The UnCluttered Mother's Blog

Get Organized By Recycling

Recycling is an ongoing project that everyone can get involved in right away. Again, as you’re organizing, make sure you watch for items that can be recycled. At my house, it’s more newspapers and water bottles that I’ve been guilty of tossing in the trash.

Don’t feel a need to purchase anything special because a simple box or plastic storage bin will do.  I use a simple cardboard box for newspapers but a plastic one for water bottles so if there’s any spillage, it won’t leak through.

Get your kiddos involved because they will be sure to keep you diligent about recycling. Look for ways to help your local schools out by placing your recyclable items in their bins. Make sure to include the plastic shopping bags in your recycling program because most stores have started their own recycling programs for these and will accept bags from all stores, not just their own.

Donate 101!

Donations are good for the soul. So don’t hold back when you find good items during your organization/cleaning program that could be contributed.  Besides the obvious tax breaks, donating to your local charities is a wonderful way to teach our kiddos the joy of giving.  In fact, they love to be involved and I’ve found are more than happy to search their rooms for giveaways. 

As for the adults, the key to our donating success is to be honest about what needs to go.  The skinny skirt hidden in our closet from 10 years and 6 sizes ago, gone! The suit pants that not even a belt could love, out! Dusty tools that are in good shape but our fingerprints are nowhere to be found on them, donate! Spread the love you experienced with these products by donating them to a worthy organization for someone else to use in the present. 

I urge you to find a box worthy of your gifts and let’s get these things donated! I am wishing you the best with letting go and trust that I know how hard it can be.

Drop me a line and let me know how it’s going for you.

Tackling Your Junk Drawer

Let’s stop kidding around with this drawer of terror! If you can get your junk drawer to open, tackle it immediately.  Try these two suggestions for a better psychological approach to your junk drawer:

• Rename The Drawer. Junk implies unwanted and unloved objects that no one wants. In reality, what you will find in this drawer are rogue shirt buttons, missing pens, recipes cards, paper clips, post-it notes, loose change, etc.  Things in this drawer are not unwanted but misplaced and are often there because we could not figure out where to put them at that moment. So let’s rename the drawer, “Relocation Services” because everything in it is just waiting to be relocated to a new home.


• Pre-Organize Your Drawer. Part of the problem with tackling this drawer is that when it’s opened, everything rolls astray all over the place.  Avoid this problem in advance by placing a small silverware tray, small box lids, or an office drawer organizer inside the drawer so when you place objects in there, you can go ahead and organize them. Tackling the drawer will be less daunting when everything already seems somewhat organized.

Now let’s get started on that junk drawer.  Approach, Open, Experience the Horror, Attack!

Drop me a line and let me know how it’s going for you.

#2 - Choose A Timeline

We've decided we need a home organization strategy? Check. We've held a family discussion so all hands are on deck? Check.  Now comes the fun part! Where do I begin?

Items/Supplies needed:  Pen, Family Calendar, Quiet place, a comfortable chair/sofa, favorite drink and snack, patience and motivation

Don't start organizing anything until you know what your plan is.  Look at your family calendar and choose a start and end date for this project.  You will want an overall date and later as you complete the next exercise, you will want a start and end date for each room/project you are planning to tackle. 

Next:  Home Stations

#1 First Things First: Get Your Family Involved!

Let's face it - when attempting to organize your home you will be more successful if you have all household members involved.  Because this is such an important household project, they may need to be finessed a bit and you may have to muster up an extra dose of patience and understanding because they may not feel the urgency that you do about their home.

So how do we get them on board? Try these tips:

Family Meeting: Hold a family meeting so you can explain and answer questions about your upcoming project. You'll want to emphasize why you'll need all hands on deck to make your plan successful.  Avoid being guilty of starting a project and getting upset because of a lack of support from our families - our families can only help us if they know what we need. Skip the dictator approach and get their input and suggestions because they are more likely to help if they know their input has been taken seriously.

Emphasize Rewards: Everyone likes a reward so be sure to offer them to your family!  Rewards can be a favorite meal, a family outing, a pamper appointment for mom, fishing or golfing. The possibilities are endless but make sure they are appropriate to everyone's age group and the personality of your family unit. 

Please Keep It Fun: Organizing can be fun so make sure your family sees it that way.  I've heard about using timers and I'll be darn if they didn't work - on me! As soon as I knew that timer was running, I was suddenly motivated to finish quickly and experienced a huge burst of energy.

So try timers and see how fast and fun everyone makes it. I also think setting a timer breaks the projects into smaller chores in everyone's mind because we'll think in segments of 15 minutes or so rather than thinking a project has no end.  You will probably find that the younger members of your family will work best with a timer. 

Please Don't Over Organize! Just Have a Strategy.

Whenever I've talked to mothers about getting organized, most feel like organization is about every little screw and rubber band having a home. That sounds great but sometimes it won't happen that way. Actually, most of the time it won't happen that way, especially when there are tiny humans roaming around your home leaving stray crayons around, moving toys from room to room, dropping Cheerios as they go! Let's please not forget the rest of us who have our own issues about what should drop to the floor, what the backs of chairs are for, and the relationship of those kitchen drawers to the contents of our pockets!  

As you move past those horrible visions that arose after the last paragraph, I say that while organization is a must, be careful not to make your organization system so complicated that it is difficult to maintain while living a normal life. Stores offer a zillion items that look wonderful and are sometimes priced wonderful so you'll take them home. What happens? They organize alright - the clutter that was already there!

So let's talk over the next few posts about things we already have that can be used for better organizing our homes. Start thinking about the things you currently use to organize your home and feel free to post your comments on the blog.

Our Goal: We are going to use the space and items we have without adding anything but what's absolutely necessary. We'll talk about loose items, child friendly systems, purging, command centers, household management, organizing our office, paper piles, rewarding yourself, tossing responsibly, storing items, and much, much more.

Stay Tuned!

P.S. I am going to post my tips every few days because I want you to think and plan carefully about each step.

Eight Simple Tips to Get Organized

Managing your time is one easy way to add an organized structure to the day. While it isn’t easy to change habits that we have become accustomed to, the following tips will help you better manage your days.

Six Things to Accomplish While Waiting

Each week as I sit at my toddler's tumble class watching, cringing, and stressing about that injury disclaimer form I signed, I often have many tasks running through my mind that I need to handle. Out of the hundred things that make it to that list, I decided to choose a few "regulars" each week to handle during the tumble class between smiles, waves, and the occasional thumbs up. So here are six suggestions on tasks to handle while waiting (all you need is a cell phone, a pen, and a planner):

A Waiting Bag - I love this idea!

Here's a great idea from Maria Gracia on her Get Organized Now site. I have been a subscriber for some time now and she posts some great tips on getting and staying organized. I like the idea of the waiting bag she refers to in this article. My current purse at times attempts to serve as a waiting bag - I just don't ever know what's waiting in there and quite honestly, when I open it and see the cheerios, crumbs, and rogue capri-sun straws hanging around, I'm too afraid to go in there. I like her idea so much better....

Here's the link to her article:

http://getorganizednow.typepad.com/get_organized_now_weblog/2010/03/make-a-waiting-bag.html

Preparing Your Child For Back To School...

Courtesy of Jennifer Tankersley, creator of ListPlanIt

As the first day of school approaches, parents and children alike begin to run the gamut of emotions: excitement, fear, anticipation, anxiety. For those who will be experiencing a child’s very first day of school, you may feel torn between the joy of leading your child through a momentous milestone and the sadness of knowing that your child is taking yet another step out from under your influence and protection. However, preparing your child for school can have the beneficial effects of soothing nerves and strengthening bonds. Here are a few ways to help you and your child transition easily into the next important step: