Peace of Mind Organizing

Taking a big-picture day for my business

26 October 2011

I’ve blogged before about Maryann Devine’s Society of the Secret Play Date. Maryann, owner of Smarts & Culture is a friend and a fun, creative person who loves helping others tap into their own creativity. I’m a member of the Society of the Secret Play Date, because I just love the concept: you set aside time to focus on a project, and do something creative to jumpstart or facilitate the whole process.

Now she’s offering a Day of Secret Play this Saturday, October 29. I’m really excited to participate.

I’ve been feeling the need to step back from the day-to-day operations of my business and do some big-picture thinking. As the weather gets colder, I get into planning mode. So this Saturday I’m setting the whole day aside to participate in the Day of Secret Play and do thinking and creating around the direction I want my business to go in 2012.

If this appeals to you, it’s not too late to sign up. Just go to the Day of Secret Play page and sign up by midnight on the 28th. The cost is $92 for the day and it comes with three free months of the Society of the Secret Play Date. Or you can just sign up for the Society of the Secret Play Date for $36 a month and get the Day of Secret Play free. Your choice.

Filing those paid bills

24 October 2011

Do you hang on to the paper bills that your creditors send you after you pay them? (Do you even receive your bills in the mail anymore?) A certain percentage of my clients have either gone paperless or automatically shred the bills after paying.

But a larger number of clients (and my family as well) receive most of their bills in the mail and hang on to the paid bills for at least awhile. Most of those clients, at the time I meet them, are doing what I used to do: they’re filing the paid bills by payee. (All the electric bills together, all the credit-card bills together, etc.) Or, more accurately, they’re letting the paid bills pile up because it’s such a pain to file them by payee. (I used to do that, too!)

What I recommend — and I got this idea from Freedom Filer — is instead of filing paid bills by payee, file them by month paid. Freedom Filer has labels for odd year and even year months, which allows you to keep a two-year backlog. (That’s what I do.) But a one-year backlog for non-tax-related documents is almost certainly sufficient.

Here’s what you do:

1. Label a dozen hanging file folders, one for each month of the year.
2. Create another hanging file folder (or folders) for tax-related documents.
3. When you pay bills, separate out any that can serve as documentation for a tax deduction. (This is particularly important for those of us who write off home offices.) Put those in the tax file.
4. Drop the rest of the papers in the file corresponding to the month in which you’re paying them.
5. After you’ve done this for a year, you’ll find the monthly file full of last year’s bills when you go to file. Simply pull out the contents and shred them. Drop the current month’s bills into the file, where they’ll stay for a year.

It’s that simple! I also put my receipts (again, non-tax-related) in the monthly files, as well as bank statements from my husband’s and my joint checking account. I’ve been doing this four about four years now and have yet to have it cause any problems. I so very rarely need to find anything in the files, but when I do it’s not difficult to find.

One note about tax-related documents: If you don’t keep track of your expenses electronically, you might want to create a series of category-related tax files to make it easier at tax time. Or just do a big sort at tax time.

This method of filing paid bills is so much less time consuming than filing by payee that the “To File” pile becomes a thing of the past. If you’re hanging on to your paid bills, I urge you to give it a try.

The hotel room theory of decluttering

21 October 2011

I’m writing this from my room at a Comfort Suites. It’s not exactly a luxurious room. But as I was sitting here on the little couch that makes this room a “suite” (that and the half wall that separates the couch from the bed), I started thinking about why I love hotel rooms.

I think it’s because in a hotel room, I have everything I need and nothing more. I packed only the clothes I needed for this two-night trip. I packed my toiletries. I packed my computer and my iPad and even a snack or two. And that’s it. If I wanted to, I could put everything away (more or less).

The room itself comes with amenities. There’s a TV and a desk. And a little microwave and fridge. There’s plenty of lighting. I can control the heat. What more could I ask for? I know! Someone to come in each day and make the bed, vacuum, and clean the bathroom.

The downside, of course, is that it’s not particularly homey. And living in a hotel isn’t particularly financially sustainable. So unless I win the lottery and move into the Ritz, I’ll probably live in a house or an apartment.

But maybe I can apply my love of hotel rooms to my home. If my home contained just the things I need and use, along with some decorative items that made me really happy, it might be more pleasing to me. As it is, in addition to the items I need and use, I have stuff I might need, as well as (truth be told) stuff I haven’t gotten around to throwing away.

If my home were more like the nice aspects of a hotel room, I’d probably be more comfortable. There’d be less to clean and care for. Everything could be easily put away. There’d be no daily maid, but maybe I could get a regular housekeeper.

So next time I turn my eye to decluttering, I’m going to think about how to make it more like a hotel room. But it won’t be a Comfort Suites room. I’ll make it a Four Seasons.

Lessons from Steve Jobs' life

19 October 2011

I happened to be at the Apple Store when I learned that Steve Jobs had passed away. It made me very sad; I was actually a little surprised by the depth of my emotions.

Like virtually every other Apple user, I love my Apple products. And I appreciate that Steve Jobs had a direct, positive impact on my life. But as I read some of the many articles about him, I took inspiration from contemplating the larger implications of his contributions.

I’ve been wanting to write about that here, but haven’t taken the time to craft something. And now I don’t need to, because the wonderful organizer and blogger, Jeri Dansky, already did it. She created a wonderful blog post about Steve Jobs that adds her insights to snippets from some of the stories she read about him shortly after his death. It’s well worth a read.

Thank you, Jeri!!

Make your weekend count

14 October 2011

At a meeting at the headquarters of the Institute for Challenging Disorganization the other day, the ICD executive director, Beth Quick-Andrews, paid me a big compliment. She mentioned a blog post I’d written a year and a half ago and how she thinks about its message often. She even told me when I’d posted it.

I figured if the message had lingered in her mind for almost 18 months, it’s worth repeating.

The post, called Don’t Squander the Holiday, was written the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. Its message is this: When it comes to the weekend, decide to take a day off or decide to work. Whichever you decide, really commit to it. Don’t ruin your day off by thinking about all the work you could be doing. And don’t say you’re going to work and then drag your feet and get nothing done. When you do that, you don’t get the benefit of relaxing or of getting work done.

The original post goes into more detail, of course. I think it’s a good message to think about every weekend, not just a holiday weekend!

Have a great weekend!

Thumbs up to the Itso bin from Target

12 October 2011

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.

If you read my blog regularly, you know I’m a huge fan of Aby’s blog, Creative Organizing. I was perusing it today and saw this great post on her Storage Solution of the Week, the Itso bin from Target.

I had three responses to the post:

1. Yay! Aby’s doing a Storage Solution of the Week!
2. I love the Itso bin too!
3. I have to share Aby’s post with my blog readers.

The Itso bin is a short-sided, open bin that I never gave a second glance to until Aby turned me on to the wonders of them. Now I have at least a half dozen in use in my house, and I use them with clients, too.

In her post she provides some great photos of uses for the bin. Go read it. You’ll be glad you did!

Thanks, Aby!

The beauty of R&R

10 October 2011

In September I felt like I was on a hamster wheel. Due to my travel and work schedules, I didn’t have any time to relax at home. I did take a weekend away, which was great, but it wasn’t the same as recharging my batteries at home.

But for the last two weekends, I actually took some time to do nothing. And, for me, that’s really important.

Yesterday, I didn’t process email. I didn’t do work-related things on the computer. I didn’t even enter my office (my laptop was in the dining room). What did I do? I knitted. (I’m working on this Commuter pattern for fingerless mittens.) I visited with friends. I got caught up on TV.

And now it’s Monday morning, I’m facing a busy week and I’m raring to go. That is the power of taking some time to do nothing.

How about you? Are you allowing yourself some time off so that you can face the week relaxed? If not, I urge you to give it a try!