Paper Doll
Organize to Help First Responders: The Vial Of Life
Last time, we talked about the importance of being able to communicate vital medical information to first responders when we’re on the road. Having that Yellow Dot on the car means that even if you (or your passengers) are unable to communicate, paramedics will know where to look – in the glove box! – for information that will save precious time and ensure the correct treatment.
But what about when you’re not mobile? What if you (or Grandma or someone else with serious health issues) get ill at home and emergency services are called. What if you (or they) can’t explain medical history to first responders. As we discussed last time, it’s never comfortable to talk about these things, but thinking about them in the present can make the future a bit less stressful.
“Downtown Hospital Ambulance” by sponki25 is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Certainly, you can (and should) keep careful medical records and have them available so that loved ones and medical professionals can help you in an emergency, as we discussed in Paper Doll on the Smead Podcast: How To Get Organized When You Have a Chronic Illness. But having a tidy binder or a medical file doesn’t help you if the paramedics don’t know where to find it.
VIAL OF LIFE
The Vial of Life, where “LIFE” stands for Lifesaving Information for Emergencies, is a program that enables you to collect all of your essential medical information, keep it accessible to first responders, and includes an attention-getting flag so it can’t be overlooked. As with the Yellow Dot Program, the Vial of Life is designed to speak for patients when they are unable to speak for themselves. Vial of Life is most commonly used by senior citizens, but anyone with medical conditions that could trigger an inability to communicate (such diabetes, epilepsy, heart disease, etc.) could benefit from participating.
The elements of the Vial of Life kit are also similar to those of the Yellow Dot. You’ll need:
- a sticker or decal, usually placed on the front of the refrigerator, to alert first responders that there’s a container in or on the fridge
- a labeled vial, much like a medicine bottle, kept in the front of the fridge; recently, the literal vial has been replaced in many communities by a zip-lock plastic bag or plastic/vinyl pouch attached to the front of the refrigerator)
- medical information forms, folded and rolled into the vial (or placed flat in a bag or pouch), containing vital medical information
The materials are typically free, and the forms can usually be downloaded from the web and printed.
First responders throughout the US and Canada have been trained to look for a decal or sticker at the entrances to homes and/or on the front of the fridge.
Public Service Announcement: The less clutter on the fridge – the fewer year-old wedding invitations and expired oil change coupons – the easier it will be for first responders to see the Vial of Life decal.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
There are a variety of regional and agency options for obtaining your Vial of Life kit. Google “Vial of Life” and your community name; if your local hospital, pharmacy, or community groups aren’t offering resources, the most straightforward way is directly through VialOfLife.com.
Go to VialOfLife.com.
Order UV-coated vinyl decals for your home online or by calling 888-931-1010. (You can purchase bulk order kits for your organization.) Alternatively, you can print your own stickers directly from the Vial of Life site onto adhesive-backed paper.
Create an online account. Provide your email address and create a password, and then give your name, mailing address, and phone number(s). You’ll be asked whether you want to participate in the First Responders Program, which gives medical personnel remote access to your information during an emergency.
NOTE: You don’t have to become a member, but if you do, you can update your information online as your prescriptions and medical situations change. If you choose not to become a member, any time you want to update your medical or personal information, you can print multiple copies of a blank form to fill in by hand, or return to the site to re-enter everything and print a typed copy. (View the site’s privacy policy here.)
Log in with the credentials you just created.
Create a new Vial of Life. Once you log in, you’ll be prompted to create a new vial. You’ll be asked for four types of basic information:
- Basic information
First, re-enter your full name and contact information. I’m not sure why this information can’t be directly imported from your account creation, but I suspect it’s to allow one person – a wife, for example – to create one family account and then create separate vials for herself, her spouse, and perhaps a grandparent or other person residing in the home, all without creating additional accounts.
You’ll also enter your gender, height, weight, hair color, blood type, and religion (much as you’d fill out in any hospital admittance form). There’s a section for adding whether you use a pacemaker or defibrillator (and a space for inputting the model number) or hearing aids, and for noting hearing impairment.
The next section asks about vision, whether you wear glasses and/or contact lenses, if you are blind in either eye or if either eye is artificial, and what your native language is. (Paper Doll would like to note that all of this information is useful, but it’s perhaps not entirely well organized. Harrumph.)
- Medical history
This section has two essay-style boxes. The first asks if you have any identifying marks, ostensibly to better identify who the patient actually is. The second asks, broadly, for all the conditions for which you’ve been treated in the past. (Again, Paper Doll isn’t in love with the organizational system here, and would prefer if the official program had a series of prompting checkboxes to ensure that users don’t forget any vital health events.)
- Current medical information
This section asks for your doctors’ contact information, the conditions for which you’re currently being treated and your current medications. The form does not ask for dosages, but I suggest you list both dosages and the frequency with which you take these meds. Where the form asks whether you have any medication allergies, if you are allergic to latex, I encourage you to list that, too.
The current medical information section has spaces for information regarding your last hospitalization and your medical insurance policy information. There are sections for noting whether you have a living will and whether you are an organ donor (and to whom medical professionals should speak regarding each issue).
- Emergency contact
The form has spaces for the name and contacting information for your emergency contact and what their relationship is to you.
I should note, another great unofficial program is listing your emergency contacts in your cell phone as ICE (in case of emergency). My phone, for example, lists “ICE Paper Mommy (and her contact info).”
Take a moment to add one or two of your emergency contacts to your cell phone directory. Just type ICE in the last name section and the person’s entire name (and perhaps their relationship to you) in the first name section. This way, if first responders check the I’s in your contact list, they’ll see ICE right away.
Once you fill out the form, you can save it (if you have created an account) and print the form. If you choose to save, the system will return you to a screen giving you the options to edit, print, or delete the vial you have saved.
THE NEXT STEPS
Put your Vial of Life together.
As I mentioned, some versions of the Vial of Life use an actual vial, but the Vial of Life Project recommends maintaining all of your information in a zip-lock bag. (If you get a kit from a community organization, you may be given a branded vinyl pouch.) Fold or roll the form (so it fits) and add any other pertinent information, including a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) form, a recent photo of yourself, a recent EKG, your living will, and anything else you think might be pertinent.
Affix a Vial of Life decal to the baggie or vial.
Store your Vial of Life so it’s visible!
If you’re using a vial/bottle, place it in a very visible space on a high shelf. Don’t hide it among the eggs and soy sauce packets!
If you opt for the baggie, attach it to the front of the fridge. The Vial Of Life Project recommends doing so with tape, which probably won’t be aesthetically pleasing, so you might want to use a magnetized clip, such as those used for chip bags or for attaching papers to your filing cabinet. (The vinyl pouches tend to be magnetic.)
Attach the baggie or pouch near eye-level so it can be spotted quickly. (Your local first responders may have specific recommendations, such as to attach it to the top left side of the front of the fridge. Call your local firehouse to ask what they prefer.)
Affix a Vial of Life decal to your front door or in a highly visible front window (much like you’d affix a security company decal).
HISTORY OF VIAL OF LIFE and OTHER OPTIONS
The origin of the Vial of Life isn’t well-documented. We know that someone started putting vital information into medicine bottles and attached them to the interior of the fridge in a visible manner. Word spread over the years, and various community programs started offering advice on how to create a vial. Eventually, the Sacramento chapter of the American Red Cross handed off their resources to Vital-Link, Inc., one of the early “I’ve-fallen-and-I-can’t-get-up” medical alert companies.
For twenty years, the Vial of Life Project has operated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit and supplies free Vial of Life kits and decals/stickers to individuals and partner organizations, including senior citizen groups and community centers, pharmacies and hospitals, government agencies, towns and cities, Red Cross chapters, and various volunteer groups. (The American Senior Safety Agency, a medical alert company, covers the cost of the decals.)
The Vial of Life Project isn’t the only game in town. It’s founder specifically left the Vial of Life name in the public domain so that the program could be duplicated and used by other agencies and organizations. Although it’s the best-known, and costs nothing for individuals, there are a variety of alternative options, such as the File of Life.
StoreSmart, the same company that offers unofficial Yellow Dot stickers and envelopes, sells vinyl, magnetic-backed, closed-sided medical information pouches suitable for displaying at your home or office. They also sell window/door stickers and have free, downloadable medical information forms.
Whether you order the official Vial of Life, get a branded kit from your local hospital, pharmacy, or community group, purchase an alternative, or make your own, consider using the Vial of Life and encouraging your loved ones to do the same
Be healthy, be safe, and be organized.
Paper Doll Post:
Organize To Help First Responders: The Yellow Dot Program
Most of us spend time thinking about how to prevent medical emergencies. We try to exercise and eat healthily. We make doctor’s appointments, get all of the appropriate medical screening tests for our age group and gender, and we learn how to manage our health conditions in hopes of preventing complications.
Nobody likes to think about medical emergencies, but for the same reason we buy insurance (whether auto, home, health, or, in the worst case scenario, life insurance), we need to prepare for the unexpected. And when the unexpected does happen, we depend on first responders, particularly emergency medical technicians and paramedics, who have the training necessary to help us get safely treated.
So why not help the helpers?
“Downtown Hospital Ambulance” by sponki25 is licensed under CC BY 2.0
In our next two posts, we’re going to look at two resources to organize essential medical information so that first responders can render aid when we need it, whether we’re out and about, or at home.
YELLOW DOT PROGRAM
At a DiabetesSisters meeting a few years ago, someone mentioned the existence of Tennessee’s Yellow Dot program, but almost nobody in the room was aware of this life-saving project.
The Yellow Dot Program, available at no cost to participants, was initially developed as a regional program in the early 2000s. It is now a national program sponsored and funded by the United States Department of Transportation as a result of the work of the 113th Congress, the bill having been introduced by West Virginia’s Senator Joe Manchin III.
The purpose of the program is to help automobile drivers and their passengers communicate vital information to medical personnel (as well as police, firefighters, and other first responders) during road emergencies, like car accidents.
In case drivers or passengers are incapacitated, in shock, or are otherwise unable to communicate about their medical conditions, car owners can affix yellow stickers to their rear windshields to alert first responders that occupants of the car may require specialized medical attention. (Smaller stickers are available for motorcycle use.) Although state programs tend to accent Yellow Dot for use by senior citizens, anyone with a serious health condition or atypical health situation should consider making use of the program.
The stickers let first responders know to look in the glove compartment for a kit: a yellow plastic folder, container, or envelope. In it, they will find information regarding:
- the medical conditions, allergies, recent surgeries, and special needs of anyone riding in the car who might require special care
- lists of current prescriptions, dosages, and prescribers
- emergency contact information
- a photograph of the person so that he or she can be quickly identified as needing special attention
The Yellow Dot Program maintains no centralized database at any government or community level, so individuals concerned about privacy breaches should feel at ease. The information is maintained in the glove compartment and is not accessed by anyone (except the owner or passenger of a vehicle) unless there is an emergency situation.
At the meeting where I first learned about the Yellow Dot Program, we talked about the importance of police and medical personnel knowing that someone in the car might be suffering from hyper- or hypoglycemia, which can appear to the untrained eye to resemble drunkenness, stroke, dementia, or other health conditions.
Research shows that 90,000 to 100,000 individuals die each year due to adverse drug reactions, some of which result from standard treatments “in the field” to which an individual may be allergic. Similarly, an accident victim who has had a recent surgery may be at greater risk for complications, and first responders need to know that.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
If you know someone who has a medical condition that might require special on-the-scene treatment by EMTs and paramedics, encourage them to sign up for the Yellow Dot Program. Management of the program varies by location, and though it’s overseen by state Departments of Transportation, management often occurs at the county level.
While some programs allow online sign-up, other communities require that participants come to an enrollment station or registration center (often at the nearest DMV, although some local businesses sponsor the printing of Yellow Dot stickers and kits and help enroll participants). Help your loved ones gather the vital paperwork – including medical and prescription information and a current photo – to put in the yellow folder to be kept in the glove compartment, and make sure you or they actually put the sticker on the rear windshield!
Although the Yellow Dot Program is funded nationwide, it is voluntary, and many states have declined to participate; other states have shown interest but have not yet rolled out their programs. If your state is listed (below) without a link, there is likely no centralized program in your state, and you will need to call or search for your county’s transportation department or division of aging services. (Yes, Paper Doll feels this is all very disorganized at the state and federal levels! Harrumph!)
Iowa
Kansas
Massachusetts (search “Yellow Dot Program” and the name of your town rather than county)
Minnesota
New Hampshire
North Carolina
Note: In 2017, Illinois mysteriously canceled participation in the Yellow Dot Program, but encourages all drivers to register with the state’s emergency contact database, which serves a similar function.
If yours isn’t one of participating states listed belong, contact your state’s Department of Transportation to inquire if and when the Yellow Dot program will be available for you. While you’re waiting, you can purchase an unofficial National Yellow Dot Program kit (with stickers and standard or folding pockets) directly from retailer StoreSMART in various batch sizes (from 2 to 2500) or in packages of five from Walmart.
In addition to the stickers and kits, StoreSMART has free, downloadable PDF medical forms. (You can also review the websites of the participating states, above, as many, such as Alabama, have their own downloadable medical forms, accessible to all.)
COMMUNITY OPPORTUNITIES
Various communities have found opportunities to use the yellow dots beyond private vehicles. Adult day care centers for senior citizens and people with disabilities, as well as traditional day care centers for children, can make use of the program by helping individuals in their care (and caregivers or parents) develop a person-specific packet, and make copies for family vehicles, program/center vehicles, and care centers.
Next time, we’ll be talking about the Vial of Life program, and how to ensure that first responders can locate your essential medical information when they attend to you at home. Until then, be healthy, be safe, and be organized.
Paper Doll Post:
Paper Doll on the New Medicare Cards: How To Organize Against Identity Theft & Scams
Are you one of the almost 60 million Americans enrolled in Medicare? Are your parents or grandparents? If so, it’s important to know that all Medicare recipients will soon be getting new identification cards. The first of the new cards will be mailed starting April 1, 2018, and the rollout will continue through April 30, 2019.
Why the Change?
According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the new cards will better protect an enrollee’s identity and guard against fraud. Basically, the hope is that the new Medicare ID cards will make it much harder for the bad guys to scam Medicare recipients and steal their identities.
The new Medicare cards will have less personally identifying information than in the past. Cards won’t have the bearer’s Social Security number, gender, or signature.
Each new card will have a computer-generated Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) assigned specifically to each Medicare enrollee. The MBI will be a combination of eleven numbers and letters, and healthcare providers (including physicians, labs, and hospitals) will be required to bill using MBI instead of Social Security numbers.
Medicare has created a special website, go.medicare.gov/NewCard just to help people feel more at ease with the changes. (CMS has special links available to help healthcare providers and office managers, health insurance and drug plans, employers and media, and individual states cope with the change.)
But what do you have to do?
Step one is to be aware that the change is coming. If you’re a Medicare recipient, or your parents, grandparents, or older friends have Medicare, start by letting them know the cards are on their way.
Doctor’s offices will be asked to play the following video for the benefit of their Medicare patients, and I encourage you to share this video via social media so that other enrollees and their loved ones can be apprised of what’s going on.:
Cards will come automatically. Benefits stay the same. There’s nothing else you absolutely have to do. However, if you’ve moved recently or are just starting to receive benefits, the Social Security Administration urges Medicare enrollees to make sure the agency has their correct address on file.
Log into your Social Security account at socialsecurity.gov/myaccount (What? you didn’t follow Paper Doll’s advice for setting up your online Social Security account? Not even when I pestered you about it?) or call 800-722-1213 to update your address in the system.
[One special note: Every Medicare enrollee is getting a new Medicare card, but if you are also enrolled in a Medicare Advantage Plan (like an HMO or PPO), your Medicare Advantage Plan ID card is your main card for Medicare. So hold onto your Medicare Advantage Plan ID card, and keep it for whenever you need healthcare care. However, healthcare providers may ask you to show your new Medicare card, so keep it ready, too.]
So what’s the catch?
The Department of Justice reports that identity theft for seniors aged 65 and above is a serious problem. In fact, in 2014, the most recent year for which statistics have been released, 2.6 million seniors are victims of identity theft annually! (The Federal Trade Commission has released a document explaining the seven most common identity theft schemes targeting seniors.)
There’s little doubt that scammers and identity thieves are already anticipating this Medicare card change, using potential confusion to their scummy, scammy advantage. However, sharing some basic information can help protect those most in danger of being victimized.
Spread the word (to Dad, Grandma, Aunt Gertrude, and your older pals) that if any of the following things happen, it’s a scam.
If you’re called on the telephone and asked to pay to receive your new Medicare card, hang up. The card is free to all Medicare recipients.
If you’re called and asked for your Social Security number and bank number in order to get your new card, hang up. Medicare won’t call you. Medicare doesn’t need to know your banking information. Ever.
If you’re called and told you will lose your Medicare benefits if you don’t send money or provide your banking info or credit card now, roll your eyes and hang up.
If there are any “fragile” seniors in your life who may be at risk for being coerced, assure them that if they ever get such a call, they should hang up without fear. If they are still ill at ease, tell them to ask for the caller’s name and number and say that their “financial representative who handles all of these tasks” for them will return the call. Then, you can call and report these ne’er-do-wells to the police.
What’s the Timeline?
Medicare beneficiaries in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia will be the first to receive the replacement cards (between April and June). Medicare enrollees in Alaska, American Samoa, California, Guam, Hawaii, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Oregon will also start getting their cards in the April to June 2018 range. If you’re in any other state, the mailing date is merely defined as “after June 2018” and the rollout will continue over the course of the next twelve months. Almost 60 million recipients getting new cards means a lot of mail to process!
Medicare recipients will have until 1/1/2020 before they are required to use the new card, and while both cards will be valid until that date, getting the new card in action and shredding the old card will ensure protection. I also encourage you to make a photocopy of your new Medicare card (just as I always advise photocopying the contents of your wallet) and keep it in a safe place, like your fireproof safe with your other VIPs (very important papers).
For more on the important documents that should (and shouldn’t) be in your wallet, refer to these classic Paper Doll posts:
What’s in Your Wallet (That Shouldn’t Be)?
What’s in Your Wallet (That Should Be)?
What’s in Your Wallet (Part 3): A Little Insurance Policy
Lost and Found: GONE in 60 Seconds: Your Wallet
Stay healthy. Stay aware. Stay organized!
Paper Doll Post:
Paper Doll on the Smead Podcast: How To Get Organized When You Have a Chronic Illness
It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver. ~Mahatma Gandhi
You’ve heard me say it before: being organized can’t always prevent emergencies, but it can make catastrophes less catastrophic. In the past, we’ve talked about all the ways to organize for medical emergencies and put plans in place to create a softer landing when things go wrong. Other classic posts have looked at solutions for organizing your health information (a topic Paper Doll intends to update in the coming months).
Vital Signs: Organizing For A Medical Emergency–Part 1
Vital Signs: Gathering Information During/After A Medical Emergency–Part 2
Vital Signs: Maintaining Your Family’s Medical Records–Part 1 (Paper)
Vital Signs: Maintaining Your Family’s Medical Records–Part 2 (Digital)
A lot has happened since I wrote those posts in 2009 after my own medical emergency experiences. For example, in 2011, I was diagnosed with diabetes, and became active in DiabetesSisters, a support group for women, and now serve on the board of directors for Partners and Peers for Diabetes Care, a Chattanooga-based non-profit.
Then, a little over a year ago, Paper Mommy had a freak conflagration while stripping and changing the bed, seriously dented an upstairs wall, and ended up wrapped in plaster and with her neck in a brace. Although always amusing, she was not amused.
The great lady healed well, thank goodness, although she couldn’t drive for five months. Then scarily, she had unexpected surgery in August, and a long recovery (none of which prevented her from keeping hospital staff and visiting nurses in stitches (if you’ll pardon the pun)). Paper Mommy‘s experiences, along with those of many of my clients with diabetes, MS, lupus, and other chronic conditions, increased my interest in looking at the factors that go into organizing to make life easier when our health fails us for longer than the duration of the flu.
In the last few weeks, I sat down with the wonderful John Hunt for Smead‘s Keeping You Organized video podcast to chat about this very topic. For anyone who has read the Paper Doll blog before, you know that brevity is not my greatest strength, and I had so much to share that our conversation extended to two podcast installments. Take a peek:
How to Get Organized When You Have a Chronic or Extended Illness: Part 1
How to Get Organized When You Have a Chronic or Extended Illness: Part 2
If organizing fascinates you (and why wouldn’t it?) and you like going down a rabbit hole (in a good way!), clicking to watch one video podcast after another, you might want to head to the Smead Keeping You Organized podcast page for each of the two shows:
Once you’re on those pages, you can even opt for the audio-only version of the podcasts, in case you want to take us with you while you’re running errands in the car (or just plain running).
Over the course of 2018, you’re likely to see me post more often about issues that relate to organizing and health issues, including topics like:
- How to organize your home to support your health and recovery
- How to organize your tangible resources, like medications and medical devices, to maximize efficiency, including key strategies and innovating storage solutions
- The importance of health-related legal documents like health care proxies and medical directives
- Ways to evaluate your options for organizing, storing, accessing, and sharing your medical information
- How to use health portals to access your medical information
- Tools for organizing your health-related finances
- Ways to save money and stretch your health-care dollars
- How to organize resources for emotional support
- Getting support for caregivers and family members
After you watch the videos, let me know in the comments if there are healthcare-related organizing questions you’d like answered or topics you wish to see covered in the blog.
Until next time, I wish you good health!
Paper Doll Post:
Paper Doll’s 6 Organizing Secrets to Kick-Start Your 2018
We’re a few days into the new year, and people are still buzzing about resolutions (Paper Doll doesn’t make them) and theme words or mantras (mine for 2018 is LAUNCH). Americans’ top New Year’s resolutions always include losing weight, straightening out finances, and breaking bad habits, but according to market research, 80% of resolutions are broken by the second week of January. It doesn’t have to be that way.
January is National Get Organized Month, and I was on my local NBC affiliate’s morning lifestyle program today, sharing my organizing philosophy and providing tips on how you can kick start your resolution to get organized this year. The conversation was free-flowing, covering some specifics of organizing, but also delving into the personal. For example, Julie Edwards, the host of 3 Plus You, asked me whether you can “make” your children become organized adults. I said that I believe that like anything else, the best way to help your children is to teach useful skills and model good behavior.
WRCBtv.com | Chattanooga News, Weather & Sports
When I was asked about how to deal with different personal organizing styles, I pointed out that within families (and with co-workers), the key is to maintain good communication, and understand that just because someone’s organizing approach is different from yours, it’s not “wrong.” It just may not be right for you.
Here are some tips I think will help you get a running start to achieving your organizing goals in 2018.
1) FOLLOW THE ICE CREAM RULE
I tell my clients, “Don’t put things down, put them away.” The word “away” presupposes you’ve already got a location in mind. But good organizing systems have two parts: the where & the how. When you bring groceries home, you put the ice cream away in the freezer immediately to keep from having a melted, sticky mess. It’s very rare for someone to put away the toilet paper or breakfast cereal before the frozen foods. The freezer is the “where” but putting the ice cream away first is the “how.” It’s so innate, you don’t even think about.
Clutter comes from deferred decision making. With ice cream, you don’t even have to stop and think; it’s instinct. With everything else in your life, when you go shopping (or even when offered things for free), decide on a home before you buy or bring it in. Once it’s in your space, build fixed time into your calendar for how/when you’ll deal with maintaining it or getting it back to where it lives. (When will you do laundry? When will you file financial papers? What will be your trigger — when the laundry basket or in-box is full, or will you put it on your calendar?)
Remember: “Someday” is not a day on the calendar.
2) EVERYTHING SHOULD HAVE A HOME…BUT NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO LIVE WITH YOU
I say this to every prospective client. The eople calling me are focused on the idea of creating systems and order, but don’t always recognize the larger truth, that not everything you own needs to stay in your orbit forever. If it’s broken and you’re not willing to spend the time or money to repair it, let it go. If you have an emotional attachment to something that’s broken, outdated, or takes up too much space to keep, take a photo of you holding it or wearing it. Then set it free!
Give what is no longer age, size, or lifestyle-appropriate new life via charity or consignment. Let it be a blessing to someone else. Setting up a donation station in your home is as easy as putting a box or plastic tub in your utility room, mudroom, or garage. When you’re doing laundry or sorting through toys in the playroom, if it doesn’t fit your life, take it to the donation box right away. When the box is full, log the contents (if you’ll be taking a deduction), and deliver it to your favorite non-profit. Don’t wait until you have lots of boxes – one box of useful items or clothes, sent on its way, is more useful to others than mountains of boxes that never make it out of your home.
3) DON’T FIGHT CLUTTER WITH MORE CLUTTER
I love The Container Store as much as the next professional organizer. But buying oodles of storage containers – bins, boxes, tubs, and shelves – can only help you organize if you pare down to what you need and want.
Think of it this way: when you see a great outfit at the store, it’s not realistic to say, “Hey, I’ll buy this now and then lose 30 pounds to fit into it.” Even if you do declutter the personal poundage, you never know from where, exactly, that weight will disappear, so shouldn’t buy the new outfit hoping you’ll lose weight in the right places to fit into it.
I’m not saying not to acquire storage containers, but don’t do it first. Once you pare down, pick colorful, fun containers that suit your needs, space, and tastes.
4) TAKE BABY STEPS & DECLARE SMALL VICTORIES
When it comes to clutter, it’s not the space it takes up in your house, it’s the dent it puts in your life! If you’re late every day because you can’t find your keys and your kids can’t find their homework, it’s a much bigger deal than a cluttered guest room closet or drawers of old birthday party pictures that haven’t been scrapbooked.
Focus on your biggest daily stressors, break them down into small, actionable steps, and solve those first. You don’t need to do it all at once, but if you develop a habit of doing a little bit at a time, once your space is straightened up, maintenance will feel natural.
Go through just 5 hangers or one drawer each night. Clear a counter for the daily launch pad of essential items to get out the door. Hang a key hook by the front door and make it a nighttime ritual with your kids to check everything is there that you’ll all need the next day.
5) DECLARE BANKRUPTCY ON CLUTTER DEBT & STOP FEELING GUILTY!
Give yourself permission to declare bankruptcy on the “debt” of unworn clothes three sizes too small or catching up on reading months of magazines. Holding onto something just because you spent money on it or because it was a gift doesn’t make it any more valuable or useful; it just ends of costing you time (dusting or caring for it), space (that you could use for more important things), or money (spent on dry-cleaning or storage rental).
If you’re overwhelmed with thousands (or tens of thousands) or unread emails, magazines, catalogs, junk mail, or check out the classic Paper Doll post, A Different Kind of Bankruptcy, to give you some step-by-step action items.
Don’t feel guilty! Remember, supermodels on those magazine covers are airbrushed and Photoshopped. They don’t really look like that. The same is true with the rooms you see in home and garden magazines. Nobody actually lives in spaces like that – those rooms were specially designed and curated to look “perfect.” No dual-career families with toddler toys and pre-teen soccer team sleepovers live in those magazine homes. Cut yourself some slack.
6) FOLLOW THE BUDDY SYSTEM
Getting your space, time, and priorities in order can be overwhelming, but you don’t have to go it alone. Weight Watchers and 12-step programs succeed because they give people accountability and support. To help you reach your organizing goals, buddy up with:
- Your spouse – Trade tasks you don’t particularly love (like laundry for balancing the checkbook) and you’re less likely to procrastinate on doing what you enjoy.
- Your kids – Children love to “catch” adults breaking the rules and best them at competitions. Make organizing a game – play Beat the Clock to see who can collect the most things that don’t belong in the living room before the song ends, and then work together to put the items away. Make a rule that anything found on the wrong level of the house goes in a basket by the stairs, and everyone must take something (one item for little ones; the whole basket for grownups), and let everyone have a chance to “blow the whistle” on those who forget.
- Friends – Make organizing social. Invite a friend over for lunch and to help organize your closet or kitchen this weekend. Then do the same for your friend’s pantry or laundry room next week.
- A professional organizer – As a Certified Professional Organizer®, I know how much my clients get out of having someone who knows the ropes guide them in making solid decisions and developing systems to surmount those challenging obstacles. Find a professional organizer near you by using the search function for the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals (NAPO).
May you have a happy, healthy, and organized 2018!
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