Peace of Mind Organizing

Great ideas for organizing kids' artwork

29 June 2011

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.

That’s going to change because my friend Aby Garvey has written a fantastic blog post on her blog, Creative Organizing. She’s got great ideas and beautiful pictures to go with them. Now I can refer to this post when people ask me questions about their kids’ art.

Ready to be inspired? By all means, check out Five Ways to Organize + Enjoy Your Kid’s Artwork!

Overcoming inertia

27 June 2011

On Friday, I blogged about how I was going to work hard on Saturday so that I could relax on Sunday. That was my plan, rather than relaxing first or trying and failing to work on Saturday and then never getting to relax.

I’m happy to report that it worked out pretty well. I didn’t get everything done on my Saturday list, but I got a lot done. What’s more I powered through some moments where I really just wanted to take a nap. I used my timer to retain my focus and did indeed reward myself with a mid-day nap.

This is in contrast to a Sunday a couple of weeks ago where I intended to get a lot done but couldn’t get past the inertia. Instead I whiled away the afternoon at my computer, randomly web surfing and doing little that would enhance my life.

That kind of inertia is all too common (though as my to-do list grows and available time shrinks, it’s becoming less common).

Inertia was the subject of the free Explore and Play group coaching call two weeks ago from my friend and life coach Shannon Wilkinson, of Perception Studios. Every month, Shannon offers a free group coaching call. In that call, I jumped at the chance to get some get some magical coaching help for overcoming my inertia. I think it really helped me on Saturday. (You can actually purchase a recording of that call, if you’d like to get some help with your own inertia.)

After getting a fair amount done on Saturday, I was all about the relaxation on Sunday. I did some tasks related to the trip I’m taking to visit my parents next month, but mostly I caught up on TV, made some progress on the skirt I’m knitting, and had a lovely, long phone conversation with my friend, Patti. (It had been way too long.) I ended the day working on a task that I promised my accountability partners I’d do this week.

For me, anyway, planning some relaxation is a great strategy. Dangling the carrot of a day where I get to do only as much (or as little) as I want made it easier for me to get work done on Saturday.

Planning to relax

24 June 2011

This weekend I have no client appointments. That’s pretty unusual these days, since I tend to have one client appointment each weekend. (I try not to have appointments both Saturday and Sunday.)

I also have a large amount of work to do for my volunteer board position for the Institute for Challenging Disorganization, as well as for my business. I don’t mind having this work in front of me, because I really need to do it and I actually enjoy it. But sometimes when I sit down to work on this stuff on the weekend I can feel uninspired and resentful, particularly if I’m tired.

But I’m really keen on relaxing this weekend. I’m tired and I plan on taking one full day completely off.

So do I relax on Saturday (since I’m tired) and plan to work on Sunday, or should I do the reverse? As much as I’d like to relax tomorrow, I think I’ll get the busy work day out of the way tomorrow and use the day off as a reward for my productivity.

What I want to avoid is trying to work tomorrow, being unproductive and gripped by inertia, then having to buckle down on Sunday out of desperation. (I’ve certainly done that in the past.) When that happens, I miss out on the glory of relaxing and instead spend one day feeling lousy about being unproductive.

So I’m planning to relax on Sunday. And I’m planning to be productive on Saturday. Check back on Monday to see if planning my relaxation helps me be more productive.

Unclutterer's "Keystone Demise"

22 June 2011

I love the blog Unclutterer. Erin Doland, who writes most of the posts, is so smart and such a great writer. I love her perspective on striving to live a clutter-free life.

Yesterday, Unclutterer published a post called The Keystone Dilemma that I found fascinating. Basically, it says that there’s usually one element to your organizing system/routine that’s the keystone to holding everything together. If it goes awry, it can lead to chaos. Erin says in her home that it’s receipts on the dresser. If pockets are emptied and receipts left on the dresser instead of being properly processed, within a week disorder will reign.

That got me thinking about the keystones in my home. Within our main living space, it’s the kitchen counter. When we make an effort to keep that clear, the whole house tends to stay clear. But once it’s cluttered…clutter starts creeping in everywhere.

In my home office, it’s definitely the floor. When I get busy, I’ll move stuff off my desk onto the floor. If one pile is started, more sprout up like mushrooms.

In the post, Erin offers three tips to identify when a keystone is out of place and fix the situation. Such smart stuff! I urge you to go read it.

Some stylish over-the-door storage

20 June 2011

I love over-the-door clear vinyl shoe pockets. I use them at home for shoes and have recommended them to clients for the inside of the coat closet for hats, scarves and mittens. (They’re great for families with kids, since the little ones can use the lowest pockets.) I’ve had clients who’ve used them in craft rooms and bathrooms as well.

At the NAPO Conference I attended in April, one of the exhibitors was Simply Stashed Stashed. The folks at Simply Stashed also apparently love these shoe pockets, and they made even more useful. And attractive.

The Simply Stashed organizers come in two sizes, three different pocket configurations, and eight colors/patterns that serve as a backdrop. The pockets themselves are clear vinyl . And here’s the part I loved: Each pocket has a little sleeve for a slide-in label. Isn’t that great? Labeling is so important, even when the container is clear. And this makes labeling very easy.

Check it out. Here’s one that’s storing Legos:

And one with laundry-room supplies:

And here’s a bathroom version:

Of course, you can do whatever you want with yours.

Simply Stashed organizers are available online, at the Simply Stashed website. If you use the coupon code PEACEOFMIND you’ll receive a ten percent discount (and I’ll receive a 10 percent commission…but I’d be telling you about it even if I weren’t a Simply Stashed affiliate).

I liked what I saw and plan to buy one to show clients. I love it when people turn a good idea into a great one and take things to the next level!

If it stops working, change it up!

17 June 2011

Organization systems, as well as habits and routines, are usually set up with current circumstances in mind. When circumstances change, the systems or routines might fall apart. In other words, life takes zigs and zags and if systems keep going straight, they’re not going to work.

I tell this to my clients all the time. I recently had an experience that reminded me how true it is.

I had an exercise routine that was pretty steady. I’d exercise using Wii Fit in the evenings, after I was finished with work. But I’m been very busy lately and my work days seem to be getting longer and longer. When I’d finally finish working, I just didn’t feel like exercising. What I felt like was a drinking a glass of wine or eating dinner.

So exercise fell by the wayside and that started stressing me out. Not because I live to exercise (I certainly don’t) but because I felt sort of slovenly and I’d put on a couple of pounds.

I started considering joining a gym, but had a hard time imagining that I’d find time to go out to exercise when I couldn’t do it at home.

Then I paused to think about it and I realized that I’ve been most successful in creating morning routines. So I decided to try getting up earlier and doing my Wii Fit before coffee.

Guess what? It’s really working for me! The big side benefit I didn’t anticipate is that if I exercise in the morning, I don’t worry about it the rest of the day. For several years now, I’d think throughout the day, “Oh, I gotta exercise.” Now, that nagging thought is gone. Let’s hear it for getting rid of nagging thoughts!

What really surprised me is that I’m actually excited about exercising again. On Thursday morning, I woke up 15 minutes late and had to be out of the house by 8 a.m. But I just couldn’t skip the exercise. Instead, I did it for a shorter period of time. But I did it. Amazing.

So the lesson here for me is that when things stop working, I need to change them up. When I take the time to think about the successful habits and routines I’ve managed to establish, I get clues and ideas about new ways to get them back on track.

If you have something you’d like to improve (be it an organizational system or a habit or routine), try thinking about what you’re doing well and see whether that can be applied to this situation.

Taming the pile of active papers

15 June 2011

I have this clean desk policy that I’ve been blogging about since 2008. Basically, I make sure I clean my desk off at the end of every business day. It’s glorious and it helps me hit the ground running when I arrive at my desk in the morning.

But I’ll let you in on a secret. Sometimes I have papers that aren’t easy to put away or that are so current I don’t want to let them out of my sight. So I put them in a leather inbox I have resting on the radiator next to my desk. Not on my desk (that would violate my policy), next to my desk.

Yesterday I switched it all up. Pendaflex had sent me a bunch of products to consider blogging about and I was instantly drawn to the PileSmart Organizer Tray. This clear Lucite® tray comes with rigid, colorful dividers with tabs on both the short and long sides.

The idea is you can easily categorize piles of paper under the rigid dividers. It’s great for temporary storage and I could see it as a more sightly and organized landing space for my active papers.

So here’s how my inbox looked yesterday morning.

Pretty ugly!

I went through the papers, filed some of them, acted upon and threw out a few others and then put the rest in the PileSmart tray.

That feels better.

The tabs are supposed to be write and erase, but I couldn’t figure out what kind of pen to use that I could erase. No worries. I just used a Avery return address label to hand-write my labels. If I want to relabel, I’ll remove and replace the label (or put one over it).

There are six dividers and therefore six categories. The ones I created are:

• First Thing, for any papers associated with what I consider tomorrow’s most urgent task
• ICD 1 through 3, for my three most current projects relating to the Institute for Challenging Disorganization (I’m their Marketing Director)
• Quickbooks, for receipts waiting to be entered
• Pending

I like that the tray is lower profile than my last one. And I like that it’s slightly slanted to the back to keep papers in.

I think this will make cleaning up my desk at day’s end even easier. I also think that it will make me more mindful of dealing with the loose papers on my desk during the daily desk-cleaning process.

I know that that the challenge will be to stay on top of the papers there and make sure they’re all active and deserve to be there. If they’re not, I’ll file or toss them.

It’s always fun to try something new and I look forward to seeing how well this works for me.