Marla Ottenstein's Get Organized: Keeping track of birthdays & theater tickets a never-ending, but manageable task

It is easier to find necesary items when a junk drawer is clutter free. Utilize an organizer tray for the best results.

A junk drawer before re-organization.

Dear Marla: As a die-hard thespian, I attend a lot of concerts, plays and ballet productions. My biggest problem is keeping track of the surfeit of tickets. So far, I haven't lost any, but there have been a few close calls. Any thoughts?

— Harriet, Palm Beach

Dear Harriet: Sometimes the best system is the simplest one. Having once "lost" my Google calendar in cyberspace (for all I know, it's still floating around somewhere up there), I've adopted my mother's fail-safe system. My mom, who subscribes to a multitude of theatrical, musical and ballet series, not to mention myriad film festivals and art museum events, staples the tickets directly into her ubiquitous League of Women Voter's desk calendar. As an extra precaution, she also writes down — and highlights — the information in her calendar.

Using my trustworthy Filofax, I follow her lead (the apple really does fall close to the tree), then, one week before the event, I remove the tickets from my planner and tape them to the cabinet door above my espresso maker as an extra reminder.

Dear Marla: How do you keep track of birthdays and anniversaries? As busy as you are, you never forget my birthday and are always the first to call to remind me who's older.

— Your friend Dennis in New York

Dear Dennis: Ha ha! Considering your birthday is April 15, it's hard to forget. Speaking of forgetting, one year, my brother forgot our mom's birthday, anniversary and Mother's Day, all in the same week. Needless to say, she was not a happy camper. With the advent of computer and Smartphone apps that do everything but sing "Happy Birthday," you'd think we'd remember important dates, right? Wrong!

Remembering an important date is easy and a sure way to make someone smile. When someone mentions a particular day is his or her birthday or anniversary, I immediately write it down on whatever scrap of paper I can find. Then when I get home and sort through my handbag — something I do every night — I collect all these notes and enter the information into my computer's calendar, which I program to "repeat action" every year.

Dear Marla: Like everyone else, we have a junk drawer where everyone in the family throws innumerable keys, tools, scraps of paper, pens, pencils and just about anything else you can think of. The problem is that none of us knows what's in there, which leads to at least one argument a week. Help!

— Claudia/Boca Raton, Fla.

Dear Claudia: I don't get it; why clean a junk drawer when its sole purpose is to hold junk? The answer is simple; if you want to find something, you need to know where to look, which means the drawer needs to be reasonably organized so you can find what you're looking for.

First things first; dump everything on the counter and sort through the "junk"; while you're at it, wipe the drawer with a disinfecting cloth. Next, purchase an adjustable drawer organizer with different sized compartments for all the stuff that will eventually get thrown back in the drawer.

If everything has a specific place to go, such as pens and pencils in one section; keys, scissors and scrap paper in one section and mobile phone cords in another, it will be easier to take control of the situation and keep things organized. If you want, you can label each section.

After the drawer is organized, take a photo of how you would like it to look a week from now. All that remains is to assign one person each week the task of sorting through the junk, wiping down the drawer organizer and putting things away according to the photograph.

We invite you to send us questions about how to get and stay organized, which will be addressed in future columns.

"Get Organized" appears on the first and third Fridays of each month. Professional organizer Marla Ottenstein, owner of Marla O Professional Organizer Florida, is based in Naples and is a memb

Hint of the Day: For years, Europeans have used a "perpetual calendar" to remember important dates. The calendar lists the number of days in each month, but not the year or day of the week. Using a pencil — not pen — write down birthdays and anniversaries on the line next to the date. Typically, the calendar is hung on a hook in the bathroom ensuring you won't forget to check the dates at least once a day.