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Organizational Help From Readers

Organizational Help From Readers

Our readers turned in these organizational tips. They are great ideas! Thank you for all of the submissions and for sharing with others who are pursuing organizational help.

Organizational Help from Readers

Holiday Help

Cookie Swap

To maximize production of holiday baking, my girlfriends and I hold a cookie swap. If there are 10 people coming to the party, each person makes 10 dozen of one type of cookie and brings them in 1-dozen packages. Baking is more efficient with the same ingredients for each batch of cookies, plus you could do an assembly line with your family for decorating/packaging. The girls get together but don’t eat the cookies!

After the cookie swap, each person brings home one dozen of 10 different types of cookies. I take this one step further once I get home. I lay out paper plates in holiday designs and go ahead and assemble goodies to pass out to neighbors, teachers, and hostesses.

**Editor’s note: The above could also work for healthier options like making essential oil blends, snack mixes, etc.**

Large family gift ideas

When drawing names with a large family group, give everyone an index card with their name on it.  Have them write gift suggestions within the agreed-upon price range.  Then fold the paper, put in a hat, and draw.  We all have ideas for cousins we don’t see very often and everyone receives something personal rather than just swapping gift cards.

Addresses

As I receive Christmas cards, I check the return address against the address I have in my contact list.  I update as I go. I also add the date of the change, so I’ll know when I hear of folks moving if the address is current or not.

– Leigh Anne

Home Help

Laundry

An organizational help for keeping laundry quick and easy is to get a large mesh laundry bag for each child and write their name on it. Except for a little monitoring so you don’t get pink socks or ruin a favorite sweater, it’s quite easy. Put the whole zipped bag in the wash, then the dryer, and return it to the proper child to be folded. The clothes stay sorted and get back to the right person.

– Christine

2 Pack (1 Large & 1 Medium) - Tenrai Delicates Laundry Bags, Bra Fine Mesh Wash Bag, Zippered, Protect Best Clothes in the Washer (2 White)

I used to feel like the laundry would never end.  There were piles and piles of clothes, some clean, some dirty and some to be ironed.  I put it off as long as I could, and then had a wash-a-thon day, washing as many loads as I could.

This wasn’t a successful plan because I had more clean clothes than I could iron, fold and put away.  By the time I finished those loads (days later), there were many more dirty piles and I was right back where I started.  For one week, I kept up with how many loads I washed and was shocked to find that it was much less than I had guessed.

Now I treat laundry as daily maintenance. I only wash the amount that I can also dry, fold and put away in the same day.  Now I don’t have piles of clean laundry and the amount of dirty clothes don’t get out of hand.  Even if I miss a day of washing, it’s not hard to catch up. (Click here for another laundry post.)

Packing for Vacation

While packing to go on vacation, I don’t waste a lot of time searching for things or deciding what to wear. I only pack the necessities and just take clothes that I like to wear.  I try to imagine how much more efficient I’d be and how much more time I would have if I could let go of all the extras at home.  This motivates me to clean out things I no longer use as I come across them rather than waiting to see if I might need them again.

Click here if you would like a free Stylish Winter Packing List!

Paper

When deciding whether to save paper items, magazines, catalogs, etc., I used to ask myself if this was something that I “want” or “need” to read.  I was still left with paper stacks on the kitchen counter because I don’t have time for everything that I want and/or need to do. Now I ask myself if it is important enough that I will actually make time to do it. (Click here for another article on paper organization.)

Christy

Getting Out the Door

ALWAYS put your keys in the same place. (I have a small basket on my counter in my kitchen.) We always know where they are! I used to keep them in my purse but it became a “bottomless” pit and I had to make a new plan.

An organizational help for my morning routine is that now I have my son’s clothes laid out the night before school. We set his alarm to get up a little early so he can dress himself. This has worked SOOOOOOOOOO much better than me standing there saying hurry up, hurry up! I have his lunch ready the night before. These aren’t rocket science but I’m so unorganized they have helped keep peace!

Stephanie

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