Defining Time & Space News

We are in a time when not only are gas prices going significantly up but so are the prices of food and household items.  Do you ever make purchases and then get home to find you already have something?  Do you make purchases of things that you know you have but cannot find it?  Do you have more items than you need and some expire before you can use them?

These are issues to many people.  Knowing what we have and where they are greatly enables us to purchase what we really need, not make purchases for what we already have and not waste products that expire because we have not used them in a timely manner; i.e. food, ink cartridges, etc.

Here are some tips to help:

1.  First keep like things together in your home or office.  Whether it is food items in the kitchen or office supplies for your desk, keeping like things together goes a long way toward allowing us to know what we have.

2.  Store things in either clear and/or labeled containers to make finding them easiest.

3.  Keep things near where they are used.  Again this helps knowing what we have in an instant so that we don’t make purchases of things that we already have.

4.  Keep a running list as we either run low or out of something or that we identify things we need.  (There is a helpful grocery list on my website @ www.dtsorganizing.com under the resources button).

5.  Review your list before shopping to see if you have coupons that you can use and match with sale prices at your favorite stores.

6.  Check expiration dates on what you purchase and use the FIFO principle (First in, First out).

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Do you look forward to a vacation but get stressed thinking about the planning and packing to leave?  Many of us will be hitting the road or air this summer headed for a longed for vacation spot.  What can we do to better prepare for our travels and make life easier?

Here are some things to help with the planning:

1.  First and most important thing is to start early. 

2.  Decide where you are going and how long you plan to stay.

3.  Identify any activities you plan to participate in and what you need, like bathing suits, chairs or other gear.

4.  Gather all those going (and include the little ones) and let everyone know the plans so that they can all contribute to the preparation including where you are going (climate), how long you will be gone, what activities they need to be prepared for, how you will be traveling and how much space they have for luggage.   For younger children; allow them to pack themselves with a list and then just review with them.  They will soon be packing all by themselves. 

5.  Think about whether you will be preparing any meals during this trip and whether it is best to bring some items with you that you do not want to buy large quantities of like condiments and other basic ingredients.

6.  Be sure to have a place to put all the essentials to get there like tickets, passports, reservations, maps, directions and phone numbers.

7.  Finally, plan for being gone from your home by making sure you have pet care, house care, and arrangements for mail, newspapers, etc.

8.  ENJOY YOUR TRIP!

Rosanne

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With gas prices as high as they are, it is making many of us rethink where we go and what we do.  Since we cannot change the price of gas what can we do to help take the edge off of the cost of gasoline?

Of course the obvious answers are:

Drive the most economical gas usage car available, choose other methods of transportation such as carpooling, trains, and buses, or change our schedule or telecommute.

These may not all be within our grasp and even if they are there are a few ways to help ourselves by just using standard good time management skills. 

1.  Look at your tasks and schedule, combine any tasks/trips possible during the week.  Some things can wait a day or two until you are already making a trip in that direction.

2.  Make a list of things that we need to do, pick-up or purchase.  Be sure to have all the information and materials with us when we go out to a destination so that we can avoid having to make additional trips. 

3. Call ahead/discuss tasks to be sure we have what we need, again to avoid subsequent trips. 

4.  See if others are going to the same location or direction to avoid a separate trip or driving two cars.  Carpool to work or to children’s events. Not only will this save gas and wear and tear on the car but it will give us an opportunity to communicate with workers or friends about things we might not have had time to. 

5.  Start proactively considering the cost of trips/events before we commit to them, by calculating the mileage with the current gas prices.  

6.  Ask whether information can be faxed, emailed, or mailed to avoid a trip all together.

Rosanne

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When we decide we want to “get organized”, many of us have trouble with were to start.  The best thing to do is to find an area that will be most beneficial to us.  It is not as important for instance to start organizing a seasonal closet/area than it might be to work on the kitchen pantry, master bedroom or office desk that we are using every day.  Starting in an area that is most beneficial does two things for us.  One it gives us the immediately benefits of peace and productivity but it also gives us a great deal of motivation to move onto other areas. 

The second part of this is to start small if this is hard for us; especially if we are doing this without assistance.  It is not ideal for us to choose the garage first if it is 20+ years of accumulated stuff and the heat of the summer if we have other areas that are smaller and have similar benefits.

Finally, if we are taking on a larger task, it is best to break them down into smaller ones.  As they say, we can only eat an elephant a bite at a time.  By breaking the task down we can better achieve the results we want in the time we have to give.  As with all things, our success comes from setting goals, then creating and executing the plan.

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