See Your Way Clear: Organizing tips from Jocelyn Kenner
1. Break down big jobs into manageable increments. Start by setting a timer for 15 minutes and stopping when time is up. If you have five minutes free, clean your car or organize your wallet.
2. Put on music to get yourself energized.
3. Reward yourself with something special when you finish a cleaning or organizing job.
4. If you must keep something you don’t use anymore, put it in a decorative box and move it to a storage area in the house.
5. Limit magazine subscriptions. If you subscribe to a monthly publication, don’t keep more than two issues in the house. Clip articles you want to save, says Kenner, and recycle the rest.
6. Manage incoming paper with the OHIO rule (Only Hold It Once). Set up a recycling bin in the area where you sort your mail, and immediately file away bills, invitations and important correspondence.
7. Go to your county government’s web sites to keep track of dates for mobile shredding and household-chemical pickups.
8. Work with your kids to go through their clothing, toys and books several times each year. Don’t let it go until they graduate from high school — or college.
9. Use post-it notes to make sure you don’t mix up your “keep” pile from your “giveaway” pile.
10. Having trouble parting with something? Take a photo of it and you’ll have it forever.