How to Stay Organized During a Home Renovation

by Heidi | Aug 11, 2015 | Uncategorized

Today, I’ve invited a special guest to share some great tips on staying organized during a home renovation project.  Caitlin Burgess  is a former community journalist who now works in blogging and digital marketing, and is a guest writer for Highmark Builders. She loves to organize, craft, and try out new DIY projects she scouts out on Pinterest and local blogs.

When I was 12 years old I gave my parents the worst scare of their lives—as well as one of the best presents. The scare? The oven caught fire when I was making an after-school pizza, and while it didn’t spread, the whole house was smoked. The present? I killed that horrid, brown range that was all the rage in the 1970s, and set in motion a major kitchen renovation. (Dad told me to make sure I got the fire a little closer to the garage the next time—we needed new siding.)

While your next renovation project will likely not come out of an unfortunate accident, it can still be daunting and scary. Finding ways to keep organized through it all can quell stress and help you make thoughtful decisions. Here are some of my top tips for staying organized during a home renovation:

Create a Plan

If you’re itching to get that remodel going, please don’t just start knocking down walls. A little planning can go a long way. According to remodeling contractor Highmark Builders, these are some questions you should ask yourself:

• What is the goal of your remodel? (To add value to your home? Make your living space more functional? Just need a change?)
• What do I want the end result to look like? (More open concept? More living space? More light? More storage?)
• What’s your budget?
• What’s your desired timeline?
• Will you be doing the work yourself, or are you hiring someone?
• What tools or permits do you need to do the work yourself?
• Are there plumbing or electrical elements to think about?
• Does your homeowner’s insurance have any restrictions?

Once you’ve outlined your answers to all the above questions, then you can move forward with the design of your renovation, and then move on to all the little details. HouseLogic, which is run by the National Association of Realtors, has a great website section on planning your remodel.


Hiring a Contractor

If you elect to have a remodeling contractor do the renovation for you, take some time to do your research.

Ask friends and family members for recommendations, check out review sites like Angie’s List or Yelp, and then compile a list of contractors you’d like to interview.  You want a trustworthy, experienced and flexible remodeler. You could ask to visit them at a current remodeling site to see how they work for yourself.  Once you’re ready to commit to a contractor, make sure you review the contract thoroughly so there are no surprises later.

Get Organized
Now that the renovation is on the schedule, it’s time to get organized:

1. Create a special board on Pinterest to house all your design and decor ideas for the new room. If you’re not into the online thing, create a physical file folder to put all your samples and idea sheets in.
2. Set up a temporary space that can serve as a stand-in for the room that’s being renovated.
3. Pull out everything that you use on a regular basis, and neatly pack all the other things that can go into storage. If you have valuables or breakables that you want to protect, make sure those are pulled down and properly packed away.
4. Use labeled Ziplock bags or small clear lidded bins to organize everything you can–this is especially useful for a kitchen reno. You can see everything inside the bag / bin and everything will have a specific place to be stowed.
5. Again, if you’re doing a kitchen renovation, pack all foods by category so it is easy to find what you’re looking for later. In general, aim to keep like items together.
6. This is the perfect time to donate things you don’t use or don’t need. There are a number of Goodwill locations all over the state, and there’s also Promise Place, a nonprofit that helps victims of domestic violence, which is always looking for donations.
7. Keep an organized list of expenses so you know what you’ve paid, what you owe and whether you’re staying on budget.
8. Think about how the renovation will interrupt your schedule, and devise plans and workarounds that can help you avoid frustrations and delays.
9. Once the renovation is in full swing, resign yourself to the fact that something will probably go wrong. Having hotels, restaurants or laundromats in mind for the unexpected setback will help get through it.
10. Don’t delay decisions and don’t change your mind too much.

The bottom line? 
Plan for everything you can, and be ready to make decisions to keep things on track. (And teach your kids the difference between a plastic, pizza cutting board and baking stone. Because they all look the same to 12 years olds. This tip will certainly help minimize the risk of an unplanned remodel!)

Need more organization help before, during or after your home renovation project? Connect with Heidi today.

Thanks Caitlin!!
Caitlin Burgess  is a former community journalist who now works in blogging and digital marketing, and is a guest writer for Highmark Builders. She loves to organize, craft, and try out new DIY projects she scouts out on Pinterest and local blogs.

Keeping Up with Housekeeping

by Heidi | Jun 30, 2015 | Uncategorized

Using a checklist to guide you in your Housekeeping tasks will lessen the overwhelm and keep you motivated in a few ways:

1.  Having a checklist will provide peace and assurance you’ve got a PLAN toward achieving all that you need to accomplish.

2.  Checklists provide a strategic and organized approach to accomplish your various tasks by allowing you to focus on ONE task at a time.

3.  Using a checklists provides an instant sense of success and accomplishment by having a visual ‘pat on the back’ as you mark off tasks as they’ve been completed.

Operation Organization by Heidi  Home Management Checklists are now easier than ever to print and download!

Book Review :: Love the Home You Have

by Heidi | May 11, 2015 | Uncategorized

Have you ever felt discontent about the current state of your home?

Maybe you’re consistently feeling over-whelmed and under motivated to create or maintain the home of your dreams.

Do you find yourself waiting until the next move, or a future house to really get intentional about creating a haven of beauty peace and rest to retreat to?

Love the Home You Have is written to you.  To inspire and motivate you to create the home of your dreams right where you are…

“After living the house-hopping life for so long, I was tired of searching. I was ready to quit running on the squeaky hamster wheel, trying to arrive at perfect circumstances. Instead, I would start considering what contentment actually felt like and what was required to live in it. I craved simplicity. I wanted to slow down and feel gratitude for what I already had. I wanted to stop looking for something more beautiful beyond my reach and just embrace the daily pleasures and things I learned to love in every single house.”

She encourages us to not focus on creating perfection in our homes, but rather on the little habits that eventually build a place of beauty and rest…

“We are blessed to manage our own little heaven on earth— our homes— wherever they might be. There is divine purpose in caring for our homes and wanting them to be places of loveliness and peace. Our homes won’t ever be perfect, but we certainly can enjoy the process of creating beauty, and we can appreciate the lessons we learn along the way.”

I especially appreciated and related to Chapter/s 6 & 7.

‘Decluttering the Nooks and Crannies’ shares:

* Motivation to create room for living in your home
* Ideas for getting over a slump
* Practical suggestions for eliminating excess

‘The Reward of Daily Routines‘ shares about the power that simple daily habits will provide toward keeping a neat and tidy home.

You’ll learn how to develop a few simple habits and gain more understanding of  the freedom you will enjoy in your life as a result

Her authentic and down-to-earth writing promises to encourage you to embrace your current home and inspire you with simple and achievable ideas to create more beauty and function in your home – right where you are.

Peachtree City, GA Professional Organizer: Master Bedroom Before/After Reveal!

by Heidi | Mar 27, 2015 | Uncategorized

Occasionally, my fantastic clients graciously volunteer to share the amazing transformation of the spaces we work on together.

Here is a peek of what a master bedroom looked like before Operation Organization by Heidi was called in for aid:

Several of the other rooms in the home had undergone some renovation / repainting, and clutter began to build in other rooms of the home as a result.

NOW, the room is a much more serene and relaxing space to unwind in:

The homeowner was delighted to be able to add a few decorative updates in the room like that beautiful mural and antique sofa after all the excess clutter was sorted and either relocated to another area of the home, or removed.

Here are a few more angles of the space:

And, a final side by side of the first few photos:

Here is a before / after of the attached master bath.
After it was clear, it got a fresh coat of paint and a  a few additional decorative wall hangings.

Organizing with Post-Its – A Color Coded Calendar!

by Heidi | Mar 20, 2015 | Uncategorized

Here is a fun and simple solution to keep your calendar and family schedule organized!

Color Code activities and events with POST-IT flags!

Even with all the electronic options available for calendars these days, it is still my personal preference to have an old fashioned paper planner.

{The one pictured here is a very basic ‘At a Glance‘ brand monthly day planner from my local Staples office supply store.}

I have always been a fan of color coding as it allows you to quickly and easily identify items or tasks. With just a glance, I can recognize who and what type of activities are scheduled.

I have experimented with simply using colored pens or highlighters in the past, but found that ink went through the thin pages of the planner which didn’t look very nice when you turned the page.

Also, in my work as a Professional Organizer, it occasionally happens that a client needs to re-schedule their appointment.  You can’t erase pen and highlight.  I LOVE how easy it is to simply pull up the post-it flag and re-attach it to another day!  That feature is also super helpful for recurring tasks like a long term project or extra curricular activities for children – just keep moving those flags!

I have been using this system for about 3 months before sharing to make sure that I didn’t have a problem with flags falling off, but so far it has worked beautifully!  I purchased all the supplies for this project at Staples in Peachtree City.