Getting Organized

I was warned!  Those more experienced said to get organized before buying too many things.   Did I listen, nope.  My pantry was proof! There were shopping bags everywhere with the back to school items I purchased and didn't know where to put.  The last straw came when I wanted to do some projects with Turbo this week, but couldn't find the supplies as they were stashed in one of three places that are also disorganized. 

I decided during Turbos nap I would collect all of the supplies, sort them and find a home for all of it.  I anticipated doing it in phases - collecting today, sorting tomorrow, etc.  So I gathered everything and put it into a bin.  Now it was more disorganized than ever and I had no idea how to get it organized in a reasonable way with the space and tools I have.  I took a step back and  thought about the goal -  to know what I have and find it when I want to use it.

It came to me.... EVERNOTE!  My new tool that I'm loving right now.  If you don't know about Evernote, you can check it out here  Essentially it is a resource where you can store and manage all of your ideas.  You can clip a portion of a webpage or a blog that is of interest to you, send it to Evernote, tag it for further organization and sort them into different notebooks for structure. I use it for recipes, crafts, blog posts I really want to do with Turbo and more.


I decided I would take a picture of all our materials - mostly individually, but some in small groups like crayons and markers.  Then I would upload the pictures to evernote, tag each with the type of supply and the location.  GENIUS!  I was able to completely sort, photograph and find a home for all of our supplies within his nap today!! The home for most items is some boxes that are very, very roughly organized.  With the photos and tags within Evernote, my goal is accomplished. I have a visual inventory of our supplies and know exactly where to go to find it.  Is there room for improvment - YES, but I believe in the 80/20 principle. In this case, 80% of the benefit comes from the first 20% of the work. I could spend another month and $$ further organizing into labled containers and such - but it wouldn't get me much further than I am right now.  Plus, now I can easly add new items. Just photograph and add to evernote, tagging with the type and location.  Then, when we consume something, I can retag the item with a "to restock" or just delete it.

Sometimes we just need to start heading in the right direction and the solution will come!