It takes time as well as brain power to consider options, weigh pros and cons, and collect information. Decision-making can be stressful–you’re responsible for the outcome and your decision often affects more than just you.
It’s easier to not make a decision. But that doesn’t work in real life–especially when it comes to getting organized. If you want your home to be an organized space, it’s vital to start exercising your decision-making muscles!
Barbara Hemphill, a pioneer in the field of Professional Organizing says…
“Clutter is nothing more than postponed decisions.”
If you take a moment to think about that statement, it makes total sense.
Picture your kitchen countertops, your dining room table, your clothing closet and other areas of your home that may be cluttered. Bills, kid toys, old socks–have you been making decisions on those items or avoiding them in the hope that you’ll wake up one morning and the necessary decisions will have been made for you?
Maybe you’re putting off making decisions on items in your home because…
– you need more information or guidance before deciding.
– you need to ask another person for permission first.
– your decision may hurt someone’s feelings.
– you’re busy, you don’t have time, or it’s too emotionally taxing to think about it clearly.
By not making decisions, your belongings stay where you’ve placed them and will become clutter. They’ll keep your home cluttered and keep you stuck. Making a decision will ‘unstick’ you and move you forward.
The easiest way make a decision about physical items that are cluttering up your home is to make those decisions as easy as possible to make. Keep it simple–especially in the beginning.
How to start simply and easily? Use three words: Keep, Toss, Donate. Pick a category–shoes, books, toiletries, donation requests (or whatever is causing clutter in your home) and apply those three words to making decisions on items in that category.
Don’t think about decluttering a category or a space in your home any more deeply than that at this moment. Don’t think about where an item will live or where it should be donated to. Don’t think about how you’ll get it to the thrift shop or whether or not it will fit in your cabinet, drawer, or closet. Just look at the item you need to make a decision on and ask Keep? Toss? or Donate? Start there.
That’s your first decision–Keep, Toss, or Donate. Making that basic decision is the first step to clearing your clutter and moving you and your home in a less cluttered and more positive direction.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by your clutter, take a deep breath and repeat out loud, “Keep, Toss, or Donate.” That’s the only decision you have to make right now–Keep, Toss, or Donate. If it helps, make it your organizing mantra! Write it on a post-it. Make it your laptop’s screen saver–whatever works for you.
To help you visualize those decisions while decluttering and keep your decluttering process organized, I’ve created a free downloadable ‘Keep-Toss-Donate’ printable for you to use. Designate three spaces (or bins/bags/boxes) in the area you’re working in–one will be for the ‘Keep’ items, one for the ‘Donate’ items and one for the ‘Toss’ items. Use the printable ‘Keep’ ‘Toss’ and ‘Donate’ tags to clearly designate your spaces and decisions. You don’t want to accidentally donate your trash or trash your donations!
Start with the easy stuff–junk mail, pens that may/may not work, old clothes and shoes. As you practice using your decision-making muscles, move onto magazines, sheets and towels, and seasonal clothes. Use “Keep, Toss, or Donate” as the first step toward making space in your home for items that you want, use, and love.
This blog post is the third in a series of posts designed to teach you how to meal plan during times of crisis and in your everyday life (post-coronavirus). If there was ever a time to consider practicing the Art of Organized Meal Planning–it’s now.
Do you have a mantra?
A mantra is a statement or slogan that is repeated frequently. It’s often a positive phrase used to motivate, encourage, and inspire yourself or others to achieve a particular goal.
You may have a personal mantra for meditating, feeling empowered, or for living your life. You may even have mantra or two to help you get through this pandemic we’re currently living through.
But, do you have a mantra for meal planning?
I’ve been ‘head chef’ of my household for almost twenty years. That’s twenty years of breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, holiday meals, brunches, and the occasional barbecue. Since going on lockdown in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic, I’ve done an inordinate amount of meal planning and cooking. Three meals a day plus snacks for my family of four has kept me (and our dishwasher) very busy. I’ve mostly stuck to ‘crowd-pleaser’ meals and familiar foods to help make this time in our lives dare I say–more palatable.
The more time I spend in my kitchen, the more I find myself repeating a few food-related sayings. I say these phrases so often, they’ve become my meal planning mantras. I sometimes even hear my husband and kids repeating them!
BTW…While I was composing this blog post in WordPress, my 10 year old son walked into the room. He looked at my desktop screen and the image quotes below and asked me what a mantra was. After I told him, he looked at me and said, “Mommy you say ALL of these–a lot!”
Here are my top three favorite meal planning mantras for crisis time or any time:
MANTRA #1: Cook Once. Eat Twice!
Many of us are spending more time than usual eating at home. That’s a lot of meals–especially if you are feeding a family day after day, week after week (and now month after month).
I have been saying Mantra #1 for years. It brings me great joy to cook once and eat twice. It’s a major time saver to not have to prepare each component for each meal every day! The ‘cook once and eat twice’ philosophy requires thought and meal planning but not a lot of extra prep time.
A few ways to ‘cook once and eat twice’ during crisis time or any time:
• Cook enough of a protein at one time for two different meals. For example, cook enough chop meat to be used for tacos one night and bolognese sauce a few days later. Make roasted chicken for dinner and shred the leftover chicken for chicken tortilla soup to be eaten over the weekend.
• Cook enough for two complete meals. Take out those large pots you use at holiday time and double your recipes!
• Use a crockpot. A crockpot makes a ton of food. And you can ‘set it and forget it’ while you’re spending your time working, cleaning your home, keeping your kids occupied, and of course–meal planning.
Think about it: What foods would you like to ‘cook once and eat twice’ this week?
MANTRA #2: Keep it Simple with Kit Meals
If you’ve been a fan of the Food Network for over two decades like I have, you’ve watched a whole lotta cooking shows. One show from 2005 that inspired the above mantra is called ‘Cooking Thin with Kathleen Daelemans.’ It wasn’t just an in-studio how-to show demonstrating low-calorie recipes. Chef Kathleen helped ordinary people with food challenges and taught them about meal planning, goal setting, and gave them tips on cooking lighter. One tip I recall and use in my home is the basis for Meal Planning Mantra #2.
Chef Kathleen often spoke about how keeping a pantry filled with healthy foods would support a healthier way of eating. She would pull items off the shelf that worked together to create a healthy meal and referred to them as ‘kit meals.’ I started using that phrase more often after I had children. Having to come up with fairly healthy dinners without using much brain power (sleep deprivation will do that to ya) led me to create ‘kit meals’ for my family. A box of fish sticks with a box of mac and cheese and a steam-in-bag of mixed vegetables was a ‘kit meal.’ A package of chicken cutlets, one lemon, a bag of Trader Joe’s kale and a box of Near East Toasted Almond rice was a ‘kit meal.’ As long as I had all of the components to the kit meal and a way to keep on top of my pantry inventory, I could feed my family simply and easily. Thanks, Chef Kathleen!
Think about it: What kind of ‘kit meals’ could you make for your family?
MANTRA #3: The ‘L’ in Lunch Stands for Leftovers
Of the three meal planning mantras, I think this one is my favorite. It’s also the most recent one I’ve come up with. If I’m not running errands after working with a client, I come straight home and eat lunch. So as not to waste food, I try to make sure I eat leftovers at lunch time.
At the moment, I am not working with clients in their homes. I am in my own home eating lunch with my family every day and going food shopping as infrequently as possible. In an attempt to make sure none of our food went to waste, I created Mantra #3. It’s actually a take-off of a mantra I’ve chanted to my children over the past few years:
“The ‘M’ in “Mommy’ Does Not Stand for MAID!”
It’s a great title for a children’s book. I’ll keep that in mind when I’m not so busy meal planning…
To prevent food waste, I have been managing the leftovers in our home for the past few months #likeaboss. During the early days of lockdown, I would stand in front of the refrigerator and tell my family that if there were leftovers in the fridge, they had to be eaten for lunch. That’s when I would say (OK–yell) “The ‘L’ in Lunch Stands for Leftovers.” I think if my family put a dollar in a jar every time I repeated this mantra over the past few months, we’d have enough money to pay off our mortgage. It has gotten to a point where my husband and kids won’t think about making something for lunch without looking for leftovers first!
When planning your meals, consider cooking enough to have extra servings for leftovers. Even if there’s one portion of food left from dinner, that’s one meal someone can eat for lunch.
Leftovers: Plan for them. Eat them. Don’t forget about them!
Think about it: What leftovers can you eat for lunch tomorrow?
Tell me! What are some of your favorite meal planning mantras?
I’m excited to announce–Organized Artistry has a YouTube channel!
It’s something I’ve been considering adding to my business model for a while. YouTube is a great vehicle for reaching those in need of organizing assistance outside of my Northern New Jersey area. I thought it would be a creative marketing tool for my residential and virtual organizing services as well as for my book and any books I write in the future.
Slowly in 2018, I created the channel, added a banner, uploaded a few FaceTime videos but I wasn’t putting a ton of time and effort into it. Why? What held me back? A few things…
Time
As a business owner, parent of two, and volunteer for business and religious organizations, did I really have time to pursue something new?
Knowledge
My son told me it was easy to make a YouTube video. He said to me, “My friend from middle school and my camp counselor have YouTube channels. How hard could it be, Mom?” I tried to convince him that Mommy’s YouTube channel had to be a bit more professional than teens playing Xbox together and videotaping it. I’m still not sure I’ve convinced him…In order to have a professional-looking channel I was going to have to figure out the ‘How-To’ part.
Doubt
Was anyone going to watch? Could I fit creating, optimizing, and uploading videos into my already tight schedule?
Bad Hair Days
Yes, if I’m being honest, bad hair days kept me from making videos. I don’t have the most predictable hair and it doesn’t always look as professional as I’d like it to look. Kinda silly, but true. #honesty
What I know about owning a business is that it has to always be moving forward and keep up with the ‘times’ in order to survive. Many articles I read this past year pointed to video marketing as a game changer for 2019. I decided if I really wanted to make it happen, I had to schedule it, learn what I could, deal with doubt, and my hair. Here’s what I did…
Time
I decided to block out time in my day to brainstorm ideas, write scripts, and film the video (when I’m not working with clients). Mornings after I drop my son at school until noon are my ‘Power Hours’–the time of day when I’m most alert and motivated. This time management technique worked for me when I was writing and self-publishing my book, too.
Knowledge
Do you know the best place to learn about starting a YouTube channel? It’s YouTube! I started watching ‘how-to’ videos while on the treadmill, while getting dressed/putting on makeup, and when I was cooking dinner (it’s the perfect accompaniment to chopping vegetables). I took notes on the videos and created a section in Evernote for them. I also purchased an online course to speed up the process–it’s proving to be a good investment so far.
Doubt
I still have my doubts but I moved forward anyway. I’ve been in this place before as a business owner and realize that anything new is going to stir up feelings of doubt. I decided I wouldn’t let it stop me.
Bad Hair Days
Almost a year ago, I started following the ‘Curly Girl‘ method of caring for my hair. My hair is healthier, looks better and is now (in my eyes) more ‘video-worthy.’ And I bought some products to cover my ‘roots’ so I can film my videos and camouflage some gray hair and hairline without having to run to the salon as often.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working diligently on the ‘Channel Trailer’ for my channel–it’s the first video people will see when they come to my channel if they’re not subscribers. Want to check it out? There may be a few pics of me as a little kid in the video if that piques your interest…You can watch it here or click the video below. Feel free to leave a comment, hit the ‘Subscribe’ button, and remember to click the little bell next to it to get notified when I post a new video!
If there’s an organizing challenge you’d like me to make a video about, let me know at .
Keep an eye out on the Organized Artistry YouTube channel for organizing tips, organizing hacks, and decluttering know-how. My videos will help you to get organized and gain more space in your home, more time in your day, more money in your wallet, and less stress in your life.
How many times have you gone to the supermarket with your shopping list written on a piece of paper and any of the following happens:
• you lose it
• it drops somewhere in the cart and gets trapped under your heaviest item
• you have to carry the list while pushing the cart because you think you might otherwise lose it or drop it
Your trip to the supermarket is about to get easier…
Today’s Organizing Quick Tip:
Use a large post-it for your shopping list and stick it to the
front compartment of the cart.
No more fumbling for your list. No more balancing your list and a bag of bananas. Your list is right in front of you making shopping easier and less stressful–that’s what organizing is all about.
I like the fact that these post-its have lines to write on, making your list easier to compose and read. By placing the list in this spot, it also makes it easier to cross items off your list with a pen. You can find these lined post-its in most office supply stores–or Amazon if you need a few extra dollars to make that free shipping limit…
You may notice the paperclip in the picture–my coupons are behind it. Clipping them behind my shopping list post-it makes it easy for me to refer to them during my shopping trip and have them ready when the cashier asks for them.
For those of you who have small children seated in that front compartment, I know you can’t stick your shopping list in the spot above–I’ve been there. My kids’ shopping cart cover had side pockets for bottles/snacks and while my sons were little and sitting in that front section of the cart, I’d put the big post-it shopping list in one of those pockets. Yes, sometimes my child would grab it and I’d have to move it around (and sometimes even stick it to myself) but that period of their lives won’t last long. Soon you will be able to stick your post-it shopping list on the shopping cart.
Do you get a truckload of charities and non-profits sending you requests for donations? They can really pile up–especially at holiday time!
This scenario may sound familiar…
You write a check to a charity. A few months later another donation request from the same charity lands in your mailbox. You don’t remember whether you’ve donated to them or not so you do one of two things:
• you send them more money
• you toss the envelope on your desk and now it’s clutter
Today’s Organizing Quick Tip will help you keep track of all of those donation requests…
Create a home for ‘donation request’ envelopes.
Follow these steps to keep those donation requests under control…
• Get a small box–approximately the size of a shoe box. An example:
Stockholm Photo Box from The Container Store
• Place the box in an area close to where the mail enters the house. When a donation envelope comes in the mail, place it in that box.
• Go through the box every three months to sort and purge for duplicates. I guarantee–you WILL have duplicates!
• After Thanksgiving, sort and purge the the donation envelopes one last time and decide which organization(s) you’ll donate to. Spread the piles across your dining room table or sofa if you need a lot of room.
• Make your donations in December–once a year (if possible). That way you’ll have no problem remembering when you sent your charitable donations. This eliminates the need to look back at a year’s worth of checkbook and credit card statements to see when and who you donated to.
• If you don’t already have one, create a ‘tax file’ for papers you’ll need to collect for tax purposes.
• Place receipts for your charitable donations in the tax file.
• Empty your ‘donation request’ box and start over.
I recently set up this system for a client and she said it has made her life so much easier in these ways:
• It organized all of her donation requests in one spot.
• It allowed her to notice when she had multiple envelopes from the same charity/non-profit.
• By doing her donations once a year, she no longer has to try and remember or look back in a check book register or credit card statement to see if she already made a donation.
This Donation Request System (DRS) will save you time, money, stamps, and brain power. Give it a try–let me know in the comments below how it works for you!
Wildfires, hurricanes, and floods seem to be making headlines lately. The news speaks of of lives lost, homes and communities destroyed, and families displaced. We hope to never find ourselves in such a situation.
September is National Preparedness Month–the perfect time to consider what you might need in a time of crisis.
You might be thinking–“I don’t live in tornado territory.” Or, “My apartment on the 18th floor and wouldn’t be affected by a flood. Or, “I am a very safe driver.” I understand your thinking but, I implore you to put ‘personal safety’ on your to-do list this month.
We’ve all heard about creating an emergency kit for a car or stocking a three-day supply of water in our basements–all important preparations. What I’d like you to do in the next day or two is today’s Organizing ‘Quick Tip’…
Prepare for an emergency by programming your cell phone with I.C.E.
I.C.E. stands for In Case of Emergency
Photo courtesy of Worldstart.com
Programming emergency contacts on my iPhone has been on my to-do list for a while. In honor of National Preparedness Month, I took a few moments to set up those I.C.E. contacts. My husband and my parents are my contacts and I have added my home telephone number so a message could be left on our answering machine if necessary. I also listed my allergies and my blood type. Not only is my pertinent information listed, I’ve included the names of my children in case they are in an accident with me. I’ve identified each of them by their hair color and what they are allergic to.
After you’ve read this post, please make an appointment with yourself to program ICE: In Case of Emergency contacts on your phone. Here are a few how-to articles to give you some ideas on how to get started…
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while or ‘Like’ Organized Artistry on Facebook, then you know how much I love Post-its. I own and use them in different colors, shapes and sizes. Up until recently, I used the ‘Stickies’ program on my Mac (replaced now by the paperless, Evernote…). Truth be told, I just downloaded the Post-it app to my smart phone–I couldn’t help myself…
I use Post-its almost everyday, both in my business and personal life. I use them as a place to dump my brain and to help me remember what I need to do. I find that they come in handy when dealing with papers that need to be acted upon. Today’s Organizing ‘Quick Tip’ of the day is…
Use a Post-it to remind you to take a particular action.
For instance, I’m always collecting store coupons–especially ones for the stores where I buy my kids’ clothing. They’re always needing something in their wardrobe! When I get the coupon, I place a Post-it on top of it and jot down what I need to buy in that store. No need to comb my brain thinking about what I need to buy when I get a moment to shop. It’s all there, ready for me to act upon.
A while back, I needed some picture frames and photo albums. I thought I might have trouble remembering what I needed once I got to the store–so I went searching for my good friend, the Post-it. I wrote on the Post-it above exactly what products I was looking for and stuck it to the coupon. By doing so, I spent less time at the store and no time trying to recall what I needed to buy.
Write the action that you need to take on a Post-it to remind you…
• To pay a bill by a certain date.
• To write back to someone who sent you a holiday card.
• To create a new file for a stack of papers.
• To donate or toss an unwanted item.
• To follow up on an project you’re working on.
What action will a Post-it remind you to take today?
If you’re like many people, you recently made one or two New Year’s resolutions.
You’ve made a plan and you’ve set mini-goals for yourself to make those resolutions a reality–that’s great. Maybe that plan includes weekly organizing sessions. Maybe you’ll be organizing your garage in the Spring or you’ll be spending time every day going through your bulging file cabinets.
Whatever plans you have for reaching your organizing goals this year, follow this quick-tip to make reaching your goals easier on your mind and body.
Determine when you are ‘at your best’ and schedule organizing at that time. Find your ‘organizing energy.’
Are you a morning person?
A night owl?
Somewhere in between? (I call myself an Afternoon Person…)
If you’re not sure when your most ‘productive’ time of day is, try doing one simple organizing task before breakfast. Try another one on another day in the early/late afternoon. Try another one at 10pm. When did you feel you did your best?
Aim to work at an organizing task when your energy and concentration levels are high. Being alert at ‘task time’ will help you to accomplish your mini-goals faster, more creatively and consciously.
The saying may go, ‘The early bird catches the worm,” but if you’re not an early bird, then it’s highly unlikely you’ll be successful at worm-catching (and then organizing them afterward…).
Work with the natural rhythms of your body and brain. Your productivity will soar, your organizing goals will be met, and you’ll embrace the end of the year with an amazing feeling of accomplishment.
Open one of the drawers of your file cabinet. Are papers popping out or peeking over the top of your file folders? If your answer is ‘Yes,’ then read on…
I’ve learned a lot of cool organizing ‘hacks’ in the 16+ years I’ve been a Professional Organizer. Here’s one I think is the coolest–it’s going to help you keep your stacks of papers neat and organized…
Grab a manila folder and take a look at the front of it. You may not have ever noticed, but there are scored lines at the bottom of most folders–some folders have three lines across and some have five. Ever wonder what they were for? I hadn’t, until a colleague taught me this neat trick that I pass on to all of my paper organizing clients:
To make more space for papers in your folder, bend and crease one of the lines to create a box-bottomed effect.
Creasing the highest of the three or five lines will provide you with the most space inside your folder. Creating a box-bottomed effect will offer more space for papers in your file folder.
Go ahead–take a file folder out of your file cabinet and give it a try. The front of the folder will shorten but it will still be high enough to protect the papers inside.
These lines appear most often on plain manila or colored folders. You may not see them on decorative folders such as ones you’ll find at HomeGoods or Target–save those for smaller piles of paper that you wish to file.
To see these scored lines close up, click to watch my YouTube video below:
Wasn’t that cool? Share this post with a friend who could use this cool manila folder hack!
You’ve sorted and purged. I know you’re exhausted but don’t stop yet. Keep going for another couple of minutes–then you can sit down and relax. You have a few more tasks to attend to before your time for organizing is over for the day…
You filled a bunch of trash bags, right? Yay for you! You’ve made good decisions and you’re getting rid of the old to make room for the new. There’s one more step before you’re done…
Your Organizing ‘Quick Tip:’ After purging items for Trash, Donation, or Repair get them out of your home ASAP.
• The bag(s) of trash goes right to your garbage cans/garbage room
• The bag(s) of donations go to a local thrift shop or drop-off bin
• The bag(s) of items that need to be repaired go to the tailor or fix-it shop
Put Donations/Repairs in the trunk of your car and deliver the bags to the appropriate places as soon as you can. If you can arrange it, purge items from your home the day before your garbage is scheduled to be picked up.
A piece of advice: Don’t wait to do these last steps. After a few days, you’ll lack the motivation to get those bags out of your home.
Watch my YouTube video to prevent this embarrassing moment from happening to you…
NOW you can relax!
Your bags of trash are going down a chute or onto the curb. Please be kind to your garbage collector–pack them safely and please don’t make them too heavy! For more on this topic, click to read my blog post, ‘Get Organized and Thank Your Garbage Man.’
Where’s your favorite place to take your donations? I’d love to hear in the comments below!
A blog by Professional Organizer Stacey Agin Murray bursting with cool products, 'gotta-tell-a-friend' ideas, and a whole lotta organizing know-how. Learn more...
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About Stacey
When you grow up in a 5’x12′ bedroom, you learn to organize pretty quickly! I chose to take that knowledge and turn it into a business helping people find what they need when they need it. I’m also the author of The Organized Bride’s Thank You Note Handbook–a book that offers wedding thank you note-related organizing tips and how-to’s plus 101 unique sample thank you notes (what bride can’t use that?).
Contact Stacey to Get Started!
