Organizing a Renovation Project

After 12 years in our home, we finally had our main bathroom renovated. While we made a few improvements to the space when we moved in (good-bye lighthouse wallpaper border!), our 80s era bathroom was falling apart. It was a big, stressful project that felt completely overwhelming at times. Here’s what I did to try to stay organized:

• I took before/after photos, and photos of the project in progress. Seeing the “before” photos reminded me how much progress had been made, even if it didn’t feel like much had changed.

• The contractors gave us a project binder with all the key paperwork. As I collected furniture and fixture flyers, paint chips and swatches, I added those too.

• I also kept a smaller plastic bin for tile samples, catalogs, and other items related to the project that wouldn’t fit in a binder. This was a temporary holding places, as most of the items weren’t needed once the project was complete.

• My husband set up a shared folder on google. Our expense spreadsheet went there. We also uploaded any photos we took of fixtures at bath stores to the folder.

Organized Travel Apps

This summer my family went on a spectacular cruise to Alaska! For this trip we were downloading several different apps to our smartphones.

My husband had the smart idea to organize them all into a single folder on his iPhone. He included our airline, rental car company, Airbnb, and a special app just for use on the Disney cruise, among others.

Having the key apps in one folder on the front page of his phone made it so easy to find what we needed right away.

While I still recommend bringing printed copies of your travel confirmations and information, having hotel, air, and car company apps on your phone can be a lifesaver in case of travel delays or cancellations.