Guest Blog Post at The Work at Home Woman!
March 2, 2010 by Nikki · Leave a Comment
Recently, I had the privilege to write a guest blog post for, The Work at Home Woman. This is a great website and I highly recommend you check it out! 
The article, Get Your Home Office Organized, is about giving your desk a makeover. Something we all should do from time to time! Just this past weekend, my husband and I cleared our office and recycled 2 bags of paper! No matter how organized you are, you always need to do a purging session every now and then!
When you get busy, and in our case we both share the same space, you must maintain the organization by taking time to file, purge, and rework your system. It makes a difference. It felt so good to get the office back to working for us and not against us!
Happy Organizing!
Don’t Be Late..
February 19, 2010 by Nikki · 1 Comment
Do you find yourself running out the door usually about 5 minutes late? Or realize you didn’t give yourself enough time in between appointments to get from location A to location C? It happens, and with kids it happens to me more now. It’s stressful if you know you need to be somewhere and the clock keeps ticking away! 
So is there anything we can do to change this bad habit? Sure!
We often confuse the amount of time things should take to the amount they actually take. The best thing we can do is figure out the gap. How long do I really need to get the family ready in the morning? How long is my commute to work? Not what I think it should be.
For one week, make up a journal and carry it around with you. And write out your day. Write down how long it took you get ready for the day. Write down your commute time from home to the office. And if you are late, write it down, how late you were, why were you late, who did it effect? Just by seeing it on paper can really make a difference. Then you can start working on the solutions.
When planning your day or week, block out commute times, this will really help make sure you have enough time to get from A to C without overlap. For example if you have to be at a meeting at 9AM, and it takes 30 minutes to get there, block in your calendar that you are out from 8:15AM on. This gives you time for the unexpected. Because as we all know the unexpected can happen frequently.
In summary, the best prevention to being late is planning ahead and being as prepared as you can be. And expect the unexpected! Take little steps to see if you can make a difference. By just setting your alarm 15 minutes earlier, or laying out clothes and making lunches the night before. Think about what small changes you can make to stop feeling so rushed and the stress that being late causes, not only to you but to the people waiting for you!
Happy Organizing!
Teaching Children To Be Organized
February 15, 2010 by Nikki · Leave a Comment
Recently I was interviewed for a blog post at “Organize This Life”!
One of the questions they asked was: “How can parents teach their children to be organized?
My answer.. “You teach your kids to be organized by being organized yourself. By setting the example that organization is an important part of life. Setting up daily routines and structure in your home. Teaching them to be organized is teaching them to value their belongings and space. Taking pride and being grateful for what they have.”
I wanted to share this answer with you mainly for a couple of reasons, one I believe organization is a life long skill that we can teach our children. And a very important one. Our lives are less stressful and less chaotic when there is some sense of order. When we plan we are often more organized. When we find what we need, when we need it, we are more organized. Our children see what we do, they see how we live, and often times end up living the same way.
However, this does not mean everything is perfect. In fact it never is. Your house is not always going to be clean and closets do get messy. Having children means stepping on a lego or two! Life happens.
Organization is not perfection and it’s not the same for everyone. Finding the right balance for you and your family is what we are striving for!
Happy Organizing!
(To read the entire interview, click here)
A Few of My Favorite Things!
February 12, 2010 by Nikki · 1 Comment
To keep with the theme of the kitchen, I have compiled a few of my favorite kitchen organizing products. All of these items can be found at the Container Store. There a lot of great products out there and this is only a sample… What are some of your favorite things? 
1. Junk Drawer Organizer – A must for keeping your junk drawer contained. It’s a great way to find what you need when you need it!
2. Plastic Wrap / Tin Foil Organizer - If you have the space in a pantry or cupboard, this is a great tool in keeping those long wraps under wrap!
3. Lazy Susan- This is a great organizing tool pretty much anywhere in your home but it is particullary helpful in the kitchen. By keeping all like items 
together it’s easy to turn and go right to what you need!
4. Freezer Containers – This is a product I have used for clients in the past. It helps contain like items together in your freezer. It keeps it all together but because it’s wire like, you can easily see everything too. 
5. Baking Pan Divider – This is a great way to organize the muffin pans, baking sheets etc. Sometimes it can become a real mess and difficult to pull things out when you need them. Not with this system, it keeps them organized and easy to get! 
There are so many great products out there and it’s very easy to get ahead of yourself and buy before you know what you need. Remember to take measurements of the space and only buy it if you will use it!
Happy Organizing!
Meal Planning!
February 10, 2010 by Nikki · Leave a Comment
Grocery shopping and Meal planning! Two things that sometimes I enjoy doing and other times I dread. When I dread it the most is when I have not planned ahead. I hate the feeling of it’s 5:00pm and I have no idea what to make for dinner. Asking my children is not a good idea, they will say McDonald’s! Asking my husband is often no help, because he never cares what we have for dinner! So what to do?
Ideas to relieve the dreadful 5PM hour:
- Make a list of everything you like to cook. This gives you a list to refer back to when you are planning your weekly meals.
- When planning your meals, take into consideration everyone’s schedule. The weeknights can get busy in our house, between sport practices, meetings etc. On busy days, decide on take out, or an easy meal to put together.
- Plan your meals has a family, if everyone gets to pick out a meal within reason, you will eliminate some of the “I don’t like this”, however in my house it never eliminates it completely, but it’s something!
- Plan your meals for the week and then go grocery shopping. This saves you time and money. You will not buy anything extra you do not need.
- Keep your weekly planner of meals and reuse it for a different week. You don’t have to recreate the wheel each time.
- There are many resources and websites geared to helping you plan your menu. Check them out and see if it’s a good fit for your family. Also consider places like Dinners Done Right, where you can go and prepare the meal, freeze it and then eat it later. I know a lot of families who find this helpful during busy sport seasons, surgeries, new babies, etc. ( TCO can also help you with meal planning as part of our service! )
- Most important – schedule meals together with your family. Use this time to reconnect and talk about your day. Turn off the TV and don’t answer the phone. Just focus on each other.
Happy Organizing!
What can you do in 15 minutes?
February 8, 2010 by Nikki · Leave a Comment
What can you do in 15 minutes to organize your kitchen? Many things! Just spending a little time each day can and will make a big difference!
What can you do today in 15 minutes? 
Clear out one cupboard - the other day, while I was watching Oprah, I decided to clear out our cup cupboard. This cupboard had been bothering me for some time. We had a bunch of old sippy cups and “to go” coffee mugs with no lids! It literally took less than 15 minutes to clear out. Even my husband noticed how organized it was! Get rid of the dishes you are no longing using, the dishes that are missing partners or are broken.
Purge the Junk Drawer - You don’t need to organize it all at one time, just take a few minutes to throw away anything you no longer need. Old menus, old notes, check for pens that no longer work.
Clear out the Utensil Drawer- I am so guilty of buying the latest and greatest utensil thinking I may use it. I have not once used my lemon zester! Time to take inventory, donate, and keep what you love and what you use!
Do One Large Sweep- Set the timer for 15 minutes and go through as many cupboards and drawers as you can and donate all of the old appliances you no longer need, want, or are broken.
Clean the surfaces of your refrigerator- Having a clean refrigerator makes a difference. I suggest taking out old food right before your trash day. Take a damp washcloth with a little soap and clean the spills.
Pantry- I hate to admit this, but sometimes food is wasted at our house. And it is always a good idea to check the pantry for stale potato chips and moldy bread. You can do this very quickly, and then take note of what did not get eaten and don’t buy it again! Or at least make sure the bread is eaten quicker!
Spices- Take a few minutes to do a little spice inventory, what do you have, what are you low on. Re-organize them. Sometimes depending on who is cleaning up the meal, the spices sometimes get put back in the wrong spot, now is the time, to make sure they are all together.
What are you going to do today?
Happy Organizing!
Family and Laundry!
February 3, 2010 by Nikki · 3 Comments
In the last post we talked about setting a schedule to get the laundry done. Now we focus on getting other family members involved in the process!
There have been many times in my home where I it was left to me to get this done. Now I have to say my dear husband is a great help and actually enjoys doing the laundry from time to time. And if someone has a nasty stain, he is the one to go too! But when I decided to get my children involved in the process, it really did made a difference. It actually took less time and the chore felt less daunting.
Depending on the ages of your children will factor on how much they can actually help. But I believe the earlier you start the better! Children has young as 2-3 years can help sort clothes.
Here are a few tips:
- Make it the child’s responsibility to bring the clothes to the utility room.
- Have your children sort the clothes by color. This is a great learning opportunity for smaller children. Have them separate towels from the clothes. What in this pile does not look like the others? So many great lessons to be learned!
- If your children are old enough- have them be responsible for their own laundry. My sister has two boys, both teenagers, she tells them, the weekends are yours, you do your laundry anytime during the weekend. If they don’t do it, they suffer the consequences. And believe me, they have! Unfortunately, so have the people around them!
- Once the laundry is complete, have every family member put their own clothes away. Set you your children’s closet and dresser drawers so this is easy for them to do. The top drawer is all socks and underwear, the middle is pajama’s, the bottom are pants and t-shirts.
- I have heard different ideas for the towel dilemmas we may encounter. One is to have each family member have their own color towel. Again, if your kids are older, they are responsible for their own towels. It eliminates any fighting between siblings. I also had a reader suggest towel charms for each family member. Another way to keep track of what belongs to whom.
- If you are teaching your kids to do the laundry, place a list of directions on how to run the washer and dryer. Have pre-made bags of detergent ready to go. Have a list of items that do not go into the dryer.
Tips on socks! This is a huge sore spot in my family! My husband wants to have the socks for everyone to be rolled up and put together. I understand this is easier. My issue is the time. I don’t have time to put everyone’s socks together. His argument is it takes time to find the matching sock. True. My solution: buy all the same kind of sock in the same colors, no more wondering if they match, because they are all the same. So the next time you go to buy socks, remember it will be easier if they are all the same! But we still have some issue with my daughters socks. I have delegated this matching and rolling socks to my husband. He is now in charge of socks. You can also delegate this task to your children. They may have a lot of fun, searching for the missing sock. You can also pin socks together before washing them. This makes it easy because they are never apart from each other.
How do you get your family involved? If you have a great tip, please share! We would love to hear from you!
Happy Organizing!
Coming up: Recommend products for your Utility Room!
Build a Laundry System!
February 1, 2010 by Nikki · 1 Comment
Recently I asked my readers, “what is your biggest organizing challenge?” Laundry fell into the top 2 headaches we have in running our households!
We all have it and most of us dread it!
To eliminate the nagging feeling of when is the laundry going to get done… Think about creating a system for your laundry. Creating a system means creating a schedule.
Here are a few ideas to get you started!
- Decide on a schedule - do you prefer to do laundry during the week or leave it for the weekends? There are pros and cons for each. Doing a little each day means having your weekends free. On the flip side waiting until the weekend, means you do not have to worry about it during the week. Some like to do a little bit of laundry everyday. Others have designated days for different loads. For example; Mondays- towels, Tuesdays – adult clothes, Wednesdays- children’s clothes. The point is to have some kind of schedule you can follow as a guideline. This will not always be the same every week as schedules change, but it’s a good starting point.
- Once you set a schedule, make sure your family is aware. If you have decided Friday is the day, make sure all of the laundry is in by 8am! Family involvement will help maintain your system. More on this later.
- Do laundry from the beginning to the end. This does not matter if you haven chosen one day or every day of the week. Finishing from beginning to end means all clothes washed that day are put away. By making it a priority to complete the loads means you will not accidently leave anything in the washer! And your utility area will stay neater and be more organized!
- Make sure each family member has their own hamper. To eliminate some of the sorting, do the laundry by family member rather than putting all the clothes together. First load belongs to Suzy, second load belongs to Johnny, and so on. Buy hampers that are divided into sections. Teach your family to put the whites in one section, darks in another. It can eliminate you from doing all of the sorting.
Quick Tip: Some will say to start your washer before you leave for work, and then when you come home, put in the dryer. Well, I am one to not recommend this. About 2 years ago, we had a flood in our house due to the washer machine. The water never stopped filling up. I was home, so I lucky caught it in time to where it did not cause too much damage..I can’t even imagine if I was not home, what the outcome would have been. My tip: Run all of your appliances, washing machines, dryers, and dishwasher only when you are home!
What is your system at home? Do you have something to share? Believe me, mom’s all over are looking for ideas! We would love to hear yours!!
NEXT BLOG POST: Getting your family involved in helping with the laundry!
Coming Up at TCO!
January 31, 2010 by Nikki · Leave a Comment
I am trying something new. I wanted to bring a little more structure to my blog posts. So for the next few weeks I have chosen different themes to talk about for the week.
This week, I am going to be discussing The Laundry Room! When I asked mom’s to tell me their biggest challenges, this was one that came up over and over again!
Starting Monday, February 1st, read about: Laundry Systems. Coming up: Family & The Laundry, and Recommended Products.
If there is a particular topic you would like to see … Please let me know…You can comment on this post, you can send me a note on my site, you can send me a direct message at nikki@takecontrolorganizing.com, or send me a direct message on Twitter@TCOrganizing. Let me know! And I’ll keep working to make this site a destination for organizing tips and tools that help you keep your house in order!
Happy Organizing!
Great Organizing Giveaway!
January 29, 2010 by Nikki · Leave a Comment
Did you know January is “Get Organized Month”? To honor the Organizing Industry, Professional Organizers around the nation worked together to deliver the Great Organizing Giveaway!
What is the Great Organizing Giveaway? Organizers compiled a number of different items to be given away. This event is open to anyone who wants to be more organized! It doesn’t matter where you live, many of these gifts are downloadable from your computer. Participates are able to sign up to get FREE e-books, audio downloads, organizing tip sheets, complementary consultations, and much more!
There is great information for almost any aspect of organizing you may be looking for. Take Control Organizing has contributed an e-book, titled; ” Getting Started: 10 Key Principles You Need to Know Before Starting Your Organizing Journey!” This e-book is available on my website.
Here are just a few of the items to look for:
- Getting Things Done- How to set up chores
- 9 strategies for Simplifying your Life today!
- 112 tips to Organize Your Workday
- Mess is stress!
- Finally Filing Made Easier
- It’s Time… Stop Procrasinating Now!
- Timely Tax Tips
- 51 Creative Organizing Solutions Found in Every Day Items
- Getting Started: 10 Key Principles You Need to Know Before Starting Your Organizing Journey!
- And Much, Much More!
Happy Organizing!
