• Healthy pets need routine care.  Keep your pet medicines in the kitchen in easy to access spot. Mark your calendar for monthly medicines and annual shots that keep your pets in great health.  Use your recurring events feature on your phone or your paper planner to mark in these important dates.  
• Daily walks with your pet enhance your and their lives.  Make it easy with a pretty hook for the leashes by the door.  Assign a time, once a day, that you get out and enjoy the fresh air with them.   
• Share the responsibilities of pet care with your family members.  Post a community chart with your kids’ assignments for feeding, walking, and bathing your pets. 
• Keep your pet foods in air tight containers on the floor of  your pantry.  Having a measuring cup in the container dedicated to feeding makes it easier too!  

Our pets are our family! What do you do to remain organized with your furry family members?

I love my new shiny status as Superstar!  It is a collaboration I participate in just about every month, with other organizers throughout the country. But to me it is really a shining star about collaboration in general. I love to find partners that are a great fit for what I don’t do well.  As a member of this collaboration, I am prompted monthly to submit.  The topic is already chosen, so in many ways it is just following up on a great idea. 

How do I use this collaboration process throughout my work and life?  I find having partners who give you enough information to get started on whatever the task, either with a template or not, and then move forward.  It can be when I want to give a speech, add a new aspect to my business, or even make dinner for our family.  It is always more fun when you work together!

How can collaboration help you get started, get finished or get moving on a goal?

• Dress for Success. Share your work attire with those re-entering the work place.
• FamilyTime Humble Thrift Shop
• Humble Area Assitance Ministries Thrift Shop (2 locations)
• Cellphones for Soldiers
• Goodwill. Its where people get jobs!
• Volunteers for Animal Protection Thrift Shop

• šElectronics: Best Buy.com, earth911.com
• šCDs: Swap.com
• šJunk mail: www.catalogchoice.org
• šBooks: cash4books.net, BookScouter.com
• šBeanies: beaniesforbagdad.com, fire station
• šAppliances: GotJunk
• šShredding:theshredguy.net

More from this article! http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204296804577124742529431640.html

Kingwood professional organizer Ellen Delap and her company Professional – Organizer.com will be participating in this year’s Dress For Success Houston’s S.O.S. (Send One Suit) Drive.  The effort provides interview suits, confidence boosts and career development to more than 45,000 women in over 75 cities each year.  Dress for Success is a not-for-profit organization that helps low-income women make tailored transitions into the workforce. Each Dress for Success client receives one suit when she has a job interview and a second suit when she gets the job.

 If you would like to contribute, please bring your interview appropriate suit in excellent condition, cleaned, pressed and on a hanger to Kingwood Country Club on March 6, 2012 from 5:00  – 6:30 p.m.  Don’t have suit to donate?  Dress For Success Houston suggests donating $75 toward the cost of a suit for clients over size 14. Receipts for donations will be sent directly by Dress For Success Houston.  For more information call 281-360-3928 or email edelap@professional-organizer.com.

• Fire up your personal performance.
• Unleash your profit potential™.
• Discover new strategies to manage the demands of running your own business.
• Get a handle on the minutia and details that prevent you from doing the ‘heavy lifting’ to move your business to the next level.
• Quiet the ‘fear voices’ and manifest a larger vision for your company.
• Have a profitable business and time for what’s important to you!
• Live a richer, more fulfilling life
• Have powerful support systems that allow you to free up time and grow your business at the same time.
• And lots more!!  Check out the session descriptions below.

Fire Up Your Biz – Enrich Your Life was born from the 1000s of conversations that we have had with business owners just like you about what holds them back from really going where they want to go with their business.

Join us for the fun and learning!  https://war91778.infusionsoft.com/go/FireUp/EDelap

• Time for bed.  Even adults needs a bedtime.  The National Sleep Foundation states that adults need 7 – 9 hours of rest to be most productive at home and work.  Setting a reasonable bedtime and establishing good routines to promote sleep make a big difference. Start by having a time in mind to get in bed, and work backwards to get ready for bed.  Turn off tv, ipads and any other electronics an hour before your head hits the pillow.  Strive for a consistent bedtime to get a great night’s sleep.

• Give yourself time. Being realistic about how long a task takes and giving yourself permission to take the time to get a task complete can be a relief.  If it takes you an hour, two or three to pay bills, set a time that allows for you to completely get this job done.  Not sure how long any task will take? Double up on your best guess and then write it in your calendar. It is sure to be completed with this accountability.

• Take time between.  When we have appointments scheduled back to back or a long series of tasks to complete, having a little room (“white space” visually on your calendar), takes the stress away.  It is rare that anything runs smoothly, so giving yourself this space eases the stress.  Just in case you arrive early or have extra time, take a magazine in your car or carrying case just for fun!    

Time is on your side! How will you be setting yourself up for success this year?

  Legal

Will, Durable Power of Attorney

Medical Power of Attorney, Living Will/Directive to Physicians/HIPPA release form

Declaration of Guardian and Appointment of Agent to Control Disposition of Remains

Revocable Living Trust

Driver’s license

Safe Deposit Keys and Bank address

Social Security Cards

Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificate, Adoption papers, Divorce papers, Military discharge

Passports

Home

Copies of home and auto insurance, with Insurance Agent name and phone number

Home closing documents

Home Title, Car titles and other Vehicle Titles

Utilities phone numbers and account numbers

Medical

Medical and prescription insurance cards

Allergies

Prescription names and amounts

Doctors names and phone numbers

Financial

Bank names and account numbers

Name of financial advisor and phone number

Investment account numbers

Copy of taxes

Original life insurance policies

Loans and outstanding debts

Credit card copies

Credit reports

Royalties, Certificates of Deposit, Stock Certificates, and other investments

Emergency Contacts

Family and Friends

Home helpers and neighbors that have access to your home

“To be contacted” in case of death or illness

 Miscellaneous

Passwords to all online accounts

Burial policies, Pre-paid funeral arrangements

Tamara will share not only the important papers, but an important story to remind us all of how these papers are crucial when a disaster occurs.

Ellen will share additional papers and way to organize them in case of an emergency.

Whether you are aging, your parents are aging, or you just want to ease your childdren’s minds, join us for this seminar. 

Free and open to the public.