Toy Closet Re-do, Check this out!

Four months ago I declared that my children's toy closet was a diseaster. It was so un-organized when I first posted the picture back in April that I had physical reaction to the mess. It got worse, if you can imagine such a thing. It was so bad, that we couldn't close the door anymore and when the kids went in there to get something, I stopped what I was doing to listen for the crash and the dreaded "MOM!" To avoid further injury, I decided to clean that death-trap of a closet out.

BEFORE

When completed, we had 2 tall kitchen bags of garbage and 4 boxes of toys that we are going to put in a garage sale this weekend. Because garage sales occur so flippin' early, I am not a fan of getting up early on the weekends I don't "do" garage sales, I "do" Craig's List instead or make donations! I am curious to see what kind of turn out we have because I promised the kids NEW toys with some of the money we make. Bribery does work when organizing a toy closet with your kids. Once they knew they could buy MORE toys, they allowed me to put a lot more stuff aside for the garage sale! Of course with visions of new Transformers and American Girl Doll clothes dancing around in their heads!

(After)

Let me know of your organizing celebrations or obstacles. I have heard from many of you on how much you like this blog, so I thank all for reading!

Let me know which posts have inspired you to organize a space, I love to hear your stories! email me now mailto:cjkooi@cox.net


Tip of the Week:

Remember that organizing doesn't have to be painful or expensive, you may even make a few bucks on the deal if you decide to have a garage sale after you declutter!

.... Life is Simply Amazing with a little Organizing!

On Your Mark, Get Set, GO!

You would like to get organized, but where on earth do you start?

That is a GREAT question and there are really a handful of answers to consider. You could start with the area that drives you the craziest, for example, start with the kitchen cabinet that you have to slowly open so nothing falls on your head. You know the one you shut quickly to stuff everything back in? You could also start with the most used space, such as your “command center” in your kitchen because this is what everyone will see once entering your house. Or, you could tackle the smallest space first (linen closet perhaps?) or start with one draw in your dresser and see how that feels. If it feels good, do another drawer and then another. If you hate it and find it dreadful, take a break and tackle another drawer another time. There is no rush to organizing your spaces, no one is going to come in and rate your efforts 1-10 (with ten being excellent) and make you do it again, unless you are married to an organizing nut such as myself. (Kidding, I don’t rate my husband’s organizing skills. I may be a nut but I am not an idiot!)

Personally, I like to keep the main areas of the house clutter-free. In my house that means my kitchen and living room, which is what you see upon walking in the front door (thank goodness!) In fact, I have to re-do my junk drawers because they are jammed which in turn means that stuff is sitting on the counter top. (biggest pet peeve of mine!) My 3 year old just discovered that he can reach the junk drawers and I have to figure out plan B for pens, pencils, markers, crayons and scissors. (Note to self: Get this done tonight after he falls asleep!)


The first step to any organizing project is to get started. You should get rubber bands, snack and sandwich size zip lock bags and a Sharpie pen.

This is what I do when I look in a junk drawer that needs to organized:

1. Grab the garbage cans-both the recycle and the non-recycle cans
2. Take the drawer out and empty it the contents completely
3. Place all the paper in a pile
4. Put all pens, pencils and all other writing utensils in a separate piles
5. Find all like items and place in a pile (all business cards, scraps of paper, coupons, schedules and so on)

Now, go through each pile and throw away the stuff you don’t need or no longer work (such as business cards that you can enter in your Outlook or batteries that don’t work, the one earring that has been in your drawer for 5 years and keys to your old house)

Once you have gone through the contents of the drawer and thrown items away in the appropriate piles, the fun starts. The simplest solution is to rubber band pencils, pens, crayons in individual bundles. Paperclip paper that you want to keep and put working batteries in a snack sized zip lock type bag and so on. Make sure you label the zip locks bags with a Sharpie, this helps tremendously if you are the not the only one who uses the junk drawer.

To take the rubber band and zip lock bag idea one step further, run to a dollar store and get bins to place in your junk drawer. This will hopefully reduce the amount of organizing touch-ups you your junk drawer will need in the future.

To make the organizing jobs more bearable, turn on your favorite movie and watch that as you tackle the first job. I turn on my iPod and crank out some great music and try not to sing out loud—I get some of my best work done with great "tune-age" in the background. Even better, hire me to do it for you. It is therapy for me, and instead of me paying a therapist, you can pay me! (Shameless Plug!)

Did this recent post help you? Do you have questions or comments for me? I invite you to email me at any time with your thoughts, feedback and inquiries. Click on my name and you should be able to send me an email. Email Camille NOW! Or cjkooi@cox.net

Until next time, keep reading for Simply Amazing Organizing Secrets and Cost Effective Organizing Tricks!

Prep Your List and Get Out of Dodge!

So maybe not get out of Dodge, but at least get out of the grocery store in record time! How annoying is it when you get home from the store and you realize you forgot the major ingredient for dinner? Ugh--close to nails on a chalkboard!

To avoid circling the grocery store a zillion times or forgetting a major item that you need, create a list. Not just any ol’ list, but an organized list! Hopefully, this blog post will save you time money and frustration.

If you shop at a large grocery store such as Wal-Mart or Target Superstores, you know how convenient it is to buy all your household, health and beauty and groceries all in one place. I often shop at these places to save time, but not always money, unless you are a coupon clipper; which is an old habit that I just re-introduced to myself. Even though the stores don’t double or even triple coupons anymore, I still have saved $20 to $25 off products that I would have purchased with or without a coupon. That’s fun. That alone justifies any other item (that wasn't on your list) you may have thrown in the cart (so guilty).

Grocery Shopping/Meal Planning/Coupon Usage
Figure out what you would like to prepare for dinners for the week. For example:
Monday: Chicken, rice and vegetable (need brown rice, have chicken in freezer and need veggie)
Tuesday: Turkey sausage, angel hair pasta, salad (need turkey sausage, spinach, cucumber, tomatoes, strawberries)
Wednesday: Tacos (need tortillas, cheese, salsa, ground turkey, taco seasoning)
Thursday: Bagel Pizzas (need bagels, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, veggies, have sauce)
Friday: Burgers, corn on the cob, French fries (need buns, ketchup, cheese slices, corn on the cob—have fries in freezer)
Need to bake cupcakes for bake sale: Cake mix, powdered sugar, no salt butter (need all) paper/foil for cupcakes

From the planned meals, you can make your grocery list based on the aisles as they are set up in the store. Then, go through your planned meals and plug in what you need for each meal into the appropriate aisles. If you are a coupon clipper, go through your pile and figure out what you can use for your next trip. Remember, sometimes it is cheaper to buy store brands on certain items then to use a coupon for a name brand. I agree that in some cases, that the name brand is better, so use caution going the all store brand route!

Legend:

(c) = I have a coupon for this item.
(s)= A staple item. This is almost always needed from the store.

Bakery
N/A

Baking
Cake mix (c)
Powdered sugar
Foil/tin cups

Bread
Tortillas (these are sometimes found in the international aisle, where I shop most often, in the bread aisle.)
Sandwich bread (s)
Buns
Bagels (c)

Cereal
Rice Krispies (c)
Special K (c)

Chips/Pop
Diet Coke 2 liter x2

Crackers/Cookies
Wheat thins (c)

Dairy
Unsalted real butter sticks
Yogurt (s) (c)
Cheese Slices
Milk (s)
Eggs (s)

Condiments/Salad Dressing
Ketchup (c)
Rasp. Vinaigrette (c)

Deli
1 1b of brown sugar ham (s) (c)
1 lb of baby swiss (s) (c)

Drink Mixes/Juice
Store brand lemonade/like crystal light (s)
Gallons of H20/ x4

Frozen
Steam fresh veggies x3 (corn, broccoli or mixed veggies)
Frozen mini pancakes (s)

Heath & Beauty
Ibuprofen (store brand gel tabs)
Kids Allergy Medicine (c)
Body wash (c)
Toothpaste (c)

International
Pasta
Rice (sometimes in another aisle depending on your store)
Taco seasoning packet
Salsa

Meat
Turkey Sausage (1hot, 1 sweet)
Ground Turkey x 2 (tacos and burgers)
Pepperoni slices

Produce
Baby spinach (one bag)
Cucumber
Strawberries
Grape tomatoes
Corn on the Cob (8 to 10)
Grapes (s)
Nectarines (s)

If you would like to email me to get your own grocery list template, do so now and I will email one over to you (for free at no obligaton)! It doesn't take much effort to live a Simply Amazing Organized life!

Before and After Photos--Check This Out!

One of the readers sent their own before and after shots of a pantry reorganize she did over this past weekend. SO MUCH FUN!

See the photos yourself!

PLEASE send me your before and after photos of your re-organize celebrations!

Before

After

Spice Containers

Remember my dilemma regarding spice containers? Dilemma solved!

Lea Ortner (real name!) told about the containers that her chef husband uses at home! She described the containers to me and I found them online at this link:

http://organize.ecommerce-site-search.com/results.php?query=spice+containers&catalog=organizeeverything1&.autodone=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.organize.com%2Fkitchen.html

This is my new favorite site...and my mother-in-law seems pretty happy with what I found for her! Mission accomplished! Now to decide which containers to purchase....is another dilemma!

To DC or Not to DC...That Is The Question!

When is clutter, clutter? Clutter is relative; my perception of clutter is probably unlike many other's perception of clutter.

When should you DC(De-Clutter, get it?)? That is the question....below I have some simple suggestions as to when DC should/could take place.

You should DC when:

• When you have a physical reaction to a mess, such as my toy closet (which, by the way, has NOT been done yet!)
• You open your cabinets and stuff falls out
• Can't ever find what you are looking for
• Can no longer park your car in your garage
• Your garage is a fire hazard
• Mold is growing on food in your fridge
• The potatoes in your pantry are sprouting
• You have magazines in plastic that are dated July, 2001
• Your child gets food poisoning from an outdated frozen Go-Gurt that you had in the freezer for 2 years (No joke, I know someone this happened to, and NO, it didn't happen at my house....but it did happen in this neighborhood!)

I DC constantly. I have children who grow a size or more each season. So, I keep a "no longer fits" bag in my daughter's closet. When she puts on something that no longer fits her, she throws it in that bag. When the bag is full, we give it to a friend or donate to a charity.

I also DC my fridge each Thursday or Friday night. I do this for a couple of reasons. One, I have a side by side fridge. (Not my first choice, but it LOOKS nice!) Two, the garbage gets picked up on Saturday morning. Even though I can manipulate the shelves in the fridge, I still don't seem to have enough room. So, any leftovers that are in the fridge come Friday night get tossed. Any fruit or veggies that are in there for more than a week also are thrown out.

Besides the "too small bag" in my children's closet, cleaning out the fridge on a weekly basis, I DC my home office. This is my "command central" for all the paper that passes through the house. Not only do I go through the mail, bills and kids school projects I run a speaker management business. I house all kinds of speaker materials, projects, books and files. I keep a file on each speaker and their projects, I maintain an electronic and paper file for each. Why, do you ask that I still keep paper copies in 2009? Perhaps, it might have something to do with my (self-diagnosed) OCD, but my intent is to always have back up in the event my computer crashes or my files mysteriously burn. So, every Sunday night after the kids are in bed, I sneak down into my office and DC my little heart away. This is my way of getting myself organized for the week. I create my work to-do list, my personal to-do list pay bills online and file away items that I need to keep.

I feel that I almost always have a DC project going on. The next project that I have planned is to DC my closet. I recently got rid of all the clothes I no longer wear but I have since accumulated more "stuff." I am going to add another rod to hang clothes on (my closet is more tall than wide so the only way is to go up) and that will give me some storage space below for shoes...which by the way, is the bulk of my "stuff" that I have recently accumulated! I don't have pix yet of this project but I will post them when I get this project done.

Until then, keep reading for Simply Amazing Organizing Secrets and Cost Effective Organizing Tricks!

***NEW FEATURE: You Tell Me!***
I have one challenge that kind of has me stumped. My mother-in-law recently asked me if there was a way to store seasonings/spices that made using them more convienent yet kept the flavor locked in. She often buys seasonings/spices in bulk (think of buying seasonings from Costco) and doesn't like to pull the large bulk sized container out each time she needs it.

What type of containers do you store your seasonings/spices in? (I believe she is looking beyond Zip Loc bags as a solution!)

Please send me your ideas...I am at a loss with this one!

Simple and Affordable-Kooi Garage Re-Organize Project

BEFORE

AFTER

I am so happy to show you the before and after photos of our garage. Jeff put up shelves and the kids and I de-cluttered!

Some of you have asked if Jeff was on board with the re-org and he was. He actually started the project, put up the shelves, bought matching bins!

We donated over 7 bags of toys & clothes and 3 car seats to Maggie's Place. They were thrilled and we were even more thrilled to see our gently used items go to a place that could really use them!

Total Cost of Project: under $500 for shelves, brackets (more expensive then the wood used for shelves!) and bins.

Total Investment of Time: 14 hours tops...Jeff spent more time waiting at Home Depot to get the wood cut and running to Lowe's to get the brackets. You would think one place would have all that he needed, but no such luck.

Special Note: I would love to hear from you. Please email me or comment on my blog with your organization challenges and obstacles! If you would like to show the world your organizational celebration, send me your before and after photos and I will post them on my blog!

Home organization projects shouldn't break your bank. Keep reading for cost effective tips and tricks to keep your space Simply Amazing.

Zip Locs- Who Doesn't Love 'Em?

Before I begin today's featured blog, let me share this great comment a reader sent in to me:

"Hey Camille, I have to let you know that your blog has motivated me to get organized! I organized my pantry and now I'm actually getting rid of Cooking Light magazines from 2007 and 2008 that I keep thinking I will read! This is just the first step, but it feels soo good:)" --*Mia, May 2009

Please let me know what blog posts have inspired you to simply organize anything! Feel free to email me your organizational achievements or challenges to cjkooi@cox.net or leave a comment on my blog post!


Today's Featured Blog:
One of life's simplest pleasures is Zip Loc Bags, don't you agree? The uses are almost endless. Let me give you some great ways to utitlize these handy bags! You can label the bags with a Sharpie pen and see their contents--a very nice cost effective way to organize junk drawers, bathroom drawers, pantries, laundry rooms and car consoles, loose change and even your suitcase--all with the goal of keeping your life simply organized with little to no investment.

Small sandwich or quart size bags are great for:
1. Hair ties, elastic bands, hair clips, banana clips (tell me you don't still have these!) and bobby pins all in their own bags. Then place all bags in one container perhaps a hat box.

2. Junk drawers-place all like items in one Zip Loc such as paper and binder clips, rubberbands, pencil erasers and loose change.

3. Prepare your snacks a head of time. Place your chips, cookies, sweets, veggies, fresh fruit in handy snack size (pre-portion your high calorie items in packs). The benefits of doing this are endless. One, it will save you calories if you tend to be a "snacker." Two, you will grab what is prepared when you are hungry. If you have fresh strawberries already cleaned, sliced and ready to eat, then your kids have the freedom to grab a bag of their favorite snack on their own. So simple--one less you have to do for them as you are walking out the door to soccer practice.

4. Batteries! Who doesn't have miscellaneous sizes and types of batteries floating around your junk drawer? Save your piece of mind by placing all batteries in one spot. Batteries are sold in packets of 4 and you normally need 2 on any one item. So, that leaves you with 2 batteries that will fall out of the carton and disappear into the junk drawer abiss. Get used to throwing the extras in a Zip Loc right away and you will save yourself a few bucks on batteries each year!

5. In your pantry, put your ready mixed seasoning packets in one bag. For example, throw all of your Mexican Seasonings (such as Fajita and Taco seasoning) in one bag. I always seem to have more than I need at any given time, so I keep them all together in one bin next to my seasoning bottles.


Large Gallon sized bags:
1. If you have a lot of combs and hair brushes, you can place them in larger bags in your bathroom drawers

2. When traveling, take your shower bottles and everything you use in the shower and put in one large Zip Loc. Label it shower stuff with a Sharpie. This will keep your shower stuff all in one place and in the event something spills, it will spill inside the zip loc and not on your other items you have packed.

Likewise, do this for all of your personal items. I have a bag that I use for my morning and night routine (cleanser and moisturizers), another bag for what I need to style my hair including shampoo, conditioner and styling products. I found it handy to put all toothbrushes and toothpastes, floss and mouthwash in one bag. Additionally, you can also place your jewerly, medication, vitamins all in seperate bags.

If you are the main suitcase-packer for the family such as I am, this will make your packing (and unpacking for that matter) mindless! Once your family understand your simple system they can look for those items without too much thought. I don't know about you but if something doesn't jump up and bite my kids on the hand (ahem, and husband) they can't find it! It's all about making it easy for them to find on their own!

3. Large sized bags are great for storing crayons, colored pencils, markers and craft items that you may have in your pantry or toy closet. When I am vaccuming I find miscellaneous puzzle pieces and keep them in a bag in my junk drawer. This is the first place I look when the kids are missing that last piece of their puzzle.

4. In the diaper bag, I used to put new diapers in one large bag with the wipes. That way when I went to change the baby, I could just pull that bag out of the diaper bag and have all that I need in one spot for a fast change. Now, I still use zip locs to put an extra change of clothes in my toddler's bag. I almost never carry a diaper bag with me from errand to errand but have my "back up" back in the trunk of the car at all times!

Likewise, you can also put formula, bottles, bottled water (or spoon, baby food and bib) all in the same Zip Loc so at feeding time you can hurry and feed your starving baby!

5. If you buy items in bulk such as fruit, chips or cereal, take a portion out of the bigger box and place them in a bag and re-fill that bag as you need more. I do this in my pantry when I buy big boxes of cereal from Costco. This saves on valuable pantry real estate--if you have a large pantry--consider yourself lucky!

Let me know what your favorite use for Zip Loc's are! I look forward to your comments!

BTW...my husband and I are working on a garage makeover, finally! We are transforming a very unorganized space to a very functional and organized area all the while keeping our costs very minimal.

Organized and cost-effective...makes for one happy Kooi couple! As soon as the transformation is completed, I will post the before and after photos!

Check out this great comment one of the readers sent in to me:

"Hey Camille, I have to let you know that your blog has motivated me to get organized! I organized my pantry and now I'm actually getting rid of Cooking Light magazines from 2007 and 2008 that I keep thinking I will read! This is just the first step, but it feels soo good:)" --*Mia, May 2009

*Mia is not her real name!

Time Management-Guest Blog Post

This is a guest blog post from one of my LinkedIn friends, Marcus Cage. I thought it was full of great information that we all can learn from--especially considering time management is an issue we all deal with!


In the past few weeks, I have been dialoging with and observing several of my closest clients, colleagues and family and I have come to this conclusion. We ALL have TME MANAGEMENT issues!!! Whether you are an aspiring entrepreneur, CEO or stay at-home mom, time management is an obstacle and a stumbling block for many. In order for us to reach our goals, we must indentify and accept our shortcomings, so I have taken the liberty upon myself to address some issues that we ALL can relate to in some form or fashion.

1.Email- This is probably one of the most common and most unidentified circumstances for many. How much time do we spend responding, reading and sorting through emails? Too much!!! Mishandled, email can be a distraction and an interruption. One remedy to resolve this dilemma is to create three folders in which you can place your messages into. Personally, I have an Action Folder, which is designated for those emails that require an instant reply. I also have a Read/Review Folder, which is designated for messages that are more involved. Industry publications, contracts, and other research material are distributed to this folder. Lastly, I have my Pending folder, which is used for replies that I have sent to other parties or replies from other parties that I must response to. EVERYTHING ELSE GETS ERASED!!!! Check your emails two to three times a day, anything else can be classified as “Overkill.”

2.Phone calls – Also a distraction and interruption when mishandled. Our lives are dependent on communication and phone calls play a pivotal role. However, phone calls must be “Controlled.” My advice is to “Block” out specific times of the day to make and receive phone calls. The times may vary depending on the size of the project and time constraints, but demonstrating this strategy gives you “ Structure.” Emergency phones that have to be taken are at your discretion.

3.Grouping similar task s- This may sound simplistic, but how many of us are exercising this technique. The goal is to do everything ONCE. When you “Bundle” similar tasks together, you free up hours which results in increased productivity. Try taking all your items that need to be faxed in one trip or returning phone calls in one “Block” of time. Also, set aside SPECIFIC days for SPECIFIC business activities. For me, Thursdays is usually when I read research and study new concepts and topics. Hopefully, these tools can be of some help to the biggest executive or aspiring business owner. I am free and available to take any questions or entertain any opportunities or comments that you may have.

Rock, Paper, Scissors...and Scissors, Scissors,Tape

I was fortunate to help my friend "Amanda" (not her real name of course) organize her command center this weekend. The place where all school supplies, mail, keys, bills, scissors, tape, envelopes, pens, pencils, newsletters, batteries, phone chargers, small tools, miscellaneous hardware and much more end up. We all have this place in our house. My main command center is my office but I also have a sub-station or two around the house. I have two designated junk drawers in my kitchen, one which everything gets dumped in before company arrives and one that is for kids crayons, coloring books, markers and so on.


Amanda's command center wasn't bad at all. It is so easy for this area to get out of control. It is almost impossible to keep your command center clean and tidy when there are multiple hands in there several times a day. It is like shoveling when it is still snowing!



So what did we do first? First, we set up some bins on the table. Then, took everything off the shelves, one shelf at a time and placed like things in bins and piles. Any paper items, Amanda placed in one of three piles 1)trash, 2) shred and 3)keep. Once the shelves were empty, we moved to the drawers. As I was emptying out the desk drawers I realized she had some great space to really make this a functioning work area for her. We found more paper for her to go through and some donate-able (is that a word?)items such as place mats and table cloths that she hasn't used in quite a while.



After two garbage bags, two recycle bags and one donate bag we were ready to start placing the items back in command center. Since we set up the bins in the first place, we just used those same bins to place the items back on the shelves. We ended up with a bin of pens & pencils, glue, tape & scissors, phone & game chargers and even a miscellaneous bin.



Instead of placing a majority of the items back on the shelves on top, we used the great desk drawers on the bottom for items that she reaches for the most. We made sure that the bins above were clearly marked for her family to see where everything went. It shouldn't take them but 2 seconds to find their phone chargers and know where to return it.



Lessons learned from this re-organize:
1. Buy what you need. Sounds simple.Not really. It is easier to buy scotch tape in bulk when Costco or Sam's sells 2o roles for the cost of one! But the challenge is to figure out where to store the excess until you need it unless of course, you have a storage room just for this reason.

2. Designate a time for maintenance. You schedule oil changes for your car, you get your eyes checked each year and you get your dogs vaccinated annually. Why not set up a time to clean out command center? If done on a regular basis, it shouldn't take but 15 minutes to make it look great again.


3. Keep it simple. If every time you use your scissors you put them back in the same place you will always know where they are. Then the next time you are in Staples, you won't pick up another pair. If you never know where your scissors are you will end up with 20 pairs of scissors because you can't remember where you set them down the last time. Amanda and I had a great laugh over the amount of scissors we found in her shelves! All of us are like Amanda whether it is scissors, pens, tweezers (yours truly) or what have you!

4. Take the time test. Toss it or donate it if you haven't used in a six months or a year. This rule can be for anything from table cloths to phone books. In the case of phone books think of how often you refer to them. Do you go online to look for a number or do you reach for a phone book? If the latter, then keep them. If you go online, then toss them!



Remember....keep it simple and your results will be amazing!

Brag Post:
"Thank you so much for organizing my "command center." I can't believe how much junk I had accumulated and how disorganized it was. I am so inspired."--Amanda, May 2009

In Need of Spring Organizing--I am!

I am experiencing a bit of spring fever, even here in sunny Arizona where the weather is spring-like for most of the year. But my spring fever isn't because of the weather, it is because I have one space in my house that I just can't seem to keep organized. Mainly because I am not the only one who uses this space, we all use it.

My children's toy storage closet is literally a nightmare for a professional organizer. I have had a physical reaction when walking near this closet--literally. I used to be able to shut the door and forget--well, almost forget--what a scary unorganized mess this closet is.

So, I am putting it out there for the world to see, that even I, have my own organizational challenges. By airing my dirty little un-organized secret I am hoping that it motivates me to get this organized and make it a dream-come-true space for me!

Stay tuned...

Organizing Your First Home Office-Part I and Part II

Part I-Organizing Your First Home Office-The Essentials

Working from home is much different than working in a typical office environment. For starters, you don’t have to get out of your pajamas and into the rush hour traffic. Nor do you have to race to the office to get the prime parking spot and no one is standing over you monitoring your actions. On the flip side, you have no official work space which typically encompasses a computer, a desk, chair, office supplies and phone. So where do you start? Organizing your home office can be a daunting task so let’s make it as simple as possible.

For starters you will want to make sure you have the following items:
1. Phone and phone line dedicated to your business only. Try to get decent long distance rate as well as international rate. If your international rate is more then .10 a minute, then call your provider and ask them if they can do better than that rate. Most often they will to keep you as a customer!

Also, invest in a headset to plug into your phone handset. This is especially handy if you will be on the phone for the majority of your work day. The headset will allow either typing notes or jotting down notes while you on the phone.

2. Dedicate a computer that is used primarily for your business. Although this can be expensive if you have to buy a 2nd computer, it is well worth the investment. Most often homes will have one computer for the family to use. Keep your children’s computer games and programs on another system so it doesn’t tie up the space on your computer. Additionally, if your children dont' use your work computer then you can’t blame them when something crashes, like your database!

3. Use a desk that is big enough for your computer, phone, and small desktop file holder. Try to keep your work separate from an area where everyone’s hands might touch.

4. Buy a box of file folders and a label machine. You don’t need a huge file cabinet so get a 2 drawer file system. This will be enough to house important files and any new file folders you create in the first 6 months.

5. Purchase basic office supplies such as: a spiral bound notebook, pens, pencils, stapler, scissors, printer paper and pen caddy.


Part II- Organizing Your Work Day 101

Once you have your work space and supplies ready to go you are set for your first productive day. How your organize yourself and work load determines your productivity and end results. Remember; keep your day simple and uncomplicated.


1. Shower and get ready as if you are going to work. I am not suggesting that you put on a suit and tie, but get out of your pajamas or workout clothes. When you make calls in your pajamas you may not be as professional as you would be if dressed and ready for the day.

2. Create a to-do list each night before you go to bed in your spiral bound notebook. Use this notebook for everything, your to-do lists, notes you may take while on the phone and so on. Keeping it all in one place will eliminate sticky notes on your monitor or losing notes with important information on it. Feel free to create two to-do lists; one for work and one for you personally. Even though you can store this information electronically, I still like to keep it all in a spiral bound notebook. There is something to be said about actually crossing an item off your to-do list one by one.

3. Set office hours. This is very important lesson that took me five years to implement. My office hours are from 9am to 3pm everyday. That doesn’t mean I don’t work before or after those time frames, but it gives me a dedicated time frame to do the majority of my work. I make calls in a timely manner in all time zones, answer email, and get projects done.


4. Don’t be afraid to take time out for lunch. Just as you would do at the office, take a half hour and eat lunch away from your desk. When you work from home, your time isn’t being monitored, the end result is. How you get from point A to B is your business. The final product or completed project is the end result.

5. Keep your workspace neat and organized. Even if being organized isn’t second nature for you, work on it every day. The more organized you are, the better time manager you will be. The better time manager you are, the more efficient you will be and in control of balancing your workload and personal life.

6. Instead of papers placed in piles across your desk, use your file folders. Clearly mark each file folder and place the files in a very accessible place on your desk. You can use a decorative magazine rack for your must-need files or get yourself a desktop file caddy. Once you start the “pile” system on your desk it is hard to break away from that. Start out with files that are clearly labeled and you won’t lose anything.

7. Set your appointments so you are out of the office for a full day instead of staggering appointments through the week. If you have to travel to see clients, try to set up all client visits on one side of town on Thursday’s each week. For example, you are on the north side of town on Monday’s, the south side on Wednesday’s and so on. I found it is hard to get back and stay on task if I have various appointments scattered throughout the week. When I have a bunch of appointments scheduled in one day, I am prepared to be out of the office for a day and adjust my work load accordingly.

Make your day in your home office Simple and you will acheive Amazing results!

Tips to Organize your Home Office

Get Your Home Based Business Organized

There are many perks to running a home based business. One of the biggest perks is the flexibility in your schedule. Next, deciding which projects and or clients you will take on is freedom like no other! Like most people, being organized isn’t always a priority--but it should be--especially when you are wearing all the hats needed to run a successful business!

Here are some tips that will help you organize your time, work load and tasks.

Create an inviting work space
Create a place that is solely dedicated to your business. Paint, decorate, hang photos, do what you have to so you like to “go to work.” You will be motivated to get started and get through your to-do list if you like the space you are working in.

Invest in technology
Buy a new computer or upgrade your current system. You will be amazed how much time can be wasted waiting for web pages to load, restarting and starting your computer because you need more memory! This is a no-brainer to some, but to non-techies, it takes us a little longer to figure out. When you have a fully functional system, you will be able to zip through things you need to focus on.

Know when to outsource tasks
My rule of thumb is this: If doing a certain task causes stress and it takes you away from your main focus, outsource it. My stressor is day to day accounting. Although most of the accounting software is user friendly, I just don’t do the necessary accounting on my own. I have monthly folders where I place receipts, bank statements, invoices, deposit slips and any money-related information in and hand over to my accountant.
Whatever the task is, you can find a sub-contractor who can relieve that task from your day. Not only does this save you time, but it saves your piece of mind and your focus remains on your business!

Manage Your Time
Let’s pretend you are a business coach who bills clients per each hour long session. It is important to stay on task with each client. You should have a client folder with a checklist of items for discussion. Next, literally set a timer when you begin the conversation so you don’t go over the time limit. Additionally, don’t book yourself so full that you can’t take a quick break to regroup between sessions.

Sound Familiar?

Have you heard anyone say "I need a vacation from my vacation?" That about sums up where I am at today. I need a weekend from my weekend!

Even the most organized (me) find they aren't the most organized all the time. I had a great start to my weekend on Friday afternoon after meeting a high school friend who I haven't seen in 20 years! Yikes, 20 years! We re-connected via Facebook, how cool is that? It was a 3 1/2 lunch reunion and the best time I spent on myself all week. It was "good-for-the-soul" time!

Now, my time "mis"management starts. My biggest challenge for the weekend was to get a mailing out for my speaker-client. I had a 700 piece mailing that had to get out in Saturday's mail. Out of the 700 pieces I had 300 printed, collated, stuffed, stamped and sealed. A good start but I still 400 to get done. Upon my return from my re-union lunch I was still waiting for the remainder of the letterhead to arrive via UPS from the printer. This would have been a quite easy task to get the mailing completed if that was all that I had to do once the letterhead arrived! But by now my internal stress thermometer was at a 9 out of a 10. My children needed me, my husband was having his own reunion with a long lost friend, my daughter had a friend over, no plans for dinner were in the works, and I still had to purchase gifts for 2 kid-birthday parties for Saturday morning and it was already 6:00 pm. Good Govenor.

Anyone who works in or out of the home can relate to the Friday night I had. Needless to say it was a very late night and thankfully, after successfully bribing my husband to collate, stuff, stamp and seal 400 envelopes with me until 1:30 am, it got done. All tasks were complete, but I--okay we-- were exhausted.

Did I learn a lesson or two from this experience? Oh yeah, a whole slew of them. For starters, I should have looked at my Saturday schedule earlier in the week to get the gifts for the parties. Next, I should have ordered letterhead and told the printing company that my "absolute need it by" date was a week prior to when I actually needed it. Additionally, I should have given my husband a heads up on what I needed to accomplish and would require him to be on kid and dinner duty (not his fault, I love being on kid duty, so it is hard to pass this off to him to stuff envelopes!) Finally, I should have recruited four friends to come over to help me with the mailing. I could have bribed them with Sangria, chocolate, anything so my envelope stuffing time was cut in half!


If all of your weekends sound like this, let's figure out a way to avoid this in the future. Here are some things I normally do (but didn't do this weekend)!

1. Look at your whole week calendar, not just a day at a time

2. When relying on others in order for you to meet deadlines, set their deadlines a week before you actually need something (i.e. me needing letterhead from the printer)

3. Give your spouse a head's up on what you need from them so they can adjust their schedule

4. Avoid overbooking your time, your kids and family time

Weekends are to reset your clock, relax and enjoy the fresh air!

Make your week Simply Amazing!

Paper Managment

A few years back I purchased a label machine. It was by far the best purchase I made under $30 that year! I think my initial intent was to label my pantry but ended up using the label maker for all of my files for the speaker management business I run.

My files not only look great, but I can not recall losing anything in years, not that I owe that to my label maker, but you get the idea.

Are you guilty of losing bills, important documents (hmm, I wonder where my social security card is?) or are constantly digging through piles of paper to find your child's field trip permission slip that was due yesterday? If you are, call me today and I will do a complimentary 30 minute personal household paper managment session over the phone with you.

By the way, I just labeled my pantry a week ago, and it looks fabulous!
Camille

You know you need to organize when....

help me out here. Help me get this list to 10. I already have 3 listed but thought it would be fun to hear some of your organizing challenges. Start your post by saying....You know you need to organize when....and then tell me your deal!

Thanks-Camille & Michelle

Residential Large Walk-In Closet

This was a 2-organizer job that took us approximately 3 1/2 hours to complete--this was just the shoe wall. Let me just begin by telling you that this homeowner has the cleanest house in every other room except for her closet! This closet is literally the size of a small child's bedroom and is used for the family storage such as Christmas decorations, camping gear, laundry collection central for the household and much, much more! (oh, yah, and her SHOES!)

Here's what this amazing client had to say about our work: (she wants to remain anonymous!)

"I absolutely LOVE what Simply Amazing did for our closet! Once upon a time (before kids) I had an organized closet, but it had gotten totally out of control and I felt too overwhelmed to do it myself. They came in and took care of everything - they even convinced my husband to de-junk his tie collection! Now I can actually find the clothes I'm looking for and it makes getting ready so much easier. I was worried about maintaining the closet, but it has been 'simply amazing'. My husband and I joke that it actually made our marriage better - seriously! :-) I cannot say enough great things about my organizers!" - Former Closet Clutter Queen (not her

real name!)

Before and After Photos

This initial post is a residential pantry. This homeowner wanted an inexpensive quick fix to her pantry. We used baskets that she already owned (no cost there!) and simply set up her pantry to give amazing solutions to her everyday needs. This pantry functions as a storage closet, kids arts and crafts supply area, and of course food and everything one needs to cook with!