Discover Space to Live In
Tips on organizing your home
Organizing Your Thoughts
by Debbie Bowden of Organize Now
We’ve all had days, weeks, months where there is just too much to do. Let’s say you have three major projects at work, the kids all have after school activities, your mother needs a ride to the doctor, the dust is an inch thick in your house, and the laundry is looking like a monster from the Saturday morning cartoons. Whew! Where to you start? Everything needs to be taken care of now!
Just like organizing your space can help make you feel at peace in your home, so can organizing your thoughts. Situations like the one I describe above call for more than just a To Do list because of the pressure of the deadline. You need to take the mental organization one step further.
Despite the deadlines, not everything has to be now. In every case, there is an order of priority. It’s finding that priority that can seem daunting, and it calls for breaking down all that you have to do into manageable tasks day by day.
Taking the example above:
- Work projects: which project or project task has the closest deadline? You should concentrate on that first. You might try to work on the least time-consuming yet productive task so that something is done.
- Kids’ activities: Look for an alternate transportation option. Perhaps call in a favor and ask your neighbor to drop off and pick up the kids.
- Taking Mom to the doctor: this may be your one number priority because the appointment can’t be changed. You will need some
Don’t Organize on Snow Days
by Debbie Bowden Organize Now
It would be so
easy for me to recommend organizing while you are stuck in the house on these o’ so many snow days.
Let me be realistic. If you are stuck indoors, that means so are your kids. They are bored, as they will no doubt tell you every five seconds. So entertaining the children comes at the top of your to do list on a snow day.
Being organized can help with cabin fever. First of all, you will know right where the hats, gloves, and scarves are kept when the kids want to go outside. You may even have an idea if you have an old corncob pipe to place on the snowman.
Secondly, you can be prepared with activities and games for the snow bound. It helps to know right where all your craft supplies are or where that old Monopoly game is stored to make a quick answer to “I’m bored.”
Lastly, if your space is organized, you aren’t going to fret about “this mess” and be less stressed. You’ll be happy to spend the time in your home with your kids. And this winter, that’s been A LOT of time.
Distracted clutter; distracting clutter
by Debbie Bowden Organize Now
One of the reasons clutter starts pulling up is because we are all so busy. Think about it – you walk in the door after a long day at work, flop your purse and keys and mail and tote on the nearest table, and put the milk and eggs in the fridge. You may be lucky to get your coat hung on the back of a chair, much less in the closet. Then while your better half and kids are all chatting with you, you try to make dinner.
In the middle of the melee, you do manage to get the mail in a basket on the kitchen counter, on top of a week’s worth of other mail and a note to sign for your kid’s school. Later, after dinner has been served, the dishes cleaned up, and the load of laundry in the washer, you sit down to answer all your emails. Suddenly, its time to put the kids to bed, and just as you lean in to give little Johnny a goodnight kiss, he asks about the school note.
Yikes! “Where is it?” you ask yourself. Panic ensues. Is it in the office? No. In your purse? No. How about on the stack of magazines near your chair in the living room? Nope. Now you’ve spent 20 minutes looking for a piece of paper. As you walk into the kitchen for a drink, your brain does that magical thing it does and you remember the note is under the pile of mail. Disaster averted!
Get Organized for the New Year!
by Debbie Bowden Organize Now
New Year’s resolutions are as varied as the people who make them: lose weight, take a college class, eat healthy, keep in contact more with friends and family, and my favorite – get organized. Here’s a tip that can help you start and be successful in organizing any space.
Break your organizing project into small, manageable tasks. It can be a help to write down a plan in an outline form, for example:
Organize House
- Linen Closet
- Gather all towels and sheets
- Sort towels and sheets
- Categorize into keep, throw away, giveaway
- Distribute: put the “keep” into back, put the “throw aways” in the garage as rags, take “giveaways” to Goodwill
- Office
- Gather all paperwork and files
- Sort the bills, the junk mail, correspondence, pictures, etc.
- Categorize into bills to pay/file, paperwork to trash or shred, pictures and letters to file
- Distribute: file bills and paperwork, trash or shred items, put pictures away, put correspondence in the to do pile to take care of later.
By breaking the project into smaller tasks, you are more likely to perform each task because you will find you are the time and energy to “gather all towels and sheets” versus trying to tackle “organizing the whole house.” You’ll also find that your plan becomes a handy To Do list you can use to track your progress and show your success in keeping your New Year’s resolution!
Organizing your Email
by Debbie Bowden Organize Now
When I organize for a client, I focus mainly on the stuff in the house. But for my own organizing, I apply the principles to my email storage as well.
Like most of you, I get emails that vary from friends’ quick notes to requests for organizing services. And of course, the ever-present “junk!” I treat my email like the snail mail. The junk gets deleted immediately. I read the friendly notes, respond in kind, and usually delete them. I liken these types of emails to phone calls. I don’t record my phone calls so why would I save these emails. I will “save” the friendly email if I need to use it as a reminder (more on that later). Finally, I read and respond to business email, save to the appropriate folder, and print if necessary.
I have set up folders in the Inbox, much as I have hardcopy folders. The folders are labeled for the appropriate topic: “organize now,” “taxes,” “charities,” “saved,” etc. Some of these folders have subfolders to take the organizing one step further. As soon as I am done with an email thread, I file the LAST email in the folder and delete all the rest. I only save the last email when the person I am emailing and I reply to back and forth. That way, I have all that was written in one document.
I also use the “For Follow Up” option on my email as a reminder system. There are different colored “flags” and I assign one color per folder. This is a great system, and it keeps my main Inbox neat. Here’s an example: let’s say a friend wants to see a concert in a couple of months. We “e-chat” back and forth and finally decide on a date and time. Because I need the last email as a reminder for scheduling in a future date, I save it to my “friends” folder.” Then I flag it purple. Once or twice a week, I go through my “For Follow Up” folder to see what’s happening soon.
Email is a wonderful tool, but it can get just as cluttered as your home and then it becomes uneffective.
Maintaining a clutter-free home
by Debbie Bowden of Organize Now
Let’s say you get your house organized. You’ve worked hard, probably with a knot in your stomach, but you are rewarded with no junk, no clutter, no extraneous stuff. Good job. Now you can move on to the real secret of being organized – maintenance.
Maintenance isn’t nearly as time consuming as initially organizing, but it does call for diligence. This step in the process of being completely organized calls for a change in habit. Like any habit we change it means doing things differently and establishing a new pattern.
Here’s a tip that is a tremendous help with maintenance, and only takes 5 to 10 minutes a day. Go through your entire house and pick up stuff. It doesn’t matter what time of day as long as it is around the SAME time each day (I do this when I get home from work because I am NOT a morning person). To start this new habit, literally walk through every room. Look for stuff that is out of place and put it back in its spot. Remove items that don’t belong and put them where they do belong. Most importantly, finish the room before moving on to the next.
Let me repeat that – finish the room before moving on to the next. It is too easy to get distracted by trying to tackle multiple rooms all at once. Distraction is probably the number one culprit of not having a good maintenance routine.
When you first start a maintenance routine it may take you longer than 10 minutes. But each day the time you dedicate to maintaining will shorten. Before you know it, your house is consistently organized, and that is a habit you can definitely live with.
Does Empty Space Attract Clutter?
by Debbie Bowden of Organize Now
I hear, “Well, there sure is a lot of space now.” That statement puts fear into the heart of an organizer because when most people are faced with empty space, they feel a strong urge to fill it. Then guess what – more clutter!
Here are a few tricks to fool the eye that the empty space just doesn’t exist:
Arrange your clothes with 2 to 3 inches between each piece. This gives the illusion that the closet is full, but gives more actual space if needed. (An added benefit – your clothes won’t get wrinkled being crammed together.)
Get Control of Your Closet!
“What do I do with all these hangers?”
by Debbie Bowden
That is a frequent response of my client who have gone through a closet purge. It is as if the hangers are whispering sweet nothings, saying “put something on me. I’m lonely up here on this closet rod. How can you stand to just leave me hanging!”
I help those who suffer from “empty hanger” syndrome by taking the hangers away. Not all the empties; the client and I figure out how many extras are needed by taking a quick inventory of clothing that needs washing, ironing, or dry cleaning. I encourage the client to trash the freebie hangers from the dry cleaners and from purchases.
Now this can be the really scary part for the client – I tell them that the number of hangers they have right at that moment is finite! That means when they get new clothes, and they don’t have an extra hanger, they must purge something old. This is the ONLY way that a closet is going to stay clutter-free.
Is Sentimental Clutter Making You Miserable?
by Debbie Bowden
Debbie is the owner of
http://www.organizenowmd.com[_new]Organize Now, in Barclay, MD.
We all keep mementos of the past as a trigger for the memory connected to the thing. Presumably the memories attached to the thing are good memories, otherwise, why would we hold on to it? Many are afraid (strong word, but very appropriate) to get rid of the memento for fear the memory will fade also.
That good feeling from the memory triggered by the thing is trumped by the bad feeling of clutter!
What memories will you have 5 10, 15 years from now of your home? Will the plastic flamingo key chain from Florida with one of the legs broken be what you remember? Will you be thinking of the dried carnations from the corsage your boyfriend gave you at the senior prom? Will you remember the gads and gads of STUFF from places you visited (or worse, the gifts from places other people visited)?
The key to finding your keys
by Debbie Bowden
How many times have you misplaced* your keys in your purse? Go ahead, I’ll wait while you recount the number of times.
I have done it myself (it happens to all of us) even though my purse is organized. But a little piggy saved me – here’s how.
I was given an orange piggy key fob. I don’t collect pigs and I don’t like to have a lot of extraneous stuff on my key ring. But I thought, “wait a minute!” What a great tool to have to help me find my keys. The vibrant color makes it perfect to see when I’m searching the depths of my purse. The unusual shape is great to get a hold of when I’m rooting around the pockets. And if by a slim chance my keys are grouped with other sets, I instantly know which set belongs to me.
The Great Bathroom Hunt
by Cyndi Paxton Johnson
Motherhood is the most amazing experience on earth (not having left the third rock, I can't speak for other places). I am constantly amazed by the intricate details of life that non-parents would never, ever consider.
Take bathrooms, for example.
For most of us, a bathroom is a simple necessity of life. Though we prefer to use private facilities, we will, when necessary, seek out the public restroom. For kids - using a new and different bathroom is like a mini trip to Disneyland (and much more affordable). I expected to spend the toddler years in more public bathrooms than I knew existed - and was not disappointed. Indeed, with three children we spent more time in restrooms than we did in the stores or restaurants! In fact - we ended up deciding WHERE to go by choosing the best bathroom!
"I'm NOT going to that McDonald's near your parents - the bathroom is filthy!"
"NO! We can't go play at the Burger King playground - they don't have a changing table!" (this was a NEW BK north of Frederick, complete with playground. I asked the OWNER why there wasn't a changing table in a CHILD friendly restaurant and was told they were "too dirty". I threatened to change my baby's diaper on their front counter, but never got up the nerve to follow through!)
Turns out that high-end malls have the best bathrooms - and the most! Since they also have awesome play areas and multiple book stores it was a perfect family destination for a couple with three kids aged 3 and under.
Then we moved to the country. No malls - but LOTS of cornfields. We started carrying a child's potty chair in the back of the van, complete with plastic grocery bags to line the pot. We had to pull off the road more times than I can count - but it worked. I was VERY excited when the last child became school age - no more traveling potty chairs!!
Turns out their fascination with bathrooms - and need to use bathrooms frequently - did NOT change. The kid's are now 8, 10 & 11 - and I STILL spend more time looking for bathrooms than I spend doing laundry (which might explain why I'm dressed in mis-matched stripes). Just yesterday we visited Grandma - 75 minutes away. Knowing my children, I made sure they all "went" before we left. [for those without children - this involves telling EACH child at least three times, then quizzing them, then sending them AGAIN (cause they failed the quiz), quizzing again, Repeat until all three kids answer affirmatively. (don't worry if they don't have shoes - they're only going to Grandma's).
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