Peace of Mind Organizing

My new favorite product: origami-inspired magnetic bookmark

25 February 2011

I keep my task list in a Myndology disc-bound notebook with repositionable pages. I bought it at the Container Store. As I blogged about last week, I’m using Mark Forster’s SuperFocus task-management system, which I’m really digging. (Again, I promise a full review after I’ve used it for a little while.)

With SuperFocus, it’s important that I keep track of where I left off on my task list, so I needed a good way to mark my page. I initially just used a Post-it note, but I found that unsatisfactory from an aesthetic standpoint. When I was browsing at the Container Store, I came across the magnetic origami bookmarks from Girl of all Work. Here’s a photo from Girl of All Work’s website:

Aren’t they pretty? The little magnet is strong, so I they don’t fall off the page. I’m also using one to mark the page of the thick novel I’m currently reading. I love that the bookmark is always handy—I just leave it in place when I’m reading and move it when I’m finished, something that’s harder to do with a paper bookmark.

I love taking the time to embrace little pleasures, like a bookmark that’s pretty and does its job well.

Q&A with author Leah Ingram

23 February 2011

I’ve been acquainted with Leah Ingram, author of the new book,Toss, Keep, Sell!: The Suddenly Frugal Guide to Cleaning Out the Clutter and Cashing In, for going on fifteen years. We were members of the same professional association for writers back when I was a freelance writer and both still belong to the online writing community, Freelance Success. Leah’s created a name for herself as an expert in saving money, thanks to her popular Suddenly Frugal blog and her book of the same name. When I became aware of the topic of her newest book. I couldn’t resist asking her to do a Q&A for my blog.

Who will benefit most from your book?

Recovering spendthrifts—people who use to spend, shop, and dine out freely, and then when the economy tanked, suddenly needed to live frugally. I know from being one of those recovering spendthrifts that, thanks to my “shopper-tainment” days, when I went shopping when I was bored. I had more stuff than I needed so plenty of clutter to clear out.

What prompted you to write it?

I wanted this new book to serve a dual purpose: to help people get their homes organized, and discover ways that they could get cash for their clutter. This book grew out of my earlier book Suddenly Frugal: How to Live Happier and Healthier for Less, which grew out of my blog Suddenly Frugal. The secret to living frugally is to continually reevaluate your spending and saving, and find ways that you can cut back on daily or regular expenses. But when there’s nothing left to cut, you’ve got to find ways to bring in more money. I’m lucky, in that I’m a self-employed writer and I can always take on additional assignments to bring in more income. But most people don’t have the time to get a second job. Hopefully, Toss, Keep, Sell! will help them figure out ways to put more cash back in their wallets.

In researching your book, what was the most surprising or impressive way you uncovered that people can make money be getting rid of their excess stuff?

The person who held an “estate” sale in her suburban tract home. Truthfully, I thought only rich people with mansions had estate sales, but this person was able to pull it off—she basically turned her entire house into a “department store,” and walked away with $4,000.

What’s your favorite place to sell stuff?

I’m really into consigning my clothes these days. I try to consign twice a year—once for warm weather clothing and once for cold weather clothing—and knowing that this is on my “schedule,” it keeps me on track for thinning my wardrobe on a regular basis. Also, once my clothes are bagged up, if the consignment store rejects them, then I just drive to my local Goodwill and donate them. That’s win-win for me, my wallet, my closet, and people who could use new clothes.

One of the categories of stuff that I find that many of my clients have difficulty parting with are items given to them as gifts. Do you have any advice that would help them let go of unwanted gifts?

I call it gift guilt, and I definitely address this in Toss, Keep, Sell! Simply put I suggest that readers do a 180 on the situation and ask themselves, “Do I expect everyone I give a gift to to keep that gift indefinitely, even if they can’t use it or don’t like it?” Most people realize that the pressure that they put on themselves to keep and display gifts that they don’t really love they would never put on most other people. And usually that frees them up to add it to their yard sale box, list it on eBay, or just get rid of it.

Author Leah Ingram

What do you think is the secret to keeping a home clutter-free, after the decluttering is accomplished?

Keeping a home clutter-free is exactly like keeping off weight after you’ve reached your goal. It’s all about maintenance. You can’t go back to your old habits and expect everything to stay the same. While I’m not always good about cleaning up each room of my house every single day, you can bet that the main areas of my house are tidied before we go to bed at night or at least once during the day. Just this morning my kitchen was a disaster area from the kids having breakfast before school, me packing lunches, and no one getting around to loading and unloading the dishwasher. So the sink was full. Rather than stomp away in disgust, after everyone had left this morning—and before I took my dog for a walk (part of my morning exercise routine)—I set the timer on my stove for 15 minutes and “challenged” myself to get the kitchen back in order before the timer went off. Not only did I clear off all the counters, load and unload the dishwasher, and wipe down the table, but I did a quick (albeit not perfect) mopping of the floor. Then I could leave to walk my dog with a free mind and a clean kitchen welcomed me when I got back later.

What’s your favorite bit of decluttering advice?

See above, especially given how much you can get done in 15 minutes. I write in the book that you might not finish a project or decluttering or organizing in 15 minutes, but you will be surprised to discover how much of a dent you can make.

In your book’s introduction you write, “There’s no reason to pay anywhere from $50 to $100 an hour to hire a professional organizer…I believe you can do it all by yourself.” That makes me curious: have you ever worked with a professional organizer? While I agree that many people can declutter on their own—and they are the audience for your book—as a professional organizer I can say with confidence that there are many people who have very good reasons to hire a PO (and benefit greatly). Do you care to comment?

I’m sorry if that comment offended you. Yes, I have worked with a professional organizer, and maybe the problem was that she wasn’t a very good one. She came in two or three times and told us how to make her system for getting organized work rather than looking at the nature of our lifestyle and helping us design a system that worked for us. I did take a few tips away from her, such as dumping all of my kids crayons in one Rubbermaid container, the markers in another, and that way I didn’t have random writing utensils floating around my house. So while a professional organizers didn’t work for me, eventually I came up with my own systems, which I’m hoping will work for my readers who would like to take the DIY approach to getting organized and getting cash for their clutter.

Taming cord chaos

21 February 2011

In my office I’m cord challenged. Like most people I have loads of electronic devices and their cables snake all over the place. I keep promising myself that one of these days I’m going to focus on the problem and come up with a great solution.

In the meantime, I did pick up a fabulous product at the Container Store the other day to handle one little area of cord confusion.

The outlets are few and far between in my office, so I have a surge protector plugged into an outlet in the far corner of my office. It’s stretched as close to my desk as possible so that I can plug a desk lamp into it (along with a floor lamp and my shredder). For ages, it’s sat there looking ugly. Here’s a photo:

My scrambled mess of cords.

Yesterday I bought a CableBox. It took about two minutes for me to put the surge protector and the excess cord lengths in it. I put on the lid and voila:

Two minutes later, it's a lot less chaotic.

Isn’t that an improvement? Now I need to figure out if I can use it with the major cord mess under my desk.

Exploring the website of BlueLounge, the company that makes the CableBox, I happened across their Studio Desk. Wow.

I want one.

It’s a desk with a hidden (but easily accessible) storage compartment beneath the surface of the desk for a surge protector, cords, peripherals. There’s a subtle slit across the top so that desired devices can be on the desktop, and plugged in beneath the surface. A single cable runs down the side of the desk to an outlet. Now that’s cord control. If I were starting my office from scratch, I’d be sorely tempted.

Final reminder: free shredding event

18 February 2011

Tomorrow’s the free shredding event sponsored by NAPO-St. Louis and Shred and Protect Document Services.

Between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., Saturday, February 19, you can bring in one box (up to 25 pounds) of unwanted paper and have it shredded free of charge. Additional boxes are $5 each. NAPO-St. Louis members (including me…I’m working the 9 to 11 a.m. shift) will be there to help get the boxes out of your car for you.

This is a great chance to free yourself of unnecessary paper. If you’re like most people and have a pile or box/bag of paper waiting to be shredded, bring it on in. Or take the opportunity to go through a file drawer. I’d be willing to bet money you have some papers in there you can free yourself of. If you have under 25 pounds of it, you don’t even have to worry about sorting out the sensitive material. Just bring it all in.

Here’s the skinny:

Free shredding event

Sponsored By: St. Louis Chapter of NAPO & Shred and Protect Document Services

When: Saturday, February 19th 2011 from 9:00am – 1:00pm

Where: Shred and Protect Document Services 1429 Strassner Dr. Brentwood, MO 63144 (Hanley Industrial Court)

Why: The purpose of the event is to provide a safe and easy solution for the St. Louis Community to dispose of unneeded paperwork that is taking over their homes, businesses and lives. We strive to protect both consumers from identity theft and the environment by recycling the paper.

How: Free Shredding for one box (up to 25 pounds) and all other boxes shred for $5.00 per box. Cash and checks made out to Shred and Protect Document Services will be the accepted forms of payment.

Contact Information: Shannon Zipoy, NAPO St. Louis Marketing Director, 314-330-9394 or Shannon@anorganizedlife.us.

Hope to see you there!

Mark Forster does it again

16 February 2011

Every now and then I write here that my time management guru, Mark Forster has created a new task-management system and that it’s awesome. In fact, last April I wrote a love letter to DWM, which at the time was his latest system. And then just two months ago, I wrote about a new tweak to Autofocus that I was finding really helpful.

At the risk of looking fickle, I want to tell you about his latest. (Big surprise: I’m loving it.) Mark is always looking to improve his task-management systems. He calls this newest system SuperFocus. Believe me, it’s well named. I’ve only been using it since February 8, but yesterday I had a lot of time at my desk and SuperFocus helped me get a whole lot done.

I will write a full review of the system in the near future, but I just wanted to make you aware of it so that you can check out the rules and perhaps start using it yourself. With this system, Mark’s done a great job of addressing urgent and unfinished items. As much as I loved Autofocus, urgent items tended to get lost in it. Not so with SuperFocus.

If your task-management system isn’t cutting it for you, I urge you to check this out. It’s free, easy to implement (all you need is a notebook and pen) and, by all appearances, really effective.

A milestone

14 February 2011

I joined the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), in 2005. It was one of the first things that I did when I decided to start my business.

I learned at the outset about NAPO’s Golden Circle, a group for organizers who have been in business for five years or more. (In our relatively new industry, those in business for five years are considered veterans.) I remember in 2005 that Golden Circle status felt very far away, but I set a goal to achieve it.

At the end of 2010, I put together the paperwork required to prove that my business was five years old and submitted my application. I was pleased to receive a certificate and lapel pin indicating that I’m a Golden Circle member.

As a result, I’ll be able to attend special Golden-Circle-only sessions at the NAPO Conference. And my Golden Circle status is listed on my profile on both the national NAPO website and on NAPO-St. Louis’s website.

I love that something that once felt elusive is now a reality. Isn’t it great when life’s like that?

One busy mom's cleaning routine

11 February 2011

Meagan Francis, a writer I’m acquainted with through the online community Freelance Success, is a mother of five. In her blog, The Happiest Mom she provides insights from her journey to happiness in motherhood.

Yesterday, she posted about her cleaning routine. When your family is that big, routines are the key to keeping chaos at bay without making cleaning a full-time occupation. I loved her post, 10 Ways I Keep My House Neat…Without Spending All Day Cleaning and thought I’d share it with you.

It’s full of the sound principles I tell my clients, like the power of routines and doing a little bit (5 minutes!) at a time. Her mindful shopping and joyous decluttering advice is fabulous. And I love that she talks about her house being “clean enough.” That absence of perfectionism might be the key to her happiness!