Going with the flow for organising success

If you have ever tried to set up routines or organising systems in your home, but given up on them shortly after because they just don't work, or feel like waaaay too much hard work, then this post is for you!

Organising Style

I really believe that everyone has their own organising style which is as unique as their personality. What you like to do, how you think, the way you process and store information, your aesthetic style, your priorities - they're all unique to you. This is why I don't think there could ever be a "one size fits all" solution. Many people read books on how to organise, or buy specific organising products, and try to follow "the rules", only to get very frustrated that they can't get it right, and may even end up feeling that they are destined to be disorganised forever. But the problem is not that they just can't get organised - the problem is that the solution was just not right for them.

Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

For example, if you have read about setting up a Home Command Centre (aka launch pad or drop zone) near your front door to help get the kids organised and out the door quicker, but you find everything still ends up piled on the kitchen bench, then having the Home Command Centre at the front door is not the right solution for you.

Go with the flow

Implement systems around the natural flow of things in your home. If your "stuff" always gets dumped on the kitchen bench, then use that flow instead of trying to establish completely different habits - like placing a box for mail on the bench, and hooks on the end of the bench for keys and bags.
Also think about where the sticking points are for you - what are the most frustrating things that happen in your day which make you feel disorganised? Is it always rushing around trying to find your keys? Is it nagging the kids to hurry up because they can't find their school shoes? If you can identify these issues and put solutions in place which address them specifically, and in a place which fits with the natural flow of things, you are going to make a real impact on your organising success.
Would love to hear from you - what are your sticking points?

Why organising is good for the environment

Last week I had the unexpected pleasure of being invited to speak at the SUSTAIN Show, as another speaker had to pull out at the last minute. The title of my presentation was "Decluttering your way to a healthier home, life, and mind". I believe living an organised life has a direct benefit on our internal environment (body and mind) and external environment (home, work place, and global environment), and today I want to share with you some of what I spoke about at the show – how the old "reduce, reuse, recycle" is the central core to my role as a Professional Organiser, and how you can implement this in your home and life.

Reduce

• Declutter – put items back where they belong, and get rid of stuff that has no current purpose or adds no value
• Reduce what comes in – say "no" to junk mail, don't accept freebies for the sake of it, and opt for online bank statements and bills
• Reduce what’s in your schedule and on your "to do" list, which should also reduce your stress
• Reduce wasted time by establishing morning and evening routines, and have a designated home for the car keys and school bags, which should also reduce your stress
• Reduce what you buy, and therefore what you spend, by using a meal plan and shopping plan – this will also reduce the food that you waste by only buying what you need when you need it and avoiding food expiring
• Reduce the number of things you own by streamlining and using multi-functional products (I go through this with my clients when I help them get set up for their baby – rather invest in one item which can multitask and fulfill various functions for a longer period of time, than getting 4 different things). A good example is household cleaning products – you don’t need 15 different bottles of stuff in your cupboard; there are great natural multipurpose cleaners on the market these days, or you can easily make them yourself (again, Pinterest has a wealth of info on this) 

Reuse

• Repurpose what you can at home – storage boxes, nappy boxes, clothing, etc. Pinterest has zillions of clever ideas on how to repurpose items around the home. Don't assume you need to go buy more stuff
• Get involved in collaborative consumption. Check out this fantastic TED talk by Rachel Botsman explaining this rising phenomenon. My favourite quote is “you need the hole, not the drill”. Some of the local collaborative consumption sites here are Open Shed, Rentiod, and Freecycle.
• Donate – pass things you no longer need on to family and friends, or donate to charities like St Kilda Mums, Fitted for Work, Men’s Shed, Footpath Library
• Sell items you no longer need on Ebay, Fishpond, or Gumtree, so that someone else can get use out of it

Recycle

• Very little should land in your bin after a decluttering exercise – you should be able to find a way to recycle just about everything (and if you cant – call me and I’ll find it for you!) 
• There are loads of private companies out there these days who recycle mattresses, e-waste, ink cartridges, mobile phones, CDs and DVDs, XRAY films, you name it! Plus stores like Bunnings, Officeworks, and Ikea have recycling bins for things like batteries, lightbulbs, and mobile phones. Check with your local stores what they can accept
• At the very least, find out how to dispose of items responsibly, don’t just chuck it in the bin or leave it on the nature strip. Check what programs your local council has, as some have specific e-waste and chemical waste collection days

Coming from an environmental science background, this is obviously all very close to my heart and I can go on about this all day, but I'll restrain myself! As always I would love to hear from you if you have anything to add, or questions to ask. Just comment below!

101 Uses for Command Hooks

Being a renter, I have always relied on my trusty 3M hooks and picture mounting strips. But then through the wonders of Pinterest I discovered all sorts of creative ways to use them - from storing pot lids to hanging curtain rods, and everything in between, and subsequently I use them a lot with my clients. (Here is a little Professional Organiser's secret...Ssshhhh don't tell anyone I told you! If you are struggling to keep your horizontal surfaces organised - use your vertical surfaces! Hooks, hangers, wall-mounted hanging organisers, etc - piles can't form on vertical surfaces)

I have started my own Pinterest board to collate my findings, and would love you to contribute if you have any more clever ideas. I have no doubt we can find 101 uses! Please comment below telling me how you use Command Hooks and email me photos if you can - I'll pop them on my Pinterest board (crediting the source of course!!)

Visit my Pinterest board

How I use 3M Command Hooks 

Two of my biggest irritations at home... 1. rattling blind cords flapping about in the wind when we leave our doors or windows open, and 2. wet cloths hanging over the tap or left on the side of the sink.
Problem solved!!

Here are some other ways I have used them in my and my clients' homes:

The extra large hooks I used to store extension cords also work wonders for hanging large laundry baskets on the wall above the washing machine or laundry trough - great to get them out of the way and stop wasting valuable surface area in the laundry.

So please get commenting - I can't wait to see how you have put these fabulous little things to use!

* Please note this post is not sponsored by or in any way affiliated with 3M - this is purely my opinion and experience.

HOW TO :: Avoid post-holiday chaos (and blues!)

Yes I have already done a 'HOW TO' post this month, but I decided to give you two for the price of one as school holidays are almost upon us! This post is actually Part B to my previous post on how to be better prepared for a family road trip, but applies to any kind of travel - business, pleasure, plane, train or automobile.

One of the biggest contributors to post-holiday blues is coming back to the drudgery of your normal daily life and all the undesirable tasks you have to do. If things have been frantic before you left and you are coming home to a messy house and smelly fridge, this is definitely going to be compounded. Here are a few simple tips to help ease the transition from holiday bliss into daily routine, by avoiding chaos and stress.

Images from freedigitalphotos.net 

Planning for the trip itself is obviously very important, but so is planning for your return, and this is unfortunately what many people fail to do. Having things all sorted and organised for the first few days after you get back home will extend the enjoyment of your holiday too.

1. Tidy the house - don't leave piles of clothes on the bed that didn't fit into the suitcase, and do a general tidy up around the house so that it is a pleasant space to return to
2. Don't leave dirty dishes in the sink or dishwasher
3. Have enough clean clothes, work shirts, school uniforms etc washed and ready for when you get back so that there is no desperate rush to do laundry
4. If you are going straight back to work or school, have the bags packed with the correct files, books, homework, or sporting equipment required for the first day back
5. If you will be away for more than a few days, clean out the fridge and dispose of any items which will expire while you are away 
6. Consider ordering some groceries online and getting them delivered on your return, so that you have some basics to get you through the first day back without needing to rush to the supermarket
7. Remember to empty all the rubbish bins, and place the big bins out for collection

Do you have any other great tips on how to ease into daily routine post-holiday? Please share them in the comments below - I would love to hear from you!

www.homeandlifeorganising.com.au

HOW TO :: Be better prepared for a family road trip

School holidays are just around the corner, and if yours is one of the lucky families planning a road trip, then these tips are just for you! Whether you are just taking a quick day trip, or heading off for a couple of weeks, better preparation and less stress will make for a much happier family experience.

The key is not having a rigid schedule and trying to ensure nothing can go wrong – rather it’s actually acknowledging that things can and do go wrong at times, but you can be flexible and equipped to deal with unexpected changes without the wheels falling off - figuratively speaking of course!

Plan Ahead:

• After you have plotted your route using your GPS / Google Maps / map book, check with your local road network authority, as close to your departure date as possible, for any road works or events which may cause road closures or delays along your route (eg. http://alerts.vicroads.vic.gov.au/)
• Plan frequent stops along the way at locations which provide the facilities you require – play equipment, baby change facilities, restaurant, petrol station, convenience store, ATM etc
• Check the weather forecast for the days you are travelling on, not just the days you will be at your destination, so that you can factor in longer travel time if it’s raining or snowing, or extra stops if it’s very hot
• Time your journey to avoid getting stuck in peak hour traffic when travelling through other main towns or cities
• Confirm your booking details and time restrictions which may apply for check-in and check-out, so that you can plan your arrival and departure times accordingly. You don’t want to arrive at your destination at 11am only to be told your room/campsite will only be available after 2pm! 

Things to remember:

• Charge the batteries for the portable DVD player, iPad, camera, phone etc, and pack the chargers and car adapters in an easily accessible place
• Make sure your travel insurance is up-to-date and covers you for the location you are travelling to, and any activities you plan to do while you’re there
• Make sure your car insurance is up-to-date and covers you for the location you are travelling to, terrain you are travelling on, and any other drivers
• Make sure your RACV / NRMA (or other roadside assistance provider) membership is up-to-date
• Make sure you have working tools and jumper cables, and check your spare tyre 
• Pack an ‘Emergency Kit’ in the car – First aid kit, water, toilet paper, tissues, wet wipes, non-perishable food, nappies if required, a towel, a change of clothing, and emergency contact details in case you lose your wallet or phone

Most importantly, remember...

www.homeandlifeorganising.com.au

Neat vs Organised

Spring is here! Yippee!! And with Spring comes a surge of motivation for people to Spring Clean and organise their homes. Here is a little nugget of advice - have a realistic expectation of what you are trying to achieve.

One of the comments I hear the most from people when I tell them what I do for a living is "your house must be beautiful / perfect / look like a show home", to which I always respond "I wish!". A family lives in my home - more specifically, a tornado disguised as a 5 year old boy lives in my home. And I have much better things to do with my time than follow him around with a vacuum cleaner all day. So no, my home does not resemble a magazine spread. It is, however, organised.

"Neat" does not necessarily equate to "organised". You can have a very neat pile of papers on the corner of your nice clean desk, but that pile could contain everything from your child's artwork to an overdue bill that you've forgotten about - and is therefore not organised. Being organised is about having a system in place to allow you to live and work well in your space. This may not look very neat and tidy, but that's ok, as long as it serves you well. I have worked with very creative clients and artists who think very differently to how I do, and their "organised" looks very different to mine, but it serves them well (and much better than my way would work for them) as they know where everything is and can work well in their space.

So as long as you have a place for everything, and everything is in its place (most of the time!) you're doing well. Don't strive for unattainable goals - it's just disheartening.  Have a Happy Spring :)

www.homeandlifeorganising.com.au

HOW TO :: 5 Little tasks to make a Big difference

I am very pleased to introduce a new monthly feature called "HOW TO". Each month I am going to do a post on something quick, easy and cheap (usually free) that you can do to get more organised. This first one is about 5 little things you can do to make a big difference, and hopefully the results will motivate you to do more than 5 things!

Start by doing one of each - it should take you about 5 minutes - at the same time each day (first thing in the morning, after school drop off, just before bed - when ever works best for you), and when you have established that routine you can then ramp it up to do a few of each, or one of each at both the start and end of the day. Choose just one area to work in for each 5 step exercise - the kitchen bench, the kids' room, your desk, etc - it will help concentrate your efforts and make more of a visible difference.

The idea behind this is to only choose items which can quickly be actioned, not items which you need to think long and hard about before deciding what to do. The more difficult decision-making process is the topic of a forthcoming blog post, so just stick with the quick and easy stuff for now.


Step 1: Get rid of it

If there is anything in your chosen area which you have thought "I really should throw that away", now is your chance. Find one thing which needs to be put in the rubbish or recycling bin, and do it. Also, if there is an item which has been sitting around for months waiting to be fixed and there is no chance of you getting around to doing it soon, and especially if no one has missed it, just throw it out.

Step 2: Put it away

I know it's much easier to just put something on your desk than in the filing cabinet, or on the chair instead of in the wardrobe, but this is how piles of clutter can quickly develop. Again just choose one thing in your chosen area which is not in its right place and which you know has a proper home, and go put it away. If it doesn't have a proper home or you don't know what to do with it, leave it - remember we are just looking for items which can be actioned quickly.

Step 3: Do it

Make that phone call, send that email, book that appointment, change that lightbulb - choose one quick task which has been hanging around on your "to do" list and get it done.

Step 4: Schedule it

If it is not a quick task that can be done as part of this exercise, then schedule it in your diary or calendar. A "to do" without a "when" will never get done, so schedule it in and allocate the time required to get it done.

Step 5: Straighten it

That very large pile of paper on your desk is not going to be solved in this quick exercise, so straighten it up into a neat pile and straighten up everything else on your desk, and the visual effect will instantly be pleasing and less chaotic for your brain to process while sitting there. The same applies to any other area you are working on - if you just neaten up the piles of clutter it will make it much easier for you to work through your quick 5 steps the next time round. Plus you are less likely to just dump something down in a neat area than you are in a messy area.

If you stick with these 5 steps it will soon become habit and you will action these items immediately, instead of waiting for piles to form which will need to be addressed later. Let me know how you get on with this exercise - I would love to hear your feedback.

images courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net

It's all about boundaries

I have concluded, based on my experience with many different clients over the last 2 and a half years, that being disorganised is all about boundaries - either not establishing them when there are none, or not respecting them when there are.

Think about a wardrobe - it is a specific fixed size, with it's physical structure setting the boundaries. If it was designed to comfortably accommodate 20 hanging garments, but you have stuffed 50 in there, then you are not respecting the boundaries of the wardrobe, and in fact you are not respecting the garments either, because they have no room to "breathe" and are getting all wrinkled and are not being worn because you can't even see what you've got in there any more, and when you can't be bothered trying to force another item in there it gets chucked on the closest piece of furniture or horizontal surface. (Same goes for the overstuffed shed, kitchen drawers, toy box..... etc).

Your day is the same - the fixed length of 24 hours sets the boundaries, but because they are not tangible or visible, it's even more difficult to respect them.

Then there are all sorts of things that have no boundaries at all, and if you do not establish some for yourself you are going to be in big organising trouble! There is no limit to the flow of information, entertainment, work, requests, demands, email, junk mail, and so on. If you were not able to set (and stick to) boundaries with all this coming your way, you would end up being consumed by the internet and cease to be a functioning member of society! Obviously this is an extreme case, but I'm sure you get my point. Not operating within appropriate boundaries which you set for yourself and your lifestyle can lead to a frustrating overflow of stuff cluttering up your mind, your time, and your to-do list.

To use boundaries effectively, start big and break the area down into smaller and smaller areas, until you have well-defined homes for everything. If you have a place for everything, it's much easier to have everything in its place. Your actual home is the first boundary, which is broken down into smaller functional zones (the different rooms) which contain appropriate things, and then those rooms are further broken down into smaller areas (wardrobes, kitchen cabinets etc). Within those you can use drawer dividers, shelf dividers, storage boxes, or other tools to establish further boundaries or specific homes for items (for example a box for batteries in the kitchen "junk drawer").

The concept of boundaries does seem restrictive at first, but really they provide a framework within which to operate, so you know exactly what goes where, and what you have in each specific zone. And respecting those boundaries means items are better looked after and much easier to keep to organised.

So what boundaries can you set in your home and life to get more organised? I would love to hear from you!

www.homeandlifeorganising.com.au

Information Overload

I have just returned from 4 very busy days at our annual AAPO conference, immediately followed by a day at the Kids in Style / Life in Style trade expo. I'm not going to lie - my brain hurts and I'm exhausted!

I absolutely loved the conference! I was on the committee which organised it so it was great to see all our hard work come to fruition, and I also presented for the first time at the conference. There is something wonderfully satisfying about being completely immersed in all things organising for 4 days! We had some incredible speakers and I learnt soooo much, but I have definitely been subjected to information overload.

If you have ever experienced anything like that before, remember that organising your thoughts and information in your head is very much like organising your physical belongings. You can't hold on to everything, otherwise things get too cluttered and messy in there, and it becomes difficult to access what you need. Rather, assess what is useful and meaningful and find a home for it, and the rest of it will either be discarded, or placed in storage for later reference. My first task tomorrow is to review all my notes from the past 5 days and do exactly that.

In the coming weeks I'll be sharing with you some of the fantastic lessons I learnt and products I discovered, and I just know you are going to love them, almost as much as I do!

www.homeandlifeorganising.com.au

So what exactly is a Baby Planner?

Most people get "professional organiser", but "baby planner" still manages to get a lot of quizzical looks.
The most obvious comparison to make is with a wedding planner - someone who helps you plan and prepare for something specific. But unlike a wedding planner, a baby planner is not helping you plan and prepare for one significant event, but a significant and complete life change.

There is of course the preparations for delivery day that we can help with, but a baby planner's services cover so much more than that. From setting up the nursery, evaluating what baby gear you do and don't need, and rearranging your home to be more conducive to those early sleep-deprived days, to adjusting your time and budget management, preparing for returning to work, and child-proofing. I can also help you set up a non-toxic home and eco-friendly nursery - known as "green proofing".

From the moment you find out you are pregnant, you are bombarded with information, opinions, and decisions to be made. A baby planner can help you navigate through this overwhelming time to reduce the stress of all this logistical gumpf, and free you up to focus on what really matters. 

These services are particularly valuable for those expectant mums who are very time-poor, do not have any close family or friends to help them, or are restricted to bed-rest. For the expectant grandmas out there looking to get their children something special - remember I have gift vouchers!

If you have any questions on professional organising or baby planning feel free to ask!

www.homeandlifeorganising.com.au

There's no such thing as bad publicity

I'm afraid I have to disagree with that old saying.
What got me thinking about this was watching The Living Room a couple of weeks ago, with "Oprah's favourite organiser" Peter Walsh. If you missed it, you can catch up here.

Image courtesy of Howards Storage World

While I appreciate the fact that local Professional Organisers and the industry as a whole can benefit from this kind of media exposure, my concern is that we can all get tarred with the same brush, and if you as a viewer didn't like what you saw, you could understandably make a judgement on Professional Organisers and the process of getting organised. To add to my unease on the matter, when I was explaining to someone recently what I do as a Baby Planner, the response was "Oh, like Rosie Pope?". Well, yes, kind of, but in a completely different way. Rosie Pope is a maternity concierge to celebrities and millionaires, and host of the reality TV show Pregnant in Heels. I cannot help but question whether her advice and the way she deals with her clients is all about making "good" TV, and not really about serving her clients' best interests.

So, dear readers, this is what I would like you to know:
1. I would never ever force my clients to empty their household contents on to their front lawn. I think this is an unnecessarily confronting approach to take.
2. I would never send my clients away while I implemented storage or organising solutions. I believe in working alongside my clients to develop systems together which make sense for them and their unique requirements.
3. I would never be pushy and opinionated with my clients. My aim is to equip my clients with the knowledge and tools to make the best possible decisions for themselves.

I would hate it if people were put off hiring a Professional Organiser out of fear of having their clutter and chaos displayed for all the world to see. Please know this too was done for the sake of a TV show! If you would like to know more about Professional Organisers, or find one near you, visit the Australasian Association of Professional Organisers' website. If you would like to know more about Baby Planners and maternity concierge, you'll have to wait for my next blog post :)

www.homeandlifeorganising.com.au