Reward Yourself

One of my favorite rewards is the note I get the day after reaching a milestone with or for a client.  When they step into the project space, realize how much work was accomplished, and choose to shoot a quick note of “Wow, I love it!” or “I can find everything!” to let me know they are excited about the progress, I feel rewarded – it is the best emotional compensation for a personal organizer.    

The other favorite moment is when six months have passed and I get a note saying the same thing.

I work with each of my client’s to find systems that work for them and every client is different so every system is different but the foundations are the same.   When there is a good foundation, the system will continue to prove successful.

I have recently talked about my current favorite work related book Atomic Habits. Although this book is not specifically a guide to tidying, James Clear’s Laws on Behavioral Changes are the foundation to organizational systems’ successes. Mr. Clear is concise and to the point and the book is a quick read – I recommend it. 

He says the following about how to build better habits:

·         Make it Obvious

·         Make it Attractive

·         Make it Easy

·         Make it Satisfying

I consider the following when creating a system to keep spaces organized:

·         Obvious – it should clear on how to use and maintain it (don’t over categorize)

·         Attractive – what does it look like (if it’s unattractive, it won’t be maintained)

·         Easy – take the extra procedures out of it (too many steps prevent follow through)

·         Satisfying – make the process feel good (otherwise it won’t be repeated)

That last one is right from Atomic Habits actually and I love the way Mr. Clear says it:

What is immediately rewarded is repeated.  What is immediately punished is avoided.

Find your organizational system that rewards you. 

It’s like getting a thumbs up every time you use it.

800 Albums in Almost 800 Days is Still Progress

 

I’ve mentioned before that for the most part, my husband and I work on our projects separately and that his form of organizing is a not my style but it works for him so it does not matter if it works for me; having said that, there are many things inside our four walls that I would love to help him organize but I don’t touch because these are his things.  On the rare occasion that he asks for my assistance I jump at the opportunity and he offered me that chance a couple of years ago shortly after I began taking on clients full time. 

Let me explain that my husband has a passion for good sound.  He has spent a bit of time restoring vintage speakers, dialing in a sound system for each of the rooms he spends the most time in, and enjoys good music from several genres – especially in vinyl format.  This appreciation led to a large collection of gifted vinyl that had not been dealt with basically sitting in boxes on the floor of his office… and I think he was finally overwhelmed enough to ask me for help.

I spent several nights alphabetizing the collection with minimal categories while considering the most efficient and safe way to shelf them.  About the time that I had decided on the system that would work in our space, he stopped progress and said that was all I needed to do for now.  I was disappointed but my other client’s kept me busy so I did not dwell on it.

Two years later (just this March), my husband said that he would really like me to finish the project I started so I began prepping his space and purchasing the needed items.  It took a few sessions and he is very happy with the results despite the fact that he has homework; determining which duplicates to gift on and how many 45s he will keep.

Although most of my clients don’t delay projects this long, it works for some and in the end my spouse was happy so the 2 year task was a success.  The best progress is progress that one can deal with.  Everyone has a comfort level when it comes to dealing with their stuff, some take longer than others to deal.

Tax Headache Prevention

I’m a mom, wife, and small business owner.  Like many of my contemporaries, I manage school work and extra-curricular activities, the family schedule and nutrition, as well as the household day to day finances – including taxes – on top of managing clients’ projects and needs.  Every year I plan to start and complete our state and federal obligations earlier than the previous year; sometimes I succeed, other times I don’t.

This year I finished before required, but later than I wanted.  Regardless, I finished and yes, I checked off a large box on my TODO list and I felt justified in the generous pour in my wine glass that night.

Some projects require more attention than others; time without a house full of people running around or questions being asked; so I carve out time after the kids go down or before they wake up to tackle these types of projects and I plot out each session methodically to make the most of my time.  Completing our taxes is one of those projects.

As the tax season has officially ended, I wanted to share this note:  The systems for organizing a home is the same as organizing for taxes and once that system is in place, the time spent on that project is more productive when you are not searching for the tools you need to complete it.

I’m not an accountant or a tax advisor.  I am however someone that knows how to keep, store, and access things.  So here is a breakdown of my system.  It’s simple but it works for me.

As our family taxes revolve around our mail, our purchases, and our bills, this is how I prep them – a tiny bit, every time I touch them, all year long…

·         When I deal with our snail mail, I quickly sort it to the trash or to the bill pay pile.   This takes seconds out of my day.

      When I deal with our email, I do the same by deleting or flagging or starring said email.

·        When I deal with brick & mortar purchases as well as online purchases, I hang on to relevant receipts in whatever form I have it by one of 2 ways.  Paper form is labeled and then moved to marked envelopes and digital is labeled and saved in marked folders.

·        When I deal with our bills, I review our purchases and quickly highlight noted items that may be used at the end of the year – this can be done both on paper and digitally but doing it immediately is important because at the end of the year, I generally do not remember what that purchase was for. 

How I label is determined solely by my family’s financial needs and as a small household with a small business, I keep it simple and don’t over categorize.

These are the envelope and file categories I like…

·         PAPER ENVELOPES:

o   12 Monthly envelopes– if you happen to keep all of your receipts because you don’t know if you’ll need them again later (refer to the urban legend of the COSTCO return policy and you might start keeping all receipts), have an envelope for each month of the year.  At the end of the year you can go thru them if you are missing a purchase you need to claim, toss them, or save just the Costco ones so that you know how many jars of the peanut butter filled pretzels you bought in your lifetime.

o   Project Expenses – can be labeled anything but keep them separate; for example we own a rental unit and every time we spend money on it, that receipt goes into an envelope labeled RENTAL UNIT and yet all of my business related purchases are labeled with the project name and moved to an envelope labeled BUSINESS EXPENSES . 

·         DIGITAL FILES:

o   Tax Receipts and/or Other Receipts

§  Each of the PDF’d receipts need to be saved with a name that explains it and saved in a file that is descriptive.  Take the time to rename the pdf after it is downloaded; it will save you much frustration later.  Then save it to a file marked for the year and purpose for example: 2019 Tax Rcpts.

§  Assume that at some point you will put a receipt in the incorrect file, but, if it’s labeled, you can find it later.

o   Exports

§  When paying your bills, if you export your credit card and bank statements when you pay them, take the time to highlight as noted above and save each export naming it consistently so the titles will match.  I prefer to use a number/name combo to keep things organized by date such as 2019.01VisaCCExport.

I’ve blogged a few times about categories and taking the 6 min a day to do something immediately to keep a household organized and my taxes are no different.   My taxes are a yearlong project that I spend less than 2min a day on so that when I start to do my taxes, everything is already at my fingertips.

HALF THE BATTLE - An Organizing Emergency

Many things can be “Half the Battle” – Motivation is one of them when it comes to organizing. 

 

A call from a potential client – that had been a referral – ended with the thought that I just received an organizing emergency call. This client was not having a ‘serious, unexpected, and/or dangerous situation requiring immediate action’ but once a person decides that their chaos is no longer acceptable, emergency can be the best word to describe how they feel.   This client had motivation and it’s always best to act quickly since motivation can be fleeting.   

Regardless of the reason that prompted her enthusiasm, I happened to have an open session available the following Monday so we scheduled a 6hr speed session for the garage. Normally I don’t recommend tackling something this large in a single session but the client and the spouse were hard workers so I took a chance and it paid off.

The garage had become a transitional space for things when they returned to the home after a significant home repair that required relocation.  Upon moving back in to their home, they were short on time due to work schedules and the birth of a second child and then of course now that they had 2 children under the age of 4, they had no time to deal with the stuff.

To make a speed session work, everyone has to be on the same page and work together.  This actually helps my clients in the long run because they often touch something from every category and tactile reinforcement of visual or auditory information is beneficial for long term memory.

A speed session has the same process as a normal session, just with a little more energy (aka caffeine). 

·       When removing the belongings, put them in general categories – Holidays, Camping/Travel/Sports, Tools/Hardware/Repairs, Archives, and the like.   Remember not to over think it – simple groups are better.

·       Readjust shelving to be more efficient – adjusting heights and styles by matching similar types and eliminating wasted space will make for a more visually organized space often eliminating the need to purchase a matching set of shelves.

·       Consider what needs to be access quickly and often and prioritize your space allocation.  Garages work well for the ‘Costco Pantry’ but if it’s not accessible – what’s the point?

·       Restoring the inventory to the shelves in logical locations where access makes sense – daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal items.  Consider bins, trays, and/or boxes to contain things and labeling where needed.

At the end of the session the clients knew where everything was in the garage, donated 1 car load of stuff, had 1 short homework list of ‘things to do’, and were smiling knowing that their car would fit in the garage that night.

Tiny Closet, Lots of Sewing

  

For those that have a small space, a little can feel like a lot if it’s disorganized.

I’ve worked on 2 projects with my minimalist client.  The first was her garage; the second was her sewing closet.  Sewing is something that she loves doing and is really good at – anything from pattern making to tackling formal gowns; I’ve even seen her handy work on underwire bras which I find totally amazing – but her sewing closet was frustrating and she would get disappointed when she had to dig for things when she started a new piece.

My client lives in a 2 bedroom craftsman house and keeps her belongings modest and prefers a simple space.  Her sewing closet was the only corner she could not keep orderly so our goal was to find a system where she can see and have access to all of her supplies while not overwhelming the allotted square footage. 

As the house is about a hundred years old, we decided on a free standing unit that would allow for future flexibility if she ever chose to expand the footprint and as the closet has unforgiving measurements, we chose to custom build our own shelves with cinder-blocks and pine.  We would then choose clear bins - love me some Sterilite – because you want to know what have without having to open the bin every time.   

The cinder-block sizes were chosen carefully as we needed opening wide enough to handle 2 bins, tall enough to clear the lids, and deep enough that the bins did not overhang (one of my pet peeves). Then they were sanded, sealed, and painted - I got my tips from a local – and furniture pads were applied. The pine was cut to size and wrapped in adhesive shelf paper of her choice – I love that there are so many kinds – and I’ll note here that we used 2 lengths of 1x8 for each shelf which allows for redesign if desired, kept costs down, and was easier to wrap.   All of the work was prepped and ready to go before our session day – New Year’s Eve morning – 8am.

In just under 3 hours we removed the ‘space gobbling’ wire shelf she was using and re-purposed to the garage, trimmed the baseboard to fit, removed the extra non-matching hooks, installed the custom measured, cut, sealed, painted, and wrapped new shelves, installed 2 under shelf hook racks  for pattern hanging, binned her fabrics, and reinstalled supplies and inventory.   

*Let me clarify that I love the wire shelf system that she had in the closet; it just did not fit properly.  In fact we put 2 in her garage during the last project but when there is a shelf with one set of measurements put inside a closet with a different set of measurements, there is often a lot of unusable space left over – and THAT is what makes me disparage this particular shelf unit.

Before the organizational session: the shelf sat in the middle of the closet, her patterns hung on 2 walls (or wherever she could find room), and she regularly had to dig into multiple piles of fabric to find what she was looking for. 

After: she has a specific space for her hanging patterns, bins for her fabric inventory, and now she can step into the closet to find anything that she might need without having to move something out of her way.

At the end of the session she stood in her closet for the first time.  

I think she was smiling bigger than I was.

My Shopping Problems - A Holiday Confession

There was a time that I would delay shopping for holiday gifts until what most organized people would consider dangerously close the actual celebration date.  I’m sure it was because I despise having to LOOK for something that I’m not sure I know what that something is yet.  I do not mind going thru stores, but don’t want to spend too much time trying to make up my mind and that is what ends up happening.  I hold a couple of great options in my hand and then stand there for 30 minutes or more debating which one I should get.  Maybe indecision is my problem.

Then there is online shopping.  This sucks me into a vortex of internet clicks where I will usually only discover the standard gifts that are high on the search/suggestion lists so I’m not a huge fan of that.  I online shop when I know exactly what it is that I need, but then that is not really shopping, it’s buying. Maybe wanting (keyword: wanting) to personalize the gift is my problem.

I’ve concluded that I am just an okay gift giver.  I don’t have a lot of original gift ideas so walking thru a store can spark my creativity and I can then find something fun or sometimes I find something perfect.  I do okay… I mean I never forget anyone and sometimes I nail it but I think for me it has more to do with luck than actual skill.  My husband is amazing in this department and I would say has an above average talent for gift ideas.  Of course, I also think he is responsible for significantly fewer gifts in the course of a year than I am.  Maybe quantity is my problem.

I like the epiphany moments when I walk by the rack or shelf and the universe tells me I’m supposed to buy it because it’s the right color, size, shape, and/or price.  I don’t feel as if I’ve had to pick through the inventory to discover what I would like to own or give but I’ve scored exactly what I wanted even though I did not know I actually really wanted/needed it.  Maybe relying on the universe is my problem.

Gift shopping is one of the few times in my organized life I am not consistently working from a list.  I tried it for a long time and was discouraged when I could not find what I was looking for or more often when I had it in hand and I realized that it was not the right gift. As my earlier lists proved to be inaccurate or not helpful, I gave up one of my most consistent client lessons – ALWAYS USE A LIST!  Maybe not listening to advise is my problem.

Well, we are less than a week away from the largest gift giving holiday of the year and my shopping (and buying) is all done (as of about 5 min ago).  Tonight I’ll head into the back of my closet and the guest room to gather, organize, wrap, tape, and label all of these gifts, to send,  hand, put under the tree or into the stocking and hopefully this year, I will not have bought a 4^th game of Jenga for the girls.  Maybe my failing memory is my problem.

Ahh well, I’ll save the duplicates for another gift to another person at a later time, I’ll have a glass of wine while wrapping and hope that the shopping universe has collided with my subconscious memory and results in at least one ‘perfect’ present for that one person.  Maybe having too high expectations is my problem.

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

His Order, My Disorder...

My husband and I have very different ways to manage our projects and keep our stuff.

We work well together but generally keep our projects separate.  I’ll ask for help from him on large projects but my husband rarely asks for mine – especially not the garage – and we have come to an understanding that when he needs something that I manage (like the small staple gun cause who wants to pull out the air compressor every time),  he returns it to its home immediately and when I need something that he manages (like the 3foot long level), I usually ask him where it is that day and he knows that I’ll return it to its home or project table shortly.

While I am working on a project and I need to stop for the day before it is completed, I’ll contain it and then stash it out of the way until I can finish it.  Ideally I only have one project going at a time, at least that was the way it was before kids, and when I do finish the task, everything goes back in its place immediately.

My husband however likes to work on several projects in the course of a month (or several months) and then do a big organizing session whenever he sees that he needs it. Of course his version of needing it is very different than my version of thinking he needs it and his organizing logic seems (to me) random at times.

As someone who prefers order over chaos, has a system for storing holiday supplies, and places my keys, sunglasses, and purse in the exact same place every time I come home, it was a huge step for me to accept that not everyone needs to have everything in its place before sitting down. 

Understanding and accepting our differences has helped me recognize this situation during my client evaluations and prompts me to offer this advice:

Just because his (or her) order looks like disorder doesn’t mean he (or she) can’t find anything.  It only means that it will take longer for someone else to find it. 

As a general rule I only organize the client - I don’t organize the spouse or any other person that is not directly involved in the sessions because if the owner of the stuff does not have the desire for change, it will return to the state of which it was in when it was determined that I was needed and then my work becomes as repetitive as a housekeeper without all of the chemicals.

I don’t make someone become organized and no one can make someone else decide to become organized (well, at least not without some significant convincing).  So I offer you this: Decide what it is that you want for what is under your control and let go of the rest.

My obsession and anxiety thanked me when I did.