Category: Uncategorized

Beat The End-Of-Vacation Blues

Image       We got home yesterday from camp.  Two sons were gone for two weeks, and one son and I were gone for one week.   For the month leading up to camp we plan and dream and get excited, and we have a really great time while we’re there.  So we’re sad when it is over, and that sadness is compounded by the realities of ending a vacation; by 9 am on check-out day, I need to pack up a week’s worth of stuff and clean my little cabin in the woods, then drive 10 minutes up the road and pick up the tired, slightly smelly Boy Scouts with all their gear.  Then we drive 3 hours for home.

I’ve read blogs and tips recently for planning your vacation, but no one seems to talk about organizing the end of your trip.  So let me be the first!

Before you leave:

  1. Tidy up the house and finish all the laundry. Check out these two blogs on the topic: “Did You Remember to Pack the …..”  and “Going Away Checklist” .
  2. Leave yourself frozen meals, or restaurant gift certificates to use upon your arrival (better yet, carry the number to the pizza place and gift certificates with you and pick up dinner on your way home!).

While still on vacation:

  1. Use a laundry bag while on vacation, to keep the clean and dirty separated.
  2. Pack your stuff and luggage (and car, if you’re driving) with unpacking in mind.  Put similar items together.  Put your toiletries in one large bag, and that bag goes straight to the bathroom to be      unloaded.  Our dirty laundry was in two large bags placed right inside the door of my van, to schlep to the laundry room ASAP.

Upon Arrival Home:

  1. Unload the car all the way.  Yes, all the way.  Dirty laundry, apple cores and fast food wrappers really stink after a day.  And it’s easier to get back into the swing of things when stuff is where it belongs.
  2. Start the first of many loads of laundry. My hubby is the coolest, and has been doing laundry for the last 24 hours.

Within a day:

  1. Unpack all your bags and put your stuff way.  Living in chaos makes the end-of-vacation blues even worse.  Yes, put it all away.
  2. Clean out your luggage, vacuum it (I think we brought a pound of sand home from camp!) and let it air for a day or two.  Then store other luggage inside, and put it all away.  Yes, away.
  3. Keep your travel toiletry bag in your bathroom or linen closet, to collect samples and items for next time.

A day or two after:

  1. If you are gone for more than a week, give yourself an extra day at the end of your trip for catching up, doing laundry and generally easing back into real life.  If there is a time difference between home and your vacation destination, expect a day or two to re-adjust for sleeping and bedtimes, too.
  2. Lower your standards for a couple of days, too, sticking with survival mode and the essentials, and slowly easing back into your normal pace.

Finally, make a point to print up those photos, remember your good vacation times and chat about it with loved ones.  Don’t let the end-of-vacation blues taint your good memories!

“Because I Said So!”

     We’re all great parents before having children.  At the grocery store or passing a park, we know just what every other parent should do with every other child.  Then life changes.  I vowed to never mix up my children’s names.  Anyone who knows me, whatever your name is, knows I mix them up all the time.  I also swore that phrases like “Because I said so!”, “Get off your brother”, “Put that down!”, or “Oh my god, who brought THAT into my kitchen?!” would never cross my lips, and that I would never yell.  Then God laughed, and gave me three sons.  And now I laugh, all the time.  And cry, often but quietly.  And sometimes I do both at the same time.  Because I’m a Mom, and that’s what we do.

     My gift to you and to myself for Mother’s Day is an article that has little to do with organizing.  Keep these thoughts in your heart for when you need some “Peace of Mind”, (just like my business name).  Why?  Because I said so.

  1. A grateful heart is the surest way to happiness.  A friend reminded me recently that people who have a truly grateful heart are less prone to anxiety and depression.  Be grateful in your heart, and let others know how thankful you are to and for them.  “And yes, to my youngest son, this means you have to finish your thank-you notes before you can spend the money you received.  And I don’t care if other people don’t have to send them, I’m not their mom.”
  2. A secret.  I am conflicted as a parent.  Having been a crabby teenager once upon a time does not prepare me to parent one today.  I want from my children, simultaneously, understanding when I don’t know everything and their faith and confidence in me to know everything.  I do know a secret, though, that contributes to my Peace Of Mind.  And my secret may be different from your secret.  My secret is to say a short prayer for patience and guidance, and then remind myself what my job is as a parent:  I am growing future adults, and helping my children get to heaven.  Those ideas help me form all the other decisions I make in a day.  So what is your secret?  Write it down, and remember it as needed! 
  3. Parenting involves our hands, our heads and our hearts.  The combination of the three varies with our children’s ages, stages and from moment to moment in our day, though the older my children get, the more I use heart and head to guide us all.  Children don’t come to us fully formed, which is a very good thing, since we aren’t fully formed, either.  We get to evolve and figure things out together.  On Mother’s Day, I thanked my teenager for making me a mom 14 years ago.  He is a teenage boy, so when I start emoting like that, he gets a funny look on his face and I know he would rather be anywhere else but listening to me.  But he’s a good sport, and said, “um – you’re welcome?”  Then he gave me a hug, so I knew it was OK.  Guess I got to use my hands, head and hearts all at once on that one!
  4. You are more capable than you know.  And so are your children.
  5. No regrets.  Recently, I sang at the funeral of a friend’s mother.  The friend stated she had no regrets when it came to her relationship with her mom and her mom’s passing.  What a gift.  I’ve been looking at my relationships with new eyes, trying to do the right thing always, and working towards “No Regrets” some day, too.
  6. My Mother’s Day was lovely and relaxing, spent with family. My sister-in-law made a fabulous brunch and my husband made a delicious dinner.  In years past, I wanted to celebrate Mother’s Day by taking a break from Mom activities like cooking and cleaning.  But I realized that being a Mom is who I am and who I want to be, so taking a day off is sort of silly.  Did I receive gifts?  Yes, thank you.  Did I do laundry?  No.  Did I declare the remote control and the couch as MINE for about 3 hours?  Yes!  Do I want to spend the day of celebration of Motherhood escaping from being a Mom?  No, I really don’t.  But if somoene could still fold the laundry, that would be great.
  7. My Mother’s Day gifts come every day, in little packages.  My oldest son leaving my side at Mass to volunteer to serve without being asked.  Because he likes be a server, and he recognized the need without being asked.  My middle son and I sharing a look and cracking each other up without saying a word. Such an old soul in a young body.  My youngest son bent over a mud puddle –  I thought he was making a mess and started to fume, but then I looked closer and saw he was saving ants one at a time by giving them little sticks to walk on out of the mud.  These gifts might not come gift-wrapped, but they are the best a mother can ask for.

Thanks for coming along with me, and for letting me ramble a bit.  I hope the next time you are searching for some Peace of Mind, one of these ideas comes back to you in time.  Happy Mother’s Day.

Monetary Motivation: The Price of Procrastination

Do you like money?  I do, I will admit.  I don’t love it, but it certainly makes life easier.  What I don’t like is wasting money.  And I bet you don’t either.  And yet we regularly and purposefully defeat our own plans and end up wasting money.  How? Procrastination.

A few weeks ago, I gave you the definition of Procrastination: “To indefinitely postpone or avoid performing a task out of anxiety, rather than time constraints or logic.  Unfocused wandering, killing time.”(Julie Morgenstern, Never Check Your Email in the Morning).

     Motivation for procrastination and also for action differ from person to person.  Just look at your family or co-workers.  Regardless of your motivation for procrastinating, recognize and use monetary motivation this week for action, if that helps, to break through procrastination and save or make some money!

Actual Costs of Procrastination:

  • Penalties charged for late filing or payment of your taxes this week
  • ATM fees when you have to use the closest ATM instead of planning ahead and using your bank ATM
  • Late fees from the library (my 7 year old’s contribution) or the RedBox (!)
  • Credit card interest fees for incomplete or late payment
  • Late fees when you don’t pay your bills on time.  A client said our time working together paid for itself the first month she paid all her bills on time!
  • Paying higher rates for airline tickets, and expedited passport fees
  • Paying for costly repairs instead of maintaining what you own, like your car, or paying for car rental during repair time
  • Expedited shipping, postage or delivery fees when we procrastinate in shopping
  • Paying for overnight shipping or delivery when we are sending items and are now too close to the deadline to use regular shipping methods. 
  • Are you seeing dollar signs in your head yet?  Are you motivated to act?  What about the….

Indirect Costs of Procrastination, or losing out on money-saving opportunities: 

  • Not receiving interest on your money, if you don’t file taxes early
  • Not receiving reimbursement payments until long after your money is spent, or not at all
  • Not cashing or requesting checks:  A client needed to request a duplicate check for an insurance payment (the first one was damaged), and waited too long, the insurance company said No. 
  • Not taking advantage of sales and discounts, or savings like early bird registrations
  • Voiding warranties on big-ticket items like your car by delaying maintenance
  • I own my own business, so if I procrastinate, I can lose clients or money from lost sales.
  • And don’t forget about the….

Intangible Costs of Procrastination:

  • Increased stress
  • Loss of credibility or sympathy:  a friend is a college professor.  Imagine two students come to her in one week asking for an extension on a project.  One always misses classes, turns in late assignments or misses them all together, and one shows up to class and usually turns stuff in on time.  Who is more likely to get the extension?
  • If you have certification or professional papers to submit, what about being lumped all together with the others, or even tagged as a procrastinator?  Ouch.

My goal in blogging is to educate and motivate.  My challenge to you this week is to re-read the above list, and determine if there is a task or two you are avoiding for no good reason – and “I don’t want to” or “I don’t feel like it” are NOT good reasons.  Once you identify the task, be the adult and get the task done. Or at least started, if it is a multi-step task.  A great weight will lift from your shoulders, trust me, and maybe next time you start to procrastinate, the dollar signs will flash in your head and you’ll get the job done instead!

Ready or Not, Here Comes Tax Time!

      Whether you prepare your taxes or take them to an accountant or professional preparer, there are steps you can take to make the process easy and painless, or at least easier, for all involved.  I am a truly lucky woman.  The really great man I married is a CPA, so I have not had to worry about the paperwork of filing taxes since we got married.  That same great guy also agreed to answer my questions this week about organizing tax papers for my blog (he is a giver like that!).

     If you’ve filed your 2011 taxes already, pat yourself on the back, then skip to #4 and #5 to see how completing your tax return next year can be even easier.

1.  Start with last year’s return.  Look at the order of last year’s return, then collect and organize your information in the same order. This is not a complete list, but it should get you started.

  • W-2s, 1099s  and K-1s
  • Cost basis information for investments sold
  • Student loan info
  • Real Estate Taxes
  • Mortgage Interest
  • Charitable Contributions
  • Union Dues
  • Unreimbursed Work Expenses
  • Childcare Expenses
  • Last pay stub of the year
  • Receipts for items if you plan to itemize
  • Also, bring information for any new life situation, like birth certificates and social security numbers for children born in the tax year. 
  • If you have made any major purchases or sales this year, like buying or selling a home, major investment or business, collect the pertinent paper work for your use or to take to your accountant appointment. 
  • You are responsible for this process.  If your taxes are professionally prepared, your preparer is responsible for asking thorough questions, but you supply the answers and the information.
  1. Get ready, Get set, Go!  You can start your forms even if you are still missing one or two pieces of information.  Start with the information you have, even if you are waiting for a final number or detail, and then complete your return when you receive that last detail.  This avoids panic mode at April 15th looms closer, and it also gives you at least an estimate of what your taxes may be, and if you will owe money or receive a refund.  An incomplete picture is better than no picture at all.  
  2. Don’t delay, period.  Perfectionism and Procrastination are not your friends.  Do yourself and your preparer (and their family) a favor.  Delaying the process makes it more difficult, just Do It. 
  3. Give your papers a home, to make next year even easier:
    1. Have a hanging folder called “Relevant Tax Info, 2011” or 2012, etc).  Keep it close at hand.  I prefer hanging folders because they are easy to drop information into.  
    2. Within the larger hanging folder, have 3 or more manila file folders.  Title them something like:
      1. Items I Know Are for Taxes for charitable donation receipts, sale and purchase information, taxable transaction information, etc.
      2. Items I Need to Ask About for items you want to ask your accountant or preparer about that may impact your taxes
      3. Receipts for Purchases you can claim, like business expenses.
    3. Add relevant tax information to this holder throughout the year, as it occurs. 
  4. Buy A Shredder.  Once your taxes are filed for 2011, you can go back (with your preparer’s blessing) and shred tax returns that are more than 4-7 years old (again, ask your professional for suggestions).  Shredding is the only safe way to dispose of those old, unnecessary tax returns.

You can do this, friends, and you’ll feel great when your taxes are filed!  A big breath of relief, then move on to something else!

Learn To Love Your Clothes Closet!

2 Comments

It is always a good time to organize your closet, but especially in January for Clean Out Your Closets Month.  Why, you ask?  An organized closet helps you focus, makes decision-making and getting ready easier,  clears the clutter and elevates your favorite stuff to new heights. 

Click here for some great Pinterest Visuals of organizing solutions!

First, ask yourself:  What does not belong in my clothes closet?  Regardless of your closet size, the following items do now belong in your closet (though I have found them in client closets over the years):

  • Old or broken computers, lamps, picture frames and golf clubs
  • dog crates for non-dog owners
  • furniture
  • 20 year-old college text books
  • other people’s stuff
  • Christmas decorations / wrapping paper
  • costumes unless it’s halloween,
  • 11 pairs of ice skates (one closet)
  • Shopping bags, un-delivered bags of clothing to donate or to go to other people
  • The list goes on and on and on….

If you need more space, even after removing these obvious clutter culprits, it is time to dig a little deeper. Luckily, there are easy filters to make more space:

  • Parcel out bedding to worthy charitable causes, under-bed storage, linen closets, top shelves in Space bags, or really big zip-lock bags.
  • Store these types of clothes in well-labeled plastic bins in the basement / attic / garage:
    • Off season clothing (summer stuff in winter, heavy stuff in summer), sporting goods and overcoats.
    • Clothes that don’t fit your life today.  E.g, old work uniforms or work suits, maternity and postpartum clothes.  If you don’t expect to wear an item in the next 6 months, it does not belong in your closet.
    • Keep clothes for today’s life, and the life you want to have, at the front of your closet.
      • Ditch the fat jeans, it makes it too easy to slide back into bad habits!
      • On a job search?  Fine tune your professional look so you are ready for the interviews and new job.
  • Purge or recycle dry cleaner bags and empty hangers.  It’s amazing how much space you can reclaim, and your closet will look so much tidier. 
  • Pull out sentimental items you won’t ever wear but want to keep as treasure (Thanks CB and MB!).  Keep them (within reason) in well-labeled, stackable plastic containers elsewhere in your home.  Attic, basement, just out of your clothes closet.
  • Let go of your shoe boxes.  I know some folks love their designer boxes.  The problem is that we forget and don’t use what is inside the boxes.  Clear boxes or over the door shoe racks are a much better solution for seeing and using what you have.
  • Cut out duplicates:  Keep less in regular rotation.  Just last week, we removed 6 white t-shirts from each of my son’s drawers.  They only wear them for sleeping lately, so having 12 in the drawer just doesn’t make sense.  We’ll keep the extras in a bin in the laundry room, and replace worn out ones as needed. 

So, now you have made some space by clearing out some closet clutter. How do you optimize the space and stuff that is left?  Two words, Friends:  Vertical Space. 

  • Use any blank wall or blank door, including the wall behind your hung clothes, for hooks and vertical hanging storage solutions (click here for some great visuals!!)
  • Add an over-the-door hook or two for Clean-ish clothes.  You know, Clean-ish?  Not dirty enough to wash, not clean enough to get hung back up with everything else?  In my closet, clean-ish clothes are usually jeans or lounging pants, pajamas, perhaps a hoodie.  Limit the hanging options and wear stuff again until it’s ready to wash. Just do not let your clean-ish stuff mound up on a chair, bench or dresser top, because then it gets too difficult to determine clean / dirty vs cleanish.
  • Double-hang your clothes closet (thanks SM), to double your rod space while better utilizing your vertical space. 
  • Add high shelves in every closet for large items or off-season clothing (thanks WM).
  • Climb your walls and doors. 
    • Use over the door hangers and hooks, 3M Command hook or permanent metal hooks screwed into the wall or wood work.
    • Mount a soft shoe sorter on a hook on the wall for handbags
    • Purchase hanging sweater stackers (per SM) to mount on your closet rod (see Pinterest page), and roll the sweaters in the compartments to use the space even better.
  • Kid Closets (thanks AM, JF, WM and CD):    
    • Hang everything on hangers, so your kids can see what they have. 
    • Use dressers or shallow bins on shelves for small or tough to stack items like undergarments, socks, jammies, t-shirts. 
    • Make Regular purging less of a drag:  Make it routine, to go through stuff a couple of times a year, remind everyone that new stuff can’t come until we purge the old, and make it fun (sweeten the deal with Pizza or ice cream when you’re done!  Thanks CD!)

Embrace an organized closet today, so you can see and use your clothes better tomorrow!

Workflow: “Initiation to Completion”

     Last week, I offered suggestions for cleaning off and setting up your workspace for National Clean Off Your Desk Day.  The next logical step is to look at your workflow, and make it work better for you.  Wikipedia defines “Workflow” as “The sequence of industrial, administrative, or other processes through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion.”

      “Workflow” sounds rather business-y, but refers to anything any of us need to complete, professional, personal or other.  The term “workflow” suggests water to me.  Sometimes water pools and sometimes it moves along, just like work.  Water is necessary to survival, plentiful and refreshing, but can also overflow and escape.  Just like work.  Our work needs to flow into our life, through our processes, reaching completion and leaving our workspace.  The whole point of workflow is movement and action. Here are 4 tips to keep your work flowing!

  1. National Clean off Your Desk Day reminded us that a clean desk can enhance workflow. 
    • Your workspace is sacred, only today’s active work should be there.
    • To decrease interruptions, keep your work and necessary resources to do complete it close at hand.  If you repeatedly have to get up to retrieve a resource, move it closer. 
    • Get non-work stuff out of your workflow, with recycling / shredding / trash close at hand.
  2. Consider your work, and know the path your work should take, from start to finish. 
    • Large companies industries define workflows for different types of jobs, like “idea for article / writer / editor / production”.    
    • Molly’s Example:  I set up a work space for a new bookkeeper last week for a client.  The first thing we did was discuss Molly’s responsibilities and workflow.  Her workflow demands efficient use of her office time, since she’ll be there only a few hours a week.  It includes, in order, reviewing all mail and sorting it into three piles, per the three different business entities she will manage.  From there, the bookkeeping process is the same, regardless of which entity she is working on.  Open mail; sort into Payables, Receivables, Other work, Paper to go to someone else, shred, recycle, etc; do actual bookkeeping; write checks; send those to the manager for clearance and signatures; then mail payments and file the rest.  Done!
    • Kate’s example:  Another client needed to pay her January bills.  First she needed to balance her check book, though, and before she could do that, she needed a print-out from her bank.  For her, the workflow was: call the bank; pick up the printout; balance the check book; pay the bills; and mail the bills.  Until she really thought about the process, she couldn’t see the logical steps to take.
  3. Eliminate or delegate what you can. 
    • What is waiting for someone else’s input?  Send that work on its’ way right away, so that other person can get on with their work, too. 
    • What work can flow to someone else, or be deleted from the stream all together? 
    • Eliminate repetitive and redundant steps.  Years ago, I paid our personal bills and then my husband the CPA would take all the information and enter it into Quicken.  He now does it all, cutting the work in half (and he is really good at it!). 
    • Most definitions of workflow look at processes, not actual work items, but let’s face it – paper and work are usually synonymous.  In my paper management classes, my first suggestion is to get rid of as much new paper as possible.  Cancel catalogs, take your name off of mailing lists, receive bank statements, subscriptions and newsletters electronically or via email.
  4. The definition ends with “Completion.”.  Roll that word around your brain and really think about what it means.  Completion (satisfied sigh).  The work is done.  Now stand up, put away what needs put away, and for a moment, appreciate that feeling of satisfaction that comes from Completion.  Then get back to work!

Six Essential Steps to An Organized Desk

1 Comment

Spend an hour on your desk for National Clean off your Desk Day!   

     Focus on visual results, and save acting on ideas for another day. Corral your papers into meaningful places, so you can see what you have and start getting things done.

     Most folks are capable of sorting and piling papers into categories of their own choosing. But mid-sort, they find they need to reclaim their work space, and the papers get piled together again and set aside, instead of finding a new home. So the desk stays a mess, and they never feel “done”.

     Another challenge with papers is that they typically represent something else, like a memory, an event, a task to complete or an idea we want to keep. Acknowledging that, you need a physical storage system for your papers and ideas, and the motivation and perseverance to finish and maintain your system.  Here is what you need to do: 

    1. Remove non work related items from your desk (see last year’s blog for a list).
    2. Set up a physical system for Passive Papers (Idea from Freedom Filer, and tweaked for my clients!).
      1. Passive Papers have been acted upon, and now wait for a pre-determined time until they are no longer needed for reference (e.g., receipts, paid bills, balanced bank statements, etc.).
      2. The storage system consists of 24 hanging folders in an open top vertical holder on your desktop
        (preferred) or a very near desk drawer.  Label the folders 2 for each month, with a  “- Even Year” or  “- Odd Year” tacked on the end.  You will end up with two full years of folders, one set for last year (2011, ending in “- Odd Year”), and one for this year (“ –  Even Year”).  The Odd Year folders will hold last year’s papers from your desktop, and the Even Year folders are for adding to during 2012.  Few papers need to be kept longer than one calendar year. 
    3. Set up a physical system for Active Papers, also in an open vertical folder holder on your desk top, with folder names based on What Actions To Take or By Project, or sometimes, both!  For Example:
      1. What Actions To Take:  Receipts for Reimbursement; Calls to Make; Bills to Pay; Forms to complete and return; or Coupons, gift cards and shopping ideas.
      2. By Project (examples from my desk):  Past clients to check in with; Proposal for Home Office and Productivity Class Series; LLC Research and Paperwork; Event Folder, May Communion Party.
      3. Strategic Management, product development ideas
    4. Set up a box for Archival Papers / Treasures.  Archival Papers are long-term record keeping papers, like home purchase papers, filed taxes, appliance manuals and warranties, wills, etc.  Treasures are school project, travel papers, received greeting cards, photos, etc.  These are all projects for another day, get them off your desk.
    5. Grab two bags, one each for papers to shred later and recycling, and start distributing your desk papers to their new homes.  Grab a notebook and jot ideas down as they occur to you, do not get distracted and lose focus.
    6. Now, Get Up and Put Your Stuff Away.  You have distributed your papers to your new folders, but you may have other items that need to go elsewhere in your home or office.  Get up and Put Them Away in their final homes.  Even if this 10 minutes is in the middle of your project, Get Up and Put them away.  Then bask in the glow of your clean desk top, and keep going.  A fellow organizer calls this the Stand And Deliver step, but I can’t find out who that was, and I would happily give her credit.  The point is…. Embrace “Done”!  And feel good about your efforts!

Next Week I will offer some insight on work-flow and productivity, to get things done now that your desk is looking better!

Get Organized and Save Money

3 Comments

     In this uncertain life, not to mention economy, it pays (literally) to be prepared and organized. A small investment now in time and resources can save you hundreds and even thousands of dollars annually.

Make Some Money on Your Unwanted Items:

  • Sell your clutter. Clutter is defined as anything you don’t need, use or treasure. Turn those unwanted collectibles, furniture or clothes into cash at a consignment store or garage sale or on eBay. And while you’re at it, get rid of the storage unit that has been holding all of this clutter. Let your clutter become someone else’s treasure.
  • Return your clutter. Return any items that you purchased months ago but have not used. One of my clients, who still had clothes that she purchased months ago in a shopping bag, realized just how uncommitted she was to those items and took them back. She received a refund of at least 50 percent of what she paid. Money in your pocket is better than clutter any day.

Save Money on Your Stuff:

  • Buy only what you need. Being organized means knowing what you have and where it is in your home. Designate a permanent location for your stuff and stick with it. This will prevent you from purchasing duplicates of what you already have.
  • Take care of what you have. Don’t allow your treasures to be lost or crushed at the bottom of your closet under mounds of stuff you don’t need. Don’t let the clutter in your garage force you to subject your car to the elements. Don’t let your prescriptions expire simply because you lost track of them at the back of your kitchen or medicine cabinet.
  • Clutter covers up what we do need, use and treasure; by clearing the clutter, you can tend to what is truly important and save money, too!

Save and Make Money with Paper Management:

  • Retain and organize your receipts. Keep receipts, manuals and warranty information for appliances, electronics and other big-ticket items, together in one place.
  • Take the time to fill out and mail the warranty cards. When something breaks down, you will have all the information you need to repair or replace the item.
  • Never pay another late fee. Store your outstanding bills in a file labeled “To Be Paid” in big, bold letters. Then set aside an hour every other week to pay those bills.
  • Take advantage of sales and deals. Retailers offer great money-back specials and rebates because they don’t expect the general public to send in the paperwork. Take the time to mail in that paperwork, and follow-up one month later. Those free product coupons and in-store checks can really add up.
  • Cash in those coupons, gift cards and certificates. I worked with a client recently who had accumulated $300 in local restaurant gift certificates. She used them up and saved some money in food and entertainment costs.

Self and Time Management:

  • Do more for yourself. Trim your son’s hair; mow your own yard; change your own oil; clean your own house; groom your own pet. If you are paying for services, you may be able to save money by doing these things yourself.
  • Ask for what you really want. Instead of more clutter, wouldn’t you love to have some time to pamper yourself with a massage? How about a donation in your name to your favorite charity? Or perhaps a gift of a day of yard work from your family is more to your liking. If you want less stuff but more of something else (time, help, love, self-care, etc.,) just ask for it.

     For me, being organized means I get to make the most of all that I have.  That means money, time, stuff and relationships.  Get organized, and make the most of what you have, too!

Your Stuff Needs A Home

I was recently reminded of the importance of Assigning A Home for your stuff.  Julie Morgenstern, in her book Organizing From the Inside Out outlines 5 steps to the Organizing Process: Sort, Purge, Assign a Home, Containerize and Equalize.   This week is about Step 3:  Assign a Home.   Why:

  • Assigning a home, accessible and understood by all, helps everyone in the house to put things away where the item belongs and retrieve it again when needed. 
  • It is better to Assign A Home, and perhaps change it later, than to just leave things floating around your house.  Even a wrong home is better than no home at all for an item.
  • If you look and realize that your stuff is floating around your home (sometimes referred to as CLUTTER!), it’s likely because:
  •        You have not assigned a home for your important items; or
  •        You have not committed to or created a habit of putting things away; or
  •         The stuff is not really that important and it needs to go away.
  • Time can be saved when we don’t need to search for lost items, and money can be saved by using what we have and not re-buying lost items.
  • Assign A Home and Only One Home for things, to make it easier to find things and to maintain your stuff. 

When Assigning a Home for your stuff,  Consider who uses the item.  For example:

  • If your item is used by kids or short people (like me) assign a home low; or
  • If your item is used only by adults and needs to be out of the hands of youngsters, store it up high or behind locked doors. 
  • We store breakfast cereal in a bottom cabinet because that is where my youngest son can reach it and he likes the independence of “making” his own breakfast.

Consider the item itself:

  • If it is heavy or awkward, store it close to the ground or on open easily accessed shelves;
  • If it is light, it can be stored higher up;
  • If it is fragile, keep in out of the main traffic areas. 
  • Does it need to be kept dry?  Cool?  Warm? Away for bugs / moisture/ etc.?

Consider how you use the item:

  • Our backpacks are stored by the back door, because that is where we use them. 
  • Everyday shoes are stored by the door, for quick access.  Extra shoes, less often worn, are stored in closets, where there is more storage space. 
  • Once you choose the home for your item, label the home and items to help you and other family members remember what goes where.
  • Also, once you assign a home and label it, you can use the absence of something on a shelf as a chance to inventory your stuff. 
  • Understand the value of Assigning A Home and putting things away.  If you want to find an item again, you need to commit to putting it in it’s home.  I know it is tempting to just not put Anything away, but leaving everything out DOES NOT help us find the important stuff again.

     Real life:  While on vacation last week, Assigning A Home to certain items was so helpful.   As at home, we establish one place for family dirty laundry, which makes it easy to do the laundry, find lost items and re-pack when it is time to leave.  My hubby and I assign a home to cell phones and rental car keys, so these important items don’t get lost.  Also, as at home, all bags for leaving (like the beach bag or backpacks and my purse) are kept near the door to ease transitions and help ensure we actually get where we are going in a timely manner.

     If your stuff is important enough to keep, It deserves a home.  Assign a Home to your Stuff, and stick with putting it away!

Soar to New Heights: Your Landing and Launch Pad

1 Comment

Every day is a good day to to work on your “Landing and Launch Pad”.

Your Landing and Launch Pad:

  • Is the flat surface near a door where you drop your stuff and bags when you enter your home and pick them up again to take with you when you leave;
  • Is crucial to your success in arriving at destinations on time and prepared; and
  • Is one organizational project that will improve your life immediately.

Why do you need a Landing and Launch Pad?

  • We come and go from home daily, often multiple times! At Klimczak Central, 5 people come and go, to and from many destinations and events.
  • Assign a Home to your necessary items (like backpacks, briefcase, keys and cell phones), corralling them in one location.  Eliminate the last-minute scramble on the way out the door!
  • You probably have a L/L Pad already, but maybe you haven’t given it much thought.  This is your chance to consider your stuff and space, and make both work better for you!

What belongs on a Landing and Launch Pad?

  • Essentials like backpacks, briefcase, keys and cell phones
  • For Launch
    • Shoes, coats and accessories
    • Boots, gloves and hats in winter
    • Umbrellas, sunscreen, ball caps and sunglasses in summer
    • Activity Accessories:
      • For Example, Bags for Soccer with shin guards and uniforms; a bag for Band with music and instruments, etc.; and the bags to go to Choir with me, Cub Scout meetings with us, etc.
  • For Landing:
    • A place to hang your keys and empty your pockets, an envelope for receipts, a jar for loose change, and a shallow bowl for your pocket contents
  • Time between Landing and Launch:
    • Phone chargers and a surge protector
    • Stock items for purses, backpacks and diaper bags, like our stash of small snacks, tissue packets, chap stick, band-aids, anti-bacterial lotion or wipes

 Where should a Landing and Launch Pad be, and what does it look like?

  • Just like your Command Center, let function dictate form.
  • Choose one door as your main entrance, and funnel all the family through there so stuff doesn’t end up all over the house.
  • A L/L Pad near your coat closet is a great idea, but not always feasible, for example our coat closet is at the front door, and our L/L Pad is at the back near the garage door.  We just limit the number of coats out at any time to 1 per child, and 2 per adult.
  • We set a 2-pair shoe limit per person at the L/L Pad to cut clutter.  Extras are stored in bedroom closets.  This time of year, we see boots and sneakers, and sneakers and crocs in the summer.  (I am the worst offender of the 2 pair rule, but I am working on it!)
  • To encourage participation, consider each family member.  For example, my youngest son has a row of hooks for his coat and backpack at his eye level, and he’s great about hanging his stuff there!
  • Use vertical space – coat racks, baskets under benches, over-the-door shoe organizer with pockets for shoes, of course, but also seasonal accessories like gloves and mittens, or umbrellas and sunscreen.
  • We keep it basic.  A bench for staging bags and for putting on shoes, hooks for coats and bags at varying heights for all of us, a basket for extra hats and gloves, and a large rubber (waterproof) mat for boots and shoes.

As with any Organizing Endeavor, maintenance is critical to your Landing and Launch Pad:

  1. Pick a spot for your essential items and stick with it.  Label it, if that helps.  But ALWAYS USE IT!
  2. Give each person assigned and labeled space (e.g. a hook or two, a cubby or basket, even a magazine holder on a shelf) for their Launch stuff AND USE IT!
  3. Re-pack bags immediately upon returning home.
  4. Keep only current season (weather and sports) items in your Landing/Launch Pad, to cut confusion and clutter.    There is so much activity there, it is essential to keep only the stuff you really need.

Invest a little time and thought (and perhaps a little money) this week, and set up your Landing and Launch Pad to make your comings and goings run more smoothly!