To stay ahead of clutter, these are the things that highly organized people do — and you can, too.

It’s time to simplify your life! Try adopting these 10 habits of highly organized people.

1. Establish a launching and landing zone

Every home (or office, for that matter) needs a place just inside the door where things that are used on an almost daily basis can land. These items can include purses, wallets, keys, book bags, shoes, phones and mail.

This landing zone also is the launching zone for things that are going out the next day, including  outgoing mail, items to return and permission slips. This will keep you on time, because you won’t be scrambling to find your keys, purse or cell phone as you head out the door.

2. Do it now

The more you put off doing, the more overwhelmed you’re going to feel at the thought of dealing with all those things later.

Tackling things when they need to be done helps to break down the job of being organized into easy-to-manage pieces. Processing eight pieces of mail daily is less daunting than staring at a month’s worth of unopened mail. Doing a load or two of laundry a day is easier than trying to dig your way through piles of dirty clothes just to get to the washer every week or two.

3. Weed constantly

Stuff has a habit of relentlessly flowing into our lives. To stem the tide requires vigilance.

Besides being hyper-aware of how much stuff you own, you should have an almost constant dialogue about the value each thing brings to your life. When you realize that something has lost its value, meaning or usefulness, it’s time for it to go. (Check out The Stuff Stop to find ways your unwanted stuff can help others.)

4. Only keep what you need, use or love

Highly organized people have a keen insight into the toll that excess stuff takes on their lives. In a nutshell, if you don’t need, use or love it, why do you have it?

5. To-do lists

Highly organized people not only make to-do lists, but they do the things listed on them on a regular basis. This habit not only helps to break things down into smaller pieces, it also keeps your focus on your priorities and goals — and enables you to accomplish them.

After you see the same things fall to the bottom of your to-do list over and over again, you can’t deny that they are not the most important thing in your life. This makes you better able to release them. Sure, they’re important, but clearly your to-do list has proven they are not the most important things.

For the next 5 steps, go to Angie’s List