A Week of Organization

jackmac34 via Pixabay

Regular readers know I'm a big fan of taking small steps. But, when clutter encroaches, small steps don't seem like enough.

How about one small step every day? Try out the organizational acrostic below to make a little bit of progress in a lot of spaces over the course of a week, whether you've got five minutes, fifteen minutes or an hour. 

Magazine Monday. Grab a pile of magazines or catalogs (let the amount of time you have dictate the size of the pile you start out with). Toss or recycle the ones you no longer want. Find a home for any you want to keep. The bonus round: Stop subscriptions to anything you tossed out unread.

Toss it Tuesday. Find a surface that's supposed to be clear (but isn't) and sort things into two piles: keep or get rid of. Decide what to do with the things you no longer want (throw away, recycle, give away, consign). Save the rest for tomorrow. The bonus round: Actually deliver the giveaways and consignables to their destination.

What do I do with this Wednesday. Return to yesterday's "keep" pile and find a home for everything in it. The bonus round: As you put things away, pick up anything else you see that goes in the same place(s).

Think it through Thursday. Find a spot in your house that needs an organizational upgrade. What do you like about the system you have now? What needs improvement? With your preferred styles and container styles in mind, can you think of a better solution? The bonus round: Give a new container a test run to see if it solves the problem.

File it Friday. Dig into that "to be filed" pile and make some progress. More paperless than paper-heavy? Take a look at your inbox and see what needs to be filed -- or deleted -- there. The bonus round: Choose one file folder and sort through it, getting rid of outdated paperwork.

Stylin' Saturday. Take a space from practical organization to pretty organization. Add a dash of color or a pattern like plaid or paisley, or replace a worn or boring container with one that makes you smile every time you use it. The bonus round: Use colored boxes or file folders inside a drawer to jazz it up and make it easier to find what you're looking for.

Siesta Sunday. Take a break! You've earned it.