Extra Organised

Two shopping lists

There aren’t many times I advocate having two of something, but shopping lists are an exception!

When I write everything onto one list, I feel compelled to find and cross it all off in one trip—which makes me stressed, and increases my shopping time.

I shop once a week (for groceries and other outing-related tasks) and allow about three hours. By splitting my list into two, I have discovered that I can concentrate my time and energy on the most important items, and leave the rest for another time.

Here are my two shopping lists:

• Essential list. Those items I need to buy or do this week.
• Shop-around list. Things I want to comparison-shop for, items of desire (such as books or DVDs), and anything that isn't urgent.

Before I do the week’s shop, I write a final list of essentials plus a reminder of any items I'm comparison shopping for. This allows me to record details when I'm in a shop that stocks that particular product without having to go out of my way, and means the information will be gradually compiled over a few weeks. I also divide the list by store so I can make the best use of my time.

I've found it helpful to review my list with a second filter: needs and wants. I make sure I’ve included mostly needs, although I’m not averse to letting a couple of wants creep in as well!

I re-evaluate the shop-around list regularly: sometimes items become urgent and make it onto next week’s essential list; but more often I realise I no longer want something, or have found an alternative, so it drops off the list altogether.

How do you organise your shopping list?

Today's organising bliss

A kitchen colander is a practical and economical way to store bath toys. The container holds a reasonable number of toys, sits neatly in the bath or shower base, and the holes allow drainage.

The benchmark principle

In my ebook, I discuss a range of advanced organising techniques to help you take decluttering to a deeper level. One tip I want to explore further is the benchmark principle: finding the best example of an item to use for comparison.

Traditional organising recommends we pull together everything related to a particular category so we can see exactly how much we have, such as all our books, suit jackets, or water bottles. This is a good start, but without a guide for making decisions, we can quickly become numbed by the volume of stuff lying before us, or struggle with the tougher choices once the obvious has been eliminated.

The benchmark principle is like a trusted friend who can tell us, “Yes, those jeans are amongst the nicest items in your wardrobe”, or “No way, look how shabby those tracksuit pants are compared to your favourite trousers. You can do better!”

Benchmarking offers perspective that can easily be lost when we evaluate an item in isolation. It can also provide the distance we need to make decisions on sentimental items. Any possession we keep because it evokes special memories will be even more precious when it's not lost in a pile (or box) of ambivalence.

Here’s how the principle works:

1. When you are ready to sort a group of possessions, find your favourite, best-quality, most-loved piece from that grouping.
2. Compare each item to your benchmark piece.
3. Let go of anything that falls far short of the standard.


You can apply the principle to any area you like (see below) such as evening wear, vases, or filed articles.

It's also a great tool to use when shopping. Do the clothes you're trying on make you look better than when you walked into the shop? Is the complementary magazine at the supermarket as interesting as your current subscription?

Better to have only a few much-loved pieces than lots of things you are unsure about. Benchmarking will help you clearly see the difference.

What could you apply the benchmark principle to?

Wear your unworn wardrobe

In the spirit of the unread library challenge, I've been thinking about other ways I can make better use of the abundance of lovely things already in my life.

Today I want to shine the spotlight on unworn (or infrequently worn) clothing.

I have already reduced my wardrobe to pieces I love, that are in good condition and flattering, and that I wear at least occasionally.

Long gone are the "farm/painting clothes"—I haven't lived on a farm for twenty years, and it's been a while since I've done any painting—and I even upgraded my most casual clothes (exercise wear) to nicer versions.

However, I still have quite a lot, and this means there are plenty of pieces not being worn regularly.

So, how can we make better use of what is already in our wardrobes? Here are several ideas:

• Develop a cohesive sense of style, such as bohemian, classic, or grunge. Your style can be adapted to any situation, so don't feel like you must own clothing you're not comfortable in for particular settings or occasions. You can always dress up a bohemian piece for the office, or wear a tailored jacket to a sporting match. This makes it easier to let go of anything that doesn't work within your style, which will instantly make you feel better about your wardrobe.
• Make sure each piece goes with at least a few others. If a skirt only works well with one top, then it naturally won't be worn often.
• Place clothing you're unsure about in a separate hanging section or shelf. Challenge yourself to wear these items before pulling out your usual favourites, to see if they deserve their place. If they are still there after a period of time (such as six months), it is time to release them.
• Browse fashion blogs, magazines, or catalogues, and notice how others put together their outfits. Your aim is not to purchase (so be careful!), but to find new ways of wearing what you already own. Focus on pieces that are similar to yours to come up with fresh ideas.
• Take each ambiguous item, and hold it next to every other piece in your wardrobe (including accessories) to spark new combinations.

Of course, it's okay if some things aren't worn all that often. I have a small selection of beautiful evening wear which I rarely take off the hanger, because when I'm dressing up I prefer to shop my own wardrobe than go out and buy something new. But overall, there is great satisfaction in actually wearing everything on a regular basis, and feeling good in it.

Do you have many unworn items in your wardrobe?

Today's organising bliss

Today I took the kids (aged 7 and 9) hiking. They did well, walking 6 kilometres along a steep track graded as hard. I have them in training for tackling Mount Kosciuszko :) It was amusing to hear Master 7 encouraging other walkers by letting them know they were almost to the top.

And today's organising bliss was actually turning my slow cooker intentions to reality (which doesn't happen as often as I'd like!). Before we left this morning, I put chicken and corn soup in the slow cooker. It smelt fantastic to walk back into the house this afternoon.

I then added some extra ingredients to dough I'd pre-mixed to make savoury cheese and bacon scones. I used parmesan, basil, and bacon, as well as pressing a cube of cheese into the centre of each scone.

The simple slow cooked meal was really appreciated after a big day with my gorgeous little hikers.

Extra Organised expert tip: Task stretching

In her new organising book, From Stuffed to Sorted: Your Essential Guide to Organising, Room By Room (published by Wiley), Australian organising expert, MaryAnne Bennie, recommends “stretching” an activity to make the best use of our time and energy.

“This technique involves taking a task one little step further than usual. If you normally make breakfast and leave everything out while you sit down to eat, why not stretch the task to include putting away whatever you can before you sit down to eat?” (p. 54)

MaryAnne offers two more of her favourite ideas to extend a task: fold clothes straight from the clothes line or dryer (to save ironing time); and cook and freeze extra portions (to save future cooking time).

I also apply this idea to work—I’ll read or edit a few more pages than I’d planned; or to exercise—I’ll set a target of running to a particular spot, then when I get there, I’ll keep going to a further one.

This motivating approach makes me feel like I’m way ahead. There is no additional set-up or preparation involved as I am already immersed in the task. Motivation is also not hard to find as I’ve already started, and I’m only asking slightly more of myself. A tiny amount of extra effort that yields good results—I love it!

What task stretching ideas can you come up with?

Read your unread library

We all have them—whether in paperback, hardback, or digital form: books in our homes we haven’t yet read. Some are new purchases, while others have been shelved for years.

I came across a great idea when browsing the Pancakes and French Fries blog by Jules. She challenged herself to read all the unread books in her home before buying more. The last time I checked, she had 45 books on her list, many of which she has now read.

“There’s no way I’d have that many unread books in my bookcase,” was my first thought. I knew there’d be quite a few, but in hindsight I was over-confident.

When I made my own list, I found 52 unread books, after subtracting five I could donate, and three I could transfer to my husband’s shelves so I didn’t have to count them. Even if I read one book every two weeks (and don’t add any more to my collection), it will take at least two years to get through them all!

To hold myself accountable, I’ve published my unread library on my blog. If I really want a book I’ll still buy it, but I want to concentrate on reading my way through the volumes I've already invested in.

One of the hallmarks of being extra organised is paring down to our treasures, and then making full use of them. This challenge is a fantastic way of doing so with our books.

Today's organising bliss

Creating a display folder for recipes to try.

I’d previously stored potential recipes in a manilla folder, but even though I extensively pruned them, I still found the folder wasn’t serving its purpose. I rarely pulled it from the cookbook shelf, and when I did, the jumble of papers wasn’t inspiring.

Organising my recipe ideas into a plastic-sleeve folder made them look more appealing, easier to find, and the folder slots straight into the cookbook holder when I am ready to try a new dish.



Sometimes, I take even more of a shortcut and just stick the recipe to the kitchen tiles to remind me to cook it!

How do you organise random recipes you want to try?

Growing yourself up

I have just finished reading Growing yourself up: How to bring your best to all of life's relationships—a book about maturity in relationships—written by Jenny Brown, founder and director of the Family Systems Institute in Sydney, Australia. Organising naturally involves spending time dealing with our stuff, but to live well, we also need to concentrate on our relationships. If we free up time, space, and energy by minimising and prioritising, but then neglect to transfer our attention to what really matters, then we haven’t made the most of the opportunity being organised has given us.

Jenny uses the stages of life as a framework to discuss how we can develop emotional awareness and build our character in each one. Rather than focusing on others and their contribution to relationship issues, she encourages us to concentrate on ourselves.

In particular, we have each grown up learning patterns of behavior. When we interact with others, we tend to behave and respond in habitual ways. Think about how you learned to communicate as a child.

• How did you respond to conflict? Did you close down or open up?
• How did you handle strong emotions? Did you seek reassurance from others, or were you able to calm yourself?

Now think about how you are today. Do you deal with conflict the same way? Do you manage your emotions in a similar way? Many of us will be able to trace our emotional responses back over our lives. In particular, the way we relate to others often holds a largely instinctive component.

Becoming aware of this dance of action and reaction in a relationship can be enlightening. When the patterns are revealed, we can see how our relationship stories have been written the way they have. Without condoning unacceptable behavior, we can take away the surprise (and offence) that others, and we ourselves, have behaved as we have. This frees us to choose our own responses, rather than try to influence others. If we shift the focus to creating change in ourselves, we can then slowly transform and improve our relationships.

I learned a lot from Jenny’s descriptions of surface level versus solid inner maturity, particularly how we can develop our tolerance for intense feelings in ourselves and others. I also appreciated her realistic and hopeful approach: “growing ourselves up just a notch means that our world looks vastly different and more promising.”

Let’s make sure relationships are part of our extra organised journey!

Growing Yourself Up, $29.99, is available from Exisle Publishing or from all good book stores.

Blog relaunch

When I began my blog in October 2011, I knew almost nothing about blogging. I simply wanted to share my passion for organising with others. My desire was strong enough that I pushed through my fear and technology issues to get the blog up and running. I’m glad I did, as I enjoy adding new posts each week, and I am delighted with each comment or “hit” on the blog, and I appreciate the time you take to visit.

One of the issues I had when I started blogging was which language convention to work within. In my Internet naiveté, even though I live in Australia (where we use “-ise” endings to our words), I had the impression that using American English (with its “-ize” endings) was preferable in terms of search engines and reaching an international audience. The organising industry is huge in the US, for example, and I wanted to collaborate with as many other organising devotees as possible.

I have since discovered that either language format will be picked up by search engines, no matter where the person resides. I also feel more comfortable not always having to think about the language convention I’m working within :)

As a result, I’m relaunching my blog as Extra Organised. The new address will be www.extraorganised.com. Over the next week, I’ll transfer content, and will let you know when the new version is active.

When this happens, you will be able to access my blog under the new address. If you have subscribed using a feed reader, please resubscribe. If you have linked to my blog from your own (and thank you so much if you have!), please update the links.

To celebrate the relaunch, I'm reducing the price of my ebook to $8 at the same time, to say thank you for visiting my blog and sharing an interest in organising.

I look forward to keeping in contact with you!

Thank you for clicking over to Extra Organised! I have completed the blog upgrade, and you are in the right place for sharing organising ideas, and also accessing the ebook for the reduced price of $8. Thank you for joining me on the relaunched blog.