How do you organize your home information?
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How do you organize all your ideas?
Comments (21)Wow! You have lots of really good ideas. Some of you seem a little overwhelmed, like I am! Too many good ideas (and getting more every day), not enough time! Luvs, I never thought of actually sitting down with a cup of coffee and looking through my Christmas files (duh) prior to the Christmas shopping season (although most of what I buy is second-hand still there's more selection nearer to the holidays)... Karen--you can fit all your Decor ideas in ONE file???! Dreamgoddess--I love the idea of having all my jottings in one notebook--but once I turn the page the old ones are gone from my memory! You probably (undoubtedly) have more discipline than I have... OA--I do something like you do with the recipes but I use scrapbook software. I'm pleased with that because I can add text and the software treats it like a graphic--lets me move it around, put it on top of pictures, etc., but it still stays editable for when I spot a typo (very irritating to me) or want to rearrange the page. You can also add arrows or circle items in the photo or illustrations, and fancy them up if you want. I save the pages to .jpg files after I'm done. Then I can just view them with the Windows viewer. The disadvantage is there's no way to sort them or search them. I have to put them all in individual folders like Christmas, etc. If I want to have an index I have to make one in Excel or some such. I love the idea of putting all the things for each room in their own boxes. We will be moving into our new home this winter and as I unpack (my very disorganized) moving boxes I'll keep that in mind. Have to go get tons of plastic bins... Minnie tx--Yes. I've organized my articles like that in the past and there's nothing like thumbing through those nice page protectors--makes your pictures look even better. But I have SO MANY! Once I almost completed a system like that and I had 21 3-ring notebooks full and more coming all the time. I've weeded out since then (HAD TO!) and of course since I was younger there's many more formats--dvd's (stuff I recorded off HGTV, for example), Internet downloads, how-to videos on the Internet, of course digital pix that I sneak sometimes in stores, etc. So much mixed media! dd50- you've hit the nail on the head! That's me, wandering around the store, getting ideas, and wondering if I already have the stuff at home. After this over-budget house is finished, I'm not going to be able to afford buying (even something cheap) twice! neesie--DH uses a pencil and notepad for anything he wants to remember, and it works for him, but he's an engineer. They're BORN organized. lynn--I scan pix from magazines and catalogs too (they can sure mount up). But your system sounds so organized. I just finished culling about 300MB of graphics files duplicates that I had propagated all over the disk. BTW, make sure you all have backups. DH made us a little network with a big hard drive so we can back up to it. But if you don't have that, I like the little thumb drives--I got a 4 GB one for Christmas last year. That holds a lot of files! THANKS FOR ALL THE SUGGESTIONS! Seems nothing is perfect. As I mentioned, I'm using scrapbook software which makes graphics and text very easy to handle (OA--if you want "freeform" pages the scrapbooking software is better than a database like Filemaker. Databases usually require you to have your data in fixed format (which you define). For example, at least when I was using databases, you would have to define the number of pictures you could allow in each record. Of course, databases may be a lot fancier now, but their search-sort functions should require some rigidity in the format of each record.) What I really need to find to augment this is a calendar-shopping list-inventory program that takes all those ideas in my brain and makes them usable! - Magpie...See MoreHow Do You Organize Your Kitchen?
Comments (102)I have a pretty small house overall myself. And being built in 1931 back when people seemed to own one change of clothes and one coat, there are no closets and what few closets I do have, are tiny!! I have to keep my clothes in another room because my master bedroom closet is tinier than tiny! Keep the ideas coming! There's no worries about anyone "stealing" my thread! Storage ideas for one person can be adapted by everyone, so all discussions are welcome! I'm getting some great ideas I never would have thought of. I think I'm going to use the back of the kitchen door leading to the basement for storage as well. And I have to organize that "landing". I have a big box of cat food and litter, all the paper bags for recycling and plastic grocery bags as well, all the mops and coats ontop of the rest of the mess. You can barely get by to get up and down the stairs. I wish I had a place to keep my recycling bin in the kitchen. We have it out on our 3-season porch right off the kitchen so it's not bad, but I'd rather keep the porch less cluttered and not have to go out there when it's freezing winter to toss things. Recycling tends to collect on the one tiny piece of counter I have next to my stove as it's closest to the back door until it's falling all over the place before anyone will walk the 4 feet to the door to put it in the bin!! I did take some time this weekend to pull some things out of the backs of the cabinets and rearrange now that I freed up all the space by hanging all the pots and pans and lids. I now have easy access to all my French White casserole dishes in one place, on one shelf. Then I have all my 13 x 9 pans and cake/tart pans together. Right next to the stove I put all my old casserole dishes - the pyrex & Fire King stuff. That freed up space to have all my small serving dishes and trays/platters on another shelf, then I have all the bowls I use for dips and things when I have company and the bowls for the popcorn on another. I will still have to crawl in back of the cabinets for a few things, but those are things I only use a few times per year like my crockpot or the hand crank pasta machine. I do need to figure out what to do with my "machinery". The KA mixer, blender, espresso machine, pasta maker, etc. I just spent a small fortune because I'm cleaning and painting my son's room and I had to get him new furniture and a computer desk and I'm about to start a bathroom remodel as well, but I really could use a new cabinet for under the window in the kitchen that overlooks the back porch. I have one of those build it yourself partical board bookcases there now, but something nicer and with doors so the mess isn't open to the public would be better. I need to take some pictures and load them up so I can post them as well. I'm very visual - I learn by seeing way better than reading descriptions, so pics are great! Lisa...See MoreHelp! How do you organize your DVDs?
Comments (14)I organize mine by genre so if I feel like action I don't have to remember the title of all the actions films I have and search alphabetically. Genre is so much eaiser because it puts all the same type movies in one place. Of course for those actors that I am in love with like Dolph Lungren, Vin Diesel they have their own section or the what I call the eye candy section. The tv section just has all the tv shows together and then the crime shows together, scifi shows etc. As for whether or not something would be considered drama or action etc. I make that call. I put it in the section I most relate the movie with....See MoreHow do you organize your recycling? (Pics?)
Comments (34)We live in the country, too. There is a weekly trash pick up service in our area, but we don't use it. It takes us a month or two to fill a single 30 gallon trash bag. When one is full, I take it to the trash & recycling drop off and pay a by-the-bag fee that is probably one tenth the cost of the pickup service. I have made a concerted effort to stay off mailing lists, and we still get plenty of junk mail, which we shred. We have poor soil, so the shreds get sprinkled wherever we need the organic matter the most. I'd rather compost than burn. Yeah, I admit, sometimes it looks like confetti on our lawn, but the lawn is getting thicker! We compost vegetable scraps from the kitchen, autumn leaves, etc. As for cans and bottles, we recycle everything possible. Only non-recyclable plastic and meat bones find their way into our trash can, even with all the decluttering I'm doing with the help of FlyLady. Household items that are useful to someone else go to the Re-Use It Center, or I Freecycle them on the front porch. At first, I used a couple of cardboard boxes for the recyclable materials. But leaking liquids made them messy. So I replaced them with clear plastic bins that could be washed. I measured the shelf in the garage where we keep the recycle bins. I went to two or three stores that had a good selection of plastic storage containers. I used my measuring tape to be sure that whatever I got would fit into my space. I only need two boxes. One is for styrofoam, which shares space with a bundle of #2 & #4 plastic bags. (The bags are easy to pull out at the recycle place.) The other box holds cans, recyclable plastic & glass, which is how my local recycle place wants everything sorted. I also got a smaller box with a snap-tight lid. The mice chew aluminum foil and make a mess, but with the lid, I can keep foil out in the garage with the rest of the recycle stuff. When I have trash and/or recycling, I drive it over to the place which is also conveniently near some of the stores I need to visit anyway. I can combine my errands and save gas. It works out well for me. MaryLiz...See More- last month
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