Do many of you try to keep things organized?

I aspire to be as organized as I possibly can. Right now I have some drawers that could be organized better and stuff I no longer need or use thrown out. My kitchen counters need to be better organized too. I just feel so much better when everything is organized and all the laundry is done too. Working on those things between relaxation times.
 
All bills paid, date and check number documented. Receipts dated and filed. Machine manuals all in one place. All garage tools where I can find them every time. I have to be organized with tools and parts or I wouldn't get anything done. I even have to have a plan for the project of the day.
 

Teacher Terry said:
I’m extremely organized and everything is on my calendar such as changing the filters for my blower, air cleaner, etc. I also have everything organized into folders so I can find the information I need. I have a death packet for my kids so it will be easy when I am gone. I have a notebook where everything I need to do is listed with dates.
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I've also got a 'Death Book' for my daughter's use when that time comes. Like you, I want all that to be as easy as possible for her to figure out. So my book has addresses of friends for notification, account numbers, preferences on how things should be handled, etc.

My own mother is just the opposite although I think I finally managed to get her kind of started on going through things a little bit, by sending her a binder with a list of questions, information pages to fill out, and an assortment of estate lawyers phone numbers. She even had one appointment with a lawyer to find out about writing a will. It's like she's 87 years old and thinks she'll live forever or something. I'm not looking forward to what she'll be leaving to sort out.
 
KISS principle:

Bank vault: Deed, car titles, homeowners insurance policy with pics of everything we own including computers, etc., vehicle insurance policy, marriage certificate, IRS tax stuff, birth certificates, external hard drive with precious pictures, old journals, old picture albums, etc.

Home fire safe (under the crawl space): Extra keys, expensive jewelry, warranties on stuff, recent used journals

Bills paid are written in a ledger with confirmation numbers. Used ledgers are thrown out after they are used up.

Recipes and household tips and tricks stuff are kept on an old flamingo pink Dell Vista laptop that I use for the kitchen.

Tools, saws, yard stuff, riding lawn mower etc. in the shed, hanging on a pegboard or on a shelf, out in the floor, or otherwise stored there.

Immediate stuff like the vacuums, mop, bucket, Swiffer, cleaning supplies cabinet, tubs of cat litter, and built-in pantry are in the garage, as well as an upright freezer.

I like to keep things organized. As I get older, it's easier. The rule is "Use it, put it back." That way we don't have to remember where we left something.

Craft drawers in the computer room/study is the same: Use it, put it back.

Shoe organizers in the closet are wonderful, as I have four pairs of shoes and hubby has three. Boots and winter stuff on the closet top shelf, winter coats, scarves and hats and raincoats in the living room closet.

My guitars are hung up on the wall in the computer room. I can't do anything about the piano; it's a spinet from the 70s and weighs like 500 pounds and it's a focal point in the living room.

I guess we're as organized as we can be. Any suggestions?
 
I compiled a loose leaf book with useful information for the survivor when one of us passed. It has been handy and our adult kids know about it.

It is good to keep the critical documents in a portable file box in case some catastrophic event occurs and you need to bug out.
 
My husband and I are extremely organized. We also have the "Death Book" for our daughter. She will easily find all the documents she needs.
I also made a list for her of realtors she may contact to sell the house, movers, charities where she can donate things she will not need or want, and all useful info she may need. It also contains all contacts regarding our utilities and local administration that she may need after we are gone, as she does not live in our area.
All our documents are neatly filed. I go through everything at each end of year.
My tablet calendar, containing all appointments and regular house maintenance schedule, is sync'd to my phone and to my husband's computer as well as his phone. So we always know what's up from one day to another.
All house and tool manuals and warranties are dated and carefully stored.
My husband's garage is meticulously organized as well as the house.
Since Covid, I also keep quite a number of supplies on hand.
Neighbors and friends are always teasing us about our OCD
and being organized.
 
Yesterday we needed our car title because we are selling it. Steps: Go to filing cabinet. Look in the car section that has 50 papers in it. Not there. Go through the entire filing cabinet. 1000 papers, not there. Take everything out of the closet. 100's of things, not there. Room now completely covered with papers and things. Start putting papers back, throwing away half of them. While filing the car papers we reach inside an envelope, Ta Da!!!

That is about how organized we are...the kitchen is in better shape than that fiasco. Keeping stuff organized, and easy to find and use is important, we just aren't very committed to it. :)
 
For me the key is not having much to organize. 😉🤭😂

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I’m down to one junk drawer, a small fireproof lockbox and a cardboard bankers box. The cardboard bankers box is mostly family photos that I hang on to in hopes of finding them a new home.

I’ve become a bit obsessive, I’ve helped clean out the lifetime accumulations of too many relatives and close friends.
 
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vintageMo said:
Do many of you try to keep things organized?
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Do you want the honest answer or the fake-it-till-you-make-it answer?🤭 I stay in a tiny apartment during rental season and I am struggling with not having a dishwasher. And still trying to figure out where to store all my own stuff. But it's getting better everyday.

Every Saturday my whole house gets a complete sanitation make-over. We have 4 hours between old renters leaving and new renters coming.
I insist on washing all bed linens, bathmats, pack 3 containers for each room with 4 bathmats, 4 bath towels, 4 face towels, 4 wash cloths (all pure white no stains no tears, not even slight) and 2 beach towels X 3 rooms.

I sort and fold 2 King rooms and 1 Queen. Have you ever tried folding a King sheet all by yourself without it touching the floor? The baskets are super heavy but I insist lugging them up 3 flights of stairs so they get to the proper rooms on 2nd and 3rd floors. I also make sure landscaping is perfect and I also do windows if I'm still alive. Standing for the whole process is wearing on me.

My housekeeper guy is awesome but speaks no english...yet. We're working on that. He does most of the cleaning and it sparkles. He'll eventually take over my efforts. Then my daughter and son-in-law come to help with all the loose ends....and there are always loose ends lol.
 
David777 said:
As someone with a hardware electronic engineering career for decades, especially computers, was up to my neck in ridiculous amounts of books, documents, software code, user guides, that also fully spread into organizing aspects of my private life. And as a long time landscape photographer, had large numbers of location books, guides, gear guides, and files on my body of work.

After retirement, I eventually tossed dumpster fulls of stuff that filled my residence. But still have thousands of computer files on media that require periodic attention and organization lest items become lost like needles in haystacks. As well as stacks of office hanging file folder crates of organized papers.

Have enormous Excel files I still use for a wide range of organization and math purposes. For instance, for my mp3 player I've recorded 220 legal analog songs with, using audacity for which I have spread sheets for all the metadata, lyrics, time lengths, playlists, etc.
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I have almost 6 Terabytes of data stored across several drives, probably half being backups. There's a lot of duplicate non-backup files, and "organization" is actually beyond my reach. But I think there's going to be some AI tools available for Linux soon that might help me sort files, or at least help locate them more easily.
 
Rossana said:
My husband and I are extremely organized. We also have the "Death Book" for our daughter. She will easily find all the documents she needs.
I also made a list for her of realtors she may contact to sell the house, movers, charities where she can donate things she will not need or want, and all useful info she may need. It also contains all contacts regarding our utilities and local administration that she may need after we are gone, as she does not live in our area.
All our documents are neatly filed. I go through everything at each end of year.
My tablet calendar, containing all appointments and regular house maintenance schedule, is sync'd to my phone and to my husband's computer as well as his phone. So we always know what's up from one day to another.
All house and tool manuals and warranties are dated and carefully stored.
My husband's garage is meticulously organized as well as the house.
Since Covid, I also keep quite a number of supplies on hand.
Neighbors and friends are always teasing us about our OCD
and being organized.
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I like some of your categories of information that I should include or update in my death book. Like which insurance company our house insurance is with, our car insurance, power supplier, etc. Being organized like you are is a great service to your daughter and she'll really appreciate how thoughtful you were when the time comes.
 
I have been trying. A friend who is great at organizing things has been helping me out. I do have an area where I try to keep things in order. Car maintanence type papers I keep in my glove box, in case I need them for some thing. I have one of those fire safe lock boxes where I keep important house hold papers, a bit of petty cash and the like
 
Aunt Bea said:
For me the key is not having much to organize. 😉🤭😂

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I’m down to one junk drawer, a small fireproof lockbox and a cardboard bankers box. The cardboard bankers box is mostly family photos that I hang on to in hopes of finding them a new home.

I’ve become a bit obsessive, I’ve helped clean out the lifetime accumulations of too many relatives and close friends.
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@Aunt Bea!!!!! A site for sore eyes. Hi there
 
A daily, weekly, monthly Journal can work well if you are energetic, on the move, travel a lot.
Focus is a good thought here. Follow ones energies and ideas.
 
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