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Starting my Professional Organizing business was one of the smartest moves I’ve ever made. It has given me the opportunity to travel to many different neighborhoods in the Tri-State area and then some; traveling to NY City and to Winston Salem. Once a month I find myself across the street from the beautiful Philly Art Museum and, at other times, right across from City Hall.

Meeting people from all walks of life, in diverse living arrangements and hearing their stories has been a gift to me. My clients include healers, artist, nurses, psychologist, equestrians, entrepreneurs, writers and Dragon boat racers. Over the course of seventeen years I have watched children grow up and parents pass. I have organized their toys and helped plan for funerals.

Every day I am in a different situation.

This week I organized paperwork for my very first client and, on another job, found myself building shelves in a garage – yes, it was cold! I have clients who love to buy clothing – luckily I have retail experience and love to organize closets with all the new arrivals.  Some days I am organizing kids toys for young families and, at other times, I’m clearing a basement that is packed solid with everything you can imagine. Yesterday I worked in a business office organizing their promotional materials. I have a close relationship with some of my clients. We sit, talk, laugh and eat while organizing or processing paperwork.

I am often cold or hot, dirty from dust or watchful of the occasional critter – including the family dog eating my lunch. And yet I say it is the perfect business for me. It’s a service I am giving to families and individuals who just need a helping hand keeping their spaces neat, clean and organized. Together we come up with the best solutions for their life & work style in their spaces.  It’s not unusual for me to say “I was dreaming about this room last night and I have an idea”. Organizers are full of ideas and solutions. We have studied books, have taken classes, workshops and have supported each other when looking for remedies to make our clients comfortable, safe and happier in their homes.

I am so grateful for all the lovely people I have met over the years and excited to meet new people I can help in the future. If you have any interested in being of service to others I highly recommend this profession. I have gained so much from my clients and every day I feel blessed for this wonderful opportunity.

As I lay in bed for a week from an illness this summer, I took the time to write this article for the NAPO-GPC blog. Even getting ill didn’t stop me from getting things done. I knew the deadline was quickly approaching so I decided to write about getting ill! Here are a few tips for how to organize yourself or help out a friend when stuck in bed.

1. I used a large circular cake pan for my essentials. It was smaller than a kitchen serving tray and deeper. My serving trays tend to be too large for sitting on my bed and they are shallow. My cake pan is smaller than a tray, round and about three inches deep. I placed my medicines, vitamins & minerals in the pan along with a drink. Adding a pen & paper allowed me to jot down when & what medicines I was about to take, along with the time I took them, on a chart.
2. My medicine chart’s first column was the date and time. Each time I took out a pill I would check off the column and place the pill in a ramekin. This way I was certain that I didn’t forget and miss taking a medication that I needed. The chart showed me what I was taking and when I took it. This is a great way to stay on track with your pain medicines, for which timing is everything. Once I recorded all my medicines and placed them in a ramekin, I took them all at the same time. You would be surprised how easily confused you can get when you are sick and you can’t think straight.
3. Luckily before getting sick, I had cut up a large watermelon and a tomato salad and cucumber salad were already in the refrigerator. When the pain pills kicked in I was able to walk to the kitchen and just scoop some food into a bowl. When my sister got sick I did the same for her. Some needed to be microwaved and some could be eaten cold. You don’t realize, until you get sick, how physically draining it is to get something to eat.
4. Before going to work each morning, my husband placed drinks all over the house for me so I could stay hydrated. Chamomile tea in the den. Peppermint tea in the kitchen,  drinks in my bedroom and water in my bathroom. I do not mind room temperature drinks but if you need yours cold/hot there are some wonderful thermal drinking vessels out there.
5. I had a few friends who wanted to come and help me but I was too embarrassed to let them, plus I really didn’t know what I needed. Looking back I should have welcomed them. They could have refilled my drinks for me and made sure I was eating properly. I’m sure they would not have minded helping me straighten up my bedroom either. Of course the company would have been nice too.
6. I also have a phone charger on every floor so wherever I wobbled to, I could plug my phone in and keep it near me.  I didn’t worry about my phone dying and, when I started to feel better, I was able to get on it and stay current with the news.

My other advice would be, don’t get sick in the summer! What a bummer! I totally missed a huge rain storm. While everyone else was panicking, I was sound asleep. I missed some beautiful sunny days and God knows what was going on in my garden. I hope you stay well, but if you do feel terrible try these tips to help you stay on track.

5 5 Steps To Organizing Your Family’s Summer Calendar

1. Print a three month calendar for June, July & August. Click this link to see if this one might work for you: http://www.crayonfreckles.com/2017/05/25-summer-activities-and-free-printable.html

2. Add holidays, birthdays, party invitations and vacation days. You can attach any information about these events to the back of the calendar.

3. Add any camps your children are signed up for.

4. Cherish the downtime. The lazy days of summer are important so be sure to cherish the downtime! Leave them blank for spontaneous fun.

5. However, if you feel incline you can create a loose timeline for the downtime. For instance:

▪ 9:00am wake- eat breakfast, wash-up, make your bed
▪ Noon- have lunch, swim, play
▪ 3:00pm- snack, read, rest
▪ 5:00pm- help with dinner prep
▪ 7:00pm- family time

Tips for getting your home ready for

OPEN HOUSE!

After the holiday rush is over and you’ve carefully packed your holiday decorations away, you may want to prepare now for spring. Spring, of course, is the perfect time to put your home up for sale.

Here are 5 tips to get your home ready that are often overlooked:

Clean & update your trash cans and re-cycling center. This area is often neglected and you don’t want any unwanted odors lingering in the home. Recycling should be neat and handy. Take cans out on time and rinse the cans out as soon as the hoses go back outside.

Get everything off the floor. Show off the square footage of your home by clearing all floors. That means: cases of water, magazines, shoes, pillows, toys, worn out rugs, and storage bins. Pick everything up off the floor. Mop and sweep often.

Let the sunshine in by scrubbing your windows inside and out, remove heavy drapes, old shades and anything that is in the way of the windows. Natural light makes a home feel warm and cozy. If you must have window treatments, choose white.

Have your bathroom and kitchen professionally cleaned. If a buyer sees dirt and mildew in these areas they will think that there is more throughout the house. Choose white whenever possible in these two areas. Add bright light bulbs, too.

Begin packing your valuables now. Neatly packed boxes in a storage area are perfectly fine when showing your home. Be sure to pack and store items with special meaning such as momentos and expensive items. Lighten up on the framed photos of your families.

Some of us love change. With each new month we tend to change our clothing, eat different foods and decorate our homes. That’s a lot of work for some of us. How do you remember everything that needs to be done? I use my calendar. Each month reminds me of what needs to be done. Below is a monthly glance at my calendar.

• January
  First on the list is the holiday decor, accessories, and gifts. If you do it right, you will be very happy unpacking next year. Clean, sort, contain, label, and store all your holiday items. I give the house a good cleaning hoping to pick up every pine needle from the tree, plus all the spills and dribbles from my youngest guest. Next, I purge my files of last year’s documents and put them in my tax file. Even if your financial documents are online, you can do this. This updates the file for the new year. Then, I hibernate, and I don’t feel guilty!
• February
  This month I commit to organizing my photos. I place last year’s photos on the dining room table and create one book for each of my three children. I organize my videos in the cloud which although it takes a few weeks, I get it done. In the meantime, I cook soup, lots of hearty soups. My house is warm and the aroma is wonderful.
• March
  Now is the time to find my “green” clothes or at least put my wools away in hopes of an early spring. I visit my friends more and schedule game nights. Usually, I am freezing in the spring, so I increase my cardio exercises. I enjoy the soups I put in the freezer. I also change the clocks, check our batteries and discuss a fire evacuation plan with our family.
• April
  Now is the time to clean all the windows and blinds and take the covers off the outdoor furniture. I clear out the dead plants/shrubs in the yard, decorate for the spring holidays and clear out the garage. I also schedule to get our air conditioning system serviced.
• May
  Gardening begins now. Flags go out on Memorial Day weekend. Clean and repair deck/patio as needed. I air out our suitcases, Jersey shore here we come!
• June
  Purge the children’s rooms, store school memories and wash out the backpacks. I scrub the freezer and prepare for my 4th of July Ice Cream & Fire Works party. Also, I wash our grill accessories and summer platters.
• July
  Start to relax into summer and enjoy.
• August
  Swim in the ocean as much as possible. Read on the beach. I deserve it!
• September
  Concentrate on back to school paperwork and schedules. It’s school shopping time! Put vacation accessories away and repack pool bags for next year. Clear dead plants and shrubs. Harvest the veggies. Bring flags in. Put summer accessories towards the back of the garage.
• October
  Bring my fall clothes down from the top of my closet then shop for what’s missing. Halloween décor and costumes come out just for fun. Make sure the garage is clean so I can retrieve the holiday supplies.
• November
  Heavy kitchen cleaning is done at this time, food shopping and of course, eating. Check fire alarm batteries, smoke detectors and have that fire safety discussion again. Cover deck furniture.
• December
  Holiday madness, parties people & food!

How do you remember?

An easy way to keep up with the changing seasons is to set an event in your calendar for each month and have it notify you. Or, maybe break up things into weekends, starting each Saturday morning with a “things to do list.” I pretty much have it memorized and enjoy the changes that the seasons bring.

Happy autumn to you!

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Each of my three children has their own photo albums that I have crafted for them over the years. In order to make these personalized keepsakes, I’ve adopted a simple photo organizing process. After taking photos with my smartphone, I always try to find some quiet time to delete the ones I dislike. About once a month, I then upload the “keepers” to my computer, edit them as needed and assign the photos to their appropriate folders, such as “2016 PHOTOS.” At the end of the year, I download my favorite photos onto a flash drive and take them to a photo processing center. Next, I place the hard-copy photos into each child’s temporary photo bin. Once sorted, I choose individual photo albums and begin filling them with memories. My oldest has about eight photo albums now and my youngest has about four. They will eventually take the albums with them to enjoy as adults.

Although this photo organizing system works for me now, I honestly don’t wish to continue making albums for my children as they enter adulthood or for the next generation. With the recent birth of my granddaughter, I have implemented a simpler system. Now, I upload photos from my smartphone to an online photo service, such as Snapfish, and create photo albums from there. It’s much easier to create an online album if my photos are already streamlined and sorted. For example, in my granddaughter’s album, her pictures are assigned to a folder with her name and date. With today’s technology, creating beautiful keepsake albums is faster and easier than ever. It’s even possible to create albums directly from your smart phone with an app from Target.

If you find that you have a large assortment of photo prints, you can sort the photos using acid free photo boxes, or you can use shoe boxes, temporarily. For a recent client, we labeled her shoe boxes as “Travel,” “Nature,” and the names of her children. In her case, she decided to pass the photo boxes on to her children and skip the albums altogether. Other clients prefer to scan the photos, save them virtually and eventually create albums from their computers.

Photo organizing can be overwhelming when you have hundreds of photos stored all over the house. When working with my clients, I’ve found that once they get started, the memories come back, they start smiling, and a sense of peace comes over them. They know that their most treasured memories are safe and can be enjoyed by generations to come.

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