As the stock market does some spring cleaning of its own, we wanted to suggest some unique ideas for your spring cleaning this year! Even if you don’t do a complete spring cleaning each year (and I must admit that I do not do a thorough job each spring either), I do have a few ideas for organizing your life. These are easily implemented ideas that really can change your life by making each day a bit easier, and they can help you save money too! Here are ten unique organization ideas:
1) Take your to-do list into the 21st century with a digital voice recorder. For only $16, you can buy a small Sony voice recorder that will fit in your pocket or purse and will hold 8 hours of recorded notes. These voice recorders are an ingenious way to de-clutter your mind and convert mental notes into messages that you can listen to at the end of the day. You can also record ideas, thoughts, and musings, which can be a very calming practice. (Look for model Sony ICD B120 for a low cost choice.)
2) Have each member of the family choose their favorite color, and stick with it. This is the key to serenity in a house with children… buy each person’s necessary items such as toothbrushes in one consistent color. You will never again wonder whose toothbrush is missing or whose book bag is in the middle of the living room floor! Color coding your family can take a lot of hassle out of your life.
3) Turn mismatched socks into dusters. Every house ends up with socks that have no match, so instead of tossing these socks or saving them in case the mate magically reappears, slip one sock on each hand and start dusting!
4) If you have children or grandchildren, eliminate dust mites or other bad germs living on your kid’s stuffed animals and toys by placing them in the freezer overnight. The germs and dust mites will die, stuffed animals will last longer, and this is good for your children’s health too.
5) Spring clean your PC! Throughout the year, everyone accumulates applications, documents, and programs on their computers that are no longer used. These idle programs slow your computer, steal memory, and clog your desktop space. Instead, try Revo Uninstaller to eliminate unnecessary programs and applications. Revo Uninstaller is free, and it is much more effective and faster than Window’s uninstaller. Also, if you are tired of a slow-booting PC, try Startup Delayer. This is another free piece of software that allows you to choose certain programs to load later, therefore reducing the simultaneous loading of every program on your computer each time you boot up.
6) Post a stain chart in your laundry room or the kitchen. Print this stain-removal chart and keep it handy so you will always know exactly how to treat any type of stain from ink to red wine.
7) Invest in a few unkillable indoor plants. Anyone in this office will tell you that I am a death sentence for plants, and within the first 6 months of working at The Alder Financial Group I managed to almost kill every plant in this office before Charles had to step in and save them. I just can’t seem to keep plants alive! I either water them too much or not enough. But there are a few plants that even I can keep alive, and I have found that the Cast Iron Plant, Philodendrons, and Snake Plants are almost indestructible. They are a great way to brighten up your home for spring.
8) Throw away or give away all but 2 bottles of each kind of toiletry in your bathroom. I am guilty of one major cleaning crime… I insist on keeping every moisturizer, shampoo, and makeup product I have ever accumulated in my entire life. However, once a year I have to throw away all but 2 of each product simply to keep my life sane. I have to admit that there is no need for me to keep 17 half-used bottles of shampoo sitting in my bathroom! Each year, try to purge as many half empty bottles as you can.
9) Set up a paper center near the front door. Every time you bring in the mail, magazines, or paperwork, choose one of three paths: file, shred, or re-locate. Keep a file cabinet with a section for bills, correspondence, and other categories in the same location you typically open your mail. File right then to help de-clutter your life. Also keep a shredder in the same place to get rid of unnecessary paper immediately. If the paper needs to be re-located to another room in the house, such as a magazine for living room reading, go ahead and re-locate it. In such a digital world, the amount of paper coming into the average household is still overwhelming but is manageable.
10) Stand your shirts on end. I tend to wear the same 20 or so shirts over and over, mainly because I cannot see the other shirts I own in the bottom of my drawers! A good tip I have found for eliminating this problem is to fold your shirts in half one more time and then stand them up in the drawer. This way you can see all of them and get to the one you want easily.
I hope these tips help you organize your life this spring. As our economy and the stock market purge unnecessary clutter, it is a great time to do the same in our own lives.
