Sunday, July 26, 2015

The Mindful Grocery Shopper

One of the most wasteful things we can do is go to the grocery store without a plan.  The risks associated with this might seem insignificant, but tallied up over the course of a year they could potentially make a huge impact on your health and wealth.

Consider the Financial implications. How much food do you throw away each year?  How often do you eat out because you don't have food in your house, or the necessary ingredients to prepare a meal?   Do you have duplicate spices and condiments piling up that will ultimately become waste?

From a healthy eating perspective, you are much more likely to stick with your nutrition goals if you have a plan in place.  I like to cook things ahead of time, but even if you do not have the time to prepare your meals ahead of time, just knowing exactly what you are going to prepare every day is going to make it that much more likely for you to eat the planned meal vs. ordering a pizza.

Planning ALL of your meals out for the week ahead might sound time consuming, but it is time well spent.  Any regular time you have off on a weekly basis, try to fit this into that time frame so it becomes a habit.  Turning a task into a habit will make it feel that much easier to accomplish. Turn off your television for 20 minutes, get a pen and paper and make a calendar for the week with each day listing Breakfast, Snack, Lunch, Snack, and Dinner, or whatever meal times you might have.

The next thing you should do is think about your week ahead.  Do you have any meals already planned?  Perhaps a lunch meeting or dinner date?  Will the kids need sack lunches for a field trip one day this week?  Take those meals into account first...and note them on the calendar.  Crossing out any meals you do not need to purchase at the grocery store will only result in less time spent planning and less money spent at the grocery store.

Next you should consider your budget.   Most people have a monthly/weekly grocery budget they try to adhere to.  It is good to keep this budget in mind while you plan out your menu for the week.  You can break down the costs by budgeting how much per week should be spent on each meal group.  I have prepared an example for you, but of course your specific plan might look different depending upon your eating habits.

We will use the following "cost per meal" breakdown.  Breakfast accounts for 20% of your budget, Mid Morning Snack 5%, Lunch 25% , Afternoon snack %5 and Dinner 45%.   The  example below will show you what that would equate to using a weekly grocery budget of $150. Also, in this example we are taking into consideration the number of meals you will not need to purchase at the grocery store.  Using this information, You can come up with an estimated amount to spend on each meal group for the week.  This is not going to be spot on, obviously, but it will help keep you somewhat constrained while planning your meals.



Another thing to take into consideration is your nutritional goals for the week.  Do you want to eat fewer calories?  Increase  your protein intake?

So now that you know what meals you need to plan, how much to spend on said meals and what nutritional boundaries those meals need to stay in, you can plan a menu.  

Breakfast is usually pretty easy for most people, very little variation.  Same with snacks.  A bag of apples and box of granola bars can easily fit into your budget.  Go ahead and fill those in on your calendar and you will see that much of the planning is already done with very little thinking involved.

Now onto lunch since they are usually pretty simple too.  There are usually not a lot of ingredients or variation from day to day.  It might be as simple as a can of soup of bread and lunch meat.  No matter what your preference, write down what you want to eat for lunch each day.

Dinners are usually a bit more creative.   I like to leave a little extra in my budget to plan dinners to take into account those extra things that will make it a memorable meal, like spices and fresh vegetables and maybe even a bottle of wine.

If you are not bursting at the seams with new and exciting dinner ideas, then you should go ahead and get the web involved at this point.  I find this helpful because most recipes sites will let you narrow down recipes based on ingredients so if you have leftover meat or vegetables from the previous week for example, you can start off by searching for a recipe to use those up right away.  Or you can search for dinner recipes using chicken or steak.  Planning multiple meals each week using the same type of  meat will allow you the opportunity to buy that ingredient in bulk, which usually results in cost savings.

Once you have your menu planned out you can start your grocery list.

Write down each item in your recipes, including the measurements.  This will keep you from buying too much or not enough of something.  This is why the actual grocery list is important, even though you think the menu is enough planning.   For example, you list out every ingredient for your meals and see you will need 7 onions.  If you were not shopping mindfully with a list, you might have bought the bag with 6 onions, and have been short an onion come the end of the week so you end up eating an extra meal out.  Or maybe you only needed two potatoes for Wednesday nights dinner but you bought a pound instead, just knowing that you needed some potatoes for one of the recipes.  A few weeks later those potatoes could end up rotting away in the cupboard.

Now that you have a list with the exact amount of each ingredient you need, check your refrigerator and cupboard for any of the ingredients you already have and mark those off the list or update the amount needed.  For example if you need a dozen eggs for the week but you have 6 already, update your list to buy a half a dozen eggs instead.  This will result in less waste, fresher ingredients and more room in your kitchen.

The Grocery shopping can begin now.  My personal favorite grocery store is Aldis.  The prices are unbelievable, it is usually not very crowded, the lines are very fast and I can usually get 95% (if not 100%) of the items I need there, with exception of a few special herbs/spices or cuts of meat from time to time.  On my way home I will stop in at a pricier chain to get anything left on the list.  This might sound time consuming but I get through Aldis so quickly that I really don't think I spend any more time in the long run. I save at least 25% off of my grocery bill every week, which adds up to pretty nice sum at the end of the year.

So try to plan your next grocery trip out and you will see that the whole experience is far less taxing than just mindlessly filling up your cart.  Turn this into a habit and you will notice the extra dollars in your pocket begin multiply, week after week. You can feel better about the food that you are eating, as well as the food you are not wasting.  You will have become a mindful grocery shopper.

Meredith - Designate A Space





Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Digital Disorganization

Imagine how much sensitive  information we store on our digital devices, servers, clouds and online accounts.  Yet most people do not organize, secure or maintain this information on a regular basis. Here are a few of my favorite tips to help you make life "online" less chaotic and keep your sensitive information safe, yet accessible when you need it most.

  1. Try replacing your 'My Documents' folder with a more personalized filing system.  Files stored on your digital devices should be organized in the same way your physical files are. If you don't have a specific filing system, you can see my suggestions on how to organize your files in your home office to get you started.   Set a reminder on your calendar to back these files up at least once a month.    
    1. If you use more than one computer, utilize a hard drive or cloud service to store all of your documents.  That way you always have access to the file you need without having to copy files from one device to another.  Microsoft, Google and Apple, to name a few, all offer cloud service with ample storage.  You should still be backing up your files frequently.
  2. Your email folders should also be organized in the same way as your physical filing cabinets. To get started, I would make an email folder/subfolder for each file/subfile I have in my filing cabinet. You might need an additional folder eventually, but this is a great way to have some folders available to start archiving your emails.  Here are a couple of other tips for keeping your inbox tidy going forward.
    1.  When you are composing emails, make descriptive subject lines that will make it much easier for you and your recipients to locate and respond to important email threads.
    2.  Unsubscribe . Tired of seeing those promotional emails from the websites and stores you have visited. Scroll to the bottom and unsubscribe. Marketing material can clutter your inbox in no time, making it more difficult to scan your inbox for important information.
    3. Try to  file away any email(s) that don't require any additional action as soon as you know it is completed.  
  3.  Keep ALL of your passwords safely together (except maybe your banking or social security information) and then make sure you have a backups stored somewhere. Also organize your list(s) so you aren't looking through hundreds of lines of information searching for the site you are hoping to log onto.  I like to organize passwords into categories, based on how I use the website. While there are apps that you can use to organize your passwords, you would probably be better off just creating a spreadsheet with either a table that can be filtered by category or use different tabs for different categories.  My categories look like this.  
    1. Online profiles or social networks- These should be grouped together and logged into frequently to ensure your online reputation has not been compromised. Also this will prevent old, stale unused websites from coming back to haunt you someday. For example, you get married and forget you have an old online dating profile still up that your significant others best friend stumbles upon. (I give some additional tips later in this post for ways to clean up your online reputation)
    2. Bill paying websites- This makes the bill paying process a little less painful.
    3. Shopping sites-  Anytime I purchase something in an online environment I make a profile, and put the user name and password along with any type of rewards numbers in this category. Anytime money exchanges hands online I put that website here. 
    4. Email Accounts- I have several email accounts due to my businesses and personal life, also I have a junk email account that I use to sign up for things as well. 
    5. Entertainment-This is my movie, television, gaming sites. 
    6. Employment-Not only would I keep current employer websites that I access here but also my job hunting, resume building websites as well. Anything related to getting or being employed. 
    7. Health-Anything related to my health I store here.  For example, information and passwords for my health insurance provider, my online diet programs and workout subscriptions.  
    8. Random-I would continue making categories until you are left with just a bunch of random websites with random purposes. Then stick those in their own category in alphabetical order. 
  4.  Delete old status updates, photos/videos and posts on social profiles.  Some things don't deserve to live forever online. It is fine if you want to commemorate a wedding or birth of a child, but that tweet detailing your dinner 7 months ago.....maybe think about getting rid of it.   Once every 6 months, or more depending upon how often you update your social networks....scan through your older posts and see if you can part with any of them.  These sites, many of us, will likely keep for a very long time and they should reflect the person we are today, not the person we were 3 years ago.  
  5. Check your privacy settings for social networks often.  I would suggest doing this at the same time you look for outdated posts to remove.  These settings can be changed, without notice when new policies are rolled out by the service providers. 
  6. Type your name into some search engines once a year.  Many sites, will collect personal information such as your phone number, address, social networks, employer information and so much more.  If you find a site like this, listing your information and you want to have it removed, there is usually an option to "opt out."  It may not always be easy to find, but if you search the name of the site and "opt out" it will often take you to the page that details the process.  If that does not work, you should contact the site and ask for instructions.  
As technology advances, we will be using these tools more and more so it is important to keep this part of your life as uncluttered and organized as possible.  People you meet out in the world aren't likely to sneak into your house and riffle through your 'dirty laundry,' but it is very, very likely they will look for your Facebook page, or your blog or some sort of online breadcrumb trail that could ultimately lead them to information you might not have opted to share.  So keep those digital files, passwords, emails and online profiles organized, backed up and secure! 




Sunday, July 5, 2015

Keep Calm and Do the Laundry!


Sour laundry, lint, random socks, spilled detergent. I have to say that a messy laundry room is by far my biggest pet peeve. After all, the sole purpose of that room is to make things clean! Even still, this is one of the easiest rooms to let slide when you get busy.  It is usually tucked away behind a door and easily forgotten.  But with just a little effort you can make your laundry room tidier and more organized even with minimal space and money.

Here are a few of my favorite tips for a clean laundry room that can make you feel a little happier to go into.


  1. Put up some shelving and separate the contents of your laundry room into containers.  This will keep things from getting mixed together and also make it easy to find what you need to complete any task.   I personally keep 5 baskets in my laundry closet which I will tell you more about later on in the post.  I purchased the baskets and labels from the Dollar Tree,  so it cost me $6 to designate a space for everything in my laundry closet.  
  2. Try to make it a habit every time you start a load to wipe off the top and front of your appliances. I like to keep a cleaning product in a designated basket and put a quick spray on my sock, wash cloth or whatever else I am washing that wouldn't be damaged by such a product and just give the appliances a quick wipe down. Then I just throw it in the washing machine along with the rest of my load
  3. When you empty your dryer, empty your lint trap. I keep a basket on a shelf over the dryer that I can drop the lint into and empty out once a month or so. Before I toss that aside though I make a quick swipe across the top of the dryer with the ball of lint in my hand, to pick up any little specs of lint that might have shaken loose. Nothing picks up lint like lint!
  4. I also keep a piggy bank in the laundry room. Any money I find becomes mine! I fill it up then turn it into the Coinstar machine and buy myself some Ice Cream or Wine  (or both) for doing such a great job keeping my laundry room clean! Any other articles you encounter should be taken off to their designated place.
  5. My advice is to not store dirty laundry in the laundry room. Bring it in load by load and take it out the same way. At most, I would keep one basket to separate “lights” you encounter as you load the machine, to be washed later when you have a full load. I personally separate them before I bring them to be washed, but I have a very small laundry room so the “lights" basket isn't even an option for me. 
  6. If you do not already have a designated sewing space, this is a great place to store your sewing supplies. I keep a sewing basket that contains my sewing supplies and iron.  Also if I lose a button in the wash, and do not have time to mend it right away, I can place it with my sewing supplies basket so I know right where to find it when I do have time. 
  7.  If you can, leave the washer door open between loads so it has ample time to air out. This will keep it fresh and free of any mildew. I have long ago sworn off front loading washers because the inside of them are so hard to maintain since leaving them open is usually not feasible due to space and safety concerns.  If you do have a front loading washer, try to keep something nearby to dry off the inside and outside of the plastic rim to keep that from mildewing.  

The laundry room is rarely visible to anyone but your immediate family members but that is no excuse to let it get cluttered.  Take an hour or less and clean out your space, put everything in a designated space and eliminate that feeling of guilt you feel every time you enter your laundry room.  Get back to feeling good about the fact you are getting things done around the house!  It doesn't need to look like something out of a magazine, it just needs to be functional and clean to make you feel instantly better.


Meredith







Sunday, June 28, 2015

You've Got Mail!

      
I see so much mail piled up when I go into people’s homes and businesses.  There are plenty of reasons that people do not open mail and deal with it as soon as they receive it.  Most of the time it is because they do not WANT to deal with the information contained within those envelopes.  Let’s face it…When you order a new phone or book you don’t leave it sitting on the table for two weeks unopened after it is delivered.  Because those things are fun, and bills are not fun. But looking at growing pile of bills is just going to depress you so I'm going to share some ideas for dealing with mail so it doesn’t get so overwhelming.

See if you can make this a new habit!

      1. Do not set the mail down on a table for later.  Walk to the trash/recycling can and pitch the junk (rip it/shred it up if it makes you feel better but this junk mail will probably not contain any sensitive information.)  While you are at it, open any letters and toss the envelopes.  Now walk the rest of the mail to your desk/bill paying area.
      2. Now you have a couple of options depending upon your personal filing system.
        1.  File the bills into their designated file.
        2. For those who do not like to hold onto paper or simply do not have the space to file these things away.  Get out your smart phone!  Quickly snap a picture of the bill and either save it to a designated space on your cloud server or email it to yourself to be filed away digitally.  Since clouds are not 100% reliable, I would be more inclined to file it into a designated folder on your cloud server AND email it to yourself, filing it then into a designated folders in your email account.  That way more than one server has a copy.  If that sounds like too much of a hassle, you should just do what you feel comfortable with.  After you have a copy stored away you can toss the physical bill. 
      3. Now that the bills are done, you can read any other correspondence, mark your calendars with any important dates and then recycle that mail as well.  
      4. Next time you pay your bills set up ebills only.  This will cut down on the important mail you receive. 
      5. The Federal Trade Commission suggests visiting www.optoutprescreen.com to put a stop to unsolicited credit cared and insurance offers.  This can help cut down on the amount of unsolicited mail you receive. 
      6.  If you are unable to pay a bill at the time it is received you may end up receiving duplicates.  If this happens keep the original and then most current versions only.  Everything in between can be discarded.  You keep the first bill so that you will notice any discrepancies in the balance owed between the time the debt was incurred and the most recent billing cycle.
      7. If this is a debt you are paying a little at a time keep a tally sheet in the file with the bills so you can update it each time you make a payment.  If you store your bills digitally a notepad or spreadsheet can be updated and stored in the folder with the statements. 
This whole process should take you less than 5 minutes. As I mentioned the majority of your mail will likely be unsolicited advertising. You might get a bill or other important correspondence every 3 to 4 days on average. More than anything it is about making the commitment to deal with this right away and every day.

In addition to mail we hold on to many other types of papers as well. Many are important but those should be treated with importance and put away. If you are having trouble making space for your important paperwork, check out my blog for organizing your files.  If you can get all of your paper under control in your home you will really start to notice a difference in how tidy it feels.  Happy filing friends!

Meredith


Saturday, June 27, 2015

A Functional Personal Filing System

A functional filing system is so important! You don't need a fancy desk or cabinet to store these files in.  A cardboard file box you pick up at the store will suffice.  All that really matters when it comes to filing your important paperwork is that your system is functional and consistent throughout.

The first key to constructing a great filing system is color codes. Assign a colored binder or expanding file folder to a major life category. It does not matter what colors they are, you can have a light blue, dark blue, and a periwinkle if you want. All that matters is that you can quickly distinguish one binder from another. Do not worry that you will not be able to memorize what colors go with what.  After you actively use this system it will become second nature.   It also does not matter what top level categories you use, everyone's categories will probably look a little different but I have laid out some broad examples below to provide you with a visual today.
  1. Employment
  2. Medical
  3. Home
  4. Transportation
  5. Vital Records
  6. Pets
  7. Financial
Next assign colors to subcategories.  Again, your subcategory needs could look different but here are some more examples.
  • Informational
  • Invoices
  • Receipts 
Once you have assigned colors to any subcategories your personal life warrants.  Then you will want to get expandable file folders in the colors you choose. You will likely want to have these subcategories in each of the top level binders so make sure you get enough folders.

Last but not least, get manila file folders and colored stickers to go within the subcategory folders. Each member of the family gets their own color sticker. Place a manila folder, with the members name and colored sticker in any of the subfolders where they have information specific to them.

 Let’s say our family is made up of Vince, Margaret and their dogs Buster and Spike. Our filing system will look like this.




If you find you have something that applies to all members of the family, place that item in the subcategory folder.  For example, Vince and Margaret's marriage certificate.  You can't assign that to just one of their manila folders so I would file that loosely into the Information Subcategory in the Vital Records binder.

I have found, for me at least, that this is the easiest way to file personal information away and most importantly FIND that information when you need it. Take the following scenario for example.

Zeus bites a neighbor….on your property. When the police and animal control arrive to take a report you look into your file cabinet/box/drawer. You know this incident involves your pet, (Open Brown Binder), You will need vaccination history to give to animal control (Open Blue Sub folder), For Buster, (Open Manilla folder with Pink Sticker) Next it happened at your home, (Open Black Binder) where you have homeowners insurance to provide to the police (Open Blue Sub folder), within a minute you have all of the information you need.

You can see now how simple it is to locate that information quickly verses a more standard method of filing that would likely force you to thumb through a lot more paperwork to find the specific item you need.  For instance you would probably have a vague "Insurance" folder.  That might include car insurance, boat insurance, home insurance, life insurance and who knows what else.  You might still have a "pet" folder where both pets information (Vaccines, boarding receipts, prescriptions etc.) would probably be crammed together and it would have been more time consuming to find Busters specific vaccination information in an emergency.

You will of course want to adapt this multi level filing system to better suite your specific needs, but I wanted to give you some broad examples on how you can start to construct an easy, organized, and FUNCTIONAL filing system on your own.

Meredith

Monday, June 22, 2015

It's the Sentiment That Counts


In my last post we talked about how to pare down your everyday clutter.  But what about all of those sentimental items that you just can’t seem to bring yourself to let go of.  I know most people will tell you to just get rid of them. They will say things like, “Those are things not people” or remind you that you still have the memory of that time or person that the sentimental item reminds you of.  While those are valid points, it seems incredibly insensitive and unrealistic to expect everyone to just throw away an item when that “thing” can bring them to tears or can make them smile uncontrollably.  People and the memories we create with them are irreplaceable, so when a special period of time has passed or a person has passed it is completely natural to want to cling to something here in the physical realm.  While I am not here to tell you to throw all of your treasures away, but we are going to look at some ways that we can hold onto these items in a way they do not obstruct you in your everyday life. 

The majority of people do not have an overabundance of sentimental items in their house.  But to get us started today, let’s say you do.  Perhaps you have just inherited a loved one’s residence, or you are a new parent who is unsure of when to let go of those onesies that your infant keeps growing out of every month.  While I am all for holding onto sentimental items, it is unlikely that you can or even want to keep all of them.  We only want to keep usable items and emotionally charged items.  

Now the first question is obviously, what can you use and how soon can you use it.  You can refer back to the previous posts justification chart and see if there are any items that you are not painstakingly attached to that you can start parting with. 

At this point you should be left with usable items and maybe a few unusable items that you feel an overwhelming, strong emotional attachment too.  Next step…Find a place in your home for the usable items. 

If you know you will not be using the items for another year or two, but are absolutely confident you will use them, perhaps when you have your next child, store them safely in a place where they will not get mixed up with items you use in the present time.  In other words, get the bottles out of the kitchen and the onesies into a vacuum sealed bags and out of the way.  This is very important because as long as these unusable items are taking up space alongside the items you use every day, they are going to inevitably cause you some form of frustration.

If you already have a duplicate of a usable item but you wish to keep the sentimental version of it, for instance you inherit a dining room table.  Sell your old one.  This goes for smaller items as well.  Let these items serve you in the present time.  You will see them, touch them and care for them every day. That is a wonderful thing!

Now this leaves us with the non-usable sentimental items.  These are often times the most significant but least cared for items.  They are generally left shoved in the back of a closet or drawer, only encountered occasionally, usually when you are looking for something else.  What we are going to do with these items is get them out  of the closet and drawer.  They should be stored separately. Again, we want to remove them from the mix of your everyday items so that your day to day life does not begin to feel encumbered by them. 

Some of these items can be displayed.  Put into shadow boxes or set on shelves.  Other, more fragile items, i.e. books, linens etc. should be protected.  Wrap them in protective coverings and store them in a secure location.  Waterproof, fireproof, bulletproof…the best you got!  These are things you don’t want exposed to the elements.  Set a date on your calendar annually to open this box and examine these items.  Give yourself just an hour or two to relish in the memories and really care for those items.  Get the entire family involved. This is a great time to tell younger generations stories about their family.

There is absolutely a way to live in the present and still cherish your past.  Life might be a one way street, but we still have a rear view mirror that allows us to go back and visit our memories any time we wish.  My job here is to make sure the road ahead is free and clear of debris.  Happy trails my friends!

 Meredith Warren- Designate A Space



Sunday, June 21, 2015

The Process of Purging

The number 1 rule for keeping your environment organized is that everything must have a place.  Hence our company name, Designate A Space.  If you find that you have run out of places to put your things, chances are you have too many things.  The first step is to ask yourself the hard question...."Do I really need this?"

I've worked with many people and most of the time, purging is the hardest part of the process.  People have trouble letting go for many reasons.  Most of the time they hold on to things out of a fear that they will need that item the second they throw it away.  Now for this I have a justification scale that I use to balance the monetary value of an object with your need for said object. I feel like it is very fair and non aggressive but if followed, can keep your life from becoming overwhelmed with things. Sentimental items are not measured using the justification scale, I will give you some suggestions to handle your treasures in another article.

You can see from the chart below that the more expensive the item, the longer of a period you can hold onto it without using it.  Of course if you have an expensive item that you already know you will not be using again, feel free to purge ahead of schedule!  Also if any item currently has a place in your home and you do not frequently use it, you can hold onto it as long as everything else in your home has a place already as well.  If not, well it might be time to get rid of that food dehydrator and just come to terms with that fact that you are simply never going to like kale chips.




Now keep in mind that purging does not necessarily mean throw away.  It just means you are ridding your environment of something unnecessary.  If the condition of something has completely deteriorated and it is not a collectible you should simply throw it away.  If the product still functions but is perhaps outdated or not considered desirable any more you should donate these products.  If a product is still widely used by the population and in good working condition you should sell these items.  You can do this by having a garage/yard sale or by doing so online.   If you aren't sure between what should be donated and sold you can always just try to sell it all and donate whatever is left.  

One easy way to calm your fears about purging a product is to guarantee yourself the ability to repurchase said item if absolutely necessary.  How can I make such a promise to myself, you ask?  Easy!  You are going to set aside any money you make from purging, every time you purge into an account that you do not currently use.  This will be you emergency..."OMG why did I throw that away?" fund.

Now that you have money...lets say you encounter a time you need that thing you purged.  Now is a GREAT time to ask yourself, is this something I can rent vs. buy?  For example, lets say you purged a circular saw.  You did not use it for more than 3 years but suddenly a piece of siding needs repaired on your house.  While it is time to dip into that purge account, do you want to really spend $150 on a new saw or will a $15 tool rental charge be a better solution considering you will probably not need this saw for another 3 years. We don't want to pay full price for something just to have to consider purging it again,, all the while it is taking up space and losing value.  For $150 you can afford a $15 tool rental charge every 3 years for the next 30 years.  Assuming you would even need it that often, and since you have already purged this item once you probably will not.

As humans we place so much emphasis on ownership.  But where is the value in owning a bunch of crap you don't use and nobody else wants?  So unless you just love dusting and having to go a on treasure hunt every time you set something down....be vigilant in your purging efforts my friends.

-Meredith Warren- Designate A Space