One of the Best Ways I Stay Organised - Organising

Today I thought I would share 1 of my favourite apps for keeping me organised in all aspects of my life but very much so in the home situation.

I am very much a

"what's the best free app for this situation?"

type of gal


so most of the apps I have are free.


However the one I am going to talk about today is not.


This is what happened......

Once upon a time there was a handsome prince who went on a journey to a far off land and returned to his beautiful princess with a precious gift (which at that particular time she did not realize she wanted).

But because of the personality of the handsome Prince, he insisted that his Princess do something immediately he had given her the gift.

He told her she had to buy something to add to the gift.


Ok so the handsome Prince was my husband Fred and I'm his beautiful Princess.

He had gone to America on business and returned with an iPad for me.

( yes it really was a present just for me and even though he said later we were meant to share it, that was too late because I had completely fallen in love with it by then and he had to get his own)

As soon as we set it up he said we had to buy a certain app for it because he had heard it was very good and knew I would want to use it.

Of course I knew nothing about apps at this stage and certainly did not know you could get free ones so I did as he said ( yes I'm an obedient Princess too)





And this is the app we bought

Things     PAID
I use this app every day and I use it in various ways.

At this point I would like to state that I am not being compensated or sponsored in any way for this post about the Things App - I just wanted to tell you about one of the ways I stay organized.

UPDATE:    The app is now called   THINGS 3  and  looks slightly different to the pics below but it is even better than before.

Firstly I use the Today feature in the listing to see all the things that I should do each day or that need to be done soon and today might be the best opportunity to do them.

So everyday I keep checking off in this list hoping that someday I will do everything that falls for that day - not happened ever yet!


Any time I want to add a todo item I can either just leave it without a due date so that it just appears in my today list all the time until it is completed or sits in my Next list.

If I choose a due date I can also pick how many days before that date I want it to appear in my today list coming up to the date.

Then there is the great scheduling feature where I can schedule something for a particular day.
Not only for a particular day but I can also have it as a recurring todo ie. every week, every month, every year, every 9 days even.

There is a section for Projects as well and depending on what you want to do you can adapt the project feature to suit you.

There are also Areas that you can place your todos in.

For the Home I have some areas as you can see above like housework, and the odd project but I also use some of the other areas like daily, weekly, monthly.

I love the way I can keep track of when things need paid or need to be cleaned or need to be bought like birthday cards, presents and especially coming up to Christmas I utilize the Projects section for different lists.

You can see my Christmas List by Names below and then when I click on each name I have my Notes within that one for the ideas I have for their gifts.

Another thing I find very helpful is keeping track of the food in the house especially in the freezer.

As I put something away I note it in my Next list with the date I need to use it by and how many days in advance of this that I want to be notified by.

Then I use the Tags feature so that any time I want to check up or plan ahead about meals I simply go into the Next list and filter it by my choice of tag which would be food in this case and it will bring up all the food in different cupboards and fridge and freezer and the date it is due by.

I can refine this even further because I have tags in for each of the cupboards and fridge and freezer so can turn up just the contents of one of these at a time too.

Other tags can be centred around time, priority, or any kind of category you can think of.

I can also order everything by due date as well.

Most of my home life can be ordered by this app but I do love to use other list apps too.

One way to help stay organised

Definitely FUNWORK  because anything on the Ipad is funwork to me and didn't I say it involved lists and lists and lists and you know I LOVE LISTS

How to PREPARE for a Car Boot Sale! - 13 Helpful Tips

Very busy recently with clearing out some of our daughters things from our house while she was here for a short holiday from South Korea.

She was sooooo good about making decisions on the things that she had left behind in our Guest Room.

I should have taken pictures of the before but I didn't think at the time.

Anyway she had things in:

• two sets of drawers, 
• one hanging rail 
• several bags and boxes piled up in another hanging area

Now she has things in:

• one sets of drawers, 
• half of one hanging rail 

Didn't she do well!!

She spurred me on so that I packed up quite a few things for the Church Car Boot Sale (as well as the things she was donating) and actually was able to go and help out at one of them.

Here again I should have got some pictures of the Car Boot Sale but hindsight is a great thing.


I do have some pictures of the things I decluttered and put out for the Car Boot Sale however.

Car Boot Sale

Before going to a Car Boot Sale it really is a good idea to be as organised as possible as well as making sure that the items you are going to sell are clean and not broken or chipped.

I was going with a friend but we were both taking our own cars and setting up our own tables.

# 1.   Make sure you go early, yes earlier than the organisers of the Car Boot Sale tell you to be there because the people who want to buy will come early and you really need to be set up first.

We parked the cars side by side and had our Church Charity Banner to tie between the two cars.

# 2.   If you are selling for a charity or special cause do make sure you have some kind of banner or sign up because some people will be a little more generous when they know the money is not just going into your pocket.  

Our church has been doing this for a few years now so we have a good banner and we also have some postcard sized cards with more info. printed for giving out.

I have two tables to take with me:  a large square one and a small, low rectangular one.

# 3.   Not everything you have for sale should be on the one table and two different heights is also a good idea drawing the eyes to look around more.

# 4.   A table always looks better if you have a cloth draped over it.   Yes you are selling things cheaply but presentation still draws people to look more closely.

Then I can also put some baskets on the ground too.


I put all the Dvds into one basket

I put all the books into one basket

I put small items that I could charge 20p for into a tin

I put items I could charge 50p for into a basket

# 5.   Not everything you have for sale should be placed on the table for everything to get moved around by the buyers as things will get hidden from sight and the tables will start to look very untidy very quickly.

# 6.   Putting similar items eg. the dvds into the same basket will draw the buyer to take a minute to look through each one.

# 7.   Smaller items are better in baskets, boxes or tins to have less items falling on the ground or getting missed under larger items and simply to keep the area neater.

I put all the clothes into one bag for carrying there and then they can be placed neatly on a table or hung up on a rail.

# 8.   Clothes should always be kept separate where possible so that people can spread them out and have a good look at them without hiding the other items for sale and a rail shows garments off better than having them all bundled on top of each other on a table.

I put all the kitchen, dining or ornamental things in one bag for carrying to the Car Boot Sale and then these would be placed on the table there.

I put all the candles into one lidded container

# 9.   Use sturdy plastic containers which can be placed on the ground giving another place for buyers to look instead of everyone at the same time trying to stretch over the main table.

I placed all the Christmas items in one bag together.

Yes I know it's only September but people are buying Christmas decorations already.

# 10.   Christmas items will sell at any time of the year but it is better to keep them to one side of the main table or on the smaller table so that they have a specific place and do not seem strange mixed in with other household items.

I had a brand new King size Sheet and a brand new pair of pyjamas to take as well

I had 3 large craft type bags and two handbags but only took this picture of 2 of the bags (all 3 large craft bags sold easily - should have asked for more money)

# 11.   Bags are always an attraction for the ladies to have a look at but remember to try to display them nicely and not just throw them into a bag or box as they are never seen to their best advantage in that way.

I also had a pile of hangers to use or to sell

I also made some notices on card to show the price of the items in certain containers

# 12.   Never go to a Car Boot Sale without some price signs.  People will buy quicker when they know the price (and maybe try to do a deal), whereas they may think twice about asking for the price of every object they are interested in.

All of this makes it easier for you to:

•  pack the car to go to the sale, 
•  unload unto the tables and ground for the sale, 
•  pack the things away again into the same bags 
•  lift the baskets back into the car.

Then of course when I got home again it was easy to unload the bags and baskets etc. into the garage to wait for the next one.

Of course there is the last very important thing that you must never forget and should have it prepared in advance.

#13.   Don't forget to have a float of money with you (and a safe place to keep it) to give 

your customers change from the nice large notes you hope they will be parting with 

and also of course to pay for your spot at the event.

A Car Boot Sale can be hard work but if you are friendly with the people who come to look around then they will be friendly too and make the event more pleasant.   Plus going with a friend means you can have a chat now and again and a break for coffee as you can take it in turn to look after both sets.
So it can actually turn out to be some Funwork instead of Housework for a morning.


The first time takes a lot of preparation but once everything is well thought out and good containers acquired each time afterwards is easier to prepare for and more importantly the prep time is so much shorter.

Then just think of the help this will be in decluttering and organising your home.

An Organised Medicine Cabinet - Organising My Home

Yes I do like to keep my Medicine Cabinet organised so that I can get things quickly and easily.

It is probably one of the best organised things in our home.

But then that kind of storage space is one of the things I enjoy working on when it comes to Organising my home.

I didn't always have a medicine cabinet so I had to think of other easy to get at and easy to keep organised places.

In one house we used part of a vanity unit in the ensuite

and

in another house we used a couple of shelves in a kitchen cabinet

but this time when we moved back to Northern Ireland in Dec 2010 we moved to a house which had a medicine cabinet over the wash hand basin in the back toilet.

Yes a real medicine cabinet just like I always saw in the films and TV programmes - you know they are tall and shallow out from the wall with a mirror door.

Now if this had been our main bathroom I suppose I would have been tempted to think I would need to use it for Bathroom things - but it is in the back toilet.  This is the small room that is off the utility room and I really think it would have made more sense to use the space as a pantry or large storage closet (because you can never have too much storage space and I do not have enough storage space).


We have an ensuite off our bedroom and an ensuite off the guest bedroom as well as the main bathroom so let's face it this back toilet is never really used as a toilet and who wants to have to clean 4 bathrooms and toilets when mostly there are only two people in the house?  -  NOT ME!


Anyway back to my Medicine Cabinet which makes me happy again.


Twice a year I do an overhaul of this cabinet

and because I do it regularly you can see it is not in bad order.



Firstly 
I check all the dates of the medicines etc. and throw out the ones that are past their date.

(NOTE:  A doctor did tell me once that many medicines can be used for up to 6 months after the date written on them but that it is definitely okay to use them up to 3 months after the date.)


I used to have to literally check each packet for the date every time I would do this but now I use my "Things" app on my ipad to keep a note of the expiry dates (typing these into the app when I put the product into the Medicine cabinet) so I only have to go into the app & use my tag of "medicine cabinet" and I get the list and the dates all in one go.

These will each show in my Todo list 14 days before they are up so I normally will be ready and throw them out as they expire and don't even have to do it all at the overhaul.




Secondly 
I do an inventory of the cabinet.


I have the list of all the items I like to keep in stock, shelf by shelf

I had used ( my other beloved iPad app for making lists) the "Pocket Lists" App for making a full list of everything I would like to have here and because I did it shelf by shelf it makes it really easy to go through.


Which means that now each time all I have to do is tick off all the things I can see on the shelves and whatever is left unticked is obviously missing.  This is due to not knowing when the hubby finishes off something or just something being taken out and not returned.

This happened with the scissors - to cut a long story short they ended up in a bin at a foreign airport.




Thirdly 
I make a list of the things that will need to be replenished soon.


In my "Things" App I made a Project list and it just gets changed each time.

Well the list here is not too long this time because on one of my last trips to the chemist I knew roughly what was getting low so had already got some things.



Forthly 
I tidy up what is in the cabinet and decide if I want to make any changes to the position and order of the items.


Sometimes there are different things that have been added if someone needs to have a new medication or you decide to start taking a new vitamin etc.

An Organised Medicine Cabinet in Organising My Home at Sandra's Ark

So the finished cabinet was just a little more uncluttered than to start with and neater.

Of course the few spaces you see will be filled up when I go and get that list of items next week.



You know when you have a cupboard you can easily fill it?


Well I have done that of course and then needed more space so I had to use part of the vanity unit below.

Mostly the things here were really the items that were too large to put in the shallower medicine cabinet or would not sit so well piled up on a narrow shelf so I would have needed another location for them even if the medicine cabinet wasn't filled up.

So bandages etc. in the left hand drawer, extra cotton buds and hand sanitizing wipes in the right hand drawer and the larger heating pad and creams in the right hand cupboard.

And just a wee reminder of my "MUST HAVE" in any kitchen or bathroom

it is

the packet of wipes (and a sponge) in the left cupboard, 

nothing is handier for quick clean ups than wipes.

An Organised Sun Room

The Sun tried to come out on different occasions this month but was terribly hindered by the wintery conditions that kept butting in like winds and rain and sleet and hailstones.

I was tackling the Sun Room but this fact about the weather did not encourage me at all.
Though as I write this the back garden is brightly lit from the sun after another lot of hailstones yesterday.

The Sun Room

The Sun Room in itself did not need much work as there are not too many places for items to be kept.

But a few tips are always useful to keeping it organised.

1.  Think about what you want in your Sun Room
2.  Think about what you want to be able to take outside quickly
3.  Think about how to make things HANDY!

The only cupboard we have in the Sun Room is in the TV unit and it is useful for storing light bulbs which I sorted and made a note of the types we did not have a spare one of.


Also in that cupboard we keep the 3D glasses that the kids got at various times just in case we need them to go see a 3D film sometime - which really is a very faint probability as Fred & I have not ever gone to a 3D film.  Perhaps the kids should have each kept theirs for wherever they are?


Then the other main things in that cupboard are

• a few puzzle magazines,
• Sun Tan lotion,
• Sun Tan wipes
• After Sun Wipes
• and some pairs of sunglasses.

This is a useful spot to keep these as the Sun Room opens out to the Patio and when the sun appears (for the short periods that happens here in Northern Ireland and let's face it we need to make the best opportunity as we can of those short periods of time) we can grab those things on the way out to sit on the Patio or Deck area.


The bulbs were already in a basket but these Sunny Day items were just lying in the cupboard so I got one of my favourite small Lakeland Storage Caddies for these items that we need for hopping out to sit in the sun.
You can see in the pictures above & below that it is ideal in size and that handle makes it so easy to grab.

What else might I want in that cupboard if I am going to use it daily during the next 5/6 months?

Well I decided to add

• a post it pad 
• a notepad 
• and a pen 

 because those are always useful things to have at hand instead of having to run to the study.

PLUS 

there was still room for the three remotes that are needed in that room.

Lastly 

There are two other things that I like to keep in the Sun Room but they will not be in that cupboard.

A navy fleecy throw 

which is very handy if it gets a bit cooler in the evenings 

or even if I just feel like curling up on the sofa to read .

The 4 cushions for the Patio Chairs 

which I keep in a jute type bag pretty much out of sight behind the chair which sits beside the door out to the patio so that any time we are going out for breakfast we just grab a cushion on the way past.  

With our climate the cushions never stay out!

I have already written about how much I love Arks and pictures of Arks last year but now I had decided that some of these may go soon!!! but some will stay here in the Sun Room.  Some of my favourite Ark pictures just match in nicely with the style and decor of the Sun Room.

Here are two on the bookcase that holds most of our CDs



And here is another one above a window

That does not mean that some other Ark decor items will not be found in other rooms in the house of course.

An Organised Dressing Room!

The first thing we did in the dressing room when we moved into this house 4 years ago was to put in fitted wardrobes along two walls with mirrored doors which make the room brighter and bigger.

This was not as straightforward as most wardrobe fitting companies want it to be because we had slanted ceilings and it affected both walls in two different ways so some of them just said

 
              "No, sorry we can't do that"


Well we did get it done and it was one of the best things we have done as it used up space along one wall in the room which was not tall enough for normal wardrobes and space on the other wall which we were able to use right up to the normal height of the ceiling and gave us 6 sections of wardrobes and shelving space.


It also meant that there was still plenty of space in the room for us to put up an extra double bed when there are more family coming to visit.

We use the electric EZ Bed for this.
I purchased it on a TV channel which is not the norm for me as I rather see these channels but I also got one of my best ever buys from there too - my steamer.


However because we kept meaning to get the plaster on another wall fixed and the room painted and new carpet put down I never really sorted out the wardrobes properly until now.

Yes we had one wall with huge cracks and bits of plaster always falling on the floor.

But now these cracks have been dealt with

and the room has been painted

and the wardrobes have been sorted.



Along the high wall

Left Wardrobe

Too many shirts were pushed in together and mixed up
but
a quick removal of all the short-sleeved shirts and then colours put together better
left a not so crushed pile of shirts
and 2 neater looking rails.

The top shelf didn't need to be touched at all.


Middle Wardrobe

This one was a bit of a crazy mixture so some things were able to be thrown out and some removed to be put elsewhere leaving room for all the short-sleeved shirts and a few long things.

The top shelf was fine, the shelf below just needed to be rearranged to hold the four pillows for use with the EZ double bed we can add to that room.

The bottom of the wardrobe still holds the grey container as before but Fred's 2 music/sound things which had been placed there (still inside the packing paper from our move to the house) have been taken out and a basket is there now with some gifts for Christmas in it.


Right Wardrobe

You can clearly see the slanted part of the ceiling here as this wall meets the lower wall.

This rail now is neater with the trousers and t shirts and polo shirts.
The top shelf just needed tidying up and still has some space left.
The shelf below it was a real mess with a mixture of travel things and a large box got last Christmas for Fred's belts but then he complained and said the sections of it are too small and the belts will get ruined having to be rolled up tightly.   Now that shelf only has 3 containers on it.
The belts are now all on the lower shelf which had originally been a mixture as well, and so messy looking with the hangers.

I need to think more about the belts and see if there will be another solution for them instead of taking up a whole shelf.



Along the lower wall

Left Wardrobe

The left hand rail here had been a mixture of my jackets and Fred's suits but now is better organised with Fred's suits easily reached and our summer jackets in the corner that is harder to get at.

The right rail had too many items crushed together so it now has my dresses.
On the bottom of this section we keep the emergency ladder which can be hooked over the window of the Dressing Room in case of fire.  The space in the corner beside it  is free - I love to have some free space because inevitably there will be something else needing a home when I tackle the games room.

The shelf at the top is now neater with the use of another 2 grey containers which have summer clothes in them.



Middle Wardrobe

This one was easy to work with very little change at the bottom.
A few clothes removed so rail is not as full.
Top shelf has the first grey container I got and these containers are just brilliant.  They are made of material and cardboard and are firm but pliable some have little windows and they come in several shapes and sizes.

I got them on Amazon and this is just one example of them.

Right Wardrobe

Quite a few items were summer clothes so they were packed away in one of the grey containers so no longer too many clothes hanging here.

I found that the slanted roof to this wardrobe was ideal for storing extra hangers so all the hangers making a mess previously in one of the other wardrobes are now neatly placed here on the top shelf along with a containers holding one of my large American Quilts.

My Hair dryer & brushes etc. had always been a problem on the top shelf and now I have them on the bottom and there is a lamp beside them because we keep this for when someone uses this room as a bedroom and need a bedside lamp.


I am looking forward to getting the new carpet for this room now.

And because a lot of the wardrobes still have free space at the bottom I'm considering which types of boxes or containers to get to fit there, and you know how I love Storage boxes!



This sorting was a joy to do because of the decorating having been completed and making everything feel like a fresh start.

Time consuming but counted as  FUNWORK  because I was happy while doing it.