This is Part Two of Become More Organized Without Having to Get Rid of Anything. Read Part One here.
Habit #2: If something will take you less than 2 minutes, do it now.
Ahhh…the small tasks that seem like such a burden! You know the ones I mean. Making the bed, putting away the laundry, emptying the dishwasher. Chances are you might spend more time rationalizing why you don’t need to do these small tasks than they actually take to complete! I know what you are thinking: yes, there are so many and they add up! Doing 10 two-minute tasks is a 20 minute commitment. But if it needs to be done, it needs to be done. In time, you will get used to “just doing it now” and it won’t seem like extra effort to become more organized. Don’t let those little things pile up to hours of tedious work. Not only will you have peace of mind, but you will have tidiness of home!
Some 2-minute (or less!) tasks that you can do NOW:
-Put clothes away when they are clean.
The goal here is to be able to quickly and joyfully get dressed in the morning. You want your clothes tidy and ready to wear. Clean laundry that sits in a basket or on the couch gets crumpled and dusty. The same goes for clothing that is in limbo: you wore it but it doesn’t need washing. These items don’t need a special place (usually on the chair or floor!) in your room. Clothes can either be worn again or they need to be washed. So, put away clothes that can be worn again. Dirty clothes go in the hamper! If putting dirty clothes in the hamper takes more than 2 minutes, have a think about the location of the hamper and make adjustments. Dropping clothes in a basket shouldn’t take any longer than dropping them on the floor. Sometimes you have to get creative! I have clients who keep a hamper in the hallway because that is where the kids get undressed. It works.
-Handle physical mail as it comes in.
Flip through the mail and immediately toss/shred the junk. Open the rest of the mail and decide if it is something that you can do in 2 minutes. If so, do it now. If it truly can’t be done now, have a dedicated “to do” bin or file so you can keep track of those important documents and complete them at a later date. The key is to have a system so you can avoid duplicate bills, late fees, or having to dedicate an entire afternoon to sort through mail.
-Unsubscribe from junk (e)mail.
A quick Google search will provide you with some resources for unsubscribing from junk mail. Here are some links with more information:
Generally at the top of junk emails it will say “This message is from a mailing list. Unsubscribe”. Clicking that “unsubscribe” prevents you from having to click any links in the email itself (it is not advised to click on links in junk emails) and you won’t have to enter your email address. It’s as quick and easy as clicking delete!
If there isn’t the “unsubscribe” option at the top of the email, you can also swipe to the left from the email list, click the “more” dots in grey, and choose “block sender” at the bottom of the list of options.
I highly recommend this article by the truly delightful (yes, I have met her in person!) Shira Gill for more detailed unsubscribing tips:
https://shiragill.substack.com/p/im-unsubscribing-from-almost-everything
-Take advantage of online banking.
Sign up for auto pay, go paperless, use mobile check depositing (my personal favorite), and the like to streamline your paperwork process. If I had a dollar for every uncashed check I have found sitting at the bottom of a stack of (mostly junk) mail… If you are worried about having enough funds in your account, you can set up email notifications so you will know how much your bill is before auto-paying. (Yes this will add to you email inbox but it is part of making your digital life work for you, not the other way around.)
-Put trash in the trash can.
If you need to put a comically large number of trash cans around the house, just do it! Look around and see where it tends to accumulate in your house and put a trash can there. Maybe you need one on EACH end of the couch. Maybe you need one by the hamper in your kids room. Maybe you need one by the dining table. Clutter attracts clutter and trash too. As your house becomes tidier, you might be able to get rid of some of the cans. As a side note: I recommend cans without lids to remove another barrier of use. If you are sitting on the couch, you don’t want to get up to step on the lever to lift the lid.
-Have a basket at the bottom of the stairs.
This is a special caveat for you 2-storied home-owners. I know running up and down the stairs can be too much sometimes. Instead, place a basket at the bottom of the stairs. During the day, place any items that belong upstairs in the basket. When you are heading up anyway, take the basket with you and put the items away.
HHF Perk: Make this a habit and become more organized without having to spend hours at a time dealing with the piles: mail piles, shoe piles, clothing piles, trash piles. If you simply take care of 2-minute tasks as they occur, you’ll notice things don’t really have a chance to pile up.
In summary, being organized is a habit that takes practice. It is much easier to be organized if you have fewer things in your house and fewer things on your to-do list. An easy way to become more organized is to use up superfluous extras, stop the in-flow of redundant items, and complete quick tasks in real time. If you are struggling with implementing these ideas, you could probably benefit from hiring a professional organizer. A professional organizer will help you become more organized by clearing some space in your house and setting up systems to set you on the path to being a person with organized habits!
If you haven’t already, you can read Part One here.