A client makes an unconventional decision

October 2, 2012 in clutter control, inspiration, Kitchen, procrastination, Uncategorized with 2 Comments


Deferred decisions or the lack of decisions tend to cause disorganization, clutter and chaos!  Think about it, if you don’t make a decision about whether to keep something, decide where to put things, decide on commitments/activities to participate in, decide to maintain organization, or decide to ask for help you aren’t going to change your circumstances.

I’d like to share a client story with you about decisions.  This client was a virtual client of mine which means I coached her over the phone.  She’s a lovely client, she took my advice and also thought of her own solutions.

Let’s call this client Laverne.  Laverne had piles and piles of dirty dishes so I suggested she tackle them 10 minutes each day until she was caught up.  We can do anything for 10 minutes, right?

During our next phone coaching session I asked Laverne about her dishes and her progress.  She said, “Jill they are gone!”  I told Laverne that I was so happy and proud of her and asked how she did it.  Her response……”I threw them out!”

Wow, what a decision!  Unconventional isn’t it?  You know what, she made a decision and moved on.  Now Laverne has one plate, one glass, and a couple spoons, knives and forks from Goodwill.  Laverne decided to keep it simple and never face a pile of dirty dishes again.

Way to go Laverne!  This solution isn’t for everyone but bottom line, she made a decision and moved on.

What are going to decide to do today?  Please comment.  If you decided to ask for help I’d love to have a conversation with you.  608-575-7467

Organizing Memories

September 25, 2012 in organizing children, paper, Uncategorized with 0 Comments


Everyone has mementos from the past.  If you have children you may have even more mementos from their past.

We sorted through our daughter’s mementos this summer, before she headed off to college for her freshman year.

Unfortunately we didn’t eliminate many memories from her box but we enjoyed looking through them.

Tips for organizing memories:

  • If your mementos are scattered throughout your home and need a place of their own simply, purchase a sturdy container to hold them.  A container has a limited capacity and will prevent you from keeping too much (unless you buy another container:).
  • Every person in your household should have their own memory box.  Label it with their name.
  • Store the boxes under beds or on a closet shelf.  You should have easy access to this box so you can add new memories without much effort.
  • Keep things that are truly special.  If you keep everything, nothing is important.   Write the date and child’s name on their artwork, letters, cards, and papers.
  • When the box is full, take a few minutes to sort and eliminate the items that you no longer feel strongly attached to.  You should be able to close the box and have room for a few more memories.

My clients usually find items they want to keep as memories.  While sorting stuff with one client, she asked me to add many items to her memory container.  At the end of our session she looked at the pile and said to me “I didn’t know I had so much to remember!”

Do you have too many memories?

 

Simple Tips for Organizing Your Inbox

September 18, 2012 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments


How many e-mails are in your inbox right now?  If your answer is more than 25, you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed.  If you answered 1000 or more, you are not alone.  This is something I frequently hear.

I try to keep my inbox fairly empty so I don’t feel overwhelmed and exhausted every time I open it.

Here are some simple tips to help you do the same.

  1. Make a decision.  Delayed decisions = clutter.
  2. Delete the trash or spam immediately.  Do this while waiting in line, while on hold on the phone or any time you have a few minutes of downtime.
  3. Unsubscribe if you are no longer interested.  It only takes a few extra seconds.  Plan to unsubscribe to 5 lists a month.
  4. Respond or act on e-mails when you read them and then delete the e-mail or file it elsewhere.
  5. Move read e-mails to folders if they need to be saved instead of saving them in your inbox.

How many e-mails do you have?  Can you delete 20 e-mails right now?  Yes you can, it’s possible!

photo by: Jon Gosier

Favorite Organizing Tool #5

September 11, 2012 in inspiration, Uncategorized with 0 Comments


 

 

 

 

 

 

Bags.  Especially paper bags with handles!

Why are bags one of my favorite tools?  They are the perfect size and sturdy enough to hold a variety of items.  It’s also an easy way to reuse the bags.

I use paper bags to hold my donations for my favorite charity and also to hold my client’s donations when I transport them to the donation site.  If you are sorting large piles of papers, they work well as a container for recyclable papers and for papers that need shredding.  Be sure to label the bags with a sharpie to avoid confusion!

Set up a donation station somewhere in your home (mine is in our basement) and use paper bags to hold the donations.

Favorite Organizing Tool #4

September 4, 2012 in closet, clothing, clutter control, garage, inspiration, Laundry, organizing children, Uncategorized with 0 Comments


 

 

 

 

 

 

The basic laundry basket.

Why is it one of my favorite tools?  It’s a useful organizing container for many areas of your home, not just the laundry room.

I’ve used laundry baskets to hold balls, sand toys, and more in client’s garages, for toys and dress-up clothing in play rooms, and in closets as dirty clothing hampers.  We even used one to contain our puppy during car rides (for the first couple of days).

What non traditional items do you contain in a laundry basket?

photo by: amboo who?

Favorite Organizing Tool #3

August 28, 2012 in clutter control, Uncategorized with 0 Comments


The Sharpie, or any permanent marker.

Why is it one of my favorite organizing tools?  It’s permanent, quick to label and writes on most surfaces.

I carry one in my back pocket while working with clients and have written directly on the container or used masking or duct tape to create a quick label.

Do you own a sharpie?

photo by: krunkwerke

Favorite Organizing Tool #2

August 21, 2012 in clutter control, Uncategorized with 2 Comments


Plastic food containers.  Square or rectangular.

Why are they one of my favorite organizing tools?  Because they are affordable, keep a category of items together, reusable, and also are fun to play with.  They were a better source of  entertainment for my daughter than her toys.

I’ve used plastic food containers in my pantry as a container for a category of small items, for craft supplies, on the workbench, as junk drawer dividers, in the bathroom, and in my office.

What have you organized in a plastic food container?

 

Favorite Organizing Tool #1

August 14, 2012 in clutter control, Uncategorized with 0 Comments


 

The zip top plastic bag.  I always have these bags, in several sizes, with me when I work with clients.

Generic or name brand….it doesn’t matter.

Why is it one of my favorite tools?   Because it contains a small group of items together, it protects it’s contents,  it’s inexpensive and it may be washed and reused.

I’ve used zip top bags for clothing, wet clothing, craft supplies, office supplies, food, toiletries in my suitcase, junk drawer items, camping, and  batteries.

Simple yet so useful.

What have you organized in a zip top bag?

photo by: rusty.grass

Do you over-organize?

August 7, 2012 in inspiration, Kitchen, perfection, Uncategorized with 2 Comments


I believe it’s possible to over-organize and create too much of a good thing.  We see ultra organized spaces in magazines, on the internet and television and then think, I want my house to look like that!  What we don’t realize is that it’s very difficult to maintain an ultra organized area and we may become frustrated trying to maintain it.

I prefer SIMPLE = sustainable organizing systems.

Let’s compare a few ultra organized examples with their “done is better than perfect” counterparts.

Pantries

Ultra organized:  Perfectly straight rows of labeled clear containers holding flour, sugar, cereal, pasta, rice, crackers, ect.

Why it’s difficult to maintain:  You will always have extra dry goods that do not fit into the containers.  This means you will also need extra storage space for the overflow and somehow remember you have this back stock  instead of buying more.

Good enough organization:  Expired food is regularly tossed and food is grouped according to category. Users are able to quickly find items and see what they have.  Containers are used to hold categories of food, for example, your snack foods are grouped in a container.

File systems

Ultra organized:  Color coordinated file folders.

Why it’s difficult to maintain:  What happens when you need to add a new file?  Will you have to go to the store because you ran out of that particular color?

Good enough organization:  I enjoy color and believe there isn’t anything wrong with adding colored file folders but you can do so in a more carefree manner.  Line all the tabs up on one side of your folders or stagger them loosely.  Now this system is a more sustainable system.

Photos

Ultra organized:  ALL of your photos are labeled and  in scrapbooks, photo albums and the baby books are filled in—even your youngest child’s book.

Why it’s difficult to maintain:  We get busy with life and overwhelmed by our unorganized photos.  Even if we enjoy putting together gorgeous scrapbooks we may need a week of vacation to complete one book.  That’s a lot of pressure!

Good enough organization:  Toss blurry and unflattering photos.  Write the date on the envelope when you have photos printed or better yet use a labeled photo safe envelope.  Place in photo boxes.  Categorize photos on your computer by month, year or event.  Regularly backup the photos on an external hard drive or the cloud.  I use Carbonite.

Closets

Ultra organized:  Clothing is perfectly folded or hung on matching hangers, and sorted by color.  Closets that are featured in magazines look beautiful because they usually contain very little clothing and clothing is a neutral color palette.

Why it’s difficult to maintain:  It takes more time to group clothing by color and few of us are expert folder,s unless we have worked in retail.

Good enough organization:  Clothing is returned to the closet after it’s washed.  You have hooks to hold items that can be worn again before washing.  Floor is pretty much free of clutter despite a couple pairs of shoes lying around the closet.  A hamper holds your dirty clothing so it stays off the floor.

I’ve tried to organize my clothing by color, because I was curious…could I maintain it?   I soon lost interest and did not keep it up.  If you love to colorize your closet and it works for you than don’t change what works.

The point of this blog post is….organize to your level of satisfaction and what works for you, not because you feel the pressure to be ultra organized.

Have you ever tried to ultra organize?  Please share.

I’m fairly normal

July 31, 2012 in inspiration, perfection, Uncategorized with 0 Comments


Professional organizers are fairly normal, lead normal lives and even have messy homes.  Sometimes my clients ask about the state of my house.  Is it perfectly organized?  Are all of my containers and shelves labeled?  Is my clothing closet organized by color?

The answer is NO.  Even though I’m  passionate about organization and enjoy helping others feel better through organization, I’m far from being….

A Perfectionist:   I don’t feel a need to line things up,  I do not fold my p.j.’s, underwear or my fitted sheets and I do not use a level to hang our pictures on our walls.  The punctuation and grammar are no where near perfect in my blog posts.

Done is better than perfect.

A Clean freak:  I love organizing but not cleaning.  Our house has a lived-in look, including: dust on the furniture, finger prints on the windows, and floors that need washing.  We can find things because the house is organized but it’s not in pristine condition.  We put things away when we are finished with them but there may be dirty dishes in our sink at any given time.

Good enough is good enough.

A labeling addict:  I’ve used my label maker in client’s homes more than my own.  At home I usually opt for masking tape and sharpie.  Recently I labeled some light switches.  We have lived in our home for 9 years and I still had trouble remember which switch turned on our entryway light.  A simple solution.  Why did it take me so long to label it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you visited my home you would see I’m fairly normal, but please call first to warn me:)

My favorite quote is the following by Michael J. Fox  “I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God’s business.”


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