Welcome to Mission #34 of our 52 Get Organized Missions. In Mission 1 we Filled a Hu-u-ge Trash Bag. In Mission 8 we Decluttered 50 Items. Now it’s time again to get rid of more stuff – to simplify life, have more space, get better organized, and, especially in this mission, give something to others. […]
Category Archives: Clutter
Welcome to Mission #32 of our 52 Get Organized Missions. The better organized your laundry room and laundry systems, the less time they’ll cost you. In this mission we’ll take 3 steps to help you get organized in your laundry room. If you’ve completed Get Organized Mission #31: Organize Your Living Area, congratulations! Next you’ll […]
Welcome to Mission #31 of our 52 Get Organized Missions. The living room can be the heart of a home – where you relax, where you enjoy conversation with friends, where the family ‘lives’ much of the time. So if your living room is disorganized, chaotic or downright embarrassing – let’s fix that now. You’ll […]
Have you set new year’s resolutions to get better organized? Here are three strategies for starting off the year on the right track – and boosting your chances of keeping those resolutions beyond January. 🙂 1. Scrap The Storage If you’ve got stuff squirreled away in storage, the attic or the garage, then this is […]
Welcome to Mission #28 of our 52 Get Organized Missions. Last week we took stock of your business tasks, in order to improve time management at work. This week we’ll do the same for your home organization tasks, and find ways to be more effective with domestic time management. This will be our final mission […]
Q: Help! My child is so messy. What can I do? A: Try these ideas: Take her to Ikea & let her pick out bins, hooks, etc that she likes, so she’ll be more likely to use them. Get him to surrender an old toy, DVD, etc whenever he gets a new one. Model […]
Hoarders Season 2 starts in the US this week, so I thought it timely to revisit a couple of recent hoarding articles. If you have mild but unhelpful hoarding tendencies, you might identify the excuses that keep your life cluttered in this post: Hoarding: 7 Lies That Keep You Caught In Clutter If you […]
24
Nov
Nov
Use This Grocery List Template To Get Organized For Thanksgiving Doing your grocery shopping for Thanksgiving? Use this list to keep track of the items you need, by category. You can type into it and save it to your computer, or print out and write. Either way it’s re-usable. It’s available in my Holiday Planners […]
Organizing guru, Oprah regular, and fellow Australian Peter Walsh has some good advice for organizationally-challenged teens – and their parents. In a recent Good Morning America article (from which I’ve taken *these quotes) he countered some of the common excuses that lead to adolescent organizing angst. If your teen says: Peter replies*: But my stuff’s […]
Time to give your fridge a mini detox? Spend 5 minutes removing expired condiments, sprouting fruit and vegetables, and other noxious former foodstuffs from your fridge. Give the shelves a quick wipe down. Low on any refrigerated items? Pop them on your list. Now doesn’t that feel fresher? 🙂 This was a popular Today’s […]
Welcome to Mission #24 of our 52 Get Organized Missions. One of the secrets to personal organization is to do a little every day. Unless you actually enjoy cleaning, filing and organizing (I sure don’t!), it’s more enjoyable and effective to focus on daily or weekly chores than massive, exhausting sprees. So this week we’ll […]
This week we turn to the bathroom. Follow these 3 simple steps and you’ll have your own little spa in your home.
Remember: you only need 30 minutes for the basic mission. Extended Options are below.
There are a several ways to approach this, both for you and your partner.
Start by making peace with the fact that you can’t change someone else. In fact, if you push too hard your partner may become defensive, making the situation worse.
Instead, focus on getting what you need (perhaps a clutter-free space of your own?), modeling the benefits of hoarding-free behavior in your own life, and reinforcing positive change in your partner. The first post, below, is about working with a disorganized colleague, but the three tips are equally applicable to living with a stuff-loving partner.
Here are some cool articles on aspects of happiness, productivity and personal organization that I’ve found around the web in the past couple of weeks. I hope you find something helpful here. 🙂
Business & Career
* When a Colleague’s Mistakes Affect You | Harvard Business
* How are you going to Crush It in 2010? | Escape From Cubicle Nation
* Focus on Strengths, Not Correcting Weaknesses | Dumb Little Man
* 101 Small Business Mistakes (and What You Can Learn From Them) | Wise Bread
Hoarders on Oprah
Oprah has yet another show about hoarders this week. It got me thinking about the lies we tell ourselves to avoid letting go of the stuff that fills up our homes and lives.
Of course extreme hoarding can be associated with psychiatric disorders. More commonly, though, we justify mounting mounds of matter with the little lies we tell ourselves.
Here are 7 of the most common self-delusions I hear, along with a decent dose of reality.
One of the best things you can do to feel organized throughout your day is to prepare well the night before. So in this mission we’ll create your personal Organized Life Bedtime Routine.
You’ll absolutely love the difference completing this mission will make to your daily stress management, time management, and home organization.
Remember: you only need 30 minutes for the basic mission. Extended Options are below.
‘Decluttering is a way to identify what’s obsolete in your life,’ says Julie Morgenstern in the Woman’s Day article 12 Reasons to Unclutter Your Space. ‘Getting rid of stuff creates a sense of energy, giving you room to think, which frees you to do more with your life.’ Julie’s so right. People constantly tell me […]
This week I had the pleasure of being interviewed about organizing your office on the Small Business with Prue MacSween show on Sydney’s Radio 2GB 873AM. We chatted about: How to avoid piles of paper and inbox overflow. Solution: make quick decisions. How to organize your desk for better productivity. Solution: use my ‘real estate’ […]
Welcome to Mission #19 of our 52 Get Organized Missions. If you want to increase productivity, motivation and mental clarity, one of the best things you can do is to create an effective workspace. So in this mission, we’ll follow 3 steps to transform your work zone into an organized office. If you’ve completed the […]
I was recently asked this question on my Facebook Professional Page: Q: I don’t have a lot of energy to organize my house. I need quick tips that will help me get going. A: Here are 5 house-organizing strategies, from previous posts, that don’t need a big effort or a lot of time. But these […]