Catzlover’s Cooking

Organizing Wednesday!

Another week another drawer cleared out!

This week I sorted through a computer desk drawer filled with vintage software. I did keep some since my daughter is still using my Mac Performa circa 1996. But, there was a lot of stuff that I don’t need any more or is backed up on something more substantial than floppy disks (do you remember floppy disks?). What is really exciting is that I saw that there is a vintage computing section on eBay and I may be able to find someone who wants vintage software. (You know how I hate just throwing things away!)

I totally lost my momentum with miniatures sorting, but intend to get back to it this coming week.This weekend may be a great time to sort as we are expecting more snow (12 to 18 inches!!) this weekend.

I worked at a coffee shop for a while where the owner was an absolute labeling fanatic. It amused the employees a bit and someone even labeled a stool “stool” for a joke. However, labeling is a most useful tool.

Believe it or not, I used to put things in tubs and NOT label them. When I wanted the Halloween decorations or the Christmas ornaments, I would end up peeking in many tubs to find the right one. Now wasn’t that silly!!

Now, all my tubs are labeled and I go staight to the one I need.

I also use labels to help my sweet husband find tools or know where to put them back. We have a couple of utility closets that have clearly marked shelves. No more searching for paint supplies or the spare 18 volt battery.

Something else I learned is that it really is worth the money to invest in a good label maker. Scraps of paper and scotch tape don’t last as well as the real deal. And our labelmaker can be fun – I can label old kid’s toys with candy wrappers for example. Way cool!

How was your week?

Sandra

Organizing Wednesday!

After bemoaning my lack of progress last week, I was determined to accomplish something this week.

I have a desk drawer/junk drawer that had become a catch all for all sorts of miscellaneous items. I finally cleared it out and put it in some order. Enough so that I can look in it and find the stapler and the scotch tape.

Something I have found to be both fascinating and disturbing is all the beads we have. I have two daughters and my older one was quite craft minded. Now it seems that everytime I clean out a drawer or a storage container I find beads.

Last summer I finally got smart and designated a storage box to the bead finds. Now when I find beads in a drawer, I put them in a sandwich bag and into the storage box they go.

It’s funny how it’s not the big things that cause the most clutter in our house. We don’t have a pile of chairs sitting in the living room or a shelf full of beds in the bedroom. It’s the small things that accumulate. The beads, the safety pins, the thumbtacks, the buttons, and so on. Someone with a lot more intestinal fortitude than I might just throw these things away. I can’t quite get there yet so I just gather them all together in one place. The good thing is I will never have to buy another safety pin or thumbtack for the rest of my life.

If you are under forty you can skip the next section.

My other big accomplishment for the week was finally clearing out the tampons in my bathroom cabinet. Early next month will mark the end of that phase of my life i.e. I am officially in menopause! Okay, I kept four of them – just in case – but the rest are gone and my bathroom cabinet is a little less cluttered. Now, my question is what can I do with the tampons. Does anyone take tampons that are wrapped but not boxed? Would my daughter want them? Do I suck it up and throw them out? It is back to my Organizer’s Guilt!

Oh well!

Sandra

I’m interrupting my Organizing Wednesday since, frankly, this was not a week of progress.

I was thinking recently about how we all seem to gravitate towards schedules. Especially Stay At Home Moms (or Homemakers, or Domestic Goddesses, or whatever term you wish to use).

Back in the day we had Wash on Mondays, Iron on Tuesdays, etc. etc.

Now we have Menu Plan Mondays or Mommy Mondays, Tackle It Tuesdays, Wordless Wednesdays or Vegetarian Wednesdays, Inspire Me Thursdays, and Frugal Fridays or Friday Funnies.

(I almost chucked the whole idea of Organizing Wednesday, but since I am not going to be wordless and I am vegetarian every day I think I will keep it for a while.)

I read a whole organizing book once that even focused on the concept of schedules via a card file. There was supposed to be a card for every day of the week and cards for all the chores that needed to accomplished that day. Just follow the cards and you will be organized.

While I am not psychologically prepared to follow a card file every day, I think I appreciate schedules. It is way too easy to get up and check email, and blog, and putz with a little of this and that, and clean up after cats,and run some laundry, and cook dinner, and then – oh my! where did the day go!?!

So I have my own little self imposed schedule so that at the end of the day I can look back and say – well, I got that done.

Of course, the best thing about having a self imposed schedule is that you can chuck it all at any time and just enjoy your life. And that is what I plan to do today.

Sandra

Did you get any worthwhile organizing accomplished this week?

The cold and less daylight can be real energy drainers. But, I have noticed that getting a put-off job finished can be a lift.

One thing I kept putting off was organizing our VHS tapes. We don’t have too many left since we switched to DVDs, but the ones we did have were tossed into a cabinet with no rhyme or reason. I took them all out and sorted them into categories (drama, science fiction, comedy, and so on) and placed them back in the cabinet so that the titles were clearly visible. A simple change, perhaps, but one that will make it much easier to find what we want to watch. And it took all of ten minutes!

So many helpful hints about organizing talk about alphabetizing things like DVDs and spices and books. If this works for you, great! For me, however, I find it makes more sense to organize by categories. My spice cabinet, for example, looks like this:

On the left side, I have Italian/Pizza herbs on the bottom, Chili powders next, Indian curry spices and Cole Slaw fixings next, and on top are the herbs I don’t use often like tarragon. Also on top is spare salt and pepper for refilling shakers. On the other side are baking supplies starting with measuring cups on the bottom and ending with muffin papers and colored sugars on the top.

(Did you know, by the way, that you can make cheap colored sugar yourself with plain sugar and a drop or two of food coloring? You can get even more vibrant color if you use cake decorating paste colors.)

In addition to having less clutter, being organized help me find stuff faster!

My miniature sorting is still coming along. Definitely, a two week project.

Sandra