A Strategy to Keep Your Home Organized In 15 Minutes Per Day
Photo: © Dejan Ristovski - iStockphoto
Do you feel overwhelmed by piles of laundry, dishes in the sink and piles of bills strewn all over your desk? This guide will help you organize your home and other aspects of your life in 15 minute segments. The basic plan is to set a timer for 15 minutes every time you begin housework. Follow these simple guidelines to put your plan into action.
1. Use a timer.
You need to set a timer to make this work. Do not rely on a wall clock, your phone or your personal estimate of how long 15 minutes is. Our brains are notoriously horrible for keeping time and part of this plan is understanding everything you can accomplish in 15 minutes. A timer will alert you to when your segment is up, allowing you to reset it and move on to the next task.
2. Stay focused during the 15 minutes.
This is very important. The benefits of 15 focused minutes on any particular task are greater than two hours worth of disorganized cleaning. If you generally buzz from one task to another, you may sometimes forget what you are doing. For instance, you may go throw in a load of laundry, start doing dishes, be distracted by the smudgy windows, then notice the cat litter box, then take out the garbage and finally realize you forgot to start the washer. Staying focused for 15 minutes on one particular area will help you finish that task before moving on.
3. Do not go over 15 minutes.
When your timer goes off, quit doing whatever task you are working on. If you consistently let yourself go over the 15 minutes, you are defeating the whole purpose of the plan. It may go against your nature to leave something unfinished. But when you institute this regimen every day, you will eventually be caught up all the time and won't be leaving any task unfinished. If you consistently find yourself wishing for a few more minutes, go ahead and change your timer to 20 minutes. The key is to decide on a plan and go through with it.
4. Don't expect to get totally organized in one day.
The point of this plan is not to get your house sparkling in one day of cleaning. The purpose is to institute a regular mode of cleaning and organizing that you can consistently use to produce results. Give yourself a full week before expecting to notice a huge difference. Then you will see it for sure. One day, it will be time to do 15 minutes in your living room and it will already be clean. You will reach for your duster and window cloth and have the place shining in 15 minutes or less.
