I decide when to clean my refrigerator by noticing how much stuff I have to shuffle around when I’m putting away new leftovers (instead of on a scheduled date). I avoid filing papers that represent something I want to think about or work on because it would take more time to file them and create to-do items for them than it takes me to glance over them when I’m looking for something else.

The thing is, at some point, we all have to decide when we’re striving for too much organization. Organization takes time and effort, and sometimes we overpay in time, effort, and money, for what we get back on our investment in organizing our lives.

There are many other ways you can use disorder to make your life easier. Below, I’ve listed 5 easy ways to let disorder and disorganization into your life.

5 ways you can use disorder and disorganization around the house to make your life a little easier

1. Go simple with the filing systems. If you can find what you need, when you need it, your filing system already works for you—even if you don’t use folders. Why spend money on filing supplies when you don’t need to? Why spend time overhauling a system that already works?
2. Plant a flower garden, the easy way. Mix all your seeds together in a jar, shake them up, and pour them (somewhat) evenly over your flower beds. You’ll end up with a profusion of flowers overflowing your beds, drowning out the weeds, and bursting with color.
3. Let your mail pile up and sort it once a week. You’ll only have to get out the envelope opener once, run the shredder once, and pay the bills once that week.
4. Leave on your kitchen counter an appliance you would love to use more often but don’t because it’s difficult to get out and put away. If it’s useful to you and you want to use it, then why not make it easy for you to do so? See? A little disorder can make your life better.
5. The next time you plan to “clear out the clutter” ask yourself why you’re doing it. Is it because of what you think others might think of you if they saw your mess? Why does it matter? If you’re not clearing out the clutter because you want to make your things easier to find, use, or put away, then you’re probably not clearing out for the right reasons.

As for the book, A Perfect Mess, if you’re looking for someone to remind you why clutter isn’t always bad to have around—and why having clutter doesn’t make you a bad person—you’ll want to read this book. I listened to the abridged audio edition, so I can’t say with certainty that every word in the book is a gem, but what I heard was excellent. This was front porch listening, although you could listen at any time. There was something very relaxing about the voice of the reader, and the subject matter is something most of us could stand to hear.

The point of the book isn’t to encourage you to be disordered, cluttered, or dirty. In fact, some order and organization is essential to a happy, productive life. However, as the author discusses the subject of disorder, it becomes clear that some disorder can actually improve your life, give you more time, save you money, and spark your creativity.

Those are the reasons I suggest you read—or listen to—this book.

Ever since Einstein’s study of Brownian Motion, scientists have understood that a little disorder can actually make systems more effective. Yet, most people still shun disorder or suffer guilt over the mess they can’t avoid. With a spectacular array of true stories and case studies of the hidden benefits of mess, A PERFECT MESS overturns the accepted wisdom that tight schedules, organization, neatness, and consistency are the keys to success. Drawing on examples from business, parenting, cooking, the war on terrorism, retail, and even the career of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Abrahmson and Freedman demonstrate that moderately messy systems use resources more efficiently, yield better solutions, and are harder to break than neat ones. Applying this idea on scales both large (government, society) and small (desktops, garages), A PERFECT MESS uncovers the ways messiness can trump neatness, and will help you assess the right amount of disorder for any system.

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5 Ways to Use Disorder and Disorganization to Keep Your Home Running Smoothly

When you’re working in your kitchen, you need easy access to the things you use regularly. Easy access depends entirely on knowing where your items are, without having to stop and think about where they might be.

When you’re putting away groceries, you want to be able to put items in their place quickly and without having to think about it too much, but just as importantly, you want items to be easy to find later.

If putting groceries away isn’t quick and easy, disorganization will creep back in and overwhelm you just when you most need to find something.

Kitchen organizing doesn’t have to take long at all. If you do it over a period of a week or two, you’ll be amazed at how organized things will get after just 15 minutes here and there.

Doing it the simple way: organizing as you go

1. The next time you put away groceries, put canned foods on one shelf—or use two if absolutely necessary—and slide your vegetables to the left and your fruit to the right. Put boxed goods in a central location.

Group items together that you use together, such as baking goods. I also put my themed foods together, such as tex-mex, spaghetti & sauce, boxed side dishes (scalloped potatoes, instant potatoes, quick rice dishes, etc.). It makes everything easy to find and easy to put away.

As you take items out of your pantry and use them, you can take a few minutes here and there to put items into their new locations. With almost no extra effort, you’ve begun to organize your pantry space.

2. Don’t scatter your kitchen gadgets around your kitchen. Locate them in a centralized location, even if it’s a little out of your workflow.

If you spend thirty seconds walking across the kitchen to get your super-duper-potato-slicer or your handy-cheese-grater, that’s okay. At least you know where it’s at and you won’t spend 2 to 4 minutes looking for it or trying to remember where you put it last.

Next time you take your gadget out of the dishwasher, put it with the majority of your other gadgets. Soon, you’ll have them all in one location.

3. Hide everything that you can. Not only will you have clearer counters, you’ll have cleaner utensils, cookbooks, and gadgets. As long as you know where you put things and put them there every time, accessibility isn’t hindered. In fact, you could be helping yourself out if you have a habit of stacking things on your small appliances.

Anything stored near the stove requires extra wash time because of oil and grease deposits. Have you saved yourself any effort by keeping your toaster on your counter? Sure, you save about 1 minute getting it out and putting it away, but you’ll spend countless minutes over the course of a month cleaning it—same for your cookbooks.

Even if you use your cookbooks extensively, don’t keep your cookbooks in an open shelf in your kitchen. Grease and other deposits will stick to the books and you’ll end up cleaning them often, or wishing you had the time to do so! Keep them as far away from the cooking areas as you can. I keep mine on a dedicated shelf in my pantry.

The next time you wipe down your counters, grab up your small appliances and gadgets and tuck them away (a clutter free house looks cleaner). If you don’t have space to tuck them away, consider moving anything you use less than 4 times a year to a longer term storage area.

4. So you would love to do steps 1 through 3, but you don’t have any space? Next time you put away your dishes, clear out any older, unused dishware from your cabinets first. Donate to Goodwill, or give to a relative or friend who might want them.

I started out as a young married woman with many hand-me-downs, and I was always excited to have something “new.”

You can clear out plenty of old dishware in less than 5 minutes, if you grab a box and start packing.

5. Throw out old food and make room for what you really use.

The next time you go to put something into the freezer, grab at least two items that have been in there too long and then throw them out.

You cannot leave food in a freezer indefinitely and expect it to taste good later, or even be safe for eating. By throwing out older items (or just things you know you’ll never get around to preparing or reheating), you’ll create extra space for what you will use. It takes just seconds to pick up something and throw it into the trash.

Within a few weeks, you’ll have an up-to-date selection of frozen items and you won’t even notice the time you spent organizing it!

6. Get rid of duplicates.

I’ve already written an entire article about this topic, but it’s so powerful, I want to mention it again.

The next time you put away a gadget, utensil, or pot or pan, notice if you have more than one of the item. Really think for a second about whether or not you make use of the second item on a semi-regular basis.

If not, consider what your life might be like without the item. Will you suffer because you don’t have one of them? Will someone else appreciate having your extra?

In just a few minutes, you can clear out additional space for other items without sacrificing anything of note.

As I’ve said before, organizing is really about having the space to keep things in a particular spot so you know where you can find them, without having to think about it.

Practice a few of these tips each day and before you know it, you’ll have a more organized kitchen in almost no time at all!

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6 Quick Kitchen Organizing Tips

You see, I had always used a pen. Once I began using a pencil, and only a pencil, I found that I actually quite liked using a calendar. Nothing is permanent, nothing requires Liquid Paper. All I need is my pencil with eraser and I have everything I need to keep a useful, working calendar.

These days I use a calendar software program. Because I want my entire family to have access to the calendar, I prefer a stand-alone program, independent of my email or other personal communications.

I use Sunbird now, but I’ve only recently converted from Windows Calendar, and before that Google Calendar. If you have a very internet savvy household, Google Calendar is a great option. Your kids can have their own calendars and share events or tasks with your household calendar.

Since my children are too young to keep up with their own calendars right now, and my husband still doesn’t see the need for a family calendar, I keep up with everything, and I enjoy using Sunbird as my calendar.

Unless you’re around your computer a lot, I suggest you go with the printed calendar. My personal preference has always been a weekly view.

How to make a calendar work for your household

Let’s start with the paper calendar. If you don’t have a calendar, but would like to be able to print calendar pages, I have a template you can print from. This monthly calendar template doesn’t have the dates, so you’ll need to write them in, but it prints nicely on an regular 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper.

Here’s how you can make a calender work for you. Not only will it help you stay ahead of household tasks, it will help you keep up with household events and family members’ appointments.

What you should put in your household calendar

• Add timed events
• Add scheduled recurring tasks and any other tasks you need reminders for

Add dated and timed events

These events have set dates and times that are usually out of your control, be it your child’s sports events and practices, or appointments for your household members. These events can’t be easily shuffled around, unlike your tasks.

Add scheduled recurring tasks and any other tasks for which you need reminders

Some organizational gurus suggest you never include tasks on a calendar because the tasks can be moved around and shouldn’t be assigned to specific dates. However, for a household calendar to effectively guide you as you try to get your household tasks done, your schedule is the perfect place to keep them.

Precede each task with empty check boxes or circles, so you can mark the task as complete. Using a pencil overcomes the issues of moving things around, as does using arrows –> instead of check marks to indicate that a task has been rescheduled instead of completed. Of course, reschedule as soon as you place an arrow through the box so you don’t forget!

Adding your tasks to your calendar also allows you to assign certain tasks to family members and then remember who did it last. This heads off arguments between your kids and can motivate them to get their chores done because they’ll quickly learn it’s no use arguing with Mom’s calendar!

Things to include on your calendar

• Family members’ appointments
• Doctor appointments
• School events & school holidays
• Work events
• Laundry days (see my article Staying Ahead of Dirty Laundry: 5 days to an empty laundry room for suggestions)
• Auto maintenance schedule
• Household maintenance schedule

This might seem like a lot to keep in one calendar, but having it all in one place really does make things easier to keep up with.

If you choose to use a calendar on your computer, you can segregate your tasks and events into groupings and create separate calendar views for each group. I do this. I keep calendars for household, personal, work, auto, and school. I keep all the calendars “on” most of the time so I see everything, but I can turn off any that I want, to eliminate distractions when I need to concentrate on getting tasks done for one particular group, such as household or work.

Give it a try and see if this doesn’t help you keep your household running more efficiently.

Calendars to try

• Mom’s Plan-It 2009 Softcover Engagement Calendar
• Mom’s Plan-It 2009 Desk Calendar
• Mom Organizer 2009 Pocket Wall Calendar
• Little Helper 2009 Planner
• Family Organizer 2009 Pocket Wall Calendar

If you have any tips for keeping your household calendar organized and up to date, consider sharing them in the comments.

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How to use a calendar to keep your household organized

Organization is all well and good, if you have the space. The problem is, most people don’t have the space to be truly organized. Household organization isn’t about creating more space—or it shouldn’t be. Organizing your home is about creating places for your things and then always putting those things back into those places. How can you do this effectively if you don’t have any space available? You have to make space.

The Home Organization Solution

It’s really a simply stated two step process you have to follow any time you want to organize something.

1. First, you make space
2. Then, you organize that space

Making space to organize

If you’re not one for giving things up once you get your hands on them, this is going to be hard on you. If you really want to organize your space, though, you have to do this part.

Get rid of everything you don’t need, want, or have room to store. Sometimes this can mean making hard choices. I’ve already written about how you can use three quick questions to help you cut clutter. Start there. Ask yourself those questions and then move on to the tips below.

The first and easiest step to creating more space in your home for organizing your things is to do away with duplicates. Getting rid of duplicates will cut clutter, save space, and give you more time to put things in their place.

Yes, you love your electric can opener. But does it work for all your cans, or do you find yourself using your hand held can opener at least once or twice a week? If so, you might as well get rid of the electric space-hogging can opener and use only the hand held. The hand held is multifunctional, and it’s much easier to store in a much smaller amount of space than your electric. Apply this thought process to all your kitchen gadgets and see if you don’t end up with a lot more space (or a lot less overflow) than you started with.

To get rid of even more junk around your home, cut out the clutter. How do you make room in your bathtub for clean, clear water? You drain out the old. You’d never dream of leaving that old used water in your tub after it had outlived its usefulness. Why do the same with household clutter?

Next, immediately throw out anything that’s broken or not working properly. It might not be clutter, but it’s useless. If it’s something you use a lot and really need to have around, then why haven’t you replaced it yet? Only sentimental items should get a pass on this step, and then only if you truly want to have the item around.

Finally, take a close look at everything you have. Do you like it? If there’s stuff lying around that you’re hanging on to because of guilt or family pressures, but you don’t really like, get rid of it. Give it away or throw it away, but don’t let feelings stop you from living an organized life.

Organizing your space

You’re going to love this part. Organizing is nothing more than designating a place for each of your belongings and then putting those things in their place.

How you decide what goes where is really up to you. Some people like to alphabetize books, others just want to know there’s an empty spot on the bookshelf for the book they’re reading. It makes sense that you do it however you like it. You’re more likely to put your things away if it’s easy to do.

I keep my like items grouped together, and I make sure there’s room for those items where ever I’ve designated they should go. Always try to keep some spare room. You’d be surprised at how much easier it is to put things away when you know where to put them and that yes, there’s enough space there. Your family will love it when you can tell them exactly where to find something.

Look around you, make some space, and get organized!

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Want to organize your home? Make space

One of the quickest ways to cut down the time spent on housework and chores is to do away with duplicates. Often, extras only create more work and take more time to maintain.

Why duplicates don’t make life easier

Why would you want to do away with duplicates when on the surface they often seem so handy?

Quite simply, they’re likely creating extra household work for you and your family.

Do you have two sets of silverware in your kitchen drawers? How about extra dinnerware and table linens? Sheets and towels?

How often have you found yourself putting off doing the dishes or the laundry because you weren’t “out” of clean items yet?

Not only is it inefficient to think like this, in the long run, it only creates more work. If you can wash a single set of sheets and replace them on the bed immediately, you just saved yourself the step of folding and storing those same sheets—possibly as much as 15 minutes of valuable time that you can now spend doing something much more enjoyable than folding clean laundry.

As for the silver– and dinnerware, have you ever found yourself hand washing dishes because you have too many to fit into your dishwasher? Why not pack the extras away and see what happens? You might find it’s easier than ever to keep your kitchen cleaned up—you won’t be overwhelmed by a bulging sink full of dirty dishes!

Taking that final step

Wouldn’t it be great to have extra room on your shelves and extra space in your closets and drawers? By getting rid of duplicates, you also improve your household’s storage. Without extras, you’ll have more places to keep things and fewer problems with clutter that has no home.

Of course, duplicates aren’t the only problem most households have when it comes to storage and extra chores, but even cutting out ten minutes of work here and 15 minutes there will add up to a lot of time in the long run. Making small changes can have a big impact!

If you do decide to keep the duplicates on hand but take them out of circulation in your household, keep them packed away where you can get to them only with some effort. Don’t make it easy on yourself to slip back into bad habits.

Do yourself a favor. Do away with duplicates!

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Do away with duplicates

Does this have a function that is useful to me?

Just because something is useful doesn’t mean it’s useful to you. Do not keep items you might use someday, unless they’re part of an emergency kit or stash of goods or tools. Otherwise, the items are just hogging space that could be better utilized.

When I look at this, does it make me feel good or bad?

Some things that we keep, even for sentimental reasons, don’t give us feelings of joy when we look at them. If that’s the case, consider giving the item away. If you just can’t do that, then pack the item away. There’s no justifiable reason why you need to keep things out in your home that you can’t look at and feel joy about seeing.

What’s the worst thing that could happen to me if I get rid of this?

If no reason comes to mind within five seconds, toss it. If the reasons that do come to mind could have come out of a science fiction movie, toss it. Finally, if the reasons are valid and dire, treat the item with the respect it deserves and put it in its place.

How to use the questions in a typical clean up

Let’s go through a few examples. Pick up an item from the counter. Quickly ask the following questions.

Say you picked up a hairbrush.

• Does this have a function that is useful to me? —Yes, but it has a broken bristle and I have another…
• When I look at this, does it make me feel good or bad? —Bad
• What’s the worst thing that could happen to me if I get rid of this? —Nothing

Result: Toss it!

Say you picked up your cell phone bill.

• Does this have a function that is useful to me? —Yes, I can pay my bill from this…
• When I look at this, does it make me feel good or bad? —Neutral
• What’s the worst thing that could happen to me if I get rid of this? —Late fees or my phone could be turned off…

Result: Keep it, and put it where it should be.

If you can learn to treat your home and your things respectfully, and put them away, clutter wouldn’t happen. Because what is clutter? An accumulation of items that aren’t in their place.

The world is full of junk, don’t feel bad about wanting to get something out of the house. Set aside items to donate only if you are positive you’ll get the donations to the appropriate drop off spot within a week.

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3 Questions to Cut Clutter

Is cleaning a huge chore for you? Do you hate having to search around the house for supplies, or even just having to run into another room when you forget the glass cleaning wipes you meant to bring with you to the bathroom?

Have you ever wondered how to make cleaning automatic?

Hide your cleaning supplies

If any of the above has ever been true for you, then you need to make sure you always have cleaning supplies on-hand—in the locations where you use them.

Unfortunately, economies of time and money don’t always align perfectly.

Having duplicate supplies might cost a little more, but the time saved (and the ease that having those duplicates adds to your cleaning routine) more than make up for the extra expense. This is an essential concept of the home management principles outlined on this site. (Not all duplicates are the same–see “Do Away With Duplicates” for how getting rid of duplicates in your home can save you precious time and effort!

Why hide your cleaning supplies?

One of the most common reasons people don’t clean more often is because its inconvenient. Having quick access to the supplies you need can alleviate that inconvenience.

Wouldn’t it be easier to wipe the back rim of the toilet seat when you’re already in the room than to make a special trip to the bathroom to clean up? Even if you only do this once per day, then you’ve cleaned the dirtiest spot in most bathrooms more often than almost everyone else in your neighborhood.

Multiply this small task by ten or twenty other small jobs you can do around your home in only seconds and you’ve cut your cleaning time in half. You’ve also significantly decreased the chances of having to do a rush cleanup the next time you’re expecting visitors to drop in.

Where to conceal

Store disinfecting wipes and glass cleaning wipes under all your bathroom sinks and in your kitchen too. Store a set of dusting wipes in your entertainment center in a small box, covered basket or tin high on a shelf or behind a cabinet door.

Dusting wipes can be concealed in any room where dusting is often overlooked, such as bedrooms and home offices. In the laundry room, Clorox wipes are great for getting the dust off your washer and dryer.

Adopt these tips and you’ll soon find that cleaning isn’t nearly such a chore as you once thought. Just a few minutes of cleaning here and there can save hours later.

Storage Resources

My favorite type of storage, these small boxes are attractive, stack neatly, and store all kinds of useful items.

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Where do YOU hide cleaning supplies?