Traveling Pill Box

As I’ve said before, I travel a lot for my work. In the process, I’ve developed some handy packing solutions to save time and keep me organized. Today’s solution keeps me well stocked with all of the possible drugs I could need on a trip. (Yes, the legal kind.)

Instead of dragging around six different drug bottles, keeping them all packed up in my bag. I took a weekly pill box (purchased cheaply at the Dollar Store) and I labeled each of the compartments for the drug that I want to store in it. The drugs I found the most useful in my travels are:

Pepto

Allergy Medicine

Nicorette (for the former smokers out there)

Vitamins

Sleeping Pills

Mydol

Advil

Unfortunately I don’t have a label maker. It’s a silly investment I can’t let myself make. (Though it would be a wonderful Christmas Present…hint hint.) So I hand wrote the labels and taped them on. I think I’m going to make one for my briefcase because there has been more than on scenario where I’ve needed a Pepto or a Mydol at work.

Business Travel Checklist

I've been very busy lately traveling with my new job. Packing for a business trip can be especially tricky, and the sin of over packing becomes ultra painful when you have to check your luggage or drag an enormous suitcase from town to town. Paring down the content of your luggage is key. Here are some rules I've learned and I've also attached the checklist I use to make sure I don't forget anything. I like to laminate mine and keep it by my suitcase with a dry erase marker so it's never lost and I can save paper.

1. You do not need a spare everything (You do not need two pairs of pants or shoes, if the something bad happens you can almost always buy new pants or have them laundered at the hotel. The exception to this is glasses and contacts.)

2. Decide what you're going to do before the trip. (Do you really have time to work out? No? Forget the gym shoes then. Are you meeting up with a friend at the bar? Keep in the bar clothes.)

3. If you've remembered your credit card, you really haven't forgotten anything. (Unless you are going to a third world nation, you really can buy whatever you need almost anywhere.)

Solving Clutter Problems

Today’s blog is a practical exercise in solving clutter problems. Your house may be clean, but if you have a few random things lying around on every surface, it doesn’t look clean. People often ignore things lying around because they don’t have a place for them or aren’t sure what to do with them.

Step 1: Clear off a large space to put all of your clutter. Pull out the trash can, get a bag for donations, a laundry basket, and get a box for miscellaneous items. Set out the trash bags and plastic bags.

Step 2: Walk around your home and pick up the little bits of clutter lying around. Set it all on a table or in one location in the middle of the floor. Mail, lotions, clothes, random projects are all lying around my place.

Step 3: Start piling like things together. Make a pile for dirty laundry, or for trash, one for items to donate. If you have random things, make a pile for each room and even each area they go in. Create a pile for things you have no idea where they should go.

Step 4: Once you have sorted everything, put the groups of items away in each room one at a time. Take out the trash, put the donation items in the car.

Step 5: Take a look at the miscellaneous items you can’t find a home for. Determine if you really need them in the first place. Maybe you don’t need 18 Yankee Candles out at a time and you can put some in a space the cupboard. If you need a break, put the miscellaneous items in a box, just don’t leave everything out indefinitely.

Step 6: Schedule a time to sort through the miscellaneous box. Schedule a time to deliver donations if you cannot deliver them immediately. Do not shove it in the corner. On your appointment time, go through the miscellaneous box. Don’t be afraid to throw away things if you find you really don’t use or need them.

5 Quickie Dinners made with Tortillas

Making dinner during the week can be difficult. Working takes up enough time, but what if you want to work out or meet with friends. Here are a few ideas for dinners that are quick and easy and are made of ingredients you can easily have on hand.

Chicken Enchiladas

• 1 Brick cream cheese (I use 1/3 fat)
• 1 cup salsa
• 1 can pinto beans, drained
• 8 fajita sized tortillas (I use the whole wheat)
• 1 cup shredded taco cheese
• 1 small onion
• 1 can chopped tomatoes, drained
• 1 can enchilada sauce
• Two cooked Chicken breasts chopped into small pieces * For vegetarian just add another can of drained pinto beans instead
• Cayenne pepper and powdered garlic to taste

Melt the cream cheese and salsa on medium heat. Stir till blended, then add the cooked chicken, drained pinto beans, cayenne pepper, garlic, tomatoes and stir until blended. Fill the tortillas, roll into tubes, and lay side by side in an oven safe/lightly oiled pan. Chop up the onions. Pour sauce over rolled enchiladas. Sprinkle on chopped onions and shredded cheese over the top. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

Mexican Pizzas

• 1 Bag tortillas
• 1 can refried beans
• Shredded Cheese
• Salsa
• Chopped Onions

Toast one tortilla spread refried beans and salsa on top. Layer with next tortilla spread onions and green peppers, salsa and then toss shredded cheese. Toast in toaster oven or in oven for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Quesadillas

• Tortillas
• Shredded Cheese
• Chopped Onions
• Chopped Green Peppers
• Baby Spinach
• Oil

Toast one tortilla. Layer cheese, and chopped vegetables between two tortillas. In a lightly greased pan toast until light brown and cheese is melted.

Taco Salad

• 1 Can pinto beans
• Salad
• Shredded Cheese
• Salsa
• Tortillas

Make a salad with all of your favorite veggies. Toast a tortilla in a toaster or in the oven. Toss shredded cheese, drained pinto beans, salsa, and crumbled tortilla over the top.

Wraps

• Turkey Swiss, Baby Spinach, and mustard
• Turkey, Mexican Shredded Cheese, Onions, Green Pepper, and Salsa
• Hummus, Green Peppers, Onions and tomatoes

Quickie Tips

• Keep chopped up onions and green pepper on hand for speedy use
• Buy pre-chopped salads/lettuce
• Keep cans of pinto beans and chopped tomatoes on hand

Grocery List

• 1 Bag of Tortillas
• 2 Bags of Shredded Mexican Cheese
• 1 can of Enchilada Sauce
• 2 Can of Tomatoes
• 2 Can of Pinto Beans
• 1 Jar of Salsa
• Baby Spinach
• Lettuce
• Onions
• Green Peppers
• 1 Can of Refried Beans
• Turkey Lunchmeat
• Humus

Organizing Your Out of Control Email Inbox

So you haven’t deleted an email in 3 years, so it takes 3 days for your email system to search for a password reminder to your favorite website. Keeping your email inbox messy is like dumping all of your mail on your doormat. It’s disorganized, messy and wastes your time. I will admit I’ve had this problem, but I’ve devised a few tips for cleaning your email us.

1. Do a bulk search on things you know are spam - Did you subscribe to 5 different email lists only to read one of them 1/3 of the time? Get rid of them, they’re only sitting in your inbox taking up space and making you feel guilty for not reading them.
2. Unsubscribe - If there is one or more email lists that you have never actually read, find away to unsubscribe to them, or at the least list them as spam and have them automatically filtered out for easy deleting.
3. Create folders and file - Here is a list of folders I have, you may want to change them for your needs, but I found just about anything fits into these.

• Read and Respond – Emails that shouldn’t be in my inbox, but I am looking to read some day or I should respond to someone. I like to look through here at least once a week to make sure there isn’t anything I’m slacking on.
• Bills – Bills and payment confirmations.
• Blog Research – I like to keep forwards or websites or list research for my blog here so if I’m ever uninspired I can look in here, you can really create a folder for each topic of research you are interested in.
• Current Projects – Doing research for something new? Try to store it all in one spot.
• Files – I email myself files instead of saving them to a thumbdrive.
• Friends – All of the interesting emails from them, not the ones that are 2 sentences long.
• Job – job search tips, interesting companies, interesting postings (some people toss old postings, but I think that if you were interested in the company once, you should hold on to it and maybe check it out later when you’re more motivated to look for a new job)
• Memberships – emails about password/account information
• Recipes – I love to cook and the lists I’m on send me recipes all the time, I try to hang on to anything I might like.
• Writing – Here is where I keep information from cool writing websites, as well as emails from editors and other writers.
• Yoga_Health – Yoga tips and health articles I might read some day, right after I quit drinking Diet Coke…

4. Be realistic about what you can do - I know that I will never have time to read all of the Yoga tips I love, so I have a deadline and if the emails are more than a month old I delete them.
5. Email Reminders – I love using email reminders to remind myself to do something or take care of someone’s birthday, however once the event is over, get rid of the reminder.
6. Responses don’t have to be perfect– If the email is from my friend and all it requires is a two sentence response, do it while you have it open. By the time you close and and reopen it later you’ve wasted even more time. Don’t make life more complicated than it is.
7. Schedule Time on it – Don’t let yourself get bogged down with elaborate organization systems. It should not take you more than 15 minutes to organize your email. Of course it’ll take more time to respond, but budget your time specifically to organize so at least you know what’s going on in your InBox.

Braclet/Watch Organizer

Today’s is just a quick entry on organizing jewelry. These tea caddies make excellent bracelet and watch organizers. I purchased this in London and it was full of different kinds of tea bags. Once I used them all, this box got a different life.

Organizing Accessories

Organizing the many accessories a girl’s got can be a difficult task. Those wily organizing experts tell us, “Make sure everything has its place.” But what if you have 80 somethings? Below are a few tips for organizing each of those little trouble items that seem to be everywhere. With this hopefully you can create the right spot for each of them.

Sun Glasses:

Problem: Some people put them in their cases, but I’ve always found that cumbersome. You

have to remember to put them back in, if you can find it, or they get scratched up. Or it becomes a hassle so you don’t put them back.

Solution: A key holder. I got this one at the World Market. I nailed it up behind my bedroom door, but on the inside of your closet door is also a great place.

Necklaces:

Problem: They get tangled together ruining decent jewelry, and do not have a decent place
to rest.

Solution: The trusty key holder:

Next Time: An easy craft project for organizing earrings…

Brown Baggin It

Brown Bag it

Taking your lunch with you to work can save you delicious amounts of money. If you spend only $8.00 a day for lunch, which isn’t difficult to do, you will spend almost $2000 a year. That’s $160 a month. If you’re like me, and live on a limited budget, this money can make a huge difference.

But it can be really difficult to facilitate a Brown Bag habit. Time and resources are at a minimum.

Excuse #1: Your coworkers are going out, and you don’t want to be left out.

Answer A: Get a buddy to do it with you. If you only really hang out with a couple people at lunch, convince them to do it with you. Go to a park or eat quickly and go for a walk together.

Answer B: Offer to set up brown bag lunches where everyone brings their lunch and listens to a short information session on a new piece of software or a new concept. It’s a great idea for professional development for the presenters, the attendees and makes you look great for suggesting it.

Answer C: Take one day, maybe Friday as a reward for being so good all week, and make sure everyone gets together to go out. I agree with the new book, “Never Eat Alone” you should always be trying to create new relationships to develop your career as well as personal life.

Excuse #2: You don’t have time to pack a lunch in the morning.

Answer A: If you cook at night, when putting the food away, put a little bit in a single serving container and set it right in the front so you don’t forget it.

Answer B: Precook some foods like pasta or rice. Or pre-chop some green pepper and celery and toss them together in an impromptu pasta salad or in a quick stir fry.

Answer C: Buy a bunch of poptop soup cans and put them in your desk. Make sure you keep a sturdy bowl or container. If you have room in a freezer grab a couple of lite frozen dinners and toss them in there.

Another amazing advantage to brown bag buffets, your can easily control your caloric intake. If you’re watching your weight this can be a great help.

Here's a great page of ideas for your brown bag adventures.

http://busycooks.about.com/od/lunchrecipesandmenus/a/morebrownbag.htm

Organizing for a Diet

This entry is all about organizing for a diet. I recently started the South Beach Diet, Phase One, so this entry will be mostly about the South Beach Diet, but a number of tips can be used for preparing for diets in general.

First, I believe that the preparation/organization phase of the diet is a key psychological step in preparing for weight loss. This process allows you to purge the negative influences in your life and allows you to set the foundation for new healthy habits.

1. Research: I chose the South Beach Diet after a few days of researching online about the diet and then going to the book store and looking at the book. (No, I didn’t end up purchasing it.) After being pretty honest with myself, I chose the diet that I thought would be right for me. I then looked up some recipes online and created a shopping list. I didn’t go so far as to create a meal plan, I wanted some flexibility to be able to eat what I’m craving from time to time. In this stage also a great idea is to talk to a medical professional about any health risks associated with dieting. Here too you can research gyms and exercise programs.

2. Purge: No I am not advocating bulimia. I am talking about preparing your home for a diet. That means getting rid of the temptations. This also doesn’t mean shoveling in 8 ice cream bars because you have to get rid of them before you start your diet. Dump out your juice and regular sodas, toss the snack food.

For me, I needed to get rid to the massive quantities of complex carbohydrates in my refrigerator and pantry. I kept anything that is complex to prepare. I can certainly use it at a later date, and these delayed gratification products are safe with me. The longer it takes to cook, the more time my self control has to kick in.

If you really guilty about wasting food like I do, here are a few options to avoid waste.

- Donate your can jars and boxes to a local food pantry
- Take the already opened baked goods on a walk to the park. Break up the bread, crunch up those chips, and feed them to ducks in the pond, squirrels or just scatter them on the side of the path, believe me the animals will find them no matter where you put them. Now you getting some exercise and feeding some hungry wildlife.

3. Restock: Now go shopping. Buy nothing that does not jive with the diet you have chosen, but be generous. (Eat before you go. Studies have shown people how shop on a full stomach make better purchasing decisions at the grocery store.) Take your big list, and make sure you have given yourself plenty of variety. Refill that empty refrigerator with the good stuff. Also, take the time right away to prepare some food so you have something to eat immediately.

Some easy ideas:
- Cut up celery sticks to dip in humus
- Hard boils eggs for a quick high protein breakfast
- Bean dip - layer vegetarian refried beans, salsa, low fat shredded cheese
- String cheese
- Turkey Jerky – I love the Trader Joe’s Terriaki Turkey Jerky
- Buy or cook I head of time some grilled chicken to throw on salads or dip in mustard
- Lite Egg Salad, lite Miracle Whip, mustard, egg white, green pepper

4. Arm Yourself: Take the cash out of your wallet. (If you can't, leave in only a large bill.) When I don’t have cash, I am less likely to stop by Starbucks and get an 800 calorie coffee drink, or pick up a candy bar from the gas station. Having disposable cash around is a huge temptation. Bring to work only what you are allowed to eat.

Starting Over

Hello again! I would like to welcome myself back to this blog. In the spirit of starting fresh and starting over, I cannot wait to get started on this blog again. I’ve been very busy, but also I’ve reverted into my original disorganized state. I lost track of the important things. So I decided the other day to start again. At first I thought it was too late to get back into my blog. I was about to give up on it, but I realized how easy it is to start over, especially with organization. Very few people are organized from birth, color coding Legos in their cribs. Most people are disorganized mixed up, running through life looking for something to make sense of things. Personally, I am built of the latter sort. I used to spend hours out of the week looking for my wallet, keys, cell phone…etc etc. You could barely walk through my mess of a bedroom. I ran out of gas on the road…twice. My relationships suffered. I forgot loved one’s birthdays. I lost touch with distant friend’s who had moved away.
Then one day something changed. I don’t remember what changed it, but I’m pretty sure it was a number of things. I showed up on time to the bar, and realized my friend’s had told me they would be there half an hour earlier than they would be. I found out my boyfriend wouldn’t move in with me because I’m too messy. I was evaluated poorly at work because of my disorganization. So I started over. I read some books. I practiced in my apartment. And the weirdest thing, I started to like it. It was fun and nice to have it all together. Living became easier. I had more time. So I continued. I got a master’s degree in Information Science specializing in Archives and Records Management. This is a drastic step, but I truly enjoy it.
So I recommend to everyone that you can start over. Use any excuse you can, but you can become organized. You can change your life. My best friend just broke up with her boyfriend. She is having a tough time, but she’s dealing with it pretty well. She is using it as a reason to start over. She went out and got her haircut. She cleaned her apartment from top to bottom. She moved her furniture around to a different set up. I believe the best way to start over is to change the things you can see. Use whatever you have to, to begin again. Whether it's a relationship gone bad; a new job; a new apartment or just a new haircut. Anyone can start over.