Whether it is Spring cleaning or a New Year’s resolution to finally clean up the clutter, organizing your whole house can be overwhelming. This can be especially true if you are a new mom and are just trying to make a path through the dirty laundry to the bathroom. Here’s a great place to start. Start with a baby step. Start with cleaning out your purse or diaper bag. At least you can take this organizational accomplishment with you where ever you go.
- You will need several small purses or bags to fit into your daily purse. I like the clear flexible plastic bags that zipper or snap. I found 3 of these at the dollar store. Use as many as you need.
- Group like things together and keep these in your purse.
- Make a rule to never have loose items floating around in your main purse. That’s how you get the penny-gum-receipt-ball that comes out stuck to your baby bottle when you hand over the bottle to your mother-in-law.
- Keep your money, checks, and a few cards in your wallet. Take out photos and put into a flat clear zipper bag. Then you can find them when you want them and they don’t get “junked up" as my 4 year old used to say. Also, take out your more seldom used credit cards or membership cards, like the library card, the video store card, frequent shopper cards and put them into a separate bag. This might free up your wallet so that you might actually be able to snap it closed!
- In a separate clear zippered container, put all your make-up. This way, if you can’t remember if your Spring-time frosty lip-gloss is in your purse, you can just take out the make-up bag and see right through the plastic.
- Use the last clear bag to put miscellaneous items like, Band-Aids, a small calculator, gum, hand cream, nail file.
- Find a non-see through bag to put more personal items in like feminine protection and prescription medicines. I also carry a small pill bottle with one pill for every ailment I can think of striking me at an inopportune time. I use an old child proof capped medicine bottle for this just in case your purse is in an area where children might have access.
- Organizing your purse this way will also make it easier to trade purses. Just take out the little bags you need and put them into the next purse. Trading purses goes from being a 30 minute ordeal to being fun and really fast.
Once you’ve organized your purse, then start to attack your filing system. Once you get some of these everyday areas under control, you can start to breath a little easier and move on to other areas of your home. It won’t happen all at once. Every year that goes by I think I am a little more organized. Maybe by the time my kids are grown I will be done? But then I will have to organize all those dinner parties that my husband and I will be having. Yipee!
Re-Claim the JOY!
© 2007
Kathy Kline Danner
Fight the joy thieves of motherhood and
Re-Claim the JOY! Become a Joy @ Home Mom
www.PBandJAHM.com
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