Friday Feature: Getting Organized

Like so many others, I've used some of my "time in" to tackle projects around the house. Not only do I love to organize, but I have inspiration in the form of my 22 year old daughter who has moved back home following her college graduation. Her bedroom overhaul has gotten my organizing juices flowing. Yesterday, I tackled and reconfigured a bedroom closet.

All of that made it seem like a good day to share an article about decluttering. Though I write a lot about organization, I stand by my mantra that one size does not fit all so, in that vein, I like sharing organizing ideas that are not only good, but also readily adaptable to anyone who uses them.

That's what I like about this closet checklist from the Apartment Therapy site. It's clear, brief, and personalizable. It also happens to be a good fit for the way I work, as evidenced by the fact that I did most of the things it suggests when I worked on my closet yesterday.

I do not, however, under any circumstances, throw rejected outfits onto the floor of my closet. I leave them on my bed to clean up later. :-)

Happy organizing!

I'd like to take this opportunity to invite you to check out my writer page on Facebook. 

On June 11, I'll celebrate a book birthday: one year since the publication of my book, 

Know Thyself: The Imperfectionist's Guide to Sorting Your Stuff. 

I'll be posting about organization throughout the day, and you can jump in at any time,

read whatever interests you, and skip past whatever doesn't. 

There will be prizes, and, if you've liked the page, you'll have access to the celebration.

3 Reasons Why my Desk will Never be Clear

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This morning, I had an entirely different blog post in mind when I sat down at my desk and said good morning to Alexa, my Echo Dot. No, I'm not having conversations with random inanimate objects or greeting my office Goodnight Moon-style ("Good morning tape. Good morning stapler, Good morning cup with the caffeinated iced tea.") Saying good morning to Alexa gives me a fun fact of the day. Today, I discovered that it's Clean Off Your Desk Day "which, come to think of it, we should probably celebrate more than once a year." ("Her" words, but I agree).

Even when it's clean, my desk is never clear. Right now, the pullout tray where my laptop sits (my primary work space) is just how I like it -- empty except for Post-it notes on one side and a notepad (for capturing random thoughts) atop the mouse pad on the other. The space beyond (the actual  desktop) is a different story. It's not terrible, but it has two semi-neat stacks and a collection of random objects scattered in between. Most of this needs to go (and, since it's Clean Off Your Desk Day, that will definitely be on the agenda for this afternoon -- or this evening) but, even after it does my desk won't be clear, and here's why.

I'm a work-space personalizer. I know what the professional organizers say but I work at home, so I don't have to worry about whether a boss or co-worker will consider my fun/funny decor unprofessional or distracting. I share an office a work and leave the desktop perfectly clear when I leave for the day but, in my office at home, you're sure to find my quote from Philippians 4 ("I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"), a print my daughter got me at the English Market in Cork, Ireland, my "If I don't want you can't make me...I'm retired!" plaque, a stapler and my high-heeled shoe tape dispenser -- among other things. When I sit down in my office, I want to feel at home. A barren desk does not give me that feeling.

A few of my favorite things

I have a small office with limited storage. My office is a converted porch and space is at a premium. I office supply odds and ends in a small, clear, three-drawer unit in the upper right-hand corner of my desk and a desktop folder holder on the other side. The left side of the desk could use some rethinking (the folder holder has, shall we say, expanded.....), but most of what lives atop my desk (stacks notwithstanding) serves a purpose. Or, it did the last time I gave my desktop a thorough overhaul.

I have an I need to see it personal style. I read a rebuttal to this concept the other weekend -- something about deferred decisions, maybe? It induced a pang of guilt and then I opted to let it go in one ear and out the other, so to speak, since it was apparently written by someone who doesn't operate out of this style. And that's okay. But it is my style, and I've forgotten enough things that I put away to know that leaving important things where I can see and/or trip over them allows me to stop trying to store them in my mind, or even on a list where they become intermingled with all the other items. I need to keep this style under control (which is why I have things like a small, clear, three-drawer unit and a folder holder on my desk), but I cannot banish it completely.

I'm sure I had one more thing to share when I started this post, but I've now become so distracted by the urge to clean my desk that it completely escapes me.

How about you? Are you a fully clear desktop person or desktop personalizer?

A New Book is Coming!

The new year keeps bringing me new things to share! (No complaints!!) I didn't intend to have two new pretty things to showcase this week, but this morning, I got the official go-ahead to share the cover of my latest book!

Due out this spring from Our Sunday Visitor, Know Thyself: The (Im)Perfectionist's Guide to Sorting Your Stuff takes a laid back, gentle approach to getting organized. Long-time readers may remember that I used to post on this topic here before moving the organizing posts to a home of their own. My philosophy is that anyone can get organized, but that one-size-fits-all organizational strategies are counterproductive (and frustrating). The path to sustainable systems is created by putting the things we already do -- the very things that might seem like obstacles -- to work and developing strategies that work with those habits and styles.

So, for any of you who've been wondering what's taking me so long to get the next Marita/Angel/Charli book out into the world, the answer is that I seem to have taken a non-fiction detour. Now that the writing part of Know Thyself is finished, I'm anxious to get back to my characters, and determined that 2019 will be the year that their next installment makes it into your hands.

Until then, I hope you'll join me in celebrating my newest book, due out in just a few months!

Saturday Special: Kid Organization Tips from the Experts

Photo: Jessica Gale via Morguefile

As I write this, the detritus of a rapidly dwindling semester surrounds me, with a fine layer of book launch panic sitting on top like a layer of gooey frosting. Meanwhile, my teenage daughter is celebrating her first Saturday off from work by cleaning her room.

Since the big kid in this equation (that would be me) has given up on doing anything more strenuous that treading water in the organizational pool, today seemed like a good day to focus on organization for kids, especially with the holidays coming. The impending influx of material goods is often a big motivator for sorting and taking advantage of the Three Rs that make up the L (Let it Go!) in STYLE.

Though I rarely watch HGTV these days, a show that was on when my daughter was small (Mission: Organization) was a large part of the inspiration for the way I view organizing. Regardless of what is -- or isn't -- on the air, their website remains a great resource, so I wasn't surprised to find that their article, "Get Your Kids Organized at All Ages" offered some great ideas, packaged into an age-by-age  format.

So, while I sit down in my definitely not organized workspace with a large portion of humble pie, enjoy some tips from the experts, whose offices most likely look better than mine does today.

Saturday Special: 52 Things to Keep You Busy

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I'm a big fan of chipping away at jobs that feel oversized, so I was delighted to find this post from She Knows: 52 Ideas to Organize Your Home. Billed (rather logically) as an organizing tip a week, it has ideas for every style. Some are one-and-done and others can form the foundation of a new habit.

So, if you want to dig in, but aren't sure where to start, check it out. Progress is a beautiful thing.

Saturday Special: Living Small

Photo: Tat via Morguefile

Graham Hill lives in 420 square feet of space -- by choice. In his TED Talk, "Less Stuff, More Happiness," he shares three guidelines, all in under six minutes:

• Edit ruthlessly.
• Small is sexy.
• Make multifunctional.

While this TED Talk may cause palpitations in I love stuff people, it's worth watching if only to see the 420 square foot space, and the cool things he used to make it work. And while it may be hard to edit ruthlessly, the other half of his advice in that area was to stem the inflow, something that many of us find much easier to do.

Organization is important. It's also much easier when the amount of stuff we have fits well into the space we inhabit. Personally, I'm still working on that, but when I watch TED Talks like this one, I'm more motivated to do some of that ruthless editing.

Sometimes, Drastic Measures are Called For

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Last spring, my e-mail decided to cooperate only sporadically. Its timing was, of course, marvelous. E-mails began disappearing into cyberspace and failing to arrive in my inbox right around the end of the semester, when I had the least amount of time available to remedy the situation. For a few weeks, I worried that friends thought I was ignoring and that business associates really hadn't gotten the things I'd sent to them.

Fortunately, the Apple Store was able to come to my rescue. Unfortunately, this came at a price, and that price was my e-mail stash. It was, shall we say, substantial.

The Apple technician was very kind and understanding -- although he was taken aback by my less-than-organized desktop and amused when I told him I write about organization. He allowed me a few minutes to process my impending loss (mostly because he didn't want to be blamed if I lost anything important, I suspect) and and then we hit the appropriate keys and sent several years' worth of back e-mails hurtling into oblivion.

It was a necessary step -- one that was unavoidable in order to achieve the larger (and more important) goal of a functioning e-mail account.

Three months later, I miss very few of those thousands of emails and am, in fact, relieved to be free of the dead weight of a backlog I could never seem to manage. I still have more e-mails in my inbox than I should, but I've also become more ruthless about what stays and what goes. More important, I've recognized that the time it takes to keep things under control is time well-spent. My goal, after all, is a functioning e-mail account.

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As I prepare to begin a new semester -- one which will include teaching freshmen about setting goals and developing good habits -- it occurs to me that my little lesson in technology applies to much more than e-mail accounts. It is, in fact, an illustration of Covey's second habit of highly effective people: begin with the end in mind.

If we don't know what we want, we can't begin to know how to get there. If we do know what we want, we can often cope with drastic measures, and we might even choose to take them.

What constitutes drastic measures will, of course, vary from person to person. In my case, it was letting go of correspondence, much of which was trash, but some of which might have been buried treasure. For a college freshman, drastic measures might mean staying home on a Friday night to study. To those outside of these situations, neither of these measures sounds particularly drastic, but drastic is in the eye of the beholder.

We all want things that are too expensive, whether that expense comes in the currency of cash, time, e-mail or something else entirely. Sometimes we're willing to pay the price, and sometimes we're not. It depends on how important the goal is.

What ends do you have in mind? What's keeping you from them?

Talking Myself into It

Neon Trees cover via tumblr.com

It's funny how writing about organization has influenced my own home and behavior. As I look around my house, I still see plenty to do -- plenty of clutter to be sorted, diminished and stored, plenty of spaces to attack and improve upon -- but I also see the fruits of my bit-by-bit, one baby-step-at-a-time labor.

I noticed it most -- the good stuff, that is -- when we returned home after almost a week away. I walked into my living room after a long car ride home from Boston, and saw floor. It's not that my living room floor is usually buried, (even at its worst), but I'm definitely guilty of a "nest" beside the sofa in the spot where I sit. Writing and teaching are both paper intensive tasks. Add reading for business and pleasure, and sometimes, the pile-up gets out of hand.

But it was gone. And little by little, other messes have been disappearing too. My house has a long way to go before it's ready for its close-up, but the power of suggestion has definitely inspired improvement. A baby step here and a baby step there started a march toward order.

Still, this is not a permanent state of affairs. This week, I'm teaching a class, and so within 24 hours of the "ahh" inspired by my living room floor, I'd wreaked havoc on my office -- my beautiful office that had only recently begun to take shape. Why? Because I needed to dig out materials that I hadn't used since I taught the class last year.

And so, for the better part of a week, I cringed every time I picked my way through the tiny space that I'd made even tinier by a pile-up of bins and notebooks. I hated it, but there was no sense putting everything back until I was sure I was finished. Furthermore, since it was already out, it only made sense to reassess it and see if any streamlining was possible.

Ed Sheeran cover via
turntablelab.com

Indeed it was. Last night, I sorted through not only the pile I'd created on purpose, but also the accumulated materials in the vicinity. And I downsized. About one third of the papers made their way to the trash or the recycling bin, and when I put things back, the office looked better than it had before. That particular space looked better than it has in a very long time.

Sometimes, talk is just that -- talk. But sometimes, it's thinking out loud.

And sometimes, it's the beginning of a plan.

If You (Don't) Love it, Set it Free!

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At the heart of any organization project is a decision -- to keep, or not to keep. Finding systems, shortcuts and containers that complement your styles is important, but even the best of these containers is neither bottomless nor infinitely expandable. Like it or not, going through the "stuff" and determining what to keep and what to toss (or dispose of otherwise) is an important step toward getting organized.

And for many people, this is the most difficult part of organizing -- just ask an I love stuff person. The mere mention of getting rid of anything is painful to those who love stuff because each item holds a memory or significance, endowing it with a life of its own. 

Cram and jammers and I know I put it somewhere organizers, on the other hand, are usually able to be more heartless about this task (unless, of course, their personal style is I love stuff!) They may not like the labor involved, but their "out of sight out of mind" outlook makes it easier for them to separate trash from treasure. I love to be busy folks and drop and run organizers may also have little difficulty making the "keep or toss" decision, as their organizational struggles arise more from a lack of time than from an attachment to their things. And we I need to see it people are often delighted to get rid of things because it reduces the pile and, along with it, the feeling of being overwhelmed by how much we have to do.

That's not to say this is a simple task. Even for those who may find it easy (or even cathartic) to de-clutter, the task can be time intensive. If getting rid of things is hard for you, begin by taking stock of what you've accomplished over the past two months. If you've been reading along and chipping away, you've probably already let things go -- containers that weren't earning their keep, things you came across during a Give it Five! session, items that had no home -- and so you've already passed go and are well on your way. 

Photo: jdurham via Morguefile

Next week, we'll dig in (no pun intended) a bit more deeply, but for now, let's start with a list of expendable items. All of these can be thrown away or recycled relatively painlessly:

• Things that are torn or broken , or missing pieces
• Half a pair of anything
• Things that are outdated (e.g back issues of magazines)
• Things  you no longer use or need

So far, so good? If so, and if you've recently been working on the large, rectangular spaces in your bedroom, you might want to add "clothing that no longer fits or is out of style" to your list. Unless you really do want to throw it away or have a destination in mind, set it aside for now -- just for now.

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If this is really hard, do what you can and congratulate yourself. Throwing things away is the most traumatic way for some of us to divest ourselves of our extras. If you find any of the above categories to be more magnetic than expendable, try choosing just one category or even just a few things you think you can manage; then, celebrate your successes. Or, set a goal for yourself -- say, ten items -- and see if  you can meet or surpass it. Every little bit helps.

Next week, we'll talk about finding new homes for the things that no longer belong in our homes. Meanwhile, if you've got a great suggestion for a way to give your old stuff new life, please share it in the comments below. 

Saturday Special: Recapturing Time

morguefile.com

As someone in perpetual organization mode who also writes about organization, I'm a sucker for any title that promises de-cluttering assistance. And when I see the word "clutter" in a title, my mind immediately goes to the physical stuff that creates a barrier between me and an organized life.

But in today's fantastic and optimistic article (Eleven Ways to De-Clutter Your Day), Jeff Haden offers tips on reclaiming an all-too-precious commodity: time. Even better, he makes it sound easy. I can just feel the extra minutes returning to me.

I'm planning on printing this piece out and using it as a sort of checklist (though I don't think he'd approve of that plan, based on tip #5). That way, I can pick one idea each week, chipping away at the list and recapturing lost minutes as I check the relevant items off my list.

How about you? Where will you start?

Saturday Special: Why I Love Pinterest

This pin from Four Generations, One Roof
is one of my favorites. 

Last week, I featured 23 Easy Organizing Ideas for Your Entire Life, a great gallery of easy, inexpensive organizing ideas. As I read the article, I added my favorite ideas to my "Organization" board on Pinterest.

I was slow to join the Pinterest party, but now that I have, I see how wonderful it is for I need to see it people. Find a recipe you like? Pin it! Tacking a reorganization project? Pin ideas for containers, room set-ups and systems. It's all right there where you can see it, and, if you've pinned well, you can link back to the source to find things like directions, details and, well, more ideas.

My organization board was one of the first ones I set up, and last week, I added a companion board on one specific organizer (shoe bags) so I can gather ideas for a post I'm creating. Some of my boards are just for fun; others relate to my writing and my Thirty-One business.

Are you on Pinterest? What's your favorite way to use it?

Launching a New Wednesday Feature: Organizing by STYLE

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January is a month for organizing. Tricks, tools and even sales abound, but if you don't know how to organize in a way that works for you, it's easy to waste both time and money.

Contrary to popular belief (and the glut of organization books on the market), organizing is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. "Obvious" tools such as binders and file cabinets really don't work for everyone, and can even be a hindrance instead of a help. Unfortunately, if you're one of the people they don't work for, it's easy to jump to the conclusion that you are the problem.

But I disagree with that conclusion. I believe that everyone has the capacity to get organized and that the trick to success lies in finding a method and tools that match the way you think -- marrying your personal style and your organizational style to create a process that underlies the way you organize everything.

I've spent a lot of time in the last eight years reading, writing, teaching and speaking about organization, and I've decided it's time to bring that information to my blog. Beginning next week, my Wednesday posts will have an organizational focus, and on Saturdays, I'll share an article, book or website that has to do with organization. Like my Friday Freebies, the Saturday posts will be a quick read, but all of them will contribute to the organization conversation.

Those who know me well may be chuckling (or even rolling on the floor laughing) by now. After all, even I have joked that my credibility as someone who knows anything about organization would be completely shot if anybody walked into my house unannounced.

But, it's for just that reason that I am a credible source. Naturally organized, but incredibly busy (and

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therefore ostensibly messy), I know what it is to struggle with organization, even when you think you've found the answers. To put things in a safe place, only to never see them again. To be ridiculously over-organized in some areas, and woefully under-organized in others. To make a to do list only to leave it on the table, or have it get buried under (a pile of) "visual reminders."

So let's do this. Let's get organized together, even if our baby steps go both forward and backward.

Better yet, let's get organized with STYLE.

On Organization, Right-Brained Thinking and Office Supplies

Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of speaking to the Lancaster Christian Writers group on the topic of organization. They were a warm and enthusiastic bunch, and I had a wonderful time.

Among the resources I shared was one of the books that had ushered in a paradigm shift for me, Organizing For the Creative Person: Right-Brain Styles for Conquering Clutter, Mastering Time and Reaching Your Goals, by Dorothy Lehmkuhl. Until I read this book, I'd never considered the notion that people who are right brain dominant organize differently than those who are left brain dominant. Silly, really, since I'd been an educator for years, and firmly believed that different kids had different learning styles and that we could maximize what they learned by using those styles to their advantage. Still, I'd never made the leap to different organizational styles.

But, after I read that book, I sure did. I embraced that concept not only personally but professionally, cooking up style names designed to make organizational concepts fun and accessible for kids, and, as it turns out, adults too.

Then last weekend, I came across a nugget of information in a document I'd downloaded quite some time ago. Smead (the office supply company) had created a document called 100 Ideas for Better Organization. I'd been reading it in bits and pieces, but when I arrived at idea #72 last weekend, I stopped short.

There it was again. Right brain organizing.

Turns out that the need to leave things out in plain sight (one of the personal styles I discuss in my classes and presentations) is connected to right brain dominance. According to Idea #72, the right-brain-dominant person is stimulated to thinking and doing by the things they see.

Well, what do you know? My messy desk has more to do with the dominant side of my brain than my need (?) to operate in chaos.

But, as you can imagine, an office supply company doesn't put out a free publication without taking advantage of the opportunity to advertise their product. In this case, however, I was appreciative, because their "hints" and "suggestions" fed into my mission. When I talk to people about organization, there are two things I want them to know by the time they leave:

• you aren't broken or flawed or somehow inferior if you struggle with organization and
• you can turn your styles into assets.

More than halfway through my free download, I discovered that not only was my need to leave things lying out a reflection of my right-brained-ness, but there were office supplies geared to people like me. And you know what that means?

I'm not alone. Better yet, I'm a target market - one who can turn her styles into assets.

Well, that may be the nicest thing an office supply company has ever said to me.