My Top Ten Favorite Organizing Tips

Here are 10 of my favorite (unconventional) organizing tips:

1. Get more sleep! – You’ve heard it here before but it cannot be overstated: you will never be more organized then your personal energy allows.
2. Pitch your mail ASAP – sort your mail as you walk into your home and be brutal with what you trash/shred/recycle immediately
3. Get everything out of your head – ideas, to-do’s, appointments – create a home for each of these AND the time to review them daily
4. Release 1 thing a day – Maybe it is a task you feel you “should” do, maybe it is a pair of jeans, an old toy, a project file from an previous job. Getting into the habit of letting go on a daily basis will have a massive impact on your overall level of organization.
5. Be intentional – When storing items or deciding how to use a space (drawer, shelf, room, etc.) get really clear about your intention for that space and keep it sacred.
6. Use the Golden Organizing Rule – If you love it, use it, or need it – then keep it! If not, let someone else love it, use it, or need it.
7. Start with decisions you’ve already made – When starting an organizing project, clear out the stuff you’ve already made decisions on first.
8. Connect your time – Create time and reminders on your calendar to move organizing projects forward AND to maintain them once completed.
9. Pre-sort your paper – If you have a backlog of mish-mashed paper piles, pre-sort each pile before deciding what to do with the paper. Put bills together, solicitations, advertisements, etc. It helps tremendously.
10. Start maintaining today – Draw a line in the sand and decide that you aren’t going to wait to “get organized” to start maintaining. Declare that from today on you are committed to your systems. You’ll be amazed at how this perspective shift can help you move forward much more easily.