Successfully managing the many aspects of our everyday lives can be tricky.

Having to keep the home organized, schedules coordinated, appointments kept, and keeping on top of so many other things can get overwhelming. Prioritizing them all becomes a real challenge.

Well, as they say, “there’s an app for that”. And when it comes to improving your organization and productivity, there’s actually quite a few.

Tablets and especially smartphones are never far from our reach, so why not put them to use to help simplify your life?

Here are nine of the better free organization and productivity apps that can make your daily life simpler to manage. All of them are available on both iOS and Android devices.

1. 24me

24me functions as a virtual personal assistant, providing an all-in-one tool for managing notes, tasks, calendars, and to-do lists.

Paying bills, providing event reminders, connecting your social networks, and even sending gifts to friends are just a few of the tasks this handiest of organization apps can help you manage.

24me website

2. ChoreMonster

The app’s website confidently promises that “Your kids will beg to do their chores”. That might be a stretch, but ChoreMonster takes a fun, engaging approach towards home organization for kids aged 4 to 12.

Parents add home chores into the app and list rewards for completing them, such as an extra hour of video game time or ice cream for the kids.

Kids sign into the app and can review to-be-completed chores and what the rewards are for completing them. The colourful interface is easy and fun to navigate for them.

ChoreMonster website

3. Cozi Family Organizer

This easy-to-use organization app is a 3-time winner of the Mom’s Choice Award and helps your entire family’s daily routine run smoother.

Coordinate schedules, create and share shopping lists and chores, create event and appointment reminders, and view the entire family’s plans for the day at a glance.

This handy communication tool lets everyone in your family view the same information. That means any changes made in the app on one device will update everyone else’s app.

Cozi website

4. Wunderlist

Whether it’s vacation planning, managing projects at work, or sharing a shopping list, Wunderlist helps you manage each task.

Set reminders about deadlines and scheduled appointments, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks any longer.

Wunderlist website

5. LastPass

It can be a nuisance keeping track of the many usernames and passwords we rely on these days, especially with internet security concerns making it a smart idea to change your passwords semi-regularly.

If your device’s default password management isn’t to your liking, one alternative option is LastPass. It helps you manage all your login information in one app that’s accessed with a master password.

Online shopping is made much easier as well. You can also set the app up to give selected friends or family members access to your protected information in case of an emergency.

LastPass website

6. Our Groceries Shopping List

The best organization apps are user-friendly and Our Groceries Shopping List is just that.

Create grocery lists that can be shared on the devices of everyone else in your family. Whenever someone buys a grocery item, simply cross it off the list and everyone will be aware of the purchase.

Leave notes for specific items if need be. And the app also lets you add recipes and makes it easy to add needed ingredients to your shopping list.

Our Groceries Shopping List website

7. Closet+

A closet organizer keeps your closet in order and is one effective way to make it easier to decide what to wear. Clothes organization apps like Closet+ can also help you plan your wardrobe and keep track of what you own.

Keep track of when outfits were last worn and what items of clothing are best paired together. This can help you get a better sense of the value you’re getting from your wardrobe.

Closet+ website

8. BrightNest

For organization apps that help you stay on top of housework, try BrightNest. This app helps you establish and maintain a regular maintenance schedule for keeping your home organized and clean.

Set reminders for upcoming cleaning tasks. The app also offers tips for specific chores you need to do, drawing from the thousands of home care articles on BrightNest.com.

BrightNest website

9. Evernote

The app’s tagline on their home page is “Meet Evernote, your second brain”.

Evernote helps you organize notes, tasks, ideas, inspiration, images, or anything else you might find online, syncing them to all your devices.

Your notes and ideas can also be easily shared from the app with friends, family members, or work colleagues.

Evernote website

Supplement these organization apps with our home organization solutions

These organization apps can help you manage your daily life and so can many of our home organization and storage products, which come with a 10 year warranty.

From custom closets to beautifully crafted custom cabinetry for the entire home, Organized Interiors can help in areas beyond what these organizations apps are capable of assisting you with.

Schedule your free in-home design consultation with us today!

See also:

• 11 Good Organization Habits That Highly Organized People Swear By
• The One Touch Rule Is A House Clutter Solution That Works
• How to Organize Your Bedroom Closet and Save Time

It’s estimated that the average American will lose $5,591 of belongings over the course of their lifetime.

Seeing such an eye-opening dollar figure attached to the negative effects of living a disorganized, clutterbug lifestyle can make one take stock of their own organization habits.

That figure comes from a survey of 1,000 American adults by Pebblebee, a Bluetooth tracking company. In that same survey, 20% of the respondents admitted to losing or misplacing personal items on a weekly basis.

Are your organization habits comparable to the “average” person? Think about how much $5,000+ can buy, such as a luxury vacation for two or a medium scale home improvement project.

Here are five ways that being a clutterbug can negatively impact your life.

1. A clutterbug wastes a lot of time searching for things at home

A disorganized home causes a clutterbug to waste lots of time searching for misplaced items. A Boston marketing firm conducted a study that found the average American wastes 55 minutes a week looking for misplaced items in the home.

That works out to the equivalent of more than one full day being wasted every month simply because someone is disorganized.

We live in a world where waiting mere seconds for a Wi-Fi signal to be found or a web page to load on our smartphone or tablet makes us impatient.

Shouldn’t we be placing more value on the hours of time many of us needlessly waste because our clutterbug tendencies slow down our daily routine?

2. Clutterbugs are more likely to incur late fees for bills

Online bill payment options and bill payment apps for smartphones make it easier than ever to take care of monthly payments for all the services we use.

Even with these conveniences, a Harris Interactive study found that 23% of adults still pay their bills late (and incur late fees) because they’re too disorganized.

Whether your e-bill or email notices requesting bill payment are getting lost within your digital clutter or your clutterbug habits are causing you to misplace your old-school paper bills, your hard-earned money could be better spent elsewhere.

3. A clutterbug wastes money on self storage units

There are some good reasons for renting a self storage unit. Perhaps you’ll be out of the country for an extended period of time and it doesn’t make financial sense to keep your current residence.

Unless you’re lucky enough to have a good friend with an extra 100 square feet of empty storage space at your disposal in their home, a self storage unit is probably your only option.

Maybe you need a temporary storage space to hold the belongings of a recently deceased friend or family member. Another reason might be that you underestimated how much space you’d have for your things in the new home or condo you’ve moved into.

While these are viable reasons to rent a self storage unit, the reality is that most of these units are filled with clutter that homeowners just haven’t bothered to deal with.

The North American self storage industry generates billions of dollars every year, mostly because of the clutterbug habits many of us have.

A conservative estimate of the monthly cost to rent a 10 x 5 storage unit is about $80-100 a month. That number can rise substantially based on the location of the storage facility, as well as extra insurance and climate control fees.

It’s much more sensible to tackle your home clutter problems. Invest the money you’d be wasting on storage fees on practical home organization and storage products  that deliver a much better return on investment.

4. Disorganized homes waste a lot of food

A 2014 study by Value Chain Management International found that $31 billion worth of food was wasted in Canada every year. While much of that waste occurs at the manufacturing and retail level, 47% of it takes place in the home. 

Another recent study revealed that the average American household throws away an average of $640 worth of food annually.

Some of that waste can be attributed to poor organization systems within pantries, freezers, and refrigerators. Disorganization in these storage areas increases the likelihood of food being misplaced and lost within the food clutter.

The perpetual upwards creep of food prices makes the wasteful management of food add up financially over time. Of course, there’s also the added burden of the needless carbon footprint that wasted food leaves.

$31 billion worth of food is wasted in Canada every year.

5. Being a clutterbug can hold you back at work

If your clutterbug habits follow you to work, they may be holding you back in your career. A survey by retailer OfficeMax revealed the following facts from the 1,000 respondents:

• 77% believe clutter slows down their productivity
• more than half think clutter negatively impacts their motivation level
• 90% believe clutter negatively impacts their home and work lives
• 35% are embarrassed by the state of their workspace
• 40% had a lower opinion of co-workers who had excess clutter in their workspace

Change your clutterbug ways to save time and money

With so many drawbacks to living a clutterbug lifestyle, why not change your ways and reclaim some of that precious lost time and money?

Enabling yourself with more effective organization systems for your home is a good place to start. From closet makeovers to custom storage and organization solutions for the rest of the home, Organized Interiors can help.

Schedule your complimentary in-home consultation with one of our design experts today to get started.

See also:

• 10 Reasons Why Storage Units Don’t Make Sense
• 7 Signs It’s Time To Ask For Help With Your Home Disorganization Problems
• 14 Home Organization Solutions To Improve Your Household In 2017

Home disorganization can become a major problem without efficient home organization systems, the proper amount of self-discipline, or simply if your busy life isn’t allowing you the necessary time to maintain a tidy home.

Consider what happens when you stop exercising. The longer you go without doing it, the more out of shape you get and the more daunting it becomes trying to work your way back down to a body size you’re satisfied with.

Home organization works much the same way. The longer you procrastinate on dealing with your home disorganization issues, the steeper the mountain becomes in trying to restore your home to a functional level of organization once again. This can negatively impact your quality of life, so don’t ignore the problem.

Here are seven clear signs that it may be time to ask for help to address your home disorganization problems.

1. Your home disorganization is affecting your sleep

A consistent inability to get a good night’s sleep may be directly linked to the clutter that’s causing the home disorganization that you’re surrounded by. Medical research has found that the stress caused by clutter stays with you during your waking hours, even if you’re not fully conscious of it.

Your brain registers all that clutter cleanup as work that needs to be done, which contributes to feelings of guilt, overwhelmingness, and an inability to relax. These negative feelings are also present both when you’re falling asleep and while you’re sleeping. This tends to adversely affect the quality and lengths of your sleep.

2. You’re depressed, lack energy, and feel overburdened by home disorganization

No good comes from home disorganization. You’ll waste hours each week searching for things. More serious concerns come when home disorganization starts to contribute to depression, an inability to muster much energy during the day, and an overburdened feeling that a resolution is unattainable.

A lack of sleep only compounds all of these problems.

3. Relationships in your home are becoming strained

Maintaining harmony between family members can become harder when your home disorganization issues really start to spiral out of control. Chances are that at least one family member who’s a neatnik (perhaps it’s you) is at their wit’s end over the perpetually messy state of the home.

That can lead to harsh words and a short fuse with the family’s more organization-challenged members. After all, we’re each only able put up with a certain level of frustration before reaching a breaking point.

4. You’re adapting to your home disorganization instead of fixing the problem

Tackling your home disorganization problems requires effort. You need to fully assess the problem, figure out a game plan, and then implement a solution. The bigger the home disorganization problem is, the more effort will be required on your part, which can feel daunting and like too much work.

On the surface, simply adapting to the disorganized state of your home seems like the easy way out. Yes, you may be saving the time you’d need to invest in fixing the problem, but you’re only normalizing the problem and making it harder and more time-consuming to fix in the future.

You also become more susceptible you’ll to the additional inherent problems that home disorganization causes.

5. Your home disorganization is affecting your punctuality

An untidy home becomes a real drain of your daily time efficiency. Whether it’s searching for a specific document in your home office or looking for that right pair of heels in your closet, a lack of organization only makes it harder to find things exactly when you need them.

If this is affecting your punctuality for work and appointments during the week, clearly that’s a sign that your home disorganization is a problem.

6. Your productivity at home and work is suffering

When you do take the time to carry out home chores like vacuuming or doing the laundry, home disorganization only makes it harder to get those jobs done quickly.

And if your home is disorganized (and you’ve contributed to its messy state), your work environment is more likely to be in a similar state. That inevitably leads to lower levels of productivity.

The Wall Street Journal found that approximately six weeks are wasted annually by the average U.S. executive looking for documents amongst all of their clutter.

7. You realize you never have guests over because of home disorganization

Let’s face it, most of us aren’t willing to have guests over when our home is in a less-than-presentable state. A messy home projects an unwelcome impression of you and your family to others and can be a source of real embarrassment.

At some point, we’ve probably all had a time where a messy home caused us to defensively greet a guest at a front door that you were reluctant to open any wider than the width of your head, as you searched for a polite way to deny them entrance to your home.

If this is a scenario that’s become all too common for you, it’s high time your home disorganization problems were addressed.

There are many ways to fix your home disorganization problems

Help can come in many forms when it comes to fixing your home disorganization problems. Sheer willpower, self-help books and online resources, and professional medical assistance can help with some of the root causes (like chronic procrastination) that can be a factor with home disorganization.

You can also ask for more help from your entire family when it comes to doing their part to maintain a tidy home. If your busy work schedule is holding you back from properly nurturing other important areas of your life (like home organization), re-evaluate your priorities.

A closet organizer can help restore order to your home’s level of organization.

Another smart option is to take advantage of the expertise of home organization and storage professionals like Organized Interiors.

We can recommend and design practical, highly functional organization solutions that will make it significantly easier to keep your home clean and organized.

Just schedule a free in-home design consultation to get started.

See also:

•  Why A Cluttered Home Causes You Stress & What You Can Do About It
• 7 Ways Your Closet Can Help You Maintain A Good Morning Routine
• 11 Good Organization Habits That Highly Organized People Swear By