Thread: How do you put the Organ in Organization?

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How do you keep all your plans/ideas organized?

I am normally quite an organized person but can't seem to find a system for my Halloween hoard that works for me.
I created a photo inventory of my large number of accumulated of items last year and tried keeping a sketch notbeook for ideas but it seems like I now have a million little sticky notes and scraps of paper with ideas hastily written down in addition to quite the computer file of inspirational photos with ideas I would like to attempt.

How do you keep your haunt organized?
I would love to hear how you put the organ in organized so its not just a big jumble of ideas. I feel like the better organized I am the more efficient I can be and get every penny's worth.

Thanks in advance.

Organized???? LOL...That's a good one.

I think the only way I could get organized, is to quit getting on the internet so that I don't get anymore ideas.

I've got photos of my stuff, binders full of ideas and a Halloween to-do list that I keep adding to, I just never go back and look at the pics, open the binders or read the to-do list before going off to work on stuff.

First, swear to God, I thought this thread was about a piano. But, for organization, Word documents to keep my to-do lists in check, and a very simple way of placing all of my other things(props, weapons, costumes, and masks) in a closet

Funny I'm with Nghtmare-Dude but i thought this thread was about how to organize your organs LOL

In a way I suppose it is about organizing your organs - I have lots of them for my Mad Lab

Love you comments Scatterbrains...and your name. Sounds like we are in the same boat.

Mine are just a jumbled mess as well...every once in a while I'll go through and rewrite or resketch just to keep things together, but even that's becoming a hassle....and I have so many pictures that may or may not give me ideas I don't dare print them all out for the rate of printers ink these days. Guess I should get myself a big binder and seperate everything with dividers....hmmmm...but then how to determine what goes where...lol

I have an orange 3 ring binder with 8 tabs: CURRENT YEAR (with all the ideas, sketches, recipes, etc). WHAT WORKED/DIDN'T WORK (by year so I don't forget - rent chairs, too many static props, get more bottled water, blew fuse at last minute, etc. This always comes in handy when planning because I forget). PAST (one snyopsis page of each year with theme, who came, food served, what was new, special props or hightlights - always nice to reminisce and not repeat ideas). THEMES (a whole list of theme ideas and then pages of any with ideas for each. I jot down the ideas so when the year comes to do it I am already ahead of the game.) RECIPES, GAMES, CRAFTS, and ADDRESSES (one handy place for mailing invitations) with the very best ideas written down, torn out of magazines or printed off the computer. PROPS is in another binder for my husband.

We do a weekend party - Friday dinner to Sunday breakfast so last year I started breaking it down and putting things in pocket file folders because I seem to not be able to focus on one thing at a time, (hmmmm...) - FOOD, FRIDAY NIGHT ACTIVITIES, SATURDAY AFTERNOON, SUNDAY MORNING, KIDS GAMES.

We work on Halloween year round it seems so it's easy to grab one binder on a road trip or when inspiration hits otherwise I would tear the house or car apart looking for that scrap of paper with my ideas.

Thats exactly the kind of thing I am after Deerkist - thanks for the organization ideas, I really need to have a grab and go binder. I had been trying to organize by inside/outside then lighting, props etc. It started getting too confusing. Like how you broke it out.

Sadly, I can't access my wonderfully organized Halloween picture folder on my old computer (hopefully one day )... But with that I had folders divided up into categories such as:

Outdoor Decor
Indoor Decor
Party Ideas
Invitations
Recipes/Food ideas
Crafts
Autumn
Pumpkins
Costumes
Atmosphere (pretty Autumn/Halloween pictures I look at to lift my spirits!)
Theme Parks (Halloween decor and the like from Disney, Universal, etc.)
Miscellaneous
Art

... etc.

My Bookmarks folder on my browser has a Halloween folder with similar sub-categories. I also have folders for haunted attractions that are divided up by location so that I know which are near each other and can go to multiple ones in one trip I have a keepsake box of random knick-knacks that I pick up during the Halloween season (haunt flyers, ticket stubs...) Magazine clippings are all stored in a Halloween pocket in an accordion file I have with other clippings, so it's not purely Halloween.

My actual decor is divided up a little different. Many boxes are divided up into the decor I use together, such as:

Vintage Halloween
Ghosts/white decor
Skeletons/Skulls/Bones
Body Parts
Lighting
Fabric (includes cheesecloth)
Party Supplies
Kitchen Items (cake pans, molds, seasonal towels, etc.)

I use a label maker to put generic names on each box so that I know, in general, what's inside. It would be too much trouble to do everything individually. All of my pumpkins and blowmolds just sit on top of it all, because they just won't fit in a box and I don't want to throw them in a bag. It's just pretty seeing them all sitting in the attic, anyway.

organize?

ummm

halloween stuff is in orange or black bins. or bags if bulky and wont fit in a bin

xmas stuff is in red or green bins


thats all i got... sorry LOL