LW

[Lakmini Wijemanne]

How many times have you spent valuable minutes looking for an elusive book, a document, the measuring tape, the needle, a single sock or various other things that is not where its supposed to be? Especially, in the morning, you may be busy trying to get your kids to school on time, when someone suddenly ask “did you see my… anywhere?” Sometimes it could very well be your own car keys or the pair of glasses or the house key that you spend time looking for, which would not be an auspicious start to the day. But, if everything is where they are supposed to be?? How easy your life would be!

It is a good habit to learn to be organized from the young days. Start from your toddler’s toys. Make her learn to be methodical and organized so that you will not find her toys underfoot all the time. Give her a big cardboard or plastic box and teach her to put all her Toys into it after playing. Putting the toys into the box itself could be a game, to get her interested in. When your child grows up, appoint places for various items in her room or the table. In the same way, the rest of the household members should also comply with being organized. A rack to keep the shoes, a clothes-rack to hang the clothes in, a basket for the dirty clothes, book racks for books, a table and a chair to do school work at are a few items that could be kept in a room to keep things organized.

In your kitchen, have your cupboards and drawers designated to different items so that it is easy for you to work in your kitchen. Your cutlery, crockery, spice jars, dry rations, tinned/canned food items, serviettes and various other items belonging in the kitchen should each have a designated area, making everything easily accessible too.

To keep track of an event taking place, you could have a notice board in the kitchen or the pantry so that at a glance your appointments, special events, days and times of various classes are visible to you or anyone in the family as a daily reminder. You can also have a “To Do” list either on your fridge or on the notice board to refresh your memory.

A key area prone to disarray is a closet/Almirah. It would be a good idea to neatly arrange stocks of all item of clothing in a manner that works for you. Do not just push your clothes in. It will save you precious minutes in the morning looking for the elusive items that you really need.

Being organized in our home, workplace, or anywhere also helps us tremendously to ‘keep ourselves sane in this busy lifestyle especially. If you have been foreseeing enough to have your kids being trained to be organized, you will have less stress in your life. Besides, being organized helps one to better manage the time during the day. One doesn’t have to be of a certain age to learn this, and earlier you start, your life would be that much peaceful. A well organized day can leave time aside to engage in relaxing exercises to wind-up the day in a happier frame of mind.