Peace of Mind Organizing

Bingo!

27 July 2011

When I saw Jacquelyn Kittredge’s e-bakery blog post about her social media bingo card I got really excited. I love the idea of turning those “I should” daily tasks (like keeping up with your social media) into a fun game.

So I created my own. While I emphasize social media and virtual income generation on my bingo card, I also have included other tasks that I wish I did more often, like entering Quickbooks data and entering Continuing Education Credits for my CPO recertification. I’ve put connecting with current and past clients up in there, too, which is something I don’t take the time to do as often as I might.

Here’s a photo of my bingo card. I printed the tasks out in a nice font on white paper and used scrapbook paper to create the pretty background 2- x 2-inch squares. (I affixed the white paper to the scrapbook paper using Glue Dots.) I purchased a 12- x 12-inch square magnetic bulletin board from the Container Store. And I just use magnets on the front of the squares to stick them to the board.

There are plenty of tasks to choose from.

Here’s my bingo card after a little effort. I ended up getting a triple bingo on this card!

Bingo!

Here’s how I play:

• When I do a task, I cover that square with a 1.5- x 2-inch Post-It® note.
• If I get the required number of tasks done in a row (four or five, depending on the row), I get bingo! And I feel very satisfied.
• If I got a bingo the day before, I rearrange the bingo spots randomly
• If I didn’t get bingo the day before, I remove the post-its but don’t rearrange the spots

So far, no more reward then the satisfaction of getting bingo is required.

I’ve just been doing this for a little while, but it’s provided a fun way to get some stuff done. I’m amazed at how motivated I am by getting a bingo. I guess I’m a child at heart.

I realize that to make this a true bingo card I need to add a row of tasks. I didn’t have room on this particular board, so I didn’t. But soon I think I’ll replace the BINGO row with five more tasks and increase the degree of difficulty a bit.

Thank you, Jacquelyn, for the great inspiration! You can also check out the bingo card created by Maryann Devine of Smarts and Culture. Maybe it’s a trend that will sweep the nation!

ETA: Check out my Bingo update and my Bingo anniversary posts, which detail some of the improvements I made to my Bingo board since writing this blog post. Also, I got so excited about bingo that I created an Organizing Guide about it. The five-page Guide gives instructions on creating a board, guidance on ways to use the concept, and rules I created for using it. See my Organizing Guides page for information on purchasing it.

Organized travel documents

25 July 2011

I went on a week-long trip to visit my parents in mid-July. It involved air travel, car rental, and hotel stay (my parents live in a small condo, so I don’t stay with them).

I’m not a nervous traveler, but I definitely like to have my ducks in a row. So I was delighted when Smead sent me a two-pack of their Travel Organizer to try out and consider blogging about. This is a three-sectioned document holder, and each section has an index tab. There’s a pocket in the front with velcro closure for receipts (or it could be used for boarding passes). A tab that comes from the back over the front keeps papers from falling out.

I customized my Travel Organizer for this trip with my handy Brother P-Touch label maker. To make it prettier and easier to spot in my bag, I used berry pink labels with white writing. I labeled the whole folder for the trip, then put labels on each tab for plane, car, and hotel.

Here’s a photo of my customized travel organizer:

I customized the organizer for my trip.

Talk about having my ducks in a row! I was able to find just what I needed quickly and easily. I had a safe place to stash my receipts so my wallet didn’t get clogged. I haven’t yet entered my receipts in to Quickbooks (this week, I promise!) so they’re all in a safe place awaiting entry.

I foresee changing the trip label and using the Travel Organizer for each trip I take. Being able to create three separate sections and access them easily is a step above the colored poly slash folder I’ve been using for years when I travel.

Hoarding on NPR

20 July 2011

In the past week, two public radio programs had episodes focusing on hoarding.

You can read transcripts of the stories on the respective show’s websites.

The Diane Rehm Show’s episode on hoarding aired on July 13. The Diane Rehm Show airs out of Washington, D.C.

Here and Now had an episode on hoarding on July 19. Here and Now is broadcast from Boston.

As a professional organizer who works with clients on the full spectrum of the “clutter-hoarding scale”: I like the attention that the media have given to hoarding. It’s a serious, complicated problem that deserves serious attention. Since I’ve been onvacation, I haven’t actually had a chance to listen to the shows, but I have high hopes the topics have received the usual serious, respectful NPR coverage.

ETA: My bad! Here and Now is a program from Public Radio International, though it’s produced at an NPR station. Both NPR and PRI create thought-provoking, quality programming, in my opinion.

ICD's newly revised Clutter-Hoarding Scale is out

11 July 2011

In 2004, the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization (now the Institute for Challenging Disorganization) issued the landmark Clutter Hoarding Scale, an assessment tool that identified five different levels of cluttering and hoarding. It can be used for organizers (or clients) who want to get an objective view of the state of a home. As conditions improve, it can also serve as a measuring tool.

The scale ranged from Level I, a sort of ordinary level of imperfection, to Level 5, a full-blown virtually uninhabitable hoarder’s home. The document recommends that at Level 3, specialized, collaborative help is needed.

On the television hoarding shows like, A&E’s Hoarders, you’ll occasionally hear someone refer to a Level 5. This is where that came from.

I’m really excited to report that the ICD has issued a newly revised Clutter-Hoarding Scale. This one also has five levels, and has added a Personal Protective Equipment category to indicate what sort of precautionary equipment a professional (or anyone) should use when working in each level. The larger format allows for expanded explanatory text.

In addition, the new Clutter-Hoarding Scale incorporates the use of color (the original had only black-and-white text), adding alert colors for each level.

Interested in taking a look for yourself? The ICD Clutter-Hoarding Scale is available as a free download. Simply go to the CHS page on the ICD website to download.

Don't miss Explore & Play free coaching calls

8 July 2011

Shannon Wilkinson of Perception Studios now offers free monthly coaching calls. This is an amazing opportunity to benefit from a really talented life coach who uses NLP and hypnosis techniques.

I admit I’m biased, but I think Shannon’s work is nothing short of magical. Shannon and I have been friends for more than ten years. We met back in the early days of this millennium on an online forum for owners of dogs with Addison’s Disease. We hit it off immediately and our friendship has outlasted marriages, careers, different pets, the whole gamut.

When Shannon decided to take coaching training back in 2003, I cheered her on. When she asked if she could practice with me on phone coaching, I jumped at the chance. She’s helped me in so many ways and gotten me past some really debilitating emotional hurdles. I don’t think I’d be as successful as I am without her. We’ve even worked together professionally. In 2009, we partnered to offer Declutter Happy Hour together.

Which brings us back to this great opportunity. Free coaching with Shannon. The Explore and Play group coaching calls happen on the second Tuesday of every month (unless she’s traveling). That’s this coming Tuesday. Go to her website to sign up. This month’s theme is Calming the chatter. Last month it was Moving through Inertia. On that call, I volunteered to be the person she coached. It was really effective and got me past some inertia.

If that topic interests you (she also had a call on dealing with overwhelm), you can purchase recordings of past Explore and Play group coaching calls for $18.

Once you get a taste of Shannon’s special magical coaching, you might want to sign up for her amazing You Creating You one-on-one coaching program, which can help your biggest dream become a reality. If you have the budget for it (and how can you put a price tag of living your dream?), it’s surely a powerful experience.

The first step is signing up for the Explore and Play free group coaching call. I can’t be there this month, but I plan to attend each one I can.

Behold the power of the daily routine

6 July 2011

I think habits and routines are incredibly important for making life easier and achieving what you want. The routines I have created have helped me, a naturally messy person, maintain a semblance of order in my home.

Some habits are daily, like running and emptying the dishwasher, wiping down the bathroom fixtures and cleaning off my desk. Others are tied to circumstances, rather than day or time of day, like my scooping poop in the backyard immediately after I walk my dog.

Sporadic activities can be made into solid habits. But daily routines? Those are the ones that really have power.

This was brought home to me recently when I thought about the two daily routines I’ve been absolutely passionate about: getting my inbox down to zero messages every day, and exercising every morning. (I actually sometimes let myself off the email hook on the weekends, but I usually regret it on Monday morning.)

I’ve been exercising daily since June 13. This feels absolutely miraculous to me. I was having the hardest time getting myself to exercise at my usual time, which is after work. I was just too busy and tired. So I decided to try doing it first thing in the morning. It’s worked out so well that even on a day where I overslept a little, I managed to squeeze it in.

There are two factors at play here that make daily routines so powerful:

• It’s easy to build a chain. If you’re doing something every single day, it feels like a bigger deal to miss a day.

• The benefits are so apparent. When you do something daily, you don’t let a backlog build up. And when there’s no backlog, it’s easier to do. This works beautifully for email (and is one of the reasons I love my inbox zero policy). But it even applies to exercise—if I keep up with it, I stay in shape and exercising doesn’t become difficult.

Of course the difficulty comes when your routine is completely broken, like mine will be next week when I spend a week visiting my parents. Perhaps I’ll squeeze some early-morning exercise in (though I’m not traveling with my Wii Fit, my preferred way of exercising). But if I can’t, the key will be in jumping right back into the routine when I return home.

Knowing how great it’s been to get my exercise finished before the day even begins, I have high hope I’ll get right back in the saddle. I’ll post here and let you know (accountability is powerful too!).

The freedom organizing can bring

4 July 2011

Today is the Fourth of July where in the U.S. we celebrate the signing of our nation’s Declaration of Independence from England. I’m currently reading An Echo in the Bone, the seventh in Diana Galbadon’s wonderful Outlander series, which is set during the Revolutionary War. Maybe that’s why this year Independence Day really has me thinking about independence, and freedom, and what it means to me and my clients.

In my work, I frequently work with people whose stuff has a stranglehold on them. That’s what happens when you have more stuff than you can comfortably store or keep track of.

So this Independence Day, I’m thinking about the ways decluttering and organizing can bring freedom and independence to those of you who are dealing with lots of clutter and disorder. For example:

• Freedom to invite people in on a moment’s notice
• Independence from late fees on bills
• Freedom to move house if a great opportunity presents itself
• Independence from dust and allergens
• Freedom to use the services of professional housecleaners
• Independence from having to stay home and “get organized” rather than going out and having fun
• Freedom to use the rooms in your house in the way they were intended
• Independence from the guilt and shame that comes from years of struggling with clutter
• Freedom to amend your taxes if you think of something you left out
• Independence from the mad search for your keys when it’s time to leave the house
• Freedom to travel — because you can have a house sitter or pet sitter come stay
• Independence from feeling inauthentic because no one would suspect what the inside of your house looks like
• Freedom to craft if you like to do that sort of thing, because you can find your craft supplies and have a space to work
• Independence from worry over the house’s state of disrepair, because you can have workers in without worrying about clutter in their way
• Freedom to sit and enjoy a clean, orderly space with an uncluttered mind

What have I left off?