and discussing any issues.

Box for each person - I just throw random things into it so they can sort out later.

In my kitchen drawer at the side of the cutlery inset thingy I have one of the smalles Really Useful Boxes with all the window keys, spare car keys, spare house keys and various other keys - I have trained DD that if I ever say I can't find the car keys and we're in a rush then she is to say "spare set in the kitchen drawer mum"

If you're a 'cutlery in the sink' first household, keep the cutlery holder of the dishwasher in the sink so you can move the whole lot in one go just before you put the machine on.

Organise linen such that you put the duvert cover, sheets for a set inside the matching pillowcase.

Chaos that is a very good idea about the annual files...but really, we heard you the first time .

Haven't read whole thread so not sure if it's already been mentioned but one little thing that's really helped me is a stair basket There is always stuff that needs to go upstairs and rather than cluttering up the stairs it all sits neatly in the basket. Also takes you fewer trips upstairs as you can carry the whole lot in one go.

wall chart planner enter all events,parties,mtgs
I have a Filofax
file arranged by month for all correspondence etc
most bills on direct debit
online groceries use previous list as template
lots online stuff
pay for amazon annual next day delivery

Declutter & sort out storage. It is far easier to be organised and tidy if you have the space for it. Don't put it down, put it away is so much easier to follow (and will transform your life) IF it has a space where it belongs and you don't have to move 5 things to put it away. Putting laundry away is easy if the drawers/wardrobes have space in them and aren't crammed with clothes that are too small or just never worn.

Preprinted address labels for everyone I send Christmas cards to, I update it every year in Nov with any address changes.

Buy Christmas cards in Jan - I got about ?50 worth this year for less than ?5 - that's all my cards for Xmas 2012.

I keep them in an Ikea storage box with blank cards that I pick up when I see them on offer - means I always have a birthday card handy.

I must now start preprinting address labels for birthday cards too!

lay out work clothes,bag bag,accessories night before
dc clothes all laid out for week
batch cook and freeze in portions
have set reminders of birthdays to prompt week before
drawer of kids pressies and blank cards
drawer of adult pressie blank card

Every time someone types "Don't put it down, put it away" I hear my mother shrieking it It was a regular feature of my childhood! Funny, her house is a complete tip now, and there are no children living there!

I love some of these ideas.

To those who aren't naturally organised (as I presume Helenagrace must be), how do you force yourself to tidy or sit down and plan rather than MN / go to bed / lie on the sofa eating chocolate etc? I have loads of good intentions and dream up some great systems - but they never last more than a week as I just can't motivate myself to get on with things.

Delegation works really well here. I have a 2 y.o. who loves to tidy. Before bed, I go through the rooms saying, "DS, I can see books on the front room floor," and he will put them away for me. While I'm doing the washing up is another good time to get him to tidy. I'm looking forward to him being a bit bigger so he can expand his activities above floor level.

In my bedside table, I keep a supply of things that are a PITA if they run out in the middle of the night or a particularly busy weekday morning. Most important are probably painkillers, cash, bus tickets.

Getting everyone in the household to follow the rules is probably the key to staying organised. DD is very young but knows clothes go directly into the laundry basket and towels get hung up after baths. Everybody knows that passports go back in the passport tin the very second you arrive home, even before you put your suitcases down. That was a very expensive and panicky lesson to learn the hard way.

AngelDog I have a "payment" system. So if I fancy a cup of tea I can make myself one if I take something from the room I am in and tidy it, then spend the time the kettle takes to boil putting away or cleaning in the kitchen. If I want to put the heating on I have to take the dry laundry upstairs etc.

This gives me lots of tidying time every day.

As a couple we also have a bit of a "dance", so the person who does the first bit of a job doesn't usually have to do the next bit. THis means that sorting laundry is not an endless stream of jobs but a "put the folded laundry on the bed and leave it" for me. Then it magically leaps into the wardrobes when I'm not looking.

That and a system set up for "Don't put it down, put it away". So intrays next to where post is opened, pegs to hang coats on by the door rather than needing to take them to a cupboard etc. I prefer to mage a house that is tidily lived in than have one where its a lot of work to do anything so clutter is left across the house.

Planning is still a work in progress though!

Get these drawer tidies from Ikea and put them in your junk drawer in the kitchen.

had to stop reading thread as laughing so much at ivy 'pee and poo at work'

This guide to using Outlook is useful and pretty transferable to lots of other things as well - e.g. don't pick up anything unless you have time to deal with it - just handle it once.

angel I am, believe it or not, quite lazy. I like "me" time and I force myself to be organised because it gives me more time to do what I want to do.

Motivation can be sapped by trying to do too much at once.

Most of my clients have made the mistake many times in the past of trying to change everything all at once. So they implement a new diary, have a major clearout, switch to menu planning and start fly lady all at the same time. Then they crash and burn. I get them to slow down and do one thing at a time. It take 4-6 weeks for something to become a habit. Forming a new habit is exhausting. It's best if people can implement one change at a time. If you implemented one new thing a month and gave everyone in your family a month to get used to it you'd have changed 12 things in the space of a year.

So we start with a quick win. It might be getting everyone to put their washing in the right basket or write their appointments on the diary. Do it until everyone does it automatically then add something else.

If you do one change at a time it's much easier to motivate yourself to do it.

The pomodoro technique is also useful. Do 25 minutes or so of something tedious then reward yourself. Psychologically it helps to put a time limit on tasks you find difficult or boring.