Showing posts with label Organising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Organising. Show all posts

Monday

Top 10 things I Do Each Day to NOT Keep a Tidy Home


Notice I DID write NOT keep a TIDY Home

AND

This was not a mistake





So here are my very simple honest


 Top 10 Things I Do Each Day to NOT Keep a Tidy House 


1.     Set my alarm and then repeatedly hit snooze


2.     Open the Post and throw it on the table


3.     Go right from breakfast to the computer before filling the dishwasher


4.     Do not read my Todo list until the afternoon


5.     Go through Social Media before lunch


6.     Set my timer, ignore and then set it again








7.     Last thing at night - say I'm going to turn off the lamp and clear the living room - then an hour later......


8.     Say to myself - I can fit some more paper in that waste paper bin in my study but no it overflows on to the floor instead.


9.     Go to check the washings in the Utility room but get waylaid by the draw of a cup of coffee and then forget what I was going to do and end up back at the computer with my coffee mug.


10.    Any other form of procrastination I can think of at any time of the day.



Why don't I keep my home tidy?


I know I sort of filed this in my mind as part of  Coffee & Conversation  because it is one of my short chatty posts but perhaps it actually falls under the category of  Home Organising as illustrated above because let's face it there wasn't actually any housework was there!







Or perhaps it truly belongs under the category of 10 Things because I like numbers






You can choose for yourself where you think it belongs.










Friday

The Best thing for Bare Walls - Organising My Home


Disclaimer:
I did / will not benefit in any way from this post

No matter where we have lived "Bare Walls" have always been a bit of a problem for me.







Fred & I have lived in several houses during our 40 year marriage and we have never been the type of people to immediately decorate any of them and get those family pictures or any pictures up on the walls simply because I (yes I do take the blame for this) can never make up my mind exactly what I want and where I want it.

Sometimes like in this house I have had little ideas each year but haven't even put all of those into effect until months or years later, if at all.  Of course it doesn't help that when you have been married for so long and lived in different countries or even just different houses, you have ended up with loads of items that you can use to decorate your home.

Through the 7 years in our present home I have taken different times to declutter my boxes of ornaments and other decor and have not missed having them around the home but have also gained a few things which I really wanted to have up on display (one of which you will see below).






This is a beautiful wall hanging given to us as a gift from the Korean parents of our son-in-law Pildu (Stephen). 

As soon as I saw it I thought about where would be just the right place to put it and could not make up my mind.  One spot in my hall was a bit too narrow to house it and another was far too wide for it.

Then just before Christmas when we were making up the bed in the guest room for Linda and Stephen to come home for their first Christmas with us I realised the perfect place to hang the gift was in the guest room.

The only other thing up on any of the walls was a large painting over the head of the bed.






So with a large painting on one wall,  two windows which take up most of another wall and a third wall completely covered with built in wardrobes that just left the wall opposite the window which has the door to the hall at one end and the door into the ensuite at the other end leaving just a nice size of wall in between to be perfect for the new wall hanging.


It was a brick wall.

My husband has drills and bits and plugs and always used them to put things up but this was so lightweight that he didn't feel like getting out the drill and having a large hook or nail up so he grabbed his new gadget called the Takker and we set to work which took so little time and effort.

I of course said "hold on I need to get my phone" at one stage, not because I heard it ringing or wanted to make a call but he knew immediately I wanted to take pictures for the blog.

Not only did I take pictures but I took some very short videos as well.

There are two types of Takker.       
UPDATE Or Instanhang as it has now been renamed.


One drills a small hole and the other doesn't - I'll write another blog post sometime about how we have used it as well.


The one we needed for this job was the one that drills a hole but it's not a large drill and it doesn't plug in or work by battery.






You do it by hand and it is so easy.






The instructions are clearly printed and illustrated on one sheet of paper for ease of use.






On the centre of the flat edge you can see the drill bit neatly inside, 
not protruding to catch on anything.


After marking the place for your hook or "Tack" to go to hold your object you simply line up this centre drill section with the mark and drill by hand - see the video below





When the hole is drilled, the "Tack" needs to be inserted and the red part along the curved handle is the hiding place for the Takker Tacks






Just pull the red part open and you can easily lift out the tack.










The Tack is placed into the round hole on the side of the Takker.






Then you can see in the video just how easy it is to insert into the wall





Now when I first saw the Takker and asked my husband what he thought of it he was quite interested but then said "Probably a hassle to get more tacks for it."

To which we quickly saw that quite a few tacks came with it and also some other larger hooks to fit over the tacks to hang other things.

Then also more Tacks can be bought in separate packs.

So far we have only used tacks for each thing we have hung up but I'm sure we will use the other hooks later.






So I put all of the tacks and hooks from both Takkers into a plastic storage box which is about the same size as the Takker Drill and now everything can be easily stored together in a small crate.


Also in the box you can see part of the other Takker  which is used instead of hammering a nail into your wall for small and light pictures etc.








This should mean as well as being easy to use it is easy to bring out and put away so that we do not put off the jobs we can now do more quickly & easily.








Now back to the Korean Wall Hanging.

It is very light and easily hangs on the one tack which you can hardly see in the picture below under the ribbon.




This means that it is hardly noticeable on the wall of the Guest Room and just leaves the beautiful hanging to be admired.







Having bought the Takker a few months before Christmas we realised we had now had the idea for a great, useful and appropriate gift for our second son who moved into a new house a few months previously.  So although we may have had a strange look from him when he opened his gift on Christmas Day because he had no idea what we had bought him; now has made good use of it in his home too.


You can also see how I have recommended the Takkers in my post
  10 Gift Ideas for the Men in your Life











Disclaimer:
I did / will not benefit in any way from this post




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.