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Our newsletters are published quarterly in April, August and December.
We are happy to provide the past few newsletters below, just in case you wish to
preview an issue, or if for some reason you did not receive your current issue.
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Back
Welcome to the Winter edition of the Pea Organizing Services Newsletter! I hope that you will find tips to help you organize your life and your living space. If you have an organizing question that is not answered in this newsletter, please feel free to contact me. We will be launching our newly revamped Web site with more information and free tips in early November, so be sure to check it out! Thanks for subscribing and have a peaceful, organized holiday season
- Kristin White del Rosso, Pea Organizing Services.
Winter Organizing Opportunities
Winter brings a new set of clothing, upcoming holidays and the challenge of boots, mittens and coats. Here are some tips to make winter a little more organized.
Clip boots together with spring-loaded wooden clothespins. Write each family member's name on a clothespin with indelible ink. Make another set for mittens. During wet winter weather, have a coat tree or wall peg in the garage or laundry room for each family member. Hang up the coat, clip the mittens to the lapel, and clip boots together under the coat in a place where everything can dry out.
Synchronize your calendars. Sit down with a blank full month calendar for November and December. Pencil in all known upcoming obligations. Don't forget trips to see family, holiday special events, children's choir or seasonal programs, etc. Circulate the calendar to all family members to make sure everything gets a reservation. Now block off time for shopping, must-do cooking/baking, and gift/event preparation. If everything doesn't fit, call a family meeting to determine what can be cut, or to divide up tasks to make large jobs manageable.
Holiday Travel Tips
If you choose to travel over the holidays, consider sending gifts on ahead. Wrap and ship early, or order from a catalog and have them delivered to your destination to cut down on cargo.
Assemble maps, hotel reservation information and hotel phone numbers, directions and other essentials and put them together in one small canvass tote bag. If you repeat the trip seasonally or annually, keep the kit together and put it in a safe place between trips. Update information after each trip with new information for reminders for next year.
Inexpensive blank note cards and a fresh box of crayons can keep children busy "designing" their own holiday cards for hours in the car. Consider getting a lap desk for budding road artists-a plastic writing surface with a beanbag backing for over your legs makes it easy to draw on the go and can be found for under $10.
Plan to make the trip festive. Pack a thermos of instant hot chocolate. Bring a bag of holiday cookies. Put all your holiday CDs in one pack and play them back to back. If your vehicle has a DVD player, gather, borrow or rent holiday movies for on the road to get everyone in the spirit. Make the trip part of the holiday itself.
Organizing the Holiday Season
Do you know where your decorations are? Consider buying see-through large organizing boxes for each holiday you celebrate. Store items together that are displayed together. You can use boxes with color coded lids as well. For example, red for Christmas and blue for Hanukah. If you have more than one Christmas tree, store the downstairs tree ornaments and lights in one box, the children's tree ornaments and lights in another box.
Put your holiday card list on the computer. That way, you only have to update it from year to year, and you can print out labels instead of handwriting envelopes. Many word processing programs will also print a return address. Involve the whole family in signing cards. Put in a movie, give everyone a festively colored pen, and have them sign the cards to their special friends.
Create your own holiday journal. In one section, collect gift ideas. Reserve one page for each person on your list. For family members, start by passing the book around and having the person write down several ideas of things they would like to receive. Take the book with you when you shop and record what you bought and the price so you can keep an eye on budget. Make another section for holiday groceries, and write down special ingredients/quantities and seasonal items as you think of them. If something goes on sale, buy in advance and cross it off the list. You can conquer holiday stress with a dose of organization!
What is Hoarding? Part Three in Our Series on Chronic Disorganization
Hoarding is a side effect of chronic disorganization for some people. "Hoarding" means hanging on to much more than a person actually needs, or keeping multiple copies of items beyond what can be reasonably used. Holiday visits can be extremely stressful if a parent or other older relative is a hoarder. Hoarding can make a visit impossible, if all space in the person's house is literally filled with "stuff."
According to the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, some of the reasons people hang on to items they can't use include a fear of losing items, loneliness, concern that unscrupulous people will gain personal information from their trash, and the physical inability to keep up with cleaning. Left unchecked, hoarding can be dangerous, since it creates a fire hazard and can create unsanitary conditions. There are even several reported cases of death by hoarding where people became injured and trapped in their homes due to excessive clutter.
Here is some advice on how to approach an older family member who is a hoarder. First, don't go alone. Create a collaboration with other family members and with protective service organizations, who can send representatives to assess options. Approach the older person with respect, handle the contact face-to-face, and let the older person tell his or her side of the story. Look for an impact on safety and health. Tie in the services of local protective agencies. The right professional organizing firm can also help in this situation acting as an independent third party. Do not throw out items without permission, as this can be disorienting and detrimental.
Recommended Reading
"Holiday List: Organizing the Holidays (List Lovers Journal)" by Jenny Holmes
"Kicking your Holiday Stress Habits" by Donald A. and Nancy L. Tubesing.
"Organizing for Dummies" by Eileen Roth and Elizabeth Miles
Dates and Quotes to Remember
November is National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Month
December 25 - December 31 is It's About Time week and December 31 is Make Up Your Mind Day
January is Get Organized Month! Pea Organizing Services is planning several events to celebrate GO Month including a Messiest Contest, organizing skills workshops at your local Space Savers store and organizing for some worthy local charities. Check our Web site for more upcoming activities.
Thanksgiving is so called because we are all so thankful that it only comes once a year. - P. J. O'Rourke
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