Organize + Energize: 8 Ways to be More Efficient at Home

Monday, November 02, 2015

Kristin MacRae, GoLocalPDX Organizing Expert

Do you wish there were more hours in the day? Do you find that you are always busy but not much is getting accomplished? How well are you managing your time at home?

If you are disorganized, you probably aren’t as efficient and productive as you’d like to be. Time management and being organized go hand in hand. When both are in alignment, you’ll be working at peak performance.

Here are 8 ways to be more efficient at home:

Get organized. You can’t do anything else in this list until you conquer this first. If you want to become more efficient, you have to get organized. You can’t become an efficient person if you are surrounded by piles, clutter and don’t have working systems in place.

Have systems in place. Once you get organized, you will create processes and systems for everything you do in your home. Once you give each space a purpose in your home, then you can create a system and process for the things that live in that space.

Streamline processes. Once your systems are in place and you work with them for a little, you’ll realize that you can streamline them. Try to take a task from 7 steps down to 3. Think about how you can make that task as simple as you can.

Have less. The less useless stuff you have in your home that’s just taking up space, the easier tasks will get in your home. The less stuff you have, the less you have to think about. Everything will get easier. It’s also going to be easier to clean your home. You’ll be more efficient because you can move quicker through your home.

Think “grab and go.” When you are getting ready to go out in the morning or evening, you want to be able to find what you are looking for immediately and grab it. When you need to leave your house, you want to be able to grab items and go. This can only happen if all of the above falls into place.

Keep to-do lists. Clear the mental clutter and keep daily to-do lists. The clearer your thinking is, the more efficient you’ll be. When you hang onto mental clutter, it takes you longer to process and remember things you need to do.

Schedule household chores. Get onto auto pilot when it comes to tackling household chores. Make a list of everything you tackle in your home on a weekly basis and add it to your to-do list. Schedule days for laundry, house cleaning, food shopping, errands.

Plan and prepare. If you can plan and prepare, you’ll free up time during the week to focus on more important things that need your full attention. Plan your outfits, plan your meals, plan where you need to be for the week and watch how much more efficient you will become.

Remember, none of the above can be accomplished if you aren’t physically organized. Make a plan to get organized and then focus on becoming more efficient and productive. You’ll save money, have more free time, less stress and you’ll be more focused. You’ll be running like a well-oiled machine.

Kristin Carcieri-MacRae, the founder and owner of Organizing in RI, has always enjoyed finding creative ways to streamline the environment around her. She has appeared on air on Patricia Raskin's Positive Business Radio and her articles have been published in the Rhode Island Small Business Journal and New England Home Life. Kristin's CD, Organizing Basics, is a 1-hour guide for the person who wants to get organized but doesn't know where to start. She is also available for organizing workshops. Tune into her weekly radio show, Organize, Energize! on talkstreamradio.com.