Intentional Organization

It’s important to recognize that organization doesn’t just happen on its own, even if your personality is inclined in that direction. In order to stay neat and tidy, you have to be intentional and consistent.

But here’s the good news! Intentionality and consistency don’t have to be time-consuming! In fact, sometimes it only takes 15-20 minutes a day to stay on top of everything you need to do each week. Admittedly, that won’t give you a perfectionistic level of tidiness, but it will definitely keep the clutter at bay, make sure the chores stay caught up, and keep you from falling so far behind that you end up overwhelmed.

Are you ready to see how this is possible? Here are three tips for staying on top of life and preventing disorganization from derailing and overwhelming you. 

Stay neat and tidy by going to bed with the house picked up.

A daily choice to spend a few minutes tidying up before you go to bed can make all the difference in the world.

Quickly wash the dishes in the sink or take a few minutes to fill and run the dishwasher. If you’ve fallen behind on kitchen clean-up, don’t feel like you have to tackle it all at once. Instead, set a time for 5-10 minutes and just clean up everything you can in that short amount of time. You’ll be amazed by how much you can accomplish even in a few minutes. 

Walk through the living room and pick up whatever’s lying around. Check your desk for clutter and do a quick tidy-up job there. Glance into the bathroom to make sure laundry is in the hamper and towels are hung up.

Remember, if you’re behind, don’t try to catch up all at once. But, if you use this trick daily and regularly, it shouldn’t take you more than 20 minutes or so before you go to bed. Better yet, enlist the kids to help, and it might not take more than five to ten minutes to stay neat and tidy even on the busy days!

Stay neat and tidy by slotting 15-minute tidy sessions. 

The bedtime pick-up session can be further enhanced if you slot short tidy sessions throughout each day.

For instance, go ahead and spend a few minutes putting books away at the end of the school day. Tidy the kitchen and dining room at lunch time. Evaluate where you are as a family around mid-afternoon and put away what isn’t in use. If you’re about to head out the door, have everyone spend a few minutes tidying up first. 

These sessions can also be used to implement chores. It’s amazing how much work can be done in 15-minute segments. Floors can get vacuumed or swept and mopped, ceiling fans can be dusted, or even a small bathroom can be cleaned. Laundry can be loaded in the washer, transferred to the dryer, or folded in these little segments throughout the day. And we all know that there’s nothing like staying on top of chores to help us stay neat and tidy throughout the week!

Stay neat and tidy by using storage bins or baskets. 

Make it even easier to stay neat and tidy by strategically placing storage bins or baskets in areas with a lot of activity. As you walk through, grab anything that’s out of place and toss it into the closest basket.

Even if it’s not the item’s “home,” it’s out of the way and no longer cluttering the area. You can sort through each basket or bin in one of your 15-minute tidy sessions. Or, you can assign a basket to each family member and make it their responsibility to help you stay neat and tidy by clearing their basket each day. 

Whether you use one of these tips or all three of them, you’ll quickly find that it’s much easier to stay neat and tidy when you spend even just a few minutes each day being intentional about your organization!

Are you an organized person who would like to know how the rest of your personality fits around your love for organization? Take our Planner Personality Quiz!