Peace of Mind Organizing

Need more room to label your file folders?

27 October 2010

Do you have trouble getting all the information you want onto file folder labels? Whether you use a label maker, labels printed on your computer, or handwritten labels, it can be tough to fit everything you want on the label to make it meaningful.

The good folks at Smead offered to send me a couple of their newer file-folder products to review on my blog. I jumped at the chance, because I like learning about new products and I hadn’t had a chance to test these. (Also, they offered me a $20 Target gift card for posting a review, though I would have said yes without that extra incentive.)

I’d seen the SuperTab interior file folder labels at the Expo at last year’s NAPO conference. I was intrigued. These folders manage to have 90 percent more visible labeling space, despite being the standard 1/3 cut. They accomplish this by cutting the sides of the folder a little lower so the exposed area of the tab is larger (according to my tape measure, the exposed SuperTab area is a smidge under 2 cm while the standard size is 1 cm). In addition, they cut the front area of the file folder beneath the tab deeper, so that you can fit more information on the label itself (even if all that info isn’t exposed when there’s paper in the file).

Here’s a picture from their website, to give you an idea:

I think it’s a great idea to hand write file folder labels, because it makes it easier to create them. You don’t have to worry about having access to a label maker or a computer; just grab a pen. These extra-large tabs allow me to use a broader pen (like my beloved fine-point Sharpie) without worrying so much about running out of room.

The other product that Smead sent me is their new TUFF® hanging file folders with Easy Slide tab. These are extra-sturdy hanging folders with reinforced bar and heavier construction. What’s cool about them is the sliding tab. Rather than the tab’s plastic ends being stuck into slots as is customary, these slide on and are easily movable.

The Easy Slide tabs are 1/3 cut, so they’re larger than the standard 1/5 cut, which makes the tabs easier to read, since you can write larger or print in a larger font. The folders have the standard notches that you see in all hanging file folder labels, so you can use standard tabs in them, if you’d like. The Easy Slide tabs have little bumps in them that align with those slots, so it’s easy to make sure that the tabs line up with one another.

I usually recommend the straight-line method of aligning file folder tabs—selecting a position and putting all tabs in that same position so you don’t have the hassle of moving the tabs if you add a folder to a staggered line of tabs. With the Easy Slide tabs, it wouldn’t be hard to move the tabs if you did decide to stagger them.

I wish the Easy Slide tabs came in the more standard 1/5 cut size, because I love the Freedom Filer filing system (that’s an affiliate link), which comes with pre-printed labels that are the 1/5 cut size. But if you’re hand writing or creating your own labels, the 1/3 cut size gives you ample room.

P.S. I visited Smead’s Facebook page recently and saw that they’ve been in business since 1906. Impressive!

Declutter your inbox

22 October 2010

Lately, I’ve been taking a moment to unsubscribe from promotional emails I receive on a regular basis that I usually delete. Just a moment ago, I unsubscribed from promo emails from a major electronics retailer. When I thought about the last couple of times I shopped there, it was when I had something specific in mind. It had nothing to do with these promotional emails, which come almost on a daily basis.

I also unsubscribed from daily emails from a women’s clothing retailer. I used to shop there and loved the coupons that came via email. But they changed their clothing’s look and I haven’t purchased anything there in over a year. So I unsubbed. And it felt good.

An alternative would have been for me to create a rule in my Mac’s Mail program to automatically send those emails to a Coupons folder. But they would have just accumulated there. If I’m going to shop at one of these stores, I’m confident I could find those coupons through a Google search.

Do you have emails you receive on a regular basis that were once of interest and no longer are? Go ahead and click that Unsubscribe button on the bottom of the email. The law requires it to be there for a reason. You probably won’t miss the emails and if you do, you can always resubscribe.

If you do want to receive these emails but don’t want them in your face, consider having them automatically filter out of your line of sight into a special folder. But don’t forget to clean that folder out from time to time.

If decluttering your email inbox appeals to you, you can do the same thing for your physical mailbox by opting out of junk mail. The Federal Trade Commission offers advice on doing just that on its website.

Q&A with author Linda Samuels

18 October 2010

Back in February, I reviewed professional organizer Linda Samuels’ terrific book, The Other Side of Organized: Finding Balance Between Chaos and Perfection.

Linda is a friend of mine, a lovely person and my predecessor as Marketing Director of the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization (soon to be the Institute for Challenging Disorganization). Recently, I was given the opportunity to do a Q&A with her for my blog, and I jumped at the chance.

When I thought about what questions to email her, I came up with a few that interested me, mostly about the book-writing process. In my previous life, I was a book author and I know how grueling it can be. But I was a full-time writer. And Linda wrote (and published!) this book while working full time as a professional organizer, volunteering many hours for the NSGCD (and, probably, other groups), and being a wife and mother. So I wanted to hear from her how she managed that.

Here are my questions (in italics) and her answers. Enjoy! And when you’re through reading, please consider clicking on over to her website and buying, The Other Side of Organized. It really is a terrific book.

If you had to pick one thing that your clients most often want or need your help with (even if they don’t know it yet), what would it be?

Clients are overwhelmed by their thoughts, physical possessions and schedules. They don’t always know where to begin to make things better. So while I’m hired to help them with many different types of organizing projects, the most common thread is to help them get past the overwhelmed phase and figure out where and how to start.

What is your favorite piece of organizing advice?

Be patient with yourself. Getting organized is not a destination, but rather a process that takes time. There will be ups, downs and adjustments needed along the way.

Why did you decide to write this book?

I wanted to share a message of hope for those that struggle with or know someone that is challenged by disorganization. While there are many wonderful “how-to” organizing books available, I wanted to write a book that focused mostly on philosophical ideas about organizing and life balance. Why do we want to get organized? When are we organized enough? What are we passionate about? How can organization provide a base so that we can focus on what’s most important to us?

I know how busy you are, but you managed to wedge in writing and publishing this book. Do you have any time management advice you’d like to share?

I took a long time (as in years) to write part of the book. That made it easy to fit it into my full life. However, at the point I decided to complete the writing and publishing of the book within a nine month period, I set aside very specific blocks of time to do that. Sometimes that translated into 30-minute chunks. Other times I scheduled an entire day to focus. It also helped that I hired a book coach who helped me establish a timeline and delineate what needed to be done by when. It was useful to have structure and deadlines, even if they were self-imposed.

What did you learn about yourself in writing your book?

I discovered that I truly loved writing and working on a large scale, self-driven, creative project.

What has been your biggest surprise in the process of writing and publishing the book?

My biggest surprise came once I held the first printed copy in my hand. My goal that kept getting rewritten year after year on my long-term to do list was “Write Book.” So once I did that, I thought, “Now what?” I realized that the writing and publishing of the book was only the first phase. The next phase was marketing, which required a completely different set of skills. I am still learning.

Do you have any plans for writing another book?

I am sure there is another book in my future. For now, though, I’m concentrating on The Other Side of Organized.

Do you have a mantra?

I don’t know if I have a mantra, but there are thoughts that I think about often. Be grateful. Find the joy in each moment. Stop to appreciate the beauty around you. Let those you love know it.

Good intentions

14 October 2010

The other day I cleaned out my t-shirt drawer. One of the benefits of having a friend who runs a t-shirt company and creates fabulous new t-shirts designs on a regular basis is that I’m frequently given new t-shirts. I don’t want to say no to them, because they’re wonderful. But I wasn’t employing any kind of “one in/one out” policy.

So it had become difficult to put away my t-shirts because the drawer was so full.

Weeding out the drawer was actually more challenging than I expected, because some of the shirts had some sort of sentimental value. (Commemorative t-shirts from family reunions or half marathons I’d walked, for instance.) So to make it easier on myself, I decided that rather than donate the shirts, I’d cut them into tubes, loops the tubes together and knit with them.

I created quite a large stack of shirts that I was going to turn into a big craft project. I put them in a large shopping bag from the Container Store and left them on the bedroom floor. I thought about the next steps to transform these shirts into something functional (I thought I’d make a bathmat):

1. Buy a rotary cutter to cut the shirts into tubes (which meant I’d want to find a coupon first for the fabric store, to get a good deal on the rotary cutter).
2. Loop all the tubes together into a giant ball of “yarn”
3. Find a pattern or just decide how big I wanted the bathmat and how many stitches to cast on.
4. Take the project I currently have on giant needles off, so I could use those needles, or buy a set of US#35 circular needles.
5. Knit the thing. I knew from past experience that knitting with giant needles is actually kind of painful. (I once knit a really ugly rug out of potholder loops.)

The whole project didn’t sound like a ton of fun, but I was game.

Then, a day later, I came home to find the bag moved from the bedroom to the hall. My husband told me that the American Kidney Fund had called and asked if we had anything to donate. He remembered the bag of shirts (but forgot I was planning to knit with them) and scheduled a pick up. He apologized when I reminded him of my plans for that shirt.

I thought about finding other things to donate so I could keep the shirts to knit with. Then I thought about all the steps to getting my shirts ready to turn into a bathmat. Then I thought about whether I needed a bathmat made of t-shirts. Or whether I really wanted to knit one.

Then I decided to give away the shirts. I put that bag on the porch. And I felt liberated.

With my clients, I often see that they’d rather do something complicated with an item they’re ready to let go of. They strive for the perfect way to discard. Instead of just donating it to Goodwill, they’re going to take it to their kids’ school. Or mail it to a charity that has a special need for it. Or send it to a relative. And often that unwanted item sits in limbo—still clutter— because they don’t get around to doing that action.

That’s probably what would have happened with my t-shirts. They’d have sat in that bag on my bedroom floor, or perhaps moved to the room where I store my knitting supplies. After awhile they’d become invisible. Or I would have actually started cutting them into tubes and maybe even knit with them, but they’d have taken a bunch of time that I could have spent knitting something beautiful.

So once again I learned to take the easy road.Do the thing that takes fewer steps. It was very easy for me to just let the charity pick up that bag. And I can assure you that I don’t miss those shirts one bit. Nor am I itching to make a bathmat.

Great shirts for pet lovers

8 October 2010

This weekend I’m once again going to the H.H. Backer Pet Industry Christmas Trade Show and Educational Conference in Chicago to help my friend, Sally Brown, with her booth for her company, Roll Over Rover Threads She sells t-shirts with dog and cat themes and at this show will be introducing tote bags and other products.

This is the fourth Backer show I’ve been to with her. Now, I’m not a trade show kind of gal. Being stuck in a booth is usually my idea of torture. But I don’t want Sally to have to do it alone and we have a great time. But the best part is I really believe in her products. They’re beautiful and high quality and I love selling them.

So I thought I’d start today. Please go to the Roll Over Rover Threads website and look at her witty and sophisticated designs. Sally’s such a great illustrator and comes up with all the ideas herself. Once you’ve decided that you’d like to buy one, you can go to her list of brick and mortar pet boutiques to see if there’s one near you. Or you can order online from The Uncommon Hound, which carries her whole line.

These shirts make a great gift for your dog- and cat-loving friends. What I love about them is they’re not overly cute, just really attractive and smart.

This is just a small sampling of her designs. Please go to her website to check them all out.

P.S. Isn’t her website beautiful? It was designed by Nora Brown, Sally’s niece, who also designed my website.

Take five

7 October 2010

I love to extol the virtues of grabbing pockets of time and creating order on a small scale. This is something I tell my clients and my Declutter Happy Hour participants.

My colleague in Houston, Ellen Delap, CPO® clearly agrees. Her blog post today carries a happy list of five organizing projects you can do in five minutes.

If you have five minutes right now to organize, click on over there, take a minute to read her post, set your timer for five (or four) minutes and see what a difference you can make.

Thanks for the inspiration, Ellen!

NSGCD announces new name

29 September 2010

I’m just back from the annual conference of the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization, held in Austin. As usual, it was educational, energizing and inspiring.

At the conference, the new name for the NSGCD was announced. Starting January 1, 2011, the organization’s name will be:

Institute for Challenging Disorganization (ICD)

The tagline for the new name is Education. Research. Strategies.

As a board member and a late-to-the-party addition to the Name Change Steering Committee, I was privy to the challenges of renaming this organization. The new name is based on data collected through focus groups and surveys.

Change can be tough, but I think this is an exciting one. As Marketing Director, I’ll be working hard on the transition to the new name in the coming half year or so.

One thing I can say for sure: ICD is a much easier to say (and remember) acronym than NSGCD!