Tag Archives: Organization

The Path To A Clutter-Free Life

One of the often overlooked aspects of maintaining an organized life is your own sense of well-being.
There are many reasons that people find their lives and their surroundings in varying degrees of disarray; They’re busy with kids, jobs, there may be an illness in the family, and sometimes they’re just trying to make ends meet on a day to day basis, which as many of us know can occupy our minds with worry and stress to the point that everything else in our lives gets overlooked or postponed, often with undesirable results.

When our lives become so full of stress, or a series of tragic or unfortunate events occur, typical clutter can spiral out of control, often resulting in situations of hoarding, a state of living (mental as well as physical) that is very difficult to recover from.

But that extreme condition is a topic for another post. The point is, and this may seem obvious, your mental and physical states are closely tied with how you maintain your life. When your mind is filled with the clutter of stress and worry, your surroundings will most likely reflect that to some degree. Conversely, when you feel good mentally and physically, not only will you have more energy to tackle the organizational issues at hand, but you will be more likely to see the problems for what they are, before they become insurmountable.

One book that I would suggest for further reading along these lines is Feng Shui Home, by Hale, Martin and De Winter. Feng Shui, if you are unfamiliar with the concept, is the “Chinese art or practice of creating harmonious surroundings.” While there are many books available to help people understand their organizational problems, this particular book addresses these issues with the view that replacing negative energy in your home with positive energy can help you on the path to better mental and physical health.  It may not be your particular cup of tea, (to use an Eastern metaphor), but it does offer a  lot of good advice on how to keep the spaces in your home simple and clutter free. I highly recommend it.

Summer Vacation

Summer is almost upon us. To many people, this means more time to do the things we love; working in the yard, hanging out at the lake or the pool, summer vacations, arts and music festivals and all the other things that we look forward to during the rest of the year.

Parents know it’s not that simple. While they relish the thought of not having to get up at the crack of dawn every day to get the kids off to school, they know that the summer brings its own unique set of complications with regards to keeping everyone on schedule and maintaining good organizational practices.


Transitioning From “Aww, School Again” to “Yay, It’s Summer!”

At the end of the school year children invariably bring home everything left in their desks or lockers; papers, artwork, pens and pencils, food, most of it probably crammed into their backpacks and thrown onto the floor, never to be thought of again.

Clean out those backpacks! First thing. Before it gets thrown into the closet. If there is any artwork or any special papers or awards, save them to the bin that you have already set aside for your child’s keepsakes. (You do have one of these, right?) Save any unused or reusable notebooks, pencils, rulers, etc. in a place where you can find them, in the event that you may be able to use them again next year. You might even save a couple of dollars in the process!

Camp Runamuck

Deciding which summer camp (or other similar activity designed to get the kids out of your hair) can create a lot of headaches, as well as a lot of extra paper. Brochures, applications and the like should be stored in a desktop file box so you can easily find them. (The brochures for the spas and weekend getaways where you’ll be spending your time while the kids are away should be stored in a separate file!)

“We’re From Out Of Town”

Ah, the Family Vacation. Disney-world, the beach, the mountains, (the in-laws). Before you discover at the last minute that the beach chairs are covered in rust or the water toys have mysteriously disappeared, take some time to clean out your garage and take inventory of the items that you will need for your special trip.

Have everything grouped together and ready to go. No one likes to see mom and dad fighting while loading the car at the last minute or Susie in tears because she can’t find her pail and shovel. Make sure to start your vacation out as stress free as possible and it will be that much more enjoyable.

Feel Like You’re On Vacation All Year Long

And, best of all, you can use this valuable time while the kids are otherwise occupied to call your personal organizer to help you with all those organizational projects that need to be done, but never seem to have the time for. Your personal organizer will help you create easy to maintain systems that work for you, every day, so that every day you come home will be a little more stress free, a little more like being on vacation year round!