When working with my clients, I find there is always a need for a way to store "memories".  We always come across items that are not currently being used but need to be stored away for another day.

Memories can come in many forms and various categories.  They can be memories of your child's school years, your childhood, your parents, a close friend or family member who has passed, etc.

For your children's memories, I suggest creating a School Memory Box (one for each child).  This can be as simple as a plastic container or a cardboard banker's box.  You can divide it up into 12 sections, one for each year from 1st to 12th grade, using accordion hanging folders with tabs in a file folder container.  That is even better! 

During the school year, file away any artwork, projects, special memories, creative writing and awards in a separate box for that year.  Then, at the end of the school year, go through your file box of completed work with your child and pull out the best and most meaningful.  File them away in their School Memory Box in the appropriate year.  By the end of high school, you'll have a wonderful, handpicked history of your child's development and accomplishments with very little effort.

For other types of memories, a simple plastic container to hold them in is a great way to keep them together and dust free.  Put a label on the box for the particular member of the family and store it in the top of their bedroom closet on the shelf.  Then, pull it down from time to time and enjoy going down Memory Lane.

Using these methods, you will contain your memories in one container.  The container will help you to set boundaries on the amount of memories you keep, as well. 

If you need any more assistance with this or any other form of organization, contact me and I will be glad to help. 

In the meantime, have a great week!

Many of you are women entrepreneurs.  This week I want to address a topic that I think would be a great interest to you in particular.  It relates to your business card. 

I am posting an article written by Kathryn Weber of K Weber Communications on this topic that I found facinating so I thought I would share it with you.    

The 3-Inch Killer Sabotaging Your Business --
How to Use Feng Shui to Design a Successful, Income-boosting Business Card
 

I don't know about you, but I am an avid reader.  I have always loved books and get a real sense of comfort from holding one in my hands and flipping through the pages.

You might call me "old fashioned" but I prefer holding a book in my hands as opposed to a Kindle or other type of electronic reader.  There is just something cold about holding a piece of plastic as opposed to turning pages of a book. 

If you are an avid book reader, chances are you have quite a collection of books in your home.  If so, are they organized?  If not, here are some suggestions on how you can organize them so you can find what you want when you want it.

When it comes to non-fiction or reference books, it's best to organize them by category and then alphabetically by author.

When it comes to fiction, it's best to organize them by author and then in alphabetical order by book title.  Organize your hardbacks separate from your soft backs.  That doesn't mean they necessarily need to be on separate shelves.  I put my hardback books in the back of the bookcase with paperbacks lined up in front of them.  This makes it easy for me to read all of the titles and find just what I am looking for.

Personally, I have numerous bookcases for various types of books throughout my home.  I have my non-fiction books on a bookcase in my upstairs hallway (there is plenty of room so it does not interfere with navigating to and from my bedroom), I have my fiction books in my guest bedroom/sitting room and business related books (marketing, organizing, etc.) on a bookcase in my office.  I also have a cabinet that was specially made to store my cookbooks which sits just outside my kitchen, in my dining room.

Because I have an extensive amount of fiction (I love to relax at the end of my day by sitting down and reading a good fiction book.), I have taken the next step and created a small three-ring binder with alphabetical tabs in it, listing each author on a separate page with the titles of the books I currently have in my collection.  This might seem extreme to some but I recognized the need to do this as I carry this binder with me when I go to the bookstore, the library or purchase books online.  I do not buy duplicates because I know exactly what I currently have or have read in the past from that author.  This works well for me as I tend to read books from the same general group of authors.

The other point I want to make is that when I am done reading one of my fiction books, I donate it or pass it on to a friend.  I DO NOT keep fiction books after they are read.  Life is too short and there are too many books out there to read so I don't want to go back and read the same book again.  The non-fiction (if they are more of a resource) are kept after they are read.  Biographies or autobiographies are passed on after they are read, as well. 

Organizing your books is so important so that you know what you have and you can enjoy your collection.

I intend to continue to purchase books well into the future and am happy to say that I can locate what I want when I want it because my collection is organized.  Yours can be too.

If you need assistance in sorting through the books, donating those that you no longer need or want and getting the restorganized, contact me.  I'll be glad to help you out.

In the meantime, have a great week! 

I have no idea where the Summer has gone.  As it seems to do every year, it flew by and we are now looking at getting the kids back to school, resume our normal routine and put the lazy days of Summer behind us.

The change of seasons is a great time to evaluate and perhaps re-evaluate what we need to do in order to get organized.  Sometimes things tend to fall by the wayside (especially during the Summer months). 

Perhaps you had a project that you meant to get to this Summer but you never got around to it.  It could have been something such as decluttering and organizing the storage room, trimming the hedges, painting a bedroom, evaluating your wardrobe and eliminating items that no longer fit or that you don't like, getting rid of toys your child no longer plays with, organizing the pantry or organizing your desk area where you pay bills.

Before you get too inundated with the responsibilities that the new season will bring, I suggest that you take some time to walk around your home and make a list of things you want to declutter and organize and then get started on that list.

If you are feeling overwhelmed with the prospect of getting organized, let me know and I will be glad to help.

In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your Summer! 

Since I am such an advocate of organization and know first hand what a positive effect it can have on you, your home and your life, I hate to admit there might be a downside to being organized.

In an effort to free up my time, which is so precious to me, I made arrangements recently for my new health insurance carrier to automatically withdraw my monthly premium from my checking account.  I thought this would be the most efficient way to make sure that my payments were received on time with minimal effort on my part. Great idea, right?  Wrong.

Unbeknownst to me, my efficiency backfired.  As a result of what I thought was the best option, I was basically giving full rein to my insurance company to tap into my checking account and take what they wanted.  And, they did.

Not only did they deduct one month's premium from my account, they removed two!  This was done without my knowledge and without my consent.  

Of course, when it came time for them to reimburse me for the extra month (as soon as I discovered what they had done and confronted them about it), that was another story.  Suddenly, they were unable to deposit a refund back into my checking account electronically.  (I did not know it was a one way street.) They advised that they will be sending a check in the mail to me in the next few days.  That is not the resolution I was looking for and, needless to say, I was extremely upset that this occurred to begin with.  What gives them the right to do what they did?

The end result is that I have now elected cancel the "automatic withdraw" option which would have saved me time and effort and I will now have to send the payments to the insurance company manually on a  monthly basis.  (All because of their incompetency.)  I will now be setting up electronic payments with my bank instead since they are the entity I can trust to do the job right.

Lesson learned - as much as we attempt to be organized and efficient, it does not always turn out that way.  Sometimes, without the cooperation of other entities, the best laid plans do not pan out.

This will not stop me, however, in my quest to get and stay organized in not only my life, but those of my family, friends and clients.  Why?  Because it's the right thing to do!

Have you had any experiences where your attempts to be organized have backfired?  I would love to hear from you.

In the meantime, I am taking off for five days to enjoy the Jersey shore and wishing you an organized week.  

As someone who wants to keep your home and office organized, it’s your job to immediately identify when things are out of wack and some attention needs to be paid to those places that might be out of place or broken and then fix the situation. There are a few easy ways to do this:

1. Create a "Closing Duties" or "Daily Chore Chart". It seems elementary to write out chores and end-of-day assignments, but these lists can be very beneficial for helping you avoid Organizational Demise. Before leaving the office or heading to bed, review your printed list of closing duties or daily chores to make sure all tasks were completed properly. If they weren’t, quickly do the chore or re-do it. Don’t leave work or go to bed with an essential task undone.
2. Keep an easily accessible shopping list. Again, this is pretty basic, but having a grocery shopping checklist (such as the U Can Do It Grocery Shopping Checklist) can be a huge help in avoiding Demise. This list needs to be in a place where any of your family can effortlessly add to it (right when they notice something is running out or has broken.  A pen or pencil needs to be kept in at this location for convenience.  You then take the list with you when you go to the store or run errands.
3. Having the right tools. If clothes end up on the floor of your bathroom, then you need to put a hamper in your bathroom. If clothes end up on the floor of your bedroom, you also need a hamper in your bedroom. If you want to shred junk mail by your front door and also shred sensitive documents in your home office, have a shredder by your front door and also a shredder in your office. Having multiples of something isn’t clutter if you actually need multiples of something to stay organized and keep from avoiding Organizational Demise.

Do you have receipts on the top of your bedroom dresser that accumulate?  If you empty your pockets and just set the receipts down on the top of the dresser, within a week you can cause Organizational Demise.  It’s amazing how something as small as receipts can cause complete disorder, but time and again they can become a culprit.

If, instead, you have the tools necessary to keep these simple types of clutter from accumulating, you will eliminate these problems.

At the end of the day, leave enough time to finish those tasks that can cause Organizational Demise and it will go a long way.  Simply processing those little slips of paper, getting your dirty clothes into the hamper and all your other end-of-the day chores completed is the key to success. 

So, what is your Organizational Demise?  Can I help?  Let me know.

Until then, have a great week!

It's that time of year when we tend to spend a lot of time in the car.  We take the kids back and forth to summer activities, camp, go on vacation, visit friends and family, take day trips.  You name it, it involves the car.  So let me ask you...

If you had to produce your driver's license, registration and proof of insurance in a hurry, could you? Many of us don't give a lot of thought to controlling clutter in our cars. We spend so much time in our cars and yet we often don't think of it as a place for organizing.

The best place to start is removing the clutter. Depending on the time of year will determine how you tackle it.  If the temperature is warm (right now it's broiling hot where I live and you can't even stand to be outside for more than 5 minutes!), it’s not a problem working outdoors. If the temperature is cold, you may want to put everything into boxes and take it indoors.

Once the car is empty, vacuum it out thoroughly, clean all the windows, wipe down the dash and console and clean leather seats. Stores sell cleaner made for upholstered seats as well.

When you begin to sort through the boxed items, sort out the trash and of course, trash it. Then sort through the remaining items. There will be items that won't need to go back into the car and you can put them into a ‘goes somewhere else’ container. These can be put away as part of your cleanup.

Some of your 'return to the car' items can go into the trunk. You will probably need a way to contain them. Standard items generally consist of a small tool kit, jumper cables, a flashlight, and if you live in cold area of the country, emergency supplies like water, high-energy snacks and blankets. These can be contained either in a collapsible open top container or in a container with a lid. This will keep all of your supplies in one neatly contained area in your trunk.

Inside the car, you can contain items to keep them safely stowed, yet accessible. Things like your car’s care manual can go into the glove box or console. A small tissue box can go into the console, along with antibacterial wipes and such.  Keep some reusable canvas bags to cart things in and out of the car.

Don't forget to put a little sack or plastic bag in both the front and back seats for trash. You could also store a couple of extra collapsible crates to allow you to carry your groceries into the house in fewer trips.
Don't neglect this important area of your life.  It is just as important to organize your car as it is to organize your home.

If you need any assistance, please feel free to contact me.

In the meantime, keep cool and have a great week!

Are you in "disorganization" denial?  Let's be honest.  We get used to living a certain way and sometimes forget to look around and see what is really going on.

Have you gotten so comfortable in your cluttered environment that you cannot "see the forest through the trees" so to speak?

I think it's time to be honest with yourself.  Take a good look around and really see what is going on in your home and in your life.

If you are not sure whether you have clutter and disorganization issues, I recommend that you check out my "Quiz" found on this website [the tab is at the top of this page] to determine whether you might need to get organized.  This short quiz can be very helpful in doing so as it triggers in on main issues that you might be experiencing.

It might be time to stop living in denial and start focusing on improving your situation. 

Whether you take on the task yourself or reach out to a professional organizer like myself, it's time to do something about it. 

No matter how small or large a task you might think it will be, you can do it!  If you are feeling too overwhelmed, there is help out there.  You just need to ask for it.

Imagine how much better your quality of life will be when you don't have to continue to be stressed out because you can't find things in your home, you are late for appointments or the paperwork is piling up.  Putting systems into place that are manageable are the key to your success.

You deserve a better way of living and getting organized can give you that.

So, are you ready to be honest with yourself and admit that you are living in clutter and disorganization?  I challenge you to take that first step and admit that you might need to make a change.

Contact me if you do and I will be more than happy to help.

In the meantime, have a great week!

Sometimes it can be difficult to motivate others to get and stay organized, especially a loved one. 

Perhaps you are working to get organized but you feel that the people you live with are undermining your progress by not helping out.

There are some questions that you can pose to that person to help make decisions about what to keep and what to toss - without starting arguments or passing judgment.  Getting organized can sometimes be a sensative subject if it is not approached in a positive way.  Remember, the goal is to reframe the discussion away from the item or items themselves, but rather towards its significance in your lives.

Here are some examples of how to refrase the question:

1.  Instead of "Why don't you put your tools away?", ask "What is it that you want from this space?"

2.  Instead of "Why do we have to keep your grandmother's sewing kit?", ask "Why is it important to you?  Does this particular item have meaning?"

3.  Instead of "There's no room for all of your stuff in there", say "Let's see how we can share this space so that it works for all of us".

4.  Instead of "Why do you have to hold onto these ugly sweaters your dad gave you?", ask "What do these sweaters make you think of or remind you of?"

5.  Insteady of saying "I don't understand how you can live with all this junk", ask "How do you feel when you have to spend time in this room?"

Hopefully these suggestions will help you better communicate your message to someone who you live with who has clutter issues.

Let me know how you make out and if you need any assistance, I am here to help.

Have a great holiday weekend!