You’ve heard of spring cleaning, but we say why wait until spring? During the cold months you’re already stuck inside, so we say use that time to be productive! Organizing your life can feel like a daunting task, so we’re taking the work out for you and breaking down the best tips to help organize your room, your makeup and beauty products, your time, and your life.

Write It All Down

Let’s face it: The older we get, the quicker we forget, and the more “what was I supposed to do again?” moments we have. The first step to organizing your life is to write down absolutely everything. That dentist appointment you made for six months from now? Put it on your calendar so you don’t double book. Did you use the last of your coffee creamer this morning? Don’t rely on your after work brain to remember to pick some up on the way home. Set it as a reminder in your phone to go off at the time you would be leaving the office. No matter how small the task (or whether you take pride in your killer memory), write it down. Your tomorrow self will thank you!

Declutter Your Email

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had my email address so long, that the majority of the emails I get are junk. Then, every morning, I waste so much time sorting through emails that it’s hard to find what’s important. Luckily, there’s an app for that. I recently used the app Unroll Me and it’s a game changer. In a dating app style of swiping left and right, you can easily unsubscribe to email blasts that don’t interest you. I unsubscribed from 300 newsletters that were clogging my inbox in a matter of minutes. And it felt GOOD!

Make Time for It!

Just like writing down tasks you need to remember to do, you need to block off time on your calendar if you want to be sure something happens. I find it easiest to schedule windows of time on my Google Calendar in different color-coded blocks. From “check email” to “pick up medication at the pharmacy,” building in time on your calendar helps you stay on track and helps keep you accountable. It also helps you to realize how long an activity actually takes, versus how long you accounted for. Either way, you’ll feel like you have more time if all of your time is accounted for.

Lighten Up Your Beauty Bag

Are you like me and find that your beauty bag can suddenly be bursting at the seams with products that you don’t reach for? With 2020 looming, I’m over it! At Wander Beauty, we’re all about fewer products that let you do more. Tossing products you never reach for and replacing them with multitaskers not only declutters your bag, but streamlines your routine. Swap your blush, lipstick, highlighter and eyeshadow for On-the-Glow Blush and Illuminator which can be used on eyes, lips and cheeks.<product>1</product>

Purge, Sort, Store, Repeat

Purge

When beginning the process of organizing anything, “purge it” should be your mantra. Your makeup bag or vanity, your closet, your shoe bin, or your box of old playbills and birthday cards should all go through the same process. Start by purging all of the junk - anything you haven’t worn in the last year (or longer!), makeup that’s broken, old, or not your shade, shoes that you’ve worn twice but hurt your feet so badly that you never wear them, and so on. Either toss, donate or sell these items.

Sort

After you’ve sorted through the “top layer,” begin the sorting process. I’m an avid fan of taking everything out of its current home so you can dig through and make sure that you’re not missing anything. Make separate boxes labeled “keep, donate, toss” and begin sorting. You can add a “sell” box if you’ve got a system in place for selling belongings. Personally I never get around to actually selling, so those items end up sitting in the corner of my room for months until I finally just toss them or donate them eventually. Try to think logically and not with your heart here. Are you keeping that dress because you wore it on New Year’s Eve three years ago and it was the best night ever? If you haven’t worn it since, it’s time to donate. And hey, someone else might have her best night ever in that same dress!

Store

Anything that you decide to keep needs a home that you’ll return it to immediately after using. Try under the bed bins, over the toilet shelving, or an over the door shoe rack if you’re limited on storage space (I’m looking at you NYC!). Fight the urge toss everything to the back of your closet or stuff it under your bed with no system for finding later - you don’t want to undo all of the organizing progress you just made!

Repeat

Finally, this process isn’t just one and done. You’ll need to consistently practice this as it’s easy to re-clutter your space, especially if you have a shopping obsession like myself. Make it a habit to do a quick declutter once a month to keep your organization game strong.

Put Everything In Its Place

You just spent so much precious time deciding that something was worth keeping and finding a home for, so don’t waste that hard work by throwing your clothes on the floor the second you take them off. Practice putting everything in its place the moment you’re finished with it. Eventually, this will become a habit, and you’ll be living in a state of cleanliness.

What are your top tricks and tips for getting organized (and staying organized)? Tell us in the comments!