Organize Your New Year With Help From Smead

Why is it that January brings about a sudden urge to organize our lives. People start exercise programs, clean out closets, drawers, and more.

Is it because it is the clean slate of the New Year ahead of us?
Is it because we have nice clean, new calendars?
Is it the impending doom of Tax Season?

What causes us to suddenly see our lives in a completely different way. We are no different than we were 24 hours before yet, everything feel different.

Smead Organomics has the solution to help us prioritize, minimize and declutter our lives with some very simple, very basic steps to prepare for the start of 2011.

Usually, I spend November into the first three weeks of December organizing for the holiday.  Right after Christmas, I spend about a week in family bliss. The kids spend days in PJ's (when we are home) and play with their new stuff as my husband and I put toy after toy together. On the days we head out, we visit family and friends with packages for them and return with packages from them. We make room for the new stuff by shifting the old stuff but the first week of January...*insert screeching breaks*....everything changes.

• The kids go back to school. 
• Decorations get put away.
• Files and drawers are torn apart will I make pile after pile of bills, garbage, storage stuff, tax papers, and more.
• My computer is overhauled as I go through every file deleting things no longer needed or filing important information in "newly labeled" folders.
• My photos for the last year are moved to an external hard drive to make room for new.
• DVD's are created with any family movies downloaded to the computer.

 There is something about a fresh start! Everything feels lighter, less congested and more airy.

Here are some suggestions from Smead for organizing for 2011:

Take A Look At Your Office

Office clutter can take over throughout the year – you get busy, create a few piles here, a stack over there, and suddenly you can’t see a single horizontal surface! Go around the room and collect up every homeless item you find, creating a set spot for each:

Supplies and equipment: Only keep what you use on a regular basis at your desk - then store the “extras” in a cabinet or closet.

Books and periodicals: Store journals in a magazine holder grouped by title or topic.

Reference manuals: Keep loose brochures and sets of papers in expanding files or 3-ring binders with Index Dividers between topics. Try Smead’s durable TUFF™ Expanding File® for frequently accessed items.

Multimedia: To save space, remove CDs and DVDs from their jewel cases and store them in file folders with self-adhesive CD/DVD pockets.

Blank stationery items: Neatly stored in either stacking trays or a document sorter.

To-do’s: Set up a desk file sorter or hanging files with categories for each type of action – “to call,” “to pay,” “to file,” “to read,” etc.

Having an assigned storage space for everything makes it easier for you to maintain order after the first of the year. Just take a few minutes at the end of each day to put things away (not hard when you know where everything goes!)


Get Ready The Night Before (Or Sooner!)

Now that you have your schedule in order, you need to work on your daily routines. Getting ready in the morning is much easier if you start working on it the night before. Have your children spend 15 minutes before they go to bed packing everything they need for school into their book bags. Ask each person to pick out the clothes they plan to wear the next day and lay them out on a chair. Make everyone’s lunches in advance and store them in the refrigerator overnight. Also consider setting up a “launching pad” – a table, chair, basket, or other container located near the door where each person can put the supplies they will need the next day. If your kids can never seem to remember what they need for school, create a standard checklist for them – homework, band instrument, gym clothes, sports equipment, supplies for any extracurricular activities, library books, whatever. You can even make a note of where they tend to leave things if that helps – “Gym Clothes: check the laundry basket.” The goal is to have everything in one place when it comes time to hit the road.

Just some easy ways to make life more manageable and less hectic. No one enjoys a hectic morning. 

To keep up to date with Smead or for more information head over to Smead Organomics on Facebook.


Disclosure: This is a sponsored post from Smead Organomics. I will be receiving a $20.00 Target Card for writing this post.