It’s Time to LAUNCH into a More Organized Life!

Did you know that the average American spends nearly an hour every day looking for simple things? How sad! Think what YOU would do with an extra hour every day. It may seem like an inflated estimate, but let’s think it through a bit.

What do you typically spend your precious time searching for? Keys? Wallet? Shoes? Library books? School papers? Important documents? Tools? The list goes on.

Much of what we spend our time searching for includes items we need in order to get out the door. And isn’t that the most frustrating time to be searching? I’m sure you can picture it:

• The bus will be in front of the house in 3 minutes, but first your sweet child needs to find their jacket and shoes, signed permission slip, gym uniform, lunch and library books. Chances are you just wasted 5-10 minutes searching along with 15-30 minutes in drive time, shuttling them to school because they missed their bus.
• Your husband is getting ready to leave for work, but where are his keys, brief case, lunch and black belt? Just a few minutes late, and he’s more likely to be stuck in rush hour traffic. Precious minutes wasted in his day before it even begins.
• You are ready to leave for a meeting, and had planned to run errands on the way home. You are now frantically searching for your brief case, the black pumps you wore Saturday night,  your grocery list and the library books that are due today. You run out of time, give up on finding the grocery list and library books, and head for the meeting, arriving just in time. Consequently, you add 30 minutes to your day having to run back by the house after work to retrieve your grocery list and library books.

Ok, now that you can relate to the problem, what is the solution? Part of the solution is the creation of a “Launching Pad”. It’s a place within your home that you designate as THE place to put anything you will need as you leave your home. It can include your keys and purse, library books to be returned, and the little neighbor’s  sweat shirt that was left at your home last week. Also, items such as your grocery list and errand plan, store returns and your PTA file needed for the next meeting.  You get the picture.

You tend to have a “Launching Pad”, whether you consciously plan to or not. Without a plan, your Launching Pad tends to be your kitchen counter or table, again adding to your kitchen clutter. So take a few minutes and think through a logical place for your launching pad, preferably near the door that you normally use. You could designate a kitchen cabinet near your “Quick Access Files”. Or you could designate a shelf in the laundry room, if it happens to be near the door. Be creative and look around your house for space that is available and makes sense.

This same concept works beautifully for your children. Create a place for them to keep their coats, shoes, backpacks and anything else that they may need as they walk out the door for school. This space could include hooks for coats, cubbies for shoes and larger cubbies for backpacks.

Hooks and Shoe Cubbies

 We actually have a small “Launching Room” in our home, with space for our children’s as well as our own coats, shoes, backpacks and other items coming and going out of our home. We were able to customize this space with labels for coat hooks and cubbies for each child. This both simplifies and organizes, saving many minutes and ultimately hours of search time.

Cubbies for the Kids

In my previous post, I recommended creating “Quick Access Files” which will enable you to quickly find all those bits of information that you need often. The Launching Pad perfectly compliments the Quick Access Files!

Later this month we will look at creating a simple, yet effective long term filing system. If you can’t find any document within a minute’s time, your filing system is not as effective as it could be. Having an easy and effective long term filing system is yet another time saver.

Have Happy and Organized Days!

Cheryl

Junk all that Junk Mail!

In an effort to take back and clear out the piles of papers in your kitchens and dining rooms, we will learn how to “Junk all that Junk Mail”! The average American adult receives almost 560 pieces of junk mail each year. And they spend 8 months opening junk mail in the course of their lives! And we wonder why we are drowning in paper!

While striving to  ”Get Organized in 2009″, we have been looking at the universal problem of overwhelming amounts of paperwork, and the resulting piles that usually end up in the kitchen. Together we have looked at how and why this problem is created (Help, My Kitchen is My File Cabinet) and have begun to create a plan of action to eliminate it (Quick Access Files, Don’t Live an Organized Life Without Them!).

Today, we will learn how to ELIMINATE much of the problem by eliminating much of our junk mail. It takes a bit of effort, but the savings in time, energy, and waste are well worth it.

I wish I could give you one phone number to call, similar to the National Do Not Call Registry, but it hasn’t been completed yet. Check out the New American Dream site: http://www.newdream.org/junkmail/state.php to see the progress on the “Do Not Junk” registries.

Until then, there are several steps you can take to reduce the amount of junk mail you receive:

• Get off the Junk Mailing List. Visit the Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service. Go to www.dmachoice.org , click on “Remove My Name from Those Lists,” and follow their instructions for removal.The DMA estimates that listing with their mail preference service will stop 75% of all national mailings

• Eliminate credit card junk mail. Most credit card companies use a central service to screen out people who don’t want to receive their mailings. To avoid getting most credit card junk mail, call 1-888-OPTOUT (888-567-8688).

• Stop junk mail before it begins. Whenever you fill out a form or place an order, always write “Do not rent or exchange my name” or ask the order taker to please “flag your file” so that your information won’t be shared.

• Eliminate the extra papers and advertisements sent to you with current bills by signing up for automatic payment. This will eliminate paperwork, and save you time and save money on postage.

• Stop the Catalogs. Most catalogs have an 800 number that customers can use to place orders. Use this same number to call and request that your name be taken off of their mailing list. You can also go to Catalog Choice at www.catalogchoice.org. This site allows you to type in whatever catalog or mailer you receive and opt out. Just be careful that you don’t sign up to receive more catalogs than those you opt out of!

Other helpful websites:

• www.junkbusters.com : provides further guidelines for reducing junk mail. You will find step by step directions to “gain control of your mailbox”.

• www.obviously.com : provides a free on-line do-it-yourself guide to stopping junk mail, emails and phone calls

Do you have more money than time? You may want to try one of the following services:

• www.41pounds.org will do the work for you. They are a nonprofit organization working to eliminate junk mail and charge only $41 for 5 years. That’s only $8.20 per year!

•  Purchase the Stop the Junk Mail Kit developed by the Consumer Research Institute. Go to www.stopjunk.com. The kit is $13.95 for the printed version ($9.95 for additional kits) or $10.95 for the PDF version. This simple kit was researched and developed by a former junk mail copywriter. The kit includes simple stop by step directions as well as pre-addressed postcards to make the job of ending junk mail simple.

• www.privacycouncil.org will do the work for you. The Privacy Council describes itself as “marketers committed to privacy”. Their mission is simple: they strive to collectively put an end to unwanted junk mail, SPAM and phone calls. The Privacy Council offers a full removal service, which removes your household from call lists, email lists, and junk mail lists. The initial cost for this service is $9.

This is only a drop in the bucket. A quick google search of “stop junk mail” brings up nearly 10 million sites. So, use my suggestions, or research your own. But, certainly DO simplify your life and clear out your kitchen by “Junking all that Junk Mail!”

Happy (and organized) Days!

Cheryl                  

Quick Access Files…….Don’t Live an Organized Life Without Them!

Last time in “Help, My Kitchen is My File Cabinet”, I referred to the universal problem of overwhelming amounts of paperwork, and the resulting piles that usually end up in the kitchen. Part of the solution to this problem is the creation of Quick Access Files.

Quick Access Files are just that– files that you need to access often and quickly. Don’t let the word “file” in “Quick Access Files” throw you. These are files containing different information than we generally keep in our regular “Filing Cabinet”.

  My Personal Quick Access Files

 

To create “Quick Access Files”, gather up all the bits of information lying around and plastered to your kitchen. Then separate them into logical categories. Because each of our lives and habits are different, so too will be each of our Quick Access Files.

You may end up with:

• A file for each school, which will hold current phone lists, school calendars, announcements, and newsletters
• A file for every sports team or club
• A file for volunteer organizations, which will hold current phone lists, announcements, schedules and newsletters
• Or, you may choose to create a file for each family member in which you can place all the information from each school, club or organization
• A “doctor/dentist” file with contact information, directions and appointment cards (which you will drop in the file AFTER you write it on the calendar)
• A file for prescriptions which can hold patient information for any current prescriptions that your family members are using
• A file for take out menus
• A file for parties and invitations (which you drop in AFTER you write on the calendar)
• A file for coupons and gift cards

For many of these categories you will also have a file in your regular file cabinet. For instance, each child will have an “Education” file in your regular files in which you will put all their permanent records, report cards and testing information. Each family member will have a “Medical” file, which will hold immunization records, surgery, allergy and all permanent medical records.

These papers, invitations, schedules, announcements, appointment reminders and take out menus in your Quick Access File will generally be  used for a season and then discarded or updated. At the end of a school year or sports season, for example, most of the contents of the Quick Access File will be discarded. Any important information or documents, however, will be added to your regular long term filing system, and your Quick Access Files are ready for a new season!

Several of my clients have been hesitant to create a Quick Access File because their spouses didn’t like the idea of a file box setting out in the kitchen or family room. You may kindly suggest, to these well meaning spouses, that a small, nice looking file box (think compact and attractive) looks much nicer than a pile of papers in disarray!

Check out some of these links for ideas.  Be creative!

www.containerstore.com

 

 

www.containerstore.com

Happy and Organized Days!

Cheryl

 

 

Help, My Kitchen is My File Cabinet!

Take a quick look around your kitchen and dining room: the kitchen table, the counter tops, the buffet, and the surfaces of your refrigerator. Do you notice a re-occurring theme? Do you see the mounds of information needed to run your home and your life, spread hit or miss around your kitchen? Is the pile of junk mail, catalogs, and newspapers on your kitchen table blocking your view of your loved ones at dinner? If so, you’re not alone.

Do you realize how much paperwork enters your home on a daily basis? Most of us probably receive more mail on most days than our parents received in a week. We receive newsletters, magazines, bills, advertisements, million dollar offers, and letters, to mention a few. Along with incoming mail, many of us have school-aged children, who each bring home permission slips, completed work, tests to be signed, the dreaded fund-raising packets and letters from teachers and administrators. We receive the Daily Newspaper, and we carry in papers on a daily basis from work, meetings and appointments.

In my time as a professional organizer, I have come across a universal problem of overwhelming amounts of paperwork, and the resulting piles that usually end up in the kitchen. In our efforts to “Get Organized in 2009″, we will look at this all-too-common issue and outline simple solutions that can solve this problem and simplify your days.

 Together we will create a plan of action. A place for everything and everything in it’s place! Clutter happens when we don’t have a place for something, or when it’s more difficult to put something away than it is to deal with it. The result is the inevitable cluttering up of our spaces and our lives.

As we create a plan for all the paper coming into our homes, we will ask ourselves some very basic questions:

• Who needs this information?

• Where will I/they need or use this information?

• How long do I need/want to keep this information?

• What time of day does most of this information come into the home?

• Do I have time to put it where it belongs?

The majority of the paper coming into your home will NEVER need to be looked at again!

                “Man’s best friend, aside from the dog, is the wastebasket”.           Business Week

Remember this truth and always have your friend with you when dealing with paperwork. That’s the first and most essential step! Until next time, I challenge you to quickly recycle or simply throw out that which you don’t need or won’t use. Make it a habit, and your piles may actually start declining!

In my next series of articles, I will encourage you with other simple tips and strategies to take back and clear out the piles in your kitchens and dining rooms.

Happy Days!

Cheryl