Organization Tips
Time is the currency of the new millennium.
It is given to us free, but will cost us dearly if we waste it.
Organization Tips
Time is the currency of the new millennium. It is given to us free, but will cost us dearly if we waste it.
What do you need help with?
– A way to organize the clutter in your bathroom counter is to buy a plastic tub with a handle on top. Place all your bathroom accessories (hair sprays, lotions) in the tub and place it under the counter. When you’re ready to use them, just take the tub out. When you’re done, put the tub back under the counter.
– Use small plastic drawer as a Medicine Cabinet. Name the drawers with the type used on each part of the body… Ex: head, foot stomach etc… Leave a drawer for first aid materials (thermometer, gaze, band-aid…) if you want to be fancy, you can use the cabinets sold at constructions stores…they have more drawers…
– Empty your bathroom garbage can and use it as a bucket when you wash your bathroom and hardwood floors. Rinse it in the tub and then fill it with white vinegar and water. Both the floors and the garbage can are clean when you’re done.
– Change the orientation of your hangers. The part that hangs on the rod will be facing forward, making it a little more difficult to remove from the rod. Every time you use an item you change the orientation of the hanger so that the part that hangs on the rod faces backward. After a few months you will be able to see which clothes you are using and which ones you are not.- If you haven’t worn or used an item in 6 months, sell or donate it.
– Make it easy for your children to put things away. Keeping bins labeled with pictures handy will help the little ones stay organized. Also, if the kid is at an age of learning how to organize, use open bins to store his/her clothes. It will develop their sense of responsibility.
– Old or extra cute frame that you want to keep? Take the backing and the glass out, find piano wire, small eyelet hooks (two for each wire), pliers, and a ruler. Mark where you want each wire to hang. Screw in the eyelet hooks. Using the pliers, pull the wire taut and twist it around the hooks. Hang your earrings from the wires. Either mount the display on a wall or place it on a dresser.
– Group similar items together, such as short-sleeved shirts or dress pants.
– Use clear containers to contain small items. Keep items that are used often in baskets and bins for easy access.
– In general folding clothing takes up less space than hanging them. Consider stacks instead of hanging sets of clothes.
– Eat fruits and vegetables in season, when they are least expensive. Stock up when they’re cheap and freeze or can any excess for later use. Or trade with friends…
– Buy in bulk from a local health food store or place bulk orders directly with mail-order companies. If you can’t meet their minimum order size, go in on an order with another family, or organize a larger food buying club.
– Keep up with what’s in your refrigeratorand make sure nothing spoils. Once a week, make soup or casseroles to use up vegetables and other leftovers.
– Check your magazine subscriptions and keep only the ones you read on a regular basis.Eliminate magazines you don’t read anymore to save time and money.
– Keep a container on the back seat to store papers and miscellaneous items. This container should be emptied at least once a month.
– Keep a recyclable bag to dispose of garbage on the floor behind the front seats. To make it more convenient, loop the bag handle inside the center console top in order to keep it a little bit more open for you to dispose of the garbage.
– Put a survival kit together, just in case… Check out the kit from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_kit, And, there are few other items you never would guess that could help you a lot: Beer (you could use it as money), Handheld CB Radio (they can be a direct line to emergency crews and tow trucks), Contractor Bags (Thick, sturdy 3-mil, they are the multi-tool of the disaster world), Glow Bracelets (used them to mark the location of important things around the house.) and of course, a good book. Don’t forget pet food in case you have animals.
– If it becomes necessary to leave your home, there may be little advance notice. Determine ahead of time what to bring, where to go and how to get there. Create a backup plan in case your primary route or destination becomes unworkable. Keep at least a half-tank of gas in your car, and keep weather-resistant clothing and sturdy shoes handy.
– Ask for their help to decide where things should go in their studying space, this way they will feel part of the process and starting in taking pride in keeping it organized.
– Take a picture after organizing their space, print it and display it (or if printing it is too much of a hassle keep it on their computer’s desktop), so they can have a visual reminder of how things should go back in place.
– Schedule one time of the day (probably after the homework time) for them to organize desk. If every day is too much, schedule once a week or every 3 days. the important thing is to have it in their calendars or chore’s list.
– Don’t keep things just because someone gave it to you. If you don’t love a gift it’s OK to donate it or re-gift to someone who will appreciate it better than you. Don’t clutter you home! Surround yourself only of things you love
– Don’t give things you’re not sure the person will LOVE, otherwise it will only be more CLUTTER to the person to deal with. If you give a gift, give what the person really wants/needs. If money is short, bundle with other friends and buy a really wanted – but expensive gift – or give a gift card to the person favorite’s store; a gift card for a massage or any other service that you know the person will love and more importantly, USE IT!
–Re-Gift! It’s ok. Don’t keep things that really don’t fulfill your life.
– Teach your kids the 1-in 1-out rule for new toys―it will help maintain order in your home and get your kids on the path to being organized.
– Make it easy for your children to put things away. Keeping bins labeled with pictures handy will help the little ones stay organized. Also, if the kid is at an age of learning how to organize, use open bins to store his/her clothes. It will develop their sense of responsibility.
– Keep washer-and-dryer-safe mesh bags in each kid’s room―one for lights, one for darks. Throw the bags directly into the washing machine and dryer. If the kids are old enough, they can do their own folding. If not try to do it while watching TV or listing to the radio. Consolidating work helps to save time too!
– Keep child accessibility in mind so that it’s easy for kids to find items and put them away. This way, you’re not always on clean-up duty!
– Give your child a “tour” of the closet and storage systems, so they understand how everything is organized. Model how to find items and when and where to put them away.
– Utilize storage bins and/or extra shelves to store clothes that your baby or child has not yet grown into. You can label a bin with the next size, and then switch out as they grow out of sizes. When utilizing shelves in a closet, you can rotate sizes downward to where they are more easily accessible.
– Keep a “future bin” in the kids’ closets for hand-me-downs you get from others and anything that’s too big for them right now. Purge their closets seasonally. Put removed items in one of three places: a younger sibling’s “future bin”, the charity bin, or the trash.
– As a custom solution, clothing for babies and toddlers can utilize a ‘triple hang’ for their clothes to maximize small spaces. In a 24” section you can hang six feet of clothing!
– Purchase or install smaller drawers for organizing small items such as socks, hair clips, hats, and gloves. Custom closets can incorporate drawers with built-in dividers for these items. As the child grows, the dividers can be moved to accommodate the varying needs for a growing child.
– Utilize pull-out baskets in a closet or shelving unit for small toys. These make it fun and easy to clean up. Make sure these are situated at a low level so that the child can easily reach them and learn how to be responsible for keeping their room organized and clean
– Organize your pantry shelves as you would a library, with food items grouped by category. Cans with cans, snacks with snacks and so forth. It will make it easier for you to know when something is close to being finished and save you time looking for misplaced items.
– Do you like to have a smoothie when you wake up? Get the ingredients together and the paraphernalia you will need in the refrigerator overnight. (Even pre-chop a banana. It will brown, but that will not affect the flavor of the shake.) In the morning, set it on the blender and press the button.
– While preparing a meal, keep a big bowl on the counter. Put all your chopping, cutting, and peeling discards into it, then make one trip to the garbage instead of 10.
– When in doubt, whip up a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich for dinner to save time.
– Have friends send you their favorite easy-to-make recipes, then you forward them on. In addition, keep a few cookbooks at the office and download recipes from the Internet to a folder on the computer. Photocopy or print out the ingredients list while at work and then buy groceries during lunch or on the way home.
– Set out everything you can―dry breakfast ingredients, clothes, backpacks and bags, and lunches―before going to bed. It means fewer things to do when you wake up and you’re getting ready to leave the house.
– If you have leftover lemons and limes from a cocktail party, squeeze them and freeze the juice in an ice-cube tray. Once they’re frozen, store the cubes in zippered plastic bags and use them for recipes that call for fresh lemon or lime juice. (One cube equals about one tablespoon of juice.)
– For faster, crisper cuts of chives (or scallions), use a rubber band to hold the herbs together. As you chop along the stems, simply move the rubber band back. The elastic will keep the chives taut and steady, making them easier to slice through and less likely to get squashed in the process.
– Make a colorful fruit salad, and spoon into single-serving containers. Place them front and center in the fridge.
– Many people store mops and brooms by standing them in a corner, but this can cause broom straw to bend and mop heads to mildew. Using tool hooks (sold at hardware stores), hang them with their “business ends” up. A dustpan, too, should be kept off the floor; hang it from the hole in its handle
– A mirror by the door, along with a basket filled with last-minute primping tools will help you not to run all over the house looking for brushes, barrettes, sunscreen, hand lotion, or various makeup essentials.
– To get out the door more quickly each day, dedicate baskets or shelves to specific days of the week. When you remove things from your bag at night, place each item on the appropriate shelf or in the correct basket.
– Designate a certain spot for everyday items―like your wallet, transit card, and cell phone.
–Keep a recyclable bag to dispose of garbage on the floor behind the front seats. To make it more convenient, loop the bag handle inside the center console top in order to keep it a little bit more open for you to dispose of the garbage.
– Are you tired of receiving Yellow pages on the mail? You can stop it! Phone: (866) 329-7118 Web site: www.att.com/mydirectories
– Let a call go to voice mail if you are working and don’t want to be interrupted. Put aside 2 hours in your daily planner to answer calls.
– Some business are not registered to do not call mail list, I found out how to be removed from the biggest responsible for junk of the junk of San Diego: http://www.redplum.com
– Stop unwanted mail: https://www.optoutprescreen.com/opt_form.cgi
– Free address labels in the mail? Give 1 sheet to people who write you the most so they can use them to send you letters
– Post-its should ONLY be used for quick notes, like a missed call.’
– Everything else should go to your PLANNER. That means: phone #, ideas, addresses and especially LISTS. If your planner doesn’t have enough space keep a notebook close to you and write there…Don’t forget to take the page away and trash it after the task is done and start a new one… transfer things if necessary, but never go to the 2 page. Avoid the sea of papers in your desk!
– Go through mail standing by your recycling bin,shredder or trash can and drop junk mail in immediately.
– Write and send out birthday cards once a month.Keep envelops stamped and ready to go.
– Limit credit cards and bank accounts to just one or two.This will limit the number of statements you have to deal with each month and you may save money on fees. Or even better: go paperless! Check statements online; you can even save them as PDF for future reference.
– When you receive a flyer with time sensitive information (ex. dates of a school or church function) write the important information down on your calendar immediately! Now you can throw away the paper or if you can’t bring yourself to do this at least you can put the paper in a pending file. This way you will have a back up if you can’t locate your calendar.
– Take time to purge files daily or weekly,whatever works for you. Set the timer and just work on cleaning files or clearing up a paper mess you see. When the timer rings – STOP.
– Make a list on your planner the day before or as soon as U wake-up. That will help you to have your tasks done!
– Annoyed with telemarketing calls? Put you number at the do not call list: https://www.donotcall.gov/register/reg.aspx
– When you see paper just floating around, pick it up and put it in a one designated location. It will all contain in one place and you can deal with it all at once.