New Year's Organizing Tip #2 - Where does it go?

Okay, now that you have purged all of the old paper and clutter from your rooms it is time to organize them. The best way to get organized and stay that way is to zone your rooms and assign a home to every object. Sounds like a lot of work, but it isn’t really. So, for example in the family room, common activities may be playing video games, watching t.v., reading and relaxing. Objects you will need to contain are video games, DVDs, books, remote controls, wraps and throws, etc. Start one room at a time and find a home for everything. Once you have a home for EVERYTHING then literally it should take less than 10 minutes to pick up several rooms in your home.

The harder clutter to contain is paper because it can quickly become overwhelming and look worse than it is if it isn’t processed every day. Know the pattern of the paper in your house and have a home for each category – bills, regular files, resource/archival files, magazines, action, etc. As I wrote about in my first New Year’s post, have a paper command center in the hub of your home to corral everyday paper and then have a resource/archival home…probably a home office where you have a filing cabinet to hold paper you don’t need as often. Check out the photo of my administrative zone that I have organized and ready for the New Year.

My gym has a motivational message on the door entering the gym, “the hardest part is showing up” and I feel this thought can be applied to organizing. Organizing is a process like exercising that you can’t just do once to see results. Once the hard part is done (the zoning and assigning homes), then the regular “showing up” part becomes the daily processing of stuff that can be done almost in auto pilot. I smiled reading the inspirational message leaving the gym yesterday “know you’ll be back tomorrow” and I liked the simple message that progress is in small steps, many times repeated until it becomes like second nature.

New Year's Clutter Buster Tip#1 - Purge the Stuff

As we start a new year, I thought it would be helpful to discuss clutter busting strategies. To that end I’ll focus my January posts on general organizing tips.
My husband and I always get a laugh, as I prepare for our, at least monthly charity donation pick-up, at our house, as he sings the line “….give it away, give it away, give it away now…” from the Red Hot Chili Peppers song “Give it Away”. If you only keep items in your space and closets that you love (and that fits) and represents how you live now, you won’t believe how easy it is to put together a few donation bags a month. If you haven’t already, call up your favorite charities, and get on their regular pick-up schedule to give away your gently used items not needed. There is so much that comes in to our homes that needs to be sorted, purged and given away, recycled or thrown out, and a great way to keep the stuff moving and our homes kept up is to schedule charity donations.

It all comes down to downsizing the stuff and in the kitchen and many rooms of the home, much of the stuff tends to be paper oriented. Most of the paper can be recycled or shredded and for the paper that needs to be kept, decide if it belongs in your home office (not as accessible) or your other paper storage place…probably the kitchen (regular access). I highly recommend carving out some space behind a closed kitchen cabinet to hide it. House frequently used home files such as: school, activities, coupons, menus, and other high use categories where you use those most…probably in the kitchen and not a home office. Also stored here can be mail to be saved that requires action such as bills and invitations. Have basic office supplies in your kitchen administrative area and if you have children and they do their homework in the main hub of the home, then make sure they have everything accessible so that they aren’t running off elsewhere getting distracted.

To cut down on paper coming into the home, I am trying out a mail reduction service called Catalog Choice. They offer a range of services with the main goal of keeping the unwanted paper out of your home. I signed up for their mail reduction service whereby I have to tell them what I don’t want to receive and they do the leg work to get me off of the unwanted mail lists. I am also trying out their junk mail envelope service – same idea and possibly a little more straightforward. Some of my clients are trying out the junk mail envelope service, so I’ll keep you posted on how it goes, and I’ll let you know what we think about their services.

Start purging those rooms…especially the paper!

Lice Free and Decorated for the Holidays!

We have had the unfortunate experience of having to deal with a lice infestation in my daughter’s class room at school. This means of course, she has brought them home. To get rid of them is a bear because not only do you have to spend hours cleaning and combing through the infected head to try to find the nits (lice eggs), but you have to clean and remove from the environment everything that mirrors hair (blankets, rugs and of course the plethora of stuffed animals)! So, the good news is we have been lice free for several weeks now (though they are still in her classroom).

With the mild weather we had a few weeks ago it seemed like everyone in our neighborhood decorated for the holidays early. I like decorating our home for Christmas, but because we get a live tree, we can’t decorate too early. My husband took the many holiday bins down from our attic right after Thanksgiving (ugh!), and I have been dealing with the wall of bins for a few weeks now. We got our tree last Saturday and finally put our decorations up!

The other day I was in our basement and I looked out to our screened in porch and saw several large bags and then remembered they were full of stuffed animals from my daughter’s room and the lice saga. I decided I would try to see if she could part with some of them discussing the importance of the gift of charity and the need to think of others. Low and behold my little six year old was up for donating, but also making a little money too. She negotiated $2.00 from me (okay, I got off easy), and gave away two full bags of stuffed animals to the Lupus Society! She still has way too many stuffed animals in her room, but at least she sorted them and the ones she is keeping she treasures for different reasons.

As we enter the season where we will be adding many new things to our homes, it is always helpful to remember to remove 2-3 items for everything added. If you can do a quick sort and purge now in each room in your home it will benefit you in several ways. It’ll help get your home ready for the holidays and company and also prepare space for the new things you may be bringing in or receiving as gifts.

Good luck as you wrap up the year and get ready for the holidays.

Getting Back To Living Life

“Getting back to living life” is the tag line of my physical therapy center, and it is one that I relate to as an organizer. My sessions at the center helped unlock my frozen shoulder condition, and at times my sessions there were uncomfortable and painful. I am in a better position now to get back to my life thanks to the exercise regimen they put together for me. They explained that for my shoulder to continue to improve I need to commit to my 30 minute shoulder exercises daily. Do I skip days here and there? Of course, but for the most part I am committed to it because I want to get back to my life…especially on the tennis court!

Similarly, organizing helps us get back to living life fully, because if we are committed to keeping up our systems and routines, then we aren’t bogged down by our daily clutter, and we aren’t ruled by our stuff. The daily commitment to organizing should at least be 15 or 30 minutes. This does not have to be a painful experience…I promise! This commitment may include an end of day pick up to put things away, determining what our top personal and/or professional actions are for the next day, processing any paper and anything else that helps creates a clean slate for the next day.

Why do this? Organizing helps get us back to living life. If we have a strong, organizing foundation, we can focus on things that are really important to us. No more worries about what we have to do, forgetting things, or feeling unproductive, because each day is a fresh start with a picked up home and work environment. Okay, maybe a little unrealistic, but something to strive for – right?

As we approach Thanksgiving, I know one of the many things I am thankful for is my unlocked frozen shoulder and my semi-organized home that allows me to live my life fully. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Our Gift of Time On Sunday

What did you do with your extra hour gained this past weekend with the end of daylight savings time? Don’t you wish we could have an extra hour each day to tie up loose ends, plan and prioritize or do something for ourselves? Maybe we can mirror the feeling of bliss I know I felt Sunday morning with my extra hour.

How so? Here are some time saving tips that may get you close to an hour.

1. Get organized. See my blog from September 9th on ORDER – organize, routines, delete, edit and readiness. On average we lose an hour a day looking for things or trying to figure out what we need to do. This hour adds up to a staggering 14 days a year of time thrown away!
2. Zone each of your spaces so that it makes sense, there is proper storage, and simplified systems are in place to allow for a 10 minute pick-up at the end of the day.
3. Build in planning time to your day so that you minimize wasted time trying to figure out who to call, what to work on and what to do next. When you plan you will cut down on working reactively and feel more in control of your day.
4. Make checklists your friend. Either have a tangible check list or a mental checklist of what you need to do in the morning, what you need to pack to bring to work or school and also have an end of day wrap-up checklist (scan e-mail, identify top priorities for next day, etc.)
5. Keep your to dos in one place ONLY. If you have too many lists or some are electronic and some on paper, time is wasted and chances for error are higher.
6. Plan menus so that you spend less time grocery shopping and eating out and you and your family will be healthier for it. Also keep a running grocery list of what you need, preferably on your phone, so that you have it readily available.
7. Buy holiday and birthday gifts ahead and keep some in reserve to cut down on last minute shopping runs.
8. Make your car work for you. Have a bin in your trunk that holds anything that needs to be processed in some form so that you have the items when you can conveniently deal with them (i.e., items to be returned, dry cleaning, coupons for shopping, etc.)
9. Set boundaries for yourself for unplugging at night so that you can recharge, regroup and relax so that you are fresh, productive and in control for the next day.
10. If you have kids, make sure they know their routines and family systems for each room. They can pick-up and directly benefit from learning the vital life skill of organization.

Also, don’t forget to change your batteries in your smoke detectors, if you didn’t get a chance to do it this weekend.

Here’s to finding that extra hour each day to use as we’d like!

Fall Organizing Home Check-List

Organizing is a necessary home maintenance activity so that home owners can live and function well, save money and reap all the benefits of organizing. Some regular seasonal maintenance I recommend is:

1. Clean out and take inventory of the pantry and freezer. Make sure food hasn't expired, move older dates to the front. This helps reduce over-buying, wasting of food, assists with meal preparation and gives a big psychological boost!

2. Clean out and analyze what is in the main coat closet / mud room. It is amazing sometimes what is thrown in there...especially if you have kids. If your closet and/or mud room area is large enough to accommodate multiple seasons than your organizing focuses on making sure everything is where it needs to be. Make sure everything fits, all objects have a home and are properly contained. If your space is small then you may have to organize your closet / mud room area for the seasons and put away out of season items that are still relevant.

3. Organize and Clean out Kids Rooms. I encourage all of my clients to do this for each season. The benefits are two-fold. The parent(s) benefit because they sort, organize and purge all clothes that don't fit and are left with clothes that do, and a quick visual of what needs to be purchased. All out-of-season clothes that may still fit are put away. There is also a visual of what needs to be purchased, hopefully on sale, in advance of the next season. The kids benefit because they are part of the process and are learning a vital, necessary life skill. Encourage them to help identify toys and objects they have aged out of and can let go to a charity. Also it is a good time to throw out items that are broken and make an assessment of anything in the room that needs to be fixed.

So now I may have made your fall home maintenance check list a little longer, but just as you seal up any drafts to be more comfortable, these organizing tasks will make your fall and winter season more enjoyable, comfortable and you'll save money too!

International Walk to School Day!

What a picture perfect day we had for this year's International Walk to School Day! Though, we live so close to my daughter's elementary school (Belle View Elementary), and we really should be able to walk, it still requires a lot of planning, organization and good moods to pull it off. Since I'm an organizer and I am a proponent of doing everything that can possibly be done for the next day, the night before, there should be plenty of time in the morning to make walking to school a reality. However, what ends up happening is time evaporates in the morning and most mornings we are just making it out the door in time to get to school by driving.

So, it was a big deal for us to walk on Wednesday. Though we had prepared and the lunch was made, outfit laid out, hair style determined the night before, backpack packed the night before with everything except the lunch, I didn't account for a semi grumpy daughter, and a leisurely 6 year-old's pace. At a couple different points I had to cajole her to gallop like a pony, skip and race me so that we made it there in time. Who greeted us, but the school's P.E. teacher who was giving out stickers to all the children who walked. It still amazes me how much weight a sticker can carry. She was so proud of it and at dinner last night she said she wanted to walk to school everyday to collect the stickers. Who knew!

I wish that could happen so that we could both fit in exercise early in the day to get the endorphins working, help air quality and the environment by not driving, not have to deal with the Kiss and Ride line and just have some fun time together. I've realized due to logistics of my choppy work schedule, and another child who needs to take a bus to his school, we can't walk every day, but maybe shooting for once a week can be a start. And, guess what, the plan tomorrow is we are walking to school!