Welcome to my blog! I am a professional organizer, organizing coach and owner of Organization Made SIMPLE, a business that helps people like you get organized and stay organized!
Are you tired of a cluttered home and/or office? Are you worn-out after spending hours looking for all your “misplaced” possessions? You’ve come to the right place! This blog, “365-day organizer” will give you tons of SIMPLE organizing tips to help you get your life back on track.
I will post new tips every day of the year, all relating to different organization challenges. You will benefit not only from my experience in the industry and my love for organization but also from the questions, comments and suggestions left by fellow readers…so please read on and let me know what you think. I will do my best to respond to any questions and to help you get more organized…it’s SIMPLE…you’ll see!
Happy Organizing!
Many of my clients have questions about how much paper they actually need to keep, file, etc. With all the paper we come into contact with every day, it's no wonder we get confused.
Since the goal of my business it to make organizing as simple as possible, here are a few very simple ways to control the mass amounts of paper you probably have lurking around your home.
Legal Documents: Ask yourself if it is something you need for tax purposes... if not, get rid of it. You can most likely get any information you need from the internet anyway.
Action Documents: File bills immediately in a file labeled (Bills to Pay). Respond to invitations right away...and mark your calender with any important dates
Magazines: Tear out any articles/recipes you want and recycle the rest of the publication.
Notes: use a spiral bound note book to store notes and thoughts. This works better than sticky notes and it's harder to misplace!
Implement some of these ideas today and your piles of paper will be a thing of the past
Most people assume that my home is perfectly organized all the time. However, that's not entirely true! Yes, my house usually looks presentable because I keep my kitchen and living areas picked up. And I don't think I could sleep in a messy bedroom, so I don't let clutter pile up in there either. But just like you, I have clutter. Why? Because clutter happens. It's a natural byproduct of our busy, productive lives. Luckily, you don't have to stop everything to get organized. You just have to start somewhere.
Here are a few things I do to keep my home free from clutter.
Start with the easy stuff first: Walk through each room in your home and get rid of any trash and/or recycling. Then do a second walk-through and fill as many bags as you can with items to donate. You don't need to organize anything yet, just get rid of the stuff you don't want, need, use, love, etc.
Set small goals: do one cabinet, drawer, file at a time. Give yourself 15 minutes and see how much you get done. I honestly don't organize for hours on end (I don't have that kind of time either!) But I do have 15 minutes here and there...and I get a lot accomplished in those few moments.
Give everything a home: if an item does not have a home, it is clutter...period. If you can't find or create a home for a particular item, get rid of it, or get rid of something else to make space!
Give yourself permission to let go: If you only had 10 minutes to grab your most precious belongings...what would you grab? Think about this as you look around your house. Make the decision to only surround yourself with items you love. Let the rest go!
Pay special attention to clutter hot-spots: You can't hide all your clutter, but you can contain it. Figure out where your clutter seems to collect and set up attractive ways to deal with it (large baskets for shoes, nice bowls for key, etc)
De-clutter daily: It is always easier to keep up than to catch up. Get in the habit of spending 15 to 20 minutes at the beginning or end of each day doing some daily de-cluttering. Quickly walk through your kitchen and living areas and your clutter hot-spots and clear the clutter. Your home will always look presentable and you won't have massive organizing projects later on.
Don't let it come into your home: Think twice before you let something come into your home. Conciously think of where this item will go, where will you store it, do you really need it? If you never take it into your house, you will never need to organize or clean it later on!
Follow these simple steps and your house will be clutter free year round!
We all have SOOO much to do every day. Not only is it difficult to get it all finished, it can even be difficult to start!In order to have a balanced life, you need to manage your time correctly otherwise you'll be stressed out, burnt out and frazzled!
Here are the top 3 things I do to make sure my home, my work, my family and my life run smoothly:
1. Eat your frogs every day
Every day, make a list of things to do. Then do the most important task first. It often seems like that one is also the most difficult task. Once that is out of the way, your day gets better and the rest is a breeze.
This way, even if you don't finish everything on the list, the most important tasks will always be done.
2. Remember Parkinson's Law
Parkinson's Law states that work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
Many times we don't know how long something will take so we allow hours and hours for simple tasks. If you genuinely don't know, then start keeping a time log for tasks you do routinely, like writing a weekly running errands, cleaning, emailing, or doing certain projects at work.
Once you have an idea of how long regular tasks take, set a timer when you do them in the future and aim to complete in that set time, every time.
3. Have monthly, weekly and daily checklists
For anything you do more than once, make a list as you go along.
Your daily checklist could include: running specific errands, meetings, appointments, etc. Your weekly checklists could include: menu planning, grocery shopping, cleaning, trash, planning the week ahead, etc. Your monthly checklist could include: vacation/holiday planning, yard/home projects, upcoming events with your children, etc.
This is so that you don't waste time having to rethink your steps of action every day, week or month, or worse still, you forget to do something important. I suggest that you have some self-care items on your lists too. Set aside time to read, craft, watch a favorite program, exercise, etc. Also, make sure to make time for planning the day and week ahead!
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If you start implementing these 3 tips on a consistent basis, I guarantee that you'll free up at least two hours a day. I'd rather spend an extra two hours with my family; wouldn't you?
November 8 – November 14, 2009 this week’s "tip of the week" was sent from Eva from Grand Rapids, MI
Eva writes: “As an apartment dweller, organizing/storage is always a problem especially for a collector. Years ago I picked up some very sturdy coated wire baskets with pull handles at a garage sale that are worth gold to me. I stack two of them full of bathroom extras in the cabinet under the bathroom sink. Rarely used items go in the bottom one and extra toothpaste, soap and lotions etc go in the top one.
The other basket goes into my refrigerator on the deep shelf that holds tall items. No more things going bad because I forgot they were at the back of the shelf. Just slide the basket out and I've got instant access to any bottle or tall container.
Another wire basket on a shallow shelf keeps soda cans upright and low containers like sour cream and yogurt at the tips of my fingers. Having access to the back of my fridge gives me lots more space too.”
Do you have an organizing or time management tip that you would like to share? Click here and your tip could be the next one featured in our newsletter, our blog or on our website! For more organizing tips, check out www.andreadekker.com. It is full of great organizing tips for every area of your life.
I was recently asked by a client what my #1 tip was for organizing a master bedroom. My client explained that her master bedroom was a very stressful place because of how cluttered and chaotic it was. Since the bedroom was where she went to bed every night and where she woke up every morning, she began and ended every day feeling stressed and unhappy.
After talking with her for a while, I realized that she had a similar problem to many of my other clients...you might relate. She used her master bedroom as the dumping ground for her entire house.
Let's see how you answer the following questions:
When company arrives, where do you go with everything from the kitchen/living room?
Where is your exercise equipment?
Where is your computer?
Where do you store the Christmas presents you are trying to hide?
Where do you keep your gift wrapping supplies?
If you answered "the master bedroom" to any or all of those questions, then you are like most people. Even though none of the above items should be stored in your master bedroom, they often end up there, mainly because they don't have a home anywhere else.
So what can you do about it?
My #1 tip for decluttering your master bedroom is:
Take everything out and only put back what you need/use in your bedroom. These would be items such as clothes, shoes, accessories, extra pillows and blankets, books or magazines you are currently reading, etc.
This may seem overwhelming at first but if your goal is to have a clutter-free, relaxing bedroom, this is the way to go.
Once you put away everything that needs to be in your room, you will then have to find/create a home for everything that is left over (this could be a lot of stuff). Start by donating or trashing anything that you don't need, want, love, or use. Then get creative; can you store gifts and wrapping supplies in a extra closet or purchase an armoire and store it in the living room or in an extra bedroom? Can you create an "office space" in a corner somewhere? Could your exercise equipment move to the basement or garage?
The more you can remove from your bedroom, the more peaceful your room will feel...and that is your ultimate goal!
I get so many questions on how to organize laundry rooms…mainly because they are often one of the smallest rooms in the house but they have to function at full capacity nearly every day. So what can you do to contain all the clothes, cleaning products, and “stuff” that ends up in your laundry room? Here are a few tips that might help!
Decide What Should Stay: Some items that need to stay in your laundry room are laundry soap, dryer sheets, clothes hamper, hangers, etc. Notice, this list is actually not very long. Think about everything else that is in your laundry room right now and determine if it really should stay.
Decide What Should NOT Stay: There are likely many things in your laundry room that should not be there! Bring these items back to their rightful place…or create another home for them somewhere in your house, basement, garage, etc. This will free up a lot more space for items that actually need to be in your laundry room. (See #1)
Use Creative Storage Ideas: There are so many useful organizing tools for small spaces…you just need to use your creativity a little! Use the space above the washer and dryer. Install and use shelving or cabinets to hold laundry cleaning supplies such as laundry soap, fabric softener, and stain removers. Use walls space or inside the cabinet doors to tape washing/stain removing instructions. Use the back of the door to hold cleaning supplies or other misc. items that need to find a home.
Get a System for Clothes: You don’t even need children to be overwhelmed by the volume of laundry you create each day (believe me!) so what can you do to simplify this process? Something that works for a lot of my clients is to have a laundry hamper for every person in the family. Then each family member is responsible for putting their own dirty clothes in the basket and to bring the basket to you on laundry days. Let them pick out their own hamper/bin/container for dirty clothes and it will turn into a game. If they don’t get you their clothes or put them in their bin, the clothes won’t get washed!
With just a few adjustments, your laundry room can be transformed into a place you actually like to spend time (that might be pushing it a little but you get the picture)!!
Are you drowning under piles of paperwork? Don’t worry, you are not alone! I have so many clients who struggle with paper work…most of them are so overwhelmed and have no idea where to start.
If this sound like you, keep reading!
Right now, what you need is some inspiration to get your started. If you know of anyone who is willing and able to help you…that would be a great solution. If not, you will need to inspire yourself. On of my clients recently told me that simply purchasing an inexpensive label maker and a box of colored file folders gave her all the inspiration she needed.
She is a very visual person so the nice clean look of the labels and the brightly colored folders really appealed to her. When I asked her how she so quickly turned her piles of paper into organized files she said:
“I really liked the look of the labeled and colored folders to hold my paperwork. It motivated me to get started and now, I will not lay a paper down without putting it into a pretty colored folder and labeling it neatly with my label maker. It looks sharp and I feel so organized! I can now drop the folder into my file cabinet or store it on my desk for processing. And I can grab a folderor folders and go to a meeting looking well-organized and professional.”
So, maybe her story will be inspirational enough for you to get started on your paper project. Keep in mind that you are just aiming for progress…not perfection!
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