Day 2 - Computer Desk (21 Day Organizing)

This one isn't too bad since I did it last week.  But there are some things that could be done.  I got a bag of garbage and plus found a couple items I was looking for the other day!
Before:



After:

This is feeling good getting some junk out of my way! 

Trying to be Organized this School Year!

I know in my world organizing and kids don't mix but I'm going to give it a try.  Can't hurt right! 

I've always packed their lunches, made sure their backpacks are by the front door, they have jackets, and made sure they brought what they needed to school.  This year I'm feeling they need to be a bit more responsible for themselves.  They are 7 and 9...LOL!  My 9 yr old wants a phone really bad but if I don't make sure he has his lunch box/backpack he will leave it behind and call me an hour later asking for me to bring it (BTW I don't-unless it is an emergency).  Teaching them to be responsible plus organized, let's see how that goes. 

Here is MY PLAN:

• I'm going to make CHECKLISTS for before and after school duties.  I have a door in our kitchen that I plan to hang up everything on it- ONE PLACE!  What a concept!  I will remind them to check it daily.
• Along with the checklist there will be a SCHEDULE. Morning, After-School, Before Bed. Mainly something to keep me on schedule and prepared!  Pack lunches and pick clothes the night before will be on there of course.
• Set up a FAMILY CALENDAR.  Each of us will have our own color (guess what my color will be..LOL) and we will write down stuff like school events, dad's big airbrush jobs, mom's meetings and other FAMILY stuff.  My son just started football so of course that will be going on there too!  This will help with time conflicts too.
• We will have a SCHOOL BINDER that I can put all stuff related to school in so we are not digging around for it the day it is due. 
• I want one place to hold all homework items (crayons, pens, pencils, papers) and NOT in their room.  I'm going to assign each kid a shelf in the cupboard in the kitchen.  We do homework at the kitchen table and then everything is easy to get.  I don't want them to share anything because my kids tend to FIGHT over who has what so each will have their own supplies. 
• I made YEAR BOXES out of Costco cereal boxes for each kid.  They will be able to put in whatever they want to keep from school, bday cards, invites, pictures, and special papers.  At the end of the year we go through it and pick out what really needs to be saved and we put the box up for them look thru later in life.  This will be the 3rd year doing this. 

Well the PLAN sounds good, right?  What are you doing to get ORGANIZED for school?  Let's share our ideas.

Organizing Facebook "Likes"

I have over 1000 Facebook "likes"- from products, blogging friends, social media, stuff I want, kid pages, and so on...you get the picture.  I have a hard time keeping up with all the daily posts because there is a lot of posts going on through out the day...and who can spend all their time on FB is beyond me!   So I got this brilliant (lol) idea to organize the fan pages I like.  Facebook is very hard to understand or even maneuver around- or maybe it is just me.  But TODAY I figured it out and my life on Facebook is going to be so much easier.
Since I'm not a computer guru I won't have diagrams for you but I'll try my best to write out the instructions the best I can.
Create a LIST:

• Go to Account (right hand corner)
• Click on Edit Friends
• Click on Create a List- I called mine "Fan Pages"
• Click on all of your "Likes" (they are listed after your friends)- it will turn blue when you click on it- check

Need to ADD to a LIST:

• Click on your LIST (mine was called Fan Pages)
• Click on button "Add Multiple" 
• Click on whoever you want to add to the list

Each friend/like can be on multiple lists so now I'm going to organize my Fan Page list into sub categories like: Mom Bloggers, Social Media, Kid Stuff, Deals, and Misc.   

Now for the BEST PART....when I just want to look at ONLY my Fan Pages all I need to do is go to News Feed page click on "Fan Pages" and boom all my LIKES are in one page.  It usually says Top News - Most Recent...click on arrow by Most Recent and it gives you several options on what to look at!  I can look at only My Family posts if I want to.  Love it!!

I hope this helps someone organize their Facebook daily experience!  I know it will for me :)

Blogger Organization- How do you do it!

I'm not an expert at this at all so that is why I'm writing this post.  I feel like I'm all over the place- here and there and around that corner too!  I struggle with this day to day in just my life so thinking I would be an organized blogger is FUNNY! 

My search came up with these useful tools:

The Niche Blogger Blogging Organizer Workbook: Keep Track Of And Organize Your Blogs  WOW sounds like winner here. 
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Cool online ToDo list: http://todo.ly/
Easy to do and I set up some projects on it so lets see if this helps. Also you can color code it! So far I likey!   I got this info from http://www.bloggingot.com/blogging-tools/become-an-organized-blogger-with-todo-ly/.  Besides finding this cool site on there- Blogging OT is filled with some incredible info for bloggers.  Wow, looks like I might be spending some time on this site!  See this is why I don't get stuff done- distractions always get me.

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HOLD ON...found a really cool site that might work better than the above because I can get it sent to me by email: https://www.rememberthemilk.com/  It also has some bells and whistles that I'm loving.  The one thing I really like it has a weekly planner that can be printed...AWESOME! 
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During my search today I came across some great tips and some well I just didn't understand but hey I've only had one mocha today so maybe its not their fault.  Anyways this is what I learned:

1. Planning- list of topics, keywords, have a notebook just for blogging
2. Prepare- write blog post in advance (you know that day you have nothing going on but writing posts :) )
3. Schedule/Routine- calendar when/what/where (I have a couple blogs)

Well lets see if this works!  If you have any other suggestions please let me know. 

8000 Emails....REALLY!

I broke down the other day and went through my emails, it was up to 8000 so about time, right?  I couldn't believe all the emails I get in a day (over a hundred) and maybe about 1/4 of it is important.  Guess its time to unsubscribe to some... you think! 

I did it though and made more folders to keep the emails I need or want (not sure which is it).  It felt good until the next day and I'm up to close to 200 again.  What I need to do is do this on a daily basis (dreaming Pam) but to be organized and on top of it I will need to do that!!!!  GO THRU YOU EMAIL DAILY PAM! 

Let's see how this works out for me...tell you next week how many emails are sitting in my inbox next Thursday :) 

Any other suggestions on how to conquer EMAILS? 

18 Unexpected Organizers~Great Article

My house is in dire need of a SPRING cleaning so I'm getting all my good advice from the web & magazines. Today I came across an article about Unexpected Organizers and they had some awesome ideas.

http://www.rightathome.com/view.aspx?pid=513

That should bring you right to the article.

My "fav" is : #14. Empty suitcases are a missed opportunity! Remember, there are some things you just don’t need to unpack, like your travel hairdryer, electric adapters, sleep mask, neck pillow, earplugs and your restocked travel makeup kit.

I also use my suitcases to store clothes I'm not wearing. I don't travel much, lol!