Organize Plastic Food Storage Containers

Even Vanna White has trouble keeping her Tupperware organized. In her wrap-up conversation with Pat Sajak on Wheel of Fortune, she lamented having to clean out kitchen cabinets to find a container top. She also smiled brightly as she expounded on how great it felt to have all her containers organized.

It certainly would have inspired me to tackle disorganized containers if I had any. A few years ago I came up with a solution that works for me. I store my containers with the lids on them in a ten-gallon plastic container on a shelf in my mudroom. Just off the kitchen, it is a convenient spot for these items and allows efficient use of my limited kitchen cabinet space. The one thing I have to do is make sure the containers are thoroughly dry before popping the lid on and storing. Otherwise the container will smell bad. There are a few other solutions that our clients have found helpful.

Store with the lids on, stacked in kitchen cabinets. This works for folks who have ample cabinet space or limited containers.

Separate round containers and lids from square containers and lids. Then stack the containers inside each other. Corral the round container lids in one large plastic bag or basket and the square lids in another.

If you want a more orderly arrangement you can find two kinds of plastic lid holders at www.stacksandstacks.com. One attaches to the cabinet door and one is freestanding.

In spaces where storage is on exposed shelves, a decorative rack for dishes or pot lids can hold the container lids. They can then be arranged by size for easy retrieval. Some examples can be found at www.taylorgifts.com and www.ballarddesigns.com. Ballard’s also has a seventeen-inch wide wooden caddy that could hold lids.

Whatever way you chose to store your plastic food storage containers, occasionally take time to discard cracked, abraded and discolored items that may leak or harbor bacteria.

Beverly & Kristen
www.KeyTransitions.net

Organizing Tips for Around the House

Here are a few organizing tips for around the house:

Entry Way

• Create a landing space near the door you come in. Keep keys, cell phone, purse and other items you need when you walk out the door together in the landing space.
• Individual baskets for each family member at entry. Decorative and useful baskets can be found at many places, included Michael’s and World Market.
• Kid level spaces for storage and retrieval of coats and book bags

Mail

• Create a spot for sorting mail and paying bills. Use a basket, decorative box or organizer to store pen, checkbook and stamps so material is handy

Kitchen

• Make sure the tools you need for each task are near their designated area (pots and pans near stove/oven; dish detergent, and cleaning agents near or under sink; dishes and utensils near table/breakfast bar).
  
  Beverly & Kristen
  www.KeyTransitions.net

Taking Care of Little Things

Even after we organize our desk, our sewing box, our craft area, our toolbox, it is the little things that cause problems with maintaining our neat space. Paper clips, straight pins, little beads and tiny nails find their way to the bottom of our stuff.

Here are a few low-cost suggestions for corralling those pesky items and keeping things in order.

Ÿ Items with blunt edges do well in small zip-lock plastic bags. Beads can be separated by colors and then placed together in a larger container.

Ÿ Egg cartons provide a handy way to sort items like nuts and bolts. Glue a small magnet in each section to keep them in place. Be sure to store on top of heavy tools or the container will get crushed.

Ÿ Slip a plastic ice cube tray in your desk drawer to hold various size paper clips, staples and other small items.

Ÿ Baby food jars and spice jars can be re-purposed to hold small items. Spice jars in a discarded spice rack can keep sewing items like snaps and pins handy for the seamstress.

Organizing doesn’t have to be fancy; it just has to work.

Beverly & Kristen
www.KeyTransitions.net

Organize Your Refrigerator

A refrigerator is a terrible thing to waste. This remarkable appliance keeps perishable items fresh for long periods of time and allows us to have a cold drink any time we wish - that is if we can find the cold drink. If you have occasionally rummaged behind the orange juice and the giant jar of mayonnaise to find that the piece of lemon pie you have been craving is shriveled and moldy, it is time to bring a little organization to the refrigerator.

The first step is to clean out the refrigerator. Start with the top shelf and remove all products. Toss out anything that is outdated or is past its prime. If you have any doubt, throw it out. Repeat this process for the bins and the shelves in the door.

Beginning at the top again, thoroughly clean all surfaces. Then replace the items, keeping like items together. Store vegetables and fruits in the crispers, meat in the meat tray. Put the most perishable items on the bottom shelves because these remain at a cooler temperature than upper shelves. Store larger items in the back and shorter items in the front so you can see at a glance what you have on hand. Bottles and jars usually fit neatly in the door shelves. Keep eggs in their original container because they stay fresh longer.

Consider buying clear containers with lids to contain items like cheeses and individually packaged snacks. These stack nicely to maximize space and can be placed up front for easy access. That makes it less likely for family members to create a mess by rummaging to find what they are looking for.

Once you have the refrigerator organized, have a plan for keeping it that way. One suggestion is to do a quick clean every week on the day before garbage pickup. That will quickly get all discarded items out of the house and avoid smelly garbage hanging around. Another suggestion is to do an assessment and cleaning prior to grocery shopping so you will know exactly what you need. Better yet, clean the refrigerator the day prior to garbage collection and then go shopping.

Organizing your refrigerator will pay dividends in lowered food costs and saved time.

Beverly and Kristen
www.KeyTransitions.net

Keys to Successful Organizing

Have you tried to organize and just couldn’t complete the job? Or have you organized a space only to have it return to the same muddle it was in originally? That has happened to most of us. And when it happens we blame it on lack of time, lack of energy, lack of discipline. It is definitely true that staying organized takes a little time, a little energy and a little discipline, but most often the reason for failure is the wrong motivation and/or the wrong system.

The best reason to get organized is that doing it gives us something we want.

Each of us is different and we want different things from the life. We may want time to achieve business goals or time to spend with family, or, in the case of young parents, time to sleep and bathe. It helps to frame our goal for organization in terms of what we want to achieve. It might be:

• “I will organize my paperwork so that I can have information at my fingertips to impress my clients,” or
• “ I will organize my kitchen so we can have family meals together in a pleasant environment,” or
• “I will organize the bathroom so I can take a shower and get dressed in less than ten minutes”, or
• “I will organize my garage so I can park my car there and avoid going outside in bad weather”

If we consciously formulate the goal with what we want to achieve for ourselves, it is easier to stick with it. We get a return on our investment of time and energy.

Once the goal is formulated, it is time to pick the system for achieving it. The system needs to suit how we intuitively deal with storing and sorting. Those of us who find joy in color-coded, uniform rows should chose a different system from those of us who consider it organized if clutter is out of sight and we can find what we are looking for in less than five minutes. The point is to find something that works for you and achieves your goal. Getting organized should help you save energy and find time. If your system requires more time than you can manage, it is time to find a new system.

I have two friends (actually I have more than two, but I only need a pair for this illustration.) Both of them manage to pay their bills on time and deal with appointments and invitations, but they have very different methods for handling mail. One of them sorts her mail everyday and puts it in a mail organizer according to the date she needs to respond with an action. The other dumps his mail in a basket and sorts it twice a week and handles responses. They both feel good about their ability to manage their mail. It doesn’t pile up and what needs to happen happens. They each have an organization system that works for them.

So when you organize, do it to benefit yourself and do it in a way that suits your personal style.

Good luck organizing your world!


Beverly & Kristen
www.KeyTransitions.net

Avoid Kitchen Clutter Traps

A survey conducted by the National Association of Professional Organizers found that the kitchen is identified as the most disorganized room in the house. What a shame that the room that is often considered the heart of the home causes the most distress when it comes to staying organized.

Here are a few hints for avoiding a disorderly kitchen:

• Organize drawers by using drawer dividers to separate utensils and flatware
• Put small parts or tiny like objects in plastic containers or zip lock bags. (ex: pastry horns and tips)
• Store plastic containers by size and place tops in divider rack according to size for easy match-up
• Make cleanup easy by storing dishcloth, dishtowel and paper towels close to sink and dishwasher
• Put most frequently used items on lowest shelves
• Minimize the number of small appliances on countertops to the three most frequently used
• Create stations for daily use (ex: coffee station near coffeepot, snack station for after school munchies, prep station for meal preparation)
• Take a close look at how you use your kitchen and store everything according to your workflow
• Donate or discard items you have not used in a year and create space for things you need.
• Clean up messes and spills as they occur.

De-cluttering the kitchen will save time in the long run and make meal times less stressful.

Beverly & Kristen
www.KeyTransitions.net

Organizing a Winter Car Kit

We are enjoying temperatures in the sixties and seventies while Colorado and Missouri are enduring crippling ice and snow. It won’t be long before this fickle climate puts on its winter face and treats us to a little slush. It can come quickly at any time now. If you have lived in this area long enough, you have seen holidays that felt sub-tropical and holidays with snow on the ground. So now is the time to think about supplementing your car emergency kit with a few items to see you through the winter months.

Here are a few items we suggest:

• De-icer for windshields and locks


• A small shovel


• Kitty litter to provide traction


• Water


• A warm blanket


• Insulated gloves


• Fold-up boots


• Nonperishable snacks


• Windshield scraper


• Whisk broom
  

If you do not already have a car emergency kit add:

• Battery cables


• Tire inflater


• Roadside flares


• Heavy duty flashlight

Organize the items in a waterproof bag, ice chest or plastic tote. You will feel safer on the road because you are prepared for winter car troubles.

Beverly & Kristen
www.KeyTransitions.net

Kitchen Organization

According to the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), people identify their kitchen as the most cluttered room in the house. That is not surprising because that is the room that is used on a daily basis and usually by multiple members of the household. When I was a young mother chasing after children, maintaining multiple schedules, fixing meals, putting healthy snacks in accessible places, putting the good china where unsteady hands could not break it, I didn’t think about how organized my kitchen was. I just wanted it to be functional. It was not until much later that I learned that functionality is the key to organization. Some of the basic principles I adopted to survive the harried lifestyle of a young parent are the principles that help maintain an organized kitchen.

The first step is to take a look at the uses for your kitchen space and the work flow that accompanies each use. Most frequent uses are preparing meals and snacks, cooking, eating, clean up and social gathering. You might also pay bills, do crafts, get homework in your kitchen. I know of one guy who, much to his wife’s chagrin, repaired small engines in the kitchen space, a real organizational challenge solved by a designated work space away from the kitchen table.

Once you have a good idea of how you function in the kitchen, put things you use to accomplish a task close to the spot where the task is performed. For instance, china and utensils are placed close to the eating area, pots and pans are near the stove, cleaning items are proximal to the sink and dishwasher. The storage space in your kitchen will dictate the options you have for organization, but there are also many products that can create storage space where you need it. A small counter shelf, wall shelf or book shelf might be a good alternative for storing frequently used cookbooks near the preparation area, for instance. A canister or tray might be used near the coffee pot for coffee additives and condiments. Judicious use of under counter appliances and storage shelves can also be helpful.

The last step is to make sure that everyone who uses the kitchen knows the storage plan and the organizational system. Do dirty dishes go in the sink or in the dishwasher? What are the expectations for clean-up and what items can be accessed by children in the family without expectation or threat of bodily harm?

If you find yourself unable to come up with ideas to improve the organization in your kitchen, a fresh pair of eyes might see areas for enhancement. Ask a friend or a professional organizer for help. A better functioning kitchen will save your time and your sanity.

Beverly and Kristen
www.KeyTransitions.net