Staying Organized Is As Easy As ABC
Brought to you by Joan Kosmachuk, ProfesIional Organizer
and Personal Life Coach

“The purpose of organizing is to put your life in order, not to put your things in order.”
—Pipi Campbell Patterson, Park Avenue

This month I am sharing 26 tips to help you see that once you get organized, staying organized can be as easy as ABC – just follow this alphabetized list to help keep your home and life in order:

Always keep your laundry up-to-date.

Before you buy something new, determine where you’ll store or display it

Choose a portable box/basket for all “incoming” paper including mail and papers brought home by various family members. Set aside a specific time for routinely dealing with this paper i.e. once a day, every other day, or at the very least once a week.

Do your dishes daily

Every “thing” should have a place as close as possible to its point of use

Free stuff should not be allowed into your home unless you were planning to purchase it anyway.

Give away anything you no longer have need of.

Have a basket or shelf for storing borrowed items

If you take it out, put it away. If you dirty it, clean it.

Junk mail, unsolicited catalogues and advertisements should be put straight into the recycle or trash bin.

Keep an inventory of all household staples to avoid unintentional duplication

Live in the present, not in the past. Memories are for enjoying and sharing, not hoarding.

Maintain your horizontal surfaces. Take five minutes morning, noon and night to clear the clutter off any horizontal surface.

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

Outsource any task you can’t effectively cope with on your own

Pay your Bills on-line and request to receive your statements on-line too.

Quality should always be chosen over quantity.

Recycle or re-circulate newspapers daily and magazines as soon as you’ve read them

Set aside a specific time each season to declutter your clothes closets.

Tax receipts should be put immediately into a file or box designated for their collection.

Use the library to borrow books, magazines and DVD’s instead of buying them.

View your sentimental items through the eyes of a friend – do they think you are crazy to hang on to something? They’re probably right.

When you replace an item, toss or donate the item it replaced.

X-mass decorations and other holiday décor should be carefully examined before you store them for another season. Toss any faded or damaged decorations and donate those you no longer wish to display

Yearly purging of paper files is a necessity. Shred any identifying documents before tossing.

Ziploc bags are a great way to store expense receipts when you are traveling. Use the “best-before" strip to mark each bag with the current month/year.

If you need help getting organized, consider getting professional input by hiring a professional organizer. To hire the services of Joan Kosmachuk, please email your request to info@simpleeffects.com or call 617-784-0707.

If you found the information in this newsletter to be of value to you, please feel free to forward it to your friends and colleagues; you'll be helping them stay organized too.

NEW: Check out my “Organizing Small Spaces” Blog each Tuesday