Being organised at homeLosing weight and making an effort to be more healthy are the number one goals people usually set themselves for the New Year.A close second is getting organised, believes Cindy Swan.She has spent more than 28 years helping people organise their lives.“For 90 percent of people, their second resolution or goal for the year is to get organised,” said Mrs Swan.In the home setting this usually involves downsizing, scheduling and multi-tasking, she said.DownsizingDownsizing is very difficult for most people, Mrs Swan acknowledged. She recommends that people only keep the things they love. And if they love everything they have, they keep the things they love the most.“To be organised is a process and it involves you getting rid of things unless you have the real estate to house it.“With real estate so expensive in Bermuda I think downsizing is all the more important,” she said.Mrs Swan said she had a coach come in to help her downsize at her own home at the start of the year. The coach gave her three piles: keep, toss and give away. She had to sort through her belongings and place each one in one of the piles.She said most people find it difficult to throw things away and so the give away pile becomes extremely important.“Re-purpose items, give it to someone who is going to love it as much as you or who needs it more than you,” she said.Another guide to help you determine what you ought to get rid of is to ask yourself if you’ve needed or used the item in a year. If you haven’t, Mrs Swan said, that’s a good indication that it should be tossed or given away.SchedulingMrs Swan said it’s especially important for families to set up a schedule of activities and tasks they need to do every day. This helps promote unity as each person sees their role and understands that by fulfilling their responsibility they help the family stay on track and organised.She recommends for individuals in the family to attack those responsibilities they most dread first. Getting these chores out of the way early helps ensure they don’t linger around.“Most of us procrastinate and try to avoid doing those things we don’t like to do,” she said.Another feature of scheduling that helps families to be organised is getting ready the night before. According to Mrs Swan, this is a must for working parents.She also suggests trying to put extra time into your day by setting your clocks fast.“You cannot buy time, but you can steal it,” she said.“How? You have to trick yourself set your clocks fast. In your car, at home and your watch.”Multi-taskingJust when the alternative health practitioners and many of the self-help gurus, tell you to concentrate on one thing at a time, Mrs Swan says to be organised it’s important to multi-task.“Multi-tasking for the working person is extremely important to do,” she said. Making the best use of time often means doing more than one thing at the same time, she said.“When you are watching TV, for example, why not take your socks which often get mismatched and match them up,” she said. “When you’re cooking, try cleaning up as you go along.”She said this works wonders on the psyche, as you’re not faced with a mountain of cleaning at the end, you don’t get to feel that the cleaning was a chore.