When your house is disorganized, whether it is a little bit cluttered or a lot, it all can seem like it’s too much to handle.
Like totally overwhelming!
And that is pretty defeating in and of itself, but there’s a super easy way to jump start the process to get organized!
I call it my Timer Game.
How the Timer Game works
And here’s the game: You set a timer for 15 minutes.
Until the timer goes off, you do nothing but pick up stuff and put it away.
Put everything where it goes. If it doesn’t have a home, find one for it.
That’s it!
You want more of the nitty-gritty rules?
The trash can counts as putting something away.
So does a donation bag – as long as you get the bag out of your house in a week or less.
Remember that Donate Stuff can make that happen.
And if you don’t live in an area where Donate Stuff picks up, no problem.
Request a USPS postage pre-paid shipping bag for clothing you’re ready to donate.
More rules
Don’t stop to read the magazines that are out of place to see if you want to keep them.
Put them where the magazines belong and move on. Same with other paper clutter.
Now is not the time to read or analyze information.
After the timer goes off, you can read the magazines and you won’t feel guilty because you totally rocked my game and got a ton done.
Look at you, productivity super star!
Playing the game with others
I’ve been playing this game for years.
I even got my husband in on the act back in the day before I was stepping on Legos and cursing my adorable kiddos under my breath.
This game works because you have concentrated effort for a totally doable amount of time.
You end up doing a lot in not very much time at all. Score!
Now, this isn’t as easy as throwing all of the clutter laying around into a closet, closing the door and calling it a day.
But you already know that’s a horrible strategy that will only waste your time and make you feel even more overwhelmed.
The Timer Game is a fun way to get going and do what you gotta do at some point – actually deal with the stuff.
Maybe not as much fun as other things, but it really does help to take the edge off and help you get going. 🙂
How often to play
Now, maybe you’re wondering exactly how often you should be playing this Timer Game.
Well, it depends.
It mainly on how cluttered your home is.
And how much tolerance your family will have to play with you.
You might have to start off slower than you’d like to keep the peeps motivated to play along.
Or you might find that this is exactly what your household has been craving: a game-ified way to clean up that totally doesn’t feel like cleaning up!
Watch + Learn
I talk about the timer game in a video that’s on my YouTube Channel. You can watch it here:
Need even more help?
Looking for even more strategies for being more productive with your time? Look no further than the time management course I’ve put together.
It’s filled with simple, actionable steps that’ll leave you slaying your to do list like a time managing ninja!
