February 2023 Organization Pending Newsroom Upper Arlington, Ohio
Welcome to Organization Pending's Newsroom, February 2023: Springing Forward edition.
This month, we'll be looking at the secrets behind preparing for spring cleaning, including book recommendations from a decluttering expert. Don't miss our interview with Community Recommendation Vintage Solutions for your memory digitizing needs, and our discussion of other local resources for donating and upcycling while you're decluttering! Find ideas and resources for planning spring break, and recommendations for nature exploration in the community.
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Spring Break!
While planning spring break activities, don't miss the Spring Cleaning Secrets below! Use the kids' extra time off to schedule decluttering and organizing sessions for their bedrooms and playrooms - for older kids, give them the option to get everything done in one or two days, and for younger kids, schedule a few hours each morning after breakfast to work on decluttering with them. If they're interested and have the energy, involve them with the organizing. Otherwise, organize without them and have a big unveiling of their new space(s) - expect immediate playtime! For the youngest children, add words and pictures to their shelves or bins to promote early learning.
Don't forget an important aspect of home organizing: treating yourself for all the hard work you're doing! Take a lunch break away from the house--use the Street Food Finder app to locate quick local food near you, and don't forget to look for Galaxy Coffee for a to-go cup on your way to drop off donations (explore local options below), or for a pick-me-up on your way back to the house! Check out Organization Pending's list of bakery recommendations in Around Town for sweet treats throughout the week.
Are you looking forward to warming weather and opportunities to get outside? So are we!
Explore a local park you haven't been to yet - bring a lunch and enjoy spotting the first signs of the changing seasons, taking advantage of the many available playgrounds.
Check out the Upper Arlington Trails and Maps for the best hiking, biking, walking and running opportunities in the area, or check out Queer Climbing Columbus for adult-friendly local climbing adventures with community!
Find up-to-date family-friendly activities, events and recommendations on What Should We Do Today Columbus and (614) Kids.
Looking for a 21+ event? The Columbus Brew Festival is March 11 at the Center of Science and Industry. Get access to the museum and 150 beers from over 50 breweries for $50 from 8pm-11pm, or gain early admission and additional benefits for $65. Proceeds from this event will support A Kid Again charity.
Spring Cleaning Secrets
Are you wanting to make spring cleaning quicker? Start with decluttering belongings and organizing them in a way that benefits you and your family best - as an added bonus, a quick cleaning while everything's out of the space between decluttering and organizing gets a jumpstart on that deep cleaning we all want for spring.
Decluttering is the most beneficial aspect of home organizing. It can also be the hardest, and come with the most emotions. Organization Pending suggests starting in areas with low emotions, such as kitchens or bathrooms, where there are expiration dates. Starting small, with a single drawer or shelf in a cabinet can build decluttering skills to take on larger projects, and also help snowball motivation to keep going.
Jumpstart your journey with your seasonal clothing! Use this seasonal switch to declutter mittens that lost mates, hats that were uncomfortable, and other seasonal clothing that wasn't worn this year before packing the rest away.
A Tip from the Organizer: Use unscented white garbage bags for soft donations, boxes or bags for breakable or book donations, and black trash bags for garbage to keep your piles visually separate!
Don't miss the book recommendations below for author and decluttering expert Dana K. White, and the discussion on places in the community to declutter a variety of common objects, including an interview with Vintage Solutions!
Want a hands-on learning session for decluttering and bringing personalized organization to your home? Contact Columbus home organizer Organization Pending to schedule your free virtual assessment at organizationpendingllc@gmail.com!
Declutter, Recycle, Donate
There are many ways to recycle and donate items after decluttering, including listing items for sale through social media platforms, or listing items for free community pickup on Freecycle. When listing items on these sites, set a time limit before donating or trashing items. Often, having the available space in your home is more valuable than the headache of online selling can be.
Looking for another way to make some cash? Half Price Books makes a bulk offer on many items in good condition, donating or recycling what they're not able to use in their stores. Books, movies, magazines, CDs, records, game systems and more are sellable--call your local store if you have any questions on the items they buy.
Want to donate your common household items to organizations doing good in the community? Habitat for Humanity supports families building and improving their homes, and their stores take donations of building materials, appliances, housewares and more.
The Furniture Bank of Central Ohio helps families affected by homelessness, domestic violence and other crises through the community's donated furniture, and they are one of the few options available for donating gently used mattresses. They offer donation pick-up, and host an updated list of the most needed items on the front page of their website.
Out of the Closet uses 96 cents of every dollar they make to support the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, providing HIV testing, treatment and prevention services at their locations and around the world. This small thrift store has some limitations on the items they're able to accept - contact the local store at (614) 291-2680 with questions, or to schedule a large donation pick-up.
Take a look at the full list of Community Recommendations from Organization Pending for more resources on donation and recycling, and join us next month for local decluttering resources to help you go green(er) this spring!
Vintage Solutions: Community Recommendation Highlight
Every household has a collection of loose photographs, home movies, cassettes, family recipes, or kids' art work. At the end of decluttering, when you've sorted out the sentimental items to keep, contact Community Recommendation Vintage Solutions and bring these memories to your daily life. Instead of only boxing your memories to look at periodically, consider digitizing them to share with family and have easy access without worrying about the fragility of the originals - and create a few custom keepsakes of your favorite photos for a personalized gift, or to add a unique touch to your home décor through Vintage Solutions' The Family Collective.
"My memaw fueled my interest [in computers and electronics] from day one. We would spend time together playing games on her computer and hours going through photos until I was falling asleep in her office. My memaw is the one who honestly gave me the passion in preserving family memories." -Jaycee Knox, Owner, Vintage Solutions
As the family "tech" guy, when Knox's grandmother passed away leaving home movies, photos, and handwritten cookbooks that the whole family wanted access to, he digitized the collection, igniting a desire to help others preserve their family memories as well. Opening in 2018, Knox and his husband Adam expanded Vintage Solutions in 2022 to include The Family Collective, creating custom keepsakes and fully bringing their passions for both preserving and creating new family memories to the business.
Along with photos, VHS, cassettes, vinyl records, journals, film and more, Vintage Solutions uses customer needs and feedback to update their service offerings, adding 8-track conversion to their extensive list at the beginning of the year. And unlike most digitizing options on the market, Vintage Solutions doesn't need to sandwich your memories between glass to preserve them - they own a fleet of overhead museum quality scanners. "These unique machines allow us to digitize artifacts, newspapers, or any item smaller than 20 inches by 20 inches," explained Knox. Each item is handled carefully with white gloves, and cleaned before digitizing to ensure the best results.
How it works:
"Vintage Solutions has created a straightforward process to preserve family memories with ease, saving time, money and sanity. If a customer has an idea of what they would like digitized, simply schedule an appointment [online, call or text - details below] to drop off your memories, or contact us for a consultation and quote. When items are dropped off, we will sort, clean and digitize those memories. Once digitizing is complete, customers will receive all of their original memories along with a personalized online link to view, download and share." -Jaycee Knox, Owner, Vintage Solutions
For customers with a large number of items, Vintage Solutions offers three Fit & Scan options, letting you purchase bulk digitization of multiple formats at one price with no hidden fees. Boxes hold between 1,500 and 4,200 4x6 photos (or mix and match visual/audio formats), with pricing starting at $292.50.
As Ohio's only Certified LGBTBE® (LGBT Business Enterprise) digitizing business, "We are very proud of who we are, and we include our wedding photos on display items," says Knox. "I am very vocal about my story and struggles in hopes that someone else will hear it and find that there are others just like them."
Vintage Solutions supports the Trevor Project with a portion of sales from their "Be Scared and Do it Anyway" shirts.
Vintage Solutions' Top Five
Check out the top five requested items for digitization, and the top selling custom keepsake from The Family Collective!
slides
VHS tapes (1/2 off right now!)
family cookbooks
audio cassettes
photos
After digitizing, customers have the option to purchase a custom made keepsake, including The Family Collective's top selling heart-shaped natural rock slates.
Contact Vintage Solutions:
Email: hello@myvintage solutions.com Website: myvintagesolutions.com
Facebook: Vintage Solutions Instagram: @myvintagesolutions
Set up an appointment: appointment.mymemoriesaresafe.com or call/text
Call or text: (614) 787-5060
Address (by appointment only): 200 E Campus View Blvd Ste 200
Columbus, OH 43235
Contact Owner Jaycee Knox directly: jaycee@myvintagesolutions.com
Book of the Month
Tabi Berkey
Are you new to decluttering? Consider a deep dive into this practice with decluttering expert Dana K. White of A Slob Comes Clean.
Unlike many people who talk about this topic, White is not a home organizer, and her frank honesty about how overwhelmed her home had made her feel combines well with her ability to see humor in the situation while discovering how to manage her home one step at a time.
Join White with her books or videos for discussions on the clutter threshold, the container concept, and the importance of the five-minute pickup! This daily opportunity to replace items that went astray during the day helps keep the home maintained, and allows the family the learn where new homes for items are. "Once your family gets the concept and can help without your constant supervision, five minutes multiplies." When each person does five minutes, a family of four can complete 20 minutes of work in 5! This five minute approach can also be taken to decluttering itself: set the timer, and see how many items you can pull out for trash, recycling, or donation before it goes off, or see if the kids can fill a donation box with items from their room in five minutes!
In How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind, White focuses on the beginning of her journey to a decluttered life, including a 28 Days to Hope for Your Home step-by-step guide on how to tackle decluttering and cleaning in a home that feels insurmountable. One tip I found especially useful was to time myself doing a task--when you know how long a task actually takes, it's easier to schedule your day, and harder to make excuses of time when you know emptying the dishwasher only takes four minutes. One of the surprising discoveries White makes while implementing a routine is that when laundry is done weekly, the family tends to wear their favorite items every week. This discovery allowed White and her family to declutter those "just in case" clothes, making room to see more of their favorites every day.
Need a quick-start guide? Consider Organizing for the Rest of Us: 100 Realistic Strategies to Keep Any House Under Control. White encourages readers to declutter the tangible to make room for the intangible, reminding us that having space doesn't mean it's space to fill. This short guide is great for any busy person looking to get fast ideas on ways to start their decluttering journey, and use Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff to deep-dive into specific spaces with accompanying tips. I especially appreciated the discussion on doing an identity reality check, using decluttering to honor who we are instead of an idealized version of ourselves, letting us know it's okay to let go of those items overrunning our lives.
Company News
On January 18, Organization Pending took part in New Directions Career Center's Workshop Wednesdays series. Reclaim Your Home: Creating Functional Spaces that Serve You focused on the three stage of home organization, including local resources for decluttering, and tips on how to personalize organization for each families' specific needs. Money saving alternatives to organization were also discussed, including the DIY repurposed drawer organizers featured in December's Tip of the Month.
"We love being able to partner with resources like Organization Pending LLC. Their tips for how to create calm and functional spaces is the perfect antidote to the feelings of anxiety and stress that are caused by life and career transitions. That's what workshop Wednesdays are about - high-quality, high-interest content that helps all of us improve our lives." - Kat Cochrane-Yamaguchi (she/her), Programs Director
Unfamiliar with New Directions Career Center? They offer holistic career education, counseling, and wrap-around services to "Uplift and empower women to achieve and maintain self-sufficiency." This non-profit was started in 1980 as The Displaced Homemaker Program to support widowed or divorced women re-entering the workforce, expanding over the years to include under-employed clients and workers looking to move into a new employment field. One of their newer program offerings include Workshop Wednesdays, "free, one-hour virtual events designed for anyone, not just women, to expand skills and strengthen their support," explained Cochrane-Yamaguchi. Services and programs have been brought to more than 70,000 lives through the work at New Directions Career Center, and that number grows weekly. Want to support your community in reclaiming their lives? Consider a donation, and follow them online to receive notifications of special events, such as their yearly Women of Promise raffles!
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