Organizing for on the way out the door

Have you ever driven half way across town and then realized you forgot to bring something along? If it is important enough, you have to turn around and go back to pick it up. Otherwise it requires another trip another time. So how can a little organizational effort prevent that from happening?

Try an "on the way out box." Place a box where you will see it on the way out the door. Then when you realize you want to take something along when you leave, put it immediately in that box. When you go out the door, all you have to do is check the box to see if there is anything you want to take along and you have everything you need.

For example: you want to make your utility payment because you don't want the electricity shut off. Put the bill in the out-box. You have a letter that must be mailed but you're not sure of the postage, so you need to stop at the post office. Put the letter in the out-box. You want to pick up some milk. Put a note in the out-box with your grocery list on it. If you think of something else later that you want from the grocery store, add it to you list. Then when it is time to leave, pick up everything from your out-box and you are ready to go with everything you need. You'll feel more organized and you won't waste gas making trips back home for something you forgot.

Organize DVDs simply

Have you ever wondered where one of your DVDs is? Have you forgotten which DVDs you even own? You've been purchasing DVDs or CDs for a long time. It can be hard remembering which ones you have, or which ones you just thought about buying, or if one you have now is one you borrowed from someone and should be returned. If you can write numbers and words, then here is a simple way to organize your DVDs, CDs, VHS tapes, cassette tapes, or record albums (yes, I'm showing my age here). Does anyone still have 8-track tapes? They might be valuable by now!

Step 1. Write a unique number on each one where the numbers will be easiest to see when they are on the shelf. Start with 1 and contine until they each have a number. Depending on how fancy you want to get, use a permanent black marker or a label maker.

Step 2. On a piece of paper, write those same numbers down a row. In the column beside each number, write the title of the item.

That's it. Now you have an organized list of all your DVDs, or CDs, or whatever. Just put the piece of paper somewhere where you'll be able to find it when you want it. See below for steps on easy retrieval.

Getting fancier:

Fancy 1: In order to find one when you want it, you could simply store them in the order of their numbers with the number showing. Let's say you want to watch Spiderman. You look at your list and see that it is #26 on your list. Then you go to your stack and follow the numbers until you reach # 26. That one should be Spiderman. Important: When you are finished watching it, put it back in the same place in numerical order so it will be easy to find the next time. See Putting things back.

Fancy 2: Stack them in order in a DVD case or shelf made specifically for DVDs, or whatever item you are organizing. It will look good in the corner or wherever you keep them.

Fancy 3: This winter when you are bored, put your list on a spreadsheet. Your first two columns would be the numbers and titles. You can then add a column for Year of Release, Rating, Main Actors. Now they can be sorted by any column you want. Suppose you are in the mood to watch movies staring Harrison Ford. You can sort your list by Actor and discover that numbers 4, 18, and 45 all feature Harrison Ford. Then you are set for an enjoyable night or weekend. Or suppose you want to watch all your Matrix series. Sorting by Title, you see they are numbers 8, 23, and 35. Now they are easy to find and you can spend your time watching them instead of hunting for them and finally giving up in frustration.

Fancy 4: If you keep your DVDs or CDs in a couple of locations, say upstairs and downstairs, or maybe the CDs are in the house, and two different vehicles, you can add a column for "Location." Then you will know where to look for that particular one.

May your watching and listening now be happier because you are organized!

Organized nerdiness check

My son tagged me with this Nerd quiz. Here is my score.



I'm glad I'm not as nerdy as he is, but I think from the questions asked, that also means I'm not as smart, which both he and I have always known.

I think the reason I'm not so nerdy is because I spend my time being organized rather than building computers. Back in college days I knew some the answers to the questions asked, but that has been years ago and I have long forgotten them. I didn't need them so I erased them from my memory to make room for more useful knowledge! :) Actually this quiz made me think I'm not as smart as I should be. Maybe that makes me a wannabe nerd.

I'm still thinking of people to tag. I'll update this when I come up with people I want to tag.

An organized community

Do you have favorite communities or forums you participate in? I belong to several, including forums specific to my Jeep Blog. I find some of them hard to navigate, and hard to find where I've participated in the past. And I don't know when someone has responded to my comments. From some, all I get is spam saying "I want to be your friend." Yeah, right. It leads me to a porn site they want me to sign up for. That's not a friend I want!

However, I now have a new favorite community, myLot. It is the easiest most organized community/forum site I've found for navigation, entering and editing interests, finding entries in my areas of interest, etc. Plus I am notified by email when someone responds to a comment I have made. Plus they pay you every time you use myLot or refer friends. You might want to check it out. I highly recommend it!

Never give up

Winston Churchill once said, "Never, never, never give up." We can apply that to many areas in life, including getting organized. Sometimes it seems like an overwhelming task. We try. We work at it. We chip away a little at a time, but don't really see much for results.

Hang in there. Never, never, never give up. Getting organized is not an overnight task. It is not a one-hour instant gratification type of thing. I encourage you to keep at it. You'll begin to see results and you will feel good about it. The better you feel about your results, the easier it will get. But stick to it. Bit by bit it will happen.

Then keep it organized. When you get a small area of the home or office organized, keep it that way. There is nothing more discouraging than to let an area that you worked hard to organize slip back into disorganization. You will feel defeated. In fact, that is what happened. You defeated yourself by letting all your hard work be for nothing.

So, never, never, never give up. You can do it!