February 2019 - Ellen's Blog, Professional Organizing for Kingwood & Houston

An organized home has 4 important components for living an easy, organized life. These areas are zones that help you accomplish the basics: being on time, feeling in control by knowing where things are and working together as a family team. These components will make life better! The first step is having an organized landing strip where you leave and arrive home.

Coming and going, if it’s only you or you and your family, happens every day all day. Why not make it easy to get in your home and get out? Take the stress out of daily life by organizing this area that can be congested and chaotic. Here’s the parts you need for an organized landing strip.

Set up by the entry
Drop spot for backpacks
Key holder
Shoe organizer
Hooks for your and your kids bags

Set up your landing strip by the location you come and go most frequently. It’s can be the hallway right inside the garage door, by the front door or by an area adjacent to your entry. This follows the concept of placing items at point of use.

Drop spot for bags and backpacks

Life includes bags of all types. Your kids have school backpacks and bags for sports, dance or other activities. Hooks or slots fo all these bags give each of these an organized, specific spot for each. Keeping these off the floor creates better traffic flow. This is also the spot for your purse or manbag. That way you always know where it is and where your credit cards and wallet are.

Key holder

A key holder is a happy place to keep your keys. There’s nothing more frustrating and emotional than losing the expensive keys to your vehicle. A key holder is the organized spot for these. What’s even more fun is choosing a key holder you love that makes you smile as you see it. Here’s what else is on this organizer: neighbor’s keys and mailbox keys. Place this key holder near the door again for best access.

Shoe organizer

Many of us come into our home and remove our shoes. Our shoes carry lots of dirt and bacteria so it’s what we want to do to keep our homes clean. A shoe drop area is perfect to keep your shoes organized. It’s especially important for families for shoe organization. The shoe drop area can be a basket, vertical grid with openings, a drawer or any product. Your shoe organizer can be just organized enough or highly organized. Shoe organizing requires maintenance too! Once a month review what’s here and what needs to make it back to the closet.

Hooks

Because the landing strip is often in a hallway, decorative hooks make organizing happen. The hooks should be sturdy enough to hold the weight of the bags or your purse.

Pull your landing strip together with color and design. Choose coordinating items that work together for an attractive combination.

Help the kids get ready for school with a bag packing and unpacking station.

Photo courtesy of IKEA

More ideas on landing strips and home organizing here on my blog!

Prioritizing. It’s one of the hardest aspects of time management. You set aside time to get important work done, and now what to do? Here are 5 ways of determining what to do first when you are ready to get to work.

One thing

If you could choose just one thing that makes the biggest difference in your day at home or work, what would that be? That’s the essence of prioritizing and knowing the one thing that you can do each day. On the opposite hand, what is the one thing that if you did NOT do it, that your day would go awry? Either perspective helps you prioritize what to choose that is the most important part of your work.

Getting Things Done (GTD) lists

GTD starts with a mind sweep and writing everything down. You divide the list into current projects and someday/maybe projects. Then your list is grouped by the places you work will be accomplished. That can be at the computer, at a meeting, anywhere and errands. Finally you add the single next step to each of these actions. GTD helps you prioritize by knowing where you do your work and knowing the one next step to accomplish that task or project.

Mindmapping

For non-linear thinkers, here’s a way to find your priority. There’s not always a start or end, it’s a context within the work itself. A mind map helps you write down ideas, link tasks that support that goal and then prioritize. By creating a context of what work needs to be accomplished and knowing the many different directions that are possible, you can focus on where you are in the task and project.

The Painted Picture

Getting things done is not the same as getting the right things done. To do this, Brian Scudamore uses his “Painted Picture” strategy. Keep the big picture in mind with the top third of your capture tool, then below add quadrants for quarterly, monthly and weekly. Select just 3 tactics that align with this goal and your projects are outlined for completion.

Choose the one thing you never get started

Intuitively you know what to do and you never get to it. That’s the priority for you. It’s when you have procrastinated and let tasks lapse, you know it’s time to get started.

How to accomplish prioritizing also depends on setting up your weekly routines to follow through. Set up a weekly planning time to establish a big picture view that allows you to establish priorities. That weekly planning time also gives you the opportunity to match your weekly tactics with your calendar.

More tips here for productivity! Join my newsletter!

How to set up an Organized Home: Your Landing Strip