Say Goodbye to Greeting Card Clutter

In every home that I visit, unused greeting cards abound. Here’s what happens. You try to plan ahead and buy cards for loved ones who have a special day coming up. You take the card home and throw it in a pile until you need to send it. Then when that time comes you can’t find the card amidst the clutter and have to go buy another.  So when the first greeting card reappears, the need for that card no longer exists, so it either stays in a clutter pile or goes into the dark hole of unused greeting cards and is soon forgotten. Add to this disorganization the embarrassment of forgetting to mail the card at all. Does this sound familiar? 

What is lacking here is an organized system for remembering to buy the card, actually buying it, storing it until it needs to be sent and then sending the greeting card. There is a better way.  

Sending greeting cards is a process just like any other, like bill paying or any work process. In order to eliminate the greeting card clutter and avoid the embarrassment of missing an important occasion, and last minute trips to the store or post office, is to develop a greeting card sending system. You can be prepared for any card occasion with a just a little organization planning.

The Greeting Card Organizer is the answer to stress free card sending. This sturdy 3-ring binder provides categories for the storage of up to 240 cards. The binder gives you easy to use sections to organize your cards for every occasion and makes it easy for you to see when you are low on cards for a specific occasion.  

 

 A feature that I really like about this organizer is its undated perpetual calendar for recording important occasions by month and day.

I recommend keeping the Greeting Card Organizer in close proximity to where you enter your home with purchases, so that the card can make it into the organizer as soon as it comes in the door. The binder can easily be stored on a shelf or cabinet for easy access when it’s time to retrieve and mail the right card. Be sure to keep stamps, return labels, notecards, pen and calendar close by so you can do the action of card mailing all in one sitting (or action), rather than running all over the house to find the supplies needed.

With a system in place, you will be able to shop when you can find the best selection of cards for your loved ones. The Greeting Card Organizer is the home for incoming greeting cards that you are waiting to be sent. So when the next special occasion rolls around and you need to send a card, all that you’ll need to do is to reach for the Greeting Card Organizer. You will never be a last minute card shopper again.

To learn more visit The Simplified Home.

Originally posted 2009-08-06 22:33:33. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Important Tips for Closing Out 2008

Originally posted 2009-01-04 20:06:49. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Organize Home Maintenance Records

When it comes to taking care of your biggest investment ~ your home, there are a lot of things that you need to manage and keep organized. In most households, these tidbits of information are spread out throughout the home ~ instruction manuals and receipts stuffed in a drawer, paint numbers on the top of a paint can in the garage. Does that sound familiar? With home maintenance and repair, it is important to be organized and current on everything that you have done to your house. It is easy to lose track of all of the home repair projects that need to be done and when.

 

Another item that is easy to lose track of are all of the home improvements and repairs you have made to your home over the years. Home improvements need to be considered when you sell your home for calculating the sales price and then for calculating capital gains after the sale. So where do you go to store and then easily find these important records about your home?

 

To keep your house in tip-top shape, you need an organized system and home where this information lives for easy reference and retrival. I found a product titled the Home Maintenance Organizer that I now offer in The Simplified Home e-store (www.TheSimplifiedHome.net) and to my local clients. This home record organizing system provides a solution to, and a home for, all the home repair/maintenance clutter. The Home Maintenance Organizer is a binder where you can record and store all of the important information about your house, like window sizes, room dimensions, when you last had the furnace or refrigerator serviced, paint colors, and much more. This system also comes with an essential set of guidelines that will tell you what home repairs should be done and when.

 

The binder also has storage for ongoing projects that are happening around the house as well as places for important documents. The binder is an easy to carry with you system when shopping for window treatments, appliances, etc.

 

Another system to use for vital and archived home records, like home deed, mortgage, home title, etc. is our HomeFile Financial Planning Organizer Kit that is used in a file cabinet or filing box. This is a ready-made home filing system to hold all your vital personal and home records, most of which that you need to keep, but don’t need to access often.

 

 

Both these ready-made organizational systems solve the clutter problem of how and where to keep home maintenance records and will and make sure your biggest investment is always taken care of.

Originally posted 2009-02-07 13:23:47. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Where to Find Money Saving Coupons

Now that you know you can save money with coupons where do you find them? There are the obvious places that coupons hang out, but you may not be aware of some other places you can get coupons. Keep reading to find out more.

The most likely place to find money saving coupons is the newspaper. On Sunday especially, the newspaper is full of store circulars and coupons for products you use all the time and new items that you can try for next to nothing. This is the first place that everyone looks.

Manufacturers also offer printable coupons online. These coupons have barcodes and can be printed off of your printer and used in their store. Most people don’t think about these coupons but they save you lots of money. I have gotten into the habit of searching online for store coupons before leaving the house.

Have you ever received emails with links to recipes for sites like Betty Crocker, Bisquick or Cooking Light? If you like to cook or rather like to eat, check out these links. You can unsubscribe to these emails whenever you like, but give them a look first. Not only do you find interesting recipes but they usually include coupons as well. Simply agree to receive new offers and your electronic mailbox will be full of coupons for cake mix, pancake mix, free trial size lotions, hairsprays and other toiletries.

Printable coupons are also available on websites. Try sites like www.coolsavings.com or www.allprintablecoupons.com. You can search by category or brand name to find coupons that fit your needs. Just point, click and print those that interest you. It couldn’t be easier.

If you belong to survey sites, you know that you can make extra money by offering your opinion. Some survey sites also offer points for taking advantage of their offers through links on their sites. On MyPoints.com, one of these discount links leads to printable grocery coupons. Every coupon that you redeem at the store earns you points towards gift card rewards when you reach a certain points level.

Don’t neglect magazines either. While you are reading the articles and looking at the pictures, take a glance over at the advertising pages. Many advertisers include a coupon along with their ads to entice customers to buy their product. Some types of coupons offered can include, Buy One, Get One Free or up to $1.00 or more off of a starter pack for air freshener or a new mechanical mop. If you ignore them, you’ll be throwing away money.

Look for displays at the front of your grocery store. Some grocery stores have coupon bins where customers can drop off coupons that they don’t need in case someone else can use them. You could find a coupon for several items on your list if you take time to look.

Another place that I look for coupons is in my Angie’s List magazine. Need your house painted, an interior decorator or even tickets to a local show? A membership with Angie’s List will surely pay for itself in the discounts and coupons you’ll get from participating vendors.

Coupons are a valuable asset to the shopper trying reduce household spending. Get in the habit of looking for coupon deals everywhere so you don’t miss out on great savings.

Originally posted 2010-03-07 14:33:54. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Declutter Your Life – Four Steps to Create Inspired Action

Clutter clearing, getting organized, and simplifying your life are ways to uncover what you love and it opens the door to inspired action in whatever you do. Inspired action is different than just being busy or active. You know you are inspired when work becomes play, you have an increase in energy, experience a single minded focus, and listen to your inner voice which makes any task or challenge feel effortless and enjoyable.

If you would like more inspired action in your clutter free journey and get in the inspired zone to achieve any goal or project in your home or life, here are four simple strategies so you can make the shift to be inspired, creative and energized.

Clarify what it is you want to create by letting go of clutter in your home. Decluttering and organizing a home office can reveal the desire to increase business and make more money. Getting rid of junk may be an inner desire to shift from being stuck in any area of your life to making more fulfilling choices. Clearing out a closet may be the beginning of decluttering your wardrobe to motivate you to get fit and healthy and create a new look. Getting rid of what you no longer love and use may be the desire to find your purpose in life. So connect your decluttering and organizing projects to what you want to create in your home and the big benefit you want to experience in your life.

Set your intention. Intention is a few simple words that state what you want to create and empower your actions. Intention is simple, can be visual, a feeling or to define your end result. You could say “I want to create calm in my living room” which inspires you to remove clutter or change furnishings to softer color and add candles or elements for nature for a more relaxing energy.

You may intend to have your financial area in perfect order which may inspire you to feel positive, manage money better and attract prosperity. Your intention could be to run ten kilometers a couple times a week which is a great motivator to declutter and organize sports equipment in the garage, get the kitchen menu and pantry organized and go through your closet making comfortable exercise clothes a priority. Intention connects your subconscious to your conscious which empowers you to intuitively take those inspired action baby steps that make the space, time and opportunity for your inner desire to create an outer result.

Make a detailed crystal clear picture of what you want to create. Think thoughts, visualize an image, and write a description that will uplift your energy, get you focused and make you feel excited about your end result. Play with this, add detail, use your five senses and add to your vision as you gain clarity. A consistent focus on the end result will guide you to intuitively take the right action to get the result you want. Often this process allows you to skip steps and achieve your end result a lot quicker.

Take that first step. Stop thinking about the way things are and keep dreaming about the way you want them to be, while you start creating the positive change that you want. Decluttering and organizing are part of designing how you want to live and create the room for vision and inspired action. Keep in mind baby steps are the beginning of big dreams.

You will find decluttering your home and getting organized will create the positive energy for inspired action in any area of your life. Get clear on what you want, set an intention, detail your personal vision and take that very important first step.

Jane Alais is a professional organizer, the creator of Declutter Befree.com and the author of Get Organized-Get Happy A Step by Step Guide to Clear Clutter and Organize Success. She writes about strategies and solutions to declutter, organize and energize your home and your life.

Originally posted 2010-07-27 20:23:38. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Who Gets Grandma’s Yellow Pie Plate?

Movies and TV shows have depicted the drama that comes from the emotional and complex job of dividing inherited items among family. Most families can tell stories about fights that have broken out over Mom’s good china or Grandma’s doll collection. Perhaps you have already experienced this madness and fighting, but hopefully you have been spared so far from this torture. I’ve experienced this twice in my family ~ one experience was a positive one of reflection and family bonding. The other however, was a nightmare. As a result of how personal property was divided in my in-laws family, family bonds were broken. A brother and sister haven’t spoken in five years.

As we Baby Boomers age, these issues will become increasingly prevalent and they deserve consideration in your family. In the past few years as a Professional Organizer, I have had increasing numbers of clients who call on me as an objective third party to help in these family transitions.

When a loved one passes away, it is not just the items in a Will that need to be dispersed, there is also the personal property as well. Estate Attorneys reveal that it typically isn’t how the monetary assets are divided that causes conflict in families ~ it is the dividing of personal belongings that cause the emotional conflicts. Childhood and family memories are tied to these physical items. Unless the family is proactive in planning for this inevitable transition, conflict, misunderstandings and hurt can result.

When I started working with families and seniors in transition, I found a wonderful book that helps families plan for this inevitable process. Written from a true story, the workbook “Who Gets Grandma’s Yellow Pie Plate” was researched and developed by the University of Minnesota Extension Service. Full of fill-in the blank forms and order of importance forms, the topics covered in this 83-page workbook are:

• The importance of recognizing the sensitivity of the issues

• Determining what you want to accomplish as a family

• Deciding what’s fair to all involved family

• Understanding that belongings have different meanings to different people

• Distribution options and consequences

• Identifying that the family relationships are more important than stuff

• The importance of making agreements to manage conflicts if they arise

Some non-titled property that this workbook may help you to divide are china, collectibles, jewelry and family heirlooms. The workbook guides you and your family through the steps of developing a plan for the easiest and most painless way to divide everything, with the goal of preserving family bonds and remaining on speaking terms afterwards. This book is a great asset for any family who will be, or already is, in the emotional position of dividing personal property of a loved one.

Originally posted 2009-01-09 14:18:27. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

How to Set-up a System to Keep Important Life Documents in One Place

How many times have you torn apart your house trying to find an important document? Often times these documents contain important pieces of your life that need to be in easy access, especially in an emergency. For most people organizing the documents and items that make up our lives is not a priority until there is a crisis. Then most will search frantically for the needed information only to waste time and increase stress.  Take it from a Professional Organizer who has worked with hundreds of clients who put this uneccessary stress upon themselves because they haven’t been proactive to design a system or were not aware that there are ready-made products available that will solve these paper clutter issues. Before the next crisis, set up a system to keep all your important documents in one place.

Ahh … imagine the relief of immediately finding any piece of needed information in the exact location you expect it to be.  I searched and found a couple of great products/solutions that solve just this dillema for my clients. Each serve as a central repository for important life and family documents, designed to be kept in easy access.

LIFE.doc  is a ready-made binder by Buttoned Up to keep all of the critical information of your life together. Life.doc has eight tabbed sections designed to organize all of the pieces of information that are needed for most people to keep one’s personal life in control.

These eight sections that encompass the most critical areas of life are:

• family basics
• in sickness & in health
• insurance
• dollars & sense
• legal ease
• caregiver information
• home sweet home
• emergency plan

It also comes with an accompanying CD-ROM with interactive forms that work with Microsoft Word (PC or MAC) making it easy to complete forms digitally and save them to a computer.

This comprehensive and bright red sturdy binder composed of 120 pages of straightforward forms for easy access are a roadmap that make it painless to get organized.  Life.doc will give you and your family the peace of mind that whatever information that you may need will be easy to find. This is the way to make sure that your house stays in one piece the next time that you need to find a piece of your personal information.

The VALUABLES.doc is another way that you can keep the things that you need in your life in one place and inventoried. This is a complete kit that will make it easy for you to catalog and keep track of all of your belongings.

• Valuables.doc binder by Buttoned Up includes:
  Eight tabbed sections for you to record all of your valuables room-by-room
• Jewelry
• Collectibles
• Family/living room
• Kitchen
• Dining room
• Bedrooms
• Basement
• Other

So, if and when disaster may strike in your life, (remember Hurricane Katrina?) you will have the necessary documentation to recoup the loss of many of the valuable keepsakes in your life.

POCKET.doc

The Pocket.doc provides simple to fill out forms that easily fit into a wallet, purse or backpack. So you have critical emergency, medical, and contact information when and where you need it.

The Pocket.doc by Buttoned Up includes:
Three sections to ensure that you have your emergency plan, medical information and important phone numbers when you need it. What’s great about this little record book is that it is the size of a credit card and easily fits in wallets, backpacks, glove compartments and briefcases.

Perfect for busy families on the go.

Each of these products would make a practical gift for your loved ones.

Visit The Simplified Home to learn more and to purchase.

Originally posted 2009-10-22 16:18:22. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Imagine Never Having to Sort Socks Again!

In most homes, sock piles abound! Socks seem to have a life of their own. How do they end up in so many places throughout our home?

Socks travel through several stages in the wash and wear cycle – from dresser drawer, being worn, to the washer, dryer, then sorted and matched with their mate, before they make it safely back to the dresser drawer. With so many steps in the process, no wonder they get lost and mismatched.

Socks that end up in mismatched piles and never make it safely back to the dresser drawer are useless clutter.

Have you considered the time it takes to match socks coming out of the laundry and getting them back in the drawer. Before I found the tool I’m about to tell you about, in our home our socks made it out of the laundry, but never seemed to get matched up, so they stayed in a yellow basket where each family member had to go to fish out and match up a pair of socks to wear for the day. Think of the daily chaos just trying to get dressed X 3. Only until it got so bad that my entire household’s inventory of socks were piled in a laundry basket, would I wage a sock sorting event. I got the kids involved by putting in a movie and all of us would spread out on the floor and match up socks, typically for the duration of the movie.

Perhaps you’re guilty of having “sock clutter”? Sock clutter consists of those orphan socks that litter your home, never to be worn again because the mate has been lost somewhere in the laundry process.

What if you had a tool that would eliminate both of these sock chores forever?

• The hours spent each week sorting and matching each family member’s socks
• Orphan sock clutter
• Fighting about whose socks are whose.

IMAGINE … never losing another sock or having to sort piles of socks again! Think of the time and space you’d get back. Imagine mornings running smoothly when family members now have easy access to a pair of socks.

As a Professional Organizer and busy mom of two, I am always on the look-out for home organizing and management tools that simplify daily home functions. Imagine how excited I was when I found Loc-A-Soks (also called Sock-Locks.)

With Sock-Locks you eliminate lost / orphan socks forever and save the time wasted sorting and matching socks.

With Loc-A-Sok, socks go from washer to dryer to dresser drawer all without sorting or losing socks.

Made in four bright colors (Blue, Hot Pink, Lime Green and Purple), you can assign a different colored set (10 Sock-locks per pack) for every family member and easily keep socks separated throughout the laundry process.

Sock-Locks work for all types of socks. Simply insert each sock, toes first through the grippers. The Loc-A-Sok is a one-step process designed to keep any socks paired from your laundry basket, to the washer, the dryer and into the dresser drawer.

No need to remove the Loc-A-Sok until socks are ready to wear. Store Sock-Locks near the laundry basket and attach socks to the Sock-Lock before dropping them in the laundry basket.

Made of durable plastic for long-term use, each pack includes enough for 10 pairs of socks, or 20 pairs of thin socks. Sock-Locks come in four colors making it easy to assign a different color to each family member.

As an Organizing Consultant, I recommend the Loc-A-Soks to anyone who wants to save time, eliminate inefficient home management tasks, teach their children organizational skills, save money by losing fewer socks, and be more organized, especially busy moms like me.

Sock-Locks make the perfect gift for busy moms, new mothers, caregivers, those with memory challenges … and really anyone! Everyone can benefit from this time-saving product.

Learn more about Loc-A-Soks.

Originally posted 2009-09-07 14:53:34. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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