Organized Activity Areas in Your Office

The efficient office at home or work should be zoned into activity areas. These areas will help you stay focused on the particular task you are working on.

 

1. The Work Center:
This center includes a clear workspace, the computer and frequently-used office products. This is where you accomplish most of your day-to-day work. The clear workspace is for writing, placing paperwork to look at, putting things together, or whatever it is that suits your needs. Do NOT convince yourself that the place where your keyboard sits is a clear workspace. It will not allow you to feel free to move and work as you please if you need to first move an important object such as a keyboard first. The computer is always important to keep close by your immediate work area since it plays such a vital role in most of the work we do today. Important office supplies include a pen, a stapler, sticky notes or whatever else you need to carry out daily tasks.

2. The Reference Center:
This is home to your binders, manuals, dictionary and professional books and materials. All the materials you use as to reference facts, figures, theories or important industry knowledge are important. However, they do not belong in your direct “work space” area unless you utilize the reference every single day.

3. The Supply Center:
This center contains office and paper supplies. Things you definitely need to store close at hand but do not use more than once a week or when working on specific projects. This center is also best kept out of sight if possible.

After these activity centers are clearly defined it will be easier to navigate your work space and stay focused to complete your different jobs more efficiently and effectively!

6 Easy Steps to Great Meal Planning

To most people meal planning sounds like a huge commitment of time, energy, and money.  However, you may be surprised to know that just putting in a bit of effort can pay off in SO many different ways.  You and your family will be more organized, you can actually be healthier and lose weight, and even save money at the grocery store!

Follow these steps and you’ll be a meal planning pro in no time…and happier because of it!

1. Commit yourself to a time

Do it now! Set yourself a day and time when it will be your weekly planning time. Weekly plans are much better than monthly plans, which can quickly become too overwhelming and too much work, and all the easier to give up.

2. Draw up a simple reusable meal planning chart

List the days of the week, Sunday-Monday.  Put a box underneath where you can write down the chosen Meal of the Day.  Then you can either put a box underneath to write down the ingredients you’ll need at the grocery store or you can make the shopping list seperately based on the Meal Chart.

3. Spend only 15 minutes a week planning your weekly menu

Sit down somewhere comfortable without distractions and browse your cookbooks or the internet for recipes for the week. Once you have chosen the recipes for your meal plan write them in your chart along with the ingredients you need to add to your shopping list – so you can go out and buy the things you don’t currently have.

4. Plans can still be flexible!

Don’t feel like you have failed if you don’t stick to your plan – always ensure that you plan some quick and easy meals in your week as well as meals that require longer preparation, so if you need to swap days around, it’s not a problem. Sometimes life just happens and the plan is there to make it easier for you!

5. Keep your schedule in mind

This one is pretty obvious, but plan to make meals requiring longer preparation time on the days you have the most free time, not on the days where you will be running around too busy to even take a breath! Plan the quick and easy meals for your busier days.

6. Reuse weekly plans you have already created

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel when it comes time for meal planning each week.  Once you have up to 4 weeks of meal plans you can use them again and again.  Keep all of your old plans somewhere safe in a folder, so they can be reused!  Now on the weeks you don’t have time to plan your meals you can pull out an old chart and follow that plan.

Brown Bag Meal Planning Quick Tip:

Do you find you want to eat a healthy salad for lunch some days but have NO time in the morning to prepare it? Simply buy a bag of pre-cut, pre-washed lettuce.  At the beginning of the week, place measured amounts of the lettuce in a container.  Put wax paper over the lettuce in the container and begin to add the nuts, berries, and other ingredients you want on your salads for the week over the wax paper.  This way you can just grab the prepared salad and go adding the ingredients when its time to eat the salad.  The ingredients will stay fresh and dry and the salad will taste just as good as if you had made it right then and there!

Have No Fear, Our Scary Desk Contest is Here!

With a little neglect our desks at home or at the office can become a terrifying mess! Some say a messy desk is a sign of creativity and imagination. Many times this is simply our justification for the mountain of papers, stray pens and pencils, and empty water bottles piled on our desks at any given time.

When looking for lost items on your desk becomes scarier than the things that go bump in the night, something must be done!

1. Use A System To Manage Paper

The thing that makes most desks cluttered is paper. The best thing to do is try to come up with a system for purging  and filing paperwork that works for you! Create a place for every piece of paper that comes your way.  Set up trays or desktop files that are designated to actions that must be taken.  For example, Take Action, To File, Bills to Pay, Reply, etc.  Whatever you need to do with your papers on a regular basis is how you should set up your files.  Remember do NOT put them out of sight.  If they are right in front of you, you will be more likely to take action and do what needs to be done.  Now you just got rid of the scariest part of your desk!

2. Trash those printouts

After printing a file and completing the action associated with it, throw it away. You already have a copy of it on your computer, so you don’t  need to keep it lying around on your desk.

3. Throw away pens

Why do you need so many pens? Throw them all out except for two or three. If it doesn’t have a cap, toss it.

4. Limit photo frames on your desk

Pictures of loved ones remind us of what’s important in our lives. More than three on your desk, however, is a distraction. Instead, use Flickr or Facebook to store photos which you can view in a slideshow during a break for a mental boost.

5. Ritualize

At the end of each day, schedule 10 minutes to clean up and organize your desk space.  Once you get into the habit it will be easier.  Eventually you may be able to reduce it to once a week after your other organizational habits kick in.

Once you get your desk organized with the right systems that work for you, you can go back to living your life free of fear!

 

Is your desk still as scary as ever? Enter The Organized Lifestyle’s 1st Annual Scary Desk Contest! The lucky winner will recieve professional organizing services from Kristin Mastromarino to help you brave the challenge of organizing your Scary Desk.  Visit www.theorganizedlifestyle.com for more information on the contest or to download an entry form!

What’s Hiding in Your Junk Drawer?

Every home needs a dumping ground for spare keys, pins, and such, but how fast can you find those items when needed? Even the smallest changes to this drawer sized abyss of junk can make all the difference! If you’re feeling motivated to tackle that scary junk drawer, these steps may help you on your way to organized chaos!

1) Purge: Take everything out of the drawer and lay it out. Create three piles: the Throw Away pile, the Keep in a Different Place pile, and the Keep pile. There may be things that are actually complete junk and need to be trashed or there may be valuable gems you forgot you had! Knowing everything in the drawer and getting rid of the useless objects is the whole point of this step.

2) Plan: Once you have everything sorted and have gotten rid of some extraneous items (hopefully!) you can begin to think about organizing within the drawer itself. Take a look at the items you have chosen to keep in the drawer. You will need a drawer organizer or a system of drawer organizers that can help you keep things seperate and able to be found. For smaller things such as batteries, buttons, safety pins, paper clips, and small items such as these you want to find a series of smaller boxes or compartments. If you have larger items such as scissors, pens, tape dispensers, and scrap papers, you will want to find larger or longer options. If you find you have all types of things, buy something that accomodates both sizes. If you can’t find something that perfectly suits your needs, try to make it work  by being a little creative. For example, if a compartment is too large, cut out pieces of thick cardboard or even wooden pieces and arrange them in a cross for a quick fix to make smaller compartments.

3) Execute: Once you know where and how you will keep all the junk drawer items, its a matter of execution.  Put the drawer organizers you planned in the previous step into place.  Then begin placing the objects into each compartment.  Try to put the items you use the most close at hand.  If you’re always grabbing for those scissors, put them in the front of the drawer for easy access. Remember, not ALL items must be sorted perfectly into compartments.  If you still have some items floating around place them in that area of the drawer thats not so perfect.  Just make sure they aren’t items you use a lot! 

Now at least there is some order to the chaos of your junk drawer! You don’t have to go searching through the drawer for an important item only to come up empty handed.

To look at our wide variety of drawer organizers please visit www.theorganizedlifestylestore.com and find the products that work for you!

The Eco-Friendly Guide to Organization

Sometimes as we’re organizing it feels as though we’re putting so many things to waste.  In a culture that is becoming more focused on the outcome of the planet, throwing all our old items, paperwork, and scraps straight into the trash can cause a bit of guilt.  But it doesn’t have to! There are many ways we can organize and still feel as though we’re protecting our planet.  After all, being more organized, cutting clutter, and saving time are all forms of reducing, reusing, and recycling! 

It’s Fall and even though the leaves are falling we can still save some trees:

 The average household throws away 13,000 separate pieces of paper each year. Most is packaging and junk mail.  Purging the files and paperwork in your office, file cabinet, or even the pile of mail on the kitchen countertop is essential to remaining sane!  But purging all your paperwork doesn’t have to feel like the death of 100 trees.  Simply taking a few extra minutes to recycle the paper you purge can make a HUGE difference. Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution! You can make your life more organized AND make a significant impact on the preservation of limited natural resources. Talk about motivation to purge that paper!

 

Postive Habits Come Full Circle:

Paper isn’t the only thing we feel as though we are wasting when organizing, cleaning, and purging our homes.  We’re also guilty of throwing away other items in our home, for example clothes, furniture, and old towels.  The truth is giving to a charity can be easier than just junking items such as clothes, furniture, and other nicknacks.  Dealing with transporting the item to a waste disposal facility can be pricey and inconvenient, not to mention unpleasant! Instead pick a charity! It will feel better to give to the people who truly need it.  You can even get your kids involved so they can clean out old, outdated toys and see what it’s like to give (and to organize).  As for the other items, get creative! If you cut up those old towels they can be used for reusable cleaning rags or even hand towels in some cases.  Save those paper towels AND recycle old towels! Now you’re getting green.

Fall Cleaning & Greening:

After all that organization you now have lots of room and space.  Keeping it clean and organized is the next step in the battle towards organization. However, the notion that when we clean our homes we make that environment dirtier is not a pleasant one. Consequently, we rinse and flush a lot of extremely harsh and unfriendly chemicals down the drain where they overwhelm the water treatment plant’s ability to neutralize them and they are flushed out to contaminate the watershed.  In addition, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the air inside our homes averages 2-5 times (and up to 100 times in extreme cases) more polluted than air just outside our homes.  These harsh chemicals have a lot to do with this terrifying statistic.  But you can keep the cleaning process green as well! Eliminating the harsh chemicals from our homes is even better. Not only are there new environmentally safer products to choose from, but also there are older alternatives that were used, and effective, before harsh cleaners were ever made.  One great line of these eco-friendly products is the Caldrea line.  They offer everything from countertop cleansers to laundry detergent, but use all-natural and non-pollutant ingredients.  You can even feel good about their aromatic hand lotions!

(Find these products and MANY more at The Organized Lifestyle’s online store! Simply visit www.theorganizedlifestyle.com to find creative AND green ways to organize your lifestyle!)

“Purpose” Your Rooms for Efficiency

Assess Your Rooms

Walk through your house with a pen and a notebook, writing down the activities that take place in each room and the items associated with those activities. Then ‘purpose’ your space.  Note your desired use for each room, even if you are not using it that way currently. Remove anything that doesn’t relate to your proposed activity for that space. Start with one room, but keep the whole house in mind.
Think of rooms that have multiple purposes as several smaller areas, so it’s clear where items should be returned if they stray. If gift-wrapping is the designated activity for a certain part of the study and you find a spool of ribbon in the kitchen, you’ll know exactly where it belongs, and so will other family members.
This strategy lays the foundation for long-term change. By assessing your home and finding “purpose” in each room you’ll be able to see how certain activities and their supplies are strewn throughout the home―like paperwork, memorabilia, or toys–and work on containing them to one area.  This will help you to tackle clutter in the home.  If you are only “tidying up” without knowing your priorities this can be counterproductive. Using a `tidy up’ approach means you are rearranging rather than organizing. Sooner or later, the space relapses to its original condition.

Work on creating “purpose” for the spaces in your home today!

For ideas on how to do this visit www.theorganizedlifestyle.com!

Organize Your Cleaning Products, Just in Time for Fall Cleaning

The beginning of September marks a change of season, a change of wardrobe, a change of schedule, and an overall change within your home!  Time to put away those summer clothes, start back-to-school schedules, and begin changing your summery home habits for cooler Fall routines.  Fall cleaning will help you transition to a more conducive home atmosphere!  During your precious Saturday hours, an organized, fully stocked broom closet will save you time, motivate you, and remind you what you need to do. If you don’t have a whole closet to devote to cleaning supplies, part of a pantry, a nook under the staircase, or a corner of a room will work, too.

Once you’ve designated an area for cleaning supplies there are a few specific items that will need a few solutions.  Follow the tips below to have the most organized cleaning station yet!

Problem: Rags everywhere.

Solution: Don’t put dirty rags back in the closet. It’s too hard to distinguish between clean and dirty ones. Launder them after use. Keep small clean rags in a hanging bag so you don’t have to worry about folding or stacking them. Larger towel rags can be stacked on a shelf.

 

Problem: Cleaning products are in a confusing pile on the floor or shelf of the closet.
Solution: Keep the products you use most in a handled caddy. Store the rest in a spot that is accessible but not in the way. One great product to help with this issue is the Cleaning Storage System. This storage system helps make cleaning easy and accessible with this shelf system. The wall-mount storage holder has a detachable caddy on top with a handle and lifts out for quick and easy use. It stores your cleaning products and scrubbers. The wall mount has slots for cloths and garbage bags as well as three hooks and four pole holders for mops, brooms, rags, etc. Perfect for the garage, mud room or laundry area to keep all your cleaning supplies neat and handy!

 

Problem: The insides of your rubber gloves are always damp, and they don’t dry well hanging over the side of a bucket or the sink.

Solution: Glue clothespins to the inside of your broom closet or door, and clip the gloves by a fingertip to air-dry, open-side down.  If you don’t want the pins permanently affixed to the wall try a hanging solution that is easily removed.

 

Problem: Brooms, mops, and other long-handled cleaning tools clutter the floor.

Solution: Mount mop and broom holders on the back of the closet door or a nearby wall. They’ll be out of the way and can air-dry, yet are easily reached for quick clean-ups.  One great product aside from the Cleaning Storage System mentioned above is the Mop & Broom Organizer offered by The Organized Lifestyle Store.  This is a cheap and effective solution for storage of all your mops, brooms, dusters and other cleaning tools.  You can choose to either screw mount the organizer to a surface or use the self-adhesive mounting tape for a less permanent solution.

Problem: The vacuum cleaner is bulky, and always out of reach.
Solution: Position your vacuum cleaner front and center, so it’s easy in, easy out, making vaccuuming a less daunting task. If you can, hang the hose on a hook to free up floor space and to keep from tripping over it.

You can find the products mentioned and many more by visiting The Organized Lifestyle’s online store! Simply go to www.theorganizedlifestylestore.com to view our wide array of products to help you organize your lifestyle!

From Hell-On-Wheels to Well-Oiled Machine!

Ever feel like your vehicle is a moving office or a second home on wheels? Although it is sometimes helpful to accomplish tasks in traffic or reduce the risk of leaving important papers or gear behind by storing them in your car, clutter in such a small space can threaten to bury you.  The following suggestions may help you find ways to use your car space more efficiently!

Front Passenger Seat to Mobile Office:

If you find you are keeping files, paperwork, PDA’s, laptops, cell phones and more in order to work on the road they probably end up all over the place.  A good solution to this is to create a mini mobile office in the front passenger seat.  A compartmentalized container on the seat can hold office supplies, files, and electronics.  One great product is the SwingAway Driver Organizer. This car organizer provides a place to tuck your phone, PDA, favorite CD’s, file folders and more securely into one of 8 roomy pockets. Have a passenger to accomodate? Simply grab the handle and swing the attached organizer around to the back for front seat passengers. Now you have a perfect mobile office right on hand when you need it or easily moved when you don’t! To charge more than just your cell phone purchase a simple adapter kit that has multiple plugs.  Now you can use your laptop, PDA and cell phone during soccer practice without running out of battery!

Backseat to Entertainment Center

If you have children they probably use the backseat of your car as a temporary playroom.  In fact, it can become dangerous to drive somewhere without a way to keep children occupied and entertained! The Kids Compact Car Organizer is a perfect way to end your child’s back seat boredom and eliminate back seat chaos. The center divider keeps everything in place. Identical sides with three pockets each hold games, CD players, books and drinks. Kids can convert the flip-top lid to a sturdy tray-top playing and eating surface or a nice table to finish up their homework. The compact organizer can fasten in the middle of a sedan with a seatbelt or sit on the floor between seats in a minivan setting. If more storage is necessary, hang an additional organizer behind the driver’s seat to hold more CDs, snacks, calculator, atlas, and other school supplies or games.

Trunk Area to Locker Room

If you find you have soccer cleats, ballet shoes, Tae Kwon Do uniforms, golf clubs and a little bit of everything else filling up your trunk space you may feel like your trunk has turned into a locker room.  Instead of fighting the build-up, work with the transition! Make use of vertical space with collapsible bins to hold all the sports equipment, water bottles, and coolers.   Just make sure these bins have handles and are easy to move so you can pull them out and store them in a garage or closet in the off-season!  One good suggestion are collapsible Scout Bins. They are poly-woven, water resistant and practically indestructable! Offered in a multitude of great colors and a variety of sizes to fit your needs.  To store uniforms or costumes the best way is to hang them up. Buy simple Car Hooks and hang up team jerseys for easy access and quick changes. Just make sure you leave an open area in the trunk space as alternate storage for things such as groceries or other temporary transitional objects.

Quick Tip

Another great item to add into any car is some sort of trash bin.  The bin can really go anywhere in your car.  Figure out where the most trash accumulates.  If your kids are gthe messiest then placing the bin in the backseat will help collect the garbage and make it easier for you to clean up! If you find you as the driver are the main trash accumulator you may want to place the bin closer towards the front for easy access while driving.  A great product for trash collection in any car is the Trash Stand Floor Litter Bag. This handy bag is leak proof and holds up to two gallons of trash. The bottom grip strip and weighted base hold it firmly in place. The sturdy lid closes to hide the mess while mesh pockets keep wipes and tissues handy.

You can find all the products mentioned and many more at The Organized Lifestyle’s new online store!  Simply go to www.theorganizedlifestyle.com to check out all the products you can use to organize your lifestyle!

What’s Holding You Back?

When people struggle to manage their time, they very often jump to the conclusion that they are internally flawed somehow, or are incompetent in this area of life.  They throw their hands up in resignation, vonvinced that “out of control” is just how life is supposed to be in the modren world.  Both of these perceptions are totally inaccurate and self-deflating.

Once you learn the skill of diagnosing time management problems you will stop wasting time and energy beating yourself up or working yourself to exhaustion.  Use the quick 3 level diagnostic below to determine the cause of your obstacles and get to work on the proper solution!

Level 1 – Technical Errors:

These are easily resolved mechanical mistakes.  You need a skill or technique you don’t have and information available in books or by asking our personal professional organizers at The Organized Lifestyle will teach it to you.  Once you understand these errors, you simply make the appropriate adjustments to your approach and you’re all set!

Level 2 – External Realities:

These are environmental facotrs that are actually beyond your control.  You didn’t create them, and they put a limit on how organized you can be.  By recognizing these you can stop blaming yourself and find a more direct way to manage or eliminate them. Some examples of external problems are unrealistic workloads, health problems, being in transition, being in an interruption rich environment, or having a disorganized partner.

Level 3 - Psychological Obstacles:

These are hidden, internal forces that prevent you from achieving the life you desire.  If you have conquered all of your technical errors and external realities and are still feeling out of control, its likely that you have a psychological force working against you.  Some examples of these obstacles are having unclear goals and priorities, overscheduling yourself, having a fear of downtime, having a need to be a caretaker to others (but not yourself), having a fear of failure, fear of completion, or fear of disrupting the status quo of those around you. When you realize whats causing certain self-sabotaging habits, you can begin to break free of their control.

ORGANIZING A UNIQUE AND INTERESTING BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR CHILDREN: A Flower Fairy Party

This party is so much fun and stimulating for a child’s imagination! Simply follow these 5 easy steps!

5 Easy steps:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Purchase a book on flower fairies or go on line and print out information on this subject.

2. Start the party informing the children that they will be building their
own flower fairy house after you give them some background on what flower fairies are all about.

3. Have each child gather supplies from nature such as large flowers (used upside down as a roof for the house), acorn caps (used as a bath tub or sink), grape vine twigs, branches & bark (for fences & walls), leaves, ferns, moss, etc.

4. Provide a small box to make the structure in, string & glue to hold
everything together.

5. Guide them in constructing everything in a very small scale since flower fairies are tiny according to history. They can set their completed house, box and all in their own yards after the party and let them know they can sit next to it and invite the fairies in. They can check on them to see if they notice any signs of fairies living there.