blog submitted by Kendra Fletcher, NAPO South Florida Chapter

I had the pleasure of going to a wonderful organization called the Jewish Adoption and Family Care Options (JAFCO) earlier this month. They offer housing, counseling, adoption, and support services for abused and neglected children in our community. This was a volunteer project for our South Florida Chapter of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals (NAPO).

There were 10 of us that met there to spend the day helping them re-organizing their respite home which is a 6 bedroom home with a kitchen and living area for children. The 3-person team I worked with primarily focused on the kitchen.

Starting with the pantry, we went through all of the food to find anything that was expired or stale to throw away. Then we grouped like items together so that it would be more organized and easier for the residents to maintain. Each shelf had labels so that it was clear where everything was meant to be stored. Some of the labels were snacks, breakfast items, fruit cups, baking, canned goods, dry goods, and spices.

We also had a number of drawers and shelves to re-organize. On this shelf, we reorganized is so that all the disposable paper products would be in once central location. This way, the residents could easily find the paper plates, bowls, napkins and plastic utensils. The drawers with the utensils and serving spoons were overflowing. We went through these drawers and reorganized everything, got rid of duplicates, and restructured it so it would be easy to see where everything is located.

And lastly, there was the toy area! At the respite home, there were toys in many of the bedrooms and they were spread out in various locations. The director wanted a centralized toy area so that everything would be in the same location. And here it is! It was such a pleasure to work with this talented group of professional organizers and to make a difference in people’s lives by giving them a comfortable and pleasant space to be in.