1. Every time you take something off of your body, put it AWAY, not DOWN.
This means no clothes on the bed, shoes in a pile, or dirty socks on the floor. Every time you change your clothes, put everything you take off where it goes or in the laundry. When you remove your jewelry, put that away too!
2. Deal with all of today’s mail at the same time every day.
The mail comes almost every day, so instead of letting it pile up until its overwhelming, why not go through it every evening? Recycle the junk, immediately shred the sensitive stuff (not put it in a Shred pile for later, just do it now). If you are receiving bills or statements that you can get electronically instead, go online and set those up. If you scan those documents, than do it. You can really deal with all of your mail in 5-10 minutes a day, but if you wait until its a big mess it will take you 3 times as long! Bonus is that you won’t have to pay fines anymore or having stress like paying bills late, forgetting events, or missing your car’s emission test date!
3. Make a house/family rule that everyone gets their stuff out of the common areas each night.
This goes for the Living Room, Kitchen, Dining Room, etc. Anyone who has shoes, toys, papers, half-finished projects, personal items, etc. needs to put that stuff away each evening. Make this a priority that happens BEFORE everyone melts away after dinner to watch TV, get on their phones, or play. The parents set the example but this is an important life skill to learn and is just being considerate no matter who you live with.
