5 Tips for Eco Dorm Room Living

I wrote this article back in college well over 10 years ago for The Daily Cougar, The University of Houston's on campus newspaper. When decluttering my office space recently I came across this article again and I thought I would share because I think all of these eco dorm room tips still stand true. I did tweak just a few things like the brands of certain items.


Living a green and sustainable life is something that a lot of people want to do, but do not know where to begin. College is costing students more money every year, and you think, “How could I possibly make green changes in my life without breaking the bank?” There are actually plenty of small things you can do whether you are living the dorm life or live off campus. Let’s start with a few simple inexpensive things you can do:

1. Use power strips for all your electronics. Besides saving a ton of energy, they will save you money in the long run on your electric bill. Just turn the power strips off when you are not home and this reduces the amount of vampire energy that you could be wasting. Also, power strips help protect your electronics in the case of a storm. You can pick these up at your local hardware, grocery and home goods store.
2. Buy Organic. Whether it is linens or food, organic is better for you and the environment. Organic materials have become less expensive throughout the years and are now very affordable. You can buy reasonable organic linens at Target and Bed, Bath and Beyond. For organic food, go to your local farmers markets. Farmers markets carry anything from fruits and vegetables to homemade crafts. You can find a list of farmers markets in the Houston area at: http://www.visithoustontexas.com.
3. Use eco cleaners. They do the same job as any other household cleaner just without all the extra harmful chemicals. There is a variety to choose from, Seventh Generation, Mrs. Meyer’s and Method are just a few of them. You can find these brands at places like Whole Foods, Kroger’s and Target.
4. Recycle. You can always recycle no matter where you are at. It is one of the easiest and most effective things you can do to help the environment. You can separate your recycling using boxes, small trashcans or any type of storage bins. You can recycle just about anything. For a list of recycling centers in Houston that recycle a variety of items go to: www.houstontx.gov. 
5. Buy used. There are many of great, used items that people are constantly getting rid of. You buy, sell or trade with others in order get what you are looking for and by leaving a smaller carbon footprint. You can use websites such as: www.houston.craigslist.com or www.freecycle.org (I think this is currently on hold due to COVID-19)

These are all things that you can do for $50 or less. No matter who you are or what you do, taking the smallest of steps to do your part for the environment helps more than you could ever imagine. You can not just become green overnight it is a process which takes time. Whether you do all the things on the list or just one, you are still making a world of difference for yourself and the environment.

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Photo by Gabriel Beaudry on Unsplash

Houston Professional Organizer // Garage Organization Before & After Declutter Before a Renovation

This is a garage organization project we did a while ago as well and we helped this client declutter and get organized before a renovation. They knew they would have to use their garage to store some items in so they wanted it to get into better shape before they started renovating. They had already had an Elfa garage organization system installed and a track system on the wall, which was extremely helpful. This project consisted of 2 organizers and the client.

Here is what we did:

• Declutter. The client got rid of ton of items that they no longer needed, trash, donations, etc.
• Sort. We sorted like items together. 
• Consolidate. We consolidated items in various categories that were in different areas of the garage to all be in the same area on the shelves. 
• Organize. We organized various categories together like holiday, sporting equipment. 
• Go vertical. We used the track system on the wall to use the vertical space and get things off the ground like lawn equipment. 

This not the end all be all garage organization product because it changed after the renovation. 

Here are some common items we use in garages to get them organized

• Metal shelves like this chrome metal shelving or this Gladiator shelving
• Track for yard tools
• Peg boards
• Sports organizer on wheels or a sports organizer that is stationary
• Crates

You can also shop other garage organization products on the Eco Modern Concierge Shop page.

BEFORE:

AFTER: 

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5 Things to Organize This Weekend

What will you be organizing this weekend? Here are 5 things you can organize:

1. Coat closet. Get rid of old coats, items that don't belong in there, trash, etc. 
2. Underwear drawer. It's time to have only underwear with no holes. 
3. Utensils. Go through and see what you have duplicates of and get rid of utensils you don't like.
4. Movies. Do you even watch the movies you have? Get rid of ones you don't like or no longer care to have. See if friends or neighbors may like them. If not, donate them.
5. Mail. Do you have piles of mail sitting around? Go through and only keep the important items. 

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Photo by Rhodi Lopez on Unsplash

Drawer Organizers: Everything Drawer Organizers

Being a professional organizer in Houston means that our main stop for organization items is The Container Store. Since we are constantly in the Container Store we are aware of new items that come in store, so I thought I would share some "newer" drawer organizers that we have used recently on projects, Container Store Everything Drawer Organizers. Drawer organizers are one of the most popular items that we use on projects because they are inexpensive and have a high impact on making a space flow and function more efficiently. These drawer organizers are a little thiner than some of the other drawer organizers we use and they have a grid pattern on the bottom of them. They also have more squared edges rather than rounded edges. We will still continue to use other drawer organizers as well because there are so many different options and various clients have various preferences.

Do you have a preference on drawer organizers you use?

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The Art of Letter Writing

I used to write letters ALL the time and somehow got out of the habit of doing it as much. I used to send birthday cards, thank you cards constantly, cards to clients thanking them, cards for Easter, Halloween, Christmas, etc. I still try to send thank you cards and Christmas cards. This year I said I was going to do it more, I then started to do and then weened off of it. During quarantine I decided send thank you letters to clients that I had meaning to since the beginning of the year. I love how appreciated everyone usually is and who doesn't love getting a letter in the mail?! When writing letters, especially thank you letters, here is what I like to do:

• I usually like to use personalized stationary
• I like to address the person and tell them thank you for "x" thing
• Tell them how much it means to me or how I have used or will use that gift
• Then I usually sign it "love", "thank you" a heart, etc. depending on who I am sending it to
• I use a wax seal or sticker seal usually
• I love vintage stamps and new stamps
• The return address label is usually an embosser or some kind of custom return address label

As you can see I take my letter writing usually seriously and I feel everyone is usually appreciative. 

• I like using wax similar to this and I have an initial seal similar to this
• I have custom Crane and Co stationary, but this is similar and if you are local to Houston I get my custom stationary at Berings
• These heart stamps are fun stamps out right now
• I like using an embosser similar to this

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2020 Goals Update

Well this year definitely took a turn like no one expected because of COVID, so I feel like a lot of these things have semi happened in different ways than I had imagined. Nonetheless, here are my updates so far in red.

Business Goals

Hire more people. In 2019 Eco Modern Concierge grew a lot and I am forever thankful and grateful for that. It has come time that we need to expand even more. I love what I do everyday and so very thankful for our referrals. I interviewed several people and had various projects in the works for them and then COVID hit in March and halted everything for 2 months. Then once we could start up again, not everyone was comfortable with everything and projects have been a bit smaller with some larger move projects, so it has definitely been odd.

Explore more opportunities with my certifications. I have several certifications and want to explore opportunities that come with certifications. Once again, because of COVID things have shifted in business and considerably slowed down in some areas, so there are not as many opportunities as there were. I am still going to explore them though. 

Work with more corporate clients. I love working with businesses and want to work more with corporate clients this year. Once again, I was potentially going to work with some new corporate clients, but because COVID hit more and more corporations are letting their employees work from home things are now different. I am still going to pursue it.

Write EMC processes. I have a ton of processes and the way I like things done behind the scenes, so this year I am determined to get everything organized and into flowing processes. Because of COVID and the more time I had, I was able to get a TON of this done. I still have a lot more processes to write, but I made a lot progress on this.

Say no more. I am a yes person and tend to over commit. As much as I want to help, when I over commit I tend to get really stressed out and don't perform as well as I would like. I will be saying no more often this year. I have been able to say no more because of COVID haha. That and the fact that most events have been cancelled and many places have shut down or you can't have large groups.

Personal Goals

Volunteer more. I hardly volunteered at all in 2019, so in 2020 I want to volunteer at least once a month. Because of COVID this has been greatly halted, so I have barely volunteered this year.

Organize my photos. The last couple of years I have not organized my photos like I have wanted to. Because of COVID and all the down time I had, I actually did this!!

Be more intentional with my time. I want to spend more time with my husband, family and friends and not working so much at home. Hence why I am looking to hire people to help me. COVID has given me a lot of time to reflect and feel I have made some progress, but still have lots of work to do in this area.

Send more cards. Some how got away from sending as many cards as I used to, so this year I want to send more cards. Still working on it.

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Client Baby on the Way: Closet Organization Before & After

I am still catching up on old organizing projects through the years. I started helping this client get organized several years ago. At the time of this closet organization project she was pregnant. On this project we used what the client already had to get organized. You don't always need to go out and buy a ton of items to get organized. 

Here is what we did:

• Sorted like items together.
• Color coded.
• Rearranged the shelf above the clothes.
• Switched hangers based on the hangers they had.
• You can't see it, but there is an elfa drawer system on the left where we kept her underwear, bras, workout clothes, etc. 
• There wasn't enough room for flip flops in the shoe cubbies, so we used a basket that you see to the left of the cubbies to put them in. 

BEFORE

AFTER

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Silver Linings During Quarantine / Stay at Home Orders

During the say at home orders and quarantining I could have quickly gone into a super negative deep, dark place, but chose to see the silver linings in many things even though there were many challenges along the way.

I was SUPER productive on the business and personal front. I really got a TON done. I made a master to do list of everything I needed to do and tried to check off at least 3 tasks a day. The larger to do tasks I broke down into smaller tasks or did part of it each day until I finished. This helped me tremendously without me feeling too overwhelmed.

I was happy that if I was going to get hacked it happened during quarantine. I of course DID NOT WANT TO GET HACKED, but it was out of my control. It happened. I was able to deal with it for 12 hours straight because we were in quarantine.

I got to read a ton. I was happy to finish some books I had been wanting to finish reading and starting new ones.

We saved SO much money. Not going out to restaurants, bars, stores, etc.we ended up saving a TON of money, which is an awesome benefit. We realized we needed to be more diligent in making this happen more often

Appreciate the small things. We take so much for granted on a daily basis and I really appreciated the small things like cooking dinner, spending time with my husband, playing games, etc.

Less stressed. Not driving in Houston traffic significantly reduced my stress level by a lot.

Got creative. I love to create and consider myself a somewhat creative person, but during quarantine we made signs for essential workers, colored, painted, made race cars, put together a wood catapult, put together Legos, etc. I love how peaceful being creative is.

Exercised almost daily in some capacity. We rode bikes and walked A LOT!! This was an amazing benefit of being in quarantine.

LOVED spending SO much time with my husband. We get to spend time with each other because of not working as much and being home a good chunk of the time was an amazing benefit. We got some house projects done, which was amazing.

I learned a TON of new things. I took a ton of webinars and online classes several times a week.
Watched movies I love and haven't seen in years. I watched tv a little, but not as much as I thought I would. I think because I was busy being productive in other areas.

Happiness. All of these combined was pure happiness because these can be very unhappy times.

Photo by Viktor Forgacs on Unsplash

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10 Things That Make Me Happy: June 2020

Here are 10 things that made me happy in June 2020:

1. Eco Modern Concierge finally receiving its Trademark!
2. Pool days
3. Organizing photos
4. Going to client's country houses. It is always so peaceful.
5. Chappell Hill Bakery. Love their kolaches and pastries.
6. Quick weekend getaway
7. Working really hard on a longtime project and it having a successful outcome.
8. Eating seafood on the water. I love seafood and we don't eat it often. 
9. Having a successful dermatologist appointment. It is important to get yearly skin checks. 
10. Slow days...

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Houston Professional Organizer // Lake Houston Garage Organization Before & After

We are officially in the middle of summer heat and I feel like everyone wants to organize their garage in the summer, here is a garage I organized this garage last year. This client lives on Lake Houston and needed a place to keep their tools, yard supplies, coolers, etc. We used what the client already had to organize their garage. 

Here are some common items we use in garages to get them organized

• Metal shelves like this chrome metal shelving or this Gladiator shelving
• Track for yard tools
• Peg boards
• Sports organizer on wheels or a sports organizer that is stationary
• Crates

Below are some of the before and after photos from this project. 

Before

After

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How to Efficiently & Productively Work from Home

I know you have probably seen so many posts and tips already about working from home, but this is something that I have had written for a couple years and thought I would go ahead and post it. As a productivity consultant there are a few tips that have helped my clients through the years.

Have a dedicated workspace. Whether this is a room or a corner have a space that is strictly dedicated to work and something you can walk away from at the end of the day.

Make sure your space is organized. When you have an organized space you are usually able to be more productive.

Make a list of everything you need to get done. You can keep a handwritten list if you are visual person, an electronic version or in list apps like Evernote.

Do the most difficult / important tasks first. When you get the most difficult tasks out of the way first, you feel less stressed and it makes getting your to-do list done much faster and easier.

Use the Pomodoro technique. It is where you set a timer and work on a task for 25 minutes straight and then take a break for 5-10 minutes.

Check email at designated times. That way you can focus on your email for a set amount of time.

Don't procrastinate and let home tasks distract you. Working from home can be difficult for some because you think about all the things that you need to get done in your own home.

Plan out each day. This way you know what you need to get done and stay on task.

Have set office hours. That way when you are done with work,  you are done.

Be active. If you are sitting all day and don't have far to walk to get a drink or food you will get minimal amount of exercise. Be sure to make it a point to take breaks and exercise at some point throughout the day.

Take breaks. It is necessary to take breaks in order to give yourself a mental break. Plus, it helps you with creativity and reduces stress.

Get dressed for work. Don't stay in your pajamas all day. Actually get dressed this can help you feel productive and makes you want to go to work. Plus, if you are on video calls you are ready.

Photo by Serpstat from Pexels

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Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!

Photo by Camylla Battani on Unsplash

Food Storage Organization Before & After

Organizing Tupperware and plastic or glass storage containers can be a real pain for many people. When we are working on projects we organizer food storage containers in so many different ways. Sometimes we break up the sets and other times we keep them together. This is a project from a long time ago, but they still have the product in stock. 

I wrote about food storage containers about 4 years and here were some of my tips, which I still stand behind:

• Get rid of some. Get rid of some that you no longer use. Usually there are ones that are gross, broken, too big, too small, etc. and you NEVER you use them, so now lose them. 

• Purchase like containers. I am personally picky about my storage containers and prefer glass. This makes it easy because many of the lids are interchangeable.  

• Nest containers. Stack containers inside of each other to save on space. 

• Store in bins. Store food containers and lids in bins to keep them all together. 

Here are several ways in which we organize food storage containers:

• Mesh Food Storage Organizer
• Linus Food Storage Organizer
• 4" Drawer Dividers
• 6" Drawer Dividers
• Multipurpose bins

How do you organize your food storage containers?

BEFORE

AFTER

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