Today's Organizing Tip

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Indiana

Today's Organizing Tip

Postby Indiana » Tue Jul 13, 2010 1:39 am

To make it easier to find something that you remember seeing - here is an index with the page number in this thread:

Appliance Manual for Guests – 3
Appliance Warranty Expiration Date Reminder – 6
Art Hanging Trick - 5

Bamboo Organizer – 1
Birthday Card Book – 1
Book a Doctor's Appointment Without Waiting a Month - 11
Bookcase Armoire - 7
Book Page Placeholder – 3
Boot Trays - 4
Bucket Hose Storage - 8
Buffet Place Setting - 10

Candle Protectors – 2
Car Organizer - 9
Car Organizer for Kids – 4
Car Trunk Organizer – 4
Chalk Dehumidifier – 5
Change Email Addresses and Bring Your Contacts With You - 11
Clear Your Clutter – 1
Clear Your Clutter – Part 2 – 2
Clear Your Clutter – Part 3 – 2
Clear Your Clutter – Part 4 – 2
Clothes Pin Photo holder – 2
Cloth Storage-Box Covers – 3 & 4
Cocktail Accompaniments Platter - 10
Coordinate Containers – 3
Coordinating Mismatched Towels - 6
Crazy Crayons – 3
Cut Down On Makeup Clutter - 10

Decorative Jar Lids – 9
Dish Rack - 10
DIY Corkboard - 8
Donation Bag – 1
Drip Drying Clothing - 8
Dust Jacket - 8

Envelope Funnel – 9

Felt Mending Book – 4
Finish Errands in a Flash - 10
Folder Facade - 8
Freezing Stock – 5
Furniture Arranging – 5
Furniture Refresher - 7
Fuse Box Flashlight - 2

Garden Tool Container - 9
Glassine Book Covers – 1
Grilling Tip – 2
Growing File – 8
Guest Basket – 9

Hanging Multiple Framed Pictures - 6
Hanging vs. Folding Clothes – 3
Hassle-Free Ways to Handle Medication - 11
Herb pots – 10
Hulling Strawberries -10


Jewelry Palette - 7

Kids’ Travel Kit - 10
Kindling Keeper - 4
Kitchen Helper - 2
Knitting Organizer – 1

Labeling Pipes - 5
Laundry Room Drying Bar - 8
Lid Rack Mail Sorter – 3
Linen Shelf Labels - 6

Make E-mail Pictures Smaller to Speed Up Transmission Time - 11
Measuring Tricks – 9
Meat Temperature Chart -10
Moving Checklist – 1

Natural Plant Markers - 8
No-sew Liner – 4
No Slip Dish Towel – 3
No Slip Knife Drawer - 6

Organize E-mail in a Snap - 11
Organizing Spices – 4
Outdoor Clothesline - 9

Packing a Suitcase - 7
Paint Color Reminder - 7
Party Calculator for Alcohol - 9
Party Planning Guide - 10
Patterned Magnetic Board – 6
Peel an Orange—with No Sticky Fingers - 11

Plant Swatch – 9
Pipe and Wire Map - 5
Pocket Decorator - 8
Preparing for Guests - 4

Recipe File – 4
Remote Control Organizer - 5
Removable Tote Organizer – 5
Ribbon Photo Corners – 5
Roof Slate Tile Message Board - 7
Rust Free Tool Box - 7

Salt and Pepper Dishes – 10
Save Time and Your Wrists By Using Keystrokes - 11
Scrap Paper Notebook - 5
Setting up a Pantry – 3
Sewing - 7
Sewing Kit in a Jar - 7
Shell Salt and Pepper Dishes - 10
Sink Solutions - 8
Slip Proofing Area Rugs - 2
Small Office Supply Organizer – 1
Stabilize Flower Stems in an Arrangement - 5

Ten Habits of Organized People – 11
Tidy Cords – 3
Toiletry Shelf - 1
Travel Jewelry Box - 1

Vase Upkeep – 6

Window Screen Labels – 7

Indiana

Re: Today's Organizing Tip

Postby Indiana » Wed Jul 14, 2010 3:06 am

Bamboo Organizer

Tools and Materials
Small bamboo steamer (3.5" - 6")
P-touch labeler
Wood-burning tool with tapered tip point
Circle cutter
Thin paper (for liner)

1. Create clear P-touch label with name of office supplies you wish to organize. Affix label to side of steamer.

2. Using the wood-burning tool with a tapered tip point, burn tiny dots over the writing on the label.

3. Peel off label to reveal word.

4. Use a circle cutter to cut a paper liner to fit the inside bottom of the steamer.

5. Place liner inside steamer. Fill steamer with small office supplies.

You can google mini steamers and many sources will come up.

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Emptynester
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Re: Today's Organizing Tip

Postby Emptynester » Wed Jul 14, 2010 11:49 am

Travel Jewelry Box
For a travel jewelry box - go to the sporting good section. Find a clear plastic box with dividers that fishermen use for their flies and lures. It is small compact and fastens tightly. Some even have lids on both sides to double the capacity.

Small Office Supply Organizer

The same type box can be used for small office supplies like push pins, paper clips etc.
It’s never too late to be what you might have been.
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
― C.S. Lewis

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Nancy
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Re: Today's Organizing Tip

Postby Nancy » Wed Jul 14, 2010 1:47 pm

Knitting Organizer

I have my knitting stuff in one of those plastic shoe boxes and
dgd can't get in to them so this works great!

Indiana

Re: Today's Organizing Tip

Postby Indiana » Thu Jul 15, 2010 5:39 am

Moving Checklist

2 Months Before:
□ Sort through the contents of closets, drawers, and cupboards to weed out what you don’t want or need. Hold a yard sale, or donate unwanted items to charity.
□ Inventory everything of value you plan to move and determine replacement values for insurance purposes.
□ Obtain estimates from several moving companies and choose one.

6 Weeks Before:
□ Finalize real estate or rental needs.
□ If moving out of town, make travel arrangements.
□ Notify your children’s schools of the move and contact new schools for enrollment information.
□ Obtain copies of school records, or have them sent to new schools.
□ Obtain copies of medical records for each family member.
□ Ask doctors to recommend doctors in your new community.
□ Consult insurance agents to find out if changes to policies are necessary.

1 Month Before:
□ Alert utility companies to disconnect services the day after you move and to have new service activated several days before you arrive at your new house. Contact the chamber
of commerce in your new town for information on utility services.
□ If necessary, arrange for storage in your new community.
□ If you’re packing your house yourself, order supplies and start packing boxes.

1 Week Before:
□ If you’re packing your house yourself, finish packing boxes.
□ Confirm travel arrangements, if needed.
□ Arrange payment or deposit for movers.
□ Get cash to have on hand to tip movers.
□ Write directions to your new home for the moving company, confirm delivery date, and give the company your itinerary and cell phone number.
□ Complete change-of-address forms at the post office, and send notices to magazine subscriptions, creditors, friends and relatives, alumni organizations, credit cards, banks, and
any other necessary companies and organizations.
□ Cancel newspaper subscriptions.
□ Notify your employers -- new and old -- of your new contact information.
□ Clean rugs and have them packed for moving.
□ Obtain health certificates from your vet for pets traveling by air.
□ Pack suitcases you plan to move yourself with clothes, toiletries, jewelry, and important financial records and documents.

Moving Day:
□ Pack your first-night box.
□ Accompany the mover as he or she inventories your possessions and makes condition reports.
□ Sign the bill of lading (ensure that the address and phone number are correct) and inventory, and keep your copies in a safe place.
□ Lock windows, turn off lights, close doors, and take a final tour after the movers have finished to make certain nothing is left behind.

Indiana

Re: Today's Organizing Tip

Postby Indiana » Fri Jul 16, 2010 4:08 am

Birthday Card Book

If you happen upon the perfect card for a loved one whose birthday is many months away, go ahead and buy it; you can keep it safe in a handy envelope book. All the required materials are available at office-supply stores.

Punch holes in a dozen 9-by-12-inch clasp envelopes so that the envelopes fit in a three-ring binder with address sides facing up. Affix a page from a monthly calendar to each envelope with a glue stick before placing in the binder. Attach binder tabs with the names of the months to the envelopes. Fill in the birthdays or other occasions you need to remember, and drop cards suitable for each recipient in the appropriate envelope throughout the year.

Add a few other envelopes for get well, anniversary, thinking of you, etc cards to have one hand.

Indiana

Re: Today's Organizing Tip

Postby Indiana » Sat Jul 17, 2010 7:31 pm

Glassine Book Covers

Jackets are required -- to protect important books. Translucent glassine covers can replace missing or torn jackets, or can be layered over jackets you want to preserve. To make one, open a book flat on a sheet of acid-free glassine (available at archival supply houses). Trace around the outside, adding to each side a flap nearly as wide as the cover; add 1 1/2 inches to the top and bottom. Set aside the book. Fold the top and bottom edges over, and crease sharply, then wrap the book snugly.

Indiana

Re: Today's Organizing Tip

Postby Indiana » Sun Jul 18, 2010 3:21 am

Toiletry Shelf

Make space for supplies over the bathroom door so that they'll be accessible when they need to be replenished. Use wood screws to secure a pair of wooden shelf brackets to either side of the door frame; screw shelf to brackets. The shelf should rest on top of the door molding, which will help support the weight. Keep small bottled items and toilet paper in handled boxes. Bars of soap can be stored, unwrapped, in an airtight glass container.

Indiana

Re: Today's Organizing Tip

Postby Indiana » Mon Jul 19, 2010 5:22 am

Donation Bag

Hang a sturdy, extra-large tote bag in a central location or by the back door and let it serve as a collection bin for clothes, housewares, toys, and other items that you decide to give away. When the bag is full, simply grab the handles and take the contents to a local charity.

Indiana

Re: Today's Organizing Tip

Postby Indiana » Tue Jul 20, 2010 7:36 am

Clear Your Clutter

Our life coach helps a reader see all the ways that having too much stuff is boxing her in.

Believe it or not, clutter is a pretty fascinating topic. If it were just a matter of stocking up at the Container Store and putting better organizing systems in place, that would be one thing. But the truth is there are powerful insights to be had when we learn to see our environment as a reflection of something more than just the accumulation of "too much stuff." A jumble of unfinished projects might reflect a fear of making decisions, for example. But if there's one deeper, universal clutter truth, it's that clutter can prevent us from letting anything new into our lives. If you think of your life as a container with a finite amount of emotional and physical space, you'll start to get the picture.

All of this came to mind when I started working with Nicole, a 47-year-old single woman who lives alone (with four beloved pets) in a small farmhouse outside of Atlanta. "My home is cozy," she said, "but filled with 'organized clutter' -- knickknacks and photos on just about every table, plastic bins of paperwork scattered around, stacks of books -- and my closets are filled with clothes I haven't worn in years." How did this make her feel? "Seeing so much stuff when I come home is overwhelming," she said. "I end up feeling unmotivated to do anything about it, so the clutter just keeps growing."

Our goal was clear: Declutter Nicole's home and see what surfaced in the process. So we dove in and worked together over a four-week period using a three-phase plan. For Nicole, there were several crucial insights during the process and, at the end, one out-and-out life-changing revelation. See what happened when she started making space.

Text by Cheryl Richardson

Martha Steward's From Body+Soul, April/May 2005

Note: This will be a four parter. It is a little different perspective on decluttering.


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