Getting to grips with your home is all about recognising what is essential, what is useful and what is really not necessary. You could spend hours sorting and organising, but if it’s not one of the essential things, you’ll find there is still too much to do in the home.

storage unitsTake a moment to sit down and write down all the jobs you currently do and want to be doing on a regular basis. Now categorise these tasks under one of three headings:

  1. Must do: Things like the washing up, laundry and cooking
  2. Nice to do: Less essential tasks such as defrosting the freezer, washing the windows or mopping the floor
  3. Not really necessary: Everyone has things they might like to do, but actually will do nothing for their overall wellbeing. Think about putting things like making homemade spaghetti, sewing up holes in socks and learning to play the guitar in this category.

Now you have the lists in some sort of order, it’s easy to see what you need to get done on a regular basis. Ask yourself if you can commit to everything on the ‘must do’ list each day, week or month, however often they need to be done. Move things from one category to another if you need to.

Once you’ve got your ‘must do’ list in order, you will be able to start planning when to do each task. In addition to this, try to do just 15 minutes a day of one of the tasks on the ‘nice to do’ list. You’ll be surprised by how much you can get done in a short space of time when you do it little and often. With your new found energy you might even find time to start on the ‘not necessary’ list too!