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

RESOLVE TO MAKE YOURSELF HAPPY

The National Association of Professional Organizers designates January as Get Organized Month. Getting organized is the third most common type of New Year’s resolution, ranking right behind resolutions that deal with better health and better finances.

In our experience, people who successfully get organized and stay organized do it for themselves. Many times we hear: “ I would really be happy if I could have somebody over and not be embarrassed”, “I would really be happy if I could walk in my closet and have a clue what is in there”, “I would really be happy if I could manage my mail and get my bills paid on time.”

These folks know that the clutter in their lives is a problem and they would be happier without it.

That is a good start. Once they decided what would make them happy, they set about to achieve the improvement. They called us to help them plan and execute a strategy to make it happen.

Everyone does not need a professional organizer to get organized. Everyone does need a personal goal and a plan to reach it. It is easier to keep your goal to get organized if it meets your personal need and is not done to please someone else. It is easier to stay organized if your system is personalized for your style and needs. It does not have to be complicated. It doesn’t even have to be pretty, if that is not important to you. It just has to work for you.

So when you make your resolution to get organized, make a “happiness statement”. For instance, “It would really make me happy to have all the pet stuff organized so I can quickly take care of the dogs when I get home from work”. Then execute your plan for organizing the pet supplies and celebrate your accomplishment. Keep it organized for a month and it will most likely stay that way.

Then you can make yourself happy with another goal.

This gives a whole new meaning to “Have a happy New Year!”

Beverly & Kristen
www.KeyTransitions.net

GET ORGANIZED; SAVE MONEY

Did you know that getting organized could put more money in your pocket? Our clients are always surprised when we find ways to generate cash, prevent waste and gain better value for the dollars they spend. Here are just a few ways that getting organized can help your wallet stay fatter.

Generate Cash
There are a few amazing stories about finding antique treasures and stored cash, but the most common circumstance is selling things you no longer need. Unused exercise equipment, no-longer-cherished collections and clothing that hasn’t fit in a while can find a new home through yard sales, on-line, auctions and consignment shops. The important thing in recycling these items for cash is to set a time limit to get rid of them and then donate or give away anything that has not sold.

Prevent Waste
One of the saddest things about purging clutter is finding spoiled or expired products that could have been put to good use. They just got lost and most often the client has bought new products to replace them. We have found hundreds of light bulbs, dozens of unopened shampoo bottles and many expired food products that had to be tossed in the trash. Having an organized space allows the client to assess what is on hand and what needs to be replaced. Living an organized lifestyle establishes systems that support orderly review of household needs and methods of restocking.

The other pitfall for disorganized individuals is misplacing bills and incurring late charges. An organized method of dealing with incoming mail and paying bills puts that money in the consumer’s pocket rather than in the credit card company’s account.

Gain Better Value
Better utilization of space allows room for buying in quantity when you can achieve cost savings. It also allows you to stock up on non-perishables when there are price breaks. Having a meal-planning program allows the purchase of produce in season and the use of that produce without waste.

More Savings Than Clipping Coupons
Getting organized and putting systems in place to stay organized is an effective cost saving measure in troubling times. Rising gasoline prices and higher food costs are making all of us take a closer look at the way we spend the money we have. AARP Bulletin reports that consumers above age forty-five have increased behaviors like clipping coupons, eating out less and buying less expensive generic products. While these are good choices, getting organized can stretch you dollar even more.

Beverly & 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 Paper Clutter

Avoid Paper Clutter

According to the National Association of Professional Organizers, paper is the number one clutter problem in American households. When you really think about it, that covers a lot of territory. There is mail, receipts, documents that record marriages, births, deaths, legal transactions and agreements. There are newspapers and periodicals and even reminder lists and post-it notes. We haven’t even considered the mounds of paper generated doing homework, creating white papers and documenting our thoughts for current readers and future generations. There are warrantees and receipts to keep track of. There are insurance policies and tax records to maintain. There is not one system that works for every one but here are a few hints to help keep things under control.

1. Minimize the paper you receive by contacting the Consumer Credit Reporting Industry to opt out of receiving pre-screened credit card and insurance offers from lists provided by Equifax, Experian, Innovis and Transunion (http://www.optoutprescreen.com)/. You can also contact Direct Marketing Association (http://www.dmaconsumers.org/) to discontinue receiving direct advertising from companies affiliated with DMA.
   
2. Sort mail as you receive it and retain only the documents you need to maintain your records.
   
3. Do not save newspapers and periodicals for an article you need for future use. Clip the needed material only and recycle the rest of the paper.
   
4. Keep warranty information clipped to appliance instructions and the purchase receipt in a file or three ring binder for handy reference.
   
5. Find a home for the paper you keep and them keep the volume under control by setting limits that meet your personal needs. Examples include:

• No more magazines than the magazine rack can hold
• No receipts over a year old other than those for tax and warranty purposes.
• Only insurance policies that remain in force

If you are currently overwhelmed by the paper in your life, start with one area and work on it until you get it organized. It may be culling the magazines or managing the mail. Just pick a place and start. Then keep your solutions simple and make sure they fit the way YOU live.

Beverly & Kristen
www.KeyTransitions.net

AVOID ENTRYWAY CLUTTER TRAPS

Whether your family enters your home through the front door, the back door or the garage door, the first thing you do is take off, drop off or discard something. It might be your coat, your brief case, the mail, your shoes, the change in your pockets or the skate board you picked up to avoid tripping over it. These items land where you enter and stay there until they are needed again. If they are not used soon after their landing, the discards become clutter. Eventually the entryway looks like a storage room.

There are four steps to dealing with a cluttered entry space:

1. Assess what kinds of things are being left in the space. Are they being left there for convenience or necessity? Is your child leaving his backpack there on his way to grab a snack after school? Is your husband dropping of mail as he comes in the door and heads upstairs to change? Is your wife leaving a briefcase that she will pick up on her way out tomorrow morning? Are all of you taking off shoes to keep from tracking dirt on the new carpet? Is the leash being thrown in the corner so you can retrieve it quickly when you walk the dog?
2. Determine the best way to deal with each item. Would the space accommodate a set of hooks, a hall tree, a storage bench with baskets or shoe storage? Do the hooks need to be lower for children to access for hanging coats and backpacks? Would an attractive basket or decorative box be useful for depositing mail? Would a large attractive container serve as a drop-off spot for items that go to their designated home before you retire for the night?
3. Bring order to the space by obtaining and installing the systems that you need. You can create an organized look by collecting like things together (coats on a hall tree, mail in a basket, change in a piggy bank), by concealing the items (shoes in a storage bench, dog leash in drawer, brief case in hall table storage compartment; car keys in a decorative box).
4. Make sure that everyone living in the house understands the system. For instance, if you pick up mail and put it in the designated basket, who will retrieve the mail, discard the unwanted items and make sure the bills are paid? Putting the storage item in place, establishing the process for its use and assigning responsibility creates an organizational system that should keep on working.

Now you are ready to let anyone in without being embarrassed by the pile of stuff just inside the door.

If you need inspiration for systems that help organize the entryway, take a look at the following web sites:
www.canopyliving.com
www.improvements.com
www.touchofclass.com
www.potterybarn.com

Beverly & Kristen

www.KeyTransitions.net

Paper

I am experiencing a little mental whiplash. Just as we are dealing with a client with a mountain of paper to organize and reviewing invoices for our business tax filing, my brain got jostled by an article in a technical journal that touted the “paperless” society we are rapidly becoming. The techno-savvy probably have a leg up on the rest of society in finding ways to minimize hardcopy, but most of us are still drowning in paper. The major reasons for paper accumulation according to our clients are:
1. I hold on to things longer than necessary for fear I will need information and not have it.
2. I don’t have time to take care of mail and other papers when I get it so it gets lost in a pile.
3. I have no idea what to keep so I keep everything
4. I have a lot of interests, so articles and resources about projects pile up

These are all valid problems but can be handled with a little knowledge and planning. Here are a few suggestions for getting your papers organized.

Today:
Designate a landing spot to put the mail you receive today. Put it in three piles: bills, correspondence and junk mail. Discard the junk mail immediately, shredding any items containing personal information.

Create a file for correspondence and place your correspondence in the folder.

Leave your bills where you can see them until they are paid or until you are able to make a file with payment dates that you can maintain. One idea is using an expanding folder with pay dates 1-15 and 16-31 and a place for stamps, envelopes and address labels or, if you pay online, a list of addresses and passwords

Then:
Maintain the landing spot on a daily basis, filing and discarding as you receive documents.

Create file folders for broad categories. For example you might use Financial, Medical, Household, Personal, Current bills and Miscellaneous. After you have done the initial sorting you can refine the categories so items can be more easily found. Starting with narrowly defined files can waste time and supplies.

Start with the most current pile first and put into the file folders. As you go through your papers you can discard the older documents as long as the information is reflected on the more current documents. For instance a more current credit card bill may reflect a payment on a previous statement.
If there is not any order to your current paper storage, pick a spot to start and work your way around the space counter clockwise. When going through a filing cabinet mark where you stopped with a sticky note and jot down any thoughts or questions you had up to that point.

Set aside time to tackle the papers each day until you have completed the project. If your paper dilemma is overwhelming, consult a professional organizer who can help you develop a plan or assist you with hands on organization of your files and a strategy for managing paper. She can also assist you in determining retention timelines for your important documents.

Beverly and Kristen
www.KeyTransitions.net