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Are you organizationally challenged? Professional organizers frequently hear clients proclaim this as they confess, “I just don’t know where to start” or “I don’t know how things should be set up”.  Or, perhaps you are space-challenged, sounding more like this: “I’m organized but there just isn’t enough storage in my home.”

In either case, one way to begin addressing the task of getting and keeping your home, with all its charms and faults, organized is to set up zones.

As an elementary school classroom may have a carpeted area for reading, desks for writing, and an art area with supply cupboards, our homes — and the rooms within — can be arranged so that items found in a certain zone support the activities that take place there.

To make the shift from feeling as though you have everything everywhere to having just what you need where you need it, start by making a list of all the rooms you will address. List the activities you would like to happen in each room as your roadmap toward creating your dream home.
For instance:
Dining Room – eat meals, do crafts
Kitchen – cook, homework, pay bills
Bedroom – sleep, exercise

Beginning with one room, let’s say kitchen, remove all items that have no relevance to the activities you have listed. Do you see any sports gear, toiletries or giftwrap lying around?
All these need to move out.

Once you’ve removed what doesn’t belong, it’s time to address what’s left. Think about what normally happens when you do the activities assigned to this room. Do you run to get a certain supply from elsewhere every time? If so, now’s the time to bring that item in. For instance, if homework and paying bills occur in the kitchen, are the basic supplies for those activities handy? Pens, pencils, stamps, a computer charging station? How about cooking supplies? Are you headed down to the basement for pans you use each month while storing the Thanksgiving turkey plate within an arm’s reach?

After you’ve determined that the supplies you have handy are the ones you need, it is time to set up your zones. Do you have trouble preparing dinner because your counter is cluttered with pens, glue and papers? Decide where homework and bill work is done and designate drawers, cabinets, bins or baskets to house those supplies. Relocate all your kitchen items according to their appropriate zone.

The final step is to assess the amounts that you need.
Now that you have all the writing instruments gathered into one area, will dozens of pens clog the supply drawer making it difficult to find anything else you need? See if just 5 or ten would suffice. Or maybe you haven’t assigned enough space for homework and office supplies.

Do you find that you no longer cook as much as you used to? Perhaps you don’t need to keep all three cupcake pans. When you got that new coffee maker that takes k-cups, did you hang on to the last one? How about the one before that? Do you have the space for all these extra appliances that might be useful again someday but take up lots of living space today?

When your zones are complete, take a moment each day before leaving each room to glance around for items that have wandered out of place and quickly move them back into their appropriate zone.

Let go of clutter and live your dream.

No Matter How Much
We Wish For More!

Managing our time and never having enough of it seems to be a common theme these days. I hear the same complaint from students, single people, married people, parents of young children, baby boomers, working people, and even retirees — believe it or not. No matter what your age or what stage of life you are in, time management skills will make your life easier to handle.

We all have demands put upon us by others (e.g., boss, children, spouse, friend, other family members). However, we are in control of what we decide to do and what we decide not to do. If it’s between going to the doctor because you are sick or driving 5 miles out of your way to save $.50 on a gallon of milk, you may want to forgo the latter just to give yourself more time to do the things that are absolutely necessary. Then, you’ll be able to give yourself time to relax, take a deep breath, and re-energize.

If you always have too many activities to handle in a day, think about what you have to get done, what you want to get done, what you don’t want to do, and what you don’t have to do. Make columns on a piece of paper with these headings and write them down rather than keeping them in your head. This will help you to visualize what is going on in your life and may even spur you on to not do those things you don’t want to or think you have to do.

And, by the way, don’t forget to fit sleep into those 24 hours. What are you going to do to manage your time better so you finally are able to do those things you love? My goal is to see you go from Bedlam to Brilliance!

Everyone can agree life can get a little hectic, especially around the holidays. Who has time to read Martha Stewart magazine, shop for the ingredients, put out an amazing buffet, craft fantastic decorations, and then be the “hostess with the mostest” at the time of the party? However, nobody wants to wants to miss out on having fun and seeing friends either. So I’ve come up with an easier way, a simplified way, to celebrate Halloween.

Here’s how to host a simple Halloween party:

• On October 1^st my two Halloween bins come out of storage. One contains decorations, the same ones I use every year because they are full of memories. And the other of costumes, which we like to try on throughout the month just for laughs.

• Around the second week of October I place a flyer in every mailbox on my street, email the neighbors I know personally, and start spreading the word whenever I see anyone out and about.
My invite reads:
Halloween Party at Danielle’s house
Dress warm, bring a chair & snack to share
BYOB

• On the third week of October I purchase my candy, beverages, and paper products. During this time, I also make sure I have enough fire wood and clean up my fire pit.

• Finally Halloween arrives! I start off the day with a short trip to the Conshohocken Bakery where I buy tomato pies, cakes, granola bars, and cookies for later that evening. We set up a buffet table and our fire pit in the driveway and not long after that, the neighbors arrive with chairs and snacks to share.

Sitting under the stars outside with my neighbors, enjoying the warmth and beauty of the fire, and watching the children make their rounds from house to house is a great way to spend Halloween. It’s relaxing, fun and you don’t even have to clean your house! Try it, you’ll love it.

Let’s take a brief trip down memory lane. What was it that initially attracted you to your spouse? Perhaps you fell for his outgoing, life-of-the-party personality. Maybe you were drawn to her gifted, creative nature. In those initial stages of love, you possibly detected his or her organizing limitations but those flaws were a small price to pay to be with the one you loved.

Fast forward a year — or maybe twenty — and you are at your wits end. Why is it so difficult for her to keep the house straight? Why does he leave his stuff everywhere? Your spouse’s disorganization is putting a serious strain on your relationship.

We, who are naturally organized, are mystified by others who struggle in this area. We seldom run late, we rarely lose things, and our homes have always been relatively organized. We take our innate organizing skill for granted. After all, how difficult is it to keep a tidy home, go through the mail, or clear out a closet?

Studies have found the more creative a person, the more organizationally challenged. So, may I be so bold as to suggest that it probably is not just your spouse’s disorganization that is causing a strain in your relationship. Could it possibly be your own willingness to accept that something so simple to you doesn’t come so easy to him or her?

We live in a society that places high value on being organized. A lack of organization costs us both financially and emotionally. Your spouse most likely feels a sense of shame, guilt, and embarrassment for not having their organizing act together. They desire to get organized; they just don’t know how.

Enter the professional organizer. Our purpose as organizers is not just to help you (or your spouse) tidy up, but to transfer and impart those ‘oh so needed’ organizing skills. An effective organizer encourages you to let go of the excess in your home, strategizes with you to plan the best organizing systems for your space, and ensures that you have learned how to maintain a structure and order that works for you both.

So, the next time you feel tempted to nag your spouse over the mess in your home, focus on all those wonderful qualities that drew you together, and consider the value of a professional organizer. We may not be able to solve all your marital woes, but we can surely help when organizing opposites attract.

When your home isn’t peaceful, a place you can retreat to, or a safe haven from the outside world, it will affect you, but how is up to you.

As a professional organizer, I get calls all the time from people expressing thoughts of overwhelm and sharing other complaints such as:

“I can’t live this way anymore”
“I feel stuck”
“I am drowning”
“I don’t know how this happened”

They also tend to express feelings of shame, distress, self doubt, low self esteem, loneliness, and frustration — to name a few! At this point, I reassure them that these feelings aren’t who they are, or who they’ve become. Clutter can’t take away their ‘Greatness’ as a person!

Immediately, I want to assist these people in seeing for themselves that the disorganized mess they have can be fixed with effort and commitment. After listening to their tale, I usually hear some version of “Life wasn’t always this way for me,” or, “My space used to be…” At this point in the conversation, I give a few positive suggestions such as:

• Look at the other areas of your life that are working for you.
• Look at what you have accomplished,where you feel joy, and what contributions you make in your world and the universe.
• Look at when you felt at peace in your space, when it was working, or when you had routines that gave you the results you wanted.
• Look at what situations in your life have changed, such as family members that have moved back in, an illness, a change in work hours, or ‘family needs’ changing in general.

It is important to keep in mind that change is a constant, and at times, things become unmanageable temporarily. You can physically clear your clutter and clear the ‘mind chatter’ by having help, support, focus, and intention. One key is to have Patience with yourself. It’s important to take stock of the positives, your accomplishments, and what you are striving to achieve. In doing so, self doubt, shame, loneliness, and low self-esteem can disappear as quick as the clutter, if you are willing to LET IT GO! Remind yourself that life changes and so do you!

Remember this, these thoughts and feelings don’t represent who you are or who you think you have become! The clutter does not define who you are. Each one of us is a perfect, unique energy force.

Please remember your ‘Greatness’!

The NAPO Annual Conference & Organizing Expo is the professional development event for organizers who wish to further their education, discover industry advancements, and form lasting friendships with fellow organizing professionals. It is held in various cities throughout the country each spring and consequently can be a costly investment for our members. Through the replica watches generosity of our first NAPO-GPC scholarship partner, Marty Ingram, iphone 6s remplacement écran owner of PhillyJunk.com, a scholarship fund was created in 2012. Since then, the Scholarship fund has enabled three NAPO-GPC chapter members to attend the annual NAPO Annual Conference & Organizing Expo. In order to be eligible, the member must currently hold a volunteer position within the chapter and attend regular meetings. Covered expenses include conference registration fees, airfare, dining costs, and hotel accommodations – a tremendous benefit to our dedicated members who take initiative in our chapter and show dedication to our profession. Last year our winner was Jen Bowen of Contemporary Organizing. Here’s what she had to say about her experience:

“In 2014, I was the lucky winner of the NAPO Conference Scholarship, sponsored by PhillyJunk.com. This year’s NAPO Conference was a truly spectacular experience. Amidst the gorgeous Arizona landscape, I was treated to outstanding presenters and effortless camaraderie.  During the professional workshops, I gained information and skills that will help me better serve my clients. Some of the many intriguing topics included: student organizational tools, productivity apps and home inventory software. Additionally, I learned strategies to develop my own business model and enjoyed motivating presentations from veteran organizers.
It was a great honor to represent our chapter at the national conference this year. I encourage all eligible NAPO-GPC chapter members to apply for the 2015 Scholarship, and I invite all those interested in a professional partnership with NAPO-GPC to consider a contribution to the Scholarship Fund.” ~Jen Bowen

Thank you to our 2014 NAPO-GPC Scholarship sponsor, PhillyJunk.com.