Week 1 Dealing with Paper Clutter
Week 2 Handling Clothing Chaos
Week 3 - Start Your Day the Evening Before
Week 4 - Make meal planning and replenishment a routine
Week 4 Make meal planning and replenishment a routine.
* Keep a running list of needed items on the refrigerator.
* Get in the habit of planning meals for the week. Keep weekly plans and rotate. 
* Select a day of the week to clean out your refrigerator, plan your meals, and shop for groceries. If you do this on the same day every week, it is more likely to become a routine.
* Buy duplicates of anything that you use on a daily basis: soap, detergent, toothpaste, toilet paper, garbage bags, etc.
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Week 3 - Start your day the evening before Develop a simple evening and morning routine that include the simple actions that make each day more effective. Store these in a document on your computer so they can be changed or expanded when needed. Place these routines back to back in a single page protector. Purchase the white board markers that come stored in a white board eraser to use in checking off your lists and then erasing them each day.
** Depending on your season in life, your job, and other responsibilities, you will have to determine what goes in your morning and evening routines. These are simply suggestions for maintaining our homes and lives in a way that protects us from unnecessary stress and chaos.
Some important things to include in an evening routine:
Wash the dishes
Make lunches for the next day
Sweep or “swiffer” the kitchen floor
Put out clothes for the next day
Spend 15 minutes picking up and putting away items left out of place in the house (When my children were small, I gave them each a tote bag with instructions on how many items they were to pick up and put away. I made a quick assessment of how many items were out and then divided it by the number of kids. I sometimes set a timer. It made them get it over with more quickly. If this is done regularly, the mess does not get so overwhelming everyone wants to put off doing it becasue it takes too long.)
Make a list of things that must be done the next day
Sort the mail (If your paper is out of control, see the ideas in week 1 below for more details in this area.) 
Some important things to include in a morning routine:
Make the bed - (Once the bed is made, a large part of the room looks neat)
**Prayer, Read the Bible - Depending on your season in life and/or your job, you may find it necessary to do this during the kid’s afternoon nap or in the evening after they have gone to bed, but be sure to include it somewhere during the day! Regardless of circumstances, time with God is often neglected if it is not done early in the day. Even though this is included as part of a routine, it is actually a delightful time to be anticipated and enjoyed.
**Exercise - even if it is just 15 minutes (longer ideally) - This may not be possible for you in the morning, but include it somewhere in your day.
Spend 5 minutes in each bathroom wiping the counters, etc.
Empty trash
Empty and/or load the dishwasher
Do 1 or more loads of laundry- wash, fold, put away - Complete the entire process (If you have a clothing system set up, this does not take very long. See Week 2 below for more details.)
Do any advance dinner preparation that can be done
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Week 2 Handling Clothing Chaos
Place a container for laundry in each bedroom and/or bathroom. It can be placed in the closet or hung on the back of a door. The white basket below is on a sliding shelf in a closet.
Set up a laundry sorting center inthe laundry room, if possible. Have at least 3 sorting bins that are designated for dark colors, light colors, and bathroom linens. If you do all the laundry, make it part of your daily routine to quickly gather dirty laundry from each room’s hamper and sort into the appropriate container. When you notice the right amount for a load in one of the bins, you can quickly put a load in the nearby washing machine. If each person does his/her own laundry, the bins can still be used to sort an individual’s loads before they wash their clothes.
If you have a small amount of floor space, a wire shelf into which labeled plastic containers can be stored works well. Be sure to use a container that is large enough to hold a load of laundry. The width between the shelves and the number of shelves used can be adjusted on the unit shown below. 
If you have no floor space, shelves attached to the wall could be used instead.
Do you hate searching for hangers after the laundry is done? Place a small bin or basket somewhere in each closet into which hangers can be dropped when clothing is removed.
An end section of the closet rod or shelf could be used as well.
A word about ironing:
Many people do very little, if any, ironing, but if you do, here are some ideas:
Even if clothing needs to be ironed, go ahead and hang each piece up and put away in its proper closet. If you are planning to iron everything later at one time, place it together in the closet so you can find it easily. This keeps family members from searching for or digging through baskets looking for clothing.
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Week 1 Dealing with Paper Clutter
It’s not too soon to begin getting together the information needed to file your tax return and that means being able to find the necessary paperwork and receipts.
If you have lost the battle with paper, this week’s suggestions are for you.
The most efficient way to deal with a backlog of unprocessed paper is to sort it into broad categories quickly. You can refine your system later. For now, determine to put every piece of paper into one of the general categories listed below. If you need a category that is not listed, add it as you sort.
1. First, purchase and gather any supplies you need before you begin.
Trash bags and a trash container
a box that can be used to collect loose papers from around the house
a box or two of hanging folders.
a large box of manila folders.
a labeler to produce easily readable labels quickly (This is optional.)
a folder or container in which to place only your unpaid bills
baskets, appropriate containers, or even temporary boxes for the categories mentioned in #5 below
files, trays or a paper sorter for the categories mentioned in #6 below
a shredder if possible
2. Gather the paper that needs to be processed into one room. Bring a large trash can and a recycling bin into the room in which you will be dealing with the paper.
3. Label the tabs of the hanging folders with the following categories:
(Even if you already have files for the categories listed below, you may want to make new ones for sorting purposes if you have a large backlog of unprocessed paper.)
Receipts
Information for planner or address book (addresses, phone numbers, business cards, etc).
Car Insurance
Medical Insurance
Retirement
Tax Information
Receipts for bills that have been paid
Bank Statements
Credit Card Information
Any broad category you need - Categories may be added as you sort.
Place the tabs in alphabetical order and leave as much space as possible between each hanging folder making it is easy to drop items into the folders quickly.
4. Designate a basket, tray, or dated bill sorter as the only place where unpaid bills will be placed.
5. Label temporary boxes or the actual storage containers you will use with each of the following categories:
Catalogs
Magazines
Photos and papers you want to place in a scrapbook
Projects
Office supplies
Information that needs to be shredded
Papers that need to be kept in another room
any new category that fits your particular needs
6. Label files, desk trays, a paper sorter, or anything you are using which will be kept in an easily accessible space - (on or near a desk if possible) - with the following labels:
To Read
To File
Action Required
Mail for Family Members
7. Determine an appropriate amount of time needed to go through your material. Set a timer if you tend to get sidetracked or find yourself stopping to read everything. It is important to keep your momentum going by quickly putting each item in one of the places mentioned above.
You can refine your system once things are in categories, but at least you will be able to locate important papers.
8. If you used temporary boxes for sorting, Find appropriate containers for the items listed in #5 above and put away. 
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