Monthly Archives: October 2018

The Most Important 10 Minutes of Your Day

I’ve previously talked about the importance of keeping up. I mentioned how a couple of minutes every night doing a quick 10-minute nightly home pick-up routine (before it gets too overwhelming) means saving an hour of cleaning on the weekend.

I spend just a couple of minutes getting everything ready for the next day: getting out anything I can for breakfast, ensuring the dishes are all put away, moving any bags to our landing zone, and putting away any paper or toys left around.

The most important 10 minutes of your day.

A couple of minutes every night doing a quick pick up of the house (before it gets too overwhelming) means saving an hour of cleaning on the weekend.

Organizing CU. Helping busy moms gets organized.

Another one minute task I do before going to sleep is to check out tomorrow’s calendar to make sure I’ve got everything I need for the day. My kid has show-and-tell every Friday, usually with a different theme. We came thisclose to missing it this week, but one final peek at 9:00 pm reminded me that we needed to find something orange.

I like to do the same thing at the end of my work day: take a look at tomorrow’s calendar, put together a quick to-do list, make sure my desk is orderly before leaving. Having everything in its place makes a calmer start to my day, especially on a Monday!

That’s really what this 10 minutes of your day is all about: getting you in a calmer, more peaceful mindset to make your day run smoother and your life more organized.

Try dedicating just 10 minutes each evening to a quick tidy-up and planning session. Small, consistent routines reduce stress, keep your home orderly, and set you up for a calm, productive day — one small step builds lasting home organization habits!

I’m Maggie, owner of Organizing CU and a busy working mom who understands the struggle of trying to juggle all of it. Using my Reduce, Arrange, Maintain philosophy, I can help you get and stay organized!

It’s Easier to Keep Up than to Catch Up

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I would love to tell you that you can simply just organize your house once and that it will magically stay that way. But that would be a lie. My organizing motto has 3 steps: reduce, arrange, maintain for busy homes.

First, you need to get rid of some stuff. Second, you need to organize it. Third, and most important, you need methods and tips to help you keep it organized.

It's easier to keep up than to catch up.

Let’s be real: it’s hard work. At the end of a long day, the last thing I want to do is pick up a bunch of toys or wash dishes, but I do it anyways.

Organizing CU. Helping busy moms get organized.

If you haven’t been organized in a while, you will have to do all three steps, which is always going to be daunting and feel crushing.

If you need to tweak an area of your house that was previously organized, you will have to do only the last two, which is definitely achievable.

If you have a system in place already, you will only have to maintain. And that is the easiest of all.

When working with clients, I focus on all three parts and I love to give them little tips and tricks to make it easier to maintain with a quick pick up. That five minutes every night means saving an hour on the weekend. Time I’d rather be spending with my family. Time I’d rather be spending with my friends. Time I’d rather be relaxing on the couch with a glass of wine.

Every time I leave a room, I glance around to see if there is anything that needs to go with me. Every night before bed, I walk around the house and get everything put away from the night and set up for the morning. It can feel never ending. However, I never feel overwhelmed by my house and I can always find exactly what I need when I need it.

Let’s be real: it’s hard work. At the end of a long day, the last thing I want to do is pick up a bunch of toys or wash dishes, but I do it anyways. Because maintaining a home organization system is an ongoing process and it’s always easier to keep up than it is to catch up.

Take a look around your home tonight and implement a 5-minute pick-up routine. Small, consistent actions build lasting habits, reduce clutter, and create a calm, manageable home.

My Simple Organizing Philosophy

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When it comes to my organization style, I have a pretty simple philosophy: reduce, arrange, maintain. The first step is to reduce the amount of stuff you have. Start by taking everything out of the area that you are working on.

Every. Single. Thing.

(I like to take this opportunity to clean off the surface since it’s one of the few occasions that everything is off there!)

Grouping things is a great way to see what you have. If you’re doing a kitchen, group by type of dish. If you’re doing a linen closet, group by use of item (shaving, hair, hand towels, etc) Take a look at each item and determine its fate:

Do I really need or want it?
Do I even like it?
Have I used this in the last year?
Would I buy it today? If it broke, would I immediately replace it?
Is this a quality item?
Would I keep it if it were originally free?
What is the worst thing that could happen if I got rid of it?
Am I only keeping it “in case” I need it someday? (Think about if you can borrow one or buy a new one in 20 minutes for under $20)
Is it a duplicate?
Is this the best place for it?
When will I use it again? And will I remember I have it?

Next, you need to arrange how everything is going to go back into the space. I group everything by putting like with like. In my kitchen, my most often used utensils are grouped together in a drawer. In the playroom, the kid’s favorite books are grouped in the bookcase. In my linen closet, all of our teeth stuff is in one bin.

This makes it easy to see what you have, what you’re low on, and what you don’t use!

The last step is sometimes the hardest one and that is the maintain part. You need to have a system in place in order to keep the organization. Labels are obviously a great way to ensure that everyone in your home knows exactly where things need to go.

When I first bought our three hampers for our ‘new’ laundry system of sorting while putting dirty clothes away, I put 3×5 index cards on each one so everyone knew which was for towels, darks, and whites. It looked silly and completely unprofessional, but guess what?

It worked.

When the cat destroyed two of the cards about a month in, I didn’t even need to replace them because everyone had a routine and habit of knowing which item when into which basket.

This simple organizing method for busy moms works because sometimes you don’t need to do all three of them at the same time.

You can do it piecemeal. If you have recently gone through all of your under-sink items, think about whether you could group them better for easier access. If you just redid your pantry, think about why it constantly falls to chaos and what type of maintenance it might take to keep it looking the way you want.

Look around your home today and identify one space to reduce, arrange, and maintain. Small, consistent steps build lasting organizing habits and bring calm to your home — you’ve got this!

Want to hear more? My very first episode of the Organizing Confidence Unlimited podcast covered this topic.

The Easiest Meal Prep System

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Do you know what you’re doing for dinner? Are you planning to stop at the grocery store today to pick up something for tonight?

Planning your meals will save you time by cutting down on the grocery trips and mental energy as to what you’re having for dinner. Now that we have a little one and I have Organizing CU (which includes nighttime networking, business meetings and organizing sessions) weeknights can get busy in our house.

Every Thursday night, my partner and I go through our upcoming schedules and discuss what is going on over the weekend and following week (such as date nights, guests, tailgating) as we decide how many meals we need to plan.

The easiest meal prep system.

Do you know what you’re doing for dinner? Are you planning to stop at the grocery store today to pick up something for tonight?

Planning your meals will save you time by cutting down on the grocery trips and mental energy as to what you’re having for dinner.

Organizing CU. Helping busy moms get organized.

To make it easier, we have the same basic routine for our meals: brunch on Sunday morning, a bigger Sunday dinner, two simple meals during the week, and leftovers in between. He digs through the recipes and chooses some options. I keep notes in the upper corner of my recipes that let him know if it’s a weekend, weekday, or Crock Pot recipe so he can choose accordingly.

After picking the recipes, I check the pantry and make my grocery lists. My partnerand I divide and conquer: he gets anything from the co-op after work on Fridays while I will hit the regular grocery store for everything else whenever my schedule allows.

Sunday mornings are usually reserved for cooking. In addition to prepping my two Sunday meals, I also take care of my lunches and the breakfasts for my husband and daughter: an 8×10 baked egg dish with a variety of ingredients (broccoli and goat cheese; mozzarella and tomato; green chiles and cheddar). Each weekday morning, they get a hot, home cooked meal that I only have to heat up during the busy morning.

Meal prepping for busy families takes some time and effort when you first get into it. But eventually, you reach the spot where you’re not worrying about dinner at 3 pm and you have something simple ready to go. If your family likes leftovers, maybe you only cook two meals a week, but double it and freeze half for later. Maybe you end up with a themed week: Meatless Monday, Italian Tuesdays, Pizza Fridays. But I’ve found that a basic routine and some family meal planning strategies make your entire menu much easier.

Start small: choose one week to plan your meals and prep ahead. Even tiny steps toward organized meal prep save time, reduce stress, and bring more calm to your family’s week.

Even more meal prep and grocery shopping tips can be found on episode 8 (grocery shopping) & episode 9 (meal planning) of the Organizing Confidence Unlimited podcast!