15 Minutes

Have you ever thought about how many activities you probably spend too much time doing on a daily or weekly basis?

Too much TV? (guilty!)

Browsing the endless boards on Pinterest? (guilty!)

Staring into the pantry wondering what to snack on? (guilty!)

Thinking about how you should get started on that big organizing, cleaning, etc but don’t know where to jump in? (guilty)

There never seems to be enough time in the day, but if I really dissect what I typically do, I know there’s ways to be much more efficient. I find that putting a time limit on something will keep you from a) getting sucked in and spending too much time on something unimportant or b) keep you from feeling overwhelmed by a big project. This week I put that theory into practice by breaking down a couple of projects:

-First, I wanted to tackle some of my closet. I try to go through my clothes a couple times a year to weed out what I don’t wear. That task is a little daunting though. So I decided to spend 15 minutes and just go through the sweater and jackets first. I went through and quickly pulled out anything I knew I wasn’t going to wear again and then tried on the rest. I found that I even had time left to try on my dresses. Now I’m not known to be a go-to girl for fashion so I don’t have very many dresses at all. Anyways, I still tried them all on. And here, 15 minutes later, is what I got rid of:

Gone!

9 Items….Gone! 8 sweaters or dresses and I also got rid of a pair of jeans I know I don’t wear. 15 minutes went by so fast and my closet is so much nicer now. And I’m donating all of the clothes, so that little feel-good perk doesn’t hurt! 🙂

Here’s another example:

My nightstand drawer has become the catch all for me at night. It’s where I shove everything to get it out of the way. But I realized this frustrates me when I actually need something out of there (picture me fighting to get the drawer open because one of the 8 books has lodged itself in the open position and is holding the drawer shut somehow). I was sick of this part of my nightly routine so I decided to devote 15 minutes and fix it.

You can see books, pens, paper, remotes and that weird green thing on the far right is one of those exercise band things. I thought “surely, if I have this easily accessible, I’ll exercise!” ….nope.   15 Minutes later:

Ta Da! I did the following steps:

1) Took everything out

2) Cleaned the drawer

3) Decided what items I really needed/ wanted in there (6 pens? no thank you) and put those items back in.

4) Then I put everything else in it’s rightful place…far, far away from this drawer.

So there are two 15 minute projects that went delightfully right! I have a few more 15 minute projects in the works, so I’ll keep you posted on those!

Here are a couple of other small regular projects that I know I can do in 15 minutes or less:

-Do the dishes and straighten up the kitchen

-Go through the mail

-Put away laundry and straighten up the bedrooms

Knowing that each of these won’t take a huge chunk of time makes is easier to motivate myself to do them regularly.

Sunday Survey:

What area of your home could use 15 minutes of your time?

~Erin