My post on organizing for the new year touched on two areas: finances and household management.
On Friday I worked on organizing my tax information for last year. Last year I made the effort to note income and expenses at the end of
each month. This gave me a more accurate picture of what we were actually spending and minimized the dreaded tax organizing I generally experience at the end of the year. I also had an ongoing estimate of what my taxes owing would be so I could put a savings plan into place and not be surprised at the end of the year (you know, that cross your fingers and hold your breath moment when you enter all the info and get the magic number you owe? Please say I’m not the only one who has this moment).
I will tackle the house and make a plan to organize it (i.e. finding a place for all the stuff we got at Christmas but before the winter birthday gifts start arriving). Since it is overwhelming, I decided to spend Saturday doing a good cleaning of the house and moving items to the room where I want them to go.
On Sunday I plan to start at the top front of the house and move my way from room to room (when I have the energy or the motivation) for the next few weeks and do a deeper clean and purge items we don’t use. I’m going to set up a donation station and when I get the call for the charities who want to come pick up my stuff, it’s going to be all bagged and ready to put on the porch for them (they call every month or so). I could even call them for a special pick up if I have enough.
I’m going to follow the purge before you try to organize it rule-of-thumb. Sometimes it is so easy to get hung up on where to put the stuff but it’s way easier if there is less of it to try to figure out where it should go.
My biggest challenge will be trying to find places for big items (such as Christmas decoration totes) that are organized in the totes but don’t have a good storage place. The house is roomy but not a lot of storage. Perhaps when “stuff” moves out this will let me dedicate a space for such items.
Can you help me and share where you store your Christmas decoration totes?
2 Comments
We have a shed that we store our holiday bins in. I've been trying to par down this past year & limit holidays to 1 tote each. Christmas is the only exception because of the tree, decorations & outside lights. So I can't help much on the storage ideas. However, parring down at the end of each holiday has been so much easier. I only put out what I loved and I got rid of the rest (after the holiday – because I wasn't sure if I'd miss it – or someone else would say 'Mom, where's that such & such?). Good Luck!
Great idea to use a shed. Do you not find that with the weather things get moldy even in a tote? That is my fear otherwise I would consider the garage as a suitable storage area.