Four Basic Tools Essential for Organization

Now that I’ve thoroughly explained that buying organizational tools is NOT the way to organize your life (you can find that post here). Let me tell you about the four organizational tools that are essential to my daily life. I would suggest completing your decluttering for a few weeks before you buy anything at all, to break you of the habit of associating buying with being organized.  

 

1. My schedule book: In an age of iPhones and ubiquitous technology (which I’m normally all about), my schedule book is bound paper. It goes everywhere with me and tracks my finances, my chores, my events, my work outs, memories, my menu plan, and helps me plan ahead so I’m never operating in “red zone”.

 

2. A laundry sorter: I got my laundry sorter here, at Target for 34.99, It keeps my laundry pile from being overwhelming. It holds four loads of laundry and I can sort as I go which helps make switching the laundry go quicker and encourages me to look forward to it.

 

 

3. Lunch bags and ice packs: In my opinion, barring any major expensive hobby, the biggest leak of your finances is most likely eating lunches out at work. You can read more on how much money you waste by eating lunches out here.

 

4. Financial Bag: This is an easy to carry bag (I’ve used both flyladys’ “office in a bag”, found here, and more recently Thirty One’s bag found here), that has checks, envelopes, stamps, and a copy of your budget outlook. I can throw in bills from my inbox and take this anywhere to balance my budget, pay bills (most are paid online, but having checks handy helps to pay infrequent bills.) Having the ability to handle the finances out of the house, gives me extra time at home to do the things I really want to do.