Professional Organizer Linda Isom shares five timesaving tips to ease the housekeeping and free up your life!
1. Hang up clean laundry: It’s most efficient to hang everything but socks, underclothing and pajamas right as they come out of the dryer (and towels and linen). This saves steps in folding, unfolding, and ironing.
More ideas:
• Use a portable hanging rod, (mine is a basic shower curtain tension rod and some are small enough to fit in a doorway)
• Store hangers on the rod
• Designate a shelf and or basket for each family member (ideally above or close to the dryer) and one for household items
• Collect empty hangers when you collect your dirty clothes so you never run out.
• Have a laundry sorter to sort the laundry
• Spot check each piece, one by one.
• Wash & Dry laundry, immediately hang everything that can be hung on a hanger
• Fold socks and underclothing and put in family member’s designated spots
• Distribute Clothing
2. The Magic Apron: One of my bloggers, Risa Baker, from Farmington, shared her idea for making periodic clean sweeps around her home. She writes:
“I wear a (cute) 1/2 apron that I made, with 3 large pockets. I put garbage bags, paper towels, cloths, some spray cleaners, iPod, phone, and lotion in it. I can do the garbage cans as I go, and not make a special trip. I also put 5 to 8 extra bags in the bottom of the garbage cans. The lotion helps me stay moisturized after using liquid cleaners, and then having to vacuum, or sweep. I don’t like doing those things with dry hands. I can also pick up random things as I go, save them in the pockets, and put them in their place later (Like a hair clip that is in the family room, but belongs in the bathroom.).” What a fantastic idea Risa, thank you for sharing it with us!
Another blogger, Anne Richardson, had a great saying; “Keeping up is easier than catching up, I try to live by that.” Great saying, thanks Anne!
3. Quick Wipes: Keep disposable disinfecting wipes in each bathroom and the kitchen.
Disinfecting wipes work well for all-purpose cleaning. And the best part is they disinfect surfaces, too. This makes them perfect for kitchen and bathroom cleanup. While the wipes aren’t meant for scrubbing tough dried-on dirt, they do a great job at quick cleaning most surfaces in your home. Whether you’re playing host to guests or just cleaning for yourself, Disinfecting wipes can get the job done quickly. This is a chore that can easily be passed along to a child who can do a once over in the bathroom each day. A box of baby wipes are also great to have on every floor of your house for quick clean ups of sticky fingers and faces.
4. Write it all down in one place: Americans waste more than 9 million hours a day looking for lost and misplaced articles and paper. Keeping just ONE notebook for all of your messages is KEY. Keep it small enough so that it is portable when needed. When you think of something you need to do, jot down a reminder. This can be used for the following:
• Telephone numbers and addresses
• Important messages
• Grocery lists
• To do list
• Anything else that gets put on a piece of scrap paper
Stock a binder or folder with a list of emergency contacts and household instructions for the babysitter so you don’t have to write them down every time you leave. This will save you endless minutes recalling just what you were supposed to do and where you wrote down something important.
5. Identify your timewasters: Make a hook for those lost keys, keep a running grocery list on your fridge. Our biggest timewaster as a society? You guessed it; the internet.
• Internet Usage: Most of us have a Face book or Twitter account, here are the stats for FB:
o More than 6 billion minutes are spent on FB each day.
o There are 40 million status updates a day.
o If you have uploaded FB to your mobile device, statistically you use it twice as much as the active users and 50% of the people who are on FB look at it at least every day.
Solution: Set a timer when you look at FB or only watch one show you love per day, etc that way you will not spend too much of your day engrossed in things that prevent you from getting things done.
Final Thought
Add all of these timesavers up and you could win back some of that time you never have enough of. Even though you may save only a fraction of this time, you’ll still find minutes and hours you can spend in more meaningful ways.
Remember the 80/20 rule: Remember the 80/20 rule; most people spend 80% of their time trying to complete 20% of their tasks. Prioritize what is most important to you and then move on to the rest. Also, let some things slide that are unimportant, it is okay not to do everything!
Linda Isom enjoys helping people get organized so they can run their lives, not be run by them. For more information about Linda and her services call 801-643-1237 or visit www.clearingspacebydesign.blogspot.com.
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