Zion Space & Kingdom

Gauge your faithfulness as a steward

2012-01-14T12:32:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it is useful to measure ourselves to see how well we are doing as a steward of all that we’ve been given. I’ve made this questionnaire up to do just that.

Instructions: Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best

Education

How well have you taken advantage of your educational opportunities?

How well have you used the chance to learn in each class in school?

Talents and skills

List your talents that you are aware of.

Rate yourself on your efforts to expand your talents.

Rate yourself on how well you use your talents for the kingdom of God.

Your space

Rate the orderliness and cleanliness of your room.

Rate your ability to pick up after yourself.

Rate your consistency of keeping your space orderly.

Life skills

Rate your ability to do what needs to be done without being asked.

Rate your ability to do laundry.

Rate your ability to cook.

Rate your ability to clean.

Rate your ability to provide for your needs.

Time

List the main activities that take up your time for productivity, worship, and leisure.

Rate yourself on how appropriately you balance your time between these activities.

Rate yourself on your ability to remember (or use tools to remember) your appointments, assignments, tests, and other important events.

Rate your ability to avoid procrastination.

Health

Rate yourself on how healthy your eating habits are.

Rate yourself on how much exercise you get.

Rate yourself on how often you exercise.

Rate yourself on how well you avoid addictive and harmful substances.

Money

How well do you save for short-term goals?

How well do you save for long-term goals? (college, retirement, mortgage, ect.)

Rate yourself on your ability to spend wisely in the following areas:

Finding the best price
Finding the best product to fit your needs.
Spending to increase your talents.

How well do you keep track of how much you spend and on what?

How well do you find ways to make money honestly?

Rate yourself on how well you contribute to charity.

Relationships

Rate your relationship with your parents.

Rate your relationship with and treatment of your siblings.

Rate your relationship with your spouse or significant other.

Rate your relationship with your coworkers.

Rate your relationship with your friends.

Rate your relationship with your children

Rate your relationship with your extended family.

Rate your relationship with your in-laws.

Religious

Rate your testimony of the following:

The Godhead
Christ’s atonement and role as Savior
Restoration of the gospel
Prophets

Rate your efforts to strengthen your commitment and testimony of the gospel

Rate your efforts to communicate consistently and sincerely with the Lord.

Rate your efforts to communicate your testimony to others.

Rate yourself on how well you are keeping your baptismal covenants.

Rate yourself on your efforts to read and understand the scriptures.

Rate yourself on your efforts in your calling.

Rate yourself on your efforts to follow counsel from the prophet.

Rate yourself on how well you’ve stood steadfast while being persecuted for your beliefs.

How well are you doing at staying temple-worthy?

This questionnaire is not all-encompassing, but it can give us a good idea of places to focus on for improvement.

The importance of a good file cabinet

2012-01-11T20:27:00.000-08:00

I have a good friend who told me she had trouble dealing with her papers. She said that she considers herself a paper hoarder, hanging onto papers for far too long. She said she also tends to bury them somewhere until they no longer are valid. She saves receipts in a box and doesn’t know what to do with them. Because she doesn’t know what to do with her papers, she boxes them up and stacks those boxes in growing piles.

I went over to visit her and help her with organization and while there, I noticed that she didn’t have a file cabinet. All of a sudden, the problem came into focus. She had a paper problem because there was no good place to put the papers that she needed!

Everyone is going to have important papers they have to save and reference from time to time, and a file cabinet is the most efficient way to do that.

How to choose a file cabinet in the right size

When I was a college student, I kept my important papers in a plastic accordion file. I really didn’t have many important papers to keep. I had some bills, bank statements, check stubs, resumes, rental agreements, my car title, and novelty items (like directions for how to play a diatonic harmonica and an application from the Treeclimbers Association). I have this tendency to give things pretentious names, so I labeled my accordian file, “FilE 4 tHe puRsuiT & cAptUre (not to mention AbDuctTiOn) of TriViA & otHeR niTpiCkY dEtAilS.”

When I got married, my husband had his important papers and we merged them together, though not completely at first. They no longer fit in my accordion file, so we got two mobile file boxes. His papers went into blue hanging files, and mine went into red hanging files. In time, we outgrew those two mobile boxes and this was when we bought our first metal file cabinet with two drawers. We kept the file boxes, and they held all the papers associated with our computers as well as instruction manuals for all the technology we owned.

I tell this story not to bore you but to show you that our file containers grew as our needs grew. The amount of important papers in one’s life grows and changes with our circumstances.

My friend decided to take my advice and she bought herself a filing cabinet. (I have yet to see what it looks like.) Although she was a novice to the experience of creating files and filing, she went at it full tilt and called me to tell me about her progress in this and her other organizing efforts. She was using a label maker to label her files and going through her boxes. I commended her aesthetic approach, but let her know that she should never allow herself to feel unable to create files if her label maker ever breaks down. Large, neatly written labels are just as functional as beautiful ones printed by a $100 labeling machine. The important thing is to have labels, period.

For any of you who have never used a file cabinet and who may be wondering in what circumstances it can be useful, I will share times when have a file has been handy.

Example #1: I file my paid bills. Every year or so, I go through my file, and file a spreadsheet with dollar amounts and usage amounts for the year. This helps me keep an eye on the amounts in our budget. If unexpectedly high bills come in, I can refer to my files and compare it to the past to see what the problem is. Every year I purge my files of the previous year’s bills.

Example #2: I keep my resume and job search materials in a file folder. When I have to go looking for a job, I use that information often. When I get a new job, I add information to my file on where my job is, who my supervisor is and how they can be reached, what my wage is, and what my duties are. During the course of each job, I try to add to my file accounts of special projects I completed and skills I used and acquired, and any quantifiable data about my achievements. (For instance, when I worked as a writing tutor for ASU, I was able to gather data from ASU’s computers that over the course of three years, I had tutored over 400 students on their writing!) When leaving a job, I try to get a letter of recommendation from my supervisor, and I add that letter to my file. Information from my file helps me craft my resumes, cover letters, and even my thank you letters.

Example #3: We make charitable contributions to our church throughout the year and also contribute to a few other charities. Any time we get a receipt for those, they go in a file folder. Around the beginning of the year, all our W-2s and 1099s and interest statements are filed in the same folder. When tax time arrives, I pull out that folder and start adding up how much our charitable deductions will be. The file steadily accumulates all the paperwork that we need to do our taxes. Why use a shoebox for receipts when a file folder will take up so much less space?

How to organize your files

Hanging files usually come with several sheets of cardstock labels that one can tear out as needed. The labels are usually printed on one side with letters of the alphabet or months of year, just in case that happens to be your filing scheme. However, these pre-printed labels are more misleading than useful to the filing novice, who may make the unwarranted assumption that everyone must file their papers in alphabetical order or by the months of the year. * The reality is, you would be best served by ignoring the alphabet and the months and making your own categories that make sense to you. If you go by the alphabet, you’ll get confused about whether to file your car’s title under A (for “auto”) or C (for “car”) or T (for “transportation” or "title") and then it will be even harder to find it when you want it again. Instead, just make a label for “car” and put everything relating to your car in there. For another example, you wouldn’t want to file all your bills by month because if you wanted to look at pattern of charges on a single utility, you would have to open twelve folders instead of just one to get to what you needed, and then you’d have to put them back in twelve folders instead of just one, which means there are twelve chances of mis-filing something in the wrong folder! Having to open only one folder is much more efficient than opening twelve folders.

File subdivisions

Hanging folders should be for only the most general of categories. Then, manila folders can be used within that folder to get better organization.

Car (hanging file)

Title
Insurance policy (manila folder)
Repair records (manila folder)

You can file bills for car payments there too, but I personally think it is easier to put all regular bills in their own manila folder in a larger hanging folder marked “Bills.” If all bills are together, it is easier to file them after paying them because they will all go to the same hanging folder.

Bills (hanging file)

Electrical (manila folder)
City/water (manila folder)
Phone (manila folder)
Credit card (manila folder)
Car payment (manila folder)
Car insurance payment (manila folder)
TV (manila folder)

Yes, the Bills hanging file can become large over the year, but that makes it fun to purge it every twelve months.

Finally, put the hanging folders in an order such that the files that you access most often are easiest to get to. For instance, the folder you put tax deductible receipts in should be more accessible because you’ll likely add to it throughout the year, but the folder that holds your past year tax returns can be in a much less accessible spot (i.e., the back) because you only open it once a year.

For more detailed information about filing, you can read Sally Allen's article "Organize Your Filing Systems: A Four-Step Formula That Really Works."

Happy filing!

* If you wonder why folder manufacturers provide alphabet labels and month labels, my best guess is that they are for businesses who have to keep a folder for each of their clients. Alphabetizing would make sense in that context. Or, if they may want to collect all their receipts and invoices from a single month together, having labels with the months already on them would make sense. But for us, they are useless.

Image: Overstock.com, http://www.overstock.com/Office-Supplies/Office-Designs-Metallic-Charcoal-colored-2-drawer-Steel-File-Cabinet/5853265/product.html

Review of basic money management

2012-01-04T17:59:00.000-08:00

I had never realized how much trouble a person can get themselves into if they own a business and don’t keep track of their finances. Business owners can be turned off by paperwork, but paperwork is what helps them make sure they aren’t cheating someone else or being cheated.

A business that deals with the same customers over and over and the same vendors over and over will have many bills and many invoices to keep track of. Invoice numbers make it so that you know you aren’t being billed for the same thing twice or billing someone else for the same thing twice. Check numbers make it so that you know you don’t pay for the same thing twice.

I know a business owner who uses software for invoicing his customers and tracking his expenses, but unfortunately he hasn’t mastered the personal management skills that will allow him to make full use of it. The consequences make it difficult for both him and his employees.

Let’s review some basic habits that everyone must have in order to manage their money at a fundamental level.

1) Carry a checkbook with you, along with your debit and credit cards.

2) Carry a check register of some sort. (You can use a paper one that is provided in every box of new checks, or you can use mobile software of some sort.)

3) When you buy something, IMMEDIATELY record the date of a purchase, (the check number, if applicable), the person you paid, the amount you paid, and what it was for. (Recording what the purchase was for can help you track your spending, when you are prepared to make a budget.)

4) Subtract out the total in your check register. This means that you should always know exactly how much money is in your account at any time. It prevents you from incurring bank fees for overdrawing your account.

5) Reconcile your accounts every month. This is nothing more than making sure that every purchase on your bank statement is represented on your check register for the same amount. The more careful you are to record your purchases, the higher the chances that any unexpected charges on your bank statement mean someone has gained unauthorized access to your bank account. Reconciling carefully allow you to find irregularities and mistakes and even dishonesty.

What are the consequences of ignoring these rules? Let’s think about them.

What happens if you don’t carry a checkbook with you? You tend to depend on your debit card or credit card or cash. In my opinion, none of those have a built-in transaction record like checkbooks do, since checkbooks can have a register attached to them.

What happens if you don’t carry a check register with you? You tend to accumulate receipts, and then you have to find some time to enter them into your check register at home. That means that your mental notion of your account balance will grow fuzzier and fuzzier and more inaccurate over time, leading to higher chances that you will overdraft your account without knowing it. It also means that if you lose a receipt or crumple it up so it becomes melted in the sun and illegible, you will lose your record of the transaction and your accounts will be thrown off until you reconcile your accounts at the end of the month. (This happens far more often than people realize.)

What happens if you don’t even keep a check register? In order to know the balance on your account you have to check your bank’s website every so often, and even then it may not be completely accurate if purchases take time to show up on it. The risk of over-estimating how much money you have increases. The importance of keeping a sizeable cushion in your account to prevent overdrafts increases.

What happens if you don’t reconcile your accounts? If someone were to highjack your bank account, you wouldn’t know it until terrible damage was done.

Just because we live in the age of the debit card and credit card does not mean that it we shouldn’t be recording our purchases and keeping track of our spending. If anything, it means we need to be even more careful and methodical.

The ten commandments as a guide for organizing and decluttering

2011-11-18T13:19:00.000-08:00

2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:2-3)

From the perspective of trying to get organized and de-cluttered, these verses can give us both hope and direction.

If you feel like you’re drowning in your stuff, then you know you have a “house of bondage.” Verse 2 above gives us hope to know that if we succeed in getting organized and de-cluttered, it is the Lord that has brought us out of our “house of bondage.” It takes a miracle, but the Lord can do miracles.

Verse 3 can give us excellent direction. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” is a simple statement about what our top priority should be. If you are determined to keep the Lord as your top priority, then your stuff is a lower priority and you will be able to conquer it.

Ultimately, keeping priorities straight is KEY to conquering clutter. In terms of organizing, priorities are the little invisible rules we have at the back of our minds by which we determine what stuff we buy, what we let go of, what goes where, and more.

Needs are higher priorities than wants. For instance, food, clothing, and shelter are higher priorities than decorations, conveniences, pleasures, or tools. That is pretty well understood, but when it gets down to specifics, it gets trickier. Sometimes the only way we can discover what our priorities really are is to compare them.

What gets higher priority in your house—decorations or tools you use often?
What gets higher priority—the tools you use often or the tools you might use someday?
What gets higher priority—your memories of the past or the things you are involved in now?

Let me give you an example of something I’ve had trouble letting go of. I’ve been hanging on to my college textbooks for years.

As books, they are low on my priority list of things to read; I prefer reading other books more.
As sources of knowledge, they are also low on my priority list because lately I go to the internet first when I have questions.
If I’ve been keeping them because they represent a memory of who I am and what I did, they are also rather low priorities because my journals—I am a copious journal writer—are a much better store of my memory and identity.

Someday I will figure out the priority that is out-of-whack with those textbooks so I can let go of them.

Prayer: the powerful tool for overcoming the fear of de-cluttering

2011-11-16T16:51:00.000-08:00

This was a discovery I made in the beginning of October 2011 when I went home to visit my mom and dad, specifically to help my mom de-clutter.

My mom was very motivated to de-clutter, and that is saying a lot. Growing up from time to time she would let me organize a closet or a cabinet or a desk, but it was hard for her to let go of anything. This time, she felt she was drowning in her stuff, and all the fun things she hoped to do and wanted to do had ground to a halt because of all the stuff she had to sift through.

When I finally got home, of course I was excited to get started. I started on the kitchen desk, going through the drawers, sorting the pens, pencils, erasers, paperclips, rubber bands, and so on. I started asking her questions about the collection of flower vases and medicines.. We started making progress, but my mother, who is very articulate and aware of her feelings, began to feel a great sense of loss as we were getting rid of stuff. It brought her to tears. She was grieving over the things we were tossing that really needed to be discarded.

I could see that the decision-making process was becoming very difficult for her. The trouble was, in order to make progress, she had to make lots and lots of decisions. And those decisions needed to be mostly in favor of discarding stuff instead of keeping stuff.

My mother and I are very religious. We both have a firm belief in the power of prayer. We both have had many experiences of praying and having our prayers answered. We both know we can ask for God to help us do things that we have trouble doing on our own.

It was at this point that I realized we needed to pray.

But I didn’t suggest it yet.

My mom pushed through her emotional difficulties and then we started on organizing and de-cluttering the game closet.

Once again, we ran into the barrier of my mom’s emotions. She felt guilt because of the number of games we had that we had never tried to play. She felt loss because the prospect of letting go of so many games meant that opportunities for play and bonding as a family were being lost (even though it is only her, dad, her mother, and my youngest brother (a 20-year-old) were at home). Her distress may sound silly, but it was HER distress.

If there is one thing I know now, it is this—you can’t argue with emotions. Feelings are just as real as thoughts and they are a part of us. Emotions must be validated before they are dealt with. I let my mom explain why she felt distress. I listened to her, trying to understand her.

Mom is not just a bundle of emotions, though; she is also a very thoughtful person and she tries to make very rational decisions. It was a pleasure to listen to her reason over what kind of games were worth keeping and which were not. Perhaps you didn’t know that it was possible to evaluate a game, but let me assure you, I learned from my mom that it is. She could categorize games pretty well by looking at the rules and the boards and the cards. We both liked games that had an ingredient of unpredictability to them. We favored games that manipulated words. Since our family is large and most of the kids are grown, we kept games that were best for older players. But she also had a number of Bible games and games that taught morality. These games were geared toward young children and she kept these for the sake of visiting grandchildren.

Still, there were some games that were very difficult to evaluate because it was hard to tell whether they were something that would be appreciated in the future or something that would never be thought of. We discovered that to make a good decision, she needed to have the gift of prophesy and discernment.

This is when I finally suggested that we pray.

We both prayed. Mom prayed for prophecy and discernment to make good decisions about what to keep and what to get rid of. I prayed to be supportive and encouraging and to not be manipulative or coercive. I also prayed for my mom to have emotional and mental stamina so that she could make all the decisions she would have to make.

After that, we went back to work and she was able to let go more easily and with less emotional loss. She stayed focused and she was able to make so many decisions that I was starting to get tired before she was!

Each day after that, we made sure to pray for help before starting to de-clutter. We tried to pray very specifically for the skills that we needed to work together and to make good decisions. Altogether, mom sent about 28 large black trash bags of stuff to the Salvation Army. For her, that was absolutely miraculous.

Now, I realize that not all of you may be comfortable with praying for help while de-cluttering. Some of you may not believe in God. Some of you may believe in God, but may be unsure as to how to pray for help with de-cluttering. Let me say a few words to address both these concerns.

To those of you who don’t believe in God or don’t know if there is a God, I can tell you that I know there is a God, on the basis of years of answered prayers. He knows the nature of your belief or nonbelief, your questions, your skepticism, your incredulity. He knows all about it. You are His child. He wants you to not only progress, but to become more acquainted with Him. Try an experiment prayer. Tell Him how weird you feel praying. Tell Him about your feelings about de-cluttering and what you want to get done. Ask for help. Then get started.

To those of you who believe in God, but are unsure about how to pray for help with de-cluttering, here are some things that you can pray about. Tell God about how you’ve tried to de-clutter and get organized in the past. Tell Him why you feel it hasn’t worked. Tell Him about your emotional attachments to your stuff and how hard it is for you to let go. Ask for help with dealing with the emotions and ask to find ways of validating the emotions and memories and preserving them in such a way that you don’t have to keep stuff so much. Ask for help making decisions to let go. Ask for help to discover what habits might be keeping you from de-cluttering. Ask for emotional and mental stamina to make the decisions you know have to be made. Ask for the physical strength to carry out your decisions. Ask for the proper perspective about your stuff.

Prayer is tool to help us organize and de-clutter because it gives us access to the power of God on our behalf in order to conquer our weaknesses. It works. I've seen it work.

Students: How to keep track of your assignments

2011-07-10T12:40:00.000-07:00

If you find yourself having difficulty remembering all you have to do and feeling a vague discomfort at times because you feel like there is something due soon that you are forgetting, it is time to start using a planner of some kind. Again, this will cut down on cognitive load so that precious thought cycles can be used on studying and class work instead of worrying about forgetting an important date.

In college, on the first day, all classes will hand out a class syllabus, which lists reading material, dates assignments are due, and dates tests will happen. The first thing any smart student will do is consolidate all due dates and readings and assignments and tests from all their class syllabi onto one calendar/planner. It is much more efficient to look at assignments in only one place every day than to have to look at four or five different places every day. Yes, it takes time, but it is worth it to stay on track.

The best type of calendar for Melanie and Robert is the type that shows every hour of the day. This may seem excessive, but it is meant to help Melanie and Robert learn to manage their time. Melanie and Robert have two types of time—time that is spent in class, and time that is spent out of class. With a calendar that lists every hour of the day, Melanie will be able to block out the times that she is in class. She will then be able to see at a glance how much time is available for all the other things that need to be done, like work or church or play or doctor’s appointments, or anything else that will need to be scheduled. She can then be able to estimate how much time is available for her in which to study. If she can SEE that she only has a three-hour block in which to read her history book and write a report, she will be much more likely to spend that time doing on history homework than surfing the internet.

Prevent school supply waste and save money

2011-07-05T12:33:00.000-07:00

One thing that makes it difficult for a student to get organized is that teachers require assignments to be handed in different ways, and it is hard to anticipate what they will want (and thus what supplies to get) without talking to them before school starts. If you buy school supplies without knowing what will actually be used, there is a high chance that you will waste money when you have buy school supplies a second time when you REALLY know what you need.

Some teachers insist upon seeing a whole notebook of a student’s work. But if Melanie keeps all her schoolwork for all her classes in a binder with different subdivisions, she can’t give the whole binder to the Mr. Smith because then Melanie won’t have her other papers for her other classes. Other times, the teacher might ask the student to hand in a paper. If Robert is using a notebook, he can tear out the sheet of paper the Miss Jones wants, but once the assignment is returned, it can’t be magically un-torn back into Robert’s notebook. All of a sudden, Robert needs a folder to keep his loose papers in.

With all this confusion, Melanie and Robert may throw up their hands in disgust and put everything in folders. Unfortunately, when it comes time to review for Mr. Black’s test, they have to sift through a pile of papers and assignments that have accumulated in their two-pocket folders. Where does the material covered in the test start and end in their notes? Should the returned assignments be kept mingled among class notes, or should it be kept separate? Where do they put sheets of extra blank paper? Where do they put notes in their folders when class is over? Where do they put assignments not yet turned in so they don’t lose them? Where do they put handouts that the teacher gives them or practice tests or syllabi?

When I was a student, I eventually learned that if I bought my notebooks and binders and folders before school started, I would find that I had gotten the wrong thing and some of my teachers wanted something different. So I had to learn to refrain from getting those things until I had gone to at least one class with all my teachers to find out what they wanted.

When money is tight, it is tempting to put several subjects in one notebook, especially if it becomes obvious that not all the paper will get used in one year or one semester. This can cause problems if the subjects are not separated in some way. When test time comes, Melanie will want to consolidate her notes together, and running across history notes in the middle of geometry notes gets distracting. If the same notebook must be used, it is helpful to start one subject from the front and another subject from the back, then work toward the middle.

Another way to improve organization is to use a portable accordion file instead of folders. In this way, papers can remain loose and a class can have a multiple pockets, one for notes, one for assignments, one for tests, one for handouts, one for projects, and so on. Accordion files come with little tabs at the top of each divider that can be nicely labeled in any way a student needs or wishes. As papers are added to the accordion folder, it will expand to hold them and there is usually no need to worry about exceeding its holding capacity. (This is great compared to binders, which come in certain sizes that can get overfull.)

I think it is kind of silly that folders are limited to only two pockets. They should have at least four. With only two pockets, a person has to create mental divisions inside each folder. That’s like living with a refrigerator with only two shelves, or living with a closet with only two hangers. It adds to the cognitive load on the student mind, which is already trying to remember how to balance an oxidation-reduction reaction or how to compute the greatest height reached by a launched projectile, or how to compute the midpoint of a line on the Cartesian plane, not to mention how to get through the day without being made fun of by that group. Yes. Only two pockets in folders adds to student cognitive load.

Carol for decluttering your house

2011-06-30T12:19:00.000-07:00

I wrote this a few years ago and it is time to post it for all to enjoy. It is sung to the tune of the Christmas Song "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow."

“Let It Go, Let It Go, Let It Go”

Well the piles inside are frightful
Acquiring was so delightful
No place for the chi to flow
Let it go, let it go, let it go

I’ve squirreled away so much it’s scary
Now I want a home that’s airy
I’ll have to train myself to throw
Let it go, let it go, let it go.

Bridge:
When I’ve finally gotten rid
Of the things kept since I was a kid
There is plenty of open space
Room if I wanted to pace

Emotional attachment is clinging
But I’ve set myself to flinging
There someone who needs it mo’
Let it go, let it go, let it go.

My memory’s not eternal
So I wrote it in my journal
My keepsake pile is dropping low
Let it go, let it go, let it go

Bridge:
I’m afraid I have been obtuse
I thought someday this might find a use
Embarrassing, it appears
That was thought twenty-some years!

There’s stuff I’d thought I’d try repairing
There’s so much, I’m despairing
It’d stretch out in a mile-long row
Let it go, let it go, let it go.

I’ve finally stopped delaying
I’ll stand no more “some-day-ing”
Stop shifting stuff to and fro
Let it go, let it go, let it go.

Bridge:
There are projects I just might do
Talents in me I just might pursue.
Just because I give this away
Won’t mean I’m blocked from essay

These knickknacks sure were pretty
Before they broke and got dirty
There’s just too many to show
Let ‘em go, let ‘em go, let ‘em go.

Bridge:
When I toss a gift from a friend
I’m afraid that they’ll note and contend
But it’s not like it’s theirs, it’s mine
If they’re kind, they won’t malign

Well, the heirlooms that I inherit,
Unused, they lose their merit
Antiques they are, but even so
Let ‘em go, let ‘em go, let ‘em go.

Bridge:
When I come to what I collect
I must pause for a sec’ to reflect,
“Discarding it all’s a beast;
I’ll part with what I like least!”

We’ve finally cut the clutter
And put it out by the gutter
If it happens again I’ll know
Let it go, let it go, let it go!

The charity box in the garage

2011-06-30T11:38:00.000-07:00

When professional organizers work with people to help them declutter and get organized, a very common practice is to keep a box nearby in which to put things that will be donated to charity. The problem is that once the job is done, the now decluttered customers tend to think that there is no longer a need for a charity box. They think the charity box is a tool used only while decluttering with a professional organizer. But it isn't. It is one of the best tools for staying decluttered in the long term after the professional organizer has left. In short, every household needs to have a charity box.

Now, allow me to digress just a little bit with a story...

When I was going to BYU, it fascinated me that every dorm laundry room on campus had what was called a D.I. box. (D.I. is short for Desert Industries, which is the Latter-day-Saint-run second-hand thrift store.) When students wanted to get rid of perfectly good clothing, they could put it in the D.I. box, and every so often, the box's contents were taken to D.I., donated to charity. I made use of that box, and I came to consider it a convenience.

When I got married and established my own household, I found that I still needed something to store items that I intended to take to charity. It would be silly to make a trip just to donate one thing, so I began using a cardboard box as the D.I. box for our family. When it got full, then it was time to make the trip to donate it. I kept it in the garage so that when it was full, it was very convenient to just put it in the car trunk. (And then I put "Donate stuff to charity" on my list of errands.)

Keeping a charity box in your garage will do several things for you. 1) You can get an immediate lift by removing clutter from your living space, with a set place to put it. 2) It will help you become reconciled to letting go of things by giving you time to discover you don't miss it. 3) It institutionalizes charitable giving in your home, which builds the character trait of generosity little by little.

If you want to remain decluttered over the long term, keep a charity box around and add things to it from time to time when you find they aren't being used.

Towels – How Much is Enough?

2009-11-30T20:03:00.000-08:00

The number of towels you should have is dictated by several factors:

The number of people in the household. (Each person should have their own bath towel.)
The number of bathrooms in the household. (Each bathroom should have its own towel for drying washed hands. It could even be one person’s bath towel.)
The number of times each person feels comfortable using their bath towel before laundering it. (If everyone can tolerate using one towel a week, then the amount of laundry will be decreased.)
The frequency of laundering loads of towels.

If you can restrict everyone in the house to using one bath towel for the whole week, then that will save someone (probably you) from having to do so much laundry in the form of towels.

While all the towels are in the laundry, there must be clean towels to put in their place. That means the number of bath towels should be at least double the number of people in the household. Two people, four towels minimum.

How about towels for guests? If you take the maximum number of people you have ever had stay overnight as guests at your house, that is probably the number of extra towels you need beyond the minimum. If you’ve never had overnight guests, then you probably don’t really need to have extra towels. In a pinch, an unexpected crasher can use a secondary towel.

There may be additional factors to consider. Add an extra set of towels for everybody if your family often goes swimming, or dances in the rain, or periodically bathes your pets.

The number of towels your household should have doesn’t have to be guesswork. It should be calculated based upon your family’s needs. Doing this ensures that your precious space will not be wasted on what is unnecessary.

What to do with all those magazines?

2009-10-27T20:50:00.000-07:00

Many organizing books and professional organizers will tell you that you should deal with those stacks of magazines by going through them and tearing out the pages of the articles that you really want to save and then put those pages into binders.

I say something completely different.

DON’T DO IT.

Just DON’T.

TOSS them without looking at them.

Here’s why. First, magazine articles are so short and shallow these days that it is likely that any advice you find in a magazine will be common sense that you can find on the internet if you search for it. Yeah, magazine articles are fluff these days. Second, if the craft ideas don’t grab you in that intense “OH-MY-GOSH-I-MUST-MAKE-SOMETHING-LIKE-THAT-IMMEDIATELY-OR-I-WILL-DIE” way, you will never do it and you will likely never look at it again. Looking at it and thinking, “Oh, that’s cool” is not a strong enough reason to keep the craft idea. You’ll never get to it, with all the other important and urgent things of life. You just won’t, and it’s not because you’re a weak person. In fact, you won't get to them because you are a strong person; you will find other activities more important. And you’ll be perfectly right NOT to get to it, because IT ISN’T IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO YOU.

So dump those extra magazines in the recycling bin. Or blindfold yourself and do it. Or ask your Significant Other to do it at the dead of night while you are asleep so you won’t know of the deed until it is an accomplished fact.

Get rid of them.

Clean as you go

2009-08-17T17:11:00.000-07:00

In our church we have a scripture that talks about not procrastinating the day of our repentance until it is everlastingly too late. The idea is that you are better off if you repent immediately after you discover you have sinned.

In the realms of home organization, this principle transfers over nicely into the principle of not procrastinating cleanup. Life is messy. Life is chaotic. You can keep it from getting out of hand if you build the habit of cleaning up after doing each thing. Work to train your family to do this too.

If you're a chronic leave-it-out-er, this will take a lot of effort until you realize that you can work cleaning-as-you-go into your life just by changing some really simple 5 second things.

Cleaning as you go means the clothes end up in the dirty hamper (if dirty) or back in the closet/dresser drawers (if not dirty) as soon as you take them off. The thing that you can change is to always stand next to your clothes hamper while taking off dirty clothes and then drop them in. And always stand next to your dresser or closet while taking of clean clothes and then put them away while you have them still in hand.

This practice is both efficient and organizing. It is efficient because you have just saved yourself the effort of having to pick your clothes up again later. It is organized because you have put something in the correct place. (Yes, that is what organizing is.)

We are all at various stages of development and it takes time to form new good habits. Even those of us who think of ourselves as organized are still trying to improve the way we do things.

One change I recently made in my own life on the cleaning-as-you-go front was to make the effort to keep my kitchen sink and counters clean of grime, stains, and crumbs. For me this meant that I had to add a few small steps to my cleanup after meals. I'm already in the habit of loading the dishwasher immediately after meals, so after I do that, I take about 3 minutes to wipe down the kitchen sink and the counters. So far I really like how this has saved me from mad scrubfests over a dingy sink to remove 3-month layers of grime. I like my clean sink and counters.

Some things to which we can apply clean-as-you-go:

Pay bills as you get the mail
Close all documents and windows as you leave your computer.
Record all purchases and do the subtraction as soon as you complete a financial transaction.
Put away the craft supplies when you are done with your craft for the day.
Put the books back in the shelf when you stop reading.
Put the newspapers in the recycling bin (or trash) when you are finished reading them.
Put the tools back when you are finished working with them or when you stop working on a project for the day.
Put the hose back when you are done watering the lawn or washing the car.
Put the game away when you're finished playing.

A wonderful thing happens when you commit to cleaning-as-you-go. The more I clean-as-I-go, the easier it is for me to recognize how I can make storage more efficient. I hate having to go five different places to put something away. I start thinking of ways that I can store things together that get used together.

Test

2009-08-06T22:15:00.000-07:00

This is only a test. When implementing changes, sometimes you have to just try things out. You have to be willing to let yourself fail and "waste time" making mistakes. You have to plan in time for the testing, because hardly anything goes off without a hitch the first time you try it.