More organizing good stuff…..
We are on day 11 of the 30 Day Organizational Challenge! Do you need a kick in the pants some motivation to help you with your project? I’m here to help! Well not me personally because well I wore myself out coming up with this little ditty for Susanne but not to worry I’ve got people….well they aren’t my people but people I’ve rounded up all in one nice little spot to make it easy for you to, you know, get help.
This blog by Dr. Aime Ragan, a licensed clinical psychologist, discusses the concept of clutter — its emotional causes, cures and consequences. She has many great posts including these ones:
The Clutter of Negative Self-Talk
Clutter and Procrastination
Clutter and Guilt
A busy life is not an excuse for chaos, it demands a better system of organization in order to function and not have the clutter impact your productivity. Dr. Ragan
Come to Order
Amy brought this website to my attention yesterday and after checking it out I knew I had to share it with you. Run by Professional Organizer, Karen Henke, Come2Order believes life can run more smoothly by focusing attention on these three areas; Organize, Simplify, Transform. Each month she issues three Project Challenges to get you motivated and help you make tangible monthly progress. It sounds very interesting and something you may find helpful. She has some excellent organizing articles including this one called Organizing 101.
Your Life. Organized.
As much as I love containerizing it is important to note that this is one of the last stages of the organizing process. To me it is the reward at the end of all my hard work. Professional Organizer, Monica Ricci, discusses that containerizing alone is NOT organizing. Please read her post titled Is Storage the Same as Organizing?.
Finally I found this great article over at Lifeorganizers.com. This author discusses each of these 5 simple steps to getting and staying clutter free:
1) The most important step in getting what you really want is to focus on it.
2) Spend ten minutes of clutter clearing every day.
3) How can you decide what you want to get rid of?
4) ‘Things’ are not just things.
5) What’s coming in?
Thought you and/or your readers might be interested in this site:
http://girltalk.blogs.com/girltalk/2007/04/spring_clean_co.html
They are talking about spring cleaning this week at least and have posted a spring cleaning challenge to submit before and after pictures of a spring cleaning project to win a $100 gift card. I thought of you!
Oooooh…lots of reading to do! But I’m afraid that even “bathroom” time is seldom uninterrupted! LOL
I’ve been updating! And working hard! And seeing RESULTS! I can’t wait to take (and post) pictures of my finished product….I’m not done yet but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, now that the Hefty bags are out of the way!
Man, I haven’t even started, been too busy, but I am coming up with ideas 🙂
Day 11? Dont’ you mean Day 2? Oh, yeah. That’s just me! :v)
Hi Laura
I did it! I took before and after shots of my craft cupboard.
That was so much fun. Now I just have to do something with all the clippings from magazines that I’m not keeping.
Just got my desk cleaned off. Whew! Felt so good.
Leaving for 2 weeks to Ireland/England. Happy Weekend!
I’ve posted an update and here it is, for your viewing pleasure!
http://organisingtips.blogspot.com/2007/04/update-on-challenge.html
By the way, one of my friends noticed my name’s spelt wrong on one of the links on your original post. Would you mind fixing it?
Thanks so much!
Thanks for all these links! I’ve posted before pics. I chose the master bedroom. 🙂 I haven’t done much yet, but I am looking forward to getting it done!!
I havn’t started quite yet..I plan to start tonight just getting stuff cleared off. I did blog about my plan. A plan is something I normally don’t do I just do!
http://workingmomma247.blogspot.com/2007/04/30-day-challenge.html
I am not a participant in the 30 Day Challenge, but I have been loving your posts! I have been working on decluttering for MONTHS now! I have an unfortunate habit of adding to the clutter w/ lots of shopping. *sigh*
I will most definitely be looking at all of these links!
Thank you so much for your encouragement!
Sherry
I posted an update to the challenge today! Thanks so much for your wonderful info and encouragement. You are awesome!
Here is my link from today: http://kahri.blogspot.com/2007/04/30-day-organizational-challenge-part-2.html
i just want you to know that i’m having a great time organizing our playroom/office. i love that this is a 30-day challenge, and not a day-long challenge: i can think about it, research options, do a little bit at a time. i’ve already made small changes that have added BIG improvements and i can’t wait to see the final product. thanks again for hosting this!!!
~liz
Great links! thanks =)
I am so excited to tell you that I did some organizing today as part of the challenge, sort of … I did the kids toys with the kids. If I do say so myself, I love my system truly … so go look and let me know how the results look =)
http://skippingwithbrandie.blogspot.com/2007/04/1003724.html
What a perky blog..Thanks for all the great info here..I am so in the need for some organizational skills
Laura,
Thanks for the congrats on the baby and also for the b-day wishes for my husband! How nice of you! 🙂 I just wanted to say thanks again for working so hard to keep all if us motivated!
I think I will be starting a new organization project tomorrow!
~Haley
Thanks for these great links! I believe I will print them out and leave them in the bathroom just like you said 🙂
Thanks for all the encouragement and motivation you give all of us.
Stacy
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AussieinAmerica
Thanks Laura for referencing my blog in yours. I appreciate the bump and hope your readers will get value from my writing as I’m sure they do from yours! 🙂
~Monica
Hi again,
I want to let you know that I just posted some pictures of my progress.
I still have quite a bit to do but am starting to see things shaping up.
Here is the link:
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AussieinAmerica/314548/
I did print off a number of the articles you listed in your post. They are great. Thanks.
Stacy
I am SO glad I found your blog!!
How about some help organizing a blog?! I am attempting to move mine here to Blogger but can’t figure out how to personalize it and make it ‘mine’. You look like just the right woman to ask! *wink wink*
I’ll be watching for some tips!
Anon, the only advice I can give is do what I did and pay to have Susie design it for you! She is amazing and I still love my design even after all this time. I definitely couldn’t have done it myself. Good luck!!
I’ve got a challenge fix ready for ya! Click below to check it out! 😉
http://houseoffeet.blogspot.com/2007/04/update-on-my-progress.html
Sheesh, well, I needed that!!
And since I haven’t gotten to my bedroom yet, I really did want you to get a taste of one of my spaces that I have completed!!
Come on over and check out the nursery closet I just completed last night.
Laura, I’m hard at work on my basement:
http://clutterchallenge.blogspot.com/search/label/30%20day%20org%20challenge
and agree that storage and organizing are not the same. I’m in the process of going through each and every box and not just simply transferring stuff from one box to another for “attractiveness”. It’s time consuming but definitely worth it. My husband asked me this morning if I’m “okay” since I’ve been doing so much decluttering that he thinks I’m going through an emotional “phase” and that I may be overdoing it physically.
Well, I did get organizing done, just not in my house. I posted about it here. http://werallnuts.blogspot.com/2007/04/organizing-in-florida.html
I will start with my junk drawers next. My room will have to wait. We will be constructing an addition this summer that will involve that room. Actually it will involve the whole right side of my house. So I will be purging like crazy.
I worked on my desk today– it’s not completely done yet, but it feels much better!
That entry is on my decluttering blog:
http://www.villageblogger.com/flybaby/3796/Desk+Progress.html
Thanks for the articles. I especially enjoyed the one from come2order. Her suggestion about putting undecided items away for 6 months and reevaluating has worked for me. A few months ago my husband wanted me to throw away some sentimental old figurines, but I couldn’t part with them. Yesterday after looking at them for months I decided they weren’t that special after all. To my husband’s delight they went to thrift store.
That quote you put on your post from Dr. Ragan … “A busy life is not an excuse for chaos…” is very convicting.
You just took my number two excuse away from me… daggone you! LOL!
Okay … I’m slowly working my way towards organization. I’m just finding that I’m too lazy for my own good!
Come on over and see the progress. I will be posting new pics today, after our weekend.
I posted a couple of days ago about how I was coming along. Come find it!
I finally posted some of my original “before” pictures of the nursery. I also started working the other night on the room again, and yes, took plenty of pix. 🙂 Now I just have to get around to posting all the pictures so folks are caught up to where I really am! I put in about 4 good hours of sorting (with my donate, recycle, and trash boxes right at hand) one night, and then started sorting files Friday night. Why is it that paperwork takes so much longer than furniture and stuff you can just donate? *sigh*
Here’s the before pix link, at least!
http://momnmore.blogspot.com/2007/04/before-pictures-winkys-nursery.html
Hi Laura! I have logged about ten hours so far on my orgainization of my sewing room! It is so awesome now, I am so much more productive when I am sewing not searching for things all of the time. Everything is where it should be and all organized by category. I will be posting some ‘after’ pictures tomorrow 4-19-07 but I am still working at it finding new ideas all of the time. Thanks for all the sites to check out!