You know you have “it”. You just can’t find “it”. So, after looking and trying hard to remember where you put “it” or last saw “it” you go to the store to replace “it”.
“IT” represents so many things that I can’t even give “it” a name. It’s your keys, glasses, the stapler, the phone charger, your ear buds, wallet, yada, yada, yada.
We’ve all heard it a million times … “time is money”. We spend time looking for lost or misplaced items and that’s time we could be getting work done. Work that we get paid for. Hell, it’s time we could be doing just about anything else that would be better than searching for something and, its soooooo frustrating! Oh, and more importantly, it’s time you’re never getting back!
Not being able to find what you want, when you want it, also costs money because when you finally give up looking, you wind up buying whatever “it” is again.
Then, and it always happens, when you’re not even looking, whatever “it” is turns up again. Now you have 2 or 3 of the same thing. You have extras that you really don’t need and probably don’t have space for. It’s an endless cycle and it is costing you time, money and frustration.
So, what to do? It’s really easy. Seriously…it’s easy. Just give everything a home and put it back where it belongs when you’re finished. Anything that doesn’t have a home, a place where it belongs, will become clutter. It’s just a fact.
Look. We’re all busy! We all have the same 24 hours in a day. We can all choose how we spend that time. You can keep doing what you’re doing and waste time looking for things that you know you have but simply can’t find OR, you can decide to do things differently. It will take time to put systems into place and it will take time to form the habit to put things where they belong BUT, once you do, you’ll be so much better off.
Wouldn’t it be great to not have to always be in search of your keys and/or cell phone? Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could find exactly what you need when you need it? Give yourself back the hours of wasted time each day/week and dedicate some time this summer to get your sh*t together.
Purge. Rearrange things so that they make more sense. Put like items together with like items. Get organizing/storage products to store things in and around the house so that they are contained, especially the smaller items.
Designate certain places for important items. For example, always drop your keys in a basket on the counter when you walk into the house. You’ll never misplace your keys again.
I told you. It’s really easy. You just have to make the time to put systems into place and they don’t have to be extravagant or difficult. Keep it simple!
If you need any assistance, give us a call. We’d love to be of service!
In the meantime, take a look at these interesting statistics regarding the cost of disorganization:
• So-called “crisis” purchases or fees related to disorganization can cost as much as 15-20% of your annual budget including buying duplicates of misplaced or broken items, last minute shopping at higher prices and extra interest and finance charges.
• 15% of all paper handled in businesses is lost
• 30% of all employees’ time is spent trying to find lost document
• Average Americans spend one year of their life looking for lost or misplaced items. US News and World Report
• On average, we spend 6 minutes looking for our keys in the morning. IKEA
• The top five items men look for in their homes are clean socks, remote control, wedding album, car keys and driver’s license. IKEA
• For women, the top five items are shoes, a child’s toy, wallet, lipstick and the remote control. IKEA
• The average American wastes 55 minutes a day (roughly 12 days a year) looking for things they own but can’t find. Newsweek
• The average office employee spends 1.5 hours a day (6 weeks per year) looking for things. OrganizedWorld.com
• The typical executive wastes 150 hours a year (almost an entire month), searching for lost information. For someone earning $50,000 a year, this loss is equivalent to $3,842 annually. Forbes ASAP
• Americans waste more than 9 million hours each day looking for lost and misplaced articles. American Demographic Society
• 55% of consumers polled say they would save 16 minutes to one hour a day if they were more organized. Those consumers are then wasting 2-15 days a year! NAPO