12 Weeks to An Organized Home!! Part 1

I am starting a new series called 12 Weeks to An Organized Home. I have become so frustrated with my surroundings that I just can’t take it any more!! I feel like clutter/stuff/junk is taking over my residence. So I decided that I am going to develop a plan of attack and fight back!!

Today, as the first part of my series, I am going to share with you my 4-step plan to take my home back!

Step 1…organize my day. Wait? What? Your day? That’s what your thinking right??? I realized that if I don’t organize my day, I will never find the time to organize my home. I have to schedule time in to focus on my tasks and goals. I just makes sense people!

So, I started out by listing all the areas in my home that were in need of some serious organization:

-entry closet
-guest bath
-laundry room
-guest room
-my bedroom closet
-my bedroom dresser
-pantry and kitchen cabinets
-living room media cabinet
-Sebastian’s bedroom
-teaching area for Sebastian
-garage

If you noticed, there are 11 things on this list and that’s how I came to the 12 weeks of organization. 11 = 12 what???? Let me explain….I am planning a week for each area I want to organize. But I am singling out the garage for two reasons. First, I am saving it for last hoping it will be warmer in 10 weeks time. And second, I am going to devote two weeks to this area. And believe me, it’s going to need every day!!

Step 2….list all the regular chores/duties I am responsible for in the week. The trick to organizing your whole home is to make sure that the rest of your home stays neat and tidy at the same time or you will just be running around in circles!! My list of chores/duties are:

-grocery shopping/errands/menu planning
-laundry
-cleaning bathrooms
-vacuuming
-cleaning living room/ tidying up
-cleaning kitchen
-Sebastian’s schooling
-blogging
-office work
-gym/yoga (got to schedule some me time!)
-etc…

Step 3….break chores down into daily tasks. So not be too over-whelming and allowing for more time in my day for my special organizing project.

Laundry everyday, with 1-2 loads. (broke down to categories on each day)
Gym is on Tues./Thurs./Sun. mornings.
Grocery shopping and errands are Mon./Fri. mornings.
Office work Wed. mornings
Etc….

And on and on I went scheduling until I had everything covered.

And finally step 4…write it all down on a weekly planner. I wanted to show you my weekly schedule all filled out, but I just can’t get it on here. So if I do finally figure it out, I will update this post!

If you like my planner, I found it at a great website called Mommy Tracked. I think this weekly planner is going to work great for me!

These steps may seem extremely long, and daunting, but I believe, they are the foundation to being successful. I am sure you have heard the saying, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Well I believe that may be true in this case. I have a goal of a well organized home and I plan on reaching that goal!!

With this new series I will be showing you the progress of my weekly organizational projects. If not only to keep me accountable but to hopefully inspire you to tackle your own messes-if you should be so lucky to have any!!

So..next week…the hall closet! Stay tuned…