The 15 Minute Rule

You can do anything for 15 minutes. If you are dreading cleaning your house, and it is stopping you from enjoying coming home at the end of the day, try this:

• Set a timer for 15 minutes
• Set a chore (it doesn’t matter which – just pick one)
• Work at it until the buzzer goes off.
• Stop.
• Seriously, stop. It can be tempting to be encouraged, and want to keep going, but that is not the goal here. The goal is to simply get started. Take a break, watch a sitcom or a Netflix show, then do it again.

It will not clean your house, but it will encourage you. If you have a roommate/partner/children…get them involved. Make it a contest. Whoever gets the most done gets to pick the next place to go out and eat at.

Filing Cabinets

For the purposes of this post, I am using a filing cabinet to organize MOST of my paperwork. (I’ll get to the rest of the papers in a moment.)

Where do we get all the wonderful mountains of paper from? Mail, Magazines, Health Insurance, Job miscellany, Insurance paperwork, Rental agreements, Housing agreements, Bank and credit card statements, Bills, Passports and other travel documents….the list goes on and on.

The first thing to do is decide how long you are going to keep things for. I strongly recommend keeping bills and whatnot for at least two years. Housing documents for as long as you are in the house they apply to. Insurance paperwork and medical bills, about two years. Bank and other statements, two years or more. Tax paperwork…as long as you have room.

Separate out everything in different stacks. Go through the stacks and toss what is not needed at the moment. (Bills that are five years old for example.) Make sure to shred anything with personal information on it before throwing it away.  Here are two ways to store what is left.

Calendar year:

• Make 12 folders, one for each month.
• Make folders for each previous year that you are keeping.
• Note: at the end of the year, dispose of the oldest folder.

By Bill:

While this is more organized, it also requires a bit more upkeep.

• Make folders for each company.
• At the end of the year, go through the folder and dispose of the relevant year.

I suggest that you invest in at least a two drawer cabinet. The bottom drawer is where you will keep your “eternal” paperwork, Medical records, Insurance records, Marriage license…things like that.

The top drawer is where you will keep you will keep the folders that need a monthly updating.

Alternative Organization ideas:

If you do not have a filing cabinet, consider using one of the following ways to organize your paperwork.

1. Scan everything. Create folders on your computer or in the cloud to store all your files on. If you choose this method, be very careful that you are completely protected from intrusion.
2. Binders – Get a three ring binder (large size) and a bunch of paper protectors pockets. Label each binder with the year, and have dividers for each month. File bills accordingly.

 

Bonus: Magazine Disposal

Everyone has that magazine with a recipe in it you just have to try, or that fantastic makeover that maybe one day you want to indulge in, or even just that bedroom set that you yearn for.

Tear and toss.

As you read your magazine, tear out the pages that interest you. Put them in a “sort” folder. Toss the magazine out! Set aside some time during the month to go through the sort folder, during a football game or a favorite TV show. Get a binder and make dividers for the appropriate areas. (Cooking, Cleaning, Makeovers, Wish List etc.) You will find that the binders take up so much less room, and look so much nicer than a stack of “I know I want something from these magazines sometime” cluttering up your house.

Friday’s focus will be on additional cleaning tips.

-Auntie Zia