Click Here To Get Organized and Relax.
Procrastinating over work projects can get the best of us and be a source of stress in itself. And why is it that it’s usually our most important tasks that we tend to procrastinate over? These are often the tasks that can bring us closer to our business or financial goals such as completing an important project, creating a product, invoicing to bring in more money or making phone calls to bring in more business. A task that we’re not looking forward can be daunting as it seems to grow into a monster before our very eyes.
Procrastination gets me too, so I thought I would share 3 ways I beat procrastination in my office to give you a few easy ideas!
Tip #1: Turn on the tunes.
I am a big one for music to get and keep me going, whether it’s Beastie Boys or the White Stripes, music makes everything better.
Tip #2: Turn on the timer.
I am really finding that the old timer trick from my kid’s younger years works for me too! Setting a timer to keep me on track really works. There’s theory that we will take as much time as we allow ourselves for a task. If you give yourself 2 hours, you will probably take 2 hours. If you push yourself with a timer and give yourself 90 minutes, chances are great that you’ll get it done in 90 minutes. When I have a timer going it keeps me from getting sidetracked checking facebook or my email.
Tip #3: Take it down a notch.
Instead of looking at one giant task, I prefer to break it down with a list. Instead of “writing a report” a broken down list may look like this.
1) Come up with a report topic.
2) Brainstorm 10 tips.
3) Add details to 10 tips.
4) Add photos to report.
5) Publish report.
You get the picture!
What really amazes me is how frequently the tasks that I have procrastinated on end up not even taking that long and turn out to not really even be that bad. Sometimes it’s more in our own heads that anything!
So, turn up your music today and get ‘er done!
Tags: beat procrastination, DIY organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, office organization
Monday Mantra for Women: “I CAN let go of clutter in my house, clutter in my calendar and clutter in my mind.”
Tags: DIY organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Monday Mantra for Women
Monday Mantra for Women: “I will foster my relationship with my significant other by showing appreciation for them and what they add to my life because taking someone for granted never ends well.”
Tags: DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Monday Mantra for Women, Women
What do you do when you get married as an adult and you both have dishes, towels, bedding, pots and pans? You “purge and you merge.” Recently, I’ve had the exciting opportunity to work with a client who was marrying another client of mine. We had to go through the closet to make space for a second wardrobe before the big day. How fun for me to work separately with each client in their own home only to work with them again in one home!
Coming together under one roof can be both exciting and a bit stressful. Here are 6 organizing tips to merge two households into one to make the transition easier!
Organizing Tip #1 Decide where you will live.
Are one of you moving into an existing residence or are you both moving into a new location altogether?
Organizing Tip #2 Create a schedule.
Map out a schedule of what needs to be done prior to your merge. Do you need to empty a home for a sale? Do you need to give notice to a landlord? Do you need to purchase moving boxes? Do you need to hire a a property management company to rent one home?
Making a schedule with due dates will break a big project down into little projects.
Organizing Tip #3 Purge according to your space allowance.
Are you moving to a bigger home or a smaller home? Do you have a lot of storage or little, bitty closets? This is going to have a major impact on what you keep and what you let go. Ideally, you will make everything fit into your existing space. Worse case scenario, you will have to rent space in a storage facility. If this is the case, you will have to plan out what will live in the home with you and what will be living in storage, clearly labeled of course.
Organizing Tip #4 Purge alone.
You can do some of this on your own before doing it together. I’m sure you can go through your home, room by room and part with the obvious things that you no longer need, use or love. If you can both do that on your own, you will have made a big dent before the next step.
Organizing Tip #5 Purge together.
Now that you’ve both let go on your own, it’s time to come together and take a cold hard look at duplicates. Keep this motto in mind, “Keep the best and part with the rest.” You are both going to have towels, so go through the towels and get it down to the 10 best or whatever number works for you. You will both have dishes, now is the time to pick the dishes you can both live with. You will both have bed sheets, now is the time to pick the sets that will fit your bed and are in the best condition. Be careful of each person’s feelings during this process.
Organizing Tip #6 Merge!
Yeah, it’s time to bring it altogether and create your home, congratulations! As you begin putting things away you may find you still have too much. At this point, you must decide to either let some more stuff go or increase your storage space. Really look hard for usable storage, on doors, on hooks, adding extra shelves, overhead storage and under the bed.
Congratulations and best wishes as you enjoy living together under one roof!
Tags: 6 Organizing Tips to Merge Two Households into One, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, organizing tips, purge and merge
Surgery can be a very big (and even scary) event in our lives. With a little bit of prior planning, you can be ready for the big day and make life easier during your recovery. If you or someone in your life has a a medical procedure coming up, please follow these 5 tips to get organized before surgery:
Organizing Tip #1: Get Your Papers In Order
Sorry, this is the scariest tip, but we really should have this in order at any time in life, not just prior to surgery. Make sure someone knows where your will and healthcare directive is as well as other vital documents.
Organizing Tip #2: Get Your Home in Order
Even if you have to hire help, this is the time to get organized and make sure the house clean. Whether you need a professional organizer or a housekeeping service (or both), get the house in order now. The last thing you will want to think about during your recovery is organizing or cleaning and it will make it easier for people who are helping you during your recovery find
Organizing Tip #3: Get Your Meals in Order
I would suggest two things here. #1 Cook ahead and freeze some meals for yourself. Even after you can go back to work, you may still not be at 100% so wouldn’t it be nice to just defrost a homemade meal?
#2 For gosh sake, let people help you, people want to help you, they love you! Here is an amazing site to coordinate meals and share special dietary needs: My Turn Meals.
Organizing Tip #4: Get your medications in order.
If you will have several medications to take after surgery, make sure nothing gets mixed up! Have someone create a chart or checklist so you or your caregiver can check off each dose to prevent a medical mishap.
Organizing Tip #5: Get your lists in order.
Make lists for people who may be coming to help you, these lists could vary depending on whether or not they are coming from out of town or not. Lists may include codes for voicemail, security alarm, phone numbers to update friends & family on your recovery, the nearest grocery store, grocery list, phone numbers for doctor, hospital & pharmacy and your children’s schools.
If you’ve been through surgery and can add tips and ideas, please leave a comment for me, I’d appreciate it! For those of you who are having surgery, I wish you a speedy and smooth recovery and healing!
Tags: DIY organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, organizing, organizing tips
Now, there’s a challenge and a half! Whether I’m teaching a class or working with a couple in their home, it’s always the same, one person wants to keep stuff and one wants to let go of stuff. Or, at the very least, they have different styles of tackling what to keep and what to let go. And that’s life! Opposites attract right? Riiiiiight.
It may never be ‘perfect’ but hey, that’s true of relationships right? Riiiight. Today we can at least look at 6 organizing tips to encourage your better half to let stuff go and let you run with it and see what happens! Comments to the post are welcome
Organizing Tip #1: Communicate
Look at the space that you want to organize and talk about what you would both like to see in that space and how you would like to use it. You must both be clear on the vision before you can dig in and decide what should stay and what should go.
Make sure you write down your plan to avoid confusion or arguing while you’re in the middle of the organizing process.
Organizing Tip #2: Be prepared to compromise
Maybe your vision for the space and your spouse’s vision for the space aren’t going match. More communication will be needed so you can figure out a compromise that you can both live with. Remember, you love each other (even today)! 
Organizing Tip #3: Start making decisions on what should stay and what should go according to your plan for the space.
Questions you can ask each other:
1) What’s the worst thing that will happen if we let this go, can we get a replacement if we really miss it? Sure, it’s easy to get a new Monopoly game, sleeping bag, vase, serving tray, fishing pole, etc.
2) Does this fit into our lifestyle now?
- Is it a hobby you are still active in or did you give it up 10 years ago?
- Do you have a way to watch or listen to it? Is it on a reel-to-reel, cassette tape, Beta, record? Consider switching it over to a modern way of watching or listening to it.
- Do you really love it and use it?
- Will keeping it help you reach your goals for the space?
Organizing Tip #4: We’re back to compromise.
Let’s say your spouse wants to keep something that you think they should get rid of.. Oh yes, it happens! Remember, there may be a sentimental reason they want to keep it and no amount of reason will make them get rid of it, at least not at this point. Maybe if you revisit it in 6 months or a year they will be ready.
I ask: “Is there space to support it?” If you have a way to store it and it’s not causing a problem then you should probably let it stay or at least find a new place to store it to preserve your current goal for the space you’re working on.
Organizing Tip#5: Your Space/My Space
Realize that you may just have to have some spaces that are yours to do with as you wish and your better half may have to have theirs to do as they wish. Maybe your side of the closet is neat as a pin and their side is a sloppy mess. It’s hard to look at, but at least you can have your stuff the way you want it. You can’t control everything.
Organizing Tip #6: Read the book, “When You Live with A Messie,” by Sandra Felton.
I know this can be a challenge, so have patience and remember why you love this person oh so much!
Tags: 6 Organizing Tips to Encourage Your Better Half to Let Stuff Go, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, organize, organizing process, organizing tips
Pictures, pictures, piles of pictures… Do you have them? Baby photos that haven’t made it into baby books, pictures from your latest family vacation, pictures that you inherited from your mom, pictures that other people have sent to you at Christmas. What in the world are you to do with all those piles? No one’s even enjoying them at this point. And, I must confess, I have a pile of pictures from my youngest that need to go into a scrapbook and she just turned 12. 
But I gave up the scrapbooking ghost years ago and just haven’t been able to force myself to finish that last 1/2 of the book. Someday… At least her baby book is done.
If you are struggling with piles of photos, consider implementing these 7 organizing tips to organize photos:
Organizing Tip #1:
Decide what you ultimately want to do with your photos. Do you want to slide them easily into albums? Do you want to store them in photo-safe boxes, scan them or do you want to scrapbook them (more power to you sister!)? I ultimately chose to slide mine into photo-safe albums so we could at least see and enjoy them.
Organizing Tip #2:
Decide if you want help or not. Do you want to hire a professional organizer to go through photos with you or do you want to tackle them on your own? To find a professional organizer in your area visit the National Association of Professional Organizers.
Organizing Tip #3:
Purchase the supplies that you will need to get the job done.
Organizing Tip #4:
Schedule time into your calendar to work on your pictures. I have found that working on my own photos is a task that is easy to push to the back burner. If you plan for it in your calendar, then you are preserving that time as a commitment.
Organizing Tip #5:
Choose the best, let go of the rest. Go through your photos and let go of duplicates (you can give them to someone who cares), let go of fuzzy photos, let go of photos that have no meaning to you.
Organizing Tip #6
Decide if you want to organize photos by year, by event or by holiday. This is really personal preference and depends on your goals. Perhaps you want to have an album that’s all Christmas photos. Then put all your Christmas photos together separated by year. I personally organize mine by year putting all the pictures of events in chronological order throughout the year.
Organizing Tip #7
Enjoy your photos whether they are scanned into folders on the computer or in a beautiful book you can hold in your hands!
For tips on taking photos of your keepsakes, please read more here: Take a Picture, It Lasts Longer.
Tags: 7 Organizing Tips to Organize Photos, DIY organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, It Lasts Longer, organizing tip, Take a Picture
What I hear all the time from adults who need help getting organized: “I feel overwhelmed. I don’t know where to start.” Well, should kids be any different? Saying, “Go clean your room,” and expecting kids to run in there and whip up a clean room is probably a bit unreasonable. They get in there and take a look at all the stuff on the floor, they look at stuff that has spilled or gotten all mixed up and they get overwhelmed too.
As kids get older, they tend to want you to steer clear of their rooms since it’s their domain, it’s their space. That also means they probably won’t let you in to help clean and organize, even if they are overwhelmed. So, what’s a mom to do?
First, sometimes you just have to shut the door and let them have some space. But there comes a time when sheets must be washed, dishes must be removed and carpets must be vacuumed. When that’s the case, the best trick I have found to help my kids get their rooms in order is to make a list for them. This breaks down one big job into lots of little jobs. Some tasks that may be on a list:
1) Put away makeup
2) Bring dishes to the kitchen
3) Empty garbage
4) Put dirty laundry in the basket
5) Put sheets in the washing machine
If they are really overwhelmed, you can even have them break up the list over a course of a few days. And don’t forget to let them listen to music while they work too! A great book I can recommend for older kids to read themselves: “Where’s My Stuff?’ by Samantha Moss and Lesley Schwartz.
For tips on wrangling toys for younger kids, please read here about Bambino Toy Bags.
Tags: 1 Trick to Help Older Kids Clean Their Rooms, Bambino Toy Bags, DIY organization, getting organized, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, kids organizing, organize
Another one of our lovely ladies, my favorite cookie lady of all time, has asked about the emotional side of clutter and how to have a game plan before unhealthy anxiety takes over. Great question and exactly why I do what I do and blog what I blog! I want women (pretend that’s a woman in the picture above) to enjoy better life balance through organization and that means less stress!
When clients call me to help them get organized, it’s always tied to emotions as they are feeling overwhelmed, stressed, depressed, angry or embarrassed. It’s an amazing feeling when those negative feeling can be erased after even just a consultation when they know there’s a plan in motion! And super amazing when we see spaces transformed after as little as two hours.
I have written about some of the negative aspects of clutter in the past, so I will include a link to my previous post here:
If You’re Unhappy and You Know It, Get Organized
So, now let’s look at ways to have a game plan before unhealthy anxiety takes over:
Game Plan, Step 1: Know what your goals are.
Your home may not look the way you want it to look right now, but it is what it is, meet it where it is. Go from room to room with paper & pencil and write down:
1) The activities that you would like to do in the room
2) How you want the room to look
3) How you want the room to feel
Game Plan, Step 2: Make it manageable.
I’ll just start by saying, only tackle one room at a time. This isn’t TV, you don’t have a crew, you don’t see behind the scenes on TV, so just take my word for it, tackle one room and one area within the room at a time.
With that in mind, how are you going to reach your goals? You need to think about the time of day you have the most energy. You need to think about whether or not you need help. You need to think about how much time you can devote to one organizing session. One hour is great, two hours is super, three hours is quite enough for one day.
Game Plan, Step 3: Set a schedule.
Don’t let 30 other things get in the way of getting organized. Schedule it right into your planner so you have a date, a time and a commitment so nothing else can get in the way. Working with someone else takes that accountability to the next level-no excuses.
Game Plan Step 4: Take a pass on perfection.
Don’t expect your system to be perfect. Don’t expect yourself to be perfect. Don’t expect your house to be perfect. Don’t expect your kids to be perfect. Organize it, enjoy it and let “good enough” be good enough. Can you find your towels even though they aren’t folded perfectly? Awesome, good enough!
Game Plan, Step 5: Kick clutter to the curb.
You’ve got your list of activities for each room, now you can choose a room to declutter and let go of the things in each room that don’t match your goals. If you want to watch movies in the family room, the baseball bat should probably move to the garage. Let go of broken items and things you don’t love or use.
Game Plan, Step 6: Maintain your system.
Once you have things working well for you in your home, maintain your system 4 ways so things don’t get out of control:
1) Employ daily tune-ups
2) Employ deeper tune-ups where you quickly go back through cupboards and drawers looking for things to part with
3) Keep a box or bag handy at all times to get rid of things regularly that you no longer use
4) Ask friends and family to share activities with you instead of giving you gifts (aka more clutter). Here’s a short post on the topic.
Don’t let clutter give you an anxiety attack, instead, tackle it in small doses and then stay on top of it so it doesn’t take over!
Tags: better life balance through organization, clutter, DIY organization, emotional side of clutter, get organized, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, organizing session, Zap Clutter Stress Before it Zaps You
Monday Mantra for Women: “I won’t feel guilty for doing something nice for myself. If mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy so I’m really doing everyone a favor!”
Tags: DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Monday Mantra for Women, Women
