Organizing for the new year

Many people make new year’s resolution that are often forgotten one week later. Why not instead, focus on reinforcing good behavior? It’s a better way to motivate yourself.

Begin Small

Don’t take a huge job and try to do it all at one time. Instead, break the big job into smaller jobs. Consider clearing a closet or dresser and not an entire room at once. If an entire dresser sounds intimidating, start with one drawer.

Regular Tasks

What do you need to organize every day? What happens weekly? Monthly? According to experts, you can reframe a habit in 21 days. That’s just a few weeks, but every journey begins with the first step.

Get in the habit of making your bed every day. Cleaning the kitchen, picking up clothing and making lunch for the next day are other things you can do each day.

Once a week you might do laundry. Designate a time, probably on the weekend if you can wait to do laundry once a week, and find time to do laundry or other household chores. 

Paying bills can happen weekly or monthly, or you can pay them as they arrive. Whatever system works for you is fine, just stick to it.

Calendar

Keep all of your appointments, or your family’s appointments, in one location. That can be a Google calendar online, your phone’s calendar or a paper calendar. As long as everything is there, it doesn’t matter what type of calendar you use.

Goal Setting

Think about what you want to accomplish in the coming year. Set some organizing goals for the year. Make sure your goals can reasonably be achieved and not something that is too hard. At the same time don’t make them too easy. You can set the goals in small increments just like your organizing tasks. Make the commitment and get started now.

Pare Down Paper

Getting rid of paper clutter can be achieved in a few ways. Open your mail standing next to the recycle container and get rid of clutter before it starts. 

You can even stop some junk mail from coming to you in the first place. Catalogs that come in the mail can encourage people to buy things they don’t really want or need. Eliminate the temptation by getting rid of them. Visit DMA Choice to stop getting mail you don’t want.

Get Help

Sometimes the tasks and goals you set for the new year can be too much. If that is the case, please contact me and I can help you through it.