Last fall I developed and taught a fun online workshop for Simplify 101 called Simplify Your Life with Habits + Routines. I’m delighted that it’s being offered again, February 21 through March 20. You can sign up now and get early-bird pricing (20 percent off!) through January 27.
Tagged with: aby garvey, habits, routines, workshops
It’s been over a year since I started my Inbox Zero habit. On January 2, 2011 I cleared out my email inbox. And, for the most part, it’s been empty at the end of each workday since.
Tagged with: aby garvey, accountability, email, habits, productivity
I’m not so keen on New Year’s Resolutions. I think we tend to make them when we get caught up in the hopeful feelings that a fresh, new year brings. But I think they’re frequently not realistic. And we don’t give them enough time. And when one goes by the wayside, we give up hope on all of them.
Tagged with: aby garvey, clean bureau, clean desk, email, goals, habits, resolutions, shannon wilkinson
If you’re on the east coast, it probably felt more like Christmas than Halloween with the blanket of snow that fell.
The holidays are just around the corner. I urge you to do as much, but no more, than you want to do in terms of holiday prep and decorating. If you do like to decorate, give gifts and entertain at holiday time, now’s the time to start getting ready.
Tagged with: aby garvey, holidays
My friend Aby Garvey of Simplify 101 is such a smart organizer. Not only does she organize well and come up with innovative solutions, she also makes things beautiful. She helped me organize my pantry two years ago and I’m still in love with it.
Tagged with: aby garvey, organizing products, storage
I’m a huge believer in the value of routines. They keep my life running smoothly. But right now, my routines are all messed up. I was away for a week, attending the ICD conference. Then I was home for four days and too busy to focus on my surroundings. Then I left home for a lovely, relaxing weekend in Nashville with friends.
Tagged with: 15 minutes, aby garvey, habits, routines, travel
As I announced a couple of weeks ago, I’m going to be teaching an online workshop for Simplify 101 called Simplify Your Life with Habits + Routines. It’s going to be a terrific workshop that will help you learn how to create great habits and routines so that you can live the life you want to lead.
Tagged with: aby garvey, workshops
I can barely contain my excitement: I can finally announce that I’ll be teaching a fun online workshop for Simplify 101 called Simplify Your Life with Habits + Routines! The workshop will be offered October 4 through November 1. You can sign up now and get early-bird pricing through September 8.
Tagged with: aby garvey, habits, routines, workshops
I occasionally am asked by clients for ideas on what to do with their kids’ copious artistic masterpieces. I don’t have kids myself, so I typically answer pretty generally and without a whole lot of insight.
Tagged with: aby garvey, artwork, children, organizing kids
On January 2, I cleared my inbox down to zero email messages. And since then i’ve done it every work day except two, when I was out of town without my computer. That’s nearly five months of inbox zero at least five days a week. (I usually do it on the weekends as well.)
Tagged with: aby garvey, accountability, blogging, don't break the chain, email, habits, productivity
I am bursting my buttons with pride, as I report that I have achieved Inbox Zero each and every day since January 2. That’s 38 days in a row that I’ve handled each message that’s come into my email inbox.
Tagged with: aby garvey, email, habits
Last night, I reached the elusive Inbox Zero. That’s right, I emptied my email inbox. This isn’t to say I don’t have any email messages. It’s just that they’re filed away in folders (or “mailboxes” in Mac Mail parlance).
Tagged with: aby garvey, accountability, decluttering, email
I’ve been keeping sort of a crazy schedule for the last week. Lots of work outside the home, lots of phone time at home, quite a bit of fatigue. The result is that my email inbox, which I usually try very hard to keep under control, has grown and grown.
Tagged with: aby garvey, email, mark forster, time management, time timer
I wanted to update you on a few recent blog posts:
Tagged with: aby garvey, container store, declutter happy hour, elfa, linda samuels, napo la, napo st. louis, shannon wilkinson, shred and protect
I subscribe to the Weekly Quick Tip that organizer Aby Garvey sends out every week. Yesterday’s was fantastic. She said it came to her from a participant in one of her online workshops.
Tagged with: aby garvey, gift wrap, holidays, recycling
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.)
Tagged with: aby garvey, clean desk, flylady, habits, routines
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.
Tagged with: aby garvey, denslow brown, napo la, napo st. louis
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.
Tagged with: aby garvey, giveaway, kitchen, rubbermaid
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.
Tagged with: aby garvey, kitchen, professional organizer
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.
Tagged with: aby garvey, accountability, decluttering, email
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.
Tagged with: aby garvey, decluttering, email
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.
Tagged with: aby garvey, butler bag, geralin thomas, purse
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.
Tagged with: aby garvey, holidays, workshops
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.
Tagged with: aby garvey, control, economy, empowerment
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.
Tagged with: aby garvey, closets, geralin thomas, shopping, wardrobe
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
Tagged with: aby garvey, books, decluttering, julie morgenstern, unclutterer
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.
Tagged with: aby garvey, blog of the week, blogs, brandie kajino, krista colvin, o myth, organize in style, the shebang
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.
Tagged with: aby garvey, blog of the week, freelance success, scrapbooking
Janine Adams, CPO®, CPO-CD®, specializes in working with chronically disorganized clients.
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