Fall into Organization with a ‘Playbook’ for Your Team

Hopefully you enjoyed a relaxing and recharging holiday weekend spending time with family and friends. Now that school is back in session and work is in full swing after the summer vacation season, fall is the perfect time to get your household routines and family schedules in line.

Time-Saving Tip #8: Streamline your routine with a simple household binder.
All you need is a small binder- use a spare one you have around or try these eco-friendly binders from greenroom, available at Target - some sheet protectors or a 3-hole punch, and some dividers. Simply hole-punch (or slip into sheet protectors) all those important papers, schedules, pieces of information that might otherwise get lost in a pile on the kitchen counter. This might include extracurricular or daycare schedules, important contact info, including babysitters, tutors, and coaches, upcoming events, and more. You can even step it up a notch and include a family chore chart, a master calendar or extra features like lunch-box ideas so these tasks can easily be shared among family members or helpers. Use the dividers to separate types of information or create a section for each family member - you can customize your binder to meet your family’s needs.

Get everyone involved in the binder - gathering information, deciding on what to call it, and most importantly, where it will live. If everyone in your house knows about the binder, you stand a fighting chance of being on the same page. Now wouldn’t that be nice?!

Bottom Line: Create a simple household binder as a place to store and organize your family’s activities and you’ll have your playbook prepped for a winning team!

Weekly Feature: Scenes From a Professional Organizer’s Home

As a professional organizer, clients often ask me – “So what’s your home really like?” They want to know if it’s a case of…

a. I can do this for others but neglect my own space

b. My house looks like a Martha Stewart photo shoot or a Container Store catalog

c. Or some happy medium of a reasonably organized, real home

I hope you’re happy to know the answers is closest to C, which is not to say that I wouldn’t like B. The reality is busy schedules, multiple household members, and the challenges of modern life mean that to-do lists, unfinished projects, and room for improvement are always present. I don’t come home, kick off my organizing shoes and sit on my perfectly fluffed couch with my Real Simple magazine and a glass of wine (though that sounds pretty good and sometime happens). I do, however, have systems in place that usually keep our house in good shape. Over that past couple years, (we’ve been in our condo for 3), there have been a number of home improvement/organizing projects and lots of trips to the local Goodwill donation drop-off. We are pretty much down to having only what we need and love in our space, which is good considering the limited storage space we have.

Over the next couple months (or until you get bored or I run out of material), I will pick reasonably organized spots in my home to highlight in the hopes of not only giving you a ‘reality TV’ glimpse into a professional organizer’s home, but more importantly some ideas you can implement in your space. Who knows, I may even get brave and show you some of the ‘works in progress’ which might inspire me to get them done so I can show you the results! So stay tuned and feel free to make requests, ask questions, and share ideas and scenes from your own space.

Organizing Tips for Kids - Part II

On Monday, I talked about setting up zones (think kindergarten classroom), encouraging kids to enjoy one activity at a time, and making things kid-friendly, including open top (i.e. not fussy) bins and picture labels, to store toys and activity supplies. See Monday's post for tips 1-4. Today I'll highlight a few more ideas to help simplify the kid zones in your home.

5. To avoid becoming cluttered with new toys, try to use the one in, one out rule. When your child gets a new toy, try to identify one that can be donated to a children’s charity or a family in need. This is especially important at birthdays and holidays when the influx of new items can easily become an overwhelming pile.

6. Get your kids involved in the process – everything from setting up the zones, choosing and labeling containers, to the daily retrieval and clean up of their toys. It’s never too early to teach kids how to take care of their possessions.

7. Create an art gallery! It is impossible to keep and store all of the artwork children create, nor is this a great idea for keeping your family and home organized. One solution is to create a rotating art gallery using simple frames, a wire and clips, or even just a designated place on the wall to hang a few creations at a time. When it’s time for items to come down, save a few favorites in a storage box if you have the space and let the others go so there’s room for the new creations that will keep coming in.

Stay tuned for a few more tips and tell us what works in your household. And yes, I am in today's picture...circa 1985.

Organizing Tips for Kids - Part I

As a professional organizer, I often work with families who are over-run with toys...they just seem to keep coming in (while rarely leaving) and quickly fill up every basket, bin, closet, and floor space in the house (and basement, and garage). Let's face it, kids come with a lot of stuff and if you're like most parents, it's not like you had plenty of extra space before the kid(s) arrived. Thus, parents are often faced not only with figuring out how to grow a happy, healthy child, but also the organizational challenges presented by all the cute, fun, and necessary accessories. This week's posts will be dedicated to providing tips to help parents - new and experienced - set their families on the road to organization. So check out today's tips and stay tuned for more throughout the week.

1. Set Up Zones – Have a zone for each of your child’s activities (such as arts & crafts, toys, reading, etc.) and keep all of the items for that activity in its zone just like a kindergarten classroom.
2. Encourage kids to do one activity at a time. If they want to switch, teach them to put away the supplies for the first activity before taking out the items for the new one. This minimizes the amount of stuff out at any given time, keeps kids focused, and prevents overwhelming end of the day clean up, which everyone will dread.
3. Make it user-friendly! Use open, kid-friendly containers on low shelving so your child can take out and put things back with minimal or no assistance. This also applies to things like coats, accessories and back packs – use kid-height pegs and an open top basket.
4. Label storage containers or drawers with pictures so kids know where things go. Creating the labels could even be an art or photography project that your kids can help with!

As with all things organized, keep in mind that it doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to work for you and your family.

Simple Steps

While many people think of recycling their bottles, cans, and paper as simple steps to help the planet (and they are!), there are also simple ways to reduce your impact while you organize your home or office.

1) Buy less stuff! Sounds so simple, right? And it is! Think twice before each purchase you make - will the item enhance your life and contribute to the space you are trying to achieve? The less stuff you own, the less you have to maintain, clean and get rid of down the road.

2) Donate, don't dumpster! I live in a large building and so often see large quantities of seemingly usable household items in the trash. While it's an organizing must to get rid of items that are no longer needed in your space, that doesn't mean someone else can't use them. There are lots of charities and thrift stores out there that will gladly accept gently used household items. Simply 'Google' charities or donation sites in your area to find out what they will take. Some will even pick up items - bonus!

3) Get creative and reuse what you have! It can be expensive in addition to wasteful to buy new things every time you embark on an organizing adventure. See if there are new and creative ways to use items you already have. This doesn't mean you should keep things around that you don't love or need - just think outside the box. For example, two mesh filing crates I wasn't using anymore have been repurposed as recycling bins in my house. And to think, I almost bought new recycling containers?!

These are just a few ideas, let us know your favorites!

Fun Paper Organizing Stories!

Wondering if you should bother organizing your paperwork? Here are a few true stories…and some tips to keep this from happening to you.
Getting organized could save your house
I was sorting through a (huge) pile of unopened mail on a client’s kitchen counter and found a notice of a lien on their property due to unpaid real estate taxes. The real estate tax bills were also in the unopened pile of mail. Tip: Open your mail.
Found money
I found a check for $13,600 in a box of unopened mail that had been shoved in my client’s basement. I showed it to him and he told me he had been waiting for that check for over a year, had accused the sender of never sending it, and was in the process of taking legal action over it. Tip: Deal with paperwork as it comes in. It can save you time, money, and embarrassment.
1951 was a good year…
So good, that in 2007, I came across a client’s tax returns from that year, and every year in between. You wouldn’t believe how simple the form was back then…and all done in pencil. Tip: You only need to keep personal tax records for seven years.
The desk drawer
In 1994 my uncle took over my grandfather’s company. On his first day there he sat down at my grandfather’s desk and opened the top, right drawer to find invoices dated 1955. Tip: Purge regularly (definitely more often than once every 50 years).

REduce and then REthink Storage Options

Before you start purchasing organizing containers you need to REDUCE and possibly even REUSE your items. Once you reduce, take a quick inventory of the empty containers you already have before you run off to the store to buy new ones.

SAVE some GREEN. Use household items for storage... shoeboxes, wooden crates, berry baskets, and empty jars can store anything from memorabilia to old paperwork to office supplies to doggie treats.