Tip 19: Type Housesitting Instructions for Your Home, Family and Pets

You will probably have a baby-, house- or pet-sitter sometime during the year. If you have typed-up instructions with all the important phone numbers, addresses, and locations of specific items, you will save yourself lots of time and stress. Having a general document that you can easily edit and print out is a great timesaver.

(10-Minute Tidy: 108 Ways to Organize Your Home Quickly; Getting Started, pg. 31)

Tip 58: Create a Guest Supply Basket

What do you do with all those extra, travel size toiletries? As you go through each drawer, shelf and cabinet in your bathrooms, create one basket of supplies for your guests. This makes it very easy to put out the basket any time you have overnight guests. Store this basket under the sink or in a cabinet in your primary guest bathroom.

(10-Minute Tidy: 108 Ways to Organize Your Home Quickly; Bathrooms, pg. 100-101)

Tip 9: Set All the Clocks in Your Home to the Same Time

Take your cell phone, which is linked to the atomic time clock, and go room by room resetting all alarm and wall clocks. Also check everyone’s watches so that they are also set to the exact same time as everything else in your home. Finally, synchronize all of the clocks in each of the vehicles.

(10-Minute Tidy: 108 Ways to Organize Your Home Quickly; Getting Started, pg. 17)

Tip 32: Clean Out the Refrigerator and Make a Shopping List

For this 10-Minute Tidy, decide if you are going to focus on the shelves, drawers, or doors. If you take everything off the shelves, only put back what is still fresh. List whatever you may want to replace and be sure to wipe off the shelves while they are empty. Repeat this for the draws and doors of the refrigerator as well. I love keeping a magnetic note pad on the side of the fridge. This way everyone can write what he or she used up or would like to purchase.

(10-Minute Tidy: 108 Ways to Organize Your Home Quickly; Kitchen, pg. 53-54)