Your Organizing Coach

Get Organized in the New Year

You may already know that "getting organized" is consistently one of the top five new year's resolutions. Maybe it's been on yours. It ranks up there with losing weight, quitting smoking and spending more time with family.

Most people end up not following through with their resolutions. The ones who do have this in common: they got support. They joined Weight Watchers, for example.

Support is necessary because we're creatures of habit. Making positive changes in your life is much easier when you don't try to do it all by yourself. Having help can be the difference between achieving a goal that's dear to you and resigning yourself to failure next year, again.

If getting organized is on your list of resolutions, I'm here to help you. You can have more ease, more space and more time in your life.

Call me at 510-768-7913 or email me at claire AT cluttercoach.net (substitute an ampersand for "AT").

 

Decisions Move the World

I write a lot about decision making. So much of clutter and other stuff that's in your way is the result of not making decisions about it. The pile of needed decisions keeps growing till you just get overwhelmed by it and then the simplest decision seems strenuous. That naturally induces procrastination.

Why decide? Here's why:

• When you don't decide, others do it for you. Are they going to pick the choice you want? Uh-uh.
• The longer you wait to decide, the more likely your desired option(s) will expire or otherwise go away
• When you avoid deciding to keep your options open, you still don't have that thing you want. You just have the option to have it. Would you rather have the daydream or the real thing?
• When you boldly make decisions, you stir up positive energy. You take action. You move. You pull it off.

Decision making is a skill you can learn. I'm almost ready to publish my new info program about decision making and habit building, where I teach you both those vital skills. So, stay tuned, or drop me a line in the comments. What can I help you with today?

Diving board from vauvau's photostream.

How Planning Ahead Can Make You Happier

I talked with someone recently about planning and why he avoided it. He thought it was rigid and unimaginative. On the contrary, I replied, taking up the challenge. I’ll show you how it's flexible and creative. 

Here’s the situation: it’s a warm fall afternoon. Me: Let’s go to the beach! Him: Great, I’m ready. Me: Wait, there’s some stuff I want to take. Him: Let’s just go! 

Planning in advance does all these wonderful things: 

• It creates focus, which then inspires action. Once the beach idea came up, there were a lot of things I knew to do because I could visualize the possibilities
  
  
• Visualizing foresees problems. (It could be cold)
  
  
• Planning crystallizes desire. (I had the desire not to be cold, so I brought a jacket)
  
  
• Keeping track of time makes positive outcomes more likely (we'll get to the place before it closes)
  
  
• Planning closes the gap between wanting something and getting it (the clearer you are about what you want, the faster you can get it)
  
  
• It honors my preferences. They are important to me because I know from experience that they directly affect the pleasure I get from an activity. I can’t control everything (it could rain) but I can control many things, and quite easily (I want a knife for the mayonnaise, not a twig we found on the ground). 

Planning likes this requires imagination because you visualize what could happen. Not just that it might get cold, but that it might be fun to bring a book to read together. Planning is flexible because you can bring a change of clothes in case you decide to go out for dinner on the way home, for example.

You’re not planning a strict schedule that must be adhered to; you're accounting for some other wonderful possibilities you haven’t even thought of. 

Picnic shelters from Ed Siasoco's photostream.

Tip for Purging Email

I admit it, there are tons of unattended to emails in my inbox. The vast majority of it is reading. I'll probably never get to it, but I don't mind it being there. The rest is threads about events or plans that needed some back and forth before getting resolved.

Just going backwards in time is a slow and unappealing way to find emails to delete. Sorting your email by subject first and then by sender will give you two distinct sets of emails that will already be grouped in nice, tossable chunks. You'll get all the emails about the long passed "January 10 meeting" or all the ones from Ellen Campbell. 

If I do start getting rid of my "to read" emails, I can easily sort those by sender too and decide to dump all but the most recent few months, in hopes that I might actually spend time reading them.

Lots of people love email folders but I don't. I use a few for archiving (i.e., things I may never look at again but it there's a slight chance I will) and that's it. When I tried using folders, I'd forget for long periods of time that they existed, and happily got along without them.

How do you decide what to unload from your email inbox? What about folders? Yea or nay?

Dump truck from @cdharrison's photostream

Top Ten Reasons that Getting Organized Brings Happiness

At this time of year, there's a lot of talk about happiness. The holidays can be stressful so there are plenty of magazine articles about how to be happier in spite of them. 

Studies have shown that getting organized is one of the top ten or even top five of popular new year's resolutions. If you don't like making resolutions because they're too discouraging, check out my post on creating realistic ones.

And now, here's why you should make that resolution:

1. It makes your life easier
2. It lifts stress and worry
3. You’ve accomplished a goal that’s been on your list for years
4. It’s positive self care that you deserve
5. It smoothes out family relations
6. You feel proud to invite people into your home or office
7. You can help others more easily because you can find that item you want to give them 
8. It creates a pleasing and serene physical space 
9. Your mind is decluttered so you can think about the important things in your life
10. Your pace of life isn’t so hectic, so you actually have “free time” 

Now that you're inspired, why not contact me for a free half hour phone consultation? Use the "Email Me" link on the left side to start. Remember, I can help you via telephone if you're not in my area, so don't hesitate to contact me. Make it a great new year! 

Zen living room from Wonderlane's photostream

Greatest Hits

Sentimental clutter is hard to get rid of. The watch, the birthday card and the piano all bring back memories of people we loved and good times we had. Throwing those things away seems like an affront, a cold detachment from our feelings. However, if you kept (or are keeping) every nostalgia-inducing item, you'll run out of room for anything else.

Try this. Get all that stuff together either physically or on a list. Categorize it by type (letters and cards, furniture, jewelry, dishware, etc.). In each category, pick the best one or two. By best I mean the most meaningful, most beautiful, most pleasurable ones. The rest you give away, donate or toss out. You're creating a "greatest hits" collection.

The beauty of this is that it not only winnows down your collection, but it concentrates it. Say you only have your grandma's engagement ring and not her flower pots, old slippers, dining table, teacups, wall clock, set of quilting magazines, closetful of fabric and painting of a cow.

That ring is eight times more precious. That ring is the pure, distilled essence of your feelings. Don't dilute your memories by spreading them all over the place.

Greatest Hits from wrestlingentropy's photostream

Organizing by the Numbers

Organizing and decluttering can be overwhelming. Where do you start? The answer is, you just pick a starting place and begin moving forward. Well, how do you do that?

Pick an Number
You can pick a number of items, an hour of the day, or minutes to spend. Try the 27-Fling Boogie from the Fly Lady (she recommends crooning "Please Release Me, Let Me Go" as you toss). Or pick any other number of items that must go into the trash in the next few minutes.

 If you've got a backlog of boxes, tell yourself you'll sort whatever's in there until 10 a.m., or 2 p.m. Then you get to stop. You can do more later but in order to preserve your motivation, be true to your own word (i.e., be nice to yourself).

Try choosing a number of minutes to spend. Depending on what you're doing, even 5 minutes here and there will move you toward your goal. Have fun with it; pick a number out of a hat, roll the dice, use today's date or the amount of money that's in your wallet. 

Tricks are good! Another fun way to get your tasks done is to write them on index cards and then pick random cards when you're ready to work.

Do you have any fun ways to get yourself to organize when you don't really want to?

Number 1254 from 416style's photostream

Studies Show That Buying Stuff Is Good For You!

So often we pit decluttering and being green against frivolous spending and self indulgence; virtuous against irresponsible; conserving against wasteful. It can get to the point where you can feel guilty about buying anything you don't absolutely need!

To the rescue comes a study from Harvard B School showing that in the long run, people don't regret having spent a lot of money on pleasure. The key is the time frame. When people felt they would regret a purchase the next day, they didn't make it. When they felt they might regret that purchase several years down the line, they made it.

Another key idea for me is that the buyer really wanted the luxury item in question. It was clear to them that they would enjoy it and savor it. This is quite different from buying something because you want the experience of buying it, or because it's a status symbol, or just because everyone else is buying it.

I'm all in favor of having experiences and stuff that make you happy. Just check in with yourself about why you want something. And use the research; ask yourself if tomorrow you'll regret forking out for that ruby-encrusted watch or if in five years you'll still feel surge of happiness every time you see it on your wrist.

Do you have something you spent a fortune on that you regret now? Or that you're completely content with?

Chanel J12 watch from bbaunach's photostream

Should I Save or Should It Go?

People who are collectors love to tell me that things they've held onto for years and years have actually come in handy, so it was worthwhile to keep it. There's often a note of triumph in their voices when they come to the story's punchline, "and I had one!" They assume that I'm against keeping things and they want to head off any suggestions I might have for downsizing.

Sometimes, the story is that they decided to get rid of a bunch of stuff that hadn't been used in decades and "the very next day" they needed one of those things. They reluctantly decide it's a big mistake to get rid of anything at all, although they would like to have less clutter. What to do?

I heard a story like the latter one recently and it occurred to me that the storyteller was asking the wrong questions to determine what to keep and what not to keep. He asked himself if he'd used the item in question in the past few years and the answer was no. So, out it went.

But if he had asked, "what will I do if I need this next week and I don't have it?" he would've gotten more helpful answers. Could he borrow one, rent one or buy a new one? Could he farm out the item on long term loan to a friend with the proviso that he could borrow it back as needed? Could he make do somehow with items he did keep? And how would those options feel? If none were acceptable, keeping the item would be the best answer.

The idea is to look into the future ("what will I do?") and not the past ("I haven't used this in years") to make your decision. The future is where you're going to use it (or not).

[White elephant courtesy of Lenny Montana's photostream]

Declutter the Digital

Rule of thumb: it's easier to organize things when there are fewer of them.

How often do you look through a folder or collection of digital photographs and find only a handful that you want to show to anyone? The rest are too dark, out of focus, more versions of the same thing, make you look fat, or you have no idea why you even took them. If you get rid of them now, it'll be easier to find the ones you like and share them.

Next time you download your camera, really look at each photo and decide whether you want to keep it. This is also the ideal time to tag your photos so you can find them again by keyword. If you're making the effort to tag them, the pictures should be worth keeping.

Tags can be very straightforward, such as names of people in the picture, where it was taken, what the occasion was, etc. Also, think about what else is good about the picture, or why else you might want to look at it or share it with others. Is there a fantastic sunset in the background? Is it similar to other pictures you've taken in the past (and might want to compare it with)? Is the mood calm or energetic? Do you want to remember what camera and settings you used?

Pitch those Pix
I know, you've got plenty of space on your hard drive. But think of decluttering your photo collection as a good-habit building exercise. Review all your possessions regularly and get rid of the ones that don't fit, are beyond repair, have been replaced by something better, are ugly or you don't like anymore. If you can make this a habit, you will automatically declutter your life. Automatic is good!