simplify your spending

There is no hiding that we are in a less-than-perfect economy right now. While I am not a financial advisor, I do get a fair amount of questions related to managing an organizing finances and the like. I personally feel that if you are organized with your finances and smart with your money, you are headed in the right direction…and you are also teaching your children a very valuable lesson!

If you have a little work to do to get organized, here are 3 simple ways to organize and simplify your spending.

1) Use one credit card. If you are responsible, there is no reason why you shouldn’t have a credit card. But, rather than using several different cards, consolidate all of your purchases on one single credit card. If you have to return something, you'll know which card you used. You won't have to carry tons of cards in your wallet everywhere you go. You'll only have to pay one credit card bill at the end of each month.

2) Buy gift cards, for yourself. Determine what your shopping budget is and buy gift cards in your favorite stores for that amount. Whenever you purchase something, use your gift cards. When your gift cards have run out, you've reached your budget.

3) Buy what's on the list. When you go shopping, go with a list and only buy things on your list. Keep your attention focused on those items you originally set out to buy. When people browse around and window shop, they tend to spend a lot more then they originally intended.

It might sound overly simple, but just doing these 3 things will really help you simplify your finances…and probably save you a good chunk of change after a few months!

For more organizing tips, visit my website: www.andreadekker.com

de-junk your junk drawer

Did you know that 90% of people have a “junk drawer”? That’s a lot! So, I’m not going to tell you that you can’t have a junk drawer; however, I am going to recommend that you organize it a bit so that instead of a junk drawer, it can be called your HELP drawer.

Here are just a few simple steps to make this transition:

1. REMOVE EVERYTHING. Take everything out of the drawer and place it on top of your counter. If your junk drawer is removable, remove it from the track and turn it upside down onto your counter. You may want to lay a sheet of newspaper down first to help protect your countertop.
2. SORT. On your counter, begin categorizing each widget (i.e. thumbtacks in one pile, buttons in another, toothpicks in another, and so on.)
3. FIND DIVIDING TOOLS. Find something around the house that you can slip into your drawer to keep these categorized items separated, such as an ice cube tray, drawer dividers, small boxes, or 3 oz Dixie Cups. Organize these separators into your drawer.
4. CATEGORIZE INTO COMPARTMENTS. Finally, begin replacing the items you are going to keep, ensuring that each categorized item is in its own place.

You're done! Voila! One minute you have a junk drawer, and the next minute, you have a help drawer!

For more organizing tips, visit my website: www.andreadekker.com

make more time

We all have the same amount of hours in the day. It doesn't matter what you need or want to get done or how noble your intentions are. Each of us only has 24 hours in a day--for good or bad, to waste or to use efficiently.

We will hear about people who give generously of their time to help others. Often, these are people who have families, careers and commitments. What makes them special is that they have figured out a way to make time in order to give their time and themselves.

How do you make time?

As we just said, we all have the same number of hours to work with. So how do we maximize our efficiency in order to have free time left over to give? How can you save an hour? There's an old saying, `You have to spend money to make money.' Saving time, as well, requires some effort or 'spending' on your part.

1. Cook in bulk. Bulk cooking is a huge investment and time saver. If you're preparing a home cooked meal, make several extra portions to put on the freezer. Since you're already cooking, there's very little extra time or effort involved. You can also prepare certain items or ingredients in advance as opposed to whole meals. Items such as ground beef or boneless chicken breasts are fantastic to cook in bulk and freeze in small packages for quick easy meals.

2. Plan your meals. Once you have meals or ingredients on hand in the freezer, the key is to PLAN! Know what you have in there and use it wisely by planning your meals for at least a week at a time. If you know what you will have for dinner each night, you will save time that would be spent trying to figure out what to have, whether or not you need to shop for something or even worse, spending extra time and money eating out or getting take- out at the last minute because you don't know what else to do.

3. Have a laundry schedule. Laundry should be something you throw in and then you go do something else. If you remember to throw one load in each morning, or each evening when you arrive home you won't find yourself constantly running out of clothes.

4. Consolidate your errands. Another easy way to save an hour is to try and group your errands. If you save your errands and try to run them all in one block of time, you will save time and gas money. Instead of leaving your house numerous times, make a list of the errands you need to run and plot them out according to location.

5. Institute a desk day. Try to have a time each week desk when you sort and pay all of your current bills and update your budget. If you are sure to check at least once a week, you avoid the chance that you will have bills slip by you. It's also much easier to stay on top of your budget plan and balance your checkbook once a week, rather than allow it to get out of control which will then take a huge amount of time to figure out.

Now that you have some time saved for sharing with others, find something that you love to do and pass along the joy.

Some possibilities:

• Volunteer in a soup kitchen

• Visit a nursing home and spend time with someone who doesn't normally have any visitors
• Help out at your child(ren)'s school for the next fundraiser
• Take a friend or relative, who may be going through a difficult time in his or her life, shopping, out to dinner or bowling.
• Spend an hour with your child(ren) at the park
• Go out on a date with your spouse, and give that person your undivided attention
• Create something and give it away...just because

For more organizing ideas, visit my website: www.andreadekker.com

free paper shredding

PROBLEM:

Piles and piles of paper and bills waiting to be shred…

SOLUTION:

Macatawa Bank is offering FREE paper shredding to anyone in West Michigan. Check out their website for all the details or see below for the specific locations and dates.

Riley Location Mon., April 27 3-6pm
Allendale Location Wed., April 29 3-6pm
Grandville Location Thurs., April 30 4-7pm
Gaines Location Mon., May 4 3-6pm
East Beltline Location Tues., May 5 12-3pm
Hudsonville Location Wed., May 6 4-7pm

Please know that they are limiting it to 2 bags per person.

For more organizing ideas, visit my website: www.andreadekker.com

tip of the week (4/26/2009)

april 26 -- May 2, 2009
this weeks "tip of the week" was sent from Jill in Hudsonville, MI

Jill writes: “When folding sheet sets, fold the top and bottom sheets and the extra pillowcase in the other pillow case. This lets you stack them, grab 'em and go."

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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.

write it down

With everything you have going on in your life it is very easy to feel overwhelmed. Whether you are single, married, raising a family, have your own business, or are a stay-at-home mom; there are a lot of tasks to do, and so many things to remember.

Experts always say, 'Well, you just gotta write things down.' But where? And how can you ensure you won't lose it?

Some people are obsessed with sticky notes…they stick them everywhere!! But they can never remember where they stuck the one they need. It is great to write things down, but this is an inefficient method of remembering. So what’s the solution?

Take a spiral bound notebook (preferable one that can fit in your purse or bag) and stick all your sticky notes into the note book. You will always have them with you and you can quickly flip through pages in the notebook to find the sticky note you need. Even better, you can reclaim all the “stickable” surfaces in your home and office once you finally get rid of all your sticky notes!!

For more organizing tips visit my website: www.andreadekker.com

declutter your closet

1. Set aside an afternoon and remove everything from your closet.

2. Make 3 piles:

Pile #1: Clothes you don't love, don't suit your lifestyle or don't look good on you

Pile #2: Clothes you love and that fit you properly

Pile #3: Clothes that you're not sure about, for whatever reason

3. Take action:

• Donate or throw out everything in Pile #1
• Organize and put away everything in Pile #2 according to your personal preferences - by color, style, season, etc.
• Take a serious look at Pile #3 and decide if it is really work holding onto those items…or if you should just let them go once and for all!

4. Enjoy your newly organized closet!

For more organizing ideas, visit my website: www.andreadekker.com

the 3 phases of getting organized

The key to getting organized (and staying that way!) is to understand that organizing is made up of three distinct phases: the project phase, the habits-creation phase, and use and maintenance.

The Project Phase:
The project phase is what we typically think of when we set out to “get organized.” It’s the Saturday afternoon spent in your closet, sorting your clothes, deciding what to keep and what to let go of, and placing your keepers into nifty storage containers or onto new, matching hangers. For many, the project phase is the most rewarding. You start out with a mess and end with a calm and orderly space—complete with shiny new storage solutions.

The Habits-Creation Phase:
The next phase of organizing involves creating new habits—habits that enable you to consistently use your newly created organizing systems. If you successfully create new habits, your space will stay organized for longer and you won’t have to repeat the project phase as frequently.

The Use and Maintenance Phase:
The final stage in organizing is the use and maintenance phase. What happens when you buy a new jacket, shirt or pair of pants? Does it go into the closet with the rest of your clothes, or do you pull out a tired and faded garment on the spot? Using this type of one-in-one-out system is just one example of how to maintain your organized space going forward. The use and maintenance phase involves selecting specific strategies that will help you keep up your organized spaces (and enjoy their benefits!), as well as tweak your systems if you find they don’t work for you.

Once you recognize these three distinct phases of organizing, and how they apply to the various projects in your home, you can use this knowledge to troubleshoot what isn’t working for you and, most importantly, why. Did you set up the system in a way that will work best for you during the project phase? Did you create the necessary habits to use the system effectively? So often our first step when things aren’t working is to repeat the project phase, but it could be that your systems are set up perfectly, and you just need to create the habits to use your systems more effectively.

For more organizing tips, visit my website: www.andreadekker.com

buy some time back

It’s spring…which means you are probably busy, busy, BUSY! If you are like me, you most likely have way more things on your plate than you can possibly do! So, what is the solution?

Well, one solution might be to go insane, trying to do everything yourself (I try the some times…it doesn’t turn out well!). Another solution would be to simply decide that there will be a number of things that won’t get done. A third solution is the option of 'buying time'. If you have an extremely hectic schedule, it may be reasonable to buy time by selecting goods and services that save you from investing time. For example, paying a neighbor to mow your lawn is one way of buying time. You could buy time by paying your children or grandchildren to do clean the house, laundry, car, dishes, etc.

There are lots of low-costs ways to buy a little more time…which is one of the scarcest recourses we have! So think about buying time this spring when you start felling overwhelmed by your ever-growing to-do list…it might just be worth it!

For more organizing tips, visit my website: www.andreadekker.com

5 tips to plan your day

I thought I'd share some strategies that I start off using with my time management coaching clients. In fact, recently one of them told me, "I can't believe it; I actually have a life again". This was after we started incorporating some of the principles I'm sharing with you below.

1. Block out any appointments
Don't only block out the actual time of the appointment; add "getting ready" time and travel time before and after the appointment.

2. Do high priority items first
For a business owner, it could mean working on an income-producing activity and for a stay-at-home mom, it could mean planning your menus for the week.

3. Add in your routines
Do you have an evening routine and a morning routine? Routines help your day run smoothly because they're done on auto-pilot. Some people do a load of laundry every day. This is part of their routine. If they don't do this for a couple of days, life can get out of control very quickly.

4. Don't forget buffer time
Buffer time helps when an appointment runs over or the traffic is bad…or when something just takes longer to do than you anticipated.

Depending on the situation, you might want to leave 15 - 30 minutes after each appointment or activity so that you're not frazzled when things inevitably don't work out exactly as you planned. This is aside from the travel time.

5. Add in some fun
Fun means rewarding yourself appropriately when you are disciplined with your time.

For more organizing ideas, visit my website: www.andreadekker.com

upcoming event

Just a quick reminder...

I am participating in a fundraiser with H.U.G.S. Ranch in Jamestown, MI. H.U.G.S. Ranch is a non-profit organization whose mission is to encourage mental, emotional, physical, and social healing to hurting children and rescued equines (horses) by allowing them to share together in experiencing Hope, Understanding, Guidance, and Support in a no-cost, safe, Christian environment. They are hosting a fundraiser, which I am speaking at...so come and learn about clutter control, time management and productivity, and support a great cause! Click here for more information.

Hope to see you all there!

tip of the week (4/19/2009)

april 19 -- april 25, 2009
this weeks "tip of the week" was sent from Patrick from Abilene, TX

Patrick writes: “Do you have a closet packed with clothes, but 'nothing to wear?' Here's how I solved that.

In my hanging clothes closet, I put clothes that have just been cleaned on the far RIGHT. When I wear something, but it's not dirty enough to go in the laundry pile, I put it on the far LEFT. When it's time to choose what to wear, I pick from the CENTER of the closet.

This simple system rotates my clothes and keeps me from wearing the same clothes again and again. Also, if clothes stay in the center too long, this tells me I probably don't like them anymore and I donate them."

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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.

simple tips for paperwork

Do you feel like you are "drowning" in a sea of paperwork? Use the RAFT method to help sort through the seemingly unending amount of paperwork and stay afloat. (pun intended!)

R-Read
A-Act
F-File
T-Trash

Then you need to come up with a reasonable system for storing your paperwork. Remember that 80% of filed papers are never looked again. However, you must keep in mind that some papers must be saved for tax or legal purposes.

7 ways to banish clutter

Everyone has some degree of clutter lurking at home. When you're tired of moving it around, stepping over it, and losing important items in it, it's time to take control of the clutter. What should you do with it? You have seven options:

1. Dispose of it. Much of clutter is trash you either thought you would need or figured you'd throw out later.

2. Put it away. About half of the remaining clutter in most homes consists of items that simply haven't been put away. Fill a laundry basket then deliver the items to the proper rooms. Avoid this trap by making things easy to put away and by enforcing a family "use it and put it away" rule.

3. Donate it. If you don't use it, it's not a treasured decorative item or memento, and it's not an important piece of paper, get rid of it. Pass it along to someone who can use it.

4. Refer it. The novel you've been saving for Debbie, the recipe you copied for Aunt Jan and the gloves borrowed from Mom need to be sent or delivered to their rightful owners. Gather them and make your rounds tomorrow.

5. File it. Set up a "hold" file for wedding invitations and concert tickets (after you note them in your calendar). Set up a "to file" file for all important papers.

6. Fix it or have it repaired today. Those buttons aren't going to sew themselves. Either mend them or take them to a seamstress. The same goes for the broken toys, watches and electronics.

7. Give it a home. Everything else is something that belongs in your home but you don't know what to do with it. Where DO you put extra batteries and your kids' artwork? Designate a permanent place in your home for each group of items you find in a clutter pile. Simplify by making a list of items and where they belong.

For more organizing tips visit my website: www.andreadekker.com

pay attention to your environment

Have you found that a cluttered space translates to a cluttered-feeling mind? So what is the connection? Is it possible these two separate issues are related to each other?

The environment that you surround yourself with each and every day can have either a negative or positive effect on your mindset, mood, energy level, and productivity. The more organized you make your office space, the greater the positive effects will be on you.

Forget the funny sign that is posted in many offices that states, 'An organized desk is a sure sign of a sick mind.' It's just meant for comedy, and simply isn't true.

An organized desk is a sure sign of an organized mind-- one that is free to be goal-oriented, creative and productive.

organize your e-mail

Organizing your email can save you tons of time...whether its a business or personal account. Here's how:

Decide how many times a day you will allow yourself to check your email? Next delete all notification emails from websites like Facebook.

Do not send Forwards or Junk email to others and ask others not to send them to you either.

The best piece of advice is to get comfortable with the DELETE key. Try to clear out your inbox and start every day with a clean inbox.

prioritize your to-do list

do you ever feel like you are going around and around, not really getting anything accomplished? I had this feeling the other day and I couldn't understand why. I had my do-to list sitting right on the counter but I wasn't really completing any of my tasks.

Then the thought hit me...I need to prioritize my list! Since I often over load my to-do list it can get overwhelming...even for me! So, if you are like me with a mile-long list, I have just the suggestion to make things a little more manageable.

Prioritize your to-do list using "A" for the items that have to be done today, "B" for the things you should do today, and "C" for the tasks you hope to do.

This helped me...I think it will help you too!

For more organizing tips, visit my website: www.andreadekker.com

unclutter your desk

Many of us have some sort of office space. It can range from a home office, to a workspace, to a desk in any number of rooms within our homes or even a converted closet space.

It may serve many purposes, such as bill paying, scheduling (family calendar), filing various household papers and mail, and so on. Often an office space doubles as a guest bedroom or craft space.

What can you do to organize your office space? How much time do you waste in a day looking for items?

The state of one's office space, whether personal or business, seems to reflect upon ourselves and how organized we are. Have you ever walked into someone's office, stared in amazement at the sheer mess and volume of stuff in their space and wondered, 'How can this person function' or 'How often have they lost important documents?' Do you really trust them to perform their duties or a service?

Clear off your desk and other areas in your office- use boxes, laundry baskets, or trash bags to help sort items as you remove them from the desk and office space. Use the three box method:

Box 1- Keep
Box 2- Donate
Box 3- Trash

It is decision time. What do you need at your fingertips every day? Look at the purpose of your office space. What do you use it for?

Think about your organizing style? Are you visual, for example. Do you need to see everything (out of sight, out of mind?)

A lot of this is personal taste. You need to make a room that will function for you.

tip of the week (4/12/2009)

april 12 -- april 18, 2009
this weeks "tip of the week" was sent from Jan from Acworth, GA

Jan writes: “Each month I collect at least two bags of stuff from my closets to donate. Once I gather it all, I check those off on a spreadsheet and then place them into our tax file for tax deductions. It makes me feel good that someone else is going to get use out of my donations.

Today, after receiving a call from one of the organizations to which I regularly give, I began my hunt through closets and cabinets. Pleasantly, I discovered that I had little left to donate.

What I have, I use. My closets are organized and have space. It has been a slow, but methodical way, which has worked.

Deciding on a couple of bags of things per month was much easier and less painful for me than trying to tackle this as one big overwhelming task. It has helped me establish a habit that I will continue far into the future."

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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.

an organized garage

The following is a great weekend project from Scott's Common Sense Community:

Depending on what part of the country you live in, your garage may have to pull double- or triple-duty, serving as a basement, laundry room, recycling center, workshop, gardening center or tool shed. Some of you may even park your car in your garage!

If you need to make room for all the things and activities your garage houses, you may have to be a little ruthless. A good rule of thumb is if you haven't used it in the last year, get rid of it. Sell it, donate it or recycle it.

Once you have gotten rid of everything you don't need, here's how you keep the rest of it neat and organized:

Install shelves and hooks.
Today's home and garden centers offer a variety of shelving systems strong enough (¾ inch or more) to hold power tools, as well as bars of hooks that hold rakes, shovels, hoes, ladders, lawn chairs, wheelbarrows and the like. Using these systems will create more working space on the floor and eliminate the danger of these heavy items tipping over on you.

Stack smartly.
Keep heavier items on the bottom shelves, and put items that can harm small children well above their reach or in cabinets with locks or child safety devices.

Be creative.
A shower organizer can hold spray bottles and a roll of SCOTT® Towels, and give you room to hang small gardening tools. Old cabinets from a remodeled kitchen or bath can be rescued and installed in the garage. Pegboards installed along the wall work equally well with small hand tools or garden tools.

Don't forget the ceiling space.
You can install ceiling-mounted shelves to store larger items. Bikes can hang from ceiling-mounted hooks, and other sporting equipment can be stored in baskets hanging from the ceiling.

Evaluate your lighting.
Is your lighting adequate for all of the chores you have to do in your garage? Good lighting ensures a pleasant, less stressful working environment and helps you avoid the danger of misidentifying or misusing a dangerous chemical.

Safety first.
Don't store gasoline (for the lawn mower or snow blower) or other flammable liquids in a garage that's attached to the house. Keep volatile liquids and old rags used with these liquids away from your newspaper recycling pile. Better yet, use SCOTT® Towels and toss them immediately, so you don't have dirty rags to deal with. Make sure your door locks securely to discourage robberies and to prevent neighborhood kids from getting into poisonous materials, such as antifreeze.

If you want to get rid of something that might be considered a hazardous material (old paint or household chemicals), don't toss it in the regular garbage. Call your city hall or check your city's website to find out about your local ordinances and resources for disposing those materials.

If you've taken advantage of all of these tricks and still have no room for your car, you might want to consider getting a storage barn!

What are your tricks for keeping your garage organized?

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new uses for old things

In today's economy, we are all looking for ways to use and re-use items we already own...instead of going out and buying new stuff all the time. If this sounds like you, check out this article by Real Simple magazine. It will help get your creative juices flowing and give you ideas on how to re-use and re-purpose everything from toothpicks to to nail polish!

For more organizing ideas, visit my website: www.andreadekker.com

get control of your receipts

I bought a pair of boots some time ago. They looked very cute but turned out to be very uncomfortable! I decided to return them and within a minute or two, had retrieved the receipt from FOUR months ago. I could find the receipt easily because I do a few specific things to keep my receipts organized and in order.

I get a lot of questions about paper…and receipts are a form of paper clutter that really add up. Sometimes we should just get rid of receipts, but other times, we need to hold onto them for tax purposes, to validate a warranty or just so we can return an item later…like my boots! However, it seems like many people just give up and are stuck paying the price (literally) for items they don’t want but can’t return because they can’t find their receipt.

So how can you get your receipts organized? It’s simple…and here’s how to get started.

Have a specific place just for receipts

Actually you could have several different locations for different types of receipts…just be sure you have some type of system.

Here is how I do things:

· Grocery/Drug-store Receipts: I keep a labeled, manila folder in one of my filing cabinets at home. Every time I come home from the store, the new receipt(s) go in the back of this folder. I have them on file in case I need to return something or validate my credit card statements.

· Clothes/Shoes/Books Receipts: I use a small wallet-like folder in my purse for receipts. Any time I buy something of this nature I put my receipt in the back of that folder. Then I know they are always with me incase I need to swing by the mall for a quick return or exchange.

· Service/Repairs Receipts: I keep a small accordion folder with categories such as home, auto, yard, medical, misc., etc. and file any receipts from oil changes, car or home repairs, dentist and doctor’s appointments, etc. I keep this in the same filing drawer as the grocery receipts and it is neatly divided into the various categories I need and I can be sure everything will stay in place

Dedicate a regular time to clear out your receipts

If you shop a lot, you may have to do this every day or two. I don’t shop much so I only have to do this once a month or so. Simply go through your receipts and remove any that are for items you have already used, worn, given as gifts or are past the return deadline. Shred or recycle them as necessary. If your receipts are still out of control but you know you can not get rid of them yet, simply group them together by categories (listed above) and put a rubber band around them, label them by date and put them in a shoe box on a shelf. Then at least they won’t be clogging up your purse or your filing cabinets.

As with everything, organizing your receipts just takes a little work up-front and then some maintenance here and there. It will save you tons of time and probably some money as well…so YES, it is worth it!

For more organizing tips, visit my website: www.andreadekker.com

dealing with kid's papers

If you’re buried in kids' artwork and school papers, give this idea a try. Set up a bin or box to serve as your incubator. Then, whenever you’re on the fence about keeping something that comes home from school, simply drop it in your incubator. Once a period of time has passed and you’ve collected a healthy stack of artwork and finished assignments, sort through the papers. With the passage of time and the accumulation of papers, it will be easy to pull the treasures from the stack...and send the rest to the recycle bin!

For more organizing tips, visit my website: www.andreadekker.com

more closet tips

How many times have you stuffed an unwanted item in the back of a closet? Eventually those little rooms in our houses start busting at the seams and next thing you know, a simple outdoor excursion that requires a coat turns into a heap of stuff on the floor. So here are a few tips for updating closets without spending a ton of money:

Tip #1: Tackle one closet at a time and take everything out. Sort through things and throw out or give away what you haven't used or will never use in the future. A great exercise I read about in Real Simple magazine involved taking out all the clothes in your closet that you haven't worn in awhile and trying them all on. The stuff that doesn't fit anymore gets donated and the rest stays.

Tip #2: Figure out how you're going to use the closet space. Is it going to be just for coats and umbrellas or does the vacuum cleaner need to go in there too? This will help you determine which accessories you'll need to make everything fit properly.

Tip #3: Once you've figured out what needs to go in the closet, add accessories and shelves to make the space more efficient. A closet can always use a second shelf above the standard shelf that sits right above the hanging bar. A shoe pocket hung on the inside of any door is also a huge help, whether it be for shoes in a bedroom closet or mittens and scarves in a coat closet.

Tip #4: Get wire shelf dividers for your linen closet and group together sheet sets and towel sets rather than having a pile of pillow cases all mixed together or a pile of wash cloths.

Tip #5: Accessories make a big difference in the closet. For one thing, get rid of wire hangers and buy a set of uniform hangers, be they plastic or wood. Use padded hangers for more delicate pieces of clothing.

Tip #6: A collection of purses always seems to make a bedroom or coat closet an utter mess. I love every single one of mine yet they're piled on top of each other on a few hooks in my closet. A large basket is one way to keep them all together and out of the way. Or Reinholdt recommends the Container Store's 8-pocket clear vinyl handbag file for $9.99. It hangs from a closet rod and allows you to see each of your gems.

motivate others to be more organized

How do we help motivate others in our lives to be more organized? This could include your spouse, kids, co- workers, boss, and friends, among others…but most often; I get this question from women referring to their husbands!!

To motivate someone means to give an incentive for action. Other people must be able to 'see' the end goal in mind in order to be given a motive or reason for organizing.

1. We must be more organized ourselves! After all, how can we hold others to a higher standard than that which we hold ourselves?

2. We must model good behaviors: For example, let's say the new organizing rule at home is everyone must rinse off their own plates and put them in the dishwasher. Do you think your spouse and kids are going to follow this rule if they see you leaving your plate on the table?

3. We must be able to delegate duties: When dealing with kids, the duties must be age appropriate and ability level. Provide guidance and clear instructions about what you need others to do.

4. We must plan for rewards: rewards can be money, but they don’t have to be. They could be quality time, a new book or magazine, concert or movie tickets, time for a hobby or special activity, date night, a favorite TV show or movie, a bubble bath, facial, manicure, among countless others.

5. We must have a chore chart: this is especially useful if to keep track of other’s organizing projects and is actually quite simple to create. Just plug in everyone's names and their chores or duties for the week into a computer spread sheet.

6. We must involve everyone in the decision process: your family, co-workers, etc. will be more receptive to change if they understand the change and have a say it what will be changed. Important decisions must be discussed together.
7. We must setup and maintain simple systems: For example, bill paying supplies should be kept all together in the office. If we expect our kids to pick up their toys every evening, the series of cubbies or boxes must be easy to reach and simply labeled with both pictures and/or words.

Overall, we can help to motivate others in our lives to be more organized, which in turn will help you to be more organized. Whether it is in the office, at home, or even your friends, those who surround you impact your environment. Being more organized can and will make a difference in your everyday life.

For more organizing ideas, visit my website: www.andreadekker.com

tip of the week (4/5/2009)

april 5 -- april 11, 2009

this weeks "tip of the week" was sent from Kelly in Seattle, WA

Kelly writes: "In my search for products that would help me get organized...but not break the bank, I came across a website of FREE organizing print-outs. The links are below.

• Daily Planner
• Monthly Calendar page
• Grocery List
• Monthly Budget
• Seasonal Home Maintenance
  
• Party Planner
• Phone List
  

I found several helpful tools and wanted to pass them along for anyone else who might be looking for something too!"

move towards your goals

What if you took just ONE step closer to your goals every single day? Just one.

Let's say your goal is to write a book. Many people have this on their "things to do before I die" lists so I know this resonates with a lot of you.

What is the absolute first step? Decide what to write about. This step looks simple but you need to see if people would read it, if publishing houses would buy it, if there's a market so it will actually sell. So maybe the first two weeks is spent checking all that out. The rest of the month might be outlining the whole book - what do you need to cover, how many chapters?

And then comes the writing. Now if I were coaching you, I'd make you write at least 5 minutes a day because writers WRITE.

To some, that seems like nothing much but 5 minutes a day is 35 minutes a week which is over 2 hours a month, at the very least. And of course, some days just getting those 5 minutes done will be a miracle but other days, you'd spend 30 minutes or more writing easily.

That's exactly what I mean when I say you can make big leaps with just a step a day.

People ask me how I get so many things done and it's because I do exactly this.

Now I will tell you I don't always feel like writing or _______ (fill in whatever you don't like doing) but I do know that it will move me towards my goals.

I have a rule. Every week, I need to do at least one thing to move me towards my goals. This helps me focus on outcomes even when I'm really busy.

Grab a piece of paper and write your own steps for your goal.

Your challenge this week is to take at least ONE step towards your goal this coming week.