TERRE HAUTE — From overindulgence to simplicity — it’s the time of year when we start new. The party is over; it’s time to get down to business. De-cluttering our lives comes as almost a requirement in January.

Retailers put home and office products on sale; magazines boast new ideas to help us take control of our lives and the space around us.

But when it comes to actually springing into action, many people have good intentions, but no idea where to start.

Author and home management expert Deniece Schofield has an answer.

“One of the most important things you can do is work off of a to-do list. It keeps you focused and keeps you from feeling overwhelmed,” says the expert who travels across the country, working to educate people on the benefits of organization. 

Fill lists with dates, deadlines and appointments. List household chores and assign someone to complete them.

Schofield suggests keeping a “running” to-do list, including tasks like picking up a gallon of milk or a prescription, or returning a movie to the video store or books to the library.

Order “eliminates emergency trips to the store,” Schofield said. People forget they need supplies for their kids’ science project, or parsely for soup.

“Meals can be a burden. A lot of times we eat out … because we’re busy … we didn’t plan,” she said.

Why make a special trip out on the weekend to pick up that milk when the grocery store is two blocks from your child’s school? The “running” to-do list eliminates unnecessary trips, saving time and gasoline.

• Saving time

Taking control of time should be the foremost motivator for those hoping to get organized this year, according to Schofield. 

“As far as your time is concerned, order is more important than clean. Nowadays we are so busy and … sometimes we don’t have time to do everything. If you don’t have order, you are running into a lot of unnecessary time demands and stress.”

Becoming organized is “going to affect your time and eliminate speed bumps,” Schofield said. It’s going to create time.

No one would object to having more time for a favorite activity with a family member or friend, or even having a few extra minutes to read before bed. Organized people can see these payoffs and are motivated to take action.

Getting there takes self-discipline, patience and determination.

Schofield teaches five main areas of focus: house, kitchen, meals, bathrooms and laundry.

Recognizing our “speed bumps” helps guide us to a starting point. “Choose a starting place, and break that place down into manageable pieces. [This] will bring immediate satisfaction and immediate rewards,” Schofield said.

For instance, start in the kitchen with one drawer. These days “we have to be happier doing things incrementally. Finishing is a good motivator. Even 15 minutes a day” can make a difference, she said.

The payoff? The next time you need that Phillips screwdriver, you will know exactly where it is.

• It benefits others, saves money

We may be motivated by the need to make our lives run more smoothly. But the benefits of decluttering can go beyond ourselves.

“If you haven’t used something in a year, unless it has real monetary or sentimental value, get rid of it,” Schofield urges. “Too many people need those things.”

“Visually [donations] were greatly increased at the end of December,” Wabash Valley Goodwill executive director Bill Tennis said. “We had cars backed up at our facility. We’ve never seen anything like it.” He notes, though, that officials believe weather was the primary factor in the increase.

“We’ve always had people getting rid of stuff because they got new stuff for Christmas, but we’ve never seen the volume that we have this [past] year. We think we really benefited. We did see a significant increase in electronic donations … driven by people getting the new flat screens.”

Schofield recommends the recycling website earth911.com and www.freecycle.com, where people can give and receive items without money changing hands. Sometimes people just want to get rid of stuff, she says, and they don’t want money in return.

Value also can be found in repurposing household items.

“I always recommend, before you go out and buy anything, look around the house and see if you have something you can use instead,” Schofield said. 

“You can buy so many things to organize wrapping paper, cool things. You can also stand them up in a tall wastebasket and you’ve saved yourself 15, 20 bucks,” she said.

Order “keeps you from buying things in desperation,” Schofield said. “Buying something you already have at home is a billion-dollar industry. That’s the main way [to save money.]”

Store Christmas ornaments in empty popcorn tins; corral shampoo bottles in ice cube bins; organize jewelry and makeup on a tiered dessert stand, hang a shoe holder on a door for organizing craft supplies; egg cups or mini coffee cups can hold paperclips.

Can’t find a use for something?

“[Goodwill takes and recycles] about anything you’d have in your home: coorigated boxes, metal items, plastics, any kind of computers, any condition, any brand,” Tennis said.

Let organization lead you to take care of future generations through treasuring the items you decide to keep. “When things are organized, they’re taken care of,” Schofield said.

When we appreciate and preserve our possessions, their value increases. A prime example is making an effort to organize toys. Making sure all the pieces of a puzzle or game are stored properly allows decades of use. Toys can be passed from one generation to the next, or even given to a charity like Toys for Tots.

Organizing finances may mean more wealth could be passed on to others, whether it be to family members or charities. The amount of money that can be saved adds up when bills are organized, eliminating late fees and other charges, and when plans are put into place for the future. Some people may even lose tax deductions because they’re “not organized enough to back them up,” Schofield said.

Schofield uses a personal example to illustrate the pitfalls of not planning ahead. Instead of giving herself enough time to prepare for a friend’s birthday, she was forced to purchase a more expensive, less-thought-out, last-minute gift.

“I had a year to prepare for her birthday,” she said.

• Personal growth

Not only does order save time, it saves money, it reduces stress and it encourages personal growth.

Now that you’re organized, challenge yourself. You know that to-do list?

“Write down goal-oriented activity. It stretches you as a person,” Schofield said. List tasks other than everyday chores; tackle personal goals.

Do the same at work. Sure, there are daily tasks and housekeeping items that must be addressed, but challenge yourself to learn something new, something you’re job doesn’t require. The sense of accomplishment will leave you feeling fulfilled, and be reward enough to move to that next item on your list.

Being organized “eliminates so much stress,” Schofield said. She does warn that people can become too organized, but “being organized enough relieves so much stress and saves money; it just makes your day go so much better. It makes you more functional at work, you’re happier, you’re more productive.”



Alicia Morgan can be reached at (812) 231-4298 or at alicia.morgan@tribstar.com.

Get organized workshop

• Deniece Schofield, author of five books on home management and organization, will be in Terre Haute on Wednesday to give two presentations on organization. Both seminars are the same and are from 10 a.m. to noon and from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Quality Inn (555 S. Third St.).

• Participants will receive handouts and two hours of “rapid-fire ideas.” Bringing a notebook is encouraged.

• Learn: How to find more space without having to throw out everything; ways to make the space you do have more useful; hundreds of ideas on how to organize common items; time management; and how to get rid of “floating” pieces of paper in the household.

• Cost is $20 at the door, or by calling 1-800-835-8463. No reservations are required. Visit denieceschofield.com for more information.

Donate and recycle

Organization guru Deniece Schofield’s tips for donations, recycling:

• The website earth911.com. allows a person to type in their zip code and it and tells them where to go to get rid of items.

• Freecycle, www.freecycle.com, is a way to give things away for free and get things free.

• Donate to Goodwill, the Salvation Army or other charities in your community.

• Those wanting to make a little money off of unwanted items can check out consignment shops or plan a garage sale.

Top 5 organization tips

Deniece Schofield shares her top five tips for becoming organized:

• Use drawer dividers not only in drawers but use containers on shelves so you can handle things as one unit and convert your shelves into drawers. Slide out the container, make your selection and slide it back. This makes the things in the back of the cabinet as easy to access as those in the front.

• Remove things that are used once a month or less often and place them in another room or put them into a harder to reach spot.

• Store things at the point of first use. For example, strainers are used first by the sink; pots and pans are used by the stove; hand mixers are used by mixing bowls.

• Whenever you’re preparing a meal, spread a piece of freezer wrap on the counter (plastic side down). Fill up the sink with soapy water and place a trash container close to where you’re working. Makes clean up a breeze!

• Plan menus. Make a list of 10 meals and post the list on the inside of a kitchen cabinet door. Shop for all the ingredients and mark them (so everyone will know that they are for use in an up-coming meal). In the morning look at the list and choose the meal that will be best for that day’s circumstances.

 

Top 5 mistakes

• Placement: Don’t put things you use infrequently in handy, easy-to-reach spots. Whenever you think you don’t have enough space – check to see if there are any seldom used items being stored inside. (Note: seldom used items are those that are used once a month or less often.)

• Failure to label: Label containers, lips of drawers and shelves so everyone in the house knows where things belong.

• Impulsive shopping: Don’t buy anything until you look around the house to see if you have something you can use instead of buying something else. If you need to shop for something, measure the area so you’ll know exactly what you’re looking for.

• Well-defined: Not giving things a well-confined, well-defined place. The old adage, “a place for everything and everything in its place” still holds true today.

• Too many gadgets or too many duplicates:s Keep handy the things you use all the time. Extras can be stored in another location.

 

Make life easier

• Transfer dry supplies into square or rectangular containers. Be sure to label. Round containers are space wasters.

• Set up a mixing center where you can stand in one spot to prepare whatever you need to prepare without having to take a lot of steps back and forth.

• If you want to use self-adhesive shelf liner – measure the drawer or shelf that you want to line and cut out a piece of cardboard that is that measurement. (This can be poster board or cereal box cardboard.) Cover the cardboard with the self-adhesive paper and place in the drawer or on the shelf. Easy to clean and easy to remove and replace.

• Put recipes on Rolodex cards. The file always stays organized because the cards never leave the card file.

• Keep in the kitchen only those cookbooks that you use all the time. Place the other books in another room.

• Use the Internet! Google menu planning. The web is full of recipes, too.

Check out: www.allrecipes.com. Find recipes from Southern Living, Gourmet and Bon Apetit magazines at www.epicurious.com. Copy-cat recipes from restaurants can be found at www.copkat.com.

• Use one motion storage for things you use every day. (That means you can open a closet, cabinet or drawer — reach in and grab what you need and put it back just as quickly.)

• Keep a list posted on the side of the refrigerator where you record the leftovers that you’ve tucked inside, increasing the likelihood that you’ll actually use them.

 

Make organizing easier

• Store infrequently used objects. People tend to place things they rarely use in easily accessible spots, then complain that they have no space.

• Organize a room using four boxes labeled: trash, donate, belongs in another room, don’t know. Place everything you don’t use or look at into one of those boxes. Then toss the trash, place the donation box in your car, return items to their rightful place and put the don’t know box in the attic or garage or other out of the way place. If you don’t open that box in a year or 6 months, get rid of it.

• Stop perfectionism. Don’t let an imperfect situation be an excuse to do nothing. Even if you don’t have time to wash all the windows, you might have time to wash one. Learn to be happy with doing things in incremental bits of time. Large blocks of time are too hard to come by.

• If you feel overwhelmed, try the tidbit method. Instead of one room at a time, tackle one drawer or one corner at a time.

• Organize with a buddy. A friend can be objective about your belongings and help you be more realistic.

• Label all containers. That way, everyone knows where things belong.

• Whenever possible, store thing where they’re used, even if that means duplicating some items.

• Maintenance is the key to keeping things organized. Once the room is clean, spend five minutes a day keeping it that way.

• Limit toys. If toys are a problem, perhaps there are too many. Toss broken toys, then donate the extras. Or place some of the toys in a box and store for a while. Every so often rotate them back in.

• Eliminate floating bits of paper by writing down everything you need to remember, including appointments and your to do list in a daily planner. Use the planner to transfer information from incoming paper, too, such as invitations, meetings, parties, etc. Once you’ve transferred the info, toss the invitation. To limit incoming paper, follow the guidelines at www.ecocycle.org/junkmail.

• Don’t become too organized. The goal is to make home a place people want to be, where they can relax and feel welcomed.