by Heidi | Oct 10, 2013 | Uncategorized
Welcome to ‘Day 9’ in the month long series of articles cataloging
Simple Organizing Solutions!
If you’ve been reading from the beginning, you’ve hopefully already, 1) Gotten the right mindset and motivation needed to get organized. 2) Zeroed in on one small area to focus your efforts. 3) Have begun narrowing down your belongings to what what you love, use and actually have the room to store. and 4) Considered how to cut clutter at the source by giving each item a specific ‘home’ stored in groups of like items (5) & set a maintenance plan in motion.
A sure fire way to save loads of lost time and money is getting return items {like borrowed books or rental movies and video games} organized!
How much time have you lost searching for library books and/or movie rentals? How much money have you lost because the time it took to find created overdue charges?
Give them a ‘HOME‘.
Designate a specific container located in a designated place in your home for them to live, so you can find them when the due date rolls around.
Our children store books that we own on a bookshelf, and put library books in a special basket similar to this grocery basket that I found at a thrift store.
I like this size because it allows the books to stand upright and I like that it is plastic because it is handled so much that the durable material does not fall apart like a traditional woven basket might.
Same idea for movie/video game rentals…
We’ve used a basket similar to this to hold rentals
Currently, we opt to stack movie rentals neatly on the same shelf as our DVD player on our entertainment stand.
When not in use, place rentals in either a decorative basket or container near the television and/or gaming system or neatly stacked on a distinctive shelf/surface, so when they need to be returned you’ll know exactly where to find them.
What could you do with the extra time and money afforded by keeping rentals/renewals organized??
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by Heidi | Oct 8, 2013 | Uncategorized
Welcome to ‘Day 8’ in the month long series of articles cataloging
Simple Organizing Solutions!
If you’ve been reading from the beginning, you’ve hopefully already, 1) Gotten the right mindset and motivation needed to get organized. 2) Zeroed in on one small area to focus your efforts. 3) Have begun narrowing down your belongings to what what you love, use and actually have the room to store. and 4) Considered how to cut clutter at the source by giving each item a specific ‘home’ stored in groups of like items (5) & set a maintenance plan in motion.
Once you’ve established a place for
KEYS, often the next best item to assign a ‘home’ to are Backpacks, bags and/or purses. Here are a few {simple} ideas:
Hang on a rod in your closet using ‘S’ Hooks:
In a container/divider on a shelf:
Find containers like these at The Container Store, or
Create your own containers by covering cardboard boxes with colorful paper or fabric.
How about a ‘Parking Lot for Purses??
Click
HERE for more ideas on backpacks and school gear.
As much as possible try to establish these solutions near the entrance/exit you use most frequently.
We use a wooden coat rack like this to hold back packs and coats for our children in our home.
found at Home Depot
It is mounted at eye level of our youngest child in the laundry closet which is located by the door our boys leave for school.
This over the door rack from
bed bath and beyond is hung on the inside of our closet across from our main entrance
It holds my purse, the tote back we take to the library, a few hats for my husband and the current seasonal coat we are wearing but don’t want to take the time to hang on a hanger.
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by Heidi | Oct 8, 2013 | Uncategorized
Welcome to ‘Day 7’ in the month long series of articles cataloging
Simple Organizing Solutions!
If you’ve been reading from the beginning, you’ve hopefully already, 1) Gotten the right mindset and motivation needed to get organized. 2) Zeroed in on one small area to focus your efforts. 3) Have begun narrowing down your belongings to what what you love, use and actually have the room to store. and 4) Considered how to cut clutter at the source by giving each item a specific ‘home’ stored in groups of like items (5) & set a maintenance plan in motion.
Probably the most frustrating item to not be able to find in the home is a simple set of keys.
Here are a few ideas to inspire a possible ‘home‘ for keys to ‘live’:
In a drawer (with containers and/or dividers, of course):
In a bowl:
On a tray:
And the most common….the hook!
maybe hung on the inside of a cupboard door??
I thought this DIY Frame Key Holder was an extremely clever as well as attractive solution!
If you get into the habit of always putting them there as soon as you come in the door, you’ll feel an instant burst of peace and satisfaction with the knowledge they’ll always beright there when you need them next!
This is the product we’ve used to hold our keys in our personal home for nearly 10 years!
Originally purchased at Target, can also be found here.
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by Heidi | Oct 6, 2013 | Uncategorized
Welcome to ‘Day 6’ in the month long series of articles cataloging
Simple Organizing Solutions!
If you’ve been reading from the beginning, you’ve hopefully already, 1) Gotten the right mindset and motivation needed to get organized. 2) Zeroed in on one small area to focus your efforts. 3) Have begun narrowing down your belongings to what what you love, use and actually have the room to store. and 4) Considered how to cut clutter at the source by giving each item a specific ‘home’ stored in groups of like items (5)!
Once you’ve assigned specific homes for those groupings of like items, you need to set a plan in place to consistently return those items to their ‘homes’.
A few {simple} ‘Ten Minute Tidy’ sessions a day keeps the clutter away!
You’ll be amazed at how much you can put away in only 10 minutes if items have a specific place to go! You can do just about anything for 10 minutes, right? You can always tidy up for MORE than ten minutes as well, but keeping the goal small and simple is easy to achieve and will at least get you into the HABIT of regular tidy-up times. Set the timer and pretend company is coming!
The number of sessions to incorporate depends on how many people are consistently at home on a daily basis.
For example, If you’re a stay at home mom with several young kids, I would suggest 3 Ten Minute Tidy sessions (One just before lunch, one in late afternoon or just before dinner, and one either right before or just after the children go to bed)
If just one or two people are at home on a daily basis, one-two Ten Minute Tidy sessions is a good place to start.
Introduce your family to the idea
and make sure they take part as well!
Show them the ‘homes’ you have created (or better yet, create some or all of the ‘homes’ for your things together!) to teach them where things ‘go’. If ‘homes’ have been created for belongings of small children, create some photo labels that will serve as a reminder for where to return their things.
The days of your being the ‘janitor’ of your children’s belongings could become a thing of the past!
If you’ve got young children, play some special music to inspire their ‘Tidy-Up’ times.
I grew up cleaning up my toys to the tune of
‘Whistle While You Work‘ from Snow White:
As well as, ‘Spoon Full of Sugar‘ from Mary Poppins:
Another fun song is, ‘I Like to Move It’ from the movie, Madagascar:
Explain to your kiddos that things in the home have gotten ‘moved’ out of their homes and it’s time to ‘Move It’ back! 😉
Occasionally you’ll need to have a longer official complete clean-up sessions (at least once or twice a week depending on the amount of ‘stuff’ your family has to maintain) to completely reset everything to it’s rightful place. However, having those regular ‘Ten Minute Tidy’ sessions will ensure your space does not reach an over-whelming or paralyzing state.
Are you ready to try out the ‘Ten Minute Tidy’ habit in your space??
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by Heidi | Oct 6, 2013 | Uncategorized
Welcome to ‘Day 5’ in the month long series of articles cataloging
Simple Organizing Solutions!
If you’ve been reading from the beginning, you’ve hopefully already gotten the right mindset and motivation needed to get organized, zeroed in on one small area to focus your efforts, have begun narrowing down your belongings to what what you love, use and actually have the room to store and consider how to cut clutter at the source!
When you’re ready to start assigning specific ‘Homes’ for all your belongings to ‘live’ and ‘land’ when not in use, take care to:
1) Group like items with like items.
2) As space allows, make every attempt to store together what is USED together.
3) Store those groupings as close as possible to the area in which they will be used.
For example, group all dry baking supplies together as near as possible to the surface where they will be mixed together. Keep all measuring supplies grouped together in one cabinet, drawer, or shelf.
Group all office/bill-paying supplies or homework supplies together and store near the area in which they’ll be pulled out to use.
Basic guiding principle?
If items ‘go together’, you ought to keep/store them together!
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by Heidi | Oct 5, 2013 | Uncategorized
Welcome to ‘Day 4’ in the month long series of articles cataloging
Simple Organizing Solutions!
If you’ve been reading from the beginning, you’ve hopefully already gotten the right mindset and motivation needed to get organized, zeroed in on one small area to focus your efforts, and have begun narrowing down your belongings to what what you love, use and actually have the room to store.
Now, it’s time to address the fact that even when you’ve moved out the excess, CLUTTER can and will still build up.
CLUTTER: “to fill or cover with scattered or disordered things that impede movement or reduce effectiveness.”
What is the source of the problem of items ending up scattered and disorderly?
Belongings don’t have a ‘HOME’.
That’s right, each and every item in your spaces should have a specific place to ‘live’ or ‘land’ when not in active use.
Any ‘homeless’ items will almost certainly become clutter. And, you know something else about clutter? It has seemingly magnetic powers….where one ‘homeless’ item happens to land, others will surely follow. First, small pockets of clutter will develop where items that don’t have a distinct place to belong – the most common? Paper of all sorts, small toys, tool and/or remotes, office/school supplies. Those small pockets slowly become piles over time, and more often than not, if not dealt with, those piles eventually either all get stuffed together in a box, closet, or even an entire room because you simply want to get it OUT.
Wouldn’t it be great if you stopped that build-up before it even began??
You would not have the stress about all that messy build-up staring you in the face, nor the dread of how to deal with it when it reaches an overwhelming state.
If you’re determined to CUT the CLUTTER in your home or office – start by observing which items do not have a specific place to ‘live’ within your space. In the effort to KEEP IT SIMPLE, just begin with this observation step, for starters. Make a bullet point list of any items that are laying around that don’t have a certain place they ‘ought’ to be.
Now, if you observe that your space is completely over-run by clutter, you’ll need to first sort through your items, grouping like things together in distinct areas/containers so you’ll have a better idea just how many ‘homes’ will eventually need to be created.
OR, you can call always on me for aid! I’d be more than happy to coach and guide you through the whole process, cheering you on and keeping motivation and momentum up when the going gets tough.
It’s also a good practice to begin considering to yourself, “Where will this item ‘live?” Before even making a purchase or accepting a hand-me-down of any sort.
Stay tuned, ideas of simple ways to create ‘homes’ for items are to come soon in the series!
What types of ‘homeless’ items did you observe in your spaces??
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