Is my home organized?

The question I get most often from my clients…"is your home really organized"? The answer is Yes! Of course it has been a work in progress since I first started my business and I too had some areas to work on but I can honestly say, my home is organized. I do have decorative things but I know where everything is my home. I never have that feeling of, I need to pick up the house or I would hate it if someone just spontaneously dropped by. I feel good about my home…see photos as an example and no I didn't straighten things up for the pictures!

The better question is…do I have any areas of clutter in my life. The answer is Yes. I have 3 areas of clutter - my email spam folder, my phone that gets random calls all day long and lastly catalogs that come daily in the mail. Well I finally decided to practice what I preach and tackle these areas.

Email…if you are like me and you have purchased items on line well then you get lots of emails. The problem with that is those emails land in my spam folder along with emails from potential customers. In a nut shell, every day I have to weed through the junk mail for the possibility of finding a potential work email…aka I could be missing out on money in the bank! Thankfully there is any easy solution to this. For the past week I have sifted through each email to either unsubscribe (found at the bottom of each email) or to block any spam email. In just 5 days time, spending about 10 minutes each session, I have reduced the incoming mail by 90 percent! Now when I open this folder and I see a new notice, chances are that email means a new client!

Phone calls..this, like the email can also be tricky as not answering an unidentified number means I may not be getting a call from a potential client. I have now taken on answering those calls to say "take me off your list" or if it is a robot call to block the number. Thank you Blood Centers of the Pacific for being so diligent to reach out every week but seriously I don't have that much blood to donate…take me off your list, please!

Catalogs…the last of my challenge. I have not yet tackled it but starting today when those catalogs begin to arrive in the mail I can start taking my name off those lists as well. Besides reducing the amount of mail I can also say I am doing something for the environment!

Until next time, happy organizing.

cord
box

how I store my cords

top of dresser

t-shirt drawer

shared closet with husband

Can you believe it is September already?

For many of you, the changing of the calendar means the end of one season and the beginning of the next,. That also means the transition from summer to fall clothes. Take this opportunity to purge your clothes. As many of you know less stuff means less clutter. Go through your summer clothes and take out all of the clothes you did not wear. Ask yourself why you didn't wear it and with the answer decide if it can go.
Final step…donate the items that didn't make the keep list.

So long summer…I will miss you!

New York Times Article - Aging Parents with Stuff

Help your parents begin to get rid of their stuff!

This is a great read.

Andrea, it's not your stuff.

People often say to me that the reason purging stuff is easy for me is because…it's not my stuff. Ok, that's a fair statement. Of course I do purge items quite often but that topic is for another post. Let's get back to my original statement which is purging other people's stuff. Here is an easy assignment.

Your Kids
1. Their clothes
Do you have kids younger than the age of 12? Purge their stuff. Yep, I give you my permission. Go in their closets and dressers and take out all clothes that don't fit them. This is one of the easiest purging exercises in town. From here either donate the clothes or if there is a younger sibling pass those clothes on to that child.

2. Their toys
Now that the clothes are done and you are feeling so energized, how about you move on to the collection of stuffed animals and toys? Come on, you can do it. You and I both know the child has too much stuff. This is your opportunity to pass on toys to other kids that don't have them. Check out your local children's hospital to see if you can drop them off there.

Your Best Friend
Uh oh, where is Andrea taking me on this one? Have your best friend over to your house and take a couple hours to go through your clothes. Take every item out of your closet and one by one look at each item. Everything you and your friend say yes to, have your friend put back in the closet. Every item that is a no, goes in a donate bag. While your friend is putting your clothes back in your closet, have her organize them by category and if she is really nice by groupings of color. Having someone help you with the purging process makes it a lot easier.

Now do the same thing for your friend.

It sure is easy purging someone else's stuff.

When someone dies

What do you do with your loved one's belongings when that person dies?

I remember when my Dad died my Mom gave me his red and blue striped bathrobe. I loved that bathrobe and it reminded me of all the things I loved about him. There was something about seeing my Dad in that robe that gave me a sense of safety, of love, of happiness. I can picture him now wearing it and his smile that made me feel special.
So when my gave me the robe, I hung it on a hook where I could see it every day. On very cold nights I would occasionally put it on just to feel his presence. But as more time went by I kept thinking this robe needs a better home. It is something my Dad wore daily and so there should be someone else who would honor it with daily wear.
Then I thought about my brother Adam who lives in Florida. He has an outdoor shower,which due to the heat in Florida, he uses daily. So when his birthday rolled around in August, I packed up the robe and shipped it off to him. I knew my brother would absolutely flip for this gift and I was right. He said it was the best present he could ever receive. I like thinking about him wearing this robe to and from that outdoor shower and how much my Dad would approve…way more than a towel wrapped around Adam's waist. I mean really what would the neighbors think!
So how about you? Are you keeping some one's clothes because they remind you of that loved one? Are they sitting unused in a box, a closet, a drawer? Think about someone who just might enjoy wearing those clothes.
For me, I know my Dad is happy to see my brother wearing his robe.

Open the windows

Don't you love this time of year? Days are longer. The weather is hotter. I instantly want to shed the layers of clothing and feel the warmth of the sun on my skin. I think that my home feels that way too. 

It is time to open the windows, air out the closets and shed the layers of winter clutter. For some, this is not an easy task. The bedrooms feel full and the closets are stuffed to the brim.

Here are some of my quick easy tips:

1. If you have kids, go through their clothes and pull out all the clothes that are now too small and put them in a bag for donation. 

2. Sort through all the books your kids read over the year and decide which ones can now be donated to your library. Have your kids participate. They may surprise you and say they are ready to donate their books. Your attachment to a favorite book and their attachment may be very different. I also suggest while you are at the library for everyone to get a library card. 

3. Get a couple clear bins and sort through all of your holiday decorations by category - Christmas, Hanukkah, Halloween. Any ornaments you didn't use, put them in a bag for donation.

4. Go through your winter clothing and any clothes you didn't wear, it is time now to take them out of your closet and donate them. Think of it like you are pruning a tree of its dead leaves. You are creating space for new leaves to bloom.

5. Tackle that pile of clothes that need a button or stitch. If you don't have time, take them to your local dry cleaner. You may be surprised that its not that expensive and the task gets done! 

6. Get a vacuum/mop and thoroughly clean the closets.

7. Take the bags to a donation shop and collect your tax deductible receipt.

Sometimes just doing these simple steps will motivate you to tackle other cluttered areas of the home. 

Now go ahead an open the bedroom windows and open the closet doors and enjoy the cool breeze. 

Happy Summer.

Spring Cleaning by Jen Johnson

Looks like Spring is just around the corner so it is time freshen things up a bit. I just got this email from Jen Johnson who works for the Biggest Loser resorts. Here is her list to jump start that spring clean. (note number 7 - I must be on to something with the decluttering of the home.)

‎andrea‎, Spring Clean Your Life‎‎ by Jen Johnson Spring is the perfect time to clean and detox your life. Take a moment for yourself to remove all the extra stress and busywork that seems to consume your day-to-day. To get you started, we’ve provided 10 easy ways for you to spring clean your world!

1. Drink more water. 2. Eat more greens with every meal. 3. Make sleep a priority. 4. Check in on your goals. 5. Work out different parts of your body. 6. Stretch. 7. Declutter your home. 8. Organize your office space. 9. Love yourself. 10. Join us at The Biggest Loser Resort!

Want another easy job?

Since you did so well with tossing out the make-up let's move on to another easy task. I will call it the things you don't use and will never use task.

Do you own items in your house that you will absolutely never use? If you answered yes, then go get yourself a box or a bag to donate those items. Go room to room and pull all the items you don't use.

Here are suggested items that might be on your list:

Kitchen - did you have ideas on that kitchen appliance about making waffles or something else that you have never used? Put those appliances in the box.

Bathroom - how many nail products like polish or spa machines that you never use? You know you go to the nail salon for your mani/pedis. Put all of those items in the box.

I think you get the idea. To make this an easy project tackle this project one room per day. Once you have gone through all the rooms take those donated items to the Goodwill and collect a tax receipt for  your donations.

The Low Hanging Fruit

I realize that getting your home in order can seem like a daunting task. So how about we start with some easy stuff?

The biggest problem I see and I say it again and again is that we have too much stuff. You open a drawer, a cabinet, a closet and it is stuffed full. Where do you begin? 

How about start with your make up? Did you know it has an expiration date? OK, go get it…yes all of it. Clear off a table and and sort the categories…lips, eyes, face. Now grab the items that you wear and…throw out the rest. You might think that you spent a lot of money on all of that make-up. I say  o what! You don't use it. Now clean the items you are keeping and wipe down where you store the make up. Put the make up away and throw out the bag of unused make-up. 

Your job for today is done. Oh and by the way, I just did this task for myself.  

You Don't Have to Wait for Lent

The most consistent challenge I see with my clients is that the volume of items exceeds the size of the space.  This is a good way to put your home on a diet and you don't have to wait for Lent to start the 40 days.

The Bottom Line is…We Just Have Too Much Stuff

The most consistent theme I see in every job I do - too much stuff.

Here is a great article on getting rid of the stuff. Enjoy.

We need more time, and less clothes by Womankind

My assistant Nicoll just sent me this great article. Enjoy.

Why we need more time, and less clothes

Comments Off on Why we need more time, and less clothes

by Womankind mag on August 11, 2016

Why do we work so much? Why don’t we curate our lives so we can spend joyful hours painting, thinking, reading, going for long walks with our lover – why don’t we pursue the carefree life indefinitely, one of enjoying periods of rest, of learning, of growing? Why do we take more pay over less work? What’s wrong with us?
Juliet Schor, professor of sociology at Boston College has spent the past decade or so trying to understand why people work so much, often in jobs they don’t like. “Why don’t people save money so they can work less in the future?” she asks. “Why do people just take the money and spend it?”
Schor argues that a lot of our spending behaviour comes from trying to keep up with a rising standard of living. We feel almost forced to buy things for fear of falling behind. We feel compelled to take out a loan to buy a house, a car, a constantly rotating wardrobe because everyone else is doing it, family, friends, work colleagues as well as the people we see on television, movies, advertising, newspapers and magazines. In fact it’s this latter category that often has the biggest pull on us.
It’s the lifestyle of the wealthy that’s mainly shown in the media, talked about in newspapers and lifestyle sections, says Schor. “The media is increasingly orientated towards the lifestyles of the very top, and what I found in the US was that more people across the income spectrum were looking to that increasingly luxurious lifestyle for themselves.”
The “good life” in the media is about owning lots of stuff, jet-setting around the globe to go shopping and expanding everything from houses, to kitchens, businesses to economies. The good life is never depicted as a life of ample time – time to play the cello, write, plant flowers, or sit around doing nothing but chatting with friends. Indeed, the media has taught us to equate owning lots of products with a high standard of living, as opposed to growing other aspects of our life such as cultivating skills and friendships.
“We have a lot of stuff but we are poor in terms of our time and control of our time,” says Schor. “We must shift onto a path where we are less orientated to accumulating stuff and more orientated to accumulating time, connecting with people, building social capital. It is not how many toys you have when you die; it is much more the richness of your social life, that’s what really matters.”
The obsession with buying stuff to gain a high standard of living is most apparent in the fashion industry; in our McFashion world clothes are churned out in factory lines much like sausages, bundled up in plastic wrapping and shipped across the seas. Hardly any fashion these days is manufactured in small local shops with local seamstresses.
The glut of fashion is evident in the waste stream, ever-rising volumes of fashion stuffed down chutes in apartment blocks, buried in wheelie bins, and draped across rubbish tips; the previous season’s jackets, skirts, tops and pants are clogging up the arteries of our cities. Schor notes that textile rubbish in the US is a growing component of people’s garbage; figures from 2007 reveal that 35 kilograms per person of fashion is tossed into the garbage each year.
The most revealing fact about the contemporary fashion industry, notes Schor, is that clothing can now be purchased by weight rather than by the piece, and at a price as low as two dollars a kilo. Now, it’s even possible to buy high-end apparel for less than rice, beans and other basic foodstuffs – a boon for fashion houses, but a disaster for the planet.
Social scientists say that when we view an image of a fashion model wearing a dress, a photograph displayed online or in a magazine, we consume the image and symbol of the dress; perhaps the dress represents for us a feeling of scaling up to higher living standards just like the people on television. The physical dress – its fabric, lining, and buttons – is for the most part irrelevant, and so is the 20-something Chinese girl who sews its seams in a factory.
Interestingly, on the other side of the world, the factory girl has dreams just like our own of working hard so that one day she can enjoy the life beamed down to her via television sets and cinemas: the big house, the car, lavish parties, expensive education for her future children. She works for the same symbol that we do.
“It’s not only the planet that suffers in this stage of consumer culture,” writes Schor in her book True Wealth. “The fast-fashion dynamic puts enormous pressure on consumers to keep up with what can at times feel like a dizzying acceleration in norms. It’s financially exhausting, and requires time to shop, compare prices, and learn to operate new technologies. Fast fashion fosters an unhealthy dissatisfaction with what one has and anxiety about falling behind.”
It’s not just fashion that’s turning our planet into a rubbish tip. We’ve somehow turned everything into a symbol of plentitude, from cars and bed linen to fancy vacuum cleaners. British sociologist Mike Featherstone calls it the “aestheticisation of everyday life,” pointing out that every aspect of life is an opportunity for aesthetic expression (the appreciation of beauty and art), from pens to bags, kettles to watches. We somehow use these items to shape our identities; for instance, we buy the rustic kettle to signify an “organic, herbal, naturalist” self, but then we might replace it with a decorative Japanese kettle to signify a “Taoist, meditative” self.
In the past, in contrast, items were used for their function. A kettle was used to boil water and it is unlikely to have even crossed people’s minds whether the neighbour had an identical kettle or not. If someone were to have said to a person a hundred years ago that they should ditch their kettle because it had fallen out of fashion, they would have thought that person was stark raving mad.
The trouble with placing a symbolic value on almost every tool we use – from vacuum cleaners to mobile phones – is that marketing gurus are constantly changing the signs on us, of what’s in and what’s out. “If what is symbolically valued remains so for only a brief period of time, then replacement goods become necessary,” writes Schor. Indeed, we’re forced to ditch, research the new products on offer, shop, buy, ditch again, and the cycle is endless, expensive, exhausting, and we have to work more and more hours to get back to where we started.
“If you look at what the growth model is doing to people in terms of their mental health, their physical health, their subjective well-being and all of those things – it is not as though the current system is giving us nirvana and oh dear we see that here is an ecological problem. It is undermining the well-being of the planet and its people,” says Schor.
So what’s the answer? “We need a new set of values and culture,” concludes Schor. “We need to talk postgrowth.”

From the ‘papillon’ edition of Womankind

2017

It's a new year and you are resolved to get your house in order. Where to begin? I can help.
Let's start with linens and towels.

Grab a couple garbage bags.

Step 1
Walk around your home and every where you store linens get them and put them in a pile. Match up all you sheet sets. Do you have any sheets that you really don't use? Do you have more than one set for each bed? Do you have any sheets that you don't like? OK, if you answered yes to any of these questions, put those sheets into the garbage bag. Now put your completed sets away - in one location.

Step 2
Walk around your home and grab all of your towels. Match up all your sets. Do you have any towels that look a little tired and worn down? Do you have any towels that you just don't like? Do you have more than 2 bath towels for each person who lives in your home? Do you have too many hand towels and/or wash cloths? If you have answered yes to any of these questions, put those towels in the garbage bag. Now put your towels away - in one location!

Step 3
Donate the bags of towels and sheets. One place I like to go for donation of sheets and towels is the SPCA.

OK, now is your chance to…

Holiday Purge

Today is Dec. 29th so you are probably ready to say good bye to the holidays and get on with the new year. The tree will come down and the decorations will be put away.

So how do you purge?





1. Take out your holiday containers and all of those items you did not use this holiday season…put them in a bag to be donated.
2. You probably don't do this but if you do…throw away any edible decorations (i.e. candy canes). You will buy more next year.
3. Since you reduced the amount of holiday decorations, you may now have a couple empty containers. What to do? Put the decorations designated for donation into these bins and donate them as well. Less bins equals less stuff.
4. Put the holiday bins away and the tree out for recycling.
5. Complete the final step…take the donations to Goodwill, collect a receipt and put the receipt in your 2016 tax file.

Hello New Year!

Holiday Decorations

Can you believe Thanksgiving is next week? For many of you that means in the next week or so you will be pulling out the holiday bins to decorate the house. This is your opportunity to get a jump on decluttering your home before the end of the year.








1. Go get your holiday bins and decorate your home! That's the fun part.
2. Any ornaments that are broken should be thrown away.
3. Any ornaments that you don't use but you are keeping for sentimental reasons should be placed in a keepsake box. For instance if your child made an ornament that you want to keep when he/she grows up then that should be placed in a specific keepsake box for that child. This will give you a better idea of the volume of items you are keeping for your child. Only decorations you use should be stored in the holiday bins.
4. Any items that you don't use…donate them to your local school, senior center, place of worship.

Hopefully this last step will help you reduce the amount of containers you need to store your holiday decorations.

Luggage

Are you ever amazed at how much space luggage can take up in your home?
Do you have to rush off to the store to buy more toiletries for a trip because your not sure where you left those items from your last trip?
Wouldn't it be nice to just know where everything is before you leave for a trip?
What would Andrea Do?

The answer…nest your luggage and your travel accessories all in one bag.

1. Get all your luggage, duffel and travel bags together. Designate the bags in groups according to the person who uses them.  Any unclaimed bags should be donated.
2. Gather together each person's travel accessories - neck pillows, travel pouches, make up bags, travel bottles.
3. Now that you have all the travel items in place it is time to nest it all together. Start with yours first. Take your travel accessories, soft bags, duffel bags and put them all into your carry on sized suitcase. Take this bag and nest in your large bag - typically the one you have to check at the airport. Your luggage and travel items are all stored into one bag.
4. Repeat this process for each person in your home.
5. Your luggage footprint has been reduced and now you know where everything is so the next time you go on a trip you may not have to dash out for that travel sized toothpaste because you already have a tub in your toiletries kit.

Happy trails.

You might not like this…

I often work with families who have bins and bins of keep sake items. These often include outfits their children wore when they were growing up from infant all the way up through the teenage years. On some level, I get it. There is a memory attached to the piece of clothing that you want  to preserve and one way to do that is to hold on to the item. But I ask you, who are you saving it for? Is it for you or the child who wore the item? From there I would say, ask your child to look through the saved clothes and decide what they want to keep.  You might be surprised by the response. Those items that are not the must haves should then be donated to your local shelter.

What would you rather do, keep a piece of clothing that will pretty much remain in a bin for eternity or would you like to clothe a child that could use it right now.

I say take those clothes out of their bins, take a picture and then donate them to a child in need. Here is one organization that does just that. (http://baby2baby.org/donate/)

Questions

Recently a friend of mine asked me what he should do with all of his books. I responded with a question. Do you think you will re-read any of the books you have? His answer was no. OK, there you have it. If you have books and you are not going to read them, then it is time to pass them along to someone else who will.




Here are your options:

1. Donate the books to your public library. Many public libraries hold annual book sales. The proceeds benefit your public library. You get the tax donation and the library gets the much needed funds. On a side note, instead of buying books you might want to think about getting a library card for yourself.

2. Sell the books. If you think your books are of value, you can sell them on eBay. It is a very simple process.

3. Donate them to Goodwill. Not everyone is a fan of Goodwill. Here are my two cents…Goodwill employees people with disabilities, and usually people who would not be employed anywhere else.

4. Share with friends - host a book exchange with your friends…out with the old and in with the new.

Happy reading.

I just did it and you can too!

I was looking at my clothes hanging in my closet and the thought came to me…too many clothes. Time to purge. Piece by piece I looked and touch every piece of clothing. Before I knew it there was a pile of clothes on the floor. You may wonder how did I decide on what could go. The clothes fell into one of the following categories…



- shrank in the dryer
- I love this but there is a stain on the front that won't come out
- the feeling of the fabric is just not comfortable
- every time I put this on it feels too tight
- this really does not look good on me
- there is something else that I would rather wear instead of this

I then took the same approach with the clothes in my dresser.The process took 30 minutes.

I was so good that I decided to tackle my shoes. Before I knew it there were 8 pairs of shoes to go. How did I choose those?

- don't fit me properly
- hurt might feet
- I never wear them
- worn out!

With that process I was able to put together 3 bags of clothing for donation!

I just did it and now you can too. Happy purging.

Simple Steps to Organizing - Bags

Do you have numerous brown paper bags from the grocery store?
Do you have numerous material bags for shopping at the grocery store?

Time to take the easy steps.

1. Pull out all the brown paper bags.
2. Pull out all the material bags.
3. Take 5 paper bags and put them in one location.
4. Take 5 material bags, roll them up and put them in your car.
5. Donate or recycle the remainder of the bags.
6. Repeat this step in  6 months…yes the bag situation will repeat itself in your house because we can't resist bags.