Friday, August 10, 2007

*Confessions of an Organized Homemaker* by Deniece Schofield

I received this book from Paperback Swap. I first thought, "Yeah, I'll skim this and put it back on PBS quickly." As I started reading I thought, "I'll keep this one, it will be good for a resource to hand out." As I finished the book I debated what to do - it IS a good book. I found that I was already doing 80% of what she mentions. I could keep it for step by step instructions as I implement some new organization in my kitchen...and it would be nice, I suppose to have to loan out.....but I have so many books kept for that reason - and I NEED TO CLEAR OUT THE BOOKS!!!! I put it back on PBS, where it was on someones wish list. LOL

I really enjoyed the easy style of writing in this book. Deniece shares many great tips. She has quite a bit on setting up a calendar type household notebook. I find that I already did this on my own but my notebook is not small enough to "carry with me". I'm still not convinced that I will go back and get a smaller one...I like that I can easily 3 hole punch most fliers, support group directories etc. and put them right in my notebook. When I set up my notebook I decided NOT to have daily planning sheets. She goes into detail as to WHY this is a good idea and suggests you only keep 2 months of daily sheets in your notebook at a time. That will stretch my already bulging notebook, but I may do this.

Other ideas that I may implement are: storing spices in a plastic bin that can be pulled off the shelf at one time, having a cleaning cart (not sure where to find one of these), plastic dish drainer for storing cleaning supplies in a cupboard.... She has a filing system that is vastly different than our. She says to have 12 folders by month - all bills from January are filed in that folder etc. She recommends this over a seperate folder for each bill....and then ::gasp:: I guess you throw the bills out at the end of the year? I'm not sure I'll implement that one but it does sound like much less paper.....Remember I recently took a whole BOX of files to the attic. ::snort::

She seems to REALLY like dishpans and kitty litter boxes - you'll have to read the book to discover why. ::snort:: The book was a bit dated....it WAS written 13 years ago....but the principles are timeless. You can visit her website for products and ideas.

I recommend this book.

8 comments:

Stephanie said...

Okay. We did this whole bills by the month filing system last year. I switched back to filing by the company this year. It was never easy to locate a bill when I needed them (tax purposes about drove me mad!). I had to sort through 12 folders instead of one. It WAS nice throughout the year becasue it saved the few seccond it takes to locate the correct folder to file away in everytime you do bills...but I prefer the "old" way...and I have boxes of bills in the attic too...hehehe

Cynthia said...

Hey. I LIKE the idea for the spices. Hmmm.. I wonder if I could find anything that would work in our narrow cupboards. I use a lazy susan right now which normally works fine, but I seem to have too many spices at the moment and they keep falling off the back of the lazy susan.

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Cindy - yes....she uses plastic containers for all sorts of things that tend to fall to the back of shelves etc. I like the spice idea. Another idea is a drawer with the labels on the top of the spice jars...not sure I have a drawer big enough....

I have BIG plastic containers of spices and small jars too....maybe I should just put all the small ones in the big containers (which don't fit in the cupboard) and that would clear that space. I'm not sure. LOL

She also says to use only square and rectangle containers - clear - for storage which will save space....I don't know.

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Stephanie - this is JUST what I was thinking about the new system...and the time to convert to the new system. LOL

Anonymous said...

I loved that book. It really helped me when I was going through a very disorganised phase a few years ago. I can't find it now though. I think I must have loaned it out and never got it back! {g}

Debbie said...

We use the monthly system, but we also have a folder for tax things...they are usually the same every year, so I know which ones we will need for our taxes. I like the monthly system and yes we toss everything as each month rolls around to a new year.

Anonymous said...

SIS:

HA! I have a hard time getting rid of receipts also..... What if I need them someday? :(

I got this big desk at some garage sale and ALL the basins Dad got being in the hospital so often the last 16 months make real good containers for more stuff in the drawers. I can get two containers in the back of each drawer plus all the junk in the front foot that I want. :):)

This next week is Office (Dad's part) and garage week at our home. YUCK!! I think we will be then able to play the last 2 1/2 weeks before reporting back to work at school. Fun's a commin!!

l/p

berrypatch said...

Hmm, that is certainly food for thought. I love the idea about filing by month. I don't right now & I truly dislike filing. :-) I like anything that cuts that time down & since we don't file (yet) an itemized tax return (no mortgage) this would make my life SO much easier! Thanks, I may to go looking for this book.