This week’s mission is to clean out your car.

As busy as our lives can get, it’s tough to keep the inside of our cars clean, especially with kids in tow! So, grab a trash bag, find a basket, get some cleaning supplies, and head out to the garage… it’s time for you to cancel car chaos!

Now, where do you start? Well, right here…

1. In your trash bag, collect any and all garbage from every nook and cranny of your car.
2. Gather all items that belong elsewhere (i.e., in the house, in the garage, in the yard) and put them into your basket.
3. Return all displaced items to their respective “homes” (i.e., stuffed animals to playroom, paperwork to home office, gas can to garage).
4. Vacuum all carpeted and upholstered surfaces in your car.
5. Wipe down all plastic and leather surfaces in your car.
6. Don’t forget the windows… Clean those too!
7. Wash (and dry, if you like) the exterior of your car.

That’s it! But… now comes the tough part… you must keep your car clean all week long! How? Aaaahhh… good question…

1. Place your (now empty) basket on the passenger seat of your car. Use it to collect items that belong in the house (or elsewhere) every time you get out of the car.
2. Keep a small garbage bag in your car for trash. Several options include the little bags made to hang from a knob on your car stereo, an auto organizer made specifically for this purpose, or simply a box or gift bag on the floor in the back seat. Of course, whenever your trash bag gets full, toss it and get a new bag. In fact, keep an empty paper towel roll in your car stuffed with plastic grocery bags to use as quick and easy trash bag replacements.
3. Kids along for the ride? Store some wipes in the car for quick clean-ups after take-out meals, playdates at the park, etc. And, keep a small bucket of “travel toys” for entertaining little ones on long car rides. Finally, if you’re dealing with potty training, be sure to keep a small portable potty and toilet paper roll in your trunk… just in case…

So, what about you? How do you keep your car clean and organized? I’d love to hear from you! Please leave a comment below to share your favorite tips for cleaning and organizing your car.

This week’s mission is to plan your meals.

Do you have leftovers that need to get used up? Anything that’s been in the freezer for a while? What’s in the fridge that’s close to its expiration date? Plan to use up these items with this week’s menu.

Take 10 minutes today to make a list of your meals for the week. Be sure to select your meals according to the activities that are scheduled each day. You certainly don’t want to plan a complex, preparation-intense meal on the day that you’ll get home from work at 5:30pm and need to be at your son’s baseball game at 6:00pm! Sandwiches, anyone?

Once you’ve completed your menu plan, highlight anything that needs to get pulled out of the freezer the night before. Then, post your schedule of meals on the fridge as a reminder. Hey, who knows… your teenage daughter might even get the meal started for you now that she knows what you’ve got planned! (Yes, I know… wishful thinking…)

In any case, you’ll be grateful that you spent 10 minutes at the start of the week to plan out your meals. Not only will you eliminate the stress that comes with planning a meal after a long, hard day, but you’ll save money by eliminating last-minute fast food excursions, and you’ll stay healthy by eating more well-rounded meals!

You know how it is… after a long tiring day, it’s tough to prepare a meal, let alone decide what to make. With a plan in place, the decisions will have already been made for you, and all you’ll need to do is prepare and enjoy!

So, do you already have a menu plan for this week? I’d love to hear from you! Please leave a comment below to share your current menu plan.

This week’s mission is to get everything ready for the next day before you go to bed for the night. Do this each and every evening (even if you’re crazy tired), and you’ll be amazed at how much more relaxed your mornings will be! You know how your morning sets the tone for the rest of the day…

Need some ideas of just what you can get ready the night before?

• Re-stock the diaper bag.
• Shut down your laptop and pack it up.
• Gather items to return (i.e., library books, video rentals).
• Load the car with “the big stuff” (i.e., stroller, hockey equipment).
• Prepare the family’s sack lunches.
• Check the weather forecast.
• Choose outfits for yourself and the kids.
• Set the table for breakfast.

So, what about you? What is your evening routine? How do you prepare for the next day? I’d love to hear from you! Please leave a comment below to share your best tips for getting everything ready the night before.

This week’s mission is to organize and simplify laundry duty in 5 simple steps: sort, wash, dry, fold, and put away.

1. Sort: Keep your 3-bin laundry sorter (or multiple laundry hampers) wherever you change into your “jammies” at bedtime. Drop your dirty clothes into their respective bins—darks, whites, and colors.
2. Wash: First thing in the morning, put a load of laundry into the washer—towels and/or sheets.
3. Dry: After you’ve gone through your morning routine, and before you head out the door for the day, transfer the load of laundry from the washer to the dryer.
4. Fold: When you arrive home in the late afternoon or early evening, unload the dryer. (You won’t have to fold this load…)
5. Put Away: Hang up your clean towels in the bathroom, and put the clean sheets on your bed. Done!

Additional Tips:

• For any laundry that you don’t want to leave sitting in the dryer all day long, set a timer when you load the washer. If you’re not certain how long your washer’s normal cycle lasts, start with 1 hour and adjust up or down as needed. When the timer goes off, put the clothes into the dryer, and add a new load to the washer. Reset the timer. When the timer goes off again, repeat the process.
• Keep a trash can nearby so you can easily throw away anything collected by your dryer’s lint trap. When you unload the dryer, fold everything immediately! Instant Bonuses: You’ll reduce (if not eliminate) the wrinkles. You won’t have as much ironing to do. You’ll feel great because you just plain got the job done!
• Little ones afoot? Get them involved! Get out a footstool so your child can reach to put dirty clothes into the washer. As you empty the washer, give your child one or two wet items to add to the dryer while you toss in a couple handfuls. Toddlers can also empty the dryer, match up socks, fold washcloths and towels, or even fold shirts and pants. Instant Bonuses: You’re spending quality time with your child. You’re teaching your child important life skills. You’re actually getting the laundry done!

So, what about you? What are your favorite laundry tips? How do you keep laundry duty organized? I’d love to hear from you! Please leave a comment below to share your tried-and-true laundry strategies.

Courtesy of Lorie Marrero, creator of The Clutter Diet, owner of LivingOrder:

People hear that I am a Professional Organizer and they read some of my writing, and they often assume that my home and office must be “perfect.” Let me assure you, with two kids, two parakeets, a dog, a husband, and two companies, it is far from perfect—but my life works for me. And I would not want to aspire to perfection, as it is an unattainable and futile goal.

Instead we teach people to aspire to be NEATER*:

• Not perfect, but…
• Effective—your systems work well for you and your family
• Always improving—you look for how to do things smarter, faster, and better
• True to your style—you work with your own preferences, not someone else’s standards
• Efficient—your systems minimize waste of time and energy
• Ready for anything—you are well-prepared with what you need for life and work

Our definition of what it means to be organized is realistic and defined—it does not mean your house has to look like Real Simple magazine and that you have to become Martha Stewart.

So, is it possible to be TOO organized? Absolutely. Just as in business endeavors, when setting up any organizing system you want to ask yourself about the Return On Investment (ROI). Is the time, money, or energy you are investing in this process going to pay off by offering you more time, money, and energy in return? If the answer is no, you need to think very hard about whether you should bother.

One example of this that we run into fairly often: People think it might look neat to have all matching plastic containers in their pantries that all nest nicely together and present a picture-perfect shelf. But for the ROI of simply having a pretty pantry, you have to spend a lot of time transferring every new food item from its original store packaging into the containers. It’s just not worth the time (especially if your kids go through cereal like mine do! We’d hardly be able to transfer the contents to the container before it would be eaten up). This example also plays into a common myth that if something looks really neat it must be organized and must be better. Maybe not!

Another thing we see is people creating folders by vendor for their common household bills, such as the phone company, the electric company, and the cable company. What we typically recommend instead (if you even want to keep the paid bills) is to file the bills by month in an accordion folder. The time it takes to parse each bill out into the proper vendor folder rarely pays off. In the unlikely event that you need to find something, you can invest the time on the other side of that problem instead of consistently investing it up front.

We like to work on the “Good Enough” principle, meaning that the level of organization is appropriate to provide a return that is worth the investment. Is there something you could cut out today that would be “Good Enough,” and actually gain some time back in the process?

*NEATER acronym © 2005-2007, LivingOrder, Inc.