Organization Quest

If You Do One Thing Before Starting Your Resolution, Do This

Okay, I know:  we're all primed to Make This The Year We Get Organized--Really!--Once and For All.  I'm right there with you, Questers! Once you decide what it is exactly you want to accomplish, whether it's organizing the garage or figuring out a weekly cleaning routine that you can stick with, there's one thing you should do before diving into your resolution:  document where you're at, right now, regarding the area for which you're seeking improvement.  Just as you would weigh yourself and take your measurements before going on a diet, take a few minutes to assess your current organizing situation.  Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Take stock

What exactly is the problem, and whyis it a problem?  A messy closet or a disorganized kitchen, for instance, isn't that big of deal in and of itself.  Why does it bother you?  Maybe your messy closet makes for stressful mornings, or it prevents you from expressing yourself the way you want in your attire.  In the same token, a disorganized kitchen makes it less pleasant to cook, which in turn makes it more difficult to stay on a diet. Determining the scope as well as the root of the problem allows you to see more clearly the benefits of implementing your resolution.

Take a picture

If you saw the post about my Supreme Paper Mess, you know I'm a big fan of "before and after" pictures.  "Before" pictures can be great motivators while moving towards your goals; once those goals are achieved, you'll be amazed at the difference between your "before" and "after" pictures . 

Take a mental/emotional snapshot

Maybe the state of your disorganization can't be documented with a camera.  If your goals are more along the lines of remembering birthdays, appointments, or other events, getting to work on time, meeting deadlines, or feeling more pulled together as you move through your day, it's important to document the impetus behind your goal.  Close your eyes and take a moment to re-live what happened when you let yourself or somebody else down in terms of your proposed resolution.  Before I decided to keep a calendar, I wrote down all the dates and appointments I'd recently missed--a friend's birthday, two appointments in a row with my hair stylist, an event that I'd been looking forward to going to.  I let myself recall the disappointment or embarrassment I felt as I groped for an excuse for my forgetfulness. This wasn't a futile exercise in self-flagellation, but provided me with a clear "snapshot" of behavior I was trying to change.

Imagine living your resolution

How will making this change affect your life?  Take five minutes to sit down with a nice cup of tea or coffee, a pen, and some paper and write down the benefits you'll reap when you're living your resolution.  See yourself calm in the face of an audit.  Cooking is a joy, your evening routine is relaxing, you can get rid of your storage unit or fit your car in the garage--whatever it is, imagine it in full detail and either make a list of what you see, write a sentence or two, or make a quick sketch of your vision.  This is part of documenting where you are now in terms of your goal.  Once achieved, you may very well experience your goal differently than you imagined you would, but imagining how you will feel beforehand is part of the fun of making your resolution.

Yuck-free Sponge Storage and Sanitization

Years ago, before we bought our first car that didn't require duct tape to hold it together, I'd never heard of the particular model we ended up buying, perhaps because the idea of being able to distinguish the make and model of one car from another is only slightly more appealing than, I don't know, memorizing pro football stats. I mean, sure, a person could, but what would be the point? So it took me by surprise after we bought our car that I started seeing it everywhere, and moreover, that I should notice or care. Seemingly overnight, the world was populated by our car, although sometimes in a different color, and it seemed impossible that I hadn't noticed this before.

In the same way, it had never even occurred to me to second-guess my choice of using a sponge in the kitchen, until the conversation I had with Stacy the Designated Neatnik at work. Suddenly, it seemed all I heard about on the news or on the radio was microbial contamination this and potential food poisoning that, all pointing to the once-innocent-but-now-suspicious sponge. Troubled, I asked my officemate if he used a sponge in the kitchen. By his reaction, you would have thought I asked if he offers lead paint chips as snacks to toddlers. Shocked in turn by his reaction, I said, "well, I use a sponge." This made him shudder. "The chances you take," he said then.

Thus fascinated and incredulous in equal measure, I proceeded to quiz everyone I know on their sponge usage. It's one thing for my officemate and for Stacy the Designated Neatnik to be sponge-shy: everyone knows microbiologists are scardy-cats. But horrifyingly, person after otherwise normal person denied using a sponge. It was as if everyone had gotten the proverbial memo but me. When did this happen? When did the entire world decide that Sponges Are Not Our Friends? Even my friend Just Chewy--who is neither a microbiologist nor particularly delicate--even he doesn't use a sponge, but uses dishtowels, which are frequently washed.

Feeling a little cowed and not just a little freaked out, I bought some dishtowels and gave them a try. I hated them. Wet, sloppy, too big and unwieldy, my re-occurring thought while using them is: you're kidding, right? I couldn't take it. Guiltily, I went back to my beloved sponge.

And then fortune smiled upon me: I visited my friend Ingrid, who is no slouch in the SuperClean category herself. Imagine my delight when I saw a sponge in her kitchen! Exactly the type I use, with one side scruffy and one side soft. I mentioned to her my sponge story and she laughed. Her trick: she keeps both her sponge and her scrub brush in the dishwasher, which she runs using the Sanitize cycle. Sponge and scrub brush are thus cleaned and sanitized with each wash. Ingenious!

Above, left, the sponge-in-dishwasher storage method. Above, right: What is that in the dishwasher?

Organizing Help and How-Tos: Choosing the Approach That Suits Your Style And Your Goals

A week ago, when traffic to the Quest plummeted, I chalked it up to the holidays. By the same token, when today traffic surged over 600%, I knew what it had to be:  the pre-New Year, This-Is-The-Year-I'm -Finally-Going-To-Get-Organized Resolution frenzy. 

What does being "Organized" mean to you?

Before we dive into a resolution, I think it's helpful to pinpoint some specifics, namely: when you say  "organized", what do mean?  Do you imagine being able to have friends drop by without shame or excuses?  Or are you thinking of a closet that's a pleasure to open?  Does "organize" mean "clean" to you?  Or is it more a function of being on time and well-prepared?

Choose an approach that suits you

Once you pinpoint what being "organized" means to you, you can create a plan to get you there. Some people love big, ambitious, all-inclusive lists--what David Allen in his book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity calls "mind-sweeps".  Others, including me, are overwhelmed by such an endeavor, and do better by identifying the single most important area for improvement--what I call the "Ground Zero" approach. 

Because each person's situation, specific goals, motivation, energy, and resources are unique, there's no "one size fits all" solution when it comes to getting organized.  To help you get started, I've identified  a few common scenarios and offer some ideas on possible approaches that might work for your particular situation.

If you're having troubles keeping up with day-to-day cleaning as well as organizing, and/or are comforted by highly structured systems in which you are directed on a weekly, daily, or even hourly basis, you might like flylady.com.  Flylady divides a house into "zones" with specific days dedicated to cleaning certain rooms.  There are also systems for creating morning, afternoon, and evening routines, weekly tasks and daily cleaning.

If you feel that every aspect of you life needs an organization makeover, consider following professional organizer Regina Leeds' system as described in her book One Year To An Organized Life: From Your Closets to Your Finances, the Week-by-Week Guide to Getting Completely Organized for Good.  Regina leads you through organizing all the rooms in the house as well as organizing paperwork, photo albums, address books, calendars, and more.  Regina uses a monthly approach: each month is devoted to a different organizational concern which is further broken down by the week in terms of tasks to accomplish.  No stone is left unturned; Regina's system promises total organization by the end of the year.

If your main concern is getting your files or to-do list under control, consider looking into the afeorementioned David Allen book , Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.  Allen has a number of strategies for dealing with Paper Mess, which includes clearing your in-box, breaking down "To Do" list items into discernible "Next Actions," and the fabled 43 Folders approach to filing. 

If comprehensive lists wear you out and you do better focusing your energy on a discrete number of priorities at any given time, you might want to give my Ground Zero Approach a try: see if you can identify the one thing that is messing you up the most.  Maybe you can't seem to get out of the house on time in the morning; or maybe your kitchen is such a mess, you're spending time and money you don't have going out all the time.  Maybe your papers are out of control or your bathroom is just plain yucky.  Whatever it is, focus on getting that one thing right.  Make a list of what you need to do; if necessary, break that list down into manageable steps.  Note the resources you need--the time you estimate it will take to do each step, if you need to buy anything (files, for example, or cleaning supplies) or if you need to make any special arrangements, i.e. child care or the help of a carpenter.  

A variation on the Ground Zero strategy is to identify a handful of priorities to work on at any given time.  This approach allows greater flexibility in terms of offeringa choice of things to work on, the better to match the task with your energy, motivation, goals, or circumstances.

Whatever approach you choose, let 2009 be the year you achieve at least one of your organizational goals.  With the right frame of mind, the process can be kind of fun, and you know the result will be worth whatever time or trouble it involves.  Go ahead and make a commitment to yourself.  You deserve it!

Tidy and Spacious Ornament Storage

 

According to her "wall" on FaceBook, my friend Lisa has already taken down her tree, while my sister wrote me a couple hours ago to tell me that she's taking hers down tomorrow.  As far as I'm concerned, December 27 or 28 is, let's see, about 3O days too early to take down a Christmas tree, but what do I know?  In my local Target, clerks were putting out Valentine's Day candy yesterday, and it's not even New Year's yet. 

In order to keep up with the rush-rush trend, I thought I'd better hurry up and write about ornament storage, never mind that I won't be storing mine anytime soon.  Happily, I was so enthralled by my ornament storage box when I first got it in 2OO2 that I took before-and-after pictures, even though at the time I didn't know what a "blog" was, or that I would ever find a useful outlet for my documentation compulsion. 

Before I got the wonderful ornament storage box, I kept my ornaments in various random boxes, some of which I'd invariably forget about until I'd be half-way through trimming the tree and realize that my Snoopy ornament or favorite papier mache bulb was nowhere to be found.  The advantage to the storage box was immediate:

1. It was big enough for all my ornaments to fit in one place.  (Note:  I have well over 1OO ornaments. )
2. It came with corrugated dividers that help keep the ornaments tidy. 
3. You can fold the corrugated dividers back in order to fit oversize ornaments.
4. The brightly-colored box is easy to identify.

    
Before, above left: The crank-inducing messy ornament storage; after above right: the glorious ornament storage box, complete with corrugated dividers.

The product description on the Container Store site states an ornament-occupancy limit of 75, which is probably true for bulbs. Most of my ornaments are smaller, thus I can fit all 1OO+ in the box with room to spare.  I like to wrap the ornaments up in brightly-colored tissue paper--it makes the otherwise depressing task of putting away the ornaments almost as much fun as I'll have taking them out again next year.

When To Take Down The Tree?

Okay, I confess:  I am not one of those people who takes down the tree promptly after Christmas.  I do have a bit of an excuse:  since Alpay and I usually exchange gifts on New Year's day, the tree obviously has to do its holiday duty until then. Taking it down on January 2 is out of the question; it just seems a little rash.  Actually, the whole first week of January seems a little premature for tree dismantling.  If there's one month you could use some holiday cheer, it's January. The second week of January could conceivably be the perfect time to take it down, but by then I have usually accustomed myself to its presence, and since we buy a freshly-cut tree every year, why not get our money's worth out of it? 

Finally,  some time around the Super Bowl, I'm ready to imagine life without pine needles crunching underfoot. The tree, stripped of all dignity at this point, retaliates by morphing from plant to weapon.  The needles that are left are both razor-edged and determined.  I wear long sleeves and heavy-duty leather gloves when taking the ornaments off, and have bandages and Bactine ready. 

This year, of course, is going to be different.  I hereby pledge to take the tree down before the third week of January.  Probably the second week.  Maybe even next weekend!  Well, I'll consider it, anyway.  Don't want to make any rash promises.

From Our Family to Yours: Merry Christmas!

The Prioritization Method of Quick-Cleaning for Guests

Back in the day when Glamour magazine was more like Real Simple and less like CosmoGirl, they ran advice a person could really use. One such article was a list of things that are important--and those that aren't--when getting your house ready for guests.  While I no longer recall the exact advice, I think the idea of limiting preparations via prioritization is a useful one.

Priority Factor #1: Concentrate on where your guests will be

In our case, if we're having overnight guests, then the whole house pretty much needs attention, but if we're just having brunch or dinner guests, we can shut the doors to the bedroom, the master bath, and both of our studies, leaving the living room/dining room, kitchen, and guest bath as the focus for any last-minute cleaning-and-tidying effort. In a similar vein, one friend has an "upstairs/downstairs" rule:  upstairs is off-limits when she entertains, downstairs is accessible to all.  In your case, can you close off the basement or close the bedroom doors?

Priority Factor #2: Concentrate on what your guests will notice

Several of my friends are allergic to cats, so when they come over I make it a priority to rid the place of cat fur as much as possible.  If I'm going to be entertaining during the day, I might prioritize washing the sliding glass doors that go out to the balcony, the better to enjoy the view, while if I'm going to be entertaining at night, I would probably choose to concentrate my efforts elsewhere.

Priority Factor #3: Clean over de-clutter

My two priorities are always the guest bathroom and the kitchen--these need to be clean. Everything else is negotiable.

Priority Factor #4: Straighten over organize

If you're expecting guests in two hours--or even two days--it really isn't the time to dig into that organizing project you've been putting off for the last several months.  Focus on picking things up and putting things away, or at least putting them in the room where they belong. Get things off the floor.  Make tidy piles of what's left. 

When the doorbell rings remember:  Relax!  You're in the company of family and friends!

Using What You've Got: Fun, Cheap Wrapping Ideas

 

I love wrapping presents: the pretty paper, the bows, the ribbons.  The cute little tags with "To" and "From" printed in tiny type.  I love the elaborate logistics of it all:  if I wrap this with that then I'll have enough left over for this. . . etc. And while it's fun to go over the top with the endless variety of wrapping accessories, the most beautiful wrapping is often the simplest.  My friend Elizabeth wraps her gifts in plain white tissue paper, with brightly-colored, grosgrain ribbon for a fresh, fun look.  I am particularly fond of colored tissue paper: it folds easily over awkward shapes and you can layer the colors for a dramatic effect that costs very little to achieve.

One of my all-time favorite wrapping techniques is to use a paper grocery bag as "wrapping paper". Depending on the size of the gift, I'll  use string or a length of rope instead of ribbon and glue on fake stamps for an old-fashioned "package" look. 

Almost any kind of paper can take the place of wrapping paper; over-sized children's drawings, in particular, make great wrapping paper, and it's a way to share their creativity with family and friends.  Scrapbook paper works great for small items like books or CDs, candles or jewelry.  A length of fabric can easily drape over large or hard-to-wrap shapes. 

On a related note, almost any kind of container works as packaging:  a clay pot for a gardener, a cookie tin filled with cookie cutters and sprinkles or other supplies for a person who likes to bake.  Baskets, of course, are an old standby that can work for nearly any kind of gift.  I've also had success using plastic shoe boxes, mesh bags, Tupperware,  coffee mugs and vases as creative packaging vessels. And as clumsy as I am with a needle, even I can put two pieces of cloth--or paper--together and sew up three sides, to make a cute little customized bag in no time flat.

Holiday Shopping Quick Tip: Organizing Receipts For Easy Returns

Years ago, a friend with four kids shared with me her method of keeping track of her holiday purchases:  she keeps a ziplock bag in her purse, where she puts holiday receipts as she makes her purchases.  While standing at the counter, she'll make a quick note about the purchase right on the receipt , i.e. "Mary's sweater."  Since product itemization is not clear on many receipts--which often  contain baffling codes or abbreviations--such a note makes for easy identification later on, should you need to return an item.

When it's time for returns, my friend goes through her ziplock bag, selects the receipts needed, and puts those receipts in their own baggie that  accompanies her on her returns.  What I like to do is tape the receipt directly to the item, so that I don't have to dig through my wallet to find the receipt.

On a related note, when shopping for anyone besides Alpay, I always ask for a separate gift receipt, which I then tape on the inside of a box top or to the bottom of an item; that way, I have the original receipt for my records while enabling easy returns for the recipient.

Creating Holiday Traditions

A long time ago--after we'd been married a couple years but less than five--we hosted an international visitor for dinner during the holiday season. Although we'd spent the previous year abroad, we'd never before been stateside and on our own for the holidays, and I mentioned this to our visitor.  "I'm going to miss not going home," I said, much to our visitor's astonishment.  "You are here," he said.  "Your husband is here," he said, pointing to Alpay.  "And your cat, too," he said, pointing to our beloved Mau-Mau.  "You are home."

I, of course, had meant my parents' home, but he had a point. Home is where you live.  You don't "go home" for the holidays, unless you are in some transitional living arrangement, say college, for instance.  But even then, as an adult, one has both the pleasure and an obligation, if only to oneself, to develop one's own traditions.  In doing so, there's the opportunity to reprise favorite family traditions while creating new ones, resulting in a customized combination that suits the unique circumstances of your life. 

What to eat, and when, when to open gifts, what days to celebrate and how, what rituals are meaningful to you--these are among the decisions to be made.  It took several years to develop our traditions: a midnight meal of borscht and pierogies; a morning breakfast of homemade Scandinavian stolen; presents exchanged on New Year's day; a freshly-cut tree and yearly addition to the ornament collection my mother started for me in 1980.  I keep a record of these ornaments by the year, and love the ritual of wrapping them in brightly-colored tissue paper once the season is over, the better to enjoy them anew the following year.  "It's like unwrapping presents!" my friend Sabrina said today as we made our way through the enormous box of ornaments.   Last year, saddened by the failing health of the elderly Mau-Mau, Alpay and I skipped the tree and did no pre-holiday entertaining.  This year, our first without the Mau, we watched the kittens discover the joy of swatting the peach-colored bulbs we got the year we had our international visitor, when Mau-Mau himself was still a kitten.  Traditions, I realized, help ease transitions.  Traditions honor the past while celebrating the present, and in that way, they are a gift, indeed.

Making the Most of Days Off

Thanks to company holidays and a stash of inadvertently hoarded vacation days, between today and December 29, I'll be putting in all of 4 hours at work. What to do with all that time off?

When presented with a few days off with nothing in particular scheduled, a little planning is in order. I've developed a two-pronged approach that helps to ensure that I don't end up wasting the time, while still allowing for some spontaneity:  I make a loose list of things that I'd like to do, whether fun things like visiting friends and going to the movies or tackling project around the house--and then I match up items with a day on my calendar, no more than one or two things a day.  This way, I prioritize what I really want to do and ensure I make time for doing the top things on my list, while guarding against over-scheduling, which I find stressful.  Outside of the one or two items to do each day, there's usually plenty of time to take on more things if I want, but if I don't, I don't.  It is a vacation, after all! 

To Do List: The Book

When I started looking into organizers, one of the things I realized right away is that the allure of perfectly typed data, a la Palm Pilot or online organizers, no longer interests me.  There's something about handwriting--quirky, immediate, gratifyingly low-tech--that I find appealing.

And so in the midst of researching Blackberries and project matrices, Productivity-this and Life-Plan-that,  I became mesmerized by To-Do List, a blog so funny, so strange and compelling, that I knew I'd end up writing about it here. To-Do List is the brainchild of Sasha Cagen, who collects other people's lists.  "Resolve cat thing," is an item I could particularly relate to on one such list that  made it into Sasha's recently published book, To-Do List: From Buying Milk to Finding a Soul Mate, What Our Lists Reveal About Us.  "Credit card thing" and "Diskette thing" also make the aforementioned list, which the anonymous list-maker titled, "Niggling things to do." In the absence of such titles, Sasha takes the liberty of naming the lists as appropriate: the "Vigorously Crossed Off List" and "Female MBA Searches for Male Doc," both found in the blog's archives,  are two of my favorites ("Get sick more often" and "Crash MD Assoc. parties" are two items on the latter list).

"December is truly the month for making lists," Sasha writes in her most recent blog entry, noting that it's "only to be outdone by the more contemplative and ambitious listyness of January." If you need a break or just want to have a little fun, consider putting a visit to Sasha's site at the top of a list of your own.

My Organizational Second Chances: How I Saved $1206 This Month

Last month, I wrote about how being organized saves money.  Having gotten myself all psyched up on how much money I was going to save by being organized, I promptly forgot all about it. 

Good intentions are nice, but they don't save you money.  I had a frequent-buyer voucher for $60 that I forgot about until three days after the deadline to use it.  I also missed the register-early-get-10% off  deadline for a watercolor class.  Then there was the $300 I missed out on by not  participating in a health assessment at work, even though my friend and co-worker (who has requested--rather inexplicably--that I call refer to him as  "Just Chewy" in this blog) reminded me three days before the deadline.  And in the rush to find a gift for my father, I forgot to check the perk programs my company and Alpay's company offers. 

In my pre-Quest days, I would avoid thinking about how much being disorganized was costing me, perhaps with the help of Haagen Daas. But--gosh darnit!--I now have an organization blog (or, as Alpay likes to say,a disorganization blog, but nevermind) which carries with it certain walk-the-talk implications.  And so I grabbed my Circa, wrote out my to do list, and started tackling the money-wasters one by one, figuring I had nothing to lose. 

Money Waster #1:  The Forfeited  Voucher

I called the customer service department to confirm the expiration date; it had indeed passed.  Before I could ask if anything could be done, the customer service agent offered to re-activate my voucher. Score!

Outcome:  $60 saved

Money Waster #2: The Forfeited Health Assessment Incentive

Before I had a chance to call the Benefits department at work, I got an email advising that the deadline had been extended by a week!  I sat down right then and there and took the assessment, and had Alpay do the same.

Outcome:  $300 saved

Money Waster #3:  Benefits Mistake

While tooling about the Benefits website, I decided to check on my benefit enrollments, as that seems like something a responsible, organized person might do.  Gazing at the computer screen with increasing horror,  I realized that for the past year, I'd signed up and been paying for dependent care, at the same rate as my flex spending.  Only I don't have any dependents who need care, unless you count Snapdragon and Lickity Split, and they're pretty independent even though they're only 8 and 9 months old.

I called the Benefits department and groped for an explanation as to why it took me over 11 months to notice I was paying dependent care for non-existing dependents.  I thought for sure they would laugh but--no!--others had made the same mistake.  They agreed to reimburse me, without drama or mockery.  Amazing!

Outcome:  $500 saved

Money Waster #4: Missed Discount for Gift

I actually had the gift in my "cart" at an online store, but hadn't yet checked out.  Excellent!  I went online and found a coupon code for free shipping.  I then checked the perk programs at my work and at Alpay's.  The purchase entitled earns me enough "points" to "buy" my regular moisturizer from the perk program choices.  Excellent squared!

Outcome:  $22 saved in shipping costs; $24 saved in free product

Money Waster #5: Missed Early Registration Deadline

This is the only second chance that failed; I emailed the director of the adult education center asking if I might still get the 10% discount, considering I was less than 24 hours late, and I didn't get any response.

Just as well.  Instead of counting this as a loss in terms of the discount, I'm claiming a victory.  I'll wait until the following quarter to take the class--if I take it at all.

Outcome:  $300 saved by not taking the class

Total Second Chance Tally:  $1206 saved! Those are real $$$, folks!

What can you do to save yourself some money, just by being organized?  Maybe you aren't driving your car as much as you used to; you may qualify for lower insurance rates for low-mileage drivers.  With  new lower interest rates on the horizon, maybe you could re-finance your mortgage?  Can you start a car pool and split the driving, the wear-and-tear on your car, and the cost of gas?  Is your water heater properly insulated?  Does your company have perk programs you could look into?  Perhaps you could join a buying club, like Sam's Club or Cosco? Or maybe--since there's lots of time until April--you could plan on doing your own returns this year, rather than have someone do them for you?  

There's real money to be saved by being organized.  Start now:  make a list the ways you could save.  I bet you'll be able to come up with 10 items, easy.  I invite you to post in the comments section your own ideas and a tally of money saved. 

Clutter-Free Gifts

Every year, it seems I have this conversation:  what to get for the person who has everything?  Or: what to get the person who is trying to not accumulate anything more?  Or:  unusual gifts.  Gifts a person would love but would never think to give themself.  Gifts that are about more than mere things. Et cetera.

One answer to all of these gift-giving conundrums is to shift the focus to give not things but experiences.  There's no accumulation involved, you don't have to worry about getting the right color or size, and unlike sweaters, a person can't have too many experiences. 

I've had great luck giving rounds of golf to my brother, giving my dad a gift card for his favorite restaurant, taking my sister to a Cub's game, and taking my niece to American Girl for brunch.  One year I gave Alpay a series of sailing lessons; another year, I arranged for a professional guide to teach him how to fish.  Last year, we gave eachother art lessons for our birthdays--I took a watercolor class and he took a drawing class.

There's no end to the variety of experiences you can give, but here's a list to get you started:

Fits-any-budget

• Gift certificate to Baskin Robbins, Starbucks
• Blockbuster or movie theater
• Manicures
• Tickets to college sports or theatrical productions
• Give your services:  babysitting, cooking, cleaning, house or pet sitting, creating a web site

Lessons of all types

• Piano, violin, saxophone, or any other musical instrument
• Singing
• Photography
• Watercolor, drawing, oil or acyclic painting
• Pottery
• Needlepoint
• Fishing
• Sailing
• Cooking or baking
• Scuba diving
• Tennis or racquetball
• Golf
• Skiing or snowboarding
• Skating

Luxury grooming experiences

• Facials
• Massages
• Manicures/Pedicures
• Make-overs

Ticket to cultural events

• Ballet
• Opera
• Theatre
• Symphony

Memberships

• Zoo or Aquarium
• Art Museum
• Botanic gardens
• Health spa

Help

• Dream dinners or Seattle Sutton
• Dog walkers/pet sitters
• Day care/babysitting
• Job coach
• Professional organizer
• Cleaning service

Mini-vacation

• Bed-and-Breakfast
• Tour in your city or a neighboring city

Sports

• Tickets to games
• Rounds of golf
• Swim pass
• Ski lift tickets
• Lessons

For the adventurous

• Hot air balloon ride
• Helicopter ride
• Horseback riding
• Glider ride
• Paintball

Making Kits to Organize Your Crafts

Whenever I go to a new watercolor class, there's a lot of oooohs and aaaaahs. It's not the level of my skill or the paintings themselves that get this reaction.  It's the kit of supplies I put together.

I first put together my own supply kit out of necessity:  I couldn't find any ready-to-buy kits that had the stuff I liked or needed for a price I was willing to pay.  And so I pieced together a kit of my own, hand-selecting the pigments I liked, adding a few necessary supplies: brushes and a palette, gum arabic and a couple of containers for water, a few pencils, paper towels, cotton balls, Q-tips, masking tape, and, of course, my color chart.

I found a lovely wooden gift box that was a good size--big enough to accommodate everything I needed while still being portable.  Two clear plastic boxes that came with Stampin' Up! stamp sets fit perfectly, and are ideal for storing watercolor tubes.  Supplies that didn't fit in the box fit easily in the nested containers for water:

   

It's easy, cost-effective, and fun to make your own kit for any number of crafting projects with the following steps:

1. Decide the purpose and scope of the kit. You'll need to decide if the purpose of your kit is to complete a single project or to enable you the flexibility to work on multiple projects. Typically my  needlepoint kits and scrapbook kits center on a single project, while my drawing and painting kits are intended to accommodate any number of projects.  It also helps to pinpoint where you'll be using your kit--if you'll be using your kit at home or if you'll need to transport it to a class--in order to determine how both large and how mobile your kit needs to be. 
2. Choose a suitable container.  Baskets, sealable plastic bags, and boxes or small plastic containers of all types make for good, practical containers for kits.  Before running out to buy anything, why not see what you already have on hand?
3. Carefully edit your selection to what you really need and use. This is easier if your kit is the one-project sort, but even if it's not, it's helpful to limit most of your supplies to old standbys, especially if you'll be using your kit away from home. 
4. Organize it.  Keep like things--i.e. paints, stamp pads, metallic threads--together, or put your supplies in the order they'll be used. 
5. Make it attractive, make it fun.  A kit is a gift you make to yourself, the better to enjoy your hobby.  While the bow on my watercolor kit is practical, as the box doesn't have any other kind of closure, it makes me smile every time I tie it up.  And every time I untie it, it feels like opening a present.

Color Chart How-Tos

We last discussed the role color charts play in keeping your arts or craft supplies organized.  Today I thought I'd share a few tips on making the charts themselves.

Use the materials  you'll be using for the real thing.  If you're doing a watercolor chart, use watercolor paper.  Will you be using Bristol with your colored pencils or card stock with your ink pad?  Then  use those materials for your color swatches.

Decide what order to use.  When organizing color, most people find the color wheel approach--starting with one color and then moving through the rainbow via analogous colors, i.e. yellow-orange-red-purple-blue-green--to be naturally intuitive.  Others may prefer to organize by the name, number, or "color family" the manufacturer uses.

Decide how to indicate the color on your chart.  Will you indicate the name next to or beneath the color?  This is probably the most common approach and it's convenient , but it can also be visually distracting.  What I like to do is to create an overlay of the color names on semi-translucent vellum (see the picture, above). You can also create a separate color key, reducing the scale as desired.

Keep it consistent.  Whatever the media you're working in--whether watercolor or acrylic paint, colored pencils, markers, pastels,  a stamp dye, or a pigment pad--keep the area for each swatch identical in size and in shape, the better distinguish the crucial difference:  color. This also means you'll want to apply the same stroke or use the same pressure for every color.  If you're using ink or pigment pads for stamps, use the same image for every color swatch.

See if the manufacturer offers blank charts. If you're primarily using a single manufacturer's product, blank charts from the manufacturer--often located on the company's website--are a convenient way to go.  Other manufacturers may send blank charts to you upon request, or include charts with the products they sell. The chart below is included with Copic marker pads and features the same paper for the chart as in the pad.

How Color Charts Can Help You Organize Your Art or Craft Supplies

Perhaps one of the more surprising tricks for organizing art supplies that I picked up in design school was the importance of making color charts. 

Color charts save you the time and the hassle of searching for the perfect color for any given project, and this in turn can prevent quite a bit of mess. I used to lug my entire selection of colored pencils or markers to my drafting table. The problem with such an approach is that my work area would be piled with supplies I didn't need, making for cramped conditions.  Nowadays, with my color chart in hand, I pull out just the supplies I need; it's easy, fast, and it ensures that I have the colors I want and the room I need in order to work.

Color charts also help prevent costly mistakes in buying art supplies, as you can bring your color chart with you on shopping trips to determine your purchases and avoid buying unintended duplicates. 

Lastly, I've found that it's especially useful to use a color chart as a kind of where-to-find-it guide, in that I put my supplies in the same order that I use in my charts.  Not only does this enable fast selection, but it is especially helpful for those supplies--such as pastels and colored pencils--that lose their labeling with use.  I love my Prismacolor pencils, but after sharpening a few times, good luck knowing what color they are, as the color code quickly gets whittled away.  The box the pencils came in is handsome enough, but doesn't stipulate what colors go where.  I just use my the color chart I made as my what-goes-where guide, and am never at a loss for finding a particular color.

The Storage Solution that Takes No Floor Space

When I traded in my big old oak schoolteacher's desk for a drafting table, the thing I missed the most was the drawer space, never mind that the drawers were always so crammed full of stuff that they weren't all that functional.  I packed the drawer contents into white IKEA boxes and have yet to really go through and figure out a better place for the things I don't need on a daily basis, but am not ready to get rid of just yet. 

More pressing was the need to figure out what to do with the supplies I do use. Complicating  matters  was the very tight quarters I have to work with:  my study is only 1O'-6" wide.  The drafting table is 2'-6", the clearance for the desk chair is a good 2'-O', and my easy chair on the opposite wall takes up 5'-6" when fully extended.  So that leaves, let's see:  6" to play with.  Not a lot of space.

Fortunately I recalled Julia Child's method of organizing her kitchen pots, pans, and tools:  inspired by her husband's tidy tool organization in the garage, she asked her husband to fix up a peg-board system on the walls. After deciding on the location of various pots and pans, she outlined their place on the pegboard so she'd wouldn't have to re-invent the wheel of figuring out where something went.  Simple, inexpensive, and easy to maintain.

I liked the idea of a pegboard supply board, but the style was a little too rustic for my taste.  With a little looking, I found super-cool, modern stainless steel boards at the Container Store.  While the model I got has since been discontinued, they still carry other magnetic boards.  The array of magnets and accessories available make it easy to customize the boards to suit your needs, and you'd be amazed just how much stuff you can fit on these things. And best of all, it's attractive, practical, low-cost  storage that takes up no floor space!

 

On my boards, magnetized pencil cups hold everything from pens and lead holders to an exacto knife and paintbrushes.  Magnetic hooks provide a home for my triangles and scissors; by using two hooks, I discovered I could securely balance my triangular-shaped architect's scale, as well as my favorite flat brush.  Two rounded magnetics shaped like push pins use the same principle to hold a fountain pen. Strong magnetic pegs hold a colort chart, various templates, my French curves, ruler, drafting brush, and erasing shield.  Three canisters hold things too bulky to otherwise go on the board:  a lead sharpener, rubber fingers, and gummy erasers. A bendable rule is supported by the canisters on one end of a board and a magnet on the other end. There's even room for fun:  a favorite recent card my sister gave me, a sketch I made of a chair I like, colorful paper umbrellas that act as my version of an "executive toy", and pictures that make me smile.

Organizing Craft Paper

Back in September during Closet Week, I posted pix of the 39" closet I got from IKEA that I use as my craft closet, including pictures of scrapbook paper storage. 

The PAX shallow pull-out drawers have dimensions similar to flat files--roughly 35" wide x 21" deep--that make them ideal for storing larger pieces of paper, such as art paper, the cover stock I use when making my own folios, and even just nice wrapping paper:

 

This modified, flat-file approach is the only way I've found to satisfactorily store large pieces of paper, but the method is not without its flaws: any addition or subtraction to the drawer requires careful manipulation of all the surrounding pieces in order to keep the files looking tidy, an effort I find tedious.Still, I find that it's better--more convenient and less mess--than rolling large pieces of paper and storing them in tubes, which is another time-honored approach to large-paper storage.

For smaller, more standard-size paper, such as 8-1/2" x 11" card stock, I much prefer to use hanging folders, which I find easier to access than the non-hanging sort.  Because I was a demonstrator for an art supply company in a previous life, I have a life-time supply of their paper stock, and since I'm familiar with the names of the colors, I find it useful to name my file folders accordingly, one file for each color.  For those with less elaborate collections, a system system based on the six major colors--green, blue, purple, red, orange, and yellow--plus another folder for white/cream card stock and one folder each for black, metallics, and neutrals--might suit you fine. 

 
Above: letter-sized hanging files for 8-1/2" x 11" card stock.  The different file colors reflect the manufacturer's "color families".  For easy identification, I use the Smead Labeling system referred to in previous posts.  I inserted a hanging file frame which I cut to the exact dimensions of my shallow PAX sliding shelf, creating a customized filing drawer.  In the process, I gained a good 25% more filing space than with the standard filing box I previously used.

Note to scrapbookers:  A friend from my demonstrator days told me that she uses a legal-size file cart and accompanying hanging folders, which apparently fit 12" x 12" scrapbooking paper.  I haven't tried this myself, but if you're struggling with piles upon piles of scrapbook paper, you might take a 12" x 12" sheet to your local office supply store and see if it fits into a legal-size hanging folder and cart.

Cleaning Graphite, Paint, Oil Pastel, Charcoal, and More, the Easy Way

Crafts are messy, as anyone who has drawn in charoal or has tried to remove the oil pastel stains can attest. When I was in design school, I would regularly scrub my drafting table, which tested both my patience and my upper-body strength, "scrub" indeed being the operative word. "Scour" was more like it.  Who'd imagine that graphite, a substance so easily erasable, would be so hard to clean?  Plain old soap-and-water was no match for the Mighty Graphite, which also made mockery of cleaning wipes.  I tried scrubber sponges.  I tried scrubbing brushes.  Finally I turned to my trusty Comet, which worked, but it left a fine grit that took multiple rinses to alleviate, and required further wiping with a soft cloth to get rid of the grit altogether in a process not unlike polishing a vintage Rolls Royce and took about as long.

One day, regaling my fellow students with the tale of my labor-intensive graphite-cleaning routine, my friend Jackie waited until I was done and then came over and put a hand on my shoulder.  "Haven't you ever heard of the Magic Eraser?" she asked.  I had not.  Moreover, I was suspicious of any product  with the word "magic" in its name, having never recovered from the trauma of the none-too-magical jumping beans I bought with an entire week's allowance when I was six.  But Jackie's testimonial ("one wipe and the graphite's gone") was so compelling, I couldn't resist.  And so I picked up a Mr.Clean Magic Eraser and--holy smokes, it worked! What used to take more than 15 minutes now took less than three.  And I didn't have to work my biceps in the process.

I found a fun blog that lists a good 5O uses for the Magic Eraser, including everything from removing scuff marks to nail polish spills. The only thing I can vouch for is graphitepaint-oil pastel-and-charcoal  removal, but looking at the list on the blog, I just may have to experiment a bit.