Get Organized: How to De-clutter Your Life
If you’re like most people, you lead a crazy busy life. Your email inbox is filled to the brim, you’re swamped with full-time work, and you may care for young children or an elderly parent All of these responsibilities would leave anyone feeling overtaxed and burdened. But don’t let that get you down! One way to ease your burden is to weed out the clutter and organize your life. In doing so, you’ll free yourself to tackle life’s more challenging problems.
Before you begin organizing, it’s important to identify why you’re allowing the disorder around you to affect your life.
Answer these simple questions to begin simplifying your life:
- What can I live without?
- What sentimental items am I holding onto that may be cluttering my life?
- Who will benefit from a radical organizational change in my life? Family? Friends? Co-workers?
Now that you’ve identified some potential trends and areas for improvement, it’s time to start implementing change. Follow these simple tricks to be better organized today.
Start with your desk or home office. This is where junk mail, note cards and random letters love to accumulate. Start by fishing through snail mail and weeding out items that you have no use for. Throw these bad boys in the garbage and you’ll probably clear up about 50% percent of your desk space in one go. But you’re not finished. Once your desk is clear, take a trip to your local home goods store and pick up some handy organizational items. If you have a specific place to put pens, letterhead, envelopes, return address labels and other stationery items, you’re less likely to throw them into a drawer.
Put it on the calendar. If you’re always scrambling to remember birthdays, keep appointments or make it to meetings, then you’re only human. With Blackberry’s, iPhones and other technology at everyone’s fingertips, it’s easy to keep on top of schedules; but you don’t have to drop hundreds of dollars to get on track. Just buy a calendar or appointment book to stay mindful. If you buy your calendar online, you should be able to add custom text to certain dates and upload photos for that personal touch. You may even be able to choose the starting month!
Organize your computer. Clutter busting doesn’t stop with your desk. Extend your new organizational structure to your laptop or PC. Start by clearing your desktop of random files, pictures and documents. Create folders with subcategories for these items and you’ll save yourself a headache time and again.
Take a deep breath, you’re now on your way to an organized life. Follow these easy tips and tricks and you’ll be able to focus on the more important things.
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