Browse Organizing and Learning How to Organize

The sky was over cast and the day was cold. But I was warm inside the home of rna delightful, intelligent, interesting, busy mom who also has the role of being a wife, counselor to her family, chef, and chauffer just to name a few of her jobs that she does every day. Oh and she works as a nurse part time. She hired me, a professional organizer to tackle her teenager daughter’s bedroom and get it organized. Her goal was to find things that had been lost, create a room where there was no clutter and she could bring her friends to

It has been many years ago but I still remember it as though it was only last month. I was in the sixth grade and we were told by our teachers that we were going to sell magazine subscriptions. This excited me and I was raring to get out and start selling because of the promised prizes we could win. I looked over the prizes and decided I wanted a beautiful tiger that was a pajama holder that would sit on my bed.

Stress (short for dis-stress) arises when we can’t eliminate the negative emotions, feelings and thoughts that build up inside of us as a result of our reactions to daily events and relationships with others. Learning to listen to and trust your intuition can help relieve the stress in your ...

Picture the Scene: You've got thousands of email messages in what you lovingly call your Inbox. And you're not exaggerating about the number! No matter what you do, you can't get through them, plus you can never seem to find what you need and when you need it. The idea is to make your inbox ...

TIP #1 - RECHARGE YOUR BATTERIES: Taking time off from work for a vacation is one of the best ways to recharge your batteries and improve your productivity. Warning: Make sure you don't spend too much time on any work you take with you or checking in with the office while you're away or you'll defeat the whole purpose of taking a vacation! TIP #2 - ADVANCE PLANNING: Some advance planning will go a long way to making your trip a pleasant one. Buy airline tickets well in advance so you don't have to pay top dollar for them.

My aunt was married for the first time when she was 42 years old. She married Uncle Fred who treated her like a queen but they were only married for five years before he died. A year later she married a neighbor man whose wife had died at the same time as Uncle Fred. They were happy together for four years before his life was cut short from a botched operation and she was left alone. Her and her widowed sister then shared a house together until her sister died.

Powerful smart phones, computers, tablets, websites, software, blogs and social media. There are so many technology tools and gadgets these days that it is hard to keep up! On the other end of the spectrum are people that are glued to their devices, addicted to their "Crackberry." Indeed, for many people, technology has become the master. However, true technology was designed to be our servant. The following tools (some are "apps," which is short for applications for those of you that have are not as familiar with smart phone lingo) will help you harness technology to boost your productivity.

The flowers are blooming and the birds are chirping...now if we can only get the temperatures to catch up. Spring cleaning is a tradition in colder climates where we freshen up our homes and offices from top to bottom after the long winter. Many people associate spring cleaning with scrubbing, dusting, vacuuming, etc. While these activities are necessary, I argue that one of the most important parts of spring cleaning is getting rid of clutter that you don't need. If you start by de-cluttering your office, you will have a lot less to scrub, dust and put away when you clean.

While “green” and organizing may sound unrelated, promoting green consciousness is a natural extension of the organizing process. Professional organizers enter homes and businesses on a regular basis, and armed with proper knowledge, a professional organizer can assist clients in becoming more ...

Are you a Downton Abbey fan? I must admit, I’m a sucker for a good British period drama. There’s something about the architecture, the politics, the fashion, the formalities, the romance, and … the organizing. Yes, you read that right! Although discreet, there are organizing, time management, and productivity themes all throughout the ever-popular television show. Whether you are an avid Downton fan, a fan in passing, or anywhere in between, here are three ways that watching Downton Abbey helps you get organized: 1) Everyone has a job to do.

I quilt, I am a quilter, I love quilting, and I love to quilt. Quilting has enriched my life in ways I never dreamed of. I have learned interesting facts about history because of quilts. I have made a ton of friends; and I have traveled because of quilting opportunities. To make quilting fun ...

Clutter in your home, office or schedule comes in many forms. In this case, I’m not talking about excess stuff in your space or outdoors. I’m talking about causes of clutter from exte al and internal sources. Wait! Don’t stop reading yet. This article spotlights two important components of our Flexible Structure Method™. Our proprietary method guarantees results around organizing that matter to our clients’ life and lifestyle. Don’t you want to get out of stuff or schedule overwhelm?

Ah, New Year's Resolutions. They come but once per year, and cause quite a stir. Indeed, people talk about their New Year's Resolutions quite freely. A small portion of people even write them down. But how many truly achieve them? The number is probably dismally small. Why? Because most people do a great job of talking about their resolutions, but don't do such a great job of taking action on them. They often set themselves up for failure by biting off more than they can chew!

We all spend time cleaning our houses. We wash, we dust, we vacuum - but what about the air we breathe? Unbeknowest to us, it can get pretty filthy as well. Indoor air is often cluttered with harmful airbo e chemicals such as: • formaldehyde (often found in plywood and particle board), ...

It’s time to put away the lawn chairs, wicker tables, garden tools and knick-knacks. Does the accumulation of stuff to be stored seem overwhelming? Where do you put it? That’s what basements and garages are for! According to a study by the U.S. Department of Energy, 25% of people with two-car ...

Is the gathering area (a.k.a. family room, living room, den, great room) in your home chaotic and cluttered? If so, try the following prescription to create a calm, comfortable and orderly space you’ll love to relax in and entertain family and friends. 1. Pin down the purpose(s) of your ...

When working in the marketing industry there is a multitude of ways in which you can market your business. Exhibiting at a trade show is one of the hundreds of marketing strategies you should be familiar with. Before you and your team arrive at the trade event you should remember key points which you should take into consideration to get the best result. Trade shows always produce good outcomes. Acknowledge these tips to ensure your success! Firstly visit a trade show so you

Newspapers, statements, sticky notes, letters, junk mail, cards, receipts--STOP! It's any wonder people feel overwhelmed and can't get out from down under. Here are 10 simple tips to maintaining your sanity: 1. Daily Attack: Sorting through papers 5 minutes each day, rather than having ...

Feng Shui (pronounced fung shway in the English speaking language) is an ancient Chinese knowledge that is used to combat unsuccessful or poor lifestyles. It is believed that by arranging objects and furniture in your home, as well as the design and colouring, you can allow positive energy, known as Qi (pronounced chi) to flow freely through your home, enabling its occupants a better and more successful standard of living. Feng Shui is the management of this energy, or Qi, an

It is probably not an exaggeration to say that if a man came into my house and vacuumed all my carpets, he could have his way with me. nnI love an orderly household. I crave clear, uncluttered surfaces and color-coded closet shelves.nnTruth be told, my conscious parenting efforts – and my absolute commitment to the health and happiness of my children – occasionally get derailed by my pathological need to reduce clutter and clean my house.n nI follow my children through th

Your office is a busy place; people come and go all day long, clients, fellow workers, maintenance people etc. People that you most often times, you see on a daily basis and are free to enter when needed. However, do you realize that by doing some common everyday things that you may be putting your children in harms way? By following the guidelines below, you will be taking the right steps to securing your families safety and you may decide to pass this information along to others.

A door is something I take for granite. How about you? How many uses can you think of for a door? Here is my short list: 1. A door keeps people out when we close and lock our exterior doors. 2. It hides gifts in the closet. 3. It hides clutter-it may be time to declutter your home because it hides clutter so well. 4. It is where the door knocker is attached. 5. In our garage the previous owner had attached an old door 3 feet from the ceiling to be used for storage. We store our Christmas tree on this door. 6. A door on the bathroom keeps baths private.r

Use any search engine and type in the phrase ‘Know your numbers‘.

As a productivity consultant whose business is founded on the idea of making people's lives easier and more manageable, I spend nearly every day thinking about control in some sense. Control is strange when you stop to really think about it. Is it a concept? An idea? Or a goal? And is it inherently good or bad? My answer is... it depends.

I am a big fan of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books. I have read all seven of them, and each time a new movie version premieres, I make it a point to re-read that book before seeing the accompanying movie. I recently re-read the sixth book in the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. In Half-Blood Prince, the sixth-year students at Hogwarts are taking lessons in apparition. Apparition is a magical form of teleportation, through which a witch or wizard can disappear ("disapparate") from one location and reappear ("apparate") in another.

Are you a big time procrastinator when it comes to getting rid of clutter and it is sapping your energy? Do you feel like you are a bad person and you need to change? Does it cost you money and time? Here are 4 hot tips on getting rid of clutter. Procrastination is just like having a big vacuum with a strong suction hose attached to our skin. It sucks energy out of our bodies and can make us sluggish. This happens even when we don't realize that it is happening.

Everyone is thinking about spring cleaning which makes it a perfect time for Spring Organizing. Get Rid of Clutter and welcome spring in your home with 4 fresh organizing tips. The calendar says it is spring so it seems like a good time to do some spring organizing. However the weather outside is not typical spring weather. Instead of beautiful flowers and green leaves on the trees as I look out my window I see it has snowed 5 inches ove ight and it is still snowing. Never-the-less this is the time of year our minds turn to spring organizing. 1. Closet Turnaround:r

I just love the UPS truck when it is parked in front of my home and not just zipping by. I always wail..."come back, leave me something". How about you? Doesn't your mind leap to the possibilities of what he (I have never had a she) is delivering to your door? This was the case yesterday when my DYMO rechargeable desktop label maker was delivered. I am way excited to start using it because I know clearing clutter is easier when things are labeled.

Discover 9 rejuvenating tips on how to maximize your time and how to get rid of clutter. Saturday was one of those days when I needed to work and I wanted time to do some fun stuff like quilting a quilt for my daughter. I set the timer and worked on work stuff one hour and then I did the fun stuff for two hours. I did this for several hours and I was really energized. I got a lot of work done and a lot of fun things I wanted to get done besides.

So, you are a perfectionist. And proud of it! And in some ways, that serves you really well. You maintain high standards, delivery quality, and people value your level of expertise. But sometimes, that perfectionism is causing you stress, procrastination, and depriving the world of receiving your great ideas and content. So what to do?

Doing laundry can be one of the best chores to take on or it can be one of the worst. For starters, let’s think about the best case scenario. How can there be a best case scenario for laundry, you ask? Well think of it this way. In a perfect world you just have to go down to your laundry room, throw everything in, and then you have a half hour to an hour to relax, work on some other things, or go for a walk while the laundry is washing. Then you just pop back in, throw ever

Every December it is with great anticipation that we watch the mail for our invitation to the open house at the governor’s mansion. Our mailman becomes our new best friend for a few weeks as he delivers Christmas cards and packages. But we only get one invitation where we get to dress up and shake hands with the governor and his wife. This year we also mingled with the actor Edward Herrmann (We loved him in the North Avenue Irregulars movie).

Do you know that when you open up your desk drawers you’ll be met with a mosh of papers and supplies? Is it hard to find what you want and keep your papers in good condition? Then it is time to start organizing paperwork and office supplies in your desk drawers. Empty Out Your Drawers: When you organize desk drawers a good starting point is emptying them out. Once your drawers are empty you can clean them out completely. Replace any worn or ripped drawer lining. Replace it

"None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody -- a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns -- bent down and helped pick us up by our boots." ~ Thurgood Marshall

How many of the following papers could you find in one minute? -Birth Certificate -Closing documents for your home or rental agreement -All supporting documents for taxes -Record of most recent subscription to a magazine or newspaper -Most recent social security statement By the way, that was one minute for all of the documents, not one minute per document! If you can't find at least one of those quickly, it's time to reorganize your files. It's a task few enjoy, but when it comes to important documents, you'll soon be glad you can find them easily and quickly.

Like many Americans you probably have to reinvent your self in this current economy. It means learning new coping skills and making business and lifestyle changes. It means maximizing the use of things you already own and sharpening your skill set to get a new job or retain your current job. The American stress level has not been this high since the Great Depression. Instead of putting your energy into worrying (a huge miss use of creative imagination), it's time to be proactive and focused. It's time to get back to the fundamentals.

The only constant thing in our lives is change. However, few people like -- much less love -- changing. There are many famous quotes about change, all conveying the same general message: that change is inevitable and scary, but good. Any time we make a change in life, whether we initiated that change or it was forced upon us, we have a choice to make: to embrace it, or fight it. But what about the process that’s involved in making that choice? The change process can be extremely difficult so here are some ideas to help you through it.

I heard a commercial on television asking “how will you be remembered”. I started thinking about that and things I remember about certain people in my life. From the time I was about 6 years old until I was 12 we would pick raspberries every hot summer in my uncle’s berry patch. The adults would chat back and forth as we made our way down the rows of prickly berries. The wife of my uncle who owned the berry patch didn’t work in the fields. She evidently was cleaning and de-cluttering her house.

Have you ever wondered how other people seem to get so much more done in a day than you do? Do you feel like you are working longer hours, yet never seem to complete a fraction of the items on your “ToDo” list? When was the last time you were so ahead of schedule that you weren’t quite sure ...

When people leave this world, they always leave a legacy. The legacy might be food, clothing or shelter for those less fortunate. It might be a building used to educate others. The legacy might be children who solve major world problems. These are the bigger legacies. The more obvious ones. Since we all leave a legacy, here are some of the less obvious ones: 1. The person who donated goods to a local soup kitchen each week. 2. Someone who consistently dropped off clothes & household items to a homeless shelter.

We spend so much time in our kitchens shouldn't they be free of clutter and be a place we want to be? How to get rid of clutter in the kitchen in 7 simple steps will lighten you kitchen and put a smile on your face. I was six the year Santa brought me a child's size white wooden cupboard. I can still remember Christmas morning when I saw this cupboard near the tree. It had shelves on top to hold my little tea sets, two drawers and a shelf on the bottom. There were little silver knobs on the doors. I fell in love with it immediately.

Tips For Successful Promotion of your Businesses Is there a way of determining a break–even point for promotion of a business? I’ve come across at least one. It’s a complex function, using “quadratics”. For those not mathematically inclined, that’s a function that looks like “r = -as2 + bs + c”, where r is the revenue generated, s is the “spend” on advertising and promotion (in tens of thousands of dollars), and the a, b, c are constants.

My belief as a professional organizer is that it takes a lot less energy and saves a lot more time when things have a designated place to "live" and it is tons better when those things live in a container in their home. I know everyone has containers in their home that won't cost them a single ...

Are you sick of searching for your slippers? Tired of tripping over piles of sandals on the floor of your closet? With a compact, convenient shoe organizer, you can keep all of your favorite shoes right at your fingertips and prevent delicate leather and fabrics from getting scuffed up and coated with dust. If you’re ready to whip your shoe collection into shape, shave minutes off your morning routine and make your living space more organized and serene, check out these amazing shoe organizers. Save as much closet space as possible by hanging a shoe holder over your closet door.

The other day, we went to a seminar with a number of clients, all business people. The speaker was very good: Everything he said was relevant; his jokes added to the content; his slides were never overdone, and his video snippets worked fine. Straight after the talk, we asked our clients what they thought about the content. All agreed that the material was great, fantastically on-topic, absolutely relevant to their needs in business. The seminar was worth the investment in time and money and would result in improving their businesses. We followed up a week or so later.

Life is a journey. Not just any journey, but the most fantastic journey in the universe. Life is a journey from where you are to where you want to be. You can choose your own destination. Not only that, you can choose how you are going to get there. Goal setting will help you end up where you ...

Wouldn’t you love to have the paper contract for your child’s school? You would be rich. Our kids bring home so much paper every day from school and we wonder what should we keep and where do we put it all? Here are wonderful tips from a mother of five who is a professional organizer. The paper kids bring home is in one of three categories: 1. Paper you must review—permission slips, requests for signatures/money etc. 2. Child’s art work 3.

If finding your cleaning supplies is sometimes more challenging than the cleaning tasks themselves, then perhaps it's time to get your supplies better organized. In some cases, finding an organizational strategy that works for your cleaning materials is simply a matter of convenience. However, in other cases finding a good storage solution is a matter of safety, especially in homes with small children or pets. If you want to streamline the cleaning tasks around your home by getting your supplies in better order, here are some organizational strategies to try. Read the Labels

When medical issues arise, it is customary to seek the services of a qualified physician or practitioner. When you do, you expect that practitioner to bring knowledge, expertise and experience to bear in assisting you with the issue. But when you do seek out such services, what are you expected to bring to the table? How can you best help your doctor help you?

Small Steps, Big Changesr We all deal with clutter, believe it or not. Yes, even that friend with the spotless home. She doesn’t appear to have clutter because she deals with clutter before it takes over her office, home — and life. But what about the rest of us, with overflowing closets, ready-to-topple piles of magazines or bottles or spices spread over three cupboards? The key is to tackle your decluttering step-by-step. A woman I know swears by the Wood Theory. It goes like this:r