Is it possible to keep your home organized when you work long hours? Keeping a busy schedule and an organized home requires a time commitment, but it pays off and it may actually create more time for you.
Being involved in a demanding career can mean hard work; not only within your job responsibilities but finding time for your home obligations as well. Many people find themselves asking, "Is it possible to keep your home organized when you work long hours?" Lorie Marrero, who is the owner of "LivingOrder", a professional organization company that creates organizing solutions for homes and businesses, puts it this way: "Like anything else in your life that is important to you, you have to devote time to it. It isn't going to maintain itself. There is a level of time commitment involved in staying organized. If you're working long hours, something has got to give. Wherever you choose to take that time away is a part of your life that may suffer."
This may mean having to give up an extracurricular activity such as a club or sport. Or it might simply entail sitting down and making out a list of what you need and want to accomplish in a day and considering the different areas where you can shave a small amount of time off. Do you really need to watch the whole marathon of your favorite old show or can you just catch a few favorite episodes? Or better yet, tape them all and wait until you really do have enough free time to enjoy them? Another tip is to multitask whenever possible. Make the kids lunches in between stirring dinner. Make that weekly phone call to your mother while doing the dishes. Work on the finishing touches of tomorrow's proposal in a relaxing bubble bath. (Just make sure to have one of those "bath trays" made especially to put books or papers on- so you don't drop anything and literally see all your hard work "go down the drain".) A few seconds here, a couple of moments there...it may not seem like much at first, but they do add up.
Make sure to get the whole family involved when you try to figure out a home organization plan. Especially, if you work long hours, you will need all the input and help that you can get. Hold a "family meeting" and lay your cards on the table. Explain that everyone needs to pitch in more and maybe even make a few small sacrifices for the greater good of the household. Even though you may be met with sighs, it is important to include every member of the home when creating a system to organize it. This way, everyone has a fair chance to be heard and no one has the excuse to use later of "No one told me I was supposed to do that!"
The idea of having to give up something important to you or doing two things at once may seem daunting at first. But don't despair yet. As Lorie says, "A lot of people find that the more organized they become, the more time they find! An investment upfront in creating a system that works and everybody understands will pay off incredible dividends, because maintenance is so much easier than creating a system from scratch and it's especially easier than always having to search for what you need."
