{"id":24284,"date":"2012-11-08T19:00:34","date_gmt":"2012-11-09T00:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/?p=24284"},"modified":"2012-11-07T20:00:06","modified_gmt":"2012-11-08T01:00:06","slug":"15-ways-to-get-organized-10-minute-tasks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/15-ways-to-get-organized-10-minute-tasks\/","title":{"rendered":"15 Ways to Get Organized: 10 Minute Tasks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The following is a post from contributing writer Angie<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

I have a bad habit that I know a lot of other people also suffer from: I over estimate how long it will take me to do small tasks.\u00a0 You might think that this doesn’t apply to you (and it might not), but how many times have you not done a small task because you didn’t feel like you had time, but then when you actually did it, it only took you a few minutes?<\/p>\n

In my house, folding laundry is one such task.\u00a0 I will ignore a load of laundry that is waiting to be folded because I’m too busy.\u00a0 Not only does this mean that I have a task waiting to be done, but it also means that my laundry room becomes a mess because no more laundry can be done.<\/p>\n

\"ten<\/p>\n

However, every time that I have actually clocked myself on laundry folding, it has never taken me more than 10 minutes (and usually much less). \u00a0There are many organizational tasks that can be done in a short amount of time.<\/p>\n

15 Ways to Get Organized in 10 Minutes or Less<\/h3>\n

1. Put away laundry.<\/strong>\u00a0 If you have mountains of laundry in your laundry room, then have each family member put away their own laundry and see who does the nicest job the most quickly.<\/p>\n

2. Scan through your camera (or the camera on your phone) and delete pictures<\/strong> that are blurry, bad, or images that you don’t want to keep.<\/p>\n

3. Gather any library books that you have scattered throughout the house and put them in one location.\u00a0<\/strong> This will not only help your family find them later, but it will make it quicker to return them (especially if your library charges overdue fees).<\/p>\n

4. Go through a stack of papers.<\/strong>\u00a0 Make a quick decision about each piece of paper to be saved somewhere like a bulletin board, filed away, or thrown in the trash (or recycled).<\/p>\n

5. Make a to do list for tasks that will need to be done over the next day<\/strong> or make a to do list for long term tasks.<\/p>\n

6. Clear off a flat surface in your house that tends to collect clutter.<\/strong>\u00a0 Just like with number four on this list, you’ll need to make quick decisions.\u00a0 If your flat surfaces tend to get very cluttered (as my flat surfaces have a tendency to do<\/a>), you might choose just one smaller area for your 10 minute or less task.<\/p>\n

7. Plan a few days worth of meals.\u00a0<\/strong> Even better, plan them from the contents of your refrigerator, freezer, and pantry.\u00a0 (If you’re in a rut, here are some ways to find menu planning inspiration<\/a> and here is a free printable weekly menu planning page<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

8. Try to make your email inbox more manageable<\/strong> by taking 10 minutes to answer or delete as many emails as possible.\u00a0 You can move through them even faster if you try to use a five sentences rule in your email writing<\/a>.\u00a0 It can also help to organize all of the emails by sender while doing this task.<\/p>\n

9. Unload your dishwasher<\/strong>, thus making it free to add more dirty dishes (and avoiding a sink full of dishes waiting for the dishwasher).<\/p>\n

10. Make a minor clothing repair<\/strong>, such as sewing a button back on or fixing a ripped seam.<\/p>\n

11. Clean out your pantry and make sure items that will expire earlier are toward the front.<\/strong>\u00a0 If you have a large pantry, you may need to pick just one shelf or area to keep this as a 10 minute or less task.\u00a0 However, once you’ve organized the whole pantry, maintaining it should be a 10 minute or less task.<\/p>\n

12. Delete old text messages.<\/strong>\u00a0 If you really want to keep important text messages, that’s fine.\u00a0 However, you’ll probably find that you don’t mind getting rid of most of your old text messages.<\/p>\n

13. Organize one folder in your filing cabinet or a virtual folder on your computer.<\/strong>\u00a0 This could include deleting\/throwing away things you don’t need, as well as better labeling on the computer.<\/p>\n

14. If you’re a blogger, schedule tweets or Facebook statuses to promote posts that you’ve written.\u00a0<\/strong> Even better, don’t do anything else on Twitter and Facebook other than that specific task and then leave those sites to go do something else productive.<\/p>\n

15. Organize any leftovers in your refrigerator and put them in one area of the appliance.<\/strong>\u00a0 If you have enough leftovers, plan to have a buffet-style meal with them.<\/p>\n

More posts from Angie<\/a><\/p>\n

For more ideas to help you simplify and organize one day at a time, visit the\u00a0Organized in 365 Archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Have you shared a great organizing tip on your website? I’d love to feature it on TheHappyHousewife.com.\u00a0Submit your Organized in 365 tip.<\/a><\/p>\n

Don’t have a blog, but have a great tip? Submit your\u00a0Organized in 365 guest post here<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is a post from contributing writer Angie. I have a bad habit that I know a lot of other people also suffer from: I over estimate how long it will take me to do small tasks.\u00a0 You might think that this doesn’t apply to you (and it might not), but how many times […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2541],"class_list":{"0":"post-24284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-organization","8":"tag-organized-in-365","9":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n15 Ways to Get Organized: 10 Minute Tasks - The Happy Housewife\u2122 :: Home Management<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/15-ways-to-get-organized-10-minute-tasks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"15 Ways to Get Organized: 10 Minute Tasks - The Happy Housewife\u2122 :: Home Management\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The following is a post from contributing writer Angie. I have a bad habit that I know a lot of other people also suffer from: I over estimate how long it will take me to do small tasks.\u00a0 You might think that this doesn’t apply to you (and it might not), but how many times […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/15-ways-to-get-organized-10-minute-tasks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Happy Housewife\u2122 :: Home Management\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheHappyHousewife\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-11-09T00:00:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-11-08T01:00:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/files\/2012\/11\/ten_minute_timer.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"308\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"375\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@tonihanderson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@tonihanderson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Toni Herrbach\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\">\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24284"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24397,"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24284\/revisions\/24397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}