Often I speak to women’s groups and their main question about organizing their home is “What do I do with all the paper that comes into my home”? This seems to be a problem for most of us. Here are some things I do that have helped me with getting rid of paper clutter in my home.

•I have had my name removed from junk mail lists.

To get off junk mail lists; here are just two places of many you can go for free service.
obviouslyjunkmail This is a free guide to reducing unwanted or intrusive advertising; this has a lot of information.

ProQuo.com Stop Junk Mail: ProQuo helps request the removal of your name from more data brokers — often the root cause of junk mail — than any other free service on the web. They also help you remove your name from a wide assortment of coupons and weekly circulars, marketing lists, online directories and telemarketing lists. Stop or Start Catalogs: Choose to stop or start receiving some of the nation’s most popular mail-order catalogs. Manage Credit Card Offers: Simply follow the instructions to tell the major credit bureaus to stop selling your personal information to marketers who send you “pre-approved” credit offers.

For all information I do need to keep I have a successful filing system I use called Freedom Filer. This is a wonderful organizing system for all paper needing to be filed. For every piece of paper I keep I have a place for it to be filed. I can always find it when I need it. I do not have any miscellaneous files. If it is important enough to keep it is important enough to have a file for it and then when I need it I can find it.

What have you found successful in taming the paper clutter in your home?

Finished Mug Cake

Cake ingredients inside mug

Cake cooked inside mug

I just finished making this cake. YUM! I didn’t have any chocolate chips but I did add walnuts. It did rise over the top which made me excited, but then it fell. I think it may have been because my mug is larger than regular mugs. But it didn’t matter; it’s all good—and delicious. If you want to feel slightly more virtuous it can serve two. I wasn’t so virtuous; I ate most of it myself. I guess if someone else wants cake they can just whip them up a mug of cake. I’ve got organizing to do.

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 dash salt
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
2 Tablespoons chopped walnuts (optional)
a small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well.
Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk, vanilla and oil and mix well.
Add the chocolate chips and nuts (if using) and mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.
The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don’t be alarmed.
Allow to cool a little, (I cooled mine for 1 minute and 20 seconds)
Tip out onto a plate if desired. I did and then I sliced it.
EAT! (This can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly
more virtuous). And why is this the most dangerous
cake recipe in the world?
Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from
chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!

So get ready to organize with a cup of chocolate cake only five minutes away.

My daughter lives in a wonderful town home and she was told recently she would need to move. She started boxing up her things preparing for the move. She was surprised at all the stuff (as she put it) she had. In fact she had way too much stuff.

Questions she asked herself before deciding if she was going to move it or not:
•Do I still want this?
•Does this mean anything to me?
•Really? This is mine?
•Why on earth did I keep this?
•Do I use this?
•Why would I want to keep this?

As it turned out she didn’t have to move after all so she had to un-pack. However, she is happy because she was able to get rid of a lot of things that were garbage plus two trunk loads of items she donated.

As you are organizing cupboards, closets and rooms, trying to decide if you want to keep something ask yourself the question, “If I was moving would I want to keep this”? This “magically” helps make decisions easier. Then ask yourself the above six questions. As a professional organizer I help women move and these questions are good ones to ask when moving as well as when deciding if it is something to keep or not.

What questions do you ask yourself when organizing and clearing clutter to help you decide if it is a keeper?

Added Shelf to Storage Room

First Problem: I was organizing my shelves in my storage room. (My daughter said, “But you just did that”. I know but I just can’t help it, I am always trying to improve every shelf I have. I love to organize. Anyway, I have quite a lot of candles I am keeping because I use them. Some of them are in the way of each other. I have them in containers but they still aren’t handy to get reach.

Added Shelf to kitchen cupboard

Second Problem: In my kitchen cupboard the bread is kept on top of some bowls I use often. (Someone else in my family puts it there; it isn’t the kind of bread I use). This has sort of irked me for some time but I thought I would have to live with it.

Solution: You know how those cartoons are where they show a light bulb and someone gets a bright idea? That’s what happened to me. As a professional home organizer I am always putting shelves in women’s homes to increase space. And I have a lot in my own home. Now I have two more and I am so pleased with my extra space. (And hello, why didn’t I think of it sooner)? Better late than never.

Oh, it only took ten seconds or less to put them in my cupboards. That’s not counting my shopping time or the time I took to wash them before putting them in my cupboards. What light bulb moment have you had when you have found some wonderful organizing tool?

This week Fall softly came to our city with the sound of rain drops on my window. I was happy with the thought that cooler weather was here with the hope it was here to stay. Then I watched the weather forecast and she said we would be back to summer temperatures by the end of the week. Softly summer is creeping back to keep us hot for awhile longer.

Isn’t this just how it is with clutter in our homes? It softly creeps up on us until one day we say “Where on earth did all of this clutter come from”? Here are some tips on how to avoid the clutter creep:

In the kitchen:
•Keep the dishwasher unloaded. This way when something needs to be loaded it can be.
•After using a utensil, bowl, or pan load it in the dishwasher right then. This saves you time later on having to come back and loading. It also keeps the kitchen cleaner looking as dishes don’t pile up in the sink.

In the bedroom:
•Hang up clothes as soon as you take them off, or put them in the laundry.
•Make your bed every morning.

In the bathroom:
•Toss (recycle) bottles when they are empty, don’t hold on to them to clutter your space.
•Get rid of soap slivers. Decorative soaps can also be clutter if they are never used and just take up space and become dusty.

In the office:
•Get rid of pens you don’t like or don’t use. You do not have to keep every pen that comes into your life. Keep all pencils sharp so when you need them you can use them.
•Create a working filing system so paper doesn’t scatter all over your desk.

It is the little things that add up to big things to make our homes unorganized. Doing the little things in every room every day will help us be organized and stay organized.

What tricks do you use to stay organized?

Saturday I started my big project of cleaning and organizing under the stairs. I knew it was bad but I didn’t know how bad it really was. I had neatly folded quilts, 15 pair of knitted slippers an aunt had made us 20 years ago, six afghans that had been hand knit. We had used them for years but now we are into quilts so we have no need for them. I had wool blankets, old three ring binders, and lots and lots of other stuff. And I do mean just stuff, most of which I didn’t even know I had.

I found my girls christening dresses just stuffed in a suitcase and one was in a plastic bag. I could not believe as an organizer I had taken such poor care of things. I found some things with mold on them. (gag and unhealthy)

I got six huge extra sturdy black bags full of good things I don’t use and won’t ever use for a local thrift shop. It was hard letting go of the afghans my mom made but we had used them for many years and I know she would like to see them go to someone who is in need rather than just being stored in my basement. I had one bag of trash and a small box of things that needed to go other places in my home. Part of organizing is letting go—share with others, it makes you happy and them happy too.

BEFORE PHOTO

AFTER PHOTO

I took a before and after picture but it doesn’t do justice because you can’t see the happiness this has brought me. It has lightened me up—and it is a great feeling knowing what I own. I almost feel like a new person. I now have shelves in that area and a list of everything stored there. I was able to move things from the utility room to the shelves so I have reclaimed my utility room. I will even store the christening dresses the way they should be stored.

I had planned five hours to do this, secretly six hours—it took about 8 ½ hours. I did do a lot of reminiscing as I found things that were my daughters. What big project have you done this year and how did it make you feel to have it done?

When you see an old abandoned house out in a field do you ever say, “What stories that house would tell if it could talk”. I always think those houses look lonely. I would love to learn about the families who lived there.

This made me think, “what would my home say today if it could talk”? I know right now it is telling me I need to get downstairs and clean out under the stairs. I want to build some shelves and make it an organized place so I can store some things that are just taking up space in the utility room.

My plan is to set aside five hours to tackle this job. Included in that plan is to have some fun and to do some reminiscing while I am at it because I know there are some long ago stored memories under the stairs.

I may need a professional organizer to help me say good bye to some things that are just taking up space and are no longer useful to me. It is helpful to have an organizer, friend, or family member help sort and purge because they can be more objective than we are when it comes to our own things.

Wish me luck, this Saturday is the day.

You may know my daughter and her husband just moved to a different state. One of the things they had to do when they got to their new place was to get new phone numbers. This meant I had to program their new numbers in all my phones.

As I was programming their numbers I noticed there were several people I don’t call much anymore so I removed them from speed dial and added others who I call more frequently.

Because I am a home organizer my mind thought of my clients and you all who read my blog and I want to pass on this tip to you. Take the time this week to look at your programmed numbers and see if you too need to ‘clean up’ your phone numbers. And are you using all the numbers allotted to you? We had 20 numbers we could use that I had forgotten all about.

I called the phone company and found out how to program numbers (the last time I had done it was over two years ago) and then I typed up a list of speed dial numbers and made copies for every phone plus I will keep one in my planner. Speed dialing saves time, I love that feature.

Do you have a time saving tip you will share with us? We would love to know it.

After my walk this morning I came home and popped in a tape and started to do some aerobics. As I was watching the three instructors who take turns doing a different routine for three minutes each I thought, “I just can’t do this”, I wanted to stop. I looked at the clock and I knew it would only be eight more minutes to the end of this routine. I knew I could keep going that much longer because I knew exactly when the end was in site.

As a professional organizer I know some days it is hard to get in the mood to organize even when it needs to be done. One tip that has helped me is to set my timer for a certain length of time and organize until it dings. When I organize for women I tell them when the timer rings to stop right then. Take a five minute break and come back to it. That way they won’t get burnt out and will be happy to come back and work some more.

Another reward of setting a timer is we can work to ‘beat the clock’ and in that fifteen minutes we can accomplish more.

How have you used a timer to inspire you?

Have you ever said, now summer is over I’ll have more time, or now the kids are back in school I’ll have more time? Organizing for women makes me realize this is probably unrealistic, but it sounds good. I know I have said it.

As I was going through a cupboard I realized it is time to put away my summer dishes. We have enjoyed using these cute watermelon bowls but now they need to be put in the back of the cupboard and the fall sunflower ones come out.

When organizing your cupboards think of your space in four different ways:

A : Or premium space I call it. These are the places you are in and out of all the time. Usually at eye level or one shelf up or down.
B: These shelves hold items that are used about once a week so they need to be convenient.
C: Items in this space are like holiday items, seasonal dishes, and seasonal clothes.
D: This is the ‘hard core’ storage. You have stuff boxed up and labeled but don’t intend to look at it within the next two years.

What kinds of things can you think of that you would keep in your ‘hard core’ storage area? I can only think of memorabilia inherited waiting to be passed down and things older children, who have left home, but are storing at your home. Do you have any ideas?