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1. Put a basket on the wall or a box on a table near the door you use most, and always put any outgoing mail in it. The next trip out the door gets the mail put in the box.
2. By the same token, always put today’s mail in the same place to sort it: it’s much easier to keep track of it, and lessens the chance of losing any of it, either behind the sofa or setting it down in another room.
3. Keep instruction books and warranties for small appliances and electronics close to the equipment itself. Use an attractive box with a lid, or empty out a nearby drawer.
4. Have a wastepaper basket, a calendar, note pad and pen, and a clock close to every phone in the house. You can take a message, time a phone call or plan your work or volunteer hours much more easily.
5. Arrange the furniture so the traffic pattern for each room is unobstructed. Rooms will look neater and cleaner instantly.
6. Hang a picture with a deep frame near the door you use most – and then hang extra keys flat against the wall and under the picture. If you need to move a car, for example, you don’t have to wake someone else up to do it; just use the extra key from behind the picture. And the keys aren’t hanging out in the open to tempt a burglar.
7. Grouping videos or DVDs by category: westerns, comedies, ‘chick flick’ etc. helps you find what you want to watch more quickly.
8. Arrange your chest of drawers according to frequency of use: top drawer for items you need every day, like underwear and socks; last drawer towards the floor for items used weekly, like sheets and pillowcases.
9. Store cleaning supplies inside the cupboard in a small bucket or plastic tub. (Lock the cupboard door if there are small kids in the house.) When you’re cleaning another room, just take the bucket with you to have everything you need.
10. Put breakfast items on the top shelf of the refrigerator; lunch items on the second and dinner on the third. This saves having to dig through everything on three shelves for the cream cheese – before your bagel is too cold to eat.
11. Keep a couple of extra postage stamps in your checkbook. If you need to mail a payment right away, you won’t have to make a run to the post office first.
12. Buy the largest quantities of non-spoiling items you can afford and for which you have storage. Not only do you usually get a bargain price on big lots, fewer trips to the store mean fewer impulse buys as well.
13. Store clean hiking clothing in your backpack. Tie your cleaned hiking boots to the straps.
14. Put a small dry erase board on the refrigerator and write down items as they’re used up or run out. Then you can start your shopping list with things you already know are needed.
15. Assign each kid a different color of laundry basket and insist each one fold and put his or her clothes away after they’ve been washed and dried and sorted into the correct baskets.
16. Keep a notebook and pen in the car so you can start a letter, write a reminder or make a list while waiting for someone.
17. Store the travel iron, travel clock and garment bag in your suitcase.
18. One great way to organize your home is to have an annual Yard Sale. Clutter goes out and some extra cash comes in on a yearly basis that way.
19. Store pet care items together when possible: pet food, clean bowls, brush and comb, treats. Store the clean cat litter close to the litter box. For a neat touch, store the aquarium supplies in a woven fish creel next to the tank.
20. Do little tasks ahead of need: sharpen two pencils instead of one; replace batteries in both flashlights each time, change light bulbs at both top and bottom of the cellar stairs.
21. Store car-washing stuff in the bucket used for washing the car.
22. Store winter gloves in the pockets of your winter coat. You can do the same thing with earmuffs, scarves, etc.
23. Store insulated lunch bags and wide-mouth soup jars on top of the refrigerator. Keep the ice packs frozen in the freezer until needed.
24. When you finally remember that long-forgotten item, like fireplace matches or toothpicks or baking soda – buy several boxes, not just one.
25. Create a ritual of changing batteries in all the clocks and smoke alarms on New Year’s Day. You won’t have to think about them the rest of the year.
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