Organize Me

You Deserve Better

2012-02-01T07:53:00.001-08:00

So this post, I don't really have any new techniques. But I do have some advice. We always organize the spaces that others can see first. We clean these rooms up best when company is coming over. But what are we living in the rest of the time?

Often, when we go on "cleaning sprees" we start with the living room or the kitchen. We still have enough energy to clean the kids' room. By the time we get to our own bedrooms, we are too exhausted. So our own rooms never get the attention that they need.

When I was given the tour of this home owner's house, I saw that each room needed some attention. But the "feel" of the master bedroom was total chaos. We spend at least 8 hours of every day in our bedrooms. It's the first thing we see when we wake up and the last thing we see when we go to bed at night. If the impression we get of our room is the aftermath of a tornado, how rested can we feel in it? How can it be the sanctuary it's supposed to be?

You deserve better. You deserve to have an environment that reflects who you are. You deserve a space where you can feel peace. I learned a few years ago that the only person who knows what you really need in terms of mental, physical, and emotional health is YOU. Nobody else knows what is in your head or heart. You have to be your own advocate. It's easy to be a ferocious defender when it comes to your children or spouse, but you have to give yourself that same respect and love.

A few things you can do to reclaim your space and have the room that you deserve:
1. Take the kids' things out.
Your kids have their own rooms and often a playroom. Their toys and accessories have homes other than your room.
2. Your room is NOT a laundry room.
Don't allow the laundry (clean or dirty) to pile up in your room. Use your laundry room or another space in your house, or just do your laundry and put it away. It's a small price to pay to avoid being buried alive in cloth.
3. Shut your door.
After your kids start sleeping in their own rooms, they don't need to come into yours uninvited. If you want them to come in, you can call them in. Otherwise, they need to respect your space. They have their rooms, and you have yours.
4. Clean your room first.
It may seem strange and selfish at first, but I promise it will give you the energy and motivation to clean the rest of your house.
5. Don't allow your room to become the catch-all.
A lot of times our rooms are like junk drawers. If something doesn't have a space, we put it in our rooms. Designate some other area of your house for this purpose: a linen closet, the basement, the garage or even a storage bin is better than your dresser or your floor.

Don't forget....you deserve it.

Time to Play

2011-02-08T16:52:00.000-08:00

Everything I need to know, I didn't get from the playroom.
For this post, I'm just gonna go with some of my helpful hints. These are ideas that I have picked up from my own experience with children, and from my experience of organizing kids' rooms and playrooms for my family and friends.

Books:
Bookcases are a fabulous thing.....until the kids get to them.
This bookcase was in the kids' closet in their bedroom. They had a separate playroom for their toys. I suggested the books be taken out of the bedroom and moved into the playroom. This solved a couple of problems: bedrooms stay cleaner if they are used solely for the purpose of sleeping; and it's a lot easier for Mom to get to the bookshelf and clean it when she's cleaning the rest of the playroom.

It's important to organize the books and make them look nice. This will not necessarily motivate the kids to keep it looking nice, but it will definitely be a motivation for you. In this case we put board books on the bottom for her youngest to get to, and all of the oversized books went in the bookcase on their sides.

Toy boxes:
The problem with toy boxes is that inevitably the bottom fills up with small pieces and parts. The kids no longer play with the toys in the toy box, because they cannot see them, or get to them without emptying the whole thing. I suggested that we move the miscellaneous toys to the cute tote organizers the homeowner already possessed. Then we put all of the stuffed animals in the toy box. No small parts or pieces to get lost in the bottom of the box, and no more trying to find room for the billions of stuffed animals that kids “have” to keep.

Other tidbits of random kid-related organizing knowledge:

*Put things on the top. If you don't put something on the top of a chest of drawers or a bookshelf, or a toy box; kids will put lots of somethings up there for you.

*Don't forget the corners. If you place perpendicular furniture together and leave an empty triangle in the corner of a room, you have created a hidey-hole. This is where you need to look for lost remotes, missing socks, and any other item you haven't been able to find.

*Go through the old clothes. Keep what you will pass down. Then give the rest away to bless the lives of others. Old, purposeless clothes in the tops of your closet are not heirlooms, they are clutter, and missed opportunities to help someone less fortunate.

Taking Big Bites

2011-01-25T07:38:00.000-08:00

From “10 Things I Hate about You”:
Chastity: I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?
Bianca: I think you can in Europe.

Usually I'm called in when someone has reached the alarming state of “overwhelmed”. I'm starting to realize what gets a person worked into this state.

Has this ever happened to you?: You have a room that needs attention. You sit down in the room and attack with a vengeance. You make pile after pile. Then all of the sudden, you get called away. Someone needs a snack, a ride, to go potty, to be picked up....etc. Then when you go back to the room in question, you have no idea what the piles mean. So you quit (until another day)

It occurred to me that a vital part is missing in my “class”. You have to have a game plan. And my game plan for you is this: Start big...as in big picture. We're not gonna miss the forest for the trees...put the trees down and start looking for the forest.

Organizing a room with multiple functions, like this office, cannot be done all in one sitting. You have to do a big sort first, then you can parcel off the little sorts one at a time. This keeps you from being overwhelmed. In this particular room, I went for the really big sort first. Papers on one side of the room, and Items on the other.

Once that was finished, I sorted the Papers into:
financial,
school,
personal,
warranties and instructions,
and church.

Then I sorted the Items into:
parts,
memorabilia,
electronics,
and misc.

Once this stage was reached, the room was looking in pretty good shape, but there was still time left so I made a big mess once again as I took my medium sort and sorted it further.

Financial was broken down into:
health,
banking,
investments,
and home services

Warranties and Instructions was broken down into:
large appliances,
outside,
TV & DVD etc,
Computer,
Kid/Baby,
Kitchen
and misc.

The homeowner already had file folders made up for the different financial papers, but had fallen behind in filing. Now she could combine the two piles at a later date and with a smaller degree of stress. She could now pick up two file folders and go through them, consolidating one section at a time (instead of having to go around the room and gathering all of the papers to be filed).

Start small by thinking big. It works. It really works.

Garage Revisited

2010-06-25T14:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went back to the garage that I previously tried to empty. This time around it was the garage's turn to get organized.

It seemed like a huge project, but it was really only a re-zoning one. The pictures don't show a huge difference but believe me, there was one.

Things I learned this time around:

1. I LOVE peg boards.

Pegboard BEFORE

Pegboard AFTER

2. I (still) HATE paper

BEFORE

AFTER (the paper is all in the boxes underneath the shelving)

3. If you move 7 people 2,000 miles, it will take you a year to get rid of the boxes.

Main part of the garage BEFORE

Main part of the garage AFTER

3rd car part of the garage BEFORE

3rd car part of the garage AFTER

Welcome to Organizing Orientation

2010-05-23T14:16:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine has been patiently waiting for me to come and assist her with organizing. She moved into a condo 3 weeks ago, and was very excited when I was able to come yesterday. We spent 9 hours organizing, moving furniture, unpacking boxes, and decorating. The results are amazing.

I've decided that this post is going to be about the placement of furniture. That seemed to make the biggest differences out of all our efforts.

When we move, we often place furniture in the same or similar spot as what we have done before. Sometimes this works. More often, it causes problems because of a difference in size, shape, and function of the rooms. Having a fresh pair of eyes to give you ideas in the placement of furniture in a new space can aid in the overall organization of your rooms. Allow me to be your eyes, and give you some new ways to think about placing furniture.

1 - When you put all of your furniture up against the walls, it gives the illusion that you have less space

Our eyes take in the empty spaces of a room just as well as the filled. When there is only 1 open area, it seems as if there is no other available space. For this instance, we'll use the home owner's daughter's room.

Like any little girl, she had lots of toys and accessories. With her bed pushed up to the back wall, and her play kitchen taking up the rest of the space, the only open area was the middle of the floor. When you walk into her door, your eye gets drawn to her bed and the back wall. It seems as if the open area is the actual size of the room. The furniture has become an extension of the walls.

We decided to move her bed perpendicular to its present position. This now created 2 play areas on either side. The homeowner told me she was considering removing the closet doors and asked my opinion. Since I have taken down all the sliding doors in my house, I agreed. This gave her daughter yet another space to play. So now, just by moving the biggest piece of furniture in the room, she went from 1 space to 3.

before

after

2 - Factor in the size, shape, and assets of a room.

I'm just odd enough to notice odd things. I once noticed that if a room was longer than it is wider, and you vacuumed perpendicular to the length, it seems to shorten the room. But if you vacuum with the length, it draws attention to the extra size of the room. The same is true with mowing lawns. I use this seemingly useless knowledge to help me in the placing of furniture so as to emphasize the assets of a room and not hide them.

The home owner's dining room had not yet been set up. She had a table, but had not yet moved it away from the wall. Typically in this sort of room, you put the table parallel with the back wall. I pointed out to her, that if we made it perpendicular to the back wall, it gave the room more depth. What I hadn't really noticed at the time, is that it almost mirrors the effect of a wall. Because her dining area is open to her living room and office, this little trick makes the dining room seem like a completely separate area. That gave her the semblance of having an additional room of the house.

before

after

before

after

3 - Think outside of the box.

This has lots of different meanings, but I'll explain mine.

In the home owner's bedroom, she had a TV/VCR combo. The VHS cases tended to become strewn about the room. I suggested that she use the drawers of a bench to house the tapes. I'm not implying that this will inspire her daughter to put the cases and movies away....but, when she comes into her room after her daughter, she will be able to put the cases back in their drawer and eliminate the mess. She didn't need to buy another piece of organizing equipment for her problem because we were able to rethink an item she already owned.

4 - Sometimes the biggest problems can have the best solutions.

We worked so well together, that we got TONS accomplished, and rarely disagreed. It was so fun to work with someone who had the same kind of vision and was not afraid to experiment. BUT, during the course of the day we did have one headache.

The homeowner had recently lived in a bigger space. While we were making great headway placing items around her new place, it still seemed as if she owned too much furniture. Like most of us, all of the misplaced furniture had found its home in her room, crowding her out. We found a little red coffee table in her master closet that worked beautifully in her already decorated living room. We had found places for an end table, bookshelf, and a quilt rack.

Towards the end of our day, we had accomplished so much. Just at that peak moment, when you can maybe see the light at the end of the tunnel....we hit a WALL. The wall was called: sewing table. It was a beautiful sewing table, but there was just no room for it in the bedroom. Her room was turning out gorgeous, but it still felt crowded with the sewing table in it. We had already organized and decorated the kitchen, but we tried to fit it in there anyway. No go.

So then, I thought maybe we could use it as an extension to her desk....but that would have made her feel trapped, and it would've been the first thing anyone saw as they entered her condo. It seemed helpless. We were stuck. She plugged along, and I sat and thought, and thought, and thought. I brought out a measuring tape hoping to find some wonderful spot for it, but it just wouldn't fit. Then...after much pondering, I had an idea. I asked my friend if we could use her sewing table as a sofa table.

We tried it, and Hallelujah!! it fit. We started to decorate it, and it turned out to be a wonderful spot for all of her treasured pictures of her family. It really is a gorgeous focal piece to the room.

She also hated the fact that there was no mantel, and the clock seemed to be hung too high, but we found a cute "imagine" sculpture that fit perfectly over the fireplace and took up the room between the fireplace and the clock.

I'll leave you with one last tip:
When you make the house look this good, there is one more thing you MUST do.
Go out to eat and reward yourself. :)

Movin on Up!

2010-01-30T12:06:00.000-08:00

You'll have to excuse the photos on this one...there really was no way to photograph all the work that was done....so there's not a startling difference this time, but there was a very BIG difference made.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to help a friend with organizing. She is a new homeowner, has been in her home for a few months, and has been asking for my help. When I arrived, I asked where we should start and she didn't know. She was so overwhelmed (here I should mention she has 5 children under the age of 7 and her husband is deployed) that she didn't know where to start.

As I had her catalog what problems she was having, I could see a difference in her expression when she said that she hadn't even finished moving all of their belongings into their house....so I thought that HERE is where we should start.

This is a section of the garage before....we focused our efforts on the line of boxes that starts just behind the green cooler in the foreground.

Here is an after shot of the garage....there is still a lot more to go, but if you can tell there is a lot fewer boxes in this shot than the one before. I figured later that we had unpacked 10 large boxes and 7 totes.

So this blog post will be about the best way to move-in or unpack boxes.

I always like to have what I call a "staging area"...this is a place that is already cleared out where you can spread your items to the four corners. In this case, we took all of the boxes from the garage to the living room.

Once all of the boxes were inside, we designated zones. Most of the boxes contained the kids' clothing, toys, and some memorabilia....so these were our zones. The boxes that contained all of the SAME item got moved to the appropriate zone, and those miscellaneous boxes (that we all seem to pack once we're sick of packing boxes) got unpacked into one of the zones.

I also like to set aside a pile for organizing items that you may already have like: the totes you empty out, baskets, boxes, and cute decorative items that can double as storage. This makes it easier to find when you're ready to put things away.

Here is a pic of the living room sectioned into zones...the left wall was clothes, the back wall was toys, and in the foreground was memorabilia. (the small pile in the center before the half wall and door is the organizing items pile)

And here is the living room after 8 hours of our most dedicated sorting/putting away efforts.

So how did we do it?

We tackled the zones one at a time. Memorabilia didn't really need to be sorted, just found a place inside of the house. I knew that the funnest zone would be toys, so we forced ourselves to sort clothes first.

The best and easiest way that I've found when sorting giant boxes, totes, or even drawers is just to DUMP IT. Clear a spot, dump the box, and then dive in. The homeowner made decisions on which clothes to keep and give away....and we put them away accordingly. Then we did the same with the toys.

The most important thing is to keep at it. Focus on the progress that you have made, and maybe even reward yourself when you're through. (and when all else fails call a friend like me..*smiles*)

"Empty the Brain" List

2009-09-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

Let's just call this a small tip in the "organizing your thoughts" category.

I find that when I get too many things going at once, I end up with my thoughts going in circles. I'm never fully able to concentrate on one task because I'm thinking about all of them at once. This first happened to me as a Freshman in college, and an older/wiser sister told me to make a "to-do" list.

Since then I've made several "to-do" lists, but sometimes a simple list won't work. If you can't wind down to sleep at night, can't seem to get all of your "projects" done, or can't remember what day it is.....may I suggest creating an "Empty the Brain" list.

Prepare for an analogy: When I'm sorting through drawers, cabinets, boxes etc...I find that it's easier an more efficient to just dump the entire container onto the floor. Of course this is never the first thing that I tackle in a room as I usually have to make floor space in order to do it. If I tried to sort everything while it was still in the container, there will always be stuff that I missed, and sometimes I don't see very obvious connections.

So to apply this same strategy to my thoughts makes perfect sense. Get a pen/pencil (crayon if you have to) and something to write on, and then just go!! Write down everything that is bouncing around in your brain, even if you have to leave one topic to start writing about another because your thoughts are racing. Then when everything is out of your brain (just like the drawer's contents on the floor) you can go back through and sort out those thoughts into: to-dos, goals, ambitions, memories, epiphanies....what have you.

Plus I just think the name is funny....it makes me smile to see "empty the brain" instead of "to-do" at the top of my list.

Adventures in Organizing

2009-08-20T10:21:00.001-07:00

Usually I remember some little tidbit of advice or learn some new technique to share with each space I organize.

This time I was helping an old friend who I had organized for a long time (about 5 years) ago. She & I work well together & got the room done in about 4.5 to 5 hours.
It was a lot of fun because she has a home decor business & had tons of fun stuff to sort through. Plus she let me keep a few treasures from her discard pile.

I found these cute labels and cute baskets while sorting. How lucky am I that they were exactly the labels that I needed for this room?

So for this blog post, I thought I'd share some of our adventures we had that day, and shed some light on why stay-at-home Moms have a lot of hindrances (ie: kids) that slow progress.

Story #1:
My friend had bought a very large (64+ oz) Dr. Pepper. This was her little treat/motivation for the work of the day. She left her drink on the bathroom counter, and we set to work. Her 2 youngest kids were home & fighting each other on the stairs. Then we heard a very large CRASH!!!
Her kids had gotten her drink & spilled it all down the staircase (which had just had its carpet cleaned).....on the 1st floor's wood flooring....even some splatters in the kitchen. So not only did she not get her treat, but she also had to clean up the huge mess. She warned me that with her son, the day was just getting started....

Left side before

Left side After

Story #2:
About 1/2 hour to an hour later, her son starts whining in the hall. She goes out to see what's going on & I hear the following conversation:
Son: "I fell in the toilet!!"
Mom: "You fell in the toilet?"
Son: "I got water from the toilet on me, and then I fell in the toilet!!"

We decided that he must have been trying to go potty, and then somehow managed to fall in. And she had yet another mess to clean up.

Straight Ahead Before

Straight ahead close up Before

Straight ahead After

Story #3:

I had to leave to pick up my kindergartner, and came back to help finish. My daughter kinda played with my friend's son and daughter, but mostly Spongebob entertained them while we tried to finish what we had started. With about an hour's worth of work left, we were feeling pretty proud of ourselves and the progress we had made. Then my friend went to see if her daughter had woken up from her nap.

I heard, "NOOOooooo!!! Don't color on the wall with markers!!"

Apparently her youngest had found a marker, and after marking up her own arms and legs, decided to continue her artwork on the walls. My friend came back to the room we were organizing and showed me her daughter's arms.

I said, "Were the markers washable?"

She said, "That's what they say....I guess we'll find out."

By this time though, we were nearing the finish line, so I suggested rubbing alcohol, and we moved ahead.

Right Side Before

Right side After

Last story: Since most of the mishaps were caused by the children, I know you're thinking that this one is another....but this one was all me.

I was loading up my treasures from the pile that she was taking to the local charity, I liked some glass bottles, and she gave me some ideas of how to decorate with them. I put them in a box, then started to head out to the hall.

My friend had gotten rid of a lot that day, and I was so proud of her. Since her truck was currently loaded up with things to be taken to charity, she had made a (very large) pile in her room so that she could load up again later after taking the first load. As I was walking out to the hall, dodging this and that, I looked down at a cute plate. With my eyes so averted, I didn't see the corner of the wall and hit it with my shoulder. If there had been a camera on me, what happened next would definitely be on YouTube by now. I teetered a little, shifted my weight, and had my self settled. Then I made a miscalculation in the distribution of my weight, and started swaying again. It must have taken a full minute for me to finally fall with a very loud CRASH onto the pile of stuff in her room.

She rounds the corner, and asks, "Do you want me to take a picture of this for your blog?"

Nope.

Let's just say that I was really lucky not to be the punchline from a Seinfeld episode ("Million to one chance, Doc")

*side note: as I was typing this blog post, my daughter cut her hand open with the broken ceramic handle of a toy spoon. She had to get 5 stitches. Isn't it great to be a Mom?

Usually I remember some little tidbit of advice or learn some new technique to share with each space I organize.

I found these cute labels and cute baskets while sorting. How lucky am I that they were exactly the labels that I needed for this room?

So for this blog post, I thought I'd share some of our adventures we had that day, and shed some light on why stay-at-home Moms have a lot of hindrances (ie: kids) that slow progress.

Left side before

Left side After

We decided that he must have been trying to go potty, and then somehow managed to fall in. And she had yet another mess to clean up.

Straight Ahead Before

Straight ahead close up Before

Straight ahead After

Story #3:

I heard, "NOOOooooo!!! Don't color on the wall with markers!!"

I said, "Were the markers washable?"

She said, "That's what they say....I guess we'll find out."

By this time though, we were nearing the finish line, so I suggested rubbing alcohol, and we moved ahead.

Right Side Before

Right side After

Last story: Since most of the mishaps were caused by the children, I know you're thinking that this one is another....but this one was all me.

She rounds the corner, and asks, "Do you want me to take a picture of this for your blog?"

Nope.

Let's just say that I was really lucky not to be the punchline from a Seinfeld episode ("Million to one chance, Doc")

*side note: as I was typing this blog post, my daughter cut her hand open with the broken ceramic handle of a toy spoon. She had to get 5 stitches. Isn't it great to be a Mom?

One Way to Get it Done

2009-08-13T10:55:00.000-07:00

One of the hardest parts about organizing is maintenance. We all get lazy sometimes. Even with a place for everything, sometimes you just don't feel like putting things where they go.

This is one of the biggest reasons that I make a distinction between dirty and cluttered. A lot of us have clean albeit cluttered homes. My kids' rooms have the opposite problem.....they are fully organized, but they just won't stay clean.

After helping my friend organize and rearrange her daughter's room, I decided that one way get my kids to clean their room was to redecorate. We usually rearrange the rooms every January. We like to try new furniture placement, and reevaluate whether our systems are working or not, and sometimes even change the function of a room. But being out of school for summer, and getting ready to go back, we really needed good motivation to clean the rooms. And when you involve a little kid in the rearrangement of their room, they feel so empowered and creative (and will actually help).

The view from the doorway before. This is one of the reasons I decided it was time to redecorate. How would you like to walk by this everyday?

The view from the doorway after. The bow organizer got moved from the pink wall. This is one of those placement reevaluations. I thought the bow organizer would make a very cute design element on the wall. In reality, the kids kept knocking it off the wall. They never put the bows back on it so there was always a pile of bows on the floor in front of it. Solution: off the wall and on the floor.

The view of the side of the bed before. When I bought and refinished this side table, I made my daughter promise to keep it nice. It usually gets cleaned off, but this small walkway usually gets trashed. I figured it was because there was no reason to keep the bed made or beside the bed clean. I had never bought my kids a comforter when I moved them to a queen size bed (used to be a guest room bed), they were just using an old quilt.

Side of the bed after. Solution: I bought a new comforter and made a big deal about it. We went to several stores searching for the cutest (and cheapest) one. Then I made a small change of switching the way the bed faced. Now it takes up less room so there's more room to play on the floor. Also it looks like a giant day bed. With the pillows at the top, I can fold back the comforter instead of trying to shove it between the bed and wall. The girls thought this made their bed look really cool. I also put one of their buckets beside the bed for all their blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals that they like to keep on their bed.

(side note: my oldest girl picked out the saying on the wall. She had vinyl on her wall before but it was white and didn't really show up. This is sparkly black and I thought her saying was very cute and creative.)

Corner view before. One problem I noticed was that the girls' room was "visually cluttered". I use this terminology all the time when I'm organizing for others.....and all I'm really trying to explain is that when there is too much for the eye to look at all at once, it gives the area a feel of being cluttered even if it is not.

Corner view after. Even though I was the one to paint all the crazy murals before, I still had to talk the girls into letting me paint over them. We left some on the opposite wall, and moved a picture from the opposite wall to fill the blank space. My oldest daughter loves busy, bright, brash things....but even she agreed that this just looked better.

Hopefully, seeing that the plumber's toilet gets clogged too (so to speak) will help motivate you to tackle your own spaces. And if you want to involve your kids, or just give yourself extra incentive, remember that the cleaning and organizing is secondary to the fun of redecorating.

An Experiment

2009-08-01T22:08:00.000-07:00

I think I have hit upon a brilliant idea, but I need some help testing it out.

It occurs to me that when we say we don't want to let something go because of all the memories attached to it, this is not exactly the case. So assuring you that the memory doesn't leave with the object doesn't really cut it as far as motivation goes. It seems to me that the problem is really that these items trigger the memory. We come across items when we clean, organize, or move and these memories (that we weren't trying to actively recall) present themselves. And usually the memories are of fun times, accomplishments etc.

So the reluctance to let these items go springs more from the fear that without them we won't have a reason to recall these fun times. (not that we won't be able to remember them)

Here's where my brilliant idea comes in: How about when you are contemplating getting rid of one of these "memory triggering" items, you write down the associated memories in a special journal. Then when you feel like reminiscing, you can pick up your journal instead of poking through all of the boxes in your basement.

I think this will really help free up some of the space in your house as well as in your mind (remember everything in your house is in your brain). In addition, this journal is a wonderful way to start your own personal history. If you were gone, and your children were to find your special items, would they know why the items were special?

I'm really excited about this idea, and I think it could be a great way to share your memories, reclaim the spaces in your house, free your life (and mind) of clutter, and create something unique for you and your family.

If someone takes a chance on this idea, please, please, please email me or comment so that we can see if this idea can really produce its intended results.

Classic Little Girl's Room

2009-07-21T18:15:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I got to help a friend "gut out" (her words) her daughter's room.

View from the doorway before

View from the doorway after

I think we all assume that at a certain age, our children are capable of cleaning their own room. We ask, bribe, threaten, what-have-you to get them to straighten their rooms and keep them in some semblance of clean. Then when we can take it no more, we decide to clean it ourselves. This friend called me because she was overwhelmed just stepping in the room. After we cleaned it you could actually feel that it was lighter.

We started in the closet, and just went through everything. The whole room only took 3 hours because this friend was not being sentimental and made decisions very quickly. It was great!! She had actually set aside different drawers for certain items, so once we had the closet cleared everything went a lot faster since it had a place to go to.

Closet before

Closet After

2 lessons I took from this room are:

1. Don't underestimate children when it comes to "stashing". Check every corner, under the bed, in the closet, behind the door, etc. These kids are creative, so get creative when you check their rooms.

Dresser Before Under the Bed Before

(I actually had to pick the bed frame up to move it since the little girl had stuffed it to the gills)

2. When your child runs out of socks, don't buy her more. Make her clean her room instead. My friend and I must have found at least 20 pairs of socks in her child's room. She had just bought her all new socks because her daughter couldn't find any to wear.

Left side of the room Before

Left side of the room (and dresser) After

A small tip

2009-07-04T09:02:00.000-07:00

I used to love watching the old "Cheaper by the Dozen" with the father who was an efficiency expert.

So here is my small contribution to the world of efficiency....

I don't know when or if I came up with this, or saw someone else do it, but ...

I was tired of cutting my kids food, especially syrupy pancakes and waffles that never would cut nicely. And I was tired of not getting to eat my own breakfast until it was cold. So instead of cutting them after they have syrup on them, I tear them into bite-sized pieces before hand. It may not be as pretty, but it's faster and the torn pieces are easier to pick up with a fork.

School Part II

2009-06-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

Most large projects take 6 to 8 hours and that is why I have my "make the time" rule. This however was a HUGE project.

It seems that sorting my friend's things goes rather quickly when that friend actually purchased, and 'put away' those things. But going through her stuff, a retired teacher's stuff, and a no-longer-working-there-teacher's stuff takes a really long time.

The trick seemed to be to go through everything and work in zones. It was very important that we took the time to do this now at the end of the school year, so that my friend can enjoy her short summer (we do year-round school), and focus on next year's plans. I knew that if we left it as it was, she would fret the entire 3 weeks before the next school year, and be too overwhelmed to complete it. That would probably work out okay, but her stuff would just go on top of what was there and eventually we'd have an even bigger mess. (not to mention how hard it would be to concentrate in such an unorganized room).

It turns out that I didn't take good before pictures, and I really must start taking more. The problem is that I never know which area of the room will actually show the most progress. And after I get started, it's too late for snapping pictures of what it looked like before. But just to give you an idea--the room has many cabinets, cupboards, and drawers. Every one was very random. Sometimes there was an idea behind the contents, and sometimes there were duplicates.

BEFORE
This was the only picture I took of a long wall (North Side) of cabinet/counter space. It was completely filled.

AFTER

The same counter space after. The cabinets are open to show that the insides are sorted and neat.

The easiest thing seemed to be to start with the biggest cabinets, take everything out of them, and assign them a purpose. The cabinet on the right now houses the craft supplies, and the one on the left houses games and teaching tools. Once we had them working for us, we could go through other cabinets and find a new place for them.

The long cabinets (left side of the picture) after our big sort. It turned out to be a big help to organize these first, so that we had room to move other things as we came to them.

We had spent 3 or 4 hours previously, and this day we spent 9 hours. It was a little tough because my children were misbehaving, and we had to be quiet because testing was going on in the adjacent room. We got a lot accomplished though, and here is another after pic. This is the East Side of the Room.

AFTER

East Side of the room was another row of cabinets and drawers, with a sink. These mostly housed painting supplies as the laminate floor and sink were good for clean up.

I took home all of the crayon bins (from the right side of the above pic)and spent the next day cleaning them all out. My advice for these are--Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (love it!)

Left bins = AFTER Right bins= BEFORE

Then I went back on the third day because I had seen a cabinet with books in it. They were crammed every which way. My friend needed some of these books as references, but had no way of telling what books were there. Since bookshelves are one of my favorite things to organize, I just had to get my hands on this cabinet. Also on this day, I did a few small cabinets. My friend's teenage daughter was amazing!! She helped us on the first day, and on the third, she went through all the lower drawers/cabinets and cleaned the dirt and dust, and pulled out all the toys in the bins and steamed them to disinfect them. I spent only 2 hours at the school on this day.

Book cabinet AFTER. I put the books into categories by subject (Reading, Math, Art)

I hated not being able to help finish, so I left a note for my friend letting her know that I would love to help her sort all of the papers. Since papers are my least favorite thing to sort, I usually leave them for last. So the room was coming together with maybe a few more cabinets and drawers to be gone through, but on the opposite side was a ton of boxes with papers. The retiring teacher had left her copies for my friend to use. The problem was that the retiring teacher sorted her papers by weeks, and my friend was going to use a different curriculum and so couldn't use the papers in the same way. Since printing copies is a major expense for teachers, she wanted to use as many of the copies as she could, but she needed to be able to find them. She brought them to me and I spent a good chunk of the weekend going through them.

7 Bins of Papers BEFORE

6 Bins of Papers AFTER (may not look like much, but I went through every single paper and sorted and collated them. It was a lot of work!!

So lessons:

1.Take the time to sort beforehand, so that you don't end up with this big of a job.

2.When tackling this big of a job, allow yourself several days...but don't put it off. You've got to keep your momentum. (I estimate that I spent 35 hours on this project, and I'm sure my friend and her daughter spent just as much time)

3. Work in stages, and give yourself a cleared-out space to sort into.

4. Take some of the things home with you (if you're sorting for work). Things like craft supplies, papers, and even cleaning crayon bins can be done while watching TV or a movie.

5. Don't get discouraged. You can do it, and you deserve a great big pat on the back when you're done.

School Sort Part 1

2009-06-14T20:07:00.000-07:00

A good friend of mine will be teaching in a new classroom next school year. The problem was that the classroom had belonged to a teacher who retired and was now occupied by a teacher who had not had time to organize the classroom when she came in and would not be at the school next year.

I went in for an evaluation and we ended up asking the occupying teacher if we could help her organize a little. We did get her desk pretty much sorted.

Before

After

One problem was that the same craft supplies could be found in multiple locations throughout the room. This may have worked for the retired teacher, but would not work for my friend. And if there was one thing we learned from the occupying teacher, it was if you didn't take the time to sort before you start teaching, it would soon be too overwhelming a task to undertake. Because we couldn't move anything until school was out, I asked my friend to bring me the craft supplies for sorting. Just by grouping "like objects" together, these craft supply drawers are more visually pleasing and will be more practical for use.

Before

After

INFO meeting

2009-06-14T18:39:00.000-07:00

Our 2nd INFO (Ideas Necessary For Organizing) meeting was a "closet clarification". One member of our group offered her closet for a purging exercise.

Often, I find that the difficulty in getting rid of things with sentimental value or significant monetary value (like nice clothes or books) is not wanting to appear wasteful. It's hard to "throw away" something that is still practical even if we have a surplus of this item. In such situations, most people are seeking permission to get rid of these things that are cluttering their lives and homes.

Another hindrance is an emotional attachment that we form to objects. It is important to remember that while these objects may have produced real emotions; they do not have real emotions.

To overcome these hurdles, we decided to throw a farewell party for the clothes. We gave them a proper send off and they were donated to a good cause so they were not wasted. As far as permission: if my authority was questioned, we went to our panel. I equipped the panel with signs that said "stay" or "go".

Our panel gave us great advice and some new ideas while also learning from our hostess' example and receiving motivation to go home and clear out their own closets.

Some areas we discussed were:

Clothes that no longer fit.
Let's be honest. If the clothes don't make you feel good, you're not going to wear them. If you do put back on weight that you've lost, wearing clothes with extra room is only going to allow you to eat more...not motivate you to lose weight again. Some of these clothes were kept and put in a pile to be tailored. If they cannot be altered or if she does not take them to get altered, she has to throw them out.

Before

After

Clothes that went out of style that you think might come back in.
There are a few classic styles, however styles that "come back in" usually do not come back in the exact same way. When in doubt, ask a friend (or a panel) - if it's dated then it'll be obvious.

Clothes with sentimental value that you never wear.
In this category are maternity clothes (when your children are all grown up) and funeral wear. For the maternity clothes, you usually have plenty of pictures with you wearing your favorites. As for the dress you wore to your parent's funeral, I'm definitely against keeping. Why keep something that will make you sad and take up room in your life? We did let her keep a scarf that went with the dress as a smaller and not so dreary memento until she's ready to let that go as well.

Clothes that you might wear once a year to a holiday or fancy party.
The panel made an excellent point here. If you wear an outfit to every holiday party, then your coworkers/friends/family have seen it, and it's time for something new. Here I let her keep a few things that were still fashionable, hadn't been over worn, and were fancy enough for a holiday party.

Clothes that duplicate.
Our "victim" (big thanks by the way) had several black skirts. We let her keep most of them because she could give us a reason for them and she actually wore them. But we did make her get rid of 2 that she hadn't worn and couldn't foresee and event that she could wear them to.

Before

After

Some other ideas our panel came up with were:

-some items our hostess gets to keep for a year and then reevaluate whether she wears them or they're wasting space.
-there comes a time to dress in what suits you instead of dressing for an image that you're trying to portray.
-try on the clothes that you haven't worn for awhile and see if they might be worn in a different way/for a different occasion.

Thanks group! That was a lot of fun.

Space/Time Continuum

2009-06-14T18:09:00.000-07:00

Last week I made an exception to my "take the time" rule.

A friend of mine has four small children including a baby which means she has maybe 20 minutes at most in which to work by herself. She asked for my help in organizing a basement room that had been set up as a storage room. Because we had less than 2 hours, we decided to work in zones.

Like most other homeowners, the objects stored in this room could be sorted into 3 or 4 categories. The trick is to go through the piles and identify the categories. Then if the room is designated for storage, you can create zones. In this particular instance, we classified 3 areas: crafting, holiday decor, and short term storage. Since eventually my friend wanted to use this room as a craft room, we decided to tackle the crafting supplies first.

We were able to go through the bins and coordinate her supplies, clearly mark the bins, and stack them in one corner in a way that allowed easy access.

Because we assigned the other side of the room to be for holiday decor and the closet for short term storage (such as winter clothes), we were able to give the homeowner room to work in. We also created one space that is organized which gives her a bright spot to look at and motivation to finish. Now, when she finds a little time, she has a game plan for how to sort the rest of the room.

This week I was reminded that sometimes we need a fresh pair of eyes when deciding on the best layout for our rooms. When we move we often put items in the same space as they occupied in our old homes without consideration for the new set up. When you get overwhelmed, ask a trusted friend to have a look and give you some ideas. You can also map out your room on paper. Then work in small predesignated zones to keep you motivated.

Basement Guest/Storage Room Organization

2009-06-01T21:18:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my friend who asked me over to help her organize. I know that it is hard to let people see your rooms when they've become overwhelming, but I'm so glad that she let me help.

Some challenges from today include:
1. A well-meaning spouse who likes to put random objects together in bags or boxes & transfer them to the basement in an attempt to clean the main floor. This created nice "surprise bags".

2. Gifts bought ahead of time (which I may have to start next year) that were spread across two closets.

3. Hand-me-downs with no clear space to sort them into bins.

4. Furniture and toys clogging up the space.

For four hours we:
1. Sorted through all the surprise bags and put like items together in bins.

2. Put all the gifts together-- fully utilizing the space in one closet.

3. Put the clothes in the other closet thus "containing" them until the home owner can sort through them & put them into bins according to size. Now that there's free floor space, it's a perfect room for the sorting task ahead.

4. Moved the furniture around so that the "bedroom" furniture was on one side of the room & the toys on the other. This helped to visually unclutter the space by creating "zones".

A few Garage Sale tips

2009-05-31T18:24:00.000-07:00

I love going to garage sales and have been "junking" most summer Saturdays since I was 12. I had held a few garage sales with other people, but never had much luck. Last year, I decided to work backwards--to hold a garage sale the way I as a junker would love to find. The result was success!

So this summer I shared my tips with a neighbor who had mostly clothes to sell. I was a little doubtful since I usually pass on garage sales with mostly clothes, but she got a lot of traffic & sold a ton of clothes.

THE TIPS:
1. Signs-- Use the same color (preferably neon) for all your signs.

Don't put an address or a time. Nobody is going to slow down & try to read it. Put "Yard Sale" and a nice big, visible arrow. "huge", "multi-family" and other adjectives are mostly ignored b/c they're rarely true.

Place the sign up high on the same side of the road as you want people to turn. Nothing is more infuriating that going all the way into a right lane because you spotted a neon sign, only to see the arrow pointing left.

2. Set up-- Nobody wants to dig through your boxes. Take the time to do some sorting & put your best items on tables.

High visibility/high appeal items should be placed out front or facing the curb to attract customers.

Clothes are best put into sizes. We got the most sales after we had sorted the clothes so that customers could go right to the bin they wanted instead of having to dig. One thing I would've done differently in hind sight is to put the bins at a distance from each other. A few customers took clothes from one bin & just threw them into the next one.

If you don't have many items to sell, ask neighbors to join you or wait til the next year. If these are not possible, place your items on the front 1/2 of your driveway to make them appear to fill the space.

3. Pricing--This is the area where I used to trip up. I used to pay whatever the asking price was, and expected others to do the same if I set the price low enough. Not so.

Nobody expects to pay listed price at a garage sale. You've hauled these items out, and as a customer I know that you don't want to haul them back in. Decide what your lowest price will be & then mark it higher. Don't go too high or people will think your expectations are to high & will not even try to bargain.

Example: If you want $20 out of an item mark it $35. If your willing to take a dollar, mark it $2 or even $5. Just remember that people usually come to garage sales with $20 or maybe $40 and they are not prepared to spend much more. For high ticket items, try the classifieds.

By 12:00, some junkers are tired or hungry and aware that most of the best deals are gone. The hard core junkers know that by this time the home owner is ready to deal. If you're serious about letting go--mark most items for $1 or half-price and put a sign out. And be prepared to be offered very little.

Have fun! (& remember to invite me to come & shop)

My new fave

2009-04-30T17:36:00.000-07:00

My newest favorite organizing system is the "Antonius". I saw it in the upstairs showroom at IKEA, and was instantly smitten.

It can be made in several different combinations: you buy the frame, then you can purchase wire drawers, cloth drawers, or two sizes of plastic drawers. There is also a work-top that you can purchase. And I'm not sure, but I think I saw shelves for it at IKEA today. I like it because the drawers are big...so they can hold 12 x 12 scrapbook pages, and a whole lot more. I will take out whatever drawers I need, then just return them when I'm done crafting. These two reside in my half of the closet.

The second one I bought for myself for Mother's Day last year with the proceeds of a garage sale....how's that for poetic justice?

Mackenzie's closet remodel

2009-04-18T18:16:00.001-07:00

It must run in the family-

My younger sister, Mackenzie, organized for a family last year & had left them with some goals.

This year they called her to say that they were ready to purchase the closet system she had suggested.

So today, Mackenzie spent 8 hours demolishing, painting, and assembling these 2 closet systems.

Don't they look great?

Craft Closet

2009-04-16T14:49:00.000-07:00

The craft room was really a craft closet, but still tons of fun!! There is no "before" picture just because it looked mostly like this after pic--we just added the tower of drawers on the right.

The issue was more of a time/space continuum issue (small grin). The homeowner had set up the closet when she moved in, but it was not working for her. Although it looked pretty neat & organized, most drawers were empty or held more of an "assortment" than a "collection". And she had never had the time to go through it....

So we went through her things and sorted them, then came up with assigned living quarters for them.

The drawers are one of my favorite organizing tools because when you want to work--you just bring the whole drawer with you & then put it back when you're done.

Some of the drawer assignments:
1. Tools (paper piercer, cutting tools, stapler)
2. Punches
3. Ribbon (she had a new system that is hanging on the side but we left coordinated ribbon on their backing and put it in the drawer)
4. Embossing--wet & dry.
5. Letters (rub ons, stickers, etc)

We also put her "Antonius" system in the adjoining room for her stamps. ..but that particular system (new fave) I'll save for another blog post.

Saturday Therapy Session

2009-04-11T18:29:00.000-07:00

I was in a funky mood this week. I organized my closet & beads, but by the weekend, I was still irritable.

We went over to my friend's house to bring her something, and I smooth-talked her into spending the day organizing her closet.

There's no "before" picture, but here's what it looked like after our 4 hours of work.

Ribbon solution

2009-04-09T12:49:00.000-07:00

I love to craft which puts me in a position to answer this burning question: "What's the best way to store my ribbons?"

This was a tricky one. I do like the dowel idea, but it is hard to put new ribbon on or take an old roll off. Plus the dowel is not very portable for those who love to attend crops or card club etc.

A few weekends ago, at the scrapbook expo, I saw a great idea. I actually went up to a group of strangers who were working on their scrapbooks, and asked if I could check out their ribbon box.

This box is called "Ezy-stack Ribbon Rack". I found it at Walmart for $8. The lady at the expo said the only problem she has encountered is really tall ribbon spools. But as for side-to-side, it has removable compartment sides.

The only problem that I can foresee is that I will definitely need more than one!

Home Business Organization

2009-03-11T13:06:00.000-07:00

First let me give a big thanks to my friends for letting me organize for them (and post my results). These friends started a home-based business selling themed body sprays, lotions, and lip balms back in November. They were really excited to begin, not knowing what to expect. They were soon doing big business and had their website up and running (and sometimes out of control). Because of this unexpected boom, and the time frame in which it occurred, they never got a chance to put together the organization of their production. They had a lot of volunteers to help keep them on-track, but without a structure in place, it was a little hard.

They recently moved their operations to one owner's basement. Juggling this home business and family life kept the organizational wishes on the back burner. This last weekend, I awoke with a strong need to organize and really wanted to do theirs (cause I knew it would make the greatest impact and be the best way that I could help them). They graciously let me come, and set aside other plans they had for the day. I started going before I took "before" shots, but I did get some.

One of the essential organizational issues was that the business didn't have clearly defined spaces. For the most part, the spaces were being used as labelled in these pictures, but there was no room to work, so things were being shifted as everyone worked.

As far as I could tell, the three areas that needed to be defined were manufacturing (where to make the product), labelling, and shipping. Since there were three tables, that were essentially serving these purposes, I just decided to make them more visually apparent.

STATIONS AFTER

Another issue was that of space. I hear all the time that people just don't have enough space, when sometimes the issue is just not using your spaces effectively. This was apparent in the "shipping" area. There was a huge area just opposite the shipping table, it housed their product encased in plastic drawers, with boxes above and beside. There was one wire shelving unit holding miscellaneous items.
With this space being so handy to their shipping area, I suggested that we move the boxes down to arm level, and use another wire shelf to hold all the materials needed for packing and shipping. They wanted to be able to have boxes made up already for more efficient packing, and I showed them how to store these most effectively. By using a versatile wire system that the homeowner already owned, we were able to create a wonderful shipping area keeping different sized boxes separate, and having all of the packaging needs all together and easy to find.

Included in this issue is also the best way to use the storage that you already have. The homeowner had a wonderful shelving unit that was holding random items. Noting that a lot of the usable space in the room was being filled with gallon jugs of distilled water or boxes holding lotion base, I suggested that we used this shelving unit to house the supplies they needed, and put it by the manufacturing station for easy access.

Another solution to limited space is to prioritize your spaces. This thinking was used in the shipping area (putting shipping supplies within arm's reach) and in the manufacturing area (moving extra supplies to one location where you can get them when needed).

This solution also came into play when considering another problem: the feel of a cluttered room. I always notice that a room feels cluttered when there are items stored haphazardly above your head or under your feet. The space underneath the tables was being used by all sorts of things: lotion base boxes, empty containers, trash bins, bottles in large plastic bags, and filing. I decided that if we used these areas for items that you need while sitting at the tables, then it would put the space to its best use.
And I persuaded the business owners that putting all of the like bottles together, while taking extra time now, will put them ahead of the game when they need to find them.

With these thoughts in mind, we put the extra packing materials like packing peanuts and bubble wrap under the shipping table. Then we put the bottles in bins and stacked them underneath the manufacturing and labelling station.

My last suggestion was to place their product on open shelving near the shipping station. They had noticed a problem with their previous product housing. When they pulled the drawers open, the products would fall forward and cause problems with the lids or the labels. I also pointed out that having the product where you could see it would make it easier to tell what they needed to make, as well as being visually pleasing (kinda like a lotion store). They agreed, and we made use of the back wall with a bookcase that the homeowner already owned. the bins in the background were a solution the business owners came up with: to put all of the oils and tools needed for one scent together to make them easier to find when they needed them. It was an excellent solution and only needed to be implemented. And the bins fit nicely on the ledge.

So hopefully, some of this might be helpful in determining areas of your home or home-based business that are not suiting your needs. These solutions were specific to the case, but the concepts are universal. Define your needs, use your space wisely, and don't give up. (This project took almost 6 hours--but it was well worth it!)

Be specific, please.

2009-02-24T10:41:00.000-08:00

My problem with organizational shows is all the generalizations. I thoroughly enjoy watching people go from a cluttered existence to having a gorgeous, well-organized home/space. BUT...

If your only experience and education about organizing/sorting/purging/redecorating etc came from these shows, you would be misinformed and probably frustrated with your efforts to recreate this experience in your home.

Most of the people on these shows will not keep their spaces uncluttered. This happens when the disorganized person is nominated for the privilege or is bullied into it. If you are not ready to get organized, then you will not stay organized.

These shows usually take 30 minutes to an hour. Sometimes they show you that it might take a couple of days, but these shows have designed these spaces before taping. They have a team of organizers. In real life it's usually just you and whatever family you can solicit help from. Real-life organizing takes time and should not start with a big project. Do not torture yourself by adding redecorating to the stress of uncluttering. The bonus of organizing your rooms is that once they are organized, it inspires you to decorate the space to make it visually pleasing and motivate you to keep it clean. Organize then decorate.

These shows have budgets and can afford to buy or build fabulous systems to house the homeowners' possessions. These expensive organizing tools are not necessary. They are only to provide something nice to look at on TV. And a lot of these systems will not fit or work in your home. Decide what your needs are after sorting and purging, then buy or find systems that will work for your specific situation.

I love the inspiration and ideas that these shows give for purging, but not all of us collect the same items and definitely not for the same reasons. I find that most people turn to self-help books or professional organizers to give them ideas or encouragement for their particular problems.

I now have an organizational group and would love to hear from them, as well as anyone else, what specific areas you would want me to address. If you have a particular reason for holding on to some possession and would like advice on how to change your way of thinking so that you can let some clutter go, I would love to help. If you need advice on a particular area where you need help organizing (closet, pantry, papers, books etc), I would love to share your question and any answers I might find so that we can all help each other.

How to Organize Photos

2009-01-23T09:36:00.001-08:00

I love to scrapbook and have been known to get over-enthusiastic and scrapbook for friends and family. Often the hindrance to scrapbooking is that your photos are jumbled and out of order.
Having organized my fair share of photos, I will share my techniques for sorting (use only the ones you need).

1. Use the envelopes you pick them up from from the store in. Even though sometimes we might take months (or years) to develop our photos, this will give you a starting point for chronological order. In a corner of the envelope make a note of possible dates (and events) inside.
2. For the ones not in envelopes, sort first by size. Recent photos will be 4x6. Older ones will be 3x5. You might find polaroids, smaller pics with rounded corners, ones with a white border, or black and white. This will be the most basic sort to help you put them in some order.
3. TURN THEM OVER.
Don't confuse yourself by looking for faces and events just yet. -Sort by batch numbers and then by print order (which puts them in chronological order). If they are not numbered, sort them into piles based on the paper they were printed on (fuji, kodak etc). Put your sorted photos in envelopes like step one.
5. For unnumbered prints or to date a photo: look for context clues. Check for same clothes on the same person, what's going on in the background, what's the setting? (inside or out)
6. Figure approximate dates by considering things like-who is the baby in the photo? How many candles are on the cake? Has someone changed their appearance since then?
My mother-in-law gave me a pic of my husband dated Christmas 1972. My husband was born in the summer of 73. By factoring in that what was on the mantle behind him was Easter baskets and not stockings....we relabled the picture-Easter 1974.
Hope this helps you get organized...email me for scrapbooking tips

The Art of Placement

2009-01-19T08:58:00.001-08:00

Now if you have properly sorted and purged--the next step is to find the perfect place.
The rules in this area help to ensure that you don't hit any of the snags that might undo any of your hard work.

1. Measure what you have BEFORE you buy containers.
When we resolve to get organized, we usually run out and buy every type of bin, basket, or container and figure that these will get us organized. Until you know just how much you have and how often you need to access it, these "organizers" are just clutter.

2. Think outside of the box.
I love boxes, but not all of our possessions need to live in one. Some ideas of containers that might fit our items are: a mug for pens and pencils or a large basket for blankets . The important thing is to consider how you will use your items and what container will make them user-friendly.

3. Put items where you would normally use them.
If you went into anyone's house, you will probably find the extra toilet paper in the bathroom cabinet . But other items are used differently in each household. So, if you normally put your mail beside your refrigerator, then put your mail filing system there. If you put your system on top of your desk, it will go unused and sit dusty while the pile by the fridge will grow larger.

4. Consider zones.
Imagine a kindergarten room divided into "centers". In each center are all the materials needed for a specific activity (reading, art, building). By having these zones specific and coordinated, it's easier for the kids to visualize what they will be doing in each area, and where to put things away.
We can use zones to sort a child's room, a kitchen, a craft room etc.

5. Consider the priorities.
Put low priority items on high shelves or behind other items in your closet or pantry. Use bins for storage of limited use items like Christmas decorations.

6. Think mobile.
Put your scrapbooking tools in a bag for attending crops. Make a cleaning "tool box" for supplies that you use in multiple rooms.

Thanks for taking the time to read through the class. I hope that this class gives you inspiration and motivation for decluttering your life. Start with a small area like a pantry or a closet, and practice, practice, practice!!! Once you start purging, you will feel freedom and empowerment. And after awhile, you will find that you don't have to go in order, but can sort, purge, and place simultaneously.

More purging....

2009-01-06T09:15:00.000-08:00

More questions:

6. Does this belong in a different room/space?
Sometimes our items just need to be relocated. In one instance, I was organizing an entry-way closet for a neighbor, and it was filled with heavy coats during the summer. She realized that these heavy coats could live in the garage during the summer to make room for the lighter jackets that were sometimes necessary.

7. Am I keeping this just because it was a gift?
Nobody gives us a gift with the intent of it cluttering up our lives. If they do become offended, it is usually short-lived. Your health and well-being and the running of your home should not be hindered by guilt.

8. Will I finish this project? How long has it been unfinished?
I love it when Dr. Phil says that the best indicator of future behavior is past behavior. If we have not finished it, it was not a priority, and will never be finished.

9. Have I used or looked for this recently?
Do not get me wrong. I do not believe in generalized organizing ideals....I do NOT want you to put something in a box and leave it closed, and then if you haven't opened it in a year, throw it out. DON'T DO IT. This will only make you wonder what was in the box, and hold on to your possessions even tighter.
I want you to consciously look at everything you have and make a desicion about whether or not it is something that you need in your life.

10. Would I display this?
Another thing I take away from these organizing shows that I love to watch (and judge), is that if you have a collection, it should be displayed.
If it is hidden, in a pile, or in a box, then we are not proud of it and it is clutter.
"Hello, welcome to my home. Would you like to see my lovely collection of cardboard boxes?"

11. Is this replaceable?
I have to say that this one is one of my favorites. As I was contemplating teaching this lesson for the first time, I had an epiphany.
Let's say that you have some popsicle sticks. You have kept them for 10 years thinking, "I might need these. I might be asked to be a Den Mother. My kids might need them for a school project."
Then let's say that after 10 years, you make the decision to throw them out. You haven't needed them and they are just clutter. Now we all know what is going to happen the very next day. You will need them for something.
The epiphany is this: how long will you mourn and kick yourself before you go out and replace the item? maybe 10 minutes. So consider that 10 minutes and balance it against the 10 years that you held on to something that was useless, that you had to keep in mind (in case someone asked for it), and that was a waste of space.
So what is worth more? Your brain space, your peace of mind? or the two dollars you will have to spend to replace something you didn't need for 10 years.

12. Could someone else benefit from this?
Why hold on to baby clothes for a baby that might be a different sex, or a born in a different season of the year, or will be born so many years later that the clothes are out of style...when there are more mothers who could benefit from free clothes that didn't come out of their budget. There are many things that we have, and don't use, that could bless someone else's life. And believe me, the joy that you will get from sharing far outweighs the loss of something you never used.

13. Is this holding me back?
Sometimes we hold on to things and become stuck in a memory or time frame (when our children were babies, when we were happy in high school, when our parents were alive etc). In order to move forward with our lives, we have to let them go. You will not be giving away the memory, just the item.

I hope these help. There are more, but they are more specific. These will cover most of your clutter. I do not want you to clear out your house. I want you to make your house a comfortable place where you can find peace.

The need and drive to hold onto things usually comes down to the feeling that somehow "this is special". I've heard this lesson echoed in many movies, TV, and books that I want you to apply to your possessions: When everything is special, nothing is.

The urge to purge

2009-01-06T08:56:00.000-08:00

Now that I have you surrounded by massive piles, it's time to purge. And yes, you do have to purge. If you had enough room for everything then you wouldn't have had to organize.
I've always called these the purging rules, but they are more like questions you should ask yourself.

1. Is it broken, unusable, or worn-out?
After you've "used it up and worn it out", you're supposed to throw it out. We expect our kids to let go of these kinds of beyond-repair items...so we have to set a good example and let go of ours.

2. Do I have enough of this item already.
I have seen some crazy collections of grocery sacks and the like. You need to ask yourself: Will there ever be a situation when I'm going to need 30 empty butter containers?

3. Would I pay a storage fee for this?
On one of the organizing shows, I heard the organizer say that if we are not using our rooms for living space, then our mortgage is just a storage fee. I really liked how thought provoking that was. So if most of your rooms are filled with clutter and are unusable, ask if you would pay a storage fee (as high as your mortgage) for these items.

4. Does this represent who I am today?
We are not our possessions.
Our actions represent who we are, not our clutter. Do we hold on to things because we think they represent us-- or once did?

5. Does this invoke happy or sad memories?
After my mom's death in '01, we had to clean out her house and decide what to keep. My mother was a collector, so there was plenty to spread around to her nine children and then some.
When choosing which items to take, I realized that if I chose things on the basis of: "I remember this was always on Mama's dresser" or "Mom really loved this" then every time I looked at it, it would remind me that my mother was no longer here to enjoy it.
So instead, I chose things that were pretty, or that would look great amongst my things. So now, when I look at these objects, I am happy. I can think, "Look at this beautiful object....I got it from my mother".
Our loved ones do not wish for us to be sad or to live our lives for them. They want us to be happy, safe, and fulfilled.

I don't think there's much room left, so I will stop here....but there are eight more questions so keep reading.

Time to sort

2009-01-02T19:14:00.001-08:00

Usually to prove my point that anyone can organize, I'll ask for the self-proclaimed least organized person to sort a bin of select items.
Never have I encountered someone who couldn't sort this bin into piles of the same types.
We were all trained to see patterns as we learned our colors, shapes, and letters.
Now, if I've convinced you that you are capable - I have to give you the "rules". Most people who set out to get organized and fail do so because they didn't have these points in mind beforehand.

THE RULES

1. Set aside the time.
Sorting will take more time than you think, and will make the mess larger and more spread out. If you don't take the time, you'll give up mid-way and stash. Then you'll be left with a big mess, no sense of accomplishment, and no progress. I have a few friends who subscribe to the "only clean fifteen minutes a day" philosophy. But as another old friend said, "That's only enough time to shred the junk mail."
It can take anywhere from six to eight hours to complete a basement, garage, or large room.
So start small, and take the time.

2. Bring with you: storage bags, pen and paper, a donation box, and a trash can.
You will need the bags for small items, pen & paper for notes or labels, the box for things that will obviously be donated, and there will be trash.

3. NO SIDE TRIPS
If it belongs in another room-make a pile of things that belong in other rooms.

4. Disconnect from the objects you are sorting - no reminiscing.
When we start to reminisce, we stop sorting, and start planning. There will be plenty of time for reminiscing during the purge phase. So for now, no thinking, just make piles.

5. Don't skip anything.
Chances are that box in the corner is filled with as many disjointed items as the rest of the room. And knowing what you have is half the battle.

6. Contain it.
If the task becomes too overwhelming, don't lose your progress - put your piles into containers .

Happy sorting!

Motivation 2

2008-12-30T18:47:00.001-08:00

So why should you get organized

1. It makes cleaning easier.
In my exploits, I have seen many people do the "ping-pong walk". When they encounter an object without a home, they'll wander awhile and then set it down on a randomly selected surface. When we get around to that surface, the same object will find another temporary home.
If everything has a designated home, then putting stuff away takes less time and effort

2. When we organize and sort it helps us clear our heads.
Everything that is in your house is in your head. Suppose your neighbor knocks on your door and asks if you have a purple paint pen or some other random thing. You have to think of whether or not you do, and what pile to search in. So when your house is cluttered, your brain is too.

3. It helps us see patterns and avoid over buying.
Within the first hour of helping someone sort, I have an idea of the sorts of things they buy, their hobbies and habits etc. Often I find multiples of something that has been pushed so far in a corner or in such an unfathomable place, that the home owner just bought more instead of hunting for it.

Motivation

2008-12-30T18:32:00.000-08:00

It's important to remember that cleaning and organizing are two different things
A lot of people that I meet won't let me come into their houses for fear that I will consider them "messy".
I have seen clean houses where you are unable to open a closet door and cluttered houses where it's apparent that order is all that's needed.
It occured to me one night that some words were missing in the old adage.
Having a "place for everything" makes you organized.
When you put "everything in its place", then your house is clean.

Introduction

2008-12-30T12:22:00.000-08:00

I've always loved to organize. When I was younger, my favorite toy was the 64 box of crayons.

I would open it up and take out the four boxes. Then I would systematically sort them into a rainbow order. And if one of my (eight) siblings "borrowed" them, I would have to resort them into the right order.

As I got older, I started collecting small treasures. I would put these into shoe boxes that lived under my bed. Every box was sectioned off into different sections ie: money, breakables, lost-and-found.

In school, I would take class time to put all my papers in order, tear out any extra paper in the spirals and average my grades.

Now, I never considered these talents. Obsessions, yes. Talents, no.

I thought everyone could organize--some just didn't choose to.

Then as an adult, I was organizing a basement closet in a friends house, making my happy little piles, when my friend asked, "How do you do that?"

Since then, I have tried to teach others this skill. I am convinced that anyone can do it. I have taught my small circle, and am hoping that I can pass my knowledge on through this blog and any email correspondence.