Plan First; De-clutter Later

Planning is your first step to getting a fresh start with your clutter.  My goal is to inspire you to set goals that are meaningful and develop a good plan to achieve them.  You will then, in turn, be successful at winning your clutter challenges!  Do you look at your clutter and think, “I’ll never get this under control”?  Take the opportunity this week to consider the new year as your fresh start to getting your clutter under control.  In order to best conquer your clutter, you need a plan and accountability to that plan.

Before you start developing your plan, spend some time thinking about what challenges you have regarding clutter.  By asking yourself some open ended questions, you can ensure that you are going after the right challenges.  A key consideration is that your plan will be more effective if you are working on the right challenges.

• Where does clutter impact me the most?
• Whose clutter tops my list of clutter challenges?
• How much time do I need to clear my clutter?
• What kind of system would help me over the long term?

After you understand your challenges, set a goal for getting your clutter under control.  You are probably familiar with SMART goals.  I recommend you set SMART goals to effectively tackle your clutter.  If you are not familiar, SMART goals must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.  Take a minute and review the following two goals and decide which one is SMARTer:

• I want to get control of my clutter this year.
• By a week from today, I will remove the clutter from my desk, file it and develop a process to maintain my clutter-free desk for the next two months.

Okay, maybe I made it too obvious, but I hope the second goal helps to illustrate the important elements of a SMART goal.  After you write your goals, review them against the SMART criteria and revise them if necessary.

When you have developed your goal, it is time for your action plan.  When developing your plan, I recommend a few key steps to apply.  Keep the steps small and simple.  After you have developed your plan, post it somewhere to remind you of what you have committed to do.

START!  Pick a day in the next week when you will start your action plan.  It does not matter when you start.  If the whole process seems too overwhelming, take one small step each day.

Stay accountable to your plan.  Chances are that it may be difficult to do this on your own.  Find a coach to help you keep on track.  Your coach can be a friend, spouse, co-worker, significant other or even a professional coach.  The point is to have someone to help you stay accountable to your plan.  If you commit to someone besides just yourself, you are more likely to complete the actions.

Good luck as you start and implement your plan.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Laura Rolands is the founder of LSR Coaching and Consulting, LLC. She is a coach whose passion is to support, lead and inspire independence and success for people who have either been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD or who are facing other attention-related challenges. Her clients include individuals with attention-related challenges and/or their parents.  You can reach her through www.MyAttentionCoach.com.

Stop Clutter Dead in Its Tracks

Clutter, clutter, clutter.  This is a word that can make you feel anxious, overwhelmed, disorganized and frustrated.  Clutter can create greater stress for your family, as if raising a family is not enough.  Clutter makes it difficult to dust a desktop, vacuum a floor: it makes you work harder not smarter.  Clutter will cost you time and money - lots of it.

As a professional organizer, I am often asked: what is the best way to control clutter?  I often respond: by stopping it dead it its tracks!  It is best to avoid having clutter before it becomes clutter.  So if you find yourself with a pile of junk mail, permission slips, bills and coupons sitting on your kitchen counter, make sure that these items don’t even get there.  Here is my advice:

• As you go through your mail, place the emptied envelopes, flyers and junk mail in the recycle bin. Shred any items that contain personal information (address, account info etc.)
• File your bills in an accordion file holder
• Fill out permission slips, diarize the event in your family calendar and place the slips in your kid’s agenda to take back to school
• Place coupons in a small, portable accordion holder that slips into your purse or with your re-useable - eco-friendly bags!

Can you see where I am going with this? If everything has a place, then there is no need to have clutter on the counter.

I usually suggest to clients to use these five useful tips help get them conquer clutter.

Tip # 1 - Take 5, 10 or 15…

Take 5 minutes to clear some clutter. Maybe it is a junk drawer, part of your linen closet or a 3×3 foot section in your basement or garage. Take 5 minutes to tackle a project. Five minutes may turn to 10 or 15 minutes but you may surprise yourself and keep going. Build up to 1 hour and then maybe 1/2 day. Pick a project, set a time to tackle a task and stick to it. Don’t take on too much or you may become overwhelmed but DO keep at it until the time is up.

Tip # 2 - Have a vision - make a plan

Take the time to figure out what you want from your space - this is a VISION. Ask yourself: What would this space look like without all this clutter?  If you are using a guest bedroom as a catch all or dumping ground or a have an entire basement as playroom but you want a home office, envision what the room would look like when you finish your project. Make a simple floor plan. Figure out what can stay, what has to go and what has to change in order to make your vision a REALITY!

Tip # 3 - Use a system

Use a system that will help you accomplish you goals and get rid of the clutter. F-A-S-T is a simple system used by “Clean Sweep” host, best-selling author and Organizing Guru, Peter Walsh.

• Fix a time and stick too it
• Anything not used in the last twelve months has to go
• Someone else’s stuff has to go back to them
• Trash unusable items and garbage definitely have to go

A de-cluttering system has to be simple. Use 5 sorting bins labeled ‘keep’, ‘donate’, trash’, ‘recycle’ and ’somewhere else’. Quickly scan the room in a clockwise manner and toss the items in the bins where they belong. This system is effective and can help you get started - FAST!

Tip # 4 - One in one out

Using the ‘one-in-one-out’ rule can be very effective.  How does this simple system work?  When you purchase a new item, you retire another one.  So if you have bought a great pair of black pumps, get rid of the other ones that you haven’t used in ages.  Place a shopping bag in your closet so you can donate ‘retired’ items.

Before it even becomes clutter, make sure you think about what you are letting into your closet/home/life?  Do you need more than one?  Do you have space to put this new found object?  Do you ’see’ where it will fit into your home?

Tip # 5 - A place for everything and everything in its place

If everything has a place, it is much easier to control clutter.  If something is not in its place, you will know right away.  Give items a home so your family knows where items can be found and sent to.  Finding a permanent home for items can be a very difficult task for some people but in the long run, it makes life less complicated.

You can use these few steps to stop clutter in its tracks.

Margarita Ibbott owns Downshifting - Professional Organizing Solutions and has been a professional organizer in London, Ontario, Canada for over 4 years.  She loves working with families to control their clutter.  You can find her musing on clutter, organizing and family life at www.downshiftingpos.blogspot.com.

Confronting Clutter

Home is where the heart is, but it’s also where the furniture, appliances, clothing, electronics, sports equipment, tools and toys are, too.  Homes generally come with garages, basements, attic and yards, and all of which needs to be cleaned, maintained and de-cluttered. 

Shedding needless clutter and organizing the things you use and care about will help make your home a more productive and enjoyable place. By creating a welcoming and warm home, family members and friends can enjoy a place of refreshing and rest from our stress-filled world.

It’s hard to be aware of the finer moments of life when we’re stressed out trying to locate things we’ve already purchased but can’t find. It’s exasperating staring at piles of paperwork, old magazines, unopened mail, laundry, clothes that need mending, and so on.

Here are some simple strategies to bring GENERAL CLUTTER under control.

BEFORE YOU START:

1. Schedule a day when you can do a whole-house clutter sweep.
2. Arrange for a local thrift store or charity to come to your home the day after “Declutter Day.” This way you will have a firm deadline.
3. Gather several types of containers. I recommend clear, stackable plastic storage bins. Also, have at least one large garbage bag for each room for trash. Label the containers: GIVE AWAY / GARAGE SALE / STORAGE / UNDECIDED. I like to have several shoeboxes for random things so I can store similar items together.
4. Eat a good breakfast, put on comfortable clothes and turn on some lively music.
5. Eliminate all distractions. Turn off cell phones and televisions.

LET’S GET STARTED:

1. Start with the most cluttered room in your house. Remove everything from shelves, bookcases, drawers, tabletops, floors and walls. Take a moment to envision your perfectly organized space.  Take note of wasted space you can turn into well-utilized space.
2. Toss or give away as much as possible. Concentrate and eliminate. When it comes to magazines, catalogs, craft material you been saving but haven’t used, be brutal. Weed out games your family doesn’t play and books you never read.

To make the task of decluttering manageable, establish three rules. First, the “In and Out ” rule means every time something new comes into the house, you get rid of an old item. For example, if you buy a new set of towels, get rid of the old ones, or designate them for car washing. Secondly, enforce the “Put It Up, Not Down” rule. This rule will transform your entire world when everyone in the family consistently returns everything back to where it belongs. Lastly, the “Save Photos, Not Objects” rule applies to artwork, report cards, uniforms and all items or clothing.

ASK THESE QUESTIONS: When was the last time it was used? Worn? Play with? Does it deserve valuable space in our home? Are there memories attached to it? (Take a photo.) What am I going to do with it? Fix it, sell it, toss it, or donate it?

DON’T FALL FOR THESE EXCUSES: Do not allow excuses to take root in your mind such as “It cost money. I can’t get rid of it,” or “There’s too much. Why even start?” or “My family’s a mess. Clutter is inevitable.” And everyone’s favorite excuse for saving unnecessary things, “It may come in handy someday,” or “I’ll keep it until I find someone who needs it.” Be mindful of what you tell yourself. Resist excuses.

PAPER CLUTTER

Flat surfaces are magnets for paper clutter. Discourage family members from piling their stuff on kitchen countertops and dining room tables. Designate specific places for paper and use an IN BOX for school notices, receipts, menus, coupons, invitations, etc. and set up a separate MAIL BASKET for daily mail.

Get rid of all magazines by a certain date. Mark your calendar. If you haven’t gotten around to reading an article, then cut it out and put it in a file labeled “MUST READ.” If you receive multiple or unwanted catalogs, clip the address labels from the catalogs and return them to the company with a note asking to be removed their mailing list. Visit http://www.stopthejunkmail.com/ to reduce the amount of junk mail you receive. For $20 a year, you can get your name off thousands of lists used by telemarketers and marketing databases.

If piles of paperwork are ruining your tranquility, try conquering a little bit at a time. Practice double-timing. When you’re watching television, grab some file folders, your label maker, a trashcan and a pile of papers you need to deal with and go for it.

KID CLUTTER

Kids’ bedrooms are a breeding ground for clutter. These guidelines will teach your children valuable lessons about how to care for possessions.

1. No food in the bedroom.
2. All dirty clothes in a hamper.
3. Nothing with wheels left on the floor.
4. Put away toys that you aren’t playing with before moving onto something new.
5. Straighten your room before going to bed.

If your efforts seem to be going nowhere, you could try “Clutter Jail.”  If an item is not put back where it belongs, it goes to Clutter Jail. A box or laundry basket will do. The item cannot be reclaimed until Sunday night when the messy culprit has to pay a handling fee. (Fees or fines are optional.)

Also, to reduce frustration, make neatness fun. Involve the children in deciding where everything belongs or “lives.” Make it exciting by letting the kids take turns ringing a bell announcing clean up or Get Out of Clutter Jail time. Use rolling plastic storage bins to store toys under the bed or in a closet. Lower the bars in your child’s closet so he or she can hang up his or her own clothes. Hang a hat rack on the back of a door so he or she can keep his hats and baseball caps neat and on display.

And here’s the best tip of all — remember the power of TEN. You’d be surprised at how much you can accomplish in just 10 minutes. Getting organized is not just about taking care of your stuff. As Winston Churchill said, “We shape our house, then our houses shape us.”

Jodie Randisi is a certified Family Manager ^tm coach and the author of 201 Things to Do When Children Say I’M BORED. For more information about Family Manager coaching or to get a copy of her book, go to www.201thingstodo.com.

How to Keep Track Of and Organize Family Activity Ideas

Family activity files are a great way to keep track of all those clipped magazine articles, brochures, and websites, you have collected over the years in the hopes of having them readily available when planning your family outings and activities or when looking for some new family night ideas.  Similar to a family travel file, a family activity file can make planning a family outing or finding a new idea a lot easier by organizing the ideas by category and keeping them stored in one central location.    Here are some suggestions on how to make your own.

Determine What Kind of System You Need

Any organizing system you design should be created so that it meets your needs and isn’t complicated to use or keep updated.  So when creating a system to organize your family activity ideas it is important to start first with understanding how and how often you collect information.

If you tend to be a big collector of paper such as magazine articles, event brochures, newspaper clippings, etc then you will most likely need a multi folder system for storing your information.  If you tend to only collect and save only a few pieces of information and keep a small amount of notes, then you are probably best trying to incorporate your family activity file into your current system for organizing papers or just starting with a single file folder.

Also, if you tend to bookmark a lot of family activity idea websites on your computer then your online organizing system should also be a little more in depth with multiple folders for different topics.  If you tend to bookmark or save very little information on line, a single bookmark folder will do or simply a printout or written note will be enough.

Creating a Paper Based Multi Folder System

Things You Will Need

3 Ring Binder

Tab Dividers

3 Hole Punched File Folders

If you decide to go with a multi folder system, then begin by deciding how best to sort the information you save.  Here are a couple of options to get you started.  You can use these topics or create your own.  Just make sure you use topics that make sense to you and that will make it easy to find things when you need them.

Family Night Ideas

Family Outing Ideas

Holiday Traditions

Craft Ideas

Science Ideas

Boredom Busters

Online Resources and Notes

Another option is to sort your information and ideas by holiday if you tend to do most of your family outings and activities during specific holidays.  Here is a list to get you started: New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Passover, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, July 4^th/Memorial Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah

Once you decide how to sort the ideas you save, then you will know how many file folders to buy and how big a 3 ring binder to use.  Keep in mind that you may find topics you want to add in the future, so be sure to buy a few extra file folders so that you have a place to store the new information.

Also, be sure to have an extra file folder or notepad in your binder to keep hand written notes on any ideas, suggestions, or websites you want to remember. 

Creating an Online Multi Folder System

If you tend to spend a lot of time on the internet bookmarking favorite ideas for family outings then you also may want to set up an online version of the paper based system.  To do this, create a folder in your favorites file and name it Family Activity Ideas.  Once you have the main folder set up you can go ahead and create sub-folders within the Family Activity Idea folder using the same labeling system you designed for your paper based system.  After you have all your folders set up, go through your exisiting bookmarks and move them to the appropriate sub-folder. 

If you tend to bookmark only a few sites in your favorites then the multi folder approach may be a little more than what you need.  In this case, here are some other options for you to try:

Create just one Family Activity Idea folder in your Favorites folder and just store everything in that one main folder. You can always subdivide the folder at a later time if the contents begin to grow and you are having a hard time finding anything.

Write down the web address and website name of an online idea you have found in the notes/online section of your paper based system. 

Print off a copy of the idea or website and store it in the online resource section of your paper based system. Just be sure to read through the websites copyright rules to be sure that printing off copies is allowed.

 How to Use a Family Activity File

Once you have your family activity file set up it is just a matter of remembering to use it and maintain it.  Here are some tips to help do this:

Have your file handy during family meetings or while discussing weekend plans.

Keep notes of your activities stored in your file to make planning the following year simpler. In regards to day outings, things you may want to take note of are, when you went, the weather, the crowd level, things you should do differently, and any coupons or discounts you used. In regards to any crafts or home family activities, be sure to keep notes on problems you had, how fun or engaged the kids were in the activity, where you bought the supplies, changes you would make, and the things that worked well.

Go through both your paper and online file every year to toss out things you no longer need.

Good luck!

How to Create a Family Travel File

 A family with purpose is a family who strives to manage and balance their lives and who work diligently to prevent their lives from being controlled by outside factors. A family with purpose sets priorities and lives their lives accordingly.

You are thumbing through a magazine and find an article on a really neat fun place to vacation, or you are surfing the net and stumble on an incredibly fantastic resort.  So you either rip the page out of the magazine or bookmark the webpage.  The magazine page gets filed away in some drawer and the webpage gets added to the already thousand bookmarks you have created.  A couple years later while cleaning out drawers or cleaning up your computer you find them and say “oh yeah, I forgot about this place.”

Does this sound familiar?  If so, then maybe a family travel file will help.  Organized by destination, a family travel file helps families keep track of all the information they pick up and want to save on either a vacation spot they visit frequently or a new place they may want to try.  Here is how you create one for your family.

Things You Will Need

3 Ring Binder

Tab Dividers

3 Hole Punched File Folders

A working knowledge of your browser’s bookmark or favorites feature

How to Create

First decide if you want to keep both an electronic and paper based system.  Since so much information comes to us over the internet it is helpful to have both versions, but if you prefer to keep everything in one place stick with the paper system for now.

If you already have a paper file started with information, begin by sorting through that file.  Toss the things you don’t want or need anymore and save the things you want to keep.  Once you have weeded this file out, sort all of the information by destination and put all of the literature you have for each destination into one pile.  Once you have this done, you will have the titles for each of your tab dividers.  Simply write in the destination’s name on each tab divider and place all of the literature you have for each destination in one of the three hole punched file folders and place the tab divider with the file folder immediately behind it in your three ring binder.  If you only have one or two pieces of information on a certain place and not sure you want to make it a separate tab in your binder, simply create a tab and title it “Maybe Someday” or “Possibilities”.  Be sure to have some extra dividers and file folders, so you can easily add to your travel file in the future.  Also consider creating a “Useful Resources” tab to collect any website addresses or general travel information you want to keep.

If you are creating an electronic version as well, the process is very similar.  Begin by creating a Travel folder in your favorites or bookmarks.  In Windows Explorer you do this by clicking on Favorites, selecting Organize Favorites, Select New Folder, Type in Travel, and hit Close when you are done.  In Firefox, you do essentially the same thing, but using the Bookmark feature rather than the Favorites feature.  Next, start by going through your current bookmarks or favorites and if it is travel related and you want to keep it, save it to your family travel file.  Once you have gone through everything, begin sorting everything in your travel folder by destination similar to what was done with the paper version.

If you only want to keep a paper version, skip setting up the Travel folder in your Favorites.  Simply go through you current bookmarks and printout any information you want to keep and place it in your paper folder.

How to Use Your Family Travel File

Once you have everything set up it just becomes a matter of maintaining and using the information.  Here are some tips to help you make the most of your Family Travel File:

Have it handy while planning your family vacation.  Use the information you have saved to create your itineraries and plans. 

While vacationing, remember to save brochures, menus, and flyers of places you want to visit again.  When you get home you can simply add them to your travel file.

If you vacation to the same spot frequently, keep any notes on costs, budgets, and travel items in your file.

Continue to tear out important information from the magazines or newspapers and just save it in your file.  Do the same thing with any new ideas or information you come across on the web.  Simply save it to your electronic travel file or print it out for your paper based system.

Good luck!

Ten Things You Can Get Done in 15 Minutes

Got a spare 15 minutes?  Here are 10 quick things you can do in 15 minutes that make you feel like you have accomplished something.

Check in with your kids or spouse.  Take time to hug and tell them you love them.

Clean out a small drawer

Update your family calendar

Fill out and sign a permission slip

Make coffee for the next day

Empty the dishwasher

Feed a pet

Set the table

Get and sort through the mail

Leave an unexpected love note

How to Organize Your Family Games

For every parent out there struggling to organize (and keep organized) their family game closet , here are some suggestions:

• Take all of the games out of the closet or off the shelves and sort through them; giving away any games no longer played and throwing away any games with missing pieces.
• Sort the games according to a system that works for your family. For example you can sort them by size, by age, by brand, etc. If space is an issue, start by sorting by size and then within each size you can organize by either brand or age.
• If you store your games in a closet, purchase cabinet shelves to help keep the games neat and organized. You can find them at your local department stores like Target or Walmart or on-line at the Container Store. Under Shelf Baskets are also a great option. You can get a lot more use of the space by adding these to your closets or cabinets.
• To maintain an uncluttered game closet, try using the 1 game out for every 1 game in rule. Every time you get a new game, go through your existing games and donate one to charity. This will help prevent the game closet from getting over stuffed.

Before……

After….