by Sasha on October 23, 2008
Where have I been for the last week? I’ve been doing a bit of traveling, visiting friends and family, and now that I’m on the family leg of my trip I’ve jumped into organizing mode cuz they definitely need some guidance. So my mom and sis are my clients for the week. I must say I’m quite proud of my sister. She’s really been taking some major initiative to get organized and de-cluttered in recent months and she has made some real progress since I saw her house last. My sister also runs a voice teaching studio out of her home so she has work specific organizing needs to get her space in order. For example, she needs a way to organize all her music books, sheet music, loose leaf music, and voice training books. Her resources go back to when she was a vocal performance student in college so she has many boxes and many mismatched file containers to store all her music. One of her biggest areas to organize is all the loose sheet music. I’m suggesting that she dedicate some time to gathering all her music together and put them in binders by music genre or by language. Having studied classical technique she has music in many different languages and her collection is surely heavy in classical. So I’m thinking dividing by language might be her best way to categorize for now. I’ve also suggested she put the loose music in plastic page protectors. When you hole punch paper we all know how easily those holes rip. Sheet protectors are an excellent organizing and archiving resource.
Now my mother needs a little more “hands on” help. I have to watch carefully when she’s de-cluttering. Her two favorite lines when deciding to keep something is “I’m saving that for when I get skinny” and “I’m saving that for when I have a party.” Now I feel that she has more than enough “skinny” clothes and more than enough party items. I’m just suggesting if she hasn’t used or worn something in the last 10 years or more, I think it’s safe to say it’s time to let go of it. I normally apply the one year rule, “if you haven’t used or worn it in a year, then get rid of it,” but she loves to save things for the “what if” scenarios. We’ve all done it, even me. But I can tell you that there is probably only one item I ever thought about and wished I had kept. Otherwise everything else I’ve ever donated or sold, I’ve never missed and never felt that I was lacking. I do cut her some slack because I know she loves to save those “what ifs” but we did have a very successful purging session on Sunday and I was very happy with the results. Two rooms in the basement are now completely de-cluttered and organized. I’m amazed.
by Sasha on October 10, 2008
I decided I’m not a fan of under the bed storage containers unless built into the bed. The idea seems great because it’s an extra area to store clothes, accessories, or linens in space challenged bedrooms, but here’s what I don’t like, dust LOVES to collect under there.
I have the IKEA Malm bed, a small bedroom, and no coat closet downstairs, so I decided to store coats and extra purses under my bed. Now the Malm doesn’t allow me to use hard containers cuz it’s too narrow of an opening so I purchased canvas zip-close containers that I can slide underneath my bed. Well, because of some traveling I will be doing I needed to get some things out and when I pulled them out it was dust galore! Now, I dust a lot! I am constantly “swiffering” under my bed but for some reason thost nasty dust balls collect all over these containers and because they’re canvas it’s hard to brush off. I had to clean all the dust off before I opened them so I wouldn’t trap it inside the bags.
I’ve decided to keep my bed area dust free and found a new space for those items. But I still think the bed is a great area for extra storage so if you have a small bedroom and are buying a new bed or moving to a new place, consider something like the beds pictured here. These options are from Pottery Barn, They offer two styles, the Cynthia and the Stratton, in different finishes. And with the Stratton you can choose between drawers or baskets to give you some different design looks.
by Sasha on October 7, 2008
This is my fourth installment on converting grocery item packaging into useful organizing tools. I’m most proud of this idea cuz I think they look quite good. One of my many passions in life is photography. From a beautiful trip to the Croatian coast last year I have many gorgeous close-ups of the Adriatic Sea, foliage, flowers, old crumbling walls, etc. So with my photos I converted a coffee and a chai tea can into office containers.
It’s super simple to do. After I chose photos that would look graphic and cool, I printed them out on standard 8.5 x 11 photo paper. I trimmed the paper to fit the height of each can and then adhered them to the cans with heavy-duty double stick tape. And voila! I stuffed some bubble wrap into the blue one so my pens would stick out and be easier to access and the green one is where I keep my most used cords for my digital camera, ipod, and isight camera. (can you tell I’m a mac geek). These sit on a shelf right above my desk for easy access.
by Sasha on October 3, 2008
What can you do with your old memorabilia (memory clutter) such as old cards, letters, school papers and awards, tickets to shows you attended, etc?
Well, I have a fabulous idea to show them off and keep them organized. For awhile now I’ve been wanting to try out the online bookmaking service from the site Blurb. In the meantime, as I’ve talked about on my blog here, I’ve been scanning all kinds of stuff, old slides and negatives, black and white family photos, my cards and letters from over the years, and YES even tickets to shows I’ve attended from high school until now.
So know I’m making books out them!
I know many of us have memorabilia we’ve been holding onto and every few years we do some deep house cleaning and we’ll stumble upon that box, look through it for a few hours, stroll down memory lane, and promise to deal with it. Yet, it goes back into that messy box until we stumble upon it again in another few years.
So here are my recommendations…first, sort these items out and store them in photo boxes. What doesn’t fit in photo size boxes can be stored in larger flat boxes. There are many places to find archival storage boxes like Target, Michaels, one of my faves, Archival Methods, and many more. You can even make you’re own out of old shoe boxes if you like and cover them with fabric or paper for a uniform look. (I got that idea from Martha!)
Once organized, I recommend scanning anything that can fit on your flatbed to make them digital. There are many fun projects you can create once you’ve done the hard part of scanning.
So here’s what I got in the mail today!
I created a book of old tickets to shows I went to starting in high school. Blurb has a 7×7 inch size book that was perfect for this task. I created a hardcover book in their photo wrap style and I’m so happy with it. It’s a beautiful, professional matte finish and I scanned my tickets to fit 2 on a page. To create the cover all I did was zoom in on one of the tickets to create a cool graphic effect that enhances the theme of my little book. Now I have something to keep on my bookshelf, flip through pages and remember going to these shows. I can even show it off on my coffee table for others to view and make fun of my old musical tastes.
I’m am just loving this idea! I wanted to give the Blurb service and my idea a try and it’s awesome. Now I’m going to create more books. Some ideas I have are to create a book just of old polaroids, one of my old cards and letters (much easier way to read them) and all kinds of other books that I will share with you as I create them. Hopefully I’ll inspire you to get a move on your old stuff!
Visit the Blurb site and you will learn about all the different printing options you have and you can download their free Booksmart software which is what you use to create your layout options and then upload to their site and order. With a little tech know how, it was very easy to to do.
by Sasha on October 2, 2008
Here’s my third installment of using grocery containers to organize your home. I’m loving these ideas because they are green and CHEAP! So, for my bathroom I cut the tops of kefir yogurt containers and used them for holding my makeup brushes and nail care items. I think these actually look hip and modern in my bathroom. They look like something I picked up at Bed Bath and Beyond but the best part is that they didn’t cost me anything. Just $2.49 for the yogurt!
