You don’t have to be an organization guru to maintain organization in your life.  You know what works for you, what you want to accomplish and how to get it done.  Don’t let disorganization sneak back into your life.  Use these simple strategies to make the most of what you have and to eliminate what you don’t need.

Avoid the Freebies.  The T-shirt from the cannon at the baseball game? Put your hands down.  The free squish ball with the credit card sign-up? Walk away.  The free tote with your magazine subscription? Donate it right now.  When you allow these seemingly “great freebies” into your life, you allow them to begin to build clutter.  You don’t need the stuff, you don’t want the stuff and I promise you don’t want to mess with the piles of junk you have to clean later if you hold onto it.  Save yourself the trouble and get yourself away from the freebies before you’re tempted.

Only Buy What You’ll Use & Need. This may seem backwards from the person that has bulk amounts of food in her stuffed pantry, but hear me out.  I’ve checked all of the food we’ve got and we’ll use it before the expiration date, so it makes sense.  Now ask me about my running shoes.  I’ve got one pair in use and one pair for a back-up for when the first ones wear out.  And what about most of the other things in our house? We’re practicing living with less and we wait until we absolutely need something to buy a replacement (and even then I try to come up with a creative solution, some are great and some are not). Do a mental check before you buy it.  Do you really need it or do you just want it? Put it down for 15-minutes, an hour or come back to buy it in a week–when you realize you can do without, you might be able to live without it.

Realize you can’t do everything.  You’ve only got so much time and energy every day.  Be realistic with your goals so you don’t overwhelm yourself.  Even if you just accomplish one thing, that is still a success.

Schedule time to maintain your organization.  Even 15 minutes a day can provide you successful results. Devote time each day to maintaining your organization strategy and you’ll see it’s much easier to maintain when you make time to maintain it.

Eliminate Time Hogs. Hard to clean gadgets? Donate them. 24 hour TV marathon? Special treat, not an everyday activity. When you look at things that are sucking the life out of your day and reduce/eliminate them, you realize how much time and energy you really have to devote to keeping your sanity through your organization.

Keep Everyone On Your System. Remember, you can’t do everything.  But when you have others helping you, everything is much easier to accomplish. Educate your friends, family (and guests–worth it!) to maintain your system.  It may take a few reminders, but it will save you time in the long run.

Bonus! If you only pick one thing to do, I’d suggest do your dishes, make the bed, tidy your space or vacuum your floors.  All of these provide instant “organization” fanciness.

You can maintain your organized system and it doesn’t have to be a major chore.  Remember, by just doing something every day, you begin to accomplish everything that you need.