Tuesday Tip: Don't Overload Your Plate!

If you checked out Friday's post, you'll know I talked about re-usable plates to help keep cookout clutter at bay. Well, today I'm happy to report that thanks to my wonderful family, I now have my very own set of Crate & Barrel marimekko melamine plates and even a tray to match for my birthday - yeah! Here they are...

But today I wanted to give a tip that involves a plate of a different kind...our 'plate' of life responsibilities. Most people I know always have over-flowing mental and physical to-do lists...usually it's a combination of life's must do's, should do's and want to do's. While this is ok and even good to some extent (to have ambition and things we want to get done), many times these over-flowing lists are a major source of what I call background stress. For me, it's that nagging feeling of never being 'done' and seeing a million projects everywhere I look. For the most part, the over-flowing lists and background stress are a product of having more on our plates that we can digest. And while it's common sense that we shouldn't overload our plates, it seems to happen all too easily in today's world!

So here's today's tip: If your plate is over-full, don't add anything new until what's already on there is under control! This means if you already feel like you're having trouble keeping up, don't jump into new activities, business ideas, committees, etc. I always have to remind myself that for most things in life, it's not now or never. Things can wait. If you really want to do them, you'll come back to them. This might even include delaying fun things like planning a big family trip if your background stress is keeping you from fully enjoying your want to do's. Does this mean you have to wait until you've got all of life's responsibilities completely under control? No, of course not! That would mean many of us would never get to the fun stuff. But if you're like me and you're bothered by too much 'background stress,' take a breather and hold off on adding more to your plate until you're feeling like you can handle it! Fair enough?

Friday Find: Curb Cookout Clutter

Memorial Day weekend traditionally represents the start of the summer season - yeah! For many households, this means weekends filled with parties and cookouts and family fun. But don't let your cupboards and pantries become overrun with plastic cups, paper plates and enough plastic silverware to feed an army. Having a mess of partially used packages of disposable party ware doesn't make it easy to whip out the supplies you need for an impromptu barbecue. Our suggestion, keep one good set of re-usable outdoor tableware and your cupboards and the environment will be better off. Here are a few options we've seen...the first one is even from a local company who's transforming trash into tableware - how cool!?

Preserve Tableware

Crate & Barrel Melamine Plates

Bamboo Studio BambooWare

Tuesday Tip: Containing Toy Clutter

Toy storage is one of those great organizational challenges that comes along with having kids! Since toys are meant to be played with, they are often out and about. The key to keeping your house from looking like total toy chaos is quick & easy clean-up. For your family's designated play room or your kids' rooms, shelves or cubbies with easy access (i.e. lightweight, open top) baskets or bins are the backbone to a good toy storage system. Adding picture labels can help make clean up an easy 'all hands on deck' task!

But as a parent of an almost toddler, I know that keeping toys in just one room isn't necessarily practical, especially if you have little ones who need or want to stick close by. Keeping a small supply of toys in the rooms we spend the most time in (kitchen, living and bedroom) is key to keeping everyone happy and busy. But to keep these other rooms from being over-run with toys all day long, a quick clean-up strategy is a must for last minute guests or nightly tidying. What works in our house is a small basket or bin in each room for toys. You can't get much simpler than that - it takes about 30 seconds to gather scattered toys and toss them in! Of course this works best for small items without lots of parts - more complicated toys are better-stored in your designated play areas.

Let us know what works for toys in your house and be sure to check out our new Toy Storage Board on Pinterest for some great ideas!

Small Tubtrugs from LandofNod.com

Friday Find: Erin Condren Personlized Life Planner

I'm so excited to tell you about my new Erin Condren personalized life planner! I read about it online about a month back and decided I had to try it. Why, in this age of free online tools to manage just about everything, would I choose to spend my money on a [beautiful] paper planner? Let me explain...

For a couple years I've been strictly using Google Calendar, which works great when I'm able to be online regularly throughout the day and also has the benefit of easily sharing events with my husband. For me though, the online calendar concept has a couple of issues. First, I've never been able to make online task lists work for me when I'm not regularly sitting at a computer (which I'm not anymore). I also still feel this gravitational pull toward paper lists and calendars, especially happy, pretty ones :) There's just something gratifying about putting it down on paper!

So for a couple of years, I've been managing what productivity experts would call a hybrid system of online and paper, carrying around a notebook of some sort to corral lists, related papers, receipts, etc., but still using Google Calendar, which I mainly get to check and update at night. As a part-time working, full-time mom, I rarely get a chance to sit down at a computer during the day. Sure, I check my email on my phone throughout the day, but I'm not a big fan of managing Google Calendar on my phone. So as with many organizational systems, it's clear that my old system is no longer working for my new[ish] life.

Introduce my super-lovely new life planner...it's a compact, durable, all-in-one planner that can house my calendar, to-do lists, notes, papers...all in one lovely place. I think many of you would agree with me that you can't underestimate the power of pretty when it comes to productivity tools. They just make me want to get down to business and get stuff done!

Anyway, enough about me, for those of you who may be struggling with your calendars and to-do lists, here's my advice - it's ok not to go digital if it just doesn't work for you and it's definitely ok to find pretty, productive tools that make you happy! Check out ErinCondren.com for a look at the wonderful, personalized tools they make to help make your life easier. I purchased a discounted April-December 2012 Life Planner, but I believe they have a 2012/2013 version coming out in June. They also just released a great video about using a weekly calendar pad to keep all your family members on the same page! I may just have to give it a try.

Note: I have not received any incentive to write about Erin Condren products...just writing a personal review of my new planner.

Organizing Boston to Help Another Local Household on Hoarding: Buried Alive

We are excited to announce that we will once again have the opportunity to help a local household on TLC's Hoarding: Buried Alive! This will be our third experience filming an episode for the show and helping a local resident in need. Thanks to TV shows like Hoarding: Buried Alive, there is a higher level of awareness about hoarding and chronic disorganization.

It's important to get professional help to not only deal with the mess but also the root cause. If you or someone you know needs help, don't be afraid to reach out. In addition to helping you manage your home and possessions, we can help coordinate or connect you with other services you many need. As always, we treat all of our clients with compassion and respect.

Stay tuned for information about the show's air date!

Tuesday Tip: How to Cut Morning Chaos

Have you ever felt rushed and a bit crazed getting out the door on time with everything you need? I hope the answer is 'yes' - otherwise, you must be some kind of super-human and I'd like to meet you! While we all have our struggles with the morning rush, which definitely seem to be multiplied if you've got little ones to shuffle out the door with you, the good news is you can cut morning chaos with just a little prep work the night before. Here are some night-before tips that are guaranteed to make for a smoother, calmer, happier morning...ahhh:

• Pack your bags (work, daycare, school) the night before to avoid a last minute scramble or worse, leaving the house without the essentials.
  
• Prep meals and snacks to go the night before. Put non-perishables in lunch bags on the counter and gather any perishables in an easy-to-grab spot in the fridge. Put a sticky note on the front door to remind you to grab fridge items before you head out the door. 
• Prep, or at least decide, what's for breakfast the night before. Have grab and go items like yogurt smoothies, whole grain bagels or homemade trail mix on hand for extra busy mornings.
• Put what you can in the car the night before - think sports equipment, items to return, special projects. This will help avoid needing to make multiple trips back and forth in the morning because your hands are too full.

My advice, do this prep right after dinner before settling down for the evening :) Just 10 minutes of preparation the night before can save you a world of trouble in the morning, which will get your whole day started off on the right foot!

Friday Find: Keep it Together with a Simple Inbox

Things are a little chaotic around our [new] house! We moved in on Saturday, so we're still swimming in boxes and packing paper and definitely don't have all our systems set up. We are far from my comfort zone of 'a place for everything and everything in it's place.' But amongst the exciting and overwhelming chaos of settling into a new home, one very important but simple organizing system is helping me keep it all together and save my sanity...my inbox. It's the most basic of organizational principles...keeping like things together. I use my inbox to stash all important papers, ranging from bills to receipts to ideas to assembly instructions. It gives me a safe place to put anything that comes my way, but that I don't have time to further process (i.e. file, do, read) at the moment.

Of course the inbox can't be the end of the system. You need to follow through and process what goes in or your inbox will just be a ever-growing pile. But take it from me, a corralled pile in a consistent inbox is A LOT safer than papers strewn around a house that's in a partially unpacked and not-so-settled-state. Last night I finally sat down for the first time in a couple weeks (eeek!) to take stock of and start managing what was in my inbox. It always makes me feel a lot better when I wade my way through my inbox, but just knowing that I had a safe place to put things was a life saver during an especially hectic couple of weeks in our life!

My inbox happens to be a very simple Ikea Kassett box with a lid, but you can choose any letter-size box that suits your fancy. So this week's Friday Find is less of a noun and more of a verb...if you don't have an inbox, go find yourself one this weekend!

Friday Find: Ikea Hackers

Here at Organizing Boston, we love to re-use what clients already have for organizing purposes. It saves money and resources, but it's also fun to find purposes for items that are being under-utilized or not used at all!

I've been thinking recently about re-purposing some Ikea furniture in my own (or soon-to-be) home. We are about to move into our first real house - yeah! - and I'm looking to re-purpose some Expedit shelving as toy storage in my daughters playroom, but espresso isn't exactly the color I'd like for her bright, cheery room (or at least that's my vision). So I was looking on-line for tips on painting Ikea furniture and of course found some good info over at Apartment Therapy.

But in the process, I was also reminded of a neat site entirely dedicated to re-purposing and customizing Ikea furniture - Ikea Hackers. How cool! A lot of us own Ikea furniture - they make some great products from an organizational standpoint and let's face it, it's hard to beat the price. Personally, we own several Ikea items, including Expedit shelving, Effectiv filing cabinets and a few others. Many of these have been in our possession for several years, surviving moves, re-purposing and general household use and abuse. So if you're re-organizing, re-arranging, or moving, why not check out Ikea Hackers for some ideas to breath new life into your furniture and your space. If I follow through with my first Ikea hack, I'll keep you posted!

Tuesday Tip: Responsibly Recycle Your Electronics

Do you have old computers, cell phones, stereos and other electronics cluttering your home or office? This is one category of clutter that clients are often stuck on what to do with. The main reason is not knowing how to responsibly and securely get rid of them. Many of our household and office electronics contain personal data we don't want to just set free and we also have this sense that these 'hard' materials should be recycled but we don't know how, when and where. The good news is that there are companies that have dedicated themselves to solving these issues...both securely shredding your data and responsibly recycling the materials. One company we have come across in our travels is Metech Recycling. They conduct recycling collection events across the country, including several right here in the Boston area. In fact, there's one coming up this weekend in my hometown, Acton, MA!

Green Acton
Electronics Recycling Collection Event
Saturday, May 5, 2012
9:00 am - 2:00 pm
Conant School
80 Taylor Road
Acton, MA 01720

Check out the Metech events calendar for more information and other events.

So take a huge step toward cleaning up your home and office by responsibly recycling your electronics today...or this weekend!