Wordless Wednesday: Everything in it's place

Tired of your family members asking you where things are? The solution: Putting your family's "general information" into a easy-to-use binder. Keeping this wealth of information accessible (in your home office or kitchen) makes it easy for the whole family to access telephone numbers, birthdays, take-out menus, schedules and more.

Materials: 1" Binder, Avery sheet protectors and a little creativity :)

Images ©Christine Bonnivier Photography

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Wordless Wednesday: Tactfully Organized

 Who said miscellaneous paper was the only thing you could tack to a cork-board? It can also be used to store your tangled necklaces and misplaced jewelry pieces. Re-purpose an abandoned cork-board, purchase your favorite tacks and attach your keepsakes. It's easy, functional and looks great on any closet wall!

Images ©Christine Bonnivier Photography

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Wordless Wednesday: Routine Checklists

Here is a quick idea you can borrow from something I do with my kids to keep me from repeating myself over and over and over... (you get the idea.)

I printed these on the computer (Words for my readers and pictures for my youngest)  I slipped them into plastic sheet protectors and hung them with magnets on the fridge.  They use the magnetic dry erase marker to mark off their progress each morning.

Then we flip the list over in the Evening and repeat the same process...

Spend a few moments giving this system a try for your family this week to see if you feel less like a broken record.  (All while you are teaching them about time management and responsibility).

Five Easy Scrapbook Organization Ideas

Saturday, May 1st was National Srapbooking Day so I wanted to share with you five easy tips to organize your scrapbooking hobby on a budget!

Tip One:  A dish drainer is the perfect way to store 12X 12 papers so you can see it and easily flip to find the perfect sheet for the page you are working on.

Tip Two:   An inexpensive accordion file can help you organize your scrap paper by color or patter. This will help you use every last inch of paper to create great layouts.

Tip Three:  A rotating spice rack makes the perfect storage system for small embellishments, eyelets, buttons, and beads. Clear jars make it easy to see what you need quickly and easily.

Tip Four:  Colorful flower pots or oversized mugs are a great way to organize pens, markers, and scissors of various sizes and functions

Tip Five:  Use large mailing envelopes to collect page elements for a future layout: pictures, paper, stickers, and journaling details for each upcoming page. When you are in the mood to scrap all you will have to do is pull out the envelope (page) you want to work on.

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!

Gaining Perspective on the Couch

This weekend was not the weekend that I had planned to have. Friday morning I had noticed a small red circle on my leg as I was getting dressed, I did not really give it much thought. However, as the day went by I began to really not feel well. By mid-afternoon I was running a fever and my leg was throbbing... when I checked the small red circle had grown to the size of a golf ball. A spider bite was diagnosed at the doctor's office and bed rest was ordered for the weekend... something that I do not do well.
I have told you before that I don't have an off button... I have two speeds that I move through my life at: fast and faster. I am always on the move trying to get projects done and kids were they need to be so being forced to sit and rest was not appreciated.

Determined to be productive despite the doctor's orders I remembered the advice that I have given to countless clients that have struggled through illness and injury. Find the items on your to do list that you can still check off that do not require a great deal of energy or effort. I pulled out my personal to do tracker and my business to do tracker. and began reviewing the items that I could still accomplish without the ability to walk around.

In total during three days of "couch time" I was able to check off 15 items from my to do trackers. Most of these were simple projects that I simply had not taken the time to do earlier, a few were larger projects that required some focus and attention that I was able to give without many interruptions. One of the projects I was able to check off of my list was listing a new product called Special Needs to do tracker which breaks your to do list up between "Good Days" and "Not so Good Days". You can download this list for only 99 cents and save it to your computer and print copies off as you need them.


You cannot plan for everything... life is going to throw you curve balls. Yours may not be a spider bite and bed rest or a chronic illness, but it may be something that for a short time throws you off of your game. Part of being organized is being prepared and being flexible. Whichever to do tracker that you choose to use they are a great way to remain flexible no matter what and more importantly you will still be able to be productive.

Use your Hangers to help you Purge your Closet

As Al Roker would say, "Here in My Neck of the Woods" the weather is finally warming up and staying warm.  I am planning to spend the upcoming weekend changing the closets in my house from Winter to Spring clothing.

I always encourage clients to purge clothing out as they do this task. If something no longer fits properly, is no longer in style, or you simply know you will not wear it again this season... PURGE it out of your closet and make room for clothes that you will wear.

Here is a little trick to use after your purging to make sure that you are only keeping the clothes that you are going to be wearing...

The Hanger Trick

When you hang your spring clothes up- make sure that all of your hangers face the same direction.  As you wear an item and re-hang it in your closet--flip the hanger around the opposite direction.  Within a few weeks it will be obvious what items you are wearing most of the time.  This also gives you a great perspective to go through and do a second purging of items whose hangers are still facing the right way.

Calories Burned While Organizing

This is clutter awareness week, a time to focus on clearing out the clutter in your home and life. 

Clutter can be found in many forms, professionals define it as “anything that takes up space in your home, office, or life without serving a purpose. “ It can be as severe as a basement full of outgrown clothing, old toys, unneeded papers, and outdated furniture or as simple as a stack of outdated magazines and unread junk mail.

We have talked about how organizing has many benefits in our home and life, and today I want to share with you an often overlooked benefit of getting organized... all the calories that you can burn! 

Here are 10 common calorie burning tasks that you may be doing when organizing:

Filing (Office Work) burns 151 calories an hour.

Packing and Unpacking Boxes burns 238 calories per hour.

Carrying boxes upstairs burns 510 calories per hour.

General Cleaning House burns 204 calories per hour

Taking out the trash and Dusting burns 170 calories per hour

Walking to put away household items and laundry burns 204 calories per hour.

Moving Furniture or Carrying boxes burns 408 calories per hour

Sweeping burns 272 calories per hour

Standing to sort a drawer out burns 136 calories per hour.

Doing Laundry burns 139 calories per hour.

Exact Calorie totals would be based upon your own height and weight. These numbers are based on an average 145 pound person.

To figure your exact calorie totals visit http://www.livestrong.com/ and sign up for a free account.

So if you were looking for yet another reason to get motivated to get organized I hope that knowing the calorie burning benefits may encourage you to start to tackle your clutter during this National Clutter Awareness week and get more organized and healthier at the same time! 

SOS Reviews the Box4Blox

I was very excited when the developers of the Box4Blox allowed me the oppertunity to review their product for our blog.  As a mom with a son who is wild about his Lego (TM) Collection, I am always on the lookout for a new way to organize them so that they take up less room and are easier to play with.

The Box4Blox had been on my radar for sometime.  I knew that it had the potential of being that rare combination of space saver for me and easier access to his beloved blocks for my son.

The buzz surrounding this product has been as high as my expectations for it!  It has recieeved numerous rave reviews from users, a mention in Women's Day magazine as a favorite organizing tool, and was recently honored with the prestigious "Organizers Choice Award"  as a "Best New Home OrganizingProduct"

at a National Association of Professional Organizers event.

Needless to say, I was excited the day mine was dropped off by my favorite UPS driver!  Here is what my son's Lego (TM) collection looked like before we tried the Box4Blox:

We were storing his blocks in a plastic drawer system and had tried to keep them sorted out by size... that did not always happen and I was not happy with how much room these plastic drawers took up in his room.


Space Concern
My primary concern was that all of his blocks would not fit inside of the one Box4Blox unit, even though their website says that a unit can hold "approximately 1500 - 1700 Lego bricks."

I had never sat down and counted the size of my son's collection so I was a little nervous when I looked at the two systems side by side.

But the Box4Blox works in a very unique way that allows it to store so much in such a smaller space:

The graded openings in the bottom of each tray get smaller allowing the larger blocks to stay in the yellow tray while the small, hard to find pieces end up in the green tray at the bottom.

Putting it to the Test at my House

So I did as insturcted and removed the large base plates and larger blocks that would obviously end up in yellow contanior and set them aside so they did not block the other blocks from being sorted.

I stopped halfway through each of the plastic drawers that I was dumping the blocks out of and gently shook the stacked trays allowing the smaller blocks to filter down through the openings.

The entire process to switch from our old storage system to the Box4Blox took a little over five minutes!!!

This is what my son's collection looked like after just 5 quick moments!!!

I could not be happier with the results.  My inital concern of all of the blocks fitting in this product was quickly answered because there was room to spare in each tray!

So this is the transformation that this product allowed me to experience in my son's room... I am trading out the big, bulky plastic storage drawers and replacing it with this WONDERFUL product!

The only downside I see to this product is the lack of a handle to make it easier for kids to carry themselves; however, I understand the company's issue with how the addition of a handle would increase the cost of the product.

It is really not hard to pick the unit up with two hands from the bottom and carry it where it needs to go... but bear in mind smaller children may need help with this task.

I am happy to recommend this product to clients, readers, moms, and anyone else who is looking for a GREAT solution for Lego (TM) and other small blocks.

The True Test

I may be a professional organizer and mom but it was my son's reaction to his new organizing system that may hold more influence over your need to have one of these units in your home:

Click below to hear his thoughts on the Box4Blox.

Our Rating

 To order your own Box4Blox click here it is well worth the cost of the product ($29.95 + $10.00 Shipping and Handling) Plus the company has special deals if you are ordering more than one product at once.

We were not paid for our review of this product.  Box4Blox did furnish the unit featured in the review but there was no compensation received for this review- it is strictly my personal views of the product.

Finding the Perfect Online Organizer to Meet your Needs

In the last couple of years, online organizers have popped up and become a popular way for families to stay more organized.  I have spent the last few weeks comparing four of the most popular online organizers to see how they are different from one another. 

The one thing that these four all had in common is that they are all free to users but after that they differ slightly so you may want to consult this list to find one that best meets your needs before signing up.

	Cozi	CasaBlast	Famjama	Dotpag
Stores  Mobile Numbers	X	X	X
Send Texts to Stored Numbers	X	X	X
Family Calendar Feature	X	X	X	X
Can Color Code Calendar by Family Member	X	X	X
Stores Grocery/Shopping Lists	X	X	X
Able to text shopping lists to stored mobile numbers	X	X
Able to email shopping list			X
Has a 1-800 number you can call into to hear your shopping lists	X
Diary or Journal Feature	X			X
To Do List Feature	Yes, sorted by family member	Yes, You can text tasks but not sort by person.	Yes	Yes
Save and organize internet bookmarks			X	X
Address Book Feature		X	X	X
Track Kid's School Assignments			X
Allows Family members to submit meal requests			X
Shows local weather forcasts			X
Has iphone App			X
Has Blackberry App.
Has Android App
Syncs with Outlook Calendar	X	X	X
Send batch Texts to Groups or Teams			X
Tracks your RSS Feeds				X

HTML Tables

Wordless Wednesday

Over the Door Shoe organizers are not just for Shoes!

This one hangs in my laundry room and stores the dog medicine and leash. Extra Batteries, hot glue gun and glue sticks, Matches and Lighters, Cleaning Sprays, Dog Shampoos, Batteries Chargers, Screwdrivers and tools, Dog hair remover mitt, Fish Aquarium Misc., measuring tape, chargers and cords grouped by category, My dust pan, and a place for kids to set toys that need batteries put in them.

Want other ideas of places to use a Over the door Shoe Organizer in your home?  Check out this old post.

The Light bulb File

Okay, raise your hand if you have ever had a great idea or saw on somewhere that you did not want to forget.  Now raise your hand if you jotted that idea down or tore it out of a magazine only to loose it later and wonder what you did with it. 

I was afraid of that...

So many of us have great intentions but because we do not have good systems we end up with lackluster follow through of intentions and ideas. 

A few years ago I started subscribing to a magazine that was so full of great ideas that I was terrified to throw them away.  I would mark pages, dog ear ideas and then stack them; however, when the time came to find one of those great ideas again... I would have to dig through each magazine or try to remember what issue it was in.  This dilemma inspired me to create my "Light bulb File", curious?  Let me explain how it works and how you can set one up for yourself so you never again are victim of another lost idea.

The Light bulb File

Step One: Purchase a three ring binder that is 1" wide or larger.

Step Two: Purchase a set of tabbed dividers and label them for the different type of ideas, inspiration, clippings, etc... Anything that make your "light bulb" go off when you see it or thing of it. It is that idea that makes you say... "I would love to do this!"

For me some of my categories were: birthday party themes, games with the kids, crafts with the kids, household decor ideas, organizing ideas, etc...

Everyone's light bulb has a different trigger so everyone’s labels will be different!

Step Three: Either use a clear plastic page protectors or a three-hole punch to slip clippings and papers into the appropriate categories. Also have blank paper in each category so that you can quickly jot down ideas that you think of or mount pictures that you take for inspiration.

The light bulb file is very simplistic by design... but it's true "wattage" or power lies in the hands of the user. I love the quote that says "Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) So much truth in that statement... it is easy to have or find a great idea... the next step is doing something about it.

I challenge each of you to make an idea file... your "light bulb" file if you will... and use it not as a safe keeping place where thoughts get trapped and not released into great action... but as a springboard to take you to new places in your homes, families, and businesses!

Voicemail can save you time each day!

Americans come in third in the world wide cell phone usage race, with eighty-nine percent of our population now being tied to phone calls anywhere at anytime. The only countries that outrank us by number of cell phones are China and India. 

I myself am amoung the ranks of chronic cell phone users... my husband lovingly refers to my beloved smart phone as my "pacemaker".  The nickname fits too, it is always near me and I use it's many capablities to help me manage all areas of my life.  I have a calorie counter, MP3 player, stopwatch, calendar, contact manager, to do list, and many other applications that make my life easier and more organized.

However, one of the most basic features of my phone tends to be the biggest problem for me... incoming phone calls.  I can get many, many calls in a day; personal calls, business calls, cold calls, and others.  The number was becoming so overwelming that I was having a hard time getting work done... until I had an realization that changed my daily life for the better.  My phone has a voicemail feature. 

I knew I had voicemail and I used it to answer calls when I could not get to my phone fast enough.  However, it was when I realized that my voicemail could easily become my best friend in business that I really began to appreciate and utizlie the feature. 

I saw that I do not have to answer EVERY call that comes through my phone.  I have now given myself permission to ask myself, "To answer or not to answer." and have implemented new rules and guidelines for myself.  For example, if I am at work in my office in the middle of a project, I turn my ringer on silent and allow my trusted voicemail to carefully record each question or need for me to address at a specfic time later in the day. 

By implementing these new guidelines, I have given myself permission to put more value on my time and have reduced my stress.  I am now able to get more out of my time when I am working, and more out of my phone calls when I make them because I am not distracted by other tasks. 

I challenge you this week to use your voicemail feature on your phone too as a time management tool, not just a back up when you don't jump the couch fast enough to get there. Release yourself from the feeling that you need to answer EVERY single call at the time they are calling.  If you are eating dinner, reading to kids, or trying to do a project... let the phone call go to voicemail and you can return it at a time later when you have more time and attention to pay to the caller. 

This one small change in your life can help save you time, energy, and frustration every day!

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.

Check list for an organized Garage Sale

Before the Sale

1. Advertise! No point in organizing if you are not going to have people there.
Craigslist, Facebook, Twitter, and other online sites and chat rooms
Fliers on college campuses
Signs up around your neighborhood with arrows to direct people there.

(tip: Keep all signs the same color so people can “follow” your signs.)

2. Price everything as you sort to save you having to do it later.
3. Sort things by category:
Housewares
Kitchen
Bedding
Clothes
Books
Toys
Tools
Electronics
Home Décor
Etc…
4. Get Change at the bank

5. Check the Weather forcast for the days of your sale to be sure it will cooperate.

The day of the Sale (Day One)

1. Pull items out around 7:30-8:00 am to take full advantage of early morning traffic. Set items out by category and spread out as much as possible so shoppers can see what you have without having to dig through it all.
Try to hang clothing up
Try using tarps or tables to spread items out on.
Have an extension cord around so that if people want to check electronics they can.

2. Put larger items at the end of the driveway and smaller items closer the garage and check out table.
3. Offer Bags or Boxes to people who purchase several things to help them carry it out.
4. Encourage people to let others know about your sale.

The Last day of the sale

1. Plan to make deals on day two… the goal today is to get rid of as much as possible.
2. Have a “bag sale” Fill a bag for $1…
3. As the sale winds up box up items that you want to donate and either load it up or arrange for a pick up first thing Monday morning.
4. Relax and enjoy the fact that you cleared out a lot of clutter with this sale!

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.

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.

Purpose is in the Eye of the Beholder

The other day my family was in the car on a trip that lasted about an hour. I noticed that my oldest son was being exceptionally quiet... something that normally makes a mother nervous. When I looked back to see what he was doing in the back of our minivan, I was not prepared for what I saw.

He was having a wonderful time, entertaining himself with two full pads of yellow post it notes. He had made paper airplanes, origami trees, houses, and even a paper video camera! He was having a wonderful time, even though there were post it notes stuck all over his car seat and the window next to him. I realized as I watched him and his creativity at work, that the just like with art's beauty being in the eye of the beholder... purpose for an object is also in the eye of the beholder.

To me the two pads of post it notes were to make notes on, mark my calendar with, and other various office tasks; however, to my son they were nothing more than a fun craft supply.

Often as a professional organizer, my job is to be a new pair of eyes for an individual, family, or business and give them a new perspective. Many of my clients are trying to get organized on a budget and the more creative we can be by reusing objects around their home the more we can stretch that budget for them.

We have used tin cans to store pencils, shoe boxes to divide drawers, egg cartons to organize jewelry... the point is that many people would look at those items and see trash... in my eyes I behold invaluable organization purpose.

Don't be afraid that your budget will prevent you from finally achieving your goals of getting organized... I pride myself on stretching budgets as far as we can be being as creative as possible. I may not be able to make an origami village out of post it notes, like my son... but I can organize a house on a super tight budget and help you get organized at last.

Friday Five: Five Places in your home that you can use an Over the Door Shoe Organizer.

I am a huge fan of over the door shoe organizers! They range in cost from $10-$20 and they are a cheap way to organize a LARGE variety of small objects around your home and office.

When implementing any of these ideas, I suggest that you use a clear plastic shoe organizer as opposed to a canvas or solid colored one. The reason for this with the clear pockets you can see exactly what is inside of each pocket and you can avoid having to label each pocket.
Room one is the Home Office. There are some great ways to use an over the door shoe organizer in your office:
Store and separate USB cords, chargers, remote controls and other misc. cables that are often lying around or clogging up a desk drawer.
Store small office supplies in each pocket like; hole punch, stapler, pens, pencils, stamps, scissors, extra post it’s, etc…
If you work from home in a business that requires you to have small samples on hand you could store them easily in here.

Room Two is the Bathroom. I love using an over the door shoe organizer in the bathroom when you are tight on cabinet space, especially when you are required to share a bathroom.
Hang the organizer on the back of the door and then you can store hair brushes, combs, hair spray bottles, misc. cosmetic products, and other items you often use in the bathroom to keep them within easy reach.

Room Three is the Craft Room. Think of all the small items that are laying around in your craft area that can be stored in a shoe organizer.
Markers, Scissors, stamps, stamp pads, beads, knitting needles, glue sticks, hot glue gun, ribbon, punches, rulers, eyelets, and so much more.

Room Four is the Pantry. A shoe organizer can be the perfect solution to helping you organize your pantry. Hanging the organizer on the back of your pantry door is a great place for you to store seasoning packets, seasoning bottles, cool aide packets, food coloring, cake sprinkles, and much more.
Room Five is a kid’s room. I have found this to be an excellent way to help kids get more organized.
I hang it on the back of their door or the front of a closet door and teach them to keep small items in the shoe organizer. Small toys like cars and trucks are great in a boy’s room.
In a girls room jewelry is great to be stored in these as well as hair bows, barrettes and other small accessories.