You want to be a great small business owner or executive, but you are becoming discouraged. If you spend your time on day-to-day business needs do you have to give up on the BIG passions that got you started?  And how do you avoid your business falling apart if you do choose to spend time working on the big picture things?

You CAN do both.  Being a great small business owner means knowing these seven common organizing and productivity mistakes and avoiding them!

 1.     You Keep Using Systems That Don’t Work:

Who would do that? Many if not most small business owners.  Your day is full of systems, or repeated actions.  You may have systems for following up with clients, organizing paperwork, or scheduling appointments.  Whatever the case for your business these systems have to work FOR YOU.

If you buy into a system that is touted to be the best, and you can’t get yourself to commit to it or aren’t having the same results as others than it isn’t the best system FOR YOU.  Bad ineffective systems leave customers upset and take up lots of your time.  Effective systems lead to happy clients and easily delegated responsibilities.

2.       Thinking You Will Remember:  

The other great thing about effective systems- it means you don’t have to keep everything in your head, and you shouldn’t. When you had a couple clients and were getting started maybe you kept appointments and reminders in your head.  As your business increases the chances of something slipping through the cracks increases.

 Don’t miss appointments, follow-ups, or emails because you didn’t record it somewhere. Also when you have everything in your head others have a much harder time picking up the ball and helping you.

3.       Not Having Staff to Help You Soon Enough:

It can be hard to delegate.  You want to make sure that EVERYTHING is just how you want it to be, it is your business.  Your big dream.  The problem is that if you want to see your big dream become a reality you are going to have to delegate.  Having an assistant to help you accomplish the day to day things means you have more time and energy for the big picture goals.

 Don’t wait until you are drowning to hire that person.  While you may get lucky and find someone ready to hit the ground running who can pick up your systems with little effort, chances are more likely you will need to train your new assistant and build confidence in them before you let them loose.

4.       Not Using Your Employees Effectively:

You’ve gotten the help you need.  Now you have to use them well.  As a small business owner you may pass out responsibility willy-nilly.  This leaves you and your employees unsure what you will be doing, what they will be doing, and often how it should be done.

 Have a plan, a detailed plan for how you will delegate work and how you expect work to be done.  It will save you time and money.

5.       Becoming a Micromanager, or Not Being Involved at All:  

You’ve found your employees, you’ve delegated work to them effectively. Now what?  You need to step back and let them handle the day-to-day responsibilities, it is why you hired them!  Keeping yourself involved in every detail, even after you found and trained someone, keeps you out of the big picture dreams that NEED you.

 On the flip side check in once and awhile.  This is your business you need to remain connected to the everyday work to make sure it is running effectively.

6.       You Don’t Have an “In Case of Disaster” Plan:  

Who will handle your assistant’s work if they get sick, hurt, go on vacation, or have a baby? You need a plan for when your primary employee is unavailable, because at some point it will happen. Who will cover for them? Layout a system that allows for others to pick up where they left off.

 7.       Believing That Disorder and Confusion are Inevitable:

They aren’t.  Sure there will be times of transition, but that should not be your everyday reality. Believing that they are inevitable gives you and your staff permission to function in chaos. Just because you are a small business owner that does not mean you can’t have a calm organized day as your norm.

Being an Effective Small Business Owner:

Put systems in place for organizing paperwork,  put great people in place to help with the everyday work, and allow yourself time to work on the BIG dreams while still remaining engaged in your day to day business.  Getting past these seven errors will allow you to be an effective small business owner with a profitable, well organized business.

What mistaken belief have you overcome as a small business owner?

Share what you’ve learned in the comments below! 

Keep Your Desktop Clean

The less “stuff” you have on your desk the easier it will be to concentrate on the project at hand. Keep only your essential items on the desktop. This includes equipment like your computer and phone. Want a really clear desktop? Use pullout shelves to hide your fax machine, or printer inside of a cabinet. Simply open the door and pull them out when you need them, then push them back in and close them out of sight when they aren’t in use!

Organize Your Cords With a Computer Cable Organizer

Cords can be a HUGE unsightly mess in an office. Not only are they ugly they can be a down right hazard. You, or children if you work from home, can get tangled or tripped up in loose cables. If you need to replace a specific piece of equipment untangling your cords until you find the correct ones can be a time consuming nightmare without a cable cord organizer.

Start by using grommets to feed your cords to the closest outlet most effectively. What is a grommet? It is a small ring that allows you to pass cords through the top of desks, and side or back of cabinets. A protective, usually plastic, ring will hide raw or sharp edges of the pass through. Now that your cords have a way to reach the outlet you need a computer cable organizer.

The best computer cable organizer will keep your cords separated, help eliminate extra cord length, and keep your cords hidden out of sight.

When your computer cable organizer keeps your cords separated as opposed to bundled all together the tasks of removing, rearranging, or repairing one piece of equipment becomes SIGNIFICANTLY faster, easier, and less stressful.

This is the BEST computer cable organizer I have found. It does all of these things. Check it out here.

Working With Open Shelves

If your office has open shelving you may find yourself being visually bombarded by clutter the second you walk in the room. Just because you have open shelving doesn’t mean you can’t corral your work in a neat and orderly fashion. In fact this can be a great way to add texture and personality to your office.

Baskets and bins are a great solution for organizing paperwork, projects, or other loose equipment. If you are short on drawer space a covered basket or bin can contain small equipment like pens, staplers, or highlighters neatly and out of sight.

Want to keep a home or work project materials together? Collect them all into the same basket and slide it onto a shelf. When you’re ready to work on that project again pull down your basket and have all of materials ready to go.

Keep your shelves neat and orderly with baskets, but remember in order to keep your day flowing smoothly use labels! If all of your containers are labeled clearly you won’t have to go searching through each bin until you find where you tucked your project. It is also helpful if you are organizing paperwork that others may need to find.

Eliminate these three big eyesores and you will be on your way to a neater cleaner office and a happier more creative day! Start today by clearing your desktop, using a computer cable organizer to contain your jumble of cords, and begin organizing paperwork with bins and baskets on your shelves.

What is your biggest office organizing pet peeve? What was your solution? Let us know down below!

Set Up Your Calendars

Google calendars can be shared with other people. This is a great feature so keep it in mind when you are setting up your calendar/s.  A nice benefit of Google calendars is you are able to set up multiple calendars that you can easily toggle between.  This means you can have a personal calendar and a work calendar.  Using this to your advantage means you can easily separate out your work from personal appointments and projects. Why would want to do this?  Do this so that you can share the appropriate calendar events with the appropriate people.

Who Would I Share With?

Get your whole family on board with a personal calendar!  Sharing calendars with your significant other, even your older children, means everyone knows when there are doctor appointments, soccer games, or choir practice.  No more arguing that you were never told about something, it is right there for you to see!

Share your work calendar with your team.  You can use this to have a joint calendar with those you work closest with.  Everyone will be at the meeting, because it is on everyone’s calendar.

You can share your calendar a few ways.  You can either give the person you are sharing your calendar with full editing permission or you can limit their ability to edit your calendar.

Use the Quick Add Feature

Quick Add is a great feature to use to get an organized calendar.  This does a great job of making it fast and easy to get appointments, meetings, and project work time on your calendar.  Google calendar understands everyday language.  What does this mean?  Drop down to the Quick Add feature, type in “Dinner tomorrow at 7pm with Doug”. Google will add your event to the correct day and time!

Set Reminders in Your Organized Calendar

Google calendar allows you to utilize several different methods of reminders for upcoming events.  While viewing your calendar can be easily done from your phone or computer if you have a hard time developing the habit of checking your calendar it won’t do you much good.  And even if you do check it often you may become wrapped up in some other project and forget to check in.  The reminder notifications are great for this!  You can choose to have an email sent, receive a pop up message on your computer, and/or a text message on your phone.  You can also specify when you want the reminder set!  Need 40 minutes to get to a meeting?  Send your self a reminder an hour before it starts, plenty of time to wrap up the task at hand and drive to your meeting.  Have a project deadline looming?  Schedule yourself time to work on the project AND reminders to let you know the deadline is approaching.

Best Uses for Task List

Want to keep a really organized calendar?  Find a place for the tasks that don’t have a specific “due date”.  Use your task list for future project ideas, the concept for a book you just had, or a blog topic that popped in your head.  Using your task list for this will help you with organizing paperwork.  Clean up the post-it notes and scraps of paper lying around your office this gives you a central place for these brainstorms.

Sync it

The best part?  Google calendar syncs to your phone.  Most of the popular phones including iPhones, Androids, and Blackberries sync to Google calendar.

An organized calendar can be kept on online in an easy and straightforward way.  You can keep track of both your personal and work schedule with Google calendar.  What can you gain by starting today?  Less stress, help organizing paperwork, and you’ll never miss another upcoming deadline again!

How do you achieve an organized calendar?

1. Know What is Most Important in Your Life.

We all have core values, things that are most important to us. Our lives should focus around these things. Write them down if that will help you stay focused. You should make a list of 3 to 5. Common sense says we should direct the decisions we make to focus on these important values, but life can get murky. Without re-evaluating this from time to time you may find yourself spending a lot of time and energy on things that aren’t truly important to you at all.

2. Realize the Consequences of Saying Yes.

Many people have a hard time saying no. But if your goal is simplified Zen living, you are going to need to get better at it! By taking on more and more you have no down or free time in your day. This means no time for you to do things you truly enjoy. If you are already overcommitted really consider the consequence of saying “yes”. What are you giving up? What are you not going to do as well because of your new time limits?

3. Empty the Top of Your Desk.

Having a clean workspace is going to make you more productive. On top of that many of the papers piled on top of your desk likely belong in your home filing system- it’s time to put them there. Knowing where papers are for future references can be a big stress saver. Be decisive as you clear off your desk. Putting off a decision about whether to keep something, or where to put it, is procrastination. And procrastination will eat your time! Every day you think about a decision you are waiting to make you slowly throw away more time!

4. Start Small.

If you are completely overwhelmed at the thought of cleaning out your home office, then start small. Clean out a drawer in your desk. Keep the items in your drawer that you treasure and love OR that are useful to you. Everything else goes. If you have a lot of papers clean out this drawer with a paper shredder handy. Papers that you need go into your home filing system, papers that you don’t go into the shredder!

5. Have a Plan and Stick to It.

Do you check your email, twitter, Facebook, or do other tasks compulsively? Decide how many times a day you really need to do those things. You are wasting time and eating up your entire day by going back and forth between all of these things. You don’t need to stop doing them, just have a plan about how often you’re going to. Try hard to stick to your limits for a few days, see how much time you gain!

Zen Living Can Be Yours In 2012

If these five tasks still seem overwhelming start with one, and do it today. Decluttering both your physical space and your task list will leave you feeling great. Using your home filing system and clearing out what you don’t need will open up your physical space. Learning to say no and engaging in activities you truly care about will open up more time in your day. Both will leave you feeling more Zen.

What will you do to achieve Zen living this year?

Last Minute Shopping: Make a Plan

It is important to have a plan.  This may mean sitting down and organizing home paperwork.  Come up with a comprehensive list.  Include who you have left to shop for, your budget for their gift, and ideas for what you are searching for.  You don’t want to spend the day in a mall to come home and realize you’ve forgotten your daycare provider, dog walker, or Aunt Ethel.

Decide in advance how much time you will spend shopping.  Wear a watch or keep your phone within reach, consider setting reminder alarms. In decorated spaces full of music and surrounded by throngs of shoppers it is easy to lose track of time.  If you don’t pay attention to the clock ticking by you may not finish your shopping, again.  If a reminder bing tells you there is only an hour left of shopping time you’re more likely to put down the scarf that would look great on YOU and search for the next gift.

Take Time to Ask Questions

Shoppers in a hurry sometimes make assumptions that can come back to haunt them.  Instead of assuming something can be returned or exchanged without difficulty, ask!  In this season some store will put in place special return policies, or you may be in a store you don’t normally frequent.  Not all stores will accept returns or exchanges, or they will do so with stipulations.  You may feel the press of last minute shopping, but don’t purchase an item that may need to be exchanged for a different size or color without asking about a return policy.

Online Shopping?  Stop Procrastinating!

Many people love the ease of online shopping.  So many choices at your fingertips!  No fighting for parking or bundling up to wade through snow and ice.  But your window on this great resource is closing, because you need to build in shipping time.

Still take the time to do some shopping around, many sites will offer deals on free shipping to capture more of your business.  Each site is different, but it largely true that sites guarantee Christmas arrival if you order by December 20.

Gifts to Give a Second Look

While some consider a gift card “the easy way out” or impersonal that is really no longer the case.  There are a huge variety of gift cards available to you today.  You no longer need to go with a more generic big box retailer, smaller more specialty shops are also offering gift cards.

Want something to wrap?  Find a small gift to add pizazz to your card.  A great mug to go with your coffee gift card.  A bag of popcorn and a cozy blanket to snuggle up go great with a DVD membership.

As a professional organizer I spend most of the year fighting clutter.  So I’m going to suggest the clutter free gift of wine, a nice bottle of liquor, or a special box of chocolates.  Consider things that your gift recipient would consider splurges and not buy for themselves.

Start organizing home paperwork and get your lists in order.  Then it is time to tackle that last minute shopping.  Stay focused and you’ll have success!

What is your last minute shopping strategy? Comment below.

Guest Post by Rowena List.

How much does your purse weigh?

When was the last time you cleared out all the clutter from your purse?

Do you wish you had a nice organized purse and could change purses to match your outfits?

They say the average purse weighs 6-10 pounds. Some are probably even more. This is not good for your back or shoulders. What the heck are we carrying around with us anyway? Do you use everything in your purse? I bet not.

Here are the top 5 steps to get an organized purse in 15 minutes or less.

Step #1 Dump out your entire purse. Yep, that’s right. Tip it upside down on your bed or kitchen counter.

Step #2 Give your purse a good clean out. Do you need to wipe the inside down with a damp cloth or give it a good shake over the kitchen garbage? Watch all those little bitty pieces of paper fall out, as well as the crumbs from snacks and whatever else might be floating around in the very bottom of your purse.

Step #3 Sort. Take each item and ask yourself “do I really need to be carrying this around in my purse”, “what is the purpose of having this item in my purse”? Are there items you can leave in your car? For instance, your sunglasses. Look at all the contents. This will give you an idea of what size and shape purse will best suit your needs.

Step #4 Toss all the old pieces of paper. For example old shopping list, ATM receipts, and outdated school notices. Do you need to save receipts for tax purposes? If so, go file them in your system we set up a few months ago. Toss or donate any old purses you are no longer using. Better yet, have a purse swap with your girlfriends and have some FUN.

Step #5 Organize the essential contents back in your purse. Some people like to use zip lock bags, some use little cosmetic bags to separate different items. I like the Pouchee Purse organizer (shown in the image below). This purse organizer allows you to put the entire contents of your purse in this one little pouch. You will be able to change your purse to match each outfit.

However you decide to put your purse back together, be sure to give it a mini clear out every couple of weeks. You’ll be surprised at what ends up in your purse when you are not looking. One of my clients found a piece of toast in hers! She was wondering where it went. It was her daughter’s breakfast!

Looking for the most amazing purse organizer in town?  The Pouchee Purse Organizer is my personal favorite. They come in a variety of colors and are available at: www.gettingittogether.ca.

About the Author

Rowena List is an organizing expert specializing in home organization. Grab your FREE copy of Rowena’s new e-Book; Organized in 15 Minutes.  The e-Book gives you a simple 10-day plan for organizing 10 different areas of your home in 15 minutes or less.  Download your free copy now at: http://www.GettingItTogether.ca.

Maybe you’ve heard of it:  Evernote

If you already use Evernote, check out the second video below.  In that video I take you on a tour of my Evernote and show you how I use it to run my life and businesses.  Also, check out the articles below which offer helpful Evernote tips and tricks that will keep your busy life running smoothly.

If you don’t currently use Evernote, check out the first video below (by my girl-crush Carley) on how it works, and her Evernote review.

Thanks to the smart people at Evernote, gone are the days of sticky notes, half-used notebooks, recipe and article clippings, thick project files, lost travel itineraries, and outdated to-do lists.  Now you can quickly capture all of your information in an organized, cloud-based application.  Access your information in the cloud from your computer, smart phone and other mobile devices, such as your iPad.  PLUS, you can share select information, to-do lists, and projects with your co-workers, family and friends.

Evernote can store and organize anything that you can find on the Internet, photograph from your smart phone, scan, email, type, record, or drag.  It automatically and instantly syncs on all of your devices through the cloud – how cool is that!?!

For example, I keep running lists – one for groceries, and one for Target.  I write them down in Evernote using my laptop.  Evernote automatically syncs with my smart phone so I never have to remember to grab the grocery list, or Target list, on my way out of the house.  If I’ve got my phone, I’ve got my lists.  And if I get a coupon via email, or find one online, I simply “clip it” to my Evernote shopping list.   I’ve got my lists and coupons with me at all times.

I love Evernote.  It’s like having one less thing to remember!  I also love having Evernote mobile on my phone so that I can quickly jot down an idea, take a snapshot of something I want to remember, or check on projects while I am out and about standing in line somewhere.

Evernote Review by Carley

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Evernote Review by Heidi

To download the free version of Evernote, click here.

Then check out these helpful articles on more ways to use Evernote to keep your busy life running smoothly:

Evernote for Busy Moms with Businesses

Evernote Tips for Entrepreneurs

There’s Not Enough Time for Thanksgiving Preparation!

If the clock and calendar are not your friend then you need to set priorities for your house cleaning.  You won’t have time to clean every corner, closet, and bedroom.  You need to use your time wisely, cleaning the spaces that your guests are going to see and spend time in.

Pay attention the next time you visit a friend’s home.  Are you inspecting their floors and ceilings?  Probably not.  Most of your guests will be looking at what is at eye level.  You’ll want to focus your cleaning efforts from waist to head level.

Keep moving!  Make a plan and stay on task.  You are hosting Thanksgiving, your guests will be spending most of their time in your foyer, living room, dining room, kitchen, and bathroom.  These are the areas that will need your attention.  Before guests arrive pull closed doors on closets, bedrooms, and other areas you don’t want your guests.  Don’t allow yourself to be derailed by a cleaning or organizing task that can wait until after company, remember the clock is ticking!

There is Still Too Much to Clean! 

Try following the path in your guests will.  In your foyer and living room the most important thing is clearing the clutter.  You don’t have time for organizing paperwork, but you do have time to put loose mail into a basket with a cover or a small drawer.  Same with your old magazines, if you have stacks of them either recycle them or tuck them away.  Extra coats, shoes, and outerwear that build up in your foyer can be tucked back into a closet, or a bedroom you won’t be showing your guests.

Run a dust cloth over your coffee tables, tv stand, and other surfaces that your guests will be setting drinks on or congregating around.  A quick fluff of pillows and refolding of blankets and these areas should make the grade for your guests.  If you have pets you may have to spend a little extra time de-furring the furniture.

The Heart of Every Party…

If you’ve hosted a party before you know people congregate in the kitchen.  It could be the smallest room in the house, but we are still all drawn to it!  It may seem this room is difficult to clean since you will be in the middle of Thanksgiving preparation, however there are a couple things you can do to make it sparkle too.

Since you are bound to have a lot of people in your kitchen get rid of all the rest of the extra “stuff”.  Again clutter is the enemy.  Clear off as much as you can from your counter and table tops.  Appliances that will go unused are a great place to start.  Don’t get lost in organizing paperwork, just tuck your loose recipes and papers into a less frequented cabinet or drawer.  Just don’t forget where you put them!

A wipe down of your faucet, sink, front of the fridge, and counter tops to eliminate water spots and sticky areas is a must.  Guests won’t fault you if stuffing spills during Thanksgiving preparation, but they might judge if they put their hand in lunch from yesterday.

Finishing Touches

Vacuum selectively.  Run through high traffic areas with your vacuum.  Make sure you catch any loose fur from the family  pet.  Want to save time on vacuuming?  Vacuum the bottom portion of the staircase, don’t drag your vacuum all the way up.  The lower few stairs will get the most traffic and be most visible to your company.

Go through and collect garbage out of all of your cans and replace them with fresh can liners. Finish freshening up your space by lighting some seasonal candles.

Your Thanksgiving preparation should be finished up with a productive round of speed cleaning!  Don’t get caught up in details, like organizing paperwork, those projects are better left for another day.  Stay focused on the big tasks, and then relax and enjoy your company.

What Thanksgiving dish will you most be looking forward to, now that you are relaxing in your company ready home with Thanksgiving preparation complete? Comment below…

Have you ever noticed that when something *new* happens in your life you go out and spend money? For instance, when you get that new job, you shop for a new wardrobe, when you start dating a new guy, you go buy a new outfit, when you’ve had a bad day, you buy a pair of shoes.

Sound familiar?  Preparing for your first baby is no different.

The minute we find out we are pregnant we start buying-just to be prepared, right?

Target has a sale on onesies and we are right there in line to buy four packs of them, because if there is one thing you know, it’s that babies go through a lot of onesies. Your mother-in-law comes into town to celebrate with you and, you go shopping. Outfits with ruffled edges, blankets with soft tags on the outside and diapers…oh, the diapers, those ultra big boxes begin to take up a lot of space, but they were on sale, so why not?

Going on these buying sprees while preparing for your first baby, are super fun!  But when you’ve got a bun in the oven, however, they will leave you feeling unorganized if you don’t really know what you need.

For fifteen years I have been supporting women in their transition to motherhood as a parent coach and birth doula, and I’ve learned a few things about how to keep mom organized.

Preparing for Your First Baby

#1:  When preparing for your first baby, you may be tempted to buy the crib first. It’s a huge expense and in reality most babies aren’t sleeping in them until around six months old. You have way more time to purchase a crib than you think. Start with a bedside bassinet, co-sleeper, pack’n’play, or easiest and most convenient is to keep baby in bed with you for the first few months and you’ll know when you’re ready for that crib. Then, you have time to catch it while it’s on sale or use money and gift cards from shower gifts to put toward this large expense.

#2:  Highchairs are something I’m thrilled to say we never owned. They are typically so big and bulky and plastic and ugly and take up a chunk of space. There are small seats you can strap onto a kitchen chair you can use instead if space is an issue, or for us, we found a wooden restaurant high chair at a garage sale in mint condition for 5 buckaroos and it served us (no pun intended) for 3 years until our daughter was ready for a chair like everyone else.

As you are preparing for your first baby, you will most likely you will receive a high chair as a gift.  Keep it in the box with the receipt taped to the side, so you can return or exchange it for exactly what you like and want. They are now coming out with some really cute and small wooden chairs that convert into tot chairs and eventually stepping stools, so check them out!

#3:  Clothing…this one is tough because the stuff is so adorable these days. However, if you’re holding out for a surprise at the end of nine months on the sex of your baby (which is super fun, I highly recommend it), keep the tags on everything and create bags of where the items came from. Probably they are coming from one of three places people shop in your area for baby clothes, so mostly they should be easy to return or exchange. As you are preparing for your first baby, keep in mind that these little bundles of joy grow so quickly it’s likely you won’t use half of the clothes you have on hand.

#4:  Breastpumps (the good ones, anyway) are expensive and worth it, HOWEVER, most moms won’t be pumping at all until around six weeks postpartum. You really need the first few weeks to establish your breastfeeding rhythm and the pump only occasionally comes in handy for that mom who is so engorged the baby can’t get a latch. You’ll have plenty of time to pump for when (if) you return back to work or for when you need a break now and again from the little cherub. Breastpumps are also a really individual choice. Some moms like the simple handheld versions and some like the big fancy dual action kind that allow you to multi task while you pump. Regardless, don’t open that box until you’re a day away from using it, when you can boil down the apparatus to sterilize before attaching it.

#5:  Strollers are another item you’ll be glad you hung on to the receipt for. I highly recommend just wearing your baby. It’s the easiest way to get around, they are always warm and you can respond right away to his/her needs and build our confidence as well. There are a ridiculous number of strollers out there. I put one on my registry that you click the infant seat into and guess what? I NEVER used it. Lucky was the gal who got it after me! I carried my babies into and out of the car in a sling (at the time) and only needed a stroller when I was ready to start running again three months postpartum.

My father-in-law came to the rescue with a sweet jog stroller for Christmas that has well over 5,000 miles on it now that my oldest is eight. He knew exactly what I’d need: a weather cover for running in the rain/wind, it reclines, it’s rugged, has a sun shield, lots of pockets, easy to fold down and it’s become the ONE thing we always bring to the state fair because it holds all our gear for the day!

These are surprisingly personal in use and your choice isn’t what your neighbors or girlfriends might choose, so choose to your particular needs. Nod and smile when you open the huge box of apparatus that comes from grandma at your baby shower and say this, “thank you, we look forward to seeing how this fits our family”, and move on.

I recommend keeping these items in their boxes and keeping the receipts filed in an envelope and taped to your kitchen cupboard door.  Or tape the receipts to the boxes, which will relieve a ton of hassle and headache when you realize what you do need and want to do some returns.

Preparing for your first baby doesn’t have to be expensive and you don’t need a mountain of apparatuses and toys cluttering up your home.

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About the Author
Nichole Hirsch Kuechle is a Parent Coach and Birth Doula. Her experience as a Postpartum Doula, Craniosacral Therapist and Certified Lifestyle Educator allows her the ability to work closely with families from preconception through early childhood.

She has authored the New Parent Tool Kit with tips on how to have a healthy pregnancy, how to support yourself in the postpartum stages and more! You can grab this for FREE by logging on to www.myhealthybeginning.com

A successful pantry is made up of two components: an organized pantry and a good system for stocking it.  You need to develop good habits when it comes to your pantry and home organization.  If your stocking and organization habits are bad now, a little guidance can change that!

No Room

Are you thinking an organized pantry would be great, in fact A PANTRY would be great!  Just because you have a small kitchen, or your kitchen doesn’t contain a traditional pantry closet, does not mean you can’t have this important storage space!

Your pantry doesn’t have to be in your kitchen.  Any space that is dry, and temperature regulated can serve the purpose.  Small space demand creativity.  Find unused space in a linen or coat closet.

Home Organization in Your Pantry

 Empty out your pantry space.  Clean off the shelves, line them if needed.  Discard food that has expired.  Take a good look at what you have.  If you have been compulsively buying one item, but didn’t notice your stock growing in a messy space, you may have far more than you could ever use before it expires.  If this is the case consider donating these extras to a food pantry.

1. Sort your food into categories.  Keeping like items together will help you find things faster, and help you visually inventory what you have.  Examples of categories are breakfast cereals, soup, baking goods.

2.Use a layout that makes sense.  After school snacks for the kids should go on lower shelves, where they can reach them.  Baking supplies you only use three times a year should be in a harder to reach place.

3.Make the space you have count.  Get the most in by using your vertical space.  If your shelves are adjustable, great!  If they aren’t look for products like can risers to use all of the height in your closet.  10-12 inches of dead air in between your shelves is just plain wasted space.  Measure your shelves and invest in a couple great baskets for items that tend to flop around and create messes on traditional shelves.  The big offenders?  Bags of chips and other snacks, bags of pasta, beans, and flavor packets.

What Goes In My Pantry?

Now that you have cleaned out your space and organized what you already have, how do you know what else you need?  Look at what you buy regularly.  If up until now you had no home organization in your pantry don’t start out with the goal of a pantry stocked for a year of meals.  Take it slow, changing habits doesn’t have to be hard if you do it right.

Start with a back-up of each of the non-perishable items you buy regularly at the grocery store.  If you were going to buy one can of beans, buy two.  If you are starting from scratch give yourself time, a little planning and coupon use can go a long way to stock your pantry.  When you pull something out of your pantry add it to your grocery list, you’ll need to replace your stock.

Changing Habits Takes Time

If you had been in the habit of shopping without a list, or jamming things in to your cabinets with no plan, an organized pantry can seem like a lot of work.  And if you don’t put some effort into changing habits you may not be successful at getting organized.  Here are some quick tips to help you get off on the right foot:

• Change one thing at a time.  If you have just reorganized your entire closet and are adjusting to a new system there it might not be the time to build a new habit in the kitchen too.

• Get everyone on board.  Getting everyone who uses the pantry to buy in will make changing habits in your storage much easier.  When everyone puts things where they belong you won’t have to spend time re-shelving what others have done.  It will lessen the chance of you burning out and giving up!

• Give yourself time.  Like most home organization once we decide to make the change we want everything perfect right away!  Keep In mind changing habits takes about 30 days.  Stick with for a month and you will find it gets easier and easier to keep organized.

Home organization always saves you time.  When you know what you have in your pantry it is easier to plan meals, shop, and execute your cooking!  It is also a money saver.  When you know what you have you won’t find yourself buying more and more of an item while unused portions go bad on your shelves.  The holidays are a great time to get your pantry organized since you will probably be spending a lot of time in your kitchen over the next couple months.  Make family meals happy and easy, organize your pantry!

What staple is a MUST HAVE in your pantry?  Leave a comment below!