Seven tips on organizing your life and easing everyday stress

Getting organized is something everyone knows to be a good thing. Being organized makes it easy to find things, prevents delays in getting on your way and so, eases some of the stress we’re all used to living with on an everyday basis. It’s somewhat of a paradox that, while we know that organizing creates a measure of order, hardly anyone pursues the well organized home with due diligence. I guess it’s that old procrastinating tendency some of us were born with that is the culprit. We also know that a lack of organization breeds stress, something which we all abhor. Here, we take a look at some very practical tips on organizing, intended to help people who aren’t born neat freaks!

Eleanor Roosevelt was renowned for her well organized household. She was a very busy woman, of many accomplishments. Where did she find the time to be both organized and accomplished? It wasn’t because she obsessed over housekeeping or organization. Her motivation was of a strictly practical genesis. She didn’t want to waste precious time looking for her keys, when she could be making things of real substance happen. We can all take a page from Mrs. Roosevelt, an expert in shaving time on the mundane aspects of life and using that time for accomplishing tasks of a more substantive nature.

If you have to search half a dozen places, every day, for your keys before you can leave the house, begin with this simple and non-obsessive tip on organizing. If your home is the poster child of cluttered living, you can easily decrease your stress levels by making a specific place for those items you need everyday. Keys, purse, wallet and your calendar are a good beginning. This is no fairy tale. I know plenty of people who waste 10 minutes a day looking for each of these items! You could prepare dinner in less time! Add on the frustration you experience, wasting time you don’t have and you’ve got a formula for constant irritation.

While being House Beautiful organized is an admirable objective, you’ve got to be realistic. When you’re juggling the average person’s list of daily responsibilities, turmoil is right around the corner. Things happen and the usual tips on organizing your life somehow never really materialize. It’s a nice thought, but …

Our practical tips on organizing are aimed at the regular person, who doesn’t have time to devote their life to being an organizational expert. You’re just seeking a measure of organization that prevents thoughts of tearing your hair out over where those darn keys are!

Our tips on organizing prescribe taking just a step at a time. You don’t have to be organizationally perfect. You just need to determine which facets of your lack of organization irk you most. Fix those first and revel in the release from frustration, savings in time and decrease in stress. This is indeed a good beginning!

Now that you’ve got a place for your keys, bills and calendar, you’ve gained time previously wasted. Is your kitchen a mess? Does the spatula or whisk disappear on a daily basis? Take a few minutes every day to get the kitchen in order. Putting a meal on the table is thus faster and less stressful. Two down, and how many to go?

It’s important to realize that implementing these tips on organizing is not a contest. Once you’ve got the show stoppers out of the way, you can tackle those hall closets and kitchen cupboards, all in your own good time. As you proceed down the road to organizational loveliness, your cluttered nightstand becomes a nice Saturday morning project. The disorganized mess of boxes in the garage becomes a welcome challenge. OMG, you’re getting organized. You might now be well qualified to be giving out tips on organizing to your friends! Why will they listen? They see how you’ve mellowed out! Hooray for you and all of us ordinary folk!