2010 April | Take Control Organizing

Tackling The Paper Pile Up!

Posted on April 30, 2010 by Nikki in Office Organizing, Paper Management, Productivity

Paper…. It’s everywhere!

It comes daily in our mailboxes, on our front doors, our kids bring it home everyday…

It’s so easy to get overwhelmed! If you have piles of paper hanging around… Believe me you are not the only one! It can sometimes be so overwhelming you just do not know where to begin…

Here are a few tips to get you started in tackling the paper!

Just start! You have to go through it to eliminate it! 80% of what we file, we never look at again, so before you file something away, make sure you really need to save it!
Take just a few minutes a day to tackle a small stack. Don’t worry about the big picture – start small but again you have to start!
Tackle the easy stuff, expired coupons, trash, old notes etc. Things you know you no longer need.
When you have a pile in hand, turn it over and start sorting through the bottom of the stack. These will most likely be the oldest papers which will be the easiest to get rid of.
Get into the habit of recycling or shredding your junk mail immediately. This is will prevent unnecessary paper from piling up.
Be proud of what you accomplish! Doing something is better than doing nothing.
Once you have sorted through your paper and you know what is staying it’s important to set up solid filing and mail systems that work best for you and your lifestyle. This is where hiring a Professional Organizer can really help you! TCO has an extensive paper management program we set up specifically to meet your needs! Give us a call for more information!

Happy Organizing!

Eliminate The Sticky Note!

Posted on April 28, 2010 by Nikki in Office Organizing, Paper Management, Productivity, Staying Organized, Time Management

Do you have sticky notes surrounding you?

You know the ones… they’re square and come in so many bright and fun colors!

Maybe they’re lurking on your computer as reminders to call someone or on the kitchen table to remind you of something that needs to get done… They seem to be handy and can be a useful tool to bookmark a page in a magazine or a book.

But are they a really good organizing tool?

How many times have you lost the very important information you put on the sticky note, because now you no longer know where the sticky note is? Or maybe you are wasting time going through the several you have around the house and then 10 minutes later you finally found it! Not only is it wasting your time to have these notes, but don’t they also add visual clutter to your computer, desk or counters?

Does any of this sound familiar? If so, then this tip is for you!

Eliminate the sticky note all together! Instead invest in a spiral notebook. Place the notebook by the phone, on your desk, wherever you may be tempted to use a sticky note. And instead of having several sticky notes everywhere, you have one, central place where you can write messages, phone numbers, important tasks etc. As you complete the item or transfer the phone number to your directory, simply cross it off! It’s that easy! Now you know where to find the information when you need it without the excess paper clutter and without wasting your time!

Happy Organizing!

Episode 2: The Emotional Connection

Posted on April 26, 2010 by admin in Taking Control: The Organizing Podcast

For many of us, we carry a clear emotional connection to our stuff. Things take on personalities, character, mood, all of which makes it that much harder to say goodbye when it’s time to clear the clutter. This week on the show, Nikki Kinzer and Pete Wright talk about the human nature of stuff, and how to break the emotional ties that bind us to things we no longer need!

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A Week in Review!

Posted on April 23, 2010 by Nikki in Home Organizing

Ok… so how many of you took the challenge from last week? If you tried it, I would love to hear about it… Share your stories!

I tried it and I must say this has to be one of the hardest rules in organizing! Even as a Professional Organizer, a person who likes to organize, lives with very little clutter with the exception of toys because remember I do live with children! This was hard! Now it’s very easy to lay something down and think “I will get to it later!” But that was not the challenge!

I had two areas I was going to work on, one being the dishes- making sure to put them into the dishwasher right away and not into the sink. This worked well, if the dishwasher was not clean. If it was clean and still needed to be unloaded, well, I admit, there were dishes in the sink! If you were to look into my kitchen right now, unfortunately that is what you would see! I have give myself a little slack, it’s been a busy week!

The other area I worked on this week were the clothes in my closet, I wanted to make sure I either hung them back up or they made it to the hamper, no in between. I must say, this was much more of success than the dishes. If you were to look at my closet right now, you would see everything put away.

The biggest lesson I learned this week, was just being conscious of this rule. It made a difference because I was aware of the decision I was about to make. I had to think about where an item was going and was I following the rule? This is good… because if you are thinking about it, you actually end up doing more than what you would normally do. You are aware of your actions and aware of how clutter may be building up in your home. Your stopping it.

This is a tough rule. Is it a good rule? I think so, as long as you don’t beat yourself up when it doesn’t happen. Realize life happens, and messes are going to occur! I plan on unloading the dishwasher tonight, and by the end of the evening the dishes will be done!

Thinking before doing, can go a long way!

If you missed the challenge, click here to read: “Organizing Rule: Touch it Once” blog post!

Happy Organizing!

Spring Organizing Checklist

Posted on April 22, 2010 by admin in Downloads

I love the change of seasons. It has always been an inspiration for me on getting my home in order. Many of us use spring as the time to do those “chores” that only need to be done once or twice a year. We are so excited to see the blue sky that working out in the garage doesn’t seem to be such a daunting task after all!

To make these tasks more manageable and organized, TCO has come up with a “Spring Cleaning and Organizing Checklist” just for you! We realize that every home has different needs, and not everything may be on this list. However, there also may be things on this list you may have never thought about…

So download this list and use it as a guideline to get all of those projects done! Every organizing project needs to have a plan in order to achieve great results- and this checklist is your roadmap!