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Forum
-> Household Management
-> Organizing
amother
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 Wed, Oct 12 2022, 4:10 pm
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I don't know if you ever had the moment that you go to the fridge because you are hungry looking for something to eat open the fridge but just can't find anything you are in the mood of even the the fridge is more than half full... well that is what the situation was today and I realized that there have been things sitting here for a while which have been getting moldy or soft etc...
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benny
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Sun, Oct 23 2022, 9:43 am
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I didn’t read through all 6 pages so my apologies if this question was already posted. What do you do about kids stuff/prizes? I once heard someone suggest- give each kid a box for their stuff and they keep whatever fits in there. If they get something new they need to make room in the box for it but getting rid of something else. Any links to a good box that works for this? Any other ideas for kids stuff?
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zaq
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Sun, Oct 23 2022, 1:37 pm
Ladies, you don't need to buy special containers for things unless you're preserving valuable artifacts that need special treatment, for example a wedding gown or antique books and documents. Professional wedding-gown cleaners can both clean your gown and fold it into an acid-free lidded box with a clear window so you can look at the gown without exposing it to air and dirt until such time as someone wants to wear it.
For ordinary day-to-day stuff like baby toys that you're putting away for the next child, clean cartons that you buy at a stationery store if you must, or, if you're so lucky, collect from the copy room at work, will do just fine. As has been pointed out, cartons from the grocery store are iffier because they're likely to harbor bugs. What's important is that the boxes or bins fit the space you've designated for storage. I was lucky enough to have beds under which standard copier-paper cartons fit perfectly, but if the cartons would have been too tall, I'd have trimmed them to size. In fact, I did trim a couple down to about five inches high to store fashion boots when the original cartons gave up the ghost.
The beauty of cartons as opposed to plastic bins is that, once you no longer need them, they can go right in the paper recycling and you don't have to mourn the money you spent on them or keep them around cluttering up your house "just in case. " However, if you're storing things in a basement, attic or garage, all of which are prone to flooding or leaks as well as wildlife infestation, airtight plastic is the way to go.
Always, always, the size of container depends on how much space you want to dedicate to a given purpose, and the configuration of that space. Measure three times, buy once. The box you give each kid for storing his or her personal treasures can be any size you want, from a shoebox to a copier paper carton. I recommend going smaller rather than larger. Practice in making difficult choices such as which art project or birthday card or book or toy to keep is excellent training for adult life, when such choices must be made on a daily basis.
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amother
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Sun, Oct 23 2022, 2:10 pm
| amother OP wrote: | | Thanks ! sounds good ! Would you suggest that I write down the books I discard or my brain will remember it the next time I would "need" it ? (I acknowledge this question is coming from a place of fear) |
Take a picture of each book cover and print it in a photo book for reference.
Side point, love your book collection. I own and have read some of those books. You sound like my kind of girl😎
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amother
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Tue, Nov 08 2022, 5:16 pm
Now I am up to files/document/old notes ,awards from high school etc..
Basically a whole stacks of papers here and there which I kept doubting to keep or not but now definitely a lot of them are irrelevant
How o I decide on this one ?
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amother
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Tue, Nov 08 2022, 5:24 pm
| amother OP wrote: | Now I am up to files/document/old notes ,awards from high school etc..
Basically a whole stacks of papers here and there which I kept doubting to keep or not but now definitely a lot of them are irrelevant
How o I decide on this one ? |
Scan to computer and then shred them.
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amother
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Tue, Nov 08 2022, 5:46 pm
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but what do I keep/discard
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GrowingUp
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Tue, Nov 08 2022, 5:59 pm
How long ago was high school? And when have you last referenced/looked at these papers?
Ive kept anything that I wanted to show my kids or refer back to. So mainly report cards, some writings (I want to get back in to writing one day) and a report or two.
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amother
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Tue, Nov 08 2022, 6:13 pm
Over 20 years ago
In addition to that I have
Medical records
Health food charts
Electric , phone , gas bills etc
Insurance claims...(denials approvals..)
Articles I wrote
Divrei Torah...
Pictures of family ...
And more..
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amother
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Tue, Nov 08 2022, 6:52 pm
| amother OP wrote: | Over 20 years ago
In addition to that I have
Medical records
Health food charts
Electric , phone , gas bills etc
Insurance claims...(denials approvals..)
Articles I wrote
Divrei Torah...
Pictures of family ...
And more.. |
Medical records you should scan so you can refer back to them if necessary. If they are still current/relevant, put into the "Important Documents" folder where you keep your birth certificates etc. Otherwise shred.
Health food charts - if you're not using, get rid of
Electric/phone/gas bills - get rid of. You can always get the info from the company if you absolutely need it.
Insurance claims - scan and shred.
Articles you wrote: Keep one copy, scan, and discard any other copies
Divrei Torah: Put in Shaimos. (If you wrote them and are proud of them, see above "Articles you wrote")
Pictures of family: Get cheap album and put them inside. Don't worry about sorting, organizing, etc. That can be a project for later if you ever want to.
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zaq
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Tue, Nov 08 2022, 6:56 pm
I second the idea of scanning and then shredding your records from all but the last school you attended. Obviously you need to keep diplomas from HS and later, or your elem diploma if that's as far as your formal education went. If you have a college degree, we can safely assume that you successfully completed grade school; you have no need of the certificate proving that you did.
For advice on what to keep as far as documents go, see
https://www.thespruce.com/how-.....48494
https://topshelfhomeorganizing.....ents/
https://bettermoneyhabits.bank.....ears.
Warranties, owners' manuals--keep only for as long as you own the item. Once you no longer own the item, there's zero point to hanging on to the owner's manual.
I have a friend who still has every report card he got in grade school. Grade school! He's got a college degree, who cares how good he was in grade school? If I had been a terrible student in grade school, managed to graduate college (or not) and had a successful career, I might wish to have a bad grade school or HS report card to show youngsters that doing badly in grade school doesn't mean you won't do well in life. But I would leave it as ONE bad report card--I'd keep the worst one and burn the rest. Success in grade school, even HS means nothing after a few years. Unless you were a star in grade school and never did anything noteworthy after that, which would be pretty pathetic, you don't need to hold on to every last shred of proof of your former glory.
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amother
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Tue, Nov 08 2022, 7:08 pm
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Thanks for the answers !!
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amother
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Sun, Nov 27 2022, 5:42 pm
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Now I am up to email clean up. How many in my inbox is normal enough to have at a time , what do I archive and what to delete ?
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amother
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Sun, Nov 27 2022, 6:35 pm
| amother OP wrote: | | Now I am up to email clean up. How many in my inbox is normal enough to have at a time , what do I archive and what to delete ? |
The ideal is "inbox zero," meaning it's empty.
Many emails are simply incomplete "to do" items, so you write down your To Do's and get them out of your inbox. If they can be taken care of in under 5 minutes, just do it right away.
All "sale" emails should be promptly trashed when you get them, since Gmail gives you 30 days before fully deleting. If you decide to shop, check your deleted emails for coupon codes. By 30 days, they will be expired. (If you have an actual gift card code, don't delete that.)
In general, you need to balance your need to have a fully curated email account with the amount of time that will take. I just archive pretty much everything. Google's search features are very good, and I can easily find what I'm looking for, even among tens of thousands of emails.
If there is a particular important email that you're keeping in your inbox for reference, make an "IMPORTANT REFERENCE" label, slap it onto all of those emails, and archive them too. That way when you're looking you can find it in an instant by choosing that label from your sidebar.
If there are emails you enjoy rereading, give them an "ENTERTAINMENT" label and move along.
No need to label all emails from DH or mom, you can always just search for their email address (from:mom@gmail.com) if you want to pull them up.
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amother
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Sun, Nov 27 2022, 7:03 pm
| amother Blueberry wrote: | The ideal is "inbox zero," meaning it's empty.
Many emails are simply incomplete "to do" items, so you write down your To Do's and get them out of your inbox. If they can be taken care of in under 5 minutes, just do it right away.
All "sale" emails should be promptly trashed when you get them, since Gmail gives you 30 days before fully deleting. If you decide to shop, check your deleted emails for coupon codes. By 30 days, they will be expired. (If you have an actual gift card code, don't delete that.)
In general, you need to balance your need to have a fully curated email account with the amount of time that will take. I just archive pretty much everything. Google's search features are very good, and I can easily find what I'm looking for, even among tens of thousands of emails.
If there is a particular important email that you're keeping in your inbox for reference, make an "IMPORTANT REFERENCE" label, slap it onto all of those emails, and archive them too. That way when you're looking you can find it in an instant by choosing that label from your sidebar.
If there are emails you enjoy rereading, give them an "ENTERTAINMENT" label and move along.
No need to label all emails from DH or mom, you can always just search for their email address (from:mom@gmail.com) if you want to pull them up. | Wow ! Thanks ! I never new about labeling emails. How do I do that ?
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amother
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Thu, Mar 02 2023, 1:34 am
I have a lot of hangers..
How do you decide how many to keep ?
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zaq
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Thu, Mar 02 2023, 1:50 am
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One for each article of clothing you hang, six more in the coat closet for company, six more, including skirt hangers, in each bedroom for overnight guests who may sleep in that room. Adjust numbers if you host many guests at a time. Guest hangers don't have to be heavy-duty if space is an issue. Better a few more thin hangers than too few sturdy ones.
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Bnei Berak 10
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Thu, Mar 02 2023, 4:12 am
| amother Blueberry wrote: | | Alternate perspective: We don't consider books to be clutter (aside for duplicates or ripped/unusable ones). We are happy to have as many as we can get and enjoy having multiple bookcases in multiple parts of the house. If books are clutter for you, yes pare them down, but having a lot of something doesn't automatically make it clutter. |
Books are meant to be read and used.
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Bnei Berak 10
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Thu, Mar 02 2023, 4:19 am
| zaq wrote: | Ladies, you don't need to buy special containers for things unless you're preserving valuable artifacts that need special treatment, for example a wedding gown or antique books and documents. Professional wedding-gown cleaners can both clean your gown and fold it into an acid-free lidded box with a clear window so you can look at the gown without exposing it to air and dirt until such time as someone wants to wear it.
For ordinary day-to-day stuff like baby toys that you're putting away for the next child, clean cartons that you buy at a stationery store if you must, or, if you're so lucky, collect from the copy room at work, will do just fine. As has been pointed out, cartons from the grocery store are iffier because they're likely to harbor bugs. What's important is that the boxes or bins fit the space you've designated for storage. I was lucky enough to have beds under which standard copier-paper cartons fit perfectly, but if the cartons would have been too tall, I'd have trimmed them to size. In fact, I did trim a couple down to about five inches high to store fashion boots when the original cartons gave up the ghost.
The beauty of cartons as opposed to plastic bins is that, once you no longer need them, they can go right in the paper recycling and you don't have to mourn the money you spent on them or keep them around cluttering up your house "just in case. " However, if you're storing things in a basement, attic or garage, all of which are prone to flooding or leaks as well as wildlife infestation, airtight plastic is the way to go.
Always, always, the size of container depends on how much space you want to dedicate to a given purpose, and the configuration of that space. Measure three times, buy once. The box you give each kid for storing his or her personal treasures can be any size you want, from a shoebox to a copier paper carton. I recommend going smaller rather than larger. Practice in making difficult choices such as which art project or birthday card or book or toy to keep is excellent training for adult life, when such choices must be made on a daily basis. |
THIS THIS THIS
I even use a simple shoe box for my laundry pegs as it fits the storage drawer perfectly.
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Bnei Berak 10
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Thu, Mar 02 2023, 4:59 am
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OP, seems to be an enormous project you are doing! Impressive!
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