Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Works For Me!


As mentioned last week, Shannon is starting a new feature and has invited everyone to join in! So, here is my entry for this week:


This idea comes from Cleaning Up The Clutter by Emilie Barnes. She suggests labeling each box or bin that is going into storage with a number and a listing of what is in it. Then, keeping a list by box number of what is stored. For example, this box contains 6-12 months girls clothes and shoes. So, I write box number 10 on my index card and list what is in it. When David takes it to the attic, all boxes are numbered. And when I need something specific, I can ask for box x without having to search through all the boxes. This is also a great way to keep track of what is in storage. Similar ideas were also shared in Amy Dacyczyn's books, The Tightwad Gazette.

14 comments:

Nettie said...

Wow! I so wish I had this! Maybe some day I will have a week end to tackle such a project. I am usually doing good to have a general description label on the outside of the box. Oh, and I loved your cute tea table!

Megan said...

This is how I packed for our last move and it worked well. I had most of our boxes in a storage unit in St. Louis for 2 months, but some were at the farm and others were at my parents. I had a numbered list (on excel) with everything typed up per box. If I needed something, I would go to excel, run the search function and it would scroll through my list, find the item, tell me what box number it was in and where it was located (storage unit, the farm, my parents) - then I had to decide if I really needed it or if it could wait for 2 months... :)

I still use it because we still have a few items at my parents' house and when they come to visit, I ask them to bring with them box 34 or at least to dig through box 34 and pull out the _______ and bring that with them.

Aunt Murry said...

This saved me when I moved from Tulsa to KC and everything went into Storage for 10 months! My WFMW is up too!

Diane Viere said...

You make being organized....look so easy! And attractive, and inspiring, and......shame on me....for not doing this! I'm going to give it a try.

Diane

Anonymous said...

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

Monica Wilkinson said...

Megan - I love the idea of putting it on Excel, I had never considered that!

As far as starting this from scratch, I find that when I take a box down (like Christmas) is a good time to do *that* box and not have to tackle it all at one time. Now, it is all done throughout the course of the past two years of living in this house.

Sandra said...

Wow now this is an idea I definitely need to implement. Thank you so much for sharing, it comes at the perfect time for spring cleaning and putting away all my winter stuff.

Thanks a lot :)
I've also posted my idea :)

Chaotic Mom said...

Okay, you are VERY organized! I would LOVE to do something like this, too! Great idea, good inspiration. Thank you for sharing! ;)

Shalee said...

Great idea! Now all I have to do is take the time to figure out what is in the boxes that are already stored...

Kathryn said...

I did this for a move once too, and it made it so much easier. I have my whole storage room with labeled boxes. I don't have them indexed though. I invested in 5 Walmart white bookcases and a number of the 19 qt. clear boxes with lids. Its so much easier to find the lightbulbs or the vacuum cleaner bag or the fall decorations. Plus, when I clean I can just wipe off the boxes with a damp rag and be done...no real cleaning necessary and no cardboard boxes breaking or full of mouse houses. [[shudder]]

Terri said...

This is one of my favorite organization ideas! I love Emilie Barnes! Thank you for posting this. And by the way, I love your blog!

T!ff@ny said...

Now THAT is a wondeful idea!!! We are always saying (when searching for something) it is in one of those boxes somewhere!!! Ha!

Anonymous said...

wow! Organization!
WOW!

Anonymous said...

wow! Organization!
WOW!