Happy first of the month! Each first of the month, I go through all these tiny organizing routines that I’ve never written down, but I thought I’d do a quickie post for you today. I guess I’ve got too much momentum from the 31 Days of Clutter-Free Living.
Most importantly, I get to throw out my contacts and start with a new pair. Yay!
Here are some other things that may or may not get done to organize on the first of the month:
- Filing papers from my kitchen counter into my filing system.
- Change air filters. Clean humidifiers.
- Clean the fridge (This is especially great to do the day before you go food shopping.)
- Turn the physical calendar hanging in the kitchen and check for major upcoming events. Kittycat has been giving me daily countdown of days until her birthday.
- If you send out greeting cards, check your Perpetual Birthday Calendar
. (I don’t, hubby does.) - Clean makeup brushes.
- Treat my minivan to a car wash.
- I don’t have a bulletin board, but if you do, now is a great time to give it a 2-minute makeover. Purge outdated items and straighten things that stay on the board.
- Clean out my purse.
- Turn or flip the mattress.
- Change the kitty litter and clean the box.
- Sigh. If it is the first of April, August, or December, I am getting in the habit of requesting my free credit report for the year. Which one? It doesn’t matter, but I’m going at them in alphabetical order. April/Equifax. August/Experian. December/TransUnion. I’ll never actually remember this, so I have a recurring reminder on my calendar. Remember, go through the government’s website https://AnnualCreditReport.com, and it’s free.
. (I don’t, hubby does.)
Here’s a new one: call for a charity donation pickup. Why wait for the “perfect” time to move out your donations? Call your favorite service each month, and within about two weeks, you’ll have both a deadline (to motivate you) and a routine to get you in the habit of getting unwanted items out of the house, garage and your car. If you get in the habit of making that call each and every first of the month, it’s going to be a smaller, underwhelming amount of stuff leaving the house on a regular basis. You already have routines for bringing stuff into the house (weekly grocery shopping). Set up a routine for getting your things to leave, too!
Then there are the ones I remind you about on Facebook each month. Are you following me there?
- Check your Tickler file for upcoming To Do’s. (If you don’t have a Tickler File, you probably want to sign up for our Filing Freedom class.)
- Download your photos from cameras and phones, and delete obvious trash pictures.
- Check your Carbonite or Backblaze backup, and your External Hard Drives to ensure they are working.
What else do you do on the first of the month to stay organized?
