Thanksgiving Project Planning

You guys know me: I love planning and I love reducing stress whenever possible. Enter the Thanksgiving Project Plan. 

My aunt and I started brainstorming what our meals are going to be for the week we are all together. We are going to have different family members sign up to take on the preparation and the clean-up of each meal. 

We are going to do a fondue night, which I'm really excited about: cheese (with bread), meat, and chocolate (strawberries, pretzels, and rice krispie treats). 

Our project plan has multiple tabs: the schedule with the meals (along with who's responsible for prep and clean-up) + the events for the week; a list of things to bring from home; grocery list; and a detailed breakdown of who is doing what the prep which parts of our bigger meals. 

I recognize that there are folks out there saying, "Thank goodness this woman is not part of my family." Luckily, my family appreciates having a plan! My hope is that it will reduce stress all around (and minimize trips to the grocery store during a stressful time).

For updates in between blog posts, check out Instagram! 

----------------------------------------------

JOIN US!: Registration is currently open for the next Purposeful Conception Course: Preparing Your Mind, Body, and Life for Pregnancy, which starts on January 8! Register now! We'd love to have you join us!

Share |

I Heart the Elfa Closet System

I've been a huge fan of the Container Store Elfa closet system for three years now. We splurged on it when we first moved into the house, taking advantage of their 30% of sale. Our house is 1,800 square feet for a family of four without a garage, so we try to maximize our space however and whenever we can. This closet system helps us use all the available area. 

I renewed my vows with the Elfa system this year when we consolidated Henry and Tate into the same room. The system is completely interchangeable, so we were able to reconfigure our closets to align with our current needs. It was amazing! We moved shelves up, down, and over, and we even moved one of the clothes rods from Tate's old room into his new room (along with one of the sliding drawers that comes with the system). It's so versatile, strong, and easy to use. 

I promise I'm not making any money off of this post--I just love this system and highly recommend it!

----------------------------------------------

JOIN US!: Registration is now open for the next Purposeful Conception Course: Preparing Your Mind, Body, and Life for Pregnancy, which starts on January 16. Register today! We'd love to have you join us!

Share |

Organization La-La-Palooza!

I forgot to share all the organizing I did during the Winter Break.

We finally got through the "Tornado Two" stage with Tate. We can now tell him not to rifle through every cabinet, closet, and drawer and he will actually listen to us.

It's a small miracle!

For someone like me who is pretty much a permeable membrane and soaks in the order or the chaos around me, I was ecstatic to be able to get everything organized. Here's what I was able to accomplish:

1. Organize under the kitchen sink
2. Organize the pantry
3. Organize the cabinets above the refrigerator
4. Organize the office supply basket
5. Organize under the second bathroom sink
6. Organize Henry's closet
7. Organize Tate's closet
8. Organize under the master bathroom sink
9. Organize the master bathroom drawers
10. Organize the master bathroom closet

My approach was always the same:

• Pull everything out.
• Separate it into piles: To keep, To toss/recycle, To donate
• Clean out the area
• Put the "keep" items back in. 

It feels so much better around our house now! 

Share |

Office Desk Beautification

Running a start-up can be hard for a perfectionist because, frankly, nothing is perfect in a start-up year. One of the things that is driving me absolutely bonkers right now is how ugly my desk space is. The Montessori method pays particular attention to the environments in which we work. For the first six years of life, children are literally absorbing the environment around them and forming their neural pathways in the process. 

I'm the kind of person who is always absorbing and responding to the environment around me. When the space around me feels cluttered and chaotic, I, too, feel cluttered and chaotic. If I feel stressed, I can usually mitigate the feeling a lot by simply tidying the space around me. 

I want to get to the point where our whole school feels organized and beautiful. We are definitely on the path! It's a goal I hope to be able to prioritize this summer. For now, I want to start with my desk. 

When thinking about how to beautify a space, I like to start with function. I'm a pragmatist at heart and think that form should follow function. Right now, the biggest thing that's bothering me is the stacking bins that are sitting on the corner of my desk. And there's all the clutter in my drawers! Oy. 

I went ahead and ordered a filing cabinet, so I can more easily store the kinds of paper that accumulate on my desk. But more importantly, I think I need to take everything out to organize it and evaluate how to best store it. It reminds me of the process I went through for our pantry reorganization. It helps so much to take everything out (hooray for blank slates!) and to organize it outside of the space that it will return to. It prompts purging but also illuminates the best way to organize things by group and function. 

Here are some of the things I'll need:

• A decorative tissue box--probably this one from Target
• A place to store writing utensils inside my desk
• A place to store my tape dispenser, stapler, and scissors inside my desk (they can too easily "walk away" in a shared space environment)
• A kind of inbox where I can set papers that need action relatively soon. Maybe I'll use something like this from IKEA, where I could also store the binders that I use frequently. 
• A plant
• A place to store my work bag during the day
• I might want to soften the top of my filing cabinet with some fabric

Print from evesand

Share |

New Wallet!

Three and a half years ago, I wrote a post about getting a new wallet off of Etsy. I was eager to replace my old, tattered wallet because of a post I had read in 2009 over at Superhero Journal where Andrea said:

"Someone told me once that if you want to draw a certain kind of abundance into your life, the type of wallet you carry is really important. At the time my wallet was used (by someone other than me first!) threadbare, and almost falling apart. As my friend would say, poverty wallet alert! Which I guess is like having bad feng shui of the wallet."

My wallet from KomonoArt served me well for 3.5 years, so I was happy to invest in a new one. The only reason I really needed a new one was because the snap was no longer attached. I'm happy to promote her shop again! (Editor's Note: I paid for my own wallet and am I'm not getting paid in any way to say this.)

I agree with Andrea's sentiment that the state of our wallet can impact things beyond what we might initially realize. For me it is connected to my confidence. If I'm at a business lunch and I pull out a wallet that is falling apart, I'm likely to feel a pang of insecurity. 

But it's an argument that can quickly slide into justification of rampant consumerism and materialism. For example, someone could follow my logic and say, "Well this means I need to have an expensive car in order to impress my business associates." For me, it's not about things being expensive and therefore impressive, it's about things being clean, organized, and well-kept. I guess that's the difference. I don't have to have a name-brand purse in order to feel confident. I just need to organize my Target bag so that stuff isn't falling out everywhere. I need to constantly clean out the kid clutter that accumulates in my Honda Fit, so that I feel comfortable and confident when I invite business associates (or friends!) into it. 

Speaking of that, I think I'm going to go organize my Target bag right now! 

Image courtesy of KomonoArt on Etsy

Share |

Electronic Organizing System

Phew! A OneNote version for Mac is finally available and free! I'm such a planner kind of person, but I couldn't keep up with everything in a pencil-and-paper format. I love that OneNote gives me the best of both worlds. It's organized like a notebook, but I can copy and paste things, etc. I still carry a notebook with me everywhere, but I use OneNote on my computer and phone to keep track of my specific to-do items. 

Sorry for the short post! This past weekend and past few days included a visit from my mom, a trip to Dallas to present at the American Montessori Society conference, a board meeting, and a visit from an out-of-state lender (for school facility stuff). 

I hope all is well with you! 

Share |

Travel List

Our family has traveled twice in the past three weeks: once to Houston for my birthday weekend and again to Houston for a spontaneous trip to the AMI Montessori Refresher Course (with a side trip to San Antonio to work on Redbud Montessori For All for 2016).

On the first trip, we forgot to bring Tate's rice cereal. On the second trip, we forgot Henry's underwear. 

The frustrating part was that we could've avoided both of those issues (and made the entire packing process less stressful and more efficient) simply by making a list (and using the same list as a starting point for every trip). 

I'm fine making mistakes, but I don't like to make them over and over again simply because I haven't set aside time to fix them. So now is the time. Here is my general list:

• Sara's clothes (including undergarments)
• Matt's clothes (including undergarments)
• Tate's clothes 
• Tate's socks
• Henry's clothes
• Henry's underwear
• Henry's nighttime diaper
• Tate's diapers
• Tate's wipes
• Rice cereal
• Phone charger
• Computer charger
• Toiletries (comb, soap, toothbrushes, floss, razor, nursing pads)
• Henry's toothbrush and toothpaste
• Tate's bed and blanket

Thanks for bearing with me through this boring post! 

Share |

Closet Organization

I've spent an inordinate amount of my time thinking about closet organization. It started back in our first home in Houston. We needed to maximize the closet space in our tiny bungalow with no garage (hello lawn mower and chicken food right next to the washing machine). I had grand plans to piece together my very own closet system from IKEA pieces, but I never got around to it before we sold our house and moved to Austin. 

I started thinking about closet systems again when were building our house. I brainstormed different options and decided on IKEA. And then I changed my mind and was going to go with Rubbermaid for even more savings. I trekked to Home Depot and stared at the closet system aisle for quite a while trying to figure out what went with what. There were pre-existing kits, but it sometimes seemed cheaper if you bought the pieces separately but then they didn't have all the pieces in the same color and I wasn't sure how to make it fit our dimensions precisely. 

In the meantime, we moved closer to The Container Store and I fell in love with it. There's one part of my brain that bemoans all the plastic and the "made in China" labels, and there's another part of me that goes weak in the knees over the endless organizational possibilities. Dividers to separate your clothes by categories? Yes, please! Spice racks mounted inside your pantry doors to maximize space? Sign me up! 

I started eying the Elfa system and figured it would at least be worth pricing it out since there's an annual 30% off sale. I used their online tool to design some closet spaces. In order to save money, I decided to do half of Henry's close with Elfa and half with standard-size IKEA storage. I was going to follow Young House Love's idea for installing Rubbermaid in our bathroom linen closets, but I was going to have to hire someone to do it since our closets are slightly too small for the standard size. 

I trekked to The Container Store and worked with one of their consultants. The design process was way more efficient in the store, and the configuration she came up with was much better than mine. She designed three closets for us: the master bedroom, Henry's bedroom, and Tate's bedroom. She convinced me that it made a lot more sense to go ahead and install shelves all the way across Henry and Tate's closets rather than do half Elfa and half IKEA. She helped me realize that once the tracks are installed, the system is completely re-configurable and can be changed again and again to meet your family's changing needs. Plus, it only cost about $100-$200 more to add basic shelves across the second half of each closet. I could have easily spent that much at IKEA on supplemental storage solutions that wouldn't have been nearly as seamless. 

I didn't pay for the three closets right away and instead took the renderings home to show Matt and my in-laws. The more I showed it to people, the more I fell in love with the Elfa system. You can start with the most basic wire shelving initially and add more decorative fascia later if you want. It's also an incredibly nuanced product. The consultant asked for my height and Matt's and the system adjusted the bar heights accordingly. 

Matt was thrilled with the three closets and was even more ecstatic to hear that we could have them installed within two business days. We decided that it made sense to go ahead and finish out all our closets, so I went back and designed our coat closet (which we use for our vacuum, broom, etc.) and our outdoor utility closet (since we don't have a garage). 

I ended up giving the design consultant a hug before I left because I was so excited about the prospect of getting all of our closets organized in one fell swoop. As I've mentioned a couple times, when we first moved in, we quickly tried to put everything away, which meant that a ton of stuff landed in the closets. So much stuff, in fact, that one of our closet shelves ended up ripping out of the walls from too much weight. It's been stressful to open up every closet and come face to face with chaos. [Editor's Note: These are not real problems, I know!]. 

The design consultant explained that the installers will come and remove the shelf and bar in every closet, patch up the holes, repaint, and then install the new system. She said that we would start putting stuff back in and wonder where everything went since we would suddenly have so much more storage space. 

I'm eager to make serious strides toward my goals for the year! 

Share |

Home Organization: The Pantry

 

I didn't intend to tackle the pantry before a whole host of other projects that are more urgent, but I honestly couldn't take it anymore. We don't have a ton of kitchen space, and our cabinets are deep, so stuff just kind of gets stuffed toward the back. 

Matt and Henry were out for a run and Tate was still sleeping, so I seized the opportunity to pull everything out. I wasn't sure what the plan of action was going to be, so seeing everything on the counter helped me generate next steps. I started grouping like-items and realized that they primarily fell into two categories:

1. Things to store in a bin together (snacks, vitamins, oils/vinegars, etc.)
2. Things to store individually in separate containers (brown sugar, chia seeds, etc.)

I made a list of all the containers I needed to get and even took rough measurements of the items sitting together on the counter. I sprinted to The Container Store and stocked up on several different plastic bins, a couple glass jars, and awesome air-tight containers. 

At checkout, the cashier mentioned that she had recently reorganized her pantry using baskets, and it gave me doubts about my choice to go with plastic. However, given that Tate was going to need to eat soon, I didn't have much of an option except to stick with my plastic. 

Part of my pantry reorganization involved moving stuff out of the kitchen that really didn't need to be there. Things like infrequent medicine and even disposable dishware didn't need to take up valuable real estate in the pantry. We have plenty of storage space in the bathroom linen closets for stuff like that. 

I made labels for each of the containers using scrap paper, colored tape, and our label maker. I followed through with plans to use vertical tension rods to create separate compartments for various bakeware items. 

So far, we are in love with the new system! We can easily slide the plastic bins out to reach things that are farther in, and we can take out the bins entirely when we are doing something like making Henry's lunch. Also, I love the airtight containers for brown and white sugar, popcorn, and powered sugar. We use those items rather infrequently, so it makes sense to keep them stored as well as possible.

Slowly but surely this house will come together!

Share |

Making a Clearing

When I started thinking about my New Year's Intentions last week, I stumbled upon the idea of needing to make a big clearing to accommodate all the work that is coming up in my life. I've been friends with lots of folks who have started schools (and worked part-time to help open a school in 2012-13), and the consensus is that it's overwhelmingly crazy. 

The problem is that I don't want the craziness to box out the other parts of my life that need attention, such as my family and my health/wellness. For me, it's all a connected system and all the parts have to be functioning well (even if the different parts don't necessarily get equal attention all the time). 

So what are my strategies for mitigating the craziness? 

• Get my organization system into a rock solid place. In order to maximize my time, I'm going to have to always focus on the most important priority. I need to have a clear sense of what needs to get done between now and the start of school, and I need to generate a timeline for getting it done.
• Plan ahead as much as possible. Working in schools is largely a game of execution; you're always responding to situations that pop up. But the more time you have for planning upfront (and the more time you allocate for planning while executing), the more you can anticipate and prevent certain things. This means I can't get into the habit of going to bed early or watching TV on weekdays. I know it sounds draconian to say, but it's true. There is so much work to get done between now and the start of school in August. If I choose to relax now, then I will pay the price later. It's a delicate balance for sure. I recently had a baby and I deserve rest. And without adequate rest, I won't be able to work effectively. But if I don't get my work done now, then it will pile up and have to get done later (while I'm also trying to respond to things that are happening in the moment). 
• Make exercise more efficient. Right now, we're heading to the lake so I can run on Saturday and Sunday. I love being outside in nature (which is why I'm trying to exercise outside), but I think there are more efficient ways to meet all my needs. If I run on the treadmill at the local YMCA, then I'll have more time for other things. When we have lots of free time as a family, that's when we can head into nature. 
• Get a robot vacuum. With a bloodhound and two children, our house needs constant vacuuming. I actually hardly ever vacuum, but asking for one of those robot things for Christmas would free up some of Matt's time.
• Hire a cleaning person. This is the hardest one for me. I've always had a problem with outsourcing basic human things. I think it's incredibly important for me to slow down and take care of my physical environment. I also think it's incredibly important to model for my children (and invite them to join in). Matt and I intentionally choose to live in a smaller house so that there is less to clean. But we're getting to a place where we feel stretched thin all the time. If we hired a cleaning person every other week (and paid him/her a good wage to honor their time/energy), I think we would still have plenty to clean on a weekly basis, but we wouldn't have to worry about bigger things: bathrooms, dusting, windows, baseboards. 
• Give myself permission to drop down to two blog posts a week. I try to be pretty consistent with three postings a week, and I'm hesitant to reduce that number because I enjoy writing in this space so much. But it might take some pressure off to aim for 2-3 times a week versus a solid three. 

I know how this sounds! Some of you might be wondering, "Why would you want to live like that?" It's a question I asked myself many times before choosing to go down this path. I believe in giving more children access to free, public Montessori, and now is my time to pursue this passion. 

Share |

New Organization System

Every time there's a change in my life, I usually have to make some kind of change to my organization system. Here are some of its past iterations:

• My Life Binder
• Maternity Leave
• Getting back to work

As I head into school leadership, I need to have a vastly more complex system than I'm using now. It needs to be computer-based (even though I'm a paper-and-pen kind of gal), and it needs to sync to my phone, so that I always have it with me. 

A couple months ago, Matt pointed out the most awesome system that was already on my computer: OneNote. I love it! It's basically a computerized version of how I would organize myself if I could still use a good ol' fashioned binder. It has tabs and pages; you can copy and paste from other Word documents; you can create tables. (It does fancier stuff, too, but I was content with being able to organize my information within tabs. For example, I had a general tab for "Management" and then separate pages for every person I manage. That way, I had a centralized place to keep track of our meeting notes and things to follow-up about.). 

And then my computer collapsed and I purchased a Mac. And now OneNote is gone. Oy! I have tried everything. I tried doing this weird installation thing to trick my Mac into running OneNote, and it worked! But not as well as the original. It's too clunky and it malfunctions right when I need it to work. 

There's a promising Mac version coming soon, but it's "read only" right now. 

There's other software that might do the trick for $49. But it doesn't seem to have a corresponding iPhone app. 

I know lots of people who swear by Evernote, but it just doesn't organize information in the way I need it to. 

Remember the Milk looked promising but, again, I'm looking for general categories (that I can name myself) that can be clicked on to reveal new categories that can be clicked on to reveal notes/lists. 

It seems like my best bet (until Notebook comes out) is Growly Notes. It's not ideal because it doesn't interface with my iPhone, but it seems like the best I can do for now. Or maybe I'll stick with my clunky, shady version of OneNote, since it syncs with my phone. 

Argh. I'm definitely not able to check off this item on my List of Ways to Organize My Life. 

Share |

Kitchen Organization

Since I spend an inordinate amount of time breastfeeding these days, I've been using my time to plan our imminent move. For example, I've been focusing on our kitchen. the space is relatively small (and we have an inordinate number of appliances), so we're going to have to be strategic about maximizing every available inch.
 

Here are some of the space-saving strategies we're thinking about implementing:

 

1) Using tension rods to create vertical storage for baking sheets, cutting boards, etc.

 

2) Using cabinet organizers to store aluminum foil, parchment paper, etc.

 

3) Hanging brooms/mops/etc. on the inside of a closet door.

4) Storing spices in a rack attached to the inside of a cabinet.

5) Creating diagonal storage for cooking utensils.

6) Hanging cleaning supplies on a tension rod under the sink.

 

Share |

Rubbermaid Closets

It's unreal to be able to literally stand inside our house and get a sense of what it feels like. I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying the building process. I never had the dream of building our own house; it just kind of worked out that way because of the particular neighborhood we wanted to live in (both in terms of affordability, diversity, and proximity to the school I'm trying to start) and our aesthetic preferences (we didn't want to renovate a ranch house, which is what the rest of the neighborhood is comprised of).

But now that we're building it, I'm thoroughly enjoying the process. We visit it at least 1-2 times a week, and it's amazing to watch the progress and imagine our future life there.

Try as I might, there's actually not that much that I can plan right now. 

The one thing I can start planning, however, is the closets. The master closet is 13' long, the baby's closet is 9' long, and Henry's closet is 11' long. I considered different options in this post (and ultimately decided to go with IKEA), but now I'm leaning more toward the Rubbermaid closet system. I like the customability that will allow us to design a closet to our exact specifications for an affordable price.

I started by brainstorming everything I want to keep on my side of the closet (Matt is going to design his own side of the closet):

• Hanging shirts
• Hanging skirts
• Hanging pans
• Hanging dresses
• A shoe rack
• Cubbies for sweaters
• A place for belts/scarves
• Drawers for socks, underwear, bras, workout shorts/shirts/pants, and sundry items
• Tabletop for jewelry (nice to have but not need to have)
• Computer printer

Then I sketched out my ideal arrangement (I tried to use their online design tool, but I could never get it to work properly). I have no idea if this configuration will actually work, but I'll try to go to Lowe's and see what they have to say. I'll also plan to watch for sales or request a 10% off coupon directly from Lowe's.

Share |

Easy Meal Planning

I finally figured out a meal planning system that works for our family!

And I get to cross off one item on My Organizational Vision! I'm ecstatic! 

Okay, enough with the exclamation marks. But I'm seriously excited. I called all of my family members to tell them about it.

First, let me backtrack and explain why meal planning is for me (with the obvious caveat that it's not for everyone):

• I do not particularly enjoy cooking. Although I wish I were more like this author who starts a pot of boiling water and then decides what to put in it, I have to be honest with myself and admit that I'm not. I also wish I were the kind of person who could trek to the farmers' market each Saturday or open a CSA delivery and base all of our meals around what's available. Again, if I'm honest with myself, I'm just not that person.
• I'm the kind of person who thoroughly enjoys home-cooked meals and the process of coming together as a family each night, but I want the prep and the clean-up to be as efficient as possible. Matt and I work full-time and try to squeeze in time for exercise and relaxation. For some folks, cooking spontaneously is relaxing. Again, for us, it's not.
• Meal planning helps us save money. Matt and I only buy what we will consume in the upcoming week. By the end of the weekend, our refrigerator and pantry are essentially empty. We waste very little food or money when we meal plan.

On the weekends, I want to spend my time reading, doing yoga, running, crafting, hanging out with friends, hiking, biking--the list goes on! (notice that meal planning and cooking are not on the list). Over the years, I've tried various systems for meal planning. I have a recipe binder that I've used to collect recipes over the years. If we like it, I clip it into the rings. If it's a recipe we want to try, I put it in the front pocket. I prefer to cook from a tangible recipe rather than my phone/computer, so this system has worked well for me. 

The trick has been translating these recipes into a weekly shopping list. I didn't enjoy how much time it took to flip through each recipe and hand-write the shopping list. I often wouldn't write the shopping list out, which meant I would waste a lot of mental energy at the store trying to remember our five meals for the week and remember all the ingredients. Inevitably, this strategy resulted in one or two missed items or multiple trips back to various parts of the grocery store while I was shopping. 

I was inspired by Meg at Sew Liberated to set up a seasonal menu that we rotate through each month. That's why I collaborated with others to create vegetarian Meals for a Year. It includes 12 different meal plans with corresponding shopping lists organized by meal and by section of the grocery store. 

But I realized that monthly or seasonal meal planning doesn't work for me either. I find that my tastes vary from week to week, and I don't like being locked into a particular meal plan. 

Back to square one. 

I finally, finally think I've solved my meal planning dilemma (I imagine you hoped I've solved this problem for our family so I can stop talking about it!). I spent Saturday morning entering 20 of our favorite meals and their ingredients (organized by section of the grocery store) into an Excel document. Matt set up a filtering system that allows me to sit down on Sunday, click on the column of meals, select five meals for the week, and print a sheet that includes the names of the five meals and the ingredients I need for each week (again, organized by section of the grocery store). I made one row for our weekly staples, so I'll always be sure to include that one.

 Master sheet with drop down menu

Final shopping list with the selected meals + standard list

 Printed shopping list

Twenty different meals allows us to eat a different meal five nights a week for nearly an entire month (we usually eat out on Fridays and Saturdays). However, we can also repeat meals easily if we're craving something more frequently. Also, I can save the sheets I print out each week, so if I'm in a hurry and don't want to open my computer, select five meals, and press print (yes, sometimes I am that lazy or that pressed for time), I can simply grab an old one and go.

I can also easily enter in new meals that we want to try. Further, as our bank of go-to meals grows, I can add additional columns (such as season or prep time) and filter the recipes in additional ways. 

I've only tried this process once, but I'm optimistic that it's the solution we've been searching for all these years!

Share |

My Organizational Vision

When I read this little joke over at Modern Parents, Messy Kids about how the author had completely and utterly organized her entire life, I was actually inspired to create my own list--for real, not as a joke. Regardless of whether it stems from some kind of neurosis (perhaps an intense need to control things to make up for the lack of control I felt in childhood?), I have an intense interest in and desire to completely organize our home and my life. Being in clean, bright, orderly environments palpably lifts my spirits. Being organized makes me feel lighter and freer. Ironically, the more organized I am, the more comfortable I am being spontaneous. When my center is in control, I can branch out to take more risks and shake things up on the periphery of my life.

Lists like this are not impossibly high bars that I use to judge myself and feel guilty about all the things I'm not accomplishing. Instead, penning my words on paper (er, typing them into the ether) inspires me to reach higher and do more. I'm excited to tackle the things on the list below:

• A meal plan binder with different meals for an entire month, including shopping lists so I can grab and go each week when heading out to the grocery store (I'm giving up on seasonal plans for now, since it was hard enough coming up with 25 meals that are simple, inexpensive, healthy, and appealing to our whole family). This resource will allow us to have homemade meals five nights a week while trying to balance two full-time jobs and other side projects and goals. 
• A spot for everything in our house. I know this key principle is the backbone of effective organization, but it's easier said than done! I also want to label where things go whenever it makes sense, so that other family members can independently help maintain the order.
• A plan for chores each day, week, month, and year, so that we are diving our chores equitably as a family.
• A family calendar that helps us track our common events and holidays.
• A clean and organized entryway that has a spot for our bags, shoes, keys, mail, and charging cell phones.
• Clutter-free countertops in the bathroom and kitchen. I want there to be a spot in the drawers or cabinets for everything to be put away.
• A family photo album that is updated with photos at least yearly, if not monthly.
• Well-managed e-mail inboxes that only have up to one page of messages.
• A file system for important documents to ensure that everything is at our fingertips when we need it. P.S. This one is already halfway done! 
• An ongoing donation box so we can purge things whenever we need to rather than at designated times through the year.
• Well-organized seasonal things, like Christmas decorations and birthday-related paraphernalia. I also want to have a designated spot for future gifts (either things that I buy early in the year for birthdays or Christmas or things that I want to re-gift later).

We definitely need to start the purging and organizing process now. Doing it before we move will ensure that we don't move a lot of junk to our new house. It's crazy how quickly stuff accumulates. We completed purged and organized our old bungalow before moving to our rental house a year ago, and already we have a ton of stuff that needs to be recycled, shredded, donated, etc.

Share |

How to File Paperwork

As the year comes to a close, I wanted to take a second to reflect on the paperwork organization system that I've been trying for the past 12 months.  

The set-up was really simple. I purchased a plastic bin that could accommodate hanging folders. I made a folder for each of the following categories:

• Bills
• Consulting records
• Important records (birth certificates, social security cards, etc.)
• Hoss
• Receipts
• Taxes
• Cars
• Henry Medical
• Medical
• Financial
• Insurance
• Montessori
• House
• Matt

We have a separate plastic bin with file folders for warranties, manuals, etc. We have one more bin for our taxes (organized into manilla envelopes with the year written on them). (These things are separate because I already had two smaller bins and didn't want to purchase unnecessary plastic.)

When mail comes in, I open it and process it into three piles:

• To recycle
• To shred (e.g., credit card solicitations that could be used for identity theft)
• To file

Then I take the "To file" pile to my bin and file everything accordingly. I file all bills in one folder (with the most recent at the front) because I rarely have to go back and reference these. I've found that more granular organization is not necessary.

At the end of this year, I'm going to go through each folder and transfer stuff to separate manilla folders that are labeled "Financial 2012," "Insurance 2012," etc. That way, I can keep the manilla envelopes a couple years and then shred them. Here's a good guide for how long to keep paperwork.

If we can keep up with the system, I think it will work well for many years to come. As long as we shred the paperwork that becomes obsolete, we'll make room for the new paperwork, which will make scanning unnecessary.

P.S. I'm trying out a new posting schedule where I post on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, so I'll see you on Wednesday!

Share |

Revamping My Organizational System

Friends! I'm okay. Thank you for your messages of concern. It's only been four days without posts!

Life has been quite hectic around here:

1. Two-week vacation at the in-laws house while having a miscarriage.
2. Matt was out of town for 1.5 weeks. 
3. My part-time job ballooned into a 200% time job, as we busted our butts to get ready for the first day of school. I was working full days, as well as Saturdays and Sundays. 
4. We traveled back to Indiana for Matt's cousin's wedding.
5. Henry has swim lessons every day for 10 minutes. The pool is about 20 minutes in the opposite direction of everything else. We've been in the car a lot.

So, blogging has taken a back seat, as well as a whole bunch of other things (like working with the architects to build our house, eating healthy meals, crafting, etc.).

All of this craziness has forced me to revamp my organizational system AGAIN. I know. It's a bit crazy how frequently I have to update my system. But my needs have changed drastically. My system for maternity leave was great for a while, but now that I have a torrent of to-do's every day, I needed something that could handle more capacity. Even my weekly template wasn't cutting it.

I went back to my friend's book to flip through some samples. I was inspired to create this template. I now clip it on a clipboard (no time to open binders!). It helps when I'm running all around school and get bombarded with requests. I have to write them down in the moment, or else they risk being lost forever.

I feel okay with the fact that I've had to change my system so many times within such a short span of time. Our organizational systems are only effective if they meet our needs. If our needs change, our systems have to change, too. 

I'm still going to play with my system a bit more, but this current one is a good stop gap. It helps me feel a little less stressed and a little more on top of things when the you-know-what hits the fan, but I know it could be better in terms of helping me prioritize.

I hope all is well with you!

Share |

Declaring E-mail Bankruptcy

My dear friend Maia just published a book (can I toot my own horn and say I'm featured in it?) called The Together Teacher: Plan Ahead, Get Organized, and Save Time!. One of the things she talks about is e-mail management, and it reminded me that I am failing terribly with my e-mail management strategy these days (or lack thereof).

Here's my current strategy: 

• Read e-mails (on my phone or computer)
• Sometimes respond right away, sometimes not
• Leave e-mails sitting in my inbox to wait for a response (even if they just need to be deleted)

Letting e-mails sit in my inbox waiting for a response (or waiting to be deleted) has resulted in an inbox with a whopping 6,593 e-mail messages (I just deleted one of them, so now I'm down to 6,592). 

Wow, that's embarrassing to admit. (And I'm really sorry if your message is one of them and I never got to it!). 

I need to reclaim my inbox once and for all. 

Step One: E-mail Bankruptcy

• I am declaring what Maia refers to as "E-mail bankruptcy." But instead of deleting all the messages, I'm going to archive them in a folder called "Archive." That way, I can still search for something I need. (G-mail actually has a neat button for this, but I prefer Yahoo! because I can have several messages open at once and toggle between them.)

Step Two: Effective Inbox Management

• I will still let myself read e-mail on my phone, but I will promise to delete it right away if it's not something I want. 
• If it's an e-mail digest, I will move it right away to a folder entitled "To Read"  to help keep my inbox clear. I can go to that folder and read stuff when I have time.
• If the message requires two minutes of action or less, I will take care of it as soon as I'm in front of my computer. 
• If the message requires significant action, I will record it on my to-do list and move it to a folder entitled "Action Plan." That way, it's on my to-do list and won't just get buried under more recent messages.

Step Three: Daily Maintenance

• At the end of every day, I should have an entirely empty e-mail inbox. I will have deleted messages I don't want, moved messages I can read at my own leisure to a folder, responded to quick messages, and made a note to follow-up on longer messages at a later date.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Share |

Organizing Every Inch of Our House

Yesterday was a bit rough. I dragged Matt and a tired Henry to the doctor with me for my RhoGAM shot. It's hard going to a new doctor in a state you don't live in, especially for such a sensitive issue. Fortunately, Matt's mom helped us find a good place. I had to bring Matt with me because I was afraid I might break down and not be able to speak. 

I was able to make it through my standard speech with the intake nurse: "I would be at 13 weeks right now. The baby stopped developing around five or six weeks; we don't know exactly when. I've already had an ultrasound. I've already had my pregnancy hormones tested. I started bleeding Sunday morning. I'm A-negative; I need a shot of RhoGAM."

I made it through that part okay. Then they sent me to the lab to get my blood drawn. They wanted to make sure I was A-negative (which I still don't understand, since they gave me the shot right after I had my blood drawn, even though they won't get the results of my blood type until tomorrow). 

While getting my blood drawn with Henry and Matt in the room (we wanted Henry to see that he's not the only one in our family who gets poked with needles), the woman asked with a smile, "So, are you pregnant with your second?" 

Why, yes I was. Up until last week I was pregnant with our sweet little January baby. We were counting our lucky stars that we got pregnant on our first try (for the second time in a row), and I was counting down the days until I entered the second trimester. It was right around the corner! But then we didn't hear the heartbeat. We even have that part on video. Even then, I was optimistic that everything was okay. I was going to come back in a week and we were going to listen for the heartbeat again. But we decided to test my hormones and they came back not so great. And then, after more waiting, the ultrasound confirmed it. Now I'm just waiting to give birth to death.

Instead of saying all that, I said, "No, I'm having a miscarriage." I was able to state those five words and hold back the tears (until we got to the parking lot). 

But this isn't a post about miscarriage. We've had quite a few of those lately. I'll continue to share my thoughts about miscarriage as I need to, but this post is about home organization. 

[insert segue here]

While on vacation, I read an old Martha Stewart magazine that featured Martha's cleaning supply room (yes, she has a whole separate building dedicated to her cleaning supplies and tools and things). It is a model of impeccable organization. Every single thing has a logical, labeled spot, and it was easy to access. That's exactly what I want for our new house. I only want us to have things in our home that we use/need/want, and I want everything to have a place. I want our home to feel like our little bungalow did when we had it on the market (for sale by owner)--completely decluttered, orderly, organized, and calm. 

That's not to say I want to live in a museum. I want our home to be comfortable and family-friendly. But I want us to be conscious of what we buy and where we put it. I put a library hold on Martha Stewart's book about organizing for inspiration. 

In the meantime, I found this way to conveniently organize spices on the inside a cabinet door. Honestly, I can't believe we ever lived without it. Right now, our spices take up an entire cabinet shelf. When we want one, we have to lift up every single container and turn it so we can see the label. If it's toward the back, it's highly likely that we will knock something else over while trying to excavate it. 

Why do we live that way? I'm serious! Why do we live with unnecessary stresses that threaten to accumulate over a lifetime? The fix is such an easy an inexpensive one! 

The second organizational strategy I want to implement is a better system for trash and recycling. As I mentioned above, I'm the kind of person who wants to declutter and minimize the number of things sitting out (on the counter, on the floor, etc.). We do not space for a trash can on the ground (especially with bulky things like the Learning Tower taking up a lot of space), so instead we keep two paper Whole Foods bags under the sink: one for trash and one for recycling. I won't even go into all the reasons I don't really like this system. Instead, I will say that I'm going to talk to the architect about trading out two of our drawers so that we can install one of those sliding trash and recycling systems.

Is it strange that I get immense joy from figuring out ways to be more organized? It is what it is, I suppose.

Share |

Weekly Action Plan Template

I know I write a lot about updating my organization system, but I'm just being honest about how much I tinker with my system to make sure it fits me just right. Every time my job situation or responsibilities shift, I generally have to make a change in my org system. If I don't, then I end up feeling all sorts of friction with my old system until I finally set aside time to revamp it.

I was using this system through my maternity leave and into my year as a stay-at-home mom. But now I'm starting to work more and more (both on my part-time job as the Director of Operations and Compliance for a new charter school and on the creation of my own charter school). I need more room to record daily tasks, and I need more space to chunk out my time and schedule work time for specific projects. I'll be working four mornings a week at my part-time job, picking Henry up at 12:30, spending the afternoons with him, and devoting Friday morning to my school. It's time to get back to a Weekly Action Plan.

I sit down on Sunday morning and look at my calendar for the week. I transfer all of my appointments and due dates to my weekly action plan. Yes, transferring these items is double-work (instead, I could use something like Outlook and my monthly items would populate my weekly view), but the act of transferring them from my tangible calendar to my tangible weekly action plan really helps me wrap my brain around what I have coming up.

Once I have all the have-to-do's on my action plan, I look back at my monthly goals and figure out what I want to accomplish this week in order to be on track to complete those monthly goals. Then I block off chunks of time during my week to work on those things (this is a way to be proactive about my time, rather than just reacting to all the demands that come at me throughout the week).

I can separate out my daily to-do items a little more. I'm sure I won't get everything done every day, but at least it won't be too difficult to look back at the previous day to catch up on a few things.

You can download the template here, if you're interested.

--------------
Today on 2000 Dollar Wedding: Reducing Stress with small steps...

Share |