It’s All About Systems

It can be fairly easy to organize a space one time. Where we seem to run into trouble is keeping a space organized on an ongoing basis. This is often because we don’t have a system for maintaining it. Developing a system is key in organizing. So, I thought I’d throw out some ideas for various things. I hope this can help you generate ideas for systems that will work for you!

Here are some ideas:

– It’s often helpful to have one place to put all our incoming mail initially. Something with dividers can be useful to separate bills, coupons, magazines and so forth. Bills might stay there until paid. Coupons might then go in a folder in a certain spot. Any mail you don’t need to keep – just toss it! 

– You can use hanging file bins with tabbed dividers for papers you need to keep.

– Keeping a running list of things you need to buy is helpful. 

– You might want to create checklists for what you need to accomplish – cleaning/chore checklists, daily tasks, etc.

– Cleaning out the car each time you leave it can be helpful – throwing away any trash, putting items that don’t stay in your car back where they go. 

– Try to keep things where you’ll use them. If you often forget to use stain remover on laundry, keep the stain remover right next to your dirty clothes bin. If you always need a pen when you sit down in the living room, keep some pens there. If you usually have things to throw away when you’re at your desk, put a trash bin there. 

– It helps to categorize things. Movies in alphabetical order, or by genre then alphabetical order. Magazines by name then by date. Clothes by season and/or by color. 

– You can create folders in your email account to keep your inbox smaller and to easily find emails later. 

I hope some of these are helpful. Does anyone have any systems they use that they would like to share?