Recommended Products and Services
We know, getting organized is often easier said than done. But, here at J-organize we’ve gathered a bunch of easy organizing tips, hints and ideas guaranteed to simplify your life.
Check back every month for straight-up strategies on how to organize your kitchen, closets, garage and, yes, even your children’s rooms.
Have an organizing problem? Contact J-organize! We love a good challenge and may feature some solutions on this page.
Last year in a survey by Intermedia, the results showed that about 60% of respondents make a New Year’s resolution to be more organized or more productive. However, another study indicates that over 75% of people will be unsuccessful at keeping their resolutions. Here’s how be successful with your resolution to be more organized!
Make it YOUR resolution.
If you want to become more organized and productive, don’t do it because someone else wants you to or because all of your friends are doing it. Make the resolution for yourself, because YOU want to change. This is what psychologists call a “self-concordant” goal.
It is also important to emphasizing on the positive. Instead of saying, “I won’t be so messy” you can say to yourself, “I am effective and efficient!”
Make a PLAN
Scientific studies have shown that people who use “implementation intentions” have a significantly higher rate of goal attainment. In every day terms this means that people with a plan reach their goals.
Sometimes, the best plan you can make is to get expert assistance. Professional organizers can help you make the most effective use of your space and time. They can help you define your plan and break it down into manageable steps so you can be successful. I’d be happy to help you, just let me know!
Start with one thing at a time.
Remember that old joke – How do you eat an entire elephant? One bite at a time.
Pick a small space such as a shelf or drawer. Start there and work your way around the room. Do a little bit every day. If you miss a day, don’t worry, just get right back to it as soon as you can.
For each item you find, ask yourself:
If you answered yes to either of these questions, keep the item. If you answered no to both questions, then let the item go.
If you’re still unsure, ask yourself:
If you would take it with you then keep the item. If there is no “worst thing that would happen” if you got rid of the item, then let the item go.
For all items you’ve decided to keep, find the best place for the item. Keep items in the area in which they are used. If it is meant to be displayed, then display it proudly!
Is getting organized one of your resolutions? Share your plan here!
During Small Business Week this year (October 17-22, 2011) we organized a “Messiest Desk in Quinte West” contest. We had a lot of great entries and we’d like to thank everyone who entered the contest this year.
This year’s winner was Angela. Angela’s messy desk is actually a counter in her kitchen. Her home is too small to have a designated office space from which to run her business. Actually, there are two businesses that run out of Angela’s home, her business (daycare) and her husband’s business and they both use this space. Oh, and I must mention that Angela home schools her children and her home school uses this space. So if you’re wondering – YES that is a LOT of activity to be happening on such a small piece of counter.
The first challenge was to find an appointment time to help Angela. Because Angela manages a daycare during the week, we had to find some time on the weekend to get her organized. After a few weeks we made the appointment and started to work.
The first step was to sort all of the information. We used some laundry baskets and empty plastic bins to create the following categories:
As we were sorting, we also made some decisions on what would stay and what would go. We filled several bags for recycling with old art projects, envelopes and paper with outdated information.
Since we had several enthusiastic “little helping hands” we put them to work testing pens, pencils and markers. Any writing implement that didn’t work went right into the garbage! The children also sorted them into groups of pens, coloured pencils and markers. The also examined all the craft supplies. Several bottles of dried up glue made their way to the garbage as did some old feathers and other bits and pieces.
It doesn’t take long to organize blank paper. It can be sorted by size, colour and thickness. Paper that has information written on it takes significantly longer to organize because you have to READ it. But, after 3 hours the desk was clean, the papers were in their proper piles and all of the unwanted material was in the trash or recycle bin.
Angela and family have a bit more work to do on their own filing some of the piles of papers but at least now they have a strategy and some parameters in which to guide them.
Check out the pictures below!
|
|
Did you know that the U.S. Department of Labour estimates over 40% of businesses never reopen following a disaster and of the remaining companies, at least 25% will close within 2 years? While these are American statistics, I’m sure that the Canadian ones are similar.
One of the more frequent “disasters” that I’ve seen in small business is data loss. This often happens when the business computer becomes infected by a virus or worm or if the computer’s hard drive fails. The easiest way to protect your business from data loss is doing regular back ups of your computer’s hard drive. Backing up the data to an external hard drive on a regular basis (at least at the end of every business day) is an inexpensive way to ensure that you can access your data and continue business operations should your main computer crash. However, if your office was destroyed by fire you would also lose your external hard drive. I suggest to many of my clients to consider an “off-site” data storage solution. There are many inexpensive, secure online backup and data recovery services available.
Protecting your computer system is also a good idea. I recommend that small business owners purchase a surge protector and uninterruptible power supply (battery) for each of their computers. This system will prevent electrical power surges from “blowing up” the computer system and should there be a loss of power, the battery will provide enough power for the user to back up data and shut the computer down safely.
There is another disaster that unfortunately occurs all too often in small business and that is theft. Having a detailed inventory of your business assets is essential in order to restore operations as quickly as possible and ensure your claim is processed promptly by your insurance company. Record the make, model and serial numbers along with receipts of purchase of all your business equipment. If you’ve stored this information on your computer and backed it up to your online storage area, you can access it easily and provide this information to your insurance company.
Disasters do strike but if you’re organized and prepared you won’t be one of the statistics!
Have you ever spent hours scraping old stickers from your car windows? Here’s a little tip to save you some time.
The next time you need to apply a sticker to the car window (e.g. for secure parking lots), stick the sticker to Avery Clear Decals then stick the decal to the car window. It’s easy to move and remove!
Recently in the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a study was released indicating that children who watched just nine minutes of a fast-paced television cartoon performed significantly worse on executive function tasks than children who watched a slower-paced an educational cartoon.
This study was also confirmed by Queen’s University psychology professor Mark Sabbagh who indicated that “watching SpongeBob can have a surprisingly large effect on some cognitive skills that are just developing in four-year-olds.”
Executive functions are defined as the collection of brain processes that are responsible for planning, initiating appropriate actions and inhibiting inappropriate actions.
What does this mean for parents of young children? These studies indicate that fast-paced TV shows such as Sponge Bob, hinder children’s ability to think clearly in a logical order and it inhibits their concentration.
If you need a child to focus and concentrate on a specific task such as organizing their room, getting ready to go out the door to school in the morning or doing homework, watching fast-paced cartoons first may inhibit their ability to carry out such tasks.
Make your life less stressful and turn off the TV in the morning while preparing to leave or at least select a more relaxing TV show (Mr. Rogers, I miss you!).
Maybe it’s because I keep my possessions to a minimum that I have difficulty parting with objects that have been a significant and important part of my life. Last year I had to say good bye to a pair of riding boots.
 |
The boots are pictured here with saddle, trunk, whip and helmet in 1986. I no longer have the helmet because for safety reasons, helmets must be replaced at least every 5 years. I still have the trunk, saddle and whip. |
I’ve been an avid equestrienne for the better part of 30 years and I bought my first pair of REAL riding boots in 1986. I wore these boots in horse shows around the province and in clinics with Olympians. The boots helped me ride at various equestrian centres in nine different cities in four different provinces over the past 20 years. Finally, in June 2010, they broke beyond repair while in service at a local horse show.
It was a difficult moment for me, realizing that I would have to say good bye to these boots that had served me so well for so long. In order to cope with the loss, I decided to have a funeral for the boots. I set up a Facebook event and invited my Facebook friends, many of whom I have ridden with over the years. At first I thought that they would think that I was crazy (and they may have a point) but most of my friends helped me make the event memorable.
One of my friends quoted a poem from Harpers New Monthly Magazine, Volume 54, December 1876:
Farewell, old boots! a tender last farewell!
Inanimate, but mourned as if with souls
Instead of soles: I’ll find for you some dell
Where, though no bell for your requiem tolls.
I had a few other friends weigh in and admit that this event encouraged them to retire various objects; dance shoes, army boots and paint brushes. One organizer colleague wrote in that it was “time to lay to rest ‘Wedding Glass’, the last surviving member of a set of glasses that outlived ‘Marriage’ by 21 years”. Of course there is always one clown in the bunch — he thanked me for the “booty call”!
All in all, it made me feel much better that I had given a public tribute to my riding boots that had served me so well in the past. I wrapped them tightly and they were taken away in the “hearse”.
The "Hearse"
If you have items that you have difficulty parting with, try having a funeral or a tea party or even writing a letter to the item, explaining its importance in your life. Make a scrapbook and save the letters with pictures of the items.
It helps to let your friends in on the deal – they can comfort you and make you laugh like no inanimate object ever could.
“The strength of a nation is in the intelligent and well-ordered homes of the people.”
Organizing something in your home this weekend will benefit your entire country!
My regular readers may have noticed that I haven’t written any articles lately. Why? Because I was extremely disorganized and disorganization leads to a lack of productivity, missed deadlines and a high level of stress.
Yes, even organizers suffer from disorganization from time to time so here is the story.
We live in military housing because my husband is a member of the Canadian Armed Forces. A month ago the Base informed us that due to the construction of a 400 space parking lot right beside our house, that we would be moved to a new house (all expenses paid). It would be a “full service” move which includes packing and unpacking service.
We were given 10 days to prepare for the move. Many people might think that this wouldn’t be too bad as I didn’t have to pack or unpack anything but it was CRAZY! The kids were still in school and attending swimming and music lessons and both my husband and I had to work, although we did take three days off for the pack, load/unload and unpack.
We were moved into our new house which is very nice. The unpacking service involves taking everything out of boxes, putting the stuff on any flat surface and leaving with the empty boxes and packing paper. This is my kitchen after the unpack. The counter is covered and the cupboards are empty!
Here are few tips that I used to help conquer this type of chaos and get back on track.
I enlisted the whole family to help me get organized. Each child did his/her own bedroom and asked for help when they needed it. Even children as young as 4 or 5 years old can put clothes away and put books on shelves. I also had family members help me organize the kitchen. The plus side is that everyone now knows where everything belongs! If your children are too young to help out, hire a sitter to keep them occupied.
The first thing I did was set up garbage cans and recycle bins in every area of the home. Once trash is found it can be put immediately in its proper place. This prevents clutter from building up all over the place!
We set up the beds so we could get a good night sleep and laundry baskets so dirty clothes would be kept off the floor.
Setting up the bathroom was next because everyone needs clean teeth and a hot shower!
The next thing that got organized was the kitchen. An organized kitchen means less time preparing and cleaning up after meals.
The laundry area was next and once we got the washing machine level it was easy to get things done as all the dirty clothes were piled in laundry baskets.
Once the basics were done, I left things as they were and moved on to the next area. I can easily go back and do the details later but for the moment, it is good enough and I can take the time to write about it.
Here’s the finished kitchen!
Here is the inside of the cupboards. Notice that everything is where I want it (more or less) It is DONE first, later I’ll get it perfect 
There is one thing I see quite often in the homes and businesses I organize — locks with no keys and keys for which we know not what.
The first step in organizing keys and locks is to gather them all in one place. I suggest using a small, lidded bin such as a shoe box. Label the box too!
Collect any keys you find and put them into the box. If you find padlocks or combination locks, add them to the box too. You may have lockable cabinets that are missing their keys, of course you can’t put the cabinets into the shoebox but you can make a list of cabinets that require keys and add that to the shoebox.
Purchase a few key tags from a hardware store or dollar store. If you know what the keys are for, write on the key tag right away and attach the tag to the key. If you have combination locks, write down the combination on a key tag with a description of the combination lock and/or its serial number.
Extra keys should be labelled and stored in a different location such as a key box. My organizing colleague, Jeri Dansky has put together a collection of key cabinets that would look great in any room and be perfect for storing extra sets of keys.
Keep keys that are used frequently close to where they are used. For example, you might keep a key to your garden shed on a hook, just inside the back door.
What about the mismatched keys and locks? I recommend that people keep these in the labelled shoebox for a few months just in case their mates turn up somewhere else in the house or office. It is also helpful to ask family members and co-workers if they have seen any keys or locks “hiding” anywhere. You may find someone else is in possession of the little key you were looking for. If you’ve determined that the keys and locks are never going to find their mates, feel free to dispose of them.
A word about combination locks: If the locks are simple, such as suitcase locks with only 3 or 4 numbers, you may be able to fiddle with it enough to determine the combination. Some rotary dial combination locks, have serial numbers and you can get the combination by contacting the manufacturer.
You probably don’t need to carry your office keys while vacationing at the cottage and you probably don’t need your cottage keys while your at the office. Carry only the keys you need with you. Separate the keys you carry with you into groups such as Home, Car, Office, Cottage. Put each set on a different ring. Clip the key groups you need together with a carabineer when you leave the house.
Do you have any tips or tricks on organizing keys and locks? Share them here!
My husband is an Officer in the Canadian Army. This means occasionally he is assigned to a mission that takes him away from home. This is called a deployment. Some training assignments are short, only a few weeks long. Some are much longer and can be up to one year long.
These deployments can be very difficult for the family left behind. There is an entire emotional cycle experienced by the spouse/partner that can be quite nerve-wracking and if you add to that the emotional distress of children (even pets) as well as losing someone who helped with many of the household chores – CHAOS ensues!
Is your significant other in the military? Does he/she work away from home for long periods of time? Listen in and learn how to stay organized before, during and after a deployment! Tune into the Army Wife Network on January 10th, 2011 at 20h00 (8pm) Eastern Time.
