Warm woolen mittens.....

BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE!

I just came in from walking the dog and realized that it’s already time to pull out the winter wear and get everything organized. There’s nothing more guilt-producing than your child asking for gloves because they’re freezing during recess! Just follow these simple guidelines and YOUR child will be the envy of the playground (or possibly share one of their gloves with a friend).

1.  Gather/find all the scarves, hats, gloves, mittens and boots in the house.
Invite (or order) each family member to try on their boots hats and gloves to make sure they still fit.
2.  Toss all the unwanted items in a donation bag (and either place in your car for a drop off or contact a charity to pick them up or check out a consignment store). Just heard about a great on line store Dashing Bee.
3.  If your children are ‘particular’ and not into sharing their items, then take a giant zip lock bag or lidded box or even a plastic case that your new blanket came in, and label it and put that child’s mittens, gloves, hats and scarves in there. Another option is to have 1 bag for scarves, 1 bag for gloves, 1 bag for hats and 1 bag for gloves and mittens. Main thing is that when they are sorted by sex or size or type, it’s a lot faster and easier to get them.
4.  Store boots in a large clear box or large clear zipper bag, but be brutal in limiting how many pairs per person. The more options you have, the more stress you get. Less is more in all matters relating to winter wear, toys, clothes (catch my drift here?).
5.  Find a place to store the winter stuff - a place that’s near the morning departure location (mud room, laundry room, hall closet) and if you don’t have a place, think about finding a piece of furniture that may house the items.
6.  Enjoy the peace and serenity that will come on the next chilly morning when you can direct your children to their bag or box of stuff while you sip happily on your hot tea.

Downsize your book collection

Books accumulate in every household. Some have sentimental or actual value, but most are useless once they are read. Unless the book is a classic, most people only read a book one time, if they make it that far.

Many options are available for trimming down your book collection. First, you have to sort through them. Figure out which books are most important. Encyclopedias that many of us relied on for homework assignments as kids, are completely useless to most of today’s internet savvy children. No charity has any interest in old and ridiculously outdated encyclopedias from when the flag only had 48 stars! Other reference books may fall into the same category, although some nonprofits may take those.

Keeping a favorite book of poetry is understandable. Holding a book in your hands may soon be a thing of the past, but you can hang on to some of your most treasured tomes. It is fine to keep some books pertaining to a hobby or pastime, but you can certainly weed out at least a few of them.

If you are an avid reader, getting rid of countless novels may be where you will see the biggest area of downsizing. Once read, either pass them along to a friend or get rid of them!

Many places still love book donations. Probably the most popular in Baltimore is The Book Thing.This wonderful place takes books and then gives them away to anyone who wants them free of charge. The Book Thing is only open on weekends, but there is a 24-hour drop off container. This should go without saying, do not go there and take home more books than you drop off! That is not going to help you one bit.

Donating books to other charities can work as well. Make sure to ask if they accept books before you donate them. Some nonprofits do not take books and will have to pay someone to haul them away.

While some people consider throwing away books a sin, recycling or trashing them might be the best thing. A history textbook from the Eisenhower administration is not going to help any child do their homework. There have been so many advances in science, most old texts are not worth anything. The most someone might get out of them is a good laugh.

A friend of mine unsuccessfully tried to donate some old encyclopedias, but didn’t want the books to end up in the landfill. She carefully used a mat knife and cut the pages out of the all of the books. She recycled the pages and threw away the hard covers! The process helped her avoid the bad feeling of throwing the books in the trash.

According to popular belief, some old books are worth a lot of money. Usually, that is untrue with few exceptions. First editions can be valuable, depending upon the book. Extremely old books can have some value. If you have books that you think are worth some money, you might want to sell them on Amazon, Ebay or Craigslist. Whole collections, like the works of Shakespeare for example, might be worth selling.

At Aim4Order, our mission is to help you reduce clutter and free your space. If you are overwhelmed by your enormous book collection and need help, please email or give us a call at 410-484-8328.