Getting Things to Their Home

I was working with a client, and I told her to toss her clothes toward the laundry basket. “Um, huh?” you might be thinking to yourself. The point I was making was that we don’t need to be stodgy and particular about how we do something. We can try to have fun with what we need to do – not unlike my entire blog post about “Make It Fun.”

When we’re looking at people not getting things to where they belong – there’s two situations we might be in:

we’re leaving things wherever we’re at when we’re finished with them or
we’re getting them close by, or near their “home.”

Therefore, in dealing with things that don’t move from where they were last used – we can toss things towards where they belong. Of course, you’re not going to throw your CDs at the shelf! The other way is to start baskets/bins of things that belong in other rooms. I’ll admit that I will often drop that bin off in the other room where it will sit ignored for a few days sometimes. At least it’s in the right room, if not it’s “home.”

The situation I described was with a pre-teen girl and I talked about acting like it was basketball. The truth is I’m not into sports and neither was she, but it’s intended as a way to get the items closer to where they belong – making it easier. She had been dropping her clothes on the floor and leaving them there, which isn’t unusual. Yet trying to make a game of getting the clothes closer to the laundry basket makes it interesting. To some extent, it’s also about retraining ourselves to new habits.

Often, I’ll do similar things with paper trash – throwing them towards the basket. I find myself curious about how close, or not, I’ll be. Or whether if I bounce it off the wall just so, will it make it in.

Sometimes we know what we need to do – that item needs to go there, but we still don’t quite get to happen. Right now, I’m not talking about the things we’re undecided on or are still active. You’ve made a home of various things, yet there are still piles. Is there a way to make it more fun – like tossing them?

Unfortunately, we still need some discipline. If you toss things towards a basket – you’ll still need to take some time to put the things where they into the basket. If you move things into the room where they belong, you still need to take some time to put them away within the room.

This is the time when your perceptions of time are likely to be exaggerated – it will take much less time than you anticipate to put them away. Could you time yourself to see how fast you can put all the desk supplies away (once you’ve got them all piled on the desk)? Or set your timer for 10 minutes and put everything away that you can before it goes off?

It takes time and practice to make sure things make it back into their “homes” after you’ve used them. I know my suitcases are notorious for sitting out after a trip – yet we can find ways to improve our behavior in returning things to where they belong. After you’ve identified where you falter – are things left where they “fall” or do they make it partway? From here, you can begin to find ways to get them the rest of the way home.

Organizing Your Kitchen

Is your kitchen where people congregate when they visit? We’ve probably all seen our fair share of TV shows and movies where people gather at the kitchen table and talk – hence the idea of the kitchen being the heart of a home. Then there’s the other side where the kitchen is only peripheral to socializing. Whatever the case may be for you, having an organized kitchen only makes life easier – simplifying preparing food, storing food, and cleaning up.

The idea of organizing your kitchen might be daunting; there are so many different aspects of it. If (or hopefully when) you decide to organize your kitchen, here are some steps you can take to make it easier. As you begin to sort through your kitchen items, think about the kitchen work triangle.

The kitchen work triangle typically focuses on the cleaning/preparation area, the cooking area, and the refrigerator, as the cold storage area. These are the areas where you spend most of your time and if you can simplify the process of moving between these areas – the easier your time in the kitchen will become. This may not be the time to actually rearrange things, but a good time to think about if there are better ways of placing things.

First, break it into distinct steps – don’t pull everything out all at once. Depending on the size of your kitchen and the items you have, decide on pots and pans only. Pull all of those out and see what you have. In our small kitchen, we could pull all the dishes out and not be overwhelmed, but this will depend on your specific situation. The idea is to break the groups into manageable sections – you need to decide that for yourself – and try to err on the side of too little, so you won’t become overwhelmed with all that you’ve pulled out in one fell swoop.

Some idea of distinct groups

dishes
glasses and mugs
pots and pans
baking pans
plastic containers
silverware
utensils

We often use only 20% of what we own and this applies to our kitchen things too. As you look at the duplicates or close to duplicates, consider whether one thing actually functions for other items. If you have 5 frying pans – all different sizes – are there two or three that use almost exclusively? How many do you need – what’s the largest party you’ve had? Going from there, you can potentially eliminate the rest of the dishes.

As is usual for me – I am not telling you that if you don’t use something all the time that you need to get rid of it. It’s completely appropriate to keep things you only use once a year – for me that would be the cookie cutters! There’s only your conscience to guide you as you evaluate your things. If you recognize what you use infrequently, you can then find a place to store it that won’t take up valuable space.

The second step will depend on the time you have and the size of your kitchen and number of things, which is then to put them back into the cupboards and drawers. It can feel counterintuitive to put things back in if you’re going to be rearranging some of the groups. This is when you need to be realistic (this can be challenging) and avoid rushing or doing too much at once. Even if you’re just putting them back in temporarily, it’ll be easier when you are more prepared to rearrange. As you decide where the things are going, you want their placement to be easy to access for pulling them out as well as putting them away.

Corner cabinet shelf

Baskets for under the shelf

Under the cabinet cup storage - sliding or not

This is also the time to consider whether some cabinet accessories might help your organization. Ideally, you want to keep things simple, so don’t stack plates and pans too high. In our kitchen, these tools don’t work since the height and depth are minimal. Some items to consider are: shelving (like the corner shelf), under the shelf baskets, or cup storage. Deciding on accessories will come preferably after you’ve sorted and purged what you want.

In an average to small kitchen, pulling out a different group one at a time can still be accomplished in a four-hour time frame. It doesn’t need to be overwhelming, yet it’s still important to work with each group independently. I believe that there’s always room for improvement – my husband and I have been talking about going through our kitchen and look for ways to improve the organization and work triangle.

Let Your Passion Lead You

Have I mentioned before that I’m not a big cook? Even that is probably an overstatement, since if I can avoid cooking, I do. I’m fortunate to have a husband who loves to cook; yet, part of me is ashamed of how little I cook. Part of me even wants to cook. I will do some baking from time to time – especially at Christmas time when I try to make several batches of cookies. Do you know what happens though when I go into a store with gobs of kitchen gadgets? I yearn to take them home – if I had that thing, then I might cook. If I had this thing, I could make more desserts.

I’m tempted to purchase things for a life I’m not leading. Granted it’s a life part of me wants to have, except that a few of those things that have come into our home are neglected. Owning those cool tools has not changed my behavior or actions. My life is fine without my cooking more.

Do you have things in your home that do not support the life you’re living? There are two sides of this: the things for the dreams you have and the things for what you’re not doing (and really have no drive to do). Only you can decide which category those things fall into.

Are you buying clothes for a life you’re not leading? If you’re a stay at home mom and your closet is filled with clothes meant for fancy outings which you never go on, then there’s a discrepancy. Is this a dream you have for yourself – to have events requiring formal wear? Is it what you truly want? If you actually had a chance to lead that life, would you be happy?

Do you have loads of supplies for a hobby that you wanted to start, yet somehow have never started even the first project? Sometimes this is more about having too many distractions or not enough space to feel able to begin. Or it can be about trying to lead a life that’s not yours.

If you had all the time and energy you desired, what would you want to do with it? How would you spend your time? Where does your passion lead you? The truth is that if the only thing stopping you from pursuing that hobby or activity – there are ways to solve those struggles. You just need to know what is interfering first.

The truth is that we all probably have some of both types of things in our homes. There’s nothing wrong with that. If you can recognize when you’re buying for a life different from yours, you can cut down on the things coming into your home that will inevitably become clutter since you won’t use them. While on the other hand, you’re buying for what you really want to spend time on, you can hold off until you make the time and space for doing them.

One side note: if you’re overwhelmed already, you might actually be too critical of yourself to be objective. I’ve seen too often the judgment of an “I’m never going to…” that doesn’t seem to accurately reflect their interests, and is more suggestive of how their time and space feel out of control. In that case, I recommend holding off on a too aggressive response and waiting until the process has moved further along and we’ve had a chance to create additional space and potentially time.

Evaluating System Breakdowns

Life is always changing – it’s not a static environment. I addressed this not long ago in the We Must Always Change. This is one of the reasons that our organizing is never actually finished. You can create good systems and maintain the organization for any number of years, yet it’s likely that there will be pieces that can be improved after some time. Our situations and approach change as we move through life. This can be daunting to many people – “you mean I’m never really done?” Truthfully, no.

This can actually be an uplifting thing. Really and truly. It opens up possibilities and can create space before your eyes. Unfortunately we often need to look at things with “new” eyes, ready to see opportunities we’ve previously missed. We also need to make sure if doesn’t mutate into a reason for self-flagellation.

I’m the first to admit that I’ve created systems for myself that end up falling flat on their faces. It’s usually not obvious right away. Only after a number of weeks or months does it hit me that that new way of doing something is just not working. Sometimes it’s about how my husband uses the items. Other times, I’m dealing with something new to me – like when I started scrapbooking, I had all these various things, and there are just so many ways of organizing them. I struggled to find a complete system that worked – and had to fight chastising myself for the lack of total success.

It’s too easy – and I see this too frequently – for us to recognize only the negative. We are glaringly aware of our failures and gloss over the pieces that do work. When you’re looking at systems that have broken down, you need to search out the ways it does work for you. Those scrapbooking supplies may not have completely worked, but there were always ways that it did work. There are ways your systems are working – you need to figure those out.

However small those pieces might be, the successes are clues for you about what does work for you. You can examine those and see if any of those principles can apply to the rest of the system. Do the successful pieces work because they’re easy to access – like putting away new scrapbooking things? Do they work because they’re close at hand when you’re doing it – like sorting mail by the trash? Leaving behind the idea of “good” and “bad” – we’re more likely to succeed at things when it’s relatively easy. Are there ways to make pieces easier for you?

This is when you need to not rush blindly ahead, you need to take time to think about and evaluate what you need. Take time to plan, figure out what goals you need to meet. It can feel like planning is a waste of time, yet according to Dr. Donald E. Wetmore, “1 hour planning will save 10 hours doing.” Each time I re-did the craft supplies, I waited to give myself time to think about what wasn’t working and come up with what I needed to modify. Only after I figured that out did I dig and starry changing things.

It can be daunting that our best intentions didn’t end up working out the way we thought they would, yet it can be an opportunity to make things exponentially better. It also reinforces how change is not only just a part of life, but also part of the journey and growth integral to living. When we apply that to our organizational systems, it means that we can improve our efficiency and productivity too.

Ziploc Big Bags

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Middle of 3 sizes

Pros:

Thick and sturdy plastic
Pleated bottom for standing & bulky items
Built-in handles
Easy closure
Flexible shape
See-through material

Cons:

Can tear from hard items inside
Only so useful for heavy items
Potential wasted storage space

Review

The local WI branch of NAPO was fortunate to have a couple people from SE Johnson present at one of meetings and the following month, they had an exhibitor’s booth the national NAPO conference. That is where I was able to get samples to try out – and this month is the Ziploc Big Bag. The truth is that I wasn’t sure what I’d use them for and I’m not convinced how useful they are for many people. Although there are certainly times when they are handy, and I found a couple of things to try mine out on.

My husband and I have been working on another room in the house. Most of the boxes and other containers were used to gather everything to pull it out of the room. I have a cherished stuffed turtle, and wanted him to be protected, so I grabbed one of the Ziploc Big Bags. It worked well. We painted the room and as we were moving the media cabinet back to the wall (which didn’t hold all the movies anyway), I questioned how many movies we needed. Between the DVDs and VHS, we had almost 350, and similarly to the CD collection, I needed to consider the movies by time as well space.

So, I grabbed the second Ziploc Big Bag, dropping each movie into it that could probably go away. I decided I wanted to watch most of the movies before getting them out of the house. I put them on periodically while doing other things and worked my way through that bag. I actually went through the movies in the cabinet again and added to the bag, and it slowly emptied. In the meantime, I needed to periodically move the bag around for vacuuming and whatnot.

The Ziploc Big Bag helped contain all those movies and the handles made it easy to move around when I needed. I did not stack movies in there nicely, they were jumbled up, and the bag did get some puck marks from the corners of the movies. It did end up tearing just a little, after several months, though I felt like I was rougher on it than I needed to be. Since it was most see-through, I could see movies closer to the bottom and dig for them when I wanted and see titles without sticking my head into the bag.

I find the idea of using bags, especially large bags, for storage to go against my inclinations, with the exception of for soft, squishy things. Then again, I don’t have kids and use the storage that we have without much need for more. I’m not crazy about the shape, great it’s got a pleated bottom, but the top is still going to have a different shape than the bottom. To me this means that there’ll be some wasted space.

I do like the idea that a Ziploc Big Bag is good for gift bags, and ours are currently not in the most convenient storage. In some ways, I admit I need to think outside the box a bit more to fully appreciate the diversity of how these can be used. I’m not sure whether I will ever be a bag person for storage overall, but I do think they can provide some benefits.

Overall, I’m quite impressed with Ziploc Big Bags and as long as they’d fulfill the storage (or transportation) needs, would suggest them. I’m even going to keep them in mind for future storage needs of my own.

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.

Keeping Things Close to Where You Use Them is Not Always the Right Answer

You’ve probably heard that you should keep things close to where you use them. I’m even fond of this idea. It makes sense. Doesn’t it?

It only makes sense it some circumstances.

I was using this principle in one of our closets. I had my medications on a shelf. When I refilled my pill containers, I did it close to this closet, so they were handy. Recently we pulled everything out of the closet and as I handled all the various items, I started thinking. This closet actually held many different things, as closets are wont to do. There were movies, memorabilia, craft supplies, a handful of books, repair projects, and various other odds and ends. Of course, as time moved along, I started keeping other odds and ends in there too.

The thing was that I only accessed the medications periodically. The pill containers are refilled twice a month. This closet is almost prime real estate in our home. So many things could go somewhere else and be just as accessible. I’d set it all up when we moved in, approaching a decade ago, and it made sense. I was storing the items close to where I used them.

This is one case where keeping something close to where I used it was not the best use of the space as well as it was breaking one of the other guiding principles – keep like things together. It makes better use of our space and easier to find things by keeping like items together. We have a linen closet opposite the bathroom, where many items are kept since our bathroom is tiny. Now my medications have moved in there, on a higher shelf since I access them only periodically.

One of the reasons that organizing principles are only guidelines is that you cannot necessarily follow them all, they can contradict each other. Then you need to make a choice about which one makes more sense for you – the user. In this case, the idea of keeping things together now seems better, though it didn’t start out that way.

We need to consider the space too. In my case, the closet was so handy that I was keeping lots of different things there. They got crowded, yet I could still get what I needed when I needed it. It was convenient. I could argue that I started using it for so much just because it was handy. Yet, if it’s so convenient, then I wanted to use it for the things that really mattered. I don’t want filing cabinets in my living room even if I do handle all mail and even do my pre-filing sorting here. This becomes even more important the smaller the space you have (a post coming soon on small spaces).

Although keeping things close to where you do them makes sense, questions that often get forgotten are – how often are you doing it and how elaborate is it? If it’s something you can easily pick up in one hand, you can simply pick it up and move it to another space without difficulty. I would cringe at the idea of someone lugging load after load of supplies to do something in another room.

It deserves it’s own post, but also things change, so what worked at one point does not necessarily continue to work. We need to be able to look at things with fresh eyes and see where we can improve how we’re using things and where we keep them. Don’t be afraid to break those organizing principles, it’s probably inevitable anyway!

Contagious Clutter

Have you ever heard of kipple? “When nobody’s around, kipple reproduces itself. For instance, if you to go bed leaving any kipple around your apartment, when you wake up there is twice as much of it. It always gets more and more.” Philip K. Dick in his book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (which was made into the movie Blade Runner) said this. Sometimes I feel like this is not some futuristic possibility, but the reality we all face today.

It’s not independent of our behavior though. When I was in my first apartment, I would often need to spend a day or more picking it up and cleaning to be ready for my dad to visit. (See, I wasn’t always an organized person!) I’d plan that it’d never get that bad again, yet in that tiny studio apartment, one area would slowly start to collect clutter. Before I knew it, the other areas would be infected with other clutter.

Some of that was that there was nowhere in there that you could not see the rest of the space. When just a little bit of clutter starts to accumulate and you let it sit there, you are less likely to avoid dropping more clutter around. Just the sight of a little clutter lowers your response to adding to it. “It’s just a little more – and I’ll deal with it quickly later.”

And so it starts.

On some level this is unavoidable. We all have the pending stuff we’re trying to deal with – it can’t get put away completely yet, so you set it off to the side.

Do you then see the piles begin to build up? Whether it is from yourself or others in your home, it’s human nature to get a little “lazy” about adding to the piles. Some of the most organized people I know struggle with this phenomenon – and often they berate themselves for it.

The multiplying kipple can be that much worse for those who share their home, with a spouse, children, even a roommate! We all organize and manage our things differently, these differences can lure us into allowing the clutter to accumulate before our eyes and before we recognize it.

It comes down to maintainence. I’ve accepted that a certain number of piles will appear over the course of a week – though the sizes vary. What matters is what I do about it and what I tell my clients to do – make time weekly or even daily to deal with it. I also make a point to evaluate what is getting piled – What types of things are there? Do they have a home? Do they need a home? Am I frustrated with the things (and therefore not dealing with them)? Is there a better way?

Do I wish that there were never any piles? YES! We are not perfect, and at least according to Philip K. Dick, kipple is unavoidable. Therefore, I’m determined to limit the kipple and encourage others to keep their own kipple under manageable levels. ☺ Good Luck – don’t look away for too long since it does multiply when you’re not looking!

One of My Favorite Things – Containers

My husband knows me well – he used to bring home containers of various types for me. You see, other than media, one of my favorite things is containers. I ooh and aah over them, drooling. They come in many different sizes and shapes, then there’s the material they’re made out of and if they’re drawers or boxes. How I long to take them home with me! There’s no denying how useful and helpful they can be.

My husband has also stopped bringing home those containers for me. We’ve run out of space and use for them – at least for the time being. This certainly doesn’t stop me from yearning to pick more up. Every so often I’ll still get more, like that time I went to the thrift store – I got a basket and a cute little elephant that just had to come home with me.

What we need to do is make sure that we know specifically what we need and only then purchase those things. I talk generally about when to buy things in a previous blog, True Purchasing Power. When it comes to containers and other organizing supplies though, we often buy first. It almost seems counter-intuitive to buy containers late in the process of getting organized. Yet this is exactly what you need to do.

An extreme example is getting a file cabinet. You see all these piles of papers around and just “know” that you’ll need a 4-drawer filing cabinet. You go out and get it and even have a place to put it. Then you start going through all those papers – and discover that most do not need to be filed. You actually only needed a 2-drawer filing cabinet. You could have saved yourself money by waiting.

We tend to fill the available space – so if you have a 4-drawer cabinet but don’t really require it, you’ll probably end up putting stuff in there – whether you keep unnecessary papers or you drop random things in there later. This applies to any of our spaces, therefore buying what you need becomes even more important and will help avoid things getting inadvertently cluttered. As an aside, many organizers claim that we ahould not have more than one 2-drawer file cabinet for papers.

As you begin to get organized, you’ll see that it changes many things. It’s great to start with some ideas of how you want things to be and look after you’ve finished. Yet, as you work through various things, your ideas begin to change. You have the freedom to decide that you want to move something to another room – not just furniture but also what activities you’ll focus on. Then those containers might not work as well.

If you avoid getting containers before you get organized, you are free to figure out how and where you’ll keep things without being limited by the container you’ve already purchased and without any guilt! In this day and age, you have such a plethora of choices of not only container, but also how to store things – like the ottoman that doubles as file storage (as long as you don’t mind the price!) – so waiting until you know precisely what you need to handle and where you want it to go is critical.

Feel free to drool over all the nifty stuff out there for organizing, yet resist the temptation to buy any of it until you know how you will use it and that it will actually work for your needs. I certainly continue to salivate and contemplate whether I could use those organizing supplies.

Seasons of Decorations

With Halloween just around the corner, I started thinking about decorations. Although there are many holidays that you can have decorations for, we have three big ones close together over the next 3 months: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I’m certainly no Martha Stewart, but I do love putting out decorations to celebrate these and other occasions. This can create more work, more things to track and figure out what to do with – yet there are ways we can make this easier.

One of the things with decorations is that they spend most of their time in storage. I have some seasonal decorations, and even those are in boxes 9 months out of each year. For holiday decorations it is even more time since we don’t typically leave those out for much more than a month.

To start with, those decorations need a dedicated box or bin just for themselves. It might be tempting to group more than one type together in a box, but this only adds to your work when it is time to use the box: whether to pull out or to put away those decorations. You might need only one, Easter or the 4th of July, often do not exceed one container. On the other hand, Christmas can often fill many containers!

With Christmas and potentially other holidays if you have more than one box for, you can also separate types of decorations together within containers – like the tree ornaments going largely into one container and other décor items into another.

It is helpful to label them or choose color coded bins for storage so you know which box you want when you go to get them and not need to open multiple ones to find the one(s) you are looking for.

Since these decorations spend most of their time in storage, you also need to decide where you will keep them. Ideally you want the space to be relatively easy to access. If you store them in a hard to access area, it’s more likely you’ll procrastinate getting them out or putting them away. Considering that you don’t use them that often, it is tempting for them to get buried amidst other things or stored out of the way in hard to reach areas. If you truly want to use them each year, you need make sure they are relatively easy to get to.

It is also helpful if you decide when you want the decorations to be put out. We often think it’s tacky to have Christmas decorations out before Thanksgiving or after the middle of January – or whatever your thoughts are on this. Figure out for yourself when you would like them to be put out, and then put some time into your schedule to do it. The same thing applies for putting them away – figure out when you want them boxed back up by and schedule time for it. I recommend deciding and putting it into the schedule as a repeating event. That way, even if I’m distracted, my schedule reminds me that it’s time to put out/away the decorations.

The final step is to evaluate whether any of the decorations need to be purged. Unfortunately damages happen, and as you are putting them out or putting them away at the end of the holiday, it is the perfect time to get rid of some that have outlived their purpose.

If you create specific containers for the different holidays, find an out of the way yet still easily accessible place to store those containers, and schedule time for yourself to pull them out and to put them away, and each time cull some items you no longer need — your decorations will perform their duty perfectly – to brighten your home and help you celebrate the holidays in the ways you choose.

Being Organized is Not Necessarily being Clean and Vice Versa

Do you want to know a secret? It’s not something I’m proud of – I dislike cleaning. I love organizing and always clean as a process of organizing. There’s no better time to get everything spic and span than as you set up new systems. Sometimes clients will ask me, “Of course, your house is always clean, right?” There is a big difference between being organized and being clean, though both flourish with being part of a routine.

Do you know anyone whose house is always immaculate, yet if you get a glimpse of one of their drawers, it is overflowing with stuff? Or there is a room that is off limits, while the rest of the house is pristine? Then there’s our house – you will probably see fuzz balls in corners and décor items will not pass that white glove test! Of course, there are people who have both or neither mastered.

Dusting every week is something I just don’t want to do. As I looked at my behavior and feelings, it occurred to me that I was trying to make myself do the cleaning like my mom had me clean – each week we’d clean the house, all in one day. Here we are back to the idea of finding what works for you, we can change the ways we do things to fit with our personality.

First, I looked at where I cleaned easily. I get the dishes done regularly, though not the way my mom would do it. It works for us. Vacuuming certain areas of the house – where the cat hair dominates – is done fairly regularly. I congratulated myself for the things I do well, even in the realm of cleaning.

Then I examined my preference for cleaning as part of having things cleared out. A great time for cleaning the bathroom was when I washed the towels. The bathroom was cleared of them then and was a great time to dig in and get everything spic and span before I put the fresh towels back in.

Next, I found FlyLady and she presents the idea that we can do a little bit of cleaning each day and break the house into zones. In the way she developed this system, over the course of a month your house is actually cleaned more thoroughly than if you set aside a day for cleaning each week. I tweaked her set up to fit with our house and my style, but the idea of doing a little every day I could actually enjoy doing! For those who need it, she includes de-cluttering in her system.

Have I mastered cleaning? Nope, but it is a process and in setting up new systems, it takes time. Also, I continue to look at what is not working, with curiosity, to see if there is another piece I could tweak.

Maybe you do not struggle with cleaning, though this is an example of how to approach whatever you might struggle with and discover an approach that will work for you. Make sure you recognize where you succeed and give yourself a congratulations. When you identify how things fit for you, you can develop systems for getting a handle on those things you’ve struggled with. If you can limit the self-criticism, you can keep an open mind about finding solutions, as you need them.