At Home in the Emerald City
“Touch It Once”
One of my all time favorite organizing rules is, “Touch it once.”
I guarantee that abiding by this rule will save you time … and your sanity. After all, every time you put off putting something away until later, you are touching it at least twice when it could have been touched only once.
Even though you think you are saving a few precious seconds today, in the long run you will be wasting several minutes tomorrow as you attempt to declutter piles, find things you have lost, and clean up dirty dishes that have food caked on them to the point where you don’t even recognize what it was you ate.
Don’t let this rule overwhelm you, though, start out small. Baby steps are the best. For example:
1. You bring the mail into the house, immediately throw away the junk mail.
2. You eat a bowl of cereal, put the dirty dish in the dishwasher. Why leave it on the table, only to touch it later to take to the kitchen to put on the counter, only to touch it yet again later to rinse off and then put in the dishwasher?
3. You kick your shoes off after a long day at work, put them away.
Even kids can learn this vital household rule and trust me, it will make parents everywhere more than thrilled.
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Read more of Lucy’s writing at An Ordinary Mom. If you have questions or suggestions for “At Home in the Emerald City,” please email her at anordinarymom {at} gmail {dot} com.
This is SUCH good advice. The sort of “well, DUH” kind of advice that makes me wonder why in the world I haven’t been doing it all along! Thanks for the tip, Lucy!
This makes so much sense!
Excellent. This is my new motto (and motivation) around the house. I’ve actually said more than once this week: “OK, Janna, remember, touch it once.” Brilliant!