European Organization

It is absolutely amazing to me the foresight civilizations had even 2000 years ago.  We tend to pride ourselves today with our efforts & gadgets to keep organized.  We even have huge stores & endless online shopping options to satisfy our every whim & style in that vain.

And yet, the Romans are still better at designing ways for large masses

to attend sporting events in one location, entering & exiting quickly.  They even had an exit plan to have everyone out of the Colosseum in 30 minutes if there was an emergency.  I take if the emergency would have been a lion, tiger, bear or elephant getting loose.  The Colosseum has 76 arches where people could enter.  Each person had a ticket made out of bone that showed their entry gate as well as their seat number.  The key, more entrances means faster entrance/exits.  Instead of funneling everyone through a few portals, they spread everyone out like a sieve.

Not only was the parking garage for the Colosseum in Verona spotless, each parking spot showed availability with a green light or red if taken.  You could quickly assess each row as you rounded the corner & know if you would have an opportunity to park on that row or if you needed to continue on to the next.  This is personally one of my favorite time management ideas.

At our hotel in Bergamo, the bar had rails holding bottles safely on shelves just like at any bar around the world.  The difference: the slates were placed further out from the wall, allowing the bottles to lean forward making them easier to grab.  This idea could be used for spices in your kitchen, hair products in your bath, medicines in your cabinet, cleaning bottles in your utility room and on and on.

Each hotel room required your key card to be inserted in a slot for your lights & outlets to work.  When you left your room, not only did you always know where to find your room key, but your lights instantly went out & outlets powered down when you withdrew your key.  Think how much electricity & time you would save each day by not searching for your key, having one way to turn out all the lights & not forgetting to turn them out!

We certainly pride ourselves as Americans for our recycling efforts at home & in public but Europe is doing more.  Everywhere there were LARGE, attractive public bins for disposing plastics, papers, rubbish & metals.  Never once did I see one overflowing, large amounts of trash on the ground or anyone looking for a place to dispose properly of their trash items.  Even with Italian labels it was easy to know which bin I needed for my plastic bottles, paper recyclables or just plain rubbish.

In a home I visited, Ikea was used to handle all kitchen storage from dishes to pantry.  Kitchen items didn’t overflow into the next room, countertops or kitchen table.  Householders limited quantity to the amount of space available.

Children’s toys were in the one living space in the home & curtailed to a space the size of a large chair.

Not everything in Italy or London was perfect.  However, the reoccurring theme is ingenuity with the little space available:  Few sprawling homes except for Queen Elizabeth’s of course. No storage facilities to help you hold on to items you really should let go.  Large cars were a rarity on roads or in towns.

Personal space everywhere is seen as a premium.  Instead of encroaching on the masterpieces throughout Europe, they choose to limit their personal items to the space available to them devising clever ways to utilize the space & their time to the max.

The next time you feel you need more space, try quickly editing, then find the under-utilized space around you, break down the box in your mind & discover a new way to artfully store your prized & utilitarian items because Life is Better Stylishly Organized!

I’m here to help you by disclosing my knowledge of how to organize & be prepared for any situation.  I will show you tips & tricks through posts on the Styled & Organized Living Facebook page, @StyledOrganized on Twitter & the Styled & Organized Living Pinterest page.  Some posts will be simple tools while others will be ideas to consider.   But all will show you how to gain a little more control over your life through organization because Life is Better Organized!