3 Boys And A Dog » Organizing

Get Organized With SMEAD ORGANOMICS!

Momof3boys — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:00:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, I attended a Twitter Party hosted by Get Buttoned Up and Smead. There were so many great tips (not to mention prizes) that I was inspired to write a quick, bulleted post!

We learned how to organize ourselves and our files using three wimple products!

View Full Album

hjkile: Great blog on why it’s important to Get and STAY organized http://ow.ly/1ZjZ1 #filefun

hostrock: HOST Tip 1: Keep your filing system to 15 files or less #filefun #organize

PWLLem: @hostrock Eat The Frog….Get the least desirable thing done 1st! (Love that book) #filefun

hostrock: @thymeofmylife Categories: medical, taxes, insurance, legal, school, work, home, bills, just in case #filefun

hostrock: HOST Q: Have you tried the Smead stadium files? http://www.smead.com/Director.asp?NodeID=1690&item=70211 #filefun #organize

hostrock: HOST Tip 2: Declutter your files & throw out stuff every 3 months #filefun #organize

mytotsexactly: RT @thebeadgirl: RT @hostrock: HOST Stadium file great for desktop organization #filefun #organize < new MUST have! << agree!

hostrock: Shred everything you can #filefun. Be safe I keep a shredder by my trash can

kristacolvin: @hostrock it’s also inexpensive to take your whole shred bag/pile to @OfficeMax[quick + easy for big jobs] #filefun

hostrock: Keep tax records for 7 years #filefun

hostrock: @thebeadgirl #filefun 10 minutes a day gets the job done

hostrock: HOST Tip 3: Don’t hold on to paper stuff you can store electronically #filefun #organize

michellelhanson: Find lots of Smead products at Office Depot or Amazon #filefun

PWLLem: @jillyrh Check out Eat that Frog from your public Library…It helped me #filefun

mstyle10: RT @hostrock: @thymeofmylife #filefun BACKING UP COMPUTER IS A MUST DO! Trust me!

hostrock: HOST Tip Great uses for the Smead Stadium file & Super Tab Folders: Make a family communication center #filefun #organize

hostrock: HOST Tip 5: For shared files (e.g. family ones) involve everyone in how they are set up#filefun #organize

kristacolvin: This is how I used my SMEAD products! http://bit.ly/btphAM #filefun #organize @hostrock

listplanit: See how I used my terrific Smead products on ListPlanIt’s blog http://bit.ly/bGaHf7#filefun

marilynbohn I just did a Smead Product view for the new Stadium File http://bit.ly/gitoblog #filefun

That’s it. Have fun checking out all the links.

GIVEAWAY: Rubbermaid Modular Canisters

Momof3boys — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:00:00 +0000

Get your pantry organized with reasonably priced, Rubbermaid Modular Canisters! I did and it was fairly painless… except for the 20 bucks I spent because I needed more canisters than Rubbermaid sent me to review. Yeah, you know they are good when you use a review item and immediately order more of them!

Pantry Organization Steps:

Set aside about an hour of time and clear off some counter space. You are going to need it! Note: it only took me about 15 minutes.
Start pulling out food items and place them in one of four piles. Note: I didn’t pull out canned foods, just the types of things that would go into the Rubbermaid Modular Canisters.
- Pile One: Expired items… throw these away!
- Pile Two: Donate Items… you know your family is never going to eat that cranberry sauce before it expires. Give it to someone who needs a good meal.
- Pile Three: Baking goods or other dry goods you want to put into your Rubbermaid Modular Canisters.
- Pile Four: Other keep items.
With pile three and four, decide what will go in the Modular Canisters and set aside. With the remaining items, sort into like categories. For example: soup together, snacks together, crackers, etc,
Put things back into the pantry. *Think about how you use this space. Are your kids always wanting snacks? Maybe they need to go lower so the kids can reach them. In my case, they need to go higher so the kids CAN’T reach them.
Now, put items into the Modular Canisters. Don’t forget to label so you don’t mix up the sugar and flour!

For me, I was amazed at how much each item held!

21 Cup Container: great for cereal, flour, and dried pasta – I was able to put empty two full Ritz boxes (8 packs of crackers) into it. Freed up space, plus when the crackers are open I don’t have to worry about any bugs!

16 Cup Container: Great for sugar and cookies – I put 4 boxes of Stove Top Stuffing into it! Isn’t it amazing? That one small container held FOUR boxes (well, the packages from the boxes) of stuffing!

10 Cup Container: Great for rice, fried fruit, and granola – I have a pack of cookies dumped into it in the photo, but it will also hold a box of Nature Made Granola Bars and a box of Peanut Butter Granola Bars with a bit of room left over. They will stand right up in it.

5 Cup Container: Great for baking soda, baking powder, coffee, and crackers – I actually put candy bars into it and this is what cost me money. I purchased 3 more from Amazon so that I could stack them on top of each other. One currently holds my Hershey kisses that I use for baking, one has misc snacks in it (gum, candy bars, etc), and the last one is holding mismatched silverware.

For more info be sure to check out the blog post on Rubbermaid’s Adventures in Organizing: Modular Canisters Make Me Happy! (yeah, me too! LOL)

One lucky reader will win their own 8 piece Rubbermaid Modular Canisters set!

REQUIRED: Visit Rubbermaid, look around, then come back and tell me something you want from there.

BONUS (equals 3 entries!) Write a blog post or facebook post WITH PICTURES of your pantry telling why you need to win these canisters. Be sure to link to me the giveaway hostess as well as to Rubbermaid for supplying the products for the giveaway. Oh, I hope tons of people take advantage of this bonus! I want to see other peoples messy pantries so I can feel better about myself. LOL!

Other bonus entries:

#1. Spread the word about this review by: email, forums, blogging, twitter, Digg, or putting the link in a meme. (one entry per thing done)

#2. Follow my blog.

#3. Subscribe to my RSS feed.

#4. Follow me on Twitter

#5. Fan Me on FaceBook

#6. Put my button on your blog.

#7. Leave a comment on any other post (excluding giveaways!) Be sure to leave a comment here saying which post.

CONTEST ENDS: July 28th at midnight CST

OPEN TO: USA AND CANADA

A Cluttered Fridge Equals a Cluttered Life! WHAT?

Momof3boys — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 13:00:00 +0000

**DISCLAIMER: This is NOT my fridge! Photo courtesy of FlickR*

During my weekly organizing session with Simple Organized Sanity this week, Christy Love made reference to an article in the New York Times titled ‘Cluttered Fridge Doors, Cluttered Lives’. She was talking about getting all the notes, stickies, magnets, etc off our our refrigerator doors to make way for a less cluttered house. Her story struck a chord in me… enough to have me looking up the article AND posting about it. LOL!

I don’t fill my fridge doors, my fridge has a little fridge magnet game (at the bottom) for Thomas. It teaches letters and phonics and I LOVE it. LOL! On the top of the right side, I have my BusyBodyBook UNlined Grid Pad. On the left, top, side I post our menu each week. (I have a new toy now that I am so ready to yank out and use AND share with you. Don’t worry, it is coming up this month. ) Oh, and I have a zip-lock baggie in which we put Campbell’s labels, Box Tops, and Pop-tabs for Zack’s school. That is it, not one other thing is on my refrigerator doors.

With that said, I have been places where the doors are so full you can’t even tell what color the fridge is! I don’t see how people can handle that! Doesn’t stuff fall off constantly?

But, I am curious, are your fridge doors cluttered? If so, is the rest of your house cluttered? My house is cluttered, my refrigerator is not.

Technorati Tags: Fridge, Equals, Life, session, Simple, Love, reference, article, York, Times, notes, chord, magnet, bottom, Thomas, BusyBodyBook, Grid, menu, Campbell, Tops, Zack, places, Doesn, Doors, week, refrigerator

**Linked at 5 Minutes for Mom’s Tackle it Tuesdays**

How to Organize a Master To Do List Using a Brain Dump

Momof3boys — Thu, 06 May 2010 19:13:14 +0000

I have had this post sitting in my draft folder for a very long time. Today, I received an email that pushed me to actually complete my Brain Dump (aka: Master To Do List), get it all organized, and complete my post.

A couple weeks ago, I bought Christy Love’s Gold Package on her Simple Organized Sanity site. The gold package also got me her Weekly Organizing Challenge (it is 5 dollars for 1 year of emails!) emails. Today’s 9 minute MP3 message was all about using a Brain Dump to complete your Master To Do List (ahh great minds think alike!). Using some of her products, I sorted and organized my household notebook and started using my master to do list.

I am going to walk you through how I did it.

Step 1: Gather Your Supplies

I got my Mead 3-ring Notebinder(which I completely love!)
A pack of Avery Big Tab Insertable Pocket Dividers
My Weekly To Do list
3-Hole Punch
Post It Repositional tabs
My Customized Daily Planner Sheets (also included in the Gold Package)
Personal To Do Tracker (for keeping your master to do list)
Around The House To Do Tracker (for keeping your master to do list)
Business To Do Tracker (for keeping your master to do list)
My Weekly Menu Sheets
Our Tried and True Meals checklist
My Monthly menu planner sheets

Step 2: BRAIN DUMP!

Grab a notebook or lined paper, set a timer for 15-20 minutes, and start writing down every thing that needs doing. EVERYTHING! Maybe it is a post you have been meaning to finish (ahem *cough), a window that needs a blind, or just cleaning out the fridge. Write it down… don’t stop to think, just WRITE!

Step 3: Begin Building Your Master To Do List

Now, you want to organize it into a more manageable list. Christy’s To Do Trackers are perfect for this because they have two columns. One for short tasks and one for longer projects. I sorted all the tasks that I had brain dumped onto each sheet: Personal, Business, Around the House and put them in the correct column.

So, what to do about the long projects? Later, you could begin breaking down those projects!

Step 4: Combine Into Your Notebook!

I have the 8-divider pack sorted into the following sections:

Daily To Do List – I have a month’s worth of pages already printed and have a blank sheet at the end. If something comes up, it goes automatically onto the date it is due. If it is so far in the future that I don’t currently have a page printed, then it goes onto my blank sheet of paper. Each month, I have a note to print more sheets and update the list.
Master To Do List - (see above) I mark them off as they are complete and add more as I think of them Please note, my Master List does not include those normal everyday tasks, weekly tasks, or monthly tasks. I put those onto my daily list. They contain things like: put together shed, get Tank a hair cut, complete cross-stitch blanket.
Menu – In one pocket I have our tried and true recipe check list and in the other pocket, I have all the print outs, ripped, pages, jotted notes, etc of recipes we would like to try. If we try it and like it, the recipe goes in my recipe box and the title gets added to our check list. In the rings, I have my monthly and weekly sheets.
Reference – This is just a generic section for all the junk that comes up. I have several blank sheets of paper there so I can scribble reminders. For example: right now it says, “Project section – S.O.S sheets”

As I was putting my binder together, I couldn’t think of sections that I would really need to fill all my tabs. Some people like to include their address book, school section, calendar, etc here. I do not. I have a plain calendar in my first pocket and a monthly to do sheet in my second pocket. That is enough of a calendar for me. Otherwise, it gets written on the calendar on the wall… or if it is blogging related, it goes in my BusyBodyBook.

But, then I decided that I really need a project section. I always have a million projects going on at one time and need to get them a bit more organized. As time permits, I will make that section and any others that I think of.

Step 5: Use Your New Notebook!

Good luck using your notebook! Maybe you should set a Google Calendars or Outlook reminder to pop up each day reminding you to check your notebook. It only takes 29 days to make a habit. Wouldn’t it be nice to be better organized before the craziness of summer hits!?

*Disclaimer- every product mentioned in this post was purchased with my own money (well, with my husband’s money )! A couple items link to Amazon, if you purchase through those affiliate links, I make a couple cents. The Simple Organized Sanity links are not affiliate links, so I make nothing but you get organized and super sweet Christy makes some money.

(CLOSED) GIVEAWAY: Disorganized? How about a LobotoME?

Momof3boys — Wed, 05 May 2010 13:00:00 +0000

Goods to Keep You Sane!

Just in case you haven’t figured it out yet, I am going to let you know my big secret. I like lists! Ok, I’ll be honest…

I LOVE LISTS!

LobotoME is the neatest little mom-owned store carrying lots of planners and cool lists to help you on your way to organization!

I was sent the MomME Weekly Planner to review and will be able to offer one as a giveaway. This planner is very detailed. It has spaces for everything:

Days of the Week
Events and Birthdays
Daily Schedule
Shopping List
Yesterday and Someday columns
Me time
Healthy Dinner Plan
Exercise Track
Household To Do
plus a couple blank spaces!
Daily H2O and Vitamins

I was also sent a sheet from each of their list pads:

List Me/Doodle Me
Check Me (shopping list, my FAVE!)
Bite Me (Twilight inspired)
Fit Me
Pack Me
Help Me
Feed Me
Save Me
Sit Me

I like them, I just wish the MomME planner had a magnet on the back so I could stick it to my fridge. The MomME planner is great for those of us who are disorganized.

All lobotoME products are made in the U.S.A. from recycled materials.

TO WIN:

REQUIRED: Leave me a comment telling me what other item you like from the LobotoME site

BONUS: Follow LobotoME on Twitter and RT the following:

I am getting my Home Office #Organized and winning with @LobotoME and @momof3boys3702

CONTEST ENDS: May 12th at midnight CST

OPEN TO USA AND CANADA

(CLOSED) GIVEAWAY: Carolina Pad Mother’s Day Kit

Momof3boys — Sun, 02 May 2010 19:17:00 +0000

I am fairly organized, but I am messy. LOL! If you understand what I mean by that, then you must be just like me. LOL!

I have so much that goes on in my home, I am always looking for better ways to tame the mess. ENTER: Carolina Pad. We already know that I LOVE Carolina Pad products and their Limited Edition Mother’s Day Kits are no exception.

For Mother’s Day, Carolina Pad will be featuring two specially priced gift packages in the Carolina Pad Store. These great bundles are available at discount prices over what you would normally pay if you purchased the product separately. What Mother wouldn’t like to receive a gift to help make their lives a little more organized. The two gift bundles are for the Simply Chic and for the Eye Candy.

Eye Candy Bundle: Choose Dots (my fave!) or Floral

The 10 dollar kits include:

13-pocket expandable file
1-Subject Notebook
Personal Clutch (also makes a fabulous make-up bag)

Simply Chic Bundle: Choose Green, Pink (LOVE IT!), or Yellow

The 30 dollar kits include:

Laptop sleeve – I have a large laptop and it fits perfectly in my case!
Small binder clips
Push pins
Paper clips
Note tote
Flip top notebook

Their products are absolutely fantastic and with all the fun, stylish prints I actually look forward to organizing and expressing myself with all the great office supplies! Plus, they are widely available and very affordable. You know all those cute, cute office supplies you see at Walmart? You got it, they are Carolina Pad!

Overall I have to say that once again Carolina Pad has completely impressed me with their quality and beautiful selection of products!

REQUIRED: Visit Carolina Pad and take a look around, then come back here and tell me what other product catches your eye!

BONUS:

Become a fan of Carolina Pad on Facebook

Follow Carolina Pad on Twitter

FOR MOTHER’S DAY, GET FREE SHIPPING WITH A 40 DOLLAR PURCHASE BY USING THE CODE: CP_Shipping

CONTEST ENDS SUNDAY MAY 9th at MIDNIGHT, CST! (I have extended the due date because of lack of participation)

My Office Organization Supply Wish List

Momof3boys — Sun, 02 May 2010 15:04:53 +0000

I am still on a home office organization kick. So, as I was making my Amazon wish list, I thought my wonderful readers might want to know what things I am still wanting to complete my office organization.

I can get all 6 of these for a little over 100 dollars! Not bad, not bad at all! Plus, if my readers purchase any of these, I make a couple pennies. I have a few Amazon Gift Cards that I am planning to put towards to purchase of some.

Do you have an office supply wish list? Feel free to share it or the link to it in my comments.

Also, keep your eyes open for a few more office supply reviews and giveaways. Since my blog was down for a few days, I didn’t post them all. Yeah, being down really messed up my schedule! You should see my BusyBodyBook! It is all scribbled in and such. LOL!

CONTEST: Home Office Organization Series Finale

Momof3boys — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 13:03:00 +0000

I have had a BLAST during the Home Office Organization Series and have gotten my office much better organized. What about you? Have you been cleaning each day? Do you have some pictures to share?

Remember my before? I had stacks of stuff EVERYWHERE.

So, I moved my office back to my living room and find I am spending less time at it than I was with it in my kitchen. That is actually good. I should be done with my day by a certain point, but it was so easy to sit at the computer while waiting on rice to boil, etc.

I also cleared up my filing cabinet and got rid of some paper. So, I was able to put all those stacks of press kits into my cabinet. I pulled one of my old cabinets in and organized some supplies into it.

I am doing a giveaway, it isn’t huge, but remember the actual reward is a job well done. LOL! This is straight from my pocket since I just decided to run a quick giveaway.

ONE WINNER WILL GET A 25 DOLLAR GIFT CERTIFICATE OF YOUR CHOICE! EX: PayPal, Container Store, Amazon, Walmart, etc

The rules are actually very simple. Write a post about your new Home Office Organization, then leave a direct link in the Mck Linky. Don’t have a blog? No big deal! You can sign up for a free Whrrl account and make a story there. You can even post on FaceBook or Twitter! Just be sure to leave a direct link below. One winner will be randomly chosen.

CONTEST ENDS MAY 7th at midnight CST

ORGANIZE for YOUR Success!

Momof3boys — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:00:37 +0000

Welcome Joan of BusyBodyBooks to my site! You hear me talk about it all the time, but I seriously LOVE my planner! I use it to keep all my posts, series, etc straight and can’t imagine blogging without it!

Whether you telecommute and/or run your business completely out of your own home office it’s vital to define your daily/weekly/monthly goals, commitments, To-dos and have all handy to stay on top of your progress with: customers, projects, key personnel and their responsibilities, as well,

Before starting my own business I was lucky to step into flowing office systems that were remarkably easy to follow. But as an outside printing sales rep it was my responsibility to stay on top of my own customer’s on-going projects to both make sure that their always time sensitive production was on schedule and then be able to communicate this effectively to them.

Since I spent most of the time “in the field” my lap was more often my office and my rather small Filofax binder became my bible. My contacts and my calendar were pretty typical but my projects needed their own system.

Using Filofax’s plain, horizontally ruled pages I drew simple vertical lines to create a grid: columns designated as my client’s projects and rows assigned the standard stages of print production. In teeny tiny boxes I recorded dates and notes to keep me up to date with the on-goings back in my office and printing plant.

Pre-cell phone, as I made my way through NYC visiting clients or canvassing for new, with rolls of dimes and quarters for calls from the nearest phone booth (remember those???), I easily accessed my grid for updating clients on what was happening with any given project. My grid was my life-saver. When a client called I could relate the good news (OK, sometimes bad news) concerning progress – when to meet me on press, what was being messengered to their office and when, when to expect delivery, etc. – all from a phone on the street!

After my son was born, my grid was even more important. At first, while working from my home office, I relied heavily on my GRID and stayed up on and in touch with everything and everyone. And then another column was “born”, named for my son “Jake”. For years to follow I would continue ducking into phone booths, now even more frequently, to call in and sync with our son’s and nanny’s schedule.

While I of course owe much my success to all of the personnel I worked with over those years, the then DIY system I devised provided years of growth of volume business from key accounts, time to identify and nurture new accounts – and gave me peace of mind knowing that Jake too was okay and on his schedule.

My paper and very portable office system still serves me well – it’s no longer my very own Office Management System – it’s now been incorporated into BusyBodyBook® organizer products shared with thousands of very busy people worldwide.

Joan Goldner

About Your Time

Publisher of BusyBodyBook Organizers

5 Strategies to Manage Your Email

Momof3boys — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:06:59 +0000

Please welcome Carrie back to 3 Boys and a Dog. This decluttering expert has already brought us some fabulous info, but wait until you read this! … wonder if I could talk her into posting on a regular basis? ~Kelli

I don’t know about you but when I click on “send/receive” I feel like I have to brace myself for the onslaught…I think “NO! Please don’t download any more!!!”

Recently one of my clients told me how excited she was because she brought the number of emails in her inbox down from 1,500 to 500. A consultant I was speaking with said that she went ahead and deleted 7,000 emails from her inbox without even looking at them. Frankly, I can’t remember any client where the subject of email management did not come up.

I get well over a hundred emails a day. I tell you this not because I think the number is so big or so small but because, whether you get 5 or 1000 emails a day, they add up and they add up fast. What’s more is that email management seems to take on a life of its own. We spend hours every day “doing email”. It’s a huge time sink. What happens with email is that everyone else’s demands, requests and even simple “hello’s” become equally important and take precedence over the things that you really want or need to do.

So how can you manage it? With a two step approach.

Step 1: Manage the mail that comes in.

Unsubscribe. If you are looking at an inbox full of newsletters and other “self help” information that you have subscribed to over the years but never read, pick your favorite few and unsubscribe from the rest. Keeping hundreds of self help emails in your inbox is not going to make you read them or follow the advice. By keeping them the only thing that you are helping yourself to do is get further overwhelmed.
Unclick the box. Almost all online vendors pre-fill a little check box which gives them permission to send you emails and offers. Unclick the box! I realize that this may mean that you won’t get information about the upcoming 10% off sale but let’s face it; if you needed something and went online to find it you’re likely to find the 10% off sale anyway. Oh, if for some reason the box isn’t filled in already…do not click on it!
Keep separate email accounts. One account that you will stay current with for friends, family, work and those topics which are most important to you and another for bulk mail, online shopping needs, and those signup sheets that you end up filling out.
Use the delete key. You do not need to act on or respond to every single email you receive. Choose to respond to the ones that are most important to you and let go of the rest. You can even delete those “older ones” that you haven’t gotten around to answering yet because the sender probably doesn’t remember they sent it or else they just assume that it’s been lost in your inbox. If it’s that important they will contact you again.

Step 2: Mange the time you spend “doing” email.

Turn off the notification. There is nothing more distracting and more tantalizing then that “You Got Mail!” notification and somehow it always seems to show up exactly when you’re in the middle of something.
Pick when you will “do” email. Email can consume your day. Decide when you will look at it and deal with it. During the rest of your day do the things that you’ve deemed important and not allow your day to be driven by other people.

Carrie Greene is a coach, professional organizer and decluttering expert. Carrie will help you create the level of organization that you need to have. This organization will give you the freedom, time and space you desire to live your life and accomplish what it is you want to do and do it with less work and more clarity. Visit Carrie’s website www.CarrieThru.com to sign up for the FREE ecourse Escape the Clutter! 4 Steps to Calm the Overwhelm, Create Space & Reclaim Your Freedom.

I have ADHD: Do I Have to be Disorganized Too?