Wordless Wednesday: An Easy Routine to Refresh your Living Room

Schools out and your kids are probably trailing germs, toys and other unnecessary clutter into your family room. To solve the summer living room blues, check out these easy steps. Living rooms seem to breed messes, so get into the mood and fluff up the sofa pillows, fold the blankets and you'll be half-way to a tidy space. Get your kids involved! Have each child remove their items from the room, so you can worry about the rest. Keep a few cleaning essentials in a basket, close at hand. Start by disinfecting the hard surfaces, dust those keepsakes, remove lint and pet hair from your furniture, spray some fabric/air freshener and Voila! You'll have a refreshed living room everyone can enjoy (even Mom and Dad)!

Images ©Christine Bonnivier Photography

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Something had to give...

We all have those times in our lives when it feels like the weight of the world is resting squarely on our shoulders and our shoulders alone... this last few weeks have been that way for me.  Hence the unexpected and abrupt end to our normally regular SOS Blog posts.  I apologize for our absence... but something had to give and for me the last few weeks that was the blog.

One of the biggest keys to being organized is setting routines and limits for yourself and obeying them... it is an essential key of time management.  With my son's surgery, the end of school, some great new projects going on in our company, and some family obligations... I set myself some limits in order for all of the pieces to stay in place in my household.

Another key to being organized is that when circumstances change... so does your schedule.  My life is now calmer... therefore allowing me to return to blogging.

I am all about practicing what I preach... so take a lesson from me and my family- when you are overwhelmed, find what needs to give and be willing to compromise for a short while.  It will save you a great deal of stress and allow you to focus on what is most important at that time.

So without further ado (starting tomorrow)... "we now return you to your regular scheduled postings... "

National Women's Check Up Day

Today is May 10th, 2010- National Women's Check Up Day. 

A great reminder to all of us to stop and think about our health and well being for a day.  

Living a more organized lifestyle also allows you to live a healthier lifestyle.  We had a great post recently that listed out how getting more organized can help you be healthier, read it by clicking here. 

The Mayo Clinic Says, "It's important to understand common women's health risks, but don't feel intimidated. Instead, do whatever you can to lead a healthy lifestyle — including eating healthy foods, staying physically active, getting regular checkups and paying attention to your environment. Preventive measures can go a long way toward reducing your health risks." In their recent post about the most common risks to Women's Health.  

We have some products that can help you organize your health related information in preparation for your next check up. 

1.  Our Medical Information Sheet Download (99 cents) 

This download will help you keep track of your medical history, prescriptions, family history, etc... Keeping this sheet current will allow you to save time filling out forms at the doctors office many times. 

2.  Fitness Tracker (99 Cents)

This sheet will help you get healthier by keeping track of your calories, water, and workouts each day.  Studies show that writing this information down can make your weight loss more effective. 

3.  Our Meal Planning Resources to help you and your family eat healthier (varied)

Planning ahead will allow you and your family to eat healthier which can lower your risks of numerous health conditions that often effect women in high numbers. 

I hope that today you will take advantage of National Women's Check Up Day by doing two things:

1- Call and make an appointment at your Doctor's office

and 

2- Visit our website at www.simpleorganizedsanity.com and see how we can help you reduce your stress (and improve your health) by helping you get more organized. 

Five Lessons I from my Organized Mom

It is Mother's Day this weekend, which had me thinking about my own mother.

This beautiful, smiling woman is Martha.  She is an amazing woman who is not only my mom but also one of my best friends! 

I am so thankful that growing up I had a mom that was organized and a good manager of time to give me a healthy role model to follow after. 

My mom retired from teaching after thirty years and as we spoke to many of her fellow teachers one of the most consistent comments about her was that she was always so organized and prepared.  She was able to do this while raising three of us, always being at our events, and keeping up a clean home with healthy meals. 

I speak to clients everyday and often times I hear this statement... "My mother was never organized and I did not have a good model or idea what to do to manage a home."  Every time I hear that statement I silently thank the Lord for my mom and the gift and example that she gave me. 

If you are one of these women who would agree with my clients statement then I want to share this list with you today and encourage you to break the pattern so you can give this same gift to your children someday.

Five lessons that I learned from my Organized Mom:

1.  I learned the importance of always being on time. 

2.  I learned the importance of a clean house and giving everything a place.

3.  I learned to make the most of each purchase and stretch each dollar as far as it would go.

4.  I learned that you can set aside time for family meals that were healthy no matter how busy you are.

5.  I learned that planning ahead often saved me frantic nights full of stress... so I learned to not procrastinate on a project.

I encourage you today to take a moment before Mother's Day begins officially this weekend and ask yourself are you setting the kind of example that you want to for your children?

If not, I encourage you to take advantage of our Mother's Day Special... any purchase this weekend is 25% off at http://www.simpleorgaizedsanity.com/ with the code MOMSDAY.

I would like to wish each of you a VERY HAPPY Mother's Day!!!  I hope it is filled with hugs, kisses, and great memories!

Our 100th Post

Today is our 100th Blog Post and I thought it would be fun to use it to take a look back at some of my favorite posts.  If you are new to our blog this list will be a great way for you to catch up on what you have been missing out on!

Here are my favorite ten posts of our last year, click on them to read the posts.

10.  Taming the Clothes Monster

9. Five Ways to Display Kids Artwork

8.  How to set up an Organized Home School Classroom

7.  Organizing your Job Hunt

6.  Add time to your Life

5.  The Lightbulb File

4.  Checklist for an Organized Garage Sale

3.  Health Benefits to getting more organized

2.  5 of the best clean up songs for kids

1.  Staring at Mommy's Shoes 

Do you have another one of our posts that you enjoyed that did not make the list?  I would love to hear your thoughts and comments including what you would like to see more of in the next 100 posts. 

Finding an Accountability Partner In Organizing

Getting organized is a lot like losing weight- there are many similarities that can be drawn between the two. Both require you to change long held habits and routines and they both work better when you have an accountability partner to help you through the hardest parts of the process.

In losing weight those hard parts are when you don't want to get up early to work out in the cold or you really want a second piece of dessert or a late night snack.... trust me I know. I have been addressing my own personal weight issue and since January have gone down twenty pounds. I realized early that I needed a person to ask me how I am doing and ask me often, a person that I could call when I was feeling particularly tempted to dive into my kid's Easter baskets and pick out the Snickers. I also was able to tell that this person was not only crucial to my success but they had to be a neutral third party... it could not be my husband. No matter how good his intentions were it just did not mean the same thing when he said, "Are you sure you REALLY want to eat THAT?" or "Don't give up Babe... you will get back in those jeans eventually." My girlfriend could say the same thing to me and I would not be offended but when it came from my husband... I was mad.

The same principal is true with organizing... you need a person to ask you questions like:

• Did you sort through a box of stuff this week?

• Did you take a box of donations out of your house this week?

• Remember you are trying to not add more stuff until you take more stuff out... are you sure that is a wise purchase?

Much like my experience with my husband... this person needs to be a neutral third party. When a well meaning spouse or family member asks the same questions it often comes across as condescending and confrontational. A Professional Organizer is skilled at holding clients accountable on these type of issues so I encourage you to either find one in your area to work with or contact us through our website and sign up for a coaching session and accountability program.

No matter what direction you choose to go to find your accountability person to help you get more organized... having that person to hold your hand along the way will make your organization efforts more successful!

Gut Check

Okay here is a question that I encourage you to spend some time thinking about in the next few days... How do you feel when you walk into your home?

Do you feel relaxed, calm, and peaceful? Is your home your sanctuary or your "happy place"?

If not... have you stopped to consider why not?

If you walk into your home or a room in your home and you are immediately bombarded with the sight of clutter it can have a SEVERE impact on how you feel about your home. It can also lead to stress, health issues, marriage issues, and other problems.

I have seen people that spend large amounts of time and money just to avoid having to come home and face the clutter that lurks behind the front door... if you can relate to this feeling then I challenge you this week to make a different choice this week.

Choose to spend the time and money ON your home... conquering the clutter so that you can once again enjoy your home as the peaceful place it should be instead of running from it. The time for change is now... remember the longest journey begins with a single step... make that step be one that takes you through the door instead of away from it.

 

Are you ready for Spring Cleaning?

You have no idea how happy I am to see the month of April!!! 

I am so excited to see butterflies, birds, and blooms returning to my yard in place of the bleak, brown that has dominated all winter.

April is also when I begin to do my Spring Checklist for my home.  Did you know that there are tasks that you should do each year to ensure that your home remains in good shape?  We have created an easy to refrence sheet that lists all of these tasks by season and I encourage you to download it today from our website.  During the month of April this sheet will be only 50 cents... so fly on over today by clicking on this link

Purchase our Yearly Household Checklist

Regular maintenance on your home will keep your house in the best shape and help save you time and money down the road.

Are you a packrat?

A person who likes to accumulate material items and has a very hard time parting with things is often labeled as a "packrat" in our society.

Out of curiosity I was doing some reading about the rodent the packrat on Wikipedia found a few the terms to be more accurate than I would have previously thought.

• The packrat is active nocturnally. Like many people whose disorganization causes stress which can lead to sleep problems like insomnia developing. I often hear clients complain of trouble sleeping due to the guilt of not staying up to deal with their clutter.

• Packrats will often trade one item they have for something more interesting. Animal experts have observed a packrat carrying one treasure and dropping it to pick up another item that is more interesting to them. Hmmm... I think I have seen this at yard sales by people who are in search of the best treasure for a quarter.

• Packrats will store their treasures inside their vast nests. The treasures have no purpose for the rodent other than to take up space or in some instances to support a part of the nest. How many treasures do you own that have no real purpose except to take up space? I have seen homes where it seems that those "treasures" are helping to support the ceiling of the home.

• Packrats continue to expand their nest to make more room all the time. Hmmm... how many of us look for bigger houses, rent storage units, expand our home, or bring sheds into the backyard, all because we need more room for our stuff. I once spoke to a family that was looking to sell their home for the sole reason that they wanted to have a bigger junk room.

• The rodent is said to be very vocal with fighting between other rodents. Clutter is the cause of MANY fights and rifts in families. I see clients all the time that are desperate to ease conflicts with spouses, friends, and family members by heeding their requests for the person to get more organized.


So the next time that you are called a packrat or you use the term to label someone else... stop and think a moment if you really want to be compared to a rodent who spends their life in a state of high stress, with little rest, always in search of the next big treasure to add to their stash. Do you really want to keep running the same "rat “race or are you ready to make a change in your life? A change that can decrease your stress, improve your sleep, improve your relationships, and allow you to enjoy your life more... a change to get more organized.

Health Advantages of Getting Organized

I hear many reasons from clients telling me what motivates them to get organized. I hear how it will improve their life, their family, their homes... but not often do I hear them say because it will improve their health. However, there are numerous health advantages that you and your family can reap through organization!

Here are 10 Ways that Getting Organized can Help you Live a Healthier Lifestyle:

1. The act of decluttering and purging can be great exercise! You are working muscles and getting your heart rate going by moving boxes, sorting belongings and cleaning.

2. Once you clear out a room, you may unearth the treadmill and use it for it's intended purpose and not a clothes rack anymore. You could come across old workout videos in boxes and pop them into give them a try.

3. You may discover a pair of skinny jeans that suddenly make you see how "unhealthy" life has become. Realizations like this can be very motivating and eye opening for anyone.


4. As you learn to manage your time better you are able to make exercise a priority and give it a place in your schedule.


5. Organizing your menu planning and your kitchen can lead to healthier eating habits for you and the entire family!


6. If you can clear the clutter on your kitchen table and use it for eating instead of setting things on then your kids will benefit the most. Studies have shown that kids who eat at the table with their family tend to eat more fruits and vegetables, are more open to new foods, learn to respect portions better!

7. Getting more organized is going decrease your stress level. With more than 75% of all doctor visits in the United States being attributed to stress related injury or illness... it is safe to say that decreasing our stress would be good for us all.

8. The National Safety Council says the top reason for injury related health problems and death are due to falls. When you organize your home/office you are giving everything a place thus reducing the number of potential falling hazards in your home.

9. Clutter can make it hard to clean your home properly, which can allow allergens like dust, mold, dander, and other unwelcome guest to not only clutter your home... but your sinus cavities as well.

10. Once you have cleared the clutter you can establish a system to manage your personal health information and medications. Staying on top of our health is our responsibility and being organized about your health history as well as past and current medications can save you time, energy, money, and possibly your life.


So if you have been looking for yet another reason to conquer your clutter I just provided you another motivation that is hard to overlook... it can make you a healthier, better version of you!

Valentine's Day Post: A love note for an organized life.

Dear My Crazy Life,

You try hard to shake me up and throw me off my game each day by sending things I can't always plan for. In fact in the last year you have thrown me such curve balls as: unexpected website issues, sick children, car problems, broken heater in the house during cold winter days, and even a minor flood in the house. Yes, I will give you credit, you have tried hard to make 2010 a disorganized mess... but you have not succeed.

You see, you may not be able to plan for everything-- but being organized means that I am able to respond to changes quickly because I am skilled at juggling and shuffling things within my systems. I have learned in years of experience that being organized does not just mean that I am organized on the "good" days in my life. No, being organized allows be to not only handle your curve balls that you throw at me... but feel confident in my ability to handle them.

I want to tell you why I love organization this Valentine's Day:

I love that if I plan my meals ahead and use my crock pot on busy days that even when I get busy or distracted... I can still serve my family dinner on time.

I love that if I use my planner on a daily basis... you lose much of your power of sneaking up on me, because I plan ahead, allowing time for your curve balls.

I love that I have learned to build in time for my family, my business, and my goals each day so that I can easily stick an unexpected task into the right time slots.

I love my tickler file!!! It allows me to manage all of the paperwork that comes into my household and office through business and backpacks!

Life, You have tried hard in the last couple of months to throw me off my game and frustrate me. But I am have come out of these chaotic months more dedicated to the passion I have for establishing an organized household! I have seen first hand in these months, that having an working organizing system can make me love and enjoy my life and my family more... even when you throw your best at me.

I love my life (chaos and all) and I love that I love my job because it allows me to share tips, secrets, and systems with other families so they can find the same Simple Organized Sanity that I have!

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!

Finding Peace between Organized and Disorganized Partners

They often say opposites attract, but when it comes to organizational opposites the differences often lead to stress and conflict. The stress can effect a wide variety of relationships but tend to be the hardest on relationships that require people to be in close quarters, sharing space like:

Spouses and Romantic Partners
Roommates
Parents and Children
Co-Workers
Business Partners

Today I want to focus on Spouses and Romantic Partners, because often in the beginning of a romantic relationship, you are not focused on the details of the other person like how they deal with clutter. If you do notice the clutter-you are able to overlook it because of the excitement of a new relationship. It is when the organized person and the clutter bug try to join households and habits under one roof that problems tend to begin.

Anger, and frustration, and resentment in the relationship can pile up as clutter does around the new home with the organized person often feeling that the disorganized person does not value the relationship as much. Over time as this problem continues; hopes, dreams, and plans for a life of love together can often also get swallowed up in the mess.

As a professional organizer, I have seen first hand the stress that this type of situation places on a once loving relationship. I have seen couples brought to ugly words over a pile of stuff. I have heard ultimatums laid down like, "If you can't get this clutter under control... we are done. I can't live like this anymore." I have functioned as organizer, motivator, mediator, and marriage counselor on more than one occasion.

I have also delt with this problem first hand, let me share with you my own experience of living with a disorganized person.

My Story
I remarried a little over a year ago, to a wonderful man who adores me and my children. I felt lucky and blessed to have been given a second chance at love. The happiness was clouded quickly when I realized that my new husband was a MESS. Literally a mess... he too is a business owner- but unlike me, his papers, tools, and appointments were not in any kind of a system! Papers would get piled, tools would get tossed on the floor of the garage, and appointments were never written down.

As a professional organizer I was sure I could handle this problem and teach him new organization methods as I would with one of my clients... the only problem was- he was not one of my clients. He did not seem to mind the mess, he did not ask for my help- so when I surprised him one weekend with a complete garage makeover he was not excited. It only took him a matter of day to resume his "unorganized ways" and have the garage floor covered again.
The battle lines were drawn... and the war went on for several months with us fighting constantly about the mess, the piles, the state of the garage, the state of his truck, and the fact he never wrote down an appointment. Until one day, I realized that this war had consumed our marriage and was suffocating my enjoyment of spending time with him.

So I called a peace conference, we sat and calmly talked about the problem. This is the first key of dealing with clutter in relationships: Find a way to talk without anger or accusations. Once we stopped yelling we were able to actually hear where each of us were coming from. I understood that he did not feel that he had time to maintain a complex system because he was always rushing between appointments and needed his tools at hand all the time. He could see that he was actually wasting time digging through a pile on the floor when if everything had a place he would probably find it faster. I also realized something very important... you can't force someone to change who is not ready to change. So the question was where do we go from here?

Second Key to dealing with clutter in relationships: Find a compromise on clutter. The fact is, you will not solve this problem overnight... but you can solve the constant fighting in your relationship by finding a compromise. In our case the compromise was this: We would work on organizing the garage together for one weekend so that I could help him create a system that works for him. We also agreed that the garage was going to be his zone and the clutter in that zone was his mess and I was choosing to turn a blind eye to it when it got cluttered- in exchange he agreed to work harder to keep the clutter under control in the rest of the house.

In your home and relationship you can do the same thing: Give your clutter bug a space because it will do two things: One, it will prevent them from feeling like you are forcing them to part with things that they are emotionally attached to. It also keeps them from developing feelings of resentment towards the partner pressuring them to purge. The second thing it does is limit the amount of clutter that your clutter bug keeps. Once they are overflowing their space they will need to be willing to sort and purge so they can keep the most important and part with the clutter that is taking up their space.

Third Key to dealing with clutter in relationships: Take joy in small victories
I am happy to report that after almost a year... this compromise still holds our truce together. Yes, there are days that I catch a glimpse of the garage and cringe but I bite my tongue, because I have not had to ask or nag about clutter piling anywhere else in my home. He has done a wonderful job of being able to keep his system in place by setting aside time each week to straighten up the truck and garage so he can find tools faster and easier. It may not be a perfect solution but it is a victory!

I am finding that as disorganized partners, slowly begin to see a new way of living and organizing they may be willing to push further away from their deeply ingrained clutter bug habits. Be careful to always take the lead from your clutter bug so that you do not reignite the initial war - but if your partner shows interest in learning more about how to manage their area even better you can be supportive by finding a professional organizer in your area at http://www.napo.net/ who is experienced in dealing with people that are dealing with long standing habits of disorganization.

Fourth Key to dealing with clutter in relationships: Focus on what drew you to your partner to begin with. When clutter is taking over your life and your relationship, it is crucial that you find ways to reconnect with your partner to remind you that your love is built on much more than how you deal with clutter. My husband and I tried to take date nights... out of the house and away from the clutter that triggered arguments. I always suggest this to my clients as well... get out of the house and talk about life but discussion about your clutter is off limits for the night.


Remember that your partner could be hanging onto clutter for a wide variety of emotional reasons and those reasons are things that could take a long time to deal with together, but in order to be able to face the "why" your partner needs to feel that you are their partner in this battle and not their enemy. Implementing these four keys can bring the peace and be the first step to helping your partner win the battle of clutter.

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!

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.

Happy Earth Day

If you are like most of us, today has got you thinking "Green". Today is Earth Day and it is a day to help each of us be more aware of our carbon footprint and the effect that our living has on the environment.

As a professional Organizer I encourage people daily to live more "Greenly" by reducing the amount of clutter that they are trying to maintain. Many Americans have storage sheds and storage units packed full of things that we can't seem to live without. Imagine the amount of steel, concrete and pollution that it required to build a building just to house all of our overflowing clutter.

For the most part we normally don't remember what is in our storage shed so when we go to visit it is like a treasure hunt remembering all the stuff we are storing but still not having any practical use for them. Imagine the amount of money you could be saving each month if you were not paying to store clutter that you rarely use.... you could use that money to purchase energy efficient light bulbs, plant a tree, or save toward new energy star appliances.

Plus imagine the amount of gas you will save when you are no longer driving across town to visit your stuff that you have no use for...

Encouraging people to finally break free of the clutter that consumes them is one of the first steps to a greener lifestyle; because once you realize what you can live happily without you are able to start to see other changes that you can make in your life as well.

I encourage you to spend a little while on this Earth Day 2009 and think about how finally reducing your clutter can improve both your lifestyle and your impact on the planet.

Feel free to contact Simple*Organized*Sanity at http://www.simpleorganizedsanity.com/ for more information about a free 30 min. consultation in Southwest Missouri.

Clutter Awareness Week

Starting on Sunday March 15th is National Clutter Awareness week and Simple Organized Sanity has partnered with the Springfield Victory Mission to encourage individuals to donate their unwanted clutter to people who can use it.

The Victory Mission has numerous programs that strive to help those in need in the greater Springfield, MO area. Consider cleaning out your closet and donating clothes that you no longer wear or fit into, towels that you don't need, and extra linens. Clean out kitchen cabinets and donate unused kitchen items like extra dishes, cooking appliances, and Tupperware.

Is your garage full of unused furniture, lawn care items, tools, medical equipment? The Victory Mission will put it to good use by making sure that someone in need receives your donation.

If you are interested in learning more about this partnership program please visit http://www.simpleorganizedsanity.com/DeclutteringforChrist.html and as always if you need help with your decluttering project contact Simple Organized Sanity at 417-733-2089.

Have a blessed Day