August 28, 2008
Trying to Organize My Life 5
I am looking around my house and an overwhelming feeling of dread starts to creep over me. For the most part, my house is in okay shape. We have a few hot spots that always seem to be cluttered and messy no matter how much effort we put into trying to keep those areas clean. But, I wouldn't be extremely embarrassed if someone just popped in for a visit. We have a good excuse of having a child now to blame our lack of having a spotless house. The hot spots, my desk, the kitchen counters, and my scrapbook room are out of control though and I wish I could just click my fingers and they would all be cleaned up and orderly. It's not going to happen though, so instead I just stare at the piles of papers and and try to devise some sort of plan.
The other night I read through some organization websites and came up with a plan on helping me get some of this clutter under control. First of all, I need to get rid of the things that I absolutely don't need. I have to admit I am a borderline pack-rat. I am very sentimental about things and I don't like to throw certain things away. I am also always afraid that I am going to get rid of something important. I need to get over those fears and just start tossing.
The second thing I need to do is go to the dollar store and get some bins and baskets for sorting and storing. I don't know why I haven't done that before but it's time to start. Everything needs to have it's place: bills, documents, wallets and keys etc.
I also need to label these bins and baskets, so they don't get ignored because we don't know what's in them. A while back the DYMO Labelmaker
became popular in the scrapbooking industry. We were labeling everything: our storage spaces, our scrapbook pages, pictures, cards, etc. They are not as popular now for designing pages but I think it might be time to break it out again to help me with my organization.
The last thing that I have done to help me get the house and my life back on track is putting together a daily chart to help me tackle the hot spots on a regular basis. We shall see how that works out. I am a chart and list maker, so I figured this might be good for me.
I have a friend who has two children starting school this year and she is feeling disorganized too. She said she is trying to put together a plan for herself too. She is also breaking out the labelmaker to help label books, homework folders, and lunch boxes.
So what are your organization tips for those of us who are so woefully behind?
Aug 28, 2008 @ 13:57:21
A good website to help keep up on chores and the housework that worked for my husband for a while is http://www.flylady.com. I learned about from a lady I used to work with who just raved about it. If you can stick to the concepts it does work. She even has a link on how to declutter.
Aug 28, 2008 @ 15:06:05
Floyd is also very attached to things, and I’m always throwing things out and making lists! I took three big garbage bags to the DAV this week and plan to clean out our embarrassingly messy garage over the long weekend. I have to sell some stuff for a fundraiser (which usually means I just buy my minimum myself so I don’t have to ask anyone) and one of the items is a book called “The One Minute Organizer”. I read the review on Amazon and it sounds pretty good.
Aug 28, 2008 @ 18:31:20
I would move.
Aug 28, 2008 @ 19:01:19
Hi Wendy,
I saw your post this morning about blog redesign and have been searching myself…I just met someone who does both blogger and typepad redesign….here is her site if you want to check it out
http://www.uptowndesignstudio.com
Aug 31, 2008 @ 05:12:26
Hi Wendy,
You are definitely on the right track and it looks like you have some good resources to help you get organized. Keep at it! Feel free to visit The Time and Project Management Blog for more organizing tips.