Timely Tips from Organizer to the Rescue

Cool Weather is coming! We'll be spending more time inside our homes. Is it time for a fresh start, especially when it comes to organizing your home? Here are a couple ideas.

Organize your home. The holidays have come and gone and Spring is getting closer. Newspaper ads and stores are full of organizing products. Some of these are great, some not so great. Here is a bit of free advice to home owners trying to get a handle on organizing their stuff: Make sure you know how you want to store and retrieve your stuff. Don't get trapped into buying lots of storage containers that won't do the job for you in the long run!

Straighten out the garage. The beautiful weather during the Fall in the Bay Area is the best time of year to get the garage in order but you can also do this job in the Winter whenever there is dry weather. Almost all professional organizers will suggest that you get as much as you can out of the garage. Once you've emptied out as much as you can, the next step is to make a conscious decision on which items to return to the garage. Install handy hanging racks to keep as much as possible off the floor. And if you've got a stack of stuff to donate, it's always a good time to make charitable donations. Get a head start on your deductions for the 2012 tax year. Not sure how much to deduct for your items? You can check out Craigslist or search on Ebay and in thrift shops for similar items. Even better, go to the "It's Deductible" web site and get deduction suggestions for thousands of typical donations. You can even track your donations at the site for free! Check it out at It's Deductible . The Salvation Army's website also includes a very useful valuation guide at Salvation Army Valuation Guide.

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Organize Your Financial Life! Tax time always comes up much too soon. You can be well-prepared for all those yearly tasks. Now is the perfect time to take stock of your financial life.

Get a jump start on your future financials. I recommend using a financial software package if you want to get more control over your financial life. It's always a good time to start using one of the packages such as Quicken, the most widely used financial application for households. Sure, you might not have a full year's data for 2012 if you get a late start, but that just means you'll have lots of time to set up your tracking categories, load in your investments, and start using the checking account balancing functions. Organizer to the Rescue can help you set up your financial software in a way that makes sense to you. You'll wonder how you got along without it once you make the commitment to use it consistently. And what better way to deal with uncertain economic times than knowing exactly where all your money is going?

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Disaster Preparation: You Know You Need To Do This! We've seen several disasters worldwide with huge impacts to local populations. Did you make a vow to finally create your own disaster preparation plan? Did you do it? If not, there is no time like the present take the steps you need to do to develop your own disaster preparation plan. The safety and security of your family could depend on this. Let me help you with the details and you'll sleep better knowing it's done. Earthquake kits are available at Your Safety Place in Dublin. Or I can help you put together a custom emergency kit just for you. And, in case you need some motivation, check out the USGS (US Geological Survey) website where you can generate probability maps for earthquake activity.

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Organizing for the Long Haul. I'd also encourage each of you to develop organizing strategies that will serve you now and throughout your life. Here are some thoughts.

Clothes. Get a friend or professional organizer to help you with this task if you can't face it alone. As you look through your closet, ask yourself honesty: Do I wear this? Do I like this? If not, why am I keeping it? Does the cost, time, and effort of storing it outweigh the benefit of a nice deduction now? As you look at all your clothes, what does the collection say about you? (Examples: Can't pass up a bargain? Living in 1980? Unrealistic expectations about future weight loss?) Most people have more clothes than they need. Look at the things you wear all the time. Why do you? Chances are it's because they make you look good, feel good, and feel confident. And that's the lesson for buying new things in the future. Less really is more.
Filing systems. I'm often asked to help set up filing systems. But the first question I ask the client is "what do you want to accomplish by having a retrieval system?" The focus SHOULD be on how you will pull documents out of the file, NOT how they are put into the filing system. Some clients envision elaborate color-coded and cross-indexed systems. I certainly can do these, but the more essential issue is "why are you saving these papers?" Research has shown that 80% of filed paperwork NEVER gets looked at again. I once had a client who had a sizeable collection of travel and vacation articles that had been growing for over 25 years. When I asked how often she needed these files, she admitted that she never used them. If she and her husband wanted to take a trip, she immediately accessed the internet and within minutes had up to date information about any location in the world they wanted to visit. She was able to release on the travel file and regain several inches of file space. So before you spend countless hours setting up a filing system, ask yourself why you want to save the paper, how often you'll look at it, and what the worst outcome would be if you didn't have the paperwork.
Clutter. The trouble with clutter is that it becomes invisible to us. This is another good time to enroll a tactful friend or professional organizer because, chances are, you can't see the clutter! Does this mean you need to toss or donate everything? Absolutely not! On the other hand, that doesn't mean that you have to display all your worldly goods either. If you truly love and cherish your things, learn to store some away and rotate them over time. Not only will your home be less cluttered, but you'll enjoy your items that much more when you truly are able to see them again. And--added bonus--it will be much easier to keep up a regular house cleaning routine.

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Resolutions. Yes many people make New Years resolutions. And then feel bad when they're not able to keep them more than a week or two. Here are a few ideas for resolutions that are easy to keep. And remember, any time is the right time to make a resolution.

Clutter. I will declutter one room, closet, or cupboard in my home each month
Financials. I will make a list of all the family assets and liabilities.
Time Management. I will set up a calendar system that works for me and my family.
Disaster Preparation. By the end of <<specify a month>> I will make a list of the tasks I need to do for my disaster preparation plan. By the end of <<specify 2 months later >> I will complete all these tasks.

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Get Real! And what if you have difficultly with your efforts at change? Here are a few ideas.

Be kind to yourself
Realize that change is difficult
Realize that you can't change everything overnight
Realize that your first attempt might not work and that another approach might be needed.
Realize that you haven't failed unless you TOTALLY give up
Realize that it's OK to ask for help
Realize that help can come from many sources. You don't have to do it all and you don't have to do it alone!

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