Tips to Make Your Weekdays a Lil' Easier

Image via Pinterest.

Ever have those weeks where somehow your life creeps up on you and you're not able to manage all the chaos around you? Specifically at home? My typical routine is to clean my room in one major sweep on Sunday so that I feel good about starting the week off right. But somehow, Monday comes around, I get home late and exhausted and I begin to get a little lazy. I may not always hang my clothes or put my shoes away. By Tuesday, there is a small pile of mail cluttering my night table. On Wednesday, the piles of clothes and mail grow. The various outfits I have tried on earlier in the week are strewn across my dresser, sometimes on my shelf, and there's a good chance I've misplaced some jewelry items. (I, for one, can't sleep with my earrings and I always forget to place them in a safe place! Do you do that too?!)

Needless to say, by Friday, you can imagine how much of a nightmare my room is. And that's just one tiny part of my house! Let's not even get started on communal space (although I do have two lovely roommates who are way better at cleaning up than I am. Roommate shoutout!)

So today, I am really loving this little writeup over on Apartment Therapy. They have five simple suggestions to do ten minutes before you go to bed and they are right on. I don't always have the energy to do a major clean up mid-week, so these little steps are easy and can make a big difference. Inspired by their post, here are my five suggestions that I'm going to start doing. A little bit of a New Year's resolution, if you will.


1. Put away all my clothes! Sometimes I try on a lot of outfits before work and am usually in a too much of a rush to put them away immediately. I will make more of an effort to put clothes back on hangers or in my dresser. While I put my clothes away, I also plan to set aside my outfit for the next day. This will make it less work the next night.

2. Get rid of miscellaneous trash. This includes catalogs, magazines, receipts, and bills.

3. Keep a small journal by my bed where I can jot down my main goals and priorities for the next day. This can be as simple as "Don't forget to make deposit at the bank" or bigger like, "Tackle budget for next project." Having it written down makes me more likely to get it done.

4. Keep a good novel by my night table. (I just finished Diane Keaton's bio and it was a great read. Next up on the list: Mindy Kaling's book.) Reading before bed is way more relaxing than checking Facebook, Twitter and email.

5. Lower the temperature, snuggle with a good blanket and use a sleep mask. I recently read (forgive me, I forget where) that one sleeps better at a temperature range of 62 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. I think this is true for me because if I'm too hot, all I do is toss and turn throughout the night. My absolute favorite thing is to sleep a bit chilly and cuddle under a good throw. I'm also lucky (depending on how you see things) because my room is super dark in the mornings (thanks, basement apartment!), but if I did have a lot of light coming in, I think I would opt for a sleep mask. Also proven to help you sleep.

These are my tips. Do you have any? I'd love to hear them!