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“Money, money, money, MONEY!”

Declutter my budget, what budget?  Where do you fall in the spectrum of  knowing how much money you have coming in vs. how much money you have going out?  Often times when people are disorganized they have a few different things going on:

• They are spending a lot of money on ’stuff’ that ends up causing clutter
• They don’t realize just how much money they are spending
• They may actually lose/misplace money such as checks & gift cards

It may be hard to set up a budget for yourself because it forces you to face reality.  And it might not be a reality you want to face because when you have to put limits on yourself  that’s not so fun.  But it’s part of being real and it’s part of being a grown-up, sometimes we have to tell ourselves ‘no’ for the greater good.  Sometimes we have to tell our family members ‘no’ for the greater good.

I encourage you to set up a budget with any program, piece of paper, ledger or system that is easy for you to keep up with.  Be honest about how much money you are bringing in every month.  It will take a while of keeping track of expenses to really realize how much is going out every month.  Write down everything!  Make categories, big or small.  Here are a few examples:

• Hair cuts
• Auto gas
• Auto insurance
• Gifts
• Entertainment
• Allowance for kids
• Groceries
• Meals eaten out
• Charity
• Cell phone
• Doctor co-pays/bills
• Credit card payments

There are many options that you may for your own categories.  The bottom line is, the incoming income needs to exceed or at least equal the outgoing expenses.  If that’s not the case, you’ve got some work to do to declutter your budget and see where you can eliminate or reduce your current expenses.  Some ideas:

• Reduce cable package
• Reduce meals eaten out
• Call around for new insurance quotes:  auto and home
• Reduce cell phone plan if you aren’t using your monthly minutes
• Cancel subscriptions you don’t use

Feel more in control of your finances and your life by decluttering your budget and being honest about where you are now.  All you can do is go up from here!

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The home organization process should come with a disclaimer:  “Beware, chaos before the calm.  Please do not be frightened by the process as closets, rooms or drawers are torn apart.  It’s all part of the process.”  When I help a client get organized, I have the ideas and a vision for the work that we will be doing, what it will take to get there and what the outcome will be.  I have to remember to give people the above disclaimer as we get started.  Sometimes I don’t remember until I start pulling stuff out and realize what it must look like to the client now that their belongings are being pulled out, all of a sudden there’s a lot of stuff !  But it’s all a part of the process. 

When you are disorganized, you have probably shoved a lot of belongings onto shelves, into boxes and maybe onto closet floors.  In order to get to the bottom of it all, it has to be pulled out.  You have to see what you really have. Now, you want to make the amount of items that you pull out manageable and not overwhelm yourself and your time constraints, but you have to pull it out.  Here are some organizing tips to help you along the way:

• Just choose one section or area to get started.  If you get it done and want to continue, move onto the next area.
• Pull things out and place items of the same type or “like” items together.  Place decor with decor, place shoes with shoes, place wrapping paper with wrapping paper, etc.  When you see how much you have of each item, it will make decisions about what to let go a lot easier.
• Once you part with the excess, then place what you are going to keep into labeled bins or baskets and put them back for storage.

Decluttering and organizing can look a little crazy at the start, but in the end it’s worth it when your space is calm and neat again.  It’s all part of the process.

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So my last blog was about the negative ways we feel when we are disorganized.  Since that’s the place people are coming from that I work with, I wanted to start there.  But where’s the place we all want to be?  Well, that’s experiencing the positive feelings and benefits of being organized of course!  So we do the work that it takes to declutter, get organized and then reap the benefits, some of which are:

• Relief
• Happiness
• Sense of control
• Calmness
• Space
• Finding what we need quickly
• Feeling like we can breathe
• Feeling like we can move in our space
• Like a weight has been lifted from our shoulders
• Like we can focus on something other than the clutter now
• Like we can invite people into our homes
• Like we are wasting less time looking for stuff

I’m sure the benefits are as varied as the individuals who are looking for a better way of living, these are just a few of the positive benefits to getting organized.  You can do it and lift that weight off of your shoulders too, yes you can!

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How does it feel when you are disorganized?  When I work with clients the answers about how they feel are on the negative side and for very good reason.  Here are some of the many ways people express how they feel when they aren’t organized:

• Stressed
• Frustrated
• Overwhelmed
• Anxious
• Angry
• Embarrassed
• Chaotic
• Buried
• Like they can’t breathe
• Worried they are the worst case I’ve ever seen
• Nervous
• Forgetful
• Held back
• Guilty

I imagine there are other feelings that I haven’t mentioned, but the point is, when our houses are cluttered it has a larger impact on our feelings and how we function in our homes and as a family unit.  When you start clearing the clutter you feel lighter, like you can move,  like you can breathe again.  Getting organized is not just about the stuff, it’s about how it makes you feel.  My next blog will be the flip side on the positive feelings you will experience when you are organized!

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Running two organizing businesses, I spend a lot of time in my office writing, marketing, talking on the phone, and much more…   That is why I know office organizing is crucial to the success of a business as well as the sanity of the business owner!  My office is very well organized, yet there are days when I walk in and it’s a wreck.  Those are the days that papers are on the desk, on my table and maybe even the floor for a little while.  You may say, “WHAT, but she’s a professional organizer!”  Really, during those times, it’s actually more messy than disorganized.  What’s the difference?  The difference is, I have systems set up in place to quickly find and put away anything in my path.  The difference is, I just have to jump in there, prioritize my work and, most importantly, make sure I am setting aside adequate time to do that work. 

So, let me share five reasons office organizing is so important to me:

1. I have a clear space to work.
2. I can focus on the task at hand.
3. I can find anything I need in seconds and that’s a great feeling!
4. Less mess equals less stress.
5. I can prioritize my tasks easily when I know where everything is.

Invest  time to organize your office and the pay off will be worth it!!

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There are so many reasons why it  is so important to organize your home, too many for me to list here all at once.  So, I just want to talk today about how you can feel in your home when you are organized.  But to begin, I will list a few of the ways people feel when they are disorganized in their home:

• Stressed
• Embarrassed
• Frustrated
• Overwhelmed:  This is a BIG one!

This isn’t the way we want to feel in our homes.  This isn’t a good way to feel every day.  When you decide to commit to decluttering and getting organized, you can once again enjoy your home.  You will enjoy the benefits of walking into a room and having a place to sit.  Being able to relax and talk or watch a movie without feeling stressed by being surrounded by too many belongings, paper, magazines or maybe even garbage.

When you get organized, you will enjoy finding what you need quickly when you are looking for paperwork, ready to work on a craft or helping your kids gather supplies for a homework project.  When your belongings have a home, you know right where to go when you need something! 

When you organize your home, you won’t have that feeling of being overwhelmed by your stuff, by being surrounded by so much that you don’t even know where to begin to conquer it.  You will feel like you have a handle on your belongings, that you are in control.  And that my friend, is how you want to feel in your own home!

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There are many different reasons people end up with a house, a room or space that has become disorganized.  Often times I work with clients who appreciate organization and are already generally pretty organized or they ‘used’ to be organized.  What often happens is they experience an event in their lives that throws them off course and they find themselves falling behind and becoming overwhelmed.

It could be:

• Taking care of an elderly parent
• An illness in the family
• A death in the family
• The birth of a new family member
• A job change
• Extra people temporarily living in the home

So if you have found yourself temporarily off-track, you just need that extra support and guidance to get back  to organized living!

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