I found two great "Take Back Initiatives" that can help you in the process of decluttering your home. 

One can be used when decluttering your medicine cabinet and the other when decluttering your clothes closet.

These are great incentives for getting those areas organized: 

• The US Drug Enforcement Administration is sponsoring a national take-back initiative to accept unused or expired prescription drugs for safe disposal on Saturday, September 25, 2010. “Collection activities will take place from 10:00 a.m. through 2:00 p.m. at sites established throughout the country.” Check the DEA site for locations in your community.

• Along similar lines, but with clothing instead of medications, the Men’s Wearhouse is accepting lightly used men’s suits, sports coats, slacks, dress shirts and shoes, business casual clothing, coats, ties, cuff links, and other accessories during the month of September. The Men’s Wearhouse National Suit Drive gives the suits to local non-profit organizations. Donations can be made at any Men’s Wearhouse.

I would love to hear from you about how you made use of these initiatives and how they encouraged you to eliminate your clutter. 

Until next time, have a great week! 

Okay, so now you've organized your junk drawer, your closet or perhaps your garage.

Are you done?  Absolutely not!  There is one more thing you forgot to do.

You need to commit to "staying" organized.  Getting organized is one thing; staying organized is another.  Without commitment, you are likely to fall back into your old disorganized way.

Before you know it, that drawer is a junk drawer again, your closet is a mess or you can't get your car back into the garage.  All because you didn't commit to staying organized.

Most people think that the "process" of organizing involves decluttering, categorizing and organizing.  That's true, but there is still one more step - Maintenance.

Without this important step, the rest will fall apart and all your hard work will have been for nothing.

It's not that difficult to do; it just takes a conscious effort on your part, and on the part of your family, to maintain the organization of the space.  Just by putting things back where they belong when you are done with them is the easiest way to insure that you are staying organized.  By staying organized, you are saving precious time and energy because you don't have to go back and do it again!

So, can you commit?

A professional organizer such as myself will not only help you get organized, but show you how to stay organized.  Contact me if you could use my assistance.

In the meantime, have a great week!

It's hard to believe the summer is drawing to a close and your children may have already started school or may be starting soon.  Start now to develop a routine that keeps everyone on schedule because it takes a few weeks to master. Here are a few ideas to help you streamline the process of getting ready so children make their bus on time with little fuss:

 1.  Get homework, permission slips, lunch money, and anything else that is needed ready the night before.

 2.  Wake the kids up 1 hour before school is scheduled to start.  This should provide enough time to do all of the morning preparations needed without too much stress.

 3.  Have the kids dress, brush hair, and brush teeth before they come down for breakfast.

 4.  For the most productivity in your morning, make a "No-TV-Before-School" rule. Television  tends to make children lethargic and irritable when you need them to be focused and agreeable.

 5. Have a list of favorite healthy breakfast ideas ready so that little time is spent in trying to decide what they should eat.

 6. Make lunches either the night before or while the kids are eating their breakfast.

 7. Have a list of healthy lunch options available for easy reference.

 8. Set a time for 10 or 15 minutes in order to complete a few chores before school: feed pets, make beds, pick up rooms, etc.

 9. Make sure shoes, jackets, and backpacks are easily accessible to children.

10. Start putting on shoes, jackets, and backpacks about 10 minutes prior to the bus arriving.

With these tips in place and practiced daily, you will find that you will be able to get the kids ready and off to school with much less hassle.

Try them and let me know how you make out!

In the meantime, if you are overwhelmed with the process of getting organized, feel free to contact me.  I will be more than happy to help.

Enjoy your week! 

As you all should know by now, my favorite time of the year is Summer.  The problem is that mid-way through, we have to start thinking about "back to school".  The stores are all filled with supplies and the sales have begun.

Shopping for school supplies can be chaotic if, as with everything else, you don't have a plan.

Here are some ways you can organize your school shopping experience:

Consolidate Your Lists

When you have several kids to shop for, it's best to consolidated everything you need into one big list. Having a master list can save on time dramatically, which I think is a necessity when shopping with your kids in tow!

The school supply circulars are starting to come out in the newspapers, so be on the lookout for the best deals. Since our schools start on August 31st, stock up on supplies now, before the supplies dwindle.  I have found in years past that if I wait until school actually starts, the more specific things we need are already gone.

While you most certainly don’t have to dump everything out on the floor or a table to get the sorting process started, it can definitely get the kids excited. They tend to love rummaging through the pile of school supplies. It can be exciting.  Whether you are a kid or not, there is nothing like a pile of "new stuff".  To make sorting easier and to coral all of the school supplies, I suggest using a separate bin for each child. As you check the supplies off of the lists, you can then put them in their designated bins. Now you are ready to put them away until school starts and easily add the few extra things if you need to.  

Now that you have all of your school supplies neat and orderly, don’t forget the labels! Every school has different rules for what should be labeled.  Make sure you label backpacks, lunchboxes, clothing and outerwear too, especially for the younger ones! After you make the investment on all of that back to school gear, you don’t want it to end up lost!

So, have you started your back to school shopping yet?  If not, what are you waiting for?

Hope these tips help you have a more organized "back to school" experience this year!  If you need help because you are feeling overwhelmed with the prospect of getting organized, contact me at A Better Space.  I will be more than happy to help.

I heard a story this week that I wanted to share with you, just to give you some perspective.

There was a woman who needed to videotape some rooms in her house for insurance purposes. Having just cleaned her home from top to bottom, knowing that she was going to video tape it, she shot the tape and then watched it quickly before delivering it to her safety deposit box.

When she watched the tape, something happened...

She was astonished to see the amount of clutter and junk left on the various surfaces throughout the house. She realized that the camera’s eye was picking up clutter her eyes were simply moving past. She had lived with those items hanging around for so long, she was no longer seeing them!

So, she went back and scrutinized the tape, marched back to those rooms that she had filmed and really went through the stuff, making firm decisions and tossing several items.

She found out how helpful it was to see these rooms through the video.

So, why not get out your video camera and give it a shot. You’ll be amazed at what you’ve never really seen….

Leave me some feedback and let me know how you make out.  If you need some new ideas from a fresh perspective, as to what you can eliminate and organize, contact me.  I am more than happy to help you see your home through a fresh set of eyes.

 

Last time I talked about what I was doing to get organized.  This time, I would like to challenge you to see what you can accomplish.

I thought it would be fun to challenge you to see who can eliminate the most clutter from their homes.

The challenge is about getting rid of one object a day, for … a month? A year? It’s up to you how long you want your challenge to last.  I'm calling it "A THING A DAY" or ATAD.

Whether you give away, trash or donate the object is immaterial, but it must be gone from your life and space. Putting it into storage doesn’t count; though you are allowed to, say, collect the things in a box to donate them at the end of the month.

Oh, and you’re also allowed to cheat and fill your quota ahead of time, like throwing out 7 things on Monday, making that a week’s worth of ATAD.

By telling us on here what you got rid of today will not only help with the accountability issues, you’ll also help others rethink their possessions (He got rid of his xyz? Come to think of it, do I really need mine?)

  What do you think?  Are you up for the challenge?

A lot of my current clients are away on vacation this week so I have had some time to focus on me.  What a phenomenon! 

I decided to take this opportunity to "get organized".  I know, it's hard to believe that my life is different from everyone else's.  As an organizer, it is pre-conceived that my life runs like a well-oiled machine at all times.  Why not, I'm organized, right?  Well, the fact of the matter is that I also need to work to maintain organization in my home and in my life, just as I teach others to do.

I decided to focus on one floor of my home at a time.  Yesterday, I started with the second floor.  I not only decluttered, I thoroughly cleaned as well.  I eliminated a lot of excess bedding (sheets and pillow cases) from my linen closet and am donating them to a local SPCA. I got rid of a lot of sample products that I had accumulated, including my dentist, who loves to give me dental floss every time I visit! I went through my closet and eliminated clothing I hadn't worn in a while and no longer wanted.  I eliminated paperwork that had accumulated in accordian files in my master bedroom and relocated it to where it should be stored - in my home office. 

I dusted and vacuumed and gathered a lot of items from this floor and am making a large donation to a local non-profit thrift store today.  I even ordered parts for my washing machine so I can make the minor repairs myself.  I feel good about what I have accomplished so far and am looking forward to working on the first floor of my home today and tomorrow.

There is not a lot to do on these floors but I want to block out a specific amount of time each day to work on a portion of it.  The sense of accomplishment I am already feeling is motivating me to do more.

My largest project is the basement.  It encompasses a family room, home office and storage room.  It will take quite some time to go through what has accumulated, especially in the storage room.  It's not unorganized, just cluttered.  I plan to take the entire month of August, in between working, to focus on this area.  I am going to break this down into manageable pieces so I can focus on one section at a time. 

By September, I will have decluttered my entire home.  Now that's a plan!

So, just so you understand, even professional organizers need to declutter and get organized at times.  I make sure the day-to-day stuff is still always maintained.  Sometimes, however, the other stuff needs to be gone through and decluttered as well. 

I am never too busy to help those in need, so if you need me to help you get motivated to declutter and get organized, contact me.  I am here for you.

Enjoy your week!  I'm enjoying mine!

As a professional organizer, I occasionally have clients who not only have clutter in their home, but also have additional clutter issues off-site - in their storage unit.

There are many reasons that someone might decide to rent additional storage space to store their items - but is it a good idea?

Some of the reasons I hear are that they ran out of room in their house (a sure sign that they have too much!) or that they inherited items from family members and have no place to put them or they intend the use the items "some day".

If you need to rent additional space in order to store your items, this is a red flag that you just have too much stuff.  Downsize all those Christmas decorations, reduce the amount of furniture you have, eliminate the excess clothing to avoid seasonal trips to your storage unit.  As a rule, you should be able to fit your possessions in the space in which you live.  If not, it needs to go.

Some of you might have inherited furniture, antiques, etc. from a family member that recently passed away.  You need to evaluate what you have inherited and make a decision as to whether you can make use of the item in your home or whether it can be either given to someone else or sold.  If you have no use for the item and are only keeping it because you think you "have to", that is not a good enough reason.  Don't keep items in storage out of guilt.  When the item is passed onto you, it becomes your decision as to what you do with it.  If using it in your home is not an option, pass it on to someone else who can use it.

If you are storing items at an off-site storage facility because you "might use them some day", that is not a good enough reason to keep them.  Chances are, that "some day" will never come.  You need to live in the moment and use what you have in the present, not plan for that "some day".

If these reasons have not convinced you, take a moment and consider how much money you are spending each year to store your items off-site at a storage facility.  Couldn't that money be put to better use? 

Storing items off-site does not eliminate the clutter issues you have.  You are just relocating them elsewhere and not dealing with them.  If you end up storing them long enough, they will become someone else's burden to bear and that's not fair to them, is it? 

I would suggest taking a trip to your storage facility and bring your critical eye with you.  Look at the contents in the space and determine whether the items in the space can be used in your home now.  If not, sell them, donate them, give them to another family member or a friend and get rid of that storage unit once and for all.  Then, take the money you will be saving and go do something nice for yourself - TODAY!

Remember, "out of sight, out of mind" is very common when it comes to off-site storage.  Don't let that happen to you!

If you have any questions about how to get organized or are just too overwhelmed and don't know where to begin, don't hesitate to contact A Better Space.  I am more than happy to help!

In the meantime, enjoy your week!