Creating Organization Systems Archives - Page 3 of 3

How to Conquer Your Move While Pregnant

On the day of our big move, the very first thing I did was throw up.

Nine weeks pregnant and overcome with morning sickness, I had the keys to our new place and a lease on the old one that told me it was time to get out. On that day, my husband handed me my Saltines and a barf bag, eased me into the car, drove us to our new home, and deposited me on the floor (since the furniture hadn’t yet arrived) of our new home with my trusty crackers.

Undertaking a move is a chore for anyone, but doing it while you’re pregnant is a special kind of challenge. It’s possible however to survive and even conquer the process by following a few rules . . .

[Read more…]

In the Zone: The Secret to an Organized Home

Are you struggling to find the magic ingredient to create an organized and functional home?

Do you refrain from doing enjoyable activities because it takes too much effort to gather the supplies you need to do them?

Are you stuck putting things away because your family members don’t understand your system (or lack thereof)?

Enter “zones.”

Organizing your home into activity zones is one of the single most transformative things you can do to end the chaos. All that’s required is that you follow a fool-proof, two-step process: [Read more…]

Getting Your Stuff Together: Don’t Start from Scratch

Have you ever wanted to torch your entire house so that you could start over without the mess?

Shortly after my son was born — while we were still trying to figure out which end of the kid was up — we started to get behind on the dishes. A tiny pile of used plates and pans began to turn into a full-blown mountain range of stuff. I was sorely tempted to trash everything so I could have an empty sink and clean counters again.

Do you too feel as though you’ve lost control over some space? Maybe it’s an area of your home, your office, your purse, your garage, or your hidden kitchen counters. Whether the problem is a new one or an issue that’s been plaguing you forever, you don’t have to start from scratch to get organized.

Get your stuff together quickly by taking advantage of the fact that you’re more organized than you realize. [Read more…]

The Problem with Your Organization System

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

You know in your soul that you are an organized person. Your home, regrettably, paints a different (and messier) picture.

However, the problem is probably not you.

The issue could be the system you are using to organize your stuff. Before beating yourself up over your disorganized space, consider these technical — and easily fixable! — issues that could be the culprit.
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Hacking Your “System” of Paper Piles

Are you one of those people who carefully creates a “system” of paper piles throughout your house? Maybe you’ve got thirty distinct mountains of papers in your office, a stash of incoming mail on your coffee table, or some unpaid (or overdue!) bills on your kitchen counter. If you’re using your paper piles to remind you to do things — pay those bills, write a letter, try a recipe, and more — your system probably isn’t really working . . . and your house might be getting pretty cluttered!

Check out my recent guest blog post, “Hacking Your ‘System’ of Paper Piles,” on Dumb Little Man to find solutions to the problems created by your piles of paper!

Stop Drowning In Your Inbox: How to Organize Your Gmail

This post is part 1 in the series How to Organize It.

True story: The other day, I had to show my tech-savvy husband how to delete a message in Gmail. It wasn’t because he asked either; I had suggested deleting some junk that had cropped up.

Gmail’s whopping 15 GB of E-mail storage space is a hoarder’s playground. With capacity like that and the constant flood of electronic communication, it’s so incredibly easy to find yourself drowning under thousands of E-mails in your inbox. There are perhaps some special people in the world who like filing E-mails or papers, but the rest of us would rather enjoy life.

However . . . how often have you missed out on paying a bill because the E-mail notification got lost in your inbox? When was the last time you left a message in your inbox as a reminder to do something, but you might as well have thrown it into a bottomless pit?

With Gmail’s abundant features and a little know-how, you can conquer your existing inbox without sifting mind-numbingly through each individual E-mail . . . and you can set yourself up for future success with some quick automation. Here are 10 tips to get you on your way. [Read more…]

Toddler Toy Storage

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

It’s a fact of life that, when you have a little kid, relatives and friends will shower that kid with toys. It doesn’t matter how much you vow to live a minimalistic toy lifestyle. If you buy not a single toy for your child, you will still find yourself living in a toy store. You’ll have the huge toys, the tiny toys, the toys with a million parts, the fuzzy toys, the teething toys, and — my personal favorite — the noisy toys. If you’re not prepared to flee and let the toys run amok in your house, then you need storage solutions that work for you and for your kids. Here are some of my current favorites. [Read more…]

Favorite Products for Banishing Kitchen Chaos: Part 2

This post is part 2 in the series Favorite Products for Banishing Kitchen Chaos.

Check out Part 1 of this series! Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

Big Containers

Baking is a breeze with these babies. A bag of flour fits with room enough for a scoop into a single one of these 5.5-quart containers. They’re great for storing your flours, sugar, rice, and more. Smaller containers are handy for confectioner’s sugar, coffee, pastas, dry beans, etc. They’re attractive enough — with a small enough footprint — to leave on the counter. [Read more…]

Favorite Products for Banishing Kitchen Chaos: Part 1

This post is part 1 in the series Favorite Products for Banishing Kitchen Chaos.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

Cooking can be a refreshing and relaxing experience . . . but not when you’re pulling out your hair trying to find everything you need. Digging through a vat of pot lids, hauling everything out of the freezer to find tomorrow night’s roast, and trying to get everything away so that your kitchen doesn’t look like a war zone can make the process something to dread.

A disorganized kitchen is stressful and wastes your time every minute that you have to do battle with it. I’ve discovered and come to love the following tools for keeping my food and equipment organized, which in turn saves my time and sanity. [Read more…]