Inside the Organizer's House - My Bookcase

I love books. Not just reading books but decorating with books. I literally have at least eight stacks of coffee table books, home design books, or pretty magazines around my house, underneath lamps, with candles on top of them, you name it! Organizing books seems pretty simple at first glance...Put books on shelf. The end. Right? If you're not careful though, your home can become filled to the brim with books that you'll never read, books you can't find, books that get damaged, and books that end up in places that don't make sense.

My tried-and-true system is simple:

1. Get a bookcase you love that fits in the space well. If you're an avid reader, let it take up more space! If you're a Kindle fan, aim for a smaller one. If you have kids, it makes sense for each to have their own bookcase as well. Since I have a lot of business books, I keep my bookcase in my office/guest room.

2. Fill it with books you love. I love going to my library's semi-annual used book sale to stock up on fun new reads for just a few bucks while supporting the library.

3. Arrange your books in a way that makes sense to you. You could go alphabetical by title, alphabetical by author, by genre, or (my personal favorite) arrange them by color. Rainbow bookcases are a fad that will quickly pass, but for now I'm enjoying it. My office is bright and sunny, and my colorful bookcase adds to that!

4. When you get a new book, one book must go to make space for the new one. Chances are, it will be easy to kick one off the island. Without exception, there will be at least one book that bored you to death, one whose characters you hated, or one your kids have outgrown. Don't feel guilty if it's a book you didn't finish or one someone gave you! Maybe the next owner will finish it or love it more than you did.

5. Keep track of the books you've read but no longer own. I keep a journal of the books I've read each year. Some books I loved so much I still own, and some have been passed along. Either way, if I want to remember the name of a book I've read, I have access to that information dating all the way back to college! You can go a digital route by using a spreadsheet or an awesome website called Goodreads. You can track all your books, upload from your Amazon book list, list the books you want to read, and even get recommendations based on books you've read and liked!

The point of this system is ruthless editing. You only have THIS MUCH SPACE and no more. This is one of the keys to keeping a tidy home. By having a designated, limited space for each category of things in your home, you are forced to edit!

I use similar systems with other items that commonly multiply in my clients' homes...

• Clothes: Buy a set number of matching hangers. When you're out of hangers, employ the one-in, one-out rule.

• Beauty products and nail polish: As much as will fit in your chosen container or drawer and no more. The oldest ones get thrown out!

• Movies: Whatever doesn't fit on your designated movie shelves will start the one-in, one-out rule.

• Jewelry: Get a jewelry box, jewelry tree, and/or wall organizer. When you run out of space, one-in, one-out.

• Underwear and socks: If it doesn't fit in the designated drawers, it's time to purge.

How to Make Laundry Less of a Chore

Laundry sucks. Plain and simple. Even the neatest people sometimes get loads behind (pun intended) or have a perpetual "clean laundry chair" in the corner (you know what I'm talking about)! It's time to take a look at the laundry process and see if we can make it any less painful. 

Gathering & Scheduling Your Laundry

• First things first. Keep easy-to-carry laundry baskets in each family members' closet (or bathroom if there's a built-in hamper). You shouldn't need to hunt around for your dirty laundry to begin with! If your laundry room is fairly visible, pick cute laundry baskets to make your space more appealing. Lost on where to find attractive laundry baskets? I'll be sharing my favorites on the blog next week.

• Own the right amount of clothes. Hint...if you can go weeks and weeks without washing clothes, you probably don't have a capsule wardrobe (in case you're not familiar, it's a smaller-than-average, mix-and-match wardrobe of basic, higher quality pieces). If you have to do laundry all the time because you run out of underwear you like, it's time to stock up!

• Set a schedule. I designate a particular day each week (Sunday) to wash towels and sheets so I start the week fresh. I don't schedule my clothing laundry days, but try to do it fairly frequently so I don't run out of favorites.

Prepping Your Laundry

• Always, always separate towels and sheets from clothing. These are entirely different kinds of laundry! How you wash towels and sheets depends on the colors you have. I happen to love the hotel-feel of all-white sheets, duvets, and towels which also comes with the bonus of not having to separate them based on color.

• Use mesh wash bags. These are great for machine-washing bras but can be used on much more than that. I use wash bags on anything that has an exposed zipper to prevent them from snagging my more delicate clothes. In a typical load, I'll have 4-5 bags each with a pair of pants or a zippered top in them. Give each family member wash bags for their underwear and socks that can go straight from their hamper to the washer to the dryer and back to their room!

• My #1 tip: Separate clothes into hang-dry (i.e. delicate) and dryer-friendly loads before they go into the washer. Personally, the only things I dry are underwear, socks, workout clothes, PJs, and tank tops. This method has a bunch of benefits...

1. You only run the dryer once (or a few times if you have multiple dryer-friendly loads). This is more energy efficient and will save you a lot of time.

2. You don't have to think about separating again after they've been washed.

3. It protects your more delicate clothes.

4. Anyone in your family can move laundry over to the dryer or hang everything up. No more confusion about what can or cannot go into the dryer! If this is your goal, clearly label the baskets and make sure the entire family knows the system. I always do my dryer-friendly load first so both machines are going at the same time while I'm washing my hang-dry load.

5. Clothes that have been hung to dry can go straight into the closet after they're dry. Less steps = better laundry.

The Wash & Dry Cycles

• Use a great detergent. If you don't already have one, I'll share my favorites next week.

• Cold water is the BEST! I can't say enough about how much better my clothes look since I stopped using the dryer so much and started using cold water on the delicate cycle.

• Baking soda and vinegar are your friends when it comes to keeping white sheets and towels extra white! I haven't used bleach in YEARS.

• Throw a dry towel in the dryer with your wet laundry. Everything will dry much faster.

• Skip dryer sheets altogether for clothes. For towels and sheets, replace dryer sheets with dryer balls.

Final Steps

• Once it's time to put clothes away, just do it! Set a timer on your phone for 15 minutes and you'll probably be done before it's even goes off. Putting laundry away is up there on the list of things that seems like it takes longer than it actually does. The longer you put it off, the more painful it will be!

• Enlist your kids' help putting away laundry. The earlier they learn this, the better. Make sure drawers and bins are clearly labeled so they know exactly where their things are supposed to go.

• I'm not a big believer in multi-tasking, but laundry is TOTALLY the exception. Catch up on your favorite show, listen to a podcast, or hang out on speakerphone with your best friend while you fold!

Taming Your Tech: CDs & DVDs

In our Taming Your Tech series, we've already handled rogue archaic technology like floppy disks and VHS tapes. Now it's time to move on to more modern technology storage: CDs and DVDs. 

As always, the first step is to gather every single CD or DVD in your home. Those hiding in the car, those mixed in with photos, those sitting in a desk drawer, wherever. Your CDs and DVDs should be separated into the following categories:

• Movie DVDs

• Music CDs

• Software and technology CDs

• Memorabilia CDs and DVDs

Here's how each category should be set up:

I typically recommend movies be kept in their original cases unless you have so many you don't have space to store them near your primary DVD player. Purge any movies your kids have outgrown or you no longer care about. Depending on how many you have, you may want to alphabetize them or separate them into genres.

I like to toss jewel cases for music CDs in favor of keeping them in a CD binder exclusively reserved for music. Find the non-ugly, shelf-worthy ones below here.  You can also DIY CD binders to match your decor (cool tutorial here). Take a few minutes to purge any music you don't enjoy or any CDs that are too scratched to play. I personally have gone 100% digital with my music by downloading CDs to my iTunes account and getting rid of the physical CD. Consider going digital if you have Bluetooth capabilities in your car and have storage space on your computer.

Software and technology CDs can easily get out of control if you're not careful! These should also receive a dedicated CD binder, kept near your primary computer or in your home office. Clearly label software disks with what computer or hardware they go to, and the date you purchased it if you know it. When you recycle an old computer, the corresponding disks should go with it! I can't tell you how many AOL start-up and Windows 98 software disks I find in clients' homes!

Memorabilia disks like photo CDs, home videos on DVD, and sentimental papers or presentations also receive their own dedicated binder. You may want to consider uploading particularly important photos or files to your computer as well so you have a secondary form of backup (or upload them to Google photos in the cloud). These should be kept with your memorabilia.

Any blank disks you find should be clearly marked as BLANK with painter's or masking tape! Keep Sharpies handy near your computer so you aren't tempted to burn something on a CD and leave it unlabeled. As with any organizing, the whole key here is to categorize, categorize, categorize! By keeping disks separated into these four basic groups, you'll avoid having an avalanche of unrelated random CDs lying around.

Prep Next Year's Tax File

It’s almost tax day! While we're just about to put last year’s taxes officially behind us, it's not too early to start preparing for your taxes for next year! Having organized files can do wonders when it comes to making tax time easy. If you struggle to find all your donation acknowledgements or HSA receipts before you can file, don't wait until the end of the year to gather these documents. Grab a few file folders and go ahead and get started now for this year!

• Create a folder titled "Taxes - "YEAR." This is where all your tax files from this year will be stored AFTER you file. You need to keep this folder for 7 years in case of an audit. Throughout the year, you'll gather your tax documents in the categorized, labeled folders below. After you've filed, each of the category folders can be consolidated and put in your 2016 tax folder with your return.

• Create a folder titled "Taxes - Income." Gather the current year's W2's, 1099's, rental property income statements, and miscellaneous income information here.

• Create a folder titled "Taxes - Pay Stubs". Check these against your W2 at the end of the year and then shred them.

• Create a folder titled "Taxes - Deductions." Gather documents regarding deductions like student loan interest, IRA contributions, qualifying energy-efficient home improvements, mortgage interest, child care costs, home office deductions, etc. for the current year here.

• Create a folder titled "Taxes - Medical Receipts." Gather any and all medical receipts in this folder throughout the year. This is especially important if you have a FSA, MSA, or HSA or if you think you'll have enough medical expenses to write them off on your taxes.

• Create a folder titled "Taxes - Charitable Donations." This folder will house any receipts from Goodwill, non-profit donations, etc.

• If you own a business, make folders for your business income and expenses. If you haven't already, start tracking your business mileage so you can write it off.

This should get you started in an organized way so that when you file your taxes, your backup documentation is already ready to go! Happy tax day!