Staff picks: Tips for staying organized

Spring is almost here along with warmer weather, the promise of summer time, and unfortunately spring cleaning. In order to make this season more productive and clutter-free, check out these staff picks about getting organized.

If you’re like me and have a lot of clothes you need to get rid of but can’t decide what you can give up, turn all the hangers in your closet to face in one direction. When you wear an item, turn the hanger the opposite way. At the end of the year, or when you exchange all your clothes for the season, you can see all the clothes you never wore (and probably never will). These you can donate to Goodwill and feel refreshed with your newly un-stuffed closet. [Allie Gruszkiewicz]

I have never been organized, but as high school has gone along, I have tried many things to improve my organization skills. The one thing that has stuck is that I always leave my backpack and whatever else I am taking to school in exactly the same spot. I have been told I am very OCD, so why not use that in a positive way? Repetition and routine is always the best way to stay organized. [Tyler Hotz]

Every social media feed is flooded with suggestions on how to finally get your life organized. The kind of thing you save as something to do…eventually. Probably. Maybe. Okay, probably not. But every once and awhile, you do find a great trick; so here’s a 1-minute folding trick from Pinterest that fixed my jammed and overflowing t-shirt drawer. [Madison Chan]

In all of my 18 years, I still have not found a way to get organized that I can stick with for longer than a week. That being said, I voted for this week’s Staff Pick just so I could get some ideas from other people. [Danielle Fannon]

I have to agree with Danielle on this one, but I have managed to find one thing that helps me a little. I buy a month-by-month planner, and I color code my events and due dates. School events are blue and personal ones are purple. Due dates are written in red and highlighted. I make sure to cross of each day when it’s over so I can keep track of what day it is. [Cassidy Bailey]

I have always loved office supplies and my family has made fun of me for it for so long. I don’t have a reason for it; I just like them. Anyways, I find that when I get notebooks with cool designs and interesting detailing, it makes me want to keep them more organized and want to utilize them. So if you hate taking notes and keeping them organized, try personalizing the notebook or getting one with an interesting design to make things a little more fun. [Kira Suerth]

If sleep is your favorite thing in the world like mine, then you’ve experienced that morning where you can barely make it out the door in time. In order to shave time off your morning routine and stay organized, color coordinate your closet. It seems like a lot of effort and it is for a few hours, but after you’re done you’ll have a nice ROYGBIV closet that will make picking clothes out a breeze. [Katie Matthews]

Contrary to popular belief, I am an organized person. One thing I do is use separate binders for each class and always three hole punch everything. Keeping notes and past assignments in an easy to access place is helpful when studying for tests. [Wyeth Wilson]

When it comes to my classes, I like to know what work I completed that day, so I am always sure to put dates on all my papers. The best way to organize a binder for everything is by topic and then by date. It should always go from the furthest dates to the most present. It’s especially helpful when finals start and you need to remember what you learned and when so you can make sure all your information is in the right order. I date things so often I find myself dating my sticky notes. [Madison Tenney]

I will be the first to admit that I am tragically scatter brained and am very forgetful if I don’t write everything down in my agenda. Needless to say, if I don’t write it down, it probably won’t get done. All of my productivity, I owe to my planner. [Maggie Kimber]