Tag: organizing projects

Go-mugs, Water Bottles and Blender Pieces, Oh My!

Go-mugs, water bottles and blender pieces, Oh My!

(We attended my niece’s elementary school’s presentation of The Wizard of Oz over the weekend, and the title just came to me!)

I have presented hundreds of times to thousands of people in my time as a professional organizer. I know what jokes will work or not. And I can bring up common hot-spots and know which hot-spot mention will elicit a groan or exclamation.

Enter… go-mugs and water bottles, and to a lesser extent, blender bits and pieces. At a presentation last month to parents of high schoolers, the mention of go-mugs and water bottles sparked a lively discourse – “Some are so old the writing is all washed off!” or “That one leaks but it’s still here!” or “We don’t even know who that one belongs to or where it came from!”!

Organizing these items is another small but mighty project with a potentially big impact!

How To:

  • First, we open all the cabinets and drawers and pull out ALL THE PIECES! Bases, lids, accessories, sleeves, hooks, rubber gaskets, etc. Oi, all the pieces!
    • And since these are all portable beverage carriers, we also need to check in the cars, cupholders and under the seats. We need to look in all the backpacks, briefcases and sports bags by the door, too. Collect all the extras from EVERYWHERE and give them a good wash.
    • Next, we pair up all the pieces. Top with bottoms, rubber gaskets with lids, straws with squeezy bottles if you use those (we don’t), etc. Since we’re talking about blender / smoothie cup pieces too, we match up the cups that go with certain blender bases, as well.


  • Once we have the pieces all paired up, line them up on the counter (gulp). Yes, all of them.
    • Take a deep breath. Look at all of them. There are probably some that need to go.
    • Part with the easy ones – the unpaired bottoms or tops, the leaky ones, the childish ones and your youngest is now a teenager.
    • You can also send the ones that don’t belong to you back to their owners!
    • Decide how many is enough and how many are too many. I know this may be tough, but you can try these strategies:
      • Sort them by owner – I am the coffee drinker, so the portable coffee mugs might go in the Colleen pile;
      • As another example, each of us has our own Swell bottles, so I might put each of those in each person’s pile.
      • Utilize what I refer to in my presentations as Mug Math. Ask Yourself:
        • How many people in my house drink coffee? (1)
        • How many cups a day? (2) and
        • How often do we run the dishwasher? (Every day / every other day)
        • So, in theory, I need 4 mugs. OF course I have more than 4 mugs. But do I need 40? No. Same goes for go mugs / water bottles, etc.


  • After you have decided which items to keep, let’s think about how and where to keep them.
    • Hopefully the pile has gotten smaller by this point.
    • Next, we need to chose one and only one place in the kitchen for these items to live.
    • If you use these items often, choose a home near the sink for easy cleaning and filling. If you use them less often, choose a location a little farther away from the sink, as that space is always in high demand.
    • As you choose a home, remember you can adjust your cabinet shelves to accommodate tall items.
    • AND… next time you are offered a promotional water bottle at an event, Just Say No!


  • The Keys to Success for go-mugs, water bottles and blender / smoothie parts are: 1. A Consistent Home; and 2. Containers!
    • When we’ve looked at these clutter hot-spots these last few weeks, we know that we want a HOME for our stuff so we can find the stuff again.
    • Having a consistent home for our go-mugs, water bottles and blender / smoothie parts means we will find those items again! If we find a top or a bottom without its match, that’s ok. If we put all the part in the HOME, we can pair them up again. And a home keeps these items from floating around in other spaces in our kitchen, getting in the way in those other spaces.
    • We use containers like these shown, available on Amazon.com or at your local retailer. The containers corral the bits and pieces like lids and bottoms, but they also establish a limit for how many things we have / need!



Try your hand at this mini-project this week and reclaim your kitchen and storage spaces!

Use Small Steps to Measure Your Organizational Success

On a zoom call yesterday, a class participant asked “How should we measure progress in our organizing?”

What a great question. I was so excited she asked, and in that moment I realized that question would also make a great blog article topic for this week!

The short and truthful answer is

“Incrementally.”

As in, please measure your organizing progress in small increments instead of broad and large sweeping content.

Just last week, I suggested in my blog that we should all craft our Done List in this Strange Time. And I absolutely still mean that!

But Done can look different from person to person, project to project and even day to day.

So let’s talk about Incremental Progress instead of only Completion.

If you break down a large organizing project, it becomes easy to see that large projects are made up of many smaller projects. For example, if my large goal is to “Organize My 15 Year-old’s Room With Him”, some of the smaller projects I can cross off my list might be:

  • Order new platform bed and risers (Done)
  • Clean out the old toys in containers under the bed (Done)
  • review and re-organize the bookshelves (Done)
  • Move empty bookshelves downstairs (Done)
  • Assemble new bed and risers when they arrive (Done)
  • Order chair and new comforter (in process)

We are making progress – actually, he is making progress, as he has done most of the work himself! – and crossed many tasks off the list. Are we DONE with the WHOLE PROJECT? No. Are we making really good and completely satisfactory progress? Yep.

In working with a virtual organizing client lately, she and I discuss the cascade effect of organizing projects. More truthfully, I refer to it as the “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” effect. Are you familiar with this children’s book series? The book tells the story of cascading tasks…

“If you give a mouse of cookie, he will want a glass of milk.
If you give him a glass of milk he will probably ask for a straw.
When he is finished, he will ask for a napkin.
Then he will ask for a mirror, to make sure he doesn’t have a milk moustache.” etc..

The point is this: often when we move through our organizing projects, we realize that the path is not straight. Given the example above, I had a few steps to complete before my son could move forward. Also on my task list was “make room in storage room on bookshelves for John’s children’s books that he wants to keep” which meant I needed to review my books and purge some, and while I was at it, organize the books by category, etc., etc.

All of these tasks are moving us towards a broad goal, but they don’t all happen at once. If we only celebrated completely finished big projects, we wouldn’t celebrate very often and our motivation might lag.

Then, there is the subject of Maintenance. (More on Maintenance Here) Usually, our projects don’t stay completed. We have to maintain our progress, and often tweak or update the progress we have made. Just because I went through my books last week and purged a bag doesn’t mean that I will never again have to review and purge my books. That doesn’t mean that I did it wrong or incompletely: more books may come, some books will get loaned out, my interests will change. The task is DONE, and done well, but it will someday need to be done again. Maintenance is part of the organizing process.

In this strange Pause time, it is even more important to measure our success incrementally. I have tackled MANY organizing projects in the last month but I also spend a whole lot of time on Maintenance. And I, like you, find more areas I want to organize as I work through my days. The cool part about this Pause time (yes, the Cool Part!) is that some days I have the time to tackle that new project when it pops up!

To finish answering my class participant’s question, Measure your progress in incremental steps. Celebrate progress towards a goal. Set your time and work for half an hour and see how much work you can get done in that time. Don’t worry about or get hung up on only completion or perfectionism. Just start, and celebrate when you can!

The Super Special Secret to Organizing Success (Ok, it’s not a secret)

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starting-line-running-trackYou’re busy.   You’ve got a home and life, work or volunteering or family, or any combination of those.  I would guess that you’re not sitting around, doing nothing.  Our days are filled.

But we know we want to make a change.   We want to get more organized, get a better grip on our home or finances or work life or time.  We want to make a change.  We NEED to make a change.

But that feels scary.  We know we have to carve out time, space and energy to do something different, something extra, to make progress.  We have to get a little uncomfortable, push ourselves a bit.  But where?  How?  If I’m going to get uncomfortable and push myself, I want to KNOW it’s right, KNOW that I’m doing the exactly right thing.

And there, friend, is the rub.  We need to do SOMETHING, but we may never know that we are doing the exactly right thing.   But here are strategies to start your Whole-Life or Just-One-Little-Corner-Organizing Project. Multiple strategies, because different strategies work on different days or with different projects.

1.  Start with a clipboard.  Grab a clipboard, paper and pen, and walk around your house, noting all potential organizing projects, big or small, realistic or ridiculous.   I often start client sessions with this step; asking questions, opening every door, challenging my client to think about what their space will look like when it’s “organized”.  Don’t edit this list yet, and don’t get overwhelmed.  This is just the list.

2. Look at the complete list, and start to pare down and strategize how to get these projects done.  The list is a great place to start, as it will show some commonalities, like how “Shelves in linen closet”  and “container under the kitchen sink to hold cleaning supplies” can both be satisfied with a trip to Home Depot or Menards.

Now, getting down to business…

3. Start with the easiest project.  Some projects are pretty straightforward. Maybe your home office just needs better lighting and a good printer stand with paper storage.  Again, one quick trip to Office Max, or perhaps a walk around your home or office to see if you already own furniture or a lamp that would solve your problem.  Start with easy, if that gets you moving.  Or…

4. Start with the toughest project.  Paper?  That is a tough project.  Toy Room?  Yes, that could be scary, too. I know, decision making is difficult.  But delaying those tough decisions is what created clutter in the first place.  Get tough, maybe even a little angry, and get to it.  Or…

5.  Start with a small project.  The day after Christmas, I tidied a kitchen drawer while I waited for my tea pot to boil. I continued drawer by drawer by cabinet over the next few days,  in 5 or 10 minutes increments.  Every drawer and cabinet has been tidied and purged, in little pieces.  Small projects keep us motivated but not overwhelmed. Or…

6.  Start with a large project.   Bite off the BIG BITE, the BIG PROJECT that will reap really big rewards once it’s complete. For example:  Garage?  It’s estimated that over half of the garages in the US hold clutter instead of cars.  Garages are big projects, but spending a day or two of really big work and effort will pay off with parking your cars in the garage instead of clutter.  Yes, this is a big project, and sometimes we need BIG results.

Ok, friend, let me share a secret.  Each of these strategies started with “Start”.  Yes, just one simple word, “Start”.  There is not secret to organizing or getting things done.  Each of those words is an action word.  Progress requires Action, and Action requires a START! So, the determinant of your success is not which strategy you use, it’s just that you use one and START.

What Are You Afraid Of?

A coaching client emailed me this question:

Good Morning, Coach Colleen!
Just touching base…
Not very successful in meeting last weeks’ goals.

Today I am asking myself –
What am I afraid of… if I was to let go of something?
I know what papers I want to toss or move – but I am holding on to something.
Hopefully we can move past this block.

My response (edited for confidentiality and content):

“Hmmmm….. what ARE you afraid of?”

We set goals because we want to achieve a certain outcome. We’re also aware there may be side effects from achieving those goals.  The fear of those side effects weighs us down.

  • This client has boxes of old papers to review and purge. She wants to wrap up the paper project before starting another. She has done great work in many ways, but reviewing and purging the papers in these these last few boxes feels scary, like she might let go of something important.
  • I heard the story of a client secretly afraid of an empty in-box. It seemed that if the in-box was empty, she wouldn’t have any more excuses for not doing the other harder, more emotionally painful tasks she’s been putting off.
  • A friend is worried that she’ll lose too much weight and then she’ll have to buy new clothes and it will be expensive. So she doesn’t even start.
  • I alternate between wanting to be super-busy and then freaking out because I’m so busy and can’t do all the things I want to do.

We all have fears, it’s how we face them – what we do with them – that matters.  If you ask yourself what you’re afraid of, your mind might not produce an answer.  If you’re feeling blocked, you can instead ask yourself, “What’s the worst that can happen?”

As in, “I’m conflicted about a possible outcome. It could be good, and it could be scary. So what is the worst that can happen if I achieve this goal?”

Using the weight loss example, what’s the worst that can happen?

  • We feel some discomfort with being hungry or sore from exercising, until our body adjusts (we can survive that, no biggie).
  • We lose weight and then have to buy new clothes (not really so bad).
  • We lose so much weight we look like one of those crazy skeleton people on the news (not really very likely, now is it?).
  • We work out so much we look like those freaky body builders (also not too likely).
  • There is the unlikely event that losing weight could cause other health issues, but the list of health benefits outweigh the fears.

In the case of this client, what’s the worst that can happen if she let go of the wrong papers?

  • Someone may ask for the information (sometimes the answer is “No, I don’t have that paper anymore” and sometimes we have to go out and find the answer again. Neither is too scary).
  • She may forget about it (if the paper represents something important, she will be reminded in other ways).
  • Again, the benefits of completing this paper project, and freeing up space in her house and schedule exceed the fears.
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This afternoon I found this quote while working at a different client’s house, took a picture and texted it to my client. I loved her response:

“Wow, doing 365 things a year could make a person become ruthless [her goal is to objectively and ruthlessly purge her papers]! And then nothing will scare them!”

So face those fears, and make those lists. I bet what you fear isn’t so scary after all!

More SnowDay Organizing Projects – Kids can Help, and Have Fun, too!

Oh, for goodness sake, another snow day.  Well actually, a Cold Day.  Bitter wind chills, blizzard force winds and new snow overnight. I understand the caution, truly I do.  So, despite having an 18- day Christmas break, and a three-day weekend last weekend, here we are with more days all together in the house.

If you, like me, are wondering how to get a few things done and still have fun with your kids, can I suggest a few organizing projects? The following projects are useful, quick, kid-friendly and should require no new items to be purchased, since it’s too cold to leave the house.

Clean out your pantry / cabinets: 

Little kids can help pull everything out, and sort like items with like (for example, even a 3-year-old can sort cans of different types of veggies by the picture on the front).  Have school-age kids who can read help you determine expiration dates, and toss all the expired or stale stuff.   Talk about service and charity with your kids, and set aside a bag of items to donate to your local food pantry.

Bake some cookies with the random bits of whatever you may find (in my cabinets, 3 bags of pretzels, a partial bag of white chocolate chips and some left over candy canes are inspiring creativity in me!).  Make a large pot of soup with what you find, and leave it simmering on the stove all day to humidify the air and make the house smell good.  You could really get creative, and have your kids plan this week’s menu with you, based on the current contents of your kitchen.

Clean out under your sinks. 

Bathroom?  Kitchen?  Laundry room?  The process is the same, regardless of what room you are working in!

Pull everything out, wipe everything down.  Combine partial bottles of similar items (I often find 4 or more partial bottles of dish soap, body wash or shampoo under client sinks!).  Use containers you have on hand (kitchen storage containers or plastic baskets) to corral small items and keep them from getting lost.

Consider how many of certain items you really need.  Kitchen sink – how many plastic shopping bags?  Bathroom – how many partial / sample / hotel bottles of anything?  Yep, combine and then recycle.

Clean out the Freezer:  Here’s a link to the project:  June, 2011 Kid Convenience And Nutrition in My Clean Freezer!

     The kids can help, though you may want to be the one pulling everything out so little hands don’t freeze!  Everyone can help sort, you can purge or plan the next meal based on what you find.  I want to make my own bread crumbs, and I know there are some neglected ends of bread loaves I can start with!

Review and Purge the bookshelves:

We just did this a few days ago and it’s a great project to do with your kids.

Put all the books together (meaning, collect them from around the room / house if necessary), and sort what you have.  Consider your child’s reading levels, and purge the books that are too young for them (keep some treasured keepsakes, of course, but not too many).  We have some more shelves to review, but we already have a bag of books set aside for our young cousins, and one bag to donate to the local library.

Put Things AWAY.

Have you been waiting for the right time to finally put xxxx, yyyyy or zzzz way?  Well, guess what?  Today is that day.  Per my friends on Facebook, many of you may have the following things to put away:

  • Recycling
  • Business cards and Christmas greeting card envelopes, to update your contact list
  • Socks to finally get matched up
  • Home / personal paper filing, recipes and paperwork
  • The last few Christmas decorations that you took down last weekend
  • DVDs / Wii games to put back in cases
  • Photos!  Every seems to have photos to print / use / put away / scrapbook / file
  • Shoe clutter by the back door, as well as weeks worth of hats / gloves / sweatshirts / etc.
  • Business receipts to file
  • Cords and connectors
  • Kitchen counter clutter
  • craft items of every description!

Today is that day!  Set a timer, and spend half an hour just putting stuff AWAY!  OR longer – again, with another snow day, you all have the time!

So, stay warm, relax and hang out in your jammies, if you’d like.  And spend a little time creating order in your home with your family members.  Today is the day!

Snow Day? Tackle An Organizing Project with Your Kids!

Organizing with your kids can be a great experience, employing their enthusiasm and energy to benefit them and the whole family.  ImageBut kids don’t always know what to do with their energy, or how to organize.

Recently, a client asked for suggestions on tackling a really big project: organizing her large unfinished basement to make better play space for her active children!  More importantly, her kids and their friends were on board to help with the project.  They were awesome! 

These suggestions would be the same for a family room or kid’s bedroom project.  Perfect for a snow day in the new year!!  Here is my response:

First, identify your goals.  Often, your space will still have the same purposes when the project is finished – in this basement example, play space, holiday storage, etc.  Just tidier.  Sometimes the purpose for the space is changing, but let’s assume “same only cleaner”.

Next, assemble your supplies.  Black garbage bags for trash, white kitchen bags for items to donate (you can write the destination on the white bag with a sharpie), sharpies, masking tape, Rubbermaid / Sterilite containers. 

Then, pick your starting point:  Bottom of the stairwell, near a specific door, or just some random place to start.  I always have one starting point and work from there.  However, that might not work in this case, since all your team members would be in one congested area.  You could pick one spot, and have two teams move out in both directions from there.  Or if there are different areas, you could have one team work on Christmas decorations, one team work on toys, etc.

Be sure to remove the easy stuff first:

–       big items (bikes, big play pieces, random pieces of furniture) and set them aside.

–       empty boxes – break them down and haul them outside, or set aside to use as storage containers

–       containers that are already organized, complete and full – label them and pile them up

–       donations, garbage, recycling – schlep out of the space you’re clearing, giving you more space and a feeling of accomplishment

 

If there is clothing in the area where you are working:

–       dirty – send to the laundry room and deal with later

–       storage (off-sizes or off-season), do a quick sort, put in large Rubbermaid containers to be dealt with another day

 (let the kids help deal with the toys, do the clothes yourself), and label with size / season / child, etc.

 

Keep your teams focused, motivated and moving.  Remember your purpose and stay on task:

–       Don’t let your kids get hung up on playing, or on the little tiny details of toys (no Lego assembly!).

–       Play fun music, keep everyone dancing.  No TV, trust me.

–       Allow for organized break times (if you just let them wander off, you may soon find yourself working alone.) and snacks.

–       You can pull out team members for very specific tasks – sorting legos, loading up book shelves, collecting nerf pieces, etc. 

–       You could also shake it up, and have teams switch roles every hour, to keep them engaged.

–       Wrap up the project within 3-4 hours, no one wants to work longer than that.

–       And promise some fun at the end, like a big rowdy game or a special lunch or snack.

I was privileged to work with this great family on the project.  The kids were a huge help!  They were great at sorting through specific piles, and working on mini-projects (like tidying up the book shelves to make more room for more books).  The big pay-offs for me were finding little tiny figures for the 4 year-old to play with (he was so happy!), and watching the big kids run-run-run around the space because they had “never been able to do that before!”.  What would you like to accomplish today?  Get to it! 

Little Pieces, Friends. Little Pieces.

I must have been really good this year, because my wonderful husband bought me a new laptop for Christmas.  Seems to me he is the Good One!  Especially considering he also is the one who will switch everything over to the new one and make sure everything is running just right.  He really is the best.

He started working on it first thing this morning, so I did not do my typical get up early / have coffee / plow through emails routine like I usually do.  And after a weekend of travel and yesterday’s oral surgery for my son, let me admit – my email inboxes were full to overflowing.  Now they are mostly cleared out, after 20 minutes of ruthless purging.  Whew.

But I realized the myriad of email subject lines about the New Year / lose weight / work more / donate money / get organized / etc. can be overwhelming.  And I looked at my own to-do list, which is also a bit overwhelming.  And the words that were echoing my head through all of that were “Little Pieces”.

Image

 Little pieces, my friends, make up the greater big picture.  Take heart.  We can make progress in leaps and bounds.  Today, tomorrow, this week, this month, this year.  Absolutely!   There Are No Limits To Our Greatness!  But it all starts with little pieces.  Changing the world can seem overwhelming, but changing one little thing, one little piece – yes, I can do that.  And so can you.

In 2014, I will post lots of articles, I’m sure, but this week’s article is the first of many focusing on little projects that have big results.  Happy New Year, friends!

Three Little Projects That Will Make You Smile!

Organizing projects don’t have to be big or expensive to make a big impact on your life!  Here are three examples of 30-minute projects that will make you smile every time you look in the medicine cabinet, watch a DVD or open your closet door.

Project #1 The Medicine Cabinet.

Invest 30 minutes in cleaning out your medicine cabinet, and you will help every member of your household every day.

  1. Grab a pen and paper to jot down items needing replacement; a garbage bag and a small bag to collect your recycling.
  2. Clear the counter so you have room to lay stuff out, or lay a towel on the floor.  Take everything out of the cabinet and spread it out.
  3. A quick review of expiration dates make organizing the medicine cabinet easier.  Look at each item in your medicine cabinet and determine if the item has expired….
    1. Based on the manufacturer’s suggestion, like medications, first-aid items, or used make-up; or
    2. Based on your personal or lifestyle preferences:  You can let go of items like styling products that didn’t work as advertised, or items for certain distant times of our lives, like the baby nail clippers or the green nail polish that looked great on my teenage niece but not on me!
  4. Duplicates weigh us down. Don’t store multiples of the same product in the small space.  Keep one on hand, and store the rest elsewhere to free up space.  A basket in our linen closet holds un-opened items.  We keep one of everything in the cabinet, and go to the new un-opened items when we run out of the first.
  5. Group the stuff you use every day onto its own shelf or basket, categorize the rest and corral it in containers.

Project #2 The DVD Collection

Spend 30 minutes organizing your DVD collection, and it presents a great visual image!

  1. Collect all your DVDs and cases from all over your house.
  2. Alphabetize the cases by movie title, then put loose DVDs in their cases.
  3. Review them all and purge the ones that no one watches anymore.  My little niece and our public library receive most of the DVDs my boys have outgrown.
  4. Assign a home for your DVDs.  Leave them in alphabetical order, or group them by category (like action or TV series on DVD) or by viewer (like storing the DVDs my youngest son watches on the lowest, easiest-to-reach shelf).
  5. As we receive new DVDs, we review what we have and purge what can go.

Project # 3 The Gift Wrap / Storage Closet

This one really makes me smile.  I worked on this project last week, and it took closer to an hour, since I had to break down and remove the cardboard, plus $40 and a quick trip to Home Depot.  But it’s worth it!

  1. I have a closet in the basement which holds holiday decorations, gifts, gift bags and wrap, and lots of empty boxes for storage and mailing.  It required attention after the holidays, and when I saw this great idea on Command.com, I made the project a priority for January!
  2. I cleared boxes, keeping 10 small ones for shipping, and collapsed and recycled the rest (a lot!!).
  3. I stored our extra gifts for giving in two boxes on the shelf above, one each for Christmas and every day gifts.
  4. I pulled out the Christmas wrap, ribbons and bags, and stored it all in a separate extra-large Ziploc bag.
  5. I installed Command hooks and hung small dowels across them to hold my ribbon and favorite gift wrap.  Also hanging on the command hooks are clear freezer bags holding my tape, scissors and pens.
  6. I also bought new supports for an old un-used shelf, and installed the supports and shelf in the space as a permanent work space for wrapping small items and staging gifts before giving.  Below are the before and after pictures!  The white laundry basket in both pictures holds our extra gift bags, divided into categories like “baby”, “wedding”, and “birthday”.

before      after       lego wall

The bonus project:  Lego display space (above right).

I have three sons and ridiculous amounts of Lego.  Most are assembled, and storage space is tight.  When inventorying the work room for the closet project, I found these shelf tracks and supports, but no shelves.  On the Home Depot trip to purchase items for the closet project, I also picked up replacement shelves in sizes to match the supports we already have.  10 minutes of installation and $20 for 3 shelves, and we have 9 more linear feet of Lego display space (and a little less clutter on the Lego table!).  Woo hoo!!

So, what areas of your home could use 30 minutes of your time?  Any investment in Organizing will reap big rewards!