It’s January, the traditional time of year to make resolutions. Having read many a blog on the topic of resolutions recently I’ve noticed lots of people are resolving to get more organised. For me being organised is absolutely essential. With a brain that tends to wander, ‘what was it I was doing, ah yes cooking dinner, hang on lets just put some music on (dances round for approx ten minutes) hmm what was it I was doing again?’, organisational skills are a must!

Five Ways To Get Organised:

1. Lists. Without lists I don’t know how I would ever remember to do anything. I’m an iPhone addict so I use an app called Paperless Lists. In it I have categories for all areas of my life so housework, shopping, kids school, blog etc. Within each category is my to do list for that area of life. You could of course do the same thing with several pieces of paper. I find that dividing the jobs into categories leaves me feeling less overwhelmed as I’m dealing with several shorter lists rather than one long scary one.

2. Stay on top of housework. Housework broken into smaller tasks, and done as part of an ongoing rotating system is a lot easier to manage than a whole messy house which you have to deal with all at once. I’ve written a blog about how to organise your cleaning schedule here.

3. Meal planning. At some point I’ll get round to writing an entire post about meal planning. For now I’ll say plan your meals a week in advance. That way you will always know what you are going to be cooking and eating and you’ll have bought the ingredients you need.

4. Organise your clothes. If you love clothes shopping and have plenty of disposal income then feel free to ignore this advice. If however like me you don’t and are on a budget then it makes total sense to make a list of what your clothing needs are. That way you can refer to the list, know when you need to shop and what for and then don’t have to think about clothing any other time. I’ve written a post about how to stock a child’s wardrobe here. If I get any requests I’m happy to do something similar for a ladies wardrobe too.

5.Organise your budget. Another area that I think it’s really important to stay organised is finances. No matter what your income it’s really easy to overspend if you don’t have a budget plan. I’ve written a post on how to set a budget here. I’ve written a post about how to stick to your food budget here.