The organized ideal. Image: sxc.hu

I’d often heard about spending 20 minutes per day to get yourself on an organized track because you don’t have several days to spare doing it.   However, when I’ve tried it, I didn’t keep at it after a few days.  Thus, my family didn’t either.

Recently I realized it’s because I didn’t see much or any results.  A friend mentioned that’s why she quit, too.  However, this time I’m determined to stick to it.  After two weeks, perhaps no one else would see results, but I know there’s a difference…and even my husband said it’s looking better around our rooms.  (In our multigenerational household, we have three rooms that are mainly ours, but it’s amazing the amount of stuff that can accumulate there.  )

What organizational tips do you have?  What works for you?  Do you get your youngsters involved, too?

Post from: Blisstree

Getting Yourself Organized in 20 Minutes

Image: sxc.hu

During the 1970s, I had an at-home quiltmaking and art business (whatever would bring income).  My painting, starting out with commissioned paintings and evolved into card and notepaper design.  I created these items to sell in shops around the area.

When I took on a full time job as a newspaper reporter, some of my art ventures were pushed into the background as I wrote about them instead of pursuing them for income.  In those days, before computers and personal printing programs, I painted or inked each item by hand.

Now I’m pondering…what shall I do with them?

• In these days of computer generated personal cards and notepaper, I could print them for my own use.  I’ve done this with some of my paintings.
• I could use them as designs for the site I’m setting up at Cafe Press.  They then could be transferred to a variety of items.
• I could try sending the designs to greeting card companies.  (However, I’m reluctant to give up ownership to them.)
• I can use the designs in some of my books.

What would you do?  I’ll keep you posted.

(Incidentally, you never know what you’ll come across if you continue with that 20 minutes per day of organization!)

Post from: Blisstree

Finding Artistic “Treasures”

I’d heard the suggestion, “Take 20 minutes each day to organize your clutter, your files, your work area, your bedroom…or whatever.”

Then I’d start with 20 minutes and keep at it for a few days.  However, sometimes the organization, as I sorted midst boxes of writing files and folders or fabric and scrapbooking supplies seemed worse than before I tackled the project.  I’d get discouraged and stuff everything into a box. 

Then I realized, it’s something like the penny doubled…you don’t see results at first and must keep at it.  I’ve made a new resolve to do at least my 20 minutes a day…and to tell myself I’m getting toward my goal, even when I don’t see visible results.

During the past week, I’ve made progress…not that anyone else might notice, but I’ve condensed, thrown out, and made more space.  “We have more room in here,” my husband said of our bedroom, where I had boxes piled when he renovated another room some time ago and we moved everything from that.

How have you managed to keep at your organizational tasks?  In your crafts, your business, your life?

Post from: Blisstree

20 Minutes Per Day to Organization

Image:sxc.hu

What’s a good way to organize?

• By size
• By color
• By color and size
• By design
• By artist
• By era

My daughter has separated the small beads she uses for her embellishing into containers.  They are organized by color, then by size and design.  She puts these into small clear plastic containers she can see through.  Then she stores the smaller ones into a larger clear plastic box.  Thus they’re easy to find and grab.

I purchased some slightly larger beads.  They came in a clear plastic container with dividers.  Within each compartment, the beads were separated according to color and shape.  So they’re easy to see and grab.  However, I do have to be careful they don’t tip over and the cover comes open!

Some artists with many more beads and buttons and embellishments than Beth and I, organize theirs in several drawers or compartments in a rolling organizer.

What method works for you?

Post from: Blisstree

Organizing Beads and Embellishments

Most of the walls are painted – we’re still living with tottering stacks of boxes – but that’s how moving goes!

image: C Findlay-Harder

I’m still trying to figure out the best way to store my fabric though…  I used to store it in big, plastic totes on shelves.  But now that I’m getting a bigger studio, I’m looking at different ways to handle it.

Should I stick with my tried-and-tested totes and shelves?

Upgrade to a fancy metal mesh basket system that mounts on the wall?

Dump it all in a heap and let the dogs sleep in it

Well, I know which one the dogs would vote for, but for now – I’m going to keep thinking…

Post from: Blisstree

Fabric Storage Ideas

Last year I wrote about my resolution to get organized in a post titled Anal Retentive Compulsions in 2008.

In July I saw that people were still reading that post and took another look. Then I cleaned up and organized my office – which was still a mess – and posted the transformation in Resolutions Revisited.

If, 6 months later you realize that people are going to hold you accountable it’s a good motivation not to fail. To fail is hard on the soul – to fail in public is enough to make me clean my room and get organized like I said I wanted to in the first place.

I’m going to cultivate anal retentive organization to the point of compulsion. That way in 2009, 2010, 2011 . . . (you get the picture), I won’t ever have to think about it again.

I wrote.

Well, do I look anything like Kate Gosselin, mother of twins and sextuplets AND the most organized and sometimes anal and compulsive woman on reality television to you?

But, did I accomplish my goal?

Absolutely.

My house is pretty dang organized. It’s a little messy frequently because we have two kids. Hey I saw how the rest of America lives on Oprah’s Clean Up Your Messy House and I’ve got some relatives who have this hoarding gene going on. Compared to that I’m a dream housekeeper.

Every few months – around birthdays and Christmas and the change of seasons – I go through the toys and clothes and donate the ones we’ve outgrown.

Now that we’ve got a large enough house for the necessary storage our world is a billion times more organized. And I realize you have to keep working at it. You’re not going to be “organized” and then walk off and leave it for 10 years and have it stay that way.

Between Christmas and New Year’s is a great time to look at the messes and clutter piles and clean them up. By New Year’s Eve I’m going to sort through the 2008 photos and put them on a disk for storage and buy a photo book of the ones I enjoy best. Organized. It seems like the perfect time because no one is really going full throttle with other things during that week.

I’ve learned this great lesson this year. If I don’t take the time to organize my life – my things, my time, my email, my day, my work load, my schedule, my priorities – it will cost me unnecessary grief.

It was always the time to do the tedious and meticulous work of organizing that held me back. No one has ever lied on their resume more than I did when I copied “detail oriented” on my resume. Laughing Out Loud. I am not naturally detail oriented. Details, until my 35th year have seemed like such a waste of good time and energy when there was a big picture to think about. But, as they say God is in the details. The meaning lies in taking the time, slowing down the process, not missing it by rushing through, making life easier by putting things in their proper places.

I’m a million times more organized in my house and I’m becoming a million times more organized in my work. I’ve made sure I take time for my exercise and meditation and friendships.

In truth it is not wanting to waste money on organizational tools that has held me back so many times before. In July I realized my office was unorganized because I didn’t want to waste money on a $7 file hanger. Stupid. But, I get it now. The tools save me so much time and energy it’s not a waste. I’m learning to invest in the tools. Enter new iphones that will revolutionize my inability to follow and keep a calendar. It will be a great organizational investment.

If you trace any bad habit back far enough there is always a wrong or incorrect thought behind it.

If you change the thought you can change the habit.

My thought was: It’s a waste of time and money to get organized.

I no longer believe that’s true.

I’ve changed the thought to: It’s a waste of time and money NOT to buy and learn to use the proper tools to be organized.

In 2009 I’m going to keep up the skills and lessons I learned in 2008. I’m going to put more of these lessons into my work and my work day.

I’ll be so productive in 2009 I’ll look like an overnight success.

Tell me, did anyone else make a similar goal last year and did you stick with it?

Post from: Blisstree

2008 Resolution Revisited – The Truth

I was checking my statistics for Blog Fabulous when I noticed my story Anal Retentive Compulsions in 2008 was still being read. How’s that for accountability?

That was my story where I declared my New Year’s Resolution to get be so organized I could be classified as anal retentive compulsive, you know like Kate Gosselin and my mother.

It’s July. I looked around my office and the exact same pile of clutter was shoved in my drawer. The same exact pile of “get to this later” was in the same basket it’s been in for literally YEARS. Still no filing system.

In fact, the top of my desk had become – things I haven’t yet hung up in here and things I wanted to write about but hadn’t had time.

Is it any wonder my daughter’s room periodically needs to be excavated? <

Here’s one thing I know for sure – if you continually feel bad about something one thing you can do to stop feeling bad is to “just do it.”

Examples: Feel bad every time you smoke – Quit. Feel guilty when you don’t work out – Work Out.

Feel like working somewhere else when all I wanted was an office space of your own? Organize It.

I did. It took me 8 hours. No joke. It’s got files. It’s not cluttered. The stuff is hung on the walls. There’s a system. The “stuff to do later” got done – even if it cost money.

Here’s what I noticed about my messes:

The reason I didn’t do it before amounts to $8. I had attempted to buy an $8 file hanger thing for my desk drawer numerous times, but it always put me over my budget. It’s been in the cart 5 times, I put it back. Stupid isn’t it? For 7 months I couldn’t make spending that $8 important enough.

Then when I discovered the file hanger wouldn’t fit that drawer anyway and had to use the other filing cabinet.

How minor are the things I allow to distract me.

The other thing I’ve noticed is a genetic/generational tendency to believe I have to keep things or I’m wasting them and I might never get anything to replace it. I think this is about my grandparent’s depression-era anxiety and my “always be prepared” Mormon upbringing. I come by it honestly. During my grandfather’s eulogy they said, Viola you’ve inherited the biggest scrap yard in all of East Texas. And their children, my parents and aunts and uncles, are overflowing with stored crap from the 70s, 80s and 90s.

Remember Suze Orman says you can not have room for new things in your life if there is so much cluttering it up.

I have everything I need. I have enough. I can get more things, even if I no longer have a use for this. I told myself as I threw stuff, basically garbage, away I’d been keeping “just in case.”

(Okay, don’t tell anyone – this is my dirty little secret – I didn’t actually throw most of it away – I stuck it in bags where it will stay for several months, just in case my need for it returns, or until I find it a good home with a needy family – baby steps. That’s in line with reduce, reuse, recycle though – right?)

It’s July. It was a New YEARs Resolution. That means I accomplished my goal a full 5 months ahead of my deadline. (Still to go a more efficient electronic organization system for emails, passwords, receipts, etc. I don’t delete most of my email either, “just in case”. )

Do you remember what YOUR New Year’s Resolution was?

Don’t feel bad – there’s still plenty of time.

Source of Images: Empowering Girls: So Sioux Me

Post from: Blisstree

Resolutions Revisited

The first BlogFabulous Blogtoberfest Prize is a really cool large Lara Gallagher bag. Lara is best-known as the Lazy Organizer and has really great mottoes like organized people are just too lazy to look for things.

When I was younger I just didn’t understand what I thought was anal retentive compulsive organization in others. Organization is not an attribute that comes easily to me. For me it’s only born out of necessity. Lara shares this ideology.

Lara says, Do you want to get more organized but you’re afraid if you put stuff away you’ll never be able to find it again? That won’t happen with my Organizing Bags. The clear front lets you see what’s inside so you can find exactly what you need! Value varies by size.

I put off projects I want to do like the baby book or whatever because I just don’t want get everything out and then have to put it all away. I forget that I started projects because it goes in a catch-all basket (when my husband gets sick of working around it) out of sight and out of mind.

These organizing bags fix that for you. You keep everything safely tucked away, but you can see what’s in it and remember where you were when you stopped. Thanks Lara for donating something so useful for BlogFabulous readers.

 Now, for the winner. . . Nicole. Ainsley picked her name out of a hat. Gayla, our fearless leader has emailed you for your name and address (Please don’t post it in the comments) and Lara will get your bag in the mail ASAP.

Remember to leave a baby picture comment on Baby Pics and Self for a chance to win something so cool it will make you all gooshy inside. Ah I love Blogtoberfest!

Post from: Blisstree

Drumroll Please . . .

Another way to look at it is what I like to call “mental shopping”. In other words, a project comes up, and the ultimate due date could be 3 months away — I immediately start to plan…I collect articles, photos, start writing copy and the worst, I start to share my thoughts with people.

I’ll put together a gigantic note or production table, which shows every possible scenario, the back-up scenario and the if all else fails scenario.

What usually happens is — while I’m thinking about how clever I was to get everything so organized — no one has taken the time to digest what I’ve communicated.

I’ll get a note from someone who asks, astonishingly (to me), did we talk about this? What that means is for someone like me who is already light years ahead of the initial project — and on to another — is I have to stop dead in my tracks and re-educate everyone.

I once read that Aquarians (me) get very agitated when people don’t get what they are saying or if their ideas are not understood. I can see that.

But I wonder what makes me so driven to put emphasis on every chronological detail…it’s not like I have the world’s neatest sock drawer…but I must say, you do NOT want to be with me when I pack a suitcase.

I think the answer may lie in this need to think through people’s problems…to avoid chaos? Oooh, which could be a trust thing? I don’t know…but I noticed a chart I sent someone wasn’t color-coded in a clear way.

Post from: Blisstree

Could I Be A Control Freak?

Its contents consisted of many different “workshops”, formulas and templates to help you both get and keep your life in order and to define your goals and personal objectives — I will live by the values of integrity, freedom of choice and I will not fear anyone.

Basically it was a 12-step program for control freaks…and you could get one with a red Coach leather cover.

I so wanted to be one of those people whose Covey Planner was filled with to-do’s, appointments, yellow stickies…brimming. But I just couldn’t do it…I have no idea why. But if you ever got the chance to watch me try to follow baking instructions, you’d be able to answer that for me.

Anyway, in today’s frenetic society, organization=well-being, and there are a heck of a lot of companies out there whose reason for being is to help us keep our lives in order.

For example, I can tell you that I did NOT have a bridal list when I was planning my wedding, which could explain how I forgot to invite our poor usher to our rehearsal dinner.

An outfit such as Knock Knock Sationery might have been just the ticket to help me figure out all of the neccessary crap I needed to be thinking about.

But now you can organize your life right at your computer. Here are a few other companies that you might consider, unless your one of those folks who has a to-do list on your fridge:

• diyplanner.com
• recipething.com
• squirl.info
• tadalist.com
• trixietracker.com

Resources collected from The Wall Street Journal.

Post from: Blisstree

Top Lists of To-Do Lists.