Wired

I've just been given the latest issue of Wired magazine to read... "Look! There's an article about organizing in here!" Of course I wasn't surprised, as organizing touches every aspect of our lives. They've featured four room makeovers with a range of organizing ideas, from simple fixes to high-tech solutions.

In 'The Office' the use of rolling filing cabinets adapted well to the work habits of the owner. Using the label maker to identify both ends of power cords is an easy way to keep wires straight. My favourite tech solution is the Sony PS3 in 'The Media Room'. It removes the need for dusty shelf space to store all of those DVD cases!

Check out the July issue of Wired to read the full article on page 91, or read online at http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/06/ff_makeover/.

That Darn Paper

With the recent downsizing of my own parent, and the move of my SO to working from a home office, our house has a few too many boxes stashed in a few too many places.  SO and I have been making a serious attempt to empty, sort and purge the contents of those boxes.  I've become my own organizing client.  And just like everyone else, it is easier sorting someone else's stuff.

This week we tackled a backlog of paper.  What a surprise I had to discover, as we fought for any extra storage space we could find for SO's business files, many inches worth of old investment statements that were more than just a few years old.  Since many of the statements are available online, and they usually send us quarterly statements anyway, we chose to shred.  And shred.  And shred. Our recyble bin will be full this week.  Our filing cabinet has extra space and even a few shelves were liberated.  Goodbye paper.

foodnetwork.ca? Not necessarily . . .

It seems that no matter what the publication, the first thing I look for is the recipes. I will admit that while leafing through the latest issue of Chatelaine I made the shocking discovery that I had flipped to the recipes, before even realizing they were launching their clutter-busting series. But I digress . . .

Magazines remain my number one source for new food ideas. Only when I’m really desperate will I go online to scout out a new dish. What can I say? I like paper. But what I don’t like is to have piles of magazines taking up what little living space I share with my family.

So, if I like the newly tested recipe, I will immediately tear it out of the magazine and file it away. I’m partial to the accordion folders, but am discovering that many people prefer to stash their recipes in a three-ringed binder. An added benefit of this storage method is that you can use sheet protectors to house the individual pages. Then splashes and sticky finger prints can easily be wiped away without compromising the integrity of your recipe.

Valentines' Cards

Has your young son or daughter finished preparing their Valentine's cards for their class mates yet? Ever wonder what to do with the left over few cards from the box. Like many of us you probably wish you could hang on to them for next year so they could be used but don't want to add them to the paper clutter in your home. Here's a couple of different ideas. Hopefully one will fit your home.

1. Store them with your craft supplies and use them for craft projects.
2. Send them to your children's daycare so they can use them for craft projects.
3. Keep a box of gift cards and greeting cards and add them to this box.
4. If your Christmas decoration box is easily accessible, store them in there. They will be ready to pull out when you put next year's Christmas decorations away.

Find Bill, File Receipt

This is a follow up post from the recent Where is Everything item.

Many of my clients, friends, family and acquaintances struggle with paper. It's everywhere despite our best attempts to go electronic. Organizing paper is probably the number one frustration of almost all my clients.

One of the paper challenges are receipts coming into the household that many of us keep to maintain our household accounts. Some of us have jars, boxes, baskets or folders to keep these daily deluge of little, bitty, annoying pieces of paper called receipts. If you are checking off your credit card bills to ensure all expenses are your own and legitimate then you have a collection of these receipts.

There are many possible solutions but here is one that most of my clients find helpful. Find an expandable file folder - plastic is best - with 13 divisions. They are readily available in a variety of price points at Staples, Grand and Toy and many other office suppliers. Try the local dollar store. Label the divisions by month and then the 13th for miscellaneous.

Presto. You have a place to put those annoying pieces of paper and you don't even have to sort them. When the credit card bill comes in, pull out the folder, check of the receipts. Now if, necessary, you keep the receipts, already organized by month. If not - shred.

Where is Everything? - Bills Due

It's the end of the first week in February - do you know where your due bills are?

Do you pay your bills when they first come in the door?

Do you have a designated place to store them until they are due?

Are your due bills all in one room?

Can you find those bills when you go to pay them?

Is the designated place close to your bill-paying method: computer; cheque book and stamps?

Is the designated place easily accessible when you go to pay your bills?

Are the bills identified with the date that they are due?

How much do you pay in overdue bill fees? Would that help pay down your mortgage?

Mail Magic to Make it Disappear

Have you got a pile of unopened mail on your dining room table? Maybe it's in a pile on the counter. Here's some magic to make it disappear.

1. Take all the mail offers and put them directly in the recycling bin. You can be sure, there are more on their way.
2. Take all other enveloped articles and remove the envelopes. If you have to, staple the envelop contents together.
3. Divide the remaining articles into three piles Act Now, Follow Up and Think About. Book time for the Act Now items. Most of the items in the Think About you can throw out. You will probably never think about them and they are probably not on your list of top priorities.

Presto! A small pile of items that really require your attention.

Frustrated with Files

Probably the number one item that clients want me to help them fix in either their home or their office is paper and filing. It seems that paper, and keeping track of the pieces we wish to keep, is a struggle even for the most organized.

Most people struggle over the structure of the filing system. "If I file something in here, I never know where it is and can never find it again."

My advice to clients is that there is no perfect filing system. There are good commercial systems, (e.g. Paper Tiger), there are common systems (alphabetized) often used in corporate settings and then there are the rest of us.

It is important that you pick a structure that works for you. If you organize visually, try using coloured files. If you are tend to talk to yourself and are auditorily oriented, try using file headings like "Keep this for Income Tax Time" or "Things I keep to refer back to". Sound corny? Who cares? If it works for you, that's all that matter.

Where is Everything - Very Important Papers

Do you know where your critical documents are?
Do you know what that means?
If your house were on fire, could you get them in less than 30 seconds?
Is there a copy off site safe?
Where is your passport, immigration papers, citizenship documents, birth certificate?
Where is your marriage certificate, divorce papers, name change confirmation?
If anything happend to you, could your Power of Attorney (Finance) find enough information in a short enough time to take care of your affairs the way you would want them handled?
Do you have a Power of Attorney for Finance?
Do you have a Power of Attorney for Health?
Do you have a Will?
Do you have a Living Will?
Do your executors know how to get copies of the Will?
Do you have guardians for your children in the event anything happens to you?

Client Questions - When do I Shred

As a professional organizer, I am frequently asked by clients what paper needs to be shredded and what can go straight into the recycling bin. Recently I was asked specifically about some old utility statements that a client was throwing out.

Most utility bills have enough information on them to be able to identify you clearly. That's why its on your bill. Some even contain billing and payment information. This is not information that you want public if it were to go astray. Shred.

As a rule of thumb, if there is anything on the bill to identify you, shred it. When in doubt, shred. You can always sit down with your television show some night after the kids are in bed and shred away during the commercial breaks.

Reading over the Recycling Bin

The best way to keep paper from accumulating is to keep it out of the house.

When you receive the mail, get into the habit of sorting and reading the loose material right over the recycling bin. That way you can throw the unnecessary fliers, brochures and promotional items along with all the envelopes right into the bin as you sort through them and open the mail. The pile of paper will immediately decrease in size and you are left with paper that really in which you are really interested.

In Favour of Staples

Whether of not you have issues organizing paper, you probably have both paper clips and staplers in your house/office. Many people are in the habit of paper clipping sheets together because it is quick, easy, they wan't the sheets together and may want to unclip them in the future.

Watch out for those paper clips adopting other documents. When organizing paper, use staples whenever possible over paper clips as the latter will often "clip" up another document that is not meant to be clipped to it. Most recycling opportunities will now take the staples with the documents.

Colour Your World

Colour can be a quick and easy way to organize anything from toys to files. When we organize we sort (small, medium, large widgets) pattern (like things together) and decide (keep, sell, toss). The same is true for storage and retrieval activity; looking for a spice (sort by alphabet?), filing paper (sort and pattern this year, last year, food, rent, utilities etc) and making decisions at every step.

Coloured boxes, baskets, labels or other storage tools provide an easy first sorting mechanism. Each child could be assigned a colour for their toys (John gets the blue toy bucket) sports gear (Jane's labels, bag and towel are blue) or items on the calendar.

It is helpful to limit the number of colours to a minimum of choices. Use colour for high level choices. For example, if you run a home based business, try using one colour to sort between business and personal files (business is blue, personal is green). Too many colour choices can increase organizing challenges especially for individuals who are easily distracted and have difficulty focussing.

Questions and Anwers: Paper

Q and A: Paper
This is the first of what will become a regular feature on the Wellrich Blog: a Question and Answer column. I often receive questions from clients. Many of the questions are very similar. I will post here some of the more common, interesting or helpful for your benefit. If you have questions you would like answered, send them to me at wellrichorganizers@rogers.com.

Q: I can't keep track of all of the paper that comes into the house- mail, school papers, etc. If I try to put things away I forget about them and miss things, and if I leave them out I can't find anything. What do you suggest? I currently have stacks of paper in various places, things on my bulletin board, and the really important things stuck into my planner. Cherri, Toronto

A: "How do I handle the paper?" is the most common question most professional organizers receive from their organizing clients.

Step 1 – The first step to correcting the solution is to get all the paper in one place so that it can be weeded out. Schools are notorious for sending second and third copies of forms to be signed if they haven’t shown up by the due date. Pull is all together in one big pile and let's go.

Step 2 – Go through and throw out (recycle) all the duplicates, envelopes and junk mail. What you have left is the material that you really need to address.

Step 3 – Set up a date sensitive/hot file type folder for handling birthday invitaitions, Kiwanis dates, doctors appointments or anything else that stale dates. This can be as simple as (my favourite) an alligator hook holding the date sorted papers hung on a hook in the kitchen, or as complicated as a 31 day accordion file used as a bring forward file.

Step 4 – Set up a reference material holder. This could be (my favourite) an accordion file labeled by subject (church, teacher, ballet studio, music teacher) or a binder with dividers using the same titles. File the paper related to these subjects as reference for when you need it. If it doesn’t contain reference, toss it.

Step 5 – Set up a filing system for day to day items such as statements that you still receive in hard copy. Get into the habit of keeping only the minimum required e.g. one year of statements, latest bill, total year to date etc.

Step 6 – Set up a mail station with a separate slot for every member of your family. This could be as simple as a cereal box cut like a paper tray (get the kids to decorate their own), plastic stacking paper trays, wall hanging shoe holders or anything else you can imagine. Go vertical! Label each members slot and make sure that when the mail comes in, it gets sorted. This is a good “chore” for a grade 3 student.

Step 7 - Give your kids a folder – plastic, 2 pocket, which they can choose the colour and decorate. Have them use this folder for everything that comes home for you. They bring it home and put it in your mail slot. You take out the contents, sign the forms and put it back in their slot. They check the slot each morning before school.

It will take a while for your family to buy into all of this but persevere. They will catch on and the kids will love not being nagged at school for the forms which used to be always late. Kids also like having their own mail slot. It makes them feel important and on an equal footing to older siblings/parents at least in this one department.

Childrens' Activity Information

How many times has your child(ren) been late for a birthday party because you couldn't find the invitation with the location and directions? How about the scramble for soccer team telephone numbers to find out whose turn it is to drive.

Sound familiar?

I've just returned from four days at our national conference held this year in Vancouver. Professional organizers identified that a consistent challenge for family manager's, (family manager definition: the parent primarily responsible for managing the activity and schedule of the household) is keeping track of all the paper that results from childrens' activities. A significant component of this challenge is the difference in time sensitivity of some papers. You are likely receiving everything from the letter today reminding you of tomorrow's parent/teacher interview, to the six month long competitive dance schedule or, that very Canadian of items - the hockey schedule.

1. Purge
Always start by getting rid of anything that you will not need in the future. Do your sorting with the recycling bin next to you so that paper/letters/schedules from last year, that were duplicated or for the select team your daughter didn't make can go right to "file 13" by recycling.

2. Sort by Frenquency of Access
Sort the remaining items into 2 piles. The most frequently accessed items are those relating to events and contacts:

• a) regular and frequent access like the weekly schedules - birthday party invitations, team phone numbers, cross country meet dates and times.
• b) occassional access - reference material, team policies/athlete expectations, brochure for the team, association or company.

3. Set up a Hot File
Take all the items in the pile of "frequently accessed" and sort by family member. Now sort each family member's material by date so that the next closest event is on top. Use binder dividers with names on the tabs to identify each family member's set of hot file papers. Clip them together with an alligator clip. Hang a peel and stick hook (3M removable are ideal, available at most hardware stores) on the inside of a kitchen cupboard or wherever your family information centre is, if you already have one. Hang the alligator clip on this hook. Next time Brittany receives a birthday party invitation, pick up the phone and RSVP, record the date, time and location on the family calendar (I'm sure you already remembered to do this) and put the invite in her section of the hot file. You can grab the invitation on the way out the door and discard it after you have picked her up.

4. Set up a Resource File. This is for the remaining items that are used less frequently. This time you may wish to sort by activity (hockey, gymnastics, swimming) by organization (hockey league, parks and recreation organization, school, church) or again, by family member, depending on how busy and how big your family is. Don't forget to save a space for the orthodontist, doctor or tutor. Use an accordian file or binder. If using a binder, dividers can mark each of the sections. This material gets purged twice a year at the beginning and end of the school year when children and families typically change activities. At the end of school, discard all the classroom specific material and keep only the back to school items. At the beginning of school, throw out the old soccer, hockey or dance schedule and start adding back in the new classroom and teacher material.
Voila! Party invitations at your fingertips, when you need them!