Marilyn Bohn | Creative Organizer

I work with people organizing their homes and offices. I create space and end clutter forever in their homes or offices. I am called for several reasons. Some people feel discouraged, not knowing where to start with all of their clutter. Others are depressed; some have never been taught how to organize. There are oodles of reasons people need help organizing.

Organizing is easy for me, I love to assess what needs to be done and then roll up my sleeves so to speak and dig in. No matter what the reasons for clutter build up and disorganization there is a solution.

My philosophy is “Obstacles are what you see when you take your eye off the goal”. As long as you keep in mind your goal and what you want your room to look like and not get discouraged then the task will be accomplished. A professional organizer can be a life savor as they are objective, knowledgeable and experienced.

Another saying which helps me is, “And it came to pass”. Trials come and trials go, the same with clutter, clutter comes and clutter goes, it doesn’t come to stay. If yours is staying, consider getting a professional organizer. This will free up your life to do other things and emotionally it will be a blessing to you and others at home, work or in the community.

What do you thing is the reason people you know aren’t organized? Leave a comment answering this question and I will share it with my readers. (No names shared of course)

I do believe I was inspired yesterday. My sweet daughter, the mother of my 18 month old grandson sent us our first ever drawing from him. The scribbles are in different colors and at the top she wrote I love you grandpa and grandma. On the bottom she wrote the date.

I do not like things on my fridge because to me it looks cluttered as I have a small kitchen. I put it on the fridge for about 15 minutes and then took it down wondering where to put it. I could start a file with his name on it, but I don’t want to file it away. So I came up with this brain storm.

I took a photo of the drawing—which was on very large paper. Now I have a picture that I can put in my gram book and keep forever. His mother can get a copy to put in his baby book of his first art work. I am going to cut out a 5 X 7 piece of it and frame it for display. This art work will be changed as I get other pictures. No clutter, no mess, no guilt.

If you have several children you could use the same idea, instead of framing part of the picture you could pin it up on a bulletin board after taking the photo. Let the children know this will rotate every few months, put them in charge of changing the pictures. If they are old enough they can take the picture for their book.

As a professional home and office organizer this is something that gets out of control in many homes as the parents can’t toss anything their child does and yet it is a source of bother and stress for them. It is not important to keep absolutely everything your child or grandchild ever does. Keep a selection by year or age in a large envelope with the name of the child, their age, teachers name and year. When they aren’t looking quietly toss the rest, or send it to a grandparent or other relative. As they get older they can write a note on the back to the person it is being sent to.

When I was a child trick or treating was much different than it is today. We didn’t have to worry about what neighborhoods to go to or have our candy checked for problems. We would make our costumes (O.K., my mom made them) and grab a pillow case and off we would run for a fun night of trick or treat. One year I remember I had brand new black velvet shoes for Sunday. I was so excited about wearing them I wore them Halloween night. We got a big snow storm that night and my shoes were ruined. Needless to say my mom wasn’t pleased about that.

Here are some tips for getting organized for Halloween.

1. Take stock of what costumes each family member will need. Check the costume bag to see if there is something that can be re-used, or made over for another member of the family. Thrift stores are good places to find items that can be used to make costumes without a lot of expense or work. Be sure that masks are large enough so they can see well. Another consideration is to see that everyone wears flame retardant costumes, check the labels when purchasing a ready made costume.

2. Get your home ready for trick-or-treaters. Turn on the porch light and if you can light the walkway with pumpkins you have carved and lit with candles or put out Halloween luminaries.

3. Halloween decorations make a festive home. Use dried flowers, fall leaves in a vase with a ribbon tied around it. Pumpkins, corn stalks and gourds can be set around for decorations. And boutiques abound with cute decorations. Be sure to have a plastic box for the decorations to be stored in. I like the orange bins with black lids as they scream Halloween.

4. Many places now have trunk or treat or carnivals for the kids . Haunted houses and corn mazes are fun. Visit your library and check out scary stories or find out where your local haunted places are said to be.

Let’s all have a safe and fun Halloween. Being organized can help eliminate the stress we may feel about getting everything done by the time it needs to be done. By doing one thing at a time, a little at a time it will go a long way to help us have a fun time with family and friends and make it fun for our children too.

My friend Edna has collected rubber stamps for over 35 years. I didn’t even know they were out there back then. Except for the kind businesses used to stamp ‘confidential, over due’ and so forth.

Needless to say she had thousands of them—literally. She was very generous in sharing with others. When my daughter turned 16 we had a party and Edna brought her stamps and fabric paint for the teens to stamp on quilt blocks. They had so much fun.

She used them for invitations, announcements, birthdays, making cards of all kinds, you name it she used them. She took classes and shared what she learned with others. She enjoyed her hobby but was frustrated because many times the stamps were in bags that she had taken somewhere or in drawers and she couldn’t find them to use.

She asked me to ‘put on my professional home and organizer hat’ and come and help her. It was fun going to her basement and rounding up hundreds of stamps. We came up with a system so she could find her stamps and not feel out of control because of the sheer volume.

1. She went through drawer after drawer of stamps, box after box and bag after bag and then donated bags and bags of stamps she could part with. At first it was four bags that she gave to an arts group in Nevada that used them in a community arts school.
2. Then with the ones she was keeping she placed into categories.
3. Next she stamped the stamps onto a piece of paper with the corresponding drawer number so she could find them and use them.
4. While doing this she realized she could part with even more stamps so she donated two bags to Primary Children’s Medical Center. They also loved them for their sick children to use in their art room.

She has now donated 12 very full plastic grocery bags to others. And she still has plenty of stamps for her needs and wants. Edna expressed the fact that she is grateful she had the desire and the means to collect over the years but realizes it is time to let go and by doing so she is blessing the lives of many others. She feels so good about the space she has created in her own home.

All of us have collections of some kind. And that is all good. Take care of them, categorize them if necessary, keep them contained and in good condition. If the time comes to part with your collection; be inspired by Edna’s giving attitude. Just because we collected something at sometime doesn’t mean we have to hang on to it forever, it is O.K. to let go.

When I was a child trick or treating was much different than it is today. We didn’t have to worry about what neighborhoods to go to or have our candy checked for problems. We would make our costumes (O.K., my mom made them) and grab a pillow case and off we would run for a fun night of trick or treat. One year I remember I had brand new black velvet shoes for Sunday. I was so excited about wearing them I wore them Halloween night. We got a big snow storm that night and my shoes were ruined. Needless to say my mom wasn’t pleased about that.

Here are some tips for getting organized for Halloween.

1. Take stock of what costumes each family member will need. Check the costume bag to see if there is something that can be re-used, or made over for another member of the family. Thrift stores are good places to find items that can be used to make costumes without a lot of expense or work. Be sure that masks are large enough so they can see well. Another consideration is to see that everyone wears flame retardant costumes, check the labels when purchasing a ready made costume.

2. Get your home ready for trick-or-treaters. Turn on the porch light and if you can light the walkway with pumpkins you have carved and lit with candles or put out Halloween luminaries.

3. Halloween decorations make a festive home. Use dried flowers, fall leaves in a vase with a ribbon tied around it. Pumpkins, corn stalks and gourds can be set around for decorations. And boutiques abound with cute decorations. Be sure to have a plastic box for the decorations to be stored in. I like the orange bins with black lids as they scream Halloween.

4. Many places now have trunk or treat or carnivals for the kids . Haunted houses and corn mazes are fun. Visit your library and check out scary stories or find out where your local haunted places are said to be.

Let’s all have a safe and fun Halloween. Being organized can help eliminate the stress we may feel about getting everything done by the time it needs to be done. By doing one thing at a time, a little at a time it will go a long way to help us have a fun time with family and friends and make it fun for our children too.

September was full of travel. For two days we were in Washington D.C., then Hershey Pennsylvania, Gettysburg, Antietam, Harpers Ferry and places in-between. I had some down days so I would sew and sew. Then I got the bright idea to send my photos of our trip to Costco pick them up and put them in a photo book since I had a ‘down’ day.

It was so much fun to come home with a full photo book. Now all I have to do is journal, which I do by typing up the captions and slipping them into the book. I wondered if this was being too organized, to have my trip photos all together even before I got home. HUM…I decided it is O.K. I shared this with a friend and she said she has several trip pictures that she has not taken out of the photo shop covers.

As I organizer homes and offices I encourage people to do what makes them the happiest when it comes to organizing their photos. If they love to scrapbook, and have the time and money, then by all means do it. The majority of those I work with are happy with the idea of slipping photos into a book, writing what and who the pictures are about, embellishing with stickers, play bills, ticket stubs etc. and being done and able to enjoy looking at the memories and not worrying about when they will find time to get to yet another project.

I was on vacation for two weeks and all I did and saw was wonderful, but it is sure great to be home.

My daughter Debbie recently returned from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. As I was looking at her pictures enjoying ‘visiting’ another part of the world through her photos it struck me how alike our freeways look to theirs. Their freeway signs are the green ones we are used to seeing. I commented on this and she said, yes that it felt very much the same, except for the insane way the drivers drove.

As my daughter Julie and I were traveling from Washington D.C. to West Virginia to visit Antietam and Harpers Ferry we were very familiar with the freeway signs as they are the same as we see anywhere in the United States and some foreign countries.

I was thinking how nice all this organization was planned by someone years ago so we can enjoy traveling a variety of roads and with the aid of maps know where we are going with the best possible ease.

Maybe because I am a professional home and office organizer I appreciate well laid plans like freeway signs. This is the same for us in our homes and offices. When we plan out what we want our place to look like and we have a goal to work towards it doesn’t matter what our living circumstances are (house, condo, apartment, house boat etc.). We will be able to find things and use them. This is a huge boost to our psychic and emotional well being and we can live with greater ease.

Just a few years ago we celebrated the 500 years of Columbus coming to America. I made a quilt recognizing this event and a small wall hanging. Most of us think of Columbus Day as a day to get off work and a long weekend.

Maybe because I am a professional organizer of homes and offices I really appreciate all the organization that would go into a voyage from one continent to another. I just saw and walked on the ships that sailed to Jamestown, the first English settlement here in America. I was again thankful that I live today and not back then. The quarters were cramped and on one of the ships the passengers were kept under deck the full voyage with only a few times being allowed on deck for fresh air and light.

Just as they had to do on the ships, whatever organizing task you are undertaking, put all like things together and get rid of things you don’t use, or don’t like. This goes for drawers and closets as well. Get rid of clutter. Your ‘voyage’ will be more pleasant.

What do you think of Halloween? I didn’t used to ‘celebrate’ Halloween, the kids would come, I would give out chocolate candy bars, and I made my children’s costumes out of things around the house as I don’t believe in spending money on costumes. I didn’t have any decorations for Halloween.

Things have changed a lot. I no longer have children at home, last year we only had 11 trick or treat-ers. (I have a lot of puzzles left over I was giving out). We used to have 80 trick or treat-ers. And I now have two plastic bins and a canister of Halloween decorations.

Things have changed for two reasons: I used to have a friend who hated Halloween and then I met a new friend, Edna, who loves Halloween. Edna would give me wonderful Halloween decorations so little by little with my treasures multiplying I warmed to Halloween. My daughters wondered what had happened to their mother when they came for a visit because I had all of these cute decorations. They would say, “but you don’t like Halloween”, not true, I just never had any decorations.

Now as I get out my decorations I think of my two friends and I feel my life is enriched by each one of them. My tip to enjoy getting out the decorations is to have storage bins to put them in so they are all organized together. They make color coded containers now which are great. Orange and black (of course) for Halloween. Or the clear plastic ones, labeled on the outside. To me as a professional home and office organizer it is as important to store in a logical way things we only use once a year as it is to keep our closets and drawers organized on an ongoing basis.

Happy month of October to all you ghouls and guys.