Good Reads for Organzing

It's been a while since I've done one of these, so please welcome back the

I read a lot!  As in, normally, I've got a couple of books on the go, plus I spend at least 2 hours a day reading online.  Whether it's some of the fabulous blogs out there, tutorials, news, emails ... I like to read!  (I think it's moved passed obsession into addiction, but there are worse things one could be addicted too!)  One of the great things about reading, is finding those gems of resource.  Those sites or books that are full of useful information; ones you turn to for inspiration or to help find motivation.  Lately, I've had organizing the home on my brain, more than usual, which is saying alot, because I think about this often.  So, I thought I would carry on with that train of thinking and share with you some of my favourite books for organizing the home.  Here they are in order of what I have, what I've read and want, and what I've heard is good, but haven't had the chance to read.

First up, is "House Works" by Cynthia Townley Ewer of OrganizedHome.com

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It's a great book full of a wonderful mix of organizing and cleaning tips.  "House Works" would make a great gift for someone just starting a home of their own, or for someone looking to make changes to their own home.  Tons of ideas, and you can find even more over on the website OrganizedHome.com  This one is in my own library, and I find I look through it when I'm tweaking systems or trying to get a new idea on how to solve an organizing dilemma.

Next up, is a book I've read and loved.  It's topping my list of Must Purchase books.  It's titled "Clutter Rehab" by Laura Wittmann.

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You might know her as the fabulous blogger over on "I'm and Organizing Junkie!"  If you haven't checked out her site yet, I strongly recommend you do.  It is full of wonderful ideas, great tips, fantastic advice, and oodles and oodles of information.  This book was great!  I seriously need to pick up a copy to have, here, at my finger tips.  The book is full of information, tips, and quick little things you can do to not just get organized, but to stay organized.


Next up is my final selection for this post.  It's a book I've heard wonderful things about.  I've flipped through it in stores, and really, am just waiting to get my new library card before checking it out.  I give you...

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As I said above, I've heard some great things about this book, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet.  If any of you have, please share your thoughts on it in the comments.  I love the RealSimple website, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to like the book, and I can't wait to check it out.

And there you have it.  My "have", "want" and "must check out" picks for Home Organizing reference books.

Do you have a go to book for Home Organizing?  Have you heard of any that you can't wait to read?  Have any suggestions for other ones I should check out?  I'd love to hear about them!!!!


* All thoughts and opinions are my own.  I was not compensated in anyway for writing this post, or for including these books.  All of the links in this post link back to the authors, their websites, or both.  For information on where to buy them, either check with your local book store, or click on through to the other website for links to where to buy.  *

Thoughts on the Move and Reviewing the Printables

The move was crazy!  Crazy exciting, crazy stressful, crazy planned... and now that it's over it is slowly becoming a distant memory, and before it completely dulls and loses its hold on me I wanted to share what worked, and what didn't work.

As you probably already know, I made up a bunch of printables to help keep us organized through this move, and I'm happy to report that, for the most part, they worked just like I hoped they would.  My original plan had been to put them all into a binder with neat, orderly sections ... yeah that one didn't happen.  I ended up putting most of them at the front of my HMB.  Despite not having a home all their own, they worked so beautifully for me, that I wanted to share my thoughts on them with you.

First up, the packing kit I put together I cannot say enough how happy I was with this.  

At first I thought I was just being a little on the OCD side of trying to organize our packing, but it really helped to make things that much easier.  (the post on that is here, if you want to check it out)  A quick summary of what was in it:

• Clipboard:  for holding labels once they're made, and the packing list
• Packing List:  because, this time, I'm determined to have a good idea of where everything is
• Pen: 
• Permanent Markers:  for the labels and/or writing on the box
• Packing Tape:
• News Paper:  for padding
• Plastic Bags:  I use them to cover dishes and breakables before wrapping in newspaper.  Makes it soooo much nicer when unpacking!

It made packing so easy, I could move from room to room, and I had just what I needed with me.  No hunting for anything.  The only thing I didn't end up using was labels.  I ended up just writing on the boxes.  

QUICK TIP:  Label to top right corner on all sides of the box, including the top.  This way, no matter how it is stacked, you can always see what is in it!  Thanks so much for that tip Dad!  It really saves the day!!!!

Next up, was the only real failure of the bunch, the Project List! 

 (find post here)  It was a great idea when I was organizing the house, and I've used it in the new house already for projects I want to tackle.  But when it came to the move itself, it didn't help at all.  

Then I had the Change of Address form.  

This was great, I didn't have to try to remember what was being cancelled, what was being transferred and so on.  And, it's a good thing I had this, because when we were up north at the old house, I looked at it and realized I hadn't called the utility companies to hook up the new house!  Eeek!  Thanks to the form, I had all the information I needed to get it done.  Whew!

QUICK TIP:  If you're thinking about moving, it's a good idea to double check cancellation and transfer policies for all the companies you deal with.  Some might require up to 30 days or more notice.  It's always a good thing to check that out.  Also, if you had to pay a deposit, find out how you go about getting that back.

Move-In Day Checklist!  What can I say about this little baby?

It helped!  Alot! (see post here) We had brought a fair amount of stuff with us to my parents, and thanks to them (I will never be able to thank them enough for their love, support, and for how much they helped us.  I am truly blessed with the best parents in the whole universe!!!) we were able to leave much of it with them when we headed back up north to do the final pack and move.  This little checklist helped me make sure I packed only what we needed to bring.  It also helped with the final packing, and unloading.  I was able to have what I needed at my finger tips!

And finally, we have come to the STAR of the show!  My Packing List! 

I'm going to be super honest here.  When I made this one up, I was thinking in my head, "This is going to be a waste of time for me, but maybe, someone out there will get use from it."  Ha!  The packing list was, by far, the best printable of the bunch. (see post here)  I kept a detailed list of what got packed where, or in what.  I numbered the boxes from each room as I packed, so the higher the number, the greater priority it was to us.  (with the exception of the summer shoes, they didn't get listed on this, an oversight on my part!)  It came to the rescue more than once.  Especially when the inevitable "Do you know where this is?" happened when got back up north, or the "Did you already pack that?"  There were a few times when we needed an item I had already packed, and I was able to quickly find it on my list, we were able to retrieve said items with relative ease, and put them back with no problems. When it came to unpacking, oh my, it was so nice to have an idea of where everything was.  And it was soooo handy to know, just by looking at the list, what boxes could wait to be unpacked, and what ones we needed right away.  Because of this handy dandy little printable, I was able to whip up a simple lunch on unloading day, and not have to resort to paper plates!  LOVE LOVE LOVE it!  I will use it over and over, and not just for moving.  I plan to use this to help keep track of what is stored in the garage, in the garden shed, and under the stairs, if we ever decide to use the crawl space, I'll use it for that too.  If you have a storage unit, something like this would be perfect for keeping track of what you have it in.

And there you have it!   My review of the printables I made up.  All in all, I'm quite happy that I took the time, not just to make them, but to use them.  I hope that some of you find them helpful too, after all, that's a big part of the reason I share them here.  Right now they're scattered through the blog in various posts, and I was thinking that maybe they need a page all of their own, what do you think?  Would it be easier for you if the printables were all in one spot?  Leave me a comment and let me know.  In the mean time, if you would like the full "moving" package, (all of the printables you see in this post)  leave me a comment, (make sure your email is either linked to your comment, or in your comment) or send me a note to:  scatteredsquirrelblog@gmail.com  and I'll send you a copy of all them!  

I hope all of you are having a wonderful Friday!  Have a safe and happy weekend, and I'll hope to see you here on Monday when I'm going to be sharing a new free printable with you!

The One Gadget I Couldn't Live Without!

Alright, be honest, the first thought that popped into your head was "iPhone" right?  Nope, not one of those, infact, I think I could easily live without my POS, WP7.  It's one of those items that breeds love-hate relationships wherever it goes.  (but that's a whole other post)  Actually, the one gadget I could not live without out is ....

my Kobo Touch e-reader. 

I am seriously in love with this pretty little thing.   So, what do I love about it?  Well, first, I love that it was a gift from Travis.  He gave it to me last year for our anniversary.  BEST. GIFT. EVER!!!!  That, right there, is reason enough to love it.  :-)  Onto the more serious stuff though.

I love that Kobo is affiliated with Chapters (Indigo).  Chapters is one of my all time favourite stores.  They have a little of everything,and a whole lot of books!!!  And they're Canadian!  Who could ask for more?  You can also use your Chapters gift card to purchase books on Kobo, which is a nice touch, especially for someone like me who likes to have a budget to work with.

The e-reader itself is really nice.  The quilted back makes for easy holding.  It's light, portable (I purchased a hard cover bookstyle case for it because it comes almost everywhere with me)  and for anyone who enjoys reading outside, you'll love this part too, the screen gets BETTER outside in sunny weather.  Yep!  You heard right, the screen gets better, as in easier to read, when you're outdoors.  FABULOUS right?  That's e-ink screens for you.  And I have to say that, after being affiliated with a Canadian company, the e-ink was the big draw for me.  I wanted something that wasn't backlit, that had no glare, that gave the illusion of reading a book.  The Kobo Touch hit all those points.

It also comes with a few fun features that really appealed to the geek in me.  I can choose from different fonts, change the font size, choose the refresh rate, look up words in the built in dictionary, borrow e-books from the library, and load any DRM free e-pub or pdf book onto it.  This means, that say a blogger I enjoy reading publishes an e-book, in PDF format.  Even if the book is not in the Kobo store, I can purchase it from the blogger, and use Adobe Digital Editions to load it onto my reader.  SWEET!  Love that!

And it has more features.  Like Reading Life, where the e-reader keeps track of wonderful things like, how many books you've finished, how many hours you've read, and what percentage of your library you've gone through.  It will also tell you funny little things like, how many hours you've been reading your current book for, how many minutes per reading session you're averaging, and how many pages you've turned in the book.  (I know, totally geeky, but fun, and it gets better)  Adding to the fun, you can earn awards, little virtual stickers for meeting certain goals.  A little silly, but I can see this having merit for kids who don't like reading.  (and adults who never really grew up.... not saying that's me or anything, but I did happen to notice that I have all my stickers :-) )

Social media plays a huge role in society now, and Kobo jumped right in, and allows to link to your facebook account so you can share your reading experiences with your friends and family.  They seem to really be trying to make reading a social experience, which is kind of neat.  You can have your Kobo account synced through multiple devices, your phone (Android, iPhone, Blackberry) tablet (Android, iPad, Blackberry) and your PC or Mac.  (Not available for Linux yet, but Travis and I are researching ways to get around that) as well as online through the Kobo site.  Best part.... you really can access your Kobo account from all those places, including your library.  You are not confined to just one.  The only thing you need to do, is sync your e-reader with the desktop app to keep it up to date.


Navigating the store is easy, though I will say, it would be nice if it was easier to find the free titles.  The selection is vast and growing for all genres.  You can surf the web on this one, but I don't recommend it.  It's slow, and not very easy to navigate.  This wasn't really meant to be anything but an e-reader.

I know I should tell you somethings I don't like about it, but other than the web surfing being slow, I can't think of any.  Oh, yes I can, they don't have an App for POS WP7, so I can't sync it to my phone :-(  other than that, I'm totally loving it.  It's been my savior during the packing process.  I packed all our books, except for some of Liam's.  Without my Kobo I would go insane.  I have almost 100 books stored on it, and let me tell you, it sure saves space!  lol  Despite all I love about my e-reader, there is still nothing quite like cracking open a good, old fashioned book.  That won't ever change for me.  It just means that I pick and choose the books to purchase a little more carefully.

So, there you have it.  Not really surprising that the one gadget this bookworm can't live without, is her e-reader.

***  Please note that all the opinions found in this post are mine!  I'm sharing this because I really do LOVE my e-reader (ask my husband, my parents, my BFF, my kids... they'll tell you!)  I was in no way compensated for writing this post.  I was not asked to review or share my thoughts on this product.  ***