How to Organize It Archives - Prioritized Living

Stop Drowning In Your Inbox: How to Organize Your Gmail

This post is part 1 in the series How to Organize It.

True story: The other day, I had to show my tech-savvy husband how to delete a message in Gmail. It wasn’t because he asked either; I had suggested deleting some junk that had cropped up.

Gmail’s whopping 15 GB of E-mail storage space is a hoarder’s playground. With capacity like that and the constant flood of electronic communication, it’s so incredibly easy to find yourself drowning under thousands of E-mails in your inbox. There are perhaps some special people in the world who like filing E-mails or papers, but the rest of us would rather enjoy life.

However . . . how often have you missed out on paying a bill because the E-mail notification got lost in your inbox? When was the last time you left a message in your inbox as a reminder to do something, but you might as well have thrown it into a bottomless pit?

With Gmail’s abundant features and a little know-how, you can conquer your existing inbox without sifting mind-numbingly through each individual E-mail . . . and you can set yourself up for future success with some quick automation. Here are 10 tips to get you on your way. [Read more…]

4 Easy Ways to Organize Your Recipes Quickly

This post is part 2 in the series How to Organize It.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

Are you buried under a mountain of recipes? Piles of cookbooks, boxes of gravy-stained recipe cards, printouts of recipes you want to try – where does it end? All you really want is a system for honoring your family’s special recipes and organizing new favorites. Try these four methods to bring order to your recipe chaos.

Piles of cookbooks, boxes of gravy-stained recipe cards, printouts of recipes you want to try – where does it end?

All you really want is a system for honoring your family’s special recipes and organizing new favorites. If you’re ready to create a simple, effective, and foolproof system for keeping on top of your recipes, try these four methods to bring order to the chaos: [Read more…]

How to Organize Your Bathroom Cleaning Supplies

This post is part 3 in the series How to Organize It.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

I don’t know anyone who likes cleaning the bathroom.

You’re spraying, scrubbing, scouring, bending, and jumping . . . if you struggle to reach the top of the mirror like me. And then, before you know it, it’s time to do it all over again.

But there are ways you can make the process quicker, easier, and less stressful. Organizing your bathroom cleaning supplies is one of the best ways to increase your efficiency, move easily from bathroom to bathroom, and know that you have everything you need in one handy spot.

Plus — bonus! — it makes it that much easier for your husband or kid to clean the bathroom without asking you where every little thing is.

So here we go! Today I’m sharing my best tips for organizing your bathroom cleaning supplies and making this necessary chore a smoother project.

[Read more…]

Here’s How to Hack Your Way to an Organized Refrigerator

This post is part 4 in the series How to Organize It.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

Ahh, the fridge. That chilly black hole where perfectly good food vanishes until the stink leads you to it. Or where you mutter curses under your breath as you pull everything out in order to find that one thing you need.

As little more than a giant box with lots of oddly shaped foods, the refrigerator can be an organizing nightmare. Too often, you wind up with wasted food and even double purchases after you lose an item in the recesses of the fridge.

But getting your fridge organized — and keeping it organized — is surprisingly simple. With a few fundamental principles and the right tools, you can take your refrigerator from maddening to organized in a snap. [Read more…]

9 Clever Storage Solutions for Organizing Your Family’s Shoes

This post is part 5 in the series How to Organize It.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

Shoes have a sneaky way of walking themselves where they don’t belong. Kids’ shoes especially wind up under beds, strewn across floors, and underfoot in doorways.

It’s messy, it’s disorganized, and it drives you crazy when you constantly hear, “MOM!!! Where are my shoes?!”

So it makes sense that the right shoe storage solution for your family must be kid-friendly. (If they don’t use it, it won’t work!) Your shoe organizer has to sit where it makes the most sense for how you live your lives. And it has to meet your mom standards for functionality, quality, and even aesthetic appeal.

I have tried a number of approaches to shoe storage over the year, and these are some of my favorite products and solutions:
[Read more…]

How to Organize Your Passwords: My LastPass Review

This post is part 6 in the series How to Organize It.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

How many passwords do you have?

Until relatively recently, I didn’t realize just how many login credentials I own — more than 100!

Think about it: You have logins for your E-mail accounts, bank accounts, credit cards, investment accounts, your streaming video accounts, online retailers, travel sites, social media sites, utility providers . . . the list goes on!

And you might think you’ve got it under control by using variations of a few passwords across all these sites . . . uuuuuntil the day that there’s a security breach.

Yeah, that happened to me.

One day, one site was compromised. So my logins at a bunch of sites were suddenly potentially vulnerable. I knew I needed to beef up my passwords and have different passwords for every site I visited. But how on earth would I keep track of them???

The answer is a password manager.

I latched on to one out of necessity, but I will seriously never go back. Here’s why I’m obsessed with LastPass, an awesome password manager. [Read more…]

11 Smart Ways to Organize Tupperware & Food Storage Containers

This post is part 7 in the series How to Organize It.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

In homes across the country, we are waging a battle against our Tupperware containers.

You know exactly what I mean! You’ve got that drawer or cabinet that’s stuffed with toppled containers, mismatched lids, and tubs of every shape and size. And when you reach in there to grab one, you can never quite find the one you need . . . or you can never locate its lid.

But getting those food storage containers tidy and accessible is easier and less expensive than you might think. If you’re looking to organize Tupperware in your home, these 11 systems and tools are invaluable. [Read more…]