Tips on staying organized

If you are like me, it seems as though there are never enough hours in the day. I constantly struggle with this. I always have a million things on my to-do list, so many projects floating around in my head, and I often times I feel as though I can't keep up with the housework. It makes me feel defeated, overwhelmed, and just plain stressed. When I find myself like this it's as though I'm living in chaos and that makes me crazy.

Something I've learned to do lately to feel in control is to write everything in a planner. I start my weeks on Sunday. First and foremost I've been meal planning which saves me money, and leaves the guesswork out of what will be for dinner each night. I'll usually look up recipes online (pinterest, pinterest, pinterest!) and then make a list of what is for dinner each night. From there I do a little inventory of my cupboards to see what I already have, and what I can utilize or even substitute in the recipes I've chosen for this week. Then I make out my grocery list, and write everything down for each day.

I also have taken more of an organized approach to paying bills. Taken from this, which I found on pinterest, I've started writing when bills are due each month on the printed calender, and every Sunday I sit down and write them out. I realize a lot of people probably already do this, I can't really believe I've gone so long without a system like this. I would always have bills scattered all over the table, and even though they have always been paid on time, this is a much better system I think.

The next thing I've been doing is writing out a schdule, per say. I often feel like I'm behind on all of the housework and I feel like I can never catch up. It builds up and I feel stressed and crazy and just not in a good place. I've found that if I stick to getting at least one thing done a day, I can keep on track. So for example, Monday I will focus on cleaning the bathrooms, Tuesday the kitchen, etc. I also write down a list of any projects I need to get done and try to focus on one at at time with those as well. I know this probably makes me crazy OCD, but I feel like it's really helped for me to stay in control.

Do you have any tips or tricks to staying organized? I'd love to hear them!