Always forgetting? You'll love this video!

Perhaps you've lost your car keys, or missed your appointment? Maybe you can't find a bill that needs to be paid, or you've been searching all day for your favorite red shoes?

If you're always forgetting, you'll love this video. It was passed on to me by my daughter's grade school principal, Jeff Allen. What a riot!

Andy Warhol's 610 Boxes of Stuff

You just gotta love the news sometimes. An article in yesterday's paper reported that archivists are going through 610 cardboard boxes, filing cabinets and even a shipping container collected by the late Andy Warhol. In the 18 months since the project began, the archivists have opened 177 boxes-- each with an average of 400 items, some with as many as 1,200 items!

Some of the contents--a lot of junk, like one box that held a piece of crusty wedding cake. However, some nice surprises too, such as the box that contained $17,000 in cash.

Apparently, Warhol was never one to throw things away, The article stated that when he died in 1987 at 58, his four- story Manhattan townhouse was packed with shopping bags, clothes, books and other artifacts from his daily expeditions, boxes, piles of furniture and even a drawer of gems worth $1 million.

I think most people have some cardboard boxes sitting around--hopefully, not many with 610!

For however many boxes you do have, why not have a little box opening party this weekend. You'll likely find stuff that you can donate or dump, but who knows...maybe you'll find something really worthwhile. You never know until you start looking!

Thanks SO MUCH for making a BIG Difference

A short while ago, I asked for donations for my efforts in the Relay For Life event in my town. Once again, so many Get Organized Now! subscribers have shown their generosity. My personal goal of raising $500 was exceeded, and our team raised over $2000 collectively.

If you were one of the contributors (some of you donated anonymously or by name only with no mailing address), thank you so very much. You've helped to make a BIG difference in so many lives.

The event itself was lovely. I camped out with my daughter and good friends overnight. We took turns walking around the track, keeping someone on the track at all times for 18 hours straight. There were kids activities, such as fishing games and face painting. Adults and kids alike got to enjoy the local high school band, an ice cream social, and a morning of Zumba.

Luminaries went around the entire high school track, lit brightly all night for a) those who lost their battle with cancer, b) survivors, and c) those currently battling cancer.

It was a touching, rewarding, very emotional evening that I was proud to be a part of.

I'm so touched by your generosity and support. I so appreciate your help.

Pause Before You Click

This past Saturday, I had to be at the Riverfest Festival in my town as I had volunteered to help out at the pizza booth fundraiser for my daughter's school. I had 15 minutes or so before I had to walk out the door, so I figured I'd use that time productively.

I surfed on over to my box vendor's website and ordered some boxes we needed. I quickly ordered a quantity of 100. Since I purchased from this company before, I didn't need to fill in any of our address or payment information. It was already there. I quickly glanced at my order and clicked OK.

Just a second after I clicked OK, I realized I made a huge mistake.

These boxes weren't sold individually. They were sold in sets of 50. So, instead of ordering 100 boxes, I had ordered 5000 boxes at a price of around $2000!

Oh, man!!!!!

Ok, so I called the company, and of course they weren't open on the weekend. It also said on this web site that they often weren't able to recall any orders that were placed online, since the online order goes directly to the warehouse and the items are pretty much packed and shipped immediately.

Looking at my watch, I now had to leave in about 3 minutes. So, I quickly emailed the company and left them a voice message, begging them to cancel my order.

Not leaving anything up to chance, thank goodness, this morning I was able to call the box company promptly at 9:00am and catch (and cancel) this order before it went out the door.

Organizing 101: Don't do anything important in a rush AND pause long enough to read everything carefully before you click to purchase anything.

Back to School Shopping

Back-to-school shopping time is here once again. I just received my daughter's school supply list for the new school year.

She will be using last year's backpack and her current tennis shoes, but we needed to buy everything else.

Rather than waiting 'til the last minute, we immediately ran out earlier today and picked up everything we needed. One store had most items on the list. We did make one extra stop to an art supply store for one thing we could not get. I also purchased one item online, which should arrive in a day or two.

In addition, last week we took an inventory of last year's clothes. This included my daughter's help, as she needed to try on some of her wardrobe. Most didn't fit (kids grow way too fast!), but a few outfits that I purposely bought bigger last season were still useable.

We then went clothes shopping. My Kingergarten-age daughter is still very into dresses--and not much into pants. So, we ended up buying 10 new dresses (with tights and accessories) and two pants/shirts outfits, that she can cycle through the school year. Since young children are sometimes asked to wear specific colors on certain days (like when they're learning about things that are blue, for example), I tried to buy outfits that took into consideration most basic colors.

The last thing we need to do is go shoe shopping, which we'll do next week. Then we'll be all set.

Don't wait until the last minute. Other parents will be scrambling at that time. The stores will be crowded and the shelves won't be as stocked.