GO Month Project

NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers) sponsors Get Organized (GO) Month every January. Now in its fifth year, GO Month is dedicated to raising awareness of the benefits of getting organized and of hiring a NAPO professional organizer.

This month, here in Kansas City, a group of local professional organizers worked on a GO Month project together. We organized the kitchens and laundry room of The Kansas City Hospice House. The Kansas City Hospice House provides medical and nursing care for patients facing advanced illnesses, as well as emotional and spiritual support for patients and their families, all in the comfort of a beautiful, homelike environment.

The facility and people are warm and welcoming. Calm and peaceful feelings put their arms around you as you enter. It doesn't look unorganized. I was wondering what we were going to do. So this is what we did...

Whenever you have multiple people using an area it tends to get unorganized. People are not sure where to put things away, things get left behind, food expires but doesn't get thrown away, etc.

Myself and Ty, a fellow PO (Professional Organizer), took one of the kitchens. We started by cleaning out everything - sorting as we took things out. Below is a picture of all the extra dishes, Tupperware, trays and vases that we removed from the cabinets. None of these were getting used. They were stuck in the cabinets because they had most likely been left behind. Knowing that this would continue, we chose a shelf for Tupperware and dishes, labeled it and made a plan for the volunteer to clean out this shelf once a month. They will either donate these items or have a mini "garage sale" and use the money for things needed in the house.

Then, as we looked at what happens in the kitchen we placed things that were needed in close range. For example, coffee is served all day. Coffee condiments all are in one drawer right under the coffee pots with the refills for them in the cabinets below. We labeled the drawers in the front and on the top rim so that you could see them from both angles. Now, the volunteer assigned to this kitchen will know exactly where things go and where supplies needed to restock are located.

We continued in this manner until everything was labeled and had a home. Then we drew up a diagram of the kitchen and its contents. One of the lead organizers, Linda, had done a lot of the prep work and would be finishing the completed diagrams for each kitchen. We would place a "map" in each room so that visitors, volunteers and the staff all know where things belong.

Not a lot of hard core work but it needed to be done and it was a joy to work with wonderful people accomplishing a task. Hopefully with the maps of each room and the idea that a volunteer would be assigned to the specific upkeep of an area things will be maintained!