This week, we are talking about why it’s important to take inventory of your belongings and providing tips to make the process as easy and enjoyable as possible. Tune in to learn how to make the most of this crucial part of your organizing journey. Plus, don't forget to mark your calendar for the upcoming free workshop on creating actionable tasks that take 25 minutes or less to complete.
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In this episode we talk about:
- Examples of digital inventory tools for collectors
- Making inventory enjoyable and beneficial
- Simplifying the inventory process
- The benefits of taking inventory
Mentioned in this Episode:
Episode 14: Step 2: Sorting: Strategies for Sorting Your Things
https://theorganizedflamingo.com/14-step-2-sorting-strategies-for-sorting-your-things
Episode 36: Organizing Your Books Beyond Dewey and Color Coding
https://theorganizedflamingo.com/36-organizing-your-books-beyond-dewey-and-color-coding
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The Organized & Productive podcast is brought to you by The Organized Flamingo and hosted by Stephanie Y. Deininger! For those of you who love the thought of organizing & being more productive, but don’t know where to start or constantly up against hurdles that don’t let you advance the way you want to, this podcast is for you!
Review full show notes and resources at https://theorganizedflamingo.com/podcast
Join our weekly email newsletter for all-things organizing & productivity delivered right to your inbox
https://theorganizedflamingo.com/quicklinks
Review the Transcript:
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:00:00]:
Hey there, and welcome to a new episode of the Organized and Productive podcast. I'm Stephanie, your host. This week, we are talking about a topic that many of you really shy away from and or you think is not part of the organized journey, and that is inventory. We oftentimes think of inventory as a business term. We think of it as, a term maybe even for data, like digital data, not actual physical items. So we shy away from it and sometimes even shudder at the at the thought of having to inventory things. It just feels like a lot of work. So because I know that many of you don't love it, I am here to make it as easy as possible because it needs to be part of your organizing journey in some way, shape, or form.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:00:50]:
It doesn't have to be super complicated. We don't have to do spreadsheets that are, you know, excel type of beautiful spreadsheets here. This is just more about taking note that taking inventory of your stuff is going to be very important, and it will set you up for success in your organizing journey, especially if you have inherited a lot of items that are not yours, and that you have no idea what's in in there, you know, in the storage facility and the boxes. Taking inventory is going to be pretty needed at some point in your journey. So let's make this as easy as possible. Let's talk about it. I'm going to give you some quick and easy and fun tips for you to use in your everyday organizing journey. So let's go.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:01:36]:
Welcome to the Organized and Productive podcast with the Organized Flamingo. I am your host, Stephanie, a professional organizer and productivity expert. Ready to explore the right organizing and productivity solutions for you? Yeah? Well, then let's
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:01:52]:
go. Okay. So be honest with me and yourself. Why is it that you don't love the idea of taking inventory of your stuff? Here, I'll give you a couple of responses when I asked this question of my clients and a recent small survey that I did with, some of our community members. So here's 2 2 of the answers. 1 of them said, I don't like taking inventory because it feels like it's added work. It's the type of work that I do, and I don't see the benefits from it. So that was one response.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:02:27]:
And then the other response was, I don't do it because every time I start, something changes, and it feels like I'm always having to update this spreadsheet, and I see no point to it. Now let's reflect over your response. Did your response have any of the following words? Work, overwhelming, no point, or anything similar to that. If it did, then I'm going to encourage you to not think about it as work because it's not. Inventory is just a word, and it is a word to describe the way that we make sense of data. More specifically, it's inventory that inventory is a detailed list of items that you own. It helps you keep track of what you have, where it is, and any important details about each item. When you create an inventory, you can easily see what you have on hand, avoid losing things, and you manage your belongings more efficiently.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:03:34]:
Right? Like, that is kind of the definition of inventory. But as you you can see, nowhere in that definition does it say work, business, boring, you have to. Nowhere in there. So this episode is all about making your efforts in creating an inventory worth it and as enjoyable as possible. Because when you have an inventory of your stuff, especially if you've inherited things that did not belong to you, you have a better understanding of what you have. You can quickly access it, and you can make better decisions in the long run when you're ready to either let go of something, you need to keep it, you need to restock or rebuy, and it just makes the whole process a little bit more fun. Now I get that putting the effort into making the inventory can be boring. It's not for everybody, but that is where we can have different ideas on how you get there, especially in in today's age with technology changing so much.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:04:36]:
This is where artificial intelligence or, you know, just technology as a whole can be our friends. So don't shy away from that. But you can also hire someone to do it. Okay? So it doesn't have to be that you have to do all the work. Now these episodes in this whole podcast is meant for for you to take do all these tasks on your own as much as possible and or have the tools to delegate it to someone else, but it's based on the DIY mentality. So, if you are going to outsource it, I love it, I'm here for it, but just know that the episode itself is kind of meant for you to you to listen to it and for you to make decisions and then and then delegate them. Right? So, like, it's still kind of a DIY even if you don't actually do the work yourself. But most of the tips, as you will listen, will be for the person who is creating their own inventory and probably through a spreadsheet.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:05:34]:
Okay. So let's talk about what what is a spreadsheet as well because we talked about what is inventory exactly, and the inventory doesn't really happen without a spreadsheet of some sort. But I also feel like spreadsheets have gotten this bad bad reputation, that it is this Excel, Google Works Sheet, this mathematician, economist, business tool. And, yes, they primarily use it because it is a ledger. It is a tool that is used to make sense of data and to organize the data. Way back when, it used to be more for accountants. Right? It was like the paper and pen ledger type spreadsheet, and when technology advanced, it became a way for us to insert input data and make sense of that data, and then that is a spreadsheet. And even though we think about it for just business, I'm here to tell you that it is a spreadsheet can be used by anyone in an everyday basis, and I would encourage you encourage it highly.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:06:39]:
Some people will say that a checklist is a form of a spreadsheet, and it can be in some ways, but this is where, you know, we call it tomato tomato. Sure. Of course, a checklist could be in a spreadsheet, but they they could be exclusive as well. So it could be 2 different things. If you are more of a checklist person, yay. But when it comes to inventory, we're not trying to check off anything. We are trying to make sense of the data of of the stuff that you have and make and make something out of it, organize it. And so that's really why it kind of differs from a checklist.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:07:16]:
Right? And we're trying to make sense of the stuff that you have, trying to make informative decisions, mindful decisions over your stuff so that you can continue in your organizing journey and not get stuck into the clutter. So that is really why we are talking about spreadsheets and inventory and how these tools can help you with the stuff and and continue forward. Alright. So, there are 2 other podcast episodes I will put in the show notes. 1 is episode 14, and it's all about sorting. So we talk about sorting and strategies for sorting your things on that episode. So I'm not going to address the sorting, like, how to put things into categories so much in this episode because we've already done that episode. And episode 36, we talked about organizing your books beyond Dewey the Dewey and color coding systems.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:08:08]:
So we talk a lot about categories and subcategories and ideas on how you can organize your stuff and your books on both of those episodes. So I won't talk about that too much here, but I I did want to acknowledge that sorting and learning and and knowing some tools and tricks of sorting are going to be very, very beneficial in your organizing journey as much as taking inventory because you have eventually, the spreadsheet will make sense of that information for you, but you still should know what to ask of the spreadsheet. What are you trying to achieve in inventory and all this stuff? Tip number 1 is having a very clear goal as to why you are trying to inventory. Why are you even trying to take inventory of your stuff? And do you need to? Because this is going to give you some answers as to how and what you need when you are taking inventory. One of the biggest mistakes that I see people make is they either inherit a lot of stuff or they have not seen, you know, the maybe they've opened this space. Like, let's say your your kitchen pantry, you opened a space, and you haven't been in there in the cupboards for a while, and you're trying to go to the grocery store, see what you need, what you don't need. Maybe you're doing your every year purging of things that have expired. You don't know you know, you're not using and things like that in your pantry.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:09:30]:
And what I see people do is they take everything out of the pantries with no goal with 0 goal. And then they are trying to take note of what they have, what, you know, what they need to go get at the grocery store with zero purpose and or 0 goal and immediately get overwhelmed because you just took everything out and you don't even have a sense of what you are putting back in and why you're even putting it back. Are you try you know, should you donate some of it? Do you need to throw it away? Without a goal, it makes organizing really, really difficult and this includes taking inventory of your stuff, but it is needed. So tip number 1 is have a very clear goal before you start. You even open the doors, even open the gar you know, the garage, the storage facility, the home of the person that, you know, you're trying to help inventory. So that is my number one tip. Some of the goals, example of goals I'll give you are, for instance, if you did inherit quite a you know, maybe, your mom, you know, your parents are passing by your house, you know, every time they come for Sunday dinner, they bring over a new bin of the stuff that you left behind at their your childhood room. So every time you get one bin of your old report cards, of your old pictures, of mementos, of your old clothes, so it starts to accumulate.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:10:55]:
Right? Or maybe it's stuff they they want to pass down to you, and so they're starting to tell you, hey. This stuff I saved for you. Do you want it? Do you not? And you say yes, but you don't even know what you have. So the goal so that one of those goals can be, okay. I just wanna know what it is it what's in this box? I haven't seen this box in ages since I graduated high school. I don't even know what is in here. My purpose of this inventory is to know what it is that I have or what it is that I just acquired. So that's one example.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:11:28]:
Another example is the kitchen pantry example is I am starting a new regimen of some sort. Maybe you're training for something. You're on a new health journey, whatever that may be. And so by taking inventory, I want to know what I have so that I can make decisions based off of what I already have. I can send this to my doctor, to my physician, to my nutritionist, whatever, you know, my friend who's helping me through this, whatever it may be, like, that is a goal. Another example, I'll give you one more, is if you are organizing paper, if you are trying to figure out, you know, how to make, how to make sense of all the paper that you have in your office, maybe you have not opened, some of those doors in a long time. You just wanna take inventory over what kind of documents you have, what is it that that I even have so that I know what to keep because I need to make, decisions for maybe my lawyer, maybe my financial strategist. They need to know you know, they gave me a checklist of information that they need and so I need to know what I have.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:12:31]:
So it's that type of why is it that you opened the drawer and what is the goal of taking inventory. So that's tip number 1. By the way, another way to ask yourself the tip number 1 like the goal, Some people just like to say in more simple terms, why am I even bothering? That's another way of yours of you asking yourself what is the goal of this. Okay? So sometimes it helps to just reword some of these questions, but basically, why are you bothering? Are you bothering because you need documentation for a certain project, for insurance, for sharing? Maybe you now need to, you know, share it with different friends and or family so that they know what you have. So that is another way of having a goal is to ask yourself, why am I bothering to do this? Okay. So let's go to the our tip number 2, like I mentioned. So the second is ask yourself, where are you in the technical, aspect of life here? Meaning, am I tech savvy or am I not? Where are you in this scale? Because in today's age, most tools that help you to take inventory are digital, but there's different levels of digital. There are very simple.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:13:46]:
There's advanced. There's somewhere in the middle. So I want you to be honest with yourself, not what am I not what am I going to learn. It is where are you right now? If I were to take action right now, where am I in my technical in my tech savviness? Because if you start asking saying, you know, I found this great tool, but I'm not tech savvy, and now you're on a mission to go learn it, that is a way that's an incredibly different path. And now we've diverted, and now there's overwhelm and burnout, and we don't want that. Okay? So come back to me and and ask yourself, be honest with yourself about where you are in your tech savviness because that will determine what type of tool you get. And when you write that down and you start researching the different tools that are out there, then you will be able to make, informative decisions and and delete or, you know, remove the options that are way too tech and technologically advanced. You will remove those from your parameters and focus on the things that you will actually use.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:14:53]:
I'll give you some examples. Some of the simple simple tools that, exist out there for you to take inventory are spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are going to be probably the easiest simply because they are so readily available like Excel, Google Sheets. They're free. Most of them are very you know, you can get a free version of them in some way, shape, or form, and all you have to do is open the account and then type. And then most of those are available on your phone now. So if you don't have a computer, you just don't really want to have to deal with the whole computer side of it. You can just use your phone.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:15:30]:
So another, really easy one is now on Apple. Both Apple and Android have their own, like, note taking apps, and those have spreadsheets. So, I mean, those are super basic, and all you have to do is open it and then type as you go along. And so that's that's an example of a very simple tech savvy tool for you to inventory. Now if you're going for a middle middle of the road, whether it's because you you might be tech savvy, but you don't want to pay for another, like, another app, another platform or software or anything like that, then the middle of the road is the same Excel, Google Sheets, and all those, but you will then go in, you know, actually take pictures or or get a little bit more digital with it. So I'll give you an example. So all of the ones that I just mentioned, which is like Excel, Google Sheets, and either the app Apple or Android versions, most of them will let you take pictures and put them in the cells. So that's what I but but this is where you start to get into the middle ground.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:16:36]:
Right? Because it takes more room and more, it takes up more data in your devices. So you will need you might need an external hard drive. If you start taking pictures and putting too much information in the spreadsheet, you start having to deal with, do I know how to do it? Can I export the picture? How can I make this bigger? Oh, it's too big. When it prints, it's, you know, it's off base with the whole spreadsheet. So I don't want you to get to this next level unless you're very comfortable with technology. But it's also not advanced because luckily, in today's age, these tools are very reasonably priced, probably free, and you can share them. And it's really easy, but it's also, you know, it's that next level. Okay.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:17:21]:
So then if another example of using tools, digital tools and being honest with yourself, if it is if you are are advanced, you are in an advanced point of your inventory journey that and or you have so much stuff that you need a robust platform. I'm gonna name a couple on this podcast knowing that these might change, you know, technology changes. Okay? So I wanna make sure that you know that when I say these, I'm not endorsed by them at this time, but these are some examples that I would want you to take a a look at, and those are, Sortly, NestEgg, and Artifacts. And Artifacts is r t I f c t s. Those are some, platforms or such as those that devote their entire platform to taking inventory of your stuff. And, some of these you can even share with your family, other friends, maybe, your parents and your family, and your kids all are starting to take inventory of something. This is very predominant in collectors. Like, if you have family members that collect certain things, you can all start to take pictures and take notes and share them with your family.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:18:35]:
But all of these platforms now come with a premium price, you know, you have to pay for for it in some way, shape, or form. And the reason I put them in the advanced tab section of our conversation is because I want you to do backups. You know, at the end of the day, these are all companies that promise you the moon, and most of them do have a way for you to recoup and and get all your information if something were to happen. But, you know, if they go out of business or through servers or whatever, something may happen. I just want you to know how to do a backup and or how to remove your information from these platforms in the event that you no longer want to use them and then export them to whatever it is that you are using. So that is why I put them in the advanced part, but they're amazing and they're phenomenal. And I'm I actually work I have worked with all of these applications before, softwares, platforms, and I love them. But, you know, it just it it costs a little bit more and you do have to be a little bit more tech savvy.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:19:38]:
All of these, you can also hire someone like a professional organizer or an assistant to do it for you. Just make sure that they are they they do this for a living. Right? Because if they don't, then it might take them way longer, also known as will cost you more because there's a learning curve to be had, and not everybody loves data entry, which is essentially what you're doing when you're doing inventory. You're entering all the data and whether it's by picture or or however the data is being inserted. Not everybody loves to do that, and it could be very overwhelming for some people. So I just want you to make sure that whoever you do hire to do this understands it's a project and that they like to do it and that they have the knowledge on how to do it the most efficient way possible so that you're not stuck with this really big bill that does nothing for you. For our last tip on making inventory in your stuff as easy as possible for you is combining the first two tips and then adding to the last. So that we talked about having a very clear goal, and we talked about being honest with yourself as to where you are in your tech savviness.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:20:45]:
Because for the 3rd, it's it's about filling in the blanks. So now we're filling in the actual inventory, and this is where it can be very cumbersome. This is the overwhelming part that we all talked about. But when you know what your goal is and when you know where you are in your tech savviness, then that is the data that then you will collect. What I mean by that is, at the most basic, you will write the description of the item and or so that's one column, and then the second column is the maybe the name of the item. So let's say it's a sewing machine. So let's say your grandmother's sewing machine you got inherited. Right? So then you will put the description.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:21:21]:
So it's a sewing machine, 1 column. 2nd column is of it as much as you want to be. You can even dictate it to it. You can do a voice to text type of description. Then the third, you will do, if you know what the just put value like an estimated value. You can even say you don't even have to put in numbers like, I think it's worth a $1,000,000. You can just say expensive, not expensive, not sure. Use very general terms And then the size.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:21:52]:
So those are the 4 descriptions, fill in the blanks, at the very minimum that I would have you do. And as you can see, super easy because you don't have to get you can be specific if you want to be. If you are at a place where you have the time and the effort to be specific, you go, you are amazing. But if you don't, you're just as amazing. You are just being honest with yourself, and that's what is the most important part of this conversation. But at least put a description, the name or what type of item it is, the estimated value, but it doesn't have to be in numerical or financial value just so that you know if this is something that you know for a fact was a collectible, so it's expensive, it's not. Kind of give your give some kind of description there, and then the size. And from there and then just kind of and then to go throughout the room or the box or the space and just have at it.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:22:44]:
This includes paper stuff. Okay? Because when you're taking inventory of your paper, what's that what that's going to do is help you you understand, you know, is is this something that you're trying to save because it's a relic? Like, it's an old type of paper. It's the same thing. I mean, you're gonna go through this exercise with no matter what type of item it is. When it comes to, like, paper, when you talk about size, you can just do letter. Legal in the US is like in the US here, we use those dimensions and all over the world, they're used a little different. If you are are an artist and you have a lot of paper that's, you know, the different types of paper, I work with quite a few artists that have canvases versus, whether or photographers with glossy paper versus matte paper, you know. So you can be we use whatever categories you want at this point.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:23:31]:
That is why we have the episode on sorting and categories that I put in the show notes. So listen to that if you need ideas on what type of categories you need. But we go back to our very first tip and that is having a goal. Because if your goal is that you want to share what you have with your family, let's say, with your siblings. Right? They all wanna know what is it that mom, had in that storage room. And if you're trying to take inventory of all that stuff so that you can share it with them, that is your goal. Like, my goal is to make sure that this list everybody knows what's in here so we can make plans for it. So then for you, it's going to be important for you to note, okay, well, what size is it? Can I ship it? You know, if this is a really large item, some people may not even be able to fit it in their space.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:24:24]:
They may not want it. And then when, of course, with the description and then and what it is, that tells somebody what it is. But for instance, if you're trying to take inventory so that you can get a quote from a shredder for your paper and you're just trying to see, okay, like, these are the type of documents that I have, then when you're calling the shredding company, they will need to know, is this information that has sensitive credit card numbers, financial information? Yes. No. Do you have quite a bit of things that have, staples and, you know, paper clips? Will we need to remove that? That is a different price point. They will want to know what kind of information they're dealing with. So as you can see, having a goal is going to be very important, and it will allow you to make the inventory part as easy as possible so that you don't get stuck in the minutiae in trying to get so detailed in your inventory that you overwhelm yourself. And now you're trying to be the next economist and trying to make sense of data that you don't even need.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:25:30]:
And then later, if you do need the data, you can then go back and re, you know, and add an extra column and add information that you need. This is really it's especially important when it comes to, when you're trying to get insured over things. You know, sometimes insurance companies will want to have a different description, so they'll ask you, can you, you know, fill out this or maybe for your legal team. So if they ask for it, great, but don't go and volunteer your work and yourself to create more work for yourself than it needs to. So just make sure that you have a very clear goal in mind. Be honest with yourself about what tech where you are in the tech scale, and then from there, start working in, detailing or adding whatever data you need in your inventory. Okay? Alright. So that's it for today's episode.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:26:23]:
I hope you enjoyed it. Let us know if you are working on taking inventory of your stuff, tag us or let me know. We'd love to encourage you. Also, don't forget on August 21st, we have our next free workshop. This next workshop is all about creating a personalized list of tasks that could take you 25 minutes or less to complete. So we're talking all about what is it that you can achieve in 25 minutes or less? What's realistic? We're we'll create an actionable task list so that you can be honest with yourself and actually complete these tasks. And, you're not feeling like every time you have these really big plans and can't seem to complete it. So we're going to talk about tasks that take 25 minutes or less.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:27:09]:
Until next time, happy organizing.
Stephanie Y. Deininger [00:27:12]:
Thank you for listening to the organized and productive podcast with the Organized Flamingo. If you enjoyed today's episode, I would love it if you'd leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast player. It helps with letting people know that we're here. For full show notes and resources, head on over to the organized flamingo.com/podcast. Happy organizing.
