Feeling overwhelmed with your chaotic life? Read on to discover a step-by-step guide on how to organize your life in one week. You’ll feel physically and mentally better in no time!
You might take one look at my blog and social media platforms and think I was born a super-organized person.
Believe it or not, I grew up the complete opposite. I was a hoarder and the messiest person in my family.
My room used to look like a war zone. Even when I was in college, my best friend (who’s a neat freak) had to organize my wardrobe for me.
At that time, I didn’t understand why organizing was so important to my physical and mental health.
But, things changed after my mother passed away. It was hard enough dealing with the grief, but on top of that, I felt suffocated being surrounded by so much clutter.
I decided to take the first few months to declutter the house. As I started the process, I realized there was so much to do and I needed help to organize my to-do lists.
That’s when I started to plan my weeks.
Before I knew it, I’d stuck to the process for an entire year. Looking back, being organized has helped me to accomplish SO much.
If you are feeling overwhelmed with the chaos in your life, I urge you to take control and start organizing your life. Trust me, you’ll feel physically and mentally better in no time!
In today’s post, I’m going to share a step-by-step guide on how to organize your life in one week.
Related:
- How To Create A Positive Atmosphere At Home In 10 Easy Ways
- How To Create A Peaceful Home In 16 Simple Ways
Cultivate good habits to keep you organized
Before we get started, it’s important to cultivate good habits to keep you organized. These tips will help you to have the right energy and mindset to tackle your busy days.
- Get a good night’s rest and wake up early every day
- Eat healthy and nutritious meals
- Exercise regularly
- Spend less time watching TV and being on your phone (watch out for these time-sucking activities! You can achieve so much when you’re not constantly on your electronic devices)
A step-by-step guide – How to organize your life in one week
Day 1 – Plan your week
Ever heard of the saying, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”?
That’s because planning is CRUCIAL for a productive week!
You can do this manually or digitally – whichever works best for you.
There are so many options to choose from – a physical planner, a monthly board, a planning app like Trello, etc.
I like to work with a digital planner (my phone) and a physical planner. I find that this method helps me the best – my physical planner covers my goals, big events, and notes whereas my phone has my to-do lists.
Once you’ve chosen a planner, take half an hour every Sunday to plan your entire week.
Here are five tips to help you plan for an effective week:
- Start by keying in important events like work events, outings with friends, children’s activites, etc.
- Think of three goals you want to accomplish each week. Do not overwhelm yourself with too many things or else you’ll set yourself up to fail!
- Lastly, fill in the planner with every day tasks
- At the end of each week, look at past week’s events and take note of what you’ve completed and what you haven’t
- Move pending projects to next week’s schedule
Whenever possible, you should set specific days for certain things e.g. laundry, meal prep, etc so you can build a routine.
Once you’ve established a routine, you won’t have to think about these things as much. Plus, you are less likely to forget them!
Day 2 – Declutter and organize your most used spaces
We work best in clean and conducive environments.
Organizing your to-do lists isn’t enough. It’s equally important to organize your surroundings.
However, decluttering the entire home can be a long and stressful period for some. Instead of trying to do everything in a day, start with the two rooms that you use most.
Chances are, the two rooms will be your bedroom and bathroom.
Let’s begin with the basics.
For the bedroom, make sure to have clean sheets and to make your bed. For the bathroom, make sure the toilet and shower areas are clean.
Next, go through every item on each surface like the floor, nightstands, and tables.
If it’s something that you still use or need, find a home for them. Keeping things in concealed storage like drawers and cabinets is ideal to avoid visual clutter.
But, if that’s not possible, corral similar items together and place them neatly on a surface (anywhere but the floor!)
On the other hand, discard or donate things you don’t need or use anymore.
Day 3 – Organize your kitchen
Having an organized kitchen is essential, especially if you want to take care of yourself by consuming healthy and delicious homemade meals.
First, take stock of your fridge, freezer, and pantry. Discard expired food and old leftovers.
I used to think I was being efficient by buying food in bulk. But, this only leads to food wastage.
Now, I create weekly meal plans and shop once or twice a week for groceries. If you don’t enjoy cooking like me, I suggest sticking to 1-2 simple yet delicious recipes you can eat daily.
Our weekday meals consist of baked fish or chicken and vegetables. No fancy ingredients – just salt, pepper, garlic, and store-bought spice mix!
You can either meal prep the entire’s week worth of food at the start of the week or do it every morning as I do. I prefer the latter because it is the perfect opportunity for me to get extra steps in!
Eating the same food also means using the same grocery list every week. Not only does this save time, but it also reduces the stress of thinking about what to shop for!
Besides that, you should also set aside time to declutter and organize your kitchen tools and appliances. Check out my post on how to declutter your kitchen with a minimalist kitchen essentials list.
Day 4 – Declutter and organize your digital assets
Today, you’re going to take a break from the physical organization and focus on your digital assets.
In this digital age, it’s no surprise that we have accumulated more emails, photos, and videos than we think!
Take this day to gather all of your electronic devices and declutter and organize your digital assets.
Here’s a list of things to look out for:
- Check the apps on your phone and delete the ones you haven’t used in the past three months
- Delete old text messages and emails
- File and categorize important documents, photos and videos using a cloud system and delete the rest
- Unsubscribe to unwanted newsletters
Day 5 – Work on the rest of the house
It’s time to work on the rest of the house – your entryway, living room, dining room, etc.
When in doubt, stick to the basics:
- Make sure each room is clean
- Tidy all of the surfaces
- Group similar items and give them a home
- Discard or donate any unwanted items
If you have extra time left, do the same for your bag, car, and other things you use daily.
Day 6 – Target your paperwork
Getting your life organized means targeting your paperwork and making sure you have everything important filed and stored in a safe place.
This may seem like a daunting task, but you’ll have no issues with it if you have the right help!
Here’s my complete guide to decluttering and organizing paperwork. In this post, you’ll learn:
- How to start paper decluttering
- 5 steps to organize important paperwork
- How to prevent paper clutter
Day 7 – Schedule appointments and set phone reminders
So, you’ve planned your week and decluttered and organized your home. You’re probably thinking I’ve nailed “how to organize your life in one week.”
You’re almost there, but there’s still Day 7!
The final step is to work on your health, relationships, self-care routine, and home maintenance.
How?
By scheduling all of your appointments and setting reminders for yourself!
When life gets busy, we tend to forget to schedule important appointments. Don’t wait till the last minute to do this or you’ll panic.
Take a few hours today and make all of your appointments for the year. Yes, I’m referring to all of your doctor, dental, beauty, and home maintenance appointments!
In addition, you should also schedule and set phone reminders for important occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, and your social calendar in general.
Having these on the calendar makes sure you never forget AND forces you to make time for them.
Are you ready to organize your life in one week?
So there you have it, a step-by-step guide on how to organize your life in one week. It’s going to be a busy week, but I promise your future self will thank you for setting this up. All the best!
Very useful and worth reading. Thanks for sharing these tips.
Thank you so much! Glad you found them useful!