Celebrate March’s Clutter Awareness Month

The word “clutter” derives from the Middle English word “clotter,” which means coagulate. Think stagnant, accumulated … stuck! When clutter invades our homes and offices, it can our space cluttered … and us disorganized as a result. We lose things, forget to pay bills, we procrastinate and waste time. So stop contemplating your clutter and dedicate some time to conquering it!

DEFINE “CLUTTER.” Clutter is anything unnecessary and extraneous. It can be more than the physical clutter most of us think of. Getting organized means clearing out the clutter in your mind, heart, and life.

START THE PROCESS OF DECLUTTERING. Start small. Divide your desk or room into sections. Pick one section (like a drawer, cabinet or closet) and begin decluttering. Try to touch things only once while going through this process – quickly make a decision to keep or toss.

ASK IF YOU CONSIDER EACH ITEM BEAUTIFUL, USEFUL, OR LOVED. If not, why are you keeping it?  If you’re still not sure if you should get rid of an item, ask yourself, “What is the worse thing that could happen if I toss this?” The answer may help give you the power to discard the clutter.

TO STOP CLUTTER, PREVENT IT FROM ACCUMULATING IN THE FIRST PLACE. Don’t give clutter a chance to form. As you’ve probably experienced, once clutter occupies a space, it has a way of multiplying. Always remember to place your emphasis on quality or quantity. In other words, it’s not important to have a lot of things, many of which you never use. It’s more beneficial to have fewer things, all of which you use and/or enjoy.

THINK BEFORE YOU BUY. Try to look beyond the initial “thrill of the purchase” and see what provides deeper moments of meaning. Once you rid yourself of clutter and make space only for what’s special and useful, you’ll find it’s easier to get – and stay – organized!

Hope you’ll visit The Organizing Genie blog again when you need home and office organizing suggestions and advice. I’m always here for you!

What to Do with Garage Sale Leftovers

In my old disorganized life, after having a garage sale I would put the leftovers back in the garage to “hold onto” for the next garage sale.  So essentially, I was holding onto stuff I had already deemed unwanted, and if not sold in the garage sale, no one else wanted it either. But for some reason I felt that this junk still had value enough to continue storing it in my garage.  I now see the error of my ways, and now ban the unsold stuff from ever coming back into my garage, and I’ve never missed any of it.

How about you? Is your garage, basement, attic full of stuff you’ve already relegated to those spaces, but you hold onto it for some reason? I found some great tips for what to do with garage sale leftovers on About.com by Housekeeping expert Sarah Aquirre.

Originally posted 2009-07-10 09:21:01. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Tackling the Dreaded To Do List

Trying to get things done around the house, but feeling overwhelmed by your never-ending list of things-to-do?

Here’s a simple system that works.

Make a Master Task List of everything you have to, or want, to do. Don’t worry about the order right now.  You’re basically brain-dumping on paper all your To-Do’s to get the thoughts out of your head and onto paper. This exercise  creates a master laundry list of tasks.

Now, beside each task on your master list, assign a letter of priority:

A = Important / Urgent

B = Important, but Not Urgent

C = Would be nice to do

Each day, transfer no more than 4 items (3 is ideal) from the master list to your To Do List (two A Priorities, one B Priority, and one A, B or C Priority). Focus on completing only those items and forget the rest for now.  When you’ve completed the 4 items on your list, feel free to transfer 4 more items from your Master List to your To Do List.

The key to this system is that you’ve gotten all those pesky tasks that swim around in your head, onto paper. Then by moving to your To-Do list and focusing only 3-4 tasks per day, you’ve kept your list manageable and attainable, rather than setting yourself up for failure by a To Do list that not even Super-woman could accomplish.

By using this system every day, you’ll be amazed at all you can accomplish in less time and less stress!

Find this To Do list notepad at The Simplified Home.

Originally posted 2009-11-07 16:48:10. Republished by Old Post Promoter

9 Strategies to Save on Groceries

With gas prices at an all time high, are you searching for ways to reduce your spending in other areas? In our household, we’ve renewed our interest in using coupons and for added savings we target double-coupon days. Here I’ve offered 7 ways to save money on household groceries.

1. Cut coupons – Each Sunday I look forward to receiving the newspaper, where we receive upwards of 100 coupons in our Sunday newspaper.

2. Download coupons off the internet – Check out www.coolsavings.com or www.couponcart.com for great on-line deals on your favorite items.

3. Join frequent buyer clubs at your local grocers – These no-cost programs offer club members on select products. In my last grocery trip I saved $15 as a member of my local grocer’s club and another $10 in clipped coupons.

4. Join a local warehouse club – Locally we have a Costco and Sam’s Club, as well as a Super Target and Super Walmart, where I have found significant savings over our name brand supermarkets. The wholesale clubs can save you 20

5. Purchase generic brands and/or store brands – I have often compared store brands to name brands and find that there is rarely a difference between the two. In fact, like many other products we purchase (i.e., electronics, appliances), the same manufacturer that makes the name brand often manufactures the generic product.

6. Purchase fresh products instead of processed/packaged products – It’s no surprise that fresh unprocessed foods are healthier for us, but these foods not only save in calories, but are also less expensive than packaged and processed foods.

7. Prepare a List – when you go to the store with a plan, you are less likely to succumb to impulse purchases. Check out the ‘All Out Of’ shopping list notepad that allows you to create your grocery list as you deplete household items. It has a magnet on the back so you can affix it to your frig.

8. Shop your supermarket’s weekly specials – Each week we receive our local supermarket’s brochure of advertised specials, which often include two for one sales. These circulars will also advertise double-coupon days. During double-coupon days and two for one specials, I’ve taken the opportunity to stock up on often used staples.

9. Choose products on the top and bottom shelves – It is no accident that higher priced products appear at eye-level on our grocery shelves. These are often the smaller sizes of a product, which typically have a higher per unit cost.

Originally posted 2008-08-24 09:24:48. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Learning to Say No – Mom’s Secret Weapon

Are you suffering from mom burn out? Do you struggle just to make it through each day? Moms everywhere are breaking down because they are too chicken to say, “No”.

“No” may be a tiny, two-letter word, but it can be your secret weapon. And you can say it. Here are some ways you can say “no” without feeling guilty about it: “Sorry, I’m taking a break.” The number one reason why you should say “no” occasionally is simply that you deserve a break. You are chef, chauffeur, dish washer, and more. Your job never ends on any given day of the week. You deserve a break. If you feel bad for saying “no”, say, “Sorry, I’m taking a break”. My schedule is full. We tend to jam-pack our schedule full of activities, leaving no time to just rest. Here are some tips for freeing up some of your time in your schedule.

• Cut back on your kids activities
• Start a car pool and share driving responsibilities
• Do whatever you can to free up some time in your schedule. I don’t have time. You’re headed out the door, rushing to the next appointment when the telephone rings. What do you do? Do you come to a screeching halt and answer the phone? Let’s say you do, and it’s a family member, calling to dump their latest woes on you. Do you stand, tapping your foot impatiently while you roll your eyes and listen to the sob story? This is a typical scene for many moms. I have another commitment that day. Say it and mean it.
• Regularly schedule in time with your family or time alone and if someone ask for your help during that time look in your planner and tell them you have another commitment.
• Instead of rushing to be everything to everyone, stop. Ask yourself if you truly have time to add more commitments to your calendar? If not, say no by walking away, turning off the ringer on the phone, or not answering the knock at your door.
• Always remember that you are a mom – not a super hero.

When you have to say no, people will understand. If they don’t at first, they will when you consistently set these boundaries and stick to them.

Learning to say no will get easier the more you say it.

My Journey to an Organized Life!

Welcome to my little corner in cyber-space!

I’m so excited to share with you tips and strategies that I’ve learned as a Professional Organizer for the past 4 years and from my own struggles with getting and staying organized.

I’ll admit it right here … I was not born with the “organizing gene.” In my younger years, my mother used to declare that my room resembled the aftermath of a tornado that had blown through. As an adult, I teetered on the fence between being mildly disorganized to feeling completely out of control. Like I hear from so many clients, I thrived within the structure and routine of a corporate environment, but in my personal life, I was a disorganized mess!

Perhaps you can relate to my experience? I didn’t recognize the need for systems and structure in my home life like was inherent in the corporate world. After all, what did I need systems and processes in my home, where I was my own boss. I didn’t recognize the negative effects of a disorganized environment. And as long as I didn’t invite anyone over, my secret was safe. What a way to live?!

My transformation toward an organized home life began in 2002, following the adoption of my second daughter from Russia at age 3 1/2. WOW did life change after Alena’s adoption. I hear this from so many of my clients … the life I knew before kids was now a distant memory, and I lacked the skills to dig myself out of the mess once it started spiraling out of control. It was then that I recognized that these issues no longer involved just me. If I didn’t get my act together, my kid’s lives would be impacted too, and that realization was my wake-up call.

They say that “necessity is the mother of invention.” It surely was for me! I began to immerse myself in all things organizing, from books to decluttering sessions by myself and with a clutter buddy, teaching and enlisting help from my kids, to trying new organizing products. I began to recognize that our home operates not unlike a business, with departments, rules, consistent systems, behaviors and habits. Once I made that connection and began viewing our family life like a small operation, the solutions for improvement became crystal clear.

In 2004, after the transformation of our home, my passion grew to share my newfound knowledge and skill with others who were struggling as I had. Simplified Spaces was born in early 2004 and I haven’t slowed down since. So you see, I wasn’t born with the organizing gene, like so many assume to be the case for us organizing types.  Rather I came to the profession as a Professional Organizer after my own life transformation that developed into a desire to share my epiphany with others.

I can’t wait to share with you through The Organizing Genie blog what I’ve learned personally and through my profession as a Professional Organizer. I am confident that you can experience the same transformations in your home and family!

So what are the benefits of home organization? Why should we care? Well, the benefits are huge and our health and wellness depends on it. From kids and chores to tips on space planning, to reviewing the latest and greatest products, I invite you to join me every Monday, as we explore and learn the recipe to achieving The Simplified Home.

Wishing you Simplified Spaces …

Janet
The Organizing Genie

Originally posted 2008-08-15 07:34:49. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Are you Guilty of Having ‘Food Clutter’?

Does your family have a lot of food clutter? You know, the unused portions of veggies, rice or pasta from last night’s dinner that no one wants to eat? Those little bits of bread or rolls left in the bag or the uneaten popcorn? Or the two for one special that you couldn’t pass up? It seems that no matter how much we try to save money, it’s easy to buy too much food for our family and create unnecessary waste. It’s really a shame that so many people throw out perfectly good food. A recent poll announced that Americans throw out at least 30% of consumable food. That’s akin to throwing one meal into the garbage disposal a day! Wow, that is too much, especially when so much of the world’s population goes without the luxuries that we as Americans take for granted every day.

To help reduce some of this food waste, here’s a great resource I learned about from fellow Professional Organizer Lorrie Marrero of the Clutter Diet. This website, based out of the UK, asks you to type in leftover ingredients that you have and it returns a recipe to use up these ingredients, instead of throwing them away! What a wonderful idea to reduce waste and create new healthy meals for your family. Here’s the link if you’d like to check it out yourself: http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com.

Another way to reduce impulse food purchases is to always make a list before going to the grocery store. Just like when making merchandise purchases, each food purchase you make should have a specific purpose for buying it. Here’s a handy grocery list pad that you can affix to your frig. and ask family members to circle items as they are depleted – All Out Of pad. Then take that list to the grocery. No need to write out a grocery list each time.

Originally posted 2008-09-17 15:16:23. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Rejoice! You Can Have a Stress-free Holiday!

During the hustle and bustle of this hectic time of year, women often feel responsible for making the holidays perfect. This can leave you feeling overwhelmed and pressed for time, stressed out and exhausted.

Still, it’s possible to recapture the meaning of the holiday season and make it truly enjoyable for you and your family. Try these survival strategies and you too can rejoice in a stress-free and meaningful holiday season.

Set Realistic Priorities in Line with Your Family’s Values – the pursuit of the perfect holiday gathering can leave you feeling let down if your celebration doesn’t live up to your expectations. I recall a client, a busy mom of three children, who insisted on continuing a long-time tradition of putting up and decorating three Christmas trees each year in her moderately-sized home. I suggested that we ask her family if it was essential to them to have three Christmas trees in their home in order to enjoy their holiday. They unanimously shared that three Christmas trees was their mom’s idea, and that it was much more important to them to enjoy time with their parents than the number of Christmas trees they put up. This is an excellent example of how important it is to keep your goals and expectations realistic.

Don’t Procrastinate – last-minute shopping may save you some money, but the headaches, extra time and stress you’ll experience from fighting the crowds aren’t worth it. The holidays are no time for procrastination! Make lists and accomplish your goals by a certain date so you can relax and truly enjoy the holidays.

Adopt a K.I.S.S. Attitude (Keep It Simple Sweetie) – Meals don’t have to be elaborate to be wonderful. After several years of trying, I finally convinced my mother that we didn’t need fine china and polished silver to have a wonderful holiday together. After she stopped this elaborate tradition, we had more stress-free quality time with her, which was much more important than eating on (and hand-washing) fine china. Suggest that your guests lend a hand and bring a side dish to the festivities. When shipping, choose simple, thoughtful gifts rather than lavish expensive ones.

Keep Greeting Cards & Gifts Organized – Throughout the holiday season, we are purchasing and stockpiling gifts and greeting cards in preparation to give them.  How many times have you purchased a greeting card or gift in advance, then when it’s time to give it, you can’t find it? I often set up a gift and greeting card center for my clients.  Our Greeting Card Organizer can serve as a home for all your greeting cards during the holidays and throughout the year.

Have a Plan … But Go With the Flow – Holiday traditions evolve over the years. While you may be disappointed if you can’t quite re-enact the exact celebration of yore, learn to go with the flow so you can find happiness in creating new memories with your family.

Stay Healthy – You can’t truly appreciate the holidays if you’re exhausted and worn down with too much food, drink and too little sleep. Be mindful of your physical and mental wellbeing during this hectic time.

Take a Break and BREATHE – Try not to spread yourself too thin. Setting boundaries and learning to say no is never a more important skill to exercise than during the holidays. Remember the true meaning of the season and only attend the holiday activities and family gatherings that you enjoy and set aside some time for yourself each day. You should be as good to yourself as you are to others.

Originally posted 2008-11-10 19:26:57. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Reduce Household Spending One Coupon at a Time

Everyone is worried about the current state of our economy, with good reason. But much of what is going on globally is out of our control.  What we do have control over is how we spend our own money.

One of the easiest ways to reduce household spending is to use coupons when you shop. It’s a no brainer … if you found fifty-cents, seventy-five cents … a dollar on the floor, wouldn’t you pick it up and feel like luck was on your side that day? Isn’t using coupons like finding money on the floor?  You bet! Yet a small percentage of Americans even use coupons, let alone have a system for organizing, storing and redeeming coupons. Consequently they spend much more of their hard-earned money on household purchases than necessary. Yes, it takes some time to get set-up ~ all the more reason to have an organized system in place to greatly reduce the time it takes to use this free money when you shop. I’ll be highlighting three tools and systems here that you can use to stay organized and find the most savings possible with coupons.

To get started learning about the world of couponing, I found a helpful guide written by a money-conscience mom Stephanie Nelson, Greatest Secrets of the Coupon Mom. This 165-page guide is a quick read and a great resource to help you learn how to find, clip, sort and organize coupons for saving money on every household purchase. Stephanie shares all of her coupon-clipping, money-saving tips and tricks.

 

Another very helpful organizational tool for saving money with coupons is The Couponizer, developed by Amy Bergin, another cost-conscience mom. Amy developed this system for her family when other systems she tried were too cumbersome. The Couponizer system she developed gives you all the tools you need to clip, organize, store and use your coupons to reduce household spending. Included with the Couponizer system are:

• a clear zippered storage bag
• scissors
• Money-saving Guide
• shopping list
• Coupstacker, which is an organizing mat for sorting clipped coupons to insert into.

The Couponizer categories.

Some of the categories are: Meat, Vegetables, Breakfast, Dairy and many more.

The Couponizer even includes a plastic sleeve to store your frequent-buyer cards and coupons that are about to expire.  One of it’s best features is that The Couponizer is designed to lay flat in your grocery cart, making it easier to find and retrieve a coupon and maneuver the cart at the same time.

I’ve heard people say that when they have coupons they often buy products they wouldn’t ordinarily, so they actually spend more money when they use coupons. The solution for this is to never go to the store without a list of what you truly need. In our home we use a shopping list called ALL OUT OF notepad, which is a 6 x 9 sized shopping list pad shopping list pad which adheres to your refrigerator with a heavy-duty magnet.  The ALL OUT OF notepad saves you the hassle of having to write out a shopping list each time you shop. As we deplete household items, we circle the needed item on the ALL OUT OF notepad on our refrigerator. We tear off the already prepared shopping list and take it with us to the store. 

When your coupons are organized it will be much easier to find and use them to save big money during every trip to the grocery store. I get great satisfaction from seeing the subtotal at the register, then watching the total reduce as each coupon is scanned. It’s like getting free groceries.

Originally posted 2009-02-25 13:26:46. Republished by Old Post Promoter

When to Find the Best Deals from July through December

Back in April I wrote a post about the best time of year to buy to get the best deals on all kinds of products, from DVDs to automobiles. This is the second part of that post which picks up with the second half of the year from July to December.

July

Computers – July and August, or right after a new model is launched. Buying slightly older technology offers great savings opportunities.

Swimwear – As the swimming season draws to a close in July and August, you’ll find the best deals on tanks and bikinis. 

Indoor furniture – With the year’s second round of new furniture about to hit stores in August, July is a great time to find discounts on current inventory.

August

Lawn mowers and outdoor furniture – stores start to make room for snow blowers by August.

Dehumidifiers - For the same reason that humidifiers go on sale in February, dehumidifiers go on sale in August.

Computers – see July for details

Swimwear – see July for details

September

Gas/charcoal grills – Fire up your credit card in September through November, when outdoor cooking heads toward hibernation in most areas of the country.

Automobiles – Most new model years start in September, so that’s when dealers are looking to clear their lots of the previous year’s inventory. November and December also can be good though selections may be slimmer.

Scrubs, Trees & Perinials – September is when stores want to empty their garden sections, but there’s still enough time to get plants established before the first freeze.

Digital Cameras – A second round of new models comes out this time of year, so current inventory is marked down to make room for new models.

October

Gas/charcoal grills – see September for details

Winter clothing – cold-weather gear goes back on sale when the weather’s just starting to turn.

November

Automobiles – see September for details.

Televisions – TVs are a staple of pre- and post-Christmas sales, so plan to buy during the winter months (coincidentially, the same time you’ll want to spend curled up on the couch in front of the flat-screen anyway)

Toys - Another area where you can save just when you need to – in time for the holidays.

December

Air conditioners – this one’s easy – buy during winter when demand is low.

Automobiles – consumers are focused on holiday gifts and demand is lower.

Televisions - see November for details

Toys – see November for details

Good Days to Buy

Tuesdays – DVDs. New releases come out every Tuesday, and many stores offer discounts if you buy a movie on the first day it hits video.

Wednesday mornings – Airline tickets. According to Consumer Reports, that’s when airlines try to fill unsold seats on flights for the following week to 10 days.

Holiday weekends- Appliances. This is when stores bring out their big sales. Even smaller holidays like Columbus Day and Presidents Day can be good time to buy, according to SmartMoney.com.

If you know of other best buying times for products to add to my list, I welcome your comments.

Originally posted 2009-06-11 11:00:43. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Next Page »