If you haven’t faced it yet, chances are good that at some point in your life cycle you will have to deal with a medical crisis of one sort or another. An aging parent may take a fall, or your spouse may require emergency surgery. These are not things we want to think about but having an organized system – a go to spot – for all of your medical information (prescriptions, co-pay amounts, insurance forms, lab results, etc). can make all the difference in the world should calamity strike.

If you are a somewhat organized person, use the tips below by creating a file system for easy access to all of your records. Creative right-brained people may want to organize the information in a box, or, hole-punch all the paperwork to fit inside a 3″, 3-ring binder. Regardless of how you process information, you want to create a space for a variety of information that falls under the category of “Medical.”

A special note for same-sex couples (residing in states where our marriages are still illegal). I cannot emphasize enough the importance of creating a clear path toward your right to speak on behalf of your partner. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA) has strict privacy and security rules to ensure patients’ rights and include legal definitions for who is/isn’t a family member, who can/cannot speak on your behalf. Once you meet the person of your dreams and decide to set-up house, your next action should be a visit to your family attorney to create the paper trail to ensure your access your loved one.

1. Gather together all your medical information into one organized and labeled binder or filing system. Some useful information to file is:

• Health insurance cards, Medicare cards
• A list of medications (including dosage, frequency, date started/stopped)
• Medical history
• All of your emergency contacts (their relationship to you, address, phone number, workplace, etc.)
• Immunizations
• Allergies and blood type
• A sheet to record the date of doctor/dental visits and any tests performed
• A sheet of diagnosis’ and the dates (blood pressure readings, cholesterol, blood sugar levels, symptoms)
• A copy of a health care proxy, advanced directives or living will
• If one is used, a power-of-attorney

2. Regularly update emergency contacts. Also ensure your power-of-attorney, health care proxy, advanced directives, or living will is up to date. Clearly label this information.

3. Create a section for medical bills from providers, labs, and hospitals.

4. Keep a log of Insurance claims you file with the insurance company and insurance claims that have been paid by your insurance company.

5. Create a separate section for financial paperwork, including medical bills you have paid. Include a section for out-of-pocket expenses.

6. Keep prescription drug information – past and current in one section.

7. Keep records of all medical testing such as lab, x-ray, and scan results.

8. Have a section for hospital discharge orders/documents.

9. Keep a calendar in one section of the binder to record all appointments.

10. Clearly label all information, files, and folders. The goal: To find what you need, when you need it. There’s nothing like being organized in the event of a medical emergency.

“I’m going to get organized this year!” stands in the Top 10 of our New Year’s resolutions. And this goal remains on Top 10 lists year and after year. It makes sense, then, that In the world of Professional Organizers, January is Get Organized – or GO! – Month! GO Month activities around the country include “Shred-a-thons,” “Ask the Organizer” panel discussions, closet make-over seminars, and contests for the messiest kitchen pantry.

January is a logical time for GO Month. The beginning of a new year is a good time to create your plan to becoming less cluttered and more organized. Here’s your Top 10 list to get ready for your new year of No Clutter! Call me if you need help developing your own personal plan.  I’m here to help!

Begin with this idea in mind: Clutter starts outside your front door! If it’s in your hand before you bring it home, ask: “It is possible I don’t need this right now?”

Brainstorm, then list, all the spaces (home and work) that you want to de-clutter or organize. As appropriate, be sure to include storage units, piles of business cards, desk drawers, and the trunk of your car!

Prioritize the list. What area(s) of your home or work space makes you the most crazy? Have you put off a home repair because clutter prevents access to that space? Do you want to start small and then work up to the messier areas?

Do you need help? Who do you know who can help clear your path. You want to work with objective, non-judgmental (and physically strong!) friends or family members. Offer to reciprocate [your friends probably have clutter, too!]

Go through your calendar for the entire year. Note the days and times when you have to be at work, the dates of long weekends, and dates for visitors, vacations, and conferences. The plug-in dates for tackling each project.

Get a sense of when you can logically begin (and complete) a de-clutter project. For every hour that you spend de-cluttering, you will need another hour to re-organize. Too many people do not complete their de-clutter project simply because they didn’t leave enough time to do the work.

How long it will take? Choose a small project – the junk drawer! – gather your supplies [waste basket, recycle bag, old towel, kitchen timer]. Lay the towel on a flat surface, dump the drawer on the towel, set the timer, get to work! Don’t leave your work station until you complete the project. How long did it take? What were the distractions? What did you learn about yourself in the process? All of this is good information for when you’re ready to move onto something bigger.

Supplies: for most projects you will need a big supply of trash and recycle bags. For the garage you may need to order a 3- or 4-yard dumpster. Other supplies may include a label maker, boxes for items to be donated, paper/felt-tip pens to mark areas for sorting (trash, donate, keep, recycle), and gloves.

Avoid purchasing anything that you may think will help you become more organized. The time for buying shelves, bins, or containers is after each organizing project when you will know exactly what you plan to keep. Everything you plan to keep should have a “home” within your home.

Maintain your motivation: List all the reasons why you want to de-clutter and become more organized! Post the list where you will see it often. Conceive, believe, and achieve your goals! Remember: you are not your clutter.

The end of the year! It’s finally here! And yet it won’t leave until we spend time with, or think about people we love, who have brought us joy along the way.

In my world as a professional organizer I walk into a lot of crowded spaces filled with things my clients can no longer use, or they feel they no longer need or desire. So many of them tell me that some of the clutter is from gifts they’ve never needed but guilt has kept the gift trapped in their home!

I listen to the holiday gift-buying commercials. Before 12/25, television and radio ads encourage you to buy things that people will LOVE!! After 12/25, the ads change, reminding consumers that since they didn’t get the gift they really wanted, they can exchange it for something they’ll really love! No one, it seems, can win at this game of gift giving/receiving.

Here at A Clear Path we’re all about the gifts that doesn’t cause clutter! Being of service, cooking a great meal, helping someone organize… now those are gifts everyone can use!

So with a grateful heart I offer you, our top 10 list for the holiday season: Gifts that don’t create clutter!

1. Take people you love to dinner or cook for them. Cook something you know the person likes to eat or take them out to one of their favorite restaurants or dessert spots. Some of the best memories are shared with loved ones at the table.

2. Help a friend de-clutter their closet. Start by emptying out the space you want to organize and create three piles: toss, donate, and keep. Help your friend by asking them, “do you really need/use that?” when deciding which items to keep. Each item you put back should have a “place.”

3. Professional organizer gift certificate. When you know someone who needs organizational guidance for tough jobs or putting an organizing system in place, a professional organizer is an effective way to get the job done. You will also receive guidance on how to maintain an organized environment. For more information or to order a professional organizer gift certificate, call 818-400-9592 or e-mail regina@aclearpath.net.

4. Experience Gifts create lasting memories and can be described as more enjoyable and fulfilling than any material object. Whether it’s a tour of the city, a hot air balloon ride, a trip to the spa, your loved one will be happy to be spending time with you enjoying the experience.

5. A calendar. New year, new calendar. Everyone needs a new calendar during the year, make yours unique and special by gifting one with custom pictures or choose a theme you know the person receiving the calendar will enjoy.

6. Gift cards are great gifts for everyone. You can get someone a gift card to a grocery store they frequent, clothing store, gas card, or even just a prepaid Visa gift card.

7. Household appliances the gift recipient actually needs and will use on a regular basis. Whether it’s a wine opener or food processor, be sure the item will not clutter the kitchen and the person has space for it.

8. Digital photo frames are a great way to display many pictures without taking up much space. The recipient can also upload his or her own photos in addition to the ones loaded on the frame.

9. Consumables: Food, wine, and other alcoholic beverages, chocolates and other special treats are one good way to spread holiday cheer. Put together a food basket hand picked with the person’s favorite items to personalize the basket.

10. Charitable Gifts are perfect gifts for someone that has everything or immensely supports a charitable cause. Consider making a donation in the person’s name; be sure it is a cause that is important to the person, not just you. Find ways to donate to environmental, children’s, health research, and many other organizations online. Research the fund on Charity Navigator so you know you’re making a wise choice.

Rain is predicated in Los Angeles for this first week of November. Regardless of the weather, it’s a bit of a shock to see that the holiday shopping season has begun.

Many people love the holidays but become depressed by the amount of stress it seems to bring into their homes or hearts or both. ‘Tis not (supposed to be) the season for frustration but for love and peace-filled hearts.

So before you start groaning about what lies ahead, here are some strategies for doing the holidays a little differently this year. I’d love to hear if you used these or any other techniques and ideas from past newsletters.

Here’s to a safe and dry November, and a productive end to 2017.

Love,
Regina

Before your Holiday Season begins, create a list of things/events/experiences that you enjoy as well as those that have caused stress for you in the past. When you are able to identify your holiday stressors, you can proactively try to eliminate them. For example, if putting up decorations is a chore, enlist the help of someone else or invest in decorations that don’t take a lot of set-up or clean up time.

Use your calendar. Include when you will decorate (it may help to span out decorating over several days), airport arrivals/departures, shopping trips, school/work functions. Calendaring ALL of your events will also help you prioritize what is most important to you and/or your family and you may time-map accordingly.

Once you have everything you need to do on your calendar, you can begin to plan ahead by creating daily to-do lists for both your life and your holiday preparation. It is easier to prioritize when you know what you need to do and by when.

Take inventory of what holiday items you already have: decorations, wrapping paper, cards, etc. Write down what you have enough of and what you are still missing. If you are noticing the same broken decorations you’ve had for year, toss them. If you have too much of something you don’t need, give it away. And don’t forget to label bins, containers, and storage areas to help you later on.

Delegate tasks to family members to create a family activity. Have one person work on writing addresses on envelopes for cards, another to help with meal preparations, someone else may do the online shopping, etc. This creates shared responsibility and achievement for the whole family.

Decide how you want to send out holiday cards and season greetings. Make a list of everyone to whom you will send a card and have their addresses available. If you’d like to write a special note on the card to each recipient, spread this activity out over several days and try to write two to five cards a day, depending on your schedule.

Try to get as much shopping and preparation done from behind a computer. If you are shopping offline, call ahead before you arrive at the store to reserve the item for which you are looking. You can avoid going to several stores in search of the same item with this method. Even some grocery stores will set aside turkeys or roasts if you call in advance. \

Don’t be afraid to turn down invitations. It’s completely understandable to be busy or “fully booked” during the holiday season. Over-committing may lead to stress when you try to be everywhere at once.

Enjoy living in the season rather than being focused on creating memorable moments for everyone else. Focus on what matters to you and loved ones and prioritize those first.

Don’t know what to do with all the leftovers or unused items from the holidays? Have a holiday after-party to get rid of things you don’t want. You can have a potluck to help everyone get rid of leftovers or a white elephant for unwanted gifts.

I hate to be the one to say it but we’ve got only a few more months left in the year. Oh my!

Do you feel good about meeting your de-cluttering and organizing goals for 2017? If you have had the desire and the willingness to get organized, but lacked motivation or a plan, this month’s newsletter is for you! It is designed to help you get back on track, get back to basics, re-take some baby steps.

For good or ill we live in a culture that bombards us with stuff that we bring into our home, the one place where we want to feel calm. Instead, we feel chaotic.

Take a deep breath and let the de-cluttering begin (again!).

Fall Back Into Action:

6. Become a minimalist. If you don’t need something, why keep it? While it’s tempting to keep all of your child’s art projects, try utilizing the storage space in your computer rather than your house. Take a picture of objects you want as a keepsake but have no space for. Make sure every item in your home has a home, and put things back where they belong. Encourage your children, spouse, or roommate to do the same.

7. Clean as you go. When making dinner, it is easy to end up with a pile of dirty pans and dishes in the sink. To avoid this, wash the dishes as you wait for the food to cook.

8. Time management. Schedule time for interruptions. Sometimes, there really aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. Don’t instantly give people your attention unless it’s absolutely crucial to offer your immediate response. Instead, schedule a time to answer email and return phone calls rather than answer them throughout the day. The 3rd edition of my book, “Psychic Debris, Crowded Closets” has new chapters on managing your time with time: click here for more information.

9. Learn to say “No.” Don’t take on more than you can handle. For the distractions that come in when you’re doing other things, give a firm “no” or defer it to a later period.

10. Eliminate timewasters. Whether social media, television, or surfing the Internet, if it is not related to the tasks you need to complete for the day, it can wait! Schedule “free” time so a timewaster is not a waste of time anymore.

September is Emergency Preparedness month. In an ideal world we’d like it very much if we didn’t have to think about what may befall us or our family. But we live in a world where disaster can strike at any moment. And while many of my clients want to hold on to their stuff “just in case” (when chances of the “just in case scenario” is not likely to occur) it’s a good idea to keep and store a few things just in case the earth shakes or a fire is burning out of control.

1. Tools: You may want to have some or all of these tools stored in a bin for easy access:

• Fire extinguisher large 5-20 pound, type ABC
• Crow bar, 1 ft min.
• Leather gloves
• Multi-function pocket tool or knife
• Plastic tarp, 9×12 ft min
• Nylon rope, 100 foot
• Duct tape
• A multi-purpose tool for shutting of gas and water main valves
• Portable generator.   Make your selection based on what really needs to be powered and the run time of the model. Our recommendation is for a maximum size of 5 HP, 2250 Watt 120 vac only. To get a 230 vac generator will require an 8 HP motor, and your run time will drop in half. Typically, the only items in your house that will require 230 vac is an electric heating system, an electric water heater, or an electric range. What you really need to power is a refrigerator, a few lights, and a radio.
• Power converter for running 120 volt items from car battery.

2. Light: I lived in the San Fernando Valley when the ’94 earthquake hit Los Angeles at approximately 4:00AM and very dark inside and out. Disaster or not, you want to always have access to light.

• Flashlight with 2 sets of spare alkaline batteries and one spare bulb.  Newer LED flashlights are also available and run much longer on a set of batteries. Store the flashlight by turning one battery in the wrong direction to avoid the inevitable corrosion.
• Lantern battery, kerosene or propane powered. Store fuel or batteries, but never use fuel-based lighting until you are sure gas leaks are eliminated.
• Long life candles
• Waterproof matches or lighter

3. Communication: Chances are pretty good that cell towers will become inoperable for a time. Get ready with other methods of communication.

• AM/FM radio.  Store at least 3 sets of alkaline batteries for standard units. Inexpensive radios are available from your local Radio Shack.  The best radio is one that has rechargeable NI-cads built in, and may be charged with the built-in solar cell, or by cranking on a built in generator handle.
• This solar/generator survival radio is available from Epicenter.  We recommend this radio for your supplies in your car as well.
• Pen, pencil, and paper pad.  Store in zip lock bag.
• Stamped postcards.  Store in zip lock bags.  Your house might be gone, but if you still have a mailbox, the mail will continue service.  An easy way to stay in touch with family far away.
• List of important phone numbers, including your out of state focal
• Weather radio or police scanner.  A bit expensive, but a weather radio is a must in tornado or hurricane country.

4. Your home. Find out where the utility shutoffs are for water, power, and gas. Place a flashlight or an emergency light next to your breaker panel. Place a wrench in your water meter box located near the street and attach a tool on your gas meter for turning off the gas. Evaluate each room in your house. Ask yourself: what will fall on my head, or will keep me from getting out if it fell?  Secure anything you find.  Hang heavy items such as pictures and mirrors away from beds, couches, and anywhere people sit. Store breakable items such as bottled foods, glass, and china in low, closed cabinets with latches. Also be sure to store household chemicals on a bottom shelf of a closed cabinet. Never store bleach and ammonia in the same cabinet.  These chemicals, when mixed, will create a deadly toxic gas. Change the batteries 2x/year in the carbon monoxide and fire alarms throughout your home.

5. Store at home:

• Water: 30 gallons per person (2 gallons per person per day for 1 week).
• Canned goods: ready to eat soups, meats, veggies and fruit. Make sure you know when they will expire.
• Cooking: Barbecue, 40 pounds charcoal, and two cans of starter fluid.  Or a propane unit with two 20 pound containers of propane.  A propane camp stove may also be used.

Store the following items for use with above:

• Pot and pan for cooking
• Kitchen knife
• Silverware.
• Styrofoam cups
• Water proof matches or lighter
• Zip lock bags
• Can Opener
• Aluminum foil

6. Keep your car safe. Think of your car’s trunk as a big steel supply cabinet.  Keep your supplies in the trunk along with other items like tools, jumper cables and spare tire. Even if you are at home when a disaster strikes, and your home is well stocked, you may still need the supplies in your car. Your house may not be safe to enter, or may catch fire after a disaster like an earthquake.

Your car will be one of your most important resources after a disaster strikes.  Keep it mechanically sound, and pay close attention to the exhaust system.  A leaking exhaust system could kill. Replace your battery every 2-3 years.  In an emergency, your car battery will need to run the radio and heater for extended periods.

7. Prepare for disaster on the job: Read your company’s evacuation plan. Note the designated meeting locations for after an evacuation. Each time you enter a room, take note of the exit routes and locations of fire extinguisher and medical kits. Keep your own personal supplies in your desk in a single pack of some kind that you can access quickly.  Along with your supplies, store a pair of walking shoes.

Be sure you have composed a card to carry in your wallet or purse with important phone numbers including the number of your out of state phone contact. Keep the area under your desk free of waste-paper baskets and the like. This 6 square foot area might be home during a few traumatic moments.

If you are not at your desk when something happens, don’t count on being able to make it back.

8. Emergency supplies at work:

• Emergency water rations
• MRE’s (Meals ready to eat, or coast guard food rations)
• Emergency space blanket
• Flashlight with extra batteries of chemical light stick
• First aid kit

9. Know and understand your neighborhood. Contact your school district to obtain policy regarding how children will be released from school. Know the location of the nearest police and fire stations, as well as the route to the nearest hospital emergency room. Meet with neighbors and find out who has medical experience. If you are taking this preparedness thing seriously, share this information with the households next to you. The more people you can convince to prepare, the greater your group resources. Remember that you will be called upon by all around you for help, especially by those who didn’t take warnings seriously. Show neighbors where the utility shutoffs are and provide them with a list of contact phone numbers. Ask how to turn off your neighbor’s utilities.

10. Come up with a plan in case of an emergency. Your family may not be together when a disaster strikes so it is important to plan in advance: how you will get to a safe place; how you will contact one another; how you will get back together; and what you will do in different situations. Here is a great chart to help you and your family come up with a plan in case of an emergency.

 

Thanks to Ready.gov make-a-plan for great emergency response ideas.

1. Create a routine for the new school year. Decide upon a couple of routines sure to make each day run a lot smoother. For example, get ready for tomorrow before you go to bed tonight. Schedule 30-40 minutes at night to pack lunches and backpacks, lay out your clothes, decide upon accessories. Will you kids need anything extra for class or after-school activities? If you work and go to school – go over your calendar at the beginning of each week. Focus on what is coming up – meetings with your manager or your study group, a trip to the grocery store, dinner with your parents. Take it all in to mentally prepare your body, mind, and spirit.

2. Create a Homework Station. Homework requires few distractions. Designate a work area for you or your children. In that area (or near it, if using the kitchen table) use a bucket or basket for supplies: a few pens/pencils, electronic chargers, pencil sharpener, erasers, sharpies, paper, stapler, tape, white out, a ruler, etc.

3. Keep track of important paper. Generally there are two categories of paper that need to be saved: the papers that require our action or attention, those that should be saved for reference for future use. If stacking paper is your style, use a stacked tray and add labels. Choosing a filing system is hit or miss. Not everyone processes information the same way. Go online and search “filing systems.” Be realistic. No matter how cool it looks, if you don’t think you can maintain it, stay away from it. If you lead with the right side of your brain, you are likely to need an “out-of-the-box system.” But choose something because the paper will flow into your space for the rest of your life! Schoolwork and artwork with sentimental value can be stored in an under-the-bed bin. At the end of each school year keep 3 of the best and toss the rest. Or better: take photos to add to desktop wallpaper art!

4. Create a family calendar. Whether it’s just you and your loved, or a passel of people living under one roof, stay on the same page with a family calendar. There are probably as many file systems as calendars. Online or on the refrigerator. You know who you live with and what may or may not work. And, similar to file systems, experiment with a few calendar systems until you find the one that works best for all involved. The calendar can include appointments, chores, emergency numbers, etc.

5. Nighty-nite and Good Morning. Become acclimated to the new schedule before you have to start it. When you incorporate the task of getting ready the night before, plan the evening accordingly. Wake your kids earlier the week before school starts so the first day doesn’t come as a complete surprise! Plan a fun daylong activity with your family when everyone has to wake-up early as if it were a school day.

6. Save time: Keep your calendar handy as you write your grocery list. It’ll help you remember when you’re eating out or at home. Stick to your grocery list. We waste a lot of time and head-space thinking about our nightly grocery runs because we’ve run out of one thing or another. Eat leftovers for lunch. Schedule the time to do the laundry [5 steps: sort, wash, dry, fold put-away]. Don’t waste time looking for a lost sock. Stick it in a bag and move on.

7. Re-purpose plastic or cloth grocery bags: “Zone” weekly/daily activities into bags. Gym bags, soccer bags, bags for dance, baseball, swimming, etc. Add something unique to each bag to help quickly distinguish it from others. For all the activities through the week, keep the bags close to your exit door.

8. Create a space for keys, jackets, backpacks, shoes, purses, etc. to deposit the moment you walk in the door. To manage incoming mail and permission slips, make the most of wall space with a shoe bag-style organizer to contain a lot of different things. Label the pockets so everyone in the family can find what they need. This is the space where you leave your “don’t forget” list or anything you have to take with you when you leave for the day. Add low-hanging hooks for backpacks and small jackets.

9. Avoid Clutter. Keep separate folders and bags with labels to identify the contents. Toss or recycle clutter and paper as soon as it’s no longer viable. Use a box or bag near the front door for items to donate and fill it regularly. Remember that you don’t have to keep everything that comes into your space!

10. Organize savings. Sell back old textbooks, purchase online textbooks, re-use office supplies (how many pens and folders are enough?). Se-up a carpool to save gas. Pack your lunch. Don’t go “back-to-school” shopping without a list (and stick to the list!). Look for the biggest bang for your buck: The 99¢ Only Store carries notebooks, folders, erasers, and even simple calculators.

 

Assert your right to be free and independent of clutter! This month’s Top Ten are easy tips and ideas about how to start the de-clutter process and suggestions for planning and maintaining the process.

1. Plan the process and start now! Create a plan to de-clutter. Set dates and times of the day to get the job done. Trade de-cluttering tasks with your friends. Chances are they have clutter, too. Allow a year for completion of the plan. Create a vision of how your uncluttered spaces should look. Cut out pictures of cool looking clutter-free space from that magazine you’ll discard. Take stock of everything in your space and make decisions of what to let go based on what it would take to live in your ideally-cleared space. Separate what belongs in each room and put it there.

2. Figure out the paper clutter once and for all .Most homes have miles of files and piles of paper. It’s everywhere. Find a good system to deal with it and be done with it. Regularly recycle newspapers and magazines. Pay bills online.

3. Let go of that which is no longer needed. Children’s art projects, greeting cards with lovely sentiments, souvenirs from magical vacations… all are tempting to keep. Can the idea, or memory, of the art, card, or souvenir be treasured rather than keeping the physical reminder?  Aside from the sentimental, look around your living spaces and let go of the excess “stuff” that is keeping the space crowded and cluttered. Sing along with me: “Let it go, let it go, let it go!”

4. Organize what is needed, required, desired. Everything in your home needs a home. Start by sorting like items together. Decide where they will live. Infrequently used stuff should be stored high or in the back of cupboard/closets. For things used often or all the time, keep them close at hand. Sort: like with like. You can’t go wrong with an assortment of bins and containers. They’re great for keeping your stuff together, and labeling them makes items quicker to find. Never underestimate the power of a P-Touch label maker! Oh yeah!

5. One room/closet/shelf/drawer, at a time. Clearing the clutter begins with one area. That’s it. Concentrate on one area. Don’t move on until you finish the job. Then move to the next space. It’s nearly impossible (and altogether daunting) to de-clutter a home all at once! Focusing on one room, one closet, one shelf, one drawer at a time makes the task feel more possible and easy to manage.

6. Keep it out or put it away. A desk only needs a few pens, a dish of paperclips, one stapler, one tape dispenser… a few folders of current work… and not much else. Likewise in the kitchen.  If cooking isn’t what you do regularly keep cutting boards and knives in the cupboard. The coffee maker should stay on the counter if you use it everyday. Otherwise, clear some space beneath the cabinet and store it there.

7. Clear the refrigerator. Health reasons aside, too much stuff in your refrigerator makes it difficult to identify what’s on the back of the shelves!  Discard expired food. Move the nearly-expired  to the front of the refrigerator.  Purchase inexpensive storage containers like these at Bed Bath and Beyond.

8. Clear the medicine cabinets. Medicine cabinets are often home to mostly expired medicine, lotions, and all manner of potions.  Find inexpensive drawer organizers at Target Bed Bath and Beyond, or Container Store.  Keep first-aid stuff close at hand. Use baggies to gather hair clips, razors, nail supplies, etc.

9. Use Wall Space and the inside of Closet Doors. Adhesive hooks and towel racks are great storage solutions for clothing accessories and hanging/folding items. Pocket wall organizers like this many uses it would be hard to list! When using wall storage, everything is visible and can easily be accounted and organized for.

10. Maintaining de-cluttered space. Take photos of the newly de-cluttered areas. Think twice about everything that is brought into your space. Will it have a home? Does it have immediate use? Are you buying it for someone else and do they need it?

Summer is here! This means the kids are home, beach & camping trips are necessary, you have time for a short vacation, the grill is finally being used, and your collection of flowers outside is getting some attention. With so many things going on it is easy to lose track of time and your belongings making clutter a formidable summer foe. Luckily staying organized throughout the summer months is not that difficult and doesn’t require much effort. Here is a list of the Top 10 Summer Organizing Tips:

1. Keep all of your grilling tools in one place to make it easy to access and so you do not misplace them. A bucket or pail works great and are inexpensive.
2. When going to the beach or camping, keep all of the mosquito repellent and sunscreen in a Ziploc bag. You can simply put the Ziploc bag in the car or in a tote so it is easily accessible and don’t have to worry about leaks.
3. Protect your stored winter coats and clothing so they smell nice for next winter. Cedar is great for keeping moths away, I like to get a breathable bag and make my own mix of cedar, lavender, and chamomile to put in my winter closet.
4. The end of tax season should mean the end of piles of paper. File statements and corresponding deductions’ documents to avoid mixing the papers with others on your desk.
5. Going on a road trip? A shoe organizer designed to hang on the inside of your closet door is great for the backseat of your car. You can organize your maps, food, games, and other road trip necessities without cluttering your entire car.
6. Keep an extra trashcan or plastic laundry basket outside for beach/water toys. This way you don’t have to worry about bringing the mess indoors and they are readily available when you need them. Make sure it is ventilated so the toys don’t get moldy.
7. Keep gardening supplies in one area. A bucket or pail works great and everything is visible so you can grab whatever shovel or tool you need and can bring along the rest.
8. With school out of session clear out backpacks, school papers, drawings and activity bags. Let your child help to decided what to keep and toss.  Also be sure to sell back textbooks if that’s an option.
9. Create a summer routine for you and your children. Make a summer chore chart easily visible so your children can see what they need to do for the day before they go out and play. This is also great if your children complain of boredom with their free time, they can help you out around the house.
10. Plan ahead! Whether it’s a vacation or just a short camping trip, make a list of what you need to do before R&R and a checklist of everything you and the family need to pack (that way you don’t forget anything except your worries).