Table of Contents

-Introduction
-Monthly Mission – Garage
-Check Out These Pages! – Relevant pages and new site additions
-The Curse of the Flat Surface

Introduction

Hello Everyone! As usual, time is flying by! We only have a month of school left so we’ve been busy with concerts and open houses and other special events to wind down the year. At the same time, we’re doing more outside yard work and preparing our back yard oasis for fun, relaxation and friends.

I’m also trying to organize what’s happening during our summer break from school. It always goes by so quickly so it’s a good idea to have a basic plan outlined ahead of time. Coincidentally, Cozi has some free downloads of summer calendar planner pages! I love the printout of the whole summer on one page. It’s great for seeing the big picture of where your summer is busy and where it’s not. If you’d like to check out these planner pages, click here.

Get the printable Summer Planning Calendar from Cozi - it's the entire summer on ONE SHEET! Create a free Cozi account by May 31st, and Cozi will send you the 2017 Summer Planners!

If you love to shop online and you're not using Ebates, you're leaving money on the table! Earn cash back for your online purchases you were already making! I have received several "Big Fat Checks" over the years! Check it out. Click on the Ebates logo.

As I sit in my car every morning, I can look around the garage and see things that need to be gotten rid of. My goal is to plan a garage date with my husband to clear out any easy stuff we know we don’t need, and then to work on refinishing one wall of shelves. To read more about the monthly mission for May, click here.

If you prefer to go digital, you might enjoy the Cozi Family Organizer. You can sync everyone's schedules together at no charge.

If you’re in a hurry to put some order back into your home, perhaps Mimi Tanner's unique method will give you that jumpstart. Check out her method at Declutter Fast: How To Get Your Home In Order Almost Immediately.

Here are some pertinent pages on the website you may have missed along with any new pages.

Bedroom Closet Organizing - Guidance to get your bedroom closets organized and functional.

Linen Closet - Do you have a linen closet that's spilling out and you can't find anything? Read here to sort it out.

Home Filing System - Get your home filing organized before tax season gets here.

Meal Planning - Plan ahead for meals to reduce trips to the grocery store and save time.

Time Savers - Here are a few quick time savers to make your day run more efficiently.

The Curse of the Flat Surface

Clutter is naturally drawn to flat surfaces. It’s a magnetic kind of thing. Kitchen counters, tables, night stands, fireplace mantels, TV stands, seats of a couch or chair, top of the bed, floors, you name it! If it’s flat and you can balance your pile on it, it attracts clutter.

Why are we so quick to lay things down instead of simply put them away? I think one big reason is that we’re busy, and we just want to set our stuff down, and we’ll deal with it LATER. Though, later may not come for hours our days, which leads to an accumulation of more clutter and a messy home.

My kitchen has a beautiful peninsula, but it’s usually full of people’s stuff. Things that people don’t know what to do with, where to put it, or they plan to deal with it later. This is also my primary food preparation station, so it’s highly frustrating that this space is often compromised by clutter.

Usually when I walk into the kitchen area, my eyes are drawn to that counter space and it upsets me to see how messy it looked. It also sets the tone for the rest of the counters and flat areas nearby.

So, last week I cleared the whole counter area and shined it up. It’s so beautiful and reflective. I have just a couple of functional but decorative items on it now, along with our pet fish. But it’s clean and beautiful and it’s the focal point of the room. And I’ve been protecting it daily. I hope this can continue indefinitely.

What flat surface is your biggest offender? Your counters, a coffee table, a bed side table? Pick one flat surface that just drives you crazy and take 15 minutes to clean off that flat surface. Put something decorative on it so that it’s not just an empty flat surface looking for something to sit on it. Check back daily to make sure it stays clear.

What about the stuff you removed from the flat surface? Put it away, deal with it or throw it away. Make sure revisiting items have a home elsewhere. Their home should not be your flat surface.

Once you’ve got that one flat surface under control, tackle another one! My next most annoying flat surface is our dinner table. I’ll let you know how that goes.


Until next time, happy organizing!

Tracy Greene
Plan-and-Organize-Life.com