An organized start to 2016
Who doesn't love to be organized? In a perfect world we would all have immaculate, Pinterest-inspired homes where everything has a place and label and fits seamlessly into a seamless design.
Reality is a little different: My home has been inundated with enormous piles of stuff. You know: toys, clothes, home décor and cards. I could go on and on! This January provides a natural opportunity to accomplish several crucial organizational tasks.
It's a good idea to sort through your kitchen cabinets once or twice a year, and what better time than in the New Year? Purge food storage containers that are no longer used. Do you need 15 coffee mugs? Are you ever going to eat that can of beets?
Clean out the plastic kid cups. Keep one per child and designate it as their cup. Limit yourself to one set of eight or 12 dishes. Go through the pantry and discard any expired seasonings and canned goods.
Change that piling system to a filing system -- it's time to tackle those stacks of paper! Sort through those stacks of bills, notices and bank statements. Make two piles: to keep and to shred. Several office supply stores in Middle Georgia offer secure paper-shredding services.
For the "to keep" file, go through your filing cabinet and make sure your folders make sense, consolidate and eliminate folders where you can, then file away the paper.
You can also opt for a paperless filing system. Scan the documents you want to keep and organize them on your computer in folders. Be sure to back up those digital files on a USB drive or external hard drive. Tax time is no fun if you've lost all of that year's paperwork!
Let's tackle those closets! If it's a struggle to find anything in your closet or to close the door, it might be time to take inventory. Pull every item of clothing and every shoe and accessory out of your closet, and -- you guessed it -- make a few piles!
I'd go with: keep, donate and return. Yes, I have items with tags that should be returned. What gal doesn't? A good rule of thumb for sorting through clothes is that if you haven't worn something in more than a year, you're most likely safe to donate it.
For those with limited space like myself, make a store pile to box up out-of-season clothes and store them in the attic to free up room for the clothes you're using now.
Like your kitchen cabinet, it's a good idea to sort through the old medicine cabinet once a year. Go through the medicine cabinet and check those expiration dates, setting aside anything that's expired. Follow the manufacturer's instructions for proper disposal. Keep in mind the Macon-Bibb County Sheriff's office also accepts prescription disposal.
Now that you have your medicines narrowed down to just what you want to keep, put things back thoughtfully. Put prescriptions together according to whom they belong to, and organize things like cold and headache medicine so it's easy to find when you need it.
Happy organized New Year!
Contact county Extension agent Keishon J. Thomas by calling 478-751-6338 or emailling thomaskj@uga.edu.
This story was originally published January 6, 2016 at 9:29 PM with the headline "An organized start to 2016 ."