April is National Car Care Month

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This is Car Care Month!  Part of taking care of your car is to keep it clean, both inside and out.  The inside cleaning will be a lot easier if you de-clutter first.

The various activities of the winter have probably taken a toll on your car.  Salt, snow scrappers, and even snow shovels in some parts of the country, can now be removed to make way for all of the items we need for spring and summer fun.  You may also have accumulated some other items in the car that are not so seasonal……trash on the floor, maps you no longer need, and bags from various shopping excursions.
As with any organizing project, our advice is to start small.  Focus on one area at a time.  This will help make the task not quite so overwhelming.   What have you stored in the glove compartment, the door pockets, seat pockets, on the floor, in the trunk, and in any hidden areas?  Do all of those items that really belong there?  What about items that you have been looking for?  Any money?  As you begin the sorting process, you never know what you are going to find!

Now think about what items really belong in each of those spaces.  Keep in mind a couple of our other tips: to store like things together, and to store items close to where you will be using them.

• The car manual and maintenance schedule should be stored together along with a tire pressure gauge and information on what to do in an emergency.
• Even though many of you have a GPS, it is often nice to have a map available to see the big picture.   Keep a couple for the state and city where you live, and remove all the ones from previous vacations.
• What about CDs?  There are many products available to store your favorite tunes or audio books that will keep them accessible.
• If you found a lot of trash on the floor, perhaps it was because there was no designated trash container.  Any small bag will do, or you can purchase one to set on the floor or hang over the seat.  Be sure everyone knows where it is.

As you choose some products or tools to help you organize your car, think about how you use your car.  Do you use it for the family taxi service, running errands, and/or for work?  Thinking this through and measuring your space first will help dictate what items you may need to purchase.

For examples of some of the items that you may find useful, check out our Organizing the Car board on Pinterest.

What interesting items did you find in your car?

Thanks for reading,

JoEllen & Muffy

Time to Head Out To The Garden!

“April Fool!” said Mother Nature to Northern Ohio this year.  In spite of her antics, we really do believe that Spring will arrive very, very soon.  And when the weather does break, many of you will be heading out to the garden to prepare for the planting of vegetables and flowers.  This month we are offering you tips to organize the garden corner of the garage.  If you do not have an area dedicated to storing your garden supplies, then creating one will be the first order of business.  Gathering all the supplies that you own and eliminating what you no longer need, will be the first step in determining how much space is necessary for storage.

One of our favorite tips is to maximize vertical space!  The garage or gardening shed is a perfect place to put this tip into action.  The photo below from Better Homes and Gardens illustrates a lot of options for maximizing a wall:

While you might not need this much space, there are a lot of ideas that you can use for what suits your needs the best:  shelves, a potting table and a rolling cart with supplies.  Keep the most frequently used items up front or on the lower shelves for easy access.  If you have any left over planters or clay pots, use them to store small hand tools, seed packets or gloves.  Or you may want to keep all of your favorite tools in a bucket or tote that you are likely to grab on your way out to the garden.

All the long-handled gardening tools can be hung with hooks or nails on the wall or shelves, or they can be stored using PVC piping (see below)to keep them from getting tangled with each other.  For more ideas with directions on this and other ways of using PVC pipe, check out Ashbee Designs.

                       

Do you have a method for keeping track of what is in your garden?  Seed packets can be stored in a shoe box, glass jars, a zip lock or by creating a binder, as shown below:

 

This method will allow you to quickly see what you have available, the date purchased, and the instructions and care of various plants that you own.

Now that you are all organized, create a list of what other items you will be needing this year and head off to your favorite garden center.

After all of your planting is done, take some time to look at all of the planters you have accumulated.  Many garden centers will happily take back the plastic pots in which the plants are sold.  You can also consider sharing them with a friend, or donating to a local community garden or garden club.

We both enjoy gardening in our spare time, and have created a Pinterest Board of many more ideas to keep you organized.  Be sure to check it out!

Happy Planting!

JoEllen & Muffy

Time to ENJOY Your Organized Space!!

If you have been following the SIMPLE Organizing Steps, you know that it is now time to

E Enjoy & Maintain

your re-organized space. You may think it’s time to sit back and relax, right?  Well, almost!  Actually, Enjoy & Maintain is our second favorite tip—–right after Starting Small.

Of course, Enjoying is the easy part!  You should now be able to locate items more readily each time you need them.  This translates to less stress and more free time to spend on activities that were neglected when you were overwhelmed with disorganization.

To Maintain your newly organized space, you will need to devote time on a regular basis to keeping it organized.  We all know that things don’t always get back to their assigned homes immediately after using them.  You certainly can try, but there are always a few items that are out of place, and you need to keep up on the system you have created.  This could be a few minutes returning items to their homes every morning or evening, or it could be some time when the entire family participates on a Saturday morning.  The frequency and amount of time is up to you.  We recommend that you set aside some time and mark it on your calendar.

By maintaining on a regular basis your spaces will stay organized with the investment of small amounts of time.  And, while things will get a little messy some times, they will not get so out of control that you will be overwhelmed again.

Thanks for reading,

JoEllen & Muffy

Happy Organize Your Home Office Day!

This is Organize Your Home Office Day. Whether you use your home office for a business or for the business of managing your home, a good place to start would be a clean desktop.

Many of our clients ask us for a better way to keep their desktop and filing areas from collecting so many piles!  Having a clean desk top provides a calm and inviting area in which to work.  So many of us avoid working at our desk because of the piles of bills, junk mail and other paper.  Here are a few simple ways to create a system which works for you!

First, clear the desk of all papers and put them aside.   Determine which items on the desktop should stay – stapler, tape, paperclips, pens and pencils, etc..  Have a small supply of these handy and store the rest in drawers or cabinets close by.

Now it is time to sort the papers into categories; Bills to Pay, “To Do” items, Filing and Toss.  We highly recommend a separate place for bills where you also keep the checkbook, stamps and envelopes.  This makes for an quick and easy process when it is time to pay the bills.  “To Do” items can go in a single manila folder or be sorted further into categories such as; Calls to Make, RSVPs, Follow-Up, etc..  Try not to get too many categories or you will lose the benefits of having them all in one place!  We recommend simple filing categories as well.  Some prefer to break out their bills into multiple files but others love our idea of a single “Paid Bills” file for the current year (utilities, credit card bills, etc).  Maintain separate files for cars, insurance, medical, home maintenace and home improvements.  Finally, be sure to have a “Taxes” file going for the year – throughout 2013 drop all donation receipts, deductible membership items and other receipts into the file.  In January of 2014, the file will be ready for tax preparation.

The only papers which should go back onto the cleared desktop are the “To Do” items.  Graduated wire racks are our favorite way to hold manila folders because they save space and provide an easy way to see the file names at a glance.  Or, below is an example of fun and effective storage items for your desk.  These are from Clever Container which we sell to our customers-great products at a reasonable price.  Make a purchase and we will give you a free PDF download of our book, “Where Can I Find It?”

Whatever method you decide to use is great – now all you need to do is use it!

Unfortunately, paper does not take care of itself.  A little time and discipline (schedule this maintenance time on your calendar) will allow you to attend to the paper flow, pay your bills on time, file needed papers away and leave you with a clean desk!

The Desk Envy set that is featured above usually sells for $25, but is available for only $11 if you purchase $50 worth of Clever Container products.

For any size order during the month of March 2013 we will send you a pdf version of our book “Where Can I Find It?”.

You may order directly from the web site, or give us a call.

Muffy @ 216.321.6126      or       JoEllen @ 440.498.1930

The L In SIMPLE Organizing Steps

For the last four weeks we have shared with you our organizing tips about sorting, identifying categories, maximizing your use of space, and putting things away in their proper homes.

The logical next step in the process is:

L       Let go

Some people say the hardest part of organizing is letting go of things.  Cable TV shows have families put all of their belongings on the front lawn and return only 1/2 to their homes.  Organizing 4 U  believes you should part with items which are no longer useful to you and no longer bring you joy!

How does one decide?  Try sorting items in each space into 3 piles – trash, keep and donate.  Share items you no longer need with those who do.  Try keeping a donation bag or box handy and add to it on an ongoing basis – the next time a charity calls for a neighborhood pick up, you will be ready!

Feel the relief of lightening your load and “let go” of the excess.  Peter Walsh, author of “It’s All Too Much”, believes our society encourages us to have too much “stuff”.  So join the fun and organize your home or office today.  We guarantee the lighter load will make you feel better right away.  One of our customers said “I feel like I just lost 100 pounds!!!”

Let’s take a look at the candle drawer

Look at all of the items the homeowner let go of!!!!  We see broken and mostly used candles, potpourri, a candle stand, a box, incense, ribbon, etc.  How did they ever find a candle in there!!???

What interesting items have you found when cleaning out a drawer or cupboard?

Thanks for reading,

JoEllen & Muffy

The P In SIMPLE Organizing Steps

If you have been following our SIMPLE Organizing Steps© then you have already Started organizing a small area, Identified categories, and made decisions on Managing your space well.  Now is the time to P   Put away At this point in the process you should be thinking about where to put your belongings and paper so they will be accessible the next time you decide to use them.  After all, that is what being organized is all about—-being able to find the things you need, when you need them. Many individuals will ask us the ‘right’ place to store something.  The only ‘right’ place is the one that makes sense to you.  Therefore, we suggest that you think about how you will look for something the next time you need it, and select this locale as its new home.  As an added tip, we suggest that items be stored in close proximity to where you will be using them. The candle drawer we have been working on is in the dining room of a home—close to where candles will be used at a dinner party or birthday celebration.  As you can see, everything the homeowner wants kept in this drawer fits neatly inside.  No more digging for a particular item when needed. If you are the type of person who will forget about a piece of paper or an article of clothing if you cannot see it, there are alternatives available.  Check out your local office supply or department store for more visible storage solutions.  Think outside of the box (so to speak). If you like to pay your bills at the kitchen table, then perhaps you should consider putting all the related information in a small portable tote.  When finished, you can place everything inside, and still have a place for dinner.

Put Away Important Information We recommend that when you store important paperwork and documents, you tell someone you trust where the information is located.  This could be a friend or family member, your attorney and/or your insurance agent.  Then, in the event of an emergency, that someone will easily be able find what they need. The Organizing 4 U team’s book Where Can I Find It?© is a useful tool to guide you as you find homes for all of your important documents. Have you been finding new homes for some of your items? Thanks for reading, JoEllen & Muffy

The M In SIMPLE Organizing Steps

The guide to making your life SIMPLE continues with this month’s suggestion on how to:

M      Maximize your space

Our goal as professional organizers is to help people use the space in their homes and offices most effectively.  This is often done with simple tools to help place and contain items.  for our candle drawer, we used a small box, lid and a small shopping bag to contain various candles that were going back in the drawer.

Read on for some more ideas….

Many home offices can improve space capacity with the addition of bookcases, a new and/or improved filing system and a system for long-term document retention.  Think vertically when you enter the room and see how you might better utilize the space on the walls or in the closets.

Closets are a challenge for many home owners; they come in all shapes and sizes, often without sufficient storage .  Maximize the space using higher shelves for out of season clothes, hats or handbags.  Don’t have any shelves?  Try adding them!

“Small bedrooms can be a challenge as well”, says interior designer Diana Hudson of Devine Designs.  “Often these rooms are designated as a child’s room and there is an opportunity to make them fun and efficient.  Use the vertical space for an elevated bed with a desk beneath it.  Or try bookshelves and benches with storage inside for clothes or toys”.

Kitchens are a fun place to be creative with storage while using your space effectively.  Many catalogs offer pretty containers for food and pantry items, baskets can be used for utenstils, pots can be hung on racks from the ceiling and there are many varieties of spice racks to suit your needs.  Clear containers are excellent for the refrigerator so the contents are identifiable!

Garages, basements and attics are wonderful storage areas for items you do not need every day.  Once again, think vertically when looking for extra space.  Shelves which hang from the garage ceiling can dramatically increase the amount of storage in a garage.  Sturdy shelving is available for basements or attics.  We recommend using clear containers with labels so you can see what is in them with a quick glance.

Use these tips to re-evaluate if you are maximizing your spaces and see if there is room for improvement!

Inspired by these tips?  Let us know what unique solution you have used.

Thanks for reading,

JoEllen & Muffy