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If you are looking for even more ways to make simple changes for the new year and the new decade, I have created a printable PDF of a tip or project per day for the first 31 days of the year. Doing one small thing per day is a great way to cumulatively get more organized over time!
Click here to get the PDF. (Link is http://budurl.com/31tips31days) Enjoy, and feel free to share it!
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Merry Christmas! I hope all of my readers who celebrate this season are having a happy and fulfilling holiday.
After this weekend's festivities are over, USA readers will have a few more days left in the year to get a wonderful tax deduction for 2009 by donating household goods! Thursday, December 31st, is the last day to take advantage of this opportunity this year. Here are some handy tips for making that happen:
You have your marching orders... let me know how you do in the comments! Would love to know how much the dollar value is of your pile of stuff!
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It's going to be a new year AND a new decade! So many people want to "get organized," but that can feel overwhelming if not clearly defined. Here are ten simple changes you can make that will go a long way. So get yourself through the upcoming weekend and have a lovely holiday-- and next week start thinking about doing some of these:
1. Start using online banking. Set up automatic payments for amounts that don't change, and set up payees to be ready to pay the others with varying amounts. Who needs stamps? And who likes signing checks? You also can set payments up in advance and have them go out exactly when you want them.
2. Establish a "Destination Station" where you enter and exit the house daily. Our paid Clutter Diet® members know that we talk about this all the time, and we revisit this area in our weekly project plans several times a year. It's that important! You can put your purse, keys, shoes, chargers, gadgets, errand items, school stuff, and eco-friendly grocery bags there.
3. Outsource or delegate something you don't like doing. Either pay someone to do it for you, or delegate it to a family member. Life is short, and you are busy, and you should focus on what you do best. Comment here on what that might be for you! Maybe it's mowing your lawn, or getting a dry cleaning service that delivers, or hiring a neighborhood teen to run errands for you.
4. Clean up your contacts/address book. You are getting all of these holiday cards right now with everyone's updated information contained therein. Take a few minutes to update this information in your records.
5. Be more mindful of what you bring into the house. In our online program and my book, we talk about how organizing is like losing weight-- both require a program of Prevention, Reduction, and Maintenance. You can prevent clutter from getting in the door by using our downloadable wallet reminder sleeves, which include the 5 questions you should ask before buying anything! You store your credit or debit cards in them and have a physical reminder each time you're at the checkout.
6. Organize your primary wardrobe closet. It's one of the first places you see each morning upon waking up, and it can start your day well or make you feel frustrated-- you choose! It's one of the best projects to do first because it makes a difference in your life every single day. You can save time, save money making better purchasing decisions, and reduce your stress in one fell swoop.
7. Do your Sunday Planning once a week. Just ten minutes a week can really change everything with regard to how your family functions. We talk about this in our f*ree report, 30 Ways to Find Time to Get Organized.
8. Get ONE calendar or planner you really like and stick to it. It's that simple. Start and end each day looking at it to orient yourself to the day ahead and plan for tomorrow.
9. Make one positive change to your morning routine. Whether that means doing a load of laundry, making a better breakfast, getting up earlier, or exercising, do ONE THING to improve how your morning begins. It will set your day off right and better organization usually is the result.
10. Get affordable help from me and my team of organizing experts! We have all kinds of ways to help you:
Happy Holidays, everyone!
It’s holiday time, and that means New Year’s Resolutions are right around the corner. It’s a new decade and a new opportunity. Let’s celebrate by getting a head start on a fresh start!
The New Year season is the biggest time of year for the organizing business. People want to get organized as much as they want to eat better, stop smoking, and start exercising. (That is why I was inspired to have so much fun with the weight loss metaphor in our Clutter Diet® online organizing program.)
Resolutions are just like any other effort at personal change… to be successful long term, you need to have a very clear vision for what you want and a very strong reason for sustaining the effort.
Start first with a larger vision—what are your big goals? Going back to school? Changing jobs? Starting a business? Getting out of debt? Write those down.
Now think about each area of your home and life and write down how organizing it can support you in these goals. Here are some examples to help you:
When you focus on your larger goals first, you can see how organizing then fits into the bigger picture and why it benefits you. Each day when it’s time to do a project, do some planning, or maintain your space, you’ll be more motivated and more likely to do it if you understand how the benefits ultimately help you.
This holiday season spend some of your time off envisioning and planning for the new decade to come. Happy Holidays and a Happy Organized New Year!
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(This is an edited version of the December article I wrote for Connections for Women, a great site that I contribute to monthly. Click here to read the full version on their site.)
I grew up in the 70s waiting eagerly for the one time of year that the holiday specials would be shown on broadcast television. You see, young whippersnappers, we lived and died by the TV Guide schedule. We could not have our own copy of any of these shows to watch at our leisure on DVD, or even on a VCR. There was no pause or rewind-- you had to have your chores done and pajamas on to watch it or else!
I just had a lot of fun finding this tiny little snippet on YouTube-- the CBS Special Presentation graphics that usually led into these exciting shows. The music and the spinning words made my heart race with anticipation! (Comment if you know what I am talking about!)
When the Peanuts Christmas special aired, I always felt sorry for Charlie Brown and his little tree, but I was struck each time at how beautiful and meaningful it still was. The size of the tree made no difference-- it was about how everyone felt being together and celebrating.
As we progress into the final few frenzied days of shopping and preparing for the holidays, let's keep in mind the lesson of the little tree. Less is more. Fewer toys, more time spent playing together with them. Less stuff, more experiences. Less spending money, more spending time.
Consider spending one hour weeding out your possessions to make room for the new. This is particularly good to do with children and their toys, and your coats and sweaters can be lifesavers for those less fortunate. You can donate them to Goodwill or other local nonprofits (click here for a Goodwill donation site locator). Less is more.
Ask your family what is important to them about the holidays. You might be surprised to find out you don't have to be elaborate to get the same magical effect. It may be that drinking cocoa out of grandma's special Santa mugs is more important to your kids than winding the staircase with lights and garland. Less is more!
Happy Holidays!
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This is the last post in a series on our N.E.A.T.E.R. definition of what it means to be organized. For the last few weeks I have been talking more in depth about what each one of these words means. (You can click on any of these in the list below to jump to the previous posts.)
Our Definition of "Organized:"
Not Perfect, but...
Effective- doing what works best
Always improving
True to your style
Efficient- not wasting time and energy
Ready for anything- being prepared for life
(NEATER acronym © 2006-2009, Clutter Diet, Inc.)
Being organized means you're usually ready for what life is likely to throw your way. When someone gets cut, you have a bandage. If there is a fire, you have an extinguisher. It means that you have saved some money aside, you have some food in your pantry, and your kids have lunch money in their school accounts. It means you have prepared in a practical way for your realistically anticipated needs. You've planned ahead and made the effort-- you've been the ant and not the grasshopper.
There is a fine line, however, between preparing for what you realistically and practically need vs. saving everything to be prepared "just in case" out of fear. I want to be very clear about this-- the probability of your needing it should be fairly high for you to keep an object in preparation for that event. If you are keeping a snow shovel on the chance that there might be a blizzard in Austin, TX, you are going to be crossing the line away from being practical and realistic.
Our "Ready for Anything" concept really is more about planning than keeping. It's about anticipating things like the fact that six o'clock is going to happen every night and your family will be hungry for dinner-- what are you planning to feed them? Are you ready for the holidays with gifts and travel arrangements? Are you ready for visitors to come over unexpectedly? If you were "hit by the proverbial bus," would your family be ready to handle your financial matters?
Planning is powerful-- a few minutes of smart thinking about your future can help you live more fully in the present. What do you need to do in your life to be more "ready"? What has organizing and planning helped you to accomplish? Share in the comments!
I hope you've enjoyed my series on what it means to "be organized"-- these are messages I am very passionate about sharing, and I am grateful for your attention to them. Blessings to you this holiday season!
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Once upon a time, there was a client--let's call her Judy. I was working with her on several areas of her house. She and I agreed that I would work on certain projects separately, and she would focus on doing some preliminary work in the home office before we tackled the more detailed levels together.
I went to check on Judy and she was just finishing up a hutch where there were lots of office supplies. Everything looked very neat and tidy, but there was something wrong. On an upper shelf, carefully lined up next to each other, were three staplers.
I said, "Judy, this looks very nice. But why do you need three staplers?" And she laughed when she realized she definitely did not need them. She had collected them over the years and they had ended up near this hutch, and she just mindlessly put them away. Neatly. Perfectly spaced apart, actually.
My friends, take heed of the lesson of the staplers: Organizing is not about "neatening things up" and finding homes for all of your stuff. It's about intelligently considering what you need and how you use it.
We talk about objectivity being important-- sometimes it takes someone with a fresh pair of eyes to come in and ask why you have three staplers, because you've been looking at them too long! Hiring an organizer is a great way to get this objectivity, but working with a friend is very effective too. I often recommend to our Clutter Diet members that they get a strategy from our expert team (we consult with our members in our message boards where they upload photos to show us), and then work with a friend trading organizing favors to help get it all done hands-on. (Did you know we provide unlimited expert advice in our member message boards for the price of a pizza??)
Have you ever had a "stapler moment?" Share in the comments!
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I do love technology for its amazing productivity gains, but just like a child or a pet, it does annoy you at times and take up a lot of your time in a frustrating way. Always trying to help, I have chronicled anything I have learned about that frustration over the years here on my blog, such as when my hard drive suddenly died in 2007.
This past several weeks my hard drive was getting very full and starting to act squirrelly (that's a technical term), so this time I decided to do a pre-emptive strike. I got a new hard drive last weekend and had the luxury of preparing for the transition at my leisure. Here are some things I learned...
First, I would not have gone through half the hassle that I did if I had only known about my friend Paul Martino's system for setting up data for a small business. I am very excited because Paul and his wife Stacey (some of the nicest, best people I know) have created this very cool webinar series that costs NOTHING-- it is starting this week (and it is a limited time thing, so if you are reading this a while after the post date, it may not be offered any longer). Paul has had an IT company for years helping people in person, and now he is going to "teach people how to fish" with these very detailed videos. They have some quick videos up on their blog right now to ask for feedback and questions as they prepare the webinar series, and then, they are going to give away TONS of information in 30-minute webinars. You just have to sign up here to get in on it. I cannot wait to set up my data correctly! Yay, Paul!!! Thank you!
If you do not have things set up Paul's way and you have everything on your one hard drive like I have and still do for the time being... here's what to do when you switch hard drives so that your productivity will suffer the least amount possible.
There is SO much more I learned from the process this time. But I am going to leave all of the rest of the IT information to Paul and his webinar series. And as always, use this information with caution as "your mileage may vary" with a different machine, etc. Be careful out there! And BACK UP YOUR DATA, everyone!
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This is the fifth post in a series on our N.E.A.T.E.R. definition of what it means to be organized. For the last few weeks I have been talking more in depth about what each one of these words means.
Our Definition of "Organized:"
Not Perfect, but...
Effective- doing what works best
Always improving
True to your style
Efficient- not wasting time and energy
Ready for anything- being prepared for life
(NEATER acronym © 2006-2009, Clutter Diet, Inc.)
Being efficient means doing things with minimum waste of time and effort. Carpooling is one of the best examples of efficiency. You're already going there, and I am already going there, so let's go there together, saving time, energy, and money!
If you have several tasks to do, think first of the one that could be simultaneously running while others are being done. For example, you can start the laundry first before straightening the kitchen, since the washing machine and dryer can be running without you. You can put dinner in a slow cooker first while you go about your day. Back in May I wrote a popular post about this idea, which I am calling "Duotasking." (Read "Forget Multitasking--Try DUOTASKING!" for more thoughts on this concept.)
Efficiency, for me personally, is one of the most important words in our definition. I think there are some people who primarily like getting organized for the sake of neatness itself, and there are others who like getting organized primarily because they cannot stand to waste time. I am definitely in the latter camp. I want to organize because it lets me spend more time on things I want to do the most. (Read a previous post about this, "Form vs. Function: Which One Are You?")
Next week we cover the last letter in our N.E.A.T.E.R. definition, R for "Ready for anything." I hope you're enjoying this series! What are your greatest efficiency gains, your best Duotasking ideas, and your opinions on organizing for form vs. function reasons? Share in the comments!
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Last year I did a holiday "Favorite Things" list, kind of like Oprah does, except that I cannot possibly put these things under your chairs for all of you. (Here is the link for last year's list.) I thought it was so much fun, I wanted to do it again. These items may not necessarily be for organizing-- they are just "make your life better" things. Useful, practical things I think are cool!
First this year, the Teeny Turner! No, not the one who was married to Ike... The Teeny Turner Micro Screwdriver
I have been working intensively on my computer this week... do you see a theme here? This next product is actually an "as seen on TV" kind of thing, but sometimes they have good ideas. Cyber Clean is this goo that you use to clean your electronics equipment. You squish it into all of the little crevices of your phone keys, your keyboard, your fan slots, and any other buttons or edges. You can also use it to clean toys and remote controls, etc. You can get it at the Container Store or at Amazon
Last year I wrote about Bose noise-cancelling headphones. They are definitely wonderful, but they are also large. One of my good friends since introduced me to Etymotic headphones. They are the size of normal earbuds, but they have impressive technology, not only for blocking outside sound, but for enhancing the sound quality in general. I have been amazed at hearing things in my music collection I never knew were there, like the sound of a strings player breathing or hitting his music stand. I use the 6i Isolators, and they cost about half what the Bose headphones cost! Love these on airplanes and pretty much anywhere.
I have been telling everyone about this book and have bought it for many people. My friend Renee Trudeau introduced me to it (author of The Mother's Guide to Self-Renewal), and I wrote about it here previously. It's a CHANGE YOUR LIFE book, and it's quick to read. I am filtering everything through the concepts of this book lately. It's called The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level
And finally, BAGS. I have already written about how much I love my Blue Avocado grocery bags, so they get another mention here as a great gift idea because they are just that wonderful. You can buy them at Sprouts stores and Whole Foods, or on their site. And for other bags... I love pretty much anything made by Built NY. They have many different neoprene cases and sleeves for everything from laptops to wine bottles. I love their charger case for organizing your gizmos on the road... and the colors and designs are fresh and fun! You can buy from their store online, and their stuff is also sold at Whole Foods. (photo from BuiltNY.com)
What are your favorite gift ideas this year? And what do you think of these? Share in the comments!
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(PS: To be proper about it, some of the links here are affiliate links so that I may get a small percentage of commission on these items... but that is NOT why I chose these items, I am just being smart about using an affiliate link if I have one!)
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