No More Junk Drawer!There is the old saying that “the pen is mightier than the sword” and while in many cases, this is true, when it comes to spring cleaning and getting organized, the pen might possibly be the cause of your clutter. As promised, one of the newest additions to our Favorite Organizers, Claire Kurtz is back to give you some great solutions to conquer the villainous junk drawer. Read below to get the scoop… No More Junk Drawer! by Claire Kurtz The junk drawer: the in-home wasteland of all things we don’t know what to do with but “might need” some day. Pens from hotels we visited long ago, the ubiquitous ketchup and soy sauce packets from takeout food, random paperclips, twist ties – they all live here waiting for the day they will become useful again. I am going to suggest something that may be shocking to many people. Abolish the junk drawer!! I do not have a junk drawer and I NEVER will. I hate them with every fiber of my being! Why create a comfortable home for random clutter to move into and happily multiply? Here is how you can release yourself and your home from the chains of the junk drawer. •   Give everything a home: Do you have a pen cup? Place all pens, pencils and markers in this handy dandy contraption made just for them. Do you have more writing implements than you can use? Take them to work or donate them to your child’s school or any civic group you might belong to. You don’t have to keep every pen that you come across! Rubber band all of your twist ties together and place them in the drawer or cupboard where you keep your sandwich or garbage bags. Under cabinet baskets and bins make a great home for these miscellaneous items. •   Bag like items: Buttons and batteries are some of the mainstays of the junk drawer. Using the smallest size of sealable snack bags, you can group all of these items together. This helps you to know exactly what size batteries you have and what size you may need to purchase. If you have a sewing kit, the buttons can go there near their friends, the needle and thread. If you really like organizational tools, there are great battery storage boxes that allow you to keep like sizes together, free of their clutter-causing packaging. •    Full-size condiments: If you do not have a full-size ketchup, soy sauce, mustard and mayo in your fridge, buy them today. Then there will be no need to keep 65 packets of these items “just in case.” It is ok to send the soy packets back with the delivery man for other customers to use or to only take one or two ketchup packets when you get burgers and fries in the drive-thru. •   “Buh–bye”: The trashcan. Your best friend and clutter’s worst enemy. If you just cannot think of a use for something or a place to store it where you will find it again when you actually do need it, introduce the item to the â€circular file’ as my first grade teacher used to call it. •   Supply drawer: This is the lovely, well-dressed cousin of the junk drawer. Create a place for items that you really do use to live in well-organized harmony.  My supply drawer is in our home office and in it lives two rolls of tape, one box of staples, one pair of scissors, my favorite toy – the label maker, ready-to-use books of checks, a box of paperclips, a small stack of post–it notes and a Ziploc bag of batteries. By eliminating the place where all of these lost things live, you force yourself to make wise choices about the items you actually do use and how to store them. This is just a simple idea that can help eliminate the exponentially larger feeling of disorganization that comes from sneaky clutter. I hope Claire’s words of wisdom inspire and give you a manageable spring cleaning project. Happy Organizing! Mrs. O http://twitter.com/mrsorganized
Time-saving Tips For MommiesIt’s Spring Break time and if you have a student in the house, I’m sure they are embracing the freedom and you are enjoying a less hectic week. But when the peace breaks and it’s back to getting up early to pack lunches, drop kids off at school, rush to work, then rush back to pick up the kids, make dinner and do homework, you’re wishing it was summertime already. Well here are some great tips and ideas from Stacey L. Crew, aka The Organizing Mama, on how to maintain a less stressful schedule. She is an expert when it comes to providing real life solutions for real busy women and shares with us how to reclaim some extra time during the week. One might even venture to say that after reading her words of wisdom, we might be able to add more hours to the day… Time-saving tips for Mommies by Stacey L. Crew Being a busy mom means living at a frenetic pace most of the time. Therefore, getting out the door without forgetting needed items can be a challenge. However, with a little preparation and organization, you can have other moms wondering how you do it with such ease. Here are some time-saving tips to help you maximize your time and look like a mom on the ball! Prepare the night before—especially if you’re a working mom, you’ll want to have the diaper bag replenished, baby bottles already made, your clothes picked out, and keys, phone and purse by the door. Who know, by doing so, you may get an extra 15 minutes of shut-eye in the morning. Review your weekly schedule—Reviewing your weekly schedule on a Sunday night can have a profound effect on how your week shakes out. Ideally, you’ll want to have a calendar that shows a 7-day view. Group activities together, where possible, to save you time. For example, all drive-through errands or errands in the same part of town. The extra time spent upfront, can and will save you time during the week. Plan your meals for the week—There’s nothing worse than arriving home after a busy day, planning to make a particular dish and you’ve forgotten to pick up an ingredient at the store. By determining what you will eat during the week, you can make a list, shop for groceries on the weekend, then know what you need to take out of the freezer in the morning for that evening’s meal. Charge Your Chargeables –For most of us in today’s world, our cell phone is our lifeline. Be sure it’s always charged by using a convenient electronics holder that can also hold your phone, mp3 player, digital camera and more. Cut clutter—Did you know that it takes 40% less time to clean if there’s little to no clutter? Contain papers, gadgets, and other items so you can easily pick up the container, spray some cleaner and wipe down the surface. You’ll be done in no time! Here are a few quick tips collected from my followers on Twitter (follow me @staceycrew): @afreshspace having everything you need for school ready and in its place the night before (lunch, backpack, homework, etc.) @scoccaro I’m not a mom, but brushing my teeth in the shower saves about 3 minutes for me @amandabc Fave time-saving tips is to attach/link the bibs to the high chair so they’re always there-no running around searching for them. @MidwestMoms I set the breakfast table dishes before I go to bed. That way, if I’m still upstairs helping a little one, older kids can eat! I hope this post was helpful and I encourage you to leave and comment and share your own tips and ideas with the readers. Happy Organizing! -Mrs. O Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mrsorganized
Spring Clean and “Bulk” UpSpring cleaning isn’t limited to just cleaning the dust bunnies from under the couch and scrubbing the blinds. It can also include your cabinets, closets and pantry. And especially in the economy we are living in, getting organized can help save some extra money. This is very true when it comes to stocking up on bulk foods for the pantry. I would like to share some info from my friends at Food Storage Made Easy on how to plan, organize and prepare your food storage areas once the cleaning has been completed. Getting Started with Food Storage by Jodi & Julie at FoodStorageMadeEasy. #1 Make a plan.Visit our blog at http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net and browse through our Getting Started section and the BabySteps pages. This will give you an overview of what you will ultimately want to accomplish. To make it really easy, we have set up an email series of BabyStep Checklists to break the process up into manageable to-do lists that you will receive every two weeks. This is a fantastic option for people that want to get started and have set assignments to work towards every other week. #2 Organize and prepare your space. Storing significant amounts of food can cause a lot of stress over where to put it. If you have a basement storage room you can go with some great industrial shelves such as the intermetro shelving unit (currently on sale!) or the gorilla rack shelves and use them to store a lot of canned/boxed goods and other smaller items. For larger items it is really helpful to store items in stackable containers that you can place on the floor. A lot of bulk foods (wheat, rice, macaroni, etc.) come in large bags which are not ideal for storage. The Bag in Dispenser for Bulk Foods can help with that, as well an Air Tight Container which you can transfer foods into or simply store them in their bags. Some other options are large 5 gallon buckets which are also stackable and air tight. If you have a limited amount of storage space you can get creative with using smaller containers, and stashing food in unusual places such as under the bed, inside end-tables, at the bottom of a closet, etc. #3 Purchase and use your food. Don’t let yourself make a plan and prepare your space and then not follow through with your food storage purchases. Watch your newspapers for sales and stock up on items when they are at their cheapest prices. Look for bulk suppliers of the large staple foods. Buy auxiliary products that will help you cook with your foods (i.e. wheat grinder, bread machine, etc.) And most importantly, learn how to use the foods that you are storing! It will do you no good to have 300 pounds of wheat stored if you don’t know how to make a simple loaf of bread when the time comes that you NEED to use it. We like to recommend trying a new food storage recipe at least once a week. If you schedule it into your meal plan it becomes easy to accomplish that goal. It’s also important to rotate through the foods before they expire so that you don’t waste your money purchasing food that you never use. Hopefully these three tips will help you get started on the road to having a great food storage supply built up. With a little planning and organization this is a task that is definitely doable and will make you feel a lot more prepared in the event of any kind of emergency or difficult financial situation. If you want to learn more about food storage make sure to visit us at http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net!
Happy Organizing! -Mrs. O Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mrsorganized
Spring Into CleanOrganizing and spring cleaning go hand in hand, and while some may only tackle it once a year, Claire Kurtz gives us some great tips and ideas on how to make “spring cleaning” a continual and EASY process. Check out her latest addition below… Getting Started by Claire Kurtz When we first decide that it is time to get organized it can be hard to know where to begin! The whole process can be overwhelming even though it is exciting to know that we are taking charge of our space and clutter. One of the first tips I always share with clients is to break the process down into smaller pieces and analyze, analyze, analyze! Start by dedicating 30 minutes every day to the organizing process. That is enough time to accomplish something and you will still have time for your life! Choose a room to begin with and attack the different areas within the room systematically, little by little. For example, if you start with your kitchen, choose one cabinet or drawer to organize every day. You can even move from left to right through the room if you like. Work with the trash can next to you and have a bag ready for items that you no longer want that can be donated. The goal of decluttering to get organized is to end up with organized spaces that contain only the things that you like and use! Look at each item and ask yourself: Do I use this? Do I like this? If you don’t use it and/or you don’t like it, it is time to donate the item, give it to someone who can use it or throw it away. When I first organized my own home, I went through this process over and over again in each room, each closet and each drawer. More importantly, since my home has been organized for a long time, every few months I do a scan of each room, each closet and each drawer and ask myself the same questions. That way I can stay on top of the clutter-creep that happens to all of us! Maintaining an organized space is so much easier than constantly re-starting the organizing process from scratch. If you are donating items, schedule a time to run by the donation center to drop things off so that these items don’t hang around your home any longer than they have to. Once you have only the things that you use and like in your spaces, then you can start to see if you need organizing tools to hold things so that they are easy to find. Do you want a handbag organizer? Do you want a new magazine holder? Do you want an under sink organizer for your cleaning supplies? It is much easier to select what will work well for you when you know that your belongings are culled down and not overflowing! Stay posted for more insight and wisdom from Claire as she regularly appears as the Well-Organized Woman My Favorite Thing: As Earth Day approaches and we all try to make a conscious effort to take better care of Mother Earth, I am crafting plenty of scrupmtious meals with the Bamboo Salad Bowl from Lipper International. It looks great on my table and when the weather permits, it will be great for outside gatherings on the courtyard pation.
Happy Organizing! - Mrs. O Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mrsorganized
Spring Organizing: Utilizing A Child’s Space to Its Full PotentialHaving a professional housekeeper on staff 365 days a year would be a wish come true for some, and a giant time-saver. Well this is usually not the case for most of us, so while Organize.com gives you all the tools, I want to give you the savvy strategies to make spring cleaning fun and easy. To help out, I would like to introduce Stacey L. Crew, an organizing expert who provides moms-to-be, new moms and busy women with real simple, real life solutions to their organizing challenges. Today she talks about how spring cleaning involves organization, especially in the kids’ rooms. Read on to find out about her fail proof system for implementing and maintaining organization… Spring Organizing: Utilizing A Child’s Space to Its Full Potential Are you overwhelmed by the simple thought of organizing your child’s bedroom? Do you avoid sifting through the mass of toys and books because it just feels like too much and you don’t know how it got out of hand? These are common frustrations among parents who are attempting to keep their childrens rooms neat and organized. However, organizing your child’s bedroom doesn’t have to be a dreaded project. And once it’s decluttered and organized, it will be much easier to maintain. Begin by using the kindergarten classroom as your guide. Why? Well, kindergarten classrooms are generally set up by zones, which make it easy for kids to understand the function of the area and where to put items back once they’re done playing with them. Essentially, everything has a place. Common zones in a child’s bedroom include sleeping, playing, dressing and reading. Zoning the space will make it easier to return things to their home when it’s time to clean up. You can also reduce clutter on the floor by utilizing vertical space on the walls and in the closet. Here are a few solutions that you can actually accomplish on a Saturday morning. 1.   Utilize vertical space 2.   Under the crib/bed storage 3.   Outfit the closet with organizers 4.   A hamper is a must! 5.   Hooks on the back of the door to hang backpack and towel A few additional strategies for today’s busy mom: I hope these helpful words of wisdom help to cut the clutter and freshen up the kids room to bring on spring! My Favorite Thing: Nothing makes cleaning more enjoyable than having great smelling products. A few to must haves for this year are the Caldrea Cleaning Products. They are earth-friendly and dermatologist tested. The Caldrea cleaners are mild, yet highly effective and leave your home clean and smelling fresh. And for anyone that is interested, Caldrea is doing an hour long show on QVC tonight to promote their International Women’s Day Special. They are focusing on female entrepreneurs the founder of Caldrea will be doing the special and I think it will be a great segment. It is going on at 6 PM CST/7 pm EST. Here is the spot on their website:
Happy Organizing! - Mrs. O Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mrsorganized
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