The following questions are ones I've been asked a lot. Perhaps they will help you on your way to organized living! Q. What does one do when she wants to get organized, but no one else in the house does?
A. First, make things easy to put away. If the people in your household have to make too much of an effort to put things away, they won't bother. Being nagged becomes the less painless option, and, therefore, more appealing. Put your items in logical places in easily accessible containers. Labeling helps, too. If they can read, they can put things away!
Also, I've found using a reward system pays off. For kids, a job chart might help. Smaller kids can put a sticker on the job they have completed and, after some number of stickers, they'll get a prize, for example. Older kids might rather have money and adults may be bribed, er I mean, rewarded with a nice dinner out or whatever would make them happy.
Q. I have some of my grandparents' old furniture. They've passed on and I'm having a hard time letting go of the memories these pieces bring. What can I do?
A. It's tough to let go of things that bring back such happy memories. However, if you don't have the room for the furniture, or it's just not really your style, you have to let it go. A good trick is to take some pictures of the furniture and write down the memories you had of each piece and store them in a nice album.
Q. What do I do with all the artwork my kids bring home?
A. I suggest sliding each page of artwork into a sheet protector, then putting it in a binder with the year marked on it. If your kids' art is bigger than a normal sheet of paper, there are now large portfolios to store art in. They are sort of like giant "expand-a-files" with each tab marked K-12. After displaying them on the fridge for a little while, take the pictures and file them in your portfolio with the matching year of school the child was in. If you find you are still collecting too much, just go through and chose the best pictures. For your kids' projects that you're not sure what to do with, take a picture of you child holding the project. Then, the memory will stay, but the clutter won't.
Q. What do I do with all the "junk" mail I get every day?
A. Don't open it! If you know by looking at it that it's "unwanted" mail, toss it or shred it immediately! Otherwise, you may be tempted to say you'll look at it later and never will. Also, http://www.obviously.com/junkmail has some great resources to help you get off the mailing lists.
Q. Where can I get good quality, long lasting supplies?
A. In northern NH, we are pretty limited. Wal-Mart is the best local place to go. Since this is a major dilemma for us, I've compiled several links to great stores on the ccoworld.com shopping page. It's one-stop internet shopping (and think of the gas money you'll save by not having to drive to Concord!)
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