Important Tips for Packing Up Donations

In light of the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, here are some tips to help those gathering much needed items for donation.  The shelters, charities and donation sites are VERY GRATEFUL for any offering, and understand that some of you are literally gathering your things while still in the dark yourselves.  However, if you can follow some of these guidelines, it helps get crucial items to the victims quicker, and that is everyone’s main goal.  For those who cannot physically volunteer on site, this is a way to make a significant difference right from your own home.

• Focus on the most essential items.  Eventually, millions of people will need to rebuild their lives from scratch and will need the “extras”, such as artwork, DVD/CDs, knick knacks etc.  But right now, they are just trying to survive, stay warm and get through the cold days and nights. Including non-essential items at this time slows the donation process because people at the site need to weed through all the bags/boxes to get to what’s really needed.  Plus, until people rebuild there is nowhere to store it.

• Wherever possible, separate your donations by type, gender, and size.  For example, try to avoid putting flashlights and batteries in the same bag/box as clothing, food, cleaning supplies and blankets.  Try to separate male and female clothing, as well as kids and adults.  If possible, separate out outerwear (coats, hats, scarves and gloves) so they can be accessed immediately.  We understand that people are trying to gather things quickly and sometimes don’t have the luxury of separating because “the truck is leaving”.  But when possible, please do so!  Separating items gets crucial supplies to the victims quicker.  It may seem tedious, but somebody will be doing it, and if it’s not you, it will be volunteers at the site, or the victims themselves and it will take far more time.

• Please take the time to CLEARLY LABEL your bags for donation.  Thousands of volunteers are donating their time and muscle to help the victims on site.  Anything we can do on the other end saves time and allows the volunteers who are there to do their jobs more efficiently.   It takes a lot of time to open thousands of “miscellaneous” bags and separate things out!  The more that’s done in advance, the greater the chances that people will get what they need when they need it, which is YESTERDAY!

• Try to find out exactly what is needed at the charity/donation site at the time you are making the donation.  For example, please don’t send clothes if the site is saying they are at capacity.  Save the clothes for a site that does still need it.  A lot of relief sites are at temporary locations with limited space and manpower.  Many will provide lists of what is needed.  As an example, here is the most current list from the Johnny Mac Foundation (http://www.facebook.com/groups/272530008918):   

Work gloves, batteries, flashlights, face masks, thick black contractor bags. THIS is the top 5 that we need right now. These need to be CLEARLY marked so that we can distribute them easily and quickly.

*MOST ESSENTIAL MEDICINE ITEMS* - Baby cough medicine, BAND-AIDS, Neosporin, Ace bandages, Advil, Tylenol. People are coming in with gashes on their legs from stuff that's hitting them in their basements, it probably needs stitches, but who has time for stitches- and there are NO MEDICAL tents anyway! So send the above stuff, CLEARLY labeled and we can start giving people band-aids and baby cough medicine. Please mark clearly. 

*CLEANING SUPPLIES* - Mops, brooms, shovels, bleach, clorox, buckets. Anything on a stick today had to be carefully rationed--- obviously we need more, but there were about 10 mops today and they were like gold bricks...

*MOST ESSENTIAL FOOD ITEMS*- In addition to water we need orange Juice, Apple Juice, granola bars, powdered milk, we have tons of peanut butter, no jelly, no bread....keep the food coming, 

*MOST ESSENTIAL BABY ITEMS* - MORE jars of baby food, more formula, more bottles, more WIPES. Today people were getting wipes for the first time for their kids. 

We hope this information helps you help others.  As New Yorkers, we are very grateful for the outpouring of support and generosity during this extremely difficult time.  Thank you so very much!

If at first you don't succeed..... don't you dare go and quit!

CONFESSIONS OF AN ORGANIZER:  I used to stink at taking my vitamins. 

Yeah, I know.  Not a very exciting confession, but let's face it.  My exciting confessions are not going to end up on a blog about organizing ;).  My vitamin story, however, does help illustrate an important point:  An organizing strategy or product is only good if it works for YOU.  If it doesn't, don't use it, even if it works GREAT for OTHER PEOPLE.  Here's my story:

Once upon a time, I wasn't taking my vitamins on a regular basis, and I didn't feel great.  I also heard rumors that I was moody, but those people are liars so, you know, whatever....  Anyway, I had tried several really good suggestions on how to remember, but most of them just didn’t work for me.  Doesn’t mean they weren’t good organizing tools/products/tips.  They just didn’t work for ME.  First, I tried keeping the bottles out on the counter.  Makes sense, right?  I figured if I saw them every day, it would be an instant reminder!  But it really annoyed me seeing them every day.  I mean, it reeeeaaaallllly annoyed me.  And many times, I would notice them as I was running out the door and wasn’t willing to make the time to open 7 bottles.  So day after day, no vitamins.  

Then I tried MY OWN TIP, which was to use one of those handy dandy 7-day pill organizers.  These work like a charm for so many of my friends, I still stand by them and would recommend them to our clients.  But they didn't work for ME.  Again, a lot of times I would remember to take my vitamins as I was leaving the house, and didn't feel like schlepping the whole 7-day supply with me.  I would convince myself that I would take them later, and then never did.

Next, I got fancy.  I bought one of those new-fangled 7-day organizers with detachable compartments.  That's right, folks, I wasn't messing around.

Guess what?  I hated them.  I could detach them ok, but I found it frustrating and difficult to reattach them, and I just couldn't be bothered (Translation:  I wanted to fling them against the wall and/or crush them.  Often.)

So what finally worked?  A month’s supply of these individual, plastic vitamin bags that I fill at the beginning of each month.  

To some, this would seem like a crazy amount of work.  But the point is..... drum roll.....  it WORKS for ME.  It only takes about 10 minutes once a month.  Approximately 29 days out of the month, I don’t have to open 7 bottles, and I don't have to see them on the counter, either.  I just grab and go, and I'm healthier for it.  So with any organizing challenge, don’t quit if the first try doesn’t work out.  Keep at it until you find what works for YOU.  Gotta go… take my vitamins J.

"For Now...." Aaaaaaagggghhhh!

"For now".... two of the most frustrating words an organizer can hear.

It seems unlikely that six letters could come together to cause actual havoc, but we assure you they could.  Because what they represent is a refusal to make a decision or follow through on a task.  And the worst part?  We’re supposed to believe it’s only temporary.

“I’ll just put this here for now….”

By making this statement, most people are trying to convince themselves that later, presumably when they’re not busy, they will take the misplaced item and triumphantly return it to its proper home (or create a home for it if it’s a first-time thing).

Is this you?  Tell us, though.  If you were to achieve the ever elusive yet highly coveted state of being “not busy”, wouldn’t you want to be doing other, more fun things??

The truth is that what you are really saying is, “I have no idea where to put this and am too [tired, lazy, flustered, adjective-of-your-own-choosing] to find a ‘home’ for it.”  And that’s where the chaos starts.

One “for now”?  Not terrible, especially if you make it a point to take care of the task within a reasonable time.  But multiple, unresolved “for nows” add up to clutter.  And with that clutter comes a loss of control – control over your space and control over your things.  Take a look:

Noooooot pretty, and guess what?  This pile didn't start out like this.  It started with a “for now”.

No matter how much time you think you may be saving by avoiding a task or situation “for now”, you’re only setting yourself up to lose more time later on.  Eventually, the pile will get so out of control, you will need hours and hours to go through everything.

And you will be very, very aggravated.

So here’s what we suggest:

• Keep the “for nows” to a bare minimum, and only when you really can’t avoid them. 

• Address the ones you can’t avoid as soon as you can.

• Take the time to find an easily accessible home for your things, and group “like with like”, so you minimize the times when you have to say, “I don’t have a place for this.  I’ll just leave it here ‘for now’”.

• Finish the task!  If you just deal with it now, or as close to now as possible, you will have more time to spend doing the things you love.  Yay!

Ok, that’s all folks!  We're done.  At least for now…..  J

"Everything deserves a home..."

For our inaugural blog, it only seemed fitting to focus on what has become our mantra:  "Everything deserves a home…"

This is the concept that started it all for us, the idea we kept going back to as busy moms trying to stay afloat in a sea of toys and paperwork.  After all, before kids we both had successful careers in other fields.  We both managed people, our time, daunting to-do lists and seemingly impossible deadlines.  So why was it there were toys in the kitchen and the daily mail was trying to drown us?

It’s amazing how much clutter can annoy you when you are home all day to see it.

So we did what any great friends do – we called each other up and complained.  A lot.  And we brainstormed.  A lot.  And it always came back to the idea of giving everything we owned its own home.

No matter what we do or where we go, at some point we come back HOME.  We go grocery shopping, or to work, or to our children’s games and then we come HOME.  We don’t sleep on the corner, ring a stranger’s bell or just randomly stop driving the car.  We come where?  Say it with us, friends!  HOME.

And most days, the majority of us don’t get lost :)

So imagine how much easier things would be if you just applied this principle to your STUFF.

When everything has a home, and gets returned to that home, there’s no guesswork.  There’s no time wasted looking for things.  You can find what you need when you need it. 

Running around the house in a last minute panic looking for something you need to take with you?  Not pretty. 

Losing important documents because there are piles of paper everywhere?  Not cool. 

Spending time and money to replace “lost” items or expired food?  Well, you just know what that is.

Who has all this extra time and money?  Not us, for sure.

So here is one simple but important thing you can do that will help stop the madness:

Designate one specific home for everything you own, and put “LIKE” things together.  Then make sure everyone in your family knows what goes where.

For example, all your tools should be in one place.  All your utility items in another (batteries, lightbulbs etc).  Anyone who picks up the mail should place it in your designated spot until it can be addressed (preferably daily).  There shouldn’t be five places where you have piles of paper, or piles of anything for that matter.  Your house and car keys?  Seriously?  ONE spot.

Even within your cabinets and drawers, give everything a specific home.  For example, your canned goods should be on one shelf.  Why is this important?  For inventory purposes!  Do you need to buy a case of soup from Costco when you already have soup? 

Should it take you 10 minutes to find a stapler?  No!

And guess what?  You can and SHOULD apply this principle to your children’s things, even if they’re too young to know what a principle is :)  If they don’t want to lose their favorite toy, then they should have a specific home for it and return it when they are done using it.  If it gets lost, the onus should be on them.  Having specific homes for their things will teach them from a young age how to respect and keep track of them.  It will assist them with time management.  It will serve them well in school and in life.  

And you will avoid meltdowns, and I don’t just mean theirs :)

If nothing has a home right now, it won’t happen overnight.  Start small and set reasonable goals.  Sometimes the simplest concept is the most effective.  Give it a try! 

Welcome to our Organizing Blog!

If you are drowning in paperwork, caught up in clutter or just plain out of control, we can help!  There are lots of reasons why people become disorganized (assuming you were ever organized in the first place!).  We are not here to judge, just to help you get back on your feet.  Check out our website at www.organizemeNY.com or "Like Us" on Facebook to receive weekly organizing tips at www.facebook.com/organizemeny.  And let us know what questions you have or what topics you'd like to see covered.  Your organizing wish is our command :)