Welcome to February in New England. With the occasional blizzard, treacherous driving conditions and extreme cold, you’ll be stuck in the house from time to time. What’s the best way to use this time?
Tackle an organizing project of course!
Have kids at home?
- If they’re high school students pull out all last years old school work that was just tossed in the closet last June. Work with them to decide what they really want to keep and what they don’t.
- If they’re younger pull out the old school/art work you saved so you all can decide what’s really a treasure and what’s not. Ask yourself if you’re keeping this for yourself or the kids?
- Did the kids get new toys for the holidays? Go through their old toys and donate what they’ve grown out of or no longer use.
- Are the kids growing by leaps and bounds? Go through their dresser and closet and remove the clothes they’ve grown out of or don’t like. Pass what’s in good condition to friends and family or donate them.
No kids at home?
- Tax season is here. Pull together all the papers you’ll need to file your taxes.
- Do you have thousands of digital photos on your computer? If you’re like most people, it’ll take several blizzards to organize all your photos but you have to start someplace. Create folders for different events or people. Delete the duplicates and bad shots. Title and date them so you don’t forget which baby is in the picture or how old they were at that birthday party. You can do the same with printed pictures. I’m working on organizing the family photos my mom had and putting them in albums. I recently took a bold step and collected all my negatives and threw them away. Are you gasping at the thought? I realized, after making several digital photo books, I don’t use the negative, I always scan the photo. Here’s a picture of what I tossed.
- When was the last time you purged the file cabinet? It’s best to do this after you’ve collected everything you’ll need for taxes. Remember, only file things you’ll need to retrieve in the future.
- How many recipes have you cut out of magazines and stuffed in a drawer? Go through them and be realistic; will you ever make a recipe that requires an ingredient you’ve never heard of? Next, sort them by appetizer, soups, chicken, fish etc. Scan and organize them or create a binder.
- Have the nice neat piles in the linen closet turned into giant heaps? Time to reevaluate what you use and what you don’t. Donate the sheets that have elastic rot and stained towels to the Humane Society or your local veterinarian.
Be brave, you can do it. It’s wonderful to see the open space in the closets!
As always, if you don’t want to tackle your organizing projects alone we’re here to help.
Lorraine
