4 Signs that You Need to Reorganize

  
Sometimes we drift into disorganization. We organize an area, but after a while it's not working for us. Here are some signs that organizational drift is upon you:

1. It's messy. New items have been added since you organized and they don't have a home.

2. Misplaced items. Some of the things you thought you would use in the area are no longer contributing toward the function of the space.

3. Systems are not working. As you have used the systems you put into place, you've found that they need to be tweaked.

4. The storage you're using doesn't work well for what you're storing.

This was what was going on in our bedroom closet. When we moved last September, some things just got dumped in our closet. We really haven't had the time or the motivation to tackle it until now. But it was getting so annoying we had to do something!

It was getting messy, so we identified what didn't have homes. We grouped them in like piles.  

And we definitely had misplaced items - things that really needed to be stored away or gotten rid of entirely or placed in a better location. So we took those out of the closet, and placed them in the locations where they should go.

One system that wasn't working was our laundry. We had laundry baskets in our closet (our closet is very large), but it made it difficult to get to some areas of the closet. So we took out the bottom shelf in our bathroom closet, and lined up our laundry baskets there. It made a lot more sense to have them in the bathroom as that's where we take off our clothes. (I'm sorry that's probably too much information! LOL!)

Once we removed the laundry baskets and misplaced items, it created room for those things without homes. 

I have a bunch of bags, some I use often and some not so often. But I like to be able to find the one I want to use when I want to use it. So we bought some hooks (half price, total $18!) to hang them on, which makes them much more available. 

Even though it was a big project and made a big mess at first, it is so nice to have a well-functioning closet! Definitely worth the work.


More on closets:

Closet Mapping

Thinking Through Your Closets

Make it Easy to Get Rid of Things

 

How Being Medically Organized Could Save Your Life

    
Great broadcast by Chasity Mayes at KSMU radio station - here's the transcript:

It’s one of the easiest life saving measures you can take for you and your family, but very few people take the time to do it. KSMU’s Chasity Mayes tells us how organizing your family’s medical information could mean the difference between life and death in an emergency situation.

"A recent survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that 96 percent of Americans believe that knowing their family history is important. Yet, the same survey found that only one-third of Americans have ever tried to document their family's medical history.

Connie Meier is an infection preventionist at Skaggs Regional Medical Center in Branson. She says there are a couple of reasons why people aren’t getting 'medically organized.'

'Some of it is because in years past that we’ve had one doctor that takes care of all of our medical needs and we think that the doctor should know when we go see the doctor. However, that’s not the case now when we see different specialties as far as doctors. And it’s just a matter of taking the time to sit down and write this information out,' says Meier.

Meier says creating a medical history for your family should include things like past surgeries, illnesses, and current medications for each family member. She says keeping that history with you at all times is especially important.

'If you were in an accident somewhere and have to be taken to the hospital they would want to know that information about you and it would make it easier for the providers at that time,' says Meier.
Meier also added that there are many consequences to not having a family medical history on hand in emergency situations. She says you’re at a much greater risk for receiving medication that you’re allergic to and those reactions can be fatal.

Most medical officials agree that major holidays like the upcoming Fourth of July, can be the perfect time for people to get 'medically organized.' Meier says having medical information at your disposal can keep your children safe.

'If your child would happen to go to visit grandma and grandpa or go on vacation and then get sick we would not have that child’s past history. The child also needs to know your history because on down the line if you’re not around and the child develops problems the doctors really need to know the family history,' says Meier.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says tracing common diseases like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes suffered by your parents, or other blood relatives can help your doctor be proactive in preventing disorders that are common in past generations.
Writing down your family’s medical history is one way of getting organized. Many websites, including that of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers an online tool to help you document your family’s medical history."

More on medical organization:

National Preparedness Month - Emergency Kit #7 - Medications and Medical Supplies

Getting Your Affairs in Order

Can Your Loved Ones Find Your Important Documents?

1-2-3 ... Get Organized Named to "Top 50 Productivity Blogs to Watch in 2010"

   
I'm once again honored to be named to a "top 50" list: The Top 50 Productivity Blogs to Watch in 2010 by Evan Carmichael at the Entrepreneur Blog.

Similar topics:

1-2-3 ... Get Organized Named in Top 50 Organizing Blogs by Online Degrees

I'm in Today's Issue of Woman's Day Magazine!

I'm in Family Circle Magazine - Organizing Your Scrapbook Materials

 

Is There Hope for the Hoarder?

    

The following article by Marie Murray gives hope to those who have a hoarder in their lives. 

"The room is rank. Faded newspapers block the doorway. Dirty cups clutter surfaces. There are containers of congealed contents. The bed is unmade.

The occupant of the room sits in a stained chair, wearing a collection of garments. The air is stale. The decay, dankness, the sealed windows and a person among the rubbish, apparently unperturbed by the surroundings, reveal another example of Diogenes syndrome, a condition of hoarding behaviours and serious self-neglect and isolation.

The problem with accumulating objects, hoarding them, being unable to discard anything and feeling threatened, anxious or even aggressive if others try to do so, is often associated with older age or with physical helplessness. It is more complex than that and may have its origins decades before it arrives in the extreme situation of enforced entry by neighbours, relations, friends or social services to intervene on behalf of the sufferer.

There are parents of some teenagers reading this who will protest that they know this condition. As they survey the daily detritus of teenagers’ rooms they have excellent evidence of early-onset Diogenes. They can confirm that accumulation of food, cups, clothes and general rubbish is not the province of the old but equally manifests itself in the young. They have experienced the anger at intrusion, resistance to assistance and the recalcitrant nature of the condition. Even when there are regular parental forays and clearouts, the space returns to comfortable chaos.

Nor, if truth be told, is excessive acquisitiveness confined to young and old. Reality TV has exploited the topic with voyeuristic quasi-psychological programmes where teams of cleaners enter people’s homes to declutter, clean and convert the mess into pristine minimalism. When tidiness becomes television fodder we must be in trouble, yet there is something oddly intriguing about participating in people’s private lives. It reassures those who are ordinarily untidy that their comparative condition is fine.

As we identify more and more psychological conditions, one may ask if we have not run amok with categorising every human behaviour and eccentricity along a continuum that makes them abnormal or pathological at every juncture.

After all, excessive cleanliness is equally regarded as pathological, and falls into anal-retentive or obsessive-compulsive categories. Can clutter seriously be a psychological condition? The answer is yes, when it gets out of control.

The problem with hoarding is that there is validity to keeping some objects because they are beautiful, have sentimental value or practical utility. Generations reared on “waste not, want not” and “saving for a rainy day” could not be expected to chuck everything out the moment that its usefulness was over. There was sensible retention of objects that might serve again.

But behind the rationale, there is a reality to Diogenes and general pathological acquisitiveness. They have been linked to distressing indecisiveness, to planning and organisation issues, to difficulties in categorising information and to forms of dementia and brain injury.

People who hoard may believe objects are more trustworthy than people, and fear neediness which may arise from early infant emotional or physical deprivation.

Also identified as relevant is loss of a parent or partner, loss of physical contact with people and the losses associated with institutional experience which makes individual ownership and possessions more important than they would otherwise be.

On a positive note, whatever the origin, extent or the entrenchment of hoarding, it can be resolved successfully therapeutically when underlying anxieties are addressed. It’s a mental spring clean that works."

More on hoarding:

Self-Help Books for Hoarders and Their Families

Hoarding - There Are No Easy Answers!

When Clutter is Unhealthy

 

Organizing Summer Fun When Everyone is Bored: A Random Act of Kindness

    
Lest our children think the universe revolves around them, throw in a random act of kindness here and there. Think about someone who could use some help, a batch of cookies, some hand-drawn pictures, a visit, or a hug.

Despite the moans and groans, such an event can open our children's eyes to needs, different living situations, a different generation, latent gifts within themselves, and more.

One year at Christmas, we took two of our foster daughters to a local woman's shelter to wrap donated gifts. One of the girls went kicking and screaming. By the time we finished, she wanted to go back the next week, which we did.

Sometimes the unknown is scary. Sometimes kids are selfish. Sometimes it seems like we're too busy. But there's nothing that replaces the sense of fulfillment that comes from giving to another.  

More on Organizing Summer Fun:

Organizing Summer Fun When Everyone is Bored: Treasure Hunt Dinner

Organizing Summer Fun When Everyone is Bored: Guess the Theme Day

Organizing Summer Fun When Everyone is Bored: Outdoor Decathlon

The Blessings of Organizing Your Thoughts Before You Speak - or Not

I came across these quotes which illustrate the importance of organizing your thoughts before you speak. LOL!


"I was asked to come to Chicago because Chicago is one of our 52 states."
- Raquel Welch on Larry King Live 


"I can do anything you want me to do as long as I don't have to speak."
- Linda Evangelista 


"Where's Austria?"
- David Hasselhoff, Baywatch star, when told he has five gold albums as a singer in Austria. 


"I feel my best when I'm happy."
- Winona Ryder 


"Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that but not with all those flies and death and stuff."
- Mariah Carey 


"I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever."
- Miss Alabama at the 1994 Miss Universe pageant, when asked "If you could live forever, would you and why?" 


"I haven't committed a crime. What I did was fail to comply with the law."
- David Dinkins, New York City Mayor, answering accusations that he failed to pay his taxes. 


"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life."
- Brooke Shields, during an interview to become spokesperson for a federal anti-smoking campaign 


"I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body."
- Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky basketball forward 


"Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country."
- Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, D.C. 


"The streets are safe in Philadelphia. It's only the people who make them unsafe."
- Frank Rizzo, ex-police chief and ex-mayor of Philadelphia 


"I've always thought that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly under-polluted."
- Lawrence Summers, chief economist of the World Bank, explaining why we should export toxic wastes to Third World countries 


"After finding no qualified candidates for the position of principal, the school board is extremely pleased to announce the appointment of David Steele to the post."
- Philip Streifer, Superintendent of Schools, Barrington, Rhode Island 


"The doctors X-rayed my head and found nothing."
- Dizzy Dean explaining how he felt after being hit on the head by a ball in the 1934 World Series 


"We're going to turn this team around 360 degrees."
- Jason Kidd, Dallas Mavericks 


"I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president."
- Hillary Clinton 


"China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese."
- Charles De Gaulle, former French President

Creating Decluttering Routines

      
Clutter got you down? Create a decluttering routine to tackle the job!

Set aside 15 minutes a day to tackle the area that is bothering you the most until you've conquered it. Don't forget to plan in regular times to maintain your order!

Now move on to the next area that needs attention and repeat.

If you prefer a one-shot approach, schedule in a decluttering time every Saturday  morning or every Thursday night, for example. Again, don't forget to think through how you will maintain your decluttered area.

This may mean changing your habits. Instead of throwing your mail on a pile, sort through the mail when you receive it. Recycle what you don't want, shred anything that may have sensitive information in it, place your bills where they should go, and file the rest in an action file.

In other words, think through why you got yourself in this mess to start with and what changes you need to make in your habits so you don't end up here again.

If you're having trouble with motivation, imagine how freeing it will be to have everything where it belongs! And how much time and money you will save by knowing where things are.


More on decluttering:

A Simple Way to Stay Focused on Decluttering/Cleaning

Decluttering in 5 - 20 Decluttering Tasks You Can Do In Five Minutes or Less

Get Organized Month 2009 - Family Five Minute Challenge

 

Organizing Summer Fun When Everyone is Bored: Water Spoons

     
Water spoons was originally a drinking game, but we do the watered down version (argh!). 

It's like regular spoons except: 
- the loser has to drink a glass of water 
- if you say water in any language, you have to drink a glass of water 
- if you point at someone else, you have to drink a glass of water 
- if you burp out loud, you have to put your hand on your head and everyone does the same, and the last one to do this drinks a glass of water
- you can only go to the bathroom if you win a hand of spoons. 

We use juice glasses and only fill them half-way. 

When you need a quick, easy way to fill up time, water spoons is a fun choice. Our family has played this since our own kids were young. We have lots fun memories of playing this game with some of our favorite people! And now we're passing it on to our foster daughters. What a legacy! LOL!


More on summer fun:

Organizing Summer Fun When Everyone is Bored: Outdoor Decathlon

Organizing Summer Fun When Everyone is Bored: Guess the Theme Day

Organizing Summer Fun When Everyone is Bored: Treasure Hunt Dinner

 

Posting a Weekly Schedule

  
I usually keep our family schedule on my computer. But in the summertime, I print up a weekly schedule (including dinner menus!), so everyone can see what's going on each day. 

I post it on the fridge, and if anyone wants a personal copy, I print that out, too. Even kids like to know what's coming up that day and the rest of the week. 

And it saves answering a bunch of questions like, "What's for dinner?" and "What are we doing today?" :)


More on scheduling:

Product Review of Organizers - The Planner Pad

Organizing Your To-Do List

Creating Routines and Systems

 

 

 

101 Things to Do this Summer

  
I stole this list from Harmony Within. :) Isn't that a nice name? Speaking of which, we survived the weekend with four teenage girls in the house. See last Thursday's post for more details. I'm sure we'll be using some of these ideas to drive boredom away.

101 FUN THINGS TO DO IN THE SUMMER 

1. Start a family newsletter by email
2. Learn about fireworks
3. Create a web site
4. Write a poem
5. Go outside and find 10 different kinds of flowers
6. Compare a book to a movie
7. Make dinner for your family
8. Become a photographer
9. Make a new kind of sandwich
10. Go a ballgame
11. Make a scrapbook of everything you do this summer
12. Bake some cookies
13. Start a band
14. Make a puzzle from magazine pages cut up
15. Sketch a picture of your house from the outside
16. Visit a farm
17. Take a walk and record the sounds
18. Put notes inside balloons, blow them up and give them to your friends
19. Play chalk games or draw pictures with chalk on the sidewalk
20. Laugh 400 times today—keep count
21. Make and walk on tin-can stilts
22. Make a milkshake or smoothie
23. Volunteer to help a neighbor for free—just to be nice
24. Do a jigsaw puzzle
25. Make play dough
26. Get your bicycle cleaned up and ready for summer
27. Go camping (or stay home and camp out in your own dining room)
28. Learn the alphabet in sign language
29. Try origami 
30. Spring/summer clean your room
31. Play a card game
32. Put on a play or puppet show
33. Build with LEGOS
34. Learn a few magic tricks and
35. Play hopscotch
36. Fly a kite—make it if you want to
37. Have a family game night
38. Research your own family tree
39. Attend a concert
40. Donate some of the toys and clothes you no longer use
41. Learn of teach a new sport or game with someone
42. Build a sandcastle
43. Set up a lemonade stand
44. Build a tree house
45. Plant something—inside or out
46. Clean up in your neighborhood
47. Find a pen-pal
48. Make up bubble solution and have a contest
49. Read a story to someone
50. Make a treasure hunt
51. Go to a museum
52. Make a fire plan for your family
53. Make an obstacle course in your yard or at a park
54. Visit the zoo
55. Help an elderly person with house or yard work
56. Make a movie
57. Make a collage about you from magazine words and pictures
58. Create a terrarium
59. Memorize something meaningful—a poem, a passage from a good book, the Gettysburg Address
60. Make a macaroni necklace or string beads
61. Visit a nursing home.  Bring handmade cards or pictures you drew to share
62. Shoot baskets or play tennis
63. Draw a map of your block or of your town
64. Dance to whatever music you have available
65. Collect canned goods for the food bank
66. Wash the car—or someone else’s car
67. Go swimming
68. Practice tying knots
69. Rent a video of a ballet
70. Sign up at your local library for their summer reading program
71. Visit a national or state park
72. Go without TV for a day
73. Learn how to sew
74. Have a paper airplane contest
75. Stargaze and track the moon phases
76. Tie-dye some t-shirts
77. Write a song
78.Write a fairy tale
79. Start a collection
80. Attend a first-aid class
81. Paint a portrait of your best friend
82. Spend time with your grandparents
83. Make something from recyclables
84. Make homemade ice cream
85. Get a magazine subscription 
86. Make a bird feeder
87. Build a time capsule
88. Use a compass or GPS to map your neighborhood
89. Invent your own board game
90. Roast marshmallows
91. Learn to blog
92. Re-decorate your room
93. Create your own holiday
94. Teach someone to use email
95. Create your own holiday
96. Learn to play chess
97. Have a jump rope contest
98. Organize a scavenger hunt
99. Learn the Morse code
100. Write each of these activities on a separate piece of papers in a jar to choose a couple a day
101. Make your own list of things to do when you’re bored


More on summer fun: 

Organizing Your Fun Time

Organizing An Intentional Summer for Your Children 

Organizing Summer Fun When Everyone is Bored: Treasure Hunt Dinner

 

Organizing Summer Fun When Everyone is Bored: Guess the Theme Day

  
Summertime can seem long and you can quickly run out of ideas. Here's another in my series of things to do when everything seems boring:

Guess-the-Theme Day

Think of a theme and do several activities that go with that theme. The kids have to guess what the theme is. 

Here are some ideas that work in our area, and may give you some ideas for your area. The number of activities you include will depend on the age of your children.

1. Birds - go to the Nature Realm and feed the birds, zoo, have chicken for dinner, pet store, build a bird house, etc.

2. Goodyear Day - Goodyear Museum, Goodyear Park, anything with tires or rubber.

3. Italian Day -  Tour of Hower House (Italian mansion), plant basil, go to an Italian festival, go to DeVitis & Sons and buy ingredients for an Italian dinner, cook an Italian dinner together, Italian ice for dessert.

4. Sky Day – Maps Air Museum, planetarium, lay on your backs and find cloud pictures, fly kites, NASA.

5. Oatmeal day - oatmeal for breakfast, Mustill Store - listen to the docent talk about it being the first place where oatmeal was made, tour of Quaker Square where you can buy their famous oatmeal cookies, make oatmeal mask for face and feet.

6. Bridges - drive and/or walk over several kinds of bridges - best if other things are going on at the bridge so it's not so obvious.

Again, this is just something I thought of when everything else seemed boring at the time. You can create your own theme days, too. Start with some local attractions or landmarks and try to think of other activities that would contribute to your theme.

More on creative summer fun:

Organizing Summer Fun When Everyone is Bored: Treasure Hunt Dinner

Organizing Some Fun

Organizing Summer Fun When Everyone is Bored: Outdoor Decathlon

 

Creating a Place for Swim Gear

     
Wow! What a difference a couple of days makes! We found out Tuesday that one of our other houseparent couples is going to have to resign because of health issues. So we will taking their two girls starting tomorrow! That makes four teenage foster daughters and a full house. Are we crazy or what?!? LOL Let's think about swimming instead ...
 
We joined a fitness center that has several pools for the summer. As a result, I wanted to avoid having wet towels and swimsuits laying around.

We have a couple of rows of hooks in our laundry room, the entrance from our garage. I cleared off several of the hooks so we can hang our swim gear when we come home.

If you'll be in the water a lot over the summer, you may want to figure out a place to hang your wet items - the laundry room, your garage, bathrooms, etc. Whatever works for you! In the past, we have attached plastic hooks to the shower wall to hang wet suits.
 
We don't have a lot of swim toys, etc., but if you do, you could have a plastic basket for each person to store their toys, shoes and such. Choose a different color for each person so they're easily identifiable. 
Each person can just grab his/her basket on the way out the door.

You could store larger swim items in an extra garbage can or large laundry basket. Drill a few holes in the bottom to release the water. 

You may also want to have a bag for each person to carry swimsuits, clothes, etc. to the pool. We have gotten plain bags from the craft store which can be decorated with fabric paint. 

All these items can create quite a bit of chaos in no time. It's nice to take a moment to think through how to keep them from taking over your house!


More on simplifying summer:

Simplifying Summer Dishes

Cook It Once, Serve It Twice

Schedule Daily Clean Up Times

 

An Important Key to Labeling Storage

   
Most of us have storage of one type or another - keepsakes, boxes yet to unpack from a move, our children's belongings, items we use occasionally but don't have room to keep out. 

An important key to locating your stored items when you need them is to label carefully and in detail. A box labeled "miscellaneous" tells you nothing about the contents. Or "toys" doesn't give you enough information.

The more specific your labels, the less time wasted hunting for your items. "Mary's winter pants, size 10" leaves no doubt as to the contents. Moral of the story: be as detailed as possible when labeling your storage in order to aid your search efforts later.


More on storage:

Color-Coding Your Storage

Organizing Your Keepsakes into Bins

Managing Paper

 

Cherry Blooms - The Perfect Organizing Bag!!

   
If you've been following my blog for any length of time, you know I've been searching for the perfect organizing bag! Well .... I've found it!

 Cherry Blooms!

With 14 compartments to organize everything in your handbag, Cherry Bloom's Cherry (Medium) Bag Organizer allows you to change and alternate handbags with ease, in just seconds.

Made from durable polycanvas material and lined with plastic to ensure spills don't ruin your handbag, it is a must-have for every woman!

And yes, Cherry Blooms has thought of everything - all their bag organizers have internal zippers and velcro on the pockets so your precious items don't fall out, and come with a key ring with a strap to make your keys easily accessible.

When I got my bag, I couldn't wait to organize my purse! I dumped everything out.

And voila!

Not only will this bag organizer (which stands upright on its own) protect your valuable items including sunglasses, phones, cameras and iPods, but it has two sturdy handles making it easy to transfer it from one bag to another.

It is guaranteed to save you time by organizing your handbag's contents, and the wide range of colors and styles available will put a smile on your face too! I love my Cherry Bloom's Bag Organizer!

More on purse organizing:

Declutter Your Purse with Celebrity Hairstylist's Invention

Pouchee Purse Organizer

Get Organized Month 2009 - Declutter Your Wallet/Purse

 

Recycling Electronics and Appliances

   
My husband and I are celebrating 35 years of marriage today! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband. :) So enough of the mush, on to our blog for today ...

Electronics and appliances are hard to get rid of at times. When you buy new ones, you can often arrange for your old ones to be collected when your new ones are delivered.

However, if that is not applicable to your situation, here are some places where you can dispose of them. Some of them charge a fee and some don't, so read the fine print. 

Best Buy

Recycling or 1-800-Recycling 

My Green Electronics

ECycling Central

Goodwill - many will take working and nonworking electronics and appliances. Some take old batteries, cell phones and cords, used ink cartridges.

Recycle Steel


More on recycling:

Recycling Compact Fluorescent Lamps (Lightbulbs)

Recycling Computer Components

More Eco-Friendly Recycling