How to Get Rid of Ants April 12, 2012

It’s hard to feel good about organizing or decorating when ants go marching two by two through your space.  For those of you who think I lead a charmed life, sorry to pop your balloon.  We have ants.

True, these ants have tenure.  I’ve only lived in this house 4 years, and the ants have probably been here for most of the hundred years the house has stood here.  But I don’t have to like it, and I don’t have to share my snacks with them.

Since I have kids and I like to be all goody-goody about reducing chemicals in my home, I don’t just head for the pesticide aisle.  A couple of years ago, I contacted Mike McGrath, who hosts the show You Bet Your Garden on WHYY, which is a wealth of resources on plants, organic gardening, and natural lawn care techniques.  He pointed me to this little product, that has revolutionized my war on bugs.

It’s a bit different because you don’t spray your stuff or your crawlers.  No, this is more subtle.  You just put a couple drops of Pic Liquid Ant Bait Killer down in a little cardboard or plastic doormat (included), and let the ants walk on it.  And they will, because this stuff is like Easter candy to them.  Did you know that ants are very systematic?  They follow in each other’s footsteps to their food source, and then the ants go marching home again, all in a line.  But at my house, their little legs will be coated with blue juice, which they carry home to their colony.  Within days, all of the ants in the colony have had a taste of the Kool-Aid.  No more ants.

Still, they are ants, and I have to go through this every spring.  I’ve been doing this for 4 years, and you see how much of this tiny bottle I’ve used?  Since I’m using so little, I worry a lot less about unintended targets getting a taste of my blue wrath.

After that’s all taken care of, I can get back to the fun stuff, decorating and organizing for spring.  Here’s hoping for peace around your baseboards.

Organizing the Car Trunk Means Less Rattle, More Mileage April 5, 2012

Last week, I was driving very, very carefully.  Driving conditions have been fine, but I was driving gingerly because I was harboring a noise-maker in the back: a wire bin with wheels on it, that I hadn’t yet returned to the store.

Empty trunk + metal bin on wheels = lots of noise when driving

Did you know that organizing your car can keep your car quieter AND save you real money? Predictions are that gas prices will rise above $4.00 by April.  Every extra pound that you carry in the car trunk (or anyplace else) leads to lower gas mileage, costing the average family an additional $40 per year, and more as the price of gas increases. As if you needed another reason to get organized.  Here are some strategies to get it in gear:

Read More on How to Declutter the Family Car

This is excerpted from the article originally published at  ShopGetOrganized on March 21, 2012.

What essentials do you keep in your car?

How to Organize Kids Art Projects April 3, 2012

Kids’ art projects are notoriously hard to organize.  The topic comes up constantly.  There are a bazillion ways to store your little Picasso’s projects, of course, but really, simple is better.

My absolute favorite storage solution is the Li’l Davinci art frames.  You can check out this video of how these front-hinge beauties from Dynamic Frames work.  My kids (2 and 5) decide which creations are frame-worthy, and they love to help me load their new opus into the frames at least once a week.

While we have enough wall space in our house for a mini art gallery, we don’t actually have enough space in our house for the art studio it takes to create said art.  So I was thrilled to take my little ones to a new place recently, the Creative Clubhouse in Havertown, PA.  Unlike the pottery studio just down the street from our house, the Creative Clubhouse is geared for the younger set (12 months to 8 years), and I didn’t feel like I was bringing my bullish children into the china shop.  The setup is simple, with areas set up for Lego play, dough play, simple glue projects, easel art, magnet boards, a huge chalk wall (sure kids, go ahead and draw on these walls), and an area for building towers from blocks.  They also run scheduled art and music classes throughout the week.  If I had an extra room in my house for art, it would look just like the Creative Clubhouse.

Look around this space, and you’ll see some pretty simple but effective art solutions that can easily translate into most homes, even if you don’t have your own art room.  Owner, Amy, will tell you that they are all IKEA solutions, easy to pick up and easy to install.  Supplies, like paint brushes, crayons, and any other high-risk implements can be stored in cute and shiny cans hanging from organizing rails, originally meant to organize a kitchen.

Smocks and aprons, the wardrobe staple of the preschool set, hung on simple keyhook bars in the lower left corner of that shot, were super accessible to the kiddos.  At home, you might be able to hang these on the inside of a pantry door or coat closet door.

If you can’t spring for a set of Dynamic Frames, then a simple set of clips hung on airline wire, normally used to hang curtains in a hip loft space, will allow you to hang painted art, especially great for those that need a bit of drying time.

For hardback or canvas creations,  this skinny ledge provides the perfect perch for a rotating display of color.  It’s only about an inch and a half deep, so it can fit into just about any space. I like the idea of adding in some favorite books to create a seasonal or theme display.

Last, think multi-functional in every single piece of furniture you bring into your house once you have kids.  I think it should be a crime to manufacture any bench or ottoman without storage underneath.  With just a little planning and maybe a basket or two, a bench can store even more puzzles, games, and creative supplies.

We’ve been back to the Creative Clubhouse, and I love that my kids get to be creative and messy, but I don’t have to clean it up.  If you need a few more ideas on how to store your kid’s art, check out how to organize creations in digital form, and 5 more ways to organize kids art supplies.

Are any of these solutions to organize kids’ art working in your home?

Fear Of Buttons March 29, 2012

Are you itching for a new spring wardrobe?  Beware not to let koumpounophobia, a real documented phobia of buttons, set in.  Watch this tip on how to store those extra buttons that come with new garments so you can actually find the right buttons when you need them.

If you can’t see the video thumbnail, click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3cyd5EwbJw

Please comment below to let me know what you think of this idea to save and store buttons, and how you would make it even better.

Home Office In a Closet March 28, 2012

I was talking to a friend about this particular transformation, and realized it had never made it to the blog, so here you go.  For those of you who work at home, you can have a super-functional and pretty office, in just about 30″ of space (deep).

Before:

After:

What would you accomplish if your office was this pretty?

Why I Love My Job March 22, 2012

This week I’m enjoying hanging with my organizing peeps at the National Association of Professional Organizers annual conference. Did you know there is one?  It is always one VERY organized agenda!

I can’t wait to get back and share what’s new in the industry.  I’ll be spending a few days in the land of crab cakes and Orioles.  Too bad we’re a few weeks ahead of opening day. It’s true, I have one of the best jobs a person could ask for.

I love my job.

This is one of my favorite parts of my job.  I almost never work alone.

This is Smudge, and he was doing the safety check and space planning for this linen closet reorganization.   I have a million shots of my your little furry children helping me organize your spaces.  Next time I’m at your place, please remind me to snap a shot of the silly things they do to help us out.

Enjoy your week.

What do you love best about your job?

Organizing While Human March 20, 2012

People I work with often blame their current organizing state of affairs on the blessings of being an American.  Let’s face it, while the 99% have gotten a lot of press with the Occupy Wall Street movement, most Americans are still the richest 2% of the world’s population.  If we feel overwhelmed by our stuff, our debt, our gadgets, our calendars, and our information, is it just because we are Americans living in the year 2012?

Nope.

One of the biggest reasons we keep too much is because we treasure possibilities.  We keep things we’ve never used just in case we might need them some day.  We keep relics of activities we used to do, but are unlikely to take part in again.  We keep magazines we don’t have time to read because there might be a cool article in there. There’s lots of psychology behind this, but basically it boils down to us being human, not the year we live in.

I found a little organizing story tucked in the book of Acts in the Bible.  Acts tells the story of what happened to Jesus’ followers immediately after he rose and ascended to be with the Father.  His guys were sent all over the ancient world to tell His story.  Paul, one of the new guys, heads over to Athens, Greece and is hobnobbing with the folks who run the town.  “All the people of Athens spent their time talking about and listening to the latest ideas.” (v.21)  Sounds a bit like us, always plugged in and getting our news practically by I.V. drip.  The Greeks were really into their gods, as you might recall from mythology.  The guys in charge ask Paul what he’s in town to discuss, and Paul says, “As I walked around, I looked carefully at the things you worship, I even found an altar with to an unknown god written on it.” (v.23)

In effect, the people of Ancient Greece were keeping an empty building or shrine in high-rent downtown real estate labelled to an unknown god, just in case they might need it one day!

There’s no need to beat yourself up about a little extra in your life here and there.  After all, there are times when being prepared makes a lot of sense.  The ability to plan makes us human and sets us apart from the rest of the animals. But taken too far, you might be taking up valuable real estate for something that really is a little wacky. We’ve seen it for two thousand years and more.  We’ll always organize while human.

Paul says that not only can he describe the God that they are holding a place for, but that God doesn’t even need a separate shrine, that He’s master over everything and everywhere.  Hey, Greeks, he’s saying, listen up.  That space could be better used than sitting empty.  Today, our unworn sweaters, unused books, uneaten food, unworn shoes, and yes, probably even our unoccupied real estate, can be better put to use helping our fellow humans.  Donating unused goods is a good thing!

Stay human, but keep the just in case within reason.

10 Ways to Go PaperLess March 15, 2012

If I had a nickel for everyone who told me they wanted to go paperless, well, I could buy several reams of paper.  The truth is that our society is nowhere near going paperless.  In fact, our actual individual consumption of paper is up in the past decades!  But we can all take one or two free or easy steps to have less unwanted paper in our lives.  The less that comes in, the less you have to organize.  Take a few minutes and do just one or two of these steps, and have less in your life:

Steps to go PaperLess

1. Stop your newspaper, or subscribe to only one day a week.

2. Get off direct mail lists at the Direct Mail Association site.

5. Let magazine subscriptions expire if you didn’t read them last month.

7. Display kids’ artwork with clever front-loading storage frames from DynamicFrames.

 

Read the rest of this excerpted article where it was originally published on ShopGetOrganized.

What steps will you take to reduce your paper piles?

 

Exit Planning: Organizing Your Vital Records March 8, 2012

No one really wants to think about it, but exit planning can be a blessing for those you love.  Planning for what happens to your assets, your debts, and even your email account and digital identity, can give you a sense of peace and security, even if you are nowhere near your final act.

I am gearing up to help a client with just this activity.  The process looks a little bit like cleaning up your files.  But there is a layer of detail added in, taking time to do things like contacting financial firms or governmental authorities, to make sure all is in order.

Recently, I went through my own family’s vital records, made copies, and removed the originals to a safer location.  People call me just about every month because they’ve lost their birth certificate, a child’s birth certificate, or their passport.

You can take a moment to download my free list of Vital Records  here, and use this to guide what documents you need to locate, copy, and safeguard. When I did this for my family, it took about 3 hours, total.

If you want to do a bit more planning than that, I suggest this great article called, What I have learned about Being an Executor of an Estate.

By the way, you don’t need any fancy books, folders, or software to get your affairs in order.  Chances are that most of your vital records are still in paper form, and a standard 2″ folder with dividers will work just fine to help you get your vital records in order.

This is one of those things that falls into the “important but not urgent” category, for sure.  I’m traveling to visit my parents this summer, and I hope to help them with it as well.  My mom tells me that their final will and testament still has designations for guardianship for my brother and I should my parents die.  I think their will might need updating while we’re at it.

What would help you get your family’s vital records in order?

Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

Recycling Do’s and Don’t for Single Stream Recycling: From The Source March 6, 2012

Before heading to the Waste Management Materials Handling Facility (pronounced merfs by those in the biz) in Northeast Philadelphia, I asked my peeps what they wanted to know about recycling rules. Your questions, and maybe a few you didn’t think to ask, are answered here, thanks to Patty Barthel at Waste Management.

Why can’t we put pizza boxes in for paper recycling?

If the box is super clean, break it down and throw it in. But if it’s greasy or stuck with cheese, it contaminates the rest of the paper in a batch to be recycled.

Must we separate plastic bottles from their caps?

HA! NO! This was actually the question everyone wanted to know. If you are concerned because the cap and bottle are different levels of plastic, worry no more. Apparently, plastics get baled together and sent to a plastics recycling plant, where they are crushed, ground, floated, and who knows what else. Then they are made into new plastic goods and  – surprise! – new fleece jackets you wear to the gym. So no, don’t separate your water bottle from its cap, and don’t throw the caps in the trash.

Must you separate the lids from glass jars?

I keep the lids on my recycles so my kitchen doesn’t smell. It turns out, that’s just fine. The glass usually breaks in the truck, and separates from the metal lid anyway. Glass going through the recycling plant is all tiny shards at the end of the line.

Are magazines recyclable?

Yes. Even paperback books can be recycled. Hardback book covers can not be recycled, but if you tear the covers off of books, you can send the pages to recycling.

Envelopes with plastic windows?

I have known people who stress over putting envelopes in recycling if it has a plastic window. This was a problem when recycling was a new industry, but now there are appropriate tolerances in the system that allow for this sort of thing.

Can shredded paper go into recycling?

YES! Go ahead and shred your old checks, but put the shreds into paper bags or directly in your bin, NOT in plastic bags, or it will go to the landfill. I saw one of these while I was there, headed out the back end of the plant.

If I’m not sure it’s recyclable and I put it in, what happens to it in the end?

“If you put it in the bin and we don’t need it, we’re going to throw it away,” says Patty. Makes sense. They are recyclers, not magicians, so about 10% of what comes in still goes out to the landfill.

How clean should food containers be?

Lightly rinse, then toss in the bin. Labels are no problem, either.

Can you recycle aluminum foil?

No. Foil isn’t desirable. Even foil pans, like the ones you carry to the church supper, aren’t very desirable. But if they are large enough and very clean, the system may still bale them with metals, so if it makes you feel better, throw them in.

Electronics?

Not here. But there are some great places to take your old PC, fax machine, TV, or phone. My favorite is Best Buy, because they are everywhere and take everything.  Whole Foods recently hosted electronics recycling events in my neck of the woods. Be on the lookout for other take-back events in your community.

Here’s a shocker: TOYS!

You know those gigantic colorful toys, like swimming pools, kitchens, and rocking toys? Once they’ve been enjoyed, passed down, and completely sun-faded, they too can be baled along with other rigid plastics, like buckets. However, toys that have lots of metals and electronics, like cars, won’t make the cut. It’s a good idea to think of this when you are making the initial purchase.

Some of those colorful blobs could be plastic toys heading for their next life.

Styrofoam and packing peanuts?

Sadly, no, even if it is marked with a “5”, styrofoam does not get recycled. At all. Ever. Stay away from it if at all possible. But if you ever become the proud owner of packing peanuts, you can drop them off at UPS Stores and many other places that pack and ship, and they’ll re-use them.

What about batteries, CFL lightbulbs, and needles/sharps?

Household batteries are one of the hardest things to recycle. CFL bulbs are so new, they are confusing.  And used needles should be handled properly, of course. Why should you care? It turns out that batteries have really nasty stuff in them. Those metals should really be recycled, not leached into our landfills. Waste Management has a nifty solution. Order a mail-order recycle pack at Think Green From Home, and ship your stuff once a year or so.

Hazmat  Recycling

Don’t send your hazmat stuff here or, God forbid, dump it in the trash.  Take your full paint buckets, household chemicals, and other hazmat to an approved facility or county drop off.  Even tires are considered hazmat, not recycling.

 

While I learned a lot on this trip, the industry is constantly changing. I hope the next time I take the trip, they are taking styrofoam and pizza boxes. Please be open to changes to your local recycling process over the next few years.

What else do you want to know about the recycling process?

Field Trip to My Trash March 1, 2012

Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

I recently took a trip to a recycling facility. Field trips were the best days when I was in school. Usually just the break in routine was enough to get me excited, but field trips were usually fun, too. This was all of that and good for you, too.  If you want your kids to have their own recycling adventure, you can check out this recycling curriculum, designed for elementary school-aged kids by a national recycler.

My township went to “single stream” recycling a couple of years ago. Homeowners get to throw all of their recycles into one bin, and they get sorted out at the Materials Recycling Facility (MRF). Apparently, that increases recycling rates by 50%.

from Allied Waste/Republic Services, applies to Radnor Township

You can take your own Waste Management recycling tour via this video. My initial impression when I saw this was that the process moves super fast, just like our exuberant Waste Management PR host for the tour, Patty Barthel. It’s hard to find people so excited about trash! If you go in person, you’ll get to wear those super sexy hard hat, safety glasses, earplugs, and safety vest, just like I did. (Sorry, I’m not giving up that picture!)

My big aha moment was that recycled materials are not just trash to avoid, they are an industry. An industry! It produces jobs. It generates millions of dollars in raw materials. It is highly automated. It is continually evolving. Oh, yeah, and it keeps our stuff out of landfills.

This state-of-the-art facility is only a year old, built in November 2010, but I’m wondering why we don’t have one of these in every neighborhood.  This relatively small facility was very impressive. It processes over 20,000 tons of material each month: glass, metal, plastics, and paper.  I don’t really know what 20,000 tons looks like, but I do know what a Boeing 757 looks like, and this facility processes the weight of two hundred sixty-one Boeing 737’s each month.

Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

Recycling is mandated by the state, but controlled by counties or municipalities in Pennsylvania. It turns out there are lots of MRFs in our region, but they don’t all operate exactly the same. You need to dig a little to know what to put into-and keep out of-your bin. Go to your township’s homepage, and there’s probably a link for Trash & Recycling. It’s worth checking out, because there are plenty of things that go through the line that shouldn’t. Patty said she’s seen these kooky things, among others, on the recycling line:

Bowling balls do not belong in recycling.

• bowling balls
• mattresses
• garden hoses
• asphalt
• car batteries

When I was there, I saw these non-recycles on the line:

• Barbies
• bath towels
• window blinds
• a basketball and baseball
• a full plastic bag holding carefully shredded paper
• tires
• an umbrella

An umbrella???? Seriously?

The entire facility is a series of conveyor belts that look a lot like the rides at Sesame Place. Patty called it an amusement park for your water bottle.

At the end of the ride, everything is baled and sold as a resource for new materials. There are bales of rigid plastic, other plastics, paper, and metals. Less than 10% of what comes in leaves as trash.

Single Stream recycling is highly automated through disk screens, optical sorters, magnets, and air flows in addition to the facility workers, but it only works when dissimilar materials are separated from each other. If you buy something that has a cardboard liner inside a plastic wrap, remove the cardboard from the wrapper, otherwise the whole thing ends up in the landfill.

Speaking of plastic bags, they don’t belong in curbside recycling at all. Shopping bags, dry cleaning wraps, and trash bags can be dropped off at many local grocery stores. They literally gum up the works. Don’t use plastic bags for your recycles, or they end up caught in the gears and screeners, like this.

What can you recycle at this facility? Do you need to wash, sort, or separate into your bins? In part two of this post, I’ll spill the beans.

Um, you compost beans. They don’t recycle well.

Candyless Month: SMART Goals Help Organize Smarter Snacks February 16, 2012

Remember when I told you I was going to try to get a handle on my candy addiction in January?  Boy, am I glad that’s over!

You might be wondering, how is this an organizing or decorating story?  Trust me, it is both.

The thing about organizing is that if you have a plan, a system, and the right tools on hand, you can be successful.  Without any of those things, well, you get more of what you’ve always gotten before.

My plan was to cut out my candy binges.  Not calories.  Not candy entirely.  Just the 3 o’clock and 8 o’clock binges.  That’s where I sit down and eat half a bag of M&M’s or an entire box of Girl Scout cookies.  My system was to have some substitute sweets on hand, including frozen fruit, oranges, Greek yogurt, and roasted vegetables. And the tools, well, that’s where you came in.  Every time I went into the pantry, I thought about this post I was eventually going to have to write, and so I thank you for being there for me.

My goals were SMART:  specific, measurable, applicable, realistic, and time-bound.  There was absolutely no reason I couldn’t be binge-free for thirty days.

Things pretty much went as planned.  Not having my daily sugar dose, some mornings I definitely woke up less sluggish.  Sugars that come from processed foods and candy really do gum up my works, which is way more noticeable than in my twenties.

Oh, and I remembered that I needed to drink more water.  Not just pour it and let it sit nearby, but actually drink it.  Osmosis isn’t a good way to get your hydration.

Then, near the end of the month, I took on a two day staging job, and my system failed.  (That’s the decorating part of the story.) I fell back on chowing through an entire bag of Skittles to get me through the job instead of taking sensible breaks for water and real food.  Skittles are so seductive, I even got my assistant hooked on them.  Sorry, Jill.  Although the Skittles.com site is one of the biggest wastes of time ever, I have to agree with the tweet/quote, “Where there are Skittles, there’s a way.”

OK, one slip is not bad.  But then I had a weak moment in the evening, which began with me reaching for a box of chocolate drizzled popcorn that I bought as a hostess gift in case I was invited to a holiday party.

 

Note to self:  buying candy just in case is probably a bad idea.

I struggled with this one, so close to the end of the month.  So I flipped the box and checked the stats.  10 servings in the box.  130 calories per serving.  Are you kidding me?  Stalling, I pulled out 9 plastic baggies, intending to eat just one serving.  It works for those Nabisco hundred calorie packs; it might work for me.  Here’s what one serving looked like.

Pathetic. Hardly worth the calories.

That particular night, my better nature won out.  I opted for a tub of Greek yogurt instead and saved about a gazillion calories.  ‘Cuz you know I was not just going to eat one serving of that popcorn.  You know I was going to eat the ENTIRE BOX, right?

 

Organizing my pantry and my thoughts help me stay on track.  I have no idea if I lost weight or not, but I can definitely say that one of my favorite shirts feels more loose.  Yeah!

So, it all ends well.  Borrowing a title from my blogger friend, Stephanie over at Intentional Girl, I’ve become a bit more intentional about my snacks.  Which is good, because candy season never really seems to end, does it?

The Amandas: Reality TV, Not Reality Organizing February 14, 2012

You’ve gotta love TV.  If you’re looking for a new sweetheart, check out Amanda LeBlanc , star of the Style Network’s new show, The Amandas. She’s sweet, smart, driven and gorgeous.

My only beef with her new show is that it is billed as an organizing show.  Unfortunately, it’s really more in line with what we’ve come to accept these days as “reality TV,” which has very little to do with reality.  If you are looking for organization inspiration and education, you’re better off with some of the more true-to-life shows like those on HGTV or even shots on the newest social media-crack-addiction, Pinterest.com. I’m not saying these are 100% reality either, but there is a high probability that they represent real organizing outcomes with much less TV producer-induced drama.

Organizers in high heels aren’t new, but they are not the norm, and in fact, not reality.  Yes, I wish I had her team’s drop-dead wardrobe, but if I did, I wouldn’t be scraping floors, painting and climbing ladders in it. If you call a professional organizer, you can expect a professionally dressed person, who is hopefully appropriately dressed for the type of work they will be undertaking.

I love my team, and they are each priceless, with their own talents.

Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

I have no desire to turn their unique talents into little mini-dramas just for TV viewing.  And whenever I am fortunate enough to have a staff of six, you can believe that one of them will be a full-time handy-person or carpenter.  The Amandas could be just as great of a show with her team chosen for their talents and not their egos or shoes.

While it makes for good TV, I wish that The Amandas TV show didn’t harp so much on Ms. LeBlanc’s striving for perfection.  She rants through tears in a recent episode, “Everything I do is PERFECT!”  To quote Michael J. Fox, “I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection.  Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God’s business.”  I’ve lived enough and seen enough homes and businesses to know that perfection isn’t attainable or maintainable.  Good organizing processes should result in spaces that can be lived in, adapted, and easily maintained.  But good organizing processes don’t always result in magazine-pretty.  Having been a part of a magazine shoot, I could tell you some of the silly stuff that goes on to create that beautiful shot that you admire for about 10 seconds, but that gets burned into your psyche.  So, if you decide to seek me out as a decorator, professional organizer, or home stager, recognize that there is only so much I am willing to put you through, because good organizing processes are “good enough.”  Good enough to get you out the door in the morning with a smile on your face, good enough to lower your stress levels, good enough to allow you to enjoy your beautiful home without going into crazy debt, good enough to allow you to file your taxes on time, and good enough to allow you to get ahead at work.  And I promise not to cry twice an hour and leave you feeling more stressed than when we started.

One thing that the Style Network got spot on was choosing a star for their show who is both professional and a professional organizer.  Ms. LeBlanc is an entrepreneur, a respected member of her community, and a smart woman.  She’s building her business and taking care of her clients with great detail.  She’s also a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers, which is a serious support organization for professional in our industry.  I not only belong to this organization, but I have volunteered on committees at the national level, and have served on the Board of NAPO-Greater Philadelphia Chapter.  I have a long list of involvment in community affairs.  And I’ve committed to this career by attaining the Certified Professional Organizer® designation.  I also attend annual conferences, and I’m very exciting to be heading to our next one next month.  I can’t wait to share the latest and greatest with you when I return.

Nope, I don’t have a TV show, but if you need to check out a Certified Professional Organizer® live before you hire one, check me out at the many seminars and low-cost group classes offered year-round, or check out admittedly very low budget organizing videos.

I applaud Amanda LeBlanc for her efforts and her successful business.  If she shows up at the NAPO conference, I’ll gladly buy her a drink to toast her success.  Just watch The Amandas for fun, and don’t let it ruin your real life, okay?

My Paperless Office, 2012 February 9, 2012

Remember tech month back in 2011?  That was when I took on the challenge of posting about some of your everyday tech challenges, and started using the NeatDesk scanner.

With my NeatDesk, I scan cards, make needed notes, correct any info not scanned properly, keep the image in the pc database, and then sync with outlook and then my iPad so I always have all of my contacts.  I also sync with ACT so I can queue clients and vendors into different schedules and follow up actions.

The NeatDesk scans receipts for export to accounting programs and scans other docs to PDFs for storage.  I’m looking forward to scanning magazine pages for design ideas, industry articles, and maybe even recipes.

My Progress on the Paperless Office

So how much have I gone paperless with?  From left to right in the photo above:

1.  The box of cards has been completely scanned, but I’m still keeping the paper for now.

2. The stack of receipts was scanned, but I haven’t done anything else with them just yet.

3.  The stack of bank deposits in the middle?  I chucked those.  I mean shredded.  You know.

4. The stack of design ideas is still on my desk.

5.  The NAPONEWS issues were recycled.  Really.  I didn’t have time to do more than brief through them when they were published years ago.  I do not have the time to rip them apart and scan them today!

6.  And that little mystery stack next to my phone?  Most of that has been eliminated by turning them into to-dos on my Evernote to do list.  But we’ll see if I ever completely get rid of it.  I know you are smiling about that, but it’s the truth.  😉

My Review of the Neat Scanner

Neat started publicizing an update to their software, which is an integrated part of their scanner, late last year.  I was able to download the version 5 update and am THRILLED with it.  After the software upgrade, we saw about a 600% increase in scanning productivity.  Almost all of my business cards are now entered, which was my original goal for this whole project.  I’ve been able to get the Neat database to sync with Outlook 2010 and feed through to ACT.  This is all important for my business, and makes and future trade shows, conferences, and seminars where I am picking up business cards so much more fruitful.

I’ve been involved in “cloud” computing for decades, first at my former employer, then as a professional organizer constantly answering the question, “When can I take my home/office paperless?”   The hype was always bigger than the capabilities.  Up until this year, I considered all but a few clients who were trying to go paperless just plain reckless.  The input was clunky, the OCR was awful, and backup solutions were usually completely absent.

Neat is starting to solve the first problem, and input is no longer clunky.

The OCR improvement that I saw with the last release is remarkable.  Is it still not perfect, especially when there are tricky fonts and logos involved, but it was really much improved.

Backup, Backup, Backup the Paperless Office

The one piece that is still feeling like the Wild West to me is the backup solution.  Yes, backup is a HUGE part of the paperless office. In fact, just this week there was a discussion amongst professional organizers nationwide about how a cloud backup solution can go wrong.  Many small business and home office users are not technology experts, and I know that not enough of them have a solid backup and recovery solution in place.  I would love for Neat to buy or partner with a backup company to make the backend of home computing a non-issue for clients who really want to rely on a scanning solution. I simply don’t believe that our home PC systems are sturdy enough to hold all of our data.  In fact, I experienced a catastrophic failure three years ago, and a huge risk point just this last year when I upgraded my system.

It’s not a matter of if, but when your computer will crash.  So I recommend on site AND offline backups for homeowners, and off-site, monitored backups for business owners.

There is a lot of chatter about the latest tech, like smartphone apps to snap business card pictures and Evernote’s awesome OCR and storage capabilities.  The smart phone apps let you take pictures of cards and try to do the same thing, but this is pretty sophisticated stuff, and I have a hard time believing the apps are as accurate or robust. I did have a chance to try the CardMunch app this week with a client, and it worked well for light duty (one card at a time) scanning from a smart phone.  Pitted against these free products, it’s tough to justify the price tag for Neat for the casual user.  But for a home office and a home based business user, I believe that the support and commitment to upgrades at Neat justify the cost.  I would love to see Neat address their solution compared to the free apps, and I would LOVE to see tighter integration with Evernote.

Neat Scanner Competition

Neat’s strong competitor is the Fujitsu Scansnap.  Both manufacturers have Mac options.  I don’t own this product, but can report that many of my professional organizer peers have had positive reviews, and especially love the tight integration with Evernote.

This is the first time ever I now feel confident enough about the tools, because they’ve improved that much, to recommend a small business really moving toward paperless records.  Converting to a paperless office is neither painless nor automagic, but it is an improvement over paper piles.

Other cloud applications to watch or use if you are moving to a paperless life:

Google contacts

Google docs

Salesforce.com

Apple cloud

Is Neat Worth the Real Estate?

I’m right in the middle of an office redesign- for myself this time!  I had to decide whether I was going to give the Neat Desk scanner precious real estate on my desk top.  You’ll see it for yourself in an upcoming post, but I did decide that the Neat Desk gets to stay on my desk, just within arm’s reach.  I’m starting to be very fond of this little gadget.  I may not be paperless, but I’m getting to less paper, for sure.

Seven Easy Steps for an Organized Life this New Year January 18, 2012

I was asked recently what I do, as a professional organizer, at the New Year to keep my life organized.  I’m not talking about resolutions, because we know how I feel about those.  No, I mean, what kinds of things do I do to keep life running smoothly?  Do I do anything differently because I am supposedly super organized?  You’ll have to let me know if any of these happen at your house. None of these are carved in stone, but they tend to happen.

1.  I set up a tax file for the current new year.  It’s empty for a while, but it’s there.

2. I put out new tooth brushes for everyone in the family.

3. I usually start some new DIY home improvement project after the Christmas decorations come down.  This year, it looks like my office is getting a facelift.  Yeah!  More to come on that.

4.  I take a look at my car registration and inspection sticker, because one year I did go an entire month with an expired sticker, without a ticket.

5.  My dear hubby goes on a buying spree.  Very frugally, he goes and outfits himself with all new socks, undershirts, new tennis shoes, and various wardrobe staples. They aren’t fancy or expensive, and he’s definitely worth it. He uses the one in-one out rule, and turns all the old ones into dusting rags.

6.  I check my calendar (this year, it’s completely electronic) and make sure all of my monthly meetings and recurring appointments are on it.

7 . I usually skip a couple of weeks of groceries, instead eating up the staples to the back of the pantry and the bottom of the freezer.

If you are taking inventory of your pantry, please consider joining me for my organizing by Crock-Pot class on February 11.  Seats are filling, so please register now.  It’s tons of fun, and all new recipes this year.  You’ll pick your recipe starting next week, so please grab your seat before it’s sold out.

Six Signs Your Kitchen is Outdated January 17, 2012

And so it begins.  I thought it was high time I did a kitchen series.  I’ll be sharing some of mine and others.  Here’s a few easy ideas to start out with.  Stay tuned for the next couple of weeks.  If you haven’t subscribed to the blog yet, what are you waiting for?  Look over to the side here and click subscribe, and get the goods immediately.

Even if your kitchen really is “experienced,” it doesn’t have to look old.  We don’t all have a big budget for major renovations, but these six easy and affordable fixes can ensure that your kitchen functions well and looks good, too.

1. A microwave sitting on the counter is not only a dead giveaway to the time since your last upgrade, it’s also a pretty easy fix. By moving it to where it belongs, within the line of upper cabinetry, it will expand the size of your kitchen by two and a half feet, at least on the countertop.  You probably have a hood above your range that holds a fan and light, which your new microwave will also have.  For about $200, you can get a nice microwave that has features such as the all important magic popcorn button.  For a little more, you can get the wonderful convection feature, that expands your cooking range, even browning meats and cooking breads without turning them to rubber.

2. If your fridge is over ten years old, not only will a new one provide a style update, but an energy lift as well.  According to one source, an older refrigerator might be costing you from $100/year to $280/year to operate than a newer model.  Replacing it with an energy efficient model can pay for itself in just a couple of years.

Want to see the other four? Check out the full article originally published at AboutOne.com.

Photo Credits:  ©HeartWork Organizing

SMART Goals in the New Year January 10, 2012

Resolutions stink.  The new year holds so much promise, I hate to think about mucking it up with resolutions that most of us break before the New Years noisemakers are put away. Franklin Covey compares how resolutions have changed over the last ten years that they’ve been tracking them.  My goal to improve my overall health is in line with the third most popular resolution.

So here’s a shocker.  This year, I’ve got a 30-day January goal, because I know I can be succesful for 30 days without setting myself up for resolution failure. I’m going to try to tame my sweet tooth, which gets really fierce at 3 pm and 8 pm.  So, no more candy and yucky carb binges at these key times.

Thirty days.  This is do-able.

The best tool I know of to help increase the chance of success is SMART.  SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Applicable, Realistic, and Time-bound.  Instead of a vague wish to eat healthier, here is my plan:

Specific

Eliminate afternoon and evening sugar binges.  Fruit will replace the junk.  When I just need to keep my mouth busy, I’ll pop some Trident.

Measurable

This is a binary function.  I either do or don’t indulge on a daily basis.  But I’m not cutting out all sweets, just binges.  You know what I mean.  (Crud, when is Girl Scout Cookie season??? I may be in trouble already.)

Applicable

I’m not trying to lose weight, although that may happen.  I’m trying to improve my health overall, even out my energy levels through the day, and improve my oral health.  Candy can be hard on your teeth.

Realistic

I’ve loved sweets all my life, so I’ve got to have alternatives on hand, because a total swearing off just won’t work.  Did you read this month’s Getting It Together newsletter for my roasted vegetable recipe? Today’s pot of roasted veggies included:

white potatoes

carrots

onions

garlic cloves

yellow pattypan squash

broccoli

white button mushrooms

 Here’s what one of my readers had to say, just today:   I love reading your newsletter; you always have a good story and some timely advice.  This month you also had a wonderful recipe that I made and loved.!  I couldn’t believe how tasty the veggies were, and they required so little preparation.  Very healthy too!  Thank you for the recipe!

Time bound

A 30 day moratorium is reasonable.  I figure I can do anything for 30 days.

Experts agree that accountability also drastically improves the chances of succeeding in your goals.  So now that I’ve told a few of my favorite friends what I’m up to for the new year, it was really hard to give in and mess up today.  I ended up with just two small squares of chocolate and a handful of honey roasted peanuts, and that was mostly because I had a bad start to the day by accidentally skipping breakfast.

I hope you’ll let me know what you are up to this New Year, so we can support each other.  If you haven’t written it down, use SMART to guide your planning.

Get Organized. How Long and How Much Will It Take? January 5, 2012

There are three questions everyone wants to know about my projects:

How long did it take?

Did they keep it looking fabulous after you left?

How much did it cost?

It’s the New Year, and everyone wants a fresh start, so I thought you would just love to see this little project that a client and I completed between Christmas and the New Year.  His goal was to clear out the space so he could do something with it, maybe create a much needed home office office down the road.

Knowing that paper takes the longest to organize, we contracted to go through the paper and purge unwanted furniture and items.

This is a third floor bedroom/dormer space that was already finished, but being used to store tubs of paper and household cast-offs.  This picture shows just half of it.

Here’s the other half.

So how long did it take to get this organized? Remember, there are five steps to getting organized (as always, with a nod to Julie Morgenstern’s great book, Organizing From the Inside Out):

1. Sort
2. Purge
3. Arrange/Analyze remaining items
4. Containerize
5. Establish a maintenance plan

We planned on spending about 8 hours, and we spent about two hours longer than that.  And that is only because we went shopping, bought a new desk and file cabinet, and put them together. The client got way more than he bargained for!  Here they are, on day 2, the final day of the project.

And the other side of the room. You can see the new file cabinet hiding back in the corner. Yes, the client went through all the paper that you see in the before photos, and what didn’t get shredded or recycled got divvied up into the three small but sturdy drawers. There was a lot of recycling out at the curb the next day.

And to help with containerizing, we added two bookcases,

and we reset the bookcase that was already there.

Now this office really works. And we did all of this, just the two of us, in just a few hours over two days. So that answers the first question.

Will he keep it fabulous and organized now?  Probably.  He now has places to put household papers, his own personal paper retention guidelines, and a real desire to use this space for work instead of storage.  Most of all, he has systems with the file cabinet, the bookcases that store books, and the one bookcase that holds his office and teaching supplies.

And how much did it cost?  Well, in round numbers, it was around a thousand bucks for the services and the new furniture.  My organizing projects themselves start at $350.  This guy will probably deduct all of this as a business expense.  Smart move.

He said to me, “We got more done in 4 hours than I have gotten done up here in the last 5 years.”

Aw, shucks, that’s what I love to hear!

I hope this gives you some real inspiration for your winter organizing project.

What space are you ready to tackle?

Forget Resolutions: Do This One Thing and Sleep Easier January 2, 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 

And, by the way, forget the resolutions.  Who ever thought up that idea, anyway?

But here is one thing you can do in three minutes or less that can make a real difference for you this year.  Not kidding.  Right now.  Read this, and then run to find your nearest file folder, oversized envelope, or empty box.  Yes, you can even repurpose a gift box if you need to.

Label this folder, oversized envelope, or gift box with a thick, dark marker:  TAXES, 2011.

Set this folder, envelope, or box aside in your home office, or near where you process your mail.  If you share your home, let your spouse know where this is and what it is for.  Start filling it with items you might need to file your taxes this year.  You’ll start gettting these items in mid-January, possibly through February.  You might already have a few receipts or pages to add right now.  But if not, you’ll find them over the next few weeks.  When you find stuff that is or might be tax related, just pop it in here without worrying about organizing it.  Get something in email that you might need?  Save your sanity today by actually printing it out and popping it in the safe spot you just created.  Do you run a small, disorganized business from home?  Start pulling all of your records together now, and you’ll have what you need come crunch time.

Important tax records include W2’s, 1099’s, receipts for charitable gifts and donations, 529 records (contributions or expenses), end of year banking statements, refinance records, energy-saving home improvement records from the past year, and, of course, any unreimbursed work expenses.  If you aren’t sure whether it might be tax-related, pull out last year’s (2010) tax return and use that as a guide.

Don’t organize this stuff until you get ready to prepare your taxes; you are weeks away from that.  Right now, you are just trying to corral the little buggers that you’ll need for your 1040.

There.  Done.  You’re all organized, and it’s only day 2 of the new year.  Good for you!

 

 

Copyright (c) <a href=’http://www.123rf.com’>123RF Stock Photos</a>

How to Remove a Hard Drive December 29, 2011

If you are about to recycle or donate a desktop or laptop computer, watch this video first and learn how to remove your hard drive.

Even if you want to donate your computer to a refurbishing organization, remove and destroy the hard drive, because sensitive personal data CAN be retrieved from a hard drive that has been erased by a magnet or a software program.

Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos