Minnie the pup roaming Organize-It HQ
January 12, 2011
This crazy dog makes our day:
Minnie on Liz's lap, working hard!
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Make Life Easy, Organize-It
-Missy
New Year, New Home: Kick the Clutter Habit
January 12, 2011
In an ideal world, your home is an oasis of peace in the middle of a chaotic world. Keeping the chaos out is the tricky part. Instead of walking through the door and feeling a sense of peace, do you feel like there is a ton to do? You’ll get to the mess tomorrow, next week, month, year… or eventually when the kids go to college. Well, putting it off will leave the burden on your shoulders, continually dragging you down, begging for more than you can give it. January is the perfect time to take action and enjoy your slice of oasis for the rest of the year and begin being aware of how to rid the clutter for good.
- Purge: If you haven’t used an article of clothing or item in the last 12 months, donate it. The less load you have, the more manageable keeping things in place will be. Just remember: Clutter steals from the most precious things in life, complicating daily rituals and intensifying already stressful situations.
- Handle a small area each day: Let’s face it, you’re not going to declutter and organize your entire home in a day. It takes time; don’t stress yourself out by taking on your entire house in one day. Take it slow, do a little day by day and eventually you’ll get to where you want to be.
- Put it away, right away: Hang up your coat when you come home. Put your shoes where they belong. You’ll start realize the “put away item”s pile in the corner of the room will vanish for good.
- A place for everything: Buying framed artwork? More clothes? Exercise machines? Do you have room for that? Make sure before going on a shopping spree that you have the space for all your wants & needs.
We’re human, our lifestyles change and so do our homes. We can’t keep everything; so make room for the new and say goodbye to the long forgotten.
Make Life Easy, Organize-It!
-Missy
Organize Your Holiday Decorations
January 12, 2011
Now that the extended family has departed and the kids are back in school, many of you are probably looking around wondering what to do with all of your holiday decorations. Follow these tips and you’ll have them protected, stored, and ready for next year in no time:
- Identify a Storage Area – The first step is to determine where you are going to store all of your decorations. A corner in the basement or overhead storage in the garage are excellent possibilities. The key is to find an area large enough to store all of your holiday decorations together.
- Sort – Before you pack your decorations away, take an inventory of what you have. Are some worn out or broken beyond repair? Do you still like all of your decorations? Will you use them? If not, box up what you no longer want and donate it. You are sure to make someone else’s holiday a little bit brighter!
- Containerize – Plastic bins are a great storage solution for general holiday decorations. There are also many specialized containers for items such as trees, wreaths, ornaments, and tableware, which provide extra protection. Right now there are many storage options in red/green for Christmas decorations. By purchasing color-coordinated storage, it makes it easy to quickly identify what to pull out next year.
- Label – Even if you are color coding by holiday, I still recommend that you label the outside of your containers if you have more than one container per holiday. Labeling makes it easy for you (and others) to find what you need when you need it, and it also facilitates a speedy clean-up.
Follow these steps and you will have your decorations cleaned up, stored and protected in no time.
– Donna Lindley, Certified Professional Organizer and owner of Rochester Hills, MI-based Organize Your World, Inc.