New Year’s Organizing Plan & $25 Giveaway

In “The Staying Organized Survival Guide“, I recommend turning organizing into a habit by taking small daily steps on your ‘staying organized’ journey. By spending 15 minutes a day organizing, you CAN get and STAY organized.

If you do not already have a copy, grab yours HERE and learn how to get the organizing habit, so that staying organized is as automatic as cleaning your teeth.

The Staying Organized Survival Guide

If you’re not convinced check out these reviews:

“I loved it! I felt myself nodding the whole way through …” – Sunny Side Up

“I truly enjoyed the book and recommend it for anyone who is sick and tired of feeling like they are wasting their time organizing because the clutter and mess always returns.” – Ladies Holiday

“A million times better. I can tell you that reading this book made me actually *do* something …” – Stay At Home-ista

“… let me tell you what a difference 15 minutes can make!!” – Ducks In A Row

By establishing organizing as a habit, there is no reason to let the holiday season interrupt your flow. It is just a bump in the road, after which you can start or continue on with your journey towards staying organized.

If your home is chaotic following festive visitors, kitchen pandemonium and an influx of gifts, then try this sample plan of typical hot spots and waste no more time in deciding where to start. But remember, slow and steady wins the race – stick to your 15 minutes a day.

New Year’s Organizing Hot Spots ‐ A 20 Day Plan

The kitchen.
Did yours see a lot of action this Christmas? Then let’s bring it back to order.

Festive crockery ‐ pull out all those fancy plates, platters and serving dishes and put them back into your long term storage area.
Pantry/kitchen cabinets (part 1) ‐ what did you buy in especially for Christmas but never got round to using? Find it and note it on your menu planner to use up soon.
Pantry/kitchen cabinets (part 2) ‐ did you get any edibles as Christmas gifts that you are never going to eat? Donate them to a grateful home before they go stale.
Kitchen countertops ‐ blitz the clutter that has no doubt accumulated (gifts, toys, cards, snacks etc). Ensure there is nothing left that is not used on a daily basis.
Refrigerator ‐ throw out anything that has expired, freeze anything you can save and use up anything that is on the verge of being past its prime (try stewing those wilting vegetables for example).
Freezer ‐ unjumble your freezer if it has turned into a lucky dip with all the festive activity. Take an inventory, label newly added items before they become unrecognizable and arrange the contents in an easy-to-find manner.
Junk drawer ‐ this is bound to have expanded with clutter since you last organized it, so have a rummage for anything you can get rid of.
Chargers/cables – label up all the new cables and chargers that arrived with all the new gadgets your family received for Christmas.
Update command central for the New Year schedule ‐ with back to school and work on the cards any day now, take 15 minutes now to ensure you are on top of commitments, schedules and appointments for 2013.

The kids’ room.
The chances are your kids received more than their fair share of Christmas gifts. If they are still scattered all over your living space, get them organized before school restarts.

1 in, 1 out – take your kids on a whirlwind tour of their bedroom and find 10 items that they no longer use or need that can be donated or trashed.
Find a home – relocate your kids’ presents to their rooms and help them find everything a home.

The bathroom.
If you have been enjoying the season’s festivities, the chances are you have been making more use of the bathroom and have had less time to put things away. Now is the time to get back on track to ensure your morning routine is stress free.

Shower/sink/tub surround ‐ relocate items that are not used on a daily basis and ensure that your daily items have their own specific home.
Gifts ‐ identify any bathroom type gifts that you are never going to use and donate them now. Don’t hang onto them because you ‘ought’ to – send them to a better home and avoid cluttering up yours unnecessarily.

The master bedroom closet.

Clothes quick declutter ‐ did you receive clothes as gifts or find party clothes lurking in the back of your closet that you will no longer wear, don’t like or can’t fit into! If so, send them to a better place – out of your home.
Shoes quick declutter ‐ as above for shoes you’ve never worn, those you’ve worn only once, those that hurt your feet or those that you just don’t like.
Containerize – use up some of those boxes that came with all the presents to containerize the new accessories you received as gifts (if you like them). Try and use the “1 in, 1 out” rule to stop your collection growing too much.

Papers.
Now is the time to gather together all those bills and paperwork you’ve been putting to one side and sort them out.

Bills ‐ organize those extra Christmas bills so you know when they’re due. Arrange to pay any that you can online.
Filing cabinet ‐ if your filing cabinet is organized, declutter what you can to make room for the new year – perhaps those credit card statements from years ago. If you do not have a filing system for your paperwork, set one up and use it from now on (sort out the backlog later).

The living room.
Return your living space to an area of your home where you can relax without having to look around at stressful piles of clutter.

Quick scan ‐ grab all those items that belong elsewhere and return them to their proper home.
Christmas decorations – get them stored away. Start by sorting them to make it easier to decorate next year, make sure they are in containers that give them protection and label, label, label, so you know what they are.

Hopefully these 15 minute daily tasks will kick start your organizing journey or get you back on track in a manageable way after all that festive fun!

Now It’s Giveaway Time

All you need to do to enter is tell me which area of organizing you are struggling with the most using the Rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Open to anyone who can legally enter, receive and use Paypal Cash. The winning entry will be verified prior to the prize being awarded. No purchase is necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent’s permission. The winner will be chosen by Rafflecopter and emailed after which he or she will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

Good Luck & Happy New Year!

Chloe

The Staying Organized Survival Guide

At last, having spent two months working on my book, The Staying Organized Survival Guide is ready for publication. Phew!

It’s written especially for those who know HOW to get organized but can never seem to STAY organized … which was me until a few months ago when my system, which hinges on incorporating an organizing slot into your daily routine, began to take shape.

I actually used the system to GET organized as well as to STAY organized but I didn’t want to write another book that takes readers room by room and talks them through how to organize everything from cutlery to linen. There are plenty of great books out there that do that already.

Instead, I wanted to help those people, like myself, that compulsively consume organizing books and online information, so know a lot of what they SHOULD DO but never actually TAKE CONSISTENT ACTION over the long term.

Short term, yes. I’ve had my fair share of frenzied organizing weekends but the rot soon crept back in and it was very demotivating to start all over again a few months later.

Instead I built 15 minute bite sized chunks of organizing into my daily routine. I established the organizing habit, began to anticipate when my willpower was waning and learnt to overcome and deal with setbacks as they arose. I also studied highly organized people and identified their key strategies that I needed to replicate to be able to stay organized.

To make getting the organizing habit less overwhelming, my book asks you to try these ideas for only 30 days to see how you get on. You can do anything for 30 days right? What’s the worst that can happen. You’ve spent 15 minutes a day for 30 days and you’ve made PROGRESS on your organizing journey!

Now a Number 1 Best Seller!

Grab your copy TODAY on Amazon.com.

Please let me know how you get on.

Thanks!

Chloe

PS If you’ve written a book too, I recommend joining the AuthorMarketingClub.com for Book Marketing & Selling Tips for Authors.

The 3 Golden Rules To Stay Motivated When Organizing Your Home

How To Stay Motivated When Organizing Your Home

Does organizing your home feel like climbing a mountain?

Is it filled with cute and functional organizing tools; bins, baskets, tubs, dividers, labeled file folders? You name it, you’ve got it and they are all filled with the appropriate items.

Do you have a calendar on the wall and another in your purse to keep track of your (and everyone else’s) appointments and schedule?

But do you still have a problem?

I bet you can’t get into a rhythm of looking at said calendars except when you remember to write things on them (which isn’t always) and even though you started out with the best of intentions, you find yourself letting things pile up on the kitchen counter and your desk, even though they really do have a home (bin, basket, tub, divider or file folder) waiting to welcome them in. You want to be organized. But….

Being organized isn’t something you do. It’s actually more of who you are.

You don’t ‘do’ politeness or hospitality, you are polite and hospitable.

So while the key to organizing your house does include having bins, baskets, tubs and all the rest, having those things doesn’t make you stay organized. YOU make you stay organized. But, how, you ask?

Rule 1 – Achieve To Succeed

The ability to stay motivated to perform a task is often directly related to successfully achieving a similar task before. So use this to your advantage by breaking your overall organizing goals down into bite sized tasks and ticking them off as you go. Each one you tick off will motivate you to start another.

Be practical when considering how long it will take you to get organized. Once you take the leap into being organized, initial successes may spur you on, but if you are expecting overnight success, your enthusiasm may soon wane. Stay organized by recognizing that this is a lifestyle change, not a one-off event.

Recognize your successes as you proceed and reward yourself for what you achieve. Tie in your reward to the size of the task or to the amount of your overall goal you have completed – this could be a short break, a coffee, your favorite dessert, a trip to the cinema or even a short vacation.

Chocolate Strawberry

Rule 2 – Have A Daily Routine

Organizing every day will help you stay motivated by making the task habitual. Even if you can only spare 2 minutes a day, make sure you use them. As you will probably not be looking forward to these 2 minutes, it is best to get them over with first thing in the morning. This way you are more likely to stick to the routine.

Keep being organized easy by having your tools of the trade ready to go and on hand at all times. By ‘tools of the trade’ I mean your Keep, Donate/Sell and Trash bins. Keep them in your garage, basement or mudroom and take them with you to wherever you are organizing.

Surround yourself with ‘being organized’ auras to immerse yourself in this lifestyle change. Subscribe to ‘How to get organized‘ magazines or online resources (shameless plug!) so you will constantly be reminded about organization and can be inspired by others. Get excited about your plans and successes and talk about them publicly with friends and on places like Facebook.

Rule 3 – Acknowledge Life Happens

Take into account that sometimes you will not be able to perform your daily organizing tasks – you may be sick, there may be an emergency or any number of other things could get in the way. The key is to not let that demotivate you and to restart your program asap. The longer you leave it, the harder it is to get started again. If you have had more than a few days off, pick one goal and start really, really small. You’ll soon be back on track.

Life Happens

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Save $000s By Getting Organized

With the economy in the state that it is, saving money is high on everyone’s agenda.

Pink Piggy Bank

If you are also one of the 25% of Americans who would like to be better organized, then here’s a great reason to get started:

Being organized saves you money.
Not just a few $$$ either – it could be thousands.

Here’s how:

Take control

If you are feeling out of control with your job and housing situation, rising costs and other life uncertainties, empower yourself by getting organized at home and at least being in charge of what you own.

Find out what you have got hidden away. Work room by room, going from cabinet to closet to outdoor shed and remind yourself of what it is you have cluttering up your home.

Then next time you go shopping you will know you don’t need another bottle of soy sauce or that pair of red shoes that are such a bargain.

Focus on the kitchen

As well as spending money on duplicates when you don’t know what you have lurking in the back of those kitchen cabinets, the kitchen is a key place where you can save money by being organized.

Food waste – save $750 per year

Keep a magnetized dry erase board on your refrigerator or freezer telling you exactly what you have stored in there. Do the same for food cabinets, keeping the board on the inside of the cupboard door.

Reach for leftovers first and preserve anything you can’t eat right away. Freeze food in one meal portion sizes.

By knowing what you have, you won’t buy duplicates and you won’t let things go to waste.

A recent study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) found that North American consumers wasted an average of 20% of the food they buy, which equates to a saving of $750 per year.

Food Waste

Details: Food waste varies across categories from 4% for oilseeds and pulses to 33% for fish and seafood. The average is 20%. Based on an average annual expenditure on food detailed in the 2009 Consumer Expenditure Survey of $3753, 20% equals $750.

Sources: FAO and 2009 Consumer Expenditure Survey

Menu planning – save $655 per year

By being organized with your weekly or monthly menus, you can save time and stress as well as money. You won’t need to search through your fridge or cabinets for something to cook and you won’t need to give up and order in a takeaway. You will also save money by cutting out unnecessary trips to the grocery store where you will more than likely buy more than you went for.

So make your own magnetic menu planning board, reclaim your kitchen and start cooking again. Just cutting your takeaway or restaurant spend by a quarter, will save you $655 per year.

Details: 25% of the average annual expenditure on food away from the home of $2619 equals $655.

Sources: 2009 Consumer Expenditure Survey and Kimboscrafts Blogspot for how to make a magnetic menu planning board.

Cut out those coupons – save $500 per year

How To Organize Coupons

Do you just ignore those discount attracting rectangles in your Sunday newspaper? They’re not worth much after all. Or are they? The Promotion Marketing Association’s (PMA) Coupon Council says different. In fact a typical family spending 10 minutes or less per week on couponing can save up to $500 per year using coupons, but these figures are from 2008. Since then coupon use has leapt 27%. The Wall Street Journal even considers coupon users shrewder than they first appear, showing how using coupons equates to a salary of $100 per hour. Of course, your coupons will need to be organized and their redemption planned so click here for A Beginner’s Guide to Couponing.

Sources: PMA Press Release and The Wall Street Journal article

Cash in your clutter

The key to being organized is to declutter first. When going through those closets, drawers, cabinets, boxes etc, you will be amazed at what you may find – things you thought you’d lost and even things you didn’t know you had. I recently found $160 in an old wallet tucked at the back of my junk drawer – that was a nice surprise!

As well as possibly finding cash and gift cards tucked away, you will come across items that you no longer need or want, perhaps clothes you didn’t really like when you got them home, old toys your kids have grown out of, DVDs you’ve watched and won’t watch again. Turn those items into cash. Your key decluttering piles on our ‘How to organize your home‘ journey of “Keep, Donate and Trash” can instead be turned into “Keep, Sell and Trash”.

Sell – make $400

Try selling your items via online auction sites such as Ebay or online classified ads such as Craigslist. Alternatively consider any consignment shops in your area, who will display your goods and give you a percentage of the sales price for anything they sell. To learn how a consignment shop works, please click here.

Alternatively you could have a yard or garage sale. Statistics from YardSaleSearch.com suggest that on average, sellers make $400 by getting rid of their unwanted items this way.

How To Organize A Garage Sale

Donate – save more $ than you think

If you don’t have the time or can’t be bothered to sell any of your no longer needed but good condition items, at least donate them to charity rather than throw them in the bin. This can still save you some money in the way of tax deductions. To be eligible you must tally up the market values of what you are donating, keep itemized records and keep any receipts received from the charity. For more specific information please click here.

Save Tax With Charitable Donations

Re-use – save more $ than you think

Once you have decluttered your home, the chances are that you will have a number of storage bins, boxes and binders that are now empty. Rather than buying new organizing products for your ‘Keep’ pile, you can re-use these empty containers. Also instead of investing in new storage solutions, consider alternative uses for existing household items. Food jars are ideal for holding utensils, pencils, screws etc or for making candle holders for the garden. Empty shoe boxes are great for keeping shoes (!) from getting cluttered in your closet or for use as drawer dividers, perhaps for socks.

Organize your finances – save $116+ per year

If you are disorganized with your finances, the chances are you will miss a payment due date and incur late fees. On credit cards alone this mounts up to $116 per year on average per credit cardholder. And this does not even include the interest accruing on overdue balances or other forms of credit such as overdrafts. So get your bills organized, forecast your bank balances to ensure any shortfalls are managed and do not miss any payment dates.

Credit Card

If you are in control of your finances, you will know what you spend. Just analyzing this in detail once a month will help you prioritize your spending, offering you potential savings that were just a black hole before.

Late fees also apply in a smaller way to rented movies or library books, so diarizing due dates in advance can save you money here too.

Details: Based on $20.5bn penalty fees in 2009 shared between 176.8m credit cardholders.

Source: Credit Card Industry Facts from CreditCards.com

Organize your errands – save more $ than you think

With gas prices sky rocketing, being organized with your errands can save you money on fuel. Plan out your week’s trips so you can schedule locations that are close to each other to be visited on the same day. If you’re doing any grocery shopping, pack a cooler with ice to keep your food fresh. And remember don’t go shopping without a list – you’ll only end up needing another visit to the store later in the week.

Shop around for the best deals on gas – save $200 per year

Save Money On Gas

According to GasBuddy.com, “In many areas, gas prices can vary by 20-30 cents per gallon or more within a very small area.” So be organized and check out their site before you fill up to find the cheapest gas station in your neighborhood. You could save about $200 per year just by shopping around.

Details: 30 cents per gallon saved equates to roughly 10%. This saving on a total annual spend on gas and motor oil of $1986 equates to $199.

Source: 2009 Consumer Expenditure Survey

Other ideas where organizing can save you money

Diairise the routine maintenance of your car and home to avoid large expenditures.

Save on utility bills by being organized with your laundry – make sure you always fill the tub for maximum efficiency.

Try and steer clear of impulsive shopping trips – plan what you need to buy and when you need to buy it. Impulse purchases should then be curtailed.

Shop around online to get the best deals for significant and even every day purchases. Keep your eye out for coupons and special offers that mean you can shop early for upcoming birthday or Christmas presents.

Being organized generally reduces stress levels. And given that “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state unequivocally that 80% of our medical expenditures are now stress related.”, it would appear that being organized can help reduce medical expenses and time taken off work sick.

Stress

Quote: FastCompany.com

If you encourage friends and family to become more organized, you could all help each other as part of a frugal community. Ideas include coupon sharing and buying together in bulk. For all 10 Ways to Save Money by Organizing a Frugal Community, please click the link.

You may also be able to save money indirectly by selling your house faster if it is on the market by having an organized home to show off to potential buyers.

Get organized now

As you can see learning how to get organized can save you a lot of money. Just remember it’s not all about buying organizing products and doing nothing with them. It’s about a lifestyle change from pack rat to declutterer and generally thinking about living your life in a more organized way.

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How To Get Motivated To Organize Your Home In 9 Easy Steps

Organization is right up there with dieting and weight loss in the New Year’s resolution department. They’re a lot alike, really. They both require motivation for success. Good intentions are one thing, but following through on them is something else.

Here are 9 easy steps to follow if you want to know how to get motivated to organize your home:

Step 1 – Remind yourself of the advantages of being organized

Organization is essential to a life that is:

less stressful – no more embarrassment when unexpected visitors turn up
more efficient – it’s a great feeling to know where things are
less hurried – no more searching for things at the last minute
more fun – as you’ll have spare time for a change
healthier – think of all those bugs that no longer have a place to hide or all that cooking you could do in a more organized kitchen
more productive – an organized home leads to an organized mind at work or college. It also sets a good example to your kids.

You will also save:

space – making you realize that you don’t need a bigger place/kitchen/closet/garage/yard (delete as appropriate!)
time – leaving more for yourself and your family and to focus on what you want to achieve
money – you will know what you have so won’t end up wasting things or buying duplicates.

If that isn’t motivation enough to get organized, then nothing is.

Step 2 – Break it down

How do you eat an elephant

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Getting organized is much the same so banish your ‘all or nothing’ mentality. If you keep your focus small, you will not become overwhelmed and demotivated. So start by making a list of all the problem areas in your house. Think small – kitchen drawer not the whole kitchen. Pick one item on the list, get it organized and move on to the next. Small successes, and even just crossing things off your list, will inspire you to carry on.

Step 3 – Visualize the end results

Buy yourself a home magazine or go round a show house on a new development so you can see how great an organized home looks. All right, these aren’t real homes with real people, real kids and real clutter, but their calm serenity should inspire you to at least make a start on your chaos.

Step 4 – Give yourself a reason

Have an end goal such as a family party or invite friends over to dinner. Set the date now. That way when you have a bored, distracted or ‘can’t be bothered’ moment, a quick look at the calendar will remind you that embarrassment looms if you don’t get on with it.

Step 5 – Do 10 minutes organizing first thing every day

You need organizing to develop into a daily habit, much like cleaning your teeth. Repeating a task over and over again is the only way to develop a habit and it can take 66 days on average according to the latest research.

It is also best to perform your ‘must do’ tasks first thing in the morning before day to day life gets in the way.

Step 6 – Recognize your successes with rewards

Think of some way to reward yourself for your hard work. Have mini rewards for mini goals, perhaps have a smoothie in the garden, and larger rewards for larger tasks, say that new purse you’ve seen when a whole room is organized. Trying new organizing products is another good way to reward yourself with related goodies. Just make sure to declutter first, before you buy something that you don’t really need.

Step 7 – Make it fun

One of the main problems with mustering up any enthusiasm for getting organized is that it seems so boring. So set a positive atmosphere and make it fun. Open the windows and let in some fresh air, turn on your music, put on your comfy clothes – in other words, do anything to make the job easier. You could even take whatever it is you are organizing outside or to your favorite room in the house to do the basic Keep, Donate, Trash allocation.

Step 8 – Don’t get distracted

If you are very focused for a short burst of time, you will get more done and stay motivated to do more than if you allow yourself to get bored or distracted. Don’t allow yourself to do anything else in the allotted time. Turn on a timer and get going – no toilet breaks, don’t answer the phone, don’t check your e-mail – just FOCUS!

Step 9 – Get an organizing buddy

Buddy up with a friend who is similarly disorganized. Make your list of problem areas together and agree to schedule in 10 minute sessions per day. Contact each other to ensure you are sticking to the plan and to offer support. Alternatively agree to organize together (as long as you won’t get distracted) – one day at your house and another day at hers. You could even just ask a friend to check up on your progress and to cheer on your successes.

I’d love to hear how you stay motivated on your ‘how to get organized‘ journey. Please leave me a comment.

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