Video Titled "Closet Organization (Quick 15-Minutes!)"

Video Titled "Pantry Organization (Quick 15-Minutes!)"

Video Titled "Home Office Organization Ideas (Rental Home)"

Get Organized Tips

1. Tell yourself that no matter what, some level of clutter with a child is going to happen.

2. Begin with messes and clutter that you see every day. Organize your kitchen, garage, and family room before your hallway closet.

3. Use drawer dividers for socks, underwear, and tiny items, to keep them separated and organized.

4. Use this same principle to organize your silverware, with clearly defined places for every spoon and fork, or drawers for ties and socks or underwear. Think in this same way for every aspect of your home. This will save many hours of searching for things. It will dramatically cut down on the clutter of items left out "for now" or "until I find a place for it." Develop a new mantra: everything has its place and a place for everything!

5. Allocate everything in your house a place. This way your family will know exactly where to find it and where to put it away, when they searches for something they need. 

6. Keep items that are used frequently in places where you can reach them without stooping or bending, and store them close to the place they will be needed.

7. Establish one defined place in your house for storing library books, and end a house-wide hunt when it is time to read or return them.

8. Hang hooks for your keys and purse at the entry to your home, so each time you walk in, you can hang them up.

9. Get rid of all junk drawers, or allow yourself just one that you clear out once a week or more. When you establish certain items are being used repeatedly, designate a drawer for those.

10. Enlist a new rule: donate or throw out one old thing for every new purchase that enters your home.

11. Make a mental note to observe what things pile up in your house and where they cluster, and then come up with a place nearby that becomes the official home where those things will reside. For this purpose baskets, shelves, and folders will work well. Set aside one basket for you and your partner for incoming mail, bills, and receipts and letters.

12. Never go up or down empty-handed when using stairs. Always grab some items that belong to upstairs rooms and quickly put it away while you are there. 

13. Create a number of brightly marked folders for discount coupons, invitations and directions, and other time-sensitive papers that just clutter your counters.

14. Things you don’t need any longer:

· Clothes you no longer wear.

· Extra paper or plastic grocery bags.

· Makeup and samples you have never worn.

· Sunscreen that's expired or more than one year old.

· Organize your coupons and throw out all that have expired.

· Cookbooks you rarely use. Cut out your favorite recipes only.

· Magazines you meant to read but have never taken the time for.

You will free your mind to remember your daily chores by getting rid of your clutter and organizing your home top to bottom. 

Organize Life | 7 Step Professional Organizers Formula

How important is it to organize life?

Everything in our life comes from how we organize it, right?

When everything is organized we can do more, achieve more, become more, and enjoy everything more too, can't we? Can't you?

Are you Overwhelmed? Frustrated? Dissatisfied? Life throws a lot at you. How are you managing it all until now?

Those who organize life will excel far beyond those that don't because Life Organization is the biggest frontier of development opening up this decade.

Are you ready for that? But what is it exactly that you are searching the net for regarding how to organize life? What does it really mean to organize life?

Do you want a solid grand system to totally organize life? Do you want some temporary techniques to apply now? Would you like permanent principles for how to organize your entire life?

To organize life you will capture every worth while thought to efficiently choose your actions for all that is important to you, without wasting time or losing time, and allowing you to succeed at whatever you desire.

At times we get off track, whether practically, or with our efficiency, or emotionally.

At those times, I do a 10 Minute Get-on-track review. Essentially it is about writing down things weighing on my mind.

I use the following categories of self-questions to help me do my organize life 10 minute focus sessions.

Organize Life for Self - Touching on my emotions and physical experience. Accept and appreciate how I feel right now. This is the core of how to organize life. It starts from within.

Organize Life for Yesterday - I then take a moment to reflect on yesterday, as that is where I have come from.

Organize Life for Today - Think of the fixed appointments, the general layout of your day to come, and where the areas of your day are where you get to decide exactly what you do with the time.

Organize Life for Civilization - What do you want to do in society? What is your place and purpose in terms of contribution and business?

Organize Life for Ideally Organized Living - Picture the biggest possible ideally organized living circumstances that fill your fantasy. This connects you with the spark of life.

Organize Life for Projects - Now you are ready to consider the actual projects and responsibilities that you have in your life. Tasks, hobbies, interests, pursuits, business ideas, etc.

Organize Life for Right Now - Through the above self-question process you are probably now ready to decide on the next step activities to organize your life even more.

This 10 minute review might take longer when you first do it.  Take your time with it, and remember this article. By doing this simple 10 minute process regularly your life should become more and more organized.

LESSON THREE FREE MINI COURSE: TIPS AND TRICKS, TACTICS AND TECHNIQUES TO GETTING ORGANIZED

▪ Enable your Lifestyle and customize your living space

There are all kinds of small and clever ways to organize your existence. Do you sometimes feel that life is just plain crazy? Do you struggle to get things done, and do you feel what you do is never good enough? You need to be better organized and stop rushing about looking for stuff. We all rush too much and should be planning much more to balance work, play, family, and friends. This can be demanding. If you want to have more time to do the things you enjoy, organizing yourself is KEY!

Having good order is the first building block to becoming better organized. Stop thinking of de-cluttering as this terrific and insurmountable obstacle that constantly intimidates you to keep putting off the inevitable clean up. Start thinking of it as one of the most effective self-improvement exercises ever available to you. Every magazine and piece of paper you recycle and everything you take to the goodwill store will liberate you. Giving unneeded items to charity will set your spirit free and let you breathe again! Free yourself now of clutter and open the floodgates of joy and energy into your life.

Exhaustion and significant lack of motivation to restore order in your environment signal that the balance in your life may be out. Lack of adequate time to do routine chores in the evenings suggest that you need to take a hard look at your lifestyle and make some adjustments to balance your life better. 

Maybe you face health issues or life phase changes. Or perhaps you had to negotiate immense physical changes or experienced losses that influenced your emotional balance in a major way. That is no lasting excuse for procrastination or lazily avoiding facing your responsibility to restore order to your world.  

Self-discipline is needed at difficult times to do what is necessary at that moment, to avoid undesired results later. Putting things off because you don’t feel like it now will inevitably cause a snowball or domino effect and make things much worse later for everyone. It can mean the difference between a happy or horrible day, between peace of mind or anxiety and many more things going wrong, affecting everyone that you come in touch with, at home or in the work place.

Establishing a habit of thinking and planning ahead is crucial and the mature and responsible thing to do. You may not be making full use of your available hours during your day or evening. A good balance of your time is needed for work, goals, recreation, and relaxation. Maybe too much time is usually devoted to “time stealers” like TV or internet. 

Do you stay up way too late and get up in the morning tired and not in a good mood? Take a close look at your daily routine, examine your findings and come up with a plan. Resolve to follow your plan and become better organized. Don’t postpone things to tomorrow or put things off that you can finish now. You’ll thank yourself later for being accountable for your actions today.

Why be better organized? It will raise your self-esteem and cause you to feel in control of certain areas in your life that’s never been the case before. It is an empowering experience and a character building one for everyone in the household. Getting busy attacking the problem will keep your mind from worrying or negative self talk because you will be focused in a constructive way on conquering your challenge. 

Extra time freed up because of better organization can be used to learn new things or hobbies and then to relax and be more content when experiencing an increased sense of wellbeing. Perhaps you face additional challenges being a single parent with a demanding work situation and are time-challenged every day. 

Make a point to sit and relax a while each day and plan. Careful planning should afford you some time per day to work at becoming better organized. It will be an investment you will never regret. Exercising and improving your mind by more reading and learning exciting new things in the time you saved by freeing yourself from the chains of chaos will be a sweet reward for your efforts to straighten and control the clutter once and for all!

Most of us use only a small amount of our true capabilities and there is so much more to being alive! Learning new things will give you new incentives and purpose in life and a great feeling of achievement.

"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor." - Henry Thoreau (1817-1862)

If you are under a lot of stress, a more passive and relaxing approach may be more advisable to start with. Set some time aside for your own unique enjoyment. When you do this, getting organized will not feel as much of a chore. You will naturally wish to work towards getting organized so that you will have more time for yourself.

Take a walk in the park, listen to lovely music, read an interesting book, work in the garden, or watch a bit of TV. Enjoy the time perks earned from living organized. How we spend our time shows much about who we are and how we think.  All of this can be influenced greatly by culture and ethnic heritage, which for each of us should be precious and respected.

"When I go into my garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

▪ Creative Genius can change your life FOREVER

Simplify your space and life! Create a simple organizing system.  YOU have the ability….you CAN do it!  Zones are key. Organize any space in different zones of activity and group similar or related items or required tools together close to where the activity happens. Create places for things and assign designated places for grouping related items together close to the relevant activity zones. Then your space will speak to you and support and help you maintaining order in it in a natural way.

When designing your management system, work with your natural habits. Note where your piles tend to accumulate and create storage there, and then putting away these piles are close by and your system is a breeze to maintain. Invest a couple of hours to analyze and strategize before attacking the challenge and start to organize. 

You can work with your natural tendencies and habits to create a low maintenance system that works and will succeed and last. Analyze the trouble spot that needs cleaning up and study the outlay of the room and where piles or clutter collect. Ask yourself what is causing the clutter. Don’t just blame yourself for being lazy. Discover the real reasons.

There may be technical errors, like a mistaken way in which the space is set up that cause this congestion and make it very difficult to keep the space tidy. If things pile up it could be that they have no home or assigned space yet.  Maybe you’ve never figured out where your calculator should live, therefore you can never find it and it is always gone when you need it. 

The solution is simple – assign a home for it and make sure it is returned to its home every time.  Another technical error is inconvenient storage.  You have a place where to store something, but it is so hard to get to so you just leave it sitting on the counter top cluttering the place up. The solution is to make that storage more convenient.

Sometimes there are external factors out of your control that stand in the way of you getting organized, like an unrealistic workload. You have to get to the root of the problem and address that before you can tackle the clutter. You may have been in transition, and recently moved, or are going to move, or changed jobs or got married and blended two families, or retired, or moved into a new house where no shelves or storage spaces exist yet, etc. You cannot organize yet until you know more what you need.

There may be psychological obstacles. Sometimes that clutter is there because there is psychological resistance. No matter how much you crave order, there is some stake that you have in that chaos, and it is doing something for you. If you can identify what it is, it is the starting point to get beyond it and find another solution. 

Some people have a need for abundance, to be surrounded by stuff, because it makes them feel good. Maybe some of those people grew up feeling that they didn’t have enough food, money, attention or love. If you grew up feeling empty, you maybe grew up into an adult that compensates by craving enough …. abundance. 

If that is the case with you, you have to recognize that you’ll never be comfortable with clear countertops and a single vase. Rather recognize and celebrate who you are and adjust your organizing accordingly. Knowing yourself is key! Keep your stuff, don’t throw it out, but organize it neatly so you have access to it so you can celebrate that abundance and feel good!  

Some people have a sentimental attachment to their stuff. It is so hard to let go of items because we infuse them with so much meaning. They define us, someone we used to be, someone we want to be, someone we once knew, etc. Some of those are very important to hold onto, but if it is taking over your space so that you have no place for who you are right now or who you are going to be in future, then you need to just reduce the volume. 

Get a beautiful trunk or basket and create a treasure chest for yourself full of reminders of your past, so that you can from time to time open it and enjoy lovely trips down memory lane. Clear the rest of your life for who you are right now. Identifying what the actual cause of your cluttering problem is, will be the most liberating experience that you are going to have getting organized, as it takes all the self blame away, Stop beating yourself up – there is nothing wrong with you. 

Get to the actual cause. That will give you hope, since technical, external or psychological factors can be addressed and you realize you don’t need to use the clutter for this and you can move on. So now you have this whole new outlook on organizing, have started this analyze process, and you’re well on your way to learning this new wonderful skill…

Ask yourself: “What’s working for me about this space?” No matter how cluttered it may seem, something is always working about a certain space. If you learn “what”, it is going to provide you with clues to what you like. For example, if the belt rack is the only part of your closet that gets used properly, and where you love to put things away because it is visible and accessible, it tells you that it works. So adding light, beautiful hangers, gorgeous containers and a nice shoe rack to your closet might cause you to like and use the rest of it too.

Another question is: “What’s not working about this space?”

Make a thorough list that will become your measuring tool. If you don’t and just make spot attacks, then you end up doing patchwork organizing where you fix some but not all of the problems. The remaining disorganized areas may spill over into your nicely organized ones and spoil them so you are back to square one. 

Write down that you can never find this or that you have no place to put your  or “When I walk into that space it makes me feel ….”  As you progress, check down each remark on the list as you addressed it and when you come to the end of your list you should be thoroughly organized and you will not slip back because of some unfinished areas.  

Ask yourself: “What items are most essential to me?” Generally speaking, we tend to use only 20% of what we own. We wear only 20% of the clothes that we own and wear them over and over again. We listen to only one fifth of the CD’s we own, etc. Keep asking yourself if this garment belongs to that 20% that you love and that defines you. 

That’s who you are and that’s what’s essential in your life. If you write it down as you go it helps you to focus on what’s really important to you so you can have access to it. That is organizing; it is not about throwing things out, but about finding out what is important to you and getting easy access to it.

Why do you want to get organized? You need something to compel you to push through with this; you need something beyond the mess to motivate you. Write down your answer now, at the highest point of your motivation, so that 3 hours into the sorting process you can remind yourself why you wanted to do this in the first place. What do you gain? Why do you bother? 

You want to gain time by not getting hung up looking for stuff that disappeared into your nightmare of a closet. You do not fully realize how much time you are losing when you can least afford it. Research shows that the average North American loses one hour a day searching for stuff, or six weeks a year! Add another hour per day to that hour due to procrastination and putting things off. That makes for 12 weeks or 3 months of the year…Wasted and lost to your clutter! 

We all feel that we don’t have enough time in our lives for what is really important. So if you invest the time to reorganize, you will gain a quarter of the year back! How are you going to spend that time? More time with your family, more time for travel or hobbies, or learning a new language… More time… and feeling better about yourself, and not being ashamed of the mess you live in….that is your compelling reason. 

Saving money is another compelling reason. It is estimated that up to 20% of our budgets is lost due to crises purchases related to disorganization because you can’t find what you know you already have. Late charges, rush charges, buying stuff at expensive places because you need it at that moment but can’t lay your hands on yours and there is no time to buy at economy stores! So if you get organized and get that money back in your pocket, what are you going to spend it on? Invest it in your retirement fund or take a vacation trip with the extra time and money you will now have available!

You will be free of the stress involved! Clutter causes stress! You’re always behind, always late, always apologizing to people. It’s distracting, demoralizing, embarrassing! You are terrified of someone calling you up on very short notice to say they are dropping in unexpectedly. You feel that you can do so much more if only you were organized! It is now within your reach! Go for it! Wouldn’t it be nice to feel in control, feel ready for life, and enjoying life? That is what organizing can do for you!  

You now know exactly why you want to get organized, you know what is causing the clutter, you know what is essential to you, you know what is working and what not, and you have analyzed the situation. You know where you are. Now you are ready to strategize. Figure out where you are going. Plan your attack on the problem. Create yourself a roadmap of how to get to your goal. 

Don’t just take off without knowing where you’re going. If you omit this, you may get lost 3 hours into the process because you lose sight of where you are heading and don’t know how far along the process you are. Break it up in measurable, workable chunks and arrange them in a sequence that makes sense. Then only start to dig into the clutter and piles, sort and relocate some to more suitable assigned places that make sense.

Develop an efficient and very simple model to use in every space you have to organize. Divide the space in activity zones, where everything needed is stored at its point of use, in cute, functional and efficient containers. All you need is right there - you do not need to run around to gather stuff from many other places when you want to engage in a specific activity. 

It is therefore very easy and enjoyable to concentrate on this activity and make the most of the available time, since all your tools are right there handy and you don’t need to hunt for them all over the place wasting precious time and energy. Many people have given up doing hobbies they used to love because their time is being stolen by them being so disorganized!

Store things where they are used. We tend to store things where they fit, and that may be inconveniently far away from where they are used! It should be as much fun putting things away as it is using them. When you walk into a space it should provide a visual menu of everything that is important to the people that inhabit that space, with every activity or theme centered in its own spot. You should do this for yourself. 

Your very environment will reflect back to you who you are, what your interests are and what there is to do. For every space you have to organize, think first about what the activities are that will take place in that room. In your living room there could be a reading zone. You love to read in the chair by the window, so store the books nearby there. If you love to play board games with the family, create a little hobby corner where these games are stored handy.

If every drawer and cupboard is miscellaneous and full to capacity, it will be impossible to find anything. Designate clear zones for different things, and label the zones so you have only to think of this once.

Be creative and “think outside the box”. Look with new eyes at possible fresh solutions for your storage needs. Look in your spaces for those hidden pockets of storage, like under stairways, inside or behind doors, along walls, etc. Use vertical space by hanging things up.  

▪ Time, Priorities and lists

You too can live an ordered life! Life really does not have to be a mess. Take a few steps to ensure that it is not and you will have time for the things that really matter to you most. You will have all the time you want for family, friends, work and more, and best of all, you will be sane. The number one benefit to being better organized is being sane!

The more organized you are the more time you will have available. As you become better organized, start a new hobby or preferably something that the whole family can share in. Getting everybody on board about living organized is key to make it work and promote harmony in the home. Make it fun for the kids to help, and compliment and reward them for positive attitudes and trying to help as a team. 

Be sure to make it a positive and encouraging experience for everybody or you may end up being the lone embittered struggler in the scene, feeling very sorry for yourself and playing the “poor me” game. Once you complete some projects successfully, you will start feeling better about yourself, your nice tidy organized environment and how you are managing your organized and planned time. 

With a place for everything and everything in its place, you are freed up in body and mind to take on new endeavors. You will have more time to focus on improving relationships with your loved ones and spend more quality time together, working on creating a pleasant and comfortable living environment that you can be proud of, for all of you.

Why try to remember everything? Help your memory by writing things down immediately when you think of what needs to be done, or put it into your cell phone’s reminder function or on your electronic diary or device. It is the first step to restore order. Keep it all in one place to avoid wasting valuable time searching for different lists. A small hand held digital recorder may be a wonderful tool to carry around to record your thoughts while driving, or data you’ll need later. What you dictate to the recorder may be downloaded straight into your word processor using voice recognition software.

Prioritize your lists. Plan ahead for the next day and assign priorities to the tasks you need to do according to their importance. It is said that if you use 80% of the available time to plan very well, you’ll only need 20% of the usual time to complete the task efficiently and successfully. Estimate the time required and try to be realistic in your goals and expectations. Categorize your goals according to short and long term, easy and more complex projects. Try to break down complex projects in smaller workable chunks that can be tackled one at a time. Organize a bit at a time. Remember that time is money too.

During the day, mark down the tasks that you have completed and the goals that you achieved. Enjoy experiencing the sweet sense of accomplishment that is generated by reaching your targets. Use a diary to plan ahead for days or even weeks. Write in all appointments and commitments. Use a big erasable planner for the whole family on the fridge or somewhere central, so everybody’s movements can be coordinated ahead of time and last minute conflicts can be avoided.

Use available (and often free) email reminder services to help you remember things. There are many good and free e-mail reminder services available. Type in the data beforehand and you will receive an e-mail reminder when the date is approaching. Call ahead to your answering machine and leave yourself or relevant persons a message as a reminder.  Sticky “Post-It” notes are amazing as additional reminders as the bright, neon colors will catch your eye. Alarm clocks and timers are useful throughout your day as reminders of tasks. Set your timer to beep a few minutes early to remind you to get ready.

Visual reminders will help you stay focused and to remind you of your longer-term goals every day. A picture on your desk that you can associate with your higher goals will help you to stay motivated and on track to achieve the longer term objective, e.g. to lose 30 pounds in six months.

Be confident in yourself. Brainwashing yourself by keeping on saying you have a bad memory will probably continue to cause you to have difficulty remembering and undermine your self-esteem. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is important to have a motivated and positive “I CAN remember” attitude. A keen memory needs a well-nourished mind to be able to stay focused and alert. 

Eat and live healthily, get enough sleep and adequate regular exercise. Exercise and develop your mind and memory by reading stimulating books, playing challenging memory games and computer games for good, quick coordination and responses. Keep on top of world news and current issues and trends. Challenge your mind and memory and make them work for you every day. Schedule times to have a family talk-together-time during which you can start sharing your vision of organized living in a friendly way with them. Never nag, but try to convey the need for everybody to embrace a new positive attitude of empowerment and the practical possibility of taking back control of order in the family life as a team. 

Emphasize working together to enhance your living space to become a pleasant and comfortable place you can all be proud of. Don’t become discouraged if they are not exactly enthusiastic at first. Just keep seeding your insights, and eventually they will grow when good results begin emerging. Don’t try to do everything on your own. 

Enlist help by asking nicely and reward them with lavish but honest praise and thanks. Compliment them on jobs well done and never be critical or impatient. Resign yourself to the fact that kids inevitably come with some degree of clutter, but try and help them to develop habits of tidying up and organizing skills.   Assign a place for everything from clothes to underwear and toys, and define it clearly, even mark it with name and place tags. That will make it easy for everybody to find things and find the places where things are supposed to go. “Make sure everything has its place and a place for everything!”

▪ Time is precious and unrecoverable … do not waste it!

Planning can save you enormous amounts of time. Planning means to allocate time. To plan is to design a roadmap of time to get you from here to your goals. Time can be your biggest friend, or your worst nightmare. Put time on your side, think and plan ahead, reduce your stress levels, accomplish your goals and feel in control so you can achieve your peak potential. Eliminate time wasters, distractions and frustrations.  

P_L_A_N!

Prepare yourself through analyzing situations and challenges ahead of time, strategizing, organizing, formulating goals and working towards achieving them, keeping track of progress. Asking “Who, What, When Where, Why and How” can help you to plan ahead. Before you can organize, you have to plan. Think ahead. Visualize solutions and then plan how to achieve them. Plan for the long term and short term, and formulate your goals for each.

Lists are indispensable to live by. To reach your goals you have to do things within a time frame. Organizing your time helps you to track your progress so you get more done with less stress in a calm and efficient way. Use both a master and a “to do” list along with your daily organizer. Plan today for tomorrow. Plan now for later. The rewards are huge!

Act with routines and schedules. Learn to save time in clever ways. Get stuff done much faster by developing smart routines that will get even quicker as you get better at them. Routines bring sanity in a crazy world. Use your planner all day and also schedule time for yourself. Throw in the occasional "no" for less important things. Stick to your new routines. You will stress less and be happier. Be responsible and accountable to keep to your organized schedules and routines, so you can feel in control, be organized, achieve your goals and have more free time on top of it all.

Notice your progress and reward yourself, so you create a stronger incentive to accomplish even more. The positive reinforcement of your success will motivate you even more and you will feel so much better about yourself. Time management is a vital part of getting organized so you can enjoy life more.

More timesaving tips to help you towards getting organized:

Choose and use your day planner carefully. Make sure it suits your every need and is small enough to carry around, but big enough to accommodate your lists. It will help you to effectively lay out your day on paper, so you know where you are going.

Use a big visual dry-erase family planner. This way, everyone in the family knows what everyone else is up to and when. You can plan much better this way to accommodate everyone’s activities, appointments and commitments. Place it up in a convenient location, which might be the refrigerator or in a high-traffic area.

Learn to sometimes say "no." You are only one person can’t do it all! Exercise your stress management techniques by saying "no" occasionally when you are asked to do things that are of little priority to you and may reduce family time.

Take time to enjoy life and have some fun. Spend time with your children. Go out to the movies. Indulge at the spa. Attend sports or shows. Do some gardening. You may even find some chores relaxing. 

Think of what you love to do most and reward yourself at times for your progress in getting organized. Schedule some "me time” and treat it like an appointment with yourself. Everything has a time of its own. Make some time for yourself as well.

Schedule time for installing time-saving devices around the house and for regular clean-up times for drawers, fridges, closets and more, e.g. more hooks for the keys so you don’t waste time looking for them frustrated over missing items. Make sure everything is located easily.

LESSON TWO FREE MINI COURSE: CLEAN-SWEEPING and CLEAN-SLATING

▪ De-clutter and Clean Up

Clutter suffocates joy, diminishes smiles, dampens the spirit and causes despair. Get rid of it! Stacks of stuff staring one in the face can burden and chain the spirit down and may cause a person to feel inadequate, worthless and incapable of changing or achieving anything. The longer the situation is allowed to persist, the greater the depressing and mesmerizing effect on the person may become. It has an anti-social effect since the person may become too embarrassed to invite friends over into a messy house.

It is very easy to allow any given room to deteriorate into a cluttered mess, but it takes some hard work to de-clutter and organize. Many people say that they love to clean when they get stressed out! Cleaning gives order and purpose to one’s life, and some people use it to get rid of their frustrations by de-cluttering every room of the house and not just moving around clutter from one shelf to another. Clutter interferes with your sense of tranquility and energy flow in your home. This contributes to lethargy and procrastination. You feel weighed down. Clutter also makes a space seem smaller and diminishes light. This can make you and everyone living in that space seemingly depressed.

If you experience stuffy nose, sneezing and coughing in your home, it is possible that you are breathing in a lot of accumulated dust that accompanies piles and unwanted clutter. Your health may start to suffer because of the clutter. It makes a person feel overwhelmed and powerless to change things around. With so much disorder and unnecessary items about, you will find it is difficult to be focused and life will feel more and more like a meaningless struggle. Along with your energy, your spirit seems to sag and you may lose interest in life and go from bad to worse. Don’t allow things to slip out of control so far! It is time to dig in. Get your space organized, get back in control!  

▪ Insider Tips on getting and keeping yourself, spaces and life organized

Before reorganizing a space, draw the basic floor plan to scale. Indicate doors and windows. Play with scale cutouts of furniture to see if there is not a better or more practical way to re-arrange them so that more floor space is opened up.

Throw out or donate one old or unused item for every new purchase that enters your home. Get rid of old or broken appliances  - small or large. Those are mostly not cost effective to fix, as technical labor is more expensive than replacing or upgrading some appliances. Ask for different quotes before you decide.

Change cupboard contents around so the most frequently used items are being stored closer by at hand, while less used stuff get to reside further away. Keep items that are used frequently in places where you can reach them easily without stooping or bending, and close to the place they will be needed.

Assign everything in your house a specific place so that when your family searches for something they will know exactly where to find it and where to put it away. Insist strongly that everyone puts away again what items he or she has used!

Use drawer dividers for socks, underwear, lingerie, and tiny items, to keep them separated and organized. Hang hooks for your keys and purse at the entry to your home, so each time you walk in, you can hang them up so keys don’t end up getting lost. Establish one defined place in your house for storing library books, and avoid hunting for them when it is time to read or return them.

If your weight fluctuates a lot and you have good clothes of many sizes in your closet, box up the sizes that fit the least and put into storage. If you have not worn it for 3 years or so, consider getting rid of it. Even if you would be able to fit in them again, you might not like the styles any more. Just keep your current size of clothes in your closet and dresser so the available space won’t be choked up.

When straightening out rooms every day, use three containers to ease the flow of things and to prevent you from running up and down the stairs all the time to go put away stuff that are out of place and cluttering the room that you are working on. One plan is to use a sturdy wire cart and hang two sturdy reusable bags on it. Label the one bag “Donate”, the second one “Dump” and the cart “Distribute”. Anything usable that you come across which you no longer want, goes into the “Donate” bag to be moved on through your charity to people that can use it. Things that nobody wants or needs can go into the “dump” bag, which should be checked for recyclable items before putting it in the garbage. When deciding whether to save or dump something, use the “W_A_S_T_E” acronym to help you.  

1. Is the item Worthwhile to keep?

2. Will you be using this item Again? If you haven’t used it in a year, you probably won’t need it again. If you don’t use it, lose it!

3. Can this item easily be found somewhere else?

4. Will anything serious happen if you Toss it? Toss old stuff when you buy new ones, except when you attach huge sentimental value to it.

5. Do you need the Entire thing? If not, keep what you need and toss the rest.

The “distribute” cart journeys with you from room to room when you tidy up the house. Things not belonging in a particular room travel with you till you reach the room where they belong. If the cart is big enough you can also collect the dirty laundry to take it down to the laundry room. When using stairs, never go up or down them empty-handed. Always grab some items that belong to upstairs rooms and quickly put it away while you are there, or do it all in one trip using the laundry wire cart.        

▪ Pains and Challenges of DIS-ARRAY and DISORGANIZATION

All kinds of clutter cost you dearly, from cash, to time, space, health and hurt relationships with people. Duplicate purchases, excess costs from crises buys, penalties, interest, depreciation because of poor maintenance, medical bills because stress is slowly affecting you. Every second counts. Time can never be retrieved. Getting organized helps you getting things done fast so you can spend the extra time enjoying life. What makes it so hard to get organized, despite the fact that it is a learnable skill? Organizing in the first place is about deciding what is important to you and giving you access to it by finding designated places for it, and not about  throwing things out or buying containers before you know if you even need them. Don’t put the cart in front of the horse. Do first things first. It is about taking care of your self and not about beating yourself up through guilt or remorse. Keep a positive approach and stop punishing yourself for having collected all that stuff over the years.

The organizing system that you need to develop that will work for you needs to reflect and take into account your unique way of thinking, the way you live and operate, your sense of esthetics … the whole package of who you are, otherwise it will not last and become part of how you operate. In order to create a lasting solution, ask probing questions first and attack the disarray afterwards in a rational, unemotional and planned way. First think everything through and design a system based on your unique personality and adjusted accordingly. You need to design an environment that is a reflection of who you are and the way you operate. Your aim is to create an environment that you find easy to maintain because it comes natural to you and is tweaked to your needs. Most people think that when they get organized they have to change whom they are. That is why their systems don’t last or work for long before they fall back into bad patterns and ways.You keep trying to retrain and force yourself to be more disciplined and do things differently to what comes natural to you and what you like and feel most at ease and comfortable with. Come up with alternatives that allow you to work where you are most comfortable, like doing your bills on the kitchen table instead of the back office. Adjust things according to your natural inclinations and habits. Make it work for you and not against you to avoid frustration and the sense of failure. Set yourself up for success and not for failing in your own eyes. Create storage space nearby the spot where you like to work and store the paperwork there. Observe what things pile up where in your house and create a place nearby that becomes the official home where those things will be stored. Introduce baskets, shelves, and folders for this purpose. Use one basket each for you and your partner for incoming mail, bills, and receipts and letters. Create well-marked folders for bills, discount coupons, invitations, and other time-sensitive papers that tend to clutter counters. Sort the mail into those folders immediately upon opening the envelopes. Get rid of all junk mail and advertising the right away.

Harmonize and Synergize your life, your space and … SIMPLIFY!

If your primary goal is to live in a neat, clutter-free environment, think of creating a smart system in which to operate freely, saving you valuable time as result of not having to hunt for lost items. Having more time to spend doing what you enjoy most is everyone’s dream. By designing your own system, you will find methods of doing things and tasks in easier ways that might otherwise have been a strain. Papers cluster everywhere in every area of the home and need to first be cleaned up in order to create order and clear surfaces. Recycle paper if possible. Items standing around without purpose should be put those away in designated places. Designate a place for every item of value in your entire home.  Use baskets, drawers, files or folders on shelving space to store away important paper. With designated places established, it is much easier to remain organized. Shred discarded paper containing sensitive information immediately in order to limit the possible risk of identity theft.

Consider for a minute how the papers became so cluttered in the first place. What did you do with it once it arrived? Did you put the bundle into a basket, or did you put it down in a haphazard pile on the nearest surface? Deal with mail and junk mail as soon as possible and decisively. Place it in a designated tray, basket, shelf or drawer. Sort, place in the “file” or the “out” basket, shred or recycle. If you keep this up, you are on your way to become better organized.

This type of paper flow system will prevent assorted pieces of paper cropping up everywhere throughout your home. As soon as you receive the paper, channel it to its allotted place. Through this you will create clear work areas where you will know where to find what you need. Don’t be too sentimental about birthday cards and personal notes. If you want to keep them, consider including them in a scrap-booking project, which is a great hobby and creates a meaningful place for your keepsakes.

Get priorities right ….see the situation for what it really is.

The question is, do you really want to live organized, or not?

Which way would you rather live? Out of control, or balanced and in control? As workloads and demands from employers increase, your personal and home environment can suffer unless you take special care to negotiate organizational tasks. It does not take long for everyday mail, newspapers and flyers to pile up if it is not being dealt with as you finish with it. Assign a temporary basket so the mail gets sorted instead of allowing piles of clutter to form. Say good-bye to the clutter, the junk, the dust… It is not welcome in your home ever again! Rid yourself of it!  Love your recycling box and feed it diligently. The environment will thank you for being a good responsible citizen. The longer you delay or try to put off the inevitable, the bigger the problem will become. Be sure to chase the mess monkey off your shoulder before it becomes an overwhelming gorilla that will crush you and cause you to want to slump into helplessness, despair and depression. You may need to chase the bad habits off your shoulder repeatedly in order to gain back some control over your situation. Say hello to clean countertops, a bright, cheerful, welcoming room that is wide open and breathable fresh and stylish! Say hello to a new delightful lifestyle, a new happy and in control YOU!

▪ Categorize, Sort, Donate, Toss, Sell

Sort things into different piles according to certain criteria, like function or kind or frequency of use. Look at each pile and decide if you actually need so many duplicates of things that have the same function. Reduce numbers where possible. Assign each pile to a category and it’s own storage place. Write an inventory of what is needed in that category and store the list with the category, so you never have to repeat the same thinking process again. It makes it easy to check stock and replenish when needed so you are never short of anything at the last minute. Even organizing a small project will fill you with an amazing sense of accomplishment, satisfaction and empowerment. Do give it a try….persist and keep at it until it’s done….and enjoy the awesome feeling! What sounds like a little thing can be a huge victory for a person struggling with the problem of being dis-organized.

Be decisive, non-sentimental and toss out stuff appropriately that you no longer need: Magazines you meant to read but have never taken the time for, expired medications or coupons, clothes you no longer wear, sunscreen that's expired or more than one year old, extra paper or excess plastic grocery bags, makeup and samples you don’t use, cookbooks you rarely use. (Cut out your favorite recipes only)

▪ Art and Science of ORGANIZED and orderly living

What does it mean to be organized? Can you tell when you walk into a room if it is organized or not? If you see clean clear surfaces, stylish simplicity……no piles … no clutter, don’t be fooled, since  all that looks well on the outside may not be as neat on the inside! Organization only shows when you take a look inside cupboards and drawers! Utter chaos may reign inside those closets. If no system exists it will be just as difficult, panicky and time wasting when something needs to be found, despite the neat appearance from the outside! On the other hand, there are people that have many piles and clutter in their homes, but they know where most things are and can find anything in a flash.

Organizing is much more about function than about form. One definition of organizing could be that it’s simply the ability to find what you need quickly when you need it and secondly, the ability to be happy in your environment instead of frustrated. It is the processes, by which we create environments that allow us to live, work, play and relax exactly as we want to. When we are organized, our offices, our homes and our schedules reflect and encourage who we are, what we want or need and where we are going.  

Organizing is not a goal or an end in itself. It is not a destination, but a significant doorway to achieving your dreams and higher goals, a better life, more time and energy to enjoy the things that you love and that is important to you. It is a powerful motivator, and its absence is as powerful a discouragement. You are designing a system that achieves far more than clean counter tops. Learning the skills to be organized is the greatest gift that you can ever give yourself! Applying these learnable skills is a way of taking care of yourself and greatly improving your sense of well-being. Achieving success in learning organizing skills will enable you to have time to serve others much better as you will be in control of your own situation, no longer desperate, anxious or depressed! Never again will your family miss opportunities because you were not organized and ready in time. Being organized is about being ready for all the opportunities that come your way! Never miss out on something valuable again because you wasted time or effort in trying but failing to get ready in time. At work you’ll be ready for that next big deal because you know where all the relevant documents are. In life you’ll be ready for every big opportunity or surprise coming your way and not be stuck because you can’t find your keys or documents when needed.

To succeed and push through the organizing project you need a strong motivation” beyond” the clutter, a compelling reason, a goal you seriously want to reach. Think about the space you want to organize and ask yourself why do you want to do it. What is your compelling reason? What big picture goal in your life are you going to accomplish because that space is organized? This goal will be your compelling reason and your beacon to work towards through the whole process.

Because your busy lifestyle warrants continuous maintenance to keep an orderly environment, a key to being clutter-free is to put things away when you are done with them. This is vital for all inhabitants of the home, as there is nothing more discouraging as for one person fighting an overwhelming battle to tidy up after others that seem not to care about putting things away. It really only takes a moment, but if neglected, it can take hours to sort the mess out when it gets out of control, and may cause so much aggravation that could have been avoided.

Organized people are a unique breed, able to find creative and handy places for things. They are the ones you would call on first when you need help to get something important done. They are efficient and can generally get lots done in a relatively short period. They are talented in tackling work with a disciplined approach and see order as a critical factor for optimum change. They figure out ways to be more efficient and would love everyone around them to accomplish more with less effort and energy. They tend to think systematically, logically, have a good sense of time and thrive on having everything done in an orderly fashion.

Working around disorganized people could prove to be annoying and inconvenient for co-workers or partners in the home. Often situations arise forcing others to work harder or bypass the individual to get certain things done. This hardship on others can bring about resentment and unnecessary hurt feelings. Organized people are challenged in how to create harmony or at least a workable and respectful situation. Persistence is needed to try and peacefully let the disorganized person understand the problems that result from disorganized behavior. Hopefully new and better habits will be fostered eventually. Sometimes the person may feel so bad about the resulting chaos but seem powerless and unable to change the situation for the better, and may get desperate or depressed. With patience and persistence it may be possible to learn new organizing skills. Within the home it can be conflict and a long term challenge if the one partner is messy and the other one an organizer. Usually the situation has a history and persisted for a long time.

Very important is the healing of relationships, where everyone works together for the common good to create harmony. This is worth striving for and may need some personal sacrifice, unselfishness and a very mature approach. This will make for good character building for everyone involved. Awareness of the chaos they create and the dire need to change towards becoming more organized, and lots of encouragement in stead of rejection and resentment will go a long way to help a person to grow into an attitude of honestly wanting to better themselves through acquiring and developing those organizing skills, as well as the indispensable self discipline that is vital for success. Many times a disorganized person is stressed, anxious and struggling to complete assignments and make deadlines.

When receiving proper guidance and lots of encouragement, a disorganized person CAN turn around and grow to become very organized. It may require a real heartfelt talk to awaken the desire to really change, providing the expert advice and help and then working alongside with lots of encouragement, developing the discipline it takes to move into a new permanent organized way of life.

The decision to change must come from deep inside the core of the person involved. He or she needs to choose for him or herself and then act upon it. Asking questions is a good start to observing, learning and following someone’s example. The time saving, improved self-esteem and the awesome feeling of being in control of one’s own life could be a huge incentive to grow towards becoming better organized. Disorganized people are basically their own worst enemies, so it is important to change adverse conditions in order to survive in harmony in the work place as well as at home. Rather than always picking up the slack, offer some respectful guidance and direction. This will promote trust, healing and harmony in relationships.