Tag: organization

What’s in my bucket?

Posted in GardenTagged , , , , , , 2 Comments

One lovely bonus of planting in a community garden is the need to haul stuff back and forth to the garden. Unlike a home garden, you can’t just keep your tools in the garage and pull them out as you need them.

Community garden tools

Granted, the garden does have a well-stocked tool shed with basically anything you might need. I use the community tools that don’t fit in my bucket like spades, rakes, etc. But for the smaller items, I bring my own either because of preference, availability, or (initially) because I didn’t want to walk to the other end of the garden, unlock the shed, re-lock it etc. for a trowel.

The garden bucket

I started with bags, backpacks, bins etc. but eventually got frustrated that I could never find the smaller things, and didn’t have any space for bigger things. Enter: the bucket organizer.

I got a small bucket at Home Depot, and an organizer on Amazon. I slipped the organizer on and here it is:

I really like it because it’s a good balance of little pockets to keep thing organized, and a nice larger internal space to dump other stuff that might need carrying (a water bottle, harvest, special tools, etc.)

What’s inside

Plant tags and markers. Always helpful if I want to flag something that’s just popping up, a seed I planted, a mysterious volunteer plant, etc. I’ve grown to prefer plastic because the wooden ones, although more durable, tend to rot and/or mold.
Ties. Zip ties for attaching trellises to poles/ supports etc., green rubber coated wire for tying plants up to trellises.
Tools. Trowel, clippers, little curved snippers for smaller plants, a utility knife, gloves, and a headlamp. Sometimes I go to the garden in twilight to avoid the heat of full sun and it comes in handy.
Lotions and potions. Bar antibacterial soap to wash my hands after a gardening session, other soaps to make bug drowning buckets etc.
Reusable bag, flour sack towels, etc.
Small containers
Things for getting harvested stuff safely home.
Power bank. I’m regularly going to the garden with a nearly dead phone or speaker. This is a power bank that works with the batteries for my power tools and it’s really nice to be able to take instead of waiting for things to charge.

Other stuff sometimes sneaks into the bucket, but these are my go-to tools. Occasionally I bring it into the house to clean the tools or reorganize / clean out any trash that snuck in. For the most part, it just lives in my car so I’m ready to garden at a moment’s notice.

Ep. 4: Simplify and Execute

Posted in MovingTagged , , , , 1 Comment

Are you excited?

I will be. Once all of this stuff gets done.

But they’re packing you up and moving you. How much can there be to do? You don’t even need to pack!

True. My agency provides movers who magically come to my home, wrap each item in packing paper, place them in boxes, and haul box after box out onto their truck. Preparing for this part of moving in itself is a little more complicated than just living in your apartment until they show up and make everything disappear. There is some prep involved, which is another story (blog post). Let’s just say you don’t want your plunger packed with your pantry items (lesson learned the first time I moved).

But there is so much more to packing up a life and moving it than packing up physical possessions. …and I’m just one person! I can’t imagine moving a whole family so quickly.

Eating an elephant one bite at a time -or- Simplify and Execute

I love an organizational challenge as much as the next nerd. Part of the masochistic joy of a crazy task like moving to Alaska is coming up with a system to get SO MUCH DONE, and then stand back and admire it once it’s all over.

My system this time relies heavily on Post-it notes, a sharpie, and lots of boxes.

The number of Post-it’s has increased since this photo was taken. Also I know my plant is dying, I threw it away this weekend because it can’t come with me anyway.

As I think of things I need to do before I move I write it on a Post-it, and stick it on the “to do” area of my bookshelf. Once I do it, I get to move it over to the “done” area on the back of my bedroom door. Even though this method lacks in prioritization, uniform granularity, color-coding, and other more advanced characteristics of a killer nerdy System, it has some great advantages:

  • It prevents overthinking, interrupting, and drowning. When something pops into my head starting with “oh yeah, I need to remember to ____ before I move”, I can write it on a Post-it, stick it on the wall, and move on.
  • It makes getting stuff done easy. When I have free time and I think “I have so much to do, I know I should be doing something, but what?” I can pick a Post-it or two, and move them over.
  • It makes patting myself on the back easy. I can write something on a Post-it, do it, and move it over to the victory wall, and stand and admire my progress just by looking at all of the happy bright colorful squares piling up.
  • It gets rid of Post-its. I have a lot. It’s one of the things I discovered during the pre-pack purge (again, a topic for a future post). Lets use those babies up!

Stay tuned for mini-posts about some of the stupid little Post-its.