3 QUICK TIPS FOR GETTING ORGANIZED
You’ll never be able to control every little aspect of your life, but with the right organizational strategies, you can come pretty close. The first week of October is National Get Organized Week, and whether you need that whole week, just a day, or much, much longer, here are a few tips to help you tidy up. An Organized House Means an Organized State of Mind
Make your bed.
A Previously Unknown Benefit of Vitamin D DOES VITAMIN D HELP OUR BONES AND OUR MUSCLES?
“But I’m just going to get right back in it tonight!” you might protest. However, making your bed is more of a psychological trick for getting organized than an actual organizational task. When you spend just 2–3 minutes putting your sheets and pillows where they need to go every morning, it’s like a warmup for your organizational muscles. Suddenly, putting away laundry or organizing the junk on your nightstand doesn’t seem so hard!
Create daily (and weekly) organizational routines.
As the weather cools and the days get shorter, we can’t rely as much on the sun for our daily dose of vitamin D. The primary function of vitamin D is regulating the amount of calcium and phosphate in the body. These nutrients are necessary for strengthening our bones and teeth, which becomes increasingly important as we age and our bones naturally become more brittle. While these benefits of vitamin D are well documented, did you know that getting your daily dose of vitamin D can also contribute to healthier muscles? A few years ago, researchers published a study that seemed to show that vitamin D could potentially help people gain muscle mass. While the research team said their results weren’t conclusive, their findings were certainly interesting. Vitamin D enters the body in an inactive form. It doesn’t become active until it comes in contact with the right enzymes in either the liver or the kidneys. To learn more about what factors affect this vitamin’s rate of absorption and activation in the body, researchers observed the levels of inactive vitamin D in 116 women ages 20–74. What they found was that women with higher muscle mass had lower levels of inactive vitamin D, while women with lower muscle mass had higher levels of inactive vitamin D. The conclusion researchers drew was that active vitamin D might help optimize muscle strength. While that conclusion is not ironclad, vitamin D’s other well-known benefits still make it worth getting your daily dose. It can aid weight loss, enhance mood, support cardiovascular health, boost the immune system, and strengthen bones, among many other benefits. So, its potential muscle-boosting properties are just another reason to get more vitamin D. To get more of this important vitamin in your diet, try adding salmon, mushrooms, and even canned tuna to your menu. Also, as winter approaches, it might be time to start taking a vitamin D supplement. Whether you’re 20 or 74 years old, it’s never too late to find ways to strengthen your muscles.
Clutter doesn’t just pop up overnight. It’s the result of weeks, months, or even years of saying, “I’ll get to that later.” Take 15–30 minutes at the end of the day to wash dishes, put stray items in their places, and organize your work station for the following day. For those tasks that take a little longer, like deep-cleaning, schedule and dedicate two or three days a month for them. With these habits, you'll be sure to stay ahead of the clutter.
Throw things away (or donate them).
Take stock of everything in your home, including your shoe collection and what's in your kitchen cabinets and junk drawer. How much of it do you really use? While better storage mechanisms can keep clutter at bay for a time, the only real way to fight clutter is to make sure it never builds in the first place. Have garage sales, donate items to thrift stores, or, if it’s sufficiently junky, just throw away what you don’t need. A decluttered house is a peaceful house! As more and more of us are working remotely, keeping our home clean is more important than ever. An organized, peaceful home means an organized, peaceful workspace and an organized, peaceful state of mind.
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