May 7, 2015 by Born To Organize

Organize This: From Chaos to Calm, One Week at a Time

Organizing people, places and things has always been a passion. My mom said she found me in her room organizing socks at the age of two. All embellishing aside, that story illustrates my interest from an early age.

About two months ago I decided to add a feature to my blog and polled all of you with suggested titles. I’ve combined the two most popular titles into one overly long title for now, but will plan some additional tweaking as time goes on.

Organizing Garden Tools

I’m going to kick off the feature with some garden tool organization. I’ve been using this system for three years now, with great success.

In the past I would make do with the odd bucket or two-dollar tool caddy, but as you know, when your hobby grows, so to do your tools. I headed to our local hardware store and put together a system for ten bucks.

For starters, I wanted to personalize my new tool organizer. I have nothing against Husky who made this fabulous system, but you must admit they have a grouchy-looking logo. Since I’m organized at heart, I used a jewelry finding full of hearts. I covered the grumpy husky with a permanent marker, then attached the hearts with a safety-pin. Now I can change out the bucket jewelry when the mood strikes.

I hid the logo with a jewelry finding (with apologies to Husky®)

I use the inner pockets to store my hand tools, including spades, pruning tools, and hand saws. My garden fork hangs from an outer pocket, originally intended for a drill. I cut an unused garden glove to cover the prongs so I don’t scrape my leg on the rough edges as I carry it from place to place.

Bucket interior

Gloved garden fork

Drill holder doubles for tools and gloves

The Bucket Jockey includes a strap attached to the exterior. I don’t know its intended use, but I’ve re-purposed it for twine. One of the tricks I learned on a garden tour was to cut several lengths of twine ahead of time so you have them at the ready when you need them. I threaded several pre-cut lengths of twine through a couple of binder rings. They’re attached near the ball of twine.

Strap and hook attachment

Pre-cut strands of garden twine attached with binder rings

Strap holds garden twine

Organized and ready to garden

Now all my hand-held tools and garden accessories reside in one easy-to-access, portable system.

Your Turn

I would love to hear your ideas for future posts. What are your organizing interests or challenges?

If you want to make a request privately, you can write to me using my contact form.

Here are a few general ideas:

Home Office/Small business:

Efficient use of email

Managing paper flow

Effective filing

Kitchen:

Improving layout and work flow

Shopping and meal planning

Dealing with ‘granny gear’

Holidays:

Organizing the holidays

Organizing gift-giving

Micro-Organizing:

Socks, socks and more socks

Where should I store the cat food?

Drowning in magazines

etc.

I’m looking forward to your comments, below.

December 6, 2013 by Born To Organize

Make Like a Tree

Shhh…

Don’t say anything, but sometimes I pretend I’m a tree. I stand stock still in the garden and wait to see what happens. I’m a tree with a camera, but lets not argue semantics. I get the best shots when I’m quiet and unmoving, even though I long to call out ‘come look!’ at the cuteness nature serves outdoors.

I ventured out this morning in my warmest coat and watched the ballet. One crow, then two swooped on and off the phone lines. They soared overhead, settled in the neighbors pine, then flew back again. I was so tree-like at that point that I missed the photo-op entirely.

A pair of hummingbirds danced a different dance: low, fast and chit-chit-chitting as they went, They crossed and swooped from tree to tree, feeder to tree, and back.

Hummingbird on guard

A squirrel hopped the fence, stuffed to the gills. It looks like our neighbors have a two-for one offer on peanuts this morning. This little fella looked worried, even though I assured him I was just a tree with a camera. His peanuts were safe.

Two-for-one special

Squirrels don’t have wings, but I swear he flew along the fence. For all his concern, I’ll probably unearth those peanuts in the vegetable garden come June. I can’t imagine his well-padded frame could eat another bite. Of course that never stops me from grazing.

Bums the word (and hopefully not a commentary on the gardener)

If you have a few extra moments this weekend, make like a tree. Let me know how it goes in the comments, below.

Organized at Heart

I’m posting a series of articles featuring organizing around the holidays this week on my blog Organized at Heart. If the subject interests you, please go take a peak. Today’s blog, Reorganizing Traditions, suggests evaluating our holiday traditions. then bringing them in line with our current lifestyles.

November 12, 2012 by Born To Organize

Organizing Garden Tools: Bucket Jockey® Goes “Green”

Bucket Jockey® where have you been all my life!?

In all my years of gardening, I’ve simply “made do” with my tool storage. For the past several years I’ve used a small plastic caddy intended for cleaning supplies. Not bad for a two dollar investment.

So I can’t tell you how excited I am with my upgrade: an all-in-one tool storage caddy from Husky® and Home Depot. I’m not sure why I assumed this would be a costly investment. I grew up in an all-female household, so I never really learned my way around a hardware store. For just ten dollars I was able to create this system, below.

For starters, I wanted to personalize my new tool organizer. I have nothing against Husky who made this fabulous system, but you must admit they have a grouchy-looking logo. Since I’m organized at heart, I used a jewelry finding full of hearts. I blacked out the logo with a permanent marker, then attached the hearts with a safety-pin. Now I can change out the bucket jewelry when the mood strikes.

I hid the logo with a jewelry finding (with apologies to Husky®)

I used the inner pockets to store my freshly cleaned and sharpened hand tools, including spades, pruners, saws and weeders. My garden fork hangs from an outer pocket, originally intended for a drill. I cut an unused garden glove to cover the prongs so I don’t scrape my leg on the rough edges as I carry it from place to place.

Bucket Interior houses tools

Gloved garden fork

This would typically hold a drill. It works well for gloves and a garden fork.

: Strap and hook attachment

Garden Twine

Strap holds garden twine

“Bucket Jockey ®” transformed

What a joy to have all the tools sharpened, cleaned and stored in one easy to access, portable system.

On the subject of organizing, I recently launched my new and improved organizing website and blog, Organized at Heart. If you’re interested, please take a look. If you would like to follow along, you can subscribe to receive regular updates.