Time Management & Decluttering Are Keys To A Happy Life

Jun 18

3 Ways to Use Our Organizing Deck of Cards

By Diane Quintana How to Declutter: Use Simple Strategies

I can’t believe it’s already been two years since Jonda Beattie and I started talking about creating an organizing deck of cards to help people create more order in their homes. We know that one of the best organizing strategies is to break the task down into very small components. So, that’s where we started. Jonda asked the question, “what can you do in 10 minutes?” Everyone has 10-minutes to work on one task, right? That is, if the task is small enough. That’s how we came up with the title: Organize Your Home 10 Minutes at a Time. Then…

Jun 05

June – The Month for Celebrations and Parties

By Jonda Beattie Ask the Organizer How to Organize

Summer is here! Days are getting longer. June is a wonderful month for celebrations and parties. There are so many things to celebrate. June is the month for Father’s Day, weddings, family reunions, and it’s always someone’s birthday. So, let’s throw a party! I know, I know --- organizing a party can cause anxiety and be stressful if you don’t have a plan. As an avid party thrower, let me help you with that plan so that you can enjoy the celebration along with your guests. Your 7 Step Celebrations and Parties Planner 1. Have a theme or reason for…

May 21

Organizing Your Children’s Closet 10 Minutes at a Time

By Diane Quintana How Long Will it Take to Organize X

Summer is almost here. I love summer. When my children were young, we spent the summers swimming, sailing, and playing tennis. Being outside and active was the rule. We lived in our bathing suits, t-shirts, shorts, sandals and sneakers. This is a perfect limited wardrobe for hot summer days. Summer clothes are the best. Use the summer to spend time organizing your children’s closets bit by bit. All you need is a short 10-minute span of time to organize 1 small section. Everyone has 10 minutes to dedicate to a little organizing. Here’s the best way to tackle organizing your…

May 08

Gifting Mom with a Closet Organization Day

By Jonda Beattie Ask the Organizer How to Organize

Usually when you ask a mom what they want for a gift they respond with what they really want is some time with you. While that is a wonderful thing to give, you want to give something a little more meaningful. Something you can provide. How about gifting mom with time spent helping her with a project that now may be difficult for her like organizing her closet? As we get older, and I know this firsthand, it gets more and more difficult to reach up high or low. If possible, we older adults may just ignore these areas. For…

May 01

5 Ways to Weed Clutter from Your Home

By Diane Quintana Ask the Organizer How to Organize

As someone who truly loves to be outside and playing in the dirt, I want to share with you some of the similarities between gardening and organizing. Did you know that weeding is similar to organizing? No? I want to share with you 5 ways to weed clutter from your home. This will simplify your routine which, in turn, lets you spend more time on things you love. Remove what you don’t want When you weed the garden, you remove what you don’t want from that patch of the ground. I have found that one of the best ways to…

Apr 03

7 Tips To Declutter Your Outdoor Storage Area

By Jonda Beattie How to Declutter: Use Simple Strategies

Spring has finally arrived, and we want to spend more of our time outdoors. Having a clean, clutter-free outdoor storage area makes our time outside even more inviting and relaxing. Many of us have a lot of “stuff” that we store to keep our yards, decks, patios, and any other outdoor areas a place of relaxation. Decluttering our outdoor storage areas makes it easier to maintain our outdoor areas and saves us time so that we can enjoy them. Outdoor storage areas can get messy and cluttered throughout the year. Because they are not in our main living area it…

Mar 20

The Best Reason to Use the Zone Plan to Organize Your Home

By Diane Quintana How to Declutter: Use Simple Strategies

You are probably familiar with the expression “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”? Benjamin Franklin said this way back when. Of course, I don’t know what he was referring to at the time but there are so many applications. Think about a door knob. If it becomes loose, it's a good idea to tighten the screws before the whole thing falls off. You don’t want to wait too long to attend to this task or you may have an even bigger problem to fix, right? Preventive maintenance is one of the best ways to keep little…

Mar 06

Organizing the Entertainment Center in 10 Minute Blocks

By Jonda Beattie How Long Will it Take to Organize X, Uncategorized

Each March I deep clean and reorganize my living room. Spring will soon be here and I want my living room completely decluttered, fresh, and accessorized for the season. Many of the projects in the living room can easily be done in 10-minute blocks of time. The Entertainment Center is a good example of that. I chunk my center into three different categories. One category is the section that holds our DVDs and CDs. Another category is the section that holds items used for entertaining guests. And the last category is all the items that sit on top of the…

Feb 20

Get Magical Results by Releasing and Repurposing

By Diane Quintana Ask the Organizer How to Organize

Recently, I’ve been talking a lot about moving and settling in. Just in case you haven’t been following me, here’s a brief recap. I sold my house in May 2021 and rented a furnished apartment month to month until my townhouse was finished. In late January I moved into my new forever home and am loving it. The unpacking, arranging furniture, and putting away belongings is overwhelming for everyone, even for professional organizers. However, I learned that when I released some of my preconceived notions of where things should live or how things should be used, I had magical results.…

Feb 06

Make a Plan for a Romantic Evening

By Jonda Beattie How to Declutter: Use Simple Strategies, Uncategorized

Valentine’s Day is considered a day for romance. While the special day has been around for a long time, the day became associated with romantic love in the 14th and 15th centuries. Today it’s an opportunity to spice up a relationship and show the love. You want to set the mood for your own romantic evening. You close your eyes and envision the pair of you cuddled up on the couch, watching a romantic movie. The lights are dim. But then you open your eyes and look around your love nest. You notice the piles of shoes kicked off by that…

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