Your Most Organized Year Ever

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Your Most Organized Year Yet

Each year as we start the new year, we think of ways to make a change and improve our lives.  Did you know that organizing is one of the top three goals each year?  Throughout the month of January, I will be offering 31 tips to help you have Your Most Organized Year Ever.  Implement just one of these tips, tools, techniques or tweaks this year. 

 

Lots of stuff out all the time?

 

Is the cleaning lady coming and you have to pick up?

 

All surfaces in your home and office filled with clutter?

 

Your organizing systems are in place and you are ready to take the next step to stay organized.  There’s an easy remedy to maintain your organization. It’s to distribute daily.  It’s taking five minutes a day to get items back to their homes.  Push through your fatigue at the end of the day and get your clothes put away, your papers into the command center and write your list for the next day.  Put away purchases the day you bring them home or to the office.  Make it Your Most Organized Year Ever with daily distribution.

 

Feeling challenged to get started?  Check out these Home Sweet Organized Home ideas on pinterest.

 

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How to Be More Organized in the New Year

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7 (4)

 

Each new year we reflect on the last year and want a fresh start.  About a third of us want to be more organized this year.  There are lots of skills to learn to be more organized.    It takes more than just organizing skills and decluttering to be more organized. It takes new perspectives.  These perspectives are to be intentional, be mindful, be consistent and be less hurried.

 

Be intentional

Each purchase you make, each item you bring into your home, and each project you put into motion must be intentional. Be sure your actions align with your intentions this year. If your intention is to be more organized, few items should cross your threshold without a specific purpose in  your life.  By being intentional this new  year you will find less paper, stuff and mind clutter.

 

Be mindful

Keep alert to what derails you this year.  As you are proceeding on with new and existing projects, stay in the moment of that project.  It’s easy to start but hard to complete or follow through.  Those projects include both home and work projects. Distractions of all sorts take you off track. Give yourself the opportunity to be more organized this year by being mindful.

 

 Be consistent

It’s hard to do the same whatever over and over again. But that’s what makes for steady progress and lasting maintenance.  You can have the most organized files, home, or office, but it’s the maintenance that makes for ongoing organization.  Consistency comes from having a routine to accomplish your tasks.  It is having a structure in your week that gives you a time to get organized and stay organized.

 

Be less hurried

Time is the most important part of organization. When we are hurried, everything falls apart. We rush in and out of our homes and offices, leaving no time to organize our stuff, let alone put it where it belongs. When we pace ourselves well, we can leave ourselves time to organize our papers before a meeting, put away our purchases where they belong and get ready for the next day.  Whether it’s with meditation, prayer or through physicality, set in motion ways to help yourself to be less hurried this year.  The impact on your organizing will be rewarding.

 

 

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Your Most Organized Year Ever

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Your Most Organized Year Ever

Each year as we start the new year, we think of ways to make a change and improve our lives.  Did you know that organizing is one of the top three goals each year?  Throughout the month of January, I will be offering 31 tips to help you have Your Most Organized Year Ever.  Implement just one of these tips, tools, techniques or tweaks this year. 

 

Not enough storage in your home or office?

 

Wondering how to take better advantage of organizing any space in your home or office?

 

If you see wall space or height in a space, it’s time to use the stratosphere to organize.  Go vertical. Check out if you can add a five shelf book case or add an armoire to use the space more effectively.  Add an adjustable shelf to your attic or garage to add space.  Add racks on kitchen shelves and under your bathroom cabinets.  In office storage, add adjustable shelving for office supplies.  Add command hooks to walls to take advantage of flat surfaces. Make this your Most Organized Year Ever by using vertical space for storage.

 

Love organizing quotes and inspiration? Check out more here on Pinterest.

 

A daily dose of organizing and productivity!  “Like” my Facebook page.

 

 

Your Most Organized Year Ever

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your most organized year ever

 

Each year as we start the new year, we think of ways to make a change and improve our lives.  Did you know that organizing is one of the top three goals each year?  Throughout the month of January, I will be offering 31 tips to help you have Your Most Organized Year Ever.  Implement just one of these tips, tools, techniques or tweaks this year. 

 

Tired of running between spots to get finished with a project?

 

Not finding tape and scissors to get things done?

 

Starting a project but need to check several places to get the tools to get it done?

 

Keep items you use together stored together.  Think of “zones” that you can create to make it easy to get tasks accomplished.  It could be the lunch making or baking zones in your kitchen.  It could be the baby doll and pretend area in your child’s room.  It could be make up, accessories and scarves in your closet.  It could be the bill paying area with checks, envelopes and stamps.  Be creative and use your instincts to make it easier to get things done.  Make this Your Most Organized Year Ever by grouping items together that you use together.

 

Love organizing quotes and inspiration? Check out more here on Pinterest.

 

A daily dose of organizing and productivity!  “Like” my Facebook page.

Your Most Organized Year Ever

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most organized year ever

 

Each year as we start the new year, we think of ways to make a change and improve our lives.  Did you know that organizing is one of the top three goals each year?  Throughout the month of January, I will be offering 31 tips to help you have Your Most Organized Year Ever.  Implement just one of these tips, tools, techniques or tweaks this year. 

 

Is there a tsunami of stuff flowing into your home?

 

Overwhelmed by the generosity of family and grandparents?

 

Is it easier to purchase a item rather than find it in your home?

 

When more is coming in than going out, there is an unnatural balance.  Think about creating equilibrium with a drastic change to get you back to harmony.

 

Make it a rule that for every one item that comes in, two items leave.  It may sound drastic, but by following this rule you will create more space in your home and lessen frustration in finding stuff. It will be easier to create a spot for everything to have a home.  Make it Your Most Organized Year Ever by following the “One in, Two out”rule.

 

 

 

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Your Most Organized Year Ever

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a place for everything and everything in its place

 

 

Each year as we start the new year, we think of ways to make a change and improve our lives.  Did you know that organizing is one of the top three goals each year?  Throughout the month of January, I will be offering 31 tips to help you have Your Most Organized Year Ever.  Implement just one of these tips, tools, techniques or tweaks this year.

 

Tired of clutter?

 

Did you know that clutter is just too many items not put away?

 

Did you know that clutter is items that have no home?

 

Have a designated spot that is a “home” for each and every item in your home.  The “home” for an item is where you use it the most, where you use it to do a specific job, or where it is easiest to access.  If you find you have too many items to fit in the designated spot, it’s time to pare down.

 

The easiest way to make this happen is having a daily five minute distribution time. Set this time at a time that works for you and your family every day.  Make this Your Most Organized Year Ever with a place for everything and everything in its place.

 

Love organizing quotes and inspiration? Check out more here on Pinterest.

 

A daily dose of organizing and productivity!  “Like” my Facebook page.

How to Organize Christmas Cards

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how to organize your Christmas cards

 

 

It’s a special time of year and special memories are made from Christmas cards.  Keeping and treasuring your cards is simple with this step by step method of binding your Christmas cards together.  Here’s how to organize Christmas cards with this simple 6 step craft.

 

organize holiday cards

 

Step 1 – Sort cards by year.  Also decide if there any cards that you do not want to save and recycle them.  Eliminate without guilt those that are not special to you.
Step 2 – Sort each year by size, from largest on the bottom of the stack to the smallest at the top of the stack.
Step 3 – Use a good, strong hole puncher to punch a hole in the top left of each card. Your hand will hurt if the hole puncher is not very good!

 

organize Christmas cards
Step 4 – Use a binder ring to keep all cards together.
Step 5 – Create a little card that denotes the year to place at the front.

Step 6 – Tie holiday ribbon around the ring.

 

organize Christmas cards
Step 7 – Place cards in a pretty basket under your tree, near the fireplace, or another spot that is easy accessible!

 

Step 3 Display Christmas cards

Another fun Christmas card tip – If you have a smart phone, go through your current year’s cards and take a quick picture of the photo cards. Now you can save these as your friends’ and family’s contact photos.  These will pop up each time you speak by phone!

 

What are some ways you have organized and preserved your Christmas cards?

 

Love the holidays? More holiday fun on my pinterest board Happy Holidays.

 

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Favorite Blog Posts 2014

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It’s almost a wrap! The year 2015 starts this week. Thank you for your commitment to organizing and learning new tools, tips and techniques on Ellen’s Blog this year.  Here are your favorite blog posts for 2014!

 

 

organizing your add family

Organizing your ADHD family

 

3 steps to organize your desk

3 Steps to Organize your Desk

 

14 productivity tips

14 Productivity Tips for 2014

Organizing Christmas Decorations

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undecorating and organizing your Christmas decorations

 

Perhaps you don’t take down your Christmas tree until Twelfth Night. Or perhaps you are tired of all the red and green.   Perhaps you have boxes and bins of lights and linens, multiple Christmas trees, and way too many ornaments to store securely. The end of the holiday season may make you feel overwhelmed with holiday stuff.   Organizing Christmas decorations makes decorating that much more fun next year.

Rethink your holiday for next year by trimming down the excess this year. If you left some decorations in the box, it’s time to take that box off to donate. Top sources of Christmas clutter are that we have changed colors, our garland and greenery has become well used, and we simply don’t want to put so much out to pick up later. Start by deciding what is most important for you and then let go of the extra.

  • As you are un-decorating, start grouping items together in categories. The categories can be the room the decorations are displayed in or the type of decoration it is. You can group items that go in the kitchen, living room or bedrooms. Other categories are table top decorations, linens, greenery or tree decorations. When you see your decorations in categories, they take on new meaning and new function.  Place these items as groups into boxes or bins.

 

  • Many families are switching over to LED lights and want to recycle their old lights at Home Depot. Make it easy to keep your lights organized by wrapping them around newspaper or a paper towel holder.

 

  • Be sure to label your boxes and bins on the top and two sides to know what is in each. Especially helpful are ornament bins to keep your ornaments from breaking.  Make it easier to store your decorations with inexpensive sturdy plastic shelving in your attic or garage.  Remember, no cardboard boxes as these attract silverfish and dust mites.

 

  • Keepsake holiday decorations hold special meaning. Perhaps it’s an ornament you received as a child or from your parents home. If you keep it, be sure to take care of it. Ornament bins are a specialty item you can purchase before the holidays, but often are hard to find after. Share your keepsakes with your grown kids too. Passing these on is the true reason for keeping them.

 

  • We always have those few random items that don’t get back into the boxes. Be sure to take one last trip to the attic or garage to match these up and put them away.

 

Un-decorating is the most important organizing step for your holidays. Take the team approach and have family pitch in to take down all the holiday decorations.  It’s a time to reminisce about what was most special, what foods were scrumptious and the best holiday gifts this year.

Organizing Christmas Cards

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organizing Christmas cards

Christmas cards arriving daily are a special part of the holiday season. We love looking at the family pictures and sharing family memories from the past year. Even though card sending has diminished and with Facebook as our daily “family reunion,” we treasure our Christmas cards.  But the end of the holiday season comes and we are faced with the dilemma of tossing or keeping cards.  We also have the leftovers from our own cards where we over ordered.  Gather your cards together in a basket or clothespin your cards on a wire to see them throughout the season.  Check out these ways to organize your Christmas cards after the holidays.

 

Cards from others

 

There are two schools of thought for keeping or not keeping cards.  If cards become overwhelming, hold little meaning, or become a burden, it’s time to let go of them.  You have my permission!  We don’t need to keep every card that comes to us.  Sit down with a wintery beverage and enjoy an hour of time to read your cards and enjoy the memories of the year.

 

If you treasure the memories, keep the cards grouped by year.

  • Using 2 D rings, 3 hole punch the side of the card twice and thread the cards through the ring to create a binder.  Create a cover using card stock.
  • Keep your cards in a decorative Christmas box with the year labeled on the front. Store with your Christmas decorations and display the last 3 years each Christmas.
  • Punch one hole in the upper left corner of the card and string a pretty red ribbon through all the cards. Knot it and then tie a bow.

 

organize holiday cards

 

 

If you are crafty, there are many ways to reuse your Christmas cards.

There is wonderful card recycling at St. Jude’s Ranch too!

 

Christmas cards framed

 

Your Cards

 

Our own family Christmas cards are a precious reminder of each year.  Often there are way too many left over.  Keep 5 to 10 of your annual cards, depending on how you are storing them.

  • Use a decorative binder and sheet protectors to store one card per year
  • Using a photo album, add one card each year or make one album for each of your children.
  • Cut up your card and use a photo ornament to hang your picture annually on your tree.
  • Frame your holiday card each year and display these every Christmas in your family room.

 

Celebrate your family by creating special memories and organizing Christmas cards. Whether is it your own card or cards you receive, create a family treasure with these simple ideas.  Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

 

Wishing you a magical holiday as you celebrate with your family and friends!

 

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