What are just a few things I can do each day around my home to keep it clean and organized?
Professional organizer Becca Clark, owner of Creative Convenience and Your Best Move, offers these tips:
• Set up a file folder right now for 2016 taxes. Drop in anything throughout the year that documents charitable deductions, income, tax info, etc. Next year, tax prep will be much easier with everything in one place.
• Create a "landing strip" for everything that comes into your home for a very temporary stay. Examples: mail, children's papers from school, keys, work or school IDs, gloves, handbag, backpacks, etc. Placing hooks on the wall maximizes space and gets items off the floor and surfaces. Dedicate a space for this (often in the kitchen) and enforce it. Nothing critical will ever be missing, and you can control the volume with a quick purge weekly.
• Put a bag or box in your closet and anytime you find clothing/accessories that you no longer like or use, drop them in. Once full, take to your favorite charity and donate. Then repeat.
• Use a kitchen timer to encourage an activities you don't enjoy: File for 10 minutes, or have kids pick up their toys for seven minutes each evening. You can do anything if you know it's a short burst that will soon end.
• Use a kitchen timer to limit activities that you can easily get lost in and waste too much precious time -- like most anything online or video games. Allow yourself 15 minutes on Facebook and when the timer buzzes, move on.
• Store similar items together -- office supplies, kitchen gadgets, black pants, small electronics. You will always know where to find and put things back, and you'll have a better idea of how much you really own when you make future purchase decisions.
• Open mail near a trash/recycle can and your shredder. Immediately put unnecessary paper out of your life.
• Designate a basket or tote as a "take in the car" container.
Drop anything in during the week that goes outside the home -- library books, items for cleaning or repair, stuff to return to friends or donate, and other items in transition. Put the tote in your car and you'll have it when you're in the area. Saving time and gas by combining trips and completing small tasks is empowering.
• Force yourself to make decisions on things, especially paper. Keep it or toss it? Professional organizer Peter Walsh says, "Every pile of clutter is a monument to a series of small procrastinations."
-- Linda S. Haymes
Do you have a decorating or remodeling question? Send your question to Linda S. Haymes, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203 or email:
lhaymes@arkansasonline.com
HomeStyle on 02/13/2016