Home Organizing After Loss

5 Organization Projects to Get Done This Summer

The days are getting longer, the weather is gradually improving, and everyone’s allergies are acting up. It can mean only one thing: summer is upon us. 

If you’re a sun worshipper, then summer is the best time of year. You get to spend quality time outside in your garden and can finally have fun outside without having to pack multiple layers of waterproof clothing. 

Summer is a great time for fun and relaxation, but it’s also a good time to get on top of organization projects that may have been on the back burner during the long winter months. 

Home Improvement Tools 

When was the last time you truly reorganized your garage or cleaned your home improvement tools? In reality, most people never take the time to clean, repair, and reorganize the home improvement tools that they keep in storage during the winter. 

Failing to organize your home improvement tools can lead to damage and decay, as your clippers, trimmers, and garden forks will likely rust if left in cramped, damp spaces. You can better organize spaces like garages during the summer by: 

• Adding shelving to raise tools off the floor

• Using plastic bins with a seal to prevent condensation

• Adding windows like canopy lights and LED lights 

• Utilizing hardy storage cabinets to reduce clutter and get more from your space

Organizing your home improvement tools is a perfect job for the summer. You won’t have to work with cold hands and can focus on DIY projects from dawn to dusk. 

Gardening Supplies

During the pandemic, many folks discovered a deep love for gardening. This is hardly surprising, as gardening gives us all a chance to complete simple-yet-rewarding tasks like sewing crops, deadheading flowers, and watering vegetable patches.

But, as any green thumb knows, gardening requires some serious organization. You need to organize everything from your seeds to your shovels to ensure that your plants are happy throughout the warm growing season. 

Building a shed is the best way to organize your garden supplies. You’ll need to choose plans that suit your space and should think of a gardening shed as a workspace and a storage unit. This means you’ll need space to work on things like planting seedlings but should also have deep shelves and a plethora of hooks to keep your tools near at hand. 

When building a shed in the summer, look out for potential leaks and cracks before you call it a job well done. It’s easy to forget the heavy rains that come with the winter and spring seasons, but you don’t want to be standing in a puddle while you try to sew seedlings next spring. 

Outdoor Sports

Playing outdoor sports like tennis, softball, and badminton is a brilliant way to bond with friends and family during the summer. However, you need to stay organized to avoid disasters like rusted rackets or bent bats from ruining the fun. 

You can better organize seasonal sports equipment by utilizing wall and ceiling space that prevents delicate goods like stringed rackets from becoming damaged. While all of your storage should be practical, you can show off your sporty side by hanging your prized possessions like road bikes or surfboards from PVC pipes. Hanging equipment in a safe but prominent location will also help you spot any damage and make repairs before you paddle or peddle out. 

Crafts and Games

Some crafts and games like knitting and board games are best for the winter when the days are short and the weather is poor. If you find that your family is no longer interested in these winter activities during the summer, it might be time to donate to charity. This will help reduce clutter, aid your organizational efforts, and give you a little extra cash to reinvest in summer fun. 

Some of the best summer games involve things like paddling pools, water fights, and simple games like bocce ball or cornhole. But each of these activities takes some organization on your end as a host — you don’t want to discover that you’re missing a ball or have a puncture in your pool when your family and friends are getting ready to play. 

When organizing crafts and games, pay attention to mismatching sets and damaged goods as it’s usually easier to simply replace missing or broken items rather than repair them. Once you have taken stock of your crafts and games, try to keep all the pieces together in the same space by using plastic storage bins that keep everything together and prevent small animals or dampness from ruining the fun. 

Pantry 

There are few summer activities better than throwing a party for your friends and family during the summer. But, before you can become the Gatsby of your neighborhood, you’ll need to ensure that your pantry is well stocked and organized. 

You can organize your pantry this summer by keeping a separate shelf for snacking kids who are enjoying their school-free summer. This will keep little hands from wandering into places they shouldn’t go and free up space in your pantry for cooking ingredients. It’s also worth keeping your stables like pasta and cereals in clear Tupperware, as you’ll go through a surprising amount of day-to-day food supplies when kids and friends are over at your home. 

Conclusion 

The summer should be a carefree season full of good times and memorable experiences. As your household’s Chief Organizing Officer, you can get on top of projects like shed construction or pantry organization early as this will help prevent mishaps down the road and ensure that everyone has a good time this summer.

How to Make Your Cleaning Routine Faster (and Easier)

Let’s be honest: Life is busy. From work to the kids’ activities, the gym to the grocery store, the list sometimes feels neverending. So where, in all these, do you ever find the time to keep a tidy home? There are only 24 hours in the day, but the chores need to be done too, right?

You might think cleaning is a constant, time-consuming job, and you could be right. However, there are ways to keep your house looking and feeling great without slaving away for hours on end. Check out these ideas to get your home clean and organized from House to Home Organizing.

Adopt a Daily (or Nightly) 15-Minute Routine

It may seem like 15 minutes wouldn’t allow for much, but you’d be surprised at what you can get done in that time, especially if you do it every day. Fold a load of laundry, load or unload the dishwasher, wipe down surfaces — take your pick! All of these can be done in a short amount of time, taking at least one item off your to-do list for the day. 

Even better: Get the whole family involved! Have the kids pick up their toys or tidy their rooms, get your partner’s help decluttering or vacuuming — the possibilities are endless. When you’re done, you can relax together, and knowing you’ve cut down tomorrow’s chore list will feel great, too! 

Get digitally organized

If you don’t have copies of all your digital photos in the cloud yet, you should get on that. A digital picture frame will keep family photos present in your life, instead of hidden on a hard drive. It’s also not a bad idea to archive digital documents by tax category or year with an app or online tool that can easily merge PDF files. Then, you can store these combined files and documents on hard drives or in the cloud.

Prioritize… and Outsource!

The very idea of cleaning the whole house is exhausting and can leave you feeling defeated before you even start. This is where prioritization comes in extremely handy: choosing your most essential 2 or 3 chores and doing those first, leaving the rest for later, if necessary. This way, your home stays clean in the most important places, as well as making your load a little lighter when it comes time to do the less urgent chores. 

Whether you prioritize high traffic areas like the living room and kitchen, or the bathroom is your arch-nemesis, it’s a good idea to make a quick 2-3 item list before you start. This can really save you time and mental energy when tackling the parts of the house that matter most. 

All that being said, don’t be afraid to enlist a little help. For instance, you won’t know what you're missing until you’ve hired a professional organizer. When you use your space more effectively, you save time and money!

Keep Cleaning Products Handy

Who wants to be running all over the house, looking for that spray or sponge they need when you’re already pressed for time? No one, that’s who! Keeping your cleaning products handy near the spaces they’re used for will save you time and energy when you’re cleaning. 

Bathroom products go in the bathroom, kitchen products in the kitchen, and so on. This helps you feel prepared and organized, leaving your brain focused on the actual task at hand: the cleaning! Of course, certain items can’t be stored where they’re needed all the time, but having a dedicated space makes them easier to find when you need to.

Spice Up the Old

Tired of your old, drab couch or that used-to-be cute recliner? Before you spend hours upon hours shopping for new furniture, consider giving them a makeover instead! You’d be amazed at what some brightly colored pillows or a cozy, plush throw can do to bring life to something that’s lost its luster. 

The busy life has become the norm, and we all deal with it differently. Whether we sacrifice our serenity for our schedules is up to us, but thankfully it’s not always necessary. Dedicating a little time on a regular basis, along with some prepping and organization, can do wonders for your space and your sanity. Feel free to try these ideas on for size next time you’re cleaning, tidying, or decluttering, and see how they work for you!

Need to get ready for a move? Need help organizing for a parent or senior? House to Home Organizing offers in-person and virtual organizing to help you turn your home into a clutter-free sanctuary in Fairfield, New Haven, and Westchester counties. 

Guest Post - Your Future Self Will Thank You for Organizing Your Photos

Is anything more wonderful and chaotic than planning a wedding? Luckily, there are plenty of professionals ready to step in and organize all the pieces: venues, flowers, food, and invitations. There’s so much that can be handed off! 

Until it’s time to round up photos for the guest book, the reception slideshow, and photo book gifts for the wedding party. 

Who’s going to go through all of them to find just the right ones for the bride and groom? Not the wedding planner, that’s for sure!

Enter Your Friendly Photo Organizer

My team of photo organizing professionals made this process surprisingly easy for our client.

Finding photos of her daughter to use for her wedding was quick and fun, as she was able to enjoy looking back, taking it all in, without being overwhelmed by the project. 

And the secret lay in getting organized before that diamond ring appeared.

You see, a few years ago, she was tired of the clutter in her house and wanted to finally get her memories tidied up and preserved. Her goal wasn’t to just put them all into pretty boxes and line them up on a shelf. She also wanted them organized in a way that allowed her to find, use and enjoy any photo she wished. Quick and easy trips down Memory Lane would be possible!

So, she pulled all the photos she could find in her house and dropped them off at my office. They were in albums, in frames, in boxes, in scrapbooks. On her phone, on CDs, external drives, negatives, and slides. There were also dozens of home movies on various tapes and film reels.

My team sorted through all of her items, removing duplicates and photos that didn’t tell her story.  The rest were scanned and preserved. Every photo, print and digital, was placed into labeled folders, organized by year and event. This created one organized collection that showcased her family’s journey. 

Fast forward to today.

When her daughter got engaged, nostalgia kicked in. Our client’s baby was getting married! Celebrating the journey included looking back at how far she’d come. From EVENT TO ACTIVITY TO EVENT, she had grown into such a lovely young woman. And the same could be said for her fiancé.

They wanted to share all of these happy memories with their wedding guests. So, the client simply logged onto the online photos site we created for her and typed in her daughter’s name to find all of the photos of her. To narrow the search, she also searched by year and event. In a matter of minutes, she had a selection of photos that could be used for the wedding! She also had tears in her eyes as she remembered all those years of mothering.

There was just one thing missing: photos of the groom. Without an organized system, collecting his photos is taking more time and effort. They had to wait for his family to go through all of their photos to find the best ones. It slowed down the process and added to the growing list of tasks.

The Best Time to Organize Your Photos Is Now

Organizing your photos is more than simply rounding them all up into archival boxes. 

When you take the time to properly sort, scan, and label each one, the result is a system that is easy to use and can be shared with anyone.

Save time and hassle 

It will be so easy to find photos of a particular person, year or event. No more digging through drawers and boxes and closets.

Make gifts for special occasions

Easily create photo books and slide shows to celebrate: births, graduations, sporting events, weddings, memorials, family vacations, and holidays.

Share memories with family and friends, even if they don’t live nearby. 

You can send images and videos through email or social media. Or you can give the login information for your private online collection to trusted family members and friends and they can browse anytime.

Preserve older, more delicate images from the effects of time. 

Not only do photos fade or get torn, technology changes. Those photos on CDs or slides, and videos on DVDs or film reels need to be converted so they can be enjoyed by future generations.

Ensure your memories are safe from fire, flood, and other disasters. 

In an emergency, it’s easy to quickly grab a few organized boxes on the way out the door instead of pulling photos off the walls. And having an online backup means everything is secure even if you don’t have time to take anything with you.

Spend your time enjoying your photos and making more memories. 

Especially when your daughter is getting married! Wouldn’t you rather be sampling cakes and visiting florists instead of digging through your closet for pictures?

Do Something Today That Your Future Self Will Thank You For

If you get overwhelmed by even the thought of sorting through your memories, hand the project off to a professional photo organizer. We have the most advanced equipment, tools, and strategies for getting the job done. You’ll save time, money, and worry knowing your photos are safe and secure and at your fingertips. Organize your photos and videos now because, in times of celebration or grief, your future self would rather be with loved ones, not piles of clutter.

Rachel Arbuckle is the founder of 2000 Paces Photo Organizing, a San Diego-based photo organizing business dedicated to providing authentic, compassionate solutions to transform the chaos of photos and memorabilia into an organized, preserved collection that can be easily shared and enjoyed for generations.