The Wonders of a Weekly Reset
Imagine it’s Monday morning. You’ve got a jam-packed week ahead of you with a million different events and obligations. What if you look around your house and see that everything is in its place? And what if your fridge and pantry are fully stocked with a meal plan at the ready? And what if you glance at your calendar and see every single opportunity and potential conflict listed so you have a full picture of who needs to be where and when? You are starting to get the picture! One of the best things you can do to manage the chaos each week is to let the magic of a Weekly Reset work for you. Dedicating a couple of hours each week to systematically restoring order to your home can save you stress throughout the week—and can help you set aside some of the mental load that goes with keeping your busy life buzzing along. As you think about what you should include in a Weekly Reset and when to get it done, consider the ebbs and flows of your week. For many of us, it makes the most sense to work through our Weekly Reset on Sundays, but do what feels right to you. Read on for a few of the key areas we like to include in a Weekly Reset, but feel free to ignore the sections that don’t make sense for your unique life or to add in areas that will set you up for success each week! Whatever your Weekly Reset looks like to you, make sure you have a checklist for each area so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel each week. Kitchen Reset The kitchen is arguably the most important space in the home, and taking the time to reset it each week will save you time, money, and frustration. Here are a few tasks we put at the top of our Weekly Reset list: Fridge, Pantry, and Freezer—Take a few minutes to scan each shelf for spoiled food, items that need to be used sooner rather than later, and inspiration for your meal planning this week. Toss out anything that needs to go, put anything that’s out of place back where it belongs, and add missing staples to your shopping list. We recommend keeping a running shopping list that your whole household can access so that as things run low, they can be added to the list. Countertops—Return appliances, food packages, and other items to their storage places, sort through mail and other paperwork, and deal with those items that tend to stack up near the sink, like water bottles and travel mugs. Meal Planning and Prepping—Meal planning is the key to eating well on a budget, with minimal waste, and without the daily drama of figuring out what’s for dinner. Once you’ve finished your Calendar Reset (below), you will have a much better idea of how many meals will need to be prepared this week, how many people will be eating, or whether any of the meals need to be super quick or eaten on the road. Some of you might also find that meal prepping, in addition to meal planning, will help your household have the best possible week. Prepare individual servings of grab-and-go healthy snacks, layer salads in mason jars, create homemade Lunchables, and divvy up leftovers into microwave-safe containers for quick work lunches. Calendar Reset We sometimes wonder how we would get anything done without a shared Google calendar. Between work and school, social gatherings, quality time with the extended family, rehearsals and practices, volunteer activities, and community events and opportunities, we are guessing your lives are as full as ours are! It’s a blessing, to be sure, but it’s also a lot to manage. That’s why you need to include your calendar in your Weekly Reset tasks. Make sure you chat with every member of the family so that everyone’s activities are accounted for, including: Regular work shifts as well as irregular work events School days, field trips, tutoring, dress up days Extra-curricular practices, games, rehearsals, performances, lessons Family and social events, birthdays, get-togethers with extended family Infrequent obligations like oil changes and dentist appointments As you are filling up your calendar, don’t forget to block out time for things that are important to your wellbeing but tend to get left behind, like scheduling in time for exercise or a date night with your sweetie. Laundry Reset As you prepare for the week ahead, you not only need to be sure that you have the regular clothing and linens for the week, but you also need to be ready for any special clothing needs. After you’ve updated your calendar, you will have a better handle on whether and when you need specific uniforms, dress clothing, costumes, or favorite outfits for the week. The goal is to avoid those last-minute searches for a missing jersey, spirit day outfit, or the need to do a midnight load of laundry to wash that irreplaceable clothing item for the next morning! Household Reset Just because YOU are the one reading this blog doesn’t mean that YOU are the one who has to reset the whole house! Get everyone involved in figuring out how they can set themselves up for success each week. This will look different for every home, but here are a few ideas to get your started: Reset your own bedroom, closet, dresser, and nightstand Make sure bathrooms are stocked with whatever they need: shampoo, toothpaste, toilet paper, and other items Clean out your email inbox and other places where you receive messages Do a quick cleanout of your purse, briefcase, or backpack The Weekly Reset is key to restoring order to your home and life before the next week begins. Taking the time to prepare for the week ahead can help clear your mind as well as your home. And, as always, if you need help developing a Weekly Reset routine that works for you, call in the Bees!
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Buzz into Better Book Organization
If you are a book lover, you know the optimism and excitement of cracking open a new book. Whether it’s an author you know and love, a recommended read from a friend, or your book group’s latest selection, every book you open is an opportunity to connect with and learn from the wide range of human experience. Americans buy roughly 700 million books in print each year from booksellers—not counting the many more volumes purchased at book fairs, at author events, and through local used book sales! In fact, 25% of Americans own more than 100 print books—and even more in digital formats. We’ve put together our best advice from the Bees on how to know when to let go of old books, what to do with the books that no longer need to stay in your collection, and how to organize the rest! There Are NO RULES in Book Organizing. The most important rule of book organizing is that there are no rules in book organizing. You don’t need to organize your books like the library does or your bookstore does or your mom does. Organizing your books is a very personal choice, and what works for one will not work for all. Each book in your home entered your collection for a reason. Maybe the you from 20 years ago adored the author, or you inherited a collection from someone you love, or you bought a parenting book (or 10!) to read when you have more free time. If you’re like us, you have many books that you’ve never read and never intend to read. And if you are like us, some books in your collection are a direct connection to your heart, either because of who gave them to you or how they make you feel. As you think about your collection of books, reflect on whether you truly need to hold on to every book you have, and consider how the books you keep might do a better job of serving you and your home. Letting Go of Books You may come to realize that you have more books than you want or need in your life. We hereby give you permission to let go of those books that are taking up space without giving you anything in return. If you are struggling with the process of sorting through your books to select what to keep and what to let go of, remember that the Bees have developed a tried-and-true process for that! For book lovers, the idea of throwing away a book is an abomination! Luckily, there are so many places and organizations that would love to acquire the books that you are ready to pass along. Here are a few of our favorites: Little Free Libraries: More than 150,000 Little Free Libraries can be found all over the country—no library card required. Anyone is welcome to drop off or pick up a book to keep. Find the closest ones to you by using their library locator map! You can drop off a few books from your collection while keeping an eye out for new-to-you books that you would love to read! Public Libraries: Most public libraries appreciate donations of gently used books. While some books might be added to their regular collections, others will be sold at periodic book sales to raise money for library operations and activities. Book Drives: Keep your eye out for charities, schools, and international education nonprofits who might be collecting used books. Everything from textbooks to romance novels can find a second life! Now that you’ve found new homes for the books you are willing to part with, it’s time to think through how to organize the volumes you are keeping. How to Organize Your Books The most important question to ask yourself is what organizational style will best serve you? If you rarely or never refer back to a book on your shelves, you can feel free to organize your books aesthetically. But if you are the kind of person who needs to be able to find a specific volume, you will need to use a more systematic approach. Here are a few of the most common ways to organize home libraries. Topic or genre: Create separate sections for categories of books, just like you’d find at your local bookstore. Gardening? Nonfiction? Travel books? Alphabetically: If you have a large collection, a simple way to organize them is alphabetically by either the last name of the author or the title of the book. Color: Arranging books by the color of the spines can make for a strikingly beautiful display in your home—whether you put them in rainbow order or just chunk them together for bright bursts of color. Size: The shelving you are working with may play a role in choosing how to best organize your books. Consider separating hardcover and paperback books, if it works for you. This can help you maximize space and make the different heights of books less jarring. Whether you organize for aesthetics or for functionality, keep in mind these key ideas: Use vertical space. Consider using vertical stacks of books in addition to the typical horizontal display you’d see in a library. The variety can be more efficient in using space and be more attractive to the eye! Include breathing room. If you can, leave some empty spaces on the shelves through the selective use of stacking or book ends. Incorporate other objects. Think about tucking a few framed photos, houseplants, and other treasures among your books. Rotate your books. If you have limited shelf space, you can keep it fresh by rotating books in and out of storage whenever you have the whim. There is no rule that you must have all of your books displayed at the same time! Remember our most important guideline of all—there is no single right way to do this. These are YOUR books, in YOUR space, and you can organize them in whatever way feels best to you. And, as always, if you need help organizing your books—or any other space—call in the Bees!
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Road Trip Ready
Paving the Way to Smooth Travels There’s something special about the Great American Road Trip. Miles of open highway stretching out in front of you. Roadside attractions of all shapes and sizes. Infinite opportunities to learn, bond, explore, and maybe even bicker with a sibling. There’s truly something for everyone! As you prepare for your next adventure, thoughtfully organizing your vehicle will save you time, money, and frustration on the road. Read on for our tips and tricks to make the most of your time away! The Benefits of Pre-Trip Organizing You’ve picked your destination. You’ve plotted your route. Now it’s time to wedge everything into wherever it fits and hit the road, right? Wrong! Taking the extra time to get your vehicle organized before your trip has numerous benefits: Less stress and frustration. Digging around for sunglasses while everyone is napping. A phone charger that doesn’t quite reach. Snack wrappers everywhere. A box of markers barely out of the grasp of the youngest kid. All of these micro-stresses add up and can dampen the mood of even the happiest traveler. More time. When you’ve carefully chosen which items to bring and where to put them, you will spend less of your vacation time searching the trunk for elusive items, or even worse, making expensive and time-consuming stops to replace what’s missing. Easier food options. Having well-organized, pre-packaged food options ensures that you always have healthy (and less expensive!) food and drinks available, regardless of where your path takes you. Entertained children. If you’ve traveled with kids (or adults!) of any age, you know that boredom can quickly spiral into something worse. Having a well-organized vehicle can help passengers keep themselves entertained and engaged. Wondering where to begin? Read on for our space-by-space ideas for whipping your chariot into shape before you hit the road! Organizing Your Vehicle, One Space at a Time Before loading your car for your road trip, you’ve got to start the same way you would with any organizing project—taking everything out of the space you are organizing to see what’s there, making smart decisions about what can stay and what should go, and only then organizing the rest. If you need a refresher on removing excess clutter from any space, revisit our blog for a step-by-step guide! The various spaces in your car fulfill specific functions, so make sure you are prioritizing which items make the most sense for each space. Center Console: The Domain of the Driver. The center console is the only space that’s truly accessible for the driver, so make sure that it has everything they need within reach: sunglasses, phone charger, lip balm, gum or mints, quick access to a playlist or podcast, water bottle, etc. Glove Box: The Domain of the Co-pilot. The driver gets the glory, but it’s the co-pilot who makes the road trip happen! The co-pilot often serves as navigator, drink opener, squabble solver, tech guru, snack distributor, and more. We recommend using separate bags or pouches to keep categories of items organized and easy to find in the glove box: Extra cords for various gadgets Health supplies (hand sanitizer, sanitizing wipes, headache and stomach meds, band-aids, neosporin, tweezers, etc.) Important documents, such as your insurance and registration information Sleep supplies for nappers (eye masks and ear plugs) Pen and paper The Backseat: The Domain of the Passengers. Accessibility is key—backseat passengers need to be able to reach their activities and snacks without unbuckling. A few things that might help: Back of seat organizers can keep a wide variety of items within reach. Many folks have had good luck with repurposing a door shoe organizer for this! A box or narrow crate in the center can be a game changer for helping kids keep track of their items—and limit the amount they are packing. Many vehicles have an abundance of cup-holders! A few plastic cups from the kitchen can help passengers make use of this valuable space—think crayon storage, headphones and cords, or snacks! The Cargo Space: The Storage Domain. If you love the game Tetris, now is your time to shine! Use the space in your trunk or cargo area as strategically as you can, being mindful of when you will need access to each item. Place your most-likely-to-need first items closest to the bumper, so you don’t waste precious time moving everything out and then back in to reach something. It’s always a good idea to make sure you have a travel safety kit with you (especially if you are expecting difficult weather) Tips and Tricks to BEEgin Your Journey We’ve rounded up a few of our most-used items and ideas for organizing your journey. Daily Tidying. Every day, take the 15 minutes to clean out trash and debris, refill snacks and activities, and put everything back in its place. Bring the things you need to keep your car tidy: Wet wipes? Trash bag or can? Paper towels? Repurposing Items. You don’t need to spend a bunch of money buying gimmicky car organization products. Think about how items you already own can help you accomplish your goals. Don’t have a place to hang a grocery sack for trash? Stick a removable adhesive hook in an accessible spot. Need something to organize kid art supplies or snacks in? You finally have a reason to use that old shower caddy! If you don’t have time to divide out bulk snacks into smaller bags for the road, toss a package of coffee filters into the snack bag. Coffee filters cost pennies, hold their shape, and take up minimal space. A Place for Everything. The biggest chaos-makers in a car are those items that don’t have a place to live, so make sure that you figure out the most sensible spot for each item, and then encourage the whole family to put the item back in the same place every time. Frozen Water Bottles. We love it when we remember to freeze a few bottles of water before a road trip. They serve as ice packs while they are frozen, and then eventually become beverages! The Almighty Snack Bag. Being mindful about the variety of foods you bring—and how they are packaged—can save you time and money on the road. You will save money by not being subjected to that upcharge for convenience at your stops. And you’ll save time at your stops by putting an end to the endless browsing and indecision about what to pick. Mesh Bags. We never bombard you with countless organizational products because we know buying more things won’t solve your clutter problems. One of the very few exceptions is these mesh zipper bags , which keep you organized when traveling without adding a lot of extra weight or bulk. New-to-You Activities. If you have a road trip coming up, keep an eye out for activities that will keep weary travelers entertained. Whether it’s borrowing a stack of magazines from a friend, printing out instructions for new card games, downloading a couple of podcast episodes from a comedian, or pulling out a set of forgotten window clings for the kids, brainstorming for fun new ways to occupy your time will be worth every minute! As you BEEgin your next summer adventure, we hope spending a few extra minutes before you leave will help you make the most of your time making memories, one mile at a time! As with any organizational project, if you need help, you can always reach out to the closest Bee Organized location for the compassionate, confidential, and judgment-free support we are known for!
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Listen to the Bees to Get More ZZZs
The Key to Better Sleep is Organization More than a third of Americans report they regularly have difficulty falling or staying asleep. In fact, struggling with sleep is so common that many people think that it’s inevitable. You have more control over your sleep than you think! Before you reach for that melatonin or medical sleep aid, you owe it to yourself to consider how the state of your bedroom can improve—or diminish—your sleep quality. The Importance of Sleep We all know that to live a long life, we need to make healthy food choices and exercise regularly. But according to the National Institute of Health , the quality of your sleep is just as important for your health as diet and exercise. So why do we treat healthy sleep as a luxury rather than a priority? The research is abundantly clear that the quality of our sleep impacts all areas of our lives—from how long we live to our likelihood of encountering numerous diseases. Here are just a few of the latest studies: Longevity: According to the Mayo Clinic, women who get adequate sleep live about two years longer on average than those who are sleep-deprived—for men, it’s five years longer! Cardiovascular health: Researchers from the medical school at Columbia University tell us that not getting enough sleep can cause high blood pressure, heart disease, and inflammation. In addition, the American Stroke Association reminds us that those who struggle with sleep are at an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Dementia: Researchers from Harvard inform us that adults who struggle with getting enough sleep are twice as likely to develop dementia after retirement. The most likely reason for this is that our bodies use every minute of our sleeping time to flush away toxins that accumulate in our brains during the day. And more: If all of the above reasons aren’t enough, researchers have also connected poor sleep to weight gain, diabetes, kidney disease, car crashes and even lower perceptions of relationship quality. The verdict is in. The quality of your sleep is too important to leave to chance. It’s time to get serious about improving your sleep health—and the best place to BEEgin is in your own bedroom. Your Sleep Quality Depends on Your Sleeping Space There’s no two ways about it: People sleep better when they sleep in a space designed for their sleep needs! As we’ve discussed before in our blog, several research studies have shown that nighttime sleep is shorter and less restful when the sleeping space is cluttered or disorganized. Dr. Pamela Thacher, a psychologist at St. Lawrence University, found in her research that people who slept in cluttered bedrooms were more likely to experience a sleep disorder. Research published in the journal Sleep noted that when people try to sleep in cluttered rooms, they can have lower sleep quality because the clutter causes anxiety. Neuroscientist Dr. Chelsie Rohrscheib explains that a messy bedroom will overstimulate your brain and cause it to associate your bedroom with stress, making it more difficult to fall asleep in the space. So if we know that we need quality sleep to live our best lives and we know that the state of our bedroom directly impacts our ability to get that sleep—how do we get from Point A to Point B? Read on for the Bee’s roadmap for whipping your sleeping space into shape! How to Organize Your Sleeping Space Your poor, neglected bedroom. If you are like most of our clients, your bedroom is the space that needs the most TLC. The primary bedroom is often the place that collects the most cast-offs from other areas of the home and becomes the default storage place for things that you don’t have the time or energy to deal with. Your bedroom is the last space to get much-needed attention, whether it’s new paint, a deep cleaning, or a complete makeover. We get it that most of your visitors never venture into your bedroom—and that spaces used by all members of the household can take priority—but there’s no time like the present to commit to better sleep! Organize Your Routine: You’ve heard a million times that little kids need routines. But adults need routines too! Having a bedtime routine helps organize your brain and helps prepare you for deep sleep. Dr. Marishka Brown, a sleep expert at the National Institute of Health, notes that one key to quality sleep is building a consistent sleep schedule. And the University of Chicago strongly recommends “developing a bedtime routine that helps you wind down for the evening.” The internet is full of great bedtime routines for adults—you can start with these bedtime routine ideas from Psychology Today! Organize Your Nightstand: The space closest to your bed is prime real estate for helping you sleep fully and deeply. Do not give up the space to clutter. Instead, think carefully about what items you need by your side as you settle in for a good night’s rest: your phone charger, sleep mask, lip balm, book, ear plugs, retainer, and more. Make sure every item has a place to live and you’ve removed the items that will just get in your way. Organize Your Bedroom: Ready to put the time and effort into organizing your sleeping space? Follow our step-by-step guide for decluttering any space on our blog. And if your bedroom is jam-packed with excess stuff, begin with our famous Power Purge! You deserve a functional, peaceful space for sleeping—in fact, your health depends on it! And if you get stuck along the way, you know you can always reach out to the closest Bee Organized location for the compassionate, confidential, and judgment-free support we are known for!
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Unpacking the Power Purge
When people begin a decluttering project, they go in with the best of intentions. They imagine that just a little motivation and some bins and labels will surely solve almost any organizational problem. But all too often, aspiring organizers skip the most important step of all: The Power Purge! Reorganizing the objects without getting to the heart of the problem—that we all have Too Much Stuff—is just a temporary fix. It’s more like a Band-Aid than true healing for your cluttered home. If you don’t go through the process of saying goodbye to your excess clutter, you’re just moving stuff around, which still takes time and effort but gets you no closer to having a peaceful, clutter-free home. Unless you’ve recently fully organized a space and therefore are just maintaining your good work, any decluttering effort will benefit greatly from careful consideration about which items should stay in the space, and which items should be removed. But how do you choose which items should remain and which items to set free? Thankfully, as professional organizers, we’ve developed a tried-and-true process that can help bring clarity to this series of overwhelming decisions. As you touch each object that currently lives in the space you are organizing, ask yourself the three key questions of the Power Purge. Don’t think about this process as getting rid of things that are important to you; instead, think about it as an opportunity to make room for the people, activities, and things that you love! 1Does This Item Make Me Happy? If the item you are focusing on makes you smile or brings back a wonderful memory of someone you love or an adventure that you had, keep it! Don’t feel pressured to throw away things that are meaningful to you. As you go through this process, some items will have obvious happy emotions tied to them: family photos, precious gifts from a loved one, that perfect sweater. Other items will bring you joy for reasons that you can’t put into words and that is fine too! To be able to keep an item, you don’t have to justify why it makes you happy—just feel the positive emotions and keep it! But not everything that you think should make you happy actually does make you happy. The magic of the first key question of the Power Purge is that it gives you permission to let go of items that you or others think should make you happy, but don’t. You have the permission to let go of memorabilia, or old collections, or things you purchased that you regret. You don’t need to hold on to things just because you feel like you should. This is your home and you get to choose what is lifting you up and what is holding you down. Just because something doesn’t make you happy doesn’t mean you should necessarily get rid of it! Also, never forget that there is sometimes a middle ground in these decisions. For example, instead of keeping the entire 64-piece set of your grandmother’s china, keep a special tea cup that you will use or put on display as a reminder of her. We keep most items in our homes not because they make us happy, but because they serve a function. That brings us to the second key question of the Power Purge. 2 Is This Item Useful Now or in the Near Future? Just like in the first question, if you answer YES to this question, it’s a no-brainer that you should keep it. It’s up to you to decide what “regularly” means for you, but our Bees advise that if you are using it every year, that’s likely enough to warrant keeping. So if you have been holding on to that fondue pot for that “someday fondue party” for the past five years, either plan the party or ditch the fondue pot and borrow one when you get around to planning that party. Keep in mind the 80/20 Rule as you’re simplifying: We only use 20% of our items 80% of the time. Things get more complicated when you answer NO to the question “is this item useful.” If you are performing the Power Purge on your closet, there’s a very good chance you will run across clothing that you haven’t worn in years…or even decades. If the item doesn’t make you happy (and especially if it makes you feel a negative emotion like guilt or regret), and you aren’t using it regularly, now is the right time to let it go and move on. Letting go of items that you don’t use regularly (and that you don’t love) can sometimes be extremely challenging. Getting rid of the item means admitting to yourself that it was a wasteful purchase in the first place—or that you bought it for the wrong reasons. Sometimes, it means facing the fact that you did not stick with that hobby you bought the equipment for or that the one dress you are waiting for a chance to wear may have already gone out of style. It’s natural to feel the occasional strong emotion as you sort through items. Don’t let the emotions surprise you—and BEE sure to give yourself the gift of self-compassion and a judgment-free zone as you feel your feelings. This work of purging what is no longer useful or meaningful to you will give you more room in your life for clarity and joy! 3 Is This Item Valuable or Irreplaceable? You’ve made it to the third key question! As you consider the item you are focusing on, you’ve already determined that it does not make you happy and you do not use it regularly. The answer to the third key question will help you figure out how to best deal with this item. If the item is valuable, you will likely need to take more care in figuring out how to part with it. In this context, valuable items are those that either cost a significant amount of money when you originally purchased it—or are likely worth a significant amount of money now. (You get to decide what a “significant amount of money” means to you!) Sometimes, people hold on to an item for no other reason than because it is valuable. The third key question in the Power Purge is your reminder that just because something is valuable doesn’t automatically mean that it deserves to take up space in your home. If the item is not useful to you and it doesn’t bring happiness to you, now may be a great time to sell the item, give it to someone who would love it, or donate it to a cause that is meaningful to you. Check out your local Facebook “Buy Nothing” groups, Facebook Marketplace, eBay, and other websites to find a variety of options for giving your items new life. The second part of this question asks you to consider whether the item is irreplaceable. If the answer to this question is YES, but the item does not make you happy and is not useful to you, all this means is that you may need to take more care in deciding where it goes after you’ve decided to part with it. There’s a chance that one-of-a-kind items mean more to someone else than they do to you, and it might make sense for you to check with them before disposing of the items. For example, perhaps you have a crate of Kindergarten art from your grown child taking up space in your guest room. It’s completely reasonable to sort through it and keep the ones that make you happy and then decide that you no longer need the rest. But since the items are irreplaceable, it might make sense for you to share the contents of the crate with your adult child so that they can decide if they too want to keep any of the crayon masterpieces. The same reasoning holds true with all those photos you’ve collected over the years. Give yourself permission to dispose of pictures that don’t bring you joy, are of poor quality, or you cannot name the people or places. For large framed photos, take a picture and let it go! Digitizing photos and photo albums is a great way to eliminate the actual items. Remember that just because something is irreplaceable, it doesn’t automatically mean that it gets to take up space in your home! You’ve done it! You’ve thoughtfully considered each item in the space you are decluttering, and you’ve (hopefully) given yourself permission to part with so many of the things that were weighing you down. The great thing about the Power Purge is that you can’t find a loophole in the line of questioning. These three questions were designed to press you and make you be honest with yourself. The more you do it, the better you’ll BEEcome. Removing all of the extra items will make organizing what’s left go so much more smoothly. As you work to transform your space, let happiness and usefulness BEE your guide, and savor the sweet nectar of a decluttered life! If you need a helping hand to get started, reach out to the Bee Organized location nearest you—our Bees are ready to give you the compassionate, confidential, and judgment-free service you deserve!
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