Office organization is not only important in my own office to find what I need, but it is a big part of my business as well.  People are totally overwhelmed with paper all the time and need help with a better system.  So, I had a custom system of labeled folders in my own personal household file drawer that worked just fine for me.  But I wanted to experiment with other systems.  So one day I bought a pre-labeled, color coded system and changed the file system that was already working well for me.  

Did I like it?  No.  Did it work for me?  No.  Could I find what I needed quickly?  No.  Well, why not?  It was neat, it was labeled and I’m sure the system would probably work great for some people.  Especially if they were coming from a place of no system.  The reason it didn’t work for me was because the labels were not worded according to how I think.  I think “Taxes” this system was “Income Taxes.”  I think “Autos” this system was “Vehicle Maintenance.”  That may sound like a small detail, but it was enough to leave me looking longer for a file than I should.  It was also broken up into color coded sections vs. straight alphabetical order which bothered me too.

The other thing that wasn’t as visually appealing, since it was my own file drawer and not a client’s, I had used more than one color of hanging folders that I had on hand.  Things didn’t look quite as cohesive as they should have.

After giving the other system about a year or so trial, last night I worked until 12:30 am putting my old system back in place.  This time with all matching hanginging folders.   Phew.   Sometimes you just don’t know how something will work for you and organizing is not a one size fits all.  Don’t be afraid to make changes that work for you. 

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Delegation can go a long way toward home organization.  Sometimes it is difficult to let go of being the one to get it all done.  Sometimes it is hard to believe that anyone else will do the tasks or chores as well as we do.  You might worry that something will get messed up, forgotten or simply not look at nice as when you do it yourself.   Or that it is just faster to do it yourself. 

Sometimes though, delegating duties will bring nice suprises.  It can be surprising to learn that your kids may see something in a different light or have different ideas on how to do something that are even better than your ideas!   When it comes to delegating duties to kids, in the big picture, you are teaching them life skills to help them toward  their own independence. 

So here we are at summer vacation and I have to balance business, kids, house, chores, etc.  My kids are old enough to actually do some work for me this year which is pretty exciting.  It’s also a little unnerving for a professional organizer who likes things done a certain way.  My oldest recently cleaned out my twitter account to balance followers vs. following.  She had a clever way of making notations on some accounts that I never would have thought of.  Plus, the two hours she took to do it, opened up two hours of more productive work for me.  Work that no one could do for me.

My youngest worked on Household Hub Notebooks and she pointed out a clever trick while she was working as well.  So, just because I’m mom, I guess I really don’t know everything-who knew?  So, don’t be afraid to get help to help you stay organized and get tasks done!

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What a handy little gadget the Time Timer is to help you organize your time!   The next time you need to make sure time doesn’t get away from you, pull out your Time Timer and make sure you are in control; be the boss!  The great feature is the red shading that allows you to see and follow the passage of time.  This can be a very handy tool for children as well.  I had just a regular dial timer when my kids were small and I know how handy even that was for clean up time and many other tasks. 

It can be easy to get sucked into a task like email and before you know it, a 10 minute task turns into a 40 minute task.  That’s not good when you have a deadline to meet or a lot to get done in your day.  Here are some handy ways you can use a timer to keep you on track:

• To set an allotted time for surfing the web
• To set an allotted time for spending  time on social media
• To break down tasks into smaller chunks
• To allow yourself not to feel overwhelmed by a task-you can set the timer and do ‘anything’ for just 15 minutes!
• To give yourself 10 minutes of clean up/put away time at the end of a task or the end of the day
• To keep yourself from wasting time-beat the clock!

You can also purchase software to load onto your computer if you would rather have a Time Timer working on your screen while you are spending time on your computer.  It’s so easy to spend more time than we mean to on the computer.  A great tool to remind kids when their screen time is up as well.

Organize your time and strive to be more productive each day! 

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Facebook, Plaxo, LinkedIn, Biznik, Twitter-Oh My!  These, aren’t even a fraction of the options that we have to choose from when it comes to social media.  And with social media comes the expenditure of your time, energy and efforts.  Which means you must organize your social media time and find a balance in how to use these sites as effective tools that don’t leave you sucked into the social media vortex. 

Here are some tips on how to organize your social media time:

• Know why you are using social media sites-have a plan to make them effective for your business and use them as a tool
• Have a schedule for using these tools; don’t be random, create a time for it during your day
• Stick to the sites that work for you and your particular business.  If a site is producing zero results-let it go
• Use scheduling tools:  try hootsuite to schedule tweets on Twitter well in advance.  You can input lots of tweets at one time, they will go out according to your set schedule and you don’t have to keep logging on to produce more tweets
• Don’t get sucked in, know why you are logging on and how long you want to be there.  Set a timer, such as 10 minutes on facebook.  It is so easy to start looking around, reading, responding and getting lost in cyberspace which can be a lot more fun that actual work sometimes.   

We are so fortunate to have such powerful and amazing tools that bring the globe together and expose us to such a wide audience.  Organize your social media time and make the most of it!

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What a handy little tool my BlackBerry has been to help me organize my office tasks recently!  Do I mean I’ve used it to process emails?  No.  Do I mean I’ve used to to keep track of my schedule while on the go?  Nope.  Does it mean I’ve used it to sync my schedule with Outlook?  Nada.  I’ve simply used the alarm to help me put a cap on how long I am focusing on separate tasks-super simple!

Recently my interior design partner put a status on facebook that she had set a timer for 30 minutes while working in her office and just how much she got done during that 30 minutes.  It can be easy to get caught up and lost in our tasks, especially on email and social media.  Once you get sucked in, you can kinda get lost for a while.  So, instead of feeling like I have to do any one task in my office for long periods of time, I am setting my alarm on my phone, actually for just 15 minute increments.  It really is amazing how much you can get done in one focused 15 minute session.  At first I had the alarm tone that I use to wake me up each day, which of course needs to be somewhat annoying.  That doesn’t work when you are in the middle of concentrating unless you want to give yourself mini heart attacks all day.  So I changed it to a soothing tone to shake me ever more gently out of my current task.  And  it seems to be working. 

Organize your office tasks by breaking tasks into smaller chunks of dedicated time.

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Today is a great day to think about decluttering as well as reducing our current rates of consumption.  I recently checked out a library book called:  “Material World” by Peter Menzel.  The book is made up of photos from around the world with families standing outside surrounded by their possessions.  Some with very, very little and usually still a smile on their faces. The photo from the US was with a family from Texas; they took up the entire cul-de-sac with their many, many belongings. The title for the US was:  Moral Dilemma.  That’s kinda sad.  We do work hard and we do deserve to have nice things and be comfortable in our homes.  But there is such as thing as overdoing it, crossing the line and too much of a good thing. 

Let’s strive to strike a balance between too much and just enough.  Not only do we usually have what we need, but we have many duplicates of the same items.  This produces two things:  more money spent, more clutter.

So today, on Earth Day,  I would like to suggest a few things to help keep the balance:

• Declutter drawers, closets and shelves of extras, duplicates,  and things you don’t use and pass them on to someone who will.
• The next time you need something, see if you can borrow one before running out and buying one.
• Join Freecycle.com to engage in trades and giveaways instead of using the landfill to part with items.
• See if a substitute will work, like using a shoebox for a storage container instead of buying a plastic container.
• See if you can just make do without sometimes.

May you have what you need, enjoy what you have and have a happy Earth Day!

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We are all so busy, it can be very hard to find time to do a big ‘deep’ cleaning in all the rooms of our homes.  Be sure to keep a supply of cleaning products (locked if you have little ones) under all of your sinks, in bathrooms and in your laundry area for doing quick clean ups as you go.  Take advantage of  even just seconds to help you keep a handle on things.  If possible, use green products to help our environment while you care for your home.  If you can’t keep cleaning products down low due to kids or pets, then create a cleaning caddy with a handle that you can just grab and go while you are on the move!

Here are a few tasks you can get done quickly:

• While waiting for something to warm in the microwave, you can wipe down the front of the microwave or any appliance for that matter.
• While you are waiting that last couple of minutes for the laundry to be ready to put in the dryer, quickly spray and wipe down the tops of the washer and dryer.
• While you are waiting for the water to warm up for your shower, spray and wipe down the counter top in the bathroom.
• While you are waiting for your computer to come on, wipe down your screen and blow out the keyboard. 

Help yourself not have to invest hours in a cleaning frenzy by doing little bits in little bits of time!

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We all end up with make-up that we’ve had for a long time and we aren’t using tucked away in the drawer or make-up bag.  Maybe it was a color that didn’t work out, maybe we got some free samples at the mall.  Just like many areas of our home, we just plain end up with excess.  Not only will it make it easier to get ready in the morning when you have what you really like and need, but using old make-up can actually put your health at risk.  I insist (I have to get tough here) that you to part with old make-up and spring for replacements.  The time and money it will cost you if you you end up at the doctor’s office with an eye infection will be worse than paying to replace old stuff in the first place.  And you’ll still have to throw out the old products caused the infection in the first place anyway.  Here are a few general guidelines for how long you should keep make-up:

• Blush 18-24 months
• Foundation up to 18 months-throw out sooner if a watery top layer forms
• Make-up around the eyes is a sensitive place where bacteria can form:  mascara after only 3 months, liquid liner up to 6 months, eyeshadow about 1 year

Be sure to toss anything that has had a change in color, smell or consistency no matter how long you’ve had it.  Take a few minutes today to declutter and give the old stuff the heave ho so you can both look and feel good in the make-up that you do love!

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What’s THE best way to declutter?  What’s a surefire way to keep clutter from making you crazy?   Shut it down before it ever enters your home.  Bolt the door!  Don’t even peek.  Just be very, very quiet and back away slowly….Really, stay on top of the game by blocking clutter in the following five ways:

1. Don’t be a storage facility for others.  If they don’t live there, neither should their stuff.  When someone moves out, make sure they take everything with them.  If it’s really that important to them, they shouldn’t be leaving it behind anyway.
2. Pass by that “awesome” sale, that super “good deal.”  We often get sucked into bringing home something that we didn’t need just because the price is low.  Remember, the price on your sanity is high if clutter is causing you stress. 
3. When birthdays and holidays roll around, ask people not to give you gifts of stuff.  Instead, ask for gifts of time and entertainment.  Go to coffee together, go out for lunch, go to a movie, ask for season tickets to the zoo.
4. Curb garage sale shopping.  Don’t spend your Saturday going through other people’s stuff and bringing home things that you didn’t need in the first place.  If you really must hit the garage sales, then make a list of things that you truly need and make it a scavenger hunt to find what you need.
5. Online/TV Shopping:  If you are sitting down ordering items that you don’t need as a past time because you are bored and unhappy, then it’s time to find an interest or hobby that will keep you busy, get you out of the house or help others.  You don’t need that stuff to make you happy.

Bar the door.  Lock it and throw away the key.  Just keep clutter out so you don’t even have to declutter and you’ll be A-OK!

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What a great mom moment I got to enjoy the other day.  And when you are a mom, you really do have to appreciate those moments!  They are often fleeting.  I had a good reminder that kids really can learn how to declutter and organize too.  It’s not going to happen overnight.  It’s going to take a lot of patience.  It’s going to take being a good example.  It’s going to take making it as easy as possible for them to succeed.

I have a folding table from Costco in my office for projects that I am working on and for items that are on their way to leaving our house.  Under that table I keep a big bin available at all times for donation items.  The other day, I was in my office and I noticed a couple of shirts had been placed in the bag from one of my kids. Granted, not actually in the bag, but hey, I’ll take what I can get.  What was great about it was that I realized my daughter had come across a couple of things that weren’t working for her anymore and automatically placed them in/on the bag to part with them.  She was decluttering on her own!  No lecture from mom; woo hoo!

If you make it easy and you stay consistent, you can teach your kids how to let go of items to make room for new items and to create space.  Does this mean my kids have perfect rooms?  OH HECK NO!  But they are learning lessons that they can take with them into adulthood and use in their own homes at their comfort level.  Don’t give up, kids can learn to organize too!

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