It’s easy for things to slip between the cracks when you are dealing with a major medical issue. Tasks such as keeping your home clean and organized on a regular basis can fall to the wayside if you have a health concern that demands more of your time and attention.
However, a cluttered home can cause you additional stress and make it harder for you to relax and recuperate. And if you are temporarily working from home while you recuperate, it’s all the more important to have a clean and organized space to finish your projects.
But if you’re already low on energy because of a health issue, you may need some advice on how to make the most of your time and effort. Slowly but surely, you can get control over your dwelling, organizing your house or at the very least, your home office.
With that in mind, here are ways to get organized when you have health issues.
1. Everything Should Have a Place
Consider all of the things in your home that you have to organize, and then make sure that you have a designated location for all of them. For example, where do you put items that you routinely use daily, such as your wallet, purse, briefcase, glasses and keys?
When mail arrives and you’re not ready to open it yet, place it in a box near your desk instead of tossing it on the table with your groceries when you get home. Quickly, you will be able to identify messes such as board games cluttering the living room that would easily fit in a hall closet or blankets on the couch that you can store inside an ottoman during the summer.
2. Remember It’s Okay to Ask for Help
It’s okay to ask for help. If you’re just getting started, ask your friend, spouse or other relative for assistance. Tell them your goals and what you specifically need help with. Your helpers can move heavy items for you, take you to a store to buy some shelves or boxes to store things and even set aside unwanted objects for donation.
If your budget allows at a time when no friends or relatives are available when you need assistance, consider hiring professionals to help you move items and store items as you organize all your possessions.
3. Start Small
It’s common for people to feel overwhelmed when faced with the daunting task of organizing an extremely cluttered or messy abode. This goes double when you are also dealing with health issues. The best approach in such situations is to start small. Any step that you take in getting organized will fuel the desire to keep going.
Dividing big organizational tasks into smaller to-do items will make the effort seem a lot less overwhelming, making it easier for you to get started.
4. Budget Your Time
Illness can sap a lot of your physical and mental energy. This is why people with health issues would do well to budget their time when it comes to organizing and cleaning. You should make a list of priorities for getting organized, to ensure that you will star with those tasks first.
5. Make Sure Your Medical Records Are Easy to Access
It’s true that many healthcare organizations are switching to a computerized system, with less printouts and paper-based patient charts to contend with. But patients typically still will have a variety of handwritten and printed documents to keep track of.
Whatever ailment you have, whether a chronic illness or an injury or surgery that you need to recover from, it’s of paramount importance that you have easy access to all of your healthcare information. This includes a list of current prescriptions, notes from visits to the doctor or other healthcare providers and any test results or other official medical records. You might store these documents in a filing cabinet or even a few boxes, depending on their size and the sheer amount of material.
There’s No Time Like Now to Get Organized, Even if You Have Health Concerns
Coping with health issues is hard enough on its own. But having to recuperate in a disorganized and messy home will tend to cause stress and anxiety, so the cleaner and more orderly you can get, the better you will feel. Just remember to ask people for help when you need it. Don’t stress yourself by working harder than your doctor recommends. If a task seems too big to take on, divide it into smaller, individual sub-tasks so the work will be more manageable.
