Quick Organizing Tips to Help You Stay Organized
Here are some quick and easy tips to help you learn how to stay organized:
Don’t procrastinate!
If you leave it today for tomorrow you will still have to do it, so just do it now and get it off your mind.
Pay your bills on a regular basis.
Pay your bills twice a month or once a week. When a bill comes in the mail open it immediately. Keep all your bills in one place with pens, pencils with working erasers, calculator, envelopes, and postage stamps. Paying your bills quickly is a great way to stay organized and save money because they don’t get lost or shuffled in with other paperwork.
If you are unable to pay a bill.
Call the place to whom it is owed BEFORE it is due. Explain your situation and see if you can work out a payment plan. Most places would be more than happy to work out a payment plan rather than not receive the money or have to call a collection agency.
Keep a master to-do and to-call list.
I keep a small spiral notebook to help me stay organized. I divide each page in half with a line and everyday I write down what needs to be done. One side of the line is for the “To Do” items and the other side is for “To Call” items. If you like you can use one page for each day. If you need to do something on Wednesday and it’s Monday, write it on your to-do list for Wednesday.
Look at your list from a priority standpoint.
What needs to be done first? Number items on your list according to their importance starting from 1 and then work on the most important things first.
Don’t over-schedule yourself.
Be flexible and allow yourself some room for illness, unexpected appointments etc.
For appointments…
Always plan to be early and bring something to do (like a magazine or novel you want to read). Make sure that you bring something along for the kids also.
Keep a master list of weekly housecleaning duties and assign a day for them to get done.
If you clean the bathrooms every Monday, you don’t have to worry about wondering when they were last cleaned.
Create a place for items waiting to leave the house.
Create a place, preferably by the door, in the house for everything that needs to be returned, including library books, dry cleaning, letters to be mailed, etc. Then you won’t have to search for things when you are leaving and it will help you stay organized when there is only one place for these items to live.
Put the children to bed at least 1 hour before your bed time.
Use the time to relax and get things done that would be easier and faster to do without their “help”. There is no reason that the kids need to be up late and the quiet time will reduce your stress level.
Jill
How do you stay organized and save money with kids running around all the time? Oh I need this so bad.
Good ideas that I need to be more diligent to put into practice!
I do you manage to stay organized when you are going thru Chemo?
Nicole, you don’t. When going through something like that you cannot expect to keep on top of things the same as when you are healthy. I say so often we have seasons in our lives and we have to except them the same why we do regular seasons. In the bitterness of winter you can’t keep the outside of your home in as perfect shape as you can when the sun is shining. The same goes for our homes when we are going through illness, new babies etc.
Mostly what a person needs to do is God has put you where you are for a reason and He doesn’t demand any more out of you then He has given you the strength to do. If you don’t have the strength to do something maybe He wants you to relax and allow someone else to be blessed in helping you.
That is the spiritual part the practical part is often others fail in stepping up to the plate to help or maybe it has nothing to do with someone else but just to help you learn to let go. At times like these you only do the bare necessities. Meals, laundry and care of children. Even those will need to be cut back on. You will have to use paper plates, disposable pans, no extra baking.
Get the laundry down to a minimum. When I first got sick I packed all my clothes away but just about 3 outfits. Just looking at the clothes smashed in my closet made me tired so do that with your family if you can. If your kids wear a dirty shirt to school or out someplace once in awhile, oh well. The world will not end. In other words par down as much as you can on everything and lower your standardsfor awhile if you need to.
Other things you can do is when you have good days do what you can. Pick one area which really bugged you when you were sick and get it taken care of first. I had to do my 5 min. rule and still have many days where I have to do it. If I just don’t have the strength at all I do nothing, if I have a little strength but can’t get motivated I rest and when a commercial comes on TV or on the hour I make myself get up and do only 5 mins. worth of something then collapse. You would be surprised how much you can get done in 5 mins.
Bottom line is don’t worry about it now, I know that is hard to do but you may have to. Ask for help. Sometimes we have no one but I also know there are many people who would love to help but they don’t know there is a need or what to do or even how to offer so ask when you can.
Even everything I mentioned may not work. I have had a rough couple of weeks of being sick with my cfs and you should see my house now. Piles every where I don’t even have kids but I have to let it go for now. Don’t be hard on yourself. Your illness can’t be helped.
I wish I could do more. If you can check out the website there are many articles on everyday practical to do when you are sick which might help more.
You will be in my prayers truly,
Jill
Such a compassionate response. I was blessed by it. A little kindness goes a long way. Doesn’t it? May you be blessed.