My regular readers may have noticed that I haven’t written any articles lately. Why? Because I was extremely disorganized and disorganization leads to a lack of productivity, missed deadlines and a high level of stress.

Yes, even organizers suffer from disorganization from time to time so here is the story.

We live in military housing because my husband is a member of the Canadian Armed Forces. A month ago the Base informed us that due to the construction of a 400 space parking lot right beside our house, that we would be moved to a new house (all expenses paid). It would be a “full service” move which includes packing and unpacking service.

We were given 10 days to prepare for the move. Many people might think that this wouldn’t be too bad as I didn’t have to pack or unpack anything but it was CRAZY! The kids were still in school and attending swimming and music lessons and both my husband and I had to work, although we did take three days off for the pack, load/unload and unpack.

We were moved into our new house which is very nice. The unpacking service involves taking everything out of boxes, putting the stuff on any flat surface and leaving with the empty boxes and packing paper. This is my kitchen after the unpack. The counter is covered and the cupboards are empty!

Here are few tips that I used to help conquer this type of chaos and get back on track.

Get help

I enlisted the whole family to help me get organized. Each child did his/her own bedroom and asked for help when they needed it. Even children as young as 4 or 5 years old can put clothes away and put books on shelves. I also had family members help me organize the kitchen. The plus side is that everyone now knows where everything belongs! If your children are too young to help out, hire a sitter to keep them occupied.

Focus on routines

The first thing I did was set up garbage cans and recycle bins in every area of the home. Once trash is found it can be put immediately in its proper place. This prevents clutter from building up all over the place!

We set up the beds so we could get a good night sleep and laundry baskets so dirty clothes would be kept off the floor.

Setting up the bathroom was next because everyone needs clean teeth and a hot shower!

The next thing that got organized was the kitchen. An organized kitchen means less time preparing and cleaning up after meals.

The laundry area was next and once we got the washing machine level it was easy to get things done as all the dirty clothes were piled in laundry baskets.

Done first, perfect later

Once the basics were done, I left things as they were and moved on to the next area. I can easily go back and do the details later but for the moment, it is good enough and I can take the time to write about it.

Here’s the finished kitchen!

Here is the inside of the cupboards. Notice that everything is where I want it (more or less) It is DONE first, later I’ll get it perfect