The following is a guest post from regular contributor, Kristin at The Gold Project.
In my house, sometimes those small tedious organizing and cleaning projects get missed because I simply don’t want to do them. But, recently, I created this rule. If a small task takes five minutes or less, I can’t put it off. I can’t tell you how many times I have walked by the dishwasher and said, “I really don’t want to do that right now.” Then, turned around and emptied it because my complaining would probably take longer than actually cleaning it out.
1. Unloading the Dishwasher
I really dislike this task, but just like I said earlier, it really doesn’t take that long if I get the right mind set. And, honestly, it makes me feel better when all of my clean dishes are put away.
2. Cleaning Out a Drawer
This is one of those organizing projects that you can’t complete once. Or, at least I can’t. I organize a drawer and a couple of months later, it is total chaos again. But, once you organize it the first time, you know where everything goes. That means the task of getting it back to it’s organized state shouldn’t take long at all.
3. Clearing a Counter
Why does it seem like counters are an automatic catch-all? In my household, they are probably the single hardest area to keep organized. When we walk in from work, we immediately want to place all of our belongings on the kitchen counter because it is the first thing that greets us. Then, our bathroom counters collect all of our hair care products, dental hygiene items, and miscellaneous grooming goods.
So, I usually take 5 minutes to clean up each one these areas daily.
4. Looking at Expiration Dates on Refrigerator Items
I have no idea how it happens, but expired items sneak into my refrigerator. I feel like I check the dates regularly, but somehow I still manage to miss a few. Even after moving, one or two food items snuck into my refrigerator. So, when I have an extra few minutes, I quickly go through my refrigerator checking dates. And, I am usually shocked at how many items are expired.
5. Cleaning Out Your Purse
It happens. I go a week without cleaning out my purse and it looks like a receipt playground. Even with my receipt folder in my wallet, sometimes they end up in the bottom of my purse. I check out at a store and the person behind me seems to be in a hurry. So, instead of taking longer to put away my receipt, I just shove it into my purse.
I containerize almost everything in my purse, so it doesn’t take me five minutes to sort through the contents and remove what doesn’t belong in there.
6. Putting Up a Room of Toys
I don’t know about y’all, but my kids can destroy a room in about five seconds. Ok, that is a little bit of an exaggeration, but not much. They pull out an entire basket of toys without the intention of playing with any of them. I think they just like them to be scattered in the floor. So, if they have left a room with toys everywhere, I will have them help me pick them up before playing in a new area. This task takes less than five minutes, especially if everyone helps.
7. Emptying Out all of the Trash Cans
I place extra Wal-Mart bags in all of our small trash cans. So, when they need to be emptied into our bigger kitchen trash can, it makes the process easy and quick. This tasks takes under five minutes.
What areas in your house can you declutter in 5 minutes or less?
My name is Kristin and I am a middle school career education teacher by day and a mommy/wife/blogger by night. I am married to my high school sweetheart and we have two loving children. We recently made a life-changing move to Arkansas, so our new house is always under construction. I get excitement out of finding new creative, functional, and cute ways to organize things! I also enjoy writing and documenting life as it happens. So, I put these loves together and created The Gold Project. With the help of my husband, I am attempting to turn our house into a home. So, check out this special place of mine and take this journey with me!
Morgan says
Great tips! I’m so with you on the Dishwasher – but I’ve learned I can always unload it in no time at all! I do a 5 minute laundry basket sweep. I sweep through a room (or two) and pick up “stuff” that doesn’t belong and put the “stuff” back!
Lauren @ Oh Hey! I Like That! says
Omg these ideas are GREAT! Nothing feels better than cleaning out your purse (and as a purse addict, I do this quite a bit!)
joanna pocock says
Thank you so much for sharing such great tips