Organize

It’s the old adage, “New Year, New You.”  Make a feel good resolution to loose weight, eat better, and exercise more.  Sounds simple, right? Well not exactly.  According to John Norcross Co-author of Changing for good, 64% of people fail their resolutions after only 1 month! So your New Year started out full of magic and one month later it’s filled with a boulevard of broken dreams and plummeting failure. Not precisely what we had in mind, and there’s still 11 more months until we can wipe the slate clean and start over.

We set out with very good intentions and then wilt like a flower, grab that bowl of ice cream and decide we will worry about our diet tomorrow. Sounds like a plan to me! Did I hear the word ice cream?  I’m pretty certain it has two of the most important food groups necessary for survival in the South, Cream & Sugar! Figure out how to add butter and you got yourself a Southern trifecta I like to call food heaven!

Resolutions are a funny thing. Despite our best intentions, the top five resolutions are the same every year. Yup, so apparently we all have the same A.D.D./ lack of will power. So is it wise to say that we should keep eating our ice cream, sneak that cigarette without guilt and give up on exercise? Of course not. Resolutions often fail because we set the bar to high, and make things too complicated. Who us? The smartest species on the planet that orders a plate of food four times the size of our head just to win a free T-shirt? Ok, so not our brightest moment. But as resolutions go, number four on list: Get organized. But don’t worry, it can be easy and painless with are  best tips to get you started and organized in 2011. Bonehead organization 101.

Get organized

Tip # 1: Get organized to organize

What? Ok so here’s the rub, you can’t just run out to the container store and think you’re organized simply because you bought yourself some pretty pink boxes, plastic containers and a fancy new label maker. In order to start properly you need to first take stock of your storage needs. What areas need to be organized, and what are your storage limitations? Often times you don’t need more space, you just need to use the space more efficiently.

Tip # 2: Get rid of the things you don’t use

A-hem, do you really NEED ten gravy boats?  So many people are in need during these tough economic times. Wouldn’t it be better if TEN families had a gravy boat? If you don’t use it, don’t like it or FORGOT you had it, it’s time to donate it to someone who will use and appreciate what ever “it” is.

Organized kitchen

Tip # 3: Organize according to your daily routine

That do you use on a daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal basis? Organize accordingly. For example: Thanksgiving is but once a year, so having that ginormous turkey platter in the way of the cookie sheet that you use almost nightly, is not practical. Store accordingly. If it accommodates your routine and feels natural you are 10 times more likely to implement it into your daily routine and not fall off the ice cream truck; however, tempting it may be.

Tip # 3 From my own mantra, keep it SIMPLE!

It’s not rocket science so don’t make it harder than it needs to be. The easier it is, the easier it is to follow and thereby keeps your resolution in tack. Organization is a means to catalog your life so it is a breeze to manage. The best part is all the free time you will have because you will knwo where everything is! Now if we only knew where to store the cat….

101 Unique ways to store the cat

Tune in next week and I will show you how to put your new organizational skills to work. I will offer up some clever ways to store,stack and organize the big and small things in your life, with the things you already have! Love that!