Ask Erin: IT TAKES ONLY TEN MINUTES

by ERIN SHARPLIN LOVE | [email protected]

Are you busy? I know I am! Like you, I have kids, a job/business, a significant other, friends, and pets. I’m sure we all know what goes into taking care of each of these – cooking dinner, doing laundry, transporting to school and activities, dinner dates, and vet appointments – to name just a few. However, we need to work self-care into our routines every now and then, too. All these responsibilities leave us little time to clean and organize our homes. Lucky for you, I have fine-tuned some tips and tricks that I would love to share. I hope they help you as much as they have helped me and my clients.

These tips should help you stay on top of the little things so they don’t end up as big things down the road. They should save your sanity and your relationships with your family, too. Every tool or technique is tried and tested in my own home as well as in clients’ homes, so I know for a fact that they actually work. And they will take you only TEN MINUTES to complete. We all have time for that, so enjoy!

DISCOVER YOUR CLUTTER HOTSPOTS To combat the clutter and disorganization, you must first find your hotspots. Once you find them and incorporate systems, you will be able to keep them clean and clear in just ten minutes a day, or you might even keep these spots clean for a week. The top clutter spots are typically flat surfaces such as floors, countertops, and tables, so check those areas of your home now. How do they look? Now, what systems can you incorporate to help combat the disorganization? For instance, if you have a stack of mail on the dining room table, you can simply set a basket there to corral the papers. Then it can be easily moved when the table is in use or when you are ready to sit down to pay the bills.

KEEP A DONATE BIN IN EVERY CLOSET Once a month take ten minutes to drop the items off at their proper donation location. This is one of my favorite tips because it takes such a load off. It keeps my wardrobe and my kids’wardrobes up-to-date and workable!

COLLECT LOOSE CHANGE Keep a jar in the laundry room for loose change. Then set aside ten minutes each month to wrap coins and take them to the bank. Keep in mind that you should take ten minutes to wrap, so if you don’t get through the whole jar, save it for next time or when you have an extra ten minutes to spend.

CREATE A FILE BOX FOR SCHOOL AND ART WORK I have two filing totes (with lids) for Eli and Everly. Each time they bring work home, I put the keepers in this filing bin and toss the rest. I know that I can’t keep everything, so this keeps me on track. Whatever fits in the PreK4 folder and the 1st grade folder can stay. Everything else must go. I have a folder for each grade and one for miscellaneous items (in case something doesn’t fit but I just have to keep it).

DECLUTTER THAT JUNK DRAWER Everyone has a junk drawer – I have two! This is the place to go for a quick pair of scissors, a rubber band, super glue, or a paper clip, and since it is one of the most often used drawers in the house, it tends to get messy quickly. Take ten minutes, while your water is boiling for dinner perhaps, and sort through it.

TAKE A TEN MINUTE WALK AROUND THE HOUSE I do this every single day! This is the last thing I do before retiring at night, and it makes a huge difference in the cleanliness and organization of my home. Walk around the house picking up any item that is not in its designated place. For instance, I typically find shoes, dirty socks, homework papers, books, and dirty dishes lying around, so I pick them up and put them where they need to go – shoes in the closet, dirty socks in the laundry room, homework papers in the trash or in the keepsake box, books on the bookshelf, and dirty dishes in the dishwasher.

MATCH UP YOUR SOCKS I know you have a basket full of unmatched socks because I do, too. It’s ok! Just be sure to take ten minutes a week to go through the basket, find the matches, and put them away.

ORGANIZE YOUR CALENDAR AND MEAL PLAN Take ten minutes every Sunday or Monday to plan your week. Sit down with a calendar, to-do list, and recipe book (or Pinterest) and plan your week. I truly don’t know where I would be if I did not do this. Some weeks, I have to do it daily.

DESIGNATE ONE DAY TO PAY BILLS AND FILE PAPERS I give this advice often, but it is for a good reason. If you do not get (and stay) on top of your paperwork, it will multiply quickly and then it will feel as though it is too much to handle.

DO ONE LOAD OF LAUNDRY A DAY From start to finish, that means wash, dry and put away. Some people designate one day as laundry day, but I recommend (and abide by) the rule of doing one load of laundry a day. This one task makes my entire home feel, look, and smell better. Not to mention that I don’t feel bogged down by leaving ALL of the laundry to one day a week.

As a professional organizer, mother, wife, and homeowner, I can guarantee that if you add these tasks to your daily, weekly, or monthly routine, you will see a huge difference in the feeling of your home. Please let me know if you have any tips of your own! You can email them to [email protected].