52 Weeks of Organization with Phone A Clone

Week 14 – When you try to find that movie the kids want to watch among 100 plus Disney favorites or the movie the family enjoys watching every Christmas, are you faced with scores of VHSs and DVDs?  Now is the time for us to put order to that chaos.

Gather all those VHSs and DVDs in the middle of the floor.  Make sure all the cases contain the correct movies.  Sort the pile into Keep, Donate/Sell and Toss.  Throw out the Toss pile and arrange to donate or sell items in that pile.  Of the ones you keep, put them in alphabetical order by VHS and DVD.  Place them with their spines facing out so your movie will be easy to spot.  Find one place to keep you VHS or DVD until your children are old enough to have the responsibility of taking proper care of VHSs and DVDs.  Then you could place them in cabinet or shelf in their room.

You could also remove the DVDs from the cases and organize them in a zippered binder with fabric sleeves in alphabetical order.  This saves on space and makes them more portable.

Now every Disney Princesses, Bob the Builder, scary movie, love story, action adventure and sci-fi movie will have a place in your home!  Time for family movie night!

52 Weeks of Organization with Phone A Clone

Week 13-Everyone loves to listen to their favorite music.  With today’s ipods, mp3 players, home and car stereos, etc., we can play music anywhere and anytime.  This often leaves our CDs scattered anywhere from around the house to your car.  With summer just around the corner, we need to get your music organized!!

First, gather all your CDs from your home and car.  Make sure each CD case contains the correct CD.  Set aside any loose CDs or empty cases.  Now sort the CDs into Keep, Sell/Donate, and Toss.  Grab a trash bag and toss those scratched and not usable anymore.

It is easier to keep all the CDs in one place at home.  Put them all in alphabetical order by artist.  You can take a group of them you want in the car and rotation them out every month.

Don’t waste time with CD Towers. They make it very difficult to add new CDs to your alphabetized collection.  One idea for keeping your CDs is a zippered binder with fabric pages.  You can place 4 CDs on each page with the paper covers opposite. Develop a habit of putting away your CDs every time you use them.  It will save clean up time later.  Another storage idea is CD boxes.  Organizing them by artist or genre/box.

Consider purchasing an ipod or mp3 player to transfer all your CDs onto.  They are compact and have large storage capacity.  Once that is done, you can put away your CDs in a closet.

No matter how you sing it, playing music adds harmony to your life!

52 Weeks of Organization with Phone A Clone

Week 12 – If you are like most of us, Spring Break is either just wrapping up or about to start.  With the kids at home you may have noticed how many toys they have strewn from one end of the house to the other.  It may leave you wondering, where did all these toys come from and where can I put them all?  Whether your children have gags of toys or a few per child, keeping them in an organized specific location will teach your children to pick up after themselves and appreciate the toys they have.  When children have too many toys, parents tend to give them a “toy room” that could better be used as “family tv/game room”.  Now you may need a toy “area” because children are too small to navigate the stairs.  But that should only be a corner of the family area not a whole room.

Start a new tradition with your children today.  If they are old enough, help them sort through their toys and have them donate or sell two or three toys in good condition to those less fortunate.  It they aren’t old enough, you decide which two or three toys.  You are teaching them an essential value as they grow to give instead of hoard.  Reward them for generous giving by a point system.  For every toy they give away they receive 5 points.  When they reach 50 points they can pick a special activity for the two of you like going to a movie or the park!

Start by gathering all the toys in one room with some trash bags and clear totes of different sizes.  First put the toys in 4 different piles: Toss (broken, puzzles with missing pieces, etc.), Sell or Donate (outgrown or never played with toys), Save to hand down to a younger sibling, and Keep.  Thoroughly clean the toys to be sold or donated.  Get a date scheduled on your calendar to do deliver them to a consignment shop, community yard sale, online classified sites or any charity you select.

Pick a location for the Keep toys.  Keeping the toys in the child’s room will make them responsible for messes they make and value their toys more.  Make sure there is plenty of clear storage box and baskets so they can easily locate what they are looking for and know where it belongs when they are cleaning.  Labeling or taking a picture of the contents and taping it to the front of the storage container will help with this chore.  Make the storage right for the child’s age and height.  Put toys with smaller parts up higher so younger children can’t reach and when installing shelves make sure they are mounted to the wall to prevent accidents.

You will find there is more room in your child’s bedroom then you would believe.  Look for storage to tuck under their beds, floor of closet, shelves on the walls or cubbies or many other such items.  Use quart size storage bags to store puzzle pieces.  Use cleaned plastic peanut butter jars to store crayons.  Do a search online for storage for children’s room and see what comes up!

When your child is old enough set guidelines for them about how long a toy is allowed to be out of it’s “home” before it should be put away.  If the toy is left out too long, then the toy must go into a time out for a certain number of days before your child can play with it again.  This will teach them to pick up after themselves.  Also giving your child a basket or tote to carry from room to room or place to place will help them learn to pick up after themselves.

“If you are one of those parents who can’t find it in your heart to part with the children’s toys, think about this:   If you keep 5 things a year and have two children, by the time the reach 16 you will have 160 toys!!”[i]

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[i] “Organize Now!”  Jennifer Ford Berry, Copyright © 2008

52 Weeks of Organization with Phone A Clone

Week 11 – Well, it’s tax time again and that shoe box full of receipts is bursting at the seams!  In a world where loose debit and credit card receipts are more abundant than bound duplicate checks, it can be difficult to keep them organized and entered into the ledger.  Start by gathering up all your loose receipts and sort them into piles:

Check card/ATM receipts that need to be recorded in register

Credit card receipts

Receipts already recorded

Tax deductible receipts

Work related/reimbursable and rebate receipts

Gift receipts

Receipts for major purchases (e.g. , appliances, furniture, electronics)

Record all your checkbook/debit card/ATM receipts in your checkbook ledger.  Start a new habit this week!   Clean out your wallet or purse every week.  Gathering your receipts and reconciling your checkbook should only take 15 minutes a week!  Also keep a zippered pouch in your purse or car to hold all your receipts.  Pouch should be smaller than a checkbook but big enough that receipts will fit with not more than one fold.

Take the remaining receipts and place them in a small accordion file to keep them easy to find and organized.  Label each tab by category like major purchases, credit card, tax deductible, gifts, returnable items, work-related expenses.  Put your tax deductible receipts in a tax file for the current year.  File your work-related receipts until you can take them to work for a report or until you need them for tax purposes.  Put rebate receipts in your calendar so you file the rebate before it expires.  Place any gift receipts with the gift you are giving.  If the gift receipt is from one you received and want to return, place the receipt with item and put the return on your to do list.  Don’t put this off; many stores have a time limit for returns.  Every 3-6 months toss all gift receipts.  After you have done all this, if you don’t need the receipts to set up or maintain a budget you can toss any you don’t need to save.

Every year purge your everyday receipt files from previous tax year.  Move them to long term storage or shred them.  Purge monthly bank & credit card statements (after you have matched them up to your year-end summary), monthly or quarterly stock brokerage and mutual fund statement, monthly mortgage statements, phone & utility bills (if not used for business) and paycheck stubs (after you have reconciled them with W-2s and 1099.

Now you will be able to find that receipt for a return and never miss a debit charge in your checking account because of a lost receipt.  Tune in next week for our next best organization tip!

52 Weeks of Organization with Phone A Clone

Week 10 already! Are you up to date or do you need to go back and catch up a week or two? In case you are needing to catch up, and to give the die-hard organizers a break, we are going to keep it simple this week. Here are some quick tips to organize your “snail” mail flow into and out of your home:

1.   Gather all the piles of mail you’ve placed throughout your home and take them to a large kitchen or dining room table. On the table, place 3 shallow boxes (like your “in” box a t work…) Label the boxes: “Bills”, “File”, “Forward”

2.   First, take everything out of it’s envelope (1 by 1) and throw the envelope and any unwanted inserts away. There is so much junk INSIDE junk mail! Try to handle each piece only once during this sort. Toss the envelope and any inserts; but SHRED anything with your name and address or other identifying personal information. If you need to keep the article of mail, SORT it into one of the 3 boxes. If it is a bill or to be filed later, place it in that box. The “Forward” box is to hold those things which need the input of someone else. In the “Forward” box you’ll put anything your mate needs to see or handle, mail for other family members, etc. Do this until all mail is sorted!

3.   We will stop here today and cover efficient bill-paying and filing at a later time. But there is one more thing to do: control the mail on the way INTO the house and never search for an important paper again! Buy an inexpensive 3 pocket mail sorter to hang on the wall near your entry or exit (close to the door you bring mail into your home is ideal.) When you bring the mail in, immediately place the bills in a slot labeled “Bills”. Place mail for other family members in a slot labeled “Family”. Label the 3rd slot “Outgoing” and place your letters to be returned to the mailbox in this slot. Obvious junk mail goes immediately in (say it with me) FILE 13!!

Watch future posts for organizing bill paying and filing within your home! Click on the subscribe button to the right to get this blog in your email, and tell your friends! See you next week!

52 Weeks of Organization with Phone A CLone

Week 9 – Welcome back! You are on your way to a more organized and enjoyable 2010! This week we’re going to continue our “bed” theme by organizing our linen closets. If you just said, “Argh…” then this post is definitely for you! Day after day and week after week we put things in and take things out of our linen closets. It is a high traffic/low priority space in any home. Let’s give it the attention it deserves and enjoy the results!

1. Open the doors and catch everything that falls out! Continue to remove all items and place them on the nearest clean surface: a couch, bed, table…

2. Take a moment to plan where the items should ideally go. You may want to get your label maker or even sketch a quick plan on paper. Once you have planned the space (towels, sheets, pads, etc) address the items you have removed.

3. Sort the items into our regular “Keep” “Donate” “Trash” piles and begin by taking the items which are unusable to the trash. In this time of awareness, however, make sure the items couldn’t be recycled for a second purpose. Some of our best dusting cloths started out in life as something else! But be sure you will use the item for the new purpose before you decide to clutter your linen closet by keeping it. If it needs to be cut or torn to a new size for the new purpose remember our mantra “Do it NOW!”

4. After the trash is removed, put the items you will donate in separate plastic kitchen bags (white) with drawstrings. Mark each clearly with a Sharpie. “Salvation Army”, “Habitat”, “Uncle Joe” and place them in the vehicle you will use to deliver them. At Phone A Clone, we discourage keeping items at home for someone else to pick up. This puts you at the mercy of someone else who may not share your desire to purge! If the charity you choose will pick up at your house, make the call now to have that done. With family members and friends – take it to them!!

5. You should now only have those items you wish to keep. Refold them and make sure they are in good repair. Make a label and place it on the facing of the shelf where you have determined they will be stored. “Towels” “Guest Room Sheets” “Facecloths”, etc. Label all the space before you continue. Place the folded items on the shelves where designated and make sure everyone who puts laundry away has the new information!

6. Step back and enjoy the feeling of accomplishment! Now repeat these steps if necessary in the other linen closets of your home.

Organization is a gift you give yourself. We are here to help! Please remember Phone A Clone when you need a little extra help! 405.574.5474

52 Weeks of Organizing with Phone A Clone

Week 8 already! As with any ongoing project, it is surprising how quickly the time passes! If you have been following our posts faithfully, you are WELL on your way to an organized 2010. If you have been sidetracked, it’s still not too late to catch up. Just go to the last week you completed, and do 1 post every day or 2 until you catch up. You’ll be glad you did!

We have been concentrating on various small areas so far, but today we have a BIG challenge for you! Don’t worry, we are confident you are up to the task! The dreaded UNDER BED! When you finish shrieking, follow these quick steps and enjoy the reward of organization!

1. As with most of our tips, this one starts with some quick clean up. Just bring the vacuum in and quickly vacuum the carpet/floor around the bed. If you’re going to be down on the floor, you want it clean! Make sure there is no clutter around the bed as well, as this area will be your staging area. Begin by pulling everything out from under the bed. It’s OK if it is a jumbled mess, we’ll get to that later. Just get it all out.
2. Look through the items on the floor and eliminate those items which belong elsewhere by putting them back where they belong NOW while you’re thinking of it.
3. Another quick sort for any items which need discarded, given away/back to owners, or donated. We are big fans of donating, consigning, re-gifting here at Phone A Clone! So many times, we hang on to things thinking someday we’ll need/use them – but someday never comes. We’ve never had a client regret getting rid of an item, either! Just let go of anything you haven’t used or thought about in 6 months (or a year – whichever time limit you are comfortable with!)
4. You should be left now with items which will return to the UNDER BED region! Let’s do a thorough vacuuming/sweeping of the floor under the bed. Sort through those “keep” items and place like items together. Now… how to store these treasures!
5. Consider the room you are in before you make storage decisions. For kids’ toys, you’ll need open top storage; but for adult space, or little used items, you’ll want storage solutions with lids. We are not big fans of Space bags – there I said it! In our opinion, they almost never keep their suction; but if you just need to cover those extra comforters or bulky items to slide under your bed, they are fine. You may also want to start keeping the zippered plastic bags in which most comforters come for this use. You may prefer to buy the inexpensive plastic boxes with a low profile and with handles and wheels. For low clearance items, these are ideal. If you are storing many types of different items, the cute cloth baskets are wonderful! You can place many under a queen sized bed, and store quite a few items in each. If you have a large variety of items, such as in a child’s room, these are fantastic. Children can bring only a small amount of clutter out at a time, and return it under the bed – and out of sight!
6. Place all the “keep” items in their storage container. Resist the urge to just push the “stuff” back under the bed. No matter how carefully placed, the items WILL migrate and become a tangled mess once again. Placing them in a storage container will keep them where you intend, and make your next cleaning session so much easier! Once the items are stored, they go back under the bed in an order that makes sense to you. Long term storage toward the middle and more used items around the edge.
7. Finally fluff the bed skirt and make the bed if you haven’t already and you’re finished with a BIG job this week! We knew you could do it!

Keeping up with our blog is a big complement to us! We appreciate all our regular readers and subscribers! If this blog is helping you be more organized in 2010, PLEASE recommend it to your friends! We look forward to sharing more organization tips with you next week.

“Don’t Go It Alone – Phone A Clone”     www.phoneaclone.com

52 Weeks of Organizing with Phone A Clone

Welcome to Week 7 – For some of us, winter is wrapping up and for others Old Man Winter has weeks yet to go.  When you open up your coat closet, do you find yourself pushing coat sleeves down into the closet just to close it?  Through the years our coat closets become filled with coats that are out of fashion, damaged and ones we just don’t wear anymore.  When winter does end, you will want to Purge and Organize your Coat Closet.

Let’s start by emptying the closet of all coats and jackets.  Do a close inspection of each coat and jacket.  Check for rips, tears, stains, missing buttons, broken zippers or any other damage.  All of these should be placed in a toss or repair pile.  Check with a local dry cleaner who cleans and repairs leather.  Many dry cleaners also offer alterations and a seamstress who can do repairs.

Next, look at the remaining coats and jackets, looking for any that haven’t been worn for the the last two-three winters.  Place these in a pile to be given away to your local coat charity.

Sort through the remaining coats, check the labels for what can be machine washed and what needs to be dry cleaned.  Drop the “dry clean only” coats at the cleaners on the next day.  If you wish or need to, the dry cleaner’s laundry service could clean the remaining coats and jackets.

Now all your coats and jackets are ready for the next winter season!

52 Weeks of Organizing with Phone A Clone!

Week 6 ALREADY!! Welcome back and congratulations on completing 5 weeks of organizing. Organization feels good and helps you focus. This week we will be working on our dresser drawers! No matter how careful you are, eventually your dresser drawers begin to clump and fill with clutter and items you don’t really even remember owning. Whether it is your “unmentionables”, socks, folded t-shirts, accessories, sleepwear, or any number of things, your dresser drawer needs a good organization and purge at least twice a year. So, let’s get started!

If your bed isn’t made yet, do that first. We’ll use the bed as our ‘staging area’. Take the first drawer you wish to organize from the dresser and use the ‘dump’ technique from our earlier sorts to get all the contents out and on the bed. Take your time as you sort. Make a pile of things which don’t belong in that drawer. Another for things you wish to keep in the drawer. Finally, have a pile for trash (or things you wish to discard.) First take the time to replace the items which belong elsewhere… there, that feels better!

The trash gets tossed now, and you are left with things you wish to have organized and returned to the drawer. If these are clothing items, match and fold them neatly, stacking them on the bed. Use this opportunity to purge items which are worn, stained, the wrong size, etc. Replace the items which survived the “sort” organized by use, color, size, or any other criteria which applies to them. There are many inexpensive helps online or in a container store to make use of drawer space. From baskets and dividers, to sachet and paper liners – take time to make the drawer reflect your personal style and tastes for this very personal space. Carefully and thoughtfully replace the items in the drawer in a manner which makes sense to you.

Repeat the process for each drawer in the dresser – yes, even your mate’s! What a pleasant surprise when your loved one opens a drawer to find organization and function where once was chaos! When all the drawers are organized, step back and enjoy the good feeling! You’re well on your way to an organized 2010!

Keep up the good work and see you next week!

52 Weeks to Organization with Phone A Clone!

Welcome to Week 5 – Since we tackled the refrigerator last week, let’s clean the freezer this week!  We don’t visit the freezer as often as the refrigerator, so we can forget it needs cleaning, too.  Most freezers today don’t need to be manually defrosted but if yours does, it might be in your best interest to upgrade to an energy-efficient model.  Start with removing all food from the freezer.  Have an ice cooler ready for food you will be keeping.  Throw out any food with freezer burn or any food you don’t recognize, for instance, those frozen Kool-aide popsicles in old ice trays the kids made a few months ago!  Use a vacuum cleaner to remove food bits from the bottom of freezer and bins.  Vacuum the dust that has accumulated underneath the fridge and freezer, on the rear coils and top vents, and along the walls.  Wash all shelves, door and bins with solution of two tablespoons of baking soda and one quart of warm water.  Transfer all food back to the freezer.  Categorize all like items together to make them easier to find.  Remember, all freezers should be cleaned out at least twice a year.  Wipe down the outside of the freezer with warm soapy water.  If your freezer is stainless steel, use special stainless cleaner, and rub with the grain for best shine.  Now you have your refrigerator and freezer clean and ready for your next grocery shopping trip!