Posts by Sharon Lowenheim
File Cabinets Get Full
When’s the last time you went through every file in your file cabinet and purged what you no longer need? I was motivated to do so recently because I wanted to update my Afterlife file.
As you may recall, I set up an Afterlife file several years ago so that my loved ones would have the information they needed if I became incapacitated or died. You can see more about that process in my post Planning Your Afterlife.
At the beginning of this year, I decided to update the information in my Afterlife file. Included in that file are where the important documents can be found in our file cabinet. While updating the list of important documents, I decided to review EVERY folder. That led to a purge that I worked on sporadically until mid-February!
It also led to my handing over to my adult daughter many files that related to her upbringing and young adulthood. We sat down together and went through the files and she took home only what she considered important (or highly nostalgic). The rest went into the shredder.
My file cabinet is so spacious now that it’s a pleasure to file or retrieve something. Some of the easy wins were papers that I have not looked at since I filed them away, or papers that have been superseded by other papers.
When prospective clients call me because they need help organizing paper, I always ask them if they have a file cabinet. The usual answer is “Yes, but it’s full”. The file cabinet in your home should not be just a historical vault. It’s hard to get a handle on managing your current paperwork if there’s no place where you can reliably store it.
So if it has been a while since you reviewed the contents of your file cabinet, dig in. Do only a few files at at time so that it doesn’t require a huge time commitment. You’ll be glad that you did.
My dog Brandy enjoyed keeping my papers warm while I purged!
Declutter, define, discard: seven easy and cheap home organization tips, from experts
Everything Old is New Again
Two and a half years ago, I wrote about losing my watch. (See Use What You Have, Part 3). As I explain in that post, I decided to wear my late mother’s old watch instead of buying a new one to replace the Swatch watch that disappeared.
I’ve been happily wearing that watch ever since. It’s so comfortable, and I love the expansion band. It stays on my wrist instead of sliding up and down my arm like the bracelet watch did.
The only thing that bothered me about that watch was the slightly scratched crystal. I tend to have close encounters with walls and furniture, and it mars the surface of the watch without breaking it. When I wore a Swatch, I used to occasionally stop in the Swatch store and they could buff the scratched crystal until it looked like new.
So when I recently had to take my watch to the jeweler to have the battery replaced, I asked if he could remove the scratches from the crystal. He said he couldn’t, but he could replace the crystal. I gave him the go-ahead.
A couple of days later, I picked up my watch at the jeweler’s and was astounded. It looked like a brand new watch! It no longer looks like an old hand-me-down. It’s so shiny!
It got me thinking that if we take care of what we already own instead of going out to buy something new, we could help to stem the tide of what comes into our homes.
[Here’s a fun coda to the lost watch story. Last year, I decided to clean out the “bag of bags” that lives in my entryway closet because it was getting too full. I dumped the bags out onto my living room rug, and what fell out last? My Swatch watch! I have no idea how it ended up in there, and of course it wasn’t someplace I looked when I first noticed the watch was missing. It’s now in my jewelry box as a backup watch if the one I’m wearing ever breaks down.]
Where Do Your Keys Go?
When I first became a Professional Organizer and began working from home, I discovered that my husband often left for work and then returned a few minutes later because he had forgotten his keys, his wallet, his work ID, or his transit card. I set up a tray for him in the entryway closet so that he could place his items there when he got home at night and then easily refill his pockets again in the morning.
This tray has a tendency to get cluttered, as his pockets sometimes contain business cards, receipts, visitor passes, meeting badges, prescriptions, etc. This has the effect of obscuring the things he needs to put back in his pockets the next morning, and when that happens, he forgets to take stuff with him. I remind him every few months to clean out the tray and remove any extraneous items.
I decided recently that there were two things we could do to help ameliorate this problem. The first was to make sure that the tray was at his eye level. He’s a lot taller than I am, and I suspected that he was not able to see it as well as I could. So I rearranged a few items in the closet and moved the tray up to a higher shelf.
The second solution was to get a new tray that has dedicated spaces for his various items. The current tray was just one big flat space. I measured the existing tray, as well as the size of his different items, and then combed the internet for a tray the right size with adjustable sections. I found one on Amazon that fit the bill.
Here’s what the original tray looked like in the closet:
And here’s a bird’s eye view of the new tray, with a place for each item:
He has rearranged the layout a few times to better position the things he uses at home, such as his iPhone and his glasses. But it’s much easier for him to find what he’s looking for. And if he encounters an empty section while he’s loading up to go outside, it’s easier to realize that something is missing.
Do you spend too much time looking for your keys when you are trying to leave the house? If so, then I recommend setting up a solution near the front door, whether it’s a tray, a drawer, a hook, or a wall organizer.
Locating Electrical Outlets More Conveniently
A couple of weeks ago, I was in my spare bedroom plugging in my electric Chanukah menorah and cursing the inconvenient placement of the electrical outlet nearest to the window. To be more precise, I was cursing the placement of a heavy bed right in front of this outlet. I had to crawl on the floor to get behind the bed to plug in an extension cord. And I knew that 8 days later, I would have to do the same crawl to unplug it.
When my daughter lived in that room, we had a power strip emerging from behind the bed, providing the juice for all of her devices as well as a clock radio and bedside lamp. After she moved out, we turned the room into my husband’s home office and we moved the power strip over to his desk (another piece of furniture that blocks an outlet!) Since we don’t usually plug in anything over there anymore except for a lamp, it hasn’t been an issue until now.
Not long after, I got an email from one of my favorite websites, Wirecutter. This is a site run by the New York Times to test all sorts of products and weigh in on their favorites. This particular email included a product that was exactly what I needed: an Electrical Outlet Extender by EZ Outlet. It has a rotating plug so that it can go into outlets of any orientation, as well as a 22-inch wand (which can extend up to 34 inches) to allow you position the outlet wherever it’s most convenient. Command-like strips are provided to adhere the new outlet to the wall.
This photo shows you the new outlet positioned on the wall. It is now very convenient to plug something into that outlet. No moving of heavy furniture is required.
In addition to the two electrical outlets, the outlet extender comes with two USB outlets on one edge: a USB-A and a USB-C. Unfortunately, because of where I needed to position it, the USB outlets are on the bottom and not easily accessible. However, if we have guests come to stay (it’s also our guest room), I volunteer to crawl on the floor and plug their cords into those USB outlets!