Creating a vision
Whenever I start working with a client, we talk about the vision they have for the space. I’m not talking about specifics like furniture placement. I want to know what the client is hoping to experience in the room, the feeling that she wants to get from the space. I ask the client to close her eyes and really feel it.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: decluttering· focus· motivation· productivity
I hate breaking the chain!
My point: I didn’t clear off my desk yesterday before ending the work day. The reason is that end of the work day didn’t involve my desk. But still, it was a shock to arrive at my desk this morning and see some clutter on it. The worse part is that it was very little clutter—it would have literally taken about 60 seconds or less to put everything away.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: accountability· clean desk· desk· don't break the chain· ikea· motivation· sally brown
Organizing Playground: Blog of the Week
This week’s blog of the week is actually a podcast (though it does have a blog associated with it). Organizing Playground is a weekly radio show out of Atlanta hosted by professional organizers Allison Carter and Sara Fisher.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: blog of the week· blogs· organizing playground
Organizing my yarn collection and knitting supplies
Yesterday I posted about my new Elfa drawer system which now stores my yarn and knitting needles. Here are the specs: I purchased three 10-runner drawer frames (41 inches high) and platinum mesh baskets with platinum tops over the whole thing. I have three sets of drawers—two medium and two wide. The way I configured my set, I have 16 drawers to work with, 3 one-runner (shallow), 12 two-runner (medium) and one three-runner (deep).
Filed under: Organizing Knitting || Tagged with: circular needles· elfa· knitting needles· learn to knit afghan· storage· wips· yarn
Better living through Elfa
As I’ve blogged about before, I’m a knitter and I love organizing all my knitting stuff. There’s yarn, needles, notions, patterns. They fall into nice categories and they’re pretty. So they’re fun to organize.
Filed under: Organizing Knitting || Tagged with: knitting· knitting needles· wips· yarn
Decisions
Many of my clients have a difficult time making decisions. That’s not too surprising, since most of my clients are dealing with clutter issues and clutter is all about delayed decisions.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: decisions· decluttering· ikea· sally brown
The week of barely being home
I’ve devoted an extraordinary amount of time this week to my vision. I spent all day Monday looking for my old glasses before my eye appointment (and I never found them). Between Monday and today, I’ve been to the eyeglass place three times. I got new glasses (progressive trifocals…I’m officially middle aged), as well as new prescription sunglasses. I’m on my second pair of regular glasses. I love Lenscrafters 30-day satisfaction guarantee. I think these will actually work out well. I must say, it’s nice to see well again!!
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: ikea· time management
Jeri's Organizing and Decluttering News: BOTW
This week’s blog of the week is the fabulous product-driven website by Bay Area PO, Jeri Dansky. Jeri is absolutely amazing at ferreting out different types of products in a category.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: blog of the week· blogs· jeri dansky· purse
You know it's time to focus on organizing...
...when you can’t find stuff. The universe is putting me squarely in the shoes of my clients today. I’ve spend much of the day trying to find things. And so far, I’m having no luck!
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: clutter· decluttering· productivity
Here's quite a list of blogs
If you’re a blogophile and love reading about productivity and organizing, have I got a list for you. It’s The Top 100 Productivity and Lifehack Blogs from College Degree.com which offers online college degrees.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: blogs· productivity
For you Sharpie lovers...
...and you know who you are. I haven’t met an organizer yet who doesn’t love Sharpie permanent markers. The way they write on anything and don’t wipe off. It’s heaven.
The other day I was in Office Max and a display caught my eye. There it was. The Sharpie Pen.
Filed under: Ranting-and-Raving Organizing || Tagged with: sharpie· tools
Lifehacker: Blog of the Week
This week I have to extoll the virtues of Lifehacker. It’s a fabulous combination of high- and low-tech tips on enhancing productivity and customizing things to make them a little more to your liking.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: blog of the week· blogs· lifehacker· productivity
Keeping going
Yesterday I blogged about overcoming the reluctance to get started on a task, citing Mark Forster’s tip on fooling your reactive mind. Today, I’d like to share some of Forster’s advice about keeping going on tasks once you’ve started.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: 15 minutes· mark forster· productivity· time management
Getting started
Do you ever have items on your to-do list that just loom there? You know you need to do them, you think about doing them, but you just can’t get going on it?
Sometimes, you just need to get started and once you overcome the resistance and do the task, it turns out that it’s not so bad. This happens to me all the time. I build up tasks in my mind, thinking they’re going to take forever, then they take no time at all.
Filed under: Living Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: 15 minutes· mark forster· procrastination· productivity· time management
A couple more free services for your cell phone
I love David Pogue, the technology columnist for the New York Times. Sometimes what he writes is over my head, but often I get great nuggets of information. I share his love of the MacBook, so I feel warm and fuzzy toward him.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: david pogue· jott· productivity· technology· time management
Organizing LA: Blog of the Week
As promised, on Wednesdays I’ll be presenting a Blog of the Week, to share with you my favorite organizing blogs. (Or at least I assume they’ll all be organizing blogs.)
This week’s blog is Los Angeles-based organizer John Trosko’s Organizing LA Blog.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: blog of the week· blogs· john trosko· organizing la
Just fifteen minutes
I’m constantly amazed at what can be accomplished in just 15 minutes. I often advise my clients (and I do this myself) to set a timer for 15 minutes and focus on one task: decluttering, filing, sorting, etc. As long as they keep going until that timer dings, they’ll get a good amount done. It’s astounding what can get done in such a small amount of time. (As an aside, that’s one of the ways I use my beloved Time Timer.)
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: 15 minutes· big picture· focus· mark forster· productivity· time management· time timer
Weekend update
On Friday I blogged about how I hoped to focus on decluttering in the coming weekend and that I was experiencing the rare and delightful confluence of having time for this kind of work and feeling motivated to do it.
I have to say, it went well. In Friday’s post, I listed the projects I hoped to accomplish:
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: accountability· decluttering· disorder· storage
