Organized Home

Watching Over Your Household
Tips, Recipes, And Helpful Websites

By Lorna Carrara

Closets.................................................................................................................................

Ask yourself:
•   Is it in good shape?
•   How do I feel when I wear it? (Is it still in style?)
•   If it’s broken can it be fixed? (If not, throw it away or use for rags)
•   Do I even want it?
•   How many do I already have?
•   Do I really need it?
•   Does someone need it more than me?
•   Have I worn it in the last year, if not sow it.

We wear only 20% of our clothes 80% of the time.
If you have time, as you take the items out, organize into one of 4 areas:

• Sow (to someone you have in mind, if not donate it.)
• Donate
• Garbage
• Keep

"Your seed of today creates your harvest of tomorrow!" Dr. Robb Thompson

Windows..............................................................................................................................

Window washing recipe:
   2 buckets
   1 rag
   1 shamee or shamwow type cloth
   paper towel
   1 cup white vinegar
   1 gal warm water
   1 drop Joy liquid dish detergent
   1 gal clean water

In 1 bucket: 1 gal warm water, 1 cup white vinegar, Joy
In another bucket: clean water

Wash window with rag dipped in wash water, rinse with shamee that was dipped in clean water bucket and wrung out. Finish drying window with paper towel. According to Debbie Williams author of, Common Sense Organizing the average woman only uses 20% of the total items in her kitchen 80% of the time.

Stores, Websites, Books...................................................................................................

CONTAINERS

The Container Store :: www.TheContainerStore.com
Organize Everything :: www.TheStorageStore.com
Target :: www.Target.com
Wal-Mart :: www.Walmart.com
Home Depot :: www.HomeDepot.com

Bass Pro-shop :: for jewelry you can use fishing lure boxes of all shapes and sizes by putting a piece of cotton in the bottom cut to fit.

ORGANIZING TIPS

www.flylady.com
www.onlineorganizing.com
www.getorginc.com
www..BirthdayAlarm.com :: Dates to remember

BOOKS
Queen of Clean :: by Linda Cobb
Dirty laundry with the Queen of Clean :: by Linda Cobb

Watching Over Your Household.......................................................................................

Proverbs 31:27 (NLT)
"She carefully watches everything in her household and suffers nothing from laziness."

Proverbs 31:27 (AMP)
"She looks well to how things go in her household, and the bread of idleness (gossip, discontent, and self-pity) she will not eat."

My Personal Responsibilities:
• I am a Christian foremost, then a wife to an amazing man who owns a home repair business that I help him run, I have 2 daughters by marriage and 2 son-in-laws, 6 Grandchildren, and I am a daughter to a very healthy 90 yr. old father- in -law.
• Church attendee and supporter, Ministry Leader with my husband Steve of Celebrate Recovery ministry: Steve and I oversee 12 leaders, 5 leaders in training, and 40 regular members. Currently I am leading 12 women a weekly step study and sponsor 8 CR members with weekly phone appointments. I also am the worship leader for CR and have a team of 3 instrumentalists and 6 vocalists. I plan and organize the weekly meeting agenda and the worship for the team.
• I also own a fitness Instruction business: I am a Personal trainer currently training 5 clients per week, Pilates and reformer Instructor: currently teaching 3-5 classes per week.
• I rented a plot of land through the park dist. This year so we can have a fresh veg. garden, I will sow and can my harvest in the fall
• I take care of many gardens and my yard at home and I carefully watch over everything in my household.

How do I accomplish these things? KISS :: Keep It Simple Sweetie. ☺

Balance and Organization is a big key to peace in your home. Organization reduces stress. Everything has to have a place. When everything has a place, I know where to find what I need and it makes life so much easier and more efficient. This includes our time. Time management is the most important thing to organize, because when you make time for things they get done. This includes having fun! Yes, I schedule fun. It is important to Steve and I to have time together, and with our friends and family to let go and have some laughs.

I always have a calendar with me, some areas of my schedule change consistently, so I need something with me at all times. Some suggestions of what works for me:

• For my business and phone appointments I use my calendar in my phone, with alarms set to remind me 15 min. before the appt.

• For Celebrate Recovery I schedule weekly speakers, teachers, testimonies, who is receiving offering, who is leading which of the 6 open share groups we run. I use a Microsoft calendar on our pc and if I need to I can send it out to all my leaders from my pc. I also use this calendar to schedule when I travel to give my testimony and sing. Certain phone/computer software programs allow you to sync your phone schedule and your pc calendar together. The time it takes for you to learn how to use these things will create much more time in your schedule in the future.

• To remember Anniversary’s and Birthday’s and other important events, I have an online reminder service called birthdayalarm.com that reminds me, and I can also them to send an e-card if I want to.

• I set alarm in my house –like on my microwave - for important things like phone appts. So I know I need to wrap up what I’m doing. I will delegate a time slot for projects around the house and set an alarm. When it goes off, no matter what, I will stop and go to whatever I need to do next. This sounds hectic, but it actually keeps peace in my day. When I say “I just need to finish this one thing…” I have stolen time from the next thing I need to do. I start out asking God in my God time in the morning what my priorities are for that day, then I will plan accordingly. I’ll also do this the night before, just before bed, I ask God and write down what he tells me to do, This helps prevent me from running around trying to get it all done. As a rule of thumb, God only gives me 3 major things to accomplish in one day. When I add more I get overwhelmed and stressed.

Many people use small paper calendars, or put jumbo on your fridge; whatever works for you that’s what is right for you. You have to find what works in your life. I have been to organizing classes and their particular techniques may not work for my life, but I can always learn something I can use.

Organizing Your Home......................................................................................................

So let’s start with the busiest room in the house that is usually the kitchen. What is your worst area of organization in your kitchen?

PANTRY

•Store like minded things together. Tallest on top shelf, least used on bottom shelf. Make things easy to grab.

Shelf suggestions:

Breakfast: Cereals, Protein shakes, oatmeal and hot cereals, etc. on one shelf, usually top as cereal boxes are tall. (I don’t put cereals and things into other containers, I use chip clips to keep bags fresh, and then is something has an expiration date, you still have the container to be able to tell.)

Meal preparation: Cans of vegetables, Sauces, Marinara, spice packets, anything it takes to prepare your meals this includes dry pasta, and rice on that shelf too. This way you know if you have what you need to make the dish you want to make. You won’t have to dig through the whole pantry. Keep it Simple.

Cans of fruit or cans anything not meal prep. on another shelf.

Snacks on one shelf in clear shoeboxes or dividers according to the snacks. i.e.: for us: nuts in one, dried fruit, protein bars in another, bags of chips, crackers on shelf etc.

Beverages shelf: Powdered drinks, teas, coffees, powdered cream hot choc. Etc.

Large jugs of vinegar, olive oil, etc. on the floor.

Every couple of weeks I “pantry/freezer shop” for dinner. This is a good way to use up what is in your pantry or freezer before buying more, and also you won’t be throwing away food that was at one time perfectly good. (Be sure to check expiration dates, and check for protective ice coating, nasty smell or general ewww). Use up the things you don’t know what do to with. List them all together online at recipes.com and see what they come up with, make it for dinner! ☺ that will cure you from buying things that you don’t know what you’ll do with but thinks they’re cool. I still have a can of coconut milk in my pantry. ☺ I am going to attempt Green chicken curry one day soon. What are Edamames anyway??

In cabinets: store what you use most on reachable shelves. Keep unused things either high or in those little cabinets above the fridge and microwave. Go through cabinet frequently and weed out what you don’t use. Sow it or store it. Keep the clutter out and try to keep things easy to get to. Store like minded things together. Pots together, lids together, this will save space.

Once a year empty out a cabinet at a time wash the shelf, and walls, and then put back only what you have used. Sow, or Store the unused things in basement or somewhere else. Keep it Simple.

All baking things together

All plastic wrap, foil Ziplocs, lunch bags, g. bags etc.

Tupperware (my husband hates searching for the lid) go through monthly match up lid to container. Throw out if one is missing its mate. Store stacked according to size with lids next to stack. Make several stacks if necessary.

Closets and drawers; I clean out the drawers in my house regularly.

Back when we were life servants Steve bought me a headset for my phone, and I also use a Bluetooth for my cell phone. When I am on the phone and I know it will be for 20 min. or so I will put my headset on and organize a drawer or a closet, pull a 3x5 (I’ll explain those in a minute), clean out my car, weed a garden, or something! In frequently going through my closets and drawers, I know what is in them. I get rid of used up, broken, dried out, old stuff. Also, in this way I can grab anything anyone might be looking for because I know exactly where it is. But I get rid of anything I have not used in a year.

Linen Closet.......................................................................................................................

Sheets :: Store bed size and or room items together on shelves. Most often used items on center shelves. Tablecloths’, Christmas napkins etc. on higher shelves, pillows on top in all that wasted space. You can use Big vacuum bags under beds or on top shelves in closets for unused, in good shape items.

Papers :: Handle each piece one time. Sort your mail by the recycling bin. Do with it what you need to then and there. Pitch it, shred it, put bills with bills, magazine in rack etc. File what needs to be filed. Try to be as electronic as you can, using a flash drive for back up of important documents. Keep it in a safe place. Try to handle things only once.

As a general rule I try to handle something one time. If you pick it up… put it away. When you take it off, do what needs to be done with it then and there. Hang it up, put it in the dirty clothes, etc. Put your shoes away. Don’t leave dishes in the sink, if you can clean up as soon as you’re done cooking. You can be an example for the rest of your family; they will catch on soon enough to how you’d like things to be around the house. You can be the head organizer and set the example.

When you are working on a project in a room, stick to that project. Don’t get distracted by other things in the room. For example does this sound familiar? -While you are cleaning out a closet you see a plant and say “Oh look at the wilty plant, it needs to be watered, I’ll just water it real quick, and then, when you’re in the kitchen, oh, the dishwasher stopped! I’ll just put these away before I water that plant, oh, some of these dishes are still wet, I better dry them, oops, no towels! I forget to put that load of towels in the dryer, better do that real quick, oh…. I have to fold what’s in the dryer first before I can put the wet towels in. Well as long as the washers empty I can throw in another load real quick…….What was I working on again?

"The single greatest reason for failure is distraction."
- Dr. Robb Thompson

Cleaning............................................................................................................................................................

If it can reflect light, it needs to. Mirrors, glass on pictures, globes over lights, china cabinet (including what’s inside).

If possible (no small children) store toilet cleaner, wipes, magic eraser in each bathroom. Also have a brush in each bathroom if possible. You can clean your bathroom in a snap if you don’t have to go digging for everything you need.

When your floors and windows are clean your whole house feels clean.

Clean one room a day if you don’t have a chunk of time to clean several.

Vacuum your furniture with the little vacuum brush attachment.

Vacuum out tracks of windows and sliding doors: patio, closets, wherever.

Only use vinegar water to clean hardwood floors.

To remove pet hair from anything, use a rubber glove.

Clean your ceiling fan blades

3x5’s...................................................................................................................................................................

15 min. jobs, 30 min. jobs, Saturday jobs

Remember God is a God of order; He likes things done decently and in order. He is very organized and he can show you how to be as well.

When your organized your more at peace. You don’t have clutter around you, you can think.

Just take it baby steps at a time, don’t get overwhelmed, keep it simple, and you will create a “Bella” house as you: Carefully watch over everything in your household.