Organizing for the Holidays

Organizing for the Holidays
By Suzanne McLoone

I know it’s August but I just received my first “holiday” email. It was from my mother telling me what she would like for Christmas this year. Of course, being the systematic individual I am, this inspired me to get the first instruments of organizing my gift lists together. I suppose it’s never too early to head off holiday shopping stress!

Since my darling mother emailed me her “wish list”, including the link to the website of where to purchase, I logically created a new folder in my Outlook: “Personal – Christmas – Mom.” I now have the structure to get started for the rest of the family; so as I am perusing the internet, or if someone sends me an email with something that they like, I can just zip it over into their respective folder. It’s all in one place and easy to find, which makes it so nice!

Now that I have my system set up, I can also email myself gift ideas from other websites. This way I can keep them in their folders without having to rely solely on my memory. Although this system works well when I am at the computer, what about when I am out running around? A purse size notebook, of course!

I have labeled each page with the name of the person I am planning on buying a gift for. As I see things I think the people on my list would like, I write the gift idea down on their page along with the price of the item. If I happen to pick something up for someone early, because it is just too darn cute to pass up, I put it on my list and mark their page as DONE. No sense in buying something else just because I forgot I already had a gift for them.

Essentially to get organized for the holiday shopping season, there are a few quick steps you can take to keep yourself from running around like a chicken with your head cut off the week of Christmas.

1. Make a list of the people you HAVE to buy gifts for: parents, children, siblings, loved one, etc.
2. Create a budget for each person.
3. Create folders in your email for the people you are buying gifts for.
4. Store the online ideas in each person’s folder.
5. Get a small notebook and label each page with the person’s name, include your allotted spending limit for each individual.
6. As you come up with ideas write them down along with the cost of each item.
7. If you buy someone’s gift early, mark their page as DONE and make sure to cross their name off of your master list.
8. When it’s time to go shopping be sure and transfer the online items into your notebook so you have everything in one place and in plain view.
9. Highlight the gift items you are going to buy and then order them online or run out and purchase them.
10. Cross each person off of your main list as you purchase their gift.
11. If you are like me and hate to wrap, pay someone to do it for you!!!
12. Sit back and relax! You feel and look like a million bucks because you are sitting next to a cozy fire, sipping hot chocolate and enjoying being stress free!

It may not be “beginning to look a lot like Christmas”, but it is just around the corner!

Happy Organizing!

Suzanne McLoone
Organizational Empowerment

For over 20 years, Suzanne has been helping organize corporations, home offices, and teachers in Arizona, Scotland, and Canada. For more helpful tips and hints, please feel free to visit her blog at http://letstalkorganizing.blogspot.com

http://www.LetsTalkOrganizing.com

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Rules for Organizing Your Workspace

Rules for Organizing Your Workspace
By Mary Kutheis

These four simple tips will help you make the most of your office workspace. Being more organized, and working in an environment that you enjoy allows you to be more efficient and ultimately, more productive on the job.

1. Think first, organize next.
   People procrastinate about organizing because they don’t know where to start or they haven’t thought about why their office isn’t “working” for them. Take some time to think about why your space isn’t as effective as it could be. Do you need more storage, a larger desk, or better lighting? Imagine what your ideal office would look like and move toward that picture.
2. Don’t let personal items hijack workspace.
   Offices don’t have to be sterile environments, but personal effects can often take over so much space that there is no longer ample space to work. Utilize wall shelves, architectural ledges and small tables to display photos and mementos so you have room on your desk for working tools.
3. Keep your space at 80% of capacity.
   Paper, books, binders and the like are going to continue to make their way into your office so you need to make sure you have space for incoming items. Your goal in getting organized should be to have your space only 80% full at all times. As you continually collect more stuff you either need to offload paper, files, etc., to stay at 80%, or increase your storage space. Those are the only two options!
4. Create a system for you.
   Magazines and catalogs are great for inspiration and ideas, but the organizing systems were either created for the sole purpose of photographing them, or are in offices where they knew the photographer was coming! Don’t get caught up in how things “should” look or work. Create solutions that work with your working style, needs, habits, and preferences.

Getting organized is a process, not an event. By taking the time to think before you organize, you’ve greatly increased the odds that the organized space you’ve created will stay that way.

Mary Kutheis (kooth-ice) works with individuals, organizations, and businesses who want to be better organized in the workplace so they can be more focused, productive, and profitable. Through seminars and one-on-one work, Mary delivers real-life solutions to people who are buried in paper and e-mail and overwhelmed by “to do” lists. Visit http://openspaces4me.com/ for free tips, articles and other workplace productivity resources.

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Organizing Tips – How to Organize Messy Cupboards

Organizing Tips – How to Organize Messy Cupboards
By Lynn Cressy

There are many benefits to having organized cupboards and, specifically, kitchen cupboards. How many times have you been looking for a box of spaghetti and not been able to find it? Off to the store you go to buy yet another box of spaghetti, only to discover while looking for something else the following week that you now have enough spaghetti to feed a small army.

Organized cupboards saves you money on your grocery bills, the time you had to take to go to the store and the aggravation of digging through the cupboards to come up empty handed when you know you have the item you are looking for.

Simple organization of your cupboards will put an end to all that hassle. If your cupboard space is small, invest in one or a few of the over the door racks that hold canned goods and smaller items. Plastic shelves designed for cupboards are also ideal to use in the kitchen. A great way to use them is for small items such as cups that can be stored on and below the shelf to save space in the cupboard and yet be accessible.

Put boxed food, such as all your pasta items on one shelf. This includes macaroni noodles, the 42 boxes of spaghetti you now have, macaroni and cheese as well as your tomato, Alfredo and any canned or jar spaghetti sauce.

Depending on the size of your cupboard shelves, designate a shelf for breakfast foods, a shelf for canned goods such as vegetables and fruits and a shelf for juice drinks, mixes, tea bags, coffee and hot coco.

Put snack foods and lunch foods that the kids can help themselves to on a lower shelf so they can easily reach them. Of course, you will want to have guidelines concerning the availability of these snacks for the children.

Invest in a label maker and label the shelves with the items that go on them. Now, if your spouse or kids help put the groceries away, they know where to put them. If you have a lot of cupboard space you could go as far as making a label for the outside of each cupboard. This, of course, would depend on the style of your kitchen and would need to be attractive as well as useful.

Keeping your kitchen cupboards organized will not only save you time when you are running late and need to make a quick lunch or dinner but will also help the babysitter find the juice boxes if you step out for the evening.

To help keep your home organized, download a free copy of the ebook “The Essential Guide to Organizing Your Home”. Download it free here: Organizing Tips.

Lynn Cressy has a love for decorating and shopping for home decor. She owns a home decor web site and writes articles on home decorating and organizing your home and your life. http://www.lynnshomedecor.com/f/Opt-in_Pages.html

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