How To Get Organized – 11 Easy Ways to Simplify your Life Today

Distractions are all around us and it can be difficult at times to keep things organized. Clutter can easily collect and whether it is physical or digital clutter, it adds undue stress to our lives and keeps us from accomplishing things we really want to do. 

If you find yourself commonly stressed, waking up grumpy, getting easily distracted or frustrated – clutter and disorganization could just be the culprit. 

“Clutter can play a significant role in how we feel about our homes, our workplaces, and ourselves. Messy homes and workspaces leave us feeling anxious, helpless, and overwhelmed. Yet, rarely is clutter recognized as a significant source of stress in our lives,” 

Psychologist Sherrie Bourg Carter Psychology Today.

Fortunately though, decluttering your spaces and simplifying your daily routines are easy ways to see immediate benefits and positive impacts in your life. Just take it step-by-step, find what method works best for you and work towards reducing the stress-trigging times and/or spaces in your life. 

To help get started, below are 11 easy ways to simplify your life and move toward a more stress-less and clutter-free life!

Plan Your Meals in Advance 

Taking just one day to plan, grocery shop, and prepare your meals can make your week much simpler. And, by having healthier options available, you’ll be able to make better eating choices no matter how late you’re running or how stressful your day may have been.

There are many resources online that will help you with this.

Here is an article to get you started:

The Beginner’s Guide to Meal Planning: What to Know, How to Succeed, and What to Skip

Purge Your Pantry

If you’ve been wanting to start eating healthier, start by going through your pantry. Throw out junk food and any items that have expired, are ‘unknown’ or something you no longer want to have accessible to you and your family. Make a grocery list and replace items with options that are healthier. Your mind and body will thank you for it! 

Here are a few resources to get your list organized and help you stay on track:

• Fooducate
• Zip List
• Out Of Milk

Consolidate Your Important Paperwork

Use binders, envelopes, bins or vertical files to keep your paper sorted and organized. As paper enters your house (or office), immediately recycle unsolicited marketing and “junk” mail and decide right away what action needs to be taken for the remaining paper. Ie/ are they bills, letters/invites, notices with deadlines, reference material, etc.

Having a system for important paperwork will help keep everything organized and allow you to easily access what you need when you need it. 

Backup Your Data 

If you work on a laptop or computer, make sure you have a backup system in place. You don’t want to lose your digital files in the event of a major disaster, theft or computer virus. Having an external drive and scheduling a regular, manual update is simple to set up.

Alternatively, if you are wanting an automated solution, two good options include Carbonite and BackBlaze.

Organize Your Digital Desktop

Clutter isn’t just physical. It can affect digital workspaces, too.

Regularly clean off your startup screen and keep only essential icons on your desktop. Create separate desktop files to save all related documents to and use a naming ‘format’ when saving files so you can easily find and identify what the documents are. The following naming format helps me save documents appropriately and keeps them nice and organized for easy reference: 

Naming Format: YEAR-MONTH-DAY -Name of the document – Category of document

Ie/ 2021-03-31 – How To Get Organized – 11 Easy Ways to Simplify your Life Today – Blog

Regularly back-up your desktop files to an external drive, USB or online service to ensure you always have a copy of your work/documents.

Go to How To Geek, to learn 6 ways to keep your desktop neat and organized FOREVER!

Clean Out Your Drawers and Cabinets

Drawers and cabinets can quickly become a jumbled mess making it difficult to find what you need. Simplify yours by using a variety of organizing tools that will keep everything neat, tidy and readily accessible. 

Measure out your space and find drawer dividers, stackable shelving, lazy-susans, baskets, bins, hooks, etc. that fit properly. 

Keeping like-items with like-items helps you know exactly what you have on hand and will minimize over purchasing.

Go through a seasonal ‘tidy’ every 3-4 months to keep on top of the mess.

Sort Your Wardrobe 

Treat yourself by only having pieces in your closet that make you feel fabulous inside and out. Closets can easily become a jumbled mess, so take time to go through your clothing at least twice a year. Rotate seasonal items and quickly assess pieces that no longer fit, that you no longer love/use or that are damaged.

Donate items to your local shelter or charity or decide to sell items through a consignment store or online platform (FaceBook Marketplace, PoshMark, eBay, etc).  

For any damaged items, reuse or recycle first (if you can) before choosing to put them in the garbage.

Straighten Your Home 

Take a few minutes before leaving a room to tidy up and put things away. It is incredible how much of a difference this little bit of clean-up makes toward getting your room organized (and staying that way) in a short period-of-time.

Coming into a messy home after a long day isn’t fun or relaxing.

Take time to do small tidying activities before you leave the room like putting dishes in the dishwasher, making the bed, hanging up towels or starting a load of laundry and your spaces will be neat and organized in no-time!

Create a Cleaning Caddy

Find a functional basket or bin to store your cleaning supplies in.

Having everything in one, easy to carry caddy, allows you to quickly see what you have on hand – making it easier to stay on top of empty supplies that need to be replenished – and making it simple for you to grab and go.

Keep it stored in a central area so everyone knows where it is. No more excuses for not finding supplies OR returning them when finished.

Trash Old Makeup

Old makeup can harbour bacteria, which isn’t healthy and can give you a serious skin infection. Sort through your makeup and throw out anything old and past its expiration. This is a good time too to look at ways to change some of your products to more natural options.

Storing everything in containers, bins, caddies or bags will keep your beauty products safe, clean and organized for quick access.

Create a Morning Routine

It can be easy to get overwhelmed in the morning, especially if it isn’t your best time of day. However, creating a morning routine for yourself — which honours your time — will help set the day in motion in a positive way.

“The Miracle Morning”, by Hal Elrod, is an amazing book that gives simple guidance to help create a morning routine for yourself. It involves 6 different components that you apply and build upon each morning.

I started this practice in 2020 and quickly fell in love with how easy it was and the impact it made on my day.  

If you are looking at creating a morning routine for yourself, I highly recommend reading his book.

Show Gratitude

It doesn’t take a lot of effort or time to express gratitude for the things in our life. This could be as simple as being grateful for having a roof over your head, a job to go to, a hot cup of coffee, or a sunny day. 🌞 

Allocate time in the morning and before you go to bed to think of 3 things that you are grateful for. Keep a gratitude journal of these thoughts for extra impact.

Through practicing gratitude daily, we experience many fundamental positive impacts – some of which are outlined here in this article from Berkeley: Why Gratitude is GOOD

By using a sequence of these tips, you will quickly get in control of your clutter and the distractions that are keeping you from doing the things you want and love to do. You will start to feel better and be more in control of your day.

Just take it step-by-step, start with a tip that resonates with you and try additional ones as you create new habits for yourself.

Which do you think you’ll start with first?

I’d love to hear how these tips may help you simplify your day! Please leave a comment and let me know.

I’ll be cheering for ya!

Hugs!!