“Give the things you got for Christmas a specific place,” said Schofield, a nationally known organizing expert. “If you're going to be using a gift often, put it in a handy, easy-to-reach spot. If you're not going to use it often, put it somewhere out of the way.”
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Schofield, 63, is the author of five books. Since the early 1980s, she's been speaking to groups about ways to manage time and control clutter. The Iowa resident will hold Get Organized seminars Thursday and Friday in Edmond.
“We're going to learn how to find more space without throwing away everything,” she said in a phone interview. “The reason I do that is that organizers are famous for telling people to get rid of stuff. ... Some people can't do that, and that stops them dead in their tracks.”
She said she'll also talk about “managing time and getting rid of all the floating pieces of paper,” such as bills, receipts and old tax documents.
Schofield said she “wasn't born organized,” but after the third of her five children was born, she knew she had to do something. She set out to manage schedules, maximize efficiency and eliminate mess and clutter in her family's home.
Her success led to the 1982 publication of her first book, “Confessions of an Organized Homemaker.” She's been helping others get organized ever since.
Some of her tips are surprising.
“When I'm showing people ideas for organizing things, I show them several items that you can use in different ways than they were designed for,” she said. “For example, I have a bathroom bowl brush that I've never used in the bathroom. It's perfect for cleaning carpet edges.”
Neatness is more important than spotlessness, she said.
“As far as your time goes, order is more important than clean,” she said. “If you have to choose between tasks ... choose the one that's going to bring order over the one that's going to clean something. If you let the thing that demands order go, it's going to lead to all sorts of distractions and troubles that you could've avoided.”
Other suggestions are pragmatic but take discipline to enact, such as developing a written timetable for completing housework and setting strict limits to avoid clutter.
Schofield, for example, keeps a large wooden box in her living room that holds magazines; when the box is full, no new magazines can enter the home until some of the old ones are discarded. Sounds simple, but it takes effort to maintain.
“Organizing is just like dieting,” she said. “You're going to do really well for a couple days, and then you're going to eat a bag of cookies. You have to want to be organized, and you have to stick to it.”
Among her suggestions:
“Transfer dry supplies into square or rectangular containers. Be sure to label. Round containers are space wasters.”
Instead of applying adhesive shelf liner directly, “measure the drawer or shelf that you want to line and cut out a piece of cardboard that is that measurement. Cover the cardboard with the self-adhesive paper and place in the drawer or on the shelf. Easy to clean and easy to remove and replace.”
“Put recipes on Rolodex cards. The file always stays organized because the cards never leave the card file.”
“Keep in the kitchen only those cookbooks that you use all the time. Place the other books in another room.”
“Keep a list posted on the side of the refrigerator where you record the leftovers that you've tucked inside. That increases the likelihood that you'll actually use them.”valentines flower delivery
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