Tuesday, September 23, 2008

On Organizing and Staying Organized

I’m always battling with clutter at home. It’s a never ending and vicious cycle. One day my home is spick and span, and the next day, it’s chaos!

While I was at National Bookstore yesterday, I nearly bought a book on organizing tips. But seriously, I’ve read so many articles on keeping my home clutter free. Do I really need another book which will eventually end up as clutter at home? Or as stuff to be sold at a garage sale?

So anyway, here’s what I came up with. Organizing and staying organized is a matter of disciple and these tips:

1. Clean as you go. So simple to do, but because I don’t have enough time, clutter just happens. In our foyer, bills, letters, flyers, receipts and whatnots tend to pile up. I need to spend a few minutes each week to sort through the letters that come in and discard what is junk. Bills, of course, are immediately segregated so that we are not behind our payments. My work area at home resembles my cubicle at work. There are piles and piles of paper that need to be filed or thrown out. I have different scraps of paper scattered all around where various reminders are scribbled on.

2. Everything should be in its proper place. I think this goes together with #1. I have baskets for my stationery supplies, covered bins for gift wrapping supplies, trays for cosmetics, folders for utility bills, etc. This is all well and good, my problem really stems from not having enough time to do #1 and to return everything to their proper place or to file all my documents in their respective folders.

3. Stop buying non essential items. I am so guilty of this. When browsing through shops and I see something nice, I don’t hesitate to buy it. Then after some months, it just gathers dust and will most likely end up in the next garage sale. If I don’t buy too much, then I won’t have much to clean. I would have more space at home too.

4. Tossing out what is not needed or no longer used into three piles
  • For charity
  • For sale
  • For the trash bin

Now for my game plan. I NEED to go through each room of our house and slowly do nos. 1-4. When will I get to do this? When I have time. LOL!

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