Get Organized to Reduce Stress

By Cathy Gariety

When life is chaotic and you have little control over events, one thing you can control is your surroundings. A home that isn't organized can make daily living difficult and add to the issues you are currently facing. The following tips may help if you look around your home and find chaos!

1. Choose one thing and make sure it's done each day before going to bed.

Dishes in the sink regularly? Load the dishwasher or wash them before going to bed. Mail piling up? Make it a habit to go through it each night. The point is to choose one thing you can control and be anal about it! Just do it no matter what else happens in your life. The stability will be refreshing.

2. Important Papers

One of the first things to make sure you can get your hands on are important papers. Designate a special place whether a box, a file cabinet or accordion file. Is that car title in your kitchen drawer? Put it in it's place. Birth certificates lying around? Put them where they belong. Income tax returns? Ditto!

3. Everything in its place.

Now that you have a designated place for your important papers, take a look around. Decide where to keep coats, shoes, sports equipment, tools and toys. You may have to buy a coat rack, or clean out closets. Get some boxes and pack away what doesn't belong from those areas then put the stuff that belongs there away!

4. Less is More

I'm so happy to see the country clutter look gone. The "less is more" look is definitely "in" right now. Pack away those little knick-knacks and other mementos collecting dust. Decide what you want to display but keep it to a minimum. You'd be surprized how much easier it is to keep organized with less "stuff" on display - not to mention easier to keep clean!

5. Go through the closets at the change of the seasons.

Pack your summer clothes, beach toys and sports equipment away in the fall. Are you really going to use it in the winter? Do the same in the winter and unpack your summer stuff.

6. Start With The Junk Drawer

Getting the clutter organized is a sure stress buster. If you have more than one junk drawer, just start somewhere. Make an action plan and stick to it. Concentrate on organizing one room per week, per month or even per year if that's what it takes!

7. Set up a schedule for home maintenance.

Remember when our Moms had a schedule for everything? Monday was wash day, Tuesday was ironing? We may be doing laundry more frequently but the idea to schedule is still realistic. Want the bathroom cleaned twice per week? Schedule it! Deep clean one room each Saturday along with your normal chores. Involve the whole family then take everyone out on Saturday night to a movie or dinner as a reward.

Scheduling is even more important if you work erratic hours or on different days of the week. It may be helpful to sit down on Sunday and decide which days or hours you can devote to home maintenance. It needs to be done each week and if it's not scheduled, chances are it won't get done.

8. Schedule car maintenance.

Oil changes, tire rotations, tune ups. Preventive maintenance will go a long way to prolonging the life of our car - and preventing the undue stress of unexpected repairs.
Simply doing these few things will help prevent undue chaos in our personal lives. It isn't as important to choose these exact things... but it is important to start somewhere.

Cathy Gariety is a consultant in stress management. Visit her website at http://www.garietygroup.com/ for more stress management tips!

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