February 12×30 Challenge: Get Organized

This month the 12×30 Challenge is all about organization. This could mean organizing your closet, your computer documents, your entire house, your priorities, or all of the above! Of course it is completely up to you how much or how little you would like to organize. Being organized has a plethora of benefits such as saving you time when you need to locate something, it helps you stay on top of bills, and it helps cut the clutter.

Quit procrastinating. I swear I’m the worlds biggest procrastinator-but I’m going to work on fighting back each time I get that urge to put something off. Get stuff done first = stress-free relaxation instead of anxiety-laced laziness.

Create a life notebook that holds all of your important papers. Things like yearly to do lists, emergency contact information, insurance documents, gift idea list, important birthdays and anniversaries, website log ins and passwords, employment history, vehicle information, school records, veterinary documents, contracts, mortgage documents, etc. To keep all of this as organized as possible, look into different software, such as this software for file management from FileCenter, for example.

Dejunk your closets. Go through your closets and pick out what you no longer wear or use anymore and put it in a donation bag/pile. Take that bag immediately to a donation center (Goodwill, Boys & Girls Club, etc.) so you’re not tempted to take things back out of it. Let it help someone less fortunate than you instead of just laying around not being used. If you have large junk piles of items that you’ve been hoarding in your basement or attic, you may need the use of services like Rubbish Works of Macomb or ones closer to you, so you can get rid of them in one go. Check to see if they can be repurposed first, if not, then it is best to have them sent away as they would be of no use to anybody.

Keep your junk drawers in order with with bins for specific types of items. Bins for things like pens, random nuts and bolts, batteries, papers, etc. Minimizing the size of your junk drawer also helps keep the clutter to a minimum.

Create a recipe and meal-planning binder.

Schedule your cleaning/organizing. Spending a little time each day on something is less stressful than trying to clean everything in one day. Make yourself a grown-up chore chart!

Make daily to-do lists. Just make sure you don’t overwhelm yourself-be realistic.

Store sheet sets in their corresponding pillow cases. This keeps everything together and in one place.

Take advantage of vertical space. Add vertical shelving to walls to hold decor, books, etc.

Keep items such as nail polishes, spices, medicines, etc. on a lazy Susan.

Hang kitchen utensils such as measuring cups or spoons on the inside of a kitchen cabinet door. You can even add a measurement converter above or below the utensils!

Don’t set your mail down. Sort through it as soon as you bring it into the house and recycle what you do not need.

Use velcro, tape, or zip ties to keep wires together.

Sort the blogs you follow on Bloglovin’ or your RSS reader. Sort them into categories such as: fashion, beauty, do-it-yourself, etc. I even have categories like A, B, C, etc. for which blogs I want to read most and which ones I get to when I can. Also, it’s OK to unfollow the ones you don’t read-it’ll make your life easier!