Martha Stewart's Simple Tips Make Keeping An Organized Home A Breeze

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Juggling the many to-dos that come from maintaining a home is no small feat. From small daily cleaning tasks and regular deep cleans to seasonal maintenance requirements and large-scale DIY projects, the list is seemingly endless; and, frankly, quite daunting to not have a handle on. Never fear, because world-renowned design and lifestyle aficionado Martha Stewart is here to help with some professional tips to help manage that dreaded home task overload.

In her book, "Martha Stewart's Organizing: The Manual for Bringing Order to Your Life, Home & Routines," Stewart shares expert advice about the best ways to keep your home to-dos and routines organized and realistically attainable. Some of the biggest takeaways from her book revolve around one general topic: planning and scheduling home maintenance projects and cleaning tasks in a doable, intentional way. This ensures that tasks are both completed in a timely fashion and achievable in a manner that isn't overwhelming or all-consuming. By following Stewart's advice to create a manageable system for scheduling, accomplishing, and keeping track of your many home undertakings, you can streamline and even partially automate an otherwise tedious area of your life.

Martha Stewart's first piece of advice is a simple one (via MarthaStewart.com): "Do a little every day." Even the smallest tasks have a cumulative effect as they slowly chip away at your to-do list in an easy, diffused way. Whether you water some plants while you chat on the phone, quickly fold a load of clean laundry before binge watching your favorite show, or spend 15 minutes a week decluttering your home to make measurable progress, these small tasks add up when not dealt with but are extremely feasible when they're distributed throughout the week in small chunks. "In addition to devoting entire weekends to deeper organizational dives, make an effort to take quick and easy steps throughout the week. This will keep matters from getting too out of hand," Martha Stewart continued.

This brings us to the next tip, which is to strategically plan for large-scale projects on the weekends or another day when you have a longer chunk of time and undivided attention to give to it. This could mean a big DIY project that's been on the to-do list, a crucial seasonal or annual home maintenance task, or a longer deep clean than you can muster during the week (baseboards, we're looking at you). Saving these more in-depth tasks for a weekend where you have more time ensures you don't get overwhelmed trying to cram it into an already busy week. The real key to managing all of these home tasks, big and small? Scheduling.

Stewart's third tip wraps all other routine-related advice together. "Don't leave organizing to chance. Block off time in your planner for daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal, and annual to-dos. Set reminders to stave off procrastination," she advises]. By setting aside devoted time in your calendar for tasks of all sizes, you're less likely to forget, delay, or blow them off entirely. Develop a regular maintenance, specialty project, and home cleaning schedule. Better yet, create a calendar on your phone just for home tasks to keep them separated for easy filtering and reference in one place.

Set real-time reminders for when it's time to accomplish each task as well as a secondary reminder further in advance if you need time to prepare. For example, while you may only need an in-the-moment alert that today's the day to put the recycling out on the curb, you may want a reminder a week ahead of time for tasks like switching the furnace air filter so you can be sure to purchase one in advance. If a scheduling conflict comes up, it's as simple as moving the task's calendar entry to ensure it gets completed another time without it falling through the cracks.

To save time, add repeating calendar events to automate future tasks and their corresponding reminders. Over time, you'll build a robust and fully-automated home organization system, complete with schedules and reminders. The more thorough your system gets, the less time and energy you need to spend thinking about what needs to get done and when.