Friday Find: The Honest Company

A little while back I learned about The Honest Company, founded by Jessica Alba. Their goal is to provide families with 'honest' family and baby care essentials, ranging from diapers to cleaning products, that are free of harsh chemicals. I like the idea of using safer, greener products, but to be honest (no pun intended), I'm overwhelmed by all the choices out there and tend to hop around to different brands and products with no real direction.

So helping me choose good, safe products is nice, but the kicker for me is that The Honest Company delivers a personalized bundle of products directly to your door every month! This is a great example of automating your to-do's, one of my favorite time management tips. Since household products tend to be used up at different rates, it definitely take some effort to keep track of which items you need when...not to mention remembering to get them when you're at the right store. Having home delivery of family-safe, reasonably priced home and bath supplies sounded good to me...sign me up! So that's what I did. First I received the [almost] free trial (you have to pay for shipping). I liked what I saw, so I stayed on and received the standard family essentials bundle...it arrived just as I was running out of my old laundry detergent! My favorite part is that after your first month when you receive the standard (pre-selected bundle), every month you get to choose any 5 products you need - they have a variety to choose from.

From an organizational standpoint, I think this service is great. As already mentioned, it's a time management winner. It also helps me better manage my home inventory. It took me about 1 minute last night to go to my account and select the products I want in my next delivery. I can guarantee it would've taken more time to do a traditional inventory and shopping for the same products. I also see some value in product consistency. Once you find something you like, being consistent helps eliminate having 7 different partially used bottles of multi-surface cleaner under your sink! Beyond the organizing benefits, it just makes me feel good to know I'm buying family and earth-friendly products. They also donate a portion of their sales to charity - extra bonus!

If convenience and choosing safer, greener products is important to you, you might want to give them a try. I can 'honestly' say I'm a fan :)

The Honest Company Family Essentials

Tuesday Tip: Containing Toy Clutter

Toy storage is one of those great organizational challenges that comes along with having kids! Since toys are meant to be played with, they are often out and about. The key to keeping your house from looking like total toy chaos is quick & easy clean-up. For your family's designated play room or your kids' rooms, shelves or cubbies with easy access (i.e. lightweight, open top) baskets or bins are the backbone to a good toy storage system. Adding picture labels can help make clean up an easy 'all hands on deck' task!

But as a parent of an almost toddler, I know that keeping toys in just one room isn't necessarily practical, especially if you have little ones who need or want to stick close by. Keeping a small supply of toys in the rooms we spend the most time in (kitchen, living and bedroom) is key to keeping everyone happy and busy. But to keep these other rooms from being over-run with toys all day long, a quick clean-up strategy is a must for last minute guests or nightly tidying. What works in our house is a small basket or bin in each room for toys. You can't get much simpler than that - it takes about 30 seconds to gather scattered toys and toss them in! Of course this works best for small items without lots of parts - more complicated toys are better-stored in your designated play areas.

Let us know what works for toys in your house and be sure to check out our new Toy Storage Board on Pinterest for some great ideas!

Small Tubtrugs from LandofNod.com

Tuesday Tip: How to Cut Morning Chaos

Have you ever felt rushed and a bit crazed getting out the door on time with everything you need? I hope the answer is 'yes' - otherwise, you must be some kind of super-human and I'd like to meet you! While we all have our struggles with the morning rush, which definitely seem to be multiplied if you've got little ones to shuffle out the door with you, the good news is you can cut morning chaos with just a little prep work the night before. Here are some night-before tips that are guaranteed to make for a smoother, calmer, happier morning...ahhh:

• Pack your bags (work, daycare, school) the night before to avoid a last minute scramble or worse, leaving the house without the essentials.
  
• Prep meals and snacks to go the night before. Put non-perishables in lunch bags on the counter and gather any perishables in an easy-to-grab spot in the fridge. Put a sticky note on the front door to remind you to grab fridge items before you head out the door. 
• Prep, or at least decide, what's for breakfast the night before. Have grab and go items like yogurt smoothies, whole grain bagels or homemade trail mix on hand for extra busy mornings.
• Put what you can in the car the night before - think sports equipment, items to return, special projects. This will help avoid needing to make multiple trips back and forth in the morning because your hands are too full.

My advice, do this prep right after dinner before settling down for the evening :) Just 10 minutes of preparation the night before can save you a world of trouble in the morning, which will get your whole day started off on the right foot!

Friday Finds: Smart Ways to Refresh Your Wardrobe

Today I've got 2 Friday Finds for you! They're both clothing-related but that's about all they have in common :)

The first is a great local event where you can celebrate Earth Day by refreshing your kids' closets the green way! Itsy Bitsy Thrifty is holding it's spring/summer seasonal consignment event for children's clothing this weekend in Woburn, MA. With free admission all day Saturday, this is a great way to get some 'new to you' items for your fast-growing kids. We always think of donation and consignment as great ways to get organized without trashing all your unwanted stuff, but buying used items (as long as you need them) is another great way to keep it green! Thanks to my friend, Kristi for mentioning this great local event!!

On a different note, I've got an interesting Friday read from the NY Times for those of you who might be having trouble clearing out your closet clutter. Turns out that many of us get attached to certain brands and might have a hard time 'breaking up' with them as the style and our lifestyle grows apart, whether we realize it or not. While there was way too much fashion in the article for my non-fashionista brain to digest, the article definitely made me think about how much trouble we all have letting go of clothes, styles and brands that may no longer fit or fit our current lifestyle. Give the article a read and then give yourself permission to let those old clothes and brands go! Thanks to home design guru, Sabrina Soto, for mentioning the article on facebook. She's got a great little spot in the article, having recently undergone her own brand breakup!

Tuesday Tip: Know What You Have

Have you ever been on the highway without toll money, run out of toilet paper or paper towels at home, or been out with your kids without snacks or diapers? Knowing what you have (and what you don't) is a huge part of being organized, in my opinion. In my former life, I definitely let myself get into a few pickles due to lack of systems and planning to keep on top of my household, car or personal inventory. 

Over the years, I've gradually developed better habits to keep on top these everyday necessities...like re-stocking the parking meter change in my car whenever I use it and writing items on my shopping list as soon as I notice they're running out. But as with most things organizing, being a parent has forced me to kick my organization to a new level. It's less ok, and definitely less bearable, to get into an 'inventory' pickle, such as running out of gas or cash or diapers with a little one!! So I do my best to not let my gas get below a quarter tank (and yes, I sound like my wonderful mother who taught me this a long time ago...I'm finally listening), to clean out and re-stock the diaper bag as soon as we get home from an outing, and other painless but majorly pain-saving inventory systems. 

My advice to myself and all of you...anytime you say or think, "that would stink if I ran out of or forgot to...", do something about it! Come up with a simple system to prevent an inventory failure. For household items, the easiest bet is to keep a running shopping list and add things you're running low on. I keep my list on my phone so I have it with me whenever I head to the store. For on the go tasks, the best practice is to take care of them as soon as you notice you're running low or keep a spare inventory somewhere that's accessible if a problem pops up. My all-time best example of this was the time I dropped my entire set of keys in a storm drain...yes, you read that correctly. Fortunately, I had a spare condo key in my bag (not in my condo where it wouldn't have been any use) and spare keys to the other important items (like my car) in my condo. Guess what my next to-do item was after the storm-drain incident? Get a new set of spare keys :)

Do you have a spare set when you need it?

Tuesday Tip: Hire a Baby to Help You Get Organized

Ok, so you may think I've lost my marbles with today's tip, but I swear there's also a point. Ever since our 10 month old starting crawling a few weeks ago, she has really helped kick our home organizing into high gear. To put it simply, everything must have a home (one of the cardinal rules of organizing)...even things we used to leave out. If it's out, it's fair game to her, but if it's put away, it's out of sight, out of mind!

Here are some good examples - shoes...in the closet; my bag...up on its hook; remote controls...in the remote caddy up on the TV stand. She has really forced us to make sure every little thing serves a purpose and has a home. If it doesn't meet those criteria, it's a hazard or at least a nuisance and has to go! Besides having a safe home for her, this has really helped streamline our cleaning up routine. I'm also finding that I need to vacuum more frequently with a mobile, food throwing baby, so having a place for everything, and everything in it's place has made it much simpler to whip out the vacuum for a quick cleaning...bonus!

So if you want an organizing boot camp for your space, think like a baby, or even better - borrow a baby! Look around for anything that's just lying around and figure out if and where it belongs to straighten up your space in no time.

Friday Find: Finders Keepers

Today's Friday Find is a follow up to last week's discussion on how to tame your pantry. We talked about how simple organizing tools - clear bins, Lazy Susans (or turntables) and tiered shelving - can really make a difference in helping you find what you need in your pantry. So here's what we used to turn this pantry cabinet from 'ok' to organized!

Pantry Before

Pantry Contents

Of course as you empty out and categorize the contents, be sure to toss anything that's expired or simply isn't getting used. With the goal of making everything accessible and keeping like with like, I used a combination of tiered bamboo shelving and two kinds of clear bins - Linus Handled Bins and Linus Pantry Binz. Because I didn't have much shelf height to work with, I didn't ended up using any Lazy Susans. If I had a little more shelf height to play with, I probably would've used a Lazy Susan like this for commonly used oils, salt, pepper, etc.

Overall, I'm really pleased with the improvements. The bins help keep categories from getting jumbled together, the labels help everybody know where to find things, and the best part is that everything on the top shelf is accessible without a step ladder! But I'll let you be the judge...

Pantry After

Tuesday Tip: Find Your Time

Today's Tuesday Tip comes from a fabulous survey conducted by Real Simple about how women spend their time and what we can do to reclaim some free time for ourselves. Check out the slide show for some eye-opening results. It's like they personally asked me the questions - I couldn't believe how the results fit me to a T. So today's tip is as much for me as it is for you:

Delegate household/family responsibilities and schedule free time for yourself!

I am extremely guilty of not doing either one of these very well, but I am trying to get better and hope many of you will too. Since becoming a mom almost 10 months ago, my life has been amazingly enriched by this new role and my wonderful little girl, but I also often feel like my life has become one long (read endless) to-do list of childcare and household chores. The days that I work here at Organizing Boston often feel like a break - ha, ha. That was one of the most interesting findings of the survey - for most of us, it's not our jobs that are causing our time woes...it's our homes and families, which isn't to say that we don't love them both. I think that's part of the problem. We care so much about our role in caring for our families and homes that we let them take over completely. I am slowly realizing that the household and family to-do lists are (or can be) endless, so the solution is not to wait to do something fun until all the chores are done. If my husband reads this, he'll say that he told me that a LONG time ago :) Two things busy women can do to make themselves happier (as the survey results prove) are to delegate, delegate, delegate and use your calendar for 'me time' appointments.

In order to practice what I preach, I just scheduled a yoga class for myself on Wednesday night. What will you do for yourself today?

Tuesday Tip: How to Tame Your Pantry

You know how sometimes a certain topic keeps popping up all over the place? Well, for me, lately that's been the question of how to organize your pantry (or pantry cabinets) so you know what's in there. Today's tip:

Use Smart Storage to Keep Track of Your Pantry Inventory

The problem with keeping track of pantry inventory is that anything that's not on the front lines of your shelves can't easily be seen. And you know what they say...out of sight, out of mind! This means crowded cabinets, expired foods, and nothing to make for dinner. Three simple storage solutions can help you solve the out of sight/out of mind problem:

1. Clear Bins - Let's face it, clear bins can help with just about any organizing problem. In the pantry, they can help group things together (and help them stay that way) and allow you to easily see what you have because you can slide the bin out to see what's in the back...most likely multiple cans of black beans.

2. Lazy Susan/Turntable - The beauty here is that there's no front or back - just turn it around for equal viewing of what's there. The downside is that you lose some space with the round design, but it can be a brilliant solution for items you need to pull out easily like cooking oils, salt, pepper, etc.

3. Tiered Spice/Can Shelves - These are great for spices and canned goods. You can see and reach what's behind the front row without shuffling everything around or worse, pulling everything out. It's like stadium seating for your spices! 

Here's a "before" pantry - it's not horrible, but it could definitely benefit from today's tip. Who knows what's up there behind the bread crumbs?! Stay tuned and I'll show you the after photo with product links!

Pantry: Before

 

Friday Find: Double Duty Easter Basket

On Tuesday we mentioned that we have some new features to share more fun and useful content with you, including our new Friday Finds - great organizing products and resources that we can't help but share! Today's Friday Find comes from my friend Alison Coyle, super mom of 2 and sales consultant for Thirty-One Gifts. She recommended the Thirty-One Mini Utility Bin as an Easter basket. Brilliant!! Just add some paper Easter grass or tissue, eggs and cute or tasty treats and you're good to go. The best part is the bin can then be used for toys, dolls, arts & crafts supplies and more! Click on Ali's page if you'd like to order one or check out the other great organizing tools they offer.

Friday Find: Thirty-One Gifts Mini Utility Bin

Prevent Holiday Clutter with a Simple Solution

As we all get ready for the holidays and particularly holiday gift-giving, it's a great time to remind ourselves of one of the cardinal rules of staying organized: the one-in-one-out rule. It's as simple as it sounds - if you bring something new into your space, you must send something old on it's way. Most of us don't live with lots of extra storage space - empty drawers, shelves or closets. So the one-in-one-out rule is really the only way to keep our homes from becoming over-stuffed.

The problem is, it's easier said than done for most of us. The reasons for this are simple - often, we just don't take the time to take the step of finding something to donate. We may not even think about it, or we may think, "I'll do it later." And we all know how that ends. Or we may not realize the true impact of bringing new things into our home one at a time.

Is it okay to save up your donations for a couple time a year - making it more like 25 things in-25 things out? That depends. The answer might be yes if:

• you have the room to take in the new things that inevitably make their way in while only purging a couple times a year and
• you make sure to schedule some time to sort and purge your belonging a couple times a year.

Another option is to make a habit of doing a monthly donation drop off. You can keep a box or bag handy to deposit your donations throughout the month and then do one drop off a month at a local charity. This is a great way to make it possible to follow the one-in-one-out rule. Just be sure to schedule those regular drop offs so your donation box doesn't become part of the clutter!

The holidays are a great time to teach kids about the one-in-one-out rule. Kids often get many new toys and clothes at the holidays, which they are usually very excited about. Capture this excitement and teach kids about giving to less fortunate children by having them choose several things to donate before the new presents arrive. Remember, gently used or even un-used items are best for donation.

Whether you're a kid or a grown up kid with some new toys, don't let too much time pass before you find new homes for your new things. Finding an equal number of items to donate is the easiest way to make this happen. Last but not least, don't forget to take care of returns and exchanges as soon as possible so they don't linger and become clutter in your home and on your to-do list.

Bottom Line: Sticking to the one-in-one-out rule is an easy way to keep the fun of new holiday things from creating clutter, which you then have to resolve to get rid of in the new year!