How to Get Organized: 7 Ideas to Encourage Family Members to Start and Finish Tasks

I found that making a master "to-do" list at the beginning of a week results in a more productive week because I prioritize tasks for each day. This method works well for me and helps me act, persist, and finish those jobs. Goals and/or tasks, written down, tend to get accomplished, whereas thoughts alone may drift away and remain unacted on.

Project lists may vary between individuals due to varied interests and objectives. A high-ranked task for me may not appear on another person's list.

Examples of my list toppers for family members:

• Donate at least half of an abundance of shirts stored in the closet, of which 10% are frequently worn and the rest "hang on."

• Decrease the number of containers filled with duplicate household items and stacks that reach toward the ceiling and await a new home elsewhere.

• Remove a 1960's era car that sits idle and wastes away in the garage, while new cars live outside, exposed to hail, rain, and heat.

• Reduce the abundance of hobby items jammed into the garage, acquired over numerous years and abandoned as new interests emerge.

• Recycle or shred stacks of dated documents from years ago that no longer serve a useful purpose and continue to spread over the desktop, or shift from one side to the other, and grow higher daily.

• Replace the decrepit garage door well past its prime.

• Sell or donate Vietnam-era stereo equipment which resides in the recesses of the closet or garage, not turned on nor touched for decades.

Have you tried or experienced the following, without results?

• Repeatedly requested that family members: remove unused articles from the garage; reduce unworn articles of clothing that clog the closet; and decrease the clutter from flat surfaces (desktop, kitchen table, countertops, and floor, etc.).

• Constantly thought about projects placed on the "back burner" and ignored.

• Continually organized and sorted scattered items and multiples of the same type of products and tools into like groups, and cut down the many empty containers in the garage, only to have them increase again?

Ideas that may help family members jumpstart projects or smaller tasks--high on my list, low or non-existent on theirs.

"Plant a seed."

• Suggest they take pictures of unused stereo equipment and advertise the components on E-Bay or Craig's List; find someone interested in restoration or donate the stereo pieces.

• Perform Internet research for desired services then offer those options to family members for further action.

• Ask how you might help your family member move forward on their project.

• Mutually agree on a date to start and finish the task or project.

• Gather articles needed for project implementation and completion; label containers for trash, recycling, and donation. Silence phones, computers, and other electronics to lessen interruptions.

• Engage your patience, encouragement, compassion, and empathy.

• Encourage family members to reduce their abundance of possessions...now…so that their loved ones are not left with that responsibility in the event of a medical problem/emergency or catastrophe which prevents them from taking care of it themselves.

Please share ideas or tips that have worked for you to engage your family members in starting, working on, and completing tasks/larger projects.

Messy Sock Drawer

 Five reasons it makes sense to organize your sock drawer:

1.  Your sock drawer looks like this:

2.  Socks removed from the dryer are thrown into a messy drawer...sock hunt required later.

3.  Two socks are selected without turning the light on; crossed ankles in a seminar later that morning reveals one black and one blue sock. 

4.  Purchasing of a new pair of socks is easier than digging through the stuffed sock drawer to find mates.

5.  Annoyance is experienced because of the reasons noted above.

Even though I fold and put away clean clothes right away...usually...sooner or later my socks end up jumbled.  I decided to try out the drawer dividers pictured below before recommending them to clients.

Five reasons I like these drawer dividers: 

1.  It only took a few minutes to remove all socks from the drawer, sort and pair matching socks, discard singles, and insert the dividers.  

2.  Neatly arranged socks take up less space than a bunch of socks tossed in a drawer.

3.  Specific type and color of socks are easy to select...at a glance; no mismatched sock surprise after arrival at work.

4.  It is only necessary to buy new socks when a different color is needed, or socks wear out.

5.  Satisfaction is derived from the one small change--organizing your sock drawer--no wasted time in  mate matching.

Note:  Purchase sock drawer dividers online, or at Bed Bath & Beyond and The Container Store, for example.

Do You have stacks of Magazines? Tips on How to let them go

One or more magazines arrive monthly and are scanned, or not, and plopped onto a pile of other unread magazines.  My Yoga Journal met this similar fate after its second 2-year renewal.  Does your Better Homes and Garden, National Geographic, Southern Living, or Time Magazine, for example, get treated like this too? 

My five reasons magazines may mount up:

1.  National Geographic may be like classic cars:  occasionally taken out, opened up, dusted off, and then put back.  Why?  Interest in them may be low.

2.  The new Sports Illustrated arrives in the morning and by afternoon the comfy couch beckons the receiver to rest and read.  The article's first paragraph gets read because it grabs your attention.  Then...the magazine slides off your lap and slithers to the floor, in a heap.  Nodding off requires repetitive rereading.

3.  The new Golf magazine joins its mates on the coffee table.  Your lifelong subscription and lack of actual golfing makes reading it unimportant in your busy life.

4.  The last, and previous issues of Better Homes and Garden nests in a basket by your chair.  Several weeks pass, and then, a telephone solicitor offers a new-subscriber rate--hooked!

5.  Throwing away or recycling magazines feels like throwing away money.

My thoughts about magazine reading and recycling

1.  Do you save magazines because you may read them in the future?  Maybe you won't.

2.  Check out this National Geographic website for reuse of this magazine.

3.  Keep a magazine in your vehicle for road repaving standstills, doctor's appointment waits, or friends delayed.  It makes the time pass pleasantly.

4.  Give your previous month's magazine to a friend when the new edition arrives, or try these tips for recycling magazines

5.  Let go of guilt about reading your magazines.  Lehmkuhl and Lamping suggest, in their book, Organizing for the Creative Person, "...Stop everything and decide either to do it and forget it, or not to do it and forget it, and not feel guilty...."

Paperwork Past Its Prime

Paper, in some form, arrives daily in most households. True?

Advertisements, bills, junk mail, magazines, donation requests, and newspapers are received by mail; documents are brought home from work and/or school; and business cards, fliers, and pamphlets are collected at business networking meetings, expositions, and trade shows. Upon arrival, the tendency is to lay the paper object on the nearest chair, couch, desktop, or kitchen counter with the intention of taking care of it...later.

Sometimes, years may elapse and many miscellaneous papers lie around, multiply, and may spread into other rooms. Eventually, the time is right, or an occasion arises and the paper finally gets some attention. Hours upon hours are needed to sort, review, and dispose of the amassed paper collection. Recently, I helped a client process decades’ worth of papers, and inspired me to write this cinquain poem:

Papers

Many Saved

Reading, filing, recycling

Stack up, clutter minds, cause disorder

Toss!