Organizing Tips

I just saw a picture of a gardening organizer in Martha Stewart’s magazine and it reminded me of a built-in closet organizer. Now don’t get me wrong – it’s great to put in systems for closets and gardening tools, but let’s get real.

The gardening tools in the magazine were brand new; mine look like they have been left out in the mud for a few weeks.  The picture showed one rake and just a couple of other tools. It looked lovely but….it showed just a fraction of the tools we gardeners own. As for the organized closet pictures, let’s get real there too.

Here is an easy and fun project that is quick, inexpensive. People tell me this is so fun and that it motivates them to do other projects.

1. Dump the contents of your junk drawer onto a cleared space covered with
newspaper.
2. Assemble all the different size zippy bags you have - snack, sandwich, quart, etc.
3. Pick out all the items from the drawer that need to be returned to other areas of the house.  Then return them.
4. Sort items you want to stay in the junk drawer and put them in the appropriate size clear zippy bag.
5.

What does a "Clutter-free and Organized" closet have to do with you getting away for the weekend?  The answer is “Plenty!”   A weekend trip doesn’t have to take a week of packing if your closet has the right stuff in the right places.

• Like to hike?  Keep all of your hiking clothes, shoes, and gear in one spot in your closet.  The same goes for skiing, skating, and so on.  Plan for one-stop packing.
• Keep your favorite suitcase or bag packed with your favorite toiletries and make-up.  Use samples to save space.  Th

I just returned from my yearly National Association of Professional Organizers’ (NAPO) conference, and I have to confess I was packing at 12:30 the night before. The good thing was, I had just finished doing a big training program for a local credit union so it had been a very productive, yet busy week. But it didn’t feel good going to bed really late and having to get up really early to get my packing done. So much for my planning… What really threw me off was I wanted to get out my spring and summer clothes before I packed.

Spring is here – hooray! That is, until I think about my yard. The problem with living in the country is that your yard can keep getting extended. So while I get excited with the daffodils blooming and more flowers to come, getting everything into shape is overwhelming. So I said, “Mary, practice what you preach. Look at your yard like a room and start in the corner”. I picked one side of the front porch.  But that needed a lot of work, so I saw one small area by the lamp post where I could get a quick, easy win.