Going Green by being organized…and the Living Green Expo

Yesterday I spent the day at The Factory in Franklin (an awesome collection of shops, restaurants & event space in an old factory – they also hold the Farmer’s Market there on Saturday mornings & Tuesday afternoons) at the Living Green Expo.

At the Living Green Expo

Excellent event – and got to meet all sorts of businesses that help people and other businesses go green.  Spray on foams, energy efficient windows, natural products (trying out some all natural bug spray this week – we’ll see how it works), and our family favorite, the electric scooters.  They were super cute retro looking bikes that run on electricity. My point of being there was how being organizing can help you go green.  It’s hard to be conscious of green options when it isn’t convenient or easily accessible.  One of the things I work on with my clients who want to be green is to make it easy. Some tips on being organized and green:

• Plan your routes when heading out for the day.  Map out your farthest point and make your stops accordingly.  Determine what tasks need to be done, and which stops are near each other.  I even go so far as to plot which stops are the same side of the road so I don’t have make left turns (my friends do give me a bit of grief about this but, hey, it works!).  Combine errands with trips you are already making, saving gas and time.
• Set up a cabinet or drawer in your kitchen for re-usable containers for lunchboxes, storage and more.  Get away from plastic bags and disposable items.
• Have a designated location for re-usable grocery bags, like my favorite ChicoBags, in a drawer or hanging on a hook.  Keep some in your car for unplanned stops at the store.  If you know right where they are and they are easily accessible, you will be much more likely to use them.
• Use Re-usable Water Bottles, and keep them near the water you drink (mine are in a cabinet right next to the fridge where the filtered water is).  Every plastic bottle you don’t buy is helping the earth – and saving you money.
• Go paperless in your kitchen with rags for cleaning, dish towels for drying hands and cloth napkins.  We haven’t gone as far as going toilet paper-less as in No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal.  Actually don’t think we’ll ever go quite this green!
• Reduce paper from coming into the house by unsubscribing from unread magazines, and removing yourself from junk mail lists and catalogs.
• Set up your recycling center to not only be easy to use but in a convenient location.  No one is going to regularly walk out to the garage for every plastic container.  Trust me on this.

Be mindful of how you want to go green.  What are your goals?  Then look at how you actually live and the setup of your home.  Creating a system that works for you and your family will help you be as green as you want to be.  I can help if you need it.  As your green organizing questions in the comments – and I’ll post an answer – it’s as easy as that!

How Many Bottles Of Salad Dressing Are In Your Pantry?

Pantry Organization made simple…

I recently organized a pantry with a client and she had a lot of bottles of salad dressings & marinades. A lot. She kept buying them because she couldn’t tell how many she already had, and, you know, they were on sale.

I see this often – not just in pantries but all over the house. If you can’t find something, well then, go get another. This not only wastes your money, but your time. The main goal of organizing is to be able to find what you need when you need it. This is especially true for pantries. Who wants to dig around in a bunch of bottles & cans, wondering what to make for dinner?

So here’s what you do with an out of control pantry:

1. Empty it.
2. Sort the contents by use. I usually sort in the following groups:
   • canned vegetables
   • soups and canned foods such as ravioli or tuna
   • prepackaged meals (hamburger helper, mac & cheese, etc.)
   • cereals & breakfast foods
   • condiments & sauces
   • drinks (juices, sodas, etc.)
   • baking (flour, sugar, chocolate chips, etc.)
   • staples such as corn meal, bread crumbs, shortening, etc.
   • snack foods and/or kids foods
   • other categories of foods that are particular to your household
3. Discard any items that are out of date, dented or are just not something that anyone in the household likes or will actually eat and then CLEAN the pantry!
4. Replace items in the pantry placing the most used items at body level – where they can be most easily reached, and place other items farther away that are not used as often. Group like items with like. So, in other words, all of the veggies go together and the salad dressings go together.
   Tip: If you are an avid baker, canner or other type of kitchen foodie, consider creating a cabinet or shelf just for this endeavor. I love to bake, so I have one whole cabinet that contains all of my baking supplies including the pans & muffin tins.
5. Use shelf stackers for cans and jars, and bins to corral smaller packages.
6. Consider installing a hanging storage rack on the inside of the door if possible for cans, beverages or spices such as this one.

The re-organization can be done very cost effectively. Bins are inexpensive and the stackers are available on www.stacksandstacks.com as well as at places like Target or Walmart.

Tip: I like to give the kids one shelf or large bin for snacks. Pre-package pretzels or trail mix in small bags or containers, and put in a bin with juice boxes, granola bars, boxes of raisins or whatever your kids like to eat.

Before and after images, click the thumbnails to see enlarged images.

“how-to” make a cool Easter scavenger hunt . . . what the easter bunny did!

Today I was awakened at 6:15AM which is well before my usual, desired Sunday morning wake up time but I could hear my daughter exclaiming over what the Easter Bunny did! In the past, she basically finds a basket filled with goodies and goes on a sugar rampage – this year was a bit different. I staggered out of bed (my husband had just woken up as well and hadn’t even started the coffee – a problem in itself!) and called a halt for a moment while I pried opened my eyes. She was so excited – the Easter Bunny made her a scavenger hunt and it was in rhyme and a secret code. She loves mysteries and adventure so this was right up her alley!

Here’s the rhyme:

I know, kind of lame but it was the best I, I mean the Easter Bunny, could do. So here’s how to create your own scavenger hunt with a code. Now keep in mind, my daughter is 7 – this can be used for just about any age but you’d have to tweak it for their level. I’ll be happy to send you my version but here’s the basics:

1. Find a final resting spot for the Easter basket – make it someplace that will not be visible during the hunt – we picked the washing machine (it has a glass front so we covered it on the inside with a dark cloth).
2. Come up with a sentence that tells the child where the Easter basket is. We ended up with “The Easter basket is in the washing machine”. Pretty tricky, huh?
3. Assign each letter in the sentence with a number (if you had an older child or wanted to be more creative, you could use shapes, or other symbols). We did 1 = a, 2 = b, etc. but only using the letters we actually had in the sentence. There were a total of 14 letters so we had 14 clues.
4. Write out the sentence using the numbers, and put a little line underneath each number so they can write the letters as they find the clues.

5. I made sentences for each clue (just did the sentences on Word and cut them in strips) and stuffed each one inside a plastic egg. The first egg, as you see from the poem above, was in the middle of her desk. Inside it was a chocolate egg and a clue that said, “1 = a, now go look in the pocket of your raincoat!”. Inside that egg, was another chocolate egg and a clue that said, “2=b, now go look in the vase on the piano. Inside that egg, was another chocolate egg and a clue that said, 3=c, now go look in the fern on the front porch”. You get the idea. We sent her in and out of the house for 14 eggs.

6. As she gathered each clue, she wrote the letter under each number. When she was done, she knew where her Easter basket was.

Then came the sugar rampage. But not so much – her basket had a chocolate bunny, some more chocolate eggs, a pinwheel, a stuffed animal. I was determined to be creative and frugal this year. I tried to take the focus off the candy and onto something that we could do as a family, as well as spark some of her brain. Next year, we’ll make it more involved and have a bigger, more complex code. Make it a bit more challenging. She had a blast, though, and so did we. Not only that, it was extremely inexpensive – I spent less than $8 – we reused the basket from last year which conveniently still had the Easter grass in it. I’m going to gather up the eggs we used and put them right in the basket for next year. This is my year to be more mindful about what I do, and put my own organizing talents and creativity to work.

Email me and I’ll be happy to send you the Bunny’s clue sheet I made, and the clues! Happy Easter, everyone!