About this time of year, I’m getting sick of all the disarray from Fall sports and Halloween. I always say “My kids love Halloween, I love November 1st.” Early November seems like a perfect time to regroup, get a handle on the clutter and get prepared for Thanksgiving and holidays beyond.

Some painless strategies for this season’s organizing:

Some painless strategies for this season’s organizing:

1. Sports equipment: Wash, disinfect, Febreze...do whatever you need to do to get it clean. Pack away the uniforms and equipment that might fit your kid in the next season. Save things that can be reused by younger siblings someday. Give away, to friends or Ann Arbor Thrift Shop, the things they have outgrown or will not use again. Disgard the unsalvageable. 2. Halloween costumes: Before putting away this year’s costumes, go through the dress up trunk. Throw out any old ripped, dirty or otherwise unusable garb. If you don’t have a dress up trunk, start one—especially if you have kids or grandkids…you never know when they will come in handy. I have even been known to raid my kids’ costume stashes from time to time. 3. Miscellaneous Autumn hodgepodge: It might help you keep your storage space more organized if you get the orange colored bins from Meijer or The Container Store (I actually LOVE these clear ones!). That way, it’s easier next year to find immediately those things. Of course, you might want to keep this stuff out through Thanksgiving but, if you buy the storage bins now (before the red and green ones show up), you’ll be ahead of the game.

Remember that simple time management strategies apply to household management, too. A little bit of time invested now, will make your life so much easier down the road. Break your tasks up in to those “manageable chunks” so that you can do a little bit at a time. You do NOT want to be cleaning off soccer cleats in January. So, set a goal for yourself and get ‘er done.

Happy November!

Sarah Nicoli is founder and owner of dotmine dayplanners, the fashion meets function dayplanners, based in Ann Arbor. For the past 10 years, she’s learned a whole lot about time management and life balance from her best teachers—her kids, her dogs and her customers. She can be reached at snicoli@timemine.com.