It’s time for a new 5 Minute Organizing Challenge! What can you do in 5 minutes to gain a little order in your life? You can put a few things back in place or gather your important items. Here’s a new set of five things for you to consider adding to your routine this month. Try them on for size and feel free to suggest a few of your own.
It’s the day before a major holiday so I’ve decided to recap some of the “5 Minute” challenges that we’ve shared over the past year.
If you’re planning a holiday event or just need to declutter a bit, take a look at these things that you can quickly cross off your list.
- 5 Minute Organizing Challenge ~ Holiday Meal Planning Edition [November 2012]
- 5 Minute Organizing Challenge ~ Shoe Edition [September 2012]
- 5 Minute Organizing Challenge ~ Healthy Meal Edition [July 2012]
- 5 Minute Organizing Challenge ~ Paper Edition [May 2012]
- 5 Minute Organizing Challenge ~ Safety Edition [January 2012]
It’s time for a new 5 Minute Organizing Challenge! What can you do in 5 minutes to gain a little order in your life? You can put a few things back in place or gather your important items. Here’s a new set of five things for you to consider adding to your routine this month. Try them on for size and feel free to suggest a few of your own.
Image Credit: Good Housekeeping
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in the United States and many of people will be spending a bit of time in their kitchens preparing holiday meals and welcoming guests. To help you get down to the business of cooking and getting your home ready (instead feeling overwhelmed), here are five things you can to make sure your holiday plans go off without a hitch. Don’t worry, you don’t have to do them all at once (although you probably have five minutes to do at least one of them right now).
1. Write down the top five meals you will be making…
2. …and check your recipes. Do you have all the ingredients that you need?
3. Do you have enough seating? Check that you have enough chairs and place settings.
4. If you have special linens (table cloth, cloth napkins) that you want to use, get them ready (need washing? ironing?)
5. This one is easy and takes less than five minutes. All you have to do is say yes! …when someone offers to help (by bringing desert, helping to clean up, etc.)
…and check out Easy Organizing: Your Thanksgiving Table Settings for more ideas on how you can have an organized (and fun) holiday meal.
It’s time for a new 5 Minute Organizing Challenge! What can you do in 5 minutes to gain a little order in your life? You can put a few things back in place or gather your important items. Here’s a new set of five things for you to consider adding to your routine this month. Try them on for size and feel free to suggest a few of your own.
Hobbies are great because they help take you away for the craziness of life. But, they also come gear and stuff you need to maintain and keep organized. And, for you scrapbookers, there’s a lot to keep in order. Here are five ways you can keep them in check:
1. If you don’t have a designated space to do your scrapping, take five minutes to look around to see if there’s an area you can use on a regular basis.
2. Find three things (hole punches, paper, or other supplies) you can give to someone who will use them.
3. Pick one set of items (stickers, stamps, adhesives, etc.) and gather them together. Repeat with another set of supplies during your next five minute session.
4. Find five things that you use all the time and put them in one location that’s easily accessible (and then go back to #1 if you need to or have more time).
5. Discard (or give away) five half-finished projects that you will know you won’t complete.
Check out the September 2012 Organizing Challenge
It’s time for a new 5 Minute Organizing Challenge! What can you do in 5 minutes to gain a little order in your life? You can put a few things back in place or gather your important items. Here’s a new set of five things for you to consider adding to your routine this month. Try them on for size and feel free to suggest a few of your own.
Do you have a love affair with shoes? Are they filling every closet in your home along with a few areas in your car, too? As summer comes to a close and fall makes a grand entrance, now’s a good time to take a look through your collection and keep your kicks in order. Here are five steps to get you started…
1. Select 5 pairs of shoes that need repairing. Put them in your car right now to take to the shoe repair shop.
2. Keep your favorite and most used shoes in the front of your closet (or in another easily visible/accessible location).
3. Choose 5 pairs of shoes that you haven’t worn in at least two seasons and put them in the donate pile to send to Soles4Souls, Goodwill, or your favorite charity.
4. Use a shoe rack, bench (place by the main entryway), or basket (use in your trunk or by main doorway) to keep your shoes from spilling into various parts of your space. Don’t have a rack to corral your shoes? Add this to your to do list!
5. Keep your boots in good shape but using boot inserts. And, give them a good shine and polish, too.
It’s time for a new 5 Minute Organizing Challenge! What can you do in 5 minutes to gain a little order in your life? You can put a few things back in place or gather your important items. Here’s a new set of five things for you to consider adding to your routine this month. Try them on for size and feel free to suggest a few of your own.
Maintaining a home office can be tricky since work and personal papers can get mixed together along with a few household items. But, there are a few quick things you can do right now, in a just a few short minutes, to start getting things in order.
1. Put away 5 files.
2. Put all the papers on your desk in a neat pile.
3. Take 5 non-office items off your desk (e.g., coffee mugs, shopping bags, magazines, clothing, etc.)
4. Throw away pens and markers that don’t work.
5. Separate personal papers from business documents — start with one handful
6. *Bonus Tip* Start a to do list!
It’s time for a new 5 Minute Organizing Challenge! What can you do in 5 minutes to gain a little order in your life? You can put a few things back in place or gather your important items. Here’s a new set of five things for you to consider adding to your routine this month. Try them on for size and feel free to suggest a few of your own.
Eating healthier is usually a resolution that many of us make. Now that we’re more than half-way through the year, it’s time to check where you are with this goal. If you still need a little help, consider creating a meal plan. Planning ahead will take some time up front, but it’s a great way to add healthier fare to your menu, and you can you can break the process down in to more manageable chunks.
Here are a five ways to get started:
1. Write down five things you love to eat.
2. Write down five foods you want to stay away from.
3. Write down the days that you will not be able to cook (i.e., you’ll order in).
4. Think of recipes you already have that you can refer to.
5. Put the crock pot on the counter! If you don’t have one, this is great time to get one as it is a huge time saver.
Check out the June 2012 Organizing Challenge
It’s time for a new 5 Minute Organizing Challenge! What can you do in 5 minutes to gain a little order in your life? You can put a few things back in place or gather your important items. Here’s a new set of five things for you to consider adding to your routine this month. Try them on for size and feel free to suggest a few of your own.
1. Back up your laptop to your external hard drive or to Carbonite (or Mozy). Remember, you just have to start or schedule the back up. You don’t have to sit with your machine during the back up process.
2. Delete five e-mails.
3. Put five cables or cords that you no longer use in your electronics recycling bin.
4. While you’re at it, put those old cell phones and unwanted electronics in the recycling bin, too.
5. Wipe down the screen on your mobile phone and laptop with a microfiber cloth.
Check out the May 2012 Organizing Challenge
It’s time for a new 5 Minute Organizing Challenge! What can you do in 5 minutes to gain a little order in your life? You can put a few things back in place or gather your important items. Here’s a new set of five things for you to consider adding to your routine this month. Try them on for size and feel free to suggest a few of your own.
1. Select 5 books to donate. You really can do this in 5 minutes.
2. Sign up for Catalog Choice.
3. Give away magazines that you’ve read to a local school, community center, or favorite friend.
4. Put old newspapers in your recycling bin. *Spend an extra five minutes and put them in your compost pile.
5. Discontinue the delivery of your telephone book (unless you really use them on a regular basis).
*Bonus Tip*
6. Take a look at the Swingline Stack-and-Shred 100X Hands Free Shredder. Yes, hands free. Put papers in and walk away.
It’s time for a new 5 Minute Organizing Challenge! What can you do in 5 minutes to gain a little order in your life? You can put a few things back in place or gather your important items. Here’s a new set of five things for you to consider adding to your routine this month. Try them on for size and feel free to suggest a few of your own.
Germs are everywhere. They’re tough. Hard working. The way you want a new employee to be. They just deliver a massive payload that can knock you off your feet. Build these five things into your regular routine so you can get the upper hand.
1. Wipe down your phone, door handles, steering wheel, fridge handles, and other things you touch often.
2. Sometimes, you touch things that don’t belong to you. Like the buttons on an ATM or in an elevator. Be sure that you have a travel bottle of hand sanitizer with you. Put them in all your purses, in your car, on your desk, etc.
3. Something else you touch that’s not yours is another person. Like when you shake their hands. Yep, break out the sanitizer or head to the loo to wash your digits.
4. Keep a garbage container in your car to collect your trash and keep those science experiments from brewing.
5. Have you gotten your flu shot yet?
While I’m away, check out this month’s organizing challenge.
It’s time for a new 5 Minute Organizing Challenge! What can you do in 5 minutes to gain a little order in your life? You can put a few things back in place or gather your important items. Here’s a new set of five things for you to consider adding to your routine this month. Try them on for size and feel free to suggest a few of your own.
1. Have you changed the batteries in your smoke detectors? You should have when changed your clocks this past weekend.
2. If you haven’t already, make a 2011 Tax folder AND make and appointment with your CPA.
3. Pick two accounts to sign up for paperless billing.
4. Walk through your living room and put away up to 5 things that don’t belong there.
5. Add a handful of unwanted papers to your shred or recycling pile.
Check out the January 2012 Organizing Challenge
Loading ...