How to turn a clear-up into ME-TIME

LeT me tell you, it’s not just the end result of Tap To Tidy that makes me happy, it’s the getting there that’s good for me, too. Tidying is the process — what makes me feel calmer, happier and more in control. and being organised is the result.

On Saturday, I shared tips and organising techniques, to help get you going with your own Tap To Tidy sessions. now I want to help you get a sense of how you might fit that into your busy life, especially if you’ve got children home-learning at the moment; maybe you’re working from home yourself.

It might help if I share with you how I find the time for my organising, crafts and other projects. If you look at what works for me, you can then tweak it to fit in with your own lifestyle and commitments.

In more normal times, if I’m at home on a weekday, the boys would usually be at school. I’d wait until rex has his morning nap time to do something for myself.

Whether that’s some crafting, or organising a cupboard, or getting up to date with the washing or whatever, I really like to use his naps as time for me. With older children it might be about finding time when they’re playing.

Likewise, you could be working, or studying, or home-schooling the kids, but it’s all about looking for those little pockets of time in your day to make the most of them. When the kids are watching a favourite film maybe... or finding a quiet half hour between finishing work and putting the evening meal on.

even if you’re not a worrier like me, you might find that having a bit of structure to your day works well for you. especially as life’s so different at the moment.

a really loose structure — it has to be loose, and you have to be comfortable knowing that, if something doesn’t happen, it doesn’t matter. But if you’ve got little points to look forward to during the day, it can distract your mind from going off into dark places and help you to have a happier time.

It’s not rigid, and it’s not guaranteed. If I don’t get lots done, I don’t beat myself up. But, if I can hit certain points, then I feel like I’ve had an organised day. even if I just:

■ make my bed.

■ Prepare food or a fun snack for the boys.

■ Have some me time with crafting or organising.

Just by achieving those three things I’m able to tell myself ‘I had some wins today’.

You’ll see how making the bed is at the top of my list — if there is one thing I try to do every day, even if it ends up only getting done at 5pm, that’s it.

You might have a different task at the top of your list — but whatever the small tasks are that matter most to you, if you just try and hit those points each day you can say you’re winning, too. waiting for the animals to go to the toilet, while I think about what I’ve got to get done for the day. Then, I will come back inside and make myself a cup of tea: builder’s, milk, two sugars. and I’ll probably chuck the washing in the laundry baskets in the utility room and put a load on — that way I stay on top of it. Then, if no one else is up, I will get started on a task — and because it’s just me I can focus on what I’m doing and get it done that bit quicker.

GET THE WEEK’S LUNCHES SORTED

WITH the kids at home at the moment, making a week’s worth of sandwiches with different kinds of filling and putting them in the freezer at the start of the week makes things that bit easier.

Just leave some in the fridge to thaw each night, ready for the next day.

I do bagels with ham and cheese, cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches, jam, peanut butter — there’s not much that can’t freeze (although marmite doesn’t come out that great, I don’t think). Do what you can to make it easy on yourself!

ORGANISE FOR LESS DRAMA

BEING organised lets you get through the day with minimal drama because you know where everything is and you’re not tripping over clutter.

and the less stressed you are, the better you’ll feel in yourself. Having a place for everything (like your keys for example) means you don’t end up running around thinking, where the hell are they — even if people don’t always stick to it.

If you’ve got a nice side table, then a lovely bowl would do — if you’ve a candle that’s run out, but

you still love the look of the holder it came in, just pour in a little boiling water to lift out any excess wax then use that for your keys.

Or you could use an old chopping board, screw in gold hooks for your keys and hang that on the wall. Even just a hook will do. The main thing is, that’s where they go, so when you need them you don’t need to waste time looking.

READY FOR REFILL HOUR

Sunday is when I refill everything — all my jars, containers and dispensers — and make sure we’re all stocked up for the week ahead.

So I refill all my candles, all my cleaning and detergent bottles from the big bulk packets I use, all of my diffusers, even the egg holder and the bread bin — anything I can think of in the house.

I genuinely enjoy the whole process of refill. It doesn’t have to be Sunday, of course — choose whichever day suits your routine. you might find a Monday evening, say, is the perfect time.

But it works really well to have a bit of time to get everything refilled, and then you don’t have to think about running out of anything all week.

SHELF FOR BATHROOM BITS AND BOBS

I had a random piece of wood in the junk trunk — it had probably come off the side of something — and I thought, that could make a nice shelf to keep things tidy in the bathroom. I just had to add a few bits . . .

If you want to make your own bathroom tidy, here’s how: I USED:

■ DRILL and drill bit

■ SMALL, flat piece of wood

■ Chunky piece of rope

■ EIGHT brass hooks

■ STICK-ON hook

1. I DRILLED a hole either end of the wood, got some thick rope and threaded it through, tied a knot at each end, and that was it — I had a shelf ready to hang!

2. THEN I screwed eight little brass hooks into the bottom of the shelf, to hang things like my scented bath bags from them.

3. I hung the shelf up on the wall by the rope. I didn’t want to drill into my bathroom tiles, so I used a really strong stick-on hook, which has worked fine.

4. I ARRANGED some bathroom bits and bobs on there — it’s perfect!

STACK UP YOUR APPS

I’VE even used my Tap To Tidy seven steps to organise the apps on my phone. So, you get them all out — take all your apps out of any folders they are already in. you do your mental scan, thinking about what you’ve got. Sort through them, deleting any that you’re not keeping. and then you find the survivors a home. I organise mine by colour — going from blue to green, to yellow, orange, pink, red, white and black. So, the Facebook app is blue — it will be on my blue page; Instagram, that’s pink, so it’s on my pink page. There are a couple of miscellaneous apps on the last page that don’t fit into any one colour category (which upsets me; I almost deleted those apps!). The result is that your phone looks like a rainbow, but also you know exactly where everything is.

TIME TO SPRUCE UP YOUR TECH

ThE cupboard underneath the telly is for the boys’ consoles and computer games.

To keep them tidy, I’ve got a piece of pegboard in there — just propped against the back of the cupboard, with attachments (shelves, jars for the power leads and wire brackets to hold the consoles) to keep all their kit.