Organizational Tips?

[hmsteader71]

I was wondering if anyone on here has any tips on organizing? I have been on Flylady and it does help. I was wondering about organizing like recipes, gardening information, household tips etc. We live in 1200 sq. ft. with 5 people and have outgrown this place a long time ago. Thanks for any help.

[RVcook]

The ONLY thing that has worked for me is to use three ring binders with sheet protectors and dividers for categories. And I use this method for everything from recipes to tips to genealogy research.

It does take some time to set it up initially, but being able to locate things each and every time is worth the trouble. Think of it as a filing system in book form.

The computer is great...unless it crashes and takes all your precious recipes, tips and research with it. A filing box is great...until you get too busy to put the folded piece of paper back in the right section. I like that when I need a recipe, I just get down my HUGE expandable binder, flip to the Breads, Yeast section and go to the recipe. It lays flat and if I spill something onto it, I just wipe off the plastic sheet protector. Then when I'm done, I don't have to "file" it...I just close the book! What could be easier?

Just my opinion, but maybe others will be along with more.

RVcook

[Maura]

You can't put everything in its place if everything doesn't have a place.

One thing that can be done is to use sweater boxes (those plastic or vinyl things with a lid that fit under your bed) or similar. Keep projects in their own boxes, keeping everything together. If you always are loosing the scissors, for instance, keep a pair with the project instead of hunting down the one pair of scissors you have. It's also useful if you are like me and want to have all of your projects near you instead of put away. I can put project A into a container when I start project B, or when I want to clean up. Even if it doesn't sprout legs and run over to the proper storage place, at least it is all contained and looks neat.

I also like the binder for recipes idea. Even if you have several cookbooks, you can just write up the ones you use and put it in the binder, where it will keep clean in the sheet protector. In my family, every bride gets one of these with the family recipes.

I'd keep your various binders (one for cooking, one for gardening, etc) on an attractive little shelf in the kitchen so they are easily accessible. Each tip or recipe should have a notation as to what book it came from. The books can then be given away or stored.

[MoonShine]

I like using binders, too. I use regular loose leaf notebook paper to write down everything...recipes, tips, etc. That way I can put them into binders (I have a different color for each topic) and I can easily take the pages out if I need to do so.
I use to use manila file folders and I had one for every topic under the sun, and I kept them all in a box. It was handy, too, but it was too easy for the papers to fall out everywhere.

I really need some of those sheet protectors. I hadn't thought of that before.

[Freeholder]

We only have three people, all adults, in 1344 s.f., and it's still too small (mostly because we are basically two families combined). My daughter and I each have a small bedroom, only about 10' x 12', and have to keep most of our belongings in them. I've done several things to get more into our rooms, without being totally disorganized:

We both sleep on twin beds, which are just mattresses on a piece of plywood, which sits on a six-drawer (DD's) or nine-drawer (mine) dresser, and a two-by-four nailed to the wall. This gives us lots of extra storage space under the bed, behind the dresser, plus we have the extra dresser to put stuff in.

I have three bookcases in my room. One is a tall one; the other two are shorter. One of the short ones is sitting on my desk; the other one is between the closet door and the second dresser. These hold not only books, but also office supplies, papers, extra sheets and bedding, and my cast-iron dutch oven (which could probably go in the garage, but we don't have enough shelves out there yet).

On the wall above my bed I mounted four, four-foot shelves. These hold all kinds of miscellaneous items, mostly in baskets or banker's boxes. Anything that could fall on me while I'm sleeping (if we had an earthquake, which is a risk here) is fairly light-weight.

Our home is a manufactured home with cathedral ceilings. The door is under the peak, so there's a ten foot ceiling there; the door is also in an alcove because the closet sticks out into the room. So, in that high-ceilinged alcove, I made a loft and have my suitcases and some other odds and ends that I seldom need stored up there. Access is by stepladder.

My desk is a 30" wide door blank (cut down a bit because it was too long for the space) sitting on top of a two-drawer file cabinet and a plastic storage cabinet. There's quite a bit of space behind the cabinets, so I use that for storage, also. Again, only stuff that we don't need very often goes under there.

In addition to the furnishings already mentioned, my room also contains my Dad's mother's old treadle sewing machine, under the window, and her blanket chest, at the foot of the bed. Believe it or not, there's enough open floor space in the middle of the room for my two big dogs when they come in at night!

I think the keys to being organized are first, to minimize clutter (this takes constant vigilance); second, to have designated storage spaces for everything; and third, USE that storage space! As you know if you are doing Flylady, you also need to set aside a few minutes each day to put things away -- and train your children to put their own things away!

I just had a success with my DD (she's 28, autistic, and functions on the level of a three-year-old). She's never been good about putting her things away, and she has a LOT of toys and stuff -- people give her too much, which is another story (a de-cluttering story!). A few weeks ago, we were participating in a multi-family yard sale with some friends from church, and I bought a tall set of plastic storage drawers from one of the other ladies, telling DD that they were for her room. On the way home, I was thinking that actually, I could sure use them in MY room! As I took them into the house, I told DD that I thought we'd put them in my room instead of hers. She says, "No! MY room!" Well, I went to use the bathroom, and when I came out, she had dragged/carried those storage drawers into her room and set them up next to her door. I sighed, resigned myself to not having them in MY room, and told her I thought they should be on the other side of her desk. Now, she had toys all over her room, boxes full, a bushel tub full, some on her bed, some in storage containers...there are still some, because they wouldn't all fit in that set of storage drawers, but when I peeked in on her later, she had moved the storage unit and put most of her toys into those drawers! Now she has SO much more room to play! (And yes, I do thin things out for her periodically, she's just a 'stuff' magnet!) She's keeping things picked up in her room much better than before, too!

Kathleen

[hmsteader71]

Thanks for all the tips. I will try to put some of them to work.