YWCA Domestic Violence Shelter Kitchen Organizing Event!

What: A day long training and hands on organizing session to not only help out a great organization by getting their new kitchens organized but a terrific way to get some hands on experience or simply share your skills. This is not limited to only new Professional Organizers but open to any PO’s in town who want to help out.

Where: Location will be provided only to approved participants the day prior to the event. (Nashville, TN)

When: Thursday, April 4th 2013

Schedule

Wednesday, April 3rd at Container Store in Green Hills from 4-6 (this is not obligatory but if you want to see what kitchen organizing items I recommend and have some fun shopping for organizing materials, you are welcome to join me – just let me know!)

Thursday, April 4th at 9AM.

9-9:30 Orientation and training

9:30-11:30 Hands on in family kitchen

11:30-1:30 Training and Q&A plus lunch (bring your own)

1:30-3:30 Hands on in single kitchen

3:30-4 Wrap up and final Q&A

If your schedule only permits half a day, let me know what times you are planning on attending. Session breakdown would be 9-1:30 or 11:30-4.

Contact Liz Jenkins of a fresh space at liz [at] afreshspace [dot] com to register. Registration deadline is Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013.

When it comes to dealing with papers, having a good system in place is key. But you can make that system work more efficiently by reducing the amount of papers you have at hand as well as doing some initial sorting before you even get set to deal with them.

The first step is to reduce what comes in. This can be accomplished in a couple of ways:

• Get off mailing lists. Use the DMA website to opt out of mailing lists (also email & telemarketers) and contact companies directly that send you catalogs to ask for removal from their lists. Be aware that it can take 6 months to a year before they stop.
• Don’t pick up those free papers, coupons you won’t use or recipes from the grocery store. Say no when someone offers you a flyer or handout at a meeting unless it is critical that you have it.
• Stop subscribing to magazines or newspapers that don’t get read. If you have more than a years worth of a magazine and you can’t recall the last time you picked on up, it’s probably time to say farewell to that subscription.
• Ask for documents in digital formats that you can file easily for retrieval on your computer or smart phone instead of paper.

Courtesy of Container Store

The second step is to deal with the papers once they arrive (and they will!) by doing a pre-sort.  Have a designated ‘in box’ for them in a convenient location. The inbox can be one from an office supply store, a wicker basket or a cardboard box. Doesn’t matter.  BUT, before the papers ever touch that inbox, take a few steps to reduce future work:

1. Have 2 trash bins near the inbox – one for shredding and one for recycling/garbage. Take a minute and toss anything you know immediately that you don’t want away. If it has identifying information it gets dropped into the shred bin and everything else is recycled. For me this would be unsolicited credit card offers, coupons to places I don’t shop, junk mail, etc.
2. Have a designated holder for bills and invitations. This could be a basket, a letter holder, or whatever works for your space. After removing the shred/recycle items, immediately set bills and/or invitations into their place.
3. Place any magazines or catalogs in a basket or holder in the space where they are read. Extra credit: create a folder or bin for holding coupons you might use.
4. Create a spot to hold kids forms and papers. Sort those out right away. One folder/tray/etc. per kid. (see my post on dealing with kids papers HERE)
5. NOW you can place any remaining items in your in box. And only there – not scattered about.

The final step is to set a time at least once a week to deal with your papers. Now it won’t seem so daunting because the only papers left are those that you need, not a big random pile.

Take a deep breath and just a few minutes to pre-sort those papers. You can do it! And you’ll be glad you did.

This year, when you hauled out all of your holiday decorations, be it Christmas trees and ornaments or Menorah’s and dreidels, I’d like you to think about a couple of things:

• How much of what you own did you actually use this year?

• How much of what you own do you really love?

• How much of what you own has meaning to you, be it fond memories or a gift from a loved one?

• How easy was it for you to find the decor you wanted, and then how easy was it to put it away?

If even reading these questions makes you stressed, let’s talk about downsizing your holiday collection so that when the time rolls around next year…you can truly enjoy decorating for the holidays instead of dreading it.

Use these tips to make your holiday decorating a breeze next year.

Plan on blocking out several hours to up to a day, depending on how much you’ve collected over the years. This may be a good project to do with a friend in a similar situation: “I’ll help go through your holiday stuff if you help me with mine!”

First, the sort:

1. Gather up all of your holiday decorations in one place, even the things you never unpacked or used.
2. Group together like with like: all of the ornaments, statuary, garland, wreaths, lights, trees, etc.
3. Sub-sort items into like groups. For example, group together ornaments by color, lights by style and color, etc.

Next, stop and think to yourself about what your lifestyle is right now. Are you doing more or less decorating that you used to? Have your tastes and style changed? How much do memories mean to you vs. how the overall effect appears? Keep your answers in mind when we move on the purge. Have some large contractor trash bags at hand, and some boxes for donation at the ready.

1. Starting with large items first, go through the holiday items and discard anything that immediately jumps out at you as too worn, broken or not suited to your decor. *Note: I do recommend leaving the lights for last as they require testing. This is a good job to give to a responsible kid. “Here, sit down and plug in all of these lights and see which ones work.” Consider it a bonus challenge if they can untangle them.
2. Again, starting with the large items, go through the holiday items and pull out anything that you haven’t used in the last few years. Take a look at each one and ask yourself why not? Is it because it just isn’t your taste? Is it that it was given to you and you don’t want to offend anyone? Is it because you paid a lot of money for it but really don’t love it? Or perhaps you think maybe one day you’ll use it but never seem to? If you aren’t using it, don’t waste your valuable storage space for things that are just taking up space. Place these items in your designated donate area. Pick a worthy charity and get them out of the house promptly so you aren’t tempted to let them infiltrate the decor you are keeping!
3. For garland, wreaths, lights, resin reindeer and the like, realistically think about how many you can use. While, yes, they may come in handy one day, you only have so many doors, eaves and shrubs to go around. Keep the ones that are in good shape and still suit your current style and taste. But pare them down to a manageable number for both storage and display.
4. When you get to ornaments and small decor, use the ‘love it’ or ‘use it’ test. Each ornament came into your life for a reason. It may be from your childhood, was made by your children, was bought at an important time of your life and has special meaning for you, OR it was bought because it was the right color for background and you use them for filler, OR they ended up in your home for whatever reason but you love them. These all make sense. The others are probably random ones picked up on sale or came from an ornament exchange or were given to you by relatives or some other non-purposeful method. If you don’t love it or use it, let it go.
   

   Courtesy of The Container Store

Courtesy of The Container Store

Once you’ve gone through everything and decided what to keep, now on to storing them. There’s quite a lot of designated holiday storage out there and this is a great time of year to stock up. Trees, wreaths, wrapping paper and ornaments can be stored in items specifically made for them.

Use large plastic tubs with bubble wrap for other items. Try to use bins all of the same color (preferably your holiday color) or clear, and be sure to label each bin as to the contents. I like to write or type up an inventory list or a general category, place it in a ziploc bag and packing tape it to the side of the box.

Consider starting fresh with holiday lights, or taking the time to wrap the ones you have on specific light storage holders. Resist the urge to just stuff them in a bag because you know you will regret it next winter!
If you have more than one Christmas tree, you can consider grouping everything you put on one tree in one box so it’s all corralled when you pull it out next year.

Seriously take a look at your storage space and ask yourself if the items you are storing are pulling their weight. Even if it is clutter that only shows up once a year, it can still weigh on you. Believe me, ridding yourself of extra holiday clutter now will make for a great new year!

Then about a week later, I was cleaning out my work bag and found the check, in the nice card and envelope, all addressed and stamped, in a side pocket of the bag. I had tucked it there with all good intentions of getting in the mailbox but it never happened. Kind of embarrassing but there you have it. No one is perfect, least of all me.

But I did apologize, get it in the mail right away and all is good. But from this comes a lesson. Just getting started, or nearly finished with something doesn’t mean that the job is done. You need to have that follow through.

This is when I see all the good intentions at my clients….the bags to take to charity, the books to donate to the library, the items to post on ebay, the unmailed thank you notes for the child’s birthday party. Everything is ready to go. But it doesn’t.

So take that few minutes, write down all those nagging unfinished items, and take them one at a time. Post the letters. Get the donation items in the car and off to the thrift store. Drop the books at the library. Post the ebay items. Tackle just one of those unfinished items each day and pretty soon you’ll have a nicely crossed off ‘to-do’ list.

You don’t need anything fancy for this – a legal pad, scratch paper or what I use: a small spiral notebook.

My list today includes stitching up a tiny hole on the seam of my favorite sweater, dropping off books for the library book sale and uploading some photos from a recent event that I needed to email to the group. It feels great to cross off those items, and inspires me to do a few more before I head out for the day. Off to the bathroom to install the plug extender so I can charge both my toothbrush and my Clarisonic facial scrubber at the same time! I know, you are wondering how I can handle such excitement but I do get a little thrill each time I identify these niggling undone things and get them done.

Just so you don’t get too overwhelmed…do know that the list is never ending because there are always little things that need doing. But by identifying them and carving out tiny bits of time to finish them, you will find a bit more piece of mind at the end of the day.

A school paper management system doesn’t have to be complicated but it does need to be consistent and purposeful. This system works not only for school papers but also other activities kids are involved with. So don’t panic!

First, choose a specific spot where the kids need to drop papers they’ve brought home. Yes, I said “the kids”. Assuming they are older than 5 or 6, they should be perfectly capable of taking papers out of their backpack or

Pretty “inboxes”
Container Store

folder and setting them where they need to be. It’ll take reminders when they are younger but as they get older and realize that if those papers don’t get where they belong, they don’t get done. Once is usually all it takes in my experience. Placing the papers where they belong, daily, should be part of the regular after school routine just like homework and snacks. This goes for parents as well – if you bring a paper home for an after school activity or get a medical form to be filled out – you better be dropping your papers there too!

In our house, that spot is on my desk next to my laptop. This is where I keep my current action item and if my daughter wants action on her papers, they better be in that spot.

For many people, it may be a basket on the the kitchen counter or on a side table in a dining room, a countertop in the mud room, a desk in an office, a wall pocket in the ‘family management’ area. Whatever works. It is best if this drop zone is near where other papers are managed so necessary items like writing utensils will be handy.

Next, gather materials for that designated space and  ‘process’ those papers just like you would any other papers. This means…

• immediately shred or recycle any unnecessary papers (which for us is 80% of them). Have shred and recycle bins right near this space for this purpose.
• fill out, sign, initial, etc. any papers that require this. Have a pen and some empty envelopes handy in the space in case money needs to be sent or it is confidential and you want to seal it up.
• recycle or shred any residual papers.
• file or store any papers you want to keep. I often set a 2nd bin nearby as my ‘to file’ bin so if I don’t have time right away, then at least the papers are corralled in one spot. Stacking letter trays can be used here.
• give papers back to child to go back in the folder or backpack to be returned to school.

So the process is IN, SORT, ACT, FILE/TOSS/RETURN.

But where do I keep all those important papers, you ask? Well, in my opinion, there are two types of papers you’d want to keep from school and other activities.

One group consists of things you want to keep because they are precious, creative, or amazing. The “A” papers, the completion certificates, the awards, the finished products. Stuff you want to keep but don’t need it in your face all the time.

The other group consists of those papers that you may need to reference such as school directories, the schedule of events for a sport or other activity, IEP’s, state test results, shot records, info on after school activities, etc. These are the papers you’d like to have handy.

Storage bins
Container Store

So group one (the keepers but not action) needs its own bin. One per kid. Labeled. In a spot where you can easily access but isn’t cluttering up your counter space or desk.

A hall closet or a lower kitchen cabinet often works well for this. This can either be simply a bin where you drop items, or it can be set up with hanging files grouping by date or by class or activity. These papers can be sorted through at the end of each school year when it is easier to decide what to keep or not. You can continue with the same bin if there is room after purging, or label it by the year & the kid and get a new one.

Group two, though, needs to be right where the papers are.  Generally I use a portable file bin for this group. A file system must have these qualities:

• easily accessible (right on the counter or desktop)
  

  Portable File Bins
  Container Store

• easy to file papers and retrieve them
• attractive for the space it is in (purely aesthetic but you are more likely to use something if you like looking at it)
• big enough to hold everything where it won’t become over crowded too quickly
• broken out into categories based on each childs needs
• color coded for each child

For example, if you have 3 kids who are all in school, each does 2 after school activities, one has asthma and one has ADD, you would have 3 portable file bins in one color per child, three of the same bins with different folder colors for each child, or one really large bin with 3 different colored files.  Hanging file folders could be labeled:

• School Info (this would be handbook, directories, etc)
  

  Open File Bins
  Container Store

• Classroom Info (specific info from the teacher)
• Activity A (soccer, dance, baseball, theatre, whatever)
• Activity B
• Medical (shot records, etc.)
• Activity Ideas (summer camps, upcoming events, etc.)

Have a file folder inside the Medical folder labeled for the special medical issue of each child if needed – for example – the child with asthma would have a folder labeled as such inside the Medical hanging folder.

This is a very flexible system and can be made to suit your needs.

If you have a child with a disability or special needs, having a separate portable file bin for those records can be very handy as you can simply take it with you when you have a meeting with a therapist or teacher. I would recommend that this sort of bin have a lid as it would potentially be leaving the house for meetings or appointment.

And you can name the files whatever you want – just so you can find what you need when you need it.

The key points are: have designated spots for everything, deal with it daily, and be ruthless about what you choose to keep! More will arrive….count on it!

1. Be realistic about how much time something takes you. It make take me only a minute to respond to an email but it may take you 5. I may obsess for 10 minutes over the perfect cup of coffee but you just pour out of the pot your significant other made at 5AM. If you need to travel from Point A to Point B, time it the next time. Is it truly a 5 minute trip or is it really more like 20? Take the time to measure the real time something actually needs to be accomplished. Once you know that (and write it down if you need to), then schedule it into the time you really have.

A recent client couldn’t figure out why she couldn’t pick up her son from school on time – she was always late and it was causing a problem for her with the staff. So we sat down and mapped out her route, looked at what she was doing on the way, and estimated the time it would take for each thing she did before she got to the school. Now we live in the same neighborhood and travel the same roads. I knew there was no way on earth she was making it to a particular intersection in 10 minutes when I travel it several times a week and have never made it in less than 25. Unless she had secret transportation technology I wasn’t aware of. Once we timed out everything, she realized that what she thought could be done in 2 hours was really more like 6. No wonder she was always late and stressed out!

2. Review your day the night before. So many of my clients are exhausted at the end of the day – who isn’t? But taking just 10 minutes to look at your calendar (you do have one, right?), check your tasks (grocery list, errands, phone calls, etc.), and write them down gives you a clear visual of your day. This can be in a digital form or paper. Personally, as much as I love technology and keep everything tracked that way, I write my day out in a simple notebook every night. My clients, errands to run, people to call (including their phone numbers!), etc. I take that little notebook with me and scribble in it all day. Then any info gets put onto my digital world to start again for the next day.

And by knowing how much time each task will take (see #1) makes the planning so much more effective!

One significant benefit of doing this is that you won’t have all those worries bouncing around in your head keeping you from sleeping all night. It’s all on paper and waiting for you in the morning. Wouldn’t that be nice?

A client of mine told me a few weeks ago that when she started doing her planning the night before like this (using the same day planner she had been using) it made all the difference in the world. She had been scrambling in the morning but with the kids, husband and trying to get to the office, she ended up forgetting things and getting to town missing half the stuff she needed. By planning at night, she could stash things in the car she was going to use the next day, or have them in her briefcase or by the door.  She said it was like gaining an extra hour or two every day.

3. Plan your day with efficiency in mind. I didn’t realize for a long time that not everyone mapped out their trips by figuring the end point and what could be done on each side of the road on the way there and on the way back. By reviewing and planning the day the night before, it is much easier to a. not forget stuff that needs to get done, b. not backtrack wasting time and gas, and c. have everything with me that I need (library books, client materials, label maker, grocery bags, etc.). Flying by the seat of your pants will only work for so long. As our lives become more complex, we reach a sort of tipping point where we can’t keep it all in our heads or rely on the traffic gods to get us where we need to be on time.

Lay out your day the night before. See clearly what you have to do. Time it. Map it. And at the end of it all, you’ll be glad you did.

What do you do to make your day go easier?

Shopping the sales is not for the faint of heart (crowds, masses of stuff to sift through, long lines) and neither is prepping if you want to be one of those who consign. From an organizers perspective, consigning can be a great way to declutter but only if you do it right and follow through.

There are definite benefits to consigning:

• Most sales offer the chance to get in before the regular buyers so you get first dibs
• You can clean out closets & playrooms making space for new things as your child grows & changes
• You can make some good money off of things that may have just been tossed or donated.

First, you need to find a sale (or two) in your area that takes the types of items you have to sell. Luckily, today, most sales have websites or at the very least, a facebook page. It didn’t always be this way and it has made it a lot easier to find the sales. It has also had a downside – consignment sales are limited on how many consigners they will take, and they fill up fast, so you need to jump on them as soon as you can.

Once you’ve identified a sale, read their policies very clearly. Be sure you understand how they split the money, when items need to be dropped off, how those items need to be packaged and labeled, find out if there is a minimum number of items you need in order to consign with them, what happens to items that aren’t purchased at the sale, etc.

Then sign up promptly if their terms suit you so you get a spot. Once that is done, the real work begins!

Getting the most for your efforts:

• Be realistic about pricing. Visit other sales, consignment stores, etc. Have a pretty good idea of what you would pay for something at one of these sales and price accordingly. Generally 1/4-1/3 of the retail is a good rule of thumb, but that doesn’t always work for really expensive items, even boutique or high end brands. People will pay more for these so you can go a bit higher – people are pretty brand conscious these days.
• Make it worth your while by only consigning items that are in good condition, clean and fairly recent in style. The faded Target t-shirt that has seen better days will get passed by while the Justice plaid skort (priced appropriately) will sell, especially if paired with matching leggings.
• Speaking of pairing items….don’t be afraid to combine items when selling. Don’t have too many items togehter but pairing a dress with tights, or gym shorts with a hoodie can work really well. A series of books packaged together works well and a Littlest Pet Shop play house with a few pets included will most likely sell better than just the house alone.
• Be aware of current trends, especially in toys. You can price hot items higher than last seasons must have.
• Be aware of the season. Most consignment sales happen twice a year or sometimes quarterly, and they only want items for the upcoming season. This may not be an issue in some climates but around here, the February/March sales are spring & summer items. The August sales are when the school & winter clothes show up.
• Don’t be emotionally attached to the items you are selling. Just because you loved it, doesn’t mean that anyone else will care. Price it as if you’ve never seen it before and ask yourself what you would realistically pay for it.

Go about prepping in an organized fashion. Find an area in your home that can act as a ‘staging area’ and set it up so you can easily get items ready to go to the sale.

Some materials you may need:

• Hanging clothes rack
• Laundry basket or plastic bins for toys & accessories
• Wire hangers (start collecting those dry cleaners hangers and ask your friends for theirs!)
• Index cards
• Safety pins
• Sharpies
• Packing tape
• Ziploc bags (I like the freezer bags as they are more durable)

The sale you consign with will have specific requirements as to how the items are marked and merchandised. Follow them carefully or you may find that you are not welcome at the sale.

Gather all of the items you want to consign, checking them for damage, stains, parts, etc. Clean everything (sanitize toys with bleach if possible, wash all clothes in fragrance free laundry detergent, etc.) and check pockets for random objects that kids leave in their pockets. Check and double check for stains & tears.

Use Ziploc bags to hold groups of small items such as toys, hair bows, socks, etc. Staple the bags shut so items don’t fall out or go missing.

Safety pin clothing to the hangers so they don’t fall on the floor – don’t assume that if something is zipped or buttoned when you took it there, that it will stay that way. It will, until the first shopper comes along.

Start early! If you have your rack and bins set up and materials at hand, you can get items ready for sale as you come across them so when it’s time to drop off, you are ready to go.

Some sales worth visiting in the Nashville/Franklin area include Encores Consignment Sale (this one is huge and very well organized), Little Sprouts (smaller sale but nice items), Monkey Business (generally higher end & boutique brands held in Westhaven), Reruns are Fun! (held in the Factory), and one I haven’t been to but have heard good things about, Oak Hill School Consignment.

Would love to hear if you have any other great consigning tips!

Some colleagues avoid this word as much as they can, instead using words like pare – Julie Bestry, or move along to new homes – Jeri Dansky. I do too – ‘let’s rehome‘ this, or ‘let someone else enjoy it‘. But I think purge is what really says it all – that release and removal from the space. I just wish it didn’t sound so, well, icky.
Think of the word ‘purge’ in a new way. A way that lets you see negative thoughts, useless clutter, unwanted items and bad memories leaving your space giving you the freedom to live more simply and purposefully. Here’s to purging!

Popped over to take a look and boy, did they need some help. Some attempts had been made but when you have so many busy people in and out of one space, it was hard to get any kind of system going. But I realized that it was a pretty big project so I started brainstorming on how I could get some help.  Got it! Why not invite ‘wanna-be’ organizers who needed some hands on experience in with me? Do some direct instruction and specific skill training, then let them have at it under my direction. It was more successful than I’d even imagined. I had a fantastic turnout – these women had great natural skills, worked together as a team and made this 2 day project go by like a breeze.

We started by scouting the spaces out, and doing a needs assessment with Jennifer and one of the staff members so we had the perspective of both groups of people who used the space. You can make a place as pretty and neat as you want but if you don’t know the needs and wants of those using it, the odds of it working out well are slim, in my humble opinion. Once we had a clear vision, we went to work. An entire vanload of stuff went to charity, and the rest was grouped according to use and type. We focused heavily on ease of access and on making sure everything was clearly labeled so when all the staff came back to work the next week – it was really clear what was what, and where everything belonged. We took special consideration of a couple of needs they had – we had a bit of a budget since each of us pitched in some funds so we were able to get some new shelving that was desperately needed, and create a communication system at the entry. We also relocated several items and created homes for them so they weren’t eyesores anymore.  Check out the slideshow I made (unfortunately my slideshow skills didn’t include my elaborate descriptions I so carefully made – oh well – but you get the idea!).

The best part is that the staff at New Hope were thrilled. And so was I. It was a win-win all the way around. They got organized, new organizers got training, I got to feel good about doing something for the community. Can’t beat that.

Here’s an excerpt from the letter I received from Jennifer on behalf of the school:

Dear Liz,

 A big thank you for getting New Hope Academy’s teacher workroom spaces organized!  The outcome is more than we could have imagined.  Teacher’s comments have been:

□     “Wow – these rooms look larger!”

□     “I love the new space!”

□     “I can find things now!”

□     “It’s amazing how much extra space we have!”

 Thank you for taking on New Hope Academy as a project, and organizing it as a training opportunity for other upcoming planners.  Your professionalism and innate knowledge of how to arrive at the end result are amazing.  You knew just what questions to ask when helping us sort and purge, which made it easy for us to get through that process.

 Your heart to help our school has made a big impact on our teaching staff and administration, which ultimately, has a positive impact on our students.