Hello Everyone, Angie from Architecturally Organized here.
How has your January been? Have you been joining in on GO Month?? It has been a lot of fun!!! One thing that is NOT listed on the Go Month Printable – is organizing your books/library!!
Are you an avid reader??? Do you have a favorite genre? Or do you read anything and everything?
I think I fell in love with reading in about 4th or 5th grade… Started out with R.L. Stine Fear Street books (I still have a collection of them!!) which were cheesy scary stories… from there – I moved on to Dean Koontz (I collect all his books – in his name – as well as in his other pen names) – again, more scary stories – but for adults instead of tweens. I also collect Nicholas Sparks books. I was in 10th or 11th grade when my cousin lent me “Message in a bottle” to read… I tell you – I have NEVER cried so hard from a book or movie or anything in my life. I bawled. Seriously!!
Typically I do not save books. I like to share them and pass them on. In my family my grandmother tends to buy books at the local goodwill. After she reads them she sets them aside… Once she has a good little pile they get passed along either to my mom or to me… and then we pass it on… eventually the bag gets back to gram and she gives them back to goodwill.
I have friends and clients who will collect and keep every book they have ever touched and on the other hand I know some people that do not hold on to any books…. There is a wide divide when it comes to keeping books.
For those that do keep books – storing them, showcasing them, organizing them… there are so many ways to do all of those things…. As always – the trick is finding out which way works best for you (you are going to hear me say that way too many times – FYI).
Are you a visual person? Organizing your books by their visual presentation may be the best way for you to keep track of your books…. How would you visually organize your books? Try:
Hard Cover vs Soft Cover
By Color
By Stacking books
Arrange by height and size
Separate and display your favorite books
Separate books you haven’t read
That is just a few ways that you can organize your books in a way to visually have separation or distinction between the books…. For those of you who are more analytical…. You may want a more systematic approach. Try:
Organize by Genre or topic
Alphabetically by Title
Alphabetically By Author
Chronological order
Fiction vs nonfiction
There are numerous ways that you can organize your books… try a few out and see what works best for you. Personally – I…well … I use a couple methods… I separate by Author…. Then I put them in chronological order from that Author. I do that with the few authors that I collect. All other books are grouped by Genre… and then I have a few of my favorite books stacked together….. This works for me. If I am looking for a book I will find it very easily with my method. You may find this bizarre and prefer to keep your books in color order. This is also great! There is no wrong way – only the right way for you!!
Well… that’s it for now!! Stay warm and I’ll talk to you later!!
Hello Everyone, Angie from Architecturally Organized here.
Happy New Year!!!! Hope it was a Healthy and Happy one!!
So here we are… a new Year.. a new Month… and a new Day!! What are you going to do to celebrate this fresh start? What will you organize? What resolutions have you made?
Organizing drawers…closets…rooms in my house… for me that is pretty simple… but for some reason – keeping my electronics organized is a WHOLE other ball game!! My phone.. My email… my computer… ipad… It always gets crammed full of things… So I thought what better way to start the year – than starting it with neat and tidy electronics!!!
That is what I will be focusing on this month!!
I was reading an article and it made me laugh… it gave a list of items… Your desktop has a million icons, your document folder is filled to the brim, you can’t find files…and a few more… These are signs that your computer is not organized efficiently
And unfortunately…I could relate to some of these items!! Which got me thinking… I really need to sit down and organize my computer! So here we are!! (click on the underlined text above to read the Article). Now it goes a little more in depth with file naming and organizing… but it is a good read!
Let’s do it… let’s organize our Computers!!
First things first… we will Purge!!
As Elle Woods would say… the Rules of Haircare Organizing are Simple and Finite!! I am sorry for that… but sometimes you can’t argue with Legally Blonde!! We will Purge out anything we can!! We will remove any and all duplicate files that we have. We will empty out – and by this I mean – temporarily file away and/or throw out unneeded files in – our “download” file folder.
Next is figuring out a proper way to organize your folders.
Everyone is different. There is no right or wrong way… just a “right way” for you. You have to find and build a system that works best for you!
Is this a personal computer or a work computer? Or is it combined? Will you have personal files… Will you separate your business files by project or by client? Will you keep “like with like” – all digital files together, all family files together, all business files together….These are all things you have to ask yourself when trying to create a system that will work for you.
My computer is both personal and business. So I have a plethora of folders!! But creating the right folders and keeping them organized is where it gets tricky for me!!
I have read that it is best to have a few large main folders and a ton of subfolders within them, I have also come across the notion of having one folder on your desktop and within that folder having everything else – that way your desktop remains free and clear. And I won’t lie-there is a big part of me who likes this idea and thinks I will have to try it!!
Another thing to think about is your naming and filing system. You don’t want to have super long file names, but you also want to make sure they are easy to find. For my Business files – I name everything with a date first. 2022-01-03_File Name. This works for me and is my preferred method of file names. You need to find which way works best for you!
But…. You need to be consistent with the file naming!! Don’t change up the way you enter it…don’t forget to put a 0 in front of your single digit month. These are silly little things but can make a big difference when you are trying to search for something!
Something you may be forgetting about… that you really should take advantage of…. is your Taskbar! Make good use of it! Pin the items you use the most. Keep your most used folders pinned there for easy access!
The MOST important thing to do… and the one thing that I am …. Horrible at remembering to do…. Backup your computer!!! Seriously… I don’t know why I haven’t learned by now… There have been a few occasions when my hard drive crapped the bed and I lost everything… I had some things in the cloud and some things in other places so I was (thank god) able to scrounge around and find things… but it was a pain in the butt and no one wants to spend time doing that!! Backup your computer!!!!! Can’t say it too many times!
Lastly – after you have combed through your files and they are in a pristine and organized manner… empty out your trash – or if you are nervous about it, wait a week. See if you find yourself looking for something that you accidentally tossed. After a week or two – if you don’t find yourself digging through the trash – get rid of it!
You can use these steps for your phone, tablet/ipad, etc….
How do you keep your computer organized? Do you have any tips or tricks you would like to share?? Let us know!!
Well… that’s it for now!! Stay warm and I’ll talk to you later!!
Hello Everyone, Angie from Architecturally Organized here.
Are you all ready for Christmas?? Are your presents all wrapped and ready to go? Ya – me neither!! This year I am a little less organized… a little less prepared… oh well…it happens!! No reason to stress! I will get everything wrapped… and everything will still turn out great!!
January is almost here – and with January comes “GO Month”!!!
Which is perfect for me since I am feeling a little un-organized and out of sorts!! What is GO Month you ask!?!? Why it’s Get Organized Month!! LOL. Yes, I am serious! NAPO (National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals) initiated this as a way to help inform and educate non organizing professionals on ways to help organize their homes and lives as well as increase their productivity. Seriously- think about it – I did a post earlier about the domino effects of organizing – and it really is legit. When you are organized you are often: Happier, Healthier, and Productive.
GO Month is celebrated all month long!! I use the term “celebrated” loosely 🙂
So I thought….I would create a monthly chart of small Projects/things for you to tackle during the month of January to keep up with GO Month!! We can call it the January Organizing Challenge! Who’s with me?!?!?!
8×11 January Go Month by Angela Caddy
Each day of the month you can do one small project to help get your home and mind organized. I plan to join along with Social Media posts as I tackle the daily projects and I hope you will join in! Tag me in your posts and add the hashtags!
I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas, and a Healthy and Happy New year!!
Stay warm and I’ll talk to you later!!
Hello Everyone, Angie from Architecturally Organized here.
Today we are going to talk about cleaning out your fridge… Sounds like fun right?? Well… as it turns out-next month hosts a day… November 15th and that day happens to be National Clean out your Fridge day! I swear they have a day for everything!
But figure – it makes sense that they would host it right before the holidays! Now is the time to do a full clean out on that fridge!! Purge and clean!!! Don’t get me wrong – I clean out my fridge weekly (Clean it out Wednesday night as that is the night the garbage goes out!!), I toss any uneaten leftovers, I wipe down any spills that I see…but that is about it… I am not always the best at checking expiration dates (I swear this trait runs in my family!!!)… but if I see something not looking right I will toss it.
So let’s do this!!! Let’s open up our fridge and see what we have inside shall we?!?!?!! Just like my post about the 8 steps of Organizing…. What was step 1?? Pick a space and stick with it – That is what we are going to do…go shelf by shelf, one at a time…
We will begin with the Purge!!!
Start by throwing out any expired food you see. Toss out anything that you will not use before it is expired-better yet, if you know of a family or friend who would use it-ask them if they want it (some may think this sounds weird – but my friends and family are close and will share pretty much everything lol). If you have unopened items that you never got around to using – but most likely won’t ever use – look into donating it to a food bank.
Do this for EACH shelf, drawer, rack, etc in your refrigerator AND your freezer!! Then move on to the next phase….Cleaning! Ya – this part is not exactly super fun.. But once your fridge is cleaned and organized you will feel so much more happy!! Ok – wipe everything down… your drawers, your shelves, etc… scrape that gunk that is in the back corner that you didn’t know had spilled.. Clean it up good so we can move onto the fun stuff!!
We are spick and span clean and now its time to Organize!!! Hold up – don’t go putting things right back where they were.. Believe it or not, but some thought needs to go into the organizing order of operations!!
There are so many tiktok videos of beautifully organized and color organized refrigerators out there… but one thing I have noticed.. They don’t always take into consideration where they are putting items/vs how pretty it looks. Yes… where you put items really does matter!! And I am not just talking about veggies and fruit in the crisper drawers.
Think about it in Zones… your fridge has a few of them…
Zone 1 – The Door: this is obviously not the coldest place in the fridge as it gets blasts of warm air anytime the door opens. This is where you want to store condiments. Soda. Juice. Butter. Items with preservatives go here… things that will not spoil quickly. I know that there is an egg compartment in the door, but please… use it for your butter and DO NOT store your eggs here!! Your milk does not want to be stored in the drawer either. You may drink a lot of it and use it up fast – but tell me.. What sounds better to you… a glass of cold-ish milk or an ice cold glass of milk??? Exactly.
Zone 2 – The Top Shelf. This is also one of the warmer spots in your fridge (with the door as the warmest). This is where your leftovers should be kept. This is where foods that have already been, OR do not need to be, cooked should be placed. The temperature in this area tends to hold steady.
Zone 3 – Middle shelf. This shelf stays pretty cold (typically you will get colder as you go down each shelf). This is the area where you want to store your dairy. Your milk, cheeses, eggs can all be placed here!
Zone 4 – Bottom shelf. This is typically the coldest part of the fridge. This is where you want to store your raw meat and your fish. I have a designated bin in my fridge and in this bowl goes frozen meat that is being thawed. If for some reason there is a hole or puncture to the frozen packaging – any spills or leaks of thawed meat juice is contained in the bin and allows for easy clean up and no contamination!!
Zone 5 – The Crisper Drawer – Where you keep your Fruits and Veggies. Now you don’t want to put all fruit in one drawer and all veggies in another drawer. Your fruit and veggies can be combined – what you want to look out for is the amount of ethelyne each produces – that is what you want to combine by….keep high ethylene producing produce away from other produce that does not produce as much. This gas will promote faster ripening (and over ripening!!).
There we go – that wasn’t so bad was it?!?! Just think, now you have so much room to store leftover stuffing and pumpkin pie!!!!
What is your favorite Thanksgiving Leftover??
Hello Everyone, Angie from Architecturally Organized here.
Sunday October 3rd kicks off “Get Organized Week” aka GO Week!! Not to be confused with Get Organized Month -which is held in January (which is sponsored by NAPO). Go Week has been around since the early 90’s! It is a week-long event to help everyone stay organized (Sunday Oct 3-Saturday Oct 9th)!! Why am I just learning that this is a thing? That’s another “new thing” for me that I learned this week!!! (Sidebar/Sidetrack – the other new thing I learned this week – I just posted on Tiktok about it – I love the Doors (band) and now that we are getting into the halloweenie spirit I like to watch movies to put me in the mood – So I watched Death Becomes Her… and saw a clip when Bruce Willis falls in the pool – well they have Jim Morrison standing there about to get in the pool… How did I never notice that it was supposed to be Jim standing there?!?! I was dumb founded!).
Anyways – So here we are – This starts the busy time. We just had a birthday-the fellows oldest just turned 17, his youngest is about to be 14, I will be…. Hush your mouth!!! But I will be turning another year older…Christmas shopping will begin soon (I start early and buy little stuff here and there throughout the year-but now comes the times for christmas lists and the heavy hitters), Halloween and trick or treating will be here … then you go to bed and wake up and it’s time for Thanksgiving and then you blink and it’s Christmas…. So… let’s get ready for all that! Let’s get organized and prepared for all the fun that is in store for the next few months….
So – being that this coming week is GO Week I have a few small projects for you to attack… to help you be organized and on your toes for the holidays ahead and the new year to follow!! These small projects.. Well.. they are things that you don’t normally think about… they just get tossed to the side because it’s stuff that you think really isn’t too important…But…when you need something from them… you are usually scrambling trying to find the info/item. These are mostly quick projects that won’t take too long. I have 7 listed – one for each day of GO Week!!
So there you go – a week’s worth of projects that:
These projects are not exactly glamorous, but by tackling these projects it will allow you to make the most of your time when the holidays do arrive!!
What are some goals or “to do’s” that you set for yourself before the holidays?
Hello Everyone, Angie from Architecturally Organized here.
Did you know that September is National Save your Photos Month?
How often do you sort through your photos and save them? I do not do this enough and figure I need to get a better system in gear. My current system …. Would consist of me taking a ton of photos on my phone or my “good” camera – printing out the pics I want – and then uploading them all to Amazon Photos. Sometimes I will put them into albums….but that’s about it… I should be ashamed of myself lol.
I have a few old photos from when I was little… and some from before my time… pics of my grandfather and my nunny that I would like to preserve. I would be devastated if I lost them in a flood/fire/natural disaster. Figure – I try to organize everything else around me.. Why haven’t I completed organizing my photos?? I don’t know the answer to that. But since It is “Save your Photos Month” I figured now is as good of a time as any to try and sort through, organize, and back up my hard copy and digital photos!! Join along!!
My first steps…
Finding any and all albums and removing the photos. I will sort these photos into a few different piles.
The first pile – which hopefully is the largest – is my TOSS Pile. Any blurry photos or duplicate photos I have will go in this pile. Any Photos that I look at for more than a second and really have to sit and think about what was special about the photo – it goes in the Toss pile. Now my Toss pile is a 2 part pile – because as I am sorting through the duplicates – if there are pictures of friends/family who I think would love to have the picture – I will set it aside for them.
The second pile – This pile is going to be the Best photos out of the Albums. These are the photos that went into that album with loving care. These are the photos that I would be extremely sad if I lost them. These are the photos that I need to make sure I scan to archive them!!!!
This second pile I will have a hard time with. I take way too many photos. I take even more scenic photos when we go on trips. This is where I need to learn to knock it off, and really just to keep the best scenic shot, not all 150 of them!! You do not need 300 photos of the Gulf of Maine!!!!!
The third pile – These are for the photos that aren’t trash… but they are not your absolute favorite either, yet you can’t bear to toss them. These are photos that help support your second pile memories. These photos probably won’t get scanned in for archiving.
The fourth Pile is for leftover photos that, well it may not be of a specific friend or family member or family vacation – but it is a memory from a moment in time that leaves you laughing (or crying) at the thought of it. These are odd photos that have a lot of meaning behind them. These are photos that we will scan and archive!!
The fifth pile – welcome to the unknown!!! This is the fun pile…. These are the photos of friends or family that you have no idea who it is. That sounds horrible, but in all seriousness – in life you end up with photos of the unknown. So what do you do? You take some time to visit your mom and/or dad.. Your siblings… your grandparents or great aunt.. And go through the photos with them. They may remember that photo – and say o ya, that is a picture of your older cousin Joey when he was a baby. Take a walk down memory lane!!
The next steps..
Making the piles is mostly the easy part. The next steps are a bit more laborious…. and time consuming…. and thought inducing… Now we scan and Organize!!!
Scanning – now if you have a scanner, you can do this yourself (like I said – Laborious and time consuming!!!) or you can send them out to have them scanned (FYI Architecturally Organized performs this service). When scanning make sure you wipe away any dust or debri that might be on the photo. Now is also the time to understand how you will be organizing the photos so that you can save the document correctly.
Should you organize them by date? By Theme? By family? There are numerous ways that you can save the files, the key is finding the best way that works for you. I like to save them in chronological order. Now sometimes I will just have the date of the year for a group of photos and sometimes I will have months and days too – I try not to get too picky about it so long as I have them within the right year. A bonus of doing it chronologically is that it creates a timeline of you and your family’s life.
Organizing via events is easier sometimes as all the christmas photos are in a pile, it is often easier to identify the photos and tagging them and using keywords are easier as well. Tagging and keywords… that is a BIG thing here. Try to save as much information to the photo as you can: Dates, Names, Locations, etc. You want to make these photos easy to find and search for when looking for them!
So what do I do with all the hard copy photos? You can put them back in an album or put them in a box made for photos. And you make sure to back up all of your digital photos (be it the cloud or a hard drive). Lastly – you make it a habit!! If you do it on a regular basis you won’t be blasted with a ton of pictures to organize and it will make it easier!!
By organizing your photos you are helping yourself and your family out for the future. Think of all the great photo gifts you can send out, think of the future when your great grandkids are looking through albums and they will know who they are looking at because the photos are so well documented – OK I know I am getting a little cheesy here – but come on.. It’s true!
I hope this was helpful!
Happy Thursday everyone!! Welcome back to Theoretical Thursday!!
Theoretical Thursdays are the days that we will be talking about Architecture, Organizing and the many different components, connections, traits/etc that Architecture and Organizing have in common.
Last time we discussed Hierarchy, Circulation, and total area. This week’s post we will focus on Strength, Utility and Beauty. I am sure most of you are familiar with Leonardo da Vinci… he was a great…well everything. He was an artist, an architect, an engineer, a sculptor-he was everything. Some of his well known pieces are: The Last Supper, Mona Lisa, and the Vitruvian Man to name a few.
I want to focus on the Vitruvian Man. This man is said to be perfectly proportioned. He is the outcome of Leonardo following the principles of Vitruvius. Vitruvius may not be as well known to some as Leonardo is – hence starting with Leonardo. Vitruvious was an engineer, architect, and author. Firmitas, Utilitas, and Venustas (“strength”, “utility”, and “beauty”). These three adjectives were the ideal puzzle pieces that every building should have – that was Vitruvius philosophy and these principles were adopted across the board.
How does strength, utility and beauty fit in with organizing?
Well right off the bat… Strength… makes sense right? Be it – in buildings or closets – we want materials and products that will hold up… that won’t bend, twist, or deflect. Let’s say you are in the middle of organizing – anything – you don’t want to pile a flimsy box on top of a flimsy box do you? No. Why not? Because that flimsy box is eventually going to squish from the weight on top of it. We want durable and long lasting storage solutions.
Utility – yes please! This goes not only for the space we are organizing but also regarding the products/items that we are organizing with!! What is the point of organizing a space other than to have it function properly?? What is the point of buying a particular silverware divider if it doesn’t organize your silverware in a way that functions properly for you? That may be a silly example – but I don’t think so – there are NUMEROUS types of drawer silverware organizers out there – but you need to find the product that will allow the drawer to function in a way that works best for you. For me – Utility is a major part in organizing.
Beauty – Let’s face it – we all want to look at pretty things lol
In a paragraph above I asked what was the point in organizing other than having it function properly – well the other answer to that question is Beauty. We want it to be pleasing to look at. Sure we could use cardboard boxes to organize all of our stuff – but who wants to look at that? That is why you can go to The Container Store, Homegoods, etc and find beautiful baskets and storage solutions that make you WANT to look at your closet, cabinet, etc. For some people – that is why they color coordinate their closets, books, shoes… They want it to be organized and to be aesthetically pleasing.
In big ways and in small ways – Architecture and Organizing are joined at the hip. We will continue to learn and expand on that as our journey continues!!
Summer is almost over and Fall is on its way… now this may bum some people out – but I look forward to it! I am ready for cooler weather – it has been way too hot for me! I don’t go all crazy with pumpkin spice flavored everything – But I do enjoy a roaring fire, some hot cocoa, a good book and Swedaweda!!!!
I don’t know what gave me the idea to do this… I think it was watching too many TikTok videos and seeing how some styles and things that I grew up with are coming back.. Every time you look around it’s like a flashback… scrunchies were in… then they were out… now they are back in again… The 90’s have been back and for me that was a glorious time!! I miss the 90’s… I miss watching MTV and them actually playing music videos!! I miss talking on my clear light up phone with my friends for hours at a time…So many fun memories for me….
As I sit here and reminisce about the 90’s …. One thing that I did on the regular… was laying in my daybed reading my Seventeen magazine. I remember how much I used to LOVE doing the quizzes. They were absolutely ridiculous but it was fun…. so….I thought I would create a cheesy quiz about organizing… with a cheesy 90’s theme!! Enjoy!
a. Turn off the alarm, get showered, get dressed (in the clothes you laid out the night before), grab all your school stuff and then go downstairs and have breakfast (3)
b. Hit snooze so many times you have lost count, eventually wake up and grab a pair of jeans from the floor and a sweatshirt and then you are out the door (1)
c. Hit snooze once, get up, get dressed, grab your stuff and a pop tart and go out the door (2)
a. Well – my clothes are all black, so sure – they’re coordinated. (2)
b. HA! You’re lucky they are on a hanger! (1)
c. My clothes are all on matching hangers, and sub divided by type and then within each type they are color coordinated. (3)
a. Toss of my shoes by the door, drop my backpack next to my shoes and head to the kitchen to make myself a snack (1)
b. Take my shoes off and go up to my room. Place my shoes in my closet in their designated spot. Take my homework out of my backpack and put it on my desk and hang my backpack up on the back of my desk chair. (3)
c. Place my shoes on the shoe rack by the door, toss my backpack in my room, and go to the kitchen to make myself a snack (2)
a. Yes, in the junk drawer in the kitchen (3)
b. Well they are probably somewhere on my desk (2)
c. Oh sure thing… NOT!!!! (1)
a. Well… I don’t know, like…. Stuff (1)
b. It is neat and tidy! (2)
c. The top drawer is for pencils and pens, the bottom drawer is for scented markers, I keep all of my tablets in the middle drawer on the left… Do you want me to keep going? (3)
a. If you mean they are all in their original bottles – then yes they match… (2)
b. Of course – they are categorized by brand and then are color coordinated (3)
c. As if!!! (1)
a. Who knows!! I am always losing it!! (1)
b. Where I always put it after I am done with it – on my Vanity (3)
c. It is either in my backpack, in my hair, or in the bathroom… (2)
a. I am always on time, usually with a few minutes to spare (3)
b. Right on the dot! (2)
c. Eh… I am usually a couple minutes late (1)
8-12
Ren – (Ren and Stimpy Show) I imagine your room would look something like his room.
You are barely organized at all…..You do not know where anything is at… oh-but look – there is that notebook you were looking for last week!! That is how you typically find things – stumble upon them a week after you were looking for it..
13-17
Clarissa Darling – (Clarissa Explains it All) Her room was always tidy-though there was definitely a lot going on in it!! You are a fairly organized person. Sometimes life gets in the way and makes it difficult to find things but you always get what you need….. Or you could be one of those lucky people who can have “organized chaos”… a messy desk doesn’t phase you – you know that you left your school books under the pile of magazines and that your lucky scrunchy is at the bottom of your backpack!
18-24
Carlton Banks – (Fresh Prince of Bel Air) I imagine your room to be as neat and tidy as Carlton dresses. Clothes pressed and neat and color coordinated. Your closet would give Cher Horowitz’ closet a run for the money. You are very well put together and organized..Come to think of it….actually ….you may be on the verge of being completely anal retentive and might be giving out sleeping with the enemy vibes…
So that was totally cheesy right? But all in good fun – and a nice flashback of being a kid/teen in the 90’s! Now that the quiz is completed…. You tallied up your points!! You gotta tell me?!?!?! Where did you score? Please comment below!!
Also – today I make the announcement of the winners of the Virtual Organizing Sessions! I did a number generator and Instagram users Kellyact and Tarafitnessinspired have each won!! Congratulations!!! I am looking forward to talking with you both!!!
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