October in the Midwest is my favorite time of year. We enjoy crisp air, blue skies and amazing colors. But if you’ve lived here long enough, you realize the beauty of Fall is God’s way of softening the blow of Winter. Cold weather will soon be upon us, and that means, among other things, a lot more time spent indoors.So use this week as a super-powered jump start to your organizing projects, and try one of these 6 Tasks to Create Organizing Momentum!
- Get your closet ready for colder weather, and finish (or start and finish!) your seasonal clothes swap. Pull out your summer clothes to make room for your cold weather ones, and critically review the summer stuff, tossing or donating anything you don’t need, use or love.
- Winterize your landing / launch pad, too. Swap out the baseball caps and sunscreen by the back door for hats and mittens. Again, review the summer stuff critically and toss / donate the stuff you don’t need, use or love.
- Pantry shopping: This time of year feels like the time to stock up, but I challenge you to instead clean out the pantry, fridge and freezer for the next few weeks. Use up what you have before buying more. Use food before it expires, save money by not buying new food, clear cabinet clutter – the ultimate de-clutter strategy for your kitchen!
- Prep your car(s) for winter. Pack a safety bag including but not limited to: a blanket, sweatshirt, extra phone car-charger, umbrella, gloves, non-perishable snacks and a bottle of water, tissues, wipes and hand lotion, and snow scraper.
- Call and make appointments with your service people this week. Call the handyman, the furnace guy or the carpet cleaners, and get on the schedule now before their schedules fill up with the holidays.
- Drop off Your Donations, and Recycle your Recycling. Have you decided to get rid of something in your home? Go ahead and move it along this week. Selling that air hockey table or those Halloween costumes? Have bags of clothes to donate to a charitable organization? Or a pile of old computer components and cords? Send it all on its way! Making decisions is the hardest part of getting organized, so if you’ve made decisions about things that need to go – either donated, sold, recycled or just trashed – then please, spend an hour, load up the car and drop those items off. Get them out of your house and on to where they will be useful again.
So, what’s it going to be? Let’s send clutter on its way, and create organizing momentum to get things done!