Archive for the ‘Ideas’ Category
5 Lazy Ways to Organize
How many times do you think about organizing a drawer or even a room and give up because it is too overwhelming? Well, I hate to break it to you - organizing is work, but organizing doesn’t have to be a nightmare! Like weight-loss, most people are looking for a quick fix to organizing. And as we have learned, quick weight-loss doesn’t work and you return to the habits which got you to where you were in the first place. The same rings true with organizing. Creating new habits will make organizing a breeze as time goes on.
Lazy is defined as slow moving or sluggish. Organizing the “lazy way” will still take time (I didn’t call it 5 Fast Ways to Organize now, did I?). Going in with a lazy mindset will help you slowly and steadily gain control over the disorganized clutter monster that looms over your head! Patience is a virtue! The old adage, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time” should be playing in your head as you tackle your clutter and disorganization.
- Get over perfection! Most people feel organizing is about living Martha Stewart Perfect. Not the case! It is really as simple as finding what you need when you need it and keeping what you need, use and love. Finding a good home for what you have is essential. Keep those things you use often close to you, not as frequently a little further, and those you don’t use often furthest away.
- Get over guilt! If you are holding onto things because you’d feel guilty getting rid of it DON”T! (Like your friend who gave you a shirt that just doesn’t look good on you, but you feel she will get her feelings hurt if you give it away). You will be able to shed yourself of so much clutter when you purge the guilt first! Those who love you should understand your needs are, and guilt isn’t one of those needs!
- Stick to one area at a time! If you want to organize the whole house, trying to organize it all at once will take longer. You will become the Tasmanian Devil, spinning on a path of destruction. Choose one area to organize at a time. Slow and steady wins this race! Seeing one project through to the end will give you the motivation to continue on to the rest of the house.
- Stop making to-do lists! If you skip this step and put your tasks directly into your to-do lists, then you will actually have the time to get things done! If you need to purge your brain to get it out of your head, create different lists. You need one for long term goals, short term goals and one for everyday tasks. Work those lists into your calendar to see what you can accomplish daily, monthly and yearly. Remember to leave room in your schedule for fun!
- Get help! Any way you look at it, help is the best way to change your habits. You will have someone to hold you accountable. Don’t you have enough on your plate? Adding self accountability (is that a phrase or did I just make it up?) is just one more thing to worry about. Pass that responsibility on!
You can actually waste time by being “hyper” organized (as I like to call it). You can procrastinate on projects by organizing as a distraction. You can lead an unbalanced life if you are so focused on perfection. Organizing should bring you more time to do what you love and want to do. So get lazy and organize your home one space at a time!
Cure Mail Mayhem
Posted by Julie Verleger in Home, Ideas on May 21st, 2009
It’s Friday and your very tall mountain of mail on the kitchen table has avalanched to the floor- Sigh. You would go through it, but the kids just got home with more papers from their week at school. Never fear, oh fellow crazy busy woman, there are two solutions available. I think you will need some ice water for this one and relaxing music (you will need to concentrate).
You will need:
- 1 bin for shredding
- 1 bin for recycling
- (Plus a mail organizing system we will talk about after the sorting)
Where do we start? At the top of course! Here is a flyer new tires? Do you need new tires? No? Recycle. Old credit card bills that you paid 2 months ago? Shred.
FYI monthly bills you only need to keep for a month when you get the new one shred the old. The piles that you create with the items that you have kept should consist of …
- Bills to be paid
- Correspondence needed
- Periodicals you want to read
- Monthly or quarterly insurance information, health, life, stocks, investments. (Replace the old with the new)
Once you have plowed through your heaping hill of bills and papers. You should only be left withthe 4 bunny hills listed above.
Now what? First make yourself a cup of coffee. Lets start with your bills.
- Do you have trouble paying your bills on time because you forgot about them or they were misplaced?
- How do you pay them, all at once, twice or 3 times a month?
Open each bill and stack according to when they need to be paid for example the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4thweek of the month.
Select the proper tool you are going to use to keep these bills in, and keep in the designated bill paying area. Desk or office etc. a desktop file holder works very well. Assign a different color or pattern to each week. Keep it interesting and inviting by using colorful and fun patterned file folders. Place the bills in the folder that is a week before it is due. So each week when you sit down to pay those bills they are all together. You can write checks and send them off or pay online. When your receive the new bill in the mail or email simply shred the old one and replace. There are such things called a tickler file, it has a slot for everyday of the month. That works well for those of you who need even more visual reminders. Some tickler files are just expandable file folders, others are made out of wood for desktop use. Choose which one that will work best for you.
It is also good to have a slot, file or section in a desktop file holder for correspondence or immediate action, such as signed permission slips, Dr forms etc.
Periodicals, catalogues magazines newspapers, industry newsletters can overtake any table, counter, or floor. Keep a basket or shelf where these are stored until you can look at them. If you have had it for longer than a month, toss. Remember almost everything in your magazines and catalogues can be found on line.
Special articles, pictures and recipes can be torn out and kept in a pocket folder or a 3-ring notebook with clear inserts then divided into groups:
- Recipes
- Garden
- Clothes
- Vacation spots
- Decorating ideas
These folders can be kept neatly together in a clean lined vertical magazine holder. Which come in all different colors and materials. Choose one that invites you and fits your style.
You’ve done it! Some of these steps might not pertain to you, but the general idea creates the everyday paper managing system you can keep up with. Decide if you are going to take care of it everyday or every other day, even once e a week, whatever the case with these steps streamlined it will take half the time.
Do I hear you saying “Julie, what about the things I have to file and how do I do it? I don’t even know what’s lurking in my file drawers! How long do I keep stuff?” That my friend is for another time. We only have one afternoon. One step at at time.
Thanks to Julie for her posting. Visit our contributors page to learn more about Julie.
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Garage Organization 101
Posted by Phillip Burger in Home, Ideas on May 19th, 2009
While it’s easy to relegate the garage to a big storage closet, it can truly be a versatile and valuable space with a little organization and the right products. If you’re keeping your garage door closed to hide the frontier of junk behind it, follow these easy steps and get on the path to garage organization:
- Keep only the essentials. The first step to achieving an organized garage is to minimize what’s in it. If you haven’t used an item in over a year, sell it, donate it or throw it out. Spring and summer time is the best time of the year for a garage sale.
- Utilize wall space. Whenever possible, take advantage of the wall space with shelves, baskets and hooks. For example, bikes take up an enormous amount of valuable floor space. Salvage it by installing hooks or try the innovative Gladiator® Claw Advance Bike Storage device for easy access to summer riding.
- Prioritize seasonal needs. Think about what you need and don’t need for the next few months. In the current season, keep frequently used items like lawn chairs and coolers in easy-to-get-to places and keep seasonal items like holiday decorations up high on a shelf.
- Research product options. Whether its cabinets, workbenches, wall systems, ball caddies, bike hooks and more, the right storage solution can help clear clutter and uncover more space.
Whether you’re a first time homeowner or an empty nester, an organized garage is a valuable garage.
For a chance to de-clutter and unveil the full potential of your garage, enter the Unveil Your Garage sweepstakes at www.GladiatorGw.com.
-Lou Ann Schafer
Senior Brand Manager, Gladiator® GarageWorks
Twitter: @gladiatorgw
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/GladiatorGW/52058828971
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gladiatorgw/
Organize More Efficiently By Staying Put
Posted by Phillip Burger in Home, Ideas on May 12th, 2009
This article touches on one very simple mistake that most people make when trying to organize a room: they leave it. During the organizing process, you will invariably find something that belongs in a different room. The key to the organizing process is to put it aside, and stay in that room working. If you take the object to the other room to put it away, you have a large chance of getting distracted and not returning to the room. The message here is pretty simple:
When organizing a room, stay in it until you are done!
Use the link below to read the entire article. If you like this, please share it. (RT on Twitter)
Organize More Efficiently By Staying Put [Apartment Therapy]
iGoogle - Organize your homepage [Idea]
Probably the main thing that keeps me organized and sane on a daily basis is my iGoogle page, or portal to the Internet. Lots of people already use something like this through Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, or even AOL (or others), but I personally prefer iGoogle because of the flexibility and how it ties into other Google products easily.
What does it do: this lets you put everything in one place when you get online so you do not have to go to multiple sources for information.
How does it do it: again, using the magic of RSS and other web technologies, homepages or “portals” like iGoogle are possible. RSS information is shared in a standard format that allows other pages to use the content. Information from a blog, a news website, your email, and more can all be in one place.
How much does it cost: free. Simple.
What is on my homepage(s): (oh yeah, you can have tabs with multiple home pages to categorize them like work and personal for example) I have just about everything on my homepage, but here are a few things: bookmarks (in case I am not at my own computer and need to get to some bookmarks), Gmail (a quick look at new emails), stock market quotes (up to the minute quotes from Google Finance), Google tasks (quick list of things I need to do), On Organization RSS feed (to check out my blog postings and when they are available on the feed), quote of the day (always fun), tech news (build in feed from Google), Google Reader (shortcut to seeing top feeds in my reader), and weather (again, through Google using Weather Underground). Just from reading that you can see how it is great to get all the information in one place instead of having to go to all those different websites to see what I want. When I am ready, I can look at all my emails in Gmail or look at detailed weather. I will go over to Google Reader to look at all the postings and to Google Finance to get more details on the stock market.
I think that this is such a great product and something that anyone who is online should use. The “gadgets” you can put on your homepage are endless, and if you are really creative, you can even create your own.
Do you use iGoogle or something like it? Share your story for others to read.
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iGoogle homepage [Google.com]
Setting Goals In A Bad Economy [Idea]
Posted by Phillip Burger in Financial, Ideas on April 30th, 2009
This article has a few key ideas related to organizing your financial situation, especially in a bad economy. Sure, you have started to save more money, but what do you do with it to make sure it is there to help you when you need it. Here are a few suggestions from the article:
These are some great suggestions and the main idea of this article is to make you think of what are you saving for, where are you putting the money, and if you need it, how can you determine how much you can safely use.
What things do you do to keep some money safe in hard times? Leave a comment and let us know.
Also, if you like this article, please share it. Here is a link to RT on Twitter.
Original article: Setting Goals in a Bad Economy [Lifehacker.com]
Beyond The Kitchen Table: Sorting Finances Online [Financial]
Posted by Phillip Burger in Financial, Home, Ideas on April 28th, 2009
I heard a great story on NPR last night during “All Tech Considered” talking about using online resources to keep track of your finances and generally organizing your money. I always like the “All Tech Considered” pieces that Omar Gallaga does because he does an excellent job of explaining things well.
Yesterday he talked about websites like Mint.com and SmartyPig.com as online resources for your money.
Click the link below to read the story and take 7 minutes or so to listen to the piece, it is really good:
Beyond The Kitchen Table: Sorting Finances Online [NPR.org]
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10 Tools For Sticking To Goals [Lifehacker]
Posted by Phillip Burger in Ideas on April 27th, 2009
Lets face it, sticking to goals is hard in general. The article linked below was written about New Years Resolutions, but really, any goal is hard to stick with. If your goal is to “clean my house” or “mow the yard” or even “do research to start a new diet”, there will always be things getting in the way of your progress. Here are the top 10 quick tips to help you get the right start to accomplishing your goals:
10. Schedule your goals inside your high-energy times - this is pretty straight-forward
9. Make them S.M.A.R.T. - example of S.M.A.R.T. goal setting for exercise: Specific (”Run 2 miles, three times a week”); Measurable (”Improve my mile times by 25%”); Achievable (Avoid pie-in-the-sky goals that you can’t expect to achieve.); Realistic (Give yourself the time necessary to achieve the goal. Don’t expect overnight success.) Timely (Have a real deadline with progress check-ups; get your first 5K under your belt by Sept. 1, instead of “Run a long race this year”).
8. Mint.com for all your money resolutions - this is a good suggestion to just keep track of money goals altogether. We have a few articles that might help you with that as well: Financial Category
7. Channel your Inner Seinfeld—Don’t break the chain - start a process from day to do and keep track of your progress (like a chain of paperclips). After a while, it will start to be more and more important to you to not break the chain, and it becomes a ritual.
6. Track them all at once with Joe’s Goals - use a simple website like Joe’s Goals to track your goals. Tracking progress is key.
5. Keep your reminders/motivators away from your computer - this is a trick to just keep you away from your computer, especially if the goal has something to do with exercise or cleaning. Once you sit at your computer to keep track of the goals, you will be doing a million other things instead of working on it.
4. Remember the Milk - another great online task manager, Remember The Milk
3. Be a dweeb and write them down - put notes in your daily planner, track things on paper, review your progress
2. Advanced calendar tweaking - learn and use some advanced features in the calendars you already use like Outlook or Google Calendar
1. Remember Ryan Adams’ creed—It’s just a simple task today - start working on your small goals today. Keep up with them and they will not become long difficult things to work on. I mean, if you are planning for a marathon, you only need to run 2-3 miles today, and that is not too far. Just go do it.
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I hope you enjoy these suggestions. Follow the link below to read the entire original article.
Top 10 Tools for Sticking to Your Goals[lifehacker.com]
