Here is a video I made in the middle of house cleaning showing the mess before and the organized “mess” after. Thanks for watching!
Tag: Clutter
Wednesday, December 29th, 2010
House Cleaning & Organization Tips : How to Conquer Clutter
Clutter can be a huge problem for households and is conquered through the use of containers or bookcases and shelves. Tackle the annoying problem of a cluttered home with organization ideas from a professional house cleaner and organizer in this free video on housekeeping. Expert: Ann Myrick Bio: Since 1997, Ann Myrick has been a professional decorator, house cleaner, home organizer and planner. Filmmaker: Tim Brown
Friday, September 3rd, 2010
Clutter Control, Organizing Tips, Organize Your Life, Professional Organizer, Online Organizer, Office Organizing, Organizing Clutter, Unclutter, Hou
If my friends could see me now! I had a friend who used to tell me how cluttered my fridge looked on the inside. Have you ever saved food and then it molded so you had to toss it out? Me too. It’s hard to throw it out even if we probably won’t use that last ¼ of a cup but we don’t want to be wasteful so we save it. But when it has mold on it or smells bad then it is okay to toss it. (Does this sound familiar)?
How to reduce clutter in the fridge:
·Keep like items together. Keep produce in the drawers to keep them fresh. Keep meat together, keep left over’s together so you can see what you have.
I love these covers for bowls that I call shower caps for bowls. They cover the bowls quickly and no one has to look for the right size lid. If there is too much stuff in a bowl and the lid won’t fit, these are perfect to use.
·Keep things you use most often towards the front, things used rarely (bottled lemon juice, chocolate syrup etc.) keep towards the back.
·Be aware of the leftovers you do save and once a week plan left over night. Put everything out on the counter and let your family take what they want. Perhaps cook some fish or meat and the left over’s can be side dishes.
·Put condiments on the door so they are easy to reach. The temperature in frostless and self-defrosting refrigerators is fairly uniform throughout the cabinet, including the storage area in the door.
·Label the contents and the date on everything you put in the freezer.
·Use the same ideas for the freezer as you did for the fridge to reduce clutter in the freezer.
Storage Basics:
·Refrigerate or freeze perishables right away. Foods that require refrigeration should be put in the refrigerator as soon as you get them home. Stick to the “two-hour rule” for leaving items needing refrigeration out at room temperature. Never allow meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, or produce or other foods that require refrigeration to sit at room temperature for more than two hours—one hour if the air temperature is above 90° F. This also applies to items such as leftovers, “doggie bags,” and take-out (or take away) foods. Also, when putting food away, don’t crowd the refrigerator or freezer so tightly that air can’t circulate.
·Keep your appliances at the proper temperatures. Keep the refrigerator temperature at or below 40° F (4° C). The freezer temperature should be 0° F (-18° C). Check temperatures periodically. Appliance thermometers are the best way of knowing these temperatures and are generally inexpensive.
·Check storage directions on labels. Many items other than meats, vegetables, and dairy products need to be kept cold. For instance, mayonnaise and ketchup should go in the refrigerator after opening. If you’ve neglected to properly refrigerate something, it’s usually best to throw it out.
·When you need to use plastic, these are the safer choices to use with food: 1, 2, 4 and 5.
·Learn to recognize, and then avoid, polycarbonate (number 7) for food usage. Polycarbonate plastics are hard and clear. Common items made from this BPA-containing plastic are food storage containers, baby bottles, water bottles, bowls and tableware. (And the lining inside food and drink cans, by the way.)
·If you don’t get rid of all of your plastic, at least retire old plastic containers, especially those that are heavily worn or scratched. Older plastics tend to leach increasing amounts of toxins as they age. Use them to organize and store non-food items.
·Be careful of serving and storing hot foods or foods made with fats or oils in plastic containers. These foods more readily facilitate the transfer of plastic toxins.
·Never microwave foods in plastic containers. “Microwave safe” means the container won’t melt or warp, but doesn’t mean it won’t leach. Heating plastics increases the potential for leaching of chemicals into your food.
Clearing clutter in the refrigerator and freezer is easy by using these simple tips.
For more organizing tips on clutter control visit Marilyn’s website.
Marilyn’s Bio:
Marilyn is a professional organizer who works with women and seniors in clearing clutter and providing organizing tips. Clearing clutter helps those she works with to have less stress in their lives and feel more joy in living.
Marilyn invites you to visit her website http://www.marilynbohn.com where you can find organizing solutions. You will find fun stories and free organizing tips in her blogs, articles and videos.
Marilyn is a creative organizer who helps women, seniors & their families to create space and end
clutter in homes and offices by setting up custom made systems.
Visit her website http://www.marilynbohn.com for
free organizing tips.
Tags: Clutter, Control, Life, Office, Online, Organize, Organizer, Organizing, Professional, Tips, Unclutter
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
10 Organizing Tips To Reduce Electronic Clutter
I worked with a client a few weeks ago and we set up a filing system in her home office. Then we organized every other room in her home. She called me to say she felt free because of all the organizing we had done. She could now find everything and by putting things away where they belonged she didn’t have to donate large chunks of time to find things she needed. She carried it one step further by organizing her electronic mail. Technology organizing is something we often neglect.
She had an email account she didn’t use very often and dreaded ever going to it as she knew it was cluttered with out of date information and things she just didn’t want to deal with. But because she had been so successful in reducing clutter in other parts of her home she tackled the problem. She got her inbox cleared out and because of this she received a 40% off coupon to a local bookstore which she never would have found if she had not de-cluttered.
Here are 10 organizing tips on how to reduce electronic clutter.
When computers first came out they were to save us time but do you find you they now use more of your time than you have to spare?
1. Set a timer when you surf the web or read your emails if you get sucked into hours at the computer “against your will”. When the timer rings close down and walk away. Set up a routine of doing this and you will find more time in your day to do other things.
2. When receiving junk mail or spam immediately delete it without taking your time to read it. You don’t even need to open it.
3. Ask your friends not to send you spam. If you can’t ask them never ever return it to them or respond and they will hopefully stop sending you junk. Mark spam as spam if your email allows you to do so. This will stop that certain type of spam coming into your email in box.
4. Set up a different email address for store offers you want to receive. These won’t clog your personal email in box. Remember to look at it every week or two. Delete the offers you aren’t going to use. Before signing up ask if they sale their lists, if they do, don’t sign up with them.
5. Make electronic folders for any information you are keeping. This will keep your in box free for incoming mail. If it is something you need to take action on in the next few days mark it with a star or a flag so you know it is something you need to take care of soon.
6. Make a folder for receipts. Scan receipts and when you need them they will be easily accessible. Make a financial folder. When you pay bills on line and your financial institution notifies you the bill has been paid put the notification in the folder. It is accessible to refer back to as needed.
7. Passwords are very important to your security. I don’t recommend keeping them in a word document on your computer for your own protection. I do recommend keeping them in a notebook and put this in a secure place in your filing system (not under the tab “passwords”) or hidden on a bookshelf.
There are electronic password protectors that remember your passwords. I use roboform.com. This company came highly recommended to me from an electronic consultant to several large companies in the Seattle area. I have used it for several years with no problems. There are others on the web also that can be purchased.
8. Make folders for information you retrieve on the internet. A web site can be electronically bookmarked in the browser or the information copied and pasted into a Word document, and then moved to a folder. Make folders for information you do bookmark in your browser to make it more accessible and to save you time.
9. There are many social bookmarks to make it easy for you to retrieve information when away from your personal computer. Delicious.com is one of them. And you can share what you have bookmarked with others and can see what they are interested in that may be of help to you.
10. Online to do lists can assist you in planning your daily and weekly tasks. Many are free and you can manage your tasks from anywhere and any computer. www. rememberthemilk.com is one site. www.memotome.com will remind you of whatever date you have told it to remind you of. And if you have Office Outlook it can also do all of these tasks for you.
Electronics can work for us or against us. These organizing tips to eliminate electronic clutter are meant to help you take control of your computer and take back your life.
Marilyn is a creative organizer who helps women, seniors & their families to create space and end
clutter in homes and offices by setting up custom made systems.
Visit her website http://www.marilynbohn.com for
free organizing tips.
Tags: Clutter, Electronic, Organizing, Reduce, Tips
Sunday, August 29th, 2010
6 Organizing Tips to Reduce Clutter and Stress
Do you ever feel life is passing you by in a whirl wind of activities and personal drama’s? Do you wish for simpler days? That probably isn’t going to happen but what can happen is that you can reduce clutter and simplify your life just by making a few simple choices and maybe a couple of changes. As a professional organizer I suggest 6 organizing tips to reduce clutter and simplify our lives.
1. If you have a project you have been resisting doing and it keeps nagging at you then complete it now. By getting the hardest task or project done and out of the way you won’t have the worry of getting it done later and you will have the freedom of moving on to doing other things you would rather be doing with a clear conscience.
2. Do you get a plethora of paper coming into your home and your life on a daily basis? You can chose to stop unwanted paper from taking up your time, causing you stress and creating clutter. Get off junk mail lists. Proquo.com is just one of many companies that will remove you from unwanted mail lists. To find other companies that offer this service do a search on the Internet. I have reduced the amount of junk mail I receive by 95% by signing up to have my name removed from lists. Reduce the number of catalogs you are receiving and other unwanted mail.
3. Reduce clutter in your home, office and car. Having too much stuff causes stress because it takes time and effort to maintain it and it takes our attention away from other things we would rather be focusing on. It wastes our time because when we have clutter around we have to search for things we have but can’t find quickly. Donate, sell or give away unwanted and unused items. These are great ways to simplify space. We are not only helping ourselves but we are helping our family and others.
4. Getting rid of debt can reduce clutter if this is something that is on your mind and that you worry about. Or if you use your cards to purchase “stuff” because it is on sale or because it is a good buy or too cute to pass up and you have no need for it. Having less is one way to simplify.
5. Pay your bills on line and have companies send your statements over the internet rather than sending paper bills. This eliminates you having to use your time to write out a check, use an envelope and a stamp (which saves money) and put it in the mail box. Make a folder on the computer to send the notifications you receive when your financial institution notifies you that a bill has been paid. This is a great way to reduce clutter and simplify your life.
6. Instead of trying to remember everything you have to do in your mind use a planner. Take it with you everywhere you go. This will reduce clutter in your purse, car, on your desk, and on your kitchen counter as you won’t have those pesky little pieces of paper with notes and appointments stuck or lost all over the place.
Think of the benefits you receive when you reduce clutter and simplify your life. Keep your eye on the goal as you work towards simplifying your life.
Marilyn’s Bio:
Marilyn is a professional organizer who works with women and seniors in clearing clutter and providing organizing tips. Clearing clutter helps those she works with to have less stress in their lives and feel more joy in living.
Marilyn invites you to visit her website http://www.marilynbohn.com where you can find organizing solutions. You will find fun stories and free organizing tips in her blogs, articles and videos.
Marilyn is a creative organizer who helps women, seniors & their families to create space and end
clutter in homes and offices by setting up custom made systems.
Visit her website http://www.marilynbohn.com for
free organizing tips.
Tags: Clutter, Organizing, Reduce, Stress, Tips
Sunday, August 22nd, 2010
Home Organization Tools to Tackle Clutter
Clutter is often the main problem in an unorganized home. It is not that people do not know what to do with their stuff, it is just that they have too much of it. So how do you tackle the clutter beast that is taking over your home? Here are a couple of home organization tools that can help.
A system. If you want to tackle that clutter, you are going to need a systematic way to do it and a system for deciding what to keep and what goes. So for the first of these home organization tools: a systematic way to do it.
The approach I like to use is the room by room approach. In this, you tackle the clutter in each room separately. You also take sections of a room at a time. For example, when I organized my kitchen, I was only working on my kitchen, not on any other rooms in my home. I also only worked on organizing one area of my kitchen at a time; one week it was organizing the pantry, the next week it was organizing the set of cupboards next to the stove. I think you get the idea.
The next of the home organization tools is developing a system for what stays and what goes. Having a labeling system can help with this one. A is for the things you are definitely keeping. Think hard before you put something in this pile. This should only be reserved for the things you absolutely love. B is for the things that you are not sure about. A home organization tip for this one: Do not leave anything in this category for more than 6 months. After 6 months, it should either go into the A pile or the C or D pile. C is for the things you are going to give away. Make sure that everything in this pile is in useable condition. D is for the things you are going to toss.
Another of the home organization tools that can help you take on the clutter is a brutally honest friend. Getting rid of the clutter in your home can be easier if you have some help. The trick is getting someone to help who is not going to let you keep stuff that they know you do not use. The other piece of this is that you need to make sure that you do not get mad at your friend for their home organization help. They are there to help you get rid of your stuff, not enable you to continue hanging onto things that you no longer have a use for.
Get more home organization tools to get your house in order today. No more excuses for that clutter. Get your free home organization help at http://www.YourHomeIsOrganized.com
Tags: Clutter, Home, Organization, Tackle, Tools
Saturday, August 14th, 2010
Home Organization: Techniques to Organize and Reduce Clutter
www.averagegoddess-freebook.com Learn the techniques, skills and tools to get your home clutter free and perfectly organized. Home organization tips perfect for the office, garage, craft room, or any room!
Tags: Clutter, Home, Organization, Organize, Reduce, Techniques
Monday, August 9th, 2010
15 Tips and Tricks For a More Simple Living with Less Clutter
Living with less clutter is a healthy way of living, more and more people are realizing this as well. If this is your new found desire the following little tips and tricks will get you closer to that desire of living with less clutter in your home.
Some will work for you and some won’t either way start now with the following list:
1. Use an empty Kleenex box for plastic bag storage, keeps the bags tidy in a very small storage space.
2. Use large empty coffee can to store rolls of waxed paper and aluminum foil.
3. Use a plastic over-the-door shoe organizer to sort and store your home office supplies, the pockets are great for pens, glue, stapler and staples, scissors, CDs, and paper clips.
4. If you have a Scanner, scan your bills and store them on a CD. This will eliminate up to 95% of papers in your filing cabinet. (Do not forget to shred your bills prior to discarding them)
5. A simple but powerful rule, in with the new out with the old, every time you buy a new item get rid of something comparable that you can do without.
6. Quick questions to declutter your cloth, does it fit properly? Is the cloth faded? If yes or yes get rid of it, give it away.
7. Use a medium-size garbage can as a bedside table, you can store out of season cloth in it. This is perfect for the kid’s bedroom.
8. If you collect magazines, you can recycle the huge can (usually used for popcorn) and curve the magazine to fit in the canister, you may be able to store up to two years of a subscription in one spot.
9. Put all your sheets in an “underbed” container stored in the spare room, this frees up the linen closet.
10. Keep your socks and pantyhose tidy with sandwich-size plastic bags. You can sort them by color and type making it easy to pick out.
11. Keep the boxes new shoes come in, they work great for storing and stacking. If you do not like what they look like decorate them
12. Create”a place for everything” this is the key to decluttering.
13. Use a basket for your paper clutter, collect the stacks and then sort and toss while watching TV.
14. Instead of buying all your plastic containers all at once (which can be expensive) buy one every time you go shopping, before you know it you will have all of the necessary storage containers you need.
15. And finally 15 minutes per day keeps the clutter away, one way to beat the clutter is set the timer for 15 minutes and start putting away items in one room, when the timer rings, you’re done for today. Do this each day and you will be caught up before you know it. Know this you can do a lot in 15 minutes when you are focused on only one task. I love this one!
I hope you can find something that will work for you and get yourself closer to living a clutter free life.
Decluttering tips providing step by step strategies to remove stress caused by chaos and clutter in your life. As a work from home Mom I can tell you first hand the importance of decluttering quickly and creating an organized home has done for my life and my business.
From Manon The Organizing Queen
Monday, August 9th, 2010
Home Storage Ideas and Home Organization Tips for Reducing Clutter
Home storage ideas and home organization tips can be used to remind us of common sense solutions to clutter and chaos at home. Why search online for home storage ideas and home organization tips?
The reason is, clutter can actually be stressful! You are trying to find something, you know it is somewhere, but where? In general, storage takes a certain degree of organization and preparedness. Cramming key possessions into a tiny closet or simply leaving things lying around is not the answer.
One way to begin is to think about getting rid of things you do not absolutely love or need or have not used for years. One trick to getting rid of clutter is to simply donate undesirables or have a garage sale. While throwing things away can be difficult, knowing that they will go to someone else or you can receive cash for them makes saying goodbye easier.
When considering home storage ideas, keep in mind that organizing the entire home in one day may be too much to tackle. Instead, start with a room or two. Separate things into three decisions – trash, donate and keep. You might want to do a second run on your decisions to make sure you have not put something you want to keep in the donate or trash decision and vice versa. Once you have done your selection of items to keep, you now can begin thinking about where things will be stored or storage furniture and containers.
Home storage ideas and organization can generally be classified into these four types of storage:
Easy access storage – bedroom closets, kitchen cabinets, baskets and any other storage that give you easy access to items that you use frequently.
Open storage – shelves to proudly display china, ceramics, pots and pans or antiques. This type of storage needs to be cleaned frequently because your objects will collect dust or grease, depending where they are located.
Closed storage – cupboards, bakers racks, bathroom vanities, built-in cabinets, built-in pantries, wall bathroom cabinets, drawers and more. These storage cabinets can be used to reduce all types of clutter in any room in the house.
Long term storage – use for holiday ornaments, ski equipment and clothing that you only use during certain occasions. Most people keep these items stored in the garage, attic, under the bed or in the basement.
Home storage ideas in the bedroom mean having a special place for everything to ensure that the room stays tidy. The bedroom is a private place, a place to sleep and to relax after a hard day of work. One should not have to step into the bedroom to find tissues, socks and clothing strewn across the room. Ideally, the best of the home organization tips would be to have a walk-in closet that has compartments for different items.
Limit the number of hanging rods and try to have more shelves, more pull-out drawers and shoe organizers to fit things into your closet. Try not to have a walk-in closet that is so full of clothing that you can hardly walk into it. Good lighting in your closet will definitely help with locating just what you are looking for. Consider the height of each person in the family so you do not have racks and shelves that are too high to reach as this can be irritating and even unsafe.
Shelves are useful to store everything from shirts and sweaters to handbags, belts and ties. A tower of drawers is a great way to organize folded clothes and perhaps store your favorite shoes. Tie racks and belt racks are innovative and can be used to store belts and ties. Freestanding wardrobes tend to work well, especially if you have a tight budget. A wooden freestanding wardrobe can be an excellent way to add extra storage to your bedroom.
Home storage ideas and home organization tips can help you organize your home so that possessions are in their place so they can be found when needed. Getting rid of clutter means reading as much as you can about home organization tips and home storage ideas so you can create a place to enjoy for many years to come.
Copyright 2007 InfoSearch Publishing
Learn more home storage ideas and home organization tips that you can use today. David Lee Buster is VP of InfoSearch
Publishing and webmaster
of http://www.yourdreamloghome.com – a
popular website for those who love homes.
Tags: Clutter, Home, Ideas, Organization, Reducing, Storage, Tips
Sunday, August 8th, 2010
Home Organization Tips – 5 Fast and Easy Ideas to Get Rid of Clutter
Are you embarrassed to have family or friends over because of your cluttered and disorganized house? You are not alone! Many people struggle with basic household organization and continue to do so everyday. In fact more than one out of four Americans remarked that they would like to be better organized in a study done by the National Association of Professional Organizers. You can carry on living this way and feel down on yourself each time you look around or panic each time someone knocks on the door, OR, you can take some simple steps to having a clutter free living environment. The objective of organizing isn’t to make your home spotless but rather to make your everyday life more calm and functional for your whole family. Here are a few simple home organization tips and ideas to get you started right now!
1. Put things Back Where You Found Them-
Have a “home” for every item, and make sure it is put back if it is removed. Always put things back in their place when you are done with them and especially before you move onto something else. This will not allow things to pile up and look overwhelming to sort through.
2. Snail Mail-
Deal with mail as soon as you walk in the door with it. Immediately toss or shred anything you don’t need such as credit card offers and other junk mail! Take care of any bills you receive right away so you eliminate the risk of losing it or forgetting it and ending up with late charges. (23% of adults say they pay bills late (& thus incur fees) because they lose them! National Association of Professional Organizers)
3. Don’t Let Dishes Pile Up-
After dinner take the time to clean up the table and do the dishes, make sure everyone helps out so it will go a lot faster. This should be especially easy if you have a dishwasher, but don’t forget to run it before you go to bed!
4. Dirty Clothes-
Have a place for everybody to put their dirty laundry (not on the floor!), and space permitting have them put it in designated pile (whites, colors, etc.) to save time later on. Also, do the laundry in smaller segments when one pile gets big enough for a load to avoid Laundry Overload later on!
On a side note, sort through your clothes and get rid of or donate anything you don’t wear anymore to a local charity. This includes clothes that are no longer in fashion, no longer fit, or clothes you haven’t worn in at least a year. (We wear 20% of the clothes we own 80% of the time. The rest hangs there, just in case. National Association of Professional Organizers)
5. Enjoy Your Clutter Free Home-
Light some candles and sit down to watch a movie or read a book. Enjoy your new functional and calming environment. Not only is your home now more immaculate, it is far more calming and even healthier. You can do this, and once you see how much more relaxing your home is you will never want to go back to how you were living before. Who knows, maybe you’ll invite your friends and family over for a get together now and be proud not ashamed!
The National Association of Professional Organizers reports that about 80% of the clutter in your home is a result of disorganization not lack of space and approximately 80% of what we keep we never use. If you are ready to take action regarding your clutter problem visit the link bellow for more information and tips. If not now, then when?
Link- Home Organization Tips
I use all of the above mentioned tips to improve my home organization at home. I love to come home to an organized environment after a long day at work, it helps me to keep my sanity and enables me to relax without feeling I need to get so much done. I hope that soon you can feel the same when you walk in your door. Make sure you check out this site http://www.squidoo.com/homeorganizationtips.
