Marilyn Bohn | Creative Organizer

In our home I was responsible for the family laundry until my daughters were about 12 years old. I remember when the first one (of five) told me she was going to start doing her own laundry. I was surprised and I thought that wouldn’t last long, but it did. And the reason I had been ‘dethroned’ from doing their laundry was because I ruined things. Okay so I did shrink a shirt or a sweater here and there and even got bleach on a shirt that was not meant to be bleached. I did feel bad about that but I was happy that I had less laundry to do. (In my defense I didn’t do it very often and it was always an accident).

Here are four organizing ideas to use in the laundry room to help save time.

•Keep everything within easy reach that we use in the laundry room. Place the soap in a place where you don’t have to reach and stretch for it. And don’t have it too low where you are always bending to get to it.

•Store the products used like fabric softener, bleach, all fabric bleach, stain sticks and other stain removers according to how often you use them. Place the ones used most often up front.

•For the small items, store them in a basket, plastic bin or even in a shoe box. I don’t personally care for using a shoe box because it is not as convenient to see what is in it. By using a basket everything stays contained and it can be pulled out to get the item needed.

•Have a rack, a knob, or a clothes line that clothes can be hung on when they shouldn’t go in the dryer. I have a small pipe that runs along the ceiling that works just fine in my laundry room.

What are some of your time management ideas you use in the laundry room?

P.S. Remember to leave a comment on my blog on this past Monday June 2nd to be eligible for my Free Give Away.

In the U.S., Memorial Day is always observed on the last Monday in May. It used to be called Decoration Day. The holiday honors members of the military who died in service to their country. To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the “National Moment of Remembrance” resolution was passed on Dec 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans “To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence. The holiday has been extended to remember all of our loved ones who have died.
I remember Memorial Day as a day we would go around to my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins who had died and put flowers on their graves. I remember my mother saving plastic milk jugs or tall tin cans to put the flowers in. These containers would be wrapped with tin foil. They never bought flowers but used snowballs, peonies, roses, lilacs and other flowers from their yards. My mother told me never to buy flowers for her grave, that if flowers weren’t out then to wait until some were blooming. (She was a Scot). But I do what I want and if I need to buy flowers for her grave I am happy to do it. But I never put Iris on her grave as she did not like that flower.
I hope you and your family will have a peaceful and beautiful Memorial Day.

American Idol finals are tonight. It is very exciting to have one of the final two David’s from Utah. David Archulita’s home town is about 20 minutes from mine and there has been a lot of news coverage on our local stations. The winner will be decided today. I haven’t watched the show but I sure hear a lot about it. I just had to put in a ‘plug’ for David since he is from my state.

My friend I went to the quilt retreat with this weekend used to be friends with David’s mom when they lived in the same neighborhood a few years ago. She said David was so shy that when she visited he would only poke his face around the corner to say hi, but never come into the room. He has sure come a long way.

Can you imagine how organized their lives have to be? They practice every day, press conferences, flying to their home towns for appearances, rehearsals, make up, hair and clothes decisions, they have to eat and I am sure there are dozens of other things they do that I have no clue about. For tonight they had three songs to learn and for Wednesday night they have seven songs. (According to the local news).Then they get in front of millions of people and sing their hearts out. WOW

Have you ever been in competitions before? I used to enter speech competitions in high school and college. But the pressure and the preparation was nothing like this. Good Luck to both David’s.

No, I am not a gardener. Whew, it just feels good to say that. It takes the guilt away for me to say I am not a gardener. Don’t get me wrong, I have done my share. I love the taste of veggies fresh from the garden. When our five girls were at home I would wake them up on Saturday morning before the sun was up (what was I thinking) so they could help weed the garden because I thought that would teach them how to work. Let’s be honest here, it would have been easier to just have done it ourselves but we wanted them to have the experience. They all grew up with a fantastic work ethic, but none of them have gardens.

Organizing gardening tools can make gardening more enjoyable. Anytime you have to hunt for the tools, or other things it takes some of the fun out of it.

•Make a place in your garage or shed just for your gardening tools. Some people refer to zones in the garage and one of these zones would be for the gardening gear.
•Prioritize your needs and take the time to declutter. Get rid of those tools that have cracked handles or you avoid using because you aren’t comfortable with. Hang tools on garage walls to save space and avoid accidentally driving over those that may have been leaned against the wall and have fallen. When hung they are easy to find and they look organized.
•Hoses fit nicely on a hose reel.
•If you have a container in the garage with drawers’ smaller tools can be stored there. Label the drawer so you will know where to put the tool back after use to help you stay organized.
• Also keep the tools sharpened and clean. Wipe off dirt or mud with a cloth and at the end of the season wipe the metal tools with linseed oil. Even if you don’t like to garden, when your tools are organized it will look like you do. Then you can always find them to loan to your neighbor.

How about you? Do you have some fun gardening experiences? Or why do you not like to garden, or do you like to garden?

Some people come into our lives and leave foot prints on our hearts. Yesterday was a sad day here at our home because we had a cat that came into our lives and left foot prints on our hearts. Bobbie was a female cat my daughter rescued about seven years ago. She took very good care of her and extended her life by several years. We think she was about 14 years old.

Recently Bobbie became ill and could not be cured so we had to take her to be put to sleep. (I call it sent to heaven). We all cried. My daughter dug Bobbie’s grave and tenderly buried her with the quilt she had made just for Bobbie a few years ago.

The weather was overcast and grey. This was appropriate as she had been a Seattle native for many years. We will miss her when we walk into a room and don’t hear her purr. We always knew where she was as her purr was spontaneous. We will remember her reaching out her paw for more petting when we walked away.

I wonder if the pain is worth it when we lose a cat but they have so enriched our lives.

Good bye Bobbie, we will miss you, thanks for the years you blessed our lives.

Two weeks ago I was at the National Association of Professional Organizers Conference in Reno. Wow, how time flies, it feels like yesterday. I think my favorite part, besides meeting old friends, learning, learning and learning some more from all the classes was meeting new friends.

Among others, two new friends I made were Monica Ricci who writes YourLife.Organized.com and was awarded the Founders award. Yeah Monica Just hearing all she has done was an inspiration. She said her first job was four hours from her home and when she pulled out the dirty, greasy fryer she wondered what on earth she had gotten herself into. We all laughed as we have stories of our own we can relate to—starting with our own homes at times.

Also John Trosko of Organizingla.com John got two awards. One was the shining star award—way to go John and the other one was the President’s award given to NAPO-Los Angeles Chapter where he is the president. They had a real glitzy organizing awards night. They showed clips of the event that was fun to watch on the big screen T.V. It was just like watching the Oscars.

Next year we’ll all get together in Orlando Florida. What have you and your friends been up to lately?



This is basket week, well not officially, I am just saying that because I went around my home and took a ton (okay maybe not that many) but a lot of photos of baskets I use and I want to share them with you over the next three days to give you ideas on how to use baskets.

Baskets are useful everywhere. Caution, don’t just buy because they are pretty, cute, on sale or maybe someday you can use them. They can become clutter if not used. (Confession, I have a few of those ‘someday I will use them’).

This is my Menina (it means little girl or little one in Portuguese—my daughter named her as she lived in Brazil for 18 months). Actually it is a basket I often use for projects I am working on and I want to keep everything together.

This basket holds my counted cross stitch project. Someday it will be a beautiful Christmas sock.

I bought this sheep basket at the National Collie Dog Championship in Midway Utah. It holds (how appropriate) my rug hooking books and a few supplies. She always brings a smile to my face.

This lined basket holds my punchneedle projects and patterns past and present.

How do you use baskets in your home?

I have been using this filing system for over a year and it is terrific. I now have a designated place and system for every piece of paper that comes into my home. Here are some other people’s testimonials from the Freedom Filer web site for this easy, workable filing system:

•I love my FreedomFiler. It is a true blessing, and is helping me organize my personal finances, my new business, my resources, and most important to me, my writing. Thank you for an excellent product. How refreshing to deal with a company that is flexible and responsive… Ellen M., Seattle WA

•After setting up and using my system, I was most struck by how easy it was to file all my papers. I found the “Catch All”, “Remove/Replace”, and “Resource” sections particularly helpful. The “Quick Index” is a work of art—I found this to be a terrific roadmap to the system! I also liked the accuracy of the headings for all my filing needs. I’ve begun relying on this system immediately. The best part about it is that now I’m set up for life… PS Now my filing system looks so good I actually prefer to keep the cover off! Ben Calloway-Jones, Gemologist, London UK

•Terrifically functional! AND Beautifully presented! Wonderful product beginning to end; the Q&A insert detailing the rationale for specific filing decisions is a spot-on reference helpfully covering a great many relevant situations. Best wishes for wide recognition and acceptance of this simple but powerful product! Bill F., Engineer, Carlsbad CA

It is a must in every home, home office or business office to have a filing system that works for you. As a professional home and office organizer I have found Freedom Filers is a filing system that honestly works for me and for my clients. It is a breeze to set up and maintain.