2 Weekend Warrior Organization Projects

Weekends are usually jam packed with family events, regular housework, yard work, sporting events, going out with friends, and maybe even a date night, but every once in a while you get that unicorn of a weekend with no plans - what do you do then?  How about a Weekend Warrior Organization project?  Here are 2 projects in areas of the home that, in my opinion, are the best areas to start with when getting organized.  These can each be realistically completed in one weekend (of course, only 1 per weekend - let's not get crazy!)

Paper Organization
I've written about paper organization before, and though it is an intense one, it's one that will leave you feeling the best when it's complete.  You could easily spend weeks on paper organizing if you spent only small chunks of time on it, but if you really commit your weekend to paper organizing, you'll see some amazing results!  

Friday Night

• Designate command central for your weekend project.  This could be a part of your living room floor, a guest bed, your kitchen island or table, or a folding table.  Make sure to pick somewhere that you can leave a giant mess, so if you need your kitchen island or table for food prep or eating, don't pick that.  If your living room floor is the walkway to everywhere in your house, don't pick that.  I like the folding table idea because you could easily move it if needed (in front of the TV, to the bedroom in case of a surprise visitor, etc.) 
• Gather ALL your paper from your entire house, basement, attic, garage, car, etc. and put it in "command central."  If you have some items already fairly organized, you can leave them in their files or boxes, but still bring them to the work area.
• Determine your paper categories.  Once you see all the paper you have, it will be easier to decide how you want to categorize.  Most people have things like: finances, health, property, personal/mementos, current projects.  Will those categories work for you, or do you have others?  Maybe you love to cook and collect recipes - if you want to keep those in paper form, you may have a recipe category.  Maybe you are an artist, so you need a category for drawings.  Maybe you are a writer so you need a category for journals and manuscripts.  The system should work for you!
• Start thinking about what you could throw away.  Are there things you don't need anymore or things that are already available digitally or that you could scan and store digitally?  Don't make any decisions yet, just start pondering.  Your mind will do some of the processing for you as you sleep.

Saturday
After a good night's rest, roll your sleeves up and get started!  

• On a blank piece of paper, write each of the categories you decided on the night before in large letters with a sharpie marker.  Spread these out in your work area.
• Grab three boxes and mark them "Recycle," "Shred," and "Scan"
• Touch every piece of paper - I know this seems like overkill, but if you're going to do it - do it right!  Consider with each one - do I need to keep this for any reason?  If yes, put in one of the categories.  If no, put in one of your boxes - scan, recycle or shred (depending if there is confidential information included.)  I'm not gonna lie, this is going to take you most of the day!  Break it up with snacks, TV, some movement.  If you really start getting bored, use the Pomodoro technique - set the timer for 25 minutes and put your nose to the grindstone, and then set the timer for 5 minutes and do something physical to get your blood pumping.  Then get back to it!  
  • Read my previous post, The Paper Purge, for suggestions on how to decide what to keep.
• In the evening, put in a movie and get out your shredder and shred away!  This is so satisfying  and mindless.  If you don't have a shredder, just box those items up and put them in your vehicle.  You can take them to an office supply store or sometimes to your financial institution for shredding.  You may want to consider investing in a small shredder to keep the paper under control in the future.
• When you're done shredding, start scanning and saving!  If you don't have a scanner, you can simply take pictures with your phone.  You can then shred the physical copies.

Sunday
You should wake up to a few piles of paper in categories.  Now is time for the fun part!  

• Decide on a color for each category - I personally like green for finance, yellow for property, red for health, blue for personal, and I have a purple category for fun.
• Scope out your space.  Where will you store paper?  Think about how often you will need to access the items.  There may be some items in your finance category that you don't need to access very often at all (ex. tax returns) while other items in that category you will need much more often.  You may want to designate long term storage in the basement and short term storage in a desk or filing box.  Consider creating an inbox for all paper to live in until you have time to process it.
• Make a list.  What items do you need to purchase to store the paper?  Some of the usual suspects: Hanging files, file folders, an inbox, binders, file box, a hole punch, page protectors, dividers, label maker.
• Go shopping!  You can do this in person or online.  If you do it in person, you can actually complete your project in the weekend, but if online is preferable, check out Clever Container's office organization supplies.
• Store your paper.  Create your files (remember the color coding system you created this morning.)  Choose what works best for you - files, bins, binders - or some combination.  Read about my Binder System here.
• Commit to a system so your paper doesn't get out of control again!  Check out my system in my post, The First Big Win, Wrangling the Paper!

Get FREE printables to help you organize your paper!

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Kitchen Organization
Back in February of this year, I wrote a post about organizing the heart of your home - the Kitchen!  This included a week-long plan to get your kitchen in order.  You could easily condense this 7 day plan down into a weekend if you were focused and didn't have other plans!  I highly suggest signing up for the free video series, 7 Days to an Orderly Kitchen, at least a week ahead of time, so you can watch the videos and print the checklists to be ready for your kitchen organizing sprint!

Friday Night

• Clean your kitchen.  Wash, dry, and put away all your dishes, clear your counters, and sweep your floors. 
• Get rid of expired or unwanted food.  Throw out past-their-prime leftovers and expired items from your pantry/cabinets and refrigerator and freezer.  Don't do any organizing, just throw out the old and unwanted stuff.

Saturday

• Set up your command central somewhere in your kitchen - table or island is best.  
• Get a couple of boxes and label "Donate" and "Relocate" and have a trash can handy.
• Go through each of these areas one at a time and separate items into either keep, donate, trash, or relocate (you're keeping it, but it doesn't need to live in your kitchen.)  Watch out for duplicates - how many ice cream scoops do you really need?  Keep a running list of the type of organizers you need to purchase.
  • Silverware, cooking and serving utensils, and kitchen gadgets
  • Dishes, containers, glasses, and plastic cups
  • Cookware and serving trays
  • Appliances
  • Food storage (cabinets/pantry and refrigerator)
  • Non food related items (junk drawer, pet supplies, paper)

Sunday
Today should be spent arranging your kitchen by zones.  Consider how you actually use your kitchen and group things for specific tasks together.  Example, create a baking area, a lunch making area, etc.  (If you signed up for the free video tutorial, this is the last video.  Make sure to sign up a week in advance, because you get one video emailed to you each day!)

• Decide on your zones and their locations
• Add to your shopping list any additional organizers you need.
• Go shopping.  If you go in person, make good use of the dollar stores!  If you shop online, check out Clever Container's kitchen section!
• Put your kitchen back together.  You should have much more space now that you've done a purge.  By grouping like things together, you will be so much more efficient in the kitchen!

Sign up for the FREE video series, 7 Days to an Orderly Kitchen

What other areas of your home would you like to see plans for an Weekend Warrior Organization Project?  Email me, fill out the contact page, or comment on this post and I'll be happy to do a future post on some other areas!