Monday Motivation: Organizing earns you time in your life.

I love this quote: “For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.”

I love this quote because it is so true. It does take time to get organized, it is not an overnight affair. I love the SPACE acronym that Professional Organizer Julie Morgenstern teaches in her books Organizing from the Inside Out because it clearly lays out the steps to getting organized and shows you the time that it takes to get organized correctly.

S: Sort. Take the time to sort through the items that you own. Separating items into piles like; trash, keep, give away, etc..

P: Purge. Get rid of items that you do not want to keep anymore. You can donate items, throw items away, sell items, recycle items, etc... the key is getting those items OUT of your home.

A: Assign. Give everything that you are going to keep a home.

C: Containerize. Put like items together in containers to keep them in the proper place and separate from other items.

E: Equalize. or Maintain it... organizing is not a one time fix... it takes continued maintenance and work to remain organized.

Following this model you can see that yes, organizing does take time to do it right... but every moment that you spend organizing will pay you back in more time freed up not having to dig for things anymore. They say the average American wastes an hour a day looking for things that they know they own but cannot find... so if you are organized you are going to be gaining an hour in your day!

What would you do with that extra hour?

• Spend more time with family
• Spend more time with friends
• Watch a movie
• Read a book
• Volunteer
• Get a Manicure or Pedicure
• Take up a hobby
• Decorate your home
• Go to a museum
• Workout

There are so many options... imagine what you would do with your extra hour... if you are ready to make an investment of time and energy to get yourself more organized then call Simple*Organized*Sanity today to start gaining that hour today!

Friday Five: Five great Purse Organizers

Everyone has a weakness in life... mine is purses. I love them and I am constantly in search of the "Perfect Purse." What is the perfect purse to me? I am always looking for a purse that is ORGANIZED (obviously) with a place for everything, a great looking bag that is cute and durable.

I found a bag that just may be the "perfect purse" and I want to share it with you and if it is out of your budget there are some more budget friendly options for organizing your purse in today's Friday Five:

1. The Butler Bag. I am so impressed with this purse and the various compartments that it has to keep you organized while still looking great! This purse is making waves in both the fashion world and the organizing world. It is the best of both worlds for sure and is raking in rave reviews because of it! Check it out for yourself at http://www.butlerbag.com/ If the $150 plus price tag of this bag is a little steep for your budget... check out our other options

2. Avon is offering a butler bag right now that is budget friendly option at $19.99 with any $15 purchase or if purchased separately $39.99. Product # is 369-761. (Limited time offering) Contact your local Avon Representative for more information on this great and inexpensive bag.

3. Kmart is also jumping on the Butler Bag trend with their own line of Butler essentials. Again, a more budget friendly purse while still getting the same great organizing compartments inside. There are numerous styles and sizes available so check them out at www.butleressentials.com.

4. Have a purse that you love now... but you just wish the inside was more organized???? Try the Pursekeet!!! It is a removable piece that has numerous pockets so that your can organize the inside of ANY bag. It is available in small, medium, and large sizes too! This is a great product that you should check out at http://www.purseket.com/index.php

5. Have no budget to fix up your existing purse and make it more organized???? I suggest that you compartmentalize everything. Use clear plastic containers that you may have at home, pencil zipper pouches are great for keeping pens and small items organized and together, small cosmetic cases can keep personal items together... give everything a home and avoid just throwing things into the bottom of your purse... that rule alone can help any purse be a more organized one.

I hope these five quick tips will help you in your quest of the "perfect organized purse" and remember that a purse is a place to keep the stuff we need daily... not everything including the kitchen sink... :)

Monday Motiviation: Mom's need a routine

Motherhood is a demanding job that demands you be organized and on top of your home, your children, yourself, and so many other small tasks that can easily fall through the cracks if not well organized. Did you know that the average mom works at least 90 hours a week and only averages 6.4 hours of sleep a night... talk about over worked and under rested.

In those 90 hours moms are juggling numerous jobs like; running errands, preparing meals, taking care of children, driving carpool, doing laundry, keeping a clean house... not to mention other jobs and responsibilities that they have as well!

A daily routine is one way to help moms stay on tops of all of these jobs each day. Here is an example of a daily routine that we have put together for a client:

Each Morning:
· Start the laundry load of the day
· Make breakfast and clean up
· Help the kids to chore time while I clean the room of the day

Each afternoon:
· Put Laundry into the dryer
· Make Lunch and Clean up
· Do a quick 10 min. clean up with kids to pick up morning toys.
· Have quite time so I can have a few min. to regroup.

Each evening:
· Fold Laundry
· Make Dinner and Clean up
· Have kids do a 15 min. clean up to pick up toys
· Bedtime routine
· Layout clothes for the next day
· Pack bags for the next day
· Make tomorrow’s to do list.

Keep in mind this is an example that works for one mom... but each mom and family are different from one another. Take into consideration your daily tasks and available times when putting your schedule together.

I specialize in helping mom's create a schedule that works for them and their family, so if you need help creating yours please feel free to visit our website at http://www.simpleorganizedsanity.com/ for more information.

Monday Motivation: Are your Kids Organized for Back to School?

I recently read the book The Organized Student by Donna Goldberg. I loved this quote from her book: " Many educators and parents have learned to recognize deficiencies in reading, writing, and math, but not in organization."

I could not agree with this more! Teachers are trained to look for signs of MAJOR problems... often overlooking an unorganized student as simply... messy. The fault is not that of the teachers... they are trying to manage twenty plus children and make sure that they are able to learn at the level with their peers. I would love to see organization skills integrated into the curriculum of upper level elementary and Middle school as they often do with study skills. The National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) has seen the same need, recently launching the NAPO in the School program. Professional organizers, myself included, can become certified to present a standardized program to elementary school classrooms in their area.

It is never to early to start children and students on the path to organization... because being organized is a lifelong need to be as successful as possible. Which means that the other half of the responsibility for teaching our children to be organized falls on the parents. Often times, parents are quick to just do it ourselves. I know I too have been guilty of this... instead of fighting with kids to pick up their messes, do their chores, or make their beds... we just do it for them.

Unfortunately we have to remember as parents we are supposed to be teaching them about responsibility and making them do these simple things is a great way to introduce many organizational and life skill concepts to them.

In light of back to school time... I think it is important for teachers and parents to bear in mind that if a child is struggling in school simply because they are not organized... it is time to do an organization intervention! Messy lockers, backpacks, and bedrooms can lead to late assignments, lost library books, missing projects, lost time searching for or redoing assignments, and a great deal of frustration for student, teacher, and parents!

Often these problems can be solved with time, planning, and organization to help your student be better prepared for classes and assignments. Do your kids a huge favor this school year... help them be as successful as they can be by helping them get more organized. If you need help with this... I highly recommend the book I just finished, The Organized Student by Donna Goldberg!

If you desire one on one help contact a professional organizer in your area, the NAPO website can refer you to one if you need just visit http://www.napo.net/. In SW Missouri contact us, Simple*Organized*Sanity professional organizing at http://www.simpleorganizedsanity.com/ and we would be happy to help your student get on the path to an organized school year!

Friday Five: Five tips to improve your Yard Sale Sales

I apologize that our Friday Five is being posted on Saturday Morning... I was out of town yesterday. Nonetheless, here we all find ourselves, the middle of August. Is it just me or is time really flying by this summer???

One thing that I am hearing from several clients right now is that they feel like they missed their chance to do a garage sale this summer... not so! The middle of August to the middle of September are some of the best times to do a garage sale. Why? You ask. Because, college kids are back in town and they are targeting garage sales to fill apartments and dorm rooms with used furniture, kitchen appliances, decor, and much more.

So if you still have items sitting around your home... a garage sale is a great way to clear a lot of clutter at once and this is a great time of the year to do it. Keep in mind though... your sale is only going to be as successful as your preparation so here are five quick things to do to ensure you make the most at your garage sale.

1. Lots of Eye Catching Signs! Use Bright colored papers and make sure that you write short sentences in large, black marker. People driving by do not want to struggle to read your sign.
2. Advertise!!!! Consider the newspaper, and free social media sites. For example: Post your sale on twitter, facebook, craigslist, Internet groups that you belong to. Great free ways to get the word out about your sale. You may also want to put up some fliers around local colleges with date of sale and directions.
3. Offer water to your customers, sell lemonade, sell snacks... etc... garage sale days for many people is an all day affair. They will often appreciate and purchase snacks if available.
4. Use pop up tents to offer shade to shoppers or try to locate in a shady area of the yard to keep shoppers comfy.
5. Be flexible! Any sale is getting clutter out of your home and some money into your pocket. Be willing to let customers haggle with you on prices and be willing to come down.

I hope that these simple tips make your late summer garage sale as successful as possible!

Monday Motivation: How are your floors?

I love this quote by Professional Organizer and Author Linda Koopersmith, "Floors are made for walking, not for stubbing toes and climbing over piles."

I think that often times we develop the ability to turn a blind eye to the clutter that surrounds us in our homes and offices. We learn to navigate the obstacle courses that used to be our living rooms, bedrooms, offices, and hallways, losing our memory of what it was like to walk around unobscured.

Our blind eye tricks us into also not realizing that the clutter we have come to accept in our lives in also impacting our lives. When was the last time that you searched through piles in search of something that you knew that you owned but could not find? How could you have better spent that time working or spending time with family or friends? The average American wastes about an hour a day looking for things... imagine what we could all do with an extra hour!

I encourage you today to try to refocus your blind eye and take a new fresh approach to the floors in your home... what do they reveal about your clutter situation. Do you walk over piles to get around? Do you search for clothes on the floor, unsure if they are clean or dirty? Do you use your floors as extra storage space?

If your fresh look at an old situation reveals that you need to get more organized I encourage you to visit http://www.simpleorganizedsanity.com/, remember that you don't have to dig out from your clutter alone.

Check out our latest Article on News stands!

If you are in the Springfield, Missouri area be sure to pick up a FREE August issue of Moms Like Me Magazine. On pages 34-37 you will find our article Get It Organized!

The article talks about the five areas where moms most commonly struggle with disorganization and some simple solutions to help them begin to get more organized.

I specialize in working with moms and families and offering them real world organizational solutions for their busy lives. It is my hope that the article will inspire moms all across the Ozarks to Get It Organized!

If you have read the article we would love to get your feedback and as always if your family could benefit from getting more organized call Simple*Organized*Sanity at 417-733-2089!

Friday Five: Five Creative Ways to store Sports Balls and Toy Balls

I have two boys ages seven and six... so as you can imagine we have a lot of sports equipment hanging around our house. Basketballs, Soccer Balls, Footballs, Kick balls, etc... and one thing is for sure, the round shape presents an unique organizational challenge!

Here are five products that you can use to store ball shaped items easily in your home or gym:

1. Use an inexpensive toy net in the area where the balls need to be stored. Then you can set the balls up into the net. These can be purchased at any retail or toy shop and will normally run about $10.00. If you have more than can be stored in a small toy net, you could also use an old parachute, tarp, or large net material.

2. Invest in a metal ball rack like you would see a basketball team use. These are great in garages and come in two different sizes; the smaller one will hold about 12 balls and costs about $100, the larger one will hold 16 balls and runs around $115.00. (My advice, spend the extra $15 and get the extra storage).

3. I love the Ball Claw!!!! It is a great product and a great use of wall space to store those hard to store balls. The Ball claw mounts onto the wall and will hold basketballs, volleyballs, soccer balls, and even footballs and for only $10 a claw it is a great deal... visit http://www.ballclaw.com/ to see this great product for yourself!

4. A ball storage locker can be another great options for keeping balls from rolling all over the garage or house. They are more expensive than other options but are well worth the cost if you have lots of sports equipment and balls cluttering up your home. Many of them are on wheels so that you can easily move the storage locker around. Be prepared to spend around $200 for this solution.

5. The ProStor X-Rack is another great option to store not only balls but other sports equipment in as well. The basket style design is defiantly kid friendly so that balls can just be tossed when they are done playing. There are hooks on the side for misc. items and a great shelf on the bottom for play shoes or spikes to be kept. Expect to spend around $100 for this item but from what I can tell... it is well worth it.

These are five great options for storing your sports equipment balls and helping you control where they end up in your home.

Everyone has those days!!!!

Even as a professional organizer, I too have those days where I want to pull my hair out. *Big Sigh*

There, I feel better having just gotten the confession off of my chest. It is hard to live up to the standard of a professional organizer sometimes... because people expect you to have "your stuff" together ALL THE TIME. But I want you to know that I am a mom, a wife, a business owner, and a woman who also has bad days.

This has been an exceptionally hard week for our family, we have had three trips to the ER with sickness and my husband is facing an unexpected surgery tomorrow morning. I share this little confession time with you for a very important reason... No matter how organized you are you are entitled to days when it feels like the world is crashing down. However, being organized is like a life raft in the storms of life!

If I was not organized, this week would have been unimaginable! It was nice that when people were sick and I was exhausted that if nothing else, I knew where everything went and could still be able to accomplish smaller amounts of tasks than normal... but that was a victorious feeling in a week that felt very defeating.

I want you to also learn from my rough week that... You do not have to be perfect to be organized... you just have to be willing! If you too feel like you have been riding the storms of life, I encourage to consider organization as a way to help you feel like you have some control in situations where often we have no control.

Simple*Organized*Sanity specializes in working with Moms and families, as well as small businesses in Southwest Missouri. I believe that our "real world" approach lets us help our clients reach organizational solutions that are designed to weather the storms of life... because no matter how well we plan, we can't avoid the storms but we can be prepared for them!

Take these Four simple steps to let us help you on the road to organization.

1. Explore our blog to get some ideas on ways to get started in your organizational journey.
2. Sign up for our free weekly tips email at http://www.simpleorganizedsanity.com/
3. Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/simpleorganized
4. Call us at 417-733-2089 to set up your free initial consultation in your home or office space.