Things I Love Thursday: Cork Planter Bookends

Cork Planter Booked by Canoe

I keep seeing these cork planter bookends by Canoe pop up all over the place and I just love them. They’re a great way to:

• add some greenery to your office while also adding function.
• bring in multi-function in your bookends.
• can be used in other ways besides for just bookends or plants.

Obviously, I’m into these. Cute and multi-functional is always a winner in my book. Especially the office since those products always tend to veer more towards function than fashion.

What would you do with them?

Hey Red! Does My Hot Mess Make Me Inadequate?

My clients (family/friends/strangers) always ask for my advice and recommendations on much more than just organizing. And the way I’ve seen it, if one has a question, I’m sure many do. Here’s where I’ll share these tips and answers with you!

A friend posted this question to Facebook recently and I couldn’t resist sharing it because it is a common sentiment among nearly every single person I talk to.

Question: Do you feel like something must be wrong with YOU when your house isn’t clean? Why?

Answer: What many people attribute when they think of a “clean” house is usually really a neat, tidy and/or organized house. And every single one of my clients feels somehow inadequate or less than because it isn’t organized.

The “clean” house is quick and easy – run a dust cloth and a vacuum and you can be fairly done.

The organized house, however, is a different animal.

In the disorganized house filled with clutter, what you’re really looking at are days/weeks/months/years of unmade decisions. To turn around and make multiple, quick decisions about things you’ve been putting off is much harder and takes a lot longer than swiping a dust cloth. Combine that with never learning how to organize (yes, it can be a learned skill) or just not having the visual/spatial abilities to see where things can best go (If you sucked at Tetris, this may not be your skill set either) and it’s a recipe for feeling bad about yourself.

There is no reason to feel bad about yourself if your home is a mess. Typically, the messy home is an outward sign of something else that is going on. What is important, is to take action so you’ll stop feeling bad. Start with any flat surfaces and move on from there. The more you do, the better you’ll feel.

Do you have a burning question? Perhaps just a simmering one? Send it to heyred@melindamassie.com.

Makeover: Pantry

I love this corner pantry because it shows you how much easier it is to operate with just a few tweaks.

Overall, this pantry was in fairly good shape…it just needed a little love. We didn’t even have to empty out the entire pantry – just the middle three shelves.

Before:

We started by emptying the top three shelves you see in this picture. (The very top shelf you can’t see in this photo was already well managed.) As we emptied, we sorted all the foods like with like.

Next, I checked all the foods for expired dates. While I did this, my client did some expiration checking and re-ordering of the foods/condiments on the bottom shelf. (As with the very top, the items on the floor were fine and didn’t need any tweaking.)

Once everything was sorted and checked for freshness, I got to work putting it back.

After:

I started by putting the foods that will compose the majority of my client’s meals at eye level as she walks into the closet – second shelf down, right hand side. Underneath that are the other canned goods. Then we put in the breakfast goods – second shelf right hand side. Above that went all of her baking goods. She doesn’t bake often and works on avoiding sweets so we put this up higher and out of direct eye shot. We put a lot of the smaller items on a lazy susan in the corner. (Great solution so nothing gets lost!) Since she doesn’t bake often, we also put the baking utensils in here so they don’t take up precious real estate on the counters. Beverages and meal planning “extras” go beneath the breakfasts and condiments are on the bottom-most shelf.

You may notice a big, gaping hole on the upper right hand side. When we got started, one of my client’s goals was for her cookbooks to have a place to live in this pantry. That is where they will go.

Today is a great example of a pantry that worked fairly well, but with a few tweaks is now functioning even better.

Total hands on time: 2 hours.

Quick Tip: Rack ‘em Up

It’s Monday so how about something super quick and super effective?

Yeah…I knew you’d think that sounded good.

This simple rack is AWESOME for keeping your baking items organized and upright. For a long time I had these just leaning on each other. It was OK, but a hassle any time I needed to get something because it either all slid down or was just a pain to get too. Now, it is so easy to just reach in and grab exactly what I need. No muss. No fuss.

Another use for this rack is to mount it to the side of the cabinet with cable clips and use it for saute pans. If you have thinner items, you can always use a file rack.

How do you store your baking and other odd-shaped cooking items?

Organizer Confessional

Sales tags with handwritten categories are perfect for this client and her cabinet contents.

I have a confession to make.

Something that regularly draws the reaction of shock when a client (or anyone else for that matter) hears it.

I hate label makers.

Yep. Hate them.

It boils down to pretty much one thing…I’m a font nerd and labels made from these things are ugly.

Now don’t misunderstand – I’m all about labeling. I recommend it to my clients and anyone that will forget what is behind a door/in a box/in a basket/etc.

But standard, label-maker made labels are UH-GLY.

With a capital “UGH.”

If you need labels, buy pretty ones and either print off of the computer with a nice font or hand-write them in. (Enlist a friend if your writing is more “doctor-scrawl.) Heck, I’m all about using some post-its as labels and handwriting over the generic label maker. The main objective is to keep it a consistent look that is easy on the eye so you’ll enjoy seeing and using your things.

What is your favorite labeling solution?

Tango Foxtrot Organizing

The other day, a potential client came to me with a problem. She was following the advice that many, including myself, give: take it one small area at a time. She would clear one area. As she’d moved on to the second area, the first area would fall apart.

As you can imagine, she was quite frustrated.

I realized that while it’s a great piece of advice that we all give, we’re not necessarily teaching you how to connect and maintain the first areas while moving on to others.

Drats! Sorry about that.

I also realized while talking with this person about her frustration and struggle, that this situation is a lot like my days as a dance teacher.

Hamming it up on the dance floor during an international dance competition in Acapulco

When a new student would come in, they may want to only learn Tango, Salsa or Foxtrot. They say that they’ll pick up other dances once they’ve mastered the first one. However, that is the exact opposite of how you should learn. Say I teach a person Foxtrot to the point that they’re comfortable. Then we move on to Tango, working only Tango until their comfortable. When we try to revisit Foxtrot, they’ll have forgotten. However, because the basic mechanics of the two dances are similar, learning Foxtrot and Tango at the same time is easy and preferable.

In much the same way, we cannot neglect area 1 while moving on to area 2. The basic mechanics never change – sort, purge and put back. However in area 1, you’ll only be putting back while in area 2 you’re sorting and purging. When area 2 is complete, it will go into “put back” mode while area 3 is sorted and purged.

Another example. Years ago, I was working with an older couple. The kitchen was the husband’s domain, but being a depression era child he never threw anything away. Sometimes this was an issue as he held on to things that shouldn’t be eaten or reused.

Organizing the kitchen had to be a stealth attack. Every day I came over, I would only work on a single cabinet at a time. The first day was cabinet #1 – sort, purge, put back. The next day, I’d put back anything moved from cabinet #1 and then hit the neighboring cabinet with a sort, purge and put back. The next day, I’d put things back in order in cabinets #1 and #2, then move on to sorting, purging and organizing cabinet #3. Continuing on in this manner until the entire kitchen was complete.

Take a lot of time? Sure. Tedious? Yeah. But it’s what works and if you’re looking at large clutter situations, it helps ingrain the habits necessary for someone to get and stay organized.

As my clients hear me say all the time, staying organizing is a living, breathing thing. You have to create the daily habit to maintain all your hard work of sorting, purging and putting back. Practice at it daily and soon enough, practice makes permanent.

(A saying that every single one of my dance students heard all. the. time.)

Going to Extremes

We all know that extreme downsizing can cause serious disorganizational issues. It’s pretty obvious, right? All of the things that will fit in a 3,000 sq. ft. home will obviously not fit into a 1,500 or even 2,000 sq. ft. home. You know what else can cause major problems for an otherwise organized person?

Extreme upsizing.

We don’t think or hear about it too often, but moving from an apartment of 900 sq. ft. to a home of 2,000 sq. ft. can cause many unexpected organizing problems. It can seem silly and make the person in this situation feel bad because on the outside it is obvious that everything in a smaller home will still fit in a larger home. However, in the smaller place you’re “forced” to find everything a home and make it work in an efficient manner. Whereas in the larger home it’s easy to let those things slide. Next think you know, you’ve got rooms full of randomness and don’t know where anything is because you think, “Oh, there’s plenty of room. I’ll just toss it here” without creating a system.

Extreme changes in any direction can cause organizational systems to go awry. Just remember the rules:

• Every object in your home has a dedicated place where it lives.
• Each room has a goal and purpose.
• Every object in that room supports the goal and purpose of that room.

And of course, when you use something you can’t forget to put it back! These key things will keep you golden, no matter what your situation is.

Overwhelmed by your major downsizing or upsizing? Email me for help: info@melindamassie.com.

 

 

Organization Project: Laundry Cabinet

Here’s another quick and easy cabinet makeover for you. This time, we’re working on laundry.

Before:

This client knows the drill. Before I arrived, she pulled everything out, sorted like with like, got rid of the things that she didn’t need and moved things that didn’t suit the laundry cabinet purpose. We looked everything over and then I got to work putting things back in.

After:

On the bottom shelf, we have everything she needs for cleaning the clothes. As we work our way up the cabinets, the items become less regular use and more storage with the top being items she needs access to the least. All of the rags that were in here went to live in the cabinet with the cleaning supplies since that’s how they’re actually used. (Many were tossed and the remaining now live neatly in bins.)

Side note: This is for a large family, but they don’t *really* need that much toilet paper. The husband has a love for Costco. These along with a serious amount of paper towels were living in the garage (which will be a FABULOUS makeover when we tackle it). I wanted to bring in some of the surplus items that they need regular access to into the home so now the toilet paper lives here and the paper towels live in the cleaning supplies cabinet that is near this one.

Total hands on time: 30 minutes.

Benefit: Sometimes Christmas Comes Early

What is a major benefit of getting organized?

Sometimes it’s Christmas.

My absolute favorite moment is when I hear a client squeal because they’ve found something they’ve been looking for. It happens almost every single session I have with a client and it ALWAYS happens on the first one. It goes something like this:

Some sort of scream followed by “I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS!”

Every. Single. Time.

The absolute best was the other day when my client found a blender. A BLENDER! Brand-spankin-still-in-the-box-new blender.She absolutely forgot she had it and she needed a new one. It was like Christmas had come early.

So why should you get organized? Because you may find gifts you forgot about. It may not be a blender, but I guarantee that you’ll find something you’ve been looking for.

Quick Tip: Keep At It

The most common obstacle I see when getting a home organized is giving up in the middle.

You have to keep at it if you want to get organized.

It is essential that you keep going until you get to the maintenance phase otherwise you will never reach your goal. It’s hard – especially in the middle stages – to keep up motivation, but you can do it. Take at least 15 minutes every single day to chip away at your goals. Or as a client of mine repeats like a mantra, “Baby steps. Baby steps.” It takes a lot of time, but baby steps will get you there. Like weight loss or getting fit goals, if you only work out once a month, you will never get there. Taking tiny actions every single day will.

Keep at the organizing until it’s done. No matter what.