Growing up I used to love to go to my dad’s office. Actually I loved it so much that I went into the same job as he had - accounting. His office had such fun things (yes, I was odd even as a child) - rubber stamps and pads, pens, pencils - even in colors, stickers, paper, envelopes, staplers, clips, and so on. So much fun to play with.
I still love office supplies - the last time my husband went out to try to find a gift for me for some occasion or other was at an office supply store (before he finally gave in and realized there was nothing that I wanted and he should give up). Office supplies can be used for so many things that they are not intended for as well as those they are intended for. (We were at an event and the flag being carried in a color guard was too long for the height of the room and it touched the floor. I asked at the desk of the venue - no pins - then I asked if they had any sort of paper clip or such - bingo, fixed the problem.)
So how do office supplies help one get organized?
Labels - you do use them don’t you. You can write info on things or make nice labels which make things look more organized. There are computer labels which can be printed. There are labeling machines - mine is a Brother TZ type - to make labels. Some are permanent labels - be sure you want them as they won’t come off easily if at all. Others are temporary.
When I have a file folder which I will be keeping for awhile it gets a permanent label printed by computer. I use different color edge labels printed with the computer in some drawers I use red edge labels for folder to go through at the new year and blue for permanent folders, in other drawers I use yellow and green for same (so they get used up more or less evenly) this cuts down on time clearing out folders for the new year (well, actually I do this around May, so I have info for taxes). In my desktop file holder I have folders which are permanent for folders subjects which are needed on an ongoing basis which also get computer printed labels with color edges - in this case they color signifies what the folder is for - blue is personal, red for our business, green for one club, yellow for the other - no color on the end means it is for my accounting business and each color/type of file goes into a different section in the holder and some which are temporary - something which needs to be done and then the folder will no longer be needed - I use small removable labels - I write on it, put it on the folder and it remains there until it is no longer needed and then is removed from the folder which can be used again and the label is tossed out - I use markers on them to color code them to match the permanent folders in the desktop holder sections. These removable labels can also be folder in half vertically and stuck on a page it becomes a tab to find the place again and it can then be removed when no longer needed. I use larger removable labels on the boxes that I store prior years financial records and write the year on the label. When I am ready to reuse the box - 10 years later - I pull off the old label and put on the new one.
I have marked the magazine holders we have with labels printed with the Brother machine this way we know which magazines and which years are in the holder. (There are other similar label machines from other companies, this happens to be the one I have and use not an ad for the company.) We have a number of zipper vinyl bags, which one cannot see through, in our RV and we label them with labels from the Brother so we know what is in them. I put labels on my USB flash drives which I make on the Brother - so I know what is on the drives. The blank ones get the removable labels from above with a label which reads “Blank”. It goes across the drive and its cap - when the cap comes off to use it, the label has to be removed so I never forget and leave a “blank” label on a drive in use. So wonderful to know which is which. I also use the temporary labels on the drives I take to the vault for offsite storage - they are labeled with the Brother tape as to what they are - “Offsite A” and “Offsite B” and then when I update them I put the date on a removable label and put it, again, across the drive and it’s cap so I know what date it is, when I again update it, the removable label has to come off and be tossed.
Folders - can not only hold papers in filing cabinets, but can be used to keep papers together in general. A paper alone can get lost - in a labeled folder (even a temporary label) will be harder to lose and easier to see. I have a pocket file holder for tax info for clients and another for my paid bills. Folders do not fit in them as it is the same size as the folders - I cut about a quarter of an inch off one end and they fit! I can use this to make what is in the pocket of the file holder easy to take everything out of the pocket at once without losing anything or I can use it to make sections in a pocket of the of the holder so it can hold more than one type of bill.
I have 2 sizes of paperclips. I use the small ones for smaller groups of papers and the larger ones for larger groups - obvious. What else can one use them for? Well, as I mentioned above, shortening a flag that will otherwise drag on the floor. Christmas ornament hangers - I learned this in elementary school when the teacher did it - unfold the paperclip into an S shape and it is an ornament hanger. In a related idea the large ones can be used to hang decorations around the rooms. I hang my “roping” (plastic) on the curtain rod by turning large paperclips into the same S shape and putting one at each end of the curtain rod - one in the center on longer ones - and then hanging the roping over it - I also hang an embroidered piece in a hoop from the center of a curtain rod in the same way. Also good when opened for getting stuck staples out of a stapler. Oh, and they can be put together in a chain to decorate an office Christmas tree.
Staples are also great for what they are intended for - stapling stacks of papers together - If you have papers which belong together -STAPLE THEM! Stapling is more definite than the paper clips mentioned above and won’t get caught and pulled off the papers. What else can you use them for? A hem that comes down - staple it together until you can fix it - this is an old trick.
Pencils great for writing what might need to be erased and pens for what needs to stay written. A pencil, a piece of paper and a window can let you copy something by hand. (I do this with fabric when I want to copy something to the fabric to stitch.) Put what you want to copy on the window with removable tape (another wonderful thing) and then do the same with the piece of paper or fabric. On a sunny day you will see the picture and be able to copy it to the paper - or fabric with a pencil.
Yes, tape. I am talking about clear plastic tape - often called “Scotch tape” whether it is that brand or not. There are several types. (I don’t bother with the gift wrap version.) I use the permanent one for what it is intended for - taping paper together - but it can also, again, be used for fixing clothing. But removable tape of this type is great. I tape my paper todo list to my computer desk with removable tape - when I am done I pull it off the desk, pull the tape off the paper, write a new list and put it back with the same piece of tape (there is a limit to how long one piece of tape will last). I can stick a note to something with it. (Yes, I know about the papers which stick to things on their own - last time I used one it left glue on the sales receipt it was attached to and others have not stayed in place.) If you want to tape a check or cash into a card, removable tape lets it be removed undamaged and intact.
Envelopes - of course they are used for mailing things, but they can also be used to hold papers and other things - and the larger manila ones with clips can be reused. If I have to take papers some place I put them in a manila envelope and close the clip. I then can take the papers out where I am going and then clip the envelope closed again and then when back at home remove the papers and file away and reuse the envelope.
I have several envelopes which are just larger than regular # 10 envelopes each marked on the end edge with one of our regular trips. I put anything related to the trip in the envelope as it comes along - a reservation made a year in advance sits in the envelope and then as the year goes along - discount tickets to an event? - add them into the envelope. Coupon for a restaurant? - add it in. A store looks interesting? - add it in. When it is time for the trip, I just pull the envelope and all is there. I keep these envelopes in date order in the middle section of the 3 section wall pocket - just under the bills to pay section - next to my desk.
Oh, and in the bills to pay section above is another large than # 10 envelope - it is for what I need to do on Friday - the day we go out for banking and such. I put the items needed in the envelope for Friday - checks to deposit, receipts to return items, etc. I then use a small piece of paper (at one time when I carried a small memo book, which had been cut in half, in my pocket, I used the other half of the pages which my husband had cut off on an electric saw, now I am using up old business cards - always shredding them after, but any small pieces of paper can be used) with the errands listed for example PO (remember we go there daily); Bank - transfer $X savings to checking (actually I just write S-C $X), 2 deposits, withdraw $Y; Club bank - deposit, Return to store and so on. I use a large paperclip to attach this to the outside of the envelope to follow as I go along.
Paper can of course be used for all sorts of notes. When we have paper which is printed on and not used - especially those annoying pages when one prints something and it runs 2 pages, but the second page just had the titles from the end of the page or such on it and is wasted - I put it aside. Part pages are in one section and full pages in another on top of my desk file holder. If I am going to print something which is just going to be used by me I use the back of these pages to print on or I can use them to write notes on - especially when one is calling a company and needs to make notes of the conversation due to promises made, information provided, or responses to what you said by the company employee for your records (always put date, time and employees name on the page too). Small pieces can be cut into quarter or third of a page either vertically or horizontally to use as memo paper - great for shopping lists.
So as you see ordinary office supplies can be used in a variety of different ways to help you get and stay more organized. Any good ideas you have on using office supplies?
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Thursday, June 23, 2016
ORGANIZING COMPUTER FILES
I have mentioned before that I back up my computer and data often. I did not mention how I organize my computer. It is important to organize one’s computer. My husband is constantly going crazy trying to find files on his computer.
I have mentioned that I keep my data on USB flash (thumb) drives. I have one which is in my computer all the time and holds my current data - meaning this year’s and any that carries over year to year. I organize this drive by the type of file. The first folder is letters (includes Word, Word Perfect, Notepad, pdf files, etc - basically any writing), the next one is spreadsheets, then accounting program files, then databases (this is files from another dead program I use), and so on - basically by the program used for the files. Each of these folders has sub folders in it for each of the “companies” for which I have files of that type. (Companies include different businesses of my husband and myself, our personal files - one’s home and life is basically a company - clients, and clubs I belong to and have files for.)
Why do I sort the data by the type of file? Well, most programs let one specify a folder for the data from the program. Files do not have to go to My Documents. I redirect the programs to automatically save in these folders. Then when I open the program and try to open or save a file a list of the companies opens in the file window and it is easy to pick the right subfolder and find or save a file.
How to change file location - look in the drop downs from the tool bar at the top and there will be something to allow you to change things - perhaps “Preferences” or “Settings”. If you cannot find how to change the file location use your Help to look for something like “change default file location”. In Wordperfect (yes, I am odd I prefer same to Word) I would click on Tools -> Settings -> Files -> and then change the default location and save it. After doing this it will always go to this location to look for files or to save files. If you set it a folder with files in it, then the files will show at this point. If you set it to a folder of sub folders, then the sub folders will show and can easily be picked and opened.
To explain I will use Wordperfect again. I open Wordperfect and I want to open a file written in same. When I click to open a file I will have a list of the various subfolder -Personal, Business A, Business B, Club A and Club B - to choose from. Let us say that I have a written a letter complaining about a problem with our electricity. I would click on the Personal file and the letter would be in that file. So, see it is Drive H (the USB flash drive I use for data) -> Letters->Personal-> Electricity.doc. Terribly easy to find. If instead I am looking to write a letter about the electricity It is Drive H -> Letters -> Personal-> Letterhead. I write the letter. The computer will reopen the folder when I go to save the file and I will save the letter there with a name which makes sense, say “Electricity - problem with June 2016 bill”.
When I set up the folders for the type of files I ran into a problem (for me) that alphabetical order may put a rarely used file at the top of the list and a constantly used one at the end of the list. This annoyed me. I figured out to use the “magic” of numbering. Letters is actually 1 - Letters and Spreadsheets is actually 2 - Spreadsheets and so on. This way the files remain in the order I want them.
Why USB flash drives? An old saying in computer is “It is not if the hard drive will crash, but when”. By doing this I save hard drive space for what must be there as well as helping save the data (which is then further backed up as explained before). I know that USB flash drives are not the best for saving data, but they are the best available now. I started off using 5.25" floppy disks, then 3.5" floppy disks, then Zip disks and now the USB flash drives. (Each type of media had its data copied to newer media when the media changed so I still have access back to the first data I saved on floppy disk in my archive.) In addition by keeping the data on flash drives if there is a problem with my computer - say a blackout - I can pull the drive and put it any other computer - say my laptop which was charged before the blackout - and use the data on the other computer.
Now my data drive also has some folders which are special purpose - say “Items to copy next archiving” These folders are rarely used. So instead of numbering them they have ZZZ in front of the name and they automatically are listed at the end of the folders on the drive.
So I control the order of the folders - the alphabet does not.
In addition to my main data drive I have some other data drives.
My clients’ data are each kept on a separate drive. Why? Portability and privacy. I can bring the data to the client when I go to work at the client with my laptop. I don’t bring Client A’s data to Client B so privacy is maintained. I don’t have to worry about stepping away from the computer and Client A seeing Client B’s info. (Hence also why they are named A & B and not real names.)
The project that I am doing to scan in instruction books has its own flash drive so I can scan on it on any of my computers and keep working on my main computer on my data drive. Huh? I can work on my computer using my data drive and at the same time scan instruction books onto the data drive for same in my laptop.
Assorted items I have on a drive to use in our RV when traveling I keep on a drive just for that. Seems easy to figure out why I do that. I need to be able to take it with me and I don’t want to bring all my data with me.
Each data drive though has files organized in a similar manner. My clients drives have folders for each type of program. The scanned instruction books are being sorted into folders such as Bedroom, Kitchen, Outside Lights and so on. If we have two of the same item it is placed in both folders. For example a small electric drill is in Basement - power tools and also in Garage - power tools as there is am identical drill kept in each place.
So what is my point? If one organizes one’s data as one goes along in a way which is convenient and simple, one will easily be able to find needed data quickly and efficently.
Now, on my archive drive the same data which is sorted by the type of program above is instead sorted by the “company”- the opposite to how my data drive is organized. All of the personal data is in a folder marked same with subfolders of each type of data - so here Letters is the subfolder. I then have sub sub folders with the year of the data. So when the letter about the electricity is archived early next year it will be saved as Drive E (the designation for my archive drive) ->Personal -> Letters -> 2016-> Electricity - problem with June 2016 bill.
Why the difference in how the files are organized between the current data files and the archive?
The current data files are set up to work with - this is easiest when the files are sorted by the type of software used for the file so that when I go to open or save a file the main folder opens for the type of file and I just have to select the sub folder for the “company”.
The archive is used for reference of past files - so it is easiest to sort it by the “company” and then the year. Say I want to find a letter I wrote in the past - not sure which year, but around 2011. I would open the Archive -> Personal -> Letters -> 2011 and look what is there. I could then go a year ahead or back easily by just going back to the Letters folder. I know whose letter it is - a personal one - so I only need to open that folder and its subfolders.
I hope this makes some sense to you. It does to me. What matters most is that when you organize - whether computer data or your baseball card collection or your fabric - is that it is easy for YOU to find what you are looking for and YOU can do it quickly and conveniently.
Feel free to ask questions or make comments.
I have mentioned that I keep my data on USB flash (thumb) drives. I have one which is in my computer all the time and holds my current data - meaning this year’s and any that carries over year to year. I organize this drive by the type of file. The first folder is letters (includes Word, Word Perfect, Notepad, pdf files, etc - basically any writing), the next one is spreadsheets, then accounting program files, then databases (this is files from another dead program I use), and so on - basically by the program used for the files. Each of these folders has sub folders in it for each of the “companies” for which I have files of that type. (Companies include different businesses of my husband and myself, our personal files - one’s home and life is basically a company - clients, and clubs I belong to and have files for.)
Why do I sort the data by the type of file? Well, most programs let one specify a folder for the data from the program. Files do not have to go to My Documents. I redirect the programs to automatically save in these folders. Then when I open the program and try to open or save a file a list of the companies opens in the file window and it is easy to pick the right subfolder and find or save a file.
How to change file location - look in the drop downs from the tool bar at the top and there will be something to allow you to change things - perhaps “Preferences” or “Settings”. If you cannot find how to change the file location use your Help to look for something like “change default file location”. In Wordperfect (yes, I am odd I prefer same to Word) I would click on Tools -> Settings -> Files -> and then change the default location and save it. After doing this it will always go to this location to look for files or to save files. If you set it a folder with files in it, then the files will show at this point. If you set it to a folder of sub folders, then the sub folders will show and can easily be picked and opened.
To explain I will use Wordperfect again. I open Wordperfect and I want to open a file written in same. When I click to open a file I will have a list of the various subfolder -Personal, Business A, Business B, Club A and Club B - to choose from. Let us say that I have a written a letter complaining about a problem with our electricity. I would click on the Personal file and the letter would be in that file. So, see it is Drive H (the USB flash drive I use for data) -> Letters->Personal-> Electricity.doc. Terribly easy to find. If instead I am looking to write a letter about the electricity It is Drive H -> Letters -> Personal-> Letterhead. I write the letter. The computer will reopen the folder when I go to save the file and I will save the letter there with a name which makes sense, say “Electricity - problem with June 2016 bill”.
When I set up the folders for the type of files I ran into a problem (for me) that alphabetical order may put a rarely used file at the top of the list and a constantly used one at the end of the list. This annoyed me. I figured out to use the “magic” of numbering. Letters is actually 1 - Letters and Spreadsheets is actually 2 - Spreadsheets and so on. This way the files remain in the order I want them.
Why USB flash drives? An old saying in computer is “It is not if the hard drive will crash, but when”. By doing this I save hard drive space for what must be there as well as helping save the data (which is then further backed up as explained before). I know that USB flash drives are not the best for saving data, but they are the best available now. I started off using 5.25" floppy disks, then 3.5" floppy disks, then Zip disks and now the USB flash drives. (Each type of media had its data copied to newer media when the media changed so I still have access back to the first data I saved on floppy disk in my archive.) In addition by keeping the data on flash drives if there is a problem with my computer - say a blackout - I can pull the drive and put it any other computer - say my laptop which was charged before the blackout - and use the data on the other computer.
Now my data drive also has some folders which are special purpose - say “Items to copy next archiving” These folders are rarely used. So instead of numbering them they have ZZZ in front of the name and they automatically are listed at the end of the folders on the drive.
So I control the order of the folders - the alphabet does not.
In addition to my main data drive I have some other data drives.
My clients’ data are each kept on a separate drive. Why? Portability and privacy. I can bring the data to the client when I go to work at the client with my laptop. I don’t bring Client A’s data to Client B so privacy is maintained. I don’t have to worry about stepping away from the computer and Client A seeing Client B’s info. (Hence also why they are named A & B and not real names.)
The project that I am doing to scan in instruction books has its own flash drive so I can scan on it on any of my computers and keep working on my main computer on my data drive. Huh? I can work on my computer using my data drive and at the same time scan instruction books onto the data drive for same in my laptop.
Assorted items I have on a drive to use in our RV when traveling I keep on a drive just for that. Seems easy to figure out why I do that. I need to be able to take it with me and I don’t want to bring all my data with me.
Each data drive though has files organized in a similar manner. My clients drives have folders for each type of program. The scanned instruction books are being sorted into folders such as Bedroom, Kitchen, Outside Lights and so on. If we have two of the same item it is placed in both folders. For example a small electric drill is in Basement - power tools and also in Garage - power tools as there is am identical drill kept in each place.
So what is my point? If one organizes one’s data as one goes along in a way which is convenient and simple, one will easily be able to find needed data quickly and efficently.
Now, on my archive drive the same data which is sorted by the type of program above is instead sorted by the “company”- the opposite to how my data drive is organized. All of the personal data is in a folder marked same with subfolders of each type of data - so here Letters is the subfolder. I then have sub sub folders with the year of the data. So when the letter about the electricity is archived early next year it will be saved as Drive E (the designation for my archive drive) ->Personal -> Letters -> 2016-> Electricity - problem with June 2016 bill.
Why the difference in how the files are organized between the current data files and the archive?
The current data files are set up to work with - this is easiest when the files are sorted by the type of software used for the file so that when I go to open or save a file the main folder opens for the type of file and I just have to select the sub folder for the “company”.
The archive is used for reference of past files - so it is easiest to sort it by the “company” and then the year. Say I want to find a letter I wrote in the past - not sure which year, but around 2011. I would open the Archive -> Personal -> Letters -> 2011 and look what is there. I could then go a year ahead or back easily by just going back to the Letters folder. I know whose letter it is - a personal one - so I only need to open that folder and its subfolders.
I hope this makes some sense to you. It does to me. What matters most is that when you organize - whether computer data or your baseball card collection or your fabric - is that it is easy for YOU to find what you are looking for and YOU can do it quickly and conveniently.
Feel free to ask questions or make comments.
Thursday, June 16, 2016
ORGANIZING OUR STUDIO
My husband and I have a “studio”. One of the reasons we picked the house we did is that it had a family room off the kitchen - actually it sort of opens into the kitchen with a big squared off archway between the rooms. It is not an original part of our house. One of the several owners before us added it to the back of the house as room to watch television and spend time with their family. To us it was a room to set up to work on our crafts - personal and to sell - and I would be able to cook at the same time in the adjacent kitchen. In the days before cable boxes and flat screen TVs we could also put our kitchen TV on a lazy susan and turn it around to also watch in the studio.
We set up the studio to suit our needs. We each have a 5 ft by 2 ½ foot office type table to work on. The tables sit back to back so if needed we have a 5 ft x 5ft space to work on - the tables are, for some reason, about an inch different in height, but generally that is not a problem if we need space. I have a bridge table in the corner of the room which abuts the table. When I used to make a lot of baby quilts it worked well to hold them up while I stitching them. It also is good to hold supplies and stuff next to me. I have two stacks of small plastic drawer units to hold ideas in progress, spare spools of thread, etc. There is a large 3 drawer plastic chest underneath with my sewing supplies and items to make small bears I used to make a lot of. Husband just had his table until a few years ago, after the bed bugs when I was trying to better organize the room, I added a 2 shelf plastic unit to hold items he needs more often than others next to him along the wall.
We have husband’s long dresser from his bedroom when he was a boy at the ends of the tables (the other ends are against the wall). Drawers hold embroidery supplies and pieces - completed and waiting to be made, miniature punch needle - ditto, wood turning parts and assembly tools, lucets, wooden games husband makes, some fancy batting and iron on glue and a pasta maker (well it is right off our kitchen and no place else was large enough). On top of it we have a 3 drawer unit which has a drawer each for items either of us is working on and a drawer of glues - all kinds of glues. (If we need glue in the house we know to look for it here.) There are an assortment of paper cutters - sliding ones, guillotine type ones, etc. There is also something called an Ellison machine - what is used in schools to cut letters, pictures, etc. to decorate classrooms.
We have 2 other dressers which we bought over the years which hold fabric - we have a lot of fabric. These are the ones which are cut pieces - the bolts are in the basement. We also have a dresser/cabinet combination - also husband’s from when he was a boy - which holds unstarted skeins of embroidery floss (Walmart discontinued them some years ago and we bought 2 of each color they had - since then they have brought them back) and other assorted needlework threads. The fabric dresser behind husband’s chair at his work table also serves as a counter to put things on and work on. We have two tall bookcases for books and magazines - mostly craft, but my recipe books are also here (again, remember this is next to the kitchen) and there is a collection of girls books I have and I keep it here as husband needed most of my bookcase in our office/library and there are some shelves along one wall which holds items we have made.
Lastly, of what I will mention right now, we have a big piece of furniture which I do not know what to call. It is divided in two - one side has shelves with full length doors in front of them and the other side has shelves with 2 small drawers at the bottom. The plan is to take the doors off and then plastic boxes of supplies can be turned depthwise - as they are on the other side of the unit - and smaller boxes put next to them - ditto.
When we had the bedbugs I had to heat all of the cut fabric in the dryer on high heat for 50 minutes and then bag them in sealed plastic bags. It was a mess. Between the fabric and personal fabric items I filled over 60 bags of fabric items. The thought of returning the fabric to the drawers was overwhelming. I finally decided to do 10 pieces a day. Husband pointed out that 10 pieces is not much - I replied that it is 10 pieces put away more than before. Day by day I did this. Some days it went well and I put away more than 10 pieces - other days there was just no time. Within a month and a half to 2 months - the fabric was put away - neater and better organized than before and I had done something I always planned to do - I cut a piece of each fabric and made a swatch card by gluing the piece of fabric to half a 3.5x5 inch index card. I then put the cards into the plastic sleeves made to hold baseball cards in a looseleaf book. (The looseleaf book dates back to high school.) We can now look through the book for fabric when need it. It is marked with the purpose the fabric was bought for, where it is located, and how much we have (all in pencil so it can be changed as needed). I also have a diagram in the front of the looseleaf book with the dressers, a number I gave to each drawer, and generally what is in each drawer to make it easier to find.
I sorted ribbon. I sorted lace. I bagged pompoms. I put all of the weaving, knitting, and crocheting and related stuff on one shelf in the unnamed shelf unit. I made a box with assorted general crafts. I made a box of buttons. I sorted findings for leatherwork into a sectional box (with a note where I stored spare in the basement). I was progressing along well. I used the dining room table covered over to protect it, some wood crates we used at craft shows to hold up the shelves, plastic boxes and such to sort and store craft supplies.
Then I hit a snag. We had a tall thin set of plastic drawers. They never worked well - any weight in them was too much. We decided to replace it with a new and better made dresser. We started looking. We could not get too wide a dresser as one of the bookcases faces the side of the dresser and we have to have room to walk in front of the bookcase to have access to the shelves. It took us about a year to find a dresser. We bought one in the children’s section of Ikea. We assembled it and set it up. I started figuring out what to put in it. Top drawer - in sectional dividers - scissors and small hand tools (and over the years it has also accumulated personal stuff I have to deal with), next drawer - paints, markers, inks, crayons color pencils, another drawer husband’s paper cutting scissors and paper, a drawer with pieces of felt in it. It was going so well.
Then we had mice in the (again, adjacent) kitchen. I carefully sanitized most of the cleaning supplies and put them in some of the cartons I had been using for sorting craft supplies and they ended up in front of the new dresser - leaving supplies unstored and drawers empty and inaccessible. This went on for several years until I got around to cleaning out under the sink in the kitchen this past year and moved the kitchen stuff back in place.
Now I could go back to organizing. In the interim we, of course, needed the dining room so supplies and what they were in were stored back in the studio willy nilly - filling up space and blocking things.
Two weeks ago husband was again talking about a weaving book “we” own. He wanted it as it contained instructions on how to make a certain type of small loom he wanted to make. I was sick and tired of hearing about this magic, missing book, so at 3 in the morning, I moved the crates and so on that were stashed in front of the bookcase facing the new dresser. I got everything out from in front of the bookcase and found the “weaving section” - 3 books. (I had done a lot of work at sorting and organizing in the studio before I got stumped at continuing.) I gave him the book that seemed to be what he was looking for and it was - yay for me. It did not have the directions he wanted for the small loom. Oh, well.
Well, now we had crates and other items out blocking space in the room. I went through the crates and they had much less in them than I thought and in one evening they were emptied out of everything which did not belong in them (table covers for craft shows were left in them). The next thing to do was to put them away.
The crates and a variety of other items store under my work table - far enough in to be out of my way when sitting at the table as they are rarely used. (The table itself is covered with stuff to be sorted and stored.) I figured that I would take out the plastic boxes under the table which “I knew” held the small bears I had made, store the crates, and put back the boxes - easy, peasy - half hour, 45 minutes at most. I bet you can guess what is coming -
I pulled out the boxes and put them on husband’s studio table. (His table is empty as he has been drying items he weaves on it.) I found out that most of the boxes had items other than I thought they did. Some years ago we had bought square and rectangular gift boxes for pens and jewelry which husband made to sell. They did not sell well. We have since been using the square boxes in shipping out some other items he makes and have been running out of the square boxes. One of these plastic boxes had some of the turned items in it - I combined some of the items which were in square boxes into 2 rectangular boxes - hmmm, 4 more boxes he could use. I then took the carton which had the jewelry pieces in the gift boxes and combined same into many less rectangular boxes- for storage - and ended up with a good number of square boxes. I also found that this way all of the small turned items fit in the one plastic box for storage (bowls, plates, etc. are in another carton). I then managed to combine 3 cartons of boxes into one as enough had been taken out and one also used to hold the jewelry - what a great change in storage space! (The 2 empty cartons went out to the porch for recycling - one was used for last week’s recycling and the other will be shortly be used for same.
I then climbed under my table and stored the crates, the plastic boxes, and some other craft show display items under the table - 2 plus hours work - but what a difference. What a great feeling of getting something done. I went on to clear some smaller areas and put the excess stuff away.
Now, I have mentioned in the past that we do 1770's reenacting. Husband is looking for something to do at events - he used to be commander, but no longer is and can now do what he wants instead of needing to run events. He needs a small, period looking table for several of his ideas. The table has to be able to be taken apart for storage and in transit. He decided the best way would be to use screw in legs which are available at home/lumber stores even though these are definitely not correct to the period, but made properly it would just look like a small table with legs. (What does this have to do with organizing - just wait and see.)
We went out the day after I had stored the crates and boxes away to find legs that looked right. He saw the price of the legs and realized that it would cost much more to make the table than he had planned - he had to get wood for the table top and the screw pieces also. Then I said magic words - “When I was under the table last night putting stuff away I had to move 2 sets of those legs.” He could not figure out why we had them - I reminded him that he had made a table for a knitting machine - decades ago - but neither of us can remember what the other set of legs is for. I was pretty sure one set of the legs was definitely passable for the purpose.
So, we went home and, yes, I had to take back out most of what I stored away the night before. This time I was smart - I handed him my chair so it was out of the way and I did not need to deal with it. (Notice when I am organizing and cleaning it is “me” doing it and he is scarce - when he needs table legs it is “we” doing it and he is “helping” me.) Well the legs were fine and then I had to store everything else back - again.
The other night - now that I have access to the bookcase - I sorted needlework magazines which I have just been fitting in on top of books when I did not have access. Most of them went into the magazine cases we have, I need 2-3 more magazine cases and, yes, I have decided some magazines I no longer need for reference and have started looking through them for any articles I want to keep and putting the rest out for recycling.
He had mentioned that one issue of the magazines I had and was sorting was suppose to have an article on weaving. As I was going through I noticed that one of them had weaving on the cover - yes, it was the one he wanted. The craft magazines are now sorted by date. Many of them have previously had their tables of contents scanned into the computer to make searching for an article or subject easier. Now with access I will one day be able to scan the rest.
Yes, progress is finally being made again!
Have you been working on any organizing projects and finally making progress?
We set up the studio to suit our needs. We each have a 5 ft by 2 ½ foot office type table to work on. The tables sit back to back so if needed we have a 5 ft x 5ft space to work on - the tables are, for some reason, about an inch different in height, but generally that is not a problem if we need space. I have a bridge table in the corner of the room which abuts the table. When I used to make a lot of baby quilts it worked well to hold them up while I stitching them. It also is good to hold supplies and stuff next to me. I have two stacks of small plastic drawer units to hold ideas in progress, spare spools of thread, etc. There is a large 3 drawer plastic chest underneath with my sewing supplies and items to make small bears I used to make a lot of. Husband just had his table until a few years ago, after the bed bugs when I was trying to better organize the room, I added a 2 shelf plastic unit to hold items he needs more often than others next to him along the wall.
We have husband’s long dresser from his bedroom when he was a boy at the ends of the tables (the other ends are against the wall). Drawers hold embroidery supplies and pieces - completed and waiting to be made, miniature punch needle - ditto, wood turning parts and assembly tools, lucets, wooden games husband makes, some fancy batting and iron on glue and a pasta maker (well it is right off our kitchen and no place else was large enough). On top of it we have a 3 drawer unit which has a drawer each for items either of us is working on and a drawer of glues - all kinds of glues. (If we need glue in the house we know to look for it here.) There are an assortment of paper cutters - sliding ones, guillotine type ones, etc. There is also something called an Ellison machine - what is used in schools to cut letters, pictures, etc. to decorate classrooms.
We have 2 other dressers which we bought over the years which hold fabric - we have a lot of fabric. These are the ones which are cut pieces - the bolts are in the basement. We also have a dresser/cabinet combination - also husband’s from when he was a boy - which holds unstarted skeins of embroidery floss (Walmart discontinued them some years ago and we bought 2 of each color they had - since then they have brought them back) and other assorted needlework threads. The fabric dresser behind husband’s chair at his work table also serves as a counter to put things on and work on. We have two tall bookcases for books and magazines - mostly craft, but my recipe books are also here (again, remember this is next to the kitchen) and there is a collection of girls books I have and I keep it here as husband needed most of my bookcase in our office/library and there are some shelves along one wall which holds items we have made.
Lastly, of what I will mention right now, we have a big piece of furniture which I do not know what to call. It is divided in two - one side has shelves with full length doors in front of them and the other side has shelves with 2 small drawers at the bottom. The plan is to take the doors off and then plastic boxes of supplies can be turned depthwise - as they are on the other side of the unit - and smaller boxes put next to them - ditto.
When we had the bedbugs I had to heat all of the cut fabric in the dryer on high heat for 50 minutes and then bag them in sealed plastic bags. It was a mess. Between the fabric and personal fabric items I filled over 60 bags of fabric items. The thought of returning the fabric to the drawers was overwhelming. I finally decided to do 10 pieces a day. Husband pointed out that 10 pieces is not much - I replied that it is 10 pieces put away more than before. Day by day I did this. Some days it went well and I put away more than 10 pieces - other days there was just no time. Within a month and a half to 2 months - the fabric was put away - neater and better organized than before and I had done something I always planned to do - I cut a piece of each fabric and made a swatch card by gluing the piece of fabric to half a 3.5x5 inch index card. I then put the cards into the plastic sleeves made to hold baseball cards in a looseleaf book. (The looseleaf book dates back to high school.) We can now look through the book for fabric when need it. It is marked with the purpose the fabric was bought for, where it is located, and how much we have (all in pencil so it can be changed as needed). I also have a diagram in the front of the looseleaf book with the dressers, a number I gave to each drawer, and generally what is in each drawer to make it easier to find.
I sorted ribbon. I sorted lace. I bagged pompoms. I put all of the weaving, knitting, and crocheting and related stuff on one shelf in the unnamed shelf unit. I made a box with assorted general crafts. I made a box of buttons. I sorted findings for leatherwork into a sectional box (with a note where I stored spare in the basement). I was progressing along well. I used the dining room table covered over to protect it, some wood crates we used at craft shows to hold up the shelves, plastic boxes and such to sort and store craft supplies.
Then I hit a snag. We had a tall thin set of plastic drawers. They never worked well - any weight in them was too much. We decided to replace it with a new and better made dresser. We started looking. We could not get too wide a dresser as one of the bookcases faces the side of the dresser and we have to have room to walk in front of the bookcase to have access to the shelves. It took us about a year to find a dresser. We bought one in the children’s section of Ikea. We assembled it and set it up. I started figuring out what to put in it. Top drawer - in sectional dividers - scissors and small hand tools (and over the years it has also accumulated personal stuff I have to deal with), next drawer - paints, markers, inks, crayons color pencils, another drawer husband’s paper cutting scissors and paper, a drawer with pieces of felt in it. It was going so well.
Then we had mice in the (again, adjacent) kitchen. I carefully sanitized most of the cleaning supplies and put them in some of the cartons I had been using for sorting craft supplies and they ended up in front of the new dresser - leaving supplies unstored and drawers empty and inaccessible. This went on for several years until I got around to cleaning out under the sink in the kitchen this past year and moved the kitchen stuff back in place.
Now I could go back to organizing. In the interim we, of course, needed the dining room so supplies and what they were in were stored back in the studio willy nilly - filling up space and blocking things.
Two weeks ago husband was again talking about a weaving book “we” own. He wanted it as it contained instructions on how to make a certain type of small loom he wanted to make. I was sick and tired of hearing about this magic, missing book, so at 3 in the morning, I moved the crates and so on that were stashed in front of the bookcase facing the new dresser. I got everything out from in front of the bookcase and found the “weaving section” - 3 books. (I had done a lot of work at sorting and organizing in the studio before I got stumped at continuing.) I gave him the book that seemed to be what he was looking for and it was - yay for me. It did not have the directions he wanted for the small loom. Oh, well.
Well, now we had crates and other items out blocking space in the room. I went through the crates and they had much less in them than I thought and in one evening they were emptied out of everything which did not belong in them (table covers for craft shows were left in them). The next thing to do was to put them away.
The crates and a variety of other items store under my work table - far enough in to be out of my way when sitting at the table as they are rarely used. (The table itself is covered with stuff to be sorted and stored.) I figured that I would take out the plastic boxes under the table which “I knew” held the small bears I had made, store the crates, and put back the boxes - easy, peasy - half hour, 45 minutes at most. I bet you can guess what is coming -
I pulled out the boxes and put them on husband’s studio table. (His table is empty as he has been drying items he weaves on it.) I found out that most of the boxes had items other than I thought they did. Some years ago we had bought square and rectangular gift boxes for pens and jewelry which husband made to sell. They did not sell well. We have since been using the square boxes in shipping out some other items he makes and have been running out of the square boxes. One of these plastic boxes had some of the turned items in it - I combined some of the items which were in square boxes into 2 rectangular boxes - hmmm, 4 more boxes he could use. I then took the carton which had the jewelry pieces in the gift boxes and combined same into many less rectangular boxes- for storage - and ended up with a good number of square boxes. I also found that this way all of the small turned items fit in the one plastic box for storage (bowls, plates, etc. are in another carton). I then managed to combine 3 cartons of boxes into one as enough had been taken out and one also used to hold the jewelry - what a great change in storage space! (The 2 empty cartons went out to the porch for recycling - one was used for last week’s recycling and the other will be shortly be used for same.
I then climbed under my table and stored the crates, the plastic boxes, and some other craft show display items under the table - 2 plus hours work - but what a difference. What a great feeling of getting something done. I went on to clear some smaller areas and put the excess stuff away.
Now, I have mentioned in the past that we do 1770's reenacting. Husband is looking for something to do at events - he used to be commander, but no longer is and can now do what he wants instead of needing to run events. He needs a small, period looking table for several of his ideas. The table has to be able to be taken apart for storage and in transit. He decided the best way would be to use screw in legs which are available at home/lumber stores even though these are definitely not correct to the period, but made properly it would just look like a small table with legs. (What does this have to do with organizing - just wait and see.)
We went out the day after I had stored the crates and boxes away to find legs that looked right. He saw the price of the legs and realized that it would cost much more to make the table than he had planned - he had to get wood for the table top and the screw pieces also. Then I said magic words - “When I was under the table last night putting stuff away I had to move 2 sets of those legs.” He could not figure out why we had them - I reminded him that he had made a table for a knitting machine - decades ago - but neither of us can remember what the other set of legs is for. I was pretty sure one set of the legs was definitely passable for the purpose.
So, we went home and, yes, I had to take back out most of what I stored away the night before. This time I was smart - I handed him my chair so it was out of the way and I did not need to deal with it. (Notice when I am organizing and cleaning it is “me” doing it and he is scarce - when he needs table legs it is “we” doing it and he is “helping” me.) Well the legs were fine and then I had to store everything else back - again.
The other night - now that I have access to the bookcase - I sorted needlework magazines which I have just been fitting in on top of books when I did not have access. Most of them went into the magazine cases we have, I need 2-3 more magazine cases and, yes, I have decided some magazines I no longer need for reference and have started looking through them for any articles I want to keep and putting the rest out for recycling.
He had mentioned that one issue of the magazines I had and was sorting was suppose to have an article on weaving. As I was going through I noticed that one of them had weaving on the cover - yes, it was the one he wanted. The craft magazines are now sorted by date. Many of them have previously had their tables of contents scanned into the computer to make searching for an article or subject easier. Now with access I will one day be able to scan the rest.
Yes, progress is finally being made again!
Have you been working on any organizing projects and finally making progress?
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Making up the bed in a very small space - our RV
I have mentioned in the past that we have a “second home” - a very small RV. I have to first explain what I mean by small as when people hear “RV” they think of the huge bus size and shape RV (called a Class A) that they see on TV and in the movies or one of the ones which have a section (which has a bed in it) that sticks out over the driver and passenger seats (called a Class C). NO, ours is SMALL. It is called a Class B and is a conversion of a van. What I am talking about is the vans used by tradesmen. The Class Bs are made in a variety of these vans - in our case it is a Chevy Express 3500 van. Next time you are driving down the road and a Chevy van passes you (or you pass one) look at it for size. The entire inside is less than 120 sq ft. My sister in law has a closet bigger than that. (I don’t have a closet even close to that, but she has one bigger.) Life in this Rv is very close and there is little room for stuff.
Last week (in case you were wondering) we ended up just going to the dealer and having the work done - and not all of it, as part of it they suggested waiting for as it involved too much time. We had dinner afterwards at a restaurant we like in the general area and then drove home - good thing, as there were big storms over the weekend and we would not have been able to go where we planned - plus we would have been dealing with the RV.
Husband always feels bad that we have the RV (and are making payments on it) and are not constantly using it so he planned a trip for this week instead. We were to drive to Lancaster, PA on Wednesday, and then on Thursday drive to Delaware for the day to a museum since it is having an exhibition we were interested in and then back to Lancaster and spend Thursday and Friday there.
The trip was delayed to Thursday and it was not certain that we would go at all (and we are not going as this weekend not only will there be rain, but also hail), but yesterday (Tuesday) I decided to deal with making the bed up anyway. We will make a trip by the end of the month as we have reservations for July 4th, so I figured I would get it over with now whether we go on a trip this week or not.
It takes at least 45 minutes to make up the bed due to the small space. The bed makes up into a short king size bed - shorter by 3 inches on one side than the other in addition to being shorter than a king in general. There are 2 bench seats facing each other (like a restaurant booth) with the end (the back of the RV & the head of the bed when it is made up) filled in between. To make it into a bed one fills in the space between the seats with pieces of plywood and then slides the cushions of the seats to the middle and then lays the cushion seat backs between the seat cushions and the sidewalls of the RV to fill it all in. When this is done the bed goes from the wall on one side of the RV to the wall on the other. At the back of the RV (head of the bed) the bed is touching the headboard. At the foot of the bed there is the kitchen area counter touching the bed on one side of the aisle and the toilet closet touching it on the other (with a cabinet overhanging the foot of the bed on that side). This leaves just 2 and half feet of aisle at the center of the foot of the bed to make it up from. So, basically one has to be in the bed to make it up.
What I have found to do is to use (flat) twin bed bedding and make each side up separately. I first make up husband’s side. I do his first for 2 reasons - first, it it’s the better made up side (less wrinkly sheets, etc) and second, it is the longer side. To make up the second side I put the main mattress piece (seat cushion) from the other side on the already made up bed for part of the time and it would not work with my side first as his mattress piece is too long to go on my side.
Since the reason we are in this tiny home is the bed bugs we had, I don’t want to go on the bed in my street clothes, so I change into fresh jeans and tee shirt before making up the bed - when we travel this outfit will be my pjs. I won’t go through all the details (unless there are requests to do so) but I make up his bed as one would a regular bed. I then make up on my side the seat back (now lying against the wall on the bed platform) as if it was an entire bed with the excess of the bedding lying across the platform, then stack it all on the seat back, slide in the pieces of wood to hold up the center of the bed, slide my mattress piece (seat cushion) into place and then - while lying on husband’s previously made up side of the bed - pull the various layers of my side into place and tuck them in.
The bed is now one bed, but each side has its own bedding. Rather than entering the bed from the sides as one does with a normal bed, I have not tucked in the top sheets and blankets along the center where the 2 “beds” join together into a king bed. This allows us to get in and out of the bed in line with the aisle at the foot of the bed. If we got out of the bedding on the sides, we would have to crawl on the bed to the middle to get up, this way we just have to crawl to the foot of the bed to get up.
It was in at least the upper 70's today and hot in the RV. I opened a window, but did not want to turn on the battery to run the fan. I was glad when I was done. Since we were not using the RV for at least 2 days and probably longer, I covered the head of the bed with a plastic shower curtain. We have this to cover same when it is raining out so that when we open the back door of the RV - less than a foot from the head of the bed - the bed does not get wet.
Oh, I should mention that once the bed is made up there is only the aisle which is 2 and half feet wide by maybe 5 feet long to walk around.
Now when we are ready to travel we “only” have to fill the water tanks, add clothing, spare shoes, snacks and related items and we are ready.
Now think about this - if you have less than 120 square feet of space - what would you decide you need to have with you?
There are people who live in these full time and some have large dogs. They have to decide very carefully what they will own and have with them. Two weeks is about as long as we have we have been able to stay in it - sans dogs (as we have none).
Believe it or not when we first looked at this RV and then bought it we thought that there was a major lack of storage space and wondered how we would fit everything in. We are now at a point that when we make some of our short trips we have - TOO MUCH STORAGE SPACE - in it. Why too much? If a space is only partially filled the stuff in it will move around while driving and if the items are hard they will add to the noise that is already occurring. I have learned that depending on the trip we need stuff to be stored in different places than it is on other trips and that the spare plastic shopping bags are great at filling in the space around hard stuff to keep it in place and deaden any noise it might make shifting about - also good for garbage bags. In later posts I will talk more about what we originally brought, what we have found out we need, and the odd places items are stored.
Last week (in case you were wondering) we ended up just going to the dealer and having the work done - and not all of it, as part of it they suggested waiting for as it involved too much time. We had dinner afterwards at a restaurant we like in the general area and then drove home - good thing, as there were big storms over the weekend and we would not have been able to go where we planned - plus we would have been dealing with the RV.
Husband always feels bad that we have the RV (and are making payments on it) and are not constantly using it so he planned a trip for this week instead. We were to drive to Lancaster, PA on Wednesday, and then on Thursday drive to Delaware for the day to a museum since it is having an exhibition we were interested in and then back to Lancaster and spend Thursday and Friday there.
The trip was delayed to Thursday and it was not certain that we would go at all (and we are not going as this weekend not only will there be rain, but also hail), but yesterday (Tuesday) I decided to deal with making the bed up anyway. We will make a trip by the end of the month as we have reservations for July 4th, so I figured I would get it over with now whether we go on a trip this week or not.
It takes at least 45 minutes to make up the bed due to the small space. The bed makes up into a short king size bed - shorter by 3 inches on one side than the other in addition to being shorter than a king in general. There are 2 bench seats facing each other (like a restaurant booth) with the end (the back of the RV & the head of the bed when it is made up) filled in between. To make it into a bed one fills in the space between the seats with pieces of plywood and then slides the cushions of the seats to the middle and then lays the cushion seat backs between the seat cushions and the sidewalls of the RV to fill it all in. When this is done the bed goes from the wall on one side of the RV to the wall on the other. At the back of the RV (head of the bed) the bed is touching the headboard. At the foot of the bed there is the kitchen area counter touching the bed on one side of the aisle and the toilet closet touching it on the other (with a cabinet overhanging the foot of the bed on that side). This leaves just 2 and half feet of aisle at the center of the foot of the bed to make it up from. So, basically one has to be in the bed to make it up.
What I have found to do is to use (flat) twin bed bedding and make each side up separately. I first make up husband’s side. I do his first for 2 reasons - first, it it’s the better made up side (less wrinkly sheets, etc) and second, it is the longer side. To make up the second side I put the main mattress piece (seat cushion) from the other side on the already made up bed for part of the time and it would not work with my side first as his mattress piece is too long to go on my side.
Since the reason we are in this tiny home is the bed bugs we had, I don’t want to go on the bed in my street clothes, so I change into fresh jeans and tee shirt before making up the bed - when we travel this outfit will be my pjs. I won’t go through all the details (unless there are requests to do so) but I make up his bed as one would a regular bed. I then make up on my side the seat back (now lying against the wall on the bed platform) as if it was an entire bed with the excess of the bedding lying across the platform, then stack it all on the seat back, slide in the pieces of wood to hold up the center of the bed, slide my mattress piece (seat cushion) into place and then - while lying on husband’s previously made up side of the bed - pull the various layers of my side into place and tuck them in.
The bed is now one bed, but each side has its own bedding. Rather than entering the bed from the sides as one does with a normal bed, I have not tucked in the top sheets and blankets along the center where the 2 “beds” join together into a king bed. This allows us to get in and out of the bed in line with the aisle at the foot of the bed. If we got out of the bedding on the sides, we would have to crawl on the bed to the middle to get up, this way we just have to crawl to the foot of the bed to get up.
It was in at least the upper 70's today and hot in the RV. I opened a window, but did not want to turn on the battery to run the fan. I was glad when I was done. Since we were not using the RV for at least 2 days and probably longer, I covered the head of the bed with a plastic shower curtain. We have this to cover same when it is raining out so that when we open the back door of the RV - less than a foot from the head of the bed - the bed does not get wet.
Oh, I should mention that once the bed is made up there is only the aisle which is 2 and half feet wide by maybe 5 feet long to walk around.
Now when we are ready to travel we “only” have to fill the water tanks, add clothing, spare shoes, snacks and related items and we are ready.
Now think about this - if you have less than 120 square feet of space - what would you decide you need to have with you?
There are people who live in these full time and some have large dogs. They have to decide very carefully what they will own and have with them. Two weeks is about as long as we have we have been able to stay in it - sans dogs (as we have none).
Believe it or not when we first looked at this RV and then bought it we thought that there was a major lack of storage space and wondered how we would fit everything in. We are now at a point that when we make some of our short trips we have - TOO MUCH STORAGE SPACE - in it. Why too much? If a space is only partially filled the stuff in it will move around while driving and if the items are hard they will add to the noise that is already occurring. I have learned that depending on the trip we need stuff to be stored in different places than it is on other trips and that the spare plastic shopping bags are great at filling in the space around hard stuff to keep it in place and deaden any noise it might make shifting about - also good for garbage bags. In later posts I will talk more about what we originally brought, what we have found out we need, and the odd places items are stored.
Thursday, June 2, 2016
THE BEST MADE PLANS WILL GO AWRY
I try to plan in advance so I know I have everything I need when I go someplace. I learned as a child that if I wait until the last minute I will panic and something will be forgotten or missing. So when I or we have someplace to go, I lay out what is needed in advance - generally the night before, but sometimes even further in advance if there is something else which will be done just before what I am laying out stuff for or if it will take an excessive amount of time to prepare.
I will put items out in one of two places - if it is for me for work, I will put it on my desk - generally this will include my briefcase with assorted papers and such in it (it always has pencils, pens, small ruler, business cards, tiny stapler, Scotch tape, subway cards, extension cord, and printer cables, also some $1 bills in the outer section and tissues). I will add the folders and USB drive for the client the night before and will leave my laptop charging on my desk where it is obvious so I don’t forget it the next day.
Otherwise I will put out what I or we need on the kitchen table. If whatever I need to bring is food related I will leave a reminder to bring it - especially if it needs to be in the refrigerator I will leave a reminder note with the other items. If there are a lot of items I will leave a list of the items needed whether they are on the table or in the refrigerator just to make sure all are taken with me/us.
So, I seem to have it all in hand - yes? Noooo!
Once a year, in June, my embroidery group (local chapter of the Embroiderer’s Guild of America, Inc. to give a good organization a free promo) has a party for its meeting. It is the end of the programing year and we get a chance to sit and discuss ideas for next year, chat, and share some of our work - finished or unfinished (okay, we do this at every meeting - we have “show and tell”, but this is suppose to be one with everyone bringing something and more than one item is encouraged). One of our members has very generously allowed us to use her house for this event, which is not near where we usually meet nor near my house. We each bring a dish of some sort for the party - light refreshment as would be at a tea party.
Now, this year I have the added “fun” of a trip with our RV to our dealer who is located 2 states away for a bit of routine maintenance the day after the party. In addition my husband had planned on staying one or two nights in the general area where the dealer is located as it is an area we like to go to and have not gone since last fall - plus we are paying the tolls to get there anyway and why not have fun also for the money. This was fine with me.
I knew I could deal with both events. The biggest part of getting the RV ready for a short trip such as this is making up the bed (the reason for this will someday be explained). I had planned to do this over the last weekend or yesterday (Tuesday). Packing clothes and snacks and a few other items for only 2 days is easy enough and it did not concern me to do the packing of the items tonight. Along with the idea in the first few paragraphs above, we have what we call “the last minute bag”. This bag is used for items which we need to use the night before or morning that we are leaving on the trip. It is kept in our bedroom and we add the items as they are used and then ready to go. Normally we would also have some refrigerator items to bring out at the last minute, but this trip that is not necessary. I figured that preparing for both events around each other was not a problem.
Then came the weather reports. My husband was concerned about reports of heavy rain where we would be going, as well as here also, on Friday and Saturday. What is the use of going somewhere where one will be outside most of the time - in heavy rain, getting wet and sick? So since last Friday he has been watching every weather report, agonizing over what to do. The bed is not made as we still are not sure what we are doing. I will have to make it up while we are away if we stay.
So, now back to getting ready for the party. Since it is a meeting I needed to get all sorts of paperwork together and my treasurer’s report. I did that yesterday afternoon. I put it in the folder I have for this purpose and brought it down to the kitchen. Normally I use a certain bag for these meetings, but it holds needlework and supplies and was not needed today. I brought down a different bag. I put the folder and some other items - such as the pieces I was bringing for show and tell - in the bag. I also run our errands for the day when I go to a meeting, so I had the outgoing mail and banking stuff so I could get some cash for our trip before we go. Last night I made the food item I was bringing and laid it out nicely on a nice plate, then put the plate into a large plastic container (so it would make the trip safely) and put that in the refrigerator. I remembered to print out the directions given by the woman whose house we are going to - and from google maps as well, just in case. I went there last year, but needed the directions as I did not remember how to get to her house from the main road. On the page with the directions I hand wrote a note - BRING PLATE OF FOOD!!! Everything nicely laid out so that nothing will be forgotten - or so I thought.
I got up in plenty of time to dress and drive to the meeting. I picked up my stuff from the table - and headed out to the car. I got in the car and started driving. I was about half way there and it struck me - I FORGOT THE FOOD!!!
What to do? If I showed up without it, I know that it would be understood, but then the food would end up being thrown out as we are going away (at least for a day) and would not eat it. If I went back to get it I would be late? Dilemma, dilemma, dilemma. I turned the car around, turned on the blue tooth in my cell phone and started calling (hands free) while driving. First, I called my husband to let him know that I would be walking in the door and then walking back out so he would not think someone was breaking in. Then I called the woman whose house I was going to and let her know - she told me to come without it, but I told her that I was halfway home already.
I ran into the house, grabbed it from the refrigerator and ran back out to the car and started back. By the time I got there I was almost an hour late as by the time I started the second trip the traffic had picked up on the roads and the road work had started and was slowing down traffic. (Which road work? - all over - from the cable company working on wires to municipal workers cutting grass along the side of the road to actual work on the road itself.) In my haste I missed the turn to the road to her street, luckily when I turned onto the next road it ran parallel, but then, on the correct road her street is about the 3rd or 4th one, on the road I took instead it was the first and I missed that turn also. I found an empty church parking lot and quickly turned around and made the turn onto her street and drove back to where her house was. Rushing made the trip longer than it should have been - not by much, but still longer and added a few extra minutes to my already very late arrival.
My friends were very nice about my being so late and I apologized no end, and was greatly embarrassed - they all think that I am the most organized person in the world, they only see the result of all my prep work to be organized and not my house.
So what went wrong? Well, I was cheap. Instead of taking a piece of paper and writing the reminder to bring the food on it, I wrote it on the directions. I then picked up the directions without noticing the notation on it. I knew the way to her house on the main roads, so it was not until I looked to see where I would be turning off the main roads that I noticed my notation. If I had written the note on another piece of paper I would have had to move it and would have noticed it and remembered the food.
Other than this the party went very nicely and I managed to make it to all of my errands afterwards, although finishing them a bit later than expected as everything was late due to the party being late.
But now the question you might be wondering - are we going to spend a few days away or just go to the dealer and home? I don’t know. I have packed our clothes for the two days in the RV and assorted snacks we bring with our for the evening as well as rain jackets and some other personal items, and a spare pair of shoes each - for rain. We will go tomorrow to the dealer and then see from there what we decide to do.
Nuts, I forgot to let my sister know our plans. I will have to email her next!
I will put items out in one of two places - if it is for me for work, I will put it on my desk - generally this will include my briefcase with assorted papers and such in it (it always has pencils, pens, small ruler, business cards, tiny stapler, Scotch tape, subway cards, extension cord, and printer cables, also some $1 bills in the outer section and tissues). I will add the folders and USB drive for the client the night before and will leave my laptop charging on my desk where it is obvious so I don’t forget it the next day.
Otherwise I will put out what I or we need on the kitchen table. If whatever I need to bring is food related I will leave a reminder to bring it - especially if it needs to be in the refrigerator I will leave a reminder note with the other items. If there are a lot of items I will leave a list of the items needed whether they are on the table or in the refrigerator just to make sure all are taken with me/us.
So, I seem to have it all in hand - yes? Noooo!
Once a year, in June, my embroidery group (local chapter of the Embroiderer’s Guild of America, Inc. to give a good organization a free promo) has a party for its meeting. It is the end of the programing year and we get a chance to sit and discuss ideas for next year, chat, and share some of our work - finished or unfinished (okay, we do this at every meeting - we have “show and tell”, but this is suppose to be one with everyone bringing something and more than one item is encouraged). One of our members has very generously allowed us to use her house for this event, which is not near where we usually meet nor near my house. We each bring a dish of some sort for the party - light refreshment as would be at a tea party.
Now, this year I have the added “fun” of a trip with our RV to our dealer who is located 2 states away for a bit of routine maintenance the day after the party. In addition my husband had planned on staying one or two nights in the general area where the dealer is located as it is an area we like to go to and have not gone since last fall - plus we are paying the tolls to get there anyway and why not have fun also for the money. This was fine with me.
I knew I could deal with both events. The biggest part of getting the RV ready for a short trip such as this is making up the bed (the reason for this will someday be explained). I had planned to do this over the last weekend or yesterday (Tuesday). Packing clothes and snacks and a few other items for only 2 days is easy enough and it did not concern me to do the packing of the items tonight. Along with the idea in the first few paragraphs above, we have what we call “the last minute bag”. This bag is used for items which we need to use the night before or morning that we are leaving on the trip. It is kept in our bedroom and we add the items as they are used and then ready to go. Normally we would also have some refrigerator items to bring out at the last minute, but this trip that is not necessary. I figured that preparing for both events around each other was not a problem.
Then came the weather reports. My husband was concerned about reports of heavy rain where we would be going, as well as here also, on Friday and Saturday. What is the use of going somewhere where one will be outside most of the time - in heavy rain, getting wet and sick? So since last Friday he has been watching every weather report, agonizing over what to do. The bed is not made as we still are not sure what we are doing. I will have to make it up while we are away if we stay.
So, now back to getting ready for the party. Since it is a meeting I needed to get all sorts of paperwork together and my treasurer’s report. I did that yesterday afternoon. I put it in the folder I have for this purpose and brought it down to the kitchen. Normally I use a certain bag for these meetings, but it holds needlework and supplies and was not needed today. I brought down a different bag. I put the folder and some other items - such as the pieces I was bringing for show and tell - in the bag. I also run our errands for the day when I go to a meeting, so I had the outgoing mail and banking stuff so I could get some cash for our trip before we go. Last night I made the food item I was bringing and laid it out nicely on a nice plate, then put the plate into a large plastic container (so it would make the trip safely) and put that in the refrigerator. I remembered to print out the directions given by the woman whose house we are going to - and from google maps as well, just in case. I went there last year, but needed the directions as I did not remember how to get to her house from the main road. On the page with the directions I hand wrote a note - BRING PLATE OF FOOD!!! Everything nicely laid out so that nothing will be forgotten - or so I thought.
I got up in plenty of time to dress and drive to the meeting. I picked up my stuff from the table - and headed out to the car. I got in the car and started driving. I was about half way there and it struck me - I FORGOT THE FOOD!!!
What to do? If I showed up without it, I know that it would be understood, but then the food would end up being thrown out as we are going away (at least for a day) and would not eat it. If I went back to get it I would be late? Dilemma, dilemma, dilemma. I turned the car around, turned on the blue tooth in my cell phone and started calling (hands free) while driving. First, I called my husband to let him know that I would be walking in the door and then walking back out so he would not think someone was breaking in. Then I called the woman whose house I was going to and let her know - she told me to come without it, but I told her that I was halfway home already.
I ran into the house, grabbed it from the refrigerator and ran back out to the car and started back. By the time I got there I was almost an hour late as by the time I started the second trip the traffic had picked up on the roads and the road work had started and was slowing down traffic. (Which road work? - all over - from the cable company working on wires to municipal workers cutting grass along the side of the road to actual work on the road itself.) In my haste I missed the turn to the road to her street, luckily when I turned onto the next road it ran parallel, but then, on the correct road her street is about the 3rd or 4th one, on the road I took instead it was the first and I missed that turn also. I found an empty church parking lot and quickly turned around and made the turn onto her street and drove back to where her house was. Rushing made the trip longer than it should have been - not by much, but still longer and added a few extra minutes to my already very late arrival.
My friends were very nice about my being so late and I apologized no end, and was greatly embarrassed - they all think that I am the most organized person in the world, they only see the result of all my prep work to be organized and not my house.
So what went wrong? Well, I was cheap. Instead of taking a piece of paper and writing the reminder to bring the food on it, I wrote it on the directions. I then picked up the directions without noticing the notation on it. I knew the way to her house on the main roads, so it was not until I looked to see where I would be turning off the main roads that I noticed my notation. If I had written the note on another piece of paper I would have had to move it and would have noticed it and remembered the food.
Other than this the party went very nicely and I managed to make it to all of my errands afterwards, although finishing them a bit later than expected as everything was late due to the party being late.
But now the question you might be wondering - are we going to spend a few days away or just go to the dealer and home? I don’t know. I have packed our clothes for the two days in the RV and assorted snacks we bring with our for the evening as well as rain jackets and some other personal items, and a spare pair of shoes each - for rain. We will go tomorrow to the dealer and then see from there what we decide to do.
Nuts, I forgot to let my sister know our plans. I will have to email her next!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)