The Burning House

In Parade magazine of all places I saw a mention of a book coming out called The Burning House by Foster Huntington. It is also a blog, and it documents through photographs of beautifully arranged objects what a person would take if they could only grab a few things and escape from their burning house. It's a powerful question and the images are also powerful, able to communicate what a person values above all else at a single glance. I find the blog fascinating and I'm sure the book is interesting as well.

What would you take?

Top 5 packing tips

**This post was originally published in my monthly e-newsletter, Lelah's News. Don't subscribe? Sign up here!

According to Inc. Magazine (June 2012), the amount airline passengers were charged in baggage fees in 2010 was an astounding $3.4 billion. Obviously, what makes economic sense to the airlines does not make economic sense to many of its passengers. Checking bags is now a luxury we may not be able to afford. Therefore, packing light has never been more attractive. Aside from the time and money saved by not checking bags, it can be liberating to travel light and have less stuff to worry about when in transit. Here are my top packing tips:

1. Pack clothes in easily washable and quick drying fabrics like nylon or polyester, or at least cotton blends containing such materials. Hand wash as needed.
2. Wear one set of all-purpose jewelry on the plane and skip packing alternates.
3. Take some of your savings from not checking a bag, invest in an e-reader and forgo heavy paper books and magazines.
4. Use packing cubes - they really work to pack the most amount of stuff into a small space.
5. Remember - wherever you're going, they probably have stores that sell toothpaste, underwear and batteries, so don't panic if you forget something or run out of supplies.

For more packing advice check out my previous post - Preparing for travel: packing

Practicing extreme self care

**This post was originally published in my monthly e-newsletter, Lelah's News. Don't subscribe? Sign up here!

A while ago I read an article about dealing with emergency situations in which the author advised that to better cope, one should practice "extreme self care." In other words, make sure you get plenty of food, water, rest and whatever else your body needs to keep functioning at its highest level. Though that is probably most difficult to do when in an emergency situation, it makes sense. I was inspired by the phrase “extreme self care” and wondered why not practice that every day? How better can we honor ourselves and keep ourselves most productive and happy than by getting the rest we need, the nutrition that fuels our bodies, the exercise that makes us feel good and anything else that a body in particular might need (some time to yourself, a daily does of chocolate). Self care keeps us healthy and sane.

As the mother of a six-week-old, I know that taking care of yourself isn't always easy and it isn't always the first priority. Getting one's teeth brushed can seem like quite an achievement some days. But when you take care of yourself you can take care of others so much better. Therefore, I advocate extreme self care as a lifestyle choice that can make any day more manageable. To practice this, sometimes you simply have to give yourself permission to put yourself first. Once you do that, finding the time in your packed schedule to take a walk just to see some green trees or to refill your water bottle and make a healthy snack is no longer indulgent but necessary, vital, non-optional.

Try it and see how it positively impacts everything else in your life.

Spring cleaning with summer in mind

**This post was originally published in my monthly e-newsletter, Lelah's News. Don't subscribe? Sign up here!

Spring is well underway in southern California. We've had a good mix of rainy, mild and summer-hot days, reminding us that California indeed gets all sorts of weather, and that once May Gray and June Gloom pass us by, summer is just around the corner. Spring is a wonderful time to put your home in order before the demands of summer, when vacations and beach days and camping trips throw your routine all out of whack. Here are some of my favorite spring cleaning ideas that might not be on everyone's to do list, that will help you get a head start on summer organization.

• Clean your air conditioner vents.
• Gas heat? Turn off your pilot light until fall.
• It's never a bad time to check your smoke detector batteries.
• Consider hiring window washers to clean the outside of hard to reach windows. You'll be amazed at the difference really clean windows will make to the light in a room.
• By the same token, if you've been considering window tinting for a window or glass door that gets a lot of sun, do it now in order to fully reap the benefits all summer long.
• Go through your bathroom cabinets and toss old or unused makeup and toiletries, and any expired or nearly empty bottles of sunscreen. Replenish your stock and only buy bottles with expiration dates on them.
• Get your car road trip ready by performing any necessary maintenance and giving it a wash. Take out anything that doesn't need to live there and keep that stuff out by taking everything out of your car that you put into it - every day.

Stockpiling pros and cons

Tuesday I wrote about planning ahead and freezing meals in anticipation of my baby's arrival. In addition, I've tried to stock up on essential items, so that if my husband or I can't get to the store, we won't be in danger of running out of basics like soap, toothpaste, beans and oatmeal. But getting stocked up is harder than it sounds. For one thing, I tend to be an under-buyer, or at least ride the line between under-buyer and enough-buyer. (For more on under-buyers and over-buyers, check out The Happiness Project's post on this).

I hate buying something just in case I might need it later, but because I don't know exactly what I'll need once the baby arrives, and I won't want to be in a position where I have to go out to get something urgently, I'm trying to let go of my worry that I won't use the thing. For instance, medicine is one thing I hate buying without knowing if I'll need it, because it will expire, but it's also something you want to immediately available if you need it!

The pros of stockpiling are definitely the niceness of having what you need when you need it, as well as a feeling of preparedness. And for items I know will get used, such as chicken broth and toilet paper, I'm happy to have as much on hand as I have room for.

In my house, you can't have too much peanut butter on hand!

The cons are finding room for the extra amounts of things, keeping the items organized enough that you can find what you need, and actually using up the items before they go bad. That's why I generally don't recommend to clients that they shop at warehouse-style stores. They usually don't have enough space to comfortably fit all the paper products and toiletries they want to buy. The savings in money isn't worth dealing with the clutter of too much on a day-to-day basis.

Post-natal meal planning

My first baby is due in just a few weeks, and one thing I've heard over and over from people who've done this before is to make sure to have plenty of meals and food on hand, and to get people to bring you food whenever they come visit. Since eating has always been one of my top priorities, and I know that energy and time for cooking will be in short supply once the baby is here, I've made a point to make up several batches of nutritious and hearty meals and have completely filled my freezer to the brim with them. I've also stocked up on staples, which I'll be posting about in a couple of days.

I have a small freezer, and I've had to make some choices about what to keep in there. I pared down my ice pack collection, and have been using up the ends of bags of lima beans and blueberries, which is good to do once in a while anyway.

Then I made beef stew, minestrone soup and whole wheat spinach lasagne (and put them in labeled, meal-portion containers). Which just about taps me out space-wise. But that's still at least 9 solid meals worth, and it gives me a little peace of mind knowing that my family and I won't be entirely dependent on the kindness of visitors or the prepared foods section of Whole Foods!

Organized people are lazy

Laziness is underrated as a motivating factor. I'm a hard worker, but I'm lazy in the sense that I don't want to spend extra energy doing something that can be done more simply, more easily or more quickly. I think a lot of organized people are also lazy people in this same way. They know that if they have the elements of their lives as ordered and streamlined as they like, they can spend less time on the minutiae of life and more time doing the things that are important to them. I particularly think that organized people have an advantage over disorganized people in that they are not constantly reacting, not constantly bombarded by "emergencies" of their own making and are not caught up in a feeling that everything is urgent, because everything is behind where it needs to be.

When an emergency really does crop up, then an organized person has the flexibility to put other things in their life on hold and deal with it, without causing too much damage. This results in less clean-up, less work. For me, I don't want that extra work, so I get organized at the front end to avoid it. And it works most of the time. When I do get overwhelmed with stuff, the laziness factors in when I stop taking on new responsibilities for a little while in order to get back to my natural equilibrium. Once I'm back in my comfort zone, then life can speed up as it is bound to do. An outside person might call that laziness in a pejorative manner. I think it's common sense, being true to yourself and knowing what makes you comfortable and happy. If that's laziness, so be it.

Need a professional to help you get to your natural equilibrium?

Call Lelah at 818.269.6671

or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

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Hate to clean? Get organized.

Not liking to clean is a great reason to get organized. No one wants to live in a dirty environment, but cleaning isn't most people's favorite activity. Organizing first can help. Dishes and laundry are chores that can be streamlined to be less time consuming, if not more enjoyable. Actual cleaning tasks, like dusting, vacuuming, scrubbing of various kitchen and bathroom surfaces, are easier and faster to do when your home is already organized.

• If you don't use your floor as a storage surface, vacuuming is a one-step process.
• Keeping bookshelves, mantels and countertops clear of all but a few display objects makes dusting as easy as lift and swipe.
• A decluttered closet makes putting away clean clothes a stress-free experience, plus you'll have enough hangers!
• When toiletries and supplies are all regularly put away in their designated spaces, bathroom cleaning is just spray, scrub and rinse.
• Schedule recurring cleaning tasks on your calendar. That way you won't feel guilty for not doing them, as you will have made a plan to do them in the future, and you also won't do tasks too frequently. Cleaning the air conditioner filter doesn't have to be done every week!

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by Valerie Everett

Need a professional to help you get organized?

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or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

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National Preparedness Month

September is National Preparedness Month. It seems that there is always something going on somewhere around the world to make us think about our own level of readiness for a disaster or unforeseeable event. Take the time to go one step further. Reflect, then act, and make sure you have a few vital items in place, like extra water, food, flashlights, batteries, sturdy shoes, medications and first aid equipment. A lot of these are items we take with us when we go camping, so my husband and I just make sure our camping equipment is up to date and stored in a secure and accessible location.

For more disaster preparedness checklists, visit the Ready.gov website.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by yoppy

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.

Poll # 3: Where there's a will

I'm very interested in the subject of wills and estate planning. It's something that's imperative for adults to do, but something that most of us put off as long as possible. It can be stressful to think about end-of-life matters, but once you deal with them and have your affairs in order, you can relax.

My readers responded to the poll question "What is the state of your will?" with some interesting answers. Over half (55%) said that they had it on their to do list. This isn't suprising, nor is it bad. It's great that it's made it onto so many people's radars, but so often with to do lists, tasks percieved as unpleasant or difficult can get pushed to the bottom over and over again. I encourage those who have making a will on their to do list to prioritize it and get it done by the end of the year!

The next most common response (22%) was that their will is totally up to date. Fantastic! I have some really prepared blog readers.

Tied for third most responses (11% each) were the answers "I'm too young to need a will," and "I have one, but my circumstances have changed." To the first, I say if you are younger than 18, then yes, you are too young to have a will. But if you're over 18 and have any kind of assets at all, then put it on your to do list. To those whose circumstances have changed, it shouldn't be difficult to update your existing will with the new information. Get on it!

No one responded with the answer that they had a will, but were not sure about it's whereabouts. That's good. Having copies of wills floating around can be confusing. Though I'm not a lawyer, and if you have serious will questions, you should probably consult one, I'm pretty sure you should try to only have one will in existence at once, even if a recent one supersedes older copies.

However, you don't necessarily need a lawyer to make a valid will in most states. NOLO is a wonderful resource for do-it-yourself law, and if your circumstances are fairly straightforward, you can do your own will without a lawyer in very little time.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by iowa_spirit_walker

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.

Always be prepared

The Girl Scout motto has always loomed large for me, every since I was a Brownie. That's when I learned most of what I know about camping, including always wear a bandana, park your car nose out, and don't use random sticks you find to roast marshmallows, lest they be poison oak or something.

I followed those rules on a camping trip up to Sequoia National Park over Memorial Day weekend. As organized and prepared as I was for the trip

I didn't anticipate getting hail

or snow.

So it was a little cold and a little wet, but great fun nonetheless. Sometimes those unexpected events make a  run-of-the-mill camping trip more of an adventure. Which reminds of the time I dislocated my toe at this very same campground...

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.

Taking the time, saving the stress

Sometimes life presents you with inconveniences. The check engine light comes on in your car. The hall lightbulb burns out. A bill arrives and it is for completely the wrong amount. Since we aren't expecting these things to happen right when they do, usually our reaction is to fix them later "when we have time." We don't want to fix the problem now, because what if the car needs an expensive repair, or we find out we don't have any lightbulbs and have to make a special trip to get them, or we simply don't have the energy to get a customer service representative on the phone and get the company to fix the bill. We tell ourselves that in some future time, maybe tomorrow or next week, we will have the time, energy, money to fix these problems. In the meantime, we live with a nagging check engine light (and the worry), we stumble around in the dark, and we add the bill to a stack of papers already waiting for our attention.

I had something like this happen to me on Sunday afternoon. The plastic lever that connects the toilet handle to the flush valve snapped in half. We could still technically flush the toilet by opening the flush valve by hand every time. I was just about to relax and watch a Netflix when I was notified about the problem. I thought, hmmm, I won't be able to fix this tomorrow, but maybe I'll have time Tuesday...wait a minute, I can just go get a replacement part right now and fix it. Luckily, we live within walking distance of a great independent hardware store. So I figured out how to unscrew the old handle, took it with me to the hardware store, found the $5 part in 30 seconds, and was back and had the thing installed in about 4 minutes. Then I started the movie and watched it in peace, not worried about figuring out how to fix this problem, but rather proud of myself that I'd figured it out.

More often than not, these inconvenience can be attended to very quickly. If you look under the sink, maybe the right lightbulb will be there and you can replace the old one. The check engine light might mean nothing, and you'll have the peace of mind that comes from knowing your car isn't going to fall apart on the 405. Sometimes these problems seem insurmountable, but they aren't. You can save yourself the mental stress caused by putting off dealing with them by taking action now.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by thetejon

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Next year's calendar

I'm getting to know Glendale, the city where I just moved. The other day I went for a walk and came across a store called Swain's. This is the kind of store I love. It has art supplies, fun things like stickers and toys and lots of office supplies. I was delighted to find their extensive section of calendars, wall, engagement and most any other kind of calendar. It reminded me that now is a good time to choose a 2011 calendar. I use two calendars. One is a wall calendar I keep within sight of my desk for easy reference when I am at my computer. The other is a weekly calendar that I keep in my purse at all times. It has two pages for a single week, and because I don't like to make my purse too heavy, I choose a small, compact style. I got my 2010 calendar at Office Depot, one of their inhouse brands, and it has been great. The one I picked out for 2011 at Swain's is the Time Master brand. It is slightly larger, and it has Monday through Thursday on the left page and Friday through Sunday on the right; this means that Saturday and Sunday each have a full sized window, which is great. My 2010 calendar splits one section into two for Saturday and Sunday, which makes the squares pretty tiny.

Getting next year's calendar now gives you plenty of time to write in the birthdays, anniversaries and special occasions that you already know. Technology can help here: if you are on Facebook, go to Events, then Birthdays and use the arrows on the bottom to navigate, and you can see a list of all of the birthdays of your friends who have shared them. I like to peruse that in advance, since Facebook only shows you their birthday on the day of. It's also a good idea to have a place to start gathering appointments and dates for 2011 so you don't forget them. Dentist appointments, graduations, weddings: these things often get planned far in advance, and though you think you may remember them. sometimes people forget things.

Lelah Baker-Rabe, professional organizer serving Los Angeles. 818.269.6671 http://www.lelahwithanh.com

Preparing for reunion weekend

This weekend is Wesleyan University's Reunion and Commencement weekend. My husband will be enjoying his 5-year reunion, while I am tagging along for my 6th. We've been looking forward to this event for months, as it will give us both an opportunity to see the changes to the Wesleyan campus, see friends we might not have seen in years, and visit with our favorite professors.

The trip is going to be a quick one - a red eye to get to the East Coast, and then two nights in Connecticut, followed by an afternoon flight home on the third day. In order to get the most out of our time there, and to make the airplane and car portions more enjoyable,  we've done quite a bit of preparation beforehand, including:

• Assembled and printed copies of our flight itinerary, rental car information, maps to and from the airport and Middletown.
• We looked over the reunion weekend schedule and decided which events we want to attend and mapped out our days to make sure we can fit them all in.
• Figured out a place to have breakfast when we arrive in New York  before driving to Connecticut.
• Contacted various friends also attending to make sure we get to see them amidst the whirlwind.
• I bought myself a travel neck pillow to make the red-eye more comfortable.
• We had our dry cleaning done.
• I set aside some books I'd been looking forward to reading for the flights.
• We'll tidy the house, including tossing food that's going to go bad, taking out all the trash and recycling and closing up the windows and blinds.
• Made sure we have some cash on hand for incidental purchases.
• Charged my camera battery.
• Charged my iPods and loaded music, videos and pictures I'll want to have for the trip.
• Packed only carry-on luggage according to my own packing guidelines.

We're looking forward to a smooth and memorable trip!

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com 

A year ago: working clean, emergency preparedness and organizing myths

Last year during the first week in May I posted about the idea of "working clean" as applied to any workspace, with some thoughts on David Allen's GTD concept of the productive state.

I also offered a few ways you can prepare for an emergency. These go beyond merely stocking up on bottled water and refilling your flashlight batteries. Last year the impetus for the post was a wildfire in Santa Barbara. Since then, we've had more wildfires in Southern California as well as earthquakes. There's never a bad time to get yourself better prepped for an emergency situation.

 

Last, I countered the organizing myth that organizing takes up a lot of time by sharing some way you can improve your organization a few minutes at a time. This is how I keep myself organized, in small chunks here and there throughout the day, week, month and year.

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com 

Preparing for every day: Illness

Late last night I found myself driving the two blocks to my local supermarket, navigating around men restocking the shelves from huge pallets (I don’t think I’d ever been to the store that late before, it was interesting) in order to obtain some cough medicine for my fiancé, who has been sick for over a week.

I didn’t mind getting out of bed to do this because I wanted him to a get a good night’s sleep (and I wanted one as well), but even though illnesses are thankfully a rare occurrence in my household, I could have been more prepared and avoided that late night trip.

I’m not a health care professional, but from an organization perspective, here are some suggestions for things to keep on hand to be prepared for mild sicknesses:

• Electronic thermometer: Having a thermometer on hand is essential to knowing for sure if someone has a fever, which can aid in diagnosis and deciding whether or not you should stay home from work.
• Cough drops: The menthol ones are very popular in our household.
• Mild cough suppressant: I like the non-non-drowsy kind for nighttime rest. (Dimetapp, even though it is advertised for kids, does the trick.)
• Tissues: When you’re sick, blowing your nose into falling apart toilet paper doesn’t make it better.
• Canned soup: Broth-based soups just have something about them that makes you feel like you are treating your cold or flu, not just getting nourishment. Plus, they are easy to prepare and eat.
• Soft, cold foods like popsicles and applesauce are a nice treat.
• The phone number of your doctor. Even if you don’t get sick often, it is a good idea to have the name and number of someone you can call if you do happen to have something that requires antibiotics for instance. You don’t want to be doing research into local practitioners while you are sick; you want to do that beforehand, when you are healthy and up to that task.

Of course, avoiding getting sick in the first place is really the key, but even the most diligent of us will get run down and exposed to germs and get a cold. Being prepared can make it slightly more comfortable to sit in bed and recover. Also, when you stay home sick you can actually turn the down time into something semi-productive, by catching up on your reading and movies you haven’t gotten around to seeing. I don’t recommend being on a computer while trying to get better—even in bed. Take a break from the screen and get better!


Creative Commons cough medicine photo posted to flickr by whiskeyandtears
Creative Commons tissue box photo posted to flickr by vieux bandit

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Preparing for every day: Glove compartment

Our cars are an extension of our homes and we spend a ton of time in our cars every week. A glove box or glove compartment is not a place to store empty candy wrappers and take out packets of soy sauce (or, usually, actual gloves). To the contrary, a neat and orderly glove box with a few necessary items can make stressful times like traffic accidents and being pulled over a little bit less intense.

The 7 things that should be in every glove box:

• current registration for your car (not the registration for every year since you’ve owned the car)
• current insurance information (again, not every insurance period is necessary. Just what is valid now)
• pad of paper
• 2 pens
• area map (even if you have GPS)
• extra sunglasses
• travel pack of tissues

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

National Preparedness Month

September is National Preparedness Month. I think this specifically means that this month a spotlight is put on disaster and emergency preparedness by federal agencies. But preparedness is always a good policy, so I think this is a great opportunity to talk about all kinds of preparedness.

I’ve already written about preparing for every day, as well as a bit about preparing for emergencies. Preparedness means being physically and mentally ready for something that is coming down the road. In this sense, organized people are almost always preparing for something. Brushing our teeth and flossing in the morning means we’re preparing to get good marks from our dentist at our check up in three months, as well as preparing to show off our smile to our significant other and to have a successful day at work not worried about our breath. Preparation takes forethought and a bit of effort, but much less effort than it takes to scramble to get something done that could have been done ahead of time.

Preparedness comes in many forms. It can mean preparing for your child to be ready for the school year by stocking up on school supplies, new shoes and getting them a haircut. It can mean preparing for an earthquake by making sure you have adequate earthquake insurance in addition to food, water, cash, battery powered lights, etc. located in your home, office and car. Preparedness can also mean being ready for a flash of inspiration by keeping pen and paper in your purse. You can write down ideas for your blog, phone numbers and email address and a reminder that you need an oil change—something you might remember in the car, but forget by the time you get into your house.

So, in honor of National Preparedness Month, take a moment to think about your life. Are you prepared for dinner tonight (meal prep, clean dishes)? How about for work tomorrow (clean clothes, lunch, presentation materials)? What about for the possibility of getting in a fender bender on the freeway (insurance and registration, paper and pen to exchange details in your glove box) or having your hard drive fail (external back up hard drive or remote storage via the Internet)? Pick one thing you’ve been putting off getting prepared for (making a will, figuring out Thanksgiving plans) and decide to do it this month!

Screenshot from National Preparedness Month website.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by Seattle Municipal Archives

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Preparing for moving to college

Though I haven’t had to get ready for back school season in a while, the memories of packing and moving to college are much fresher in my mind. Going away to school for the first time is thrilling, and if you don’t have older siblings or friends to guide you, it can be a bit disorienting to find yourself in a new place, having to bring all the possessions you think you’ll need and want with you. Here are some tips to make that initial transition easier, and more organized:

What to bring:

• Flip flops, shower caddy
• Laundry bag. Baskets are nicer, but they take up too much room.
• Healthy snacks. Skip the candy, ramen and chips and go for dried fruit, nuts and low-fat microwave popcorn (The popcorn smell will be sure to attract some of your hall mates and is a great ice breaker-provided you share).
• Climate-appropriate clothing. Whether you are moving from southern California to northern, or all the way from Florida to Maine or New York to Hawaii, you’re definitely going to need different outerwear. Don’t be caught sweltering or freezing, research the climate and order clothes online if you can’t get appropriate clothes near you.
• Fan or white noise machine. A fan will give you an alternative to the background noise of your neighbor's GTA4 marathon and also get some air circulation into your room, avoiding stale smells.
• Checking account. Well before you leave, set up a checking account at a bank that has branches near your school, if you don’t already have one.
• Walking shoes. College life invariably involves a lot of walking, especially when you don’t have a car. Be nice to your feet and don’t wear flip flops everywhere.

What to leave:

• Flats of bottled water, food. You’ll be able to get those things on campus or nearby. You’re going to college, not to a bomb shelter.
• Expensive electronic equipment. It invites thieves and is usually unnecessary.
• Formal clothes and shoes. Maybe bring one nice dress or blazer. Otherwise, college tends to be pretty casual. You might want to invest in pajamas that could double as streetwear, though.
• Any heavy, bulky items or pieces of furniture. Your dorm room will come furnished with the basics, and you probably won’t have room for anything else. Plus, you’ll be moving again, either back home or to a transitional space or new room in four to nine months, and you won’t want to haul or store anything major.

Not a breakfast of champions

These tips will help, but remember, there’s no way to fully prepare for college life before you experience it for yourself, and you're going to make lots of mistakes as well as have the time of your life. So good luck and be safe!

Livable Solutions has more great tips, as does Unclutterer's college life tag.

Creative Commons shower caddy photo posted to Flickr by Noricum

Creative Commons Easy Mac photo posted to Flickr by bucklava

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Preparing for every day: Freezer

Being prepared is not just about being ready for emergencies, it is also about being able to face the more mundane challenges of day to day living. I've written about getting your desk drawers, purses, and now freezers prepared for every day.

Did you know that freezers work more efficiently when they are filled up? Mark Bittman a.k.a. The Minimalist writes eloquently about freezer use in this fantastic NY Times article. It is a must-read! The following items are great to have on hand for last minute dinners, guests and to supplement your pantry. Freezing is a time saver--next time, make twice as much pizza dough as you normally would, and freeze the rest for a few weeks from now when you're too tired to make dough from scratch. It feels good to know that even if your fridge is empty, you'll have something edible in the freezer.

The 12 things that should be in every freezer:

• ice cube trays (some filled up with water, some available to be used for leftover coffee, juice, or to save herbs, citrus, etc.)
• vodka (great for spur of the moment cocktails, pie crust and other cooking)
• frozen peas (makes a good ice pack in a pinch)
• ground meat frozen in meal-sized portions
• leftover pancakes (can be microwaved or re-heated in oven)
• frozen juice concentrate
• homemade chicken stock in single-recipe portions
• homemade pizza dough (I like Bittman's recipe)
• store-bought puff pastry (a little expensive, but highly useful)
• pie crust (store bought or homemade)
• over-ripe bananas (peeled, to be used for banana bread)
• ice packs for on-the-go food chilling and minor injuries

And around every freezer, you should keep:

• Sharpie for labeling (name and date each item that goes in there!)
• Good quality freezer bags
• Good quality plastic or glass storage containers

Mark Bittman's website

Creative Commons freezer photo posted to Flickr by sporkist

Creative Commons freezer door photo posted to Flickr by L. Marie

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com