I challenge you to find one day a week, one hour in that day to do something organizing related. Below are a list of things you can accomplish in one hour. If you consistently give yourself just this one hour you'll be surprised how much you can "catch up" on. What will 52 hours a year net you? An organized closet? Donation boxes out the door? A cleared space to do crafting, exercise, or a room you can rent for income? A relief from the guilty feeling of "I need to {fill in the blank}" in the pit of your stomach?
I challenge you to put a "Dexterous HOUR" in your week, a time that you feel your best energy wise, that you can consistently do something. To make it easier you can break it out into 30 minutes in two days or 15 minutes in four days. But do it, be consistent and put yourself back in your life.
- Sort through mail - putting active items close by on board or on fridge until they are complete, active items on a tabletop file, and archive items in a file cabinet or scan them into your digital system.
- Going through the pantry and cabinets and throwing out expired food and spices, then planning a menu for items that are near expired to be used.
- Going through clothes and making repairs and sewing on buttons
- Switching out seasonal clothing
- Taking shoes that need repair to the cleaners for repair
- Taking out worn out hangers and wire hangers from the cleaners out of the closet because they take up space.
- Going through old files and shredding out dated information
- Clearing your email inbox
- Donating unread magazines to waiting rooms or homeless shelters
- Ripping CD music onto computer making a MP3 file and load up in the cloud, then throwing away CDs
- Getting rid cleaning product bottles that are almost empty and pouring into like bottles
- Going through old greeting cards and getting rid of ones that have no sentiment or message inside it. Going through old photos and getting rid of duplicates, filing pictures into categories for scrap booking or photo albums
- Take electronic cords and match them up with the electronic device; then label the cord and put away neatly to be found again.
- Get rid of duplicate tools and keep tools in places that are handy (i.e. garage, in car trunk, in utility room, etc.) Go through gardening chemicals and make sure none are leaking or are not expired.
- Call bulk trash and schedule a pick up of items that need to be taken away.
- Go through toys with kids (or make the decision for them) of toys they don't play with or have outgrown to be donated or discarded.
- Call local charity to schedule a pick up and purge items in all closets.
- Give not-yet-given gifts to people they were intended for
- Go through home and look for things that belong to other people and arrange for them to pick it up or get delivered.
- Get clothes or other items off of surfaces not intended for clothes - chairs, exercise equipment, floor, tabletops, etc.
- Take inventory and photos/videos of items in your home for insurance purposes
- Read about a new organizing tip or trick you can inculcate in your life
- Go through books on a bookshelf and get rid of books you've outgrown or don't intend on reading again
- Move your DVDs or CDs from the jewel cases to a compact disc holder (throw out jewel cases)
- Get rid of boxes of items you purchased (you probably don't need them).
- Schedule your week and check for double-bookings or things you are over-extending yourself and make calls to reschedule
- Learn how to use a productivity app like Evernote.
- Schedule your doctor's appointments for the next two months for the whole family
- Look at calendar for celebrations coming up and order gifts online to be sent to celebrator directly or put a reminder in your calendar to shop for a gift.
- Schedule vet visit for your furry friend's yearly shots