New Year’s Organizing Plan & $25 Giveaway

In “The Staying Organized Survival Guide“, I recommend turning organizing into a habit by taking small daily steps on your ‘staying organized’ journey. By spending 15 minutes a day organizing, you CAN get and STAY organized.

If you do not already have a copy, grab yours HERE and learn how to get the organizing habit, so that staying organized is as automatic as cleaning your teeth.

The Staying Organized Survival Guide

If you’re not convinced check out these reviews:

“I loved it! I felt myself nodding the whole way through …” – Sunny Side Up

“I truly enjoyed the book and recommend it for anyone who is sick and tired of feeling like they are wasting their time organizing because the clutter and mess always returns.” – Ladies Holiday

“A million times better. I can tell you that reading this book made me actually *do* something …” – Stay At Home-ista

“… let me tell you what a difference 15 minutes can make!!” – Ducks In A Row

By establishing organizing as a habit, there is no reason to let the holiday season interrupt your flow. It is just a bump in the road, after which you can start or continue on with your journey towards staying organized.

If your home is chaotic following festive visitors, kitchen pandemonium and an influx of gifts, then try this sample plan of typical hot spots and waste no more time in deciding where to start. But remember, slow and steady wins the race – stick to your 15 minutes a day.

 

New Year’s Organizing Hot Spots ‐ A 20 Day Plan

The kitchen.
Did yours see a lot of action this Christmas? Then let’s bring it back to order.

  1. Festive crockery ‐ pull out all those fancy plates, platters and serving dishes and put them back into your long term storage area.
  2. Pantry/kitchen cabinets (part 1) ‐ what did you buy in especially for Christmas but never got round to using? Find it and note it on your menu planner to use up soon.
  3. Pantry/kitchen cabinets (part 2) ‐ did you get any edibles as Christmas gifts that you are never going to eat? Donate them to a grateful home before they go stale.
  4. Kitchen countertops ‐ blitz the clutter that has no doubt accumulated (gifts, toys, cards, snacks etc). Ensure there is nothing left that is not used on a daily basis.
  5. Refrigerator ‐ throw out anything that has expired, freeze anything you can save and use up anything that is on the verge of being past its prime (try stewing those wilting vegetables for example).
  6. Freezer ‐ unjumble your freezer if it has turned into a lucky dip with all the festive activity. Take an inventory, label newly added items before they become unrecognizable and arrange the contents in an easy-to-find manner.
  7. Junk drawer ‐ this is bound to have expanded with clutter since you last organized it, so have a rummage for anything you can get rid of.
  8. Chargers/cables – label up all the new cables and chargers that arrived with all the new gadgets your family received for Christmas.
  9. Update command central for the New Year schedule ‐ with back to school and work on the cards any day now, take 15 minutes now to ensure you are on top of commitments, schedules and appointments for 2013.

The kids’ room.
The chances are your kids received more than their fair share of Christmas gifts. If they are still scattered all over your living space, get them organized before school restarts.

  1. 1 in, 1 out – take your kids on a whirlwind tour of their bedroom and find 10 items that they no longer use or need that can be donated or trashed.
  2. Find a home – relocate your kids’ presents to their rooms and help them find everything a home.

The bathroom.
If you have been enjoying the season’s festivities, the chances are you have been making more use of the bathroom and have had less time to put things away. Now is the time to get back on track to ensure your morning routine is stress free.

  1. Shower/sink/tub surround ‐ relocate items that are not used on a daily basis and ensure that your daily items have their own specific home.
  2. Gifts ‐ identify any bathroom type gifts that you are never going to use and donate them now. Don’t hang onto them because you ‘ought’ to – send them to a better home and avoid cluttering up yours unnecessarily.

The master bedroom closet.

  1. Clothes quick declutter ‐ did you receive clothes as gifts or find party clothes lurking in the back of your closet that you will no longer wear, don’t like or can’t fit into! If so, send them to a better place – out of your home.
  2. Shoes quick declutter ‐ as above for shoes you’ve never worn, those you’ve worn only once, those that hurt your feet or those that you just don’t like.
  3. Containerize – use up some of those boxes that came with all the presents to containerize the new accessories you received as gifts (if you like them). Try and use the “1 in, 1 out” rule to stop your collection growing too much.

Papers.
Now is the time to gather together all those bills and paperwork you’ve been putting to one side and sort them out.

  1. Bills ‐ organize those extra Christmas bills so you know when they’re due. Arrange to pay any that you can online.
  2. Filing cabinet ‐ if your filing cabinet is organized, declutter what you can to make room for the new year – perhaps those credit card statements from years ago. If you do not have a filing system for your paperwork, set one up and use it from now on (sort out the backlog later).

The living room.
Return your living space to an area of your home where you can relax without having to look around at stressful piles of clutter.

  1. Quick scan ‐ grab all those items that belong elsewhere and return them to their proper home.
  2. Christmas decorations – get them stored away. Start by sorting them to make it easier to decorate next year, make sure they are in containers that give them protection and label, label, label, so you know what they are.

Hopefully these 15 minute daily tasks will kick start your organizing journey or get you back on track in a manageable way after all that festive fun!

 

Now It’s Giveaway Time

All you need to do to enter is tell me which area of organizing you are struggling with the most using the Rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Open to anyone who can legally enter, receive and use Paypal Cash. The winning entry will be verified prior to the prize being awarded. No purchase is necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent’s permission. The winner will be chosen by Rafflecopter and emailed after which he or she will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

Good Luck & Happy New Year!

Chloe

68 thoughts on “New Year’s Organizing Plan & $25 Giveaway”

  1. My kitchen doesn’t have a great storage area. I always struggle with organizing the pantry/ utensils storage to make it easy and efficient for me.

  2. The problem areas for me are papers. Catalogs have taken over the mail!

    Carft supplies. Trying to keep them organized. My craft room is a mess!

  14. My entire house hold is under attack of the mess monster and needs some big time organization to get it under control

  16. My desk! I just can’t seem to find a place (space is VERY limited) for my papers, bills, etc. I clean the desk and 3 days later it looks like it did before 🙁

  18. My bedroom closet! I have way too many piles of stuff. It should all have its own place and it drives me nuts!

  20. I’m horrible at keeping pretty much everything organized, but my paperwork and china cabinet seem to be the most unorganized. The china cabinet has pretty much turned into a catch all!

  21. I am so trying to organize my basement. My husband’s band practices down there and it’s always a wreck! My laundry room too because that’s also where I store my Christmas decorations! aughhhhh it’s hopeless.

  25. probably my kitchen… although my bedroom runs a close second. Not enough space for what I have (in both cases)

  43. My room. I tend to get surges of enough desire to work on it when I am unable to schedule-wise, so it’s been an ongoing project for a long time.

  49. My kids’ art from school. Every day we bring home a stack of pictures and projects and they live on the island in our kitchen until I get fed up and stick them in a bin. At some point I need to do a majore purge/edit but I feel bad about throwing away my girls’ art!

  51. I am struggling with organizing all of my children’s toys and books. They have so many and their bedrooms are small. I have some stored in the basement and I try to rotate them periodically. The problem is that they want to keep everything and I feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff they have.

  54. Oy, so many of them. I actually spent a majority of my holiday vacation decluttering but there is so much more to do. I think the area around the bathtub and my closet are two of my biggest problems. My number one problem is my kitchen island and table. I just cannot keep them cleaned off!

  57. I’ve been pulling my hair out trying to work with my 10yr old son on keeping his bedroom neat & organized!

  58. My son’s room is my biggest problem. He is a hoarder and I can only clean his room when he is gone for a few hours. Otherwise he freaks out if you touch anything.

  59. My office area is by far my worst to keep organized, but really I have a hard time with most of my house.

  67. The children’s play area. Even with toy bins and 2 bookshelves, things can get messy really fast.

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