Lose Track of Purchases no More!

I consider myself to be pretty good at organizing. Not perfect, mind you, but pretty good. So when I "re-organize" my office or craft supplies -- or anything else -- I am pretty frustrated when I can't find the new items I just bought when I look for them.

I find myself going back to look for them in their original spots before the massive decluttering and of course, they are not there.

I have come up with a solution, I hope. I am going to create a notebook system that will prevent me from wasting any more time.

Here's the plan: I will list everything I buy or bring into the office/craft space in one notebook. All of the new stuff will then be identified as to where it is. I may even go so far as to number the drawers in my office so I can quickly go to them when I need something.

For example, in my Yeasty notebook I will write:

• Silver Beads for Christmas bracelet gifts: Left drawer (no. 1).(Seeing as how I just misplaced some beads like this, I wish they were actually in that drawer).
• Blue cotton yarn to go with white for January baby blanket. (wicker basket, front hall closet)

Now this might seem like a little more work than you want to do, but believe me, in the long run, it will save you time -- and money since you won't have to buy replacements for those items you can't find when you need them.

The other alternative is to buy a warehouse filled with shelves holding clear containers or file cabinets with labels where we can literally see everything we have in our stashes. Heavenly.

This reminds me of the time when we were looking at houses years ago and were shown the home of a doctor who collected cars. He had built an eight car garage behind his house to house his collection, which made the asking price for the property prohibitive.

But when people asked who else could possibly need a garage like that, I remember thinking -- me. I know you would have felt the same way.