Welcome to Mission #28 of our 52 Get Organized Missions.

Last week we took stock of your business tasks, in order to improve time management at work.

This week we’ll do the same for your home organization tasks, and find ways to be more effective with domestic time management.

This will be our final mission for 2009. We’ll resume 52 Organizing Missions in early January.

Get Organized Mission # 28: Streamline Your Home Organization Tasks

Step 1: List Your Tasks

Jot down the tasks on your usual domestic to-do list. Your list may include:

Step 2: Simplify or eliminate

Go through your list for anything you can cut down, streamline or cross right off the list.

For example:

• Could you set up automatic bill payment (Mission #3) to save having to pay bills each month?
• Could you pave your garden to save yard work?
• Could you get a dishwasher to save washing up?
• Um, no – you can’t eliminate ‘picking up kids’.

Step 3: Delegate

Next, look for items you can delegate to other family members.

For example:

• Could you teach the kids to do their own laundry?
• Could you create a family roster for loading and unloading the dishwasher?
• Could you make each child’s pocket money conditional on, say, making their bed and keeping their room (somewhat) tidy?

Step 4: Outsource

Now check for tasks you can outsource.

For example:

• Could you pay someone else to do the ironing? Gardening? Cleaning? Laundry?
• Could you swap child drop-offs/pick-ups with other parents – you do all the drop-offs and they do all the pick-ups, or some other arrangement?

Step 5: Batch

Finally, see which of the remaining tasks can be batched together for greater time efficiency.

For example:

• Could you shop in bulk, less often?
• Could you do all the grocery shopping online?
• Could you cook and freeze in large quantities?

These steps will leave you with a streamlined list of home organization tasks.

Dos & Don’ts

• Don’t worry about capturing every little home organization task on your list.
• Do focus on the time-consuming challenges, frequent tasks and maddening irritations. That’s where you’ll make the greatest home-organizing and time-management gains.

Extended Organizing Mission Options

Want to go beyond this 30-minute organizing mission?

• Include all the people who live in your home. Look for ways to share tasks according to individual likes, dislikes, skills, age, etc.
• Use pocket money as a tool to lessen your own load, as well as teach kids the relationship between work and pay.

Ready, Set, Go!

Remember – move quickly, act fast, don’t overthink.

Start The 30-Minute Timer

Before You Go: Check In!

Please add a comment to say you’ve completed this week’s Get Organized Mission and you’re keeping your commitment.

And see you back here next week!

Did You Know

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[Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertpaulyoung/ / CC BY 2.0]