Picture this: you walk into your home and it’s actually… organized! No pile of dishes, your dinner table is clear of stuff, laundry folded away, your bed’s made…
Is this a dream? Maybe it is for some people! But you can make this a reality and get organized by implementing small habits.
It could be hard if you don’t know where to start. That’s why in this post you’ll find the 8 habits of organized people – so you can get more organized too and make a tidy home your reality!
1. Keep things where you use them
Make your life easier by storing things close to the place where you will use it.
For example, store toilet paper in the bathroom, keep kitchen cleaners under the sink, put stationery stuff in the study, have the bed linen in the bedrooms.
This way, you don’t have to drag stuff around your house, which means you are also less likely to leave the items along the way – where they don’t belong.
If you do find things laying around the house often, it is probably because it’s too much work to put them away at the actual storage spot.
If there is no space to keep it in the actual room, try to store it as close as possible. You get the point: minimize the distance between usage and storage.
2. Clean and pick up as you go
You might have heard this many times already, but it’s true, and a habit of many organized people.
Try to ‘complete’ what you started. What I mean is to clean and tidy up as soon as you’re done with something.
For example, load your dishes in the dishwasher immediately after dinner, put books or magazines away after reading them and so on.
Also think of smaller things like, putting back a pen in the drawer or penholder (I have to do that; otherwise my cat will use it as her chew toy…) or cleaning out your hairbrush after each use.
This might need some time to get used to, but in the long run, it will save you so much time to tidy up immediately after; instead of 25 things at once.
3. Make your bed
Organized people make their bed each morning.
Whether single or in a relation: make your bed. Either you do it or your partner if they get out of bed later.
It will make your bedroom look much neater and motivates you to make the rest of the room and house look just as neat.
Plus, it’s effortless to do!
Related post: How To Declutter The Bedroom And Make It Your Sanctuary
4. Have a place for everything
Set designated storage spots for everything. This will help you in two ways:
1. It makes it a lot easier to put something back if you actually have a place for it.
2. You will always know where to find a particular item.
If you don’t have designated places for anything right now, I’d recommend setting aside some time (say an hour per week) to find a place for your stuff to live.
If you can’t find a place for a specific object, you should consider if you really need the item or it might be better to throw/give it away.
Sometimes getting rid of something is a better solution than keeping it and doing nothing but taking up space and creating clutter.
Related post: How To Organize Your Closet By Color So It Works Perfectly For You
5. Purge regularly
This may sound pretty dramatic to some, but being organized means to regularly evaluate if you actually need to keep an item.
How often do you come across something that you haven’t used in years? If you haven’t used it for the last year, chances are small that you’ll need it for the next years.
In the beginning, it will take some time for you to go around the house and see if there’s anything you should purge. But if you do this regularly, it will become quicker and easier.
Don’t be afraid to donate/sell/throw away items you haven’t used in a while! Be honest with yourself if you’re really going to use it soon. If not, just get rid of it. Say hello to more space!
6. Don’t let dishes pile up
I always say: ‘Doing the dishes is a mindset’.
Whenever I see the dishes and think ‘ugh I don’t feel like doing that’, the task becomes so much more annoying!
However, sometimes I look at it and think ‘okay, let me just quickly do the plates and glasses, so at least that’s done’. It becomes easy-peasy, and I usually end up doing all of the dishes, because I’m at it anyway.
Don’t let the dishes pile up in the first place, so it always becomes an easy breezy task.
Though, I know, sometimes life gets in the way and you can’t avoid having a massive load of dishes.
In that case, I would suggest to break it down in smaller portions. For example, just do the plates. Later, when you get back to the kitchen, do the glasses and mugs. And so on. If you do this over a few hours, you’ll slowly work away all your dishes.
If you have the luxury of having a dishwasher, treat it as a luxury! Because the only thing you have to do is loading and unloading it.
You can surely bring up the motivation to do that, if you imagine others actually have to wash each item by hand…
7. Spend ten minutes every evening to tidy up
Okay, more realistically: spend ten minutes most evenings to tidy up. Organized people aren’t perfect, but they are consistent.
Ten minutes isn’t that long, anyone can set this time apart. If you can’t, you have to work on your time management skills.
You’ll be surprised how much organizing you can do in ten minutes.
Look around you and see what you can put away. You could:
- fold and store the throw blanket lying on your sofa
- rearrange the cushions
- clear the dining or coffee table of any dishes
- store any books/magazines/brochures lying around
- take out the trash
- put back any toiletries, makeup or accessories that are lying around
All these things make your place look messy, but luckily take little time to tidy!
Turn on a timer for 10 minutes and see how much you can get done. Bringing me to my last point…
Related post: Quick Ways To Keeping Your House Clean
8. Set a timer and focus on one task
Have you ever noticed how much and how quickly you can clean and declutter when you have visitors coming over last minute?
You can recreate this mindset by setting a timer for your tasks.
Let’s say you’ve been dreading to tidy and clean your kitchen counter top because you know it will take up some time.
Set a timer for 15 minutes and focus on doing as much as you can at this time.
The sense of a deadline and focus on one task, will make you want to work your hardest in the hope that you can get the job over within the time you set out for it.
You will find yourself completing tasks in less time than it would have usually took you.
Let’s get started getting organized
I’ve tried to make these points as actionable as possible, so you can start implementing them in your life and become one of the organized people.
Don’t overwhelm yourself by starting all at once! Pick 1 or 2 that seem easy enough for you to begin with and then keep expanding.
Let me know in the comments down below which steps you are going to start with!
