Nov
16

I'm Midnight Plum; You're Very Berry Kiss

I don't know about you, but I have a stack of keys that would make the maintenance man at the Empire State Building blush. Professional Organizer Beth Ziegler posted an awesome tip on how to keep keys organized on her blog Bneato last month that was picked up by Lifehacker.

500x_102309-bethzeigler 

[Image from Lifehacker]

Give your keys a nice shiny coat of nail polish to tell which belongs to which door, lock, or mystery trunk. If you have a particularly old key, you might try cleaning it with nail polish first. It'll take off any oil or grime that's on it and help the polish stick better.

Sidenote... Beth Ziegler = awesome. She writes for the equally awesome Apartment Therapy and I've added her RSS feed to my list (though I had a hard time deciding if I should file her under organization or cool design...hmmm).

Nov
13

Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day!!!

Sunday, November 15th is National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day. It's perfect timing to clean out  the fridge before holiday food and leftovers start piling up!

Here at Rubbermaid, we are encouraging all bloggers to clean out their fridge but I was a little curious to see what was in there to begin with. Let's just say some of the photos below are gross and offer good encouragement to clean out those refrigerators and others offer some good advice for how to keep your fridge clean!

Betty fridge

Betty's says: Here is my fridge. It’s driving me nuts because it’s usually very clean. Shelves are usually dedicated to certain categories of food. I have just the right Rubbermaid food containers to house my family of 3’s leftovers, but…

This week-end I had my parents visiting, had a chili party and then another dinner party and I’m over run with left-overs, specialty food and snacks that I typically don’t eat and nothing is where it belongs. I’m literally digging thru stuff to find things.

AAUUGGGHHH!

Brian

Brian says: I’m not sure what this is. Despite our armada of Rubbermaid Food Storage containers my wife sometimes reverts to old ways and wraps something in a combination of tin foil and plastic wrap. It’s as if she’s preserving a mummy for the afterlife. Needless to say I have no clue what it is……could be anything from meatloaf to ginger loaf.

Baking soda 2 copy

Rob says: Baking soda helps to control smells in the fridge, but these pics are of my girl friend's fridge and she is strict about what stays in there…   she had nothing in there that was even close to being bad. Me on the other hand ….

Bo

Bo says: A normal person would put ice cubes in this container. Not me... Try year old bananas and some cut up apples that are so wrinkly they look like leather. Yummy

Megan

Megan says: As I was taking several pictures of the inside, I realized that the outside of my fridge is quite the mess with all of the stuff I have posted up on the fridge with magnets.

AKehl Freezer

Ashleigh says: I have a bottom load freezer that drives me insane.  I can’t for the life of me find a way to organize it aside from just throwing things in and mashing them around till I can shut the drawer. 

Leftovers.shannon

Shannon says: This is a picture of chicken with potatoes and carrots in the crockpot.  It didn’t turn out that great to begin with, and then after sitting in the fridge for a couple of weeks – blah.

So how is your fridge looking? Take some time Sunday to clean out your fridge. Take before and after pictures and post them on your blog...leave a link in the comments or link back to this post so we can commiserate with your mess and celebrate your clean out achievement!!!! Don't have a blog? Twitter, Facebook, or Flickr it :)

Nov
11

Organizing Doesn't Have to Be Beautiful - Lessons from the Office

Every year, we make a calendar for Rubbermaid.com.  We try to put some thought behind the times of year when people will most like to know about which products and tips, as it relates to seasons / holidays where they make the most sense.

The project sat on my desk in folders for at least 3 weeks, as I wasn't able to really get "inspired" to work on it since I knew it would make a huge mess of my desk and I would need to complete it from start to finish.  I kept putting it off since I never had more than an hour at a time and I didn't want to get started, only to have to pack it up.

However, with pressure of an imminent deadline, I got an idea to work on it continually by pinning the different themes to different areas of my cubicle.  Below is a photo of the process.

Crazy wall

Only Erin could understand my logic, and I got a lot of strange looks, but the result was an organized system where we could then re-arrange and brainstorm ideas in half hour increments.  I was able to finish everything in a few days.

Through this I learned that organizing doesn't necessarily always need to be beautiful.  Sometimes, just setting up a functional system can help you get your thoughts organized.  Additionally, sometimes you have to get a little messy to get things finally in order.  I am proud to report that we got our calendar figured out, and since, the "crazy wall" has come down and the content is now categorized in a binder. However, without this exercise it wouldn't have happened.  So my advice is: don't be afraid to make a mess!

Nov
09

Confessions of a Disorganized Blogger

Ok, I have a couple of confessions. 

First confession: I come to blogging reluctantly.  The thought of blogging has always seemed like one more thing to keep up with in my already very full life. But with some encouragement from my colleagues I’ve decided to take the plunge.  (I consider it an opportunity for personal growth) 

Second confession: – I struggle with organization.  It’s been somewhat my life’s mission to someday conquer the beast of disorganization.  Ironically, I work for a company that is all about organization.  We talk about it all the time!  It’s kind of embarrassing to struggle with these issues in the midst of a lot of people who seem to just “get it”. 

On the other hand, working for Rubbermaid has been a big source of inspiration for me as I’ve tacked some of my organizational challenges.  The more I thought about it, I concluded that perhaps something I’ve struggled with, experienced, solved, might be of help to someone else and that appealed to me.  So here it goes.  .  .

I’ll start with a small hurdle.  (I think I read somewhere once that it’s good to start small and simple then work your way up to bigger challenges).  I organized my bows.  Big deal, right?  Well, it was for me. 

Previous state:  Bows were stashed in sundry places throughout the house - (in the guest room closet, in a drawer under the guest room bed, in the attic with the Christmas gift wrap and decorations).  Usually they were still in the original bags so when I would go to retrieve them, half were smashed and unusable. Often I couldn’t find the color I really needed so would end up going out and buying more. Perhaps I wanted a red bow, but since that was a holiday color it was in the attic and it was a pain to retrieve.  In the midst of this, I was in a hurry, wrapping the gift at the last minute (story of my life) in jeopardy of being late, dashing out the door, stressed . . . you get the picture.  Something had to be done to wrangle these pesky bows under control. 

Enter the Rubbermaid soft-sided holiday tote . . .

Blog - Bows - Knitting 001- Closed tote


Blog - Bows - Knitting 004 - Bows top view I used the internal ornament dividers to create sections and then organized all of my bows by color and size. 

  • Now I can pull down the box, flip open the lid and see at a glance my entire inventory.
  • It’s easy to spot and retrieve just the right bow for the occasion.
  • The structure of the box keeps my bows safely stowed so that they no longer get smashed.

And when I inevitably hit the after holiday sales and replenish my supply, each bow finds its way into its new home, the bag is discarded and I’m all set to go for the next gift-wrapping occasion.  It’s a little thing, but it makes me happy.

This victory gave me the confidence to tackle my next project, my yarn stash, which I will cover in my next post .  .

Nov
06

Tis' the Season... for HEALTHY snacking!

With the holidays around the corner, I can nearly smell the baked goodness mayhem that will undoubtedly find its way to my hips.  As a method to ward off extra holiday pounds, I find that keeping healthy snacks on hand a great way to avoid sugar cravings.

The 2 cup Produce Saver,also known as my Pound Saver, keeps my grapes fresh and ready for me to snack on at work.  It seems that work is my weakness, as all my co-workers are fantastic cooks and love to bring in munchies to share.  Share the wealth, not the weight. HA!

Another Produce Saver awaits me in the refrigerator stuffed with celery for my mid-afternoon crash and burn that never fails to send me straight to the vending machine.  A little reduced-calorie/fat peanut butter to spread on my celery helps curb my craving and gives me a little pick-me-up to help finish the day.

It's the small things that keep me from feeling the guilt when I decide to indulge in a slice of homemade pumpkin pie. 

PS - grapes

 

A website for other tips on healthy snacking at work: http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/easy-healthy-workplace-snacks