Get organised!

Isn’t August a weird month? I’m never sure what the weather is going to be like, so I’m not really sure what to wear – summer dresses or the new season stuff … or both? Whatever, the truth is that this is probably the best time of year to get organised and make the transition between seasons as hassle free as possible.

Look at the benefits:

1. Organising your wardrobe – Sooo much quicker and easier to get dressed in the morning! Especially if sight loss makes this process difficult. Having the right tools and getting organised can speed things up no end. Don’t shop for anything new until you have organised what you have.

2. Organising your make-up – throwing out old products and investing in fresh new colours can brighten you up for the season.  It may even be time to try out some new make-up brands? Don’t be tempted to stick to the old faithfuls just because you are too scared to try out something new.  Take a friend, carer or family member with you and go experiment! – Oh and make good use of the woman behind the counter too.

3. Organising your routines – Starting fitness and diet plans, as well as looking at ways that you can be more efficient can have you doing more…in less time and reaping the benefits. After all, you don’t have to wait until the New Year to get started, by winter you could be well on track to reaching your goals.

I know this may all seem a little anal – but I prefer to see it as being efficient. I went along to visit Action for Blind People’s Resource centre at the RNIB offices in Judd St, just to see if there was anything there that could make getting organised a bit easier.  It was then that I came across the PenFriend. The PenFriend is an audio labeller which allows you to label food items, music collections, medicine packaging, household paperwork etc…and most importantly your clothing!

You get 127 self-adhesive labels included in your starter pack and it is really easy to then record and listen to your voice label – just record, stick and then scan when you need to.  As its audio, you can record anything you like, including washing and care instructions, colour and pattern details, information about other items of clothing and accessories the item goes well with – love love love! *gush*

The PenFriend labels are not washable, so I would put the labels on the hangers and always keep those items on the same hangers if you can, alternatively you can pin the labels on, so that they can be easily removed.

RNIB say “Braille, Moon and audio labels can be attached to clothes pegs clipped to items of clothing; or add labels directly to coat hangers, or to pieces of card with a hole punched into them which are threaded onto the hook of a coat hanger. If a label is attached to a piece of card or paper, a safety pin can be used to attach the label to the item of clothing.”

…Ever used the Penfriend to label clothing? Do you have any suggestions on how to use the labels or PenFriend itself, or any other tips on how to organise your wardrobe?

For more info on the PenFriend, go to: http://bit.ly/o3us2C