Hi everyone, welcome back to my channel. In today's video, I'm going to be sharing with you
20 top tips and habits on how to be an organized person, and I would say that actually doesn't come
naturally to me, it's something that I really have to work at, but because of that, I've a
few very good systems in place and tips to share with you, so I hope you really enjoy this video.
If you do, give this video a big thumbs up, and if you're new around here, then I would
love you to subscribe if you like content like this, because I post new videos every Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday at 7:00 PM, and I'd love to have you as part of our community. And while
you're here, let me know in the comments below, what is your top tip for being organized? Because
I know everyone would really love to read those, and I need all the help that I can get as well. So
with all that said, let's get into my 20 tips. So, my first tip is to change your mindset. I
get so many messages on here, and on Instagram as well, asking me how I keep the house tidy,
have home-cooked meals, and play with the kids all the time, but the answer to that is I don't.
I do my very best, and that is good enough, but sometimes it is impossible to get everything done,
especially when you're a busy mom and a busy working mom. There is so much pressure,
especially in the past year, and there's so much to do that we just have to give ourselves a
little bit of grace and lower our standards down. I think I realized that as soon as I became a mom,
I was finding it difficult to get absolutely everything done and keep the house the way that it
used to be, then I quickly realized that you just can't every day. As soon as your baby is unwell or
teething, well, there goes all the housework for that day, because you need to just sit there and
cuddle them, and that's fine, so just be aware that something's always going to have to give,
and that kind of leads nicely into my next tip, which is to prioritize.
It's very easy to spend time on things that don't really matter, so something that really helps me
is to write down three priorities a day, so my to-do list might be very long, but if I can
just get those top three priorities done, then I feel like I've really achieved something. So
say for today, I wanted to film this video, I want to clean out Jackson's closet, and I also want to
go for a run, and that's also really nice, if you can make one of your priorities something that
you actually like doing or that is linked to your health or feeling good, then that is even better.
And if you can, do the top priority or chore that you are dreading first thing in the morning. So
say if you hate working out, or you hate cleaning, just get it done first, and then you can enjoy the
rest of your day. I used to actually work with a girl who called it "Elephant hunting
over ant-stomping." A lot of people will just go around doing little tasks and feeling like they've
accomplished something, but they were just ants, and actually you need to tackle the big tasks
first, like the elephant hunting. I don't know if this is making sense to anyone, but it's kind of
stuck in my head, so just tackle those elephants first, and then you can do all the ants later.
And my next tip is a very simple one, but it really works for us, and that is to get a load
of laundry on every single morning. I know some people like to have a laundry day when
they do it all, but it really helps me to feel on top of things if I do it every single day,
and many families need to. With all the clothes and the towels and the sheets, I need to put a
load on every single morning, so I have a little routine that I do. I put a load of laundry on at
breakfast time, then after the school run, I'll put it in the tumble dryer or hang it up to dry,
then while dinner is cooking, me or Matt will fold it, and then we take it up with us when we
take the boys upstairs for a bath, and sometimes we manage to get it put away, sometimes it sits
there for a day, but it just really helps our flow of laundry if we do it every single morning.
And the next tip is one I've said a thousand times before on this channel, but it's still such a
helpful one, and that is to get everything ready the night before. Your future self will thank you
for this, it just really helps with the morning overwhelm if you are prepared, so just think
about what you've got going on, what lunches you have to prepare, the snacks, the clothes.
Every night, we will lay out our children's clothes on the banister in three little piles,
it's what we've always done, and we even do it on the weekend, so even if we're just laying out
a tracksuit for them to put on, it just really helps us feel organized. I also plan my outfit,
I'll also think about the snacks and who needs lunches, have they got clubs on, who's got karate?
There's so much to think about, and I feel like I'm better at doing that the night before, because
the morning is just always going to be chaos. And if you do struggle with mornings,
you might want to consider getting up before your kids do, because we all know
you can get so much done in just an hour when there are no kids running around,
and it can also be a really nice calm, quiet start to the day if you get up before the kids,
or even if I get up just 20 minutes before the kids and I manage to get my clothes on
and do my skincare routine, I already feel like I've had a headstart.
Obviously, if you're going to wake up before the kids, you do need to go to bed at a reasonable
hour. For instance, I didn't wake up before the kids during the whole lockdown because I
was actually staying up late to get work done, so obviously you can't burn the candle at both ends,
but if you can go to bed a little bit earlier, then it
might actually help to wake up before them. And another tip is to prepare things like lunches
and snacks the night before, or the morning of. So I actually like to do this in the morning,
and especially when the kids were homeschooling, I found it so helpful for them to have snack boxes
or snack baskets. So first thing in the morning, I'd just put all the healthy snacks that I was
happy for them to have in their baskets which had their names on it, I'd also put a drink as well,
and then throughout the day, I didn't have to hear my kids shouting "Snack" 20 times a day,
they could just go to their little boxes, choose what they wanted to eat, and just help themselves.
And my next tip is don't sit down. I know this sounds harsh, but I know as soon as I sit down
on the couch, I will not be getting up again, I will not be being productive,
so I try to get everything done before we actually sit down on the couch. I'll clean the kitchen,
I'll put the dishwasher on, I'll sort out the things for the next day as well, and before
we go upstairs to the bath, we do a big family speed-clean, because there is nothing worse than
taking the kids up to the bath, putting them all to bed, and then coming downstairs to a huge mess.
So we've started doing a family tidy-up, and then Matt and I will also spend about 10,
20 minutes tidying up the kitchen so it's all nice and clean, and sometimes we'll spend that time
catching up as well, and then once everything's done, I will actually finally sit down in the
evening, and honestly, it's the best feeling. When you come downstairs to a nice, clean kitchen,
I feel like it's a really nice start to the day. And another top tip is to delegate, especially if
you feel like you do everything in your house, it's worth sitting down with your family and
talking about how you can share the tasks out more evenly. Maybe your partner could be doing more,
maybe you could give your kids some chores, because there are age-appropriate chores
for every age. So at toddler level, they could be at least just taking their wrappers to the bin and
putting it in the bin, maybe they could help feed a pet. Older kids can make their beds, they can
unload the dishwasher, set the table, my boys love to run around with the cordless vacuum as well,
so there are things that they could be doing, and you could set up a chore chart,
I'll link ours in the description, so at least there's a reward, and they'll feel
like they'll achieve something at the end of it. And when Matt and I first got married and had
Fraser, I remember I used to get really resentful of him if he didn't just offer to do something
if I was holding Fraser or felt like I was doing everything, and I'd think, "Why is he not
offering to burp him or thinking about it more?" But I realized, if I just ask him,
he would just do it, so then I actually just started asking him to do things, not nagging,
but I think he just... It didn't even come into his head, so it's worth just talking to them or
sitting down with them before you get resentful. I touched on this point earlier, but something
that really helps us is having set tidy up times. So before we walk out the door in the morning at
8:30, we'll run around and tidy up just things like if there's pajamas or toothbrushes out,
just put all of that away, and then also before we go upstairs for bath,
we'll do a little speed clean. When the kids were younger, we used to put on the Tidy Up Song
and run around tidying up to that, but it just kind of like... The kids, they know it's part
of the routine now, and they don't mind helping. I also wanted to say that it's okay to accept help
when you're offered it, it doesn't make you any less of a super mom if you do accept help. When
I had Fraser, if a family member or friend would offer me help, I'd be like, "Oh no, it's okay,
I can do it all," but now I think, why did I do that? Because they love to help anyway,
and it would actually just make my life so much easier. I also, when I had our third baby,
I had a cleaner every two weeks just to help keep the house disinfected. I was like, "Even if it's
a complete mess, I know that things have actually been cleaned," and it made all the difference, so
if it's something that one, you don't like doing, or that you can afford, then why not get help?
My next tip is to find a way of organizing that really works for you,
and that you like. There are so many benefits to having an electronic diary, but if something that
you're not going to stick to, then don't try and force it. So personally, I really like to have
an electronic diary for everything to do with work, because videos and things change so often,
if I actually wrote all that down in my written planner, I'd be changing it quite often, but I
really like my written planner for everything to do with the kids, family birthdays, meal planning,
and all of that, so I actually have two, and I'd also really recommend making loads and loads of
lists, and I have two apps that I wanted to recommend to you guys that I really like using.
The first one is called Trello, I find it very easy to use. You can move lists around,
and you can create as many lists as you want, so I'll often have one for Christmas presents
to get the kids, video ideas, food shopping to get, stuff like that. And there's also another
really good free app called Google Keep, and so if anything pops into my head, I'll just
write it down in one of those apps, and it just works wonders. I think I realized as soon as I
had my second child that I couldn't just think, "Oh okay, there's a birthday happening in two
weeks' time," like keep it in my head. If I don't write things down, I just completely forget them,
especially now that I've got the three of them, so just write everything down.
And my next one is a huge one, and that is to meal plan and to meal prep. Now, I've made so many meal
prep videos on my channel before, you've probably seen them, but it just saves us so much time, and
money as well, because you only get what you need, but our little routine is on a Sunday evening,
Matt and I will talk about what meals we want to have the following week. We normally plan just
six meals, because we'll tend to get a takeaway at least once a week, so we'll talk about
the six meals we want to have, from that, we'll then make an ingredients list of everything
that we don't already have, and then on Monday, Matt will actually go to the shops and get it.
We used to do an online shop before the pandemic, but during the pandemic, you were limited to only
getting 80 items for a food shop online and we would always need more than that, and we
were finding there was a lot of replacements happening, so Matt will actually just go,
and that is what works for us. It just means that we eat healthily, we feel organized. Every day,
we're just like, "Oh, what's on the menu tonight?" And it just makes life feel a lot easier.
And another foodie tip is to batch cook whenever possible. So batch cooking is just making
more than you actually need, so we will often double or triple a recipe so that we can then
put it in the freezer or have it the next night. So if we're making chili one night,
we'll double the recipe and we'll make 10 portions rather than five portions, and it just means
then we can have a night off another day. So it's really worth doing, make the most of your freezer
as well, have some freezer meals to hand, and also things like the slow cooker and the air fryer are
your friend, and I use them as much as I can. And my next tip is to designate a day when you
do the bulk of your cleaning. Now obviously, as a busy family, we have to be cleaning every day,
we have a morning routine and an evening routine for cleaning. If you haven't seen those videos,
I'll link them in the description and you can check them out, but I do choose one day...
Actually during the pandemic, it has been the weekend, when I clean the bathrooms, I change the
sheets on the bed and stuff like that, and I find that it's a bit easier to let things go during the
week, because I know that morning, that day, that I'm going to focus on the bulk of the cleaning.
Something else I love to do is a 10-minute tidy-up. If there is a very messy room or a very
messy cupboard and I'm just dreading it, I'll set a timer on my phone and just focus on that task
for the 10 minutes, and you'll be amazed how much you can get done in that time, and it also really
speeds me up, because I know there's a timer. You can also spend just 10 minutes decluttering
something, it might be a drawer or a cupboard as I say, and it's really effective,
and just decluttering in general can just help to clear your mind. If you're feeling
like there's just so much stuff in your house, spend some time decluttering, and you'll feel
so much better for it. I actually created a 28-day challenge for February, and each day,
you focus on decluttering something different, so if you want to check out that challenge,
I will also link that in the description. And it's also worth, whenever you're doing a cleaning task
or a decluttering task, something like that, to set yourself a little reward at the end. So if
you're like, "I'm going to clean this room, but once I've done it, I'm going to have a cup of tea
and let myself go on Instagram for 15 minutes," those little rewards really keep me motivated.
Next up, I wanted to talk about quiet time and how I used quiet time to help me stay organized.
So when my children were babies, they would have a one or two-hour nap in the afternoon,
but as soon as they turned three years old, they would stop napping, and then it was very
difficult, because I felt like the things that I got done during their nap time was
just impossible to get done. I used to get dinner ready, tidy up, answer emails, and all of that,
and then all of a sudden, I just couldn't do it. So I started to let them have quiet time around
the time when it would actually be nap time, so I would either let them play in their room quietly,
have a bit of screen time, or I'd put on their favorite show, like Umizoomi, say,
and they could just chill out, because they were probably a bit tired anyway, but it also meant
then that I could get a few things done, and they just got used to it. I'd be like, "Okay,
we're going to have a bit of quiet time now," and then they would just chill out and they'd
be able to get stuff done, and obviously you don't want your kids to be on the screens all the time,
but I remember as kids, we used to sit in front of the TV and watch a bit of TV and stuff,
so don't feel guilty if you absolutely need to get some stuff done, you can have quiet time.
And my next tip is toy rotation. So rather than just have all of your kids' toys out
all of the time, you can hide some away in the garage or in the attic,
and then rotate your toys, and every now and then, bring some out of the attic or garage,
and then put some more away. And you're probably thinking, "How is toy rotation going to help me
be more organized?" But when you bring the new toys out, it's more interesting for the kids, and
it keeps them occupied for a little bit longer. So I found when I got one of their car garages out
of the attic or whatever, it was instantly like they had a new toy and it was fun to play with,
whereas if they just had all their toys all the time, they would just get bored of it, and in
a weird way, not play with anything, so it might be something to try if you're finding they're not
as interested in the toys all the time. And the last tip I wanted to share with you
is probably the most important one, and that is to make time for self-care to help minimize
stress. Having a chaotic family life is actually quite normal, and having a messy house can also be
the sign of a very happy, lived-in house, but the biggest issue is the stress that
we feel and the pressure that we're under, so if you can make half an hour or an hour
to have some self-care, maybe it's have a bath, do a hobby you love, or do some exercise, or
go out for a walk, it can make a huge amount of difference. If I ever go for like a 30-minute run,
I just come back feeling ready to take on family life and everything that goes with it again,
it just gives me a little bit of head space and then I can enjoy quality time with the kids again.
Anyway, those are all the tips that I wanted to share with you guys, I hope you really liked them.
Let me know in the comments below which one was your favorite and what you're going to try,
and thank you so much, I'll see you in my next one. Bye, guys.