Lockdown has been a strange situation for all of us, chances are you’ve never been quite so acquainted with the four walls of your home as you are right now. As much as we’re all keen for life to return to normal, there’s a lot of good we can do by spending a few weeks at home- not just in a bid to control the virus but to also organize our own lives. Here are just ten areas you could work on getting tidied and organized, and when you return back to your normal routine you’ll feel much better for getting all of this done. Here are some ideas.
Your wardrobe
Wardrobe full of clothes but never anything to wear? This is a situation many of us find ourselves in. We buy things in the sale or pieces that we intend to wear after we’ve lost weight, we buy things on a whim and hang them up in the wardrobe. Six or twelve months down the line, they’re still hanging there, never worn and taking up space. Go through everything you own, try it on in front of a full length mirror and be brutal. If it hasn’t been worn in a year then let it go. If it doesn’t fit your current body, let it go. Save space only for the things you do wear and love. Charity shops will be grateful for the donations once they reopen, and you could also give items to friends or family. Better than them hanging around gathering dust and taking up space.
Your handbag
Your handbag is an incredible thing, you can grab it before leaving the door on any given day and know you have everything you might need. From makeup to a hairbrush to a pen, tissues, your purse, umbrella and lots of other essential items, chances are you don’t go anywhere without it. The problem is, it can accumulate clutter. Use this time to go through it, throw away receipts and old sweet packets, recharge your portable phone charger and make sure all of your essentials are replenished. You might even want to carefully hand wash or at least wipe down and disinfect the interior, especially if it’s had a number of food spillages accumulate!
Your makeup bag
Just like food, makeup does have an expiry date. Use it after this and you can give yourself all kinds of rashes and infections. Take all of your products out and carefully wash your makeup bag in the machine or in the sink. Throw away any products that have clearly expired, and repurchase anything you’re low on. It will make getting ready in the mornings much quicker and easier.
Your car
Cars are another place that can accumulate junk. From receipts and car parking receipts to food and packaging, when you’re on the go without a bin nearby a lot of rubbish can end up getting chucked in the passenger footwell. If you have kids, chances are they’ve made their fair share of mess in the back as well. Cleaning the car is never the most fun job but it has to be done, why not use the free time you have on lockdown to get this sorted. Vacuum all of the interior and use cleaning and dusting wipes to clean the dashboard. Wash the exterior and clean the windows inside and out. You could check the fluid levels in the car (oil, coolant, washer fluid etc) while you’re there and make sure everything is running smoothly. It’s also worth checking that all of your lights are working properly and that none of the bulbs need replacing.
Your computer
Whether you use your computer to work from, run a business, blog or just for general use, you’ll need to keep everything in good order. Why not spend a morning organizing your files, such as rearranging photos into folders and deleting old documents you don’t need. You could run antivirus checks, and generally give it a good clean down too. If you’re struggling with a software issue, call in-home tech support who can guide you through the steps to get things working properly again.
Your phone
As with your computer, your phone can end up cluttered with things you don’t need too. Delete photos you don’t want and back up the ones you do to the cloud or onto your computer. Do any updates that need to be done, and even go through your apps and get rid of what you don’t use. These things can accumulate when we use our devices every day and before you know it it’s full of junk and running slow. Organize the apps you do use into labelled folders and get rid of what’s not useful to you.
Your bills
Every year, it’s worth sitting down and looking at your finances. If you switch to new contracts when the old ones expire you can make the most of new customer deals. If you click through cashback sites before signing up to new contracts too, you can get a nice sum of money back as well. It can take time to sit and go through everything meaning it’s easy to put this off on a normal day, but during lockdown when you have time on your hands it’s the perfect opportunity to get it done. You could go through your budget too and check where you’re spending, cancel things you no longer use.
Your kitchen cupboards
Having a tidy, organised kitchen makes cooking it so much more pleasant. If you’re greeted with a stack of pans falling on your head every time you open a door then it can put you off using the kitchen completely. Take everything out, throw away burned pans and anything past its best. Reorganize food cupboards with the labels facing forwards so you can see exactly what you’ve got, and it prevents you from buying repeats of the same store cupboard ingredients. You could even decant dry ingredients like flour, pasta and rice into glass or plastic containers and label them, this looks pleasing but also keeps everything fresh and makes it easy to access.
Your bathroom cupboards
Keeping things like medicines and first aid items up to date ensures that you have everything on hand when you need it. Check dates carefully and get rid of anything that’s no good. Don’t throw old medicines down the sink or toilet, it’s important to take them to a chemist to be disposed of properly. See if there’s anything you’re missing- cough medicines, painkillers, cold sore remedies, bandages and plasters are all useful to have in the house ready to go. If you like to have backup bottles of things like shampoo, conditioner and shower gel then have these organised and easy to grab when you run out of your current bottle.
Your schedule/ calendar
Finally, getting your schedule organised is worth doing at the moment. As lockdown restrictions are lifted and we all return back to an altered form or normality, many of us are returning back to work, having building work rescheduled, medical appointments rebooked and other important things are resuming. Call around if you have something that was put on hold due to lockdown and see if it’s ready to be rescheduled, that way you can put everything in your diary and make sure that you’re ready to spring back into action.
Have you spent much time during lockdown organizing your life? What did you get done, and what tasks would you most recommend others get sorted?