Struggling to keep your New Year’s resolution of becoming more organized? Getting organized is one of the top five New Year’s resolutions people make. Get Organized Month SM, sponsored by the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), is in full swing, and Professional Organizer, Dawn McCloskey of Ultra Organized, has suggestions to help you achieve your goal to be more organized.

First, create a list of three goals that will immediately improve your life. Some examples:  pay bills in a timely manner, maintain a cleared area for preparing food and dining, or have clean clothes hanging in the closet.

Write a short list of the tasks that are involved in reaching those three goals:

Pay Bills

• Create a central mail station for incoming mail.
• Decide how often you are going to pay bills, noting dates on calendar as an "on-going activity" each month.
• Create folders, based on how often paying bills - "To Pay - 1-15" and "To Pay - 16-31" if paying bills twice a month.
• Immediately sort mail next to a trashcan.
• Write day bill is payable on outside of envelope.
• File bill in appropriate "To Pay" file.
• On scheduled day, remove bills from "To Pay" file and make payments.

Kitchen – After Each Meal

• Return cooking items to designated areas.
• Hand wash and/or put dishes and utensils in dishwasher.
• Clean table, countertops, and stove.
• For any items that don’t belong in the kitchen, return to their designated areas.

Clothing

• Designate a clothes hamper for each member of the family. A mesh “laundry sorter” works well.
• Use a lingerie bag for socks – socks can be washed and dried in the bag, which alleviates the problem of “missing socks”.
• Schedule time to do laundry – note it on the calendar as a reminder.
• Wash loads one, right after the other.
• Fold or hang clothes immediately to prevent wrinkling.
• Put clothes away.

It takes 30 days of consistently doing something to establish a new habit. Work on the three goals for 4-6 weeks before tackling another set of 2-3 goals. Reward yourself once the goals have been attained. By the end of the year, you will have a more organized home which you will enjoy coming home to and be proud to show to guests. Having an organized home means you will save time and money and sanity by not: missing payments, having to pay fees for bounced checks, missing an opportunity to use a coupon, rebate or gift certificate, buying duplicate items, having to hire repairmen, etc.

Additional suggestions for becoming organized and reducing clutter can be obtained by contacting Dawn McCloskey at 770-844-1049 or dawn@ultraorganized.com.

Dawn McCloskey is a residential professional organizer and founder of Ultra Organized, LLC in Cumming, Georgia. The mission of Ultra Organized is to create order from chaos by creating customized solutions in people’s homes. Ultra Organized helps people get control of clutter in their existing homes or before listing a house with a realtor, and provides unpacking and organizing services to new homeowners.

McCloskey is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers. For more information, call 770-844-1049, email dawn@ultraorganized.com or visit www.ultraorganized.com.

Forsyth County Classifieds: professional organizer