From Chaos to Calm: KODA Camp Midwest's Guide to Spring Cleaning Success
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KODA Camp Midwest's Spring Sparkle: Your Blueprint for Decluttering Bliss
My office is my sanctuary without it being clean, I feel like a disorganized mess. With spring almost here, I did some spring cleaning and want to share my tips on how I keep everything organized for KODA Camp Midwest. With it being such a small team of myself and Karen on staff year round with an addition of a team of about 18 counselors, 2 great weekly volunteers, and 8 cooks for 6 weeks. It can get chaotic to keep track of everything. Here’s how I do it for KODA Camp Midwest:
Notion
KODA Camp Midwest’s best tool. The project management software that holds brainstorms, big ideas, calendar planning, and more!
Notion allows for cross collaboration (similar to Google docs) but can be more visually appealing. For example, developing a marketing strategy where I write the details of the strategy including values, initiatives, and target demographic can be also linked to other pages that dive deeper into brand assets, data tracking, and a calendar are invaluably useful for project management.
Notion has allowed me to gather all of my scattered thoughts about how KODA Camp Midwest can become even better into one place. From marketing to fundraising, Notion can help organize every piece of a nonprofit. Notion has been invaluable in coordinating a system where every idea has its place.
Office organization: physical clutter
There is a lot of ways that we accumulate physical clutter. For me, I like to organize my desk and space into the best uses of space possible.
As a part time photographer and a full time fundraiser, it’s very easy to have my desk cluttered and overflowing. My system of online and physical items makes it easy for me to stay organized.
Computer organization: digital clutter
It’s so important to be on top of our digital clutter. It’s easy to get lost in the chaos of thousands of photos, shared files, downloaded pdfs and more. There’s a few ways that I stay on top of organization when it comes to digital clutter.
One of the main ways I stay organized is through external hard drives. During one summer of KODA Camp Midwest, I can take around 100,000 photos & video averaging about 500-2,000 photos & videos a day. That’s A LOT of photos to go through. I usually upload 200-300 of the best photos & videos of that day. Having an external hard drive allows me the storage space to go through that many files and upload the best ones. I am able to organize files across the year, session, and date by video and photo. Also very helpful when I look back for content for the rest of the year!
Google Drive
Shared Drives is one of the best things to come to Google Workspace (besides Google for Nonprofits). Having shared drives allows Karen and I to keep track of the different files we are managing and allow access to certain portions of files to volunteers and staff.
It also helps us keep track of what we have done in the past to replicate some of the best ideas, re-use ideas that haven’t been done in a while, and acknowledge the ideas that weren’t executed successfully.
Content Calendar
KODA Camp Midwest has really upped the content game. We post 2-3 times a week on Instagram and Facebook, brought in LinkedIn and Pinterest this year, monthly newsletters, and monthly blogs. It’s a lot of content to keep up with! Using Notion and our content calendar, it’s easy to see what we’re posting, where it’s going, and the progress of each post. It’s a nice collaboration tool and allows us to build upon the history
Keeping my physical and digital life free of clutter by Spring Cleaning is extremely helpful. KODA Camp Midwest could not do everything that we do without the help of volunteers, dedicated staff and donors to ensure all of the background work stays clutter free. If you’re interest in learning more about the behind the scenes and exciting announcements that KODA Camp Midwest is doing, consider signing up for our newsletter for more BTS content!
About the Author
Maris Dishno is the Business Manager at KODA Camp Midwest. Maris lives in Milwaukee, WI and you can find her frequently with a camera in her hand and working on the behind the scenes of KODA Camp Midwest. In her free time she enjoys reading YA Fiction novels, taking photos of cat & landscapes, and hanging out at the beach.