Peace of Mind Organizing

It's tax time again!

15 February 2010

As I’ve blogged about before, it’s a miracle that mid-February it feels like tax time to me. In years past, I’ve put off even thinking about taxes until April. And sometimes August. And sometimes October. (Never past October, though.)

But here it is just past Valentine’s Day and I’ve already started. This year, I’m taking it in small bites, rather than devoting a bunch of hours at once, simply because of my schedule. And I’m not feeling overwhelmed. Here’s why:

• I’m caught up on my business’s bookkeeping. (And I even double checked everything.)
• My husband takes care of our personal finances and he deals with data entry daily, so he’s never behind.
• TurboTax is already purchased and installed.
• All the tax-related documents that have come in the mail since the first of the year were placed in the Freedom Filer Odd Year Tax folder the minute they came in. So when I sat down to start the taxes, I just grabbed that file.

If getting together the information you need to give your accountant or do your taxes yourself is a chore this year, I encourage you to think about what you might be able to do to make it easier on yourself at tax time next year. Something as simple as creating a file or box that you can immediately put tax-related documents and receipts into can be a huge time saver. (And help you avoid paper clutter and piles.)

Doing the taxes doesn’t have to be so painful that you procrastinate until Uncle Sam’s breathing down your neck. Keeping up with the data entry (if you use financial software) or promptly filing paperwork (if you don’t) can turn tax time into a mere inconvenience.

Hoarding on the local news

12 February 2010

The Fox News affiliate here in St. Louis, KTVI Channel 2, aired a story two nights ago about hoarding and chronic disorganization. I was interviewed for the piece, along with one of my chronically disorganized clients, LuAnn, who was brave and generous enough to let the cameras into her home in an effort to help others.

Here’s the video:

I have to say that the reporter, Paul Schankman, and the cameraman, whose name I don’t recall unfortunately, were both kind and respectful and made us comfortable. I thought the story was sensitively told, though I worry a little that the footage of the now-deceased hoarder interspersed with that of LuAnn’s home might make confuse viewers into thinking her home was much less livable than it really is.

The “National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization’s Clutter Hoarding Scale allows us to assign a level of disorganization to a home. I put LuAnn’s at Level 2. The highest/least livable level is Level 5. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Level 5 home.

Anyway, I was so proud of LuAnn and impressed by how articulate and honest she was in her interview. I got to hear the whole interview (a fraction of which appeared in the story) and her insights blew me away.

I was really pleased to see that Paul and Channel 2 didn’t sensationalize LuAnn’s story, didn’t label her a hoarder and treated the issue with respect. Bravo!

Yet another new task-management system from Mark Forster

10 February 2010

Mark Forster is my time management guru. As I’ve blogged about before, I loved his book, Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management. I used his DIT system for managing tasks for a year or so, and then he introduced Autofocus in January 2009. I was a little reluctant to switch at first, because DIT was working for me, but I decided to try it. I was over the moon. (I’ve blogged about Autofocus many times.)

Now, Mark’s done it again. He’s introduced—in a very preliminary form—a new system he’s calling DWM (short for Day/Week/Month) which, for me anyway, combines what I liked about DIT (the ability to finish my tasks for the day and use a calendar for my task list) and what I like about Autofocus (that it forces me to do a task or let it go).

Mark’s opened up DWM to the public to test and give feedback on. The instructions are simple. So far, I’m digging it. For the moment I’m using pages from an old planner and I’m looking forward to my new Quo Vadis Notor daily planner to arrive. When that happens, I think I’ll like it even more.

If you have tried it (or try it in the near future) be sure to give Mark your feedback on his discussion forum and/or leave a comment here.

Snowed in?

8 February 2010

Here in St. Louis, we have just a little snow on the ground, with a little more expected this afternoon. Those of you on the east coast, however, are pretty much snowed in. I just communicated via email with a friend in Maryland who said they got two feet of snow and were out of power for more than 48 hours. Yikes.

I don’t much like snow and I’m a white-knuckle driver in snowy or icy conditions. So I never wish for that amount of snow. But if we were to become snowed in, I’d like to think I’d take the chance to do some little tasks, interspersed with soothing activities like naps and watching TV and drinking cocoa.

Here are a few organization-related tasks you might consider if you’re starting to get cabin fever:

Clean out a junk drawer. In my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with a junk drawer. But if yours has become hard to open and close, now’s your chance to clean it out. Empty it, weed out the inevitable trash, sort the contents and put them back in the drawer, with like things together. Depending on the contents of your junk drawer, you might consider using interlocking drawer organizers.

Put away the holidays. I realize that Groundhog Day is behind us, but I’d be willing to bet that some of you haven’t finished putting away your holiday decorations or other holiday paraphernalia. I confess that my holiday cards are still in the basket in the living room where I put them as they came in. Today’s a good day to put them (or throw them) away.

Take a look around your bathtub Are there abandoned shampoo bottles, slivers of soap, old disposable razors or any other items that you don’t use regularly littering the edge of the tub or the shower caddy? Take a couple of minutes and spruce up that spot.

Clean out a bookshelf. If you have a difficult time putting away books because your shelves are crammed (or if you have to store some books on the floor, or sideways atop the other books), take 15 or 30 minutes and weed out a bookshelf or two. You can sell your unwanted books to a used book store, on Craigslist or to
Powell’s Books (like I do). The result? A tidier bookshelf and perhaps some money in your pocket.

Pick up your pet area. If you have pets, you probably have an area where you feed them that perhaps is a little messy with dropped bits of kibble or what have you. You may have a tangle of leashes stashed somewhere. And, if you’re like me, your pets might have scattered their toys around. Take a few minutes to pick up after your pets. It won’t last forever, but it’ll be nice while it lasts!

Just taking a little time to do something productive might help make it easier for you to relax during your snow-related confinement. You’ll get to enjoy the fruits of your labor while feeling justified in wrapping yourself in a cozy blanket and waiting out the storm.

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway for The Other Side of Organized. The winner was Debbie Pendell. Keep watching the blog, because I have a couple of more giveaways in the works.

Follow up Friday

5 February 2010

I wanted to update you on a few recent blog posts:

• There’s still time to enter to win The Other Side of Organized: Finding Balance Between Chaos and Perfection, the fabulous new book by my friend Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®. You can read the review on Wednesday’s blog post. To enter, either comment on that post or this one, and/or tweet about it on Twitter (being sure to put @janinea in the tweet so I’ll see it).

• The Why Resolutions Don’t Work [and How to Get What You Want Anyway] teleclass that Shannon Wilkinson and I offered last week was great. If you weren’t able to attend, you can still purchase the audio recording of the class. Click here to buy it for only $19.

• The community shred event sponsored by NAPO St. Louis and Shred and Protect Document Services was a resounding success. More than a ton of paper was brought in and shredded. That’s 2000 pounds of paper that would otherwise be cluttering up people’s homes and files or potentially end up in the landfill. I was very impressed by the Shred and Protect facilities and plan to use it for all my shredding needs.

• The Elfa sale at the Container Store is still going on, but the last day is February 15. You get 30 percent off all Elfa products and installation. I love Elfa. I use Elfa drawers to store my yarn stash. I love their wall mounted shelving, too. This is a great opportunity to get a great price.

• My friend, Aby Garvey and her husband, Jay, won the LA Organizing Award for Best Organizing Website or Blog. She went to the awards in Hollywood and looked amazing. (I got to help her shop for her fancy dress.) The full list of award winners isn’t yet up on the NAPO LA website, but it is available on their Facebook Fan Page. (I think you have to become a fan to read it.) Congratulations to Aby and Jay and all the winners (and nominees)!

That’s it. Enjoy your weekend. And don’t forget to enter to win an autographed copy of The Other Side of Organized: Finding Balance Between Chaos and Perfection.

The Other Side of Organized: a review and giveaway

3 February 2010

My friend and fellow organizer, Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, has just published a fabulous new book called The Other Side of Organized: Finding Balance Between Chaos and Perfection. She sent me a copy for review and at the end of this post I’ll tell you how you can enter to receive a copy too.

I love this book. I’ll start by telling you what it’s not: It’s not a how-to. It’s not full of tips on getting organized. It’s not written for any special population. There are lots of great books out there like that.

The Other Side of Organized is different. It’s a slender, nicely designed volume full of short essays on getting and being organized and on balancing your life. As I read it, the word “gentle” kept coming to mind. Linda, a veteran organizer, is very gentle to her reader. She’s not telling you what to do. She’s suggesting ways of thinking and doing.

The book is very nicely written and full of insights. Linda’s writing tone is gentle, kind and patient. I think one of the reasons I like it so much is that Linda and I share a lot of the same ideas and attitudes about organizing.

Here are some of my favorite passages:

Why is it so hard to let go? We hold on to our possessions, our busy schedules, and our familiar routines. Do we think that if we let go, we will lose a part of who we are? We can potentially hold on so tightly that we deny ourselves the joy felt from releasing, making space for something wonderful, and experiencing tremendous growth.

I’ve been surprised more than once to discover that one person’s organizing starting point is an other person’s end goal.

Be kind to yourself. If you can’t decide between organizing or going for a walk, take the walk, clear your head and then come back and reset your timer for a 15-minute organizing session.

In discussing tackling projects, Linda advises the reader to break it down into small parts, then:

Stay with the project from start to finish, understanding that there will be distractions and life challenges along the way that can pull you off course. Just recognize that challenges are an integral, normal part of the process. The key is coming back even after you’ve been sidetracked.

Would you like to win a free autographed copy of The Other Side of Organized: Finding Balance Between Chaos and Perfection? To enter, just leave a comment below. For an extra entry, tweet about the giveaway on Twitter (in addition to your comment). Please be sure to put @janinea in the tweet so I’ll see it. The winner will be selected at random on Saturday afternoon (February 6, 2010).

Has your shredding piled up?

29 January 2010

Shredding is so important. I’m often shocked when I meet new clients to learn that they don’t own a shredder. They think tearing up sensitive documents is sufficient. Then I’ll share with them a little experiment done on one of the morning shows that a client told me about. They took a credit card offer and tore it up. Then they taped it back together, photocopied it, filled it out and got the credit card. To me, that’s proof enough that shredding is essential. Identity theft is too devastating to mess with.

The problem with shredders, in my experience, is that they’re loud and people tend not to do shred right at the moment they identify a piece of paper that needs destroying. I’m guilty of this: right now there’s a pile of papers to be shredded resting on top of my shredder.

An even bigger problem is when you clean out your files and have a whole lot of shredding to be done. You risk burning out your shredder if you do it all at once. I often recommend using a commercial shredder. You can take all your shredding to them and, for a nominal fee, get it done all at once. Some commercial shredders will even come to your home.

NAPO St. Louis is fortunate to have Shred and Protect Document Services as one of its associate members. As part of NAPO’s national Get Organized Month, the two are pairing up to sponsor a Shred Event tomorrow from 9 to 1. If you live in St. Louis, you can bring a banker’s box full of documents that need to be shredded (about 25 pounds) to Shred and Protect, which is located in Hanley Industrial Court in Brentwood and get it securely shredded free of charge. Additional boxes are $5 each. Such a deal.

Complete details are available on NAPO St. Louis’s website, but here’s the bare-bones info.

Shred Event sponsored by NAPO St. Louis and Shred and Protect Document Services
Saturday, January 30, 2010
9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Shred and Protect Document Services
1429 Strassner
Brentwood, MO 63144

Special thanks to NAPO St. Louis’s Director of Marketing Shannon Zipoy for organizing this event!