How to Organize Your Life: 5 Habits of Organized People

Home organizing…is it just one big color-coded, decanted party trick? Or is it a useful tool that encourages you to level up at home and in life?

I’m convinced it offers more than a neat visual. Being more organized is often the difference between baking the cake and not, between showing up on time for family dinner and being 20 minutes late, or finally writing the book and staring at a blank computer screen.

Here are my favorite simple ways to get organized (and stay organized!):

Give everything in your home a home. This is easily the most important rule in my organizing book. When you give all the stuff in your home a place to live, you’ll spend less time searching for a pen that actually works, or a beach towel for the beach. The best part about this rule is that it’s completely free. No need for bins and baskets and Lazy Susans galore to make this work. All you need is some 3-dimensional space and your brain. Voila!

Don’t put things down. Put things away. It can be tempting to just plunk stuff down and resolve to put it away later. But in between now and later, clutter has a fun way of inviting other clutter to one big house party. Once you commit to putting things away as soon as they enter your home, clear surfaces will stay clear and so will your mind. It might sound overly simplistic, but see how much more clear-headed you’ll feel with a clear kitchen counter.

Make a to-do list that actually works. We’ve all had lofty plans, feverishly scrawling out to-dos like, “Write novel!” “Finish War & Peace!” “Learn how to surf!” Make the bucket list a reality by grounding it in your daily schedule. If you’ve been itching to write a book for years, one daily action item could be “write 4 pages today.” And while we’re on the topic, accessibility is key. If you’re a frequent iPhone user, just use your notes app for your checklist! 

Write down your shower thoughts. There’s nothing worse than having a genius idea strike, only to have it evaporate into the ether mere seconds later. Maybe it’s a great new business plan inspired by a conversation with a friend, or a gift idea for your sister. Let’s break the endless cycle of forgetting and remembering! Dump it all into your notes app by category, then place the more pressing reminders in your calendar. This will free up so much space in your brain for even more brilliant thoughts and creative inspiration.

Declutter often. If decluttering often sounds like a drag, consider the alternative: owning tons of unused stuff and never being able to find what you need when you need it. Culling through your belongings regularly is much more civilized than an exhausting annual KonMari-style dumping session. In the end, decluttering will make you more organized by default, simply because you’ll have less stuff to manage.