Category Archives: five-minute mission

Five-minute mission: Start a Household Notebook

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You will need:

  • a notebook (small enough to move around, big enough to write in)
  • a pen
  • optional: crafty stuff for decoration, elastic or string to attach the pen

Now set up your system:

  • label the front of the notebook
  • if you like, decorate it (washi tape down the spine? Stickers on the cover? Little moveable sticky tabs for the pages?)
  • find a sensible and visible permanent location for it – perhaps a table in the hallway, or a windowsill in the kitchen
  • put a pen next to it (this should not leave the notebook under any circumstances! You might like to tether it to the notebook with an elastic loop or a length of string)
  • revel in having created somewhere to record useful household facts!

Some information which could be written in your notebook:

  • the make and number of your printer, and the type of ink cartridges it takes
  • a list of your favourite dinners, for when you are thinking about what to cook and your mind goes blank
  • your standard grocery shopping list, arranged by area of supermarket or online classification, to help you to check what is needed before you go shopping
  • a list of household jobs which need doing daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly/annually
  • anything else which you find helpful

 

Five-minute mission: Corral your Carrier Bags

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Use this if:

  • you want or need to keep any plastic shopping bags, and
  • you don’t currently have a proper place to put them

You will need:

  • a cardboard box, around the size of a large shoebox or slightly bigger, OR
  • a sturdy bag
  • any of the plastic shopping bags currently floating around your house

Now set up your system:

  • find a sensible place for the box or bag
  • empty each carrier bag and straighten it out, checking it is undamaged
  • now fold it into a neat self-contained little triangle: have a look at Kelly’s post here for illustrations and video instructions for this
  • fold them all up and put in your box/bag
  • clear up as required (torn bags to recycling or bin, any receipts found to your receipts box/file, rubbish to bin, etc)
  • revel in having created a little patch of order!