- hang up our coat, put our keys on the hook where we’ll find them when we need them, and tuck our shoes out the of way;
- put the tools away in the tool box instead of leaving them out where they may get lost or forgotten;
- put my cell phone on the charger instead of just on my desk;
- put today’s mail in my in-box instead of in another heap on some different surface where it will get ignored and gather dust.
Tag: organized
An Organized “Deck the Halls”!
It’s time to deck those halls! Boughs of holly, optional. Here are 6 tips to help with the process!
1. First-Out-Last-In Box: There was a moment over the weekend when I silently thanked my January 2015 self for taking a little extra time and care putting stuff away after last Christmas. Our First-Out-Last-In Box is just that – the box of decorations that comes out at the beginning of Advent, and most of the stuff in it stays out until after New Years. In January, the box sits, mostly filled, in my laundry room for a few weeks as the last few straggling decorations get corralled and put away until the next Christmas. Which leads me to….
2. Remember what is important. For me, Christmas is about the spirituality of Advent, the birth of our Lord, and spending special time with family and friends. Therefore, we put out our Advent wreath and Calendar and and Nativity Scene first. The creche stays up until we celebrate the Epiphany on January 6th. We add table runners, candles and a wreath on the door, and the tree and the rest of the decorations wait until mid-December.
Edited, 11/29/2016:
2.5. As you decorate your home this year, Consider the scary and unloved decorations that haven’t made it out of the box this year, or for the past few years (see my recent Halloween Decor article, http://peaceofmindpo.com/2016/10/18/what-if-your-hal…ot-in-a-good-way/!). Now is the time to toss the icky stuff! Pass things along to loved ones, sell stuff on FB, donate items to your local charity – NOW, while they are accepting and re-selling Holiday decorations.
And when you’re ready to put up your holiday decor:
4. De-decorate. Take down the every-day decor. Honestly, there’s not always room for both. every day and holiday. Dedicate one of the empty holiday decoration containers (you have nice, solid, plastic water-and-bug proof containers, right?) to the non-holiday decor, and leave that container close to your storage access. This will make re-decorating after the holidays so much easier!
5. De-decorate, then dust. Then decorate for Christmas. Then vacuum. Glitter, pine needles, glitter, scraps of paper, glitter.
6. Put your empty decoration containers away. Yes, all the way away. Don’t tuck them in a closet, or leave them piled in your basement. Put them back in the crawl space / attic, etc. Your holiday stuff could be out for a month, do you really want to stumble over empty boxes for that long?
Enjoy!! Fa-la-la-la-laaaaa- la-la-la-la!
Receive more ideas and suggestions like these;
Book time with me in person or virtually;
Arrange a presentation for your upcoming event; or
Discover the benefits of Organizational Coaching;
Please contact me.
Call / text 708.790.1940
Online at http://peaceofmindpo.com
www.Facebook.com/MColleenKlimczakCPO
Via Twitter, @ColleenCPO
Via LinkedIn, M. Colleen Klimczak, CPO
Back to Normal, Only Better. Because I am Grateful.
For me, this week has been about getting Back to Normal. Normal, only better.
Because I am grateful, and gratitude makes everything better.
Gratitude is central to getting organized.
Gratitude elevates even the everyday stuff to Better.
Gratitude helps us prioritize our time and efforts around the people and things that we value most.
Gratitude for what we have makes us want … less. Less clutter, less drama, less stuff. Gratitude helps us get organized when we can appreciate the stuff we have and purge the stuff we don’t need.
You see, while I love Advent, Christmas and New Years, I am also relieved as they draw to a close. We will keep our Nativity up until the Christmas Season’s official end on Sunday, January 11th with the Baptism of Our Lord, but we are getting back to Normal in most other areas.
And I am grateful. This Season was wonderful, and then I had the flu for a week. I am just so thankful for our wonderful Christmas, and now to feel better, to have my family healthy and happy, to be able to do normal things again.
Expected house guests motivated me to thoroughly clean my house and get to the grocery, then the guests cancelled their plans. So my house is clean and fully stocked, and I am grateful for our home and health, and ready for our guests when they reschedule!
I worked over the weekend, first with a wonderful coaching client and then with a new client as we reclaimed her second bedroom. I am so grateful for what I do professionally!
As I put away our Christmas decorations, I spent a few extra minutes purging the old and broken ones, and fitting everything back in fewer storage bins. I’ll be grateful next December that I cleaned up the decorations.
The boys went back to school, so we all returned to better routines.
I backed up, cleaned off and updated my IPhone and IPad. And I am so grateful for technology, for keeping in touch and running a business from home. And for making the flu a little more bearable, with downloadable books on my Kindle App, and movies via Amazon Prime.
So life is getting back to normal, only better. Because I am grateful for normal. We always should be grateful for all that we have, but sometimes we forget.
Today and this week and this month and this year, it’s your opportunity be grateful and to get back to normal-only-better. Be grateful for you what you have. Let Gratitude help you focus on the important parts of your life. Wrap around all the good things, and make room for more by letting go of clutter and want.
Keep Your Cool Technology From Getting Cluttered!
My family really loves technology. I have a few tech items that I am extremely attached to – my IPhone 5, my IPad and my laptop. But those are just MY gadgets. Everyone else has gadgets, too. We even loaned the 9 year-old an old IPhone 3 to use as an IPod touch (music, games and apps, no internet or phone usage) on a recent long-distance car ride.
So between 5 people, we have 4 phones, 3 IPod touches, 3 Nintendo 3DS handheld games, a couple of Kindles and digital cameras, and my IPad. Plus 3 laptops and a desk top computer, and an xBox 360 and Wii.
We embrace our technology, but the accompanying clutter can be maddening! Here are some ways we clear our tech clutter, try a few for yourself this week!
Tame the snake pit— I mean— chargers and cords.
1. Dedicate 1 charging station.
- We use a surge protector strip on the kitchen desk. Maybe you need more than one, for different family members, but limit yourself to one or two stations, to help keep track of necessary items and share resources. (Do this when you travel, too, so things don’t get left behind!)
- Charge where you work. I leave my IPhone charger cord plugged into my laptop, and charge my phone while I work. My husband keeps an extra phone charger at the office.
- I received a MOS organizer, http://mosorganizer.com/, to review and test in my office setting. A great gadget, the MOS Organizers is a magnetic object that holds the end of your charging cord between charges. The attractive 3.5” white triangle holds the charger cord end and keeps it from dropping off your desk/ charging area when not in use.
- My hubby also received a very cool “Powerbot” wireless charger for his phone. He only needs to place his phone on the disc, and it charges! No more cords! (this only works for select tech items, though).
2. Match up your chargers with your current tech gadgets (phones, cameras, IPod, etc.).
3. Label the chargers / cords:
- Tag the chargers with labels listing tech item type (camera, GPS, cell phone, etc.), date and owner’s initials. If you don’t have a labeler, you can also fold a blank mailing label around the charger cord, and jot the initials on that.
- Bundle the cords. Most are longer than necessary. We use cord coils (picked them up at Office Max), to rein in the chaos.
- Or try bundling the cords with different colored Velcro straps (each person gets their own color), or even patterned craft tapes.
- I have to share a suggestion to hang charger cords in the inside of a cabinet door with command hooks when not in use (check out all 34 of these awesome ideas, http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/how-to-de-clutter-your-entire-life
- Or these handy charging ideas, http://www.workingmother.com/content/desk-control .
4. Any chargers or cords not matched up with a tech items? Put them in a freezer bag, with today’s date and an expiration / recycle date on it, about 6 months from now.
5. When in doubt… Occasionally, I will put all the cords away in the drawer under the charging strip. I figure, everyone knows which cord is theirs, and will take out what they need. And things will look tidy for a while!
Keep your Apps and Updates up to date. At least once a week for my phone, I download all the app and system updates available. I update my IPad occasionally, too, but not as often as my phone.
Set limits. No phones at the dinner table, or after 10 pm. The wi-fi to the kids’ IPods turns off at 10 pm, and all tech items are left in the kitchen overnight. No one needs to send or receive texts after 10 pm. When the boys were younger, we set TV limits, too, for example, the TV in the basement was set to only age appropriate programming.
And unplug sometimes. Seriously. I love my technology, but I like to just talk to people, too. And nap. And read, like an actual book. And go hiking. And tickle my son.
So, spend just a little time this week, and clear some tech clutter!