Get Organized in '09: Simple Things You Can Do Everyday

Organization nightmares are often made up of the little things we accumulate on a daily basis – mail personal items, random scraps of paper that you just don’t know what to do with. However, if you develop a system and put it in place, you can nip those messes in the bud before they pile up.

Mail
• As soon as mail comes in the house, sort it: discard junk mail and shred any unwanted items that could compromise personal or financial information. 
• Place bills to be paid in a visible and accessible area.
• File any notices and other important paperwork.
• Place catalogs and magazines in a designated spot so you can find them when you want them.

Keys and Personal Items
• Get in the habit of placing keys in the same spot every time you walk in the door.
• Designate another space specifically for purses, wallets, cell phones, chargers, sunglasses and loose change. Remember to tidy this spot up periodically, removing loose change to a bank.

Housekeeping
• It’s always disheartening to wake up in the morning and start a new day with a cluttered and messy living space.  So, before bedtime, tidy up the rooms you'll use in the morning. It will give you a surprising boost in the a.m.
• After dinner, do the dishes. Don’t let them pile up in the sink. Wash and dry the dinner table too, so it’s ready for the first meal of the morning.
• Because time is often crunched in the morning, take a few minutes at night to get belongings ready and placed by the door for quick morning grab.
• Run the dishwasher at night and empty in the morning. This way, you don’t have to run the heated dry and the dishes have time to cool down and dry overnight. This is a good way to save on your energy bill. 
• De-clutter table tops that seem to be magnets for piling on. This will help cut down on mass pile ups later.

Children's Schoolwork and School Needs
• Implement a routine system that you and your children can easily follow:
• Each day, sort through school papers, artwork, etc. and place the ones you wish to keep in bins. This keeps the papers neat and clean, and helps cut down on the formation of piles. Throw away whatever you don’t intend to keep.
• Hang up any artwork or papers you wish to display, and put anything you wish to keep – but not display – in a folder or scrapbook.
• Before bedtime, pack up backpacks or school bags with books, homework and other school necessities and make sure bags are in their appropriate place so they can be easily located during the morning rush.
• Plan the next day's outfit with your child and lay it out so it’s accessible.

Do you have any suggestions of things you do on a daily basis to help keep you organized? We’d love to hear them, please tell us in the comments section below.

Get Organized in '09 -- Are You Still Resolved?

It seems like just a few weeks ago that we made our resolution to get our homes organized in ’09. Here it is March already, so time to check in on how we’re doing. Have you been able to stick to your resolution? If not, it’s not too late to get started.

For some motivation, check out some of these great resources we found:

HGTV (www.hgtv.com) has some fantastic information for organizing specific rooms in your home, such as bedrooms,  home office, bathrooms, kitchen, closets and garage. Lots of additional, more specific organizational advice here as well.

The Container Store offers its Top 12 Tips for Getting Organized, plus a slew of additional organizational information on its Web site, www.containerstore.com. Once you’ve cleared out some of the stuff you can definitely live without, they also offer tips for a successful garage sale.

And the diva of all things domestic, Martha Stewart, offers up a fantastic section on organizing on her Web site, www.marthastewartliving.com. You can even sign up to get an “Organizing Tip of the Day” e-newsletter.

Keep us posted on your organizational success and don’t forget to send us your great ideas for keeping your resolution!

Get Organized in '09: Do-It-Yourself Home Projects

If you've resolved to get yourself and your home organized in 2009, AHAA wants to help you keep that resolution. This week we'll focus some on those do-it-yourself projects you've been wanting to accomplish that will help you get organized -- like putting up shelves (so you can put things away!) or cleaning out and updating that old junk room to give it a new life as an office.

First, you need to make sure you have a toolkit of essential tools both for simple and more advanced repairs. AHAA has a resource section for home maintenance here on our web site. Within the useful information you'll find here is also a list of essential tools for a toolkit to keep on hand for most home projects -- the planned ones and the unplanned ones. 

You also need to make sure you know how to do the repair or upgrade. AHAA recommends several publications for do-it-yourselfers:

• Home Improvement 1-2-3: Expert Advice from The Home Depot
• How to Operate Your Home by Tom Feiza
• New Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual by Reader's Digest
• New Fix-it-Yourself Manual by Reader's Digest
• Dare to Repair: A Do-it-Herself Guide to Fixing (Almost) Anything In the Home by Julie Sussman

Finally, if you hit a snag, always know that you can "Ask Walt". With more than 35 years of home improvement experience, Walt St. Aubin is AHAA's expert on everyday home maintenance and repairs, and he's happy to answer your questions. Walt may have already answered your question here in our archives. If not, you can drop him a line at AskWalt@ahaanow.org.

Get Organized in '09

Getting their homes and their lives organized is one of a handful of resolutions people make each new year, and sadly, they often give up their efforts before the first month is even over.

So, in an effort to help you not become one of the masses of failed resolution-makers, AHAA will periodically post some cool Web sites we’ve found to assist you in getting yourself, your family and your home organized in 2009 (and staying that way!). We hope you’ll be able to find some useful information that might just help you stay on track this year.

Organize your bills:
www.pageonce.com – As companies have increasingly moved from paper to electronic billing, we’ve found ourselves having to remember a litany of Web sites, usernames and passwords to pay our bills now. Pageonce.com enables you to monitor credit card, banking, utility, home mortgage and even some online retail accounts all in one place from your Web browser, BlackBerry or iPhone. Pageonce notifies you when a bill is due so you can avoid late fees, and because you’re storing highly sensitive information on the site, Pageonce proudly touts some heavy-duty security.  As an additional safeguard, you need only to enter your email and zip code when you sign up (no account numbers) and the services are provided in a read-only format, so no one can manipulate your accounts.

Organize your schedule:
www.tabup.com – Okay, so the fun bulletin board layout is cute, but TabUp provides serious organization for your family’s busy schedules. Service and health appointments, meetings, deadlines, events and social calendars can all be tracked on a single Web page. Create and navigate within tabs dedicated to family, money, school, hobbies, youth clubs, sports, health and religion, among others. Within each tab you can set up lists, journal, post photos and add links to other sites. Most importantly, once you’ve gotten yourself super-organized, you can share your tabs with others so they don’t forget obligations either.

**We’re on the lookout for more great organization tools. In the meantime, if you’ve got a great idea to share or a site you love, post it in the comments section below.** 

Are you Covered for a Catastrophe?

The recent rash of fires has forced me to take a look at my homeowners insurance policy to be sure I have adequate coverage on my single-family home in case of a fire.  I think you should too.  Do you know what the limits of your homeowners policy are for the replacement of your home?   Do you just have coverage for the replacement value when you purchased your home, or do you have a policy in place that allows for true replacement value at today's dollars?  Do you have an inventory of the furniture and fixtures in your home, some of which may be custom items you had put in since you bought your home?  Do you know that if the damage to your home is caused by a hurricane or an earthquake, it may not be covered under your standard homeowners protection policy, but may require a special policy for just those events?

Condominium and townhouse owners, and renters for that matter, have more to consider.   Do you know what exactly is covered under the master policy your condo association carries?  Many condo owners do not realize that the master policy does not cover the interior of individual units, only the outside and interior walls and floors.   The policies of the individual owners are responsible for the rest, along with the furniture, fixtures, and other valuables the owners may have.    And one more thing--Do you know what allowance may on your policy for renting another place while repairs are being made?   Often, the allowance the insurance company provides is not enough, and homeowners have to dip into their savings to cover expenses until their home is ready to move back into.

The Insurance Information Institute recommends:

Condominium owners should compare the insurance provided under their community's master policy, which can be found in your condo documents, and their private policy.   Talk to your insurance carrier about closing those gaps, if necessary.

Make a record of the contents of your home and a written list of items, backed up by photos or video.  The Insurance Information Institute has free downloadable software at http://www.knowyourstuff.org/, that may help. 

Check to see if your current policy would cover the cost of replacing you home in today's dollars, not just at old values.

Inquire about flood insurance from the National Flood Insurance Program.

Don't let a disaster catch you unprepared.   Talk to your insurance agent about your policy, if you are not sure if you have adequate coverage.   A few simple steps may may keep a terrible situation from turning into a catastrophe.

Don't Let Lack of Preparedness Compound a Disaster

Yesterday a good friend called to tell me his aunt and uncle were killed in a tragic house fire in D.C.on Christmas Eve, and he is charged with sifting through the rubble to find insurance documents and wills as the family tries to make sense of this tragedy.  His plight reminded me that disaster preparedness is not just for natural disasters, but it is for times like these when someone may have to manage my affairs with very little to work from.  My friend found the information on the home owners insurance policy from a policy number on a canceled check he found in a pile of charred boxes!

As we go into the new year, we should all resolve to heed his warning to me--Make a disaster preparedness plan.    There is great information on simple steps you can take at the AHAA website.  They may take a little time now, but will save countless hours of work on the part of a family member or friend that may have to settle your affairs if you should die unexpectedly or become incapacitated.

There is a lot you can do, but one of the most important steps is to  keep electronic copies of your key documents like insurance policies, wills, and titles to your home and cars; not to mention storing the original copies of these documents in a fire proof box at the bank in a safe deposit box.  There are many off site storage options, including My Document Center, to keep copies of vital documents.  In addition, experts recommend sending a copy of these documents in electronic format to someone you trust, who doesn't live with you for safe keeping.

Don't let a disaster catch you or your family unaware.  Take the time to take some simply steps that will provide both you and your family peace of mind.