5 Organization Tips That Include AllRecipes.com Menu Planner and Post it Notes

I am an organizational mess. It’s gotten so bad that I literally can’t sleep because I am so overwhelmed by the lack of organization in my apartment and it’s everywhere. Last week’s Therapy Thursday focused on the chair but that wasn’t all that is in disarray but in fact my entire apartment is under disorganizational siege. There is so much going on.

Look at my wallet.  Is there even money in there?

 

Here is my pantry. I literally can’t see anything, except I do know I have 5 boxes of mac n cheese in there. How do iI know this because, I just bought two boxes not knowing I had three already. Please don’t confuse me  with Hoarders!

And the paper – It’s everywhere, in bags, shopping bags, chairs, on top of my desk. I am literally drowning in paper.

Over  the next few weeks, it’s my plan to not so much organize my life (that’s would take years) but to at least take baby steps as to get the paper situation in control and manage my closets and cabinets.

Here are my 4 organizational tips that will help get anyone back on track:

1. Go Paperless – One of the reasons, I have so much paper is that I still receive monthly bills and bank statements every month. There really is no need to get paper statements anymore given that most companies can store documents online. It’s perfect option – no paper, easy accessible data and someone else files your statements for you.
2. Schedule A Day to Review Your Credit Card Statements – At one point, my credit card statements were all paperless but  I noticed that I never scrutinized the statements as when I received them via the mail and just paid them. Given all the security breaches at major corporations (Playstation being the latest), identity theft and credit card fraud, I can’t afford not to look at my credit card bill. So to alleviate the issue of never checking my statement, I have made an appointment every month to check my statements.
3. Set up recurring payments – There is no reason that monthly bills can’t be set up so that it gets either deducted from your checking account or better yet, billed to my American Express card. It saves so much time and you are assured that your bills will be paid on time.
4. Use Post – It ® Notes Products – Yes, I have an iPhone but with me, it’s out of sight, out of mind. I need Post it Notes to keep track of appointments, kids events, blogging to dos, my brother’s work schedule. Post it Notes has close to 4,000 products and but there are few that standout that should help me   get organized. I love the Post-it® Weekly Planner where I can put post its for all the activities and to dos for my daughter and me. In addition, I am constantly carrying around pens, highlighters and those little tiny flag Post-Its, when I read or looking at documents. Well,  the Post-it® Flag+ Highlighter Combination Pens solves that problem and it really is a pen that has all three.

 

5. Plan Meals in Advance – allrecipes.com introduced an interactive menu planner which has made  the daily chore (and yes, I think it’s a chore – even 30 minute recipe is too long for me.) What I love about the menu planner is that it allows me to easily create, edit and save meal plans. And the recipes, there are thousands for me to choose from. The  best features are that I can adjust the recipe serving size (I make 5 servings I’m eating all 5,) the ingredients auto populate  and search for additional recipes based in the shopping list. Not only is this a huge money saver for me but a time saver. If only I could someone to come over and cook the meal that would be the ultimate, right. Click here for my full review of allrecipes.com.

Any organizational tips that you would recommend.

Disclosure: Level one disclosure. Click here to view NYC Single Mom’s disclosure policy.

 

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