Tips to Make Your Weekdays a Lil' Easier

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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!

7 comments:

Katie*Belle :

Oh, I know how that goes! Corralling mail and all the stuff that comes home with me at the end of the day is the hardest for me. But I do love cleaning on the weekend to get a fresh start to the week : )

Stephanie :

You basically just described my life. I like to clean on Saturday mornings so I can enjoy a nice apartment for the weekend but as soon as I get home from work on Monday, the piles begin. Clothes here, shoes there, mail on the table, etc. I'm heading over to check out those tips right now!

Lisa :

Oh these are such good tips! I'm horrible at putting my clothes away!

La Mode Operandi :

Good ideas! My room is in serious need of a clean up. I too find that having a notebook near by helps de-clutter my mind for the next day.

Noe @ ADELLA AVENUE :

I SO need this. I was just saying how I needed to get into a good bedtime routine. Reading before bed is at the top of my list. Thanks for the tips and the link, too.

mikky :

Ok we must have been seperated at birth because this is so me! I keep trying to improve, but am no where near perfect yet, I should be lying in bed right now reading a book instead of on the net ack! Two things I have learnt though - I used to have the earing prob, but then I got this cute little tiny drawers box that I keep next to the bed that holds the earings I usually wear and hair elastics so if I forget to take them off and am in bed I just reach for it and put them away, super easy. The other thing don't go the notebook route!! I did this and you will end up with tons of little note pads with tons of notes cause if we are twins, you will not finish the things in the first notebook and will have moved onto notebook number 10 before you have ripped out the pages in books 1-9 to add to book 10. I have tons of notebooks I still have to go thru. Now I keep my iphone next to the bed and write down notes in it, plus it lights up so perfect for jotting down those ideas in the pitch black, and a great excuse to get yourself an iphone!! The notes is THE best feature whenever I run out of something in the kitchen or whatever I jot it down in there, it will be your best organzing tool for sure. Oooops I've written way too long a comment! Great post.
:)
mikky
www.todaloos.com

Lisa Michelle Cifuentes :

Mikky, we were totally separated at birth! How did you know about all of my incomplete notebooks?! I don't have an iPhone, but my phone does have a notes section. Sounds like a much better idea!

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