Organizing Goals for 2009

Well here we are, at the end of another year. I mean tomorrow is it, and then you can just step off the cliff and wake up the next day in 2009. 2008 will be all behind you. And then there are those famous, or infamous, depending on who you talk to, R E S O L U T I O N S...

Now, now..don't get all freaked out. Resolutions are good, as long as you set something realistic and don't overwhelm yourself. I think it is when we give ourselves just too much to accomplish that we end up failing, because we don't really know where to start. I am going to make it easy, and just talk about some house stuff, things you can do with little effort..

Organize your closet! I wish I could do mine, but it is already done! Take everything out, try your stuff on and get rid of what does not fit or what you just don't wear or like. Give it to charity, that is something good right out the gate! Decide how you want your closet to be set up, and take your time to do it right. Create it like something you would see in a nice boutique or department store. Set yourself up.

Get your mail everyday and SORT it everday. There is so much junk, try to get off the lists.Other junk, goes right to recycling. If you are trying to watch your spending, don't even open the catalogs, or just treat yourself to one or two--I love J Crew, and look at it almost like a magazine. Put your bills in a place where you know where they are, and pay them once or twice a month. Don't let them pile up, forget to pay on time, ignore, etc..make your personal paperwork important.

Clean out your refrigerator. Take everything out, clean it with a gentle cleanser (no scents--you don't want your food smelling like PineSol..) Throw out old food, bottled items that are getting old--like 1 year old bar b q sauce, then decide how/where everything is going to go and stick to it. Organized refrigerators are like a little bright spot in the day!

Clean out your pantry. Take it all out, and then make sense of it all. If it is even just a cupboard or two, make it make sense. If you have empy boxes and bags, etc..get rid of the clutter.

Clean out the bathroom cabinets. Take everything out and see what you have. Old lotions, junk, broken stuff, whatever, get rid of stuff, and keep what you like, and then put it back with a sense of order. When you are getting ready every morning, you will love your clean cupboards in the bathroom welcoming you to the day.

Go through all your magazines and catalogs. Keep what you really like, or go through them and pull out pages you really like and put in files--I do this for decorating and fashion. Give the magazines to the library if they will take them, or to a friend or just recycle. Get ready for new ones in 2009.

This is just a short list of ideas and easy fixes and things you can do once a year or much more often. Resolve to be organized this year. Everything is easier when you are organized!Make your list, and resolve to organize and clean something every week. Good luck!

Cleaning up Christmas

If you are like me, when Christmas is done, it is done! Not that I don't love it all, but after all the decorations are up for one month, I am just done. I guess that is the pitfall of decorating after Thanksgiving, it is so fun at the time, but as the weeks stretch by in December, I just don't want to do Christmas anymore after Christmas Day.

Then the clean up begins. I have heard of people not putting their Christmas decorations away for weeks even months, and of course that just blows my mind! There are probably homes out there that never put the stuff away! I guess it is like all those household tasks that no one wants to do, so they just get put off. But there is no time like the present to get something done, and you will be glad later.

Now we are not talking a huge amount of time here. Well not in my mind. It probably took me 3 hours to put everything away, including the lights outside. If you set aside some time one afternoon or evening, it really is not that bad. As you slowly pack everything up, you will feel minute by minute lighter and see a very clean house starting to emerge again as you remove the Christmas clutter, er..decorations! (but after a few weeks it really does seem to be like clutter to me :) )

Okay, so where to start...

Bins, one of my favorite things (could be added to the song Julie Andrews sings :)--I just happen to be in a :) face mood this am!)

You will need bins, don't start the process if you don't have them. I wish I had all color coordinated ones for Christmas, but I started back when I did not think to that detail.
I keep all my bins in the garage, so I bring them all in to the entry way.

Collect all the decorations you have around the house. For many of us, this requires going into just about every room of the house--collecting stockings, and platters, and Santa Hats, and all the way down to the Christmas tissue boxes! Bring everything to one location--for me it works great to put it all on the dining room table. Be careful if you have anything that will scratch, put down a cloth.

Now that you have all decorations in one spot and all your bins, and hopefully are next to your Christmas tree, the easy work really begins. There is no fast way to undecorate a tree. If your tree is like mine, mine is all glass ornaments, so that does take time. I have kept all the boxes the glass ornaments (the balls) have come in, so that makes it a bit easier to pack them up. But none the less, taking apart the tree is time consuming. Once you get all the ornaments off, then you can take off any garlands or beads or pearls or lights. My tree if fake, I recommend them. They look great these days, last for YEARS, and are really 1,2,3 easy to take down! It comes apart in 3 pieces, and stores nicely in a big storage bag. No pine needles dropping all over the place, no worn out dried up tree to recycle (I just think real trees are a waste.)

Now the rest of the decorations can be put into bins. Depending on what you have, some is quite easy to pack up. Try to have some semblance of order--IE it is great to put all nutcrackers in one box, all stockings together, my daughter has her own little tree and ornaments and other gizmos, so that is all stored together.

And as I pack up each article, and each bin becomes filled once again, and my dining room and living room take on a deconstructed holiday look, I swear I begin to feel lighter and peaceful. It was all great fun, but now we are done. All the bins go back into the garage, where they all reside all year long on shelves.

The lights were the last thing to come down outside. If they are wet, try to dry them off as much as possible and carefully wind them up. You don't want to open up a box next holiday season with lights thrown all over and tangled. Store the lights with extension cords and the clips for hanging them on the outside of the house. Again, if you keep everything organized, it is always easier, always!

And then you are done. Depending on how much you have, it might take 20 minutes or a few hours, but please clean it up and get ready for the new year. Not much going on in January, a nice time to take a deep sigh. For January, I do like the snow theme--hand cut snowflakes, especially done by children, are a nice touch on a large window or two.

Of course February is right around the corner, so if you are itching for your next holiday decorating, before you know it you can start putting up little hearts!

Snow and Your Home

I am looking out my office window right now and it has rain all over it. Please keep it coming!There is snow everywhere and I am ready for it to melt.

Funny, when you don't grow up with snow, and you see it on Christmas cards and in the movies it looks so inviting and pretty, it does, doesn't it? And I still think so. But then we were pounded with snow this past week (and where we live it is never much more than a light dusting a few times a winter) and the snow is still here. And now it is like huge chunks of ice, and it just sits there and I am over it. I guess I like the idea more than the reality. Or I will go to a ski resort to see the snow and let someone else worry. Now I know why people always want to move away from the snow, the line we have all heard, "Yeah it is great as long as you don't have to go to work in it, dig your car out, etc.." I used to think those people sounded crabby. It has only been one week for me and I did not have to dig my car out or go to work in it.

I wondered how all my landscaping will do, as we again don't live in a climate that is supposed to get a lot of snow. Can my yard be covered in it for one solid week and still thrive again later this spring? I am just too used to and spoiled with Northern California weather, and now I know why people would move there for the weather. I used to think that was just dumb. (You don't totally get it if you grow up there..)

So I dug around online trying to find out what to do when it snows--and I don't mean fun stuff, I mean like yard care and house care. There just isn't much to find, which seems amazing, or one has to look way too hard, which I don't want to.

Here are some of the main things I found..

For yard care, it is a good idea to wrap evergreens in little burlap coats. This will really help protect the branches from too much heavy snow. That is such a great idea, and too late for that! I noticed the other day one of my really nice rhododendrons had 2 large branches just snap off, it never occurred to me that this beautiful white fluffy stuff would get all heavy and hard and break my plants--argh!

The next tip I read was if you don't put little coats on the plants then go shake the snow off.Check. I did that yesterday, when it occurred to me. I could almost feel my plants saying thank you.

I just keep wondering about all my plants covered in snow and will they make it through. I have no idea since this is new to me. I shudder to think that all the work I put in over the summer will be lost when plants die. But I will hope for the best.

Rain, please come back! Northwest awful, month after month rain, please come back !

A few other tips..

Make sure you get your furnace checked out before winter starts. No check there. My heater stopped a couple of weeks ago. I am super fortunate that my neighbor can fix almost anything, and came over, determined the problem and actually had a part for it until HE could go to the store the next day and get the part for that brand and fixed it. Amazing.

Make sure your pipes are well insulated. I don't really know what that means or even if I have to do that--is that for places where it really snows, NOT like here..?

Don't stack firewood by your home. Check. I don't like wood burning and love gas. But don't put your wood by your home. It is a fire hazard and attracts pests that you don't want next to your home either.

Make sure your windows are in good shape. Kind of check? I have had some of mine replaced, but they were all in good shape anyhow, they are not old and are suited for the northwest weather.

Service your snow blower! No check, we don't have one, does anyone here? I am NOT going to buy one, because any moment now the rain will come back.

I still think the snow outside the window is stunning and appealing in so many ways. I can see the magic of winter I really can. But I can also see how difficult winter is. I can also hear the little voice in my head saying "wouldn't you love to be living in Hawaii right now?" Hell yes.

But I don't know, I have heard they have their own problems. Well at least a visit right about now would be nice, but then there is the economy and watching dollars.

Maybe I will just wrap this up with a big HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

And hope for rain.

Emergency Supply List

Let's face it, many of us are not prepared for an emergency. Many of us just miss the mark for a one day power outage by not having flashlights ready to go! Remember Hurricane Katrina, and how people were so not ready--and they had warning! Every winter people are left in a shambles when a cold winter storm closes them down for a day, or two or three. And look what happens to people in their cars in the winter when they are suddenly stranded.. I too was not as prepared as I should have been, and after Hurricane Katrina realized I needed to have an actual Emergency Supply. Bins marked with Emergency Supply, and stored in an easy access place in the garage. We all need to do this. Even just the minimal:

Water, water, water. One can go much longer without food than water. Have 2 quarts a day for each person in plastic containers. Children need more than adults. Try to have a 3 day supply.

Food. Three day supply of non perishable food. Like canned food, energy bars, nuts, things that don't go stale. If you want to have a little portable stove, then food like soup is a great thing to store. Remember, this is emergency food, so it does not have to be your favorite or a gourmet meal!

Other items...pain reliever, mess kits for the food, personal hygiene items, radio and extra batteries, flashlights, money, duct tape, matches, candles, lanterns, blankets, extra set of clothes for everyone, paper/pens, toys for kids, simples board games, small set of tools, can opener, tp, paper towels, liquid soap, baby wipes, trash bags.

If you go to the Red Cross website, FEMA, or other type sites, you can get even more ideas and information. You can put your supplies together in just a few hours by going to a big store like Target, or you can even buy a kit already to go online!

Make sure you got through and update your Emergency Supplies every couple of years--I need to do mine.

The goal is you are ready, and the hope is you won't have to use it, but not being ready is just poor planning. And having supplies in your car is a great idea too--so if you break down or get stranded you have at least a few things in the trunk--ie food, water and blankets.

Cleaning the Front Door

The front door. Perhaps the most important part of your home. But how often this is totally neglected!! The front door should be totally inviting. Here are the things you want to have going on with the front door..

-Clean, and freshly painted ,if needed to clean it up. Don't have a front door filled with chips and marks and scratches. The door can easily be cleaned with a light cleanser (spray onto the rag) and a quick dusting. I cannot say this enough. Don't let some beat up front door be your representation.

-Keep the hardware in good shape--keep it shiny if it is brass. Make sure it works, ie no broken handle or lock falling apart, etc..

-If you have kick plates, mine are brass, keep these shiny and clean.They look so awesome when they reflect light. Don't let them be covered with dirt or dead bugs or whatever else gets on them. This is true for all doors, don't forget about the bottom!

-The door frame is just as important, make sure it is free of spiderwebs and dirt and dust as well as above the door and at your feet. No one wants to stand at a door and worry something is going to fall on their head, like a spider! And the door frame at the bottom needs to be looked after. People will step on it, and it will get diry fast. I clean mine once a week.

-Brings me to the door mat. So important and so often overlooked. Please do not put out an old worn mat, and I really don't like the rubber ones. The door mat is such a big deal and cheap. If you have a double door, then get the bigger mat, one door, smaller mat. I am not a big fan of pictures and shapes, but get what suits your home. If you have a beach cottage, then a door mat that looks like a shell is a great choice. You will probably need to replace your doormat every year, two at the most.

-I almost forget, I am a HUGE fan of wreaths. Love the seasonal ones, and when not a seasonal one a nice simple floral or something with green is such a nice touch. There are other cute things to put up besides wreaths, like big hearts for Valentine's Day (I have these) or other type things, but use your discretion and don't make your door look silly. Less is always more, and classy almost always wins out.

-Make sure the rest of your front door area is swept all the time and clean. Keeping an attractive front door/area is so simple and so important. It is the first impression of your home, beyond the front yard (which is another post to be written!)

Detailed Cleaning

Have you ever just been sitting down, and then suddenly your eye catches something you have never noticed below? Like a huge amount of dust on a light, or a picture frame, marks or smudges on a wall, dog hair along the baseboards, dirty light switch plates, etc..? All of these have happened to me, and all quite recently. And I consider myself quite neat. But dust does not wait in the background, or dirt or finger smudges, they are always looming around every corner!

If you are up for some detail cleaning, here is what you should do.

Pick a room, or even a section of a room
Look at things that you might normally breeze over--the light switch plates, along the baseboards, picture frames, lights--like overhead bathroom lights, door knobs, all the knick knacks, just let your eye slowly wander and you will be amazed at what you find.
Clean it then and there, or you will just forget about it. Today I was sitting in the living room during my daughter's Christmas party, and there it was, like smudges--but only in a certain light, on the mill work between the living room and the dining room. So I cleaned it. I never saw it before. That is often how it is--details will just suddenly present themselves to you.

There is nothing wrong with surface cleaning, even speed cleaning when needed. Sometimes I really breeze by stuff or do it quickly myself. But I can tell the difference when I spend time on the details, it is kind of like things emerge from the shadows and really stand out--details do matter.

Christmas Decorating

Well as about as fast as Thanksgiving blew in and out, the Christmas decorations came out and we were all decked out end of day on Saturday. Well except for some outside lights, most of which got done on Saturday. But on Sunday as I broke the first set, just too fragile glass bulbs, which I loved, but just too fragile, so I went with the small classic little white lights, and it made decorating around the garage so much easier.

Christmas decorating. It really is fun, and overwhelming at the same time! I mean box after box comes out of the garage, and my little daughter runs around them like a new puppy, just dying to see what treasures are in each one. The tree, I have the terrific fake tree, that lives in a storage bag all year, and comes out in 3 pieces, screws together, plug it in for lights, and wow, you have a tree. SO MUCH easier than selecting a tree, paying an outrageous fee for it, popping it on your car, attaching a stand to it, bringing it in your home and having pine needles everywhere, and imagine how many there will be in 3-4 weeks on its way out the door.. love fake trees, love them. Mine is tall and skinny, and for some reason it reminds me of something out of Dr. Seuss. Bought it on sale for $100 seven years ago and it sure has been a great buy.

So the tree goes up and her little fake tree goes up, like a tiny umbrella and then all the gizmos come out and all the ornaments get put on a table, and the decorating begins, all the while the Christmas CDs are playing and the holidays are upon us full force!

It takes a couple of hours as we know, there is so much to do, it is a fun and daunting task at the same time. I am always amazed every year how I say "Oh I forgot about that." It is so tempting to buy stuff when you start to see it in the stores in October and November, but WAIT, and see what you really want or need for your holiday decorating. Because suddenly there is just too much stuff, and an over decorated home for the holidays is just awful. You want enough to make a pop if you are going for that, but not too much, there is a fine line. Or maybe you really want the stream lined looked, with just a few accessories here and there, or a simple tree, etc.

Last year I gave away so many things to Goodwill, stuff I had had for years and was just tired of or realized it was too much stuff! And for me to have too much stuff is not a regular occurence. But this year I felt more streamlined and happy with my selection. Gone was the singing Santa--a favorite of my daughter, but the 4 foot jolly guy was just too much--not the look I was going for. Gone was the ribbon I wrapped the bannisters with, it was just too much. Gone was the ice skating scene that has little ice skaters on a mirror and music played and lights changed colors in a little village scene--it was so cute, but hard to find a place for (I need a bigger home) and it was one more thing to figure out what to do with, so gone!

I did buy just a few things that evening after decorating, and I will probably hit the sales after Christmas for a couple of new finds. But like any decorating, remember less is more, even with Christmas!

Now we are enjoying the house, as it seems to come awake each night with the dark winter nights and the lights all a glow--I don't think I will ever get sick of Christmas decorating.

Home Office

A home office is a great thing. If you work from home, consider yourself l u c k y :) Working from home is something many people would love. I have worked from home for over a decade. It is very easy for me to work from home, because I am a very focused and organized person. I am not tempted to do other things while at home during the work day. That seems to be the blaring comment I hear from so many people, "Oh I could not work from home, I would be too tempted to do other things." I guess for me it is almost the opposite, because working from home takes distractions away from me, like talking employees!

But anyhow, if you work from home you really need an office. Setting up shop in the kitchen or in your bedroom really won't work long term (if you have too, then you will need to configure a specific space there..) Having a real spot to do your work is ideal. I am fortunate enough to have a spare bedroom, which makes a great office and a great playroom after hours!

I think, like everything else, keep it simple! Obvious items:

Desk or two
Filing Cabinet
Good Lighting
Printer/Fax/Copy Machine--all in one is the way to go
Computer--if you can go laptop, do!
Shelves
Garbage Can
Storage Containers--if you can keep in a closet or cabinet, all the better!
Comfortable Chair

Great Artwork
A couch or other chair to sit on at times, is a nice addition--if a guest room, then a sleeper sofa is the way to go!

My office fits all this, and still has room for 2 desks for my child to play at, and her easel. Sometimes there are numerous Barbies in here as well!

I don't think a big office is necessary, just a specific space to do your work. Comfortable and fun, but not so much that you are tempted not to work. And if you do most of your 9-5 work in your office, then you are likely to leave it there..unlike if you are moving around the house to work--kitchen, couch, etc..then you just keep it with you and don't leave it behind at the end of the day.

Working from home is not for everyone, but it you can, and can master it well, it is like a huge bonus!