Laundry Tools – Sorters, Baskets, and Bags, oh my

If you read my newsletter or talked to me in late December or January, you will have heard that I bounced down a flight of stairs here at home. Interestingly, a month prior to this fall, my ankle was twisted on these same stairs as I came around the corner on the stairs – only that time I was carrying a laundry basket. The laundry basket was one of those heavy plastic ones with the indentation for your hip, though I was not carrying it that way since our stairs are too narrow for that. This occurrence inspired me to get a different laundry “basket.”

Laundry can often involve different steps – depending on whether how you collect your laundry is also how you transport your laundry. This can often be the same thing, though is often different items. For the longest time, most of what I used to collect the dirty laundry was the same tool I used to carry the dirty laundry to the machines and then to carry the folded laundry back to where I would put them away.

All homes are different and where the washing machine and dryer’s live in relation to where the dirty laundry accumulates. In our home as well as in several homes I’ve visited, the bedroom is on the second floor and the machines are in the basement – this means carrying laundry up and down multiple flights of stairs. We have a collection for laundry on the top floor as well as on the main floor. This means that carrying laundry from various places can be an issue and ideally needs to be as easy as we can make it.

Promptly after we moved here, we got a 3-compartment laundry sorter to live in the bottom of our linen closet. I started with a plastic and mesh bag one which quickly revealed its instability – the mesh bags would fall off the frame and were not easy to reattach without dragging the whole unit out of the closet. We moved then to a metal frame with canvas bags. These 3 compartment sorters were for linens, whites, and delicates/dry cleaner. In front of the sorter, there has always lived one of the heavy plastic laundry baskets and during the week that’s where all the general colored clothes go. Upstairs, I had another heavy plastic laundry basket for the colors and occasional whites.

3-Compartment Laundry Sorter

Hip-Hugging Laundry Basket

After I had the minor twist to my ankle, the new “basket” I got was one of these mesh hampers, where it was shaped like a laundry basket with a wide opening and not too deep. It’s easy to toss the dirty clothes into and most importantly, it’s easy to carry up and down stairs. It has handles which means I can carry it easily in one hand, and this also means I can keep an eye on the stairs as I navigate them. Also, the shape is easy to load the folded clothes back into it before they make their way to the closet or dressers. Also, they fold flat so simply and then reopen – it’s so easy it makes me smile to think of it.

I dealt with the canvas sorter for many years, periodically bumping my head while digging out the linens or whites and regularly tweaking my back to get it all out from the bottom. Experiencing the ease of the mesh style, I was then inspired to replace the 3-compartment sorter with 3 upright mesh bags. Our categories work well for us and only need those 3 categories. Now, with the mesh bags, I can grab the category I am washing and dump it into the hip-hugging basket. I am still attached to those baskets for carrying laundry to and from the basement – there’s a sense of it being cleaner to put on the basement floor than the mesh ones.

Mesh Laundry "Baskets" - both shapes

Durability can be issue when you choose your laundry tools, as that mesh/plastic sorter demonstrates. Although I’ve not used them, some plastic laundry baskets, often the circular ones, are also more prone to getting damaged easily. I bought the plastic and mesh sorter in an attempt to save money, yet it’s a good example of how “saving” money on a less expensive product didn’t save me money in the long run.

In our country and culture, we have a plethora of options to choose from and this in itself can be daunting just trying to find the choices. I’ve been impressed with the durability of the mesh bags, which seems a little odd considering the material, and their cost is fairly minimal. As with so much else, think about what your needs are around laundry and what would help make it that much easier. This is what matters most – finding the simplest way for you.

Using Your Time Wisely

How does having lots of to-dos make you feel? The answer might vary depending on many different circumstances. There is a wonderful feeling of accomplishment when we have lots of things pressing on our time and still manage to get it all done. It can certainly make you feel alive, your heart is racing, and you can look around and see all that you accomplished. There is a time and a place for using this energy.

Unfortunately, if this is how you primarily function, your super productive moments might be far and few between. If you do not have that external pressure to get it all done, it is easy to struggle when you have lots of to-dos on your list. And truthfully how many of us actually have a little to-do list? There is always more to do, even if it’s not critical or important to accomplish in a certain time frame.

Too often when we race around getting things done, we might end up looking around and see how much is left to be done. We might have even created more of a mess in the process. Sometimes we even wear ourselves out doing this.

For me, often what I need to do, after I slow down enough to recognize that I am spinning my wheels, is to choose one area, a small area, and focus on dealing with that space. Maybe you noticed, or maybe not, that I prefaced my previous statement with a “for me” – this is one of many ways to focus our energy. You might need to approach it differently – and begin with one focus rather than an area.

Area focus: I will focus on each thing that needs to be done in that specific area and I will remain there until I am finished or until I want to stop working for the time being.

Focus area: I will go through various spaces dealing with a specific focus, this can be everything that belongs in a specific room or other people might focus on picking up all the papers that need to be recycled.

Neither is any better than the other, it varies on your situation and what works best for you. Again, for me, when I focus on an area, I can then look at the area and clearly see what I accomplished – however minor it might have been. Then again, if you have many things around that belong in another room, you can see what you’ve gathered.

Another key to focusing your attention and working on something is that you are mindful. It’s important to be mindful of what you are doing and how you are using your time and energy. When we race around sometimes, we’re not really paying attention to what we are doing. Too often I see people so desperate to get all these things done, they wear themselves out.

I’ve talked before about there being times when you just need to stop for a while. It might be that you need to decide where you want to focus yourself or it might be that you’re overwhelmed or stumped about the things you’re dealing with. Whatever it might be, taking time off, time to think and process is a good thing. It can be hard to feel like it’s a good thing, but I cannot think of a time when it’s served the person well to barrel through. It’s too easy to make rash decisions that inadvertently cause more work and stress.

Our time is spent most effectively when we make decisions about what we want to focus on and avoid distractions from other tasks. This is another area where a timer can help keep us where we want to be – deciding to work on x for y amount of time. There’s no need to try to do it all tomorrow. Everything takes time and energy and divvying it up into manageable focused chunks will help you make the progress you want and save yourself the time and energy in the long run.

Collections, When to Stop

We all collect things. It might be something relatively unusual or completely commonplace. Women have the stereotype of collecting shoes and/or purses. I’ve talked many times about my own collecting of media – books, music, and (somewhat) movies. Men have been stereotyped as collecting tools and/or electronics. Stereotypes can often some basis in truth, though we cannot mistake that as truth or being even remotely close to typical.

Collecting things is not bad in and of itself. It seems to me that it’s an inevitable fact of living. We need clothes and shoes to survive. Often we need certain things to apply to different situations and occasions – not all shoes are appropriate in all settings – which means we all need more than one pair. We find value in certain items – my books are knowledge and other worlds to me. Also, we enjoy collecting things – there’s a desire to have more of this or that.

Therefore this is not about trying to tell you to avoid collecting things. Nevertheless, we cannot collect things indefinitely. There needs to be an end, a time and place where we stop. We need to recognize how this applies to us, as individuals, and there is no simple answer. Because of this, here’s a number of considerations for you as you contemplate your own collections, whatever they might be – and you can discover where that place is for yourself and your situation.

Sometimes it’s as simple as the collection feels finished to you. This means you need to be attuned to that feeling – paying attention to when you feel that you have enough. It could mean that you have enough to cover those various occasions or unique characteristics. Then you need to have the discipline to not collect more. — i.e. shoes of different colors and style for your expected situations – although this does not mean you will no longer desire to collect more – yet you can choose to focus on the anticipation of getting more once one of the current items need replacing.
A clear clue that it’s time to stop collecting is when you run out of space for your things. You need to decide whether there are other things that can go to make room for your collections or does some of your collection need to leave to make room for more. — I’ve talked before about donating some shoes to make room for a partial bookshelf in my closet, and when I did this, I largely stopped bringing any more books in – I was aware of the limited space.
Are you cycling your items in and out simply as a reason to collect more? You need to examine your motivation here, if you enjoy the cycling things in and out, great. On the other hand, if you are using that as an excuse to collect more, it might be time to stop and look at what else is going on for you. Cycling things can be a great way to keep your things fresh and continue appreciating them.
Have you stopped appreciating what you already have? It’s remarkably easy to become blind to our things, we are so used to seeing them, and we begin to forget they are there. If the number of items is getting in the way of your appreciating your collection, you might need to scale back your collection.
Something I’m not sure how much we think about as consumers is that virtually everything requires some maintenance. Are you able and willing to do the things to maintain your collection? Many items are meant to be used – leather shoes need to be worn and if you want to maximize their life, they also need to be cleaned and waxed. — I also think often of pearls with this – as they are meant to be worn, it helps keep their luster, yet many can be reluctant to simply wear them around the home – so we might not be maintaining our things as they need to be.

You might have noticed that some of what I’ve talked about might not be collections per se, someone could have one pearl necklace, but it is one more thing they have – is it being appreciated, protected, valued? These questions can apply to more than just the things that can be grouped together – all the things in our homes are a collection of sorts.

Earlier I mentioned that there is a time and a place to stop our collecting – this is an individual process. Jay Leno continues to collect cars, hiring people to help take care of all of them; I wonder how much he is able to actually appreciate this car collection. It also doesn’t hinder his life apparently. Most of us do not have this luxury, and I do not envy him – I appreciate my life of relative simplicity tremendously. As I’ve said before in a previous post, do you have a collection or does your collection have you?

Hate Doing Laundry? – An Alternative Solution

“I hate doing laundry,” someone told me the other day (we’ll call her Jane and respect her anonymity) “it’s the worst household chore of all.”

So I responded, “What is it about the laundry that you hate?”

One of the things Jane won’t do is mixing colors in the loads – each color needs to be washed and dried independently of the other colors. Jane has 3 closets of clothes, moving through them as the week’s progress, knowing when they get to a certain emptiness, laundry will need to be dealt with.

It turns out that Jane separates all her clothes by color immediately. She has 7 laundry baskets to collect the different colors and she avoids needing to sort the clothes when laundry time approaches. As soon as it’s time to handle the laundry, she can immediately begin the laundry process, loading a basket directly into the washer.

Jane went and bought the largest capacity washer and dryer available – despite the salesman questioning her that she didn’t need something so large for just herself. She knew what she wanted – a way to reduce the amount of laundry she would need to do. Jane definitely does not want to do laundry weekly – the least often is best for her.

Once a month she sets aside time, usually Friday evening through Saturday night to get her laundry washed, dried, and put away. She’s then free for another month from having to do any laundry.

The reality is that she doesn’t hate her laundry anymore – she found a way to handle it in such a way that actually gives her pleasure. Jane went on to say that she actually loves her laundry now!

How this applies for you:

Identify what it is you dislike or even hate doing – whether it’s laundry or dusting or whatever
Brainstorm an idea for how to do it differently enough that it becomes less burdensome – so often we cannot eliminate tasks, yet we can still find an alternative approach
Make it relatively easy for yourself – Jane has the different laundry baskets, the large capacity appliances, and does the laundry consistently in order that she keeps it easy enough to work for her – and if it’s too hard, we won’t do it anyway

As with so much when it comes to organizing, finding a way that works for you is most important. It doesn’t matter if it makes sense to anyone else as long as it does make sense for you and your life. In this example, weekly (or for some daily) laundry duty is the solution for many families, but for some it’s the wrong approach. Discover the approach that works for you and your family – and consider all options.

Overwhelmed?

A month ago I was ecstatic, my craft room was going to get a closet system installed. Oh the anticipation! For the week before the date, I kept talking about it, the joy of having a system and the organization I would set up. I was excited, at least until the system actually was installed. Then something happened. I became overwhelmed with feeling daunted by the effort and process of setting the closet system up. It confused me in many ways too.

I love organizing. I don’t do this for a living without a reason; I am passionate about organizing. In fact, if I am feeling a bit down about something, I will tackle an organizing project and immediately start feeling better. Can you begin to see how puzzling it was for me to feeling overwhelmed? Maybe you can, yet you might be asking yourself – “what does this have to do with ME?”

How often have you gotten overwhelmed at the thought of tackling a project? Although I did not take pictures of the piles of my stuff meant for the closet – the boxes filled up 3 ½ rooms here. Since it is my craft room, many of the items are smaller. It was going to be a process to go through it all and get it organized. It’s easy to feel like there is just so much to be done. Where do I start? I don’t have time to delve into this project.

Interestingly, this is exactly how I felt. This is how my clients often talk about feeling with their own stuff. I joke that this is why my profession exists – help in getting started and having some direction during the process. I know all this. I knew what I needed to do. Nevertheless I was still dreading it.

My point – we’re all human. We can each feel overwhelmed and reluctant to jump into a project. It doesn’t even need to be a big project, like my walk-in closet. Papers are a common area that causes significant dread among people. They tend to be tedious and time consuming. I have a lot of scrapbooking paper – possibly the easiest papers to organize and it still took me over 3 hours to organize the 12×12 loose sheets.

Another point – all it takes is jumping in. You don’t need to set aside a huge amount of time to get started. I didn’t organize those loose scrapbook papers first. I did find an “easy” place to start – in this case it was the completed photo and scrapbook albums. I already had at least part of a vision for the closet. Then I grabbed the next box. I won’t say that my feeling of overwhelm went away just because I got started. If only it was that simple. Sometimes it is, not always.

Sometimes it also means stepping back for a break. As I was going through things, I found items I spent money on and knew I would never use. I felt sad and frustrated. Even that feeling got overwhelming at times. When I saw this happening, I would try to finish the immediate stuff and then take a break and do something else entirely. Other times, I just moved the stuff off to the side and stopped anyway. This also provides a way to gain perspective – all this stuff was personal to me – ideas and plans I’d had at some point or another. Yet, I needed to let some of it go. Stepping back can be just as important as jumping in and getting started.

I’ll admit I have been a bit ashamed of feeling overwhelmed by my craft room closet. I mean I am an organizer, how can I of all people be overwhelmed by an organizing project? Yet, it also means I can relate to other people feeling overwhelmed. It also means that I will bite the bullet and jump in. You’re not alone if you too are feeling overwhelmed by an organizing task – just remember you are human like the rest of us and to just get started, somewhere or anywhere.

Goals, Already?

Yes, it’s not even Christmas and I am already talking about goals. I’ve mentioned before that for me I review my goals throughout the year, yet some people focus on the beginning of the year and the changes they want to make. And it’s never too early to start planning for the New Year. In fact, beginning now may even make a positive impact on your upcoming holidays.

Who is it that you want to be? How are you different from that idea? Is it something you can actually change? I would love to be someone who doesn’t have a chronic disease, yet I have no control over that. On the other hand, I am adamant that it does not control my life.

Supposedly one of the most popular goals of the New Year is to get into shape/ lose weight/ or other diet and health related goals. Being organized is often up there as a popular goal. And we have all heard the dire statistics on how well we as a whole follow through on our goals, especially at New Year’s.

There are several reasons that we don’t make much progress on our goals: too abstract, too many, too dramatic a change, and the list goes on. This is a prime reason that it’s a good time to start thinking about what your goals will be – giving yourself time to let it float around in your brain and percolate.

Let me cover some basic ideas and I am sure they are out there in cyber space aplenty:

Get specific. If you want to lose weight, come up with a plan on how you will work on that. If you want to be more organized, define one area that matters most and focus on that specifically. What steps are needed to accomplish this goal? Do you need to schedule time to exercise? Do you want to check the dining room table twice a day and spend time clearing it if things are accumulating? What do specifically want? Set the guidelines for yourself.
Choose one goal to start with. If we divide our attention to many different goals, we’re likely to do none of them. You can always add a new goal after a month or so of success with the first one. Remember, on average it takes 30 days of doing something consistently for it become a habit – whether that’s exercising or keeping the dining room table clear.
Start with small changes. Our routines are hard to change, we’re used to doing things in very specific ways, and switching how we do them is uncomfortable and hard. I’ve heard it compared to ruts in a road, it’s hard to get out of the rut and to not end up back in those ruts. Our brains are used to us behaving as we always have, and to suddenly be trying to make large changes – it’s unsettling. This is also where recognizing the ways you are successful can help, then making some modifications to become more successful.

One of my goals for the coming year is to monthly tackle one room in our house and review it and the things in it. I’ve recognized how easy it is for things to build up. I don’t always appreciate the decor as the years pass since I too can become “blind” to it. I want to be surrounded by things that inspire me and especially not bogged down by things that aren’t relevant to me anymore. It will also keep the space relatively fresh, and I won’t stop seeing things out of habit. Also, at the monthly level it will give me time to tweak some systems if they need it before we’re on to the next room.

What’s one thing you want to be different next year? You can make it happen, I believe in you.

Using Your Planner

With my recent reviews of 2 different planners (PlannerPad & Taylor Planner), this is a great time for me to talk about time management and our planners. This becomes even more critical with all the digital options available. I’m sure there are people out there who will advocate one specific system. You might realize by now, that would never be me. Nevertheless, there are things to consider for a system that will work for you. Our planners are about our time and how we spend it – both our schedule as well as the tasks we need to accomplish.

Most importantly, use what works. If you already have something that works, don’t try to change to keep up with the crowd or for any other reason. Remember how I say, don’t try to fix it if it isn’t broken – this applies to our planners just as much as any other system we have in place. It also doesn’t matter if it’s some “no name” planner. I’ve worked with several people who’ve found some planner and use it successfully – from various non-traditional stores.

Using this idea of thinking about what works for you – one consideration is about scheduling tasks into your calendar which are not time sensitive. We all have tons of things we want to accomplish, those tasks that aren’t critical or time sensitive. Are you more likely to make progress on this if you put it into your calendar? Or if you put it in the calendar, do you end up ignoring it? We’re all unique and there is no one right answer.

I tested this out for myself, putting general tasks into “open” slots into my calendar. What I discovered was that unless it was time sensitive, I would more often ignore or procrastinate it. I was more likely to work on those same tasks if I left them on my to-do list and simply had a block of time for tasks in my calendar.

Do you know what will help you more? Play with it and find out – become curious to see how you respond.

With all the electronic gadgets available, exploring them if they’re accessible to you can be great. They do provide some benefits; my husband and I share a calendar and I can see when he’s scheduled an activity for us. Are you working with trying to schedule multiple people for meetings regularly? The electronic calendars are often cloud computing so you can access them from multiple devices with internet access – is this important for you? Of course, the size varies according to the device – so is it big enough on a smart phone to be useful?

When my Franklin planner was getting too heavy for my purse, I tried my smart phone for a calendar. I strongly disliked it. I now love the calendar on my iPad – I rely on it, trust it, and it works wonderfully for me. When I recognized this, I got a to-do app for the iPad. I mostly like this. It has all of my tasks contained and I can set priorities, time lines, and categorize the tasks. Then something interesting happened – I was working with paper planners in order to review them and I loved writing the tasks I wanted to accomplish during the week into the to-do areas of those planners.

Using this system provided me with that planning aspect that so many experts talk about – a review of my various tasks and what was most important for the coming week. I think it also helped me because I enjoy the process of writing it down and the color-coding I could do (although I didn’t do much, 2 colors). It also limited me from seeing the huge number of things I have on my general list daily (or more often), making sure I didn’t get overwhelmed each time I had some time to work on one of my to-dos. As I said with both of the planners I reviewed, I appreciated the limited space for to-dos and see too many people thinking they need to do MORE. Anything that can help us limit the amount we try to do is a great thing in my mind.

Do you want a monthly view or is weekly enough? Do you need a daily view? This is something else to consider when choosing a planner system – whether electronic or paper. With electronic you usually can change the view to whatever suits you. For planning to-dos I think monthly is too broad, so you’d likely need something in addition to that. Personally, the daily view is too constricting now and contributes to my losing the bigger picture. What works for you?

Size and weight can often be an issue. Does it need to fit in your purse? I do recommend that if you are using a planner, that it is with you all the time. It will only save you time and energy to be able to make appointments and know you’re available (and not need to reschedule later due to an accidental double booking). It also means you can make appointments on the spot, not after you return home to check your calendar. You can also add tasks immediately and not risk forgetting them.

Consider your personal tastes – do you remember better by handwriting things? Do you try to give yourself too much to do? Does scheduling non-critical tasks into your calendar focus you to actually do them? Do you need to coordinate your schedule with someone else? Remember there is no one right solution. No matter what you choose, it needs to work for you. There are lots of questions here rather than answers – giving you some aspects to think about if you are looking for a new system for the coming year.

Purging – Part of the Whole Process

If you have ever heard me speak, you’ll know that after the introduction I jump right into purging, “yes the dreaded purging”. Often this is an important aspect of getting organized. As FlyLady says, “you cannot organize clutter.” One of the reasons that I focus on the purging is also the limitation of space we all have. If you open a door to a stuffed closet and think that you won’t have to get rid of anything, you might be fooling yourself.

In fact, I have had a couple of clients lately who have opened their closets and told me that everything in them needs to stay. Beyond bringing in my closet guy, I worry that they think simply neatening things will somehow change the space limitations of their closet. Yet, as we dig into the closet and the items within, there are things that leave, whether it’s to the trash or for donating. It often is not a lot, but is enough to make space for what’s needed.

It’s also premature to focus on purging too much. It needs to be integrated into the entire process, something you’re considering each time you handle your stuff as part of the organization process. If you are handling something and there is no reason to keep it, get rid of it – whether it’s raggedy or no longer your taste or whatever. Sometimes it can be helpful to make a “pending” pile, a collection of the things that you’re considering getting rid of. One of the pre-teens I’ve worked with did this; we just kept adding things to it as it applied. When we had finished sorting everything, moved most of the keep items into place, only then did we revisit the pending pile. This gives you some space to let the need for a decision be set aside for a while and when you revisit the stuff you have more clarity about whether to keep it or let it go.

I’ve spoken before on how when you’re organizing, it’s gets messier before it gets better. This is also why purging is part of the entire process. You begin on a section you want to organize – you sort first. As you’re sorting, you can purge what is no longer relevant to you. If you are doing a thorough organization, you are inevitably going to need to sort it again – another time for purging. I am going to be organizing my craft room in a week or so and much of the like items are together, not all them are. I will gather them altogether and go through those like items in one fell swoop. I’m expecting that I might find some things that as I look at everything, there will be some things I will no longer want to keep. Not because I need to or “should” purge, but because as I am organizing I will discover that there are things I don’t want.

If we could make purging part of our life, it could simplify things. Imagine going to your closet to pick out your outfit and seeing a shirt (or whatever) that you don’t like, doesn’t fit, or is getting worn – and then and there pulling it out and putting it in a bag to be donated or into the trash. That’s purging too, as part of the whole process. This also means that you will be less likely to need to go through your entire closet because it’s getting too full.

Purging doesn’t need to be a process of trying to force yourself to get rid of things. It’s about considering whether those items still hold value for you; then whether you have room for them all. What are your values? Some people I work with cherish free space, the sparsely decorated space and roomy closets; others don’t care as much about that as long as they can find and get what they want when they want it. I will always make room for my books and music – these are what I hold dear. What are the things you want to make space for above others?

Remember, being organized is about being able to find what you want when you want it. It’s also about maximizing your own quality of life and what that means to you.

Taylor Planner

3.5 out of 5 stars

Pros:

Small, portable size
Limited space for tasks
Week at a glance view
Perforated edges for easy marking of current week

Cons:

Monthly view too compact
Limited space for planning outside of scheduled time slots

Review:

I discovered Harold Taylor at the NAPO conference last year, and came home with some questionnaires he developed to identify problem areas with organization and time management. This year, I came home with one of his books and a sample of his planner. After using the PlannerPad, I moved to this Taylor Planner. What better time of year to consider what you might need for next year?

One of the things that I absolutely love about this planner layout is the extremely limited space allotted for daily tasks. I have often struggled with trying to do too much in a given day and I see this frequently with the people I work with as well. We’re never satisfied with our accomplishments, “we should have done more.” With this planner, you choose the top 3 things you want to get done on a given day, which is written above the daily scheduling column. It can help focus you on the most important tasks, then everything else you get done is a bonus. You only had three things, you get those done, you’ve succeeded with your plans.

The weekly view of the Taylor Planner

There is an additional space in each column for any follow-up actions you need to attend to for a given day. I used this more sporadically, as it applied to my life and tasks. It’s good to have an additional space, yet limited space for something that arises. He suggests using that to record when assignments are due.

On the left side of the two-page weekly layout is a column for that week’s priority, your weekly action items, and notes. It’s important to focus on your goals, and it’s great that he provides a small box to remind you on a weekly basis as well as cuing you to work toward your long-term goals.

There are different ways to approach your calendar. As I talked about in the review of Getting Things Done, David Allen proposes that you schedule tasks into your calendar with caution. Harold Taylor is of a different perspective, where you use your calendar to schedule all activities, providing the commitment as well as time to get them done. Since this is just talked about in the beginning of the planner, I cannot tell to what extent he promotes this. I know that for myself, if I schedule things that are not time sensitive or important, it’s too easy to still not work on those tasks and then feel the sense of failure at not accomplishing them! Other than in the column to the far left for weekly action items, there is not much space for planning.

When I was strictly a paper planner person, I relied on the monthly calendar view. This planner’s version of that is considerably too small for me. The monthly view consists of 3 months on a page. Yet, as I move to scheduling on my iPad, the monthly view no longer holds much value to me. You need to evaluate what your priorities are in this regard. This is the same layout for the future years, at the back of the planner. I find the year at a glance intriguing while at the same time a little odd – each column is a month and the holidays are labeled.

The monthly view, with 3 months to a page

Year-at-a-glance on two pages

From my sensitivity to carrying around planners, I appreciate the compact size of this planner. It is slightly larger than a standard trade paperback book and fairly thin; it will not contribute much weight to a purse or bag. The version I have is bound, with some space for the binding to not interfere with entering the information you need to. Since it was a free copy, it’s just the planner itself, though offers a cover, with pockets for business cards and to carry post-it notes around with your planner. Also, with the perforated lower corner, it’s easy to mark (tear it off) and find the current week. Included with the planner are contact pages, several assignment record pages, notes, and a section for back burner ideas.

You’re Organized, Right?

“You’re probably completely organized, aren’t you?” I get this question frequently. And sometimes I cringe. My home goes through stages, much like most people’s homes. It is certainly not uber-organized at all times, and I have a tendency to have a project or two going at any given time. If you’ve worked with me, you’ll probably have heard stories of some of my own organizational struggles – I am not perfect, gasp! Yet, perfection is not necessary to achieve organization in your own home and life.

What does it require?

First, you need to recognize what areas need help. If you don’t “see the mess,” you aren’t going to be able to fix it. If an area has become a “dumping ground,” a place you easily drop various things, this is a good example of where you can start. It might be an area you avoid or a space you dread dealing with.

This was the case with our utility closet. You can see that it had gotten bad and I was reluctant to retrieve anything from there, let alone return anything to the chaos. (See how far from perfection I can be?)

Our utility closet before!

Second, you need to assess what is wrong and develop a plan for what you want it to be. This is also the step to stay with until you have an idea. You can always work on sorting and purging the area, but nothing more significant. If you race ahead, you can easily discover that you’ve made more work for yourself.

One of the problems with our utility closet was the odd shape, under our stairs, and my desire to maximize all that space. Also, the narrowness of the entrance complicated the shelving options. The shelving we’d chosen was still a little too deep for easy access to the closet. Also, it was wire, despite the wires being spaced close together, bottles had a tendency to tip, and smaller items too frequently found a way to fall through those wires. Interestingly, it took years of living in the house and getting past the duct (not visible in the pictures) as a reason to avoid putting shelving on that side of the closet. By switching the sides of the shelving, it works better with the way the door opens (also considering the floor stops the door from opening completely) and allows considerably better access to the closet.

Third, you need to plan for the necessary tools, time, and energy to tackle the task of creating organization. The tools are specific – the large pieces of furniture and containers to collect the trash, recycling, and items that belong elsewhere. I recommend waiting to buy other tools – containers for the space – until after you’ve completely sorted and organized. You need to set aside time to work on the project and coordinate with others if it involves them. You also need to have energy to deal with the space and items – this can be frustrating and draining, depending on what you are dealing with.

In our case, we needed to buy the shelving I had found and liked for this space – it has solid shelves, is narrow enough to work in the closet, and required assembly. I have not yet bought any other containers, though I am considering a couple, and just need to find the right size. We wanted to work on this together since it’s a space we both use. Also, we wanted to not have too many others projects going on at the same time. We contemplated replacing the linoleum tile and painting as part of the process, but decided that could wait and would be easy enough to do at a later point.

Fourth, simply doing it. Sometimes it’s not that simple. When you delve into an area that has been a dumping ground, especially something hidden, you’re likely to find any number of oddball things. You need to go through everything you find and make decisions about it. You might even get a little dejected at the level of chaos that you are discovering. Then there’s the frustration that can happen from the items you don’t know what to do with. We all have those types of items – you want to keep it, but where exactly does it go, logically? Or those items that don’t fit well into another category.

We worked together; he began assembling the shelving while I began pulling all the stuff out of the closet. I tried to group obviously similar items together on the floor for easier organizing later, although this became challenging with the amount of things that had been living in the closet. Then we talked about each thing and category we came across – was this something that we even wanted? Did we want it in the utility closet? A large number of items were moved to the basement (more painting supplies!); then we assessed the things that remained – how would we categorize them? How frequently do we use them – in order to decide if they needed to be more or less accessible. Then finally we began to put the items back into the closet, beginning with the highest used items.

Fifth, you need to see how it is working with time. If things are organized according to how you use them and how you function, the new system should work for you. The biggest challenge for some people is not getting dejected because it’s not working for them. I encourage you to examine it closely and figure out what pieces are working and then work on ways to tweak things so that the parts that aren’t working can be. Although I wish being organized didn’t need discipline, it does – and maybe it’s time to focus on one area to be disciplined about, to make it habit.

Our utility closet seems to be functioning well almost 2 months with the new organization, though time may tell a different story. On a different front, a challenging room to keep organized as the systems fall apart before long. I’m in the process of re-doing that, so stay tuned and it will end up in the blog too.

Our utility closet after (& you can see why we'd want to change the flooring!)

As a professional organizer, I’m sometimes embarrassed that I am not more organized. My husband reminds me, “The shoemaker’s children go barefoot.” And I realize that I have the skills to make things organized when I make time and energy to do so. I believe that you can to (and if not, you know how to get a hold of me for help). 🙂