Snowed in?
Here in St. Louis, we have just a little snow on the ground, with a little more expected this afternoon. Those of you on the east coast, however, are pretty much snowed in. I just communicated via email with a friend in Maryland who said they got two feet of snow and were out of power for 36 hours. Yikes.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: cats, clutter clearing, disorder, dogs, snow, weather
Follow up Friday
I wanted to update you on a few recent blog posts:
- There’s still time to enter to win The Other Side of Organized: Finding Balance Between Chaos and Perfection, the fabulous new book by my friend Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®. You can read the review on Wednesday’s blog post. To enter, either comment on that post or this one, and/or tweet about it on Twitter (being sure to put @janinea in the tweet so I’ll see it).
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: aby garvey, container store, declutter happy hour, elfa, linda samuels, napo la, napo st. louis, shannon wilkinson, shred and protect
The Other Side of Organized: a review and giveaway
My friend and fellow organizer, Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, has just published a fabulous new book called The Other Side of Organized: Finding Balance Between Chaos and Perfection. She sent me a copy for review and at the end of this post I’ll tell you how you can enter to receive a copy too.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: books, giveaway, linda samuels
Has your shredding piled up?
Shredding is so important. I’m often shocked when I meet new clients to learn that they don’t own a shredder. They think tearing up sensitive documents is sufficient. Then I’ll share with them a little experiment done on one of the morning shows that a client told me about. They took a credit card offer and tore it up. Then they taped it back together, photocopied it, filled it out and got the credit card. To me, that’s proof enough that shredding is essential. Identity theft is too devastating to mess with.
Filed under: Organizing Resources || Tagged with: identity theft, napo st. louis, paper management, shannon zipoy, shred and protect, shredders
How's 2010 looking for you?
January is almost over (already). As I’ve blogged about before, for the last couple of years I’ve been trying to add one big habit per year that will help me be happier and more productive. In 2008, it was clearing my desk at the end of the workday. In 2009 it was whittling my email inbox down to 15 or fewer messages every day. I’m going gangbusters on both of those.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: declutter happy hour, empowerment, goals, habits, routines, shannon wilkinson, teleclasses, telephone coaching
Salvaging the day
My standard poodle, Pip, is out of sorts today. She keeps coming up to me to ask for something. I feed her and she doesn’t eat. I let her out and she doesn’t want to come in (which is unusual, since it’s a very blustery day). It appears she wants something, but doesn’t know what. And she’s having a little trouble getting comfortable.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: productivity, time management
An interesting take on email
Staying on top of email is a perpetual challenge for most people. There’s a midground between letting it be a distraction and letting it pile up. I’ve worked out a system that works for me, actually allowing me to get to the elusive inbox zero last week (though I was up to 15 when I closed up shop last night).
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: email, marissa bracke
A satisfying apology
Several years ago, a book called A Perfect Mess was published. I mentioned it on my blog right before it was published. In a nutshell, the book’s premise is that mess is good and that an obsession for order can be detrimental.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: anti anticlutter, clutter, napo
Why resolutions don't work (and how to get what you want anyway)
Where are you on the New Year’s Resolution Continuum?
Filed under: Organizing Resources || Tagged with: declutter happy hour, empowerment, goals, shannon wilkinson, teleclasses, telephone coaching
Past, present and future
I was re-reading Judith Kolberg’s excellent book, Conquering Chronic Disorganization
Filed under: Organizing || Tagged with: elfa, judith kolberg, paper management, paper piles
Elfa sale!
The Container Store is having its annual sale on Efla shelving, drawers and other products. Through February 15, 2010, you receive 30 percent off of Elfa products and installation.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: container store, elfa, organizing products
Inbox zero, baby
As I mentioned in my blog post called email liberation, I embarked in 2009 on a goal of having fewer than 15 messages left in my email inbox at the end of each work day. It’s worked out very well.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: email
My favorite blog posts of 2009
I wrote just over 150 blog posts in 2009. Last week, I clicked through them and picked out some of my favorites to share with you in this post. The first go-around, I selected 24. But I figure that’s more than you care to see in one post. So I’ve cut that number in half.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: blogging, declutter happy hour, decluttering, emotions, fear, hiring a po, nanowrimo
A side benefit to being a blogger
I just got finished reading through my blog posts for 2009, in an effort to put together a post about my favorite blog posts of the year. (That’ll come later in the week.)
Filed under: Ranting-and-Raving Organizing || Tagged with: blogging, blogs, cats, encouragement, goals, twitter
One year at a time
I’ve written here before about the importance of habits and routines to make your life easier. I call it automating your life. Over the past couple of years, I’ve created some habits which have helped me maintain order around my home and office. (This is huge, because I’m a naturally messy person.)
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: aby garvey, clean desk, flylady, habits, routines
Gift-giving mash up
I haven’t managed to write a post this year about holiday gift giving, so I thought I’d do it today before it’s really too late. I started looking back on the posts I’ve written in the past about gift giving (this is my fourth Christmas as a blogger) and realized that I’ve written some pretty good stuff. So rather than reinvent the wheel, I’m going to point you to some past articles as well as some stuff written by others.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: bobbi nesladek, etsy, gift giving, jeri dansky, naomi dunford, silvercreek glider club
Choices, choices
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: decisions, exercise, scientific american
Letting the holiday cards be easy
Yesterday I typed one of my favorite phrases, one that I learned from Supercoach Michael Neill. That phrase is “Why is it so hard to let it be easy?” I printed it out in a pretty font and posted it to my bulletin board. I want letting things be easy to be my theme for this month.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: cards, ease, holidays, self-care
St. Louisans: A chance to turn your unwanted items into art!
This weekend is the Big Ass Indie Art and Craft Show a big craft show in St. Louis being held at Mad Art Gallery on 2727 South 12th Street. It starts Friday evening and runs all day Saturday and ends Sunday at 3 pm. Personally, I love craft shows. I so admire the craftiness, artistry, and enterprise of the people who sell things there.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: crafts, creative people, decluttering, donations, recycling
New packages!
I’ve changed the way I offer my pricing for my organizing services and I’m really excited about it. Starting today, I’m offering packages that are geared to different situations and include helpful additional products. In the past, I’ve charged a flat fee for my initial assessment and charged by the hour for everything else.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: decluttering, packages, pricing, products, services
The big thing I'm thankful for
I started to write a blog post like those I’ve written on Thanksgivings past about the things I’m grateful for. Gratitude is so important, and I absolutely love that we have a national holiday devoted to it.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: gratitude
Help for the holidays
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m really lucky because we never host Thanksgiving dinner, so Thanksgiving isn’t a holiday I have to get ready for. My husband even does the cooking for our contribution to dinner. But I know I’m unusual. Many people are looking around their houses this week, thinking of what they have to do to whip it into shape for guests.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: declutter happy hour, decluttering, holidays, quick clutter fix, shannon wilkinson
Thumbs up for new book: Unclutter Your Life in One Week
Erin Doland, the editor-in-chief of the great blog Unclutterer has come out with a new book, Unclutter Your Life in One Week
Filed under: Ranting-and-Raving Organizing || Tagged with: decluttering, erin doland, unclutterer
I've hung up the car phone
I got into a minor traffic accident on Interstate 44 at the end of September. I had passed someone on the left just as another person passed that car on the right, and we merged into the center lane, in front of the slow-moving car, at the same time. There were no injuries and my car wasn’t even damaged (though the other driver’s car was, slightly).
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: ipod, productivity
Why I love Twitter
November 12 was the one-year anniversary of my signing up for Twitter. I have to admit that it took a little persuading on the part of my friend Shannon Wilkinson to get me to sign up. I didn’t get the concept and I thought it would be a mindless time suck. I had the rationale that I’ve heard time and time again from people who don’t understand Twitter that I didn’t care to read about the minutiae of other people’s lives, nor was I interested in writing about my own.
Filed under: Ranting-and-Raving Organizing || Tagged with: shannon wilkinson, twitter
Guest post on Gimundo.com
I have the honor of being a guest blogger today at Gimundo, the popular good-news-only website and enewsletter. My post is on staying sane and organized around Thanksgiving guests.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: guest post, holidays
The disruptive nature of disorder
I’ve always been open on this blog about how things can get out of control in my house. Even though I have homes for almost all of my things (which isn’t to say there aren’t storage areas that need to be weeded out…I’ll be blogging more about that in coming weeks), I have a hard time putting stuff away. And when things get busy? Forget about it.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: clutter, disorder, time management
The novel writing proceeds...
…which explains why the blog writing has dropped off a little. I’m very excited that I’ve been able to work on my novel-in-a-month piece of fiction each day since November 1.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: deadlines, declutter happy hour, decluttering, goals, nanowrimo, shannon wilkinson, writing
It's like the Oscars for organizers
The Los Angeles chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers has established the Los Angeles Organizing Awards—our industry’s equivalent of the Oscars. If I’m not mistaken this year is fifth year for the awards, a gala event held in January. They seem to gain in prestige every year.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: aby garvey, denslow brown, napo la, napo st. louis
An easy way to sell books
In my life, books can be a big source of clutter. For a number of years, I was the book review columnist for Dog World magazine, and books would come pouring into my home on a regular basis. I’ve been decluttering my bookshelves for a couple of years now.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: books, decluttering, powell's books
Getting back on task
Over the past ten months I’ve written here about my love of the task-management system Autofocus a lot. I do love it. I’ll let you click on the links and learn about it, but, in a nutshell, it involves one long, bound to-do list upon which you dump all your tasks, in no order, and work through it in a particular fashion. There’s no prioritizing, no rewriting the list.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, productivity, time management, to-do list
Declutter Happy Hour Thanksgiving special!
I can’t believe Thanksgiving is just around the corner. I love Thanksgiving. And I’m really lucky because Thanksgiving doesn’t mean work for me. We’ve had turkey on the fourth Thursday of November every year since 1988 at the home of dear friends. My husband cooks our contribution. All I have to do is show up and eat. (And contribute to conversation.)
Filed under: Organizing || Tagged with: clutter, company, declutter happy hour, decluttering, holidays, shannon wilkinson
Stop the stashing
If clutter is an issue in your life, the prospect of having a dinner guest or houseguest can be panic-inducing. (Flylady calls it living in CHAOS, or Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome.)
Filed under: Organizing Resources || Tagged with: clutter, company, declutter happy hour, decluttering, quick clutter fix, shannon wilkinson
Standards of clutter
Since I specialize in working with chronically disorganized people, I’ve seen a lot of clutter. I’ve worked in homes so full of stuff they were inhabitable (literally).
But I’ve also been hired to do consultations for people for whom there was no visible clutter, at least at first glance. Yet those folks made the effort to schedule an appointment and paid me to advise them on how to deal with stuff that was bothering them. To my eye, it was small, easily addressable stuff. But to them it was a problem. (I always have to remind myself never to trivialize someone’s problem.)
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: chronic disorganization, clutter, disorder, napo st. louis, order, perfectionism, unclutterer
Why training and credentials matter
I just earned a credential I’m really proud of. I’m now a Certified Professional Organizer in Chronic Disorganization®, a certification conferred by the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganizaton.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: board of certified professional organizers, cpo, cpo-cd, geralin thomas, nsgcd, training
Thank goodness for houseguests
I have a friend visiting this weekend and I’m very excited. I met Patti back in 1983, when I was a college intern at her office. She was in her early 30s, a real grown up. After graduation, I went to work for that organization (the Population Reference Bureau) and our friendship grew. Though we haven’t worked together in over 20 years, we’ve remained friends.
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: company, friendship, order
Off to Los Angeles
I leave in an hour or so to fly to Los Angeles to attend the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization’s annual conference I love this conference and have gone every year since I became an organizer.
Filed under: Organizing || Tagged with: cpo-cd, nsgcd, travel
Beauty vs. function
I leave near a heavily trafficked thoroughfare in St. Louis that has a big median down the middle. A couple of years ago, volunteers from the neighborhood decided to beautify the street by planting large decorative plants in the median. It looks lovely.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: beauty, function, organizing principles, organizing systems
Baby Steps: The Best-Kept Secret to Accomplishing Anything
The true secret to getting anything done — particularly something that can feel overwhelming like decluttering — is to break it down into small bites and to keep working on it. When I received this article from performer, songwriter, and creativity consultant Christine Kane in my email yesterday, I knew I had to share it with you. It comes from her newsletter, Live Creative, and I’m reprinting it with permission.
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: christine kane, decluttering, productivity
New organizing resource: Videos from Organizing Connection
There are so many ways to learn. Personally, I’m an auditory learner so I love audio. To me, the perfect info product comes in the form of downloadable calls or teleclasses I can listen to on my iPod Touch.
But many people are visual learners and seeing what is being taught is very helpful to them. That’s why I’m so excited about the new video learning opportunities being offered by my friends at Organizing Connection.
Filed under: Organizing Resources || Tagged with: closets, decluttering, organizing connection, organizing products, organizing resources
Are you watching "Hoarders"?
I’m hooked on A&E Television’s hit documentary series, Hoarders. When I first heard about it (when it was in the production phase), red flags went up. I was afraid the program wouldn’t be respectful to the hoarders who were featured on the show. Or they’d offer unrealistic portrayals or quick fixes.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: brenden mcdaniel, david tolin, dorothy breininger, geralin thomas, hoarders, hoarding, matt paxton, television
Facing down the fears lurking in the clutter
As Shannon and I discuss in Declutter Happy Hour, sometimes people don’t want to work on clutter because it’s just plain scary.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: clutter, declutter happy hour, decluttering, emotions, empowerment, fear, procrastination, shannon wilkinson
Getting things done with Autofocus
I’ve written quite a bit about Autofocus, the task-management system invented by my favorite time-management guru, Mark Forster. The original Autofocus debuted on January 5, 2009. I was an eager beta tester and became an enthusiastic user.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, productivity, time management
New uses for old things
My favorite feature of Real Simple magazine has always been the section where they offer new uses for common things. I subscribe to Real Simple’s Weekly Tips and today’s edition offered a bonanza: 50 All-Time Favorite New Uses for Old Things.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: real simple, repurposing
An exciting time for organisers in Australasia
I just love spending time with professional organizers. I love going to the NAPO conference and the conference of the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization, which I’ll be attending in just a few weeks. They’re a great way to meet colleagues and become inspired, excited and motivated.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: aapo, australia, goals, wendy davie
A very long (but exciting!) trip
I’m kind of nerdily excited because I’m writing (and will be posting) this blog post while on an airplane. In the air. My American Airlines flight to Los Angeles has WiFi. I wish I could say it was free, but they did give us a coupon for 25 percent off, so it’s only $6 to use WiFi for the duration of the flight.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: aapo, australia, family, travel
Guest post on Unclutterer
Last week, I had a guest post on Unclutterer, a blog I link to frequently here, and which I admire so much. I’m absolutely thrilled to be included there.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: guest post, unclutterer
Set your DVRs - New "Hoarders" series debuts Monday
I’m really excited to watch the new documentary series on A&E Television called Hoarders, which debuts on Monday at 10/9 central on A&E. My good friend, Geralin Thomas, a fabulous organizer in Cary, N.C., is one of the organizers featured on the show. In Monday’s episode, she’s seen helping Jennifer Miller, a mother of three whose husband is also a hoarder.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: david tolin, geralin thomas, hoarders, hoarding, television
Back to school organizing (featuring Peter Walsh and a giveaway!)
I’m not a parent, so the phrase “back to school” hasn’t meant a lot to me since I was actually in school, a long time ago. But I realize for a lot of parents, the beginning of the school year brings along mixed emotions, including worries about getting/keeping kids organized with their school day and school work.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: giveaway, office max, peter walsh, students
Organizing to go Down Under
I am so excited. Three weeks from today I fly to Brisbane, Australia. While I’m there, I’ll be attending the Australasian Association of Professional Organisers annual conference. I’m one of the presenters at the two-day conference. I’ll be speaking about using the internet to work with clients all over the world.
Filed under: Organizing Speaking || Tagged with: aapo, australia, travel
Brand-new, revised instructions for Autofocus
I’ve written in some detail about time-management guru Mark Forster’s new task-management system, called Autofocus. I’m a giant fan.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, time management, to-do list
Everything in its (cyber)place
The adage may seem tired, but it’s true. To maintain order, you need to
1. have a place for everything and then
2. put everything in its place.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: computer, disorder
Guest post on I'm an Organizing Junkie today
I am absolutely delighted to be a guest blogger on the popular blog, I’m an Organizing Junkie today. My post is on one of my favorite topics, creating routines to help maintain order.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: guest post, organizing junkie, routines
Got any extra scrapbooking materials?
If the clutter in your home includes scrapbooking albums and other supplies that you no longer love or will use, I have a fabulous way for you to pass them on.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: camp sunrise, creative memories, decluttering, donations, scrapbooking
We have a winner!
On Tuesday of last week, I posted about organizing my food-storage containers and offered a free set of Rubbermaid Easy Find Lid food storage containers to one lucky commenter.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: giveaway, kitchen, rubbermaid
Great advice on having it all
This fabulous blog post from Unclutterer really resonated with me. Its writer, Unclutterer Editor-in-Chief Erin Doland, is one of those folks who really seems to have it together. It shines through in her writing. And it feels very apparent when you spend time with her in person.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: control, erin doland, order, productivity
Finishing is tough (in knitting and organizing)
It’s the rare knitter who enjoys the finishing aspects of their knitting projects. That’s the weaving in of ends, the seaming, the blocking (soaking or steaming the knit fabric to size).
Filed under: Knitting Organizing || Tagged with: goals, knitting, knitting olympics, learn to knit afghan
Organizing food-storage containers
In yesterday’s blog post I chronicled the great fun of working with professional organizer Aby Garvey on my pantry. I hinted that organizing the food-storage containers was a bit of a challenge. I’ll tell you the saga now. Don’t worry: it has a happy ending.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: aby garvey, giveaway, kitchen, rubbermaid
I'm officially hooked on working with POs
Last month I blogged about working with professional organizer Karel Worley in my basement. With my husband’s help, we tackled a dirty decluttering job in only four hours. It was one that I’d been dreading for months. It was amazing how much we got done and how painless it was.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: aby garvey, kitchen, professional organizer
Guest post on The Organized Parent
I’m so happy to have been invited to write a guest post for The Organized Parent website and blog! Stephanie Vazza, the founder and president of The Organized Parent, asked me to create the July Project of the Month onsetting up a mail-handling system.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: guest post, paper piles, the organized parent
Who doesn't love a sale?
Any sale is fun, but a sale at the Container Store? That’s cause for celebration.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: container store, oprah, organizing products, peter walsh
Autofocus 2 to the rescue
I’m back from my husband’s family reunion at a lovely mountain resort in Pennsylvania. We had such a nice time. There were over 100 people at the reunion, all of them lovely. We drove the 700 miles to the reunion site, spending a night on the road each direction. It was so nice to get away. I barely thought about work.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: autofocus, control, mark forster, to-do list
Got old trophies?
I’ve seen a lot of old trophies littering my clients’ basements. When they’re ready to let go of them, it’s hard to figure out what to do with them. It seems such a shame to throw them away.
Filed under: Organizing Resources || Tagged with: awardex, decluttering, recycling, trophies
Another 30-minute miracle
Okay, “miracle” is completely overstating it. But I was amazed at my office’s transformation the other day when I set my timer and got to work for 30 minutes
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: declutter happy hour, decluttering, productivity
Music to declutter by
In my newsletter, which goes out today, I mention the power of focus and how by setting a timer for a short period of time, I can get a lot done. (This is a refrain here on the blog too). I also mentioned that sometimes instead of (or in addition to) a timer, I’ll play a playlist of songs that ends after a set period of time.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: 15 minutes, declutter happy hour, decluttering, motivation, music
My adventure with a professional organizer
As I blogged about the other day, I hired professional organizer Karel Worley, of Clearing Your Path, to come to my house and help my husband, Barry, and me declutter our basement.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: decluttering, emotions, encouragement, karel worley, professional organizer
Have a Declutter Happy Hour any time you want
At the end of March, life coach Shannon Wilkinson and I started offering a four-week telecourse called Declutter Happy Hour.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: clutter, declutter happy hour, decluttering, emotions, empowerment, encouragement, shannon wilkinson, telephone coaching
Being company ready
This morning, I read this wonderful Unclutterer blog post, in which Erin Doland wrote about how she didn’t freak out when she learned her in-laws were coming for an overnight stay that day. Since she’s embraced an uncluttered lifestyle, the unexpected visit didn’t mean any scrambling.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: company, order, routines
Why does decluttering feel so hard?
When it comes decluttering, which is usually the the first step of getting organized, getting started is often the hardest part.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: chronically disorganized, decluttering, emotions, karel worley, professional organizer
Email liberation
Two months and a week ago, I blogged about how I was experimenting with inbox zero, that is keeping my email inbox pared down to just a few messages that required action. This represented a major changing in thinking for me. For more than a decade I typically had thousands of uncategorized emails in my inbox (and many more thousand filed in folders). I never found that to be a problem.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: aby garvey, accountability, decluttering, email
Some ergonomic office tools
The good folks at OXO®, who for years have made the Good Grips line of household tools (I love my OXO salad spinner!) have expanded into the office tools market. It’s pretty cool.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: office supplies, oxo, staples
Seven ways to get organized while staying green
So much of decluttering is about letting go. Disposing of things. Getting rid of excess.
But when you care about the environment, it can be difficult to let stuff go if it’s going to clutter up the environment. Sure, it’s easy to rent a dumpster and fill it up. Okay, not easy, but easier than caring where the stuff ends up. But if you’re committed to being kind to Mother Earth, then decluttering often involves extra steps.
Filed under: Organizing Speaking || Tagged with: charles peper, craigslist, decluttering, environment, gazelle, recycling, repurposing, speaking, workshops
A money-saving (and green) card idea
At our home, we like to give one another a bunch of cards when there’s a birthday. Last week was my husband’s birthday, so I bought him a half dozen or so. One of them was particularly funny. It pictured a couple of dinosaurs with the caption “Remember us?” Inside it said, “We sat behind you in homeroom.” That cracked me up so much that I wanted to be able to give it to someone else. So instead of writing inside the card, I wrote on a Post-it® note and stuck the note inside the card. I did the same with the outside of the envelope. Now I can let someone else enjoy it.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: cards, environment, repurposing
Paper or plastic?
No, this isn’t a post about green organizing (though I am doing a free talk on that topic next month…you might consider coming if you live in St. Louis). Today I’m thinking about keeping track of things using a paper planner/notebook versus an electronic device.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: autofocus, balance, nick cernis, productivity, simplicty, time management, to-do list, todoodlist
On being early
I’m punctuality challenged, as I’ve blogged about in the past. This is not a desirable quality in a professional organizer. Or anybody, really. I always try to do too much before getting myself out the door to the appointment.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: control, punctuality, time management
Postal rates up again
This one snuck up on me. The postal rates went up yesterday. Thanks to the Forever stamp I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to what it costs to mail a letter. I stocked up on Forever stamps a couple of postal-rate increases ago.
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: postage
Travel tips from a real road warrior
Peter Shankman, the innovator of the service Help a Reporter Out which matches reporters who need sources with sources who need publicity, logs something like 400,000 miles a year. He recently wrote a blog post with wonderfully detailed tips on the tricks and gadgets he uses to make business travel a little easier.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: peter shankman, travel
It should be easy
In working with my life coach, Shannon Wilkinson, I’ve discovered that my driving force is ease. I like things to be easy. That’s why I love living in St. Louis, where the living is easy (recent highway closures notwithstanding) and didn’t like living in New York City, where the hassle factor is high. Ease trumps excitement in my book.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: declutter happy hour, michael neill, productivity, shannon wilkinson
A peek at Peter Walsh's [IN]PLACE System for Office Max
Back in early April I was invited to a blogcast that introduced Peter Walsh’s new line of office products to people who blog about organizing and parenting. They sent me product samples. I was wowed.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: filing systems, office max, organizing products, organizing systems, peter walsh
Fantastic Mother's Day gift ideas
Traditional Mother’s Day gifts are a recipe for clutter as far as I’m concerned. The thought behind the is great, but since sentiment is attached to them, the recipient doesn’t like to part with them. That can add up to major clutter over the years.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: emily wilska, gift giving, gifts, mothers day
Highlight reel: NAPO 2009 conference
I don’t know what made me think I’d find time to blog while in Orlando for the 2009 conference of the National Association of Professional Organizers. You’d think by now I’d know that I spend little time in my room there and when I am in my room I’m either chatting or sleeping.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: geralin thomas, kathy waddill, lauren halagarda, margaret lukens, mary ann pate, napo, scott roewer, standolyn robertson, twitter, wendy davie
Off to Orlando!
I leave this morning for Orlando to attend the annual conference of the National Association of Professional Organizers. I have to admit that I’m a bit of a conference junkie. I really benefit from the information and energy of a conference full of passionate folks.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: geralin thomas, napo, scott roewer, twitter
It's amazing what you can do in a half hour (or less)
As part of the preparations for Declutter Happy Hour, the four-week teleclass I started offering with Shannon Wilkinson last month, I’ve been doing a lot of small decluttering projects around the house.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: 15 minutes, clutter, declutter happy hour, decluttering, shannon wilkinson
Why not lighten the load?
Over at the wonderful blog, Unclutterer last week, guest blogger Gregory Go offered up a guest post on the Seven Benefits of Decluttering. If you had any doubt of the benefits of lightening the load and letting go of excess (and they include financial benefits!), hurry on over there and check it out.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: declutter happy hour, decluttering, shannon wilkinson, unclutterer, zen habits
Confessions of a time-management-system junkie
Through the years, I’ve tried many time- and task-management systems. Like many people who are into this sort of thing (the type of people who enjoy walking the aisles of an office-supply store), I was always drawn to new, shiny systems. I’ve used the FranklinCovey® system, Daytimer®, Day Runner®, QuoVadis, the Planner Pad®, even dabbled in GTD. About 18 years ago, I was practically apoplectic with excitement when I purchased a European-style planner called Time/Line. (Does anyone remember that? It was a lower-cost version of Time/Design, which is now apparently called Time/system. It’s possible I’m remembering the name wrong.)
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, time management
Making April 15th less painful
I have a very rocky relationship history with April 15. More often than not, I’d wake up on tax day with an anxious knot in my stomach and file an extension. Occasionally, I’d submit the taxes that day, but never without stress.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: freedom filer, taxes
Peter Walsh teams with Office Max for new product line
I love office products. I can spend an hour cruising the aisles of Office Max or Office Depot looking at their wares. I love that Office Max, in particular, has become more inventive, offering beautiful product lines like DiVOGA . Staples did the same thing last year with their M by Staples line.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: filing systems, office max, organizing systems, peter walsh
Can decluttering lead to happiness?
Gretchen Rubin who writes the blog (and upcoming book) The Happiness Project also blogs for Real Simple (and for Slate).
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: declutter happy hour, decluttering, gretchen rubin, happiness
Free talk: New ways to get more done
If you struggle with getting things done and you live in the St. Louis area, you might want to take advantage of the free talk I’ll be giving on April 22 in Webster Groves.
Filed under: Organizing Speaking || Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, speaking, time management, workshops
Scrambling
It’s so interesting to me how in control I feel when I have (and take) the time to keep my systems going, and to maintain order. And it’s also interesting how quickly those systems can break down.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: autofocus, backsliding, balance, clutter, control, disorder, exercise, time management
Declutter Happy Hour starts tomorrow!
Our first “Declutter Happy Hour” session begins tomorrow, March 31, at 2 p.m. central. If you haven’t signed up yet but are intrigued, head on over to the Declutter Happy Hour website and check it out.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: clutter, declutter happy hour, decluttering, emotions, empowerment, encouragement, shannon wilkinson
Cash for your unwanted gadgets
What’s that old saying? One person’s trash is another person’s treasure? That’s how those of us who are decluttering our lives can actually make some money. Your old digital camera may not be valuable to you after you upgrade to a snazzier one, but someone else may find it perfect.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: decluttering, gazelle, websites
My microwave method of filing
I’ve let some filing pile up around here. The room where our household’s filing cabinet is happens to be situated close to the kitchen. The “to-file” stuff is on top of the filing cabinet.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: filing systems, paper piles
Facing down my email inbox
I freely admit that I’m an email packrat. Since my hard drive is large, I have no problem hanging on to emails I think might come in handy some day. This is a habit I’ve had since I started with email in the 90s. And I don’t intend to change.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: aby garvey, decluttering, email
The power of 15 minutes
A decade ago, Flylady told me to set my timer for 15 minutes and declutter. She told all of her followers, “You can do anything for 15 minutes.” I’ve put that into use over and over again through the years. And I blog about it a lot because it’s so true.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: 15 minutes, clutter, declutter happy hour, decluttering, flylady, shannon wilkinson, time timer
Announcing Declutter Happy Hour!
Recently, I’ve been blogging quite a bit about how hard it can be to get rid of clutter, not just because it’s hard work that’s difficult to find the time to do, but because of emotional barriers to the work, or unhelpful beliefs that get in the way.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: clutter, declutter happy hour, decluttering, emotions, empowerment, shannon wilkinson, telephone coaching
Take the poll: Emotional barriers to decluttering
On Friday, I posted about emotional barriers to getting organized. Jim Dietzel from Rubbermaid’s blog suggested in a comment that I do a poll on the various emotional blocks folks have when it comes to decluttering.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: chronic disorganization, clutter, decluttering, emotions, fear, obstacles
Emotional barriers to getting organized
Earlier this week, I wrote about unhelpful beliefs that can stop you from being able to let go of stuff. Today I want to talk about emotional barriers that can come up when you’re trying to get organized (or even just thinking about it).
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: chronic disorganization, clutter, decluttering, emotions, fear, obstacles
Free talk on time management
As part of my plan to present a free organizing-related talk to the public every other month in 2009, I’ve scheduled my April event.
Filed under: Organizing Speaking || Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, speaking, time management, workshops
Question your beliefs
Most of the people I work with are dealing with clutter. As we work through the stuff and I help the client make decisions about whether to keep items, I’m often amazed at the different ways people feel about letting stuff go.
Filed under: Organizing Resources || Tagged with: chronic disorganization, clutter, david tolin, decluttering, disorganization resources, hoarders, hoarding, obstacles, perfectionism
Organizing and the creative person
I work with a lot of chronically disorganized clients and many of them are creative people.
Creative people have a lot going for them. They tend to be fun, full of life, and see the possibility in everything. When it comes to organization, however, they often have a few strikes against them:
Filed under: Organizing || Tagged with: chronic disorganization, creative people, hiring a po
Hello, computer-related clutter!
The other day I decided to sell my Palm T|X handheld on Gazelle. It’s a website that buys used electronics. (I’ll write a post after the transaction is complete to let you know how the experience is.) I’d replaced the Palm with my beloved iPod Touch, so thought I’d divest myself of it.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: clutter, computer, decluttering, disorder, gazelle
Decisions and clutter
When I talk with clients or give talks, I’ll often make this statement:
Clutter is nothing but delayed decisions.
And then I’ll urge folks to make decisions, rather than delaying them.
Filed under: Organizing || Tagged with: clutter, decisions, emotions, scientific american
Container Store coupon
Last week Oprah re-aired her Oprah’s Clean Up Your Messy House Tour episode that originally aired last November. Included in that episode was an offer of 20 percent off purchases from the Container Store (in-store and online). I visited the store today and was reminded that the offer is being extended again. The coupon expires March 1. (Last November, the response was so good the Container Store extended it. Maybe that will happen again.)
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: container store, oprah
Changing lives
Last night I heard a great NSGCD teleclass called “Strategies for Becoming an Effective Change Agent,” given by my friend Janine Sarna-Jones, CPO® of Organize Me in New York City.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: change agent, janine sarna-jones, motivation, nsgcd
NAPO's new and improved website
The website of the National Association of Professional Organizers has undergone a complete overhaul. Thanks to the hard work of Lauren Halagarda and her committee the website is more user-friendly, attractive, and informative. I had the opportunity to help as a tester at the very end of the process. I can only imagine how much work went into the development.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: lauren halagarda, napo, websites
Words of wisdom from a veteran organizer
Yesterday, Rubbermaid’s blog featured a Q&A with Audrey Lavine, CPO®, of Life Support Systems, who is the president of the Board of Certification of Professional Organizers.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: audrey lavine, board of certified professional organizers, certification, rubbermaid
Product recommendations
You might have noticed that I have some banner links to products on the right-hand sidebar of the blog, in the new Recommended section. In the interest of full disclosure, I want to let you know that, for the most part, if you click on any of those links, I’ll get a small commission.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: affiliate marketing, products
The weekend work/rest balance
On Friday I wrote that I was overwhelmed with tasks and clutter and that I really wanted to put my feet up this weekend, but had so much to do that I feared that wouldn’t be prudent. So I decided to create short task lists for each weekend day and relax only after I’d completed all the tasks on them.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: clutter, empowerment, priorities, productivity, relaxation, self-care, time management
Feeling overwhelmed
So far this year, things have been running really smoothly. I’ve been gliding through the days, getting lots done, meeting some terrific people, making some money. Kind of idyllic, in fact.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: clutter, empowerment, priorities, relaxation, self-care, time management
It's update time
Here are a few little updates to past blogs posts.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: butler bag, container store, don't break the chain, habits, playing for change
Excited about my to-do list
Last week was one of those weeks I wasn’t at my desk much and when I was I had to be focused on urgent items. I’m not sure I actually looked at my to-do list all week, except to add to it.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, procrastination, productivity, time management
At last, an organized and attractive bag
I love having an organized purse. For some time I used the Baggallini City Bag, which I liked because it held what I needed and I could find things fairly easily. But it was a little more casual than I wanted when I was dressed to impress.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: aby garvey, butler bag, geralin thomas, purse
9 Simple Solutions for Procrastinators
This is a guest post of sorts, from the fabulous Christine Kane, who helps people achieve their dreams. I’m reprinting it, with permission, from her newsletter. It arrived in my mailbox today and I thought it was so great I’d share it immediately. Incidentally, I wish I’d thought of the acronym CRAP for Clutter Removal Action Process!
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: christine kane, goals, procrastination, productivity
The impact of touch
A study from Ohio State University suggests that the longer people touch something they’re considering purchasing, the more money they’re willing to spend on it. Researchers asked study participants to hold an ordinary coffee mug for either 10 or 30 seconds. Then the participants were allowed to bid on the mug in either an open or closed auction. The folks who had held the mug for 30 seconds bid more for it. Four out of seven even bid more than the retail value (which they were aware of).
Filed under: Organizing Speaking || Tagged with: chronically disorganized, decluttering, shopping, speaking
Resisting the urge to print
This morning, I was checking out some genealogy resources online, part of my quest to jump-start my family history research, and I came across a list of websites I wanted to check out. I thought I’d print it out, then put it in a general genealogy file. I went so far as to click Print, but stopped myself before clicking Okay. It’s a list of websites. It really belongs in my Bookmarks, where I can easily access the list and just click on the website, rather than typing in the URL.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: paper piles, printing, technology
Searching for my roots
A few years back, my parents and my aunt gave me some information on family history that distant cousins had uncovered. I was intrigued. So I hopped online and started searching around.
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: genealogy
Book recommendation: It's Hard to Make a Difference When You Can't Find Your Keys
I just finished reading and analyzing a great book, It’s Hard to Make a Difference When You Can’t Find Your Keys: The Seven-Step Path to Becoming Truly Organized
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: chronic disorganization, marilyn paul, nsgcd
It's tax time!
I can’t believe I’m thinking it’s tax time and it’s only January. I literally can’t remember the last time I filed taxes before April 15. I think it was in the 80s, when I filed Form 1040-EZ. The truth of the matter is that I’ve been self-employed since 1995 and in that time I’ve probably have filed an extension more often than I haven’t.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: control, freedom filer, shannon wilkinson, taxes
Joe's Goals
I’ve written here many times about Don’t Break the Chain, a website that has been effective in helping me establish some routines (like cleaning off my desk every night, blogging regularly and, now, making sure the top of my bureau stays clean).
But there’s another game in town I’d like to shine a light on. It’s Joe’s Goals, a free website that allows you to track your daily goals. I use it regularly as well, though for a few months I’d let it fall by the wayside.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: don't break the chain, joe's goals, routines
Sometimes you can't do it alone
Organizing is an activity that many people find difficult to do on their own. In the study of chronic disorganization, it is recognized that a chronically disorganized client needs to work with others. It’s called “social organizing.” Indeed, some clients simply can’t go through the process of sorting and weeding and organizing if they’re by themselves.
Filed under: Organizing || Tagged with: body doubling, chronic disorganization, focus, judith kolberg, social organizing
Great tips on hiring an organizer
Over at Unclutterer today, my pal Geralin Thomas of Metropolitan Organizing has a terrific blog post on how to hire a professional organizer. It includes fifteen questions to ask a prospective organizer, as well as qualifications to look for.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: geralin thomas, hiring a po, professional organizer, unclutterer
Come to my free organizing workshop!
I’ll be giving a workshop here in St. Louis on decluttering. It’s free and open to the public. If you’re in St. Louis, I’d love to see you there!
Filed under: Organizing Speaking || Tagged with: decluttering, speaking, workshops
Little and often
We organizers like to talk about breaking big projects down into small steps in order to make them feel less overwhelming. That’s solid advice.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, productivity, time management
Free bonus with newsletter
I publish a free newsletter that comes out on the 15th of every month. I’m working on the next issue now. In the past week, I’ve added a bonus for those who subscribe to the newsletter. It’s a short pdf I’ve written on handling your mail, called How to Fall In Love with the Mail Carrier All Over Again.
Filed under: Organizing Resources || Tagged with: mail, newsletter
Autofocus
As I mentioned last month, time-management guru Mark Forster has developed a brand-new task management system. It’s called Autofocus.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, productivity
Dreaming big
I heard Wendy Davie speak at the NAPO Chicago Midwest Conference and Expo in November. Her talk, “Forward Momentum: How to Take Your Organizing Business from OK to Awesome, Fast,” was one of the highlights of the conference for me.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: big picture, encouragement, goals, napo chicago, wendy davie
New year, new routines
On January 5, 2008 I resolved to clear my desk off every day at the end of the workday. I envisioned sitting down at my desk every morning with a clear desk and hoped that it would help me start the day on the right foot.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: clean bureau, clean desk, don't break the chain, habits, routines
Last chance to sign up to test Mark Forster's new system
As I blogged about two weeks ago, time management guru Mark Forster of whom I’m an unbashed fan, has developed a new system for time management (it may be limited to task management, I don’t know). On January 5, he’ll start beta testing it.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: mark forster, time management
The glass is half full
It’s the last day of the year and I’ve been taking the opportunity to reflect on 2008. On the surface, it wasn’t necessarily a great year for business. As the economy tanked, so did my billable hours. After a terrific first two quarters, the last two quarters were…let’s just say less good.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: business, economy, napo st. louis, optimism, peace of mind
Closing out 2008
As I posted a week ago, I love the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Traditionally, it’s the week that I get my ducks in a row, plan for the coming year and basically get my act together.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: goals, holidays, jennifer hofmann, motivation, planning, spa day
A full day's work in half a day
Even though I’m not going anywhere or doing much for Christmas (besides being a dinner guest), I woke up this morning thinking, “Hey it’s Christmas Eve Day. I don’t want to work.” So I decided to take a half day off.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: motivation, time management
Wanna test a brand new time-management system?
If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you know that I’m a big fan of “Mark Forster”. The principles in his book Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, time management
A special time of year
Nevertheless I love this time of year. In particular, I love the week between Christmas and New Year’s. First, that week is bookended by two days off, which is fabulous. And in between, no one really expects anyone to get anything done. Free of expectations of others, it’s time I can use any way I want. I’ve always used it as a time to get my ducks in a row. It comes right before the new year, a time ripe for goal setting, good intentions, and new beginnings.
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: goals, holidays, planning, spa day
Spa Day report: Simultaneously calming and energizing
As I mentioned on Friday, I eagerly anticipated the Extra Special Holiday Spa Day at Inspired Home Office, which I participated in on Saturday. I thought I’d report on this very cool experience.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: decluttering, havi brooks, jennifer hofmann, motivation, spa day
Peace of Mind Organizing on the newsstand
…if you’re in St. Louis, that is. I was interviewed for an article on organizing for St. Louis Woman magazine. I think it’s a good article. (I hope I don’t come across as a Scrooge.) Also interviewed for the article was my fellow NAPO St. Louis member, Jodi Granok, who gives some terrific advice.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: napo st. louis, press, st. louis woman
Spa Day in my home
Tomorrow, I’m participating in an intriguing activity. I’ve signed up for the Extra Special Holiday Spa Day offered through Inspired Home Office.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: decluttering, havi brooks, jennifer hofmann, spa day
Hoarding in the news
When hoarding makes its way into the media, it’s usually in an article about some sort of tragedy that happened as a result of hoarding. (Firefighters unable to get to put out a fire, someone getting buried under their clutter.) Instead, this article on AlterNet, called How Compulsive Hoarding Can Threaten Your Health and Take Over Your Life helps readers understand hoarders a little better. It takes a compassionate approach, which is refreshing. The article, by Emily Wilson, is based on an interview with Dorothy Breininger of the Delphi Center for Organization, an organizer who really rocks. I’m a big fan of Dorothy’s.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: dorothy breininger, geralin thomas, hoarding
A few technical changes to the blog (and an RSS favor)
I wanted to draw your attention to the new “Tools” section of the right-hand sidebar to the blog. You’ll see an RSS Feed button and Follow Me button and a search box. We’ve reconfigured the RSS Feed for the blog with some new options, like the full blog post appearing in the feed, rather than just an excerpt that requires you to go the site to finish reading the post. Data reporting to me has been improved as well. If you’ve already subscribed, I’d appreciate your unsubscribing from your current feed and resubscribing with the new link. If you haven’t subscribed, please do!
Filed under: Organizing Resources || Tagged with: blogs, social networking
"The simplest time management method"
I’ve written here before about my love of Mark Forster’s book Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management (there’s a link to the book on the right hand column of my blog). For at least a year now, I’ve been working on integrating elements of his system into my life. One of those elements is to create a “will-do” list of tasks that I actually expect to accomplish on a given day. These are individual tasks, as well as daily tasks like responding to yesterday’s email, voicemail and snail mail.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: mark forster, motivation, time management
Disorder 2 Order: Blog of the Week
I’m returning to my blog of the week format, after a couple of Wednesdays away from it, with Disorder2Order, the blog of Megan Spears, an organizer in the Portland, Oregon, area.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: blog of the week, blogs, megan spears
Can you give the gift of organization?
This time of year I sometimes receive inquiries from people who want to give my services to someone on their gift list. That’s a tricky proposition and I’ll tell you why. Folks who look like they could use the services of a professional organizer might be perfectly happy with their current state of affairs. Or they might just not be ready to even think about decluttering. They might be insulted by the suggestion, which is an awful reaction to a gift.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: gift giving
Color me certified!
Yesterday I sat for the examination to become a Certified Professional Organizer®. The certification exam is administered by the Board of Certified Professional Organizers. Certification began in 2007 and since then over 275 professional organizers have become certified. (There are 4,300 members of NAPO.)
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: blog of the week, board of certified professional organizers, certification, cpo, cpo-cd, lori hall steele, nsgcd
Keeping the clutter out of holiday gift giving
If you haven’t already purchased your holidays gifts this year, I encourage you to consider giving gifts that won’t contribute any clutter to the recipient’s home. I wrote about this in the November 2007 issue of my newsletter. My readership was smaller then, so I’m going to repost it here for those who may not have seen it. (If you like it and would like to subscribe to my free monthly newsletter, which comes out on the 15th of every month, please subscribe.)
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: clutter, gift giving, gifts, online shopping
Off to Chicago
I leave this afternoon to drive to Chicago with my friend and fellow organizer Karel Worley of Clearing Your Path (who, sadly, doesn’t yet have a website). We’re going to the 2008 Professional Organizer Midwest Conference and Expo. There’s a great lineup of speakers, mostly fabulous organizers from around the country (and the world — Wendy Davie, president of the Australasian Association of Professional Organizers, who lives in New Zealand, will be speaking). Other speakers include Elizabeth Hagen, Margaret Lukens, Pam McCutcheon, and Emily Wilska (whose blog was my Blog of the Week a few weeks back).
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: elizabeth hagen, emily wilska, ikea, karel worley, margaret lukens, napo chicago, pam mccutcheon, wendy davie
Oprah to the rescue
In case you missed it, yesterday’s Oprah show was the debut of Oprah’s Clean Up Your Messy House Tour. Oprah is sending organizer Peter Walsh, of whom I’m an unabashed fan, around the country with a “clutter crew” of helpers (in VW Bugs) to help people get rid of clutter. (In this first episode, they were in New York City, knocking on doors of unsuspecting people.) Designer Candice Olson of Divine Design is also on hand to help with beautiful storage and design solutions.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: clutter, container store, decluttering, oprah, order, peter walsh, snapfish
Powerful decluttering
This morning I received the e-newsletter of Christine Kane, the blogger, musician, and creativity consultant whose blog was my Blog of the Week a few months ago.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: christine kane, decluttering, encouragement, gratitude, self-care, workspace
My guest post on Serenity for the Self-Employed
Two weeks ago, I made Serenity for the Self-Employed my Blog of the Week since the blog owner, Heather Boerner, was starting a 30-day organizing challenge. Heather then invited me to do a blog post on the mistakes people make when they’re trying to get organized.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: blogs, guest post, mistakes, serenity for the self-employed
Happy anniversary!
Two years ago today, I wrote my first post on this blog. The topic was “What is organized?”
Filed under: Sharing Organizing || Tagged with: blogging, routines
A fun and low-cost way to get organized for the holidays
If you want to avoid being stressed out by the holidays, now is the time to start planning for them. (Okay, planning for them before now would have been even more helpful, but let’s work with what we have.) As I posted yesterday I encourage you to simplify as much as possible. Streamline the holidays and make it easy on yourself.
Filed under: Organizing Resources || Tagged with: aby garvey, holidays, workshops
Streamlining the holidays
The election’s behind us and now it’s time to focus on the next big thing: the holidays.
Personally, I’m minimalist when it comes to the December holidays. No decorating. Very little gift buying. Yet I still feel a bit of stress, primarily over my holiday cards. As I’ve posted about before, I send out several hundred cards, each with a personalized note. So it takes awhile. And I’d better get started. There are a number of steps to this project:
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: cards, holidays, stress
Your Life. Organized: Blog of the Week
This week I’m featuring Your Life. Organized, the blog of Monica Ricci, a professional organizer in Atlanta. Monica’s an organizer with a national presence. You night know her from her appearances on the HGTV show Mission Organization. She’s Organizing Advisor to Office Depot and also works with Beazer Homes. She’s the author of Organizer Your Office in No Time.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: blog of the week, blogs, la organizing awards, mission organization, monica ricci
A pocket of order
This week, as part of my Level III certification program through the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization, I analyzed the book Making Peace with the Things in Your Life, by Cindy Glovinsky (link at right).
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: cindy glovinsky, clutter, decluttering, disorder, motivation
Serenity for the Self-Employed: Blog of the Week
Serenity for the Self-Employed is a blog written by freelance journalist Heather Boerner, with whom I’m acquainted through the online writing community I belong to, Freelance Success. Her blog, which aims to help self-employed people maintain their serenity (and sanity), just yesterday started a 30-day organizing challenge so this week seemed like a good week to highlight it on my blog.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: blog of the week, blogs, serenity for the self-employed
Declare a backlog
One of the many strategies offered by Mark Forster in his time-management book Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management (link at right) is the concept of declaring a backlog. (I wrote about some of his other strategies last June in the blog posts, Getting started and Keeping going.)
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: backlog, mark forster, productivity, time management
Gift wrap: Keep it simple
Lately I’ve been having conversations with clients about storing their gift wrap. Personally, I bought a couple of organizers from the Container Store that hang from the rod of a spare closet. One is for rolls of gift wrap and the other for flat wraps and gift bags.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: gift wrap, peter walsh, unclutterer
Get Everything Done: Blog of the Week
If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that I’m a fan of Mark Forster. He’s a time management and personal organization guru who wrote the time-management book I most adhere to, Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management (link at right).
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: blog of the week, blogs, mark forster, time management
The R word
Sometimes I feel like a broken record when I write here (or in my newsletter) about the importance of routines. It’s just that I’m reminded very frequently about how much of an impact they can have on order, productivity and overall peace of mind.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: don't break the chain, joe's goals, jott, productivity, routines, travel
Great advice in tense times
I’m still playing catch up and haven’t been coming up with inspiring ideas for blog posts. So instead of coming up with my own thoughts on the role of organizing in these worrisome times (though I did write a little about that in the latest issue of my newsletter, which went out yesterday), I want to share with you a fabulous blog post from my friend and fellow organizer, Aby Garvey, of simplify 101 and the Creative Organizing blog. Here’s the post, entitled, Empowered by Organizing.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: aby garvey, control, economy, empowerment
The Organized Life: Blog of the Week
This week’s Blog of the Week is The Organized Life, the weekly blog of Emily Wilska, a professional organizer in the San Francisco Bay area. Unlike most of my blogs of the week, which are updated at least several times a week, Emily’s blog serves as an archive of her weekly tips, which she sends out via email. The tips are so good, I decided to make it my blog of the week.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: blog of the week, emily wilska, napo chicago
The value of the to-do list
Yesterday I blogged about how I couldn’t get anything done. The basic culprit was fatigue from attending back-to-back conferences and sleep deprivation from a needy poodle. But after a good night’s sleep and a little reflection, I identified another reason for yesterday’s lack of focus: I didn’t have a to-do list.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: mark forster, productivity, time management, to-do list
All talked out
My back-to-back conference hopping in the past 10 days has plum worn me out.
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: gwa, nsgcd, productivity, self-care
More publicity for the organizing profession
I’m lucky enough to have an accountability partner in another state. She’s Betty Huotari, of Logical Placement, the president of the Southeast Michigan chapter of NAPO. We’d met at the NAPO national conference in the past, and this year, when the audience was encouraged by speaker Lisa Montanaro to have accountability partners to keep each other on track with our goals, Betty approached me about working together. We talk once a month or so and it’s been great.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: add, betty huotari, hoarding, press, sheila mccurdy, st. louis behavioral medicine institute
Shopping nirvana
I had a day yesterday that was absolute heaven. My friend, Geralin Thomas, who among other things does wardrobe consulting, is in town for the annual conference of the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization. She came in a day early, arriving at 8 a.m. yesterday morning, to see me and to do some wardrobe organizing and enhancing.
Filed under: Ranting-and-Raving Organizing || Tagged with: aby garvey, closets, geralin thomas, shopping, wardrobe
Watch that laptop!
I’m typing this from the Las Vegas airport en route home to St. Louis. (Man, do I hate the Las Vegas airport…it’s hard to find any peace with all the slot machines and so forth. Plus it doesn’t appear you can even purchase a wifi connection.) Anyway, I just heard this announcement, “Attention, Marge Simpson [I changed the name], please return to security. You picked up the wrong computer.” Gulp. They made that announcement twice, then made another one asking her to pick up a white courtesy phone and call the operator.
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: travel
Networking in PDX
As I mentioned last week, I’m in Portland for the Garden Writers Association’s annual symposium. On Friday morning, I met with two Portland-area organizers and bloggers (both of whom have blogs that have been my blog of the week), Krista Colvin of Organize in Style and Brandie Kajino, The Home Office Organizer. Here’s a picture of Krista, Brandie, and me, taken by my fabulous friend and life coach, Shannon Wilkinson, who joined us.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: blog of the week, brandie kajino, garden writers association, krista colvin, shannon wilkinson
Check out these productivity tips
This morning I read this interview with Gina Trapani, the lead editor of Lifehacker on Zen Habits. It’s an interesting interview. In addition to the many posts a day Trapani writes for Lifehacker, she’s the author of a paper version. Her book, which is now in a second edition called Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better is a compendium from the best hacks from Lifehacker.com. I haven’t read it yet, but I do believe I’ll be purchasing it.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: email, lifehacker, mark forster, productivity, time management, zen habits
The Home Office Organizer: Blog of the Week
On Wednesdays, I highlight a blog of the week, which is usually about organizing (though sometimes I stray). This week’s blog of the week is definitely about organizing. It’s organizer Brandie Kajino’s blog, The Home Office Organizer.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: blog of the week, blogs, brandie kajino, krista colvin, o myth
Regaining control
I wrote on Friday about how my house had become cluttered and messy over the past couple of weeks of whirlwind activity and how I had feet of lead when I thought about doing anything about it. I ended that post with “I hope to report on Monday that my life and business are back in order and that I’m feeling clutter-free and empowered!”
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: clutter, disorder, empowerment, gwa, mark forster, productivity
I'm quoted in a national magazine
The current issue of Arthritis Today, the consumer health publication (available on newsstands) that’s published by the Arthritis Foundation, includes an article by Sharon Ann Waldrop, on six tips to control clutter. In addition to two from me, it features tips by several professional organizers, including Jill Graham of Operation Organize! in Arizona and Rosemary Chieppo of Born to Organize in Connecticut.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: arthritis today, decluttering, press
A must-listen interview with Julie Morgenstern
Organizing guru Julie Morgenstern is all over the place promoting her new book When Organizing Isn’t Enough: SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life . I haven’t read it yet, though I’ve read some interviews, including one here at Unclutterer . After I read the Unclutterer interview, I went to my library’s website and asked for the book to be sent to my branch when it’s available, so I can check it out
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: aby garvey, books, decluttering, julie morgenstern, unclutterer
Some great advice on yard sales
Whenever I have a client who says she wants to do a yard sale, I always groan inwardly. I usually convince the client that a more expeditious route to achieving her goals would be to donate unwanted items or, in a couple of really cluttered cases, get a local auction service to come take away the stuff and sell it for her.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: garage sale, geralin thomas, unclutterer, yard sale
Organize in Style: Blog of the Week
This week’s blog of the week belongs to Krista Colvin, an organizer in the Portland, Oregon, area, whose blog helps those of us who like to add a little style to our organizing efforts. Organize in Style presents cool products and cool ideas with a great injection of fun.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: aby garvey, blog of the week, blogs, brandie kajino, krista colvin, o myth, organize in style, the shebang
Jott: Free no more
One of my favorite free services, Jott, is now out of beta and is no longer available as is free of charge. Jott allows you to dictate messages via your cell phone that are then emailed to you. I first blogged about it last January and posted a somewhat amusing cautionary note in March.
Filed under: Ranting-and-Raving Organizing || Tagged with: jott, productivity, time management
IKEA hacker: Blog of the Week
I’ve blogged before about products from the Swedish furniture manufacturer and retailer IKEA. I like the look and price of their products. I’ve found their furniture to be long-lasting (my husband works daily at a desk we bought at IKEA in northern Virginia back in 1988, and I bought current desk at the IKEA in Elizabeth, NJ in 1998). I don’t like having to put furniture together, but I that’s why I have friends (thank you, Sally!).
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: blog of the week, blogs, ikea, ikea hacker
Let's talk hangers
Over at Unclutterer today, they have a post on clothes hangers. What are the best clothes hangers? That’s an individual decision, but the Unclutterer article spells out the options.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: closets, geralin thomas, hangers, saint louis closet company
Life Remix: Blog of the Week
This week’s Blog of the Week is actually a blog network. Every day Life Remix provides a brief summary of the day’s entries from each of the great blogs that make up their network.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: blog of the week, blogs, life remix, unclutterer
Commitments
Deadlines used to rule my life. When I was making my living as a writer, deadlines were absolutely everything. I didn’t start a story earlier than necessary to make my deadline. I don’t think in 12 years (and well over a hundred articles, along with eight books) I turned anything in early.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: accountability, commitments, deadlines, don't break the chain, knitting olympics, writing
What's stopping you?
Most of my clients have a to-do list for organizing tasks. (Some clients can’t figure out where to start, but we take care of that in the first session.) At the end of a hands-on organizing session, we talk about what they plan to do between sessions to further their goals.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: goals, mark forster, obstacles, productivity
Who needs to check a bag?
Over at Unclutterer today, professional organizer Monica Ricci has written a guest column about travelling light. She offers some great tips on packing so that you don’t have to check a bag and incur extra charges.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: bed bath and beyond, monica ricci, packing, travel, unclutterer
Get organized. Lose weight.
Organizer Peter Walsh received a lot of press earlier this year upon the release of his book, Does this Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? that explored the connection between getting organized and losing weight.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: clutter, geralin thomas, lifetime tv, peter walsh, weight loss
Lace knitting: Not unlike organizing
Last night, as I worked on the Estonian Garden Wrap, a seemingly complicated and sort of overwhelming (for this novice lace knitter) knitting pattern, I realized that broken down to its simplest elements, it’s really pretty easy. And that’s not unlike any overwhelming project, like getting organized. Let me explain.
Filed under: Organizing Knitting || Tagged with: decluttering, empowerment, knitting, lace, motivation, perfectionism, productivity
Flylady: Blog of the Week
This week’s Blog of the Week is an oldie but goodie. I first became aware of Flylady back in the late nineties, before I ever dreamt of becoming a professional organizer. Technically, it’s not a blog. (It predates blogs.) But it’s frequently updated and full of treasures.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: 15 minutes, blog of the week, decluttering, flylady, routines
A compilation of organizing principles
Claire Josefine, an organizer in California and the author of The Spiritual Art of Being Organized, was interviewed on The Organizing Playground radio show recently. (The interview was aired on July 8—you can listen to it now by clicking here.) I really enjoyed listening to the interview, and it made me want to read her book.
Filed under: Organizing Resources || Tagged with: claire josefine, organizing playground, organizing principles
The uncluttered car
I have to admit that my car usually looks pretty messy. That’s not surprising, since I’m a messy person, in general. But I did clean it out prior to my big trip to IKEA and it was very nice to have the clutter removed. Unfortunately, it’s encroaching again.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: car, decluttering, unclutterer
Crazy Aunt Purl: Blog of the Week
One of my favorite knitting blogs, Crazy Aunt Purl, justified its permanent status on the Links section of this organizing blog (where it’s been since Day One), with yesterday’s post.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: blog of the week, blogs, crazy aunt purl, decluttering, knitting, laurie perry
Just a few minutes
Some days I look around my home or office and say to myself, “I really need to xxxxx” and it’s a general task like, “get organized” or “reorganize my closet.” Sometimes it’s just “create some order around here” when things have gotten out of hand.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: 15 minutes, order, procrastination, productivity, time management, unclutterer
The Clutter Diet Blog: Blog of the Week
This week’s BOTW is Lorie Marrero’s The Clutter Diet Blog.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: blog of the week, blogs, clutter, clutter diet, decluttering, lori marrero
Self-care
I’m always struck how clutter gets in the way of life. I have many clients who constantly feel an obligation to deal with their clutter. They plan to devote a weekend to decluttering, then they start to feel overwhelmed, so they don’t actually deal with it. (Until they call me.)
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: 15 minutes, decluttering, empowerment, self-care, shannon wilkinson
Easy furniture transformation
About 15 years ago, my husband and I became a two-computer household, so we bought a computer stand at Office Depot or somewhere. At the time it didn’t seem too ugly (or maybe there was no such thing as pretty computer furniture back then).
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: crafts, furniture, repurposing, sally brown, workspace
My punctuality solution
Being on time to client appointments has been a challenge for me. I blogged about this three months ago, at which time I vowed to make some changes to my morning routine, including implementing some checklists, so that I’d be on time instead of rushing like a mad woman in the morning.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: control, punctuality, routines, time management
Some fun craft organizers
I’d been lusting over the Total Knitting Tote that I’d seen in the Knitpicks catalog
Filed under: Organizing Knitting || Tagged with: crafts, knitpicks, organizing products, scrapbooking, shopping, storage
Declutter You: Blog of the Week
This week’s Blog of the Week is Declutter You, the newly revamped and re-energized blog of Washington DC-based organizer Scott Roewer.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: blog of the week, blogs, scott roewer
PocketMod - a recyclable pocket-size planner
Through a circuitous but interesting path, I found myself at PocketMod. It’s a simple website with instructions and templates for creating a customized paper planner, printed on one sheet of paper and folded to create a little book that would fit in your shirt pocket (if you were inclined to put your calendar in your shirt pocket).
Filed under: Organizing Resources || Tagged with: calendars, hipster pda, organizing products, planners, pocket mod
My new home office space
That stressful trip to IKEA was all about purchasing storage furniture for my new adjunct home office. I had an extra room in my house, adjacent to my home office, and I decided to create a second office out of it.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: elfa, home office, ikea, storage, workspace, yarn
Director of Wow
Yesterday I heard a little story on NPR’s Morning Edition about the fact that High Point University in High Point, North Carolina, has a Director of Wow, whose job it is to make the college experience extraordinary for the students. According to the NPR story, the university has instituted programs like ice cream trucks, valet parking, a concierge desk, and free snacks
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: business, priorities, success, wow
Unclutterer: Blog of the Week
If you’ve found your way to my blog, you probably already know about Unclutterer. Just in case, though, let me sing the praises of my Blog of the Week.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: blog of the week, blogs, erin doland, unclutterer
The tyranny of the heirloom
There was a fascinating article in the New York Times last week about how difficult it is for people to part with furniture (or art or other artifacts) that had belonged to relatives. Even if the furniture did not fit in their home, physically, or clashed with their other furnishings, the people interviewed for the article still hung on to it.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: antiques, clutter, family, heirlooms
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
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
Focus
If you’ve ever worked with a professional organizer, you know that one of the things we bring to the table is focus. When you make the financial and time commitment to have a professional help you get organized, you tend to stay focused on the job during your session. And if your attention strays, the organizer draws it back to the project at hand.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: accountability, decluttering, disorder, storage
Some stylin' new office products
The office superstore Staples has developed a new line of office supplies for people who appreciate “creativity and style in the workplace.” They commissioned a survey that revealed that more than half of workers reported that having stylish office supplies gets them noticed in the workplac
Filed under: Sharing Organizing || Tagged with: notebooks, office supplies, staples, style, workspace
Creative Organizing: My first Blog of the Week
So let’s get started. My very first Blog of the Week is (drumrolll, please)....Creative Organizing the wonderfully creative and personal blog from my friend, Aby Garvey the high priestess of organizing scrapbookers.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: aby garvey, blog of the week, freelance success, scrapbooking
Professional Organizing featured in WSJ
It’s not a large article, but to me it’s significant. The Career Journal section of today’s Wall Street Journal features “Professional Organizer” as the career it examines in its Pay Grade column.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: napo, press, wall street journal
Traveling light can save money
American Airlines has announced it will start charging $15 for the first bag a passenger checks. I remember being shocked when airlines starting charging for bag number two. Now you can’t check any bags free of charge (on American, at least). Passengers will start bringing even more carry-on luggage on board. That’s going to make flying an even bigger hassle. Sigh.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: packing, travel
How are those New Year's resolutions coming?
Back at the beginning of 2008, I blogged about my constant craving for order as reflected in my January 1 journal entries year after year
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: clean desk, don't break the chain, goals, habits, new year, productivity
I'm a member of the Peter Walsh fan club
Peter Walsh, organizer on TLC’s show Clean Sweep, as well as Oprah’s go-to guy for hoarders, gave the keynote address at this year’s annual conference of the National Association of Professional Organizers.
Filed under: Ranting-and-Raving Organizing || Tagged with: clutter, napo, oprah, organizing playground, peter walsh
Don't forget -- postage rates go up today
It’s come: The day for which I’ve been stockpiling Forever stamps. First-class postage goes up to 42 cents today. The rate for an additional ounce stays the same at 17 cents, so a two-ounce letter will cost 59 cents to mail. In addition, the rate for a postcard goes up by a penny, to 27 cent
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: belt-tightening, postage, productivity
Great publicity for the organizing profession!
Last night on the St. Louis NBC affiliate’s news broadcast there was a “cover story” called Decluttering Your Surroundings Could Help You Live a Better Life.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: decluttering, napo st. louis, peter walsh, press
The Time Timer
Are you familiar with the Time Timer? It’s a tool, often recommended for people with ADD, that gives a visual representation of the passage of time.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: geralin thomas, productivity, time management, time timer, tools
How do you eat an elephant?
I’m going through one of those periods again where I completely empathize with my clients. I had a very busy March and April (I was out of town half the month of April) and now that I have a little time to breathe, I look around my house and think, “I need a professional organizer!” There are no shortage of wonderful organizers here in St. Louis I could hire for help, but I’m going to try to economize and do the work myself.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: 15 minutes, accountability, backsliding, decluttering, productivity, time management
Packing for the plane
I’m flying home from Hawaii late this afternoon. It’s an overnight flight and I arrive in St. Louis at 8 in the morning. That’s an eleven hour journey, not counting the time I spend waiting for my flight at the Honolulu airport.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: knitting, mark forster, packing, travel
Change in newsletter pub date
If you were looking forward to receiving my monthly newsletter tomorrow, I have to break it to you: I’ve decided to change the publication date to the 15th of each month.
Filed under: Organizing Resources || Tagged with: newsletter
When good things happen to great clients
I mentioned last week that I was leaving for Hawaii to help a client get settled in there. We’re working hard, having some fun, and accomplishing a lot.
I’ve been working with this client since September 2006 and she serves as a fabulous example of the benefits of getting organized.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: balance, decluttering, empowerment, order, organized, priorities
Historical clutter
When I was cleaning out my email inbox, I came across a link to a New York Times article called The Ghosts of Clinton Street. My husband had sent it to me last fall. I don’t know why I didn’t click on the link back then, but I’m glad I did last week.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: clutter, new york times
Aloha!
I’m the luckiest organizer. I worked with a wonderful client here in St. Louis for eighteen months. Last month she moved to Hawaii. Last week, her family’s stuff, which was shipped by boat, arrived. This week, I’m going there to help her set up household. I leave early (and I mean early) tomorrow morning.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: travel
Check out these great organizing blogs
When I was at the NAPO conference in Reno earlier this month, I was invited to a meeting of professional organizers who blog about organizing. What a great group of people and a fantastic opportunty to put faces with names (and blogs), as well as learn about some blogs I was less familiar with.
Filed under: Organizing Resources || Tagged with: blogs
Update on my email taming
Just a few days ago, I wrote a blog post about taming my email box. I vowed to use the trusted-three method, which I read about on Lifehacker, to empty my email inbox. I said I’d try it out and report back.
Filed under: Organizing Resources || Tagged with: decluttering, email
Taming the email inbox
I have to admit that I’m a bit of an email packrat. It seems fairly harmless to me, as long as my hard drive is large enough, and somehow having the history of many of my email interactions gives me comfort.
Filed under: Organizing Resources || Tagged with: decluttering, email
Super-cool designer notebooks
Raise your hand if you’re an office-supply junkie. You can’t see me, but I’ve waving my hand in the air. I love office supplies. I can (and do) spend hours in Office Depot and Office Max. I especially love beautiful journals and spiral-bound notebooks. I love the feel of quality paper against my pen. I love the look of gorgeous colors and lines that are just the right distance apart.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: journal writing, notebooks, organizing products
How do you spell procrastination?
In my life right now, the answer to that question is T-A-X-E-S. I have to hang my head in shame and admit that my taxes aren’t done. But I’m quite sure they will be by the end of the day.
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: geralin thomas, procrastination, taxes
Back to reality
After a glorious time at the NAPO conference in Reno (best part: interacting with fabulous organizers, worst part: staying in a hotel and casino full of smoke!), I’m home. I arrived home about midnight on Saturday night.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: napo, productivity, time management
Organizing nirvana
Checking in for a quick moment to say how wonderfully fortunate I feel to be at the national NAPO conference here in Reno. I just heard the most wonderful keynote address from Peter Walsh, who totally rocks.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: education, empowerment, friendship, geralin thomas, napo, peter walsh
I'm off to learn something
I leave today for Reno, Nevada, to attend the national conference of my professional organization, the National Association of Professional Organizers. This is my third national NAPO conference in as many years and I’m very excited.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: napo, oprah, peter walsh, travel
Shredder lust
Inspired by this thread on Unclutterer, particularly the great comments, I lingered in the shredder section of Office Depot yesterday. I found one I liked (but don’t need) but it’s not available online, so I can’t show it to you.
But check out this nice-looking Black and Decker shredder-, which was recommended by a commenter in the Unclutterer entry (and called “sexy” by other commenters).
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: shredders
The morning rush
I’m a punctuality-challenged person. That’s not a great trait for a professional organizer. My clients have a reasonable expectation that I’ll arrive on time. And besides, it’s just good business to be respectful of your clients’ time.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: control, joe's goals, mark forster, punctuality, routines, silvercreek glider club, time management
Things Flylady has taught me
Chances are you’re familiar with Flylady. Flylady, who’s real name is Marla Cilley, has a wildly popular website which helps readers dig out from clutter, establish routines, and stay organized.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: 15 minutes, decluttering, flylady, habits, routines
A habit is born
As I’ve endlessly documented in this blog, I vowed this year to form the habit of clearing my desk at the end of each work day. The idea was that I would start work each morning with a clear desk, a clear mind, and major productivity. It’s something that I’ve strived for for decades and never been able to achieve.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: accountability, clean desk, desk, don't break the chain, motivation, productivity
Have you tried Hulu yet?
The world of online entertainment took a giant step forward, in my opinion, when Hulu.com launched a couple of weeks ago.
Filed under: Sharing Organizing || Tagged with: productivity, rewards, television
Recharging the batteries
I took the day off yesterday. Completely.
I hadn’t had a day off since March 6 and I was feeling the need to recharge my batteries. Yesterday was the first day I didn’t have a client appointment scheduled in a couple of weeks and I just wanted to hang out. So that’s what I did.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: balance, knitting, time management
Stock up on Forever stamps!
On May 12, the U.S. Postal Service will increase the price of a first-class stamp to 42 cents. In 2007, when they raised the rate from 39 to 41 cents, they introduced the “Forever stamp” which sells for 41 cents. This stamp, as its name implies, can be used even after a rate increase.
Filed under: Sharing Organizing || Tagged with: belt-tightening, deadlines, planning
My must-read blogs
In 2008, as part of my new dedication to getting a handle on my time, I’ve been trying to read more blogs. That may sound counterintuitive…blog reading can be a huge time suck.
Filed under: Sharing Organizing || Tagged with: blogs, productivity
Priority management
Time management isn’t about managing time. It’s about managing priorities. We all have the same amount of time in a day to deal with. How we use it is an indication of our priorities.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: balance, mark forster, michael neill, priorities, productivity, time management
The tyranny of the blog
I love having a blog. The freedom to write whatever I want is wonderful. (Way, way back in the day I had a column in PetLife magazine in which I could write whatever I wanted. It was exhilarating.)
But that freedom is a two-edged sword. With little structure surrounding what to write, and no deadlines, it can be very difficult to (1) take the time to post to my blog and (2) come up with something remotely meaningful to write.
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: blogs, don't break the chain, michael neill, routines, steven pressfield, time management, writing
Do It Tomorrow really works
As I’ve written here before, I decided on January 1 that 2008 would be the year that I take control of my time-management issues. That day, I selected probably a half dozen time management books from my shelf, each one espousing a different philosophy. I thought I’d make a commitment to a single system and really try to adhere to it for a month or so.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: balance, control, desk, empowerment, focus, goals, mark forster, priorities, productivity, time management
A peek inside the client's mind
When I visit the home of a client for the first time, I’m often struck by the trust that’s been placed in me. For some of my clients, I’m the first visitor they’ve welcomed into their homes in some time.
Filed under: Sharing Organizing || Tagged with: clutter, control, decluttering, kitchen, trust
At the risk of being redundant
I just have to write once again about the joys of my “clean-desktop lifestyle” (blog post about my clean desk):http://www.peaceofmindorganizing.com/blog/the-amazing-power-of-a-clean-desktop.
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: clean desk
The Organized Knitting Club
I don’t think I’ve extolled the virtues of Ravelry, the exciting social networking website for knitters and crocheters here yet. The site is amazing—a fabulous resource for finding patterns, seeing what others are knitting, getting technical advice and “meeting” people with similar interests through its various groups
Filed under: Knitting Organizing || Tagged with: organized knitting club, ravelry, stash
The amazing power of a clean desktop
The habit I’ve been trying to instill with the Don’t Break the Chain method that I wrote about in a recent post is clearing my desktop at the end of the workday.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: accountability, clean desk, decluttering, desk, don't break the chain, goals, habits, motivation, productivity, time management, workspace
"Don't Break the Chain"
As part of my new emphasis on time management this year, I started off the new year by checking out some productivity blogs. I came across this great post on the wonderful blog Lifehacker that introduced to me a concept that in just a few short days has really had an impact on me.
Filed under: Ranting-and-Raving Organizing || Tagged with: clean desk, don't break the chain, goals, habits, motivation, time management
That craving for order
Before I sat down to write in my journal on January 1, 2008, I decided to read the entry I wrote on January 1, 1998
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: clutter, journal writing, new year, order
Workspace order
I was interviewed recently for an article at AuditNet, a website for auditors, about clearing your workspace and keeping it in order. Check out my tips at the Q&A here: Taming Office Clutter
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: decluttering, desk, press, workspace
Happy new year!
But here it is the first day of the year and I find myself wanting to write down goals, figure out systems for making life easier, and (still) cleaning out/cleaning up.
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: balance, decluttering, new year, ravelry, time management
Got organizing questions?
I’m the featured organization expert next week on Gimundo.com. All this week, readers have the opportunity to submit organizing questions they’d like answered. Next week I’ll be answering them.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: gimundo, organizing questions
Must-watch TV
If you like watching organizing shows on TV, you’re in for a treat. Fine Living Network has a new show called Time Makeover that focuses on time management.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: fine living network, geralin thomas, television, time makeover, time management
The power of Oprah
Thursday and Friday of last week (November 15 and 16), Oprah had a two-part show on hoarding. It was riveting viewing. I was so pleased that they gave the subject its due, treated the hoarder who was featured (and helped) with respect and brought in experts who were spot-on in their advice and assistance.
Filed under: Organizing Resources || Tagged with: david tolin, hoarding, oprah, peter walsh
A little Internet press
I’m quoted in a couple of articles published on the Internet recently.
Today’s edition of Gimundo.com has an article by Kathy Hawkins entitled, “How to Kick the Clutter Habit.” I’m the main source for the article.
Filed under: Sharing Organizing || Tagged with: clutter, decluttering, press
Clutter and stress
I just discovered something about myself. I’ve always known that, for me, clutter causes stress. And stress tends to cause clutter. Typically, my stress starts because I’m too busy. When I’m busy I have no time to put anything away. The clutter grows and grows and looking at it stresses me out. It’s a vicious cycle.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: clutter, decluttering, desk, stress
Bragging rights
I don’t like to brag, truly, but I’m really proud of some credentials I’ve attained recently and I want to share. I’m in the process of updating my website, and the new credentials will be a permanent fixture there, but in the meantime, I’ll post it here.
Filed under: Sharing Organizing || Tagged with: add, certification, chronically disorganized, credentials, education, exam, ngscd, training
Clutter can be such a barrier
It’s amazing to me what a barrier to productivity, to progress, to peace of mind clutter can be. I see it in my clients all the time. And I know from personal experience.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: clutter, decluttering, empowerment, feng shui, focus, priorities, procrastination, productivity
For me, this is what it is all about
I just got back from an intense five days working with a client in another state. I know from her feedback and from what we accomplished that I really made a difference in her life. That’s what I love about this work!
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: clutter, coaching, decluttering, hoarding, synergy
Perfectionism
I’m a Virgo. Well, actually, I was born on the cusp of Libra, but I’ve always identified myself as being a Virgo. Many professional organizers are. If you’re in a room of professional organizers and you ask the Virgos to raise their hands, you’ll see a sea of raised hands. Most Virgos are perfectionists. Not me, though. I’m actually a “good enough” person. But many of my clients (Virgos or not) are perfectionists.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: organized, perfectionism
Talk about your cash in the attic
When I work with chronically disorganized clients they sometimes want to have a garage sale to get rid of some of their excess stuff and minimize the financial impact of buying things they ended up not wanting.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: antiques, garage sale, yard sale
All revved up!
I just returned from six fabulous days of training, education and networking with my colleagues in the organizing profession. I attended the annual conferences of the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization and the National Association of Professional Organizers. I also attended a one-day training workshop for a great filing system called Freedom Filer.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: big picture, empowerment, freedom filer, napo, nsgcd
Coaching, anyone?
Earlier this year, I made the smart decision to take a nine-week telecourse, The Coach Approach for Organizers, taught by the fabulous uber-organizer and coach Denslow Brown and the equally fabulous ADD coach, Cameron Gott.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: add, coaching
I can see clearly now
So I paid almost $30 to have my car washed inside and out. I expected to enjoy having a nice clean car. I didn’t expect to have an epiphany.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: big picture, car, clutter, focus
The cobbler’s children…
I’ve been spending my days helping my clients create order, which I love doing. Meanwhile, my own house seems to be devolving into chaos. Between the rapidly piling up mail (I can’t seem to get caught up), and the laundry that’s not getting done, my home looks like it could use the help of a professional organizer.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: clutter, coaching, perfectionism, time management
The perfect purse
I don’t know how men do without a purse. How can they possibly take everything they need along with them? You never hear them complaining about it, though. Perhaps they have a different perception of what they need to have with them at all times. Hmmm. Maybe I should take a page from their book and try just carrying a wallet and cell phone.
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: mark forster, purse
Where does the day go?
Today was the one day this week where I planned to get a lot of stuff done. I have client appointments each day the rest of the week and while they’re just half-day appointments, I find it’s hard to be ultra-productive the second half of the day. I had big plans for getting so much accomplished in the broad expanse of time available today.
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: mark forster, priorities, time management
A pro-clutter movement?
According to an “article(Saying Yes to Mess article)”: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/garden/21mess.html?ex=1167368400&en=6aadc90afd8e245d&ei=5070&emc=eta1 by Penelope Green in today’s New York Times, there’s an anti-anticlutter movement afoot. That movement, according to the article, urges people to say yes to mess and embrace their disorder.
Filed under: Organizing Ranting-and-Raving || Tagged with: anti anticlutter, books, disorder
A little press
My company is included in “Sauce Magazine’s (St. Louis food magazine Sauce Magazine):http://www.saucemagazine.com” holiday gift guide.
Filed under: Organizing Sharing || Tagged with: gifts, press, sauce magazine
Snow day!
A winter storm hit St. Louis yesterday. It wasn’t as big as the media hype warned us it would be, naturally. There’s maybe an inch or two of snow at my house. But under that snow is freezing rain and beneath that is sleet. So it’s slick. And pretty:
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: decluttering, nesting, weather
Do it tomorrow
I was a writer for many years (mostly magazine articles and books) and I couldn’t work without a deadline. The deadline would dictate when I started working on a story and, to be honest, there was usually a lot of procrastination involved.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: deadlines, mark forster, procrastination, time management
The ritual of holiday cards
It’s November, so my mind starts thinking about the holidays and, more specifically, about holiday cards. My husband and I don’t really do Christmas, but I do always send out cards to a long list of people. For some of those folks, it’s the only time of year I communicate with them.
Filed under: Living Organizing || Tagged with: cards, holidays, pets, photographs
Organizing + Knitting = My idea of a good time
I’m an avid knitter. I’m certainly not an expert knitter, but I knit every day. Or at least probably 350 days a year. One thing that every knitter knows is that you can acquire a lot of stuff with this hobby.
Filed under: Knitting Organizing || Tagged with: circular needles, learn to knit afghan, storage, wips, yarn
Backsliding
In the organizing field, particularly for organizers who work with chronically disorganized people, backsliding is all too common. You leave a client with systems in place, skills transferred, attitudes and motivation high, and then you stop hearing from her.
Filed under: Organizing Living || Tagged with: backsliding, empowerment, stacks
What is Organized?
How many times have you heard people say, “I need to get organized”? But what do they mean by that? How do they measure, “organized?” As a professional organizer, I think about this a lot.
Filed under: Organizing || Tagged with: control, organized, perfectionism, type a
