Weekend Weightlifter – camera check

December 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment

It’s the last weekend before Christmas, so it’s a good time to grab all of your recording devices (phones, cameras, video cameras, iPads etc – whatever you’re going to use) and make sure they have storage space on them and have a full charge.  If they take batteries that might need changing, ensure you have spares for emergencies.

You have all weekend, so you may want to take all the photos and videos off, file them and back them up, too. That way you have  a fresh start with completely empty cards.

Merry Christmas, and enjoy capturing those special moments!

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Weekend Weightlifter – the utensil drawer

November 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

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This week – the utensil drawer. This is where stuff that won’t fit in the cutlery drawer goes. And it can get rather messy!

  1. Lay out a towel on the kitchen floor.
  2. Pull all of the stuff out of the drawer and sort it into like groups (ie “cutting” “scooping” “storing” “making” “decorating”) onto the towel
  3. For each item, ask yourself:
    • How many of these do I have?
    • How often do I use it?
    • If I got rid of it, would I be able to find a way to still do what I need to do if the need arose (the answer is almost always YES – there is more than one way to skin a cat, as the old saying…rather grossly…puts it)
    • Will I use it again more than a couple of times a year?
    • Is it still in good working order?
    • Can I live without it (that’s me being facetious – unless you have a dialysis machine in there, of course can live without it).
    • Does my bestie/mother/sister/neighbour have one I can borrow if I do need it again one day?
    • Does it even belong in the kitchen? (there will be rubber bands, bits of broken toys, coasters, orphan bits of sets, the odd hair band, a few receipts, stamps, paper clips, bandaids or bobby pin and the like that should be re-home completely)
  4. Cull everything that doesn’t make the cut
  5. Put the rest back in the drawer in its groups.  You may need to use ziplock bags to group the small stuff together, and drawer dividers to keep it all from getting too jumbled again.

 

Filed Under: Culling, Housework, Kitchen, Maintenance, Organised, Weekend Weightlifter Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Weekend Weightlifter – the cutlery drawer

November 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment
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My cutlery drawer after a little spruce-up

This week we’re tacking the cutlery drawer. It’s a short job, but with great satisfaction because you use it so frequently.  I did it today myself and it took me only 8 minutes! (mind you, mine was more dirty than cluttered so most of the time taken was cleaning the cutlery tray!).  It should still take you less than 15 minutes.

Here you go:

  1. Pull everything out and place it all in like groups on your counter-top or table (knives together, spoons together etc)
  2. Take out the cutlery tray, if you have one (if you don’t, get one as it prevents a lot of searching!) and give it a good clean.
  3. Wipe out the inside of your drawer
  4. Assess your piles on the counter. What do you use all the time? How many do you REALLY need? What do you never use? What can you live without? (ie, if you didn’t have one, you could still make do).
  5. Put the frequently-used items back in the drawer in their groups
  6. Find homes elsewhere for the stuff that doesn’t belong
  7. Donate or trash never-used, duplicates or broken items
  8. Smile every time you  open the drawer!

 

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Weekend Weightlifter – organise your car

November 15, 2012 by 2 Comments

It’s quite common for our cars to get a little messy inside.

This weekend your mission is to clear out the junk and make sure you’ve got all the things you need in your car.

1. Empty out the rubbish.
2. Take out things that don’t live in there and out them in their homes inside the house or garage.
3. Give it a bit of a wipe down and vacuum if it needs it.
4. Make a list of things that are handy to have in the car. It may include: tissues, rubbish bags, shopping bags, maps, first aid kit, spare sunnies, books, notepad, pens, a bottle of water (for the radiator, not to drink), spare hats, spare umbrella, sunscreen (essential in our hot Aussie summer!) or anything else you find you need when out and about.
5. Find suitable storage for those items (you can get special organisers for the car or just make up your own) and put it all back in.
6. Try to make a habit of tidying your car whenever you get home and teach your kids to do the same with the back seat.

Filed Under: Culling, Disorganised, Home, Maintenance, Weekend Weightlifter Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Weekend Weightlifter – cull some paperwork

November 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment

This weekend we’re going to attack some old paperwork. You don’t need to spend all weekend on it – you can spend as little as 15 minutes and make a difference!

Find some old filing in the home and take a handful of it out of the files.  Assess each piece of paperwork one at a time and ask yourself if you need to keep it or not.

Reasons to keep papers include:

  • It was used as supporting documentation on one of your last five (seven in the US) tax returns (invoices, receipts, superannuation)
  • It has historical significance (your grandfather’s migration documents)
  • You need to keep it for legal reasons (your car registration papers or your Will)
  • You need to keep it for warranty reasons (the receipt for your vacuum cleaner)
  • It’s useful when something goes wrong (your dishwasher user manual)
  • It’s a hand-print of your daughter when she was a baby
  • It proves something (residency, that you paid for something, that you did a certain qualification, medical records etc)
  • You’re going to use it soon (a gift voucher)
  • It makes you very happy. VERY.

Reasons to ditch papers include:

  • It’s a document you can obtain online whenever you need it
  • It’s a user manual for an item you don’t have anymore
  • It’s a bill that was paid 2 years ago and you didn’t claim it as a tax deduction
  • It’s one of 3,000 drawing of stars your daughter drew (a handful of the same drawing from the same age is sufficient)
  • It’s one of 50 payslips from 1987 (again, keep one for nostalgia, sure – but you don’t need them all)
  • You took it out of a magazine several years ago because you thought you might make that stool/soft toy/cake/party decoration one day (you can get SO MUCH online these days)
  • It’s memorabilia that makes you sad/angry/guilty

You can spend as little or as long as you want, as long as you ditch as much as you can in that time!

 

Filed Under: Culling, Home, Office, Organised, Paperwork, Weekend Weightlifter Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The “To Donate” spot

November 2, 2012 by 1 Comment

It’s a great clutter-controller to have one spot to put things you want to donate.

Find a box that is a fair size (too small and you have to head to the charity place too frequently!) and create a home for it that’s fairly accessible, but not in your high-usage areas. I’d suggest the bottom of a laundry shelf, bottom of the linen closet or in the garage.

Label it “To Be Donated” and teach the family to put anything in there that they no longer need, use or love in there so it can be loved by someone in need.Whenever it gets full, take a quick trip to the nearest charity and drop it off, replacing the box in its spot again to continue the cycle (don’t leave it in the car for 3 months!).

Filed Under: Culling, Disorganised, Family organising, Home, Weekend Weightlifter Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Creating a “Not Ours” spot

October 27, 2012 by 2 Comments

The Not Ours spot (or box, or basket…). If you don’t have a home for things that don’t belong to you, you need one of these!

Some of the things that can go into it include:

  • library books & books borrowed from friendsbaskets
  • borrowed DVDs
  • salad bowls and platters left after a dinner party
  • hair clips, water bottles, hats or socks etc left over after a playdate

Create a home (it needs to be fairly accessible if frequent-access things like library books will be stored there) and use a basket or tub to contain the items.

Every time you have a visitor, check your box to see if they have anything in there that belongs to them. Likewise if you visit someone – check the box first so you can return their items to them.

Report back when you have created your “home away from home” spot. Feel free to post pics of it so we can celebrate with you!

Filed Under: Family organising, Home, Organised, Weekend Weightlifter Tagged With: , , , , , ,