organizing Archives - Page 8 of 9

Tips & Must Haves for the Perfect Summer Party, Part 1

June 12, 2008 2 Comments

It takes proper planning and organization to have a successful party at any time of the year. But no matter how much planning we do, there’s always a chance that we’ll forget something. So I’m making a list of tips and must haves for your summer parties and backyard barbecues. Part one will have some general tips, and part 2 will having some tips concerning food and drinks.

Try to place chairs in a shaded area under some trees, or set up a big tent, canopy, or an umbrella to provide shade.
Make sure you have plenty of chairs. It’s much better to have extra chairs than to not have enough. Consider renting some chairs, or check out the selection at the local dollar store. Or ask some of your guests to bring extra chairs to the party.
If your party will be held outside, purchase a couple of electric fans to create a nice breeze.
Be sure to turn on ceiling fans and turn the thermostat down in the house for people who want to sit inside. Homes are always hotter when there’s a lot of people inside, especially if you’ve been cooking. Not to mention, people will be going in and out the door, letting the hot air in.
Be sure to purchase plenty of ice and have plenty of drinks on hand, especially bottled water, tea, or lemonade/punch. I also recommend Kool Aid, Powerade, or juice boxes for the kids.
Use Off candles, mosquito coils, and other repellants to keep bugs away.
As the party host, it is your obligation to have things on hand that your guests may need. Make sure that you have the following: Off bug repellent, OTC pain relievers, sunscreen, band-aids and other first aid items, Benadryl/corizone cream for bug bites, and a sting kit.
If you’re having a family party, be sure that you have a kick ball or some other recreational equipment for the kids to play with so that the adults can talk.

Filed Under: organizing, party ideas, planning, summer

Spring Cleaning Must-Dos

April 9, 2008 2 Comments

Some of us don’t have the time (or the energy) to thoroughly clean up during the spring cleaning season, but the truth is that a lot of clutter can get built up over the cold winter months, and even if you don’t have the time to turn your house upside down this spring, you can do a lot of good by simply concentrating on a couple of problem areas. Here are a few suggestions that I consider to be must-dos for everyone’s spring cleaning to-do list:

Pantry/fridge – Empty your fridge/pantry. Go through all your food, throw out items that are out of date & any items that you know will never be eaten. Wipe down shelves, drawers, and other food storage areas. Then restock and organize.

Medicine Cabinet – Clean out your medicine cabinet. De-clutter by getting rid of expired medications. Clean the shelves and any storage compartments. Rearrange your medicine cabinet to make items more accessible and easy to find.

Closet – Clean out your closet. Get rid of clothes that do not fit, or are torn, items you haven’t worn in over a year, and anything else that you know you won’t wear. Arrange your closet so that like items are together. Move winter coats, dresses, and other items to an extra closet if you have one, or store them in totes or “vacuum” storage bags on a shelf or under your bed. I did a post last fall on storing summer clothes for this winter. This can also be applied in the spring: Storing Clothes.

Bathroom – True, you should clean your bathroom on a regular basis anyway, but when was the last time that you cleaned it thorughly? If you do nothing else for spring cleaning, you should give your bathroom a good cleaning. Scrub your sink, shower, tub, and toilet till they shine. Take down your shower curtain and wash it in the washing machine or replace it with a new one if needed. Do the same with bathroom rugs.

These are just a few spring cleaning projects that you can do to improve your home, even if you have very little time on your hands. And if these areas aren’t a problem for you, then find another problem area of your home and tackle it this spring. A little goes a long way.

Filed Under: cleaning, Home/Garden, organizing

Organizing Tax Information Part 2 – Keeping Up with Receipts and Deductions

March 31, 2008 1 Comment

Time for my small business accounting & organizational class. This post is kind of long, so I hope you’ll indulge me. It’s hard to take steps in a business procedure and condense them down, but I think I did an okay job.. Before I begin, let me say that I am not a trained tax accountant. But I did work in accounts receivable for a few years, and I had to deal with packing lists and invoices on a daily basis and handle record keeping for computer files and physical files. So that experience taught me a lot about organizing and the importance of coming up with a system that works for me, and I’ve based my own home accounting and record keeping practices on the systems that I’ve learned in business. I’ve just put it on a smaller scale. As I’ve said, everyone has their own way of doing things. What works for me, may not work for you, but maybe my ideas will help somebody or at least give others an idea for a system that will work for them.

This system is primarily used to keep up with expenses that are tax deductible (business or non business), and it’s a simple, time-friendly system that you can use throughout the year. You can also check out Tax Blog Site to help you deal with taxes.

Gathering Receipts
First of all, throughout the year I keep all my papers in a “temporary” file box, until I’m ready to go through them, and the file box contains hanging folders for various kinds of paper work (bills, new mail, and so forth). For my accounting purposes, I have 2 folders in the box for receipts. One is for personal receipts, and the other is for business receipts. About once a week or so, I empty the folders and enter the totals for the receipts onto a spreadsheet. The personal receipts are entered into my “monthly budget” spreadsheet and are then thrown away. But business receipts (and other important receipts) are entered onto a separate spreadsheet for business expenses and are then copied and filed. (Note – After I pay bills, I place them in the receipt folder as well, so that they can be counted along with all my other receipts.)

Computer Records

At the beginning of the year, I create a spreadsheet/workbook in Excel. You could create an Access database if you prefer or use some other accounting software, but Excel is pretty sufficient for my particular system. (and if you don’t have excel, Google has an online spreadsheet program that’s free) My spreadsheet is primarily for business expenses, but you can use it to calculate any expenses you like.

For organizational purposes, I create separate worksheets within the workbook for various kinds of expenses. For example, my husband has a truck that he uses for his business, and every time he gets an oil change or has work done on the truck, those totals go on a worksheet labeled, “Truck.” Another worksheet is labeled, “Gas,” which obviously is for gasoline totals. Another worksheet is for “Office supplies” and so on.

And basically each worksheet contains a list of expense records. At the top of the worksheet, there is title and underneath the title are the headings which my information is entered under. The headings I use are as follows: Date, Vendor, Item Description, Total. Each receipt that I get becomes a record/line item on the worksheet, and all the information from the receipt is entered under the headings.

Paper/Physical Records

Before or after the receipt info. is entered into the spreadsheet, I attach the receipt to a sheet of printer paper. To save paper, I usually attach 2-4 small receipts on to the same sheet of paper. After attaching the receipts and entering all the receipts into my spreadsheet, I make a copy of all the receipts. Then I punch holes in the papers and place them in my Business Expense binder. I have one binder for the original receipts, and one for the copies. (I make the copies b/c sometimes the ink on receipts tends to fade, and I just like having 2 copies. I also got pretty use to the practice when working with monthly credit card statements at my old job.)

Each expense binder is “equipped” with tabs/subject dividers. The labels on the tabs match the labels on the worksheets of my spreadsheet, and the receipts are filed behind the appropriate tab. By creating “expense categories” for your computer spreadsheet and your physical/paper files, it is much easier to stay organized and to keep a check of your records to make sure that they match. It also makes it easier for you to find a specific record.

We’ve managed to file all of our receipts for the year in a single binder. (with the copies in a second binder) But if you have a lot of receipts, you may want to use more than binder. You may even want to create tabs for specific vendors that you use a lot. And of course, if your business is bigger, than you can always apply this system to a filing cabinet.

Not Just For Businesses
I know that I’ve focused on small businesses, and many of us don’t have businesses, but this system can be applied to individuals as well. I’ve used this same system to keep up with receipts for college books. (I don’t worry about keeping up with tuition totals b/c the school sends us a tax form w/ that info) And you could use this system for other expenses/tax deductions as well, from medical expenses to charitable donations. (or use a less detailed version for your home budget)

Filing Your Taxes and being Prepared for an Audit.
When it comes time to file your taxes, simply print out all your spreadsheets and use the grand totals for your deductions. No need to to pull out your receipts except to double check your totals. (if you use an accountant, having a spreadsheet or list of totals will make his job easier too.) If you don’t have an accountant, you will have to do it on your own, either via mail-in forms or online (efiling). If you decide you want to efile it’s easy and a lot faster than the traditional mail method.

You should still keep your receipts in the event of an audit. And I’ve been advised by an accountant that if you are ever audited it looks much better (to the auditors) if you have a folder or binder of receipts that is neat and organized rather than a box or folder full of loose receipts.

For those of you who don’t like to keep paper files and prefer to scan your receipts, that is fine too, as long as you can can quickly print and organize your receipts in the event of an audit. The most important thing is that you are able to take any record from your spreadsheet or computer database and quickly locate the receipt for that record.

Well, that’s about all I can think of. I hope this helps.

Filed Under: organizing, personal finances, Simple Solutions

Organizing Tax Information Part 1 – All the Forms You Get in the Mail

March 29, 2008 Leave a Comment

I wanted to take a little time to do some posts on organizing your tax stuff, because I think one of the a main reasons people hate doing taxes is because they get overwhelmed with the stacks of paper and forms. So I’m going to explain the system that I have for organizing my stuff, and hopefully it will be of some help to somebody out there.

This first part will deal with all the forms that come in the mail because everyone has to deal with them, and then in the next day or two, I’ll explain my system for dealing with receipts that you keep up with yourself in order to take deductions (for small businesses, donations, and whatever else you have).

Generally the tax forms begin coming in the mail at the beginning of January, and you should have all of these by February. If it appears that you’re missing something, then you may want to contact the company that you’re missing stuff from and find out what the deal is, but generally you can expect to get all your forms fairly early, and if not, then you may also want to check online. My credit union and one of the companies that I had a student loan through had our statements online to print out.

Whenever I start getting my forms in the mail, I immediately get a out a file folder and label it “Taxes” and I write the year on it. I place all my forms in this folder as they come in the mail, and eventually after our taxes have been submitted/filed, I keep all my forms and printouts/copies in this same folder and file it in the filing cabinet at home.

Once I feel that I have recieved all the paperwork in the mail and am ready to file our taxes, I go through the folder and open all the evelopes and I separate the forms into groups. Generally they are grouped into two stacks. One stacks is Incomes. This includes records of our wages, student loan and scholarship disbursements, accrued interest on our savings accounts, etc. I attach all these forms together with a paper clip, and place a post it on top of the stack, labeled Incomes.

My other stack is for Expenses Paid (or whatever you want to call it…I don’t call it deductions b/c I have several different kinds of deductions, which will be discussed in the next post). Anyway, this is for forms that we get, regarding interest that we’ve paid on student loans, tuition that we have paid, and that sort of thing. Again, I clip all of these forms together with a paper clip and label the stack with a post it.

Of course, you may have other forms that come in the mail as well, which you can group any way you like. You may also want to take it a step further and do individual stacks for you and your spouse or other people in the house as well. Or you may want to separate “wage” forms from “bank interest forms,” or put all your “college related” forms together. It’s really up to you. Everyone has their own personal preferences and an idea of what’s logical to them. But this system works for me, it’s very simple.

The bottom line is that it is better to have 2, 3, or 4 stacks of paper that are organized, clipped together, and clearly labeled than to have 10 or 20 random sheets of paper thrown together in a folder. Whether you do the taxes yourself or hire an accountant, a little organization will make the work a whole lot easier.

Next time, I’ll explain my simple system for keeping up with business expenses and other deductions throughout the year. A lot of people don’t take deductions because they either lose their receipts, or they think it is too much trouble and hassle to keep up with receipts and keep a record of their deductions. (but it doesn’t have to be a hassle!)

Hope you’re all having a good weekend. See ya next time!

Filed Under: organizing, personal finances

Simple Solutions: Creating a Shoe Station

February 20, 2008 1 Comment

Items that have a tendency to continously clutter a home week after week are those which we use on a dailybasis, and one of the main culprits in our house (as well as others from what I’ve heard) is shoes. I know I can be the worst when it comes to walking in the door, sitting on the couch, and taking off my shoes. Then the shoes will either stay there until I wear them again or until I look around the room and realize that my pair of shoes now has a few pairs of friends in the floor with him. Home Sanctuary had a post a few weeks ago where she challenged visitors of her site to go through the house and pick up shoes that are laying about and put them where they belong. She even titled her post “Do Centipedes Live Here?” I couldn’t help but find this a little humorous. Anyway, her post got me to thinking about how I could avoid the centipede question and avoid constantly cluttering up the house with shoes.

First I try to make it a goal to scan the living room every couple of days and put away shoes or any other items that don’t belong, which I have found is good habit to get into, saving you a lot of time and work in the long run. But then I came up with another solution as well. For those of you who have kids (which means there’s a lot more shoes left out in the floor) or for those of you who never know when you’re going to get some last minute company, and for those who, like me, occasionally overlook/forget about the shoes in the floor, here’s another solution: Create a shoe station.
This is a designated “temporary” location for shoes. It can be a basket/hamper, a trunk, a canvas bin, a halltree or bench. (basically any kind of container that doesn’t look too awkward to have in your living room/den or by the door or entryway of your home.)

You can encourage your kids to either put their shoes in their room or to put them in the “shoe station.” This way the shoes won’t clutter up the house, and you avoid having a kid who can’t remember where they put their shoes. This is also a helpful tool for moms. Rather than picking up all the shoes and taking them back to the room of the person they belong to, you can place them all in your shoe station, and your kids can get them out later. Additionally I recommend checking the bin/basket about once a week to make sure it isn’t full, and whenever you find that it is full you can have everyone to come get his/her shoes to put away in their own closet.

Filed Under: cleaning, organizing, Simple Solutions

Baskets for Storage and Organizing

January 29, 2008 Leave a Comment

Since moving in to our new home, I’ve had to do some rearranging and reorganizing. In particular I had to find new ways to store items because I have less drawer and cabinet space. I have some different items in mind to buy for the new place (after we get some bills taken care of, that is), but in the mean time I’ve been shopping around.

One thing I’ve looked at is baskets. I’ve never been a “basket person” but they are starting to grow on me. I think it’s because I’ve begun to realize how multi-functional they are. You can store pratically anything from clothes, linens, and towels, to craft & office supplies, to books and magazines, household items, and bath and body items.

I also like these because you can place them in just about any room and they won’t clash. It’s also easy to find high quality baskets that look good without paying a fortune. (It’s one thing to find containers to organize and store stuff, it’s another thing to find containers that actually look good; with baskets you can get both, even on a low budget.)

And depending on what size you get, you can easily place them under counters, on shelves, in closets, and even under end tables or other furniture. I don’t know about you, but I like the idea of organizing something and also essentially being able to hide items away.

Here are just a few baskets that I’ve found on the internet.

Storage Basket – Natural by Organize It All

Rope Basket Set by Greenbriar Home & Garden

Wicker Waste Basket by Organize It All

Round Wicker Hamper with Lid by Organize It All

Cabana Willow Basket – Large by Greenbriar Home & Garden

Filed Under: cleaning, organizing

Simple Tips: Shelf Brackets & Dividers

January 8, 2008 2 Comments

Sometimes it’s easy to organize but harder to maintain organization, especially on closet and cabinet shelves. You create a stack towels or clothing only to have the stack topple over or two stacks mingle with one another and become hard to manage. The solution is to separate the stacks using shelf brackets and dividers.

Not only will this product help you to stack your linens, it can also help you organize books, photo albums, and even kitchen items.

For more on this idea, click here.

Filed Under: cleaning, organizing, Simple Solutions

Tips for Making and Keeping Resolutions

December 30, 2007 Leave a Comment

The time has come to make resolutions for the new year. Just about everyone makes promises to themselves to accomplish some goal in the New Year, whether it’s to lose weight, keep the house clean, take vitamins, or start a new business. Unfortunately the vast majority of people don’t follow through with their resolutions. Why? It’s true that a lot of people procrastinate on various projects throughout the year, yet we still manage to accomplish a lot. Why is it so difficult to keep New Year’s resolutions? I believe one reason is that we choose the wrong resolutions to make, and the other reason is poor planning.

Here are some tips on choosing and keeping your resolutions:

1. Resolve to do something that’s actually important to you. If you choose to do something that is actually important to you, you’ll be more likely to make your resolution a priority and stick with it. (For example, you cannot lose weight or stop smoking unless you actually want to.)

2. Make specific goals. (For example, instead of saying, “I’m going to lose weight,” say, “I’m going to lose 25 pounds.”)

3. Make realistic and obtainable goals. It’s okay to aim high, but pick something you can actually do.

4. Take a few minutes to write down your resolutions on paper. Consider posting the list on your refrigerator or at your desk, or some other place where you can see it. You’ll be much more likely to do the items on your list if you see a constant reminder.

5. Create a plan of action. Think about how long it will take you to achieve your resolution and what you’ll have to do to make your resolution a reality. Then write it down. One main reason a lot of businesses fail is because they do not make a plan; the same can be said for resolutions. When writing down your plan be very specific. Consider creating a timeline for your goals: What do you want to accomplish by the end of January? By the end of May? (and so forth)

6. Keep a calendar/planner. Keeping a calendar can be a helpful tool for you to write down your goals in, and a calendar will help you to chart your progress.

7. Make an extra effort in January & make the resolution a part of your daily/weekly routine. Just like with anything else, the first few days and weeks are the toughest. But after you’ve made your a plan and made your resolution a part of your routine and you’ve gotten in the habit of working on your resoultion, the rest should be a down hill effort. (For example, if you resolve to take a multi-vitamin everyday, and you decide to take your vitamin first thing every morning, then after just a couple of weeks, the resolution should be second nature to you. This concept will also work with other resolutions that are a continuous effort, such as quitting smoking, changing your diet, keeping your house clean or organized, exercising, ect.)

Filed Under: Misc Holidays, organizing, planning

Gift Wrap Organizing Ideas

December 5, 2007 Leave a Comment

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to be organized. In fact you can often use items that you already have around your house to organize with. All it takes is a little thinking outside the box. Here are a some ideas that I found around the net and a few that I’ve come up with myself.

Under the bed boxes – I use these to store my gift wrap. I had looked around for an organizer at the store and didn’t really find one that I liked so I decided to use 2 boxes I already had at home. I use one for Christmas bags and gift wrap, and I use the other one for Birthday and other occasion wrap. These are great because they are long enough to hold any size gift wrap as well as other supplies, and you can conveniently hide your wrapping supplies away and get them out when you need them.

Small rubbermaid containers and file boxes – Use file boxes to store bows and ribbons and smaller containers for gift tags and other small supplies.

Ziplok bags – Use these to hold name tags, tape, ribbons, small bows, and small gift bags.

Shoe boxes – Shoe boxes can be used for scissors, bows, tags, gift bags, tissue paper, and just about all your gift wrapping supplies. You can also use shoe boxes to make a ribbon dispenser, as show below.

Paper towel holders – These also make good ribbon holders.

Garbage cans & laundry hampers – These are perfect for holding long rolls of gift wrap.

Large boxes – Whenever I buy something, I generally keep the box if I think I can use it or just in case something needs to be returned. This year I moved, and I still have a lot of my stuff in storage at my dad’s house, including my gift wrap containers. Well, a few days ago I bought a new vacuum cleaner, and rather than leaving my wrapping supplies in the middle of the floor, I decided to put them in the vacuum cleaner box for the time being. The box was the perfect size for the rolls I had. You could also use your Christmas tree box to put your gift wrapping supplies in and purchase a plastic storage container for your tree. (I always find it difficult to get the tree back in its box anyway, and it will be safer in a plastic container.) And if you’re partial to things looking good, you could always use some spare wrapping paper to make the box look festive.

Shoe rack – In the picture above a shoe rack was used to store bows, tages, scissors, tissue, and other supplies.

Coat Hangers – Use a tie/belt hanger for ribbons, or attach a shopping bag to a regular coat hanger to store paper.

Baskets – If you have any spare wicker baskets around the house, they would be useful to store gift tages, ribbons, and bows. Baskets are great because there are so many kinds to fit your needs. You can use baskets with or without handles, and you could also consider sewing baskets and picnic baskets. These are also relatively cheap at the craft store or dollar store.

More Ideas

Create your own gift wrap center. Use a spare closet, or create a gift wrapping table/area in a corner of your office or craft/sewing room. This could be used just for the holidays, or you could use it year round if you wrap a lot of presents throughout the year. You could also use a spare bedroom or other room in your house that’s not currently in use as a a temporary gift wrap station for the holidays.

Organize Magazine has a lot of great ideas for organizing giftwrap, using items in your home.

Country Living has a great article this month that shows you how to create a gift wrap station in your home.

Improvements Catalog has a very cool portable gift wrap organizer/table for $79.99 (pictured below).

Digg it Del.icio.us

Filed Under: Christmas, organizing

Gift Wrap Organizers

December 4, 2007 1 Comment

Every year I buy new gift wrap, no matter how much I have left over from the year before. Usually I’ll buy a couple of traditional rolls and a couple of Disney rolls or some other cartoon wrap, and then I’ll use some of the new paper and some of the old paper for my presents. But no matter how much paper I buy or how many presents we have, we always have left over paper. And just like in other things, I like to have my wrapping paper neat and orderly, or at the very least, all in one place together.

There are several benefits to have a gift wrap organizer. First of all, an organizer will prevent your paper from getting wet, crumpled, or otherwise destroyed. Secondly, by placing your gift wrap supplies in an organizer, it will save you time because when you get ready to gift wrap, all your supplies will in one place. You won’t have to search for extra tape or wonder, “where did I put that bag of bows?” And finally it prevents you from having excess clutter, and it just looks a lot more neat and clean.

Here are a few organizers that I found for sale on amazon. I’ve provided pictures and highlighted some of their features for you. In one of my next posts, I’ll have some more ideas on how you can organize your gift wrap using items in your home & how you can create a gift wrapping station.

This organizer is primarily for wrapping paper, although you could place some gift bags or bows in it as well, if you don’t have a more than a few rolls of paper. This is a simple and inexpensive tote if you are someone who doesn’t really wrap a lot of packages. This container has wheels and would easily store away in a closet or attic, and it will protect your paper from moisture and prevent it from getting crumpled.

This is a great organizer if you wrap a lot of packages throughout the year. It’s also great if you have a limited amount of space because it hangs right over the door. It has spaces for everything you need. There’s room for several rolls of paper, bows, ribbon, scissors, tape, and gift bags. It’s also very convenient. You can store your gift wrapping supplies in a “hidden” spot, and yet whenever you need them they are right there. You don’t have to pull out a big container, and you only get out the items you need. I would definitely recommend this one if you are somebody who does a lot of present wrapping.

This is another great organizer that hangs inside a closet. You can store several rolls of paper, as well as ribbons, bows, name tags, and other supplies.

This gift wrap organizer is made by Rubbermaid. It has a carrying handle and would conveniently fit in a closet, under a bed, or in a corner of your office or craft room. It will also protect your gift wrapping supplies if you store them in the attic. It holds several rolls of paper and has a space at the top for storing bows & other supplies.