Table of Contents

-Introduction
-Did you know?
-Monthly Mission – Bathrooms
-What’s New on Plan-and-Organize-Life.com – Recent site additions
-How to Dispose of Unused Medications

Introduction

Happy October everyone! This is my favorite month of the year. I love the transition to fall with the colors and smells and of course Halloween. Got your costume made, bought, or at least picked out? I’m actually going to make my kids costumes this year so I need to get them started asap!

According to a study conducted by a Boston marketing firm, the average American burns 55 minutes a day - roughly 12 weeks a year - looking for things they know they own but can't find. (Newsweek 6-7-04)

That’s a lot of wasted time. Think how if you decluttered and organized your belongings so you could find them quickly, you could spend that 55 minutes reading a book, watching a favorite TV show, get some exercise, run some errands, or just take a nap. The possibilities are endless. What would you do with an extra 55 minutes a day?

For information on how to tame the clutter in your bathroom, visit the monthly mission for October here.

Here are some of the more recently added pages to the website you may have missed.

Streamline Your Morning Routine - Ideas to help you get out the door in the morning and be on time for work or school.

Storage Shed Organization - Before and after photos of my storage shed reorganization project.

Toy Organizing Project - After Christmas I had to do some toy re-organizing. Here is a before and after of my little toy organizing project.

Bathroom Drawer Make Over - How to organize a bathroom drawer, an example with before and after photos.

Stop Clutter - Quick simple tips on how to stop the clutter from coming into your home in the first place.

Organizing Your Magazines - Suggestions to help you downsize your piles of magazines and how to store them neatly.

Organize Your Junk Drawer - take control of that drawer you toss stray items into. Give it purpose with a few minutes and a little organization.

Organize Your Refrigerator - some simple guidelines to help you use your refrigerator more efficiently and waste less food.

Recently when I went through my medicine cabinets, I found a container of expired pain killers. I was hesitant to just toss them in the garbage like I used to and decided to see if I could find some information on exactly what we’re supposed to do with expired drugs.

In 2007 the first federal guidelines were released as developed by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the FDA.

Basically it says to follow disposal instructions on the drug label. If there are no instructions, toss them in the garbage after you make them undesirable by mixing them with something like coffee grounds or kitty litter. You’ll also want to use a black marker to hide any identifiable information on the container.

You can also see if your community has a take-back program for unused medications. Contact your local government for this information.

You can read the complete guidelines which also talk about environmental concerns by clicking here.

You may want to use these guidelines for over-the-counter medications as well. They can still be harmful to children or adults if taken in large amounts. Better to be safe than sorry.

Until next time, happy organizing!

Sincerely,

Tracy Greene
Plan-and-Organize-Life.com

P.S. Sometimes links to website pages get broken. If a link doesn't work, you may need to copy and paste the entire link into your browser.