COVID-19 (Summer) Organizing Makes Me Happy

 

covid-19 summer organizing

Congratulations to those of you who have been decluttering and organizing during COVID-19! Time spent decluttering has helped you feel productive, organized and calm. For those of you who have not, this transition to Summer is a great time to get started and get organized.

 

Every Summer, regardless of pandemic or not, we have decluttering and organizing to do. This has to do with routines of our organized lives. These routines include editing what has come in throughout the year and transitioning to the Summer season. Our lives, homes and offices require setting aside time for ongoing editing. Each seasonal transition is a good time to do this work. Most importantly, by getting back to our traditional routines, we are recreating some level of “normal” for ourselves and our homes. Here are seven traditional and one new area for us to work on for Summer Organizing.

 

Wardrobe Seasonal Swap

In Houston we had a longer Spring than usual. Summer heat is here! Many of us have a Summer and Winter closet. It’s time to do our seasonal switch with whites and lighter clothes. It’s a great time to edit what we did not wear, what we do not love and what has gone out of style. If your Summer items have gotten grey, underarms are stained or if you have lost your love for items, you can declutter these. Donation locations are open again so drop off a bag of these items asap.

 

Pantry Prep

The pandemic may have caused some chaos in your pantry. As we enter the “New Normal” phase, we are assessing what is in our pantry and how to use it up. If you have found way too many cans of green beans, donate to local food banks. Reassess what your Summer meals will be. There are lots of veggie co-ops to bring in fresh produce boxes this Summer. Re-establish your snack zone for Summer consumption. A pantry prep can help you save money and help you lose extra weight put on during our extended time at home.

 

Kids School Work

It has been an extremely different school year! Even so, this week papers will be coming home from school. Take an hour with your kiddo and go over school papers with them. It’s a time to reflect on the successes of the year. Determine what is precious and let go of the rest. Do the same with school papers that are from your “corona” school. Keep your precious papers organized in a bin in your kiddo’s closet.

 

Books, Magazines and Recipe Organizing

This Spring we have been reading more, clipping more recipes and holding our magazines to take on a trip to read. Divide up your recipes to those you have prepared, those to prepare and those that need to be tossed. Share your books with friends and place your books to read by a comfy chair. Working steadily on reading and recipes keeps you and your items up to date and uncluttered.

 

Summer Linen Switch

Fluff up your pillows and take off your heavy comforter because Summer is here. It’s time to switch your dark colors with whites. Assess your linen closet and let go of ripped, thread bare or stained linens. Think about how many sheet sets are needed and donate to pet shelters. (By the way, did you know that pet adoptions are at an all time high?)

 

Summer Routines

Routines have been rough this Spring. It’s time to initiate Summer routines to create a level of calm and sense of organization. Maybe your have not had a family meeting in a while. It’s important to host a family meeting to determine everyone’s bedtime. During your family meeting, recreate your family responsibility chart for partnering around the house on meals, laundry and cleaning. At your next meeting, discuss tech time and learning time. With the “New Normal” of COVID-19, we have the possibility to gain traction on family communication and routines.

 

Summer Self Care

Self care in the Summer may mean more time to sit in the sun (with sunscreen) and read magazines. Find dedicated time to regroup and refresh. Take up a new hobby or sport you have been thinking of for a while.

 

COVID-19 Safety

Masks and hand sanitizer are available everywhere right now. HEB, Walgreens and many other stores have these at the front of the shop. Be sure you have your stock organized and placed for easy access. Organize these items in your car, purse and bags to be readily accessible.

 

This year Summer Organizing may feel a bit different. Pace yourself with your organizing. We are in a marathon, not a sprint, during the pandemic. Give yourself a reward for each step you take like flowers on your kitchen counter or a bubble bath. As always, I am here to support you and cheer you on! And sometimes just sharing on social media what you have accomplished is the best reward.

 

 

COVID-19 Get Organized for the New Normal

get organized for the new normal

 

Thinking of all that we have been navigating together, I want to congratulate you! You have been resourceful and creative, finding new ways to accomplish tasks.  In thinking of others and acting with kindness, you have supported small businesses, donated to help others and sewn masks for our community and medical professionals.  You have been with family in small spaces, working from home and working on corona school. It has been a learning curve with new technology and adjusting to old school phone calls as needed to resolve challenges.  For all of this time, you have had ups and downs too. High Five and Way to Go! You are a champion!

We are again entering a new phase with transitions.  I learned that there are five phases and soon we will enter phase 3. Who would have thought that masks, hand sanitizer and temperature checks would be a daily part of our lives? And here we are!  After our quarantine, we are venturing forth into the New Normal. It’s time for us to get organized! Getting organized means reorienting ourselves to tasks, time management, and self care.

 

Get familiar with the New Normal

From the grocery store to the work place, we have a new set of ways to communicate and go about business. It’s important for us to feel comfortable with the changes and incorporate these into our lives. Masks may be required or not, so keep your mask easy to access and clean. Your work place or other places may require temperature checks. Check your own temperature at home if in doubt or if you feel a bit off. Social distancing of 6 feet continues as we work and shop which means more time to do anything. We continue to clean and disinfect all areas including offices, bathrooms, common areas, and shared electronic equipment routinely. Knowing what to expect will require some reading and research.  Feeling familiar with the new “rules” will take a little time. Acting on each of these new ways to engage will also take more time.

 

Give yourself time

We have certainly been existing in a time warp.  What seemed to be seamless before is often a bit clunky.  This is the case with ordering through websites with delays in delivery due to USPS or Amazon. You may be applying online for unemployment or loans which take more time that you imagined. Checking to see if your applications are complete and accepted are cumbersome. There is curb side pick up for purchases which takes extra time to connect by text and then receive your goods. You use Open Table or call your restaurant to make reservations for dining in.

The New Normal will take more time in many ways.  It will take more time to get tasks accomplished. There will be glitches where we feel frustrated and anxious.  Give yourself the opportunity to be your best self by taking this extra time into account.  Going in and out of your work place will take extra time. There may be a single entrance, possibly temperatures taken, and social distancing in place.  Give yourself extra time to get to work on time. Many people have been enjoying working from how and will need to re-adjust to travel to and from work. Be sure you have extra time rather than rush to get on the road. By adjusting our expectations, we will be better prepared when oops happen. Giving yourself time for tranquility helps as well!

 

Continue with easy, simple organization

Now that you are a pro with technology, keep going on what is making your life easier.  For grocery ordering online, be sure to continue your regular routine for shopping.  Banking with your device app has simplified your deposits and financial work. Using the Notes app is our best way to capture thoughts and ideas.  Keeping contacts in your smart phone keep us connected, as well as our Zoom Happy Hours with long time friends.  We have learned a lot of useful, helpful technology to continue.

 

Ongoing Self care

The first thing we stop when things get busy is self care.  That’s not an option in the New Normal. Your self care should continue as a priority.  If you are exercising more outside and loving it, build that into your routine. As for time together for family dinner, block that time as sacred. Self care is what we learned must be continuous and ongoing, pandemic or not.

Virtual Clutter Support Group June 2020

virtual clutter support group

 

Virtual Clutter Support Group for Individuals with ADHD

Organizing Your Home and Garage

June 2020

 

Hi friends,

Have you been struggling with getting organized, even with more time to do so? Don’t know where to start? Looking for accountability and resources to help you live the life that truly want in life? Need an affordable organizing solution? Is it time to get started and declutter your home?

Meet together for our Virtual Clutter Support Group for Individuals with ADHD! 

Join me in June for Professional-Organizer.com’s Virtual Clutter Support Group for Individuals with ADHD. This fee-based group is the starting point for your journey in transforming your life by helping you define, establish and maintain an uncluttered lifestyle. The Virtual Clutter Support Group is a four-week, one hour program where awareness starts, learning begins and action results. Each session will have a different topic for each week focusing on your home and garage.

• A place to share goals and challenges with consistent support
• An opportunity to learn organizing strategies for your home and work
• A place to champion your efforts and like-minded others to affirm everyone in their organizing journey.

Each session will have a different topic for each week, all about your home and garage.

  • Topics include organizing your closet, your kitchen, your bedroom and garage.
  • Agenda covers hot spots in the room, tips for organizing that space, and organizing ideas for individuals with ADHD
  • Meeting dates are Wednesdays in June (June 3, 10,17, 24)
  • Potential Meeting time is 6 – 7 pm central time.
  • Members meet online with me through Join.me. Join.me is a web-based collaboration software online meetings. You can join from a smart phone, smart device or your computer.

Fee is $100 for the four sessions. There is a limited membership. Register by June 1, 2020.
For information and to register, call 281.360.3928 or visit www.professional-organizer.com (fill in Clutter Support Group in Comments)

 

COVID-19 Cooking with your Quaranteam

 

cooking with your quaranteam

COVID-19 meal times are the best times of the day! According to Google, the most searched items are recipes especially breads and banana bread!  It is a great time to take advantage of cooking with those in your home and on your quaranteam.  On FoodTV we are seeing quaranteam cooking in everyone’s homes like Ree Drummond of Pioneer Woman. Join the fun of cooking with those in your home or who you are isolating with you!

 

Meal Planning

When I talk with families, the biggest fail at family meal time is deciding what to cook! The parents feel the ownership of what to prepare and feel compelled to decide. That decision making creates paralysis.  Let’s share this responsibility with your family by creating a menus with their input. Families have been creating theme nights during the pandemic to spice up their time together.  This includes different countries’ cuisines to cooking in different times in history.  Work together to plan and write out a menu so everyone looks forward to dinner together.

Dreading your online grocery order? Our kids are digital natives and can help with this too! When groceries arrive, plan a group effort to organize and put away the items.

 

Dinner preparation

With many people at home, making dinner is a team effort. You can partner on different nights to prepare dinner. Cooking is a life skill that requires math so you are learning as you go. Reading the recipes require following instructions. Dinner prep is a great time for out of the box learning.

 

Dinner time chatter

Make communication the key during dinner. Set aside all technology (and that includes the parents.)  Make dinner time talk more fun with these prompts.

  • What’s one word that describes your day and why?
  • What is the Best of the Week (BOW) and Worst of the Week (WOW)?
  • If you could be a famous person for a week, who would you be and why?
  • If you had a super power, what would it be and why?

Cafeteria, aka Leftovers

Because there are 3 meals or more a day at home, be sure to cook extra for leftovers and other meals.  Get creative on how you plan to convert meals into a multi-purpose menu. Here are some ideas.

  • Tacos become quesadillas and taco salad
  • Marinara with pasta becomes pizza sauce
  • Extra rice and beans become burritos
  • Roasted veggies become Italian subs

Help your family be self-sufficient with an organized pantry.

Dinner clean up

No one wants to be left in the kitchen to clean up. How do you establish standard operating procedures for clean up after dinner? There are no reasons not to do this as a group now. Everyone can do one small part. There are paper plates too! Be sure the dishwasher is empty and ready to receive incoming plates, etc.

 

The best part of being together is the communication during dinner. Keep dinner time as together time during this “new normal.”

COVID-19 How to Use This Time Purposefully

covid-19 how to use this time for purpose

 

There are many emotions and daily changes that are happening. Some days are better than others. It seems that the only constant is change with daily updates on how to live life, what’s next, and what is being put in place for our community. We are all cultivating resilience and courage, as well as learning more and more. Please know I am here to support you and be part of your Quaranteam.

 

We can use this time purposefully.  This pause has given us the gift of time in an unusual way and that hopefully we will never have again. We can be intentional with this time and give ourselves the gift of purpose. I have chosen two strategies to give purpose to each week. For me it is building new habits and giving back. These two elements have given me structure, focus and meaning.

 

Building new habits

Being at home more, I have the opportunity to build better habits that have been harder to develop.  There are many strategies to make habits stick. (Yes, certified professional organizers are a work in progress too.) Simple habits like exercising more and drinking more water have eluded me because I was not able to work these into a reliable time during the week. Early appointments and long days made it hard to get in enough steps.  Carrying a water bottle seemed cumbersome during the week. Time at home has given me an opening in the morning to accomplish my 10k steps a day. The benefit I imagined, such as improved sleeping and ongoing positivity, are reason enough to continue past the end of quarantine.  Drinking more water, with a sliced lemon, has become my beverage of choice through the day. Just adding these two simple parts of daily life are important to my well being, my work and my family.

I encourage you to choose one small, valued habit to make a difference during this time.  On top of my list would be a great sleep routine, next being healthy eating. These foundational self care elements help you live your best life!

 

Giving back to others

How to Help and Give Back is front page news on the Wall Street Journal. Research fully supports the value of helping others during times of stress. Helping others does not have to be big.  It’s in small acts and gifts. Thank you to everyone making masks. These contributions are already making a difference for everyone (especially as we are now required to wear masks.)

In addition, here are some amazing stories I am hearing. A friend brings Chick-fil-a to a “work from  home” family with 2 kids under 5 to brighten the day. A friend writes “I miss you” notes and tapes these to the her friends’ back yard gates. There are countless donations of gift cards to service industry professionals like nail salon workers, hair stylists and cleaning ladies. Do what you can with what you have to be a contributor.

There are big needs for our community too. These are links to needs local to Houston.

 

We have some bumpy roads ahead as we make our way through this dark time.  The time passes more quickly if we all have purposeful intentions and actions.  Comment below on how you are making a difference! I’d love to hear from you!

10 Day Organizing Challenge Day 10 Email

To boost our successes in home decluttering and organizing, I created this easy, simple and small 10 day series.

Follow along as we declutter and organize 10 small spaces over 2 weeks to make life simpler.

 

Spring organizing challenge email

 

Congrats on your success! You are ready to live a more organized, easier, simpler life!  Thank you for participating!

10 Day Organizing Challenge Day 9 Cleaning Supplies

To boost our successes in home decluttering and organizing, I created this easy, simple and small 10 day series.

Follow along as we declutter and organize 10 small spaces over 2 weeks to make life simpler.

 

Spring organizing challenge cleaning supplies

10 Day Organizing Challenge Day 8 Coupons and Receipts

To boost our successes in home decluttering and organizing, I created this easy, simple and small 10 day series.

Follow along as we declutter and organize 10 small spaces over 2 weeks to make life simpler.

 

Organizing challenge coupons and receipts