Wherever You Lay Your Hat ... Makes a Difference!

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I don't like clutter. Luckily I have a husband who agrees with me, so we both try to limit the amount of stuff lying around in an unorganized fashion. One of the areas where we made some improvements is when we come into the door.
Especially in Winter, the amount of stuff you take off or put down when you enter the house is quite a lot. In addition to the usual keys and spare change, there's now a scarf, hat, gloves and thick coat. Where you put it all can affect your living space and how you function within it more than you realize.

I recommend to everyone that they keep a designated spot for the items they use every day, especially things that are easily lost and difficult to replace (keys, phone, certain papers).  
But it is of course just as important that you use those designated spots. 
When you enter the house, pay attention to putting everything exactly where it should go. I often put my coat on a chair first to then put it on the coat hanger two minutes later. What a stupid move. Doing that every day is such an inefficient way to go about it. 

So when you put down those gloves, hang up the scarf, put away the keys; try to get it right, right away. Make it a habit that you will keep for the rest of your life, so you'll never have to look for those keys, or tidy up your self-inflicted clutter.

I now understand my mother better than ever. She used to nag us every day about where we dropped our coats and left our shoes when we entered the house. She was right! She always is.

For all the Belgians and Dutch people out there: Vrolijke Sinterklaas!

5 Chores that Take Less Time than You Think

Picture by Cielo de la Paz

How often have you made the excuse that you 'just don't have time' to do this or that. We leave the dishes piling up in the sink because we figure that it takes too much time to do them right away, and we'd rather do something else. There's dirty laundry in every corner of the bedroom because we just can't find the time to sort through it and put it in the machine.

But these are only two of the many tasks that we often over-estimate. Somehow we fool ourselves into thinking that these tasks take more time. Maybe it's because of the different steps they contain, or the fact that we dislike them so much. But knowing how fast you can complete some of these chores can give you incentive to just finish them as quickly as possible and stop letting them nestle in the back of your mind.

1. Breakfast dishes really only take about 5 minutes to finish if everyone helps. Bowls and plates are easy to wash and dry. There are usually no pots to scrub, so it's a matter of minutes altogether.
   
2.  Cleaning the sink is just a matter of getting some product and wiping everything down. Unless you've recently cleaned out paint brushes in there or spilled something nasty, it doesn't take nearly as long as you might think.
   
3. Clearing up can be done in an incredibly short time. Set a timer for 5 minutes and see how much clutter you can clear away. Don't linger over stuff, just put it where it needs to go (or toss it out if it's useless.)
   
4. Making a proper breakfast is just a quick and easy task that there's no excuse for eating cereal every morning. We usually make some toast, scrambled eggs, and get some fruit on the table in about 3 minutes. It'll take me 5 if I have to do it myself. But even if you're one to roll out of bed and rush out the door, you can still enjoy a nourishing bite beforehand.
   
5. Making the bed doesn't take minutes, it takes only a couple of seconds. Don't know why you'd make your bed in the first place? I explain some of the reasons in this post.

Any other tasks that you can think of which seem to take much longer than they really do? Feel free to share in the comments below! I love to hear your opinions and ideas.

Worth Every Minute!

Every Wednesday, here on Minutes Worth Hours, I share something from around the web that I found truly inspiring or informative.
Today I went to share anothe article from SimpleProductivityBlog.com, one of my favorite blogs. This is an article about clutter and collections, that I know will ring true to some people in my life.

Moving from country to country has forced both me and my hubby to give up on the idea of collecting pretty much anything, although we both will have to face collections that we have at home when we return to our countries.

In this post, LJ Earnest talks about taking a good look at the different items in your collections and asking yourself whether 'being part of a collection' is really a good reason to keep anything.

You can read it for yourself!

Get Rid of Clutter by Weeding Out Collections by LJ Earnest on SimpleProductivityBlog.com

Go ahead and check out LJ's blog for more advice on productivity, simplicity and organization.

For more articles and videos worth every minute, check out the other posts in this series.

Organize your Medicine Cabinet

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My hubby cut his finger the other day and as I was searching our medicine cabinet for a band-aid, I was appalled at the terrible organization in there. It was a big mess with different strips of pills, bottles, creams and ointments just put together without any system to help me through it.

So after taking care of that nasty cut, I turned to the cabinet for some quick re-organizing.

Here's how I organized my supplies:

In one section I put all of the stuff that you could consider 'first-aid'. This includes band-aids, a disinfectant, and ointment for burns. Anything that I could need in case of a likely emergency. 


In another section I put all of our drugs that we use to deal with everyday ailments like headaches, soar throats and upset stomachs. In front went the stuff we use most often, which is a traditional type of Chinese cough drops. They're herbal and taste great. I sometimes take them instead of mints too.

In a third section I put all of the stuff we might take on trips. This is mostly medication that deals with digestive problems, but it also has some pills for nausea and it's where we keep the alcohol gel to sanitize.

So much for a quick organization of the medicine cabinet. As you can tell, we don't take a lot of pills. If you have to take something daily (in my case that's just a prenatal vitamin) then I suggest you don't store it in a medicine cabinet but somewhere in the kitchen or dining room where it's convenient to grab during a meal.
Getting a little pill-box that can help you prepare a week's worth of medication can be a real time saver too!

Little Bits of Cleaning for 5 Spare Minutes

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There are some tasks that get put off indefinitely in our house, because we don't really think about doing them. They're not part of the routine, and not doing them every week doesn't really seem to make a big difference. I'm talking about cleaning those little things like light switches, doorknobs, radiators or the backs of your chairs. They are little details that can easily get overlooked in the rush of everyday life.

So next time you have a couple of spare minutes and don't know how to spend them, try to do one of these little tasks, and you're good for a while.

Cleaning light switches can be a little tricky, but I've found that using something like rubbing alcohol or nail polish remover does wonders! Apparently baby-wipes work really well too, although I've never tried that myself (saw it on TV once).

For doorknobs, you could use a bit of dish soap or a disinfectant. Both doorknobs and light switches get used daily and should really be kept clean. Otherwise they'll just turn into a germ paradise!

For dusting places that don't get dusted often, little nooks and crannies, I usually use a damp rag with some dish soap. Rags can easily be pushed into little edges and get the dust and grime that's stuck there. 

Can you think of other forgotten little places in your house that really deserve a more regular cleaning than they get? How do you go about keeping track of what to clean when? Do you wait until it gets too dirty? Until you have visitors? Or do you follow a weekly schedule?

3 Reasons to Make Your Bed in the Morning

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Growing up, we spent a lot of weekends at my grandparents' house. In their house, it was the rule that you made the bed every morning. Not an easy feat, since all the beds were double beds and they still used sheets and blankets instead of a comforter.

But seeing the nicely made-up bed after we finished always made it worth it. And being able to snuggle underneath the blankets pulled tight, helped out quite a bit in the cold winters (they also didn't have heating in the bedrooms, brrrr).

Here are my main reasons for making our bed every morning. Perhaps they can convince you to try the same and see if it has an effect on you too.

1. Neatness. Starting out the day in a neat way may help you carry on this habit through the rest of the day. It doesn't take much to make the bed, but knowing your bedroom is neat and tidy can help you keep your house the same way too.
2. Inviting. A neatly made bed is inviting in the evening and makes going to bed so much more pleasant. There's not late-night irritation at the mess you left before.
3. Unexpected guests. Alright, I know what you're thinking! (And you're right, in those cases it IS good to have an inviting bed). But there could be times when you have visitors and you want to show them around your house. Or if you live in an apartment (like we do) and the bedroom is clearly visible from the living room, it's much less embarrassing if you have to fetch something and don't need to hurriedly close the door behind you. 

 These days, with comforters and quilts, making a bed is a matter of seconds! Really! Just straighten the blanket and put the pillows in the right place. Voila!
It's the first step toward a day of paying attention to the little things that make your environment more enjoyable to live in.