Browse Organizing and Learning How to Organize

Ordering delivery and going out to eat are always great ways to treat yourself. When you have had a tough week at the office sometimes the last thing you want to do is settle down to cook a big meal. Having someone else make your dinner can be a fantastic way to just relax. But cooking for yourself can also serve as a fantastic stress-reliever. The simple and calming process of chopping vegetables and getting creative in the kitchen can do wonders to take your mind off of your busy lifestyle.

Nowhere is it more important for parents to provide a safe, clean environment than in the kitchen. Since it’s the heart of the home, you want it to be serene and comfortable, as well as sanitary since that’s where most meals are prepared and eaten. If you’re a busy parent, you may worry that you haven’t taken the time to properly sanitize the kitchen. But don’t fear. With these quick solutions you can catch up on cleanliness and keep it that way. Start with an easy formula for a basic kitchen cleaning product that can be used on countertops and appliances.

One of the questions most frequently asked of a professional organizer is “How do I deal with the papers that need to be filed in my home?” An example is an email I received today from a lady asking for me for help with her filing. She stated that she had taken the day off to catch up on her ...

Systematic thinking lets you solve problems and difficulties by coming up with workable and practical solutions whether in life, career or business. Though, a topic regarding systematic thinking is very much related and relevant to this discussion we would focus on how every person could enhance the habit of thinking systematically. Thinking systematically is an endless and unending process and it could in fact start at any age. However, starting very early is all the more be

Part 1: HoardingnI define “organized” as having easy-to-use-and-maintain systems which enable productivity and serenity. These systems are applied to both possessions and activities. Over the years, I’ve witnessed five extreme behavior patterns which cause people anxiety in ...

I love getting thank you notes. I like reading what my friends have to say about the gift or service I have done for them. I like the beauty of the cards and I love getting “good” mail. The fact that my friends took the time to write me a note makes me feel important.

I am the worst offender when it comes to disorganizing our garage. I know I am not the only offender in the family. Even though I am a professional organizer and I know better I am really good at doing a number on our garage. I routinely organize it twice a year. Once in the spring before it gets too hot and in the fall before it gets too cold. Each year it takes less time for me to get it organized because I have places for everything and mostly I just have to put things in their place.

Awhile ago I saw a sign with these words: Simplify, Simplify, Simplify. Someone had crossed off the first two words. I had to chuckle. Just simplify. In my role as a professional organizer I have been working with a woman who has had no less than 6 deaths of close family members (including a young daughter and her parents all within 18 months). She received a great out pouring of love and things from her friends which actually created a burden for her.

“I don’t know how things got to this point. I used to be so organized.” I hear this lament all the time. People who had no trouble keeping their stuff under control in their 20s one day wake up with “junk rooms” and piles that need to be stashed before company arrives. What happened? Do people start out organized and suddenly become unorganized? No. Clutter creeps in over time. Life events (getting married, having children, moving, and changing/starting jobs) affect both home and office. Organization changes as we age.

Traveling is fun and takes us away from our "normal" lives but it can be frustrating if you don't have the right documents with you when you need them. Learn what documents you need when you travel and how to quickly organize them by using these 5 proven organizing tips.

Being an effective business owner can start by adding these seven habits of highly effective people to your business organizing efforts. If you can incorporate these seven elements into your work life you will be an effective employee or business owner. Have a Plan When you have a plan you can focus on the priorities in your day. Have you heard the 80/20 rule? Simply put 80 percent of your results come from 20 percent of your efforts. Put your effort into things that are ACTUALLY important, and watch the results. Plan Your Day, Week, and Month

"You can't fix it if you don't know what's broken." That expression is particularly fitting if you're trying to get or stay organized.

It's the beginning of a completely new year and people are making resolutions. One of the very common kinds for home owners can be to declutter their house. Most individuals are pretty serious about this, but yet along with the New Year's diet regime resolution, eagerness as well as perseverance begin to dwindle and now the house will be as cluttered as always. It's time to break the pattern! These instructions won't just assist you to declutter the home, but ensure that it s

If you pride yourself on your jewelry collection, then you need to make sure you store it where you can find it. Today’s jewelry organizers can keep the smallest to the largest jewelry collections well organized and, most importantly, visible, so you don’t forget about what you have. When it comes time to pick out the right earrings, necklace or ring, you will know right where to look. Organization

The puddles on the sidewalks are growing and snow is slowly disappearing, the calendar confirms our suspicions that spring is just around the corner. Spring cleaning is a seasonal custom that brings us more than a clean home, it helps us embrace the new season, brings in the fresh air, and helps end the long cold winter. These ten tips will help you refocus on home organization and revive your entire home. 1. Stay Safe: Change the batteries in each of your fire and carbon mo

As I work with families as a professional organizer whose loved ones have moved out of their homes either to a retirement center, nursing home, care center or are deceased I increasingly see what a burden their loved ones possessions are to the families in charge of taking care of these ...

TEN EASY-TO-DO ORGANIZING TIPS Organizing your life and creating habits doesn't have to be a major overhaul, it can be simple steps that you perform everyday that can make a difference. Here are a few of my favorites that help to make my life easier: 1. Every time you fill your car up with gas, take the time to empty the trash out of your car and use the trash container beside the gas pump. 2. Every room needs to have a waste basket and this includes the master closet and even the laundry room (to throw away price tags and drycleaner bags).r

Getting rid of clutter just got easier by usingthese 2 tried and true ways to manage your time and get rid of clutter. If youthink you don’t have enough hours in the day try these for 10 days ans find outwhat a big difference they make.

Summer is just around the corner, and if you want to be ready to host your friends and family with that perfect barbecue, you should get started soon! There are many ways to get your backyard ready, and when it comes to prioritizing them, your personal situation should to be taken into account. ...

Your worst nightmare may include a mountain of dirty laundry and a closet-sized laundry room. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but a poorly organized laundry room can sometimes make you feel like that’s what you are up against. With an efficient and well-organized laundry room, the endless task of laundry can become a task that you really don’t mind. With everything at your fingertips, wash day can become a wash hour or two. Hampers

It is difficult enough for one person to be organized and maintain that state of organization on a daily basis. Now imagine being thrust into a living situation with a person you have never met before, who is not a relative or even a friend. A person with different sleeping, grooming, eating, ...

John is a busy, self-employed, plumbing contractor. His business keeps him in the field five to six days a week, so the only time he has to take care of paperwork is in the evenings and on weekends. He shares his home office with his wife, who works outside the home, but manages the household ...

If you're like many people, you've used tools like a household chores checklist to try and improve the organization in your home, but have been disappointed in the results. There can be many reasons for this, but one of the most common is believing in the magical powers of charts and checklists. Sad to say...but there is no magic! Chores and checklists don't have any power to change a household on their own. It's a little like lovingly displaying a hammer on the ground of a

It was during my third season filming Hoarders. I was asked to fly to a bustling Midweste town to work with a woman who hoards toys (for kids who’ve long grown up), clothes (that no longer fit), and more than a dozen goats, several dogs, a bunch of chickens and roosters, a few cats, and a couple of birds. The woman, Maybelline, lives on a lovely manicured street and owns a large parcel of land, which, because of an old zoning law, allows for farm animals. Nearby suburban neighbors don’t approve of Maybelline’s hoard and don’t like the look of her property.

Well, summer is finally here, and for many people, that means vacation time! Whether you plan to drive, fly, or travel by other means (a cruise, perhaps?), planning ahead will help your travel experience go off without a hitch. I not only love to travel, I love to plan to travel. I can spend hours researching locales and lodging choices, preparing itineraries, packing, etc. Therefore, it seems only fitting to share some of my well-honed travel planning tips so that you can benefit from my travel planning addiction, and enjoy an organized travel experience.

Have you ever tried to improve something around your home using a chore chart or similar device? For example, have you ever gotten exasperated at one (or all) of your children for not helping out around the house and decided to post a chore schedule to remedy the situation? And did that scenario work out for you? If you're like many, many parents, the answer is a loud "NO". For a few of you, the answer is a firm "yes." What's the difference? The difference lies in unders

No matter what the size of your kitchen, it is very common for countertops and cabinets to become cluttered with items that make it impossible to whip up a meal and clean-up efficiently and effectively. This inevitably leads to more and more clutter that eventually becomes completely unmanageable. Thankfully, there are a variety of clever organizers available to restore order to the madness so you can reclaim your kitchen.

In a perfect world there would not be a need to assign seats for a wedding or reception, but since we live in this one assigned seating is needed. There was an actual survey done by “YOUGOSURVEY” that asked this simple question and an astounding 51% of the people actually preferred to attend events where they have a specific seat assigned to them. Although having people seat themselves sounds great it never really works out at a wedding. The people will be milling about w

If you have a big jewelry collection, you probably enjoy having so many accessory options every single day. But the downside of a growing jewelry collection is that it can be so easy to lose track of small pieces and keep everything neat and tidy. The secret to enjoying your collection is organization. There are countless ways to organize your jewelry. Whatever system you select – and no matter the size of your collection – be consistent. If it’s a small collection, keep it visible.

As the colder weather approaches, it eventually becomes time to take your bulky winter coats and other winter wardrobe items out of storage. When this happens, many families struggle with how to store them in a convenient and yet space-efficient manner. Because these items are bulkier than summer clothing items, the result is often over-stuffed closets and a general lack of storage space. If it's time to make your seasonal wardrobe switch, here are a few ideas that can make the entire process easier and a lot less frustrating. Organizing Coats

If you get distracted easily and/or don’t have a lot of time to devote to organizing your home or office, the 15-minutes-a-day approach may be a good solution for you. You may think that you don’t have an extra 15 minutes each day to devote purely to organizing, but you probably waste more time than that everyday searching for things! The fact is that you will never "find" time. If you want time, you have to make it. So make time now to save time later.

Organizing your closet is one of the most difficult tasks one can perform around the house. You may be in too much of a hurry in the morning to worry about neatness, and you may not have enough energy in the evening to care if your clothes are neatly folded or on the right hanger. More often than not, your goal is to get from one thing to the next as quickly as possible. The problem here is that over time, when you treat your closet like this, it creates a mess.

Running “lean” is an important method that can maximize every resource of your business. It shortens the product development cycles and helps the business run more efficiently by continuously measuring the business progress and considering feedback. Business plans require rapid changes and fact-based decision making. It definitely is hard work and hard thinking but, the outcomes are profitable. Here are a few important things you can follow to help grow your business without wasting on time and resources:

I love watching the Olympics and the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver have been no exception. When one of the experienced cross country skiers fell and slipped into a ravine and hurt herself the commentator said he “just couldn’t write this stuff”. It was the first time I have ever seen such a fall. I cross country ski because I love skiing but am afraid of heights so I can’t go downhill skiing. I am in awe of the athletics that just zip down those hills with no fear or race on those tiny skating blades.

"Home is the nicest word there is." Laura Ingalls Wilder How would you like to live in the peaceful, organized envirnoment you deserve, learn to maintain your space easily, and focus on what is really important to you? With some clear guidance, this doesn't have to be complicated. Here are some simple steps to follow: 1. SET ASIDE TIME: Set aside at least several hours for each room that you tackle. You can also start by takling on just a small area at a time - even just a part of a room. Having a small success will set the ball in motion to accomplish bigger goals.

Are you thinking about downsizing to move to a smaller home? You can downsize even if you don’t plan on moving. Reducing the amount of possessions on a regular basis will help avoid the physical exertion and emotional trauma of doing it all at once. Are you living in a home that has become too large for you and it is harder to go up and down the stairs? Are you afraid of getting rid of things because you are afraid you’ll be getting rid of your memories? Clearing the clutter from a house you’ve lived in for years can seem like an impossible or overwhelming task.

It can be hard to let go of things and get rid of clutter. Clutter becomes overwhelming when we hold on to things we don’t need or use. Here are 7simple tips to help you decide effortlessly what to let go and what to keep when organizing your home.

Do you ever have trouble ending a telephone conversation? Do you need to speak to someone but worry because it always turns into a long drawn out conversation on topics you would rather not speak about? Do people come in your office and you can't get them to leave? Do your meetings run too long and get off track? Some conversations don't just end naturally they need to be closed or disengaged. The following are ways to take back control of your time and disengage from those conversations that are not going where you would like them to go. Politely disengage: 1.

Ah, procrastination. Most people experience it at one time or another. Procrastination can be a deep-seated problem involving fear of failure or success, or a natural result of overload. Regardless of why you are experiencing procrastination, there are ways to overcome it! How you choose to overcome procrastination depends on the task involved, the people involved, and the underlying reason for the procrastination. Take a look at the following strategies, and see which help conquer your procrastination the next time it rears its ugly head. Get Started

It’s easy for clutter to accumulate throughout your home. Especially in households with large families, it can be hard to maximize your storage space and find room for everything your family needs. Over time, closets and other storage areas can be taken over with clutter. When your closets aren’t organized, your living space can start to feel noticeably smaller. But you don’t have to surrender to the clutter battle. Getting your closets organized is one of the best ways to increase your overall living space.

Do you share space with a loved one and find it challenging at times because you have very different organizing or time management styles? I have a number of women and men who call asking for organizing help frustrated with their spouse/significant other's habits. When I enter the situation, many times it's a bit tense because the "unorganized one" feels judged and harassed and the "organized one" can't understand their love's plight and seeming resistance to being "more organized".

While listening doesn't sound like something required to organize, it actually is an important part of reaching your organizing goals.

I'm excited! For decades, Jeremiah 29:11 has been a guiding principle for my entrepreneurial journey. It reads, "I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." To me, that means the possibilities are endless, even when things don’t look so good on the outside. In fact, with the advent of Covid-19, we are seeing new opportunities for our company, our clients, and the world! One of them is the possibi

When I am conducting an organizing, time management or business related workshop, I often ask if anyone has heard of the Pareto Principle. I usually get a room full of blank stares. However, if I ask if anyone has heard of the 80/20 Rule, many people nod their heads yes, and have a better idea what I am talking about. The Pareto Principle takes its name from a 19th century Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto. In the late 1940s, business management guru Joseph M.

Easily the biggest piece of furniture in the room, the bed can have a profound impact on both the health of its occupants and the quality of the relationship of a couple. It is important to consider the comfort of the mattress and the history of the mattress and bed frame. Your bed should be utterly comfortable. You hopefully spend six to eight hours in it, about one third of each day, and if it’s comfortable, you will rest well and feel good. If it is not comfortable, too

Similar to organizing your garage, sometimes finding ways to store all of the items in your kitchen can be a difficult task as well. Organizing your cabinets, drawers, and refrigerator are crucial steps to getting your kitchen in order. Refrigerators and cabinets hold a certain amount of space that can be wasted if not utilized properly. There are organizational products you can invest in that will enable you to properly use all of the space you are given.

I have worked with many clients over the years to organize after the loss of a loved one. Living in the greater NY metropolitan area, I helped many 9-11 widows and widowers organize after losing a loved one in the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. It is an emotionally draining process. My best advice is to take it slow and go at your own pace. After the death of a loved one, some people are tempted to sift through belongings and make decisions quickly. If this feels natural to you, fine (consider checking with a grief counselor before moving too quickly through the process).

"I believe in opening mail once a month, whether it needs it or not." Bob Considine Close your eyes. Imagine coming home from a three week vacation. Notice how big the pile of mail that awaits you is. How do you feel as you contemplate having to deal with it? Feel some resistance? After learning ‘Sasha’s Six Steps for Bringing in the Mail’, I guarantee you’ll feel better about it. Sound good? Okay, then here’s what you need: • A shredder • Three/four tiered horizontal filing tray • Datebook – paper or electronic • Pen and highlighter rnr

When I was a little girl I always knew when fall was here. After school we would skip and walk and dawdle down to the local grocery store where we would pick out the biggest pomegranate we could find. That is the only time of the year we could buy them. Back then there was no such thing as pomegranate juice, frozen pomegranates or as far as I know recipes using them. I remember biting into that big ball being careful not to let the juice get on my blouse. My friends and I would pick out the seeds one by one and laugh as we stuck out our bright red tongues at each other.

One of the best ways to boost productivity of your organization is by following the ‘lean’ path. The very soul of a lean principle is to maximize production and at the same time bring down the wastage of resources. In short, lean transformation is geared towards building more values for your customers, but with fewer resources. So How Do You Take the Lean Journey? Though managers across various business verticals are mostly skeptic about venturing into the lean path, lean transformation does not demand much from organizations.