Using Time Wisely

Organized to save money, energy, and time

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Archives for February 2011

Rising above Household Disorder

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If you are like me, then you have those days when everything in your life feels unorganized and chaotic. As a wife and mother of three small children, I have days like this at least once a month. You might not have these feelings or you may feel overwhelmed more often, but I do understand the feeling of crawling out from under the mess and getting back on track.

To keep my home running smoothly, I must have a system that works for me. What works for me may or may not work for you. My organizational system has changed many times over the years. I can no longer take three to four days to clean my house top to bottom. However, I can break the cleaning schedule into bite-size pieces to make the task manageable.

So please join me on Mondays as I share with you how I work to keep my home organized. Next Monday I hope to reveal how we efficiently pickup a room of toys.

Tackling Piles of Important Documents

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Photograph Credit: Microsoft Images

Having a special place for all your personal documents, records, and policies will make accessing these items easy. When my husband and I were married over twelve years ago, I remember finding his box of paperwork. Yes, a Xerox copy paper box held a large stack of credit card statements, hospital birth record, payment records, and policies. When I found this box, I knew I had lots of work ahead of me.

After sorting all the items into piles of similar items, I then labeled file folders and placed each stack into its own folder. I then added his documents to the filing cabinet of documents I brought into our marriage. In surveying our documents, I discovered that there were lots of items missing from my husband’s personal records, but I did not know what was missing or where to begin finding an organized system.

About six years later, I found a system that worked for me: The Protection Portfolio by Suze Orman. This portfolio consisted of a dark green binder box with pockets for each category. She also included a book and CD. I love the checklists she included for each section to be sure all your important documents are safe and easily accessible.

I would highly recommend Miss Orman’s Protection Portfolio; however, I found the one box to be too small for all our documents. I also felt there were additional documents I needed to include. Therefore, my system consists of five accordion-style files.

Each Sunday, I will walk you through my files which I organized based on Suze Orman’s Protection Portfolio. Next Sunday, I will start with my first file and the first pocket: Credit Report and Credit Card Documents.

Welcome to Using Time Wisely

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Your time is valuable, and I’m so glad you are spending some of your time here. As I share my tips, tools, and systems which make my life more efficient, I hope you will share your tips with me.

For me, the more organized the task; the more efficient I am. With efficiency comes additional time to do the things I love to do. As a busy mom of three little ones, I love to spend time with my family. So, to use my time wisely, I aim to stay organized. My goal is to post each day sharing how I stay organized. Here is the schedule I plan to follow:

  • Sundays – Important Documents
  • Mondays –  Household
  • Tuesdays – Event Planning
  • Wednesdays – Miscellaneous
  • Thursdays – Food
  • Fridays – Family Activities
  • Saturdays – Tools of the Trade

So visit me each day here at usingtimewisely.com.