New Year’s Day Organizing Tips

by Blair Massey

It’s the beginning of another new year. What better time to get organized? Try these helpful organizing tips to get your New Year started in the right direction.

Schedule It.

Schedule all the annual appointments for you and your family –doctor, dentist and veterinarian (for the animals of course!). Consider setting up a standing appointment for your hair and nails.

Calendar It.

Get a new calendar and transfer over all birthdays, anniversaries and other important events. Don’t forget to add appointments that you have already scheduled for this year. Color-code each event by category using highlighters in different colors so that you can see what’s coming up at a glance. Purchase a calendar wall hanger and hang up your calendar for daily viewing.

Get It On Sale

Purchase Christmas cards, wrapping paper, tissue, bows, ribbon and decorations for next year while they are on sale now.

Make a List and Check It Twice

Make a Christmas card mailing list. Put each name and address into Word’s label feature (under tools, letters/mailings, envelopes/labels) so that next year you can save time by printing out address labels. Print them on festive label stock.

Make a master list of the people you purchase gifts for each year.

Write It Down

Write down your New Year’s resolutions and use them as a springboard for developing your goals for the year.

Perfectly Put Away

Organize your Christmas ornaments, lights and decorating items as you store them away. Try using a cardboard wine case for your ornaments. They can be picked up for free from the grocery store and have dividers that are just the right size for most ornaments. Label your boxes as you go so you know what is in them. Try grouping your ornaments by the location that you will use them in. That way you can easily find what you need for each area that you decorate. You can also apply this strategy to your other holiday decorations. Group decorations by season or holiday and mark each box accordingly.

Budget for Next Christmas

Take a look at your recent Christmas receipts and plan a budget for next Christmas.

Hidden Agenda

Find a hiding place for Christmas gifts that you purchase on sale throughout the year. Make sure it is “child proof”. Make a list of what you purchase that includes the person’s name, what you bought and how much you spent. Keep this list in your purse or wallet for easy reference.

Filing for the Future

Start getting your files and records in order. Make a list of what you need to do to update or revamp your filing system. Don’t forget to purge what you don’t need and move other documents, like taxes to long-term storage.

© 2009 Blair Massey

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include the entire following resource information at the end of the article and make the link back to our site live:

Christian Lifestyle expert Blair Massey is devoted to helping Christian women around the world get their home, family and life organized. To get your home organized and start living the amazing life you were created by God to enjoy, sign up for her FREE newsletter now at www.christian-homemaking.com

How to Clean and Organize Your Garage

by Blair Massey

The garage is a great place to put things that just don’t belong in the house. It’s the place to store bicycles, gardening supplies, tools, sports equipment, the kiddie pool, the lawn mower and of course the car.

Sometimes, though, the garage becomes a dumping ground for things we don’t know what to do with. We tend to stash things there thinking that we will eventually find a home for them later. Unfortunately, unless the garage is properly organized, once something ends up there it tends to stay there, never to be seen again.

In some cases there is so much stuff in the garage that we have to park our car on the street. If this is how your garage looks, it’s time to grab a broom and follow these steps to cleaning and organizing your garage.

Supplies: 2 or 3 large kitchen trash bags, 4 or 5 large sturdy boxes and a broom.

STEPS

1. Remove everything that is on the floor (including the car).

2. Sweep out the garage. Don’t forget to clean any cob webs from the windows.

3. Next, sort through everything. As you go through each item, decide if you need to throw it away, put it in another location, give it away or store it.

If it is broken, worn out, used up or useless, toss it in a garbage bag. Discard any old paint, pesticides, and fertilizers. Call your local disposal company or county for locations that take paint and other toxic materials.

If it is an item to be given away, mark one of the boxes “Give Away” and put the item in that box. One way to decide whether you need to keep something is to ask yourself if you used it at least once last year. If you didn’t, give it to a charity or someone who can use it. Don’t be sentimental. Only keep what you are really going to use. Of course you should keep items that are rarely used if they are for an emergency, such as jumper cables or if they are used once a year as with tree pruners and artificial Christmas trees.

If you have items that you would like to sell, mark a box “Sell” and put the items in that box. I want to caution you that unless you are really going to follow through with having a garage sale or selling these items online, you might want to just donate them. Many people have good intentions when they save things for a garage sale, however most people never get around to doing what it takes to have a sale. Don’t hang onto things you that you might sell “someday”. That someday will probably never come. Be generous and bless those that can use your unwanted items by giving them away.

If you have items that will go back into the house or borrowed items that need to be returned, mark one of the boxes “Return” and the other “House”, then put the items into one of these boxes. You can drop them off when you are done with this organizing project.

Put all the items you want to keep in a separate area of the garage. If you are storing items to be reused at a later date such as baby clothes, then you might want to consider relocating them to an indoor location that is dry and pest free.

When you are finished with this step, put the “give away” items in your car and take them to the nearest donation center. Put the “return” items in your car and return them.

Take the “house” items into the house and find a place for them. Don’t put the box in a closet or room thinking that you will get to it sometime. You know that won’t happen. Find homes for each item now. If you can’t find a home for something, you may want to donate it or give it away.

Put the garbage bags in the trash can and take toxic material to the proper disposal facility.

4. Getting Organized.

This is the step where you put back everything you are keeping. The only difference is that this time you will be organizing your garage into the following functional stations. These stations are groupings of related items.

Gardening and Paint

Make sure that children do not have access to weed killers, pesticides and other toxic chemicals locking them up or storing them up high.

Store small gardening tools on peg boards.

Store potting soil in a five-gallon plastic bucket with a lid.

Store pots, grouped by size on shelves.

Fill a large plastic garbage can 1/3 full with sand mixed with one quart of clean car oil. Place the metal end of your shovel, hoe and pitch fork in this container. The oil will keep them from rusting. Keep a wire brush nearby for cleaning off stubborn dirt.

Secure the lids to paint cans then store them upside down to prevent the paint from drying out. Clearly label them with the room where the paint was used, the color name and a dab of the paint color.

Tools

Hang up as many tools as possible on a peg board. The more you get off the floor the more room you will have.

If you have a work bench but not enough space to hold tools, consider mounting your tools on a peg board just above your work bench. You can also install a shelf above your work bench to hold drills, and other small equipment. To store very small items, try nailing the lids to jars under a shelf and then screw the jars into the lids. These make great places to store nails, screws, nut, bolts, washers, tacks, and staples.

Wall mounted paper towel holders are a great way to store rolls of tape. Just place your tape on a dowel and put the dowel into the holder.

Place car care items and miscellaneous items on shelves in clearly labeled boxes or bins.

Equipment

This area is where you store your lawn mower, weed trimmer, hand tiller and other pieces of equipment. Use peg boards with heavy duty hooks and bike racks to hang smaller equipment and ladders.

Sports

Store skis, golf clubs, and other tall pieces of equipment in a tall plastic trash container or hang horizontally on the wall.

Put balls in a mesh bag and hang on the wall.

Cleaning and organizing the garage takes time and effort but the rewards are great. Once you are done, you will have a space that is functional and easy to maintain. Best of all you will be able to open your garage door with pride. No more feeling embarrassed when the neighbors walk by!

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include the entire following resource information at the end of the article and make the link back to our site live:

© 2002 – 2009 Blair Massey

Christian Lifestyle expert Blair Massey is devoted to helping Christian women around the world organize and manage their home, family and life. If you’re tired of struggling to keep up at home, Blair will show you how to unlock your God-given organizing ability so that you can start living the amazing life that God created you to enjoy! To learn how, sign up for her FREE newsletter now at www.christian-homemaking.com

What’s in Your Purse?

by Blair Massey

Anyone who carries a purse will tell you that keeping it organized and free of clutter is a challenge. In addition, it can be a big pain in your neck, shoulder or back when it gets too heavy to carry.

If you’re tired of the hassle of rummaging through your purse to find things, try these six simple steps for achieving an organized, clutter free purse.

1. Clean It

Remove all the contents from your purse. Remove any crumbs and garbage. Next, vacuum out your purse using your vacuum’s crevice attachment. If the suction from your vacuum is too strong, try using a hand-held vacuum.

If your purse is leather, give is a shine with leather cleaner.

2. Identify It

Identify the essential items that you use on a daily basis. An easy way to do this is to put a large zip-top plastic bag into your purse. When you are done using an item from your purse, instead of putting it back into your purse, put it into the plastic bag. Do this for two weeks. At the end of the two week period you will have identified exactly what you use on a regular basis. These are the items you keep in your purse.

Here is my top ten list of essential purse items:

• wallet (ID, cash, credit cards, library card, pictures, etc.)
• keys
• sun glasses
• cell phone or PDA
• comb or brush
• hand cream
• hand sanitizer
• band-aid
• feminine products
• small pack of tissues

If you need to touch up your appearance on the go, add a compact mirror, lipstick, powder, mascara, blush, travel size hairspray and an emery board.

3. Purge It

Once you have identified your essentials, everything else should be removed. If you still think you will need something from the items you just purged, put them into the plastic bag and place them back in your purse. If you use anything from the plastic bag, put it back into your purse when you are done with it. At the end of one week whatever is still in the bag should be removed.

4. Organize It

Organizing the inside of your purse can be difficult. Unless you have built-in compartments, everything ends up in a big heap at the bottom of your purse. Try finding your ringing cell phone in that mess! You dig and dig, trying to find it. Then when you finally do find it, it stops ringing. Frustrating!

Here is my answer to this annoying problem. Consider purchasing a purse organizer like the ones made by Pursket. You can put everything you need into the convenient compartments in the organizer. All your things, including your ringing cell phone are easy to find because there is a place for each item. And the best part is that when you want to change purses you just take out your organizer and pop it into whatever purse you want to use. Nothing is forgotten.

5. Tote It

There will be times when you need to take along items that you don’t use on a regular basis. Things such as books and videos to be returned, shopping lists, dry cleaning tickets, coupons, lists of clothing sizes for your family, reading material or paperwork, and toys and snacks to keep your children occupied during appointments. These supplementary items can go into a tote that you use for errands. Keep your tote in the hall closet for easy access or next to your purse so that you don’t forget to take it with you when you need it.

If you are tempted to put something in your purse that you don’t use on a regular basis, stop and think if it would be better to keep it in your tote.

6. Maintain It

To maintain your newly organized purse, clean it out once a month. That way you’ll keep on top of any clutter that accumulates. You can use the plastic bag method again if you are uncertain about what to keep in your purse.

If you do this every month, you’ll lighten your load, have less stress when you need to find something and you’ll be able to finally find your ringing cell phone.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include the entire following resource information at the end of the article and make the link back to our site live:

© 2002 – 2009 Blair Massey

Christian Lifestyle expert Blair Massey is devoted to helping Christian women around the world organize and manage their home, family and life. If you’re tired of struggling to keep up at home, Blair will show you how to unlock your God-given organizing ability so that you can start living the amazing life that God created you to enjoy! To learn how, sign up for her FREE newsletter now at www.christian-homemaking.com