Homekeeping News

The most common question that we are asked by our Home Keeping clients is "How can I maintain a warm and inviting home environment?" They want their home to be a refuge, from which they can start their day with a leisurely breakfast and the newspaper. A sanctuary to which they can retreat at the end of the work day to enjoy a home cooked meal, a beverage of choice and a relaxing evening with family and loved ones. They are frustrated because the morning is a whirlwind of activity and the evenings are not relaxing because of pending chores and a lack of energy or desire to tackle these chores. So, where to begin?

Of course, when we are asked this question, the client is so firmly entrenched in "homefront backlog" that they feel that it would be easier to check into a hotel than deal with the backlog awaiting them at home. And who can blame them?

So, in the first of a series of articles on "Homefront Survival", we will help you tackle your homefront backlog by providing tips, hints, and old-fashioned wisdom which will help you transform your home into the organized, peaceful oasis you wish it would be.

What Type of Homefront Manager Are You?

Before you even attempt to organize your home, you must first do a little introspective thinking and determine what type of homefront manager you are. Do you try to do chores in fits and spurts? Do you group them together and promise yourself that you will tackle them at the same time every week? Do you avoid certain chores like the plague? Do you have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to chores? Has your homefront guilt barometer hit a "10" or are you hovering around a "6" or "7"?

So, now that you have answered yes to all of the above questions (and you would not be reading this article if you hadn't)......let's get busy.

We all have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to household chores. We all have chores that we avoid. We are all short on time to tackle these chores. So throw the guilt barometer away and divert that energy that you are expending on guilt to tackling the homefront.

Take a good hard look around your home. Make a list of all the physical areas that are untidy, disorganized and quite frankly driving you nuts. Be sure to include any hidden areas such as closets, dresser drawers, kitchen cupboards, bathroom medicine cabinets and storage areas such as the basement and garage. Review your list and assign each item on your list a priority number from one to five- "one" being highest priority and "five" being the lowest priority. Then review your list. Do you notice a trend? Do all the items on your list that you assigned a priority of "one" have something in common? And likewise with the "two", "three", "four" and "five" priority items?

Something in common you say? You bet. Chances are all your priority "one" list items centre around the same "type" of chore. For example, let's say that you have determined that the following are your number "one" priority items:

• you have several weeks of unread newspapers piled up
• you have months of unread magazines stacked on your coffee table and even older ones in your bathroom
• you have fast food flyers dating back to the last millennium in a drawer in the kitchen
• you have new recipes that you want to try stuck all over your fridge
• you have little stacks of incoming mail all over the house- and don't know which stack is the newest
• your bedroom resembles the local library- and chances are there are some "real, overdue library books" lurking there
• the only photos you can find are the ones in your baby album that your parents gave you
• you have wrapping paper and bows dating back to the 70's
• you can't find the warranty for the dryer that needs repair

• your home office looks like a war zone and you have opted for a new, state of the art floor piling/filing system

The conclusion is obvious, my dear Watson. You abhor dealing with paperwork- of any kind. You let the paper pile up until you could start your own recycling plant. But buried in these piles of paper are pieces of paper that must be dealt with in a timely fashion. And that is where the stress comes from.

Other priority "one" groupings could include items relating to:

• clothes and accessories
• VHS tapes, music CD's, eight track tapes *G*
• kitchen
• no room in your garage for your car
• linen closet
• bathroom
• an excess of storage containers- contents unknown
• dated hobby supplies and sports equipment
• too much furniture
• children's toys (the kids are grown up)
• no memory left on your computer because your archived email has taken up all available space

So now we have determined what kind of homefront manager you are by what you cope with well and what you don't. Now is that time to put your priority list in a safe place and concentrate on the priority "one" tasks first. For this month (and the sake of this article) we will assume it is paper pile up. If paper pile up is not a "one" on your list, review the following tips and suggestions, and see if you can't streamline your paper process.

Paper Pile Up

Gathering Your Paper

Your first step will be to gather up every loose piece of paper in your household and place in a common area. To do this, you will need to be armed with only three things:

• empty milk or pop crates, baskets and any other empty totable device you can find AND green garbage bags
• your priority list of problem paper areas

• your will power

Start your paper gathering in a methodical fashion. The common sense approach is to start with the room closest to your front door and work your way around that room in a clockwise fashion; then move on to the next room; and so on, until you have completely stripped all rooms in your home of loose paper. You will be tossing your loose paper into your totable containers and then placing the full containers at your designated sorting station. Make sure that your designated sorting station is in the area of the house that you frequent the most; otherwise the containers will be out of sight and out of mind.

Sorting Your Paper

To start your methodical sorting of your paper, you will need to be armed with the following:

• yet more empty milk or pop crates, baskets and any other empty totable device you can find AND green garbage bags
• post it notes or sheets of paper on which you will label your sorting containers

• a realistic determination of how much time you can devote to the sorting task at one sitting

It is very important to set a time limit for your sorting task; you must set one that will enable you to see significant progress; while at the same time a one that will leave you wanting to do more. Most people find that 1/2 hour a sitting is a realistic timeframe. And remember- you are sorting- not dealing with the paper at this point.

You are the best judge of what your sorting containers should be labeled. You have gathered all your loose paper and have a good idea of the categories of paper you are dealing with. Efficiency experts claim that there are only five things to do with a piece of paper- however that is why they are efficiency experts. So, their five basic things appear first on this list, and I have added several more categories for the rest of us:

• Do. Place all papers that require action in this container- typically those that require a phone call or a letter reply or perhaps a trip to the store.
• Pay. Place all bills in this container. You can determine if they have been paid after you have finished sorting.
• Read. Place all reading materials in this container.
• File. Place all items to be filed in this container.
• Throw away. Use your big green garbage bags for this process. Throw out any paper that you do not need. Toss it if it is outdated, useless, or readily available from another source. Toss outdated wrapping paper or cut to size and use the reverse for scrap paper. If you are tossing paper that has personal information on it, and do not have a shredder- have two garbage bags on the go, and rip the paper in eighths and share the contents between the two bags.
• Recipes. Place all untried recipes in this container. Place tried recipes that you enjoyed in your To File container. Toss the others.
• Photos. Place all your newly found photos in this container.
• Warranties and Product Information. Place all warranties and product information in this container. If you find the accompanying receipts nestled in your To File container- toss them in here as well.
• Phone Book Info. Place all phone numbers scribbled on little pieces of paper as well as business cards in this container.
• Birthday Info. Place all birthdays scribbled on yet more little pieces of paper in here. Of course you will find a current year calendar- unused in your sorting containers- toss one in here.

Organizing (and Keeping Organized) The Contents of Your Sorted Containers

Congratulations!!! You are on the home stretch!!! Take your garbage bags to the trash. Put the containers that you used to gather your paper back where they belong. Now is the time to enjoy getting organized!!!

• Do. Make the required phone calls, trips to the stores and answer the letters that require a reply. Put all completed items in your To File Container. Decide what type of container you should use for this "action" paper and where it should be placed in your home. An open weave legal sized tray placed on your desk is your best bet- but be creative if need be.
• Pay. Pay all the outstanding bills; note the payment method and date on each bill. Pay the bills based on payee to ensure that you are not duplicating a payment. Put all completed payments in your To File container. Decide what type of container you will use for bills in future and where it should be placed in your home. Once again, an open weave legal sized tray placed on your desk beside your To Do tray is your best bet.
• Read. Sort your magazines into categories. There will be certain magazines that you archive for future reference. For these magazines, make use of the inexpensive magazine holders available at your local office supply store. Each of these holders will store approximately eight issues of the magazine. I find it best to archive the magazines seasonally opposed to chronologically. By archiving in this fashion, all Easter, Christmas and garden specific issues will be grouped together. For all other magazines, skim the table of contents. If nothing attracts your interest, toss the magazine or ( if G rated) donate to a senior centre or a daycare centre. If something does attract your attention, remove the article and archive in your seasonal magazine holders. Toss the magazine. Review the books in your container. Decide which ones you will keep, donate to a good cause, or exchange at a used paperback bookstore and deal with accordingly. And the newspapers in your container? Toss them. You can always obtain the article on line or at your local library.
• Your To File container now has completed items from your To Do and To Pay containers. I have found that the most effective filing system for paper is to file it chronologically by month rather than by category. This method minimizes misfiling and is quick and simple. You will need twelve file folders labelled January through December. File your paper in the appropriate months. Cull files as needed....tax time would be a good time for the culling exercise. Either place your monthly files in a filing cabinet or an upright open filing container which can be placed on your desk or moved around the house easily. In addition to the twelve chronological folders, have one labelled Warranties and Product Info and place all info relating to this year's purchases in this file. The recipes in your To File container are those you have enjoyed and want to save. You can invest in a recipe software program that will allow you to archive recipes on your computer. Some of these programs will even prepare a shopping list and do meal planning for you based on recipes in the database. Or, if you prefer the paper approach you can take a three ring binder, a package of three hole punched paper protector sheets, and three hole punched dividers and set up your own "Favourite Recipes Cookbook". Slip similar recipes into the page protector sheets and separate them into categories that work for you.
• Recipes. The only recipes left in this container are ones you have not tried. Take a paper protector sheet that you would normally place in a three ring binder and affix to your fridge with a strong magnet. Place all pending recipes here, loading the oldest in the back and newest in the front. When the magnet gives way and the envelope of recipes hits the floor, toss all old recipes- or TRY THEM.
• Photos. Sort your photos chronologically. Decide whether you want to use photo albums, scrapbooks, or photo boxes to store your photos. Choose some photos that have sentimental value for you, enlarge them and invest in a quality framing job. Three ring photo albums with the plastic inserts that hold eight photos are great and allow you to add additional pages to album. Scrapbooks work well if you like to add comments and other related memorabilia. Use photo storage boxes if you do not have storage space for albums or scrapbooks. Regardless of which option you prefer, remove your negatives, label them and pop them in your safety deposit box the next time you are at the bank or store them somewhere else off site.
• Phone Book Info. There are three ways to effectively record telephone numbers and addresses on paper. You can have a typical bound Telephone and Address Book in which you will constantly be scratching out numbers and addresses and replacing them with new ones; or you can use an index card box with index cards and alpha dividers; or you can use a Telephone/Address Book in binder format. The later two options offer you the opportunity to replace stale dated material. Use business card holders- either the 5" x 9" size or the binder size to store your relevant business cards. Try to categorize them accordingly.
• Birthday Info. Record all the birthday information that you have scribbled on little pieces of paper on a current calendar for easy reference and hang the calendar near your desk. On the 15th of each month check the following month for upcoming birthdays. Or, you can go to a quality stationery shop and purchase a "card keeper"- typically a spiral bound book with pockets for each month. Note the birthdays on the appropriate pocket- and store the corresponding cards there. This works well if you pick out cards that appeal to you when you visit the card shop rather than buying them as the occasion warrants.

Your ultimate goal is to keep organized. You will find your own little secrets and shortcuts as time goes by. If you have some hints regarding paper pile up that you would like to share, please email us.

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