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.

Getting Things Done

It has only been in the last year that I actually picked up and read David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. As I’ve mentioned before, my father was an avid follower of Franklin Covey – this is what I learned about how to structure time and productivity. I’ve also seen how often Franklin Covey does not work for people – clients with binders never opened and frustration. This is just another reason there is such a plethora of systems for people – one way doesn’t work for everyone. David Allen doesn’t care what tools you use, he outlines his way of organizing your time and productivity.

A major component of David Allen’s Getting Things Done approach is the idea that if something will take you less than 2 minutes to accomplish – you do it now. If it will take you longer than 2 minutes, you then evaluate where it needs to go: into a specific day/time in your calendar or into your organization system to do later (or to delegate it). If you can successfully apply this, you cannot procrastinate those fast tasks and will in fact getting things done. Also intrinsic to this system is the need to review your system at regular intervals from the daily to the Weekly Review.

There are 5 stages to mastering work-flow: collect, process, organize, review, and do. One of the steps people gloss over is often the collecting – it can be hard to really collect all of your tasks, emptying your mind of everything and getting it down on paper (or electronically). Our brains can only hold a certain amount of information at a given time – we need to have it collected somewhere concrete. Processing is about deciding on the next action item, which I wrote about in “Decide on the Next Action.” Organize for him is where you add the action to your calendar or appropriate list. Review is critical to any time management system; you need to stay aware of what is on the horizon. Finally, do is for deciding on what you will tackle next.

One of the most intriguing aspects of what David Allen talks about is his “4 Criteria for Choosing Actions in the Moment.” Many systems focus first and foremost on the priority of the task, not with Getting Things Done. This applies only to those tasks that aren’t important enough to be in your calendar already. His criteria are:

Context
Time available
Energy available
Priority

Context is an easy initial criterion since if the task requires a computer, but you are not near one, you cannot do it. Time and energy available are self-explanatory, and do need to be evaluated before deciding on a task. No matter how high the priority might be to work on ‘x’, if you do not have the time or energy, it’s better to wait until the initial 3 criteria are in place. I think choosing your next action based on following these criteria could ease the stress I see people putting on themselves – the rational for why they need to wait.

Most productivity systems promote the importance of thinking beyond the immediate – Stephen Covey wants you to create a mission statement for your life; David Allen is no different, he talks about the six levels for reviewing: the runway or your current actions to 50,000+ feet or life. David Allen clearly outlines what the six levels are and I find this more accessible than a mission statement. Too often this is an area we neglect in our planning, yet is a worthwhile task in order to keep us in line with where we want to be.

Although this book was a bit dry, I appreciated many of his ideas. It has flexibility built into it, with the idea that you don’t put things into your calendar that aren’t time sensitive. I’ve been know to be one of those people who will put things into the calendar with the best of intentions and then to avoid it. I’ve learned how important it is to keep the calendar a sacred space and now have another way to approach the other tasks – to consider the 4 criteria.

The key to any system you use to manage your time and productivity is to make time for reviewing. It’s likely most of us fall off our systems from time to time – I know I do – but we need to be able to get back on the system. David Allen lays out the steps to hopping back onto it and makes it easier to do so.

Planner Pad Organizers

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Planner Pad organizer

Pros:

money back guarantee (6 month)
nice layout – monthly & weekly
good division of schedule & to-do lists
focuses on a “funnel down” prioritizing

Cons:

size constraints
spiral or binder in middle of weekly view; can get in way of writing things

Review:

When I was in high school, my father insisted I start using the Franklin Covey organizers. I continued to use these organizers through college and for many years after. It wasn’t until my shoulder and back started giving me troubles that I began to reconsider what I wanted to use – I always carried a purse big enough to hold the classic size organizer. Although this was the breaking point for me, I was struggling with the system – it was no longer as helpful.

From other professional organizers, I heard about Planner Pads and was definitely intrigued with their layout. I even set up a spreadsheet that replicated their design; I was still too frugal to order one. This turned out to be a good decision since I won a Planner Pad in a contest – and have had the chance to actively use the executive spiral organizer. This organizer has a monthly view as well as a weekly view. I’ve come to value the weekly view – it provides a great way to review your week and track your tasks and appointments.

funnel planning for the week with the Planner Pad

Planner Pad funnel planning

One of the things I like about this particular organizer is the layout – the top section, spanning the two pages of the weekly view – is for you to list your categories of projects or type of activities. For me these were things like: Business-usual, Business-client, Business-other, Household, Volunteering, Personal. I could then identify my priorities and tasks according to these categories – not worrying about putting them into specific days. One of the strengths of this area is the limited amount of space – the thing I see most often, even with myself, is thinking and trying to do more than what is realistic – so this helps to control that inclination. 🙂

Top section of the weekly view of the Planner Pad

The second section, below the first section, has the days of the week for your daily to-dos. This is where you can put in the tasks you absolutely must do on specific days. I also would record what I did from the above section on the corresponding day. I appreciate the openness since I sometimes feel limited by trying to decide when I will do certain things. It’s also easy to see how I am coming with my tasks as the week progresses.

Middle section of daily to-dos of the Planner Pad

The final section is for your appointments – with the executive size, showing time from 7 until 9 with lines for the hour. Ideally, you want to use this area for the time specific appointments – whether meeting with someone or time chunks for dealing with tasks.

Bottom section of scheduling for the Planner Pad

Along the right side is a column they’ve divided for “Notes/Calls” and “Expenses” as well as 3 small month views for the prior, current, and future month. There are also pages in the front and back of the organizer for some of the more typical things you’d like to have with you – address book, future year planning, notes, and goals/projects/calendar. The pages throughout the planner have a dotted line along the upper page corners, which I would cut off to help me get the pages I needed more easily.

If I were to purchase one at this point, I would lean towards the smaller, personal size. I do have concerns that it would be too small to be as useful. I also would prefer the spiral, as the binder lends itself to the temptation for overfilling. It then can become heavy and cumbersome. The spiral occasionally makes writing in things near it more challenging – not enough that I would not use it.

Although my primary calendar is electronic, I find it useful to have a physical list of my current activities, even including calendar events. An organizer is meant for planning – this is extremely challenging to do with a digital device. I haven’t yet decided whether I want to carry around a paper organizer, although I’m seriously considering it. Next month, I will be reviewing another planner system.Continue reading→

Decide on the Next Action

I’ve mentioned before that I can be a procrastinator, haven’t I? Now, I’ll admit that I have piles of books that need to be dropped off. We’ve had various ideas about what we want to do with them. Yet the piles continue. Then I got fed up and decided to take one box each week to Half Price Books – at least with most of them. One day I headed to the pile, ready to grab a box and go. Only they’re not all in boxes, a bag was the easiest to reach, and the bag disintegrated in my hand. Guess what, none of those books made it to the car, nor did I go to Half Price Books.

Often when we’re stymied by our stuff, we’re undecided about what we need to do with it. Sometimes when we procrastinate, we’re reluctant to tackle this or that item. These things require us to make a decision. Too often we aren’t even aware of what decision we need to make.

Decisions, decisions. Life is filled with them. Too often, we’re racing through life just trying to get everything done and not stopping to think about how and where we are spending our time and energy. Some piles of books on the three-season porch were frequently the least of my worries. You’ve probably heard the saying “When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.” (by William James)

Most of the time we need to consider what the next step we need to take is, specifically. It’s great that you can identify the things you want to do. You want to clear out the basement, or spend more time with loved ones. Sometimes we are talking about a “project,” whether we realize it or not. A project is typically any task that takes multiple action steps to complete.

Regardless of what you need to do – ask yourself “What is the next action for this item?” If you can do this, you will have clarity about your to do list. It also amazingly can motivate you to start tackling items you might have been procrastinating.

In fact, an extreme statement (especially from me) – never make a to do list that includes anything except those specific and concrete next action items. If you don’t write out to do lists – when you’re deciding what you’re going to do next, figure out the action.

If you can consistently take a moment, yes that’s all it takes – just a moment, to ask yourself what the next action is for each task you have, you can reduce the amount of time you spend on tasks and work through your tasks.

Unfortunately, the piles of books are still there. When I decided to deal with the piles of books, my next action was to take one box in. Lately when I look at my to do list, I see ‘take a box to Half Price Books,’ I avoid it. In my current situation, the piles of books moved from an action to a project, since I need to box up the books that I want to take in before I can take them in. I also cannot tackle my to do item immediately – the books aren’t ready to take anywhere. I can see how I’m procrastinating it since it’s more than this easy step. Now the to-do list is modified, my next action item is to box up the books.

What will your next action be?

Review: Organizing from the Inside Out

At this year’s NAPO conference, Julie Morgenstern gave one of the keynote presentations and after that, she signed her books. I didn’t bring the one book I owned for her to sign – Organizing from the Inside Out. Although it’s been a number of years since I’ve read this book cover to cover, I do periodically reread sections. I also liked this enough to borrow Organizing from the Inside Out for Teenagers from the library and then to buy a couple of books at NAPO (which I then got signed!). I look forward to making time to read those down the road.

One of the things that I appreciate about both books I’ve read by Julie Morgenstern is that she insists you find your way to the organizing answers. If you’ve read her book, you’ll have seen many similar posts from me. I also use a quote from her in almost every presentation I give since it resonated deeply for me:

Being organized has less to do with the way an environment looks than how effectively it functions. If a person can find what he or she needs when she or she needs it, feels unencumbered in achieving his or her goals, and is happy in his or her space, then that person is well organized. ‘Organizing is the process by which we create environments that enable us to live, work, and relax exactly as we want to. When we are organized, our homes, offices, and schedules reflect and encourage who we are, what we want, and where we are going.’ — Organizing from the Inside Out, first chapter

This is a critical piece to me when I talk with people – that what is important is their definition of being organized.

In Organizing from the Inside Out, she spends the first 2 (out of 4) talking about general principles: “Laying the Foundation” and “Secrets of a Professional Organizer.” Part 3 is the main chunk of the book and spends time talking about specific rooms and items (i.e. purses, suitcases, filing cabinet, memorabilia). She wraps the book up with “Time and Technology” briefly, and has a whole book Time Management from the Inside Out (one I did buy and will read!). She also provides several appendices with further resources.

As an organizer, I appreciate that she spends some time addressing the possible things that are getting in the way for people struggling with organization. She also spends time talking about the steps that people often want to skip when embarking on getting organized. She breaks the process down so that it’s easy to understand and follow.

I’ve mentioned before I’m not a big fan of acronyms, I find them hard to remember and largely unhelpful, and she does use one as a basis for getting organized. It’s SPACE: sort, purge, assign a home, containerize, and equalize. Essentially I can appreciate this steps, especially the need to do them in order after you’ve completed analyzing the situation, strategized, and then moving into the attack mode (where SPACE comes in). She offers time estimates for the rooms and items, as many people struggle with figuring out how long things will likely take them.

If only organizing books could solve everyone’s clutter problems! We all know they don’t, sometimes it takes someone else coming in and helping. Fresh eyes, fresh perspective, someone to ask those questions and wait for an answer – these things we cannot always do for ourselves. I love how she encourages you to think outside the box and find the inner style that will make organizing work for you. I also know that for just me, that this is often extremely challenging to actually accomplish – and my organizing struggles are minor compared to some people. Some of her ideas seem great as ideas, but I sometimes question the practicality of them.

There is a plethora of organizing books available, and I would recommend this one. Some of my clients have more than a shelf full of books on how to get organized – and although I’ve not ready most of them (gasp!); this would be one to keep (and yes, I’d encourage you to recycle most of the others). It has the essentials on getting and staying organized, if you can follow her steps. This is probably why there are so many books out there, maybe another speaks to you and your style.

Guidelines for a Happy Home

Have you seen the “rules” of a happy household – where it starts with “If you take it out, put it away”? Many of them are useful rules for limiting the degree of chaos, while others are to make Mom happy! If we could all put things back where they belong when we’re done with them, we’d have greater organization. Sometimes this is easier said than done.

Mom’s 10 Commandments For A Happy Household

1. If you take it out, put it away.
2. If you eat on it, wash it.
3. If you turn it on, turn it off.
4. If you mess it up, clean it up.
5. If you drop it, pick it up.
6. If it rings, answer it.
7. If it barks, walk it.
8. If you open it, close it.
9. If I cook it, eat it.
10. If I say do it, don’t ask why.

I know from my own behavior that there are times when I’ve taken something out, and after I’ve finished using it, I think to myself – “I’m going to use this again tomorrow…” Then, there are times that I say to myself – “I’ll put it away later…” To some extent, I think this applies to all of us – even the most organized – we don’t always put things away right after we’re finished using it. Nor do I think we have to.

What we do need to work on is getting it put away regularly and before too much time has passed. If I toss my tissues toward the wastebasket, when I walk by it, I then bend down, quickly pick them up, and put them in the trash. If I make a pile for another room, when I next get up and move around, I grab the pile and move it into the right room.

I’ve talked about this before in “Getting Things to Their Home,” and focused on finding ways to “Make It Fun.” There are other ways to work on these applicable rules for organization – use a timer. You might be rolling your eyes at me – here she goes again with that timer. Yet seriously, if you have a stack of CD’s that haven’t been put away, time yourself on putting them away – or time yourself with whatever it is that isn’t getting put away.

Another way to approach working on putting things back where they belong is to set the timer for a set amount of time and work on it until the timer buzzes. Use the timer to help you – whether to time yourself or you designate a specific amount of time with it.

It is easy to say to yourself, “I’ll just do it later” and that “later” doesn’t arrive (or it arrives in a week or a month). If you make it part of your routine, just those few seconds of picking up the trash that missed the trashcan or whatever it might be – your home can be that much more presentable and more importantly, pleasing to you. There’s not many of us who don’t automatically close the drawers and cabinets in our kitchens – and might even dismiss that as easy – yet it’s the same idea – “If you open it, close it.”

Putting something away after we’ve taken it out can be just as easy, we just need to work on making it as automatic as closing the drawers after we’ve gotten something out of it. The timer can help with the idea that it’s more time consuming than we realize. In working to keep things organized:

If you take it out, put it away.
If you eat on it, wash it. (I don’t do this each time, but I do it regularly!)
If you turn it on, turn it off.
If you mess it up, clean it up.
If you drop it, pick it up.
If you open it, close it.

None of these things would take us that much time – test it out and use your timer to find out for yourself.

Find Your Motivation

We all have different reasons for why we want to get organized or even to stay organized. There is no one right answer – what matters is why you want it. Do you know what your reasons are? It’s worth it to give it some thought and find as many reasons as you can. These personal reasons are what can help get you going if (or when) you falter.

Some of what I hear a lot is how overwhelmed people feel with what they’re dealing with – from piles of boxes on an unused room to the mass of papers they have to a house that has simply collected lots of things. It doesn’t matter what the size or scope is, what matters is how it feels to you. A few people are concerned about how their loved ones are feeling and reacting to the state of their home. Others are adjusting to difficult transitions in life – from the death of a spouse to downsizing (voluntarily or not) to new health issues.

Although the above are fine reasons for wanting to get and stay organized, some of them are phrased on negative terms. If we went to a list of our reasons for getting organized and saw as a reason “because I’m overwhelmed” or “because my spouse is always yelling at me” or even “because I cannot concentrate the way I used to” it’s unlikely to inspire us.

Find a way to make the reasons positive. If you’re overwhelmed, you are looking for an easier way to doing things, a way to simplify things for yourself. If a loved one is badgering you, you might be looking for a way to improve your relationship and become closer with them again. Sometimes those life transitions are challenging, yet I believe there are positive ways to view your situation. For me, it was a chance to learn new ways of doing things and I love learning.

The point is that you want to figure out the reasons that matter to you for getting organized – maybe you want more time to enjoy life. I’d suggest that you actually write them down somewhere. I don’t think you need to look at them every day, although you certainly can. The idea is that you have them to pull out when you get discouraged or falter in your efforts. It could also help if you find yourself procrastinating working on things.

When you’re feeling discouraged, you not likely to remember the real reasons why you’re trying to change things. You’re also more likely going to remember the negative reasons, which are not usually motivating! By having a list of positive and personal reasons to change, you can refer to it when you need to. You can even add to it as things occur to you – since life is a process like organizing, your motivation can shift and change too.

Knowing what your motivations are for getting organized is probably the very first step you need to take toward getting and staying organized. Just as it’s hard to remember what inspires you when you’re feeling discouraged or overwhelmed, our reasons for being more organized can get lost when we’re struggling. Those underlying reasons can re-inspire us to keep working (or start trying again). When we have a list to refer to, it’s easier to re-energize ourselves.

Preventing Slips, Trips, and Falls

June is National Safety Month, where each week has a different theme – this week’s theme is preventing slips, trips, and falls. This ties in well with organizing – as no one wants to be injured unnecessarily. When we have excess stuff around, on the floor especially, we’re putting ourselves at risk. I say this from experience since I’ve bashed my toes more than once – and not usually from clutter.

You might remember that I have issues with the term “hoarding” and certainly, the concerns of the families is not limited to the “hoarders.” We can surmise from the National Safety Council’s focus for a week on preventing slips, trips, and falls that this is something that applies to all of us – clutter or not. Heck, I’ve broken toes from a certain degree of clumsiness. And that was from major pieces of furniture being where they’d always been! (I’ll take a brief moment to promote the idea of wearing shoes where your toes are covered – and this despite being someone who loves being barefoot. ☺) If we can prevent ourselves from slipping, tripping, or falling, this is what we all want.

Whether you have lots of stuff around or not, it’s important to look around – try to notice those things that we become blind to because we’ve gotten used to them. I’ve tripped over cat accessories, even with them in plain sight. The cat toys now live in a tin, without a lid, over in a corner in our living room. It’s even cute to see the ones that get pulled out and we’re limiting the risk of tripping or twisting an ankle from stepping on them. They also get put back periodically, since if they didn’t they’d be a hazard again.

Stairs are a popular place to put things down on as they wait for their turn to be carried to the top. I do this frequently since I procrastinate making a trip upstairs until I need to. Are you aware when there are things sitting on the steps? It’s remarkably easy to become a bit blind to a constant pile. I rarely put more on the steps than can go up in one trip, and rarely ignore or procrastinate carrying them up. Items along the stairway are a dangerous hazard – it’s bad enough to trip on a flat surface, and exponentially worse on stairs.

This week’s topic for the National Safety Month interestingly coincided with my finishing a book, Digging Out: Helping your loved one manage clutter, hoarding, & compulsive acquiring by Michael A. Tompkins, Ph.D. & Tamara L. Hartl, Ph.D. As a “hoarding” book, it takes a different approach – it focuses on helping your loved one make the home as safe (and comfortable) as possible. It examines what I’ve already talked about – stairs and floors being clear of loose items. They also address other serious hazards – such as papers on or near the stove.

Keep in mind any areas that seem to cause problems – I moved a chest from the foot of the bed since I banged my toes more than once in the middle of the night, to another room. In the spirit of this week’s safety theme, look around your home and office with fresh eyes and see if there are ways to improve safety.

Reusable Bag Organizer & Bags

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Floral Tote Buddy bag organizer

Pros:

compact storage for your reusable bags
convenient for storage and transporting
sturdy materials
made of 100% recyclable non-woven polypropylene
works with any reusable bags
bags are large, sturdy, and easily cleaned
bags are square-bottomed (this is important to me)
bags come with a plastic removable bottom to keep them even

Cons:

slight smell, which wears off with time
has a logo, if that matters to you

Review:

Most of the things I review are items I received because I went to the NAPO conference. This is no exception, but this is something I purchased there. It was a spur of the moment purchase – I was walking around conference with a large box another vendor had given me, and was struggling with having hands – or rather lack of hands. The Tote Buddy was offering their product – their bag organizer with 3 regular bags and 1 floral bag for $20-. I found a table nearby, put my armful of things down, took my money out, and went over and bought the set. I’ll honestly say that I wouldn’t have spent the money if I hadn’t been desperate!

This did not reflect my interest in their product; it was more a reflection of how frugal I can be. As well, it was something more to worry about getting home after conference. The truth is that I cannot say I’ve been frustrated with my reusable bags, they live in one of the bags, and I often remember to grab them before I head to the store. I received FlyLady reusable bags a couple of years ago as a gift – they’re the ones I take: 3 lovely purple, square-bottomed bags and 1 black insulated square-bottomed bag for refrigerator/freezer items. The thing about these is that a couple of them have started to unravel at the edges, but they still work. Yet now that I have the Tote Buddy, I do really appreciate how much easier it is to grab my bags and carry them.

As with so many new bags, there’s a smell – last year’s bag smell was worse – and as usual, the smell does fade with time. I usually wait to talk about the negatives, but in this case, this is really the only one. This product is exactly what it proclaims to be – an eco-friendly v to organize your reusable bags, and it’s stylish too.

The Tote Buddy’s bags are larger and have a much sturdier feel to them. The bags are orange, not my personal favorite color, but are bright and pretty. I’m also not a big floral person, so I got my bag organizer in black. This also has a sturdy feel to it.

I didn’t show my husband right away these bags and organizer, but as he was helping me put things away, he noticed. His comment was pretty much – “Wow, I like these.” I showed him how the organizer worked and he liked that too. He was pleased with how sturdy they feel.

I also like the idea of using a binder clip to clip my list and any coupons (rarely) to the bag organizer, which sits well in the front basket of the cart. They say that the bag organizer holds up to 10 reusable bags – although mine seems a little full with 7 bags. For me, this works fine since I rarely need more than 6 at a time. I also prone to keeping it clean looking, but not wanting to fill it until it’s bulging.

The other day one of my cats vomited liquid all over the floor, where unbeknownst to me, it was running across the floor – right to where a bag was sitting before it was unloaded. First, I was shocked at how far it had run, was our floor that uneven? Second, I was a little miffed, kitty vomit on my relatively new bags – but it amazingly wiped off and left no mark – woohoo! Now that’s a product. Now, I just need to continue working at getting the bag organizer back into my car, or at least remember to grab it before heading out for shopping. 🙂

Here’s a video they did from YouTube.

Note: All my reviews are done without consideration for the company (sorry!) – as unbiased as possible! I don’t receive anything from any of them and most don’t know I’m even reviewing their products.