15 Simple Tips for Living a More Productive & Stress-free Life at Home
Published in
4 min readJul 20, 2017
- Desk — Every time you put something down on your desk, you are risking another item to be left unattended for weeks, even months. Be decisive about what you leave on your desk. If you just finished your latte, don’t leave it there, get up and throw it away in the proper bin.
- Electronics — Definitely recycle any old cables or devices you know you won’t ever use again but it’s still a good idea to have extra cables on hand just in case. I recommend keeping all of these gadget type things, including other items like phone screen protectors and USB drives, together in a drawer or storage container for safe keeping.
- Documents — I recommend going paperless. I scan every paper I receive and sync it all to Dropbox and then shred the remains. The best small size scanner money can buy is the ScanSnap iX500 which costs around $500 on Amazon, you can find it here. I know that seems like a lot of money for a scanner but trust me, it will save you so much time and frustration later. It scans double-sided and auto corrects upside pages and much more.
- Shredding — If you choose to shred papers, you have 2 options of efficiency: either (1) shred something as soon as you decide it’s shred worthy or (2) purchase a small shred bin and batch your shredding activity on a weekly or monthly basis.
- Cleaning — Keep your arsenal of cleaning supplies minimal. Set up a routine schedule that works best for you. If you schedule it every week or month, you’ll find that you never feel like you have to clean on a day filled with other plans and activities. To make the chore feel less like a chore, put on music, a podcast, or an audio book.
- Laundry — Whenever you ditch yesterday’s clothes, be sure to always toss them in the laundry bin immediately. This prevents clothes from piling up on your lovely floor. If you forget when the last time you did your laundry, the height of the clothes in the bin will be a hint at how soon you will need to.
- Closets — Depending on what’s inside your closet, use some sort of modular organization system whether that be shelves, cubbies, or tote containers. This way you can move stuff around later on without needing to start from scratch but most importantly, you’ll always be able to find what you need as soon as you open the door.
- Food Pantry — Try to fit as many shelves in as you can without restricting too much height of your supplies, like cereal boxes or tall plastic containers. Organize your food either by meals, food groups, or health level. Find some small bins online to keep loose items from falling off the shelf. Add labels to help make things easier for guests.
- Kitchen — Only store what you actually need and use on a monthly basis. If you haven’t used something in awhile, it’s probably time to donate that item. The less kitchenware and tools you have in your kitchen, the more organized and motivated you will feel about using the tools you keep and who knows, maybe you’ll start enjoying the cooking process?
- Power — Invest in chargers and cables for every room where you might need to charge your phone or another device, including your laptop. Yes I know those MacBook chargers are expensive but it will be worth it once you realize you don’t have to keep bending down and fighting tangles every time you need to move your location. Set it and forget it.
- Car — For anything you use while in your car, always keep those items in your car. Examples would be phone charger, GPS, tire gauge, air compressor, emergency items, blanket, etc. This allows you to always have what you need when you are on the go and you never to have to worry about writing up a checklist for your day-to-day life of things you might forget for the road.
- Trash/Recycle — Keep a small trash bin (and recycle bin) in every room of your apartment/house. Trash has to go somewhere and it will usually end up on a table or the floor if there are no bins in the area. By having a proper place to throw trash, you are enabling good habits every day.
- Incoming/Outgoing Mail — Dedicate a good place to put your mail and packages. Have a spot for incoming and a different spot for outgoing. If you live with other people, this will make it clear to everyone which direction the mail is going without the need to say a word. Make sure you also choose a place where you will easily see the mail, usually near an entrance into your home.
- Inventory — Setup a recurring plan to purchase new supplies so you don’t have to worry about running out of those non-food items like laundry detergent. Roughly estimate how much use you get out of 1 item and create 3 lists: weekly, monthly, and rare. If you want to take it further, you could even total up the prices and have a good estimate for how much you will be spending every week.
- Bedtime — Keep everything you need within arms reach when you are in bed. Get a nightstand that has drawers if you don’t already. Keep your phone charger, melatonin, and Kindle close by. This way once you start falling asleep, you won’t need to get out of bed to get something you just remember, it will help you maintain the sleep mode.
