I recently returned from the 2019 NAPO Conference held this year in Fort Worth, Texas. I always enjoy the conference–I get to take workshops, meet new Professional Organizers and reconnect with ones I haven’t seen in a while. The latest organizing products from NAPO’s business partners are on display and stepping away from my everyday responsibilities for a few days helps to ‘recharge my battery.’ The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Education is Bigger in Texas.’ Even my hotel room was big. It was so large, I could cartwheel through it. Not that I did–I’m just sayin’–everything is bigger in Texas…

As silly as it may sound, one of the things I look forward to at the NAPO Conference is the conference bag that’s given out every year. I have a nice collection of them by now running the gamut from a lovely red handbag-like tote (Lillian Vernon – Chicago 2004) to an amorphous recycle bag (New Orleans 2013) to a bag with a zippered top and water bottle/holder (Chicago 2018). I use the conference bag I received at the Orlando conference (2009) as the work bag I take to my client’s homes.

It’s important to me that everything I need to drag around with me during the day fits in the conference bag. After the not-so-fab New Orleans conference bag, I started packing an old conference tote (Minneapolis 2007) with me in case I didn’t like the conference bag been given out. But, this year, I did not pack the Minneapolis tote…

The night before I left for the NAPO Conference, I was thrilled to see that someone had posted a picture of this year’s conference bag on Facebook.

I was happy to see that it had contrasting colors and a little button closure–cute! It was roomy without being too big.

But, there are times when a bag can be too big and become a black hole for everything they’re carrying. When you’re at a conference, you need to use your brain power for learning and networking–not for searching and worrying about where all of your stuff is. You don’t have time to send a search party out to find your business cards and hotel room key!

If you or a friend, family member, or colleague are attending a conference in the future, here are 5 tips for keeping your conference bag organized so you’ll always be able to find what you need when you need it.

Tip #1 SORT

What items do you think you’ll want handy the day of the conference? Gather them and place them on a surface in front of you–couch, bed, desk, kitchen island–whatever works…

Then, take those items and sort them into categories such as electronics, items you’ll need to access quickly, note taking items, and most important–SNACKS!

Tip #2 CONTAINERIZE

Now that you’ve categorized your stuff, it’s time to put them in their own containers so they’re not floating around the bottom of your conference bag (eliminating the need for that search party mentioned above…) Pack a few pouches and small/medium/large Ziploc bags for this purpose. The size of the pouches and baggies are dependent upon the items you plan to carry in your conference bag.

This is the pouch I used that is so brightly colored, I think I could find it in a black hole.

I kept my necessities in here–phone, business cards, lip balm, pens, hotel room key.

Tip #3 RETURN ITEMS TO THEIR ‘HOME’

Conferences can be non-stop learning and networking events. You might feel rushed during your conference day and tired at night but it’s important for you to take the time to put items back in their baggies and pouches after using them. This will save you time later in the day and the next morning when you need to access your phone charger or hand someone your business card.

Tip #4 MAKE IT YOUR OWN

Whether there are fifty or six hundred and fifty conference attendees, almost everyone will be carrying the same conference bag. You’ll want to ensure that no one accidentally walks away with yours thinking it’s theirs! Make it stand out with a large pin, decorative ribbon, or brightly-colored scarf that no other bag will have. You’ll always know which bag is yours!

Since I saw a preview on Facebook of what the conference bag looked like, I packed a color-coordinating scarf to tie around the handle. I always knew which conference bag was mine!

Tip #5 PURGE

Purge your conference bag at the end of the day of items you no longer need–used tissues, energy bar wrappers, and the free swag you couldn’t resist putting in your bag. Getting rid of what you no longer need makes room for the items you will need the next day.

If you’re a visual person like me, click on my YouTube video below to see the 5 steps and get a sneak peek at this year’s NAPO Conference bag:

These 5 tips are going to ensure you have the most organized bag at your next conference–I guarantee it!

Are you heading to a conference soon? What item would you need most in your conference bag?

Everyone is blogging nowadays.

Some people blog about their small business, some blog about personal challenges and accomplishments, and some even blog about blogging!

Whatever you choose to blog about, it’s important for you to organize your blog. Why does your blog need to be organized?
• An organized blog is an easy blog to read
• An organized blog is a blog readers want to come back to (and isn’t that what we want our readers to do?)
• An organized blog represents YOU. You don’t want to look disorganized to your readers!

Whether you’re thinking about starting a blog or wish to tweak an existing one, here are a few tips based on basic organizing philosophies that will keep you on track and help you organize your blog:

Schedule It

We make appointments for the doctor, an oil-change, and the cable guy, Why not make an appointment for yourself to blog? Blocking out the time on your calendar gets you one step closer to accomplishing the task. Figure out how many times a week or month you are able to post and stick to that schedule. But, be realistic. Brainstorming, writing, taking photos/video and commenting takes more time than you think it does.

Sort It Out

Compile a list of topics you’ll want to discuss on your blog. Look at a calendar–are any of your topics seasonal? Plug them into the months they belong in. For instance, as a Professional Organizer, I would start blogging about Spring Cleaning in March. A chef might blog about the best foods to barbecue in May. Other topics may revolve around holidays, trade shows, milestones, or history.

Break It Down

Take your topics and create sub-topics for them. So, if the chef were to blog about Barbecuing in May and has decided to schedule one blogging ‘appointment’ per week, he or she might blog about the benefits to cooking on a clean barbecue the first week, do a hot dog review the second week, offer grilling tips the third week, and list his or her top ten recipes for summer grilling during the fourth week.

Delegate

Sometimes we need to take a break from blogging. Find other blogs of similar topic/interest and link to their information for your readers. Check out blogs that are pertinent to yours and invite their authors to be guest bloggers on your site. You get a break from writing while your guest blogger gets a whole new set of readers (and possibly followers). It’s a win-win!

Get Rid of the Clutter

Too many pictures, videos, or advertisements detract from what you’ve written. Keep the look of your blog simple and streamlined. You have to grab the reader’s attention within the first five seconds of their arrival at your blog. If they have to spend those five seconds looking for your latest blog post, they may not return out of frustration. (Nooooo!)

Maintain It

Stay on track with posting to your blog. If you know you’ll be on vacation or going through a life-changing event, write posts in advance or have a guest blogger fill in for you. Keep all photos and videos for your blog in one place on your computer. Once a month, review your topics and subtopics and make any necessary tweaks or changes.

After applying the above principles, your newly organized blog will be low-maintenance, a pleasure to post to, and a joy to read.

Which organizing philosophy would help you organize your blog the most?

How’s that organizing project going?

I’m sure you’ve started at least one this year. If you’ve been getting organized and you feel successful, that’s great! Give yourself a well-deserved  pat on the back. If not, I’m here to assure you that it’s OK. These things happen. Maybe you need to tweak a system you created. Maybe a part of your life changed and what you’ve done so far is no longer in alignment with that change–it’s all part of the organizing process.

I don’t want you to give up, though. It’s easy to throw in the towel when processes like getting organized don’t work out the way we want them to.

I felt inspired to write this post after a few experiences I had over the last couple of weeks. One just led to the other which then circled back to writing this post. Below are a few examples of people that chose to not give up and give ‘it’ one more try. The first one is me…

In January of 2015, I self-published The Organized Bride’s Thank You Note Handbook through Amazon’s CreateSpace. Due to the decorative interior design, the book files were not translating well in ebook form and it was challenging to get it to function properly. At the same time, my husband and I were beginning a home renovation that had us purging and packing our entire home. Needless to say that between technical difficulties and time constraints, the ebook never got published. Life became hectic and I basically gave up on ever seeing my paperback book as an ebook.

Fast forward to September 2018. I received an email from Amazon saying CreateSpace was merging with another division of Amazon–KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). I transferred my book’s file to KDP and received an email about a helpful KDP 101 webinar. It fit into my schedule and would cover all I needed to know about KDP so I signed up for it. Little did I know that it would inspire me to give publishing my ebook ‘one more try.’

During the webinar’s Q&A time, another participant named Elaine asked the instructor a file-uploading question which made me think about the uploading issues I encountered almost four years ago. As crazy as it may sounds, I have a random stranger named Elaine to thank for being able to upload my ebook to Amazon/KDP. After the webinar, I revisited my ebook files and found that Amazon had added a new online feature that enabled me to check the formatting of my book and see how it would appear on a tablet or phone. It translated perfectly. I couldn’t believe it. I had given up over three years ago but decided to give it one more try–and it worked!

I saw Elaine as my ‘sign from the Universe’ to give it one more try.

If I had not been forced to move my book files from CreateSpace to KDP, the chain of events that followed would not have occurred and my ebook would still lie dormant on my desktop. Thank you, Amazon and Elaine wherever you are! My next task is to have a specific ebook file created that will upload onto Apple iBooks and Barnes & Noble’s Nook–my goal for early 2019.

I was feeling inspired and motivated by this series of events so I decided to write about it in my October newsletter. I always start my newsletter with a quote and found this one from Thomas Edison:

As if I hadn’t received enough ‘signs from the universe, ‘ I took some time before writing my newsletter to walk on my treadmill and watch a TedTalk. Most are eighteen minutes in length–perfect for the approximately twenty minutes I’m on the treadmill. I was scrolling through YouTube when I came across a TedTalk called: Is Your Stuff Stopping YOU? Since it was about organizing, I thought I’d watch. Elizabeth Dulemba had given up on some dreams of hers and when the Universe ‘spoke’ to her, she decided to try one more time and make them her reality. Is Your Stuff Stopping YOU? Tedx University of Edinburgh. If you have twenty minutes, I’d recommend watching it. You Never know what it might inspire you to try one more time.

But, the ‘Don’t Give Up–Give it One More Try’ message didn’t stop there…

My family and I enjoy watching The Voice. Contestant Matt Johnson made it on to the show after auditioning fifteen times during a seven year period. Matt Johnson personifies the quote by Thomas Edison. This guy NEVER gave up. Perseverance is his middle name! He kept trying. And trying. And coming back for another try. And the most incredible part of it all is that he was the last contestant to audition and went on to win the last spot available on the show. Success at last!

Isn’t it amazing how giving something one more try can lead to incredible events occurring?

And then, as I’m writing this post, an email from (Chicken Soup for the Soul’s co-author) Jack Canfield’s newsletter lands in my inbox and what is one of the topics? ‘Don’t Ignore Signs form the Universe’.

I think the Universe is telling me that this was the perfect blog post to write this week!

Giving up is easy. Moving forward to reach your goal is not. Just ask Thomas Edison about his lightbulb journey. Here are some ideas for eliminating the need to shout, “I give up!”:

Break down the process

Getting organized isn’t an easy task. It takes time, physical, and emotional energy and it’s rare to have all three at the same time. Break down the process of organizing a space or your time into easy tasks and micro-goals–making reaching the finish line more manageable and attainable.

Be patient with yourself

Getting your file cabinet or your pantry organized can’t be accomplished if your exhausted, the kids are sick, or the hours in your day are not always your own. The time will come and you’ll be able to easily recognize it and use it to move forward.

Listen to the Universe

I know this sounds kind of ‘woo-woo’ but it’s important to be open to signs. Some will whisper to you and some will shout but please listen. Pay attention to and make note of recurring instances. I did that the past few weeks–signs of not giving up and trying one more time kept popping into view. I couldn’t ignore so many of them!

Reward yourself for hitting milestones

Remember those easy tasks and micro-goals I spoke about a few paragraphs ago? When you’ve completed one–celebrate! Honor your achievement however small. It’s a great motivator.

Remember why you’re doing this

Why are you getting organized? Do you want to be able to find papers easily? Get out the door with two kids without forgetting anything? Be able to get dressed effortlessly in the morning? If your ‘WHY’ is important to you, it will inspire you to not give up.

Thomas Edison and I are in agreement. Don’t give up–the way to success is to try one more time. Make that ‘one more time’ step a small one. Sometimes all it takes is a small change to reach your goal. You just may have a ‘lightbulb’ moment…

What have you given up on? Are you ready to give it another try? Has trying ‘one more time’ worked for you in the past? I’d love for you to join the discussion.  🙂

Color–it’s not just for those who like rainbows–it’s for organizing, too!

Color coding is a system that organizes information, offers the eye instant recognition, and reduces the time searching for items your need–all useful when organizing a home, home office, or one’s schedule.

But, you don’t have to have a degree in art to organize with color. Here are some items found in the home that can easily be organized using color:

Papers

Are your piles growing as you sleep? Can’t find certain papers when you need them?

Start the color coding process by sorting your papers into different categories (such as finances, school, house, etc). Then, select a different color for each category. Hanging files and manila folders come in a rainbow of colors and can help you reduce the time spent looking for a particular document. If you designate ‘green’ as your color for ‘financial’ papers, you won’t waste time looking through yellow or blue folders for your last 401K statement.

If you’re not interested in spending money on colored folders, Avery makes adhesive colored circles that can be placed on hanging files or folders and have a similar effect.

Clothes Closet

If you look in home stores, you’ll find that hangers come in practically every color imaginable. Use colored hangers to differentiate the various types of clothing in your wardrobe. For example, hang work clothes on white hangers, work out clothes on blue hangers, and cocktail attire on purple hangers. If you keep up the system, you’ll never show up to the office in your yoga pants…

Let’s say you’re like me and you prefer to hang your clothes on crystal hangers. You can either tie a colored ribbon around the hanger or use those Avery colored circle stickers discussed above to differentiate between different clothing types.

Children

If you have more than one child, pick a specific color–that will be the color that will identify them. Some children’s items are easily organized by color: clothes, shoes, puzzles, sports equipment, backpacks, etc.

For example, ever wonder which of your kids left the wet towel on the bathroom floor? Assign each child a different colored towel and you’ll know who the culprit is very quickly…

Are you a busy family trying to keep track of everyone’s schedule? Color coding appointments on a calendar (planner/wall calendar/digital) is a quick visual cue to help you figure out which child has to be where on a particular day.

Computer

Is your desktop a jumble of files? Is your inbox filled with emails? Use color to save time and create consistency.

Color coding files by project enables your eye to focus when juggling multiple projects. For instance, label all files related to ‘The Smith Project’ (as well as it’s folder) a particular color. Time spent looking for documents or emails related to ‘The Smith Project’ will be drastically reduced if they are all the same color.

Color coding email messages can alert you to a message from a particular person (green = your boss, red = your spouse, blue = your kid’s school). Many email programs come with this feature–you just have to create the categories, enter the email addresses,  and choose their corresponding colors.

Holiday Decorations

It is not uncommon for stores to carry plastic bins and tubs that come in colors corresponding to a holiday. Try purchasing orange bins for Halloween decorations and costumes storage. Red and green do the trick for Christmas, blue for Hanukah, and pastel colors for Easter egg painting supplies. It’s SO much easier to find a colored bin in an attic or garage!

Why not bring some color into your life? Using color as a part of your organization plan will save you time, money, and stress in the long run and just think about how colorful (and organized) your life will be!

Tell me–how do you get organized with color in your home?

OK–you finally finished your Spring Cleaning. You spent days sorting and purging through your belongings. You threw a few things out and even repaired one or two items. But, what will you do with everything else you uncovered and discovered? If you’re willing to invest some time and energy, why not have a garage sale?

Garage sales are a great way to get rid of things you no longer want, need, or cherish. But, is it as easy as just dumping your stuff on the lawn and waiting for customers to drive by? Not if you want to make any money, it isn’t. Besides having decent-quality merchandise, the key to a successful garage sale is being organized.

Here are 3 steps for making your garage sale organized for happy customers and optimal sales:

Step 1: Pre-Sale Organizing

• Select a weekend for your sale and make no other commitments on those days. You WILL be exhausted. Ask friends and neighbors if they would like to join you. It is a perk to be able to split advertising costs and have someone watch over your area while you’re grabbing a snack or running to the bathroom.

• Have you ever been to a garage sale where the items had no prices on them? One way of making ‘Garage Sale Day‘ organized is to create a pricing system. This makes the selling easy for you and the buying easy for your customers. Purchase colored, circle-shaped labels and designate each color to be a different dollar amount, for example blue = $.50. Use white circle labels to write an amount such as $5.00. Make signs that describe your pricing system and post them around the area of your garage sale so you don’t have a constant stream of customers asking you about prices.

Or, try these pre-printed labels. See the color-coded pricing chart I created for my last garage sale here.

Select one area of your home to be the staging area for pricing items and one area (most often the garage or an underutilized room) for storage of the items once they’ve been tagged. This last space will enable you to see exactly what you have and allow you to group ‘like-with-like’ such as toys, books, kitchenware, etc.

• Start saving grocery bags as well as heavy-duty shopping bags. Your customers will appreciate your preparedness and it will be easier for them to carry their new-found treasures off your property.

• Some of these new-found treasures will be breakable. Start saving newspaper, old wrapping paper, and bubble wrap. These packing materials will help your customers get their breakable purchases home in one piece.

• Borrow and gather folding tables, card tables, crates, workbenches, and other horizontal surfaces for displaying items.

• Check with your town regarding permits for having a garage sale.

• Advertise, make signs and post them on nearby streets facing oncoming traffic.

Step 2: During-the-Sale Organizing

• Post your pricing system signs around the area of your garage sale.

• Wear clothes with pockets. Pockets come in handy for holding some of your garage sale supplies such as pens, markers, and extra price stickers.

• I know they’re not so fashionable but wear a fanny pack! Your money will be close to your body without spilling out of your pockets. Wear a pack with two compartments–one for bills and one for coins.

• Know exactly how much money you started the day with so you’ll be able to calculate exactly what you earned.

• Set up your belongings outside by category–all toys together in one spot, all office supplies together in another area. Group ‘like’ items to the best of your ability. If a customer is looking for baby toys and they’re all in one place, it is very likely that they’ll buy more since everything they’re looking for will be right in front of them.

• Have at least one other person working with you. It is difficult to sell merchandise, wrap breakables and field questions by yourself. Take turns helping customers, straightening up merchandise, and taking breaks.

Step 3: Post-Sale Organizing

• Bring everything that was not sold into the garage or another room to make final decisions on whether or not to keep unsold items.

• Throw out anything that became damaged or broken as a result of being in the garage sale.

• Donate the ‘leftovers’ to a charity of your choice.

• Clean your lawn/driveway of any debris from the garage sale.

• Count your money and determine your profit. $$$

• Create a list of all supplies used for the garage sale and keep it on your phone or in a paper file labeled ‘Garage Sale.’ Order in dinner and put your feet up. Now you’re ready for your next garage sale–job well done!

What the best thing you ever bought at a garage sale? I’d love to hear about it!

It can be a cupboard in your apartment, a shelving unit in your garage, or a separate room in your house. Whatever it looks like, a pantry acts as a functional space for storing canned goods, baking supplies and anything you just HAD to buy during that last double coupon offering at your supermarket. With winter months quickly approaching, it is a perfect time to start stocking up on non-perishable food items and creating an organized area for them. All the squirrels are doing it. Why not you?

Here are 5 easy ways to help your ‘inner squirrel’ start organizing your food pantry…

Use Helper Shelves
Helper shelves (one of my favorite organizing products) double the horizontal space in your pantry, offering more space for canned goods, boxes, bottles, etc. They often come in 3-4 different widths and heights—some are width- and height-adjustable. Helper shelves can be found in the same aisle as other kitchen organizing products and purchased at general stores like Target or in specialty stores such as The Container Store. Use them on a shelf in a pantry closet or upper, lower, or corner cabinet in your kitchen. Helper Shelves = Saving Space

Group ‘Like-Foods’ Together
Group foods and/or products by type, brand, or ethnicity for easy retrieval. For example: Put all canned fruit in one area, brownie mixes on another part of the shelf, and all spaghetti sauce jars and boxes of pasta on a shelf separate from the other two. Now go to your pantry and gather ingredients for tonight’s lasagna dinner. How quickly did you locate the pasta and sauce? Probably, pretty darn fast since they’re now grouped together in one place…Grouping ‘Like-Foods’ Together = Saving Time

Keep it Neat and Orderly
Place cans/jars/bottles on shelves with labels facing front. Line up boxes with their ‘spines’ facing front (like library books) or facing forward depending upon your space limitations. This way you can scan the shelf quickly and find what you need in a matter of seconds. Disorganized shelves are a big time, money, (and food) waster. Orderly Shelves = Saving Time and Money

Take Inventory
Before you go to the supermarket, take inventory of your pantry shelves. Helpful Hint: Line up your cans/jars/bottles from the back of the pantry shelf to the front edge with labels facing forward. Depending upon their size as well as the size of the shelf, you may be able to line them up 3-4 deep. When you need a can/jar/bottle, take it from the front. When you see you have one left (hugging the back wall of the pantry), it’s time to put that item on your shopping list. Taking Inventory = Saving Money

Rotate Your Food
How many times have you found cans or boxes of food languishing behind an extra large cereal box? You don’t know how long it’s been there and you’re not planning on serving botulism for dinner, so that old can of peas you unearthed is money down the drain. Whether you line them up one in front of the other or stack them, it is important to rotate your boxes/cans/packages of food. If you usually buy cans of tuna in bulk and stack them 6-high on your shelf, don’t pile five new ones on top of one old can. Put that remaining can in the fridge and stack the new ones behind the old stack. You can take it a step further by dating your canned/boxed goods. It takes a bit of work but it’s worth it. Even non-perishables can perish…Rotated Food = Saving Money

Bonus
If you’re going the extra mile to organize your pantry, why not create some labels for it? Labels can be used to mark off  ‘food zones’ after you’ve grouped ‘like with like.’ Or, label those storage containers you use to hold bulk items. Canva.com, a free graphic design platform (that I love to use!) recently launched a tool to help you design beautiful labels. Check out their kitchen labels page for templates and ideas to help organize your pantry. For a variety of other types of labels, check out their Labels Hub here.

What favorite food items will you start organizing your food pantry with today?

SaveSave

If you watch HGTV or read Real Simple magazine, you’ve probably heard of’ ‘Professional Organizing.’ It is the art of helping people create and maintain systems and processes using basic principles of organization.

But have you heard of ‘Virtual Organizing?’

Virtual Organizing is the art of helping people create and maintain systems and processes using basic principles of organization–virtually. When I say ‘virtually,’ I mean helping people get their space and life organized via the phone, Zoom, FaceTime, email–as opposed to working with them in person.

Virtual organizing has evolved over the past few years. Although there are thousands of Professional Organizers in the United States, not every Organizer lives in a densely populated area that might provide them with an adequate amount of clients. Not everyone wanting to hire a Professional Organizer has one in driving distance of their home. Thus, a new way of organizing was born.

If people could use technology to communicate with friends, relatives, and business associates, why not use it for helping people get and stay organized?

Why I started offering Virtual Organizing services…
I have been doing Residential Organizing since I formed Organized Artistry in 2002. I love rolling up my sleeves and working side by side with a client to help them reach their organizing goals. I work with clients within a 30-minute radius of my home and wished to somehow widen that radius without having to travel far. With school-aged children, I also wanted the option of working close-to-home.

At the 2016 NAPO Conference, I attended a workshop given by a veteran Professional Organizer about how she added Virtual Organizing to her business model. She did this so she could work with people around the country who were in need of her specialized skills. She had developed a tele-class in Virtual Organizing and offered it to colleagues so they could learn to organize virtually, too. A few days later, I signed up for it. I successfully completed the course and now offer Virtual Organizing as part of my list of services. I still work with local clients in their homes but I’m excited to organize those in different regions and time zones, too.

I’m excited to announce that in the Spring of 2021, I studied with that same Professional Organizer to complete a new and cutting-edge certification program to become a Certified Virtual Professional Organizer (CVPO™)!

Have you been thinking about getting organized but didn’t realize that Virtual Organizing was an option for you?

Here are 5 Reasons Why You Should Try Virtual Organizing:

• You don’t have a Professional Organizer in your area

Although there are thousands of members of NAPO, you may not have a Professional Organizer in your immediate area. Maybe you need an organizer with a specialization or particular skill set. That organizer is just a phone call, email, or FaceTime session away from helping you reach your organizing goals.

• You want/need accountability or support for your organizing project

You started organizing a space in your home but the project stalled for a multitude of reasons. That’s OK–it happens. Working with a Professional Organizer ‘virtually’ can provide you with someone to check in with, help get you back on track, and to your measure progress. They’ll be a cheerleader, resource, teacher, and provide ideas, motivation, and support. Consistently moving your organizing project forward is key to it’s completion–Virtual Organizing can make that happen.

• You don’t want a stranger in your home

There are hundreds of reasons why you may not want a stranger in your home. Maybe you have small children, a sick family member living with you, or maybe you have white carpeting and want to keep it as white as possible by having as few people in your home as possible. Or, you may have something in your home that you don’t necessarily want people to see (besides the disorganization).

Virtual Organizing is a way of inviting a Professional Organizer into your home without actually having them walk inside.

• You would prefer to do the ‘physical organizing’ when it’s convenient for you

Does your work schedule change often? Are you a night owl or an early riser? You may want to do the physical work of organizing when you have a pocket of time or when you have the most energy. This might not necessarily be when a Professional Organizer could come to your home (I don’t know many Organizers who start at 5am or see clients at midnight…). So, schedule your ‘virtual’ appointment with your Professional Organizer and block out time on your calendar to do the required sorting/purging/labeling/filing when it works best for you.

• You prefer to be comfortable. Really comfortable.

Organizing ‘virtually’ means you can organize in your PAJAMAS! No need to get dressed if a Professional Organizer won’t be coming to your home for two or three hours. Other Professional Organizers might mind, but I don’t care if you FaceTime with me in your pajamas or bathrobe. I, on the other hand will be dressed (unless we mutually agree on a ‘pajama day…’).

With today’s technology, Virtual Organizing makes perfect sense. Can you picture yourself getting organized ‘virtually?’ If the answer is ‘Yes,’ click here to see how Organized Artistry and Virtual Organizing can bring organization to your home and life from miles away.

Transform your home from the comfort of your home with Virtual Organizing.

SaveSave

Who plays sports in your family? You? Your kids? All of you? Even if there’s just one person in your household involved in sports, it can be a challenge to keep the equipment organized. Sports involves equipment and equipment has the potential to become a disorganized mess!

Stumped as to how to store it all? Try some of the following systems for keeping your sports equipment organized:

Group by type

Example: baseball bats with the baseballs, mitts, and cleats

Group by need

Example: all equipment needed for lacrosse practice

Color coordinate

Each family member gets assigned a color. Place a dot of that color on their equipment and accessories. You’ll always know who didn’t put away their gear!

Make a trade

Switch out off-season sports equipment. In the summer, have tennis rackets, water wings, and fishing poles at arms reach. In the winter, be able to find your skates, skis, and sled at the first sign of snow.

You’re already spending big money on sports gear–you don’t want to spend much more trying to keep it all organized. Here are a few free and low-cost products to keep your equipment ‘grab-and-go ready’ and safe from damage:

FREE:

LARGE CARDBOARD BOX

Everyone gets packages delivered–keep your eye on your neighbor’s front stoop for the delivery of an item in a large cardboard box. I’m sure they won’t mind you taking the empty box–it’s one less thing for them to have to recycle! You can use that box to corral medium to large sized balls. Have the kids decorate it with sports pictures and stickers to make it look like it’s more than a cardboard box. Giving them ownership of it will help when it’s clean-up time.

GARBAGE CAN

Changing your home’s décor? Don’t throw away that old garbage can! Repurpose it for holding sports equipment. Use old garbage cans to store tall items such as hockey sticks, baseball bats, ski poles, and lacrosse sticks. You may want to wash it out first…

WINE BOTTLE BOX w/SEPARATORS

You need a box with compartments. Liquor stores are dying to get rid of them. It’s a win-win situation. Look for a box with cardboard separators still inside. These separators will divide the box and create spaces for items such as whiffle ball bats, baseballs, tennis balls and rackets.
* Tip: Whether it’s a box or a can, don’t store anything more than twice the height of the container you use, or it might tip over.

LOW-COST:

LARGE, EXTRA-LARGE and XXL ZIPLOC BAGS

I hope the person at Ziploc who came up with the L, XL, and Jumbo bag concept got a promotion and a raise. Genius!
With built-in handles and a double zipper seal, they’re perfect for storing and toting balls, skates, protective gear, and uniforms. They’re made of a heavy-duty plastic making them moisture, dust, and pest-proof. The fact that the bags are transparent is an added bonus—you’ll know exactly what’s inside, saving you time and brain space. Find them in the supermarket or in your local home improvement store.
Cost: Approximately $5.49 and up per box

POP-UP MESH HAMPER

Pop up mesh hampers are the perfect receptacle for storing large balls, lightweight equipment or protective gear that needs ‘airing out.’ These round or ‘squarish’ shaped hampers are lightweight, easy to open, and come in breathable fabrics. Consider purchasing a different sized or colored hamper for each person in the family or one for each sport.
Cost: $7.99 and up

WALLNITURE SPORTS BALL HOLDER

Do you find yourself tripping over balls in your home? Trip no more with The Wallniture Sports Ball Holder. This metal, easy-to-mount ball rack offers a home on your wall for a basketball, volleyball, or soccer ball. Great for storage and display. Hang in the garage, your kids’ bedroom, or the playroom.
Cost: $10.49

*BIG SPLURGE*

You’ve saved a few bucks by using the ideas above–that’s great! If you are a multi-stick sport playing family and want to spend those extra bucks on something to organize them all, the 12-Compartment Utility Storage Unit is the organizing product for you. It’s perfect for holding bats, hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks and other tall sporting items. Maybe even a few fishing poles, too!
Cost: $59.99

Now that your equipment is organized, searching for it all is no longer your pre-sports warm-up. Do some stretches, grab your gear, and go have fun!

SaveSave

Do you ever watch TED Talks? I love watching them

If I get to watch at least one a day I’m a happy camper. I watch them while I’m cooking, while I’m on the treadmill, and while I’m eating lunch at my computer. If I don’t have the time, I use one of my favorite apps, Pocket to store them until I have a free 20 minutes to watch.

TED began as a conference in California in 1984–five years before the birth of the World Wide Web. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design.  It’s mission is to spread knowledge and since it’s inception, TED Talks have had attracted over a billion views online–there’s a lot more knowledgeable people in this world thanks to TED!

With all my TED Talk watching, I was curious as to whether there were any talks on the topic of Organizing. Well–there are! No one is sorting through papers or an overstuffed garage on stage, but the talks I’ve selected are based on an ‘organizing’ theme. Carve out time in your day to watch them–you may learn something new just like I did…

Jessi Arrington: Wearing Nothing New

In my opinion, Jessi is one brave woman. She packed seven pair of underwear for her trip to Los Angeles to do her TED Talk. My heart is palpitating just thinking about it. When she got off the plane with her very tiny suitcase, she went shopping for clothes at local thrift stores in order to “reduce the impact of her wardrobe on the environment and her wallet.” I don’t expect you to watch this and then travel light, but listening to what she has to say, might cause you to take a good look at the clothes in your closet.

Laura Vanderkam: How To Gain Control of Your Free Time

Laura Vanderkam writes about Time Management. She says, “Time is highly elastic. We cannot make more time but time will stretch to accommodate what we choose to put into it.” Basically–it’s all about priorities. Your priorities. Your schedule and your choices. Watch and listen to her and think about how you use your time…

Tim Urban: Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator

Do you procrastinate often?  Whether you do or not, you’re going to get a good laugh out of this funny TED Talk. You might even see a bit of yourself in Tim Urban. Think about what you might be procrastinating on and watch out for the ‘monkey.’

*BONUS* Yes–I said ‘3’ in the title but this one is short–only around 5 minutes long: Mundano: Pimp My…Trash Cart?.

The unsung heroes of the organizing world are garbage men. They take away what we no longer want in our lives and are not always highly regarded for their work. Watch how one artist in Brazil took the work of Catadores, people who collect recycling, and transformed their work into an art form to be celebrated and appreciated by their communities.

Which Ted Talk resonated with you? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

SaveSave

As you may have read in my past three blog posts, last year I was a little busy with a home addition/renovation project. I knew it would be a challenging and rewarding process–and it was! But, there was one thing I didn’t realize would need to happen after we had moved back in…

I was going to have to find new ‘homes’ for almost everything we owned.

Although I don’t formally ‘move’ clients as part of Organized Artistry’s list of services, on occasion, I have helped a client  unpack their belongings into a new home. Within that process, I have assisted clients in finding new ‘homes’ for their kitchenware, linens and anything else that needed a home. With all the work that went into making our new house safe and beautiful, it never dawned upon me that I was going to have to figure out new ‘homes’ for everything we owned. Our house barely looked the same after the renovation/addition. Much of our old furniture was gone. We had a brand new kitchen with ample cabinets and pull-out drawers (squee!)–new closets, vanities, and storage options, too.

One of the storage pieces we created–four drawers to hold BBQ and entertaining pieces.

Yup. I’m a Professional Organizer and ‘finding new homes for everything we owned’ had not made it to my To-Do list.

We had lived in our pre-renovation house with mostly the same furniture and storage systems for fourteen years. For fourteen years the tape measure, the check book, and most of what we owned had ‘lived’ in the same place. I always knew where to find things when I needed them. Now, after almost six months in our house, it’s more like…

“Honey, where’s the (fill-in-the-blank)?

or

“Honey, do you remember where we decided to put the (fill-in-the-blank)?

or, once in a while it’s more like…

“WHERE IS THAT (fill-in-the-blank)? I COULD SWEAR I PUT IT IN (that drawer, that closet, that room)!

I’ll be honest–this has been pretty frustrating for me as a person and for someone who finds ‘good homes’ for people’s belongings for a living! It has left me discombobulated and a little freaked-out when I can’t find something.

Like I tell my clients, nothing happens overnight and I have to remind myself of that, too. A task this large needed to be broken down into smaller, more manageable chunks. The joke is, “How do you eat an elephant?” and the answer is, “one bite at a time…” It’s an ongoing process. I broke it down into three parts: Primary, Secondary and Tertiary (like on the color wheel). Here’s how I’ve been breaking down the task to meet this challenge head on…

Primary: What Did I Do First? 

• On move-in day, I set up a bin in my new kitchen–large enough to accommodate papers. Any important papers that I needed to not misplace and have in front of my eyeballs went in there (ex. forms from school, our packing list, a wedding invitation, etc.)

• I thought of what rooms/hotspots HAD to be organized for us to function as a family in the days and weeks post move-in. Those turned out to be the kitchen/panrty, the kid’s homework/supply station, basic bedroom, bathroom, and home office set ups, current season clothing and sporting equipment (for my two boys).

• The tape measure and checkbook found semi-permanent homes!

Secondary: Three Months later–a few examples… 

• I have been slowly determining where items should now ‘live’ based on our new habits and the flow of the house.

• Important papers used to hang on my fridge and I kept some in a magazine holder on my kitchen counter. Now I keep them in plastic sleeves in a binder that lives in one of my kitchen cabinets. It’s now a ‘home’ for papers I need to look at regularly (schedules for recycling, school, sports, phone lists, etc.)

This is what our old fridge used to look like! We had a ton of fridge magnets–my kids loved them!

• My kids needed a place to put their most popular games/puzzles/books on the first floor of our home. Certain kid games/puzzles/books now live in a dresser that is being used as an entrainment console until we get a new one. Other games/puzzles/books live in the basement and kid bedrooms.

Tertiary: Tasks left on the to-do list… 

• Holiday, BBQ/Entertaining items, Art Supplies are still in boxes. If I need them, I know where the boxes are and what’s inside of each since my packing list perpetually lives in the bin described above. Still haven’t figured out where everything will live–especially since we’re still in need of some furniture that will serve as storage pieces for the items in these boxes. Find the turkey platter, fondue pot, and glitter glue? No problem. Where to store it for the next few years? I’ll have to get back to you on that one…

• When the movers brought some of our boxes up to the attic, they were put up there in random spots. Once the weather gets cooler, hubby and I can organize them better–especially the bins of seasonal kid clothes. Those can be a beast!

• I am still slowly determining where items should now ‘live’ based on our new habits and the flow of the house. I think we’re going to have to live in the space for a year–four seasons–to know where everything should live.

I’m taking it slow and if you’re in a similar situation–you should, too. Find a fork and eat that elephant–one bite at a time!

What have you had to recently find a new home for in YOUR house?

SaveSave

SaveSave