Stewart - Martha Stewarts Organizing The Manual for Bringing Order to Your Life, Home & Routines

Organize Your Year

January

Organize Your Home

Organize Your Routine

Plenty of advice has been offered in the past few years on the subject of organizing: organizing your life, your family, your daily routine, your schedule, your closets and drawers. Some of it attempts to simplify the processjust discard what doesnt please you, fold everything into tiny packages or put it in small boxes, make lists and pin them to your door or place them on your desk. These are good starting points, but the subject is so much larger and so much more important than that might suggest. An orderly and organized life calls for creating and then sticking to clear rules, pre-set schedules, and to-do lists that are dictated by your own lifestyle and that of your family. This deliberate, individualized approach will save you so much time in the long run when dealing with lifes surprises. It will save you from disorganization and leave you free to spend less time on chores, more time for the activities that prove meaningful to you.

In this book we have arranged living and organizing strategies into a clear format to help guide you, concentrating on the items that have to be done on a regular basis. We begin by looking at the year, breaking down what needs to happen, month by month. Im a big proponent of keeping a calendar and populating it with every task, appointment, and event, big and small, down to staking the peonies, grooming my dogs, sharpening my kitchen knives, setting up my grandchildrens sailing lessons, and ordering the Thanksgiving turkey. This practice will help you live a more productive and fulfilling life, day in and day out. I certainly couldnt have managed my busy schedule without it.

We then move through the home, room by room (even section by section, and, in the case of the kitchen, drawer by drawer), offering valuable tips you can easily apply to your own living spaces. Lastly, we outline the most common routinessuch as cooking, gardening, and cleaninginto manageable steps, with checklists and schedules to help you handle each one efficiently and effectively.

Ive shared a wealth of tips and techniques for getting and staying organized in this one book, the culmination of decades of research gathered for Living and my TV shows and online videos, as well as through my personal experience. I hope it becomes your own trusted source of organizing wisdom for decades to come.

THERES A REASON you are holding this book in your hands. Perhaps youre feeling that theres too much clutter and chaos in your home. Or maybe youd just like to see your daily life run a bit more smoothly. This book is here to help you get a handle on all of itto get organized and stay that way. By using the three-part approach laid out in these pagesmonth by month, room by room, and routine by routineyoull gain a broad grasp of what you need to do, as well as step-by-step how-tos to help you get it all done.

Big-picture advice is complemented by projects that solve common organizing conundrums (such as making a command center, ), and of course Martha Musts, offering personal best tips on particularly helpful topics.

Start with the monthly calendars in Part One: There youll find entries for each day. These calendars follow Marthas planner regarding what to do when. Adapt them to your own schedule and lifestyle. They are meant not to overwhelm but to reinforce the idea that doing a little bit at a time can keep you from having to do a whole lot at onceand also to remind you to schedule in the leisure time that helps keep life balanced.

A handful of each months entries are bolded in the calendar and described in detail on the pages that immediately follow; they fall into color-coded categories (see key, below), which correlate to routines that will be discussed in more depth in Part Three. Seasonal tasks, especially those pertaining to the garden, will depend on where you reside, so adjust those dates and duties accordingly.

Category Key

CLEAN

LAUNDER

GARDEN

HOME

COOK

ENTERTAIN

CELEBRATE

KIDS

PETS

WELLNESS

Part Two is all about organizing each area of the home. This is where you really take control of your stuff, as well as of the tasks associated with keeping each space in order, using a two-step system: First size up each space to discern its particular needs, and then strategize the storage. Practical, hands-on tips will help you with challenging spotssinks and counters in the kitchen, shelves and bookcases in the living room, and closets in bedrooms and the entryway.

Finally, Part Three sets forth the supplies, strategies, and schedules for everyday routines (see the color-coded key above), guided by a less-is-best ideology: the fewer the supplies, the less need for storage; fewer steps means organizing gets done faster and stays that way, so you have more time for all the things youd rather be doing.

Theres no right or wrong way to organize your life and homethats why this book is designed to give you options. For example, when updating your own daily/weekly planner at the start of each month (or the beginning of each year), you can turn to the calendars in Part One for reminders and inspiration. When a particular space (such as the pantry or refrigerator) is in need of a refresh, you can go right to the appropriate guide in Part Two. And if its time to revamp your cleaning routine or get the kids schedules back on track, you can flip to those sections in Part Three. Any way you go about it, clear instruction and easy-to-implement expertise are there to help.