Our little family is about to purchase our first home. It's an exciting, albeit, gulp-worthy time. I think so at least. We move in just under a month's time, and there is a LOT to get done, and no, I have not started filling boxes yet. However, I do have my list of moving to-do's all neatly typed out in a excel spreadsheet, and am slowly but surely making my way down the list.
Aside from the decorating opportunities our move will allow ("yay" for finally being able to paint the walls!), my mind is also consumed with all the wonderful new organizing opportunities ahead. As much as memory and photos will allow, I plot new organizing systems in my head for the bathroom, kitchen, utilities, etc. Oh, what fun this will be! And rest assured, I will take you on this journey with me, photos and all.
In the meantime, forgive me if I don't blog as much - it would probably be best if I spent some of my 'down' time getting a head start on packing.
Oh, in other news... we're about to try weaning our darling son from his night feeding/s. He's old enough, big enough, and capable enough to sleep through. He's just become accustomed to my face, is all. I do treasure our nightly snuggles, but really, it's in both our best interests that he stops with the night-wakings. Think of us - I am anticipating lots of protest, and it might just be more difficult for us than for him.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Friday, April 30, 2010
Gettin' Cozi
Have any of you heard of Cozi? It's an online family organizing tool, and I have to say I think it looks pretty cool and has great potential.
If you're a mom or a family who spend a lot of time online, this might just be a great way for you to keep all your eggs in one basket. With Cozi you can create a shared family calendar (complete with color coding for different family members or shared events), to do lists and shopping lists (with Iphone and smartphone applications), a family journal-slash-website that you can invite extended family and friends to view (something a little more exclusive than Facebook, perhaps?) and a couple of other neat applications. I think you can even sync it to your Outlook.
I'm not sure that I would make use of Cozi right now - to be honest I actually created an account before I was pregnant with Pax and it has lain dormant - but that is because our family is small enough and young enough for me to coordinate with my trusty paper calendar. Even in this techno-advanced world, the simplest things can be the most functional.
However, I can see it being very useful once Pax gets older and his activities stretch beyond accompanying mommy to the grocery store, and momma/baby play dates. The biggest key will be to get my darling husband to buy into the idea, and contribute towards and access the shared info!
Let me know what y'all think of the site, and if you would consider using it for your family.
If you're a mom or a family who spend a lot of time online, this might just be a great way for you to keep all your eggs in one basket. With Cozi you can create a shared family calendar (complete with color coding for different family members or shared events), to do lists and shopping lists (with Iphone and smartphone applications), a family journal-slash-website that you can invite extended family and friends to view (something a little more exclusive than Facebook, perhaps?) and a couple of other neat applications. I think you can even sync it to your Outlook.
I'm not sure that I would make use of Cozi right now - to be honest I actually created an account before I was pregnant with Pax and it has lain dormant - but that is because our family is small enough and young enough for me to coordinate with my trusty paper calendar. Even in this techno-advanced world, the simplest things can be the most functional.
However, I can see it being very useful once Pax gets older and his activities stretch beyond accompanying mommy to the grocery store, and momma/baby play dates. The biggest key will be to get my darling husband to buy into the idea, and contribute towards and access the shared info!
Let me know what y'all think of the site, and if you would consider using it for your family.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Paperwork Purge!
My hubby has been home this week, and we've been enjoying a mix of fun neighborhood and city activities, lazing about at home, and catching up with some admin/organizational projects.
Since el bambino was born, I had definitely let the paperwork slide, and I am pleased to say that I am now all caught up! Did you know that 80% of what is filed away is never accessed again? There is certainly paperwork that needs to be filed away for tax/legal/accounting purposes, but for the most part we tend to over-estimate certain information's importance OR our need/inclination to look it up again.
We don't own a filing cabinet. This is partly because the ones I really like are pretty pricey and we haven't felt like splurging on one. But it's also because the two plastic portable file boxes we have are more than adequate and easy to tote around. One is my work/business file box, which holds all my organizing and book publicity related materials, and the other is our household file box.
The latter is home to the following categories: Financial; Medical; Transport; Household (utilities, insurance, etc); Immigration (MOST homes don't need this hanging folder!); Work (originals of reference letters, etc) and IRS.
Important documents like birth certificates, social security cards, passports, are kept in a fireproof safe.
Finally, for paperwork and information that I would consider 'actionable' items and need to be accessed quickly, I keep in pretty green folders on a desktop organizer. These include the following folders: To Do; To File; Bills To Pay; To Discuss; and whatever other current projects I have going on. Right now, since we are hoping to purchase our first home, I have a couple of folders called Condo Search, and Home Decor Ideas.
When the mail comes in I go through it asap, recycling envelopes and junk mail, grouping identity risk papers near the shredder for when I have some time to shred, and filing the rest in the appropriate desktop folders.
I love erasable folder labels, especially for my desktop folders. I can keep using the same pretty folders even when my current projects change up.
It's also good to have a box or bin that can contain your 'To Read' items (magazines, catalogs, etc).
If you're confused about what paperwork should be kept and for how long, I have a rough guide that I'd be happy to send you. Leave me a comment with your email address. However, I am not an accountant or lawyer, so with paperwork that could have tax or legal implications, it's always best to check in with a professional in that field!
Since el bambino was born, I had definitely let the paperwork slide, and I am pleased to say that I am now all caught up! Did you know that 80% of what is filed away is never accessed again? There is certainly paperwork that needs to be filed away for tax/legal/accounting purposes, but for the most part we tend to over-estimate certain information's importance OR our need/inclination to look it up again.
We don't own a filing cabinet. This is partly because the ones I really like are pretty pricey and we haven't felt like splurging on one. But it's also because the two plastic portable file boxes we have are more than adequate and easy to tote around. One is my work/business file box, which holds all my organizing and book publicity related materials, and the other is our household file box.
The latter is home to the following categories: Financial; Medical; Transport; Household (utilities, insurance, etc); Immigration (MOST homes don't need this hanging folder!); Work (originals of reference letters, etc) and IRS.
Important documents like birth certificates, social security cards, passports, are kept in a fireproof safe.
Finally, for paperwork and information that I would consider 'actionable' items and need to be accessed quickly, I keep in pretty green folders on a desktop organizer. These include the following folders: To Do; To File; Bills To Pay; To Discuss; and whatever other current projects I have going on. Right now, since we are hoping to purchase our first home, I have a couple of folders called Condo Search, and Home Decor Ideas.
When the mail comes in I go through it asap, recycling envelopes and junk mail, grouping identity risk papers near the shredder for when I have some time to shred, and filing the rest in the appropriate desktop folders.
I love erasable folder labels, especially for my desktop folders. I can keep using the same pretty folders even when my current projects change up.
It's also good to have a box or bin that can contain your 'To Read' items (magazines, catalogs, etc).
If you're confused about what paperwork should be kept and for how long, I have a rough guide that I'd be happy to send you. Leave me a comment with your email address. However, I am not an accountant or lawyer, so with paperwork that could have tax or legal implications, it's always best to check in with a professional in that field!
Monday, April 5, 2010
Organic Veggies
Finally, teethers I can feel really good about for Pax.
These soft chewy teethers are by Under The Nile, and are organic, 100% cotton, eco-friendly and fair trade. They have a number of different fruits & veggies to choose from - I bought the boy some green beans and a carrot. Hopefully this will encourage a lifelong appreciation of vegetables!
Bonus: Some stuffed toys can't go in the washer/dryer, but these can.
These soft chewy teethers are by Under The Nile, and are organic, 100% cotton, eco-friendly and fair trade. They have a number of different fruits & veggies to choose from - I bought the boy some green beans and a carrot. Hopefully this will encourage a lifelong appreciation of vegetables!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
S P A C E
Awesome, awesome. My mother-in-law was totally sweet and bought me one of the books on my reading wish list. I'm quite enjoying The Organized Mom, by Stacey Crew, so far. It gets my mind buzzing, and even though our home is mostly organized and in place, there is always room for improvement and some changes. As time goes on, I'll share some of the better tidbits I find in there - always making sure to give the lovely Stacey credit of course!
But on to the title of today's blog. S P A C E. It's an acronym. Organizers love acronyms, and I'm also pretty sure that you can't write an organizing handbook without TM'ing your own clever little version of one. They all boil down to the same thing though, so for our purposes today, I'm going to give a nod to the original Queen of Organization, Julie Morgenstern, who came up with S P A C E. Every professional organizer worth her salt has a copy of Organizing From the Inside Out by this author. It's a bible of sorts. Sorts. Hah! That is what the S stands for, so here we go - the fundamentals of organizing, briefly:
S: SORT
When you start an organizing project the first thing you want to do is SORT your items into categories. For example, say you've decided to tackle your bedroom closet, you need to take everything out and stage it (on your bed, on a clean sheet on the floor, etc) so that you can see what you have in the different categories. Shoes here, pants there, sweaters over here, dresses over there - you get the picture. If you're feeling particularly energetic, you can even sub-categorize: 'shoes' becomes 'sandals', 'flip flops', 'sneakers', 'pumps' and so on.
P: PURGE
Once you've sorted and grouped your items, you can more clearly see how many and how much you have of any one category. Bet you didn't realize you had nine black sweaters, and 15 white tank tops. Now take a look at each item, critically, and decide whether it should stay or go. Depending on what you're organizing, deciding what to keep may have different guidelines, and you'll need to figure out what those are ahead of time. With clothing, usually a good rule of thumb is that if you haven't worn something in over a year, you probably won't, so it can go*. Go could mean donate, or it could mean toss out, depending on the condition of the item. You'll want to have some trash bags handy, as well as a box marked 'donate'.
* Caveat: Give yourself a little more time for pre-preggie clothes though! It took you nine months to put the weight on, it's going to take time to get back to fitting in your non-maternity jeans again. Don't toss them just yet!
A: ASSIGN
Now that you've slimmed down your 'keep' piles, you need to assign areas of the closet (and dresser) for the different categories. If something has a home, you always know where to return it (and find it!) Will you hang belts on a special hanger on a rod in the closet? Or keep them rolled up in the top drawer of the dresser? Do you want to fold t-shirts and pile them on shelves or in drawers, or hang them neatly side by side (possibly by color?) Decide how you want to layout your closet and dresser, making sure that what you wear most often is most easily accessible, and then you can move onto the next step...
C: CONTAIN
Do you have enough hangers for everything you want hung up? Perhaps you'll want to purchase some clear plastic shoebox containers for out of season shoes/boots (and store them on a top shelf out of the way). How about getting in some dividers for your dresser drawers so that the line between your bras and your socks is clearly drawn? Did you want to keep your shoes on shoe racks on the floor, or perhaps make use of an over-the-door shoe bag?
Remember, you want to complete S, P, and A before rushing out to buy containers. You don't know what you'll need before you know what you have. AND you may just find you have containers around the house that will work just as well already. No need to spend a fortune at the Container Store (although every time I go in there, I sure want to, it's such fun!)
E: EQUALIZE
Finally, equalize - or maintain. Every so often, take a little time to look through what you have. Make sure items are in their correct 'home' and your jeans aren't vacationing with your party dresses. Did you just buy a couple new sweaters? Look through the ones you have and see if there are any you might want to give away or throw out. The changing of seasons is also a great time to do a nice spring clean of your clothing and go through the main steps again.
So there you have it - S P A C E. Have I motivated anyone to take a gander at decluttering and organizing a particular area in their home?
But on to the title of today's blog. S P A C E. It's an acronym. Organizers love acronyms, and I'm also pretty sure that you can't write an organizing handbook without TM'ing your own clever little version of one. They all boil down to the same thing though, so for our purposes today, I'm going to give a nod to the original Queen of Organization, Julie Morgenstern, who came up with S P A C E. Every professional organizer worth her salt has a copy of Organizing From the Inside Out by this author. It's a bible of sorts. Sorts. Hah! That is what the S stands for, so here we go - the fundamentals of organizing, briefly:
S: SORT
When you start an organizing project the first thing you want to do is SORT your items into categories. For example, say you've decided to tackle your bedroom closet, you need to take everything out and stage it (on your bed, on a clean sheet on the floor, etc) so that you can see what you have in the different categories. Shoes here, pants there, sweaters over here, dresses over there - you get the picture. If you're feeling particularly energetic, you can even sub-categorize: 'shoes' becomes 'sandals', 'flip flops', 'sneakers', 'pumps' and so on.
P: PURGE
Once you've sorted and grouped your items, you can more clearly see how many and how much you have of any one category. Bet you didn't realize you had nine black sweaters, and 15 white tank tops. Now take a look at each item, critically, and decide whether it should stay or go. Depending on what you're organizing, deciding what to keep may have different guidelines, and you'll need to figure out what those are ahead of time. With clothing, usually a good rule of thumb is that if you haven't worn something in over a year, you probably won't, so it can go*. Go could mean donate, or it could mean toss out, depending on the condition of the item. You'll want to have some trash bags handy, as well as a box marked 'donate'.
* Caveat: Give yourself a little more time for pre-preggie clothes though! It took you nine months to put the weight on, it's going to take time to get back to fitting in your non-maternity jeans again. Don't toss them just yet!
A: ASSIGN
Now that you've slimmed down your 'keep' piles, you need to assign areas of the closet (and dresser) for the different categories. If something has a home, you always know where to return it (and find it!) Will you hang belts on a special hanger on a rod in the closet? Or keep them rolled up in the top drawer of the dresser? Do you want to fold t-shirts and pile them on shelves or in drawers, or hang them neatly side by side (possibly by color?) Decide how you want to layout your closet and dresser, making sure that what you wear most often is most easily accessible, and then you can move onto the next step...
C: CONTAIN
Do you have enough hangers for everything you want hung up? Perhaps you'll want to purchase some clear plastic shoebox containers for out of season shoes/boots (and store them on a top shelf out of the way). How about getting in some dividers for your dresser drawers so that the line between your bras and your socks is clearly drawn? Did you want to keep your shoes on shoe racks on the floor, or perhaps make use of an over-the-door shoe bag?
Remember, you want to complete S, P, and A before rushing out to buy containers. You don't know what you'll need before you know what you have. AND you may just find you have containers around the house that will work just as well already. No need to spend a fortune at the Container Store (although every time I go in there, I sure want to, it's such fun!)
E: EQUALIZE
Finally, equalize - or maintain. Every so often, take a little time to look through what you have. Make sure items are in their correct 'home' and your jeans aren't vacationing with your party dresses. Did you just buy a couple new sweaters? Look through the ones you have and see if there are any you might want to give away or throw out. The changing of seasons is also a great time to do a nice spring clean of your clothing and go through the main steps again.
So there you have it - S P A C E. Have I motivated anyone to take a gander at decluttering and organizing a particular area in their home?
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Reading Wish List
I love a good fiction book. There's nothing quite like curling up in bed, on the sofa, or on a lounger by the sea, and spending a few hours immersed in a whole other world. I especially love stories that take place in other cultures and eras - ones that give me a glimpse of a world I could never live in (and sometimes wouldn't want to, but it's fascinating nonetheless.) Books like The Kite Runner, or Memoirs of a Geisha.
Right now, however, there are only so many hours in the day, and there is much to learn and be inspired by! Therefore, unfortunately, The Life of Pi is sitting half (quarter) read on my nightstand, and is topped by titles such as Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, and Super Baby Foods, and of course, the must-have AAP guide to kiddos from birth to age five.One can't count reading these types of books as 'me-time', but they are interesting and valuable resources and an investment in my child's health and well-being.
Also blurring the lines of a good read for me are books on organizing. I have a shelf or two in the office dedicated to these great resources, and there are a few I wish to add. In no particular order, my current wish list includes:
The Organized Mom: Simplify Life for You and Baby (Stacey Crew)
The Rookie Mom's Handbook: 250 Activities to Do with (and Without!) Your Baby (Heather Flett)
The Diaper Diaries: The Real Poop on A New Mom's First Year (Cynthia Copeland)
(Funny how the word poop has sneaked its way into my everyday vernacular, huh? I used to use that word on VERY rare occasions. And they say reading increases your vocabulary... guess it all depends on what you're readin'!)
Right now, however, there are only so many hours in the day, and there is much to learn and be inspired by! Therefore, unfortunately, The Life of Pi is sitting half (quarter) read on my nightstand, and is topped by titles such as Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, and Super Baby Foods, and of course, the must-have AAP guide to kiddos from birth to age five.One can't count reading these types of books as 'me-time', but they are interesting and valuable resources and an investment in my child's health and well-being.
Also blurring the lines of a good read for me are books on organizing. I have a shelf or two in the office dedicated to these great resources, and there are a few I wish to add. In no particular order, my current wish list includes:
The Organized Mom: Simplify Life for You and Baby (Stacey Crew)
The Rookie Mom's Handbook: 250 Activities to Do with (and Without!) Your Baby (Heather Flett)
The Diaper Diaries: The Real Poop on A New Mom's First Year (Cynthia Copeland)
(Funny how the word poop has sneaked its way into my everyday vernacular, huh? I used to use that word on VERY rare occasions. And they say reading increases your vocabulary... guess it all depends on what you're readin'!)
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
You have to start somewhere.
Welcome to my blog!
I'm a professional organizer, currently on extended, self-imposed, maternity leave. My ultra-cute son is now seven and a half months old, and he has been a world-changer in so many ways. Mostly good and wonderful, but from an organizing standpoint, let's just say there were times when I felt like going back into that particular working world could be considered malpractice. It all started with 'preggie-brain', but once he was born it went further downhill.
My motto has always been "less is more" and my style minimalistic, but boy, do babies need a lot of stuff. Seriously. Even if you like to keep it simple, there are simply things you cannot do without, and they take up SPACE.
And babies take up a lot of time. I don't need to tell any of you mothers out there, especially those that consider taking a shower every two days a luxury. It's hard to keep on top of things like paying the bills, grocery shopping, never-ending laundry (baby clothes are so small, how come I have full loads of laundry to do all the time?), maybe a little self-care, reading the all-important parenting books/blogs/magazines, even when you're a Stay-At-Home-Mom.
I came out of the new-mom-fog when Pax was about 3 months old. I've spent the last few months getting a handle on enjoying motherhood AND getting dinner on the table.
Now it's time to share some of the tricks of the trade I've learned, knew already, and am figuring out along the way. In some ways I wish I'd started this blog when I was still pregnant - it's my left-brain wanting desperately for everything to be chronological. But you have to start somewhere, and sometime, and this is good enough.
I'm a professional organizer, currently on extended, self-imposed, maternity leave. My ultra-cute son is now seven and a half months old, and he has been a world-changer in so many ways. Mostly good and wonderful, but from an organizing standpoint, let's just say there were times when I felt like going back into that particular working world could be considered malpractice. It all started with 'preggie-brain', but once he was born it went further downhill.
My motto has always been "less is more" and my style minimalistic, but boy, do babies need a lot of stuff. Seriously. Even if you like to keep it simple, there are simply things you cannot do without, and they take up SPACE.
And babies take up a lot of time. I don't need to tell any of you mothers out there, especially those that consider taking a shower every two days a luxury. It's hard to keep on top of things like paying the bills, grocery shopping, never-ending laundry (baby clothes are so small, how come I have full loads of laundry to do all the time?), maybe a little self-care, reading the all-important parenting books/blogs/magazines, even when you're a Stay-At-Home-Mom.
I came out of the new-mom-fog when Pax was about 3 months old. I've spent the last few months getting a handle on enjoying motherhood AND getting dinner on the table.
Now it's time to share some of the tricks of the trade I've learned, knew already, and am figuring out along the way. In some ways I wish I'd started this blog when I was still pregnant - it's my left-brain wanting desperately for everything to be chronological. But you have to start somewhere, and sometime, and this is good enough.
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