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Home Survival Skills: Make an Emergency Kit

by Jessica Yonker August 14, 2012 5 Comments

Last week we talked corded phones for their usefulness during power outages (and their general, overall cuteness). You all brought up great ideas for what you should keep stashed in case of emergencies, like Sharon, who keeps a battery-powered weather radio or Holly, who keeps everything from water to flashlights to full meals.

Courtesy of Emergency Supplies Blog

No matter how safe you may feel in your neighborhood, you can never predict when disaster will strike. It’s vital to have both an emergency kit and a plan, and to be sure you and all your family members — even children — know how to use the items in the kit and understand your family’s disaster plan.

What you keep in that kit may differ a little depending on your family’s specific needs — like extra medications or supplies for common weather emergencies in your area — but here are several items the most basic emergency kit should have:

Bottled water
At least 3 days worth of food
First-aid kit
Glowsticks AND Flashlights (don’t forget batteries!)
Blankets
Battery-powered radio
Emergency contact info
Copies of important documents
Change of clothes
Extra set of car and house keys
Spare set of contacts/glasses (I would be doomed without mine)
Paper and pen

Make sure to store your kit in a safe place where it won’t get damaged, but that it’s not so out-of-sight that you can actually get to it if there is a real emergency. A good idea is to establish an escape route, then put your supplies somewhere along that path. It also never hurts to keep a separate stock of supplies in your vehicle. Remember, when it comes to you and your family, you’re always better off safe than sorry!

For more advice on emergency-preparedness see: Preparing a Disaster Plan

And for more on surviving homeownership:

Lazy Homeowners Rejoice! Home Maintenance Made Easy

House Diaries: Best Tips So Far (From You!)

House Diaries: Making Lists + Getting Inspired

Home Office: So I’m Organized…Now What?

by Kelley Walters May 18, 2012 1 Comment

My final coaching with Julie Morgenstern started by looking back at my home office reorg and finished by looking forward to what comes next.

Raggedy Ann lunchbox on bookshelves in a home office

One of my treasures: my elementary-school lunch box

Organizing My Home Office: Sorting Through the Clutter

by Kelley Walters April 20, 2012 9 Comments

Julie Morgenstern, author of SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life: A Four-Step Guide to Getting Unstuck is helping me organize my embarrassingly disorganized home office.

SHED is Julie’s process for helping people through transitions, so they can tame the chaos and make their unique contribution.

The four steps are: Separate the Treasures, Heave, Embrace Your Identity From Within and Drive Yourself Forward. In my first coaching, we focused on Separating the Treasures and Heaving.

Julie and I looked at my photos of the room. Um…super-embarrassing. I mean, look at this place!

Wow, does this home office need some organizing help!

Yes, that hat-shaped thing is a beaded lampshade. On the floor.

Will Getting Organized Change My Life?

by Kelley Walters April 13, 2012 10 Comments

Last December, I was interviewing organizing experts for an upcoming article. One of them was Julie Morgenstern. You’ve probably seen her here on HGTV.com, or other places like Redbook or Good Morning America.

“Why do people have so much clutter?” I asked.

“Going through stuff requires time and decision-making,” Julie said. Most people don’t have a clear head or a clear schedule, and they hang onto clutter because they need abundance. Or it gives them a feeling of fullness, of having enough.

Some people feel comfortable when their home is 60% full; some people feel better at 20%. There’s not a universally perfect amount of stuff — the key is, if you feel like you’re suffocating, you have too much.

That hit hard, because I was suffocating in stuff. I’d recently gone through a divorce and had one of those shameful rooms. You know the one: boxes leaning in precarious floor-to-ceiling stacks; bags of unsorted bills; piles of old clothes; cat brushes, jars of seashells, even 20-year-old floppy disks….

I swear my desk is under there somewhere!

I asked Julie if I could use her book, SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life: A Four-Step Guide to Getting Unstuck, as a template for a reorganizing process, and tackle that room. She said she’d do me one better: she’d coach me through it.

Yeah, I jumped on it.

Starting next Friday, I hope you’ll go with me on the journey as — in 3 coachings — Julie helps me purge that room by targeting why I let that much clutter pile up in the first place.

Until then, here’s a clue: You clear out the obsolete so you can make room to move forward. When I say it’s fueling and energizing…well…you’ll see.