Organizing Solutions for Your Struggling Student
Check out my blog post at Organize to Revitalize ~
http://dallisonlee.com/blog/2013/03/04/3-simple-organizing-solutions-for-your-struggling-student/
Organize to Revitalize Blog: Yours, Mine and Ours: Tips to Communicate with Your Blended Family and Stay Organized
Connecting, collaborating and consolidating with a blended family can be a challenge! Check out my guest blog post on Organize to Revitalize
Yours, Mine, and Ours: Tips on How to Communicate With Your Blended Family and Stay Organized
Organize Your Closet
Our closets are our best friends and our worst enemies. We all would agree we never have enough storage in our homes. What exactly is in that tiny area? So many different items – shoes, clothes, keepsakes, small gifts, and even more. Use these tips to organize your closet ad personally design your best use for this space!
Hangers, hangers everywhere
The first step to a more visually appealing closet is to use multipurpose hangers for your wardrobe. Available inexpensively, choose slim line hangers . You will find these hangers add uniformity and a visual sense of order. And remember, when you remove an item from the hanger, take the hanger off the shelf, and store it nearby for the garment to return!
Evaluate then donate
A major source of closet problems is clutter. By honestly evaluating the need and use of the items in your closet, you will find space galore! Place a sturdy handle bag in your closet to place clothes or items that are too old, too small or large, or just “not you” to donate to a worthy cause. Each time you take a blouse off a hanger and it does not work, place it in the bag! If you have professional wardrobe items, you can donate these to Dress for Success!
Use your space most effectively
Do you see white wall above, below or around the items in your closet? If so, there are many options to maximize the space in your closet. Double rods double your space! Use a shoe organizer to convert the back of your closet door to hidden extra space. It can be used for scarves, jewelry or other items.
Time to containerize
Looking for a certain pair of shoes? Are your scarves wadded up in a drawer, hard to find? Clear containers with labels are the way to go! Different shapes and sizes can be used to maximize your space.
Daily routine
This is the Organized You – your evening routine to help you keep organized! Everyone needs a daily organization time, time to put away items and to get items prepared for the next day. When you put off organizing daily, it becomes a major chore. Unfortunately, your mother was right about this!
Struggling with organizing? Join my monthly newsletter and get a burst of organizing and productivity ideas.
Organizing Tools: Your Calendar/Planner
There is nothing more important for organizing our time than a great calendar/planner. You can use this tool to incorporate planning as well. The strategy of not only recording dates can be the key to making your life more organized and less stressful.
- Choose a calendar/planner that works for you. It’s a calendar/planner that makes it easy to record dates at any time. It also helps you view time the way you think about time, at a month at a time, throughout a week, or just in a long string. Your calendar can be as simple as a yellow pad, very exact like Franklin Covey planners, or with technology on your smart phone.
- Create a habit of recording dates as soon as possible. There are always lots of dates swirling n your head for you and your family. By entering these on your calendar/planner asap, you won’t have to remember them, there will be fewer conflicts of dates and activities, and you will start to grasp a greater sense of due dates and upcoming events.
- Refer to your calendar/planner diligently. How often? At least in the morning and evening, but also throughout the day to keep you on track with appointments and projects.
- Use your calendar as planner for big and little tasks. Breaking down big projects with your own time line, creating accountability dates to complete a project, and adding in baby steps makes your planner a strategy to get things done.
- Post a family calendar for your kids and partner to add dates. Keeping everyone in the loop and keeping everyone communicating keeps your family organized.
- Have a weekly review to get ahead of the game. Once a week, make a date with your calendar to look ahead, see what is coming, prioritize and get in gear.
Using a calendar/planner eliminates the mental clutter of remembering dates and times and helps you focus on completion of a project. The more you use your calendar/planner, the more indispensible it will be!
Image courtesy of The Container Store www.containerstore.com
Setting Your Goals One Step at a Time
Is making changes in your home or office are at the top of your list for the new year you are on target. Getting organized is one of the top three new year’s resolutions every year. Like any change, taking small steps get you to where you want to go.
Be sure to set positive, specific, measurable, date driven steps to accomplish your goals. Write it down, exactly how you will go about the change and the deadline you have. A measureable goal helps you see what you have accomplished and making yourself accountable to a date makes your success assured.
Here are some ideas to help your organizing and productivity this year.
If your goal is to declutter your home and get organized
- I will declutter one junk drawer in the kitchen or other small space in my home in 2 weeks.
- I will keep 10 pairs of pants and eliminate the rest by next Sunday.
- I will spend 10 minutes every day going through my mail and eliminating paper.
- My family will have a nightly 10 minute pick up time to get toys and clothes back to their homes.
If your goal is to work smarter and be more productive
- I will add one hour first thing in the morning to work toward a project that is of primary importance.
- I will add 10 contacts to my data base this week to grow my business.
- I will have a 5 minute meeting daily with my assistant to set my plan in motion for the day.
- I will spend 15 minutes at the end of the day writing my list for tomorrow, putting paper back into folders, and filing emails to get ready for the next day.
If your goal is to be more organized about money, save money and improve finances
- I will save $10 a week by automatically withdrawing to a savings account.
- I will write down every expense for one month by category to determine where I can spend less.
- I schedule one hour every week for administrative time to pay bills and work with paper.
If your goal is to improve your health
- I will walk 30 minutes a day, five days a week.
- I will drink 2 glasses of water each morning before I leave the house and 1 glass with each meal during the day.
- I will be in bed by 10:30 every other evening.
Whatever your goal, whatever your steps, remember to establish these firmly in a spot during the day. I like to do my baby steps first thing, early in the day, or otherwise the day gets away from me. If you miss a day, just get right back to it the next day. We can’t do every goal and be successful. Aim for one big area this year and see what you accomplish. Tackle your goals in small bites and see the difference for yourself!
3 Simple Gift Giving Tips
Giving meaningfully is part of the holiday season. Follow your inner guide to give meaningfully.
A Guide to Giving Gift From Erin Carlyle
Homemade gifts from texascottage.blogspot.com
Gifts of Random Kindness from littlelucylu.com
For more ideas for simple gift giving, visit my pinterest page www.pinterest.com/EllenDelap Happy Holidays board!
Wishing you a season of meaningful sharing and gifting!
Organize to Revitalize: Enlist the Elves!
I love sharing my thoughts on Organize to Revitalize too!
Holiday Organizing: Enlist the Elves is posted there at http://dallisonlee.com/blog/2012/12/03/holiday-organizing-enlist-the-elves/.
Who are your elves?
Deck the (Decluttered) Halls
Holiday time is almost here! November begins our holiday celebrations with Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chanukah and New Year’s Eve. Our holidays bring amazing joy and lots to do at our homes. Doing just a little decluttering makes it easier to decorate your home and helps you feel prepared. Spend on hour on one of these four areas to help you get prepared for your most memorable holiday.
•Declutter last year’s holiday cards. It is a powerful way to prepare for this year’s cards by collecting addresses and eliminating extra paper clutter. You will be prepared knowing the number of cards to order too! Just a little less paper means a lot less stress.
• Declutter the toys in your home. There is no better way to prepare than by sharing your blessings with other’s less fortunate! Your kids can be a part of the process in choosing what is donated. They can choose 3 toys to donate and bless others. If you have unopened toys or crafts from previous years, it is a great experience for you and your children to bring these to local philanthropies for gift giving.
• Declutter your decor as you decorate. While you are decorating for the holidays, create an awareness of what has lost meaning or value to you in your home. Whether it is a knick-knack or books, you can declutter while you decorate to create space for the holiday decorations and create a space for new decor after the holidays. Thrift stores and consignment shops appreciate these items for upcoming holiday shoppers.
•Declutter your holiday decorations. Keepsake decorations can be stored and marked to honor wonderful memories and preserve these items to share with your family. Decorations that are in good condition are an excellent donation to local philanthropies and a special way to share the joy of the holiday.
Decluttering before decorating makes our holiday less stressful and more joyful. Put on holiday music and get started on one of these small projects. If you struggle with getting started or following through with your decluttering, give me a call to assist.
Organize Your Life Webinar Series
Save your sanity and get organized in 2013!
Is getting organized one of your New Year’s resolutions? Then Join me this January for 10 amazing webinars from a dream team of presenters for Get Organized month. These classes will help you focus, plan, and organize your time, space, and information.
http://theprofessionalorganizer.com/events/organize-your-life-webinar-series/ …. get a special facebook discount with code “fbdeal” for 10% off all classes.
Webinar classes include how to organize your time, your paper, your kids, your students, your technology, hoarding and more!
- Classes offered share specific tools and techniques to impact your daily life.
- Nationally known professional organizers and productivity coaches available to you in your home by webinar.
- Affordable solutions to learn about organizing and take that next step in your home or office.
Classes begin January 3 and run all through Get Organized Month 2013. Take a step to make 2013 your most organized year yet!
Organizing Your ‘Frig (refrigerator)
Its one place in your home every person uses! Its one place that has very limited space with no option for expansion. Doesn’t your refrigerator need to be organized? Yes it does! Use these 4 tips to get your ‘frig organized.
- Think about where food keeps best in what temperature and what you need access to most frequently. Milk keeps best on the top shelf in the back. Condiments can have a space in the door. Make it easy to reach items you use every day.
- Think about categories to keep together. Categories make not be all the same size and shape containers but consolidating in groups makes it easy to find items. Categories can include condiments, dairy, vegetables, fruit, and leftovers. Map out a plan for where categories fit best in the space.
- Think about uniform leftover containers. Having 3 sizes of the same shape of containers makes it easy to store leftovers.
- Think about aligning your refrigerator clean out with trash day. It is important to have a routine that allows for discarding leftovers after a certain amount of time. Having a dry erase board on the ‘frig helps with using leftovers too!
An organized frig saves you time, saves you money and helps you know what you have to get dinner on the table. What does your ‘frig look like?
Items pictured can be found at The Container Store www.containerstore.com
We specialize in working with ADD/ADHD clients. Whether in your home or your office, we motivate, empower and affirm our clients in their quest for organizing and productivity! 
