Using Time Wisely

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Sorting the Mail

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Does mail pile up at your house? Have you found a way to keep on top of the paperwork? I have heard organizers suggest keeping two containers by the front door. When you get the mail, all junk mail goes in one container.  Then items to read/pay/act upon get placed in the second container. The idea is that the junk mail gets taken out with the trash. Then the active pile gets read once a week.

The above system may work for some people, but I choose to deal with mail each day. I have found the following list works for me:

1.       Hubby brings in the mail and puts it on the kitchen counter when he gets home from work.

2.       As I am making dinner, I open the envelopes and sort through the mail.

  • Junk – goes in the trash
  • Bills, movies, statements, etc. – placed in one pile on top of my bread maker

3.       When the family retires upstairs for the evening, I bring the pile from the top of the bread maker and take it to my desk.

4.       After putting my children to bed, I file the paperwork in the appropriate place.

  • Movies – go on my husband’s desk
  • Bills – date added on calendar and statement placed in “bills to be paid” section of file
  • Receipts, rebates, etc. – added to original paperwork and filed in filing cabinet
  • Coupons – placed in binder or folder

I handle the mail in small sections of time. In doing so, my mail pile stays small, manageable, and organized. What tips have you found to be helpful in keeping the mail pile manageable?

Oh, What a Little Rest Can Do!

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I had great plans to get some tasks accomplished, but I was out of steam. Instead of trudging on at a slow pace to get accomplished what I could, I decided to take a nap. Just taking about an hour nap re-energized me. I awoke feeling refreshed. My two older children were busy playing an X-Box game together while the baby was still taking her nap.

With some uninterrupted time to work, I was able to get the following accomplished in about 20 minutes:

  1. Started dinner.
  2. Unloaded the dishwasher.
  3. Began a load of laundry.
  4. Reloaded the dishwasher with dishes that had been previously rinsed.
  5. Put away the cooled chicken broth from my split chicken breasts purchase.
  6. Welcomed hubby home with a clean kitchen, dinner cooking, and a rested, smiling wife.

Though pressing on and working to accomplish that To Do list is admirable, sometimes taking the time to rest will help you to recharge and accomplish more tasks in a small amount of time. For me, I chose to nap which was my best choice for using my time wisely. How about you . . . can you accomplish more after a little nap? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

1 Minute of Cleaning Now, Saves 5 Minutes Later

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Do you clean messes as they occur? A wet mess is easier to clean than a harden mess. If a glob of toothpaste falls on the bathroom counter, then the minute to stop and wipe it up while wet saves me 5 minutes of scrubbing later. If I were to wait until bedtime to address the sticky mess, it will be hard and require extra time and energy to scrub it clean. Here are some other messes that save me time by cleaning them now rather than later:

  • Boiled over pasta water on the stovetop
  • Heated spaghetti sauce in the microwave
  • Leftover food on dinner plates
  • Spilled milk in the refrigerator
  • Cups knocked over onto the carpet
  • Drips during a meal on the table/high chair
  • Fabric softener dribble on the washing machine

When I notice that these messes have occurred, I do my best to clean them up immediately. Though I want to clean up every mess quickly, I don’t always succeed since I may be in the middle of helping another child or just don’t know that the spill happened. When I find the mess, I try to clean it while it is wet. By doing so, I save myself lots of time and energy from scrubbing a baked-on or hardened mess.

Do you attempt to clean up spills and messes right away? By staying on top of spills, my home will be a cleaner place, I’ll save time and energy from having to scrub, and I can spend my time wisely with my family.

Goal-oriented or Task-oriented?

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Goal-oriented or Task-oriented

Photograph Credit: Microsoft Images

Do you find that you start many projects at once with none of them getting completed? This is my daughter.

Goal-oriented

She is goal-oriented and loves to get out different sets of toys with the goal of organizing. She likes to line up the dolls, sort the silverware, and stack the blocks.

If the baby comes over to play with an available organized pile, then my oldest daughter gets so upset because she is not done with those items.  At the end of playtime, she has all these little messes.

She then gets overwhelmed with pickup because she did not pickup when she was done with the silverware or blocks. We are working on getting out one set of items, playing with them, and putting them away before getting out something else. It is a work in progress, but with this system, the pickup progress is easier to manage.

Task-oriented

Where my daughter is goal-oriented, I am task-oriented. I like to select an item on the To Do list (i.e. make tea), and complete that task.

In our household, the kids and I drink about 3 gallons of tea in 2 days. Now, I could make tea everyday, and sometimes I do. But I prefer to make 4 gallons of tea every 2-3 days. I just like having the refrigerator stocked, the tea maker in its place, and the counter cleared off.

Often life intervenes, and I get distracted by good things. But when I get back to my task, I just keep on going. When my task is finished, then I move on to something else. This system works for me, but it may not work for you.

You might be goal-oriented like my daughter, who would probably prefer to accomplish the tea-making task at a set time each day. For example, after dinner make a pitcher of tea. These same individuals prefer to tackle a load of laundry each day.

The laundry pile, like the tea making, is a continuous cycle. I prefer to spend a day or two doing laundry to get it done. Again, life happens, and sometimes I need to do laundry during the week and then on the weekends.

Just knowing how you approach projects might help as you schedule your tasks. The goals are to get things done and don’t get overwhelmed while using time wisely.

Question: Are you goal-oriented, task-oriented, or both?

New Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Cleaning Gel

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Photograph Credit: SC Johnson

When my husband was shopping at Sam’s Club, he received a sample of the new Scrubbing Bubbles continuous clean toilet cleaning gel. He brought home the cleaning sample, and I added it to my cleaning supplies.

THE PRODUCT

In preparing for company to visit, I cleaned the half bathroom and decided to use the new product. I cleaned the toilet from top to bottom like I usually do. After the toilet was cleaned, then I used the new Scrubbing Bubbles continuous clean toilet cleaning gel:

  • Opened the box and read the instructions.
  • Put the dispenser together.
  • Using the dispenser, stamped one star-shaped gel dot onto the inside of the toilet near the rim.
  • Flushed the toilet to activate the gel.
  • Put the cleaner away and out of reach from my children.

The gel will dissolve a little with each flush. The instructions state that each stamp should last for 1 week. After 2 weeks of use, our stamp is still in place. It has not yet dissolved all the way. When the stamp has dissolved completely, then I will just stamp another gel dot on the inside of the toilet. Our 1 dispenser holds 6 stamps and will last at least 6 weeks. Woo Hoo!

ENTER CHILDREN

Since I cleaned the bathroom after my children had gone to bed, I did not consider that they would notice that there was a star-shaped object in the toilet. (You see where I’m going with this story? It’s not really that bad.) The next evening, my son calls my husband into the bathroom to show him this object in the toilet. My husband recognized the cleaning product and explained the process to our son. Then our son shared that he had touched it because he “wanted to feel it.” My husband had him wash his hands and then brought our daughter into the bathroom to show her as well.

LESSON

Remember that children are inquisitive. They like to explore and are not afraid to try new things, like touching cleaning supplies that look fun and interesting. Now that I am aware that they are observing changes, I will be more careful to inform them of any changes. We will need a field trip (in this case, to the bathroom) with an explanation and demonstration. If my children understand the new product, then they will know to leave it alone. I will also allow them to watch me stamp the next star-shaped dot on the inside of the rim. Including them in the process usually keeps their curiosity at bay.

I’m thankful our son came to an adult for an explanation. This situation could have resulted in a trip to the hospital had our son decided to taste it instead of feel it. I hope this warning not only reminds me to include my children when I try a new product, but also helps you remember that little ones are very curious.