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Mar 24
a bucket of cleaning supplies

Tackling Spring Cleaning

By It's All About You: A Personalized Approach to Achieving Your Organizing Goals
This is the time of year that we think about spring cleaning. Spring is a season when the world seems to come back to life. It seems a perfect time to release anything holding us back and reorganize and freshen our homes. When we talk about spring cleaning, we think about deeper cleaning than our normal maintenance cleaning routine.  For example, we regularly clean our bed linens but during a spring-cleaning session we also clean any blankets and the bedspread or duvet. We clean the mattress pad, wash or replace pillows, and flip the mattress. And while we have that…
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Mar 10
a man standing with his hands beside his eyes so he can't see what is around him.

Clutter Blindness

By How to Declutter: Use Simple Strategies
Clutter blindness is simply clutter that is in front of you, but that you don’t see. Usually, this clutter accumulates slowly over time but because it is never dealt with it begins to look like it belongs there. It’s not that people have a vision problem. It’s just that they have become accustomed to the clutter and expect it to be there. How does clutter accumulate? Clutter generally accumulates when tasks are not completed. For example, you bring in the mail and you might even pull out the obvious trash and throw it out or recycle it. The rest is…
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Feb 25
graphic image of a woman doing daily helpful routine tasks with a clock in the center

How to Develop Helpful Routines

By Ask the Organizer How to Organize
There are many benefits of having helpful routines in place. Helpful routines reduce stress and make for a more efficient day which allows you to even work in some time for yourself. Follow these steps to develop helpful routines Start by listing all that you have to do in a day or during the week. At this point your list is just a brain dump. Don’t try to sort the tasks out. Next divide your day into time blocks. What works for many people are: Morning – from the time you get up until you head out the door to…
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Feb 11

How To Create And Use A Communication Center

By How to Declutter: Use Simple Strategies
A communication center is a dedicated area that helps you keep track of everything that is needed to run your home. The purpose of the center is to create organization, coordination, and efficiency in your home. How to create and use a communication center Where should you put the communication center? Your household determines where you put your communication center. When I was single, it was in my office. But if there are other people in your home then the center needs to be in a convenient and easy location for everyone. Often it is in the kitchen or an…
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Jan 28

Time Awareness

By How Long Will it Take to Organize X
How aware are you of how you use your time? At the end of the day do you wonder where the time went and what you actually did? Some people have a natural time awareness while others do not. Here are my tips to help you improve your time awareness Track One very good way to improve your time awareness is to track it for a week. Keep a log in your journal of what you do each part of your day. Set alarms on your phone and then make note of what you have been doing since the last…
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Jan 14
Yield sign with personal boundaries written across the bottom

How To Set Personal Boundaries

By It's All About You: A Personalized Approach to Achieving Your Organizing Goals
Recently I wrote about the benefits of setting boundaries. There are all kinds of different boundaries. I believe the most important ones to set are your personal boundaries. But just how do you go about setting your personal boundaries? It’s important to be very clear with yourself about your values and priorities. Begin by making a list of all the different aspects of your life: career, family, religion, volunteering, health, recreation and so on. Decide just how much time, energy, and financial resources you want to devote to each aspect of your life. This will be your intention for boundary…
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Dec 31

Benefits of Setting Boundaries in 2024

By It's All About You: A Personalized Approach to Achieving Your Organizing Goals
You may wonder how setting boundaries will help improve your 2024 year. Think of boundaries as an invisible fence that protects you and has a gate that you control. Everyone has boundaries but not everyone has the same boundaries.  You want your boundaries to work for you rather than inhibiting you. Setting boundaries puts you in control of your space and time. Boundaries and space Your home is your special space and your refuge. Think of your home as a container. Set boundaries so that everything in that container has a place. The cabinets and shelves hold your items so…
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Dec 17
winter solstice

Celebrating Winter Solstice

By It's All About You: A Personalized Approach to Achieving Your Organizing Goals, Uncategorized
In the past the winter solstice was celebrated by many cultures with festivals and rituals. Today there are still many who celebrate holidays that are connected to the winter solstice. The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year. After this day the days will slowly become longer as we approach winter. As the days continue to get colder, we will have more light. I like to acknowledge this reminder of our connection to the natural world. “The sun’s descent marks not just the end of another day, but a symbolic passage- a reminder that life, like the sun,…
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Nov 26

Repurposing Your Things Is Good For The Environment

By How to Declutter: Use Simple Strategies
Do you repurpose your things? I love to repurpose furniture. One of the chest of drawers in my house is no longer used for clothes but has been repurposed as my wrapping station. The drawers along the top hold tissue paper, tape, scissors, and small gift bags. The three large drawers are dedicated to ribbon, birthday wrapping paper, and holiday wrapping paper. These drawers are so long and deep that I can also stash small gifts inside them. Repurposing things which we own is one of my primary missions as a professional organizer. Titles of businesses Do you ever think…
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Nov 12

Gratitude

By Ask the Organizer How to Organize
This is the time of year when we think about the things that are important in our lives. We offer gratitude and thanks for what is good. We learn to express thanks and gratitude at an early age. When I was teaching in primary school, every year I would put up a turkey on the bulletin board and each student would cut out a large feather for that turkey and write one thing they were thankful for. Everyone got to talk about why they picked their word. I loved this exercise. Many people keep a gratitude journal but let’s go…
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