Monday, April 16, 2012

Earth Day Celebrations: Recycle Your Stuff to Join in the Festivities

Each year most cities organize Earth Day festivities that in some cases include paper shreds, electronic recycling as well as all types of green initiatives and fun activities. This time of year always gets me thinking about how organizing at its core supports recycling and green initiatives. How wonderful is it to not have to buy those big plastic toys for our toddlers when we can get them 2nd hand through a neighbor whose kids have aged out of them or at a Thrift Store?

When my clients are organizing their spaces they always think about recycling and donating first before throwing anything in the trash. As we continue our spring cleaning, organizing and lighten our homes, lets continue to think of all ways we can recycle what we don't need, want or use now and think of others.

Here are a few local Earth Day events:

Alexandria Earth Day - April 21st
Fairfax Earth Day - April 28th
Power Purge and Shred - April 25th - 7 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

My New Love: CardStar

Since I have the organizing gene, anytime I can improve a system or process or use something in a new way that saves time or somehow is better, it is always something to celebrate. I have been singing the praises of my new found treasure, the App, CardStar.

My purse got about 5 pounds lighter thanks to an organizing friend who introduced me to it. CardStar holds digitally all of the plastic cards and key tabs that many stores and restaurants entice us with to get discounts. Viola, my wallet is not overstuffed and my three key rings (yes, I have three) can now just hold keys because all of the plastic cards and key tags can be left home! In addition to the convenience of not having to carry all of the extra plastic, CardStar saves us time too as it organizes the cards alphabetically so there is no more hunting for the right loyalty card - as they are all available, in alpha order, in the same place, once you put them on your phone. Every person I have shared the App with has the same excited reaction I did because anything to lighten our wallets and purses is something to cheer about.

Over spring break my kids and I biked into Old Town from the Belle Haven Marina heading to Ben & Jerry’s for “Free Cone Day”. I realize the cone negated the exercise! After ordering our cones, my son picked up the new Belly card, which apparently many merchants are going to start offering. Belly is a type of loyalty card that is tied into points and of course more points, equals more saving and in the case of Ben & Jerry's incentives to buy more cones. Normally, I would have to be sold on its value, since I knew nothing about it, but I knew with my CardStar App, I could just scan it and be done with it.

I think we all download popular Apps and we use them a few times and then they sit on our phones. This is not one of those Apps, trust me you will be using it regularly and you’ll be spreading the word too.

Okay, now my mission is to learn about Evernote and how to use it. More on that later….