February - 2016

Hit Your Target: Don't Get Taken By The Organizing Paparazzi

It is just so darn tempting - I know. Walking into The Container Store, gazing at all those sexy organizing baskets and jewelry containers. Imaging how gorgeous your spaces would look if only you had that shiny orange desktop letter holder on your desk... STOP. Don’t believe yourself. Don’t believe all the magazines showcasing the picture-perfect, neatly-labeled baskets that never overflow, like in real life. Don’t give in to media’s glorification of storage baskets. We start

OLWH: Kitchen Designer Sets Up A New Business

Why the Client Called Me: My client is a kitchen designer. She recently left a large firm and started her own business, and she wanted to set up her business from scratch in an orderly manner. She is a very organized person by nature, but she wanted to tackle her business paperwork. Her business requires a lot of forms: new client forms, project management, product information forms, tracking purchases/delivery dates for clients, vendor information...and more. She also has a

Hit Your Target: Don't Get Complicated

I started February with an blog post on 4 Common Organizing Mistakes . Last week we discussed the importance of keeping your ‘high-rent real estate’ free for important items in your commonly used areas of your home. And this week? More solutions - and simple ones, too! Simplify, simplify, simplify. As I mentioned earlier, there is nothing wrong with ‘good enough’ when it comes to organizing. Not everyone’s home (okay, hardly anyone’s home) looks like a magazine spread. S

The Health Benefits of Tea

So many of us turn to coffee to kick start out minds and bodies at the start of a day. Perhaps we’ve not slept well, or perhaps we feel exhausted at the thought of what lies ahead in our busy days. While coffee certainly gives us a boost, it can be short lived and the inevitable crash can leave us lower than before that first espresso! A smart way to ramp up your energy levels and sustain them at a speady level during the day is to drink tea. Tea is packed with anti-oxidants

Clutter-Free Ways to Celebrate Valentine's Day.

We’ve just been through a month of decluttering, right, so why bring it right back in with Valentines day? Here are a few ideas to show your love without dragging along a lot of extra clutter. (And yes, we left out the standard chocolate and roses...you could come up with that by yourself!) Ideas for your Spouse/Parter/Parent: Write a real love letter or poem or sone (or read one you feel fits your feelings about your partner). Leave notes of appreciation throughout your hous

Hit Your Target: Inventory Your Real Estate

Last week I wrote about 4 Common Ways we get in our own way of organizing. I touched on the problem of putting low-use items in the ‘high-rent districts’ of your home or office. Let’s inventory a few keys areas - like your desk, kitchen, bathroom, entry/exit area - to help you identify some potential roadblocks to your organization efforts...and resolve them. Your kitchen. Small or large kitchen, your countertops and cabinets are high-dollar real estate. Any of these culprit

A National Holiday? Super Bowl Fun Facts

I don’t know what the Super Bowl is like in your house, but it’s a sacred National Holiday here. I happen to be married to a crazed sports fanatic... Since I’m usually in the dark about the details of the teams and players, I decided to brush on my Super Bowl History and impress my husband. Here’s a cheat sheet if you need to do the same: The last five Super Bowls have been the five most watched telecasts in U.S. television history, prior to that the most watched telecast was

OLWH: Relocating a Senior Citizen: What to do with all Life’s stuff?

Why The Client Called Me: My client’s mother was ready to downsize and move into a senior community, leaving behind her 3-bedroom house and most of her belongings. Moving from a long-time family home to a studio apartment can wreak havoc on your routines, your belongings, your immediate and extended family - and your emotions. This family called Functional Spaces to help deal with the years of life still left in the home - in the shape of physical stuff. Furniture, books, kit

Old School Mindset Isn't Going to Cut It

Fresh Ideas for Organizing Your Life old-school mindset: I need a file for every piece of paper, and every type of bill, invoice, receipt. I have to save everything and file it away, then when the cabinet is full, I’ll purge - or buy a new cabinet and start over. new-school mindset: Nada. Create file folders that are self-purging, meaning that you use the same folders each year. When one year is done, save what you need for taxes or legal obligations in an archive folder/box,

Missing Your Target? 4 Common Organizing Mistakes

Many a client has called me after their own attempt(s) to declutter and organize their home or office has failed. Why does this happen? Why do our efforts seem to only last for a day…a week… or maybe, a month, if we are lucky? Do you feel like you are missing your targets? Here are a few of the most common mistakes we make. [Don’t worry…over the course of the month, we’ll address ways to remediate these issues to help you keep up the 2016 organizing habit.] You put low-value

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