29 Organization Tips to Help You Keep it Together

Anna

I have been on a quest for daily order and punctuality, so I devised this exclusive mini-guide to stay organized during full working weeks.

Organizing Tips for Daily Life

 1. Prioritize Before You Go to Bed

Do you remember how it feels when you’re feeling slightly anxious before going to bed at night because you are thinking about all the things you need to do tomorrow?

This lack of clearness can be a real pain. Here’s a tip:

The best thing to do to boost your productivity and get a good night’s sleep is to write a to-do list for tomorrow, then prioritize your tasks.

Not only will you not arbitrarily rush from task to task in a complete panic, you’ll also be able to complete the most important things on the list.

2. See What’s Next

Technology is your friend!

I use the “reminder” app that came with my iPhone to prioritize my daily tasks, and I love it. You can simply check off what’s already done and see what’s next.

Another useful feature of the app is, what you’ve checked as “Done” doesn’t get canceled, merely hidden, so you can also keep track of all your daily goals!

3. Get a Shopping Planner

I’m sure you’ll agree with me if I say that if you have a grocery list on hand:

  • You won’t waste time once you step inside the store.
  • You don’t waste money buying unnecessary things because you happen to be hungry or have too much time.

As mentioned earlier, your smart phone can help. In fact, there’s a bunch of free grocery list apps out there.

4. Get In on Sales and Deals

Don’t get me wrong, this post is not about apps, but they’re a game-changer for your daily life. Along with the previous apps mentioned, this one’s both a money and time saver.

More specifically, wouldn’t it be awesome if you could have information on special promotions and deals for the stores near your home?

I found this app Shopfully, where I’m able to check out weekly offers for groceries, and discounts at various stores. When I find a good deal, I’m also able to save it as a reminder. Great stuff!

5. Become a Go-Getter

As my beloved Brian Tracy says:

“To unlock and unleash your full potential, you should make a habit of daily goal setting and achieving for the rest of your life. You should develop a laser-like focus so that you are always thinking and talking about what you want rather than what you don’t want.” – Brian Tracy

I believe that this advice is gold.

If you clearly set your yearly, monthly and weekly goals, you’ll only have to ask yourself how you achieve them.

In essence, once you know what you want, the process is simple.

  • Write your goals down.
  • Write down what you need to do to achieve those goals.
  • Now, cut the fluff, prioritize and schedule all the little steps to reach your goals.

6. Buy Christmas Gifts All Year Round

Do some research and look for sites that sell great stuff for less, all year round.

Creating a people-to-gift list during the year is the best solution to avoid last-minute shopping on December 23.

You’ll have all the time in the world to find the perfect gift for your family and friends, pay less to get them, and have a good excuse to do some relaxing online shopping all year round.

Not to mention your happy credit card statement in January!

7. Become a Birthday Superhero

Set reminders for birthdays, anniversaries and special occasions for the people around you, make it ring two days before, and on the day itself.

Your friends and family will love your thoughtfulness – everyone loves to feel special.

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years, by trying to get other people interested in you.” – Dale Carnegie

8. Set Time Aside for Yourself

If you’re always in a hurry to stay on top of everything, it’s easy to fall into a trap of not taking care of yourself.

Conversely, once you understand that feeling good is a priority to a happier life, you only have decide on how to get there.

Here’s how:

Schedule mini beauty breaks for yourself, like going to the hairdresser or the nail spa. Giving yourself some time off to make yourself feel and look good? It can make your day.

The next time you go to get your hair done, just make sure you set a future appointment so you have something to look forward to.

Organizing Tips for Work

9. Stop Staring at The Closet

If you hate to go to your closet every morning and have no idea what to wear (again!), there is a ton of quick and easy organizing tips to fix the issue, but here’s the most useful:

Decide what you want to wear the night before, get it out of the closet and set it aside for the next day.

10. Stop Messing Up Documents

Are you the kind of person who wastes time hunting for documents on your desk, and all around the office?

This one is simple:

Clear your desk every day before leaving the office.

If you think this will cost you 5 or 10 minutes of your time, then consider the amount of time you lose every week to search for things, not to mention the distraction this causes you each time.

11. Get Off the Mail-Hell Train

If you followed tip #2, you already know what to do, it’s written on your phone.

But that’s not all.

Once you’re at the office, write your to-do list on a piece of paper. Research says that when you put something on paper, it is more binding and better linked to your subconscious mind, so you are more likely to follow through.

Write your to-do list before opening your computer, and don’t look at emails until you’ve finished the first and most important task.

12. Follow-Up on Yourself

Have you finished that presentation?

Are you getting things done to reach your goals?

If so, well done, you’re on the right path.

Otherwise, what’s keeping you from following through? How do you overcome the situation?

Always remember you’re just giving a follow-up call to yourself, you’re not authorized to bring yourself down. Just be clear about what’s distracting you from your goals and decide on a solution.

Organizing Tips for Your Closet

13. Categorize Your Clothes

Here’s how:

  • Hang your clothes based on categories
  • Hang all the sweaters in a block, then shirts, pants, skirts and so on.

And if you want to make it easier to recognize the different “blocks”, just use hangers of the same color for every block.

14. Make Color Blocks

Now that you have categorized items and organized hanger blocks, it’s time to organize each item from the same category in color blocks.

Not only this will save you a bunch of time when you’re searching for a white shirt, you’ll also know when it’s time to iron something or to pick it up from the dry cleaners.

15. First Things First

Make all your clothes visible in the closet. Hang dresses and skirts in order of:

#1 Season

#2 Length

#3 Color

In the end, you’ll have all your summer dresses hung in the same block from the shortest to the longest with every length ordered by color. Seeing is believing!

16. Mark Our Work Clothes

This one’s really cool: if you mark all the hangers for work-appropriate clothes, you’ll find them all in a flash.

Just put a colored ribbon, some colored scotch tape or a colored paper clip on said hangers and you’re done.

17. Recognize the “Untouchables”

Do you have any items that have been untouched in your closet since forever and you just can’t face going through everything?

The no-more-excuses tip to fix this closet malady is to hang all the clothes you haven’t worn in months, with the hanger facing outwards.

This way, you’ll clearly figure out which items are the “untouchables”.

18. Get an Outfit-Ready Closet

If that jacket goes well with those pants and that skirt, then hang them all together! Use a can tab to hang the complements to the main items, and you’re done.

19. Change Your Bag Every Day in a Flash

Worried about losing items whenever you change your bag? You could lose this, forget that and probably misplace something.

Oh, the anguish!

If you don’t want to feel like Rose and Jack in the middle of a sinking ship, get a pouch to keep all your essentials. When you change bags, all you have to do is move the pouch. Easy!

20. Find Your Tees at First Glance

Imagine yourself opening the drawer in the morning and BAM! You see all your tees at one glance.

If you like the idea, just do this:

Double fold t-shirts and Polos and make them stand upright in the drawer. I discovered this anti-chaos method when trying to contain my fashionably messy boyfriend, and found this fabulous book by Marie Kondo, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

21. Shoes, Shoes, Shoes

Organize all the current season shoes outside their boxes, so you can locate every pair at first glance. If you want to keep the shoes in boxes, opt for transparent boxes, so you can see them.

22. . . .  and Shoes

Another tip:

For the shoes left outside, arrange them right shoe toe out, and left shoe heel out so you can see both, and it will make it easier to find the footwear you want for your outfit.

23. Stop Singing in The Rain

Hang umbrellas in the coat closet and get them out only when it rains.

24. Toss Those Eggs Aside

Instead, use the egg compartment in your fridge to store your nail polish.

Yes, you can do this, and it’s a super-duper trick to store your nail polish because it will stay liquid until the last drop.

Organizing Tips for the Kitchen

25. Get a Doll For Your Kitchen

Now you have a stylish way to hide plastic bags without folding them. Put them all in the skirt of a doll.

I found one at the local market and I love keeping bags there. It’s easy to use and your kitchen will look organized and original.

26. Chef Problems

Whether you’re working at home or outside the home, you likely struggle with the daily question of: What do I make for lunch and/ or dinner?

Then you find yourself running to the store 10 minutes before you have to serve dinner, or ordering pizza, or giving your family cereal and toast.

If you want to say goodbye to those days, here’s what you can do:

Print a weekly calendar, plan your menu for each weekday, and list down the ingredients you need so you already know what you’re cooking and what you need to buy (remember your shopping planner, tip #3?).  With your shopping list on hand, you can either send your other half to the store or order online.

27. Use Glass Jars

Want an interesting touch in your kitchen? Use glass jars for cookies and dry items like pasta, flour and sugar, and you’ll take the guessing out of it.

And, remember to write down the expiry dates on some tape and affix it to the jar.

28. Puzzle-Clean Your Home

Just as a puzzle is made up of little pieces, your home is organized into rooms. You should be able to clean each room in 20 to 30 minutes.

For better home management, try to clean at least one room a day and clean/ tidy your bathroom every day, so you’ll have a tidy home all week long.

Eventually, set aside a day a week for general housekeeping. At this point, it will also get easier and quicker.

29. Baggies Up

Put baggies standing up in the freezer and it will give you an immediate idea of what you have!

Apply these tips to all aspects of your daily life, and you’ll immediately begin to see differences. Have fun and good luck!

Head to the Front Porch


PIN IT FOR LATER:

29 Organizational Tips to Keep it Together


This post was syndicated with permission to BonBon Break Media, LLC.

Anna is a thirty-something image consultant from Italy, founder of the blog Female Jungle. She believes in the power of little steps towards big changes and real improvement. Seriously in love with style, clothes, and all the secrets of communication, Anna's life goal is to boost other women's confidence and self-esteem starting form their closet.