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Having a well-organized home is not only essential to well being, but it is the key to having more leisure time! The trick here is to find the balance. Having and maintaining an organized home takes work and attention, but this can be done in a few minutes each day.
The key phrase in that last paragraph was “each day.” Let me explain, and as April 15th approaches, I will use tax time as an example. There are two kinds of people. Those that keep track of their receipts during the year, and those that spend the 72 hours prior to the April 15th deadline in a cold sweat because they have not allowed enough time to organize their tax materials.
Home organization works on EXACTLY the same principle. People either do periodic maintenance on their homes, or they wait until it gets really messy and then spend a frantic weekend trying to clean up, and end up paralyzed at the end without having gotten much accomplished.
There are three things that can be done about this, and they fall into the categories of Mail, Laundry and Dishes.
MAIL
Mail comes in every day. Usually a lot of it. Most of it is junk. Mail needs to be dealt with each and every day. No matter how tired you are. No matter how bad your day was. I actually sort my mail on my way into the house before my coat comes off. Here's how I do it.
I have a standing file that sits on my kitchen counter. It is a nice one, purchased from the Container Store, and it is filled with hanging files. As I sort through the mail, bills to be paid go in the appropriate file. As do bank statements, brokerage statements, insurance statements, etc... Any items that need to be dealt with immediately go into a file marked “Urgent.” The next morning, the “Urgent” file is the first thing that I look at when I get up. Junk mail gets shredded. Catalogues that I want to read go in the appropriate file. Catalogues that I don't want go into recycling. This takes me all of three minutes. And I receive A LOT of mail every day. At least 35 pieces. And nothing ever gets lost.
LAUNDRY
Just do it. Period. I don't have kids, and I generate a lot of laundry. Many of my clients have babies and toddlers. They have a ton of laundry. The key here is to do a load or two (or three) a day, but to make sure that it is done to completion. Meaning, washed, dried, folded, AND PUT AWAY. I can't tell you how many clients I have had who end up re-washing clean clothing because it was never put away, ended up on the floor, and they don't know that it is clean, or it is dirty again from being on the floor. This is a terrible waste of time and money, not to mention bad for the environment.
In addition, make the best sorting area that you can. If you have a basement or a large laundry room, buy three inexpensive trash barrels, the type appropriate to use for curb-side garbage collection. Label them “Whites,” “Light Colors,” and “Dark Colors.” Use them. Even if the laundry begins to pile up, at least it can be corralled neatly, rather than it being all over the floor / beds / kitchen table / couch / coffee table. You get the idea.
DISHES
Again, similar to laundry. Don't let the sink pile up with dishes. Nobody likes doing three days worth of dishes. It makes for a dirty kitchen, and dishes that have had food drying on them for a week are not particularly easy to clean. Wash them. Dry them. Put them away. This also makes preparing dinner a whole lot easier, when you can start in cooking rather than cleaning the kitchen first!
Keeping on top of these tasks may take a few minutes out of your day, but if you get into the habit of keeping up with them, your house will never become a disaster zone! And you won't ever have to sacrifice a weekend to clean up your home!
 Neil Bindelglass is a professional home stager in Saratoga Springs and owner of Let Me Organize You. He is an expert article contributer on the topics of Saratoga home staging and home organizing.
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