Get Organized Pittsburgh

What is going to make 2012 different? We are always striving to be faster, stronger and bigger, but what does that really look like. One of the most popular resolutions is to get organized and that doesn’t always translate into MORE. Efficiency is a great goal but prioritizing might be a better one. Knowing what is important in your time and stuff will make every day seem easier. That is a gift that only you can give yourself. So, how do you get there? What do you let go of? Here are three strategies that may help you.

Top 10 List

What are the all the things you are involved in? What are your roles? List them all; pick the Top Ten and let go of the rest, even temporarily so you get caught up on the issues that are bothering you. You may be surprised when you miss an activity that had been routine and not important, you might find yourself secretly celebrating. This is a great strategy for getting on track when you are going through a major life transition. Step back and minimize while you get through it!

What is it that only I can do?

Another great tip that really works for entrupenuers is to really write down all the “jobs” you do and then highlight the jobs that only YOU can do. Go one step further and mark those that you actually like to do. For me this has really illuminated all kinds of little things that have kept me from the bigger things. It was easy to let go by finding people to do those very specific jobs that I no longer need to attend to. It is fun to think of the year ahead with out those items on my To Do List.

Know you 3 MIT’s Daily

MIT’s are your Most Important Things. If you could write just 3 MIT’s down for the next day when you are leaving your desk or at the end of each day, and were able to start each day ready to accomplish just those 3 things, I suspect it would be life changing. I know we all have HUGE To Do lists, and making a master list does help get it all down, but I am talking about having a top 3 every day that are non-negotiable! This will take away the feeling of being overwhelmed and will help you know what enough looks like. Knowing this can help you stop just working and working and working until you just “hit the wall”.

So I hope these help you to see your New Year through the lens of doing what is important and knowing what “enough” is. This will bring simplicity and order to your 2012!

Reminder! Our very own Leslie McKee will be featured during Pittsburgh Today Live with Kristine Sorensen Monday, December 5th between 9 -10am. Leslie will be discussing over-shopping as it pertains to the holiday, how it effects you daily, and how to deal with it.

Look for tips on how to identify over-shopping habits and watch for information about how to gain control of your shopping habits.

WHY IS OVER-SHOPPING A PROBLEM?

• Our economic growth is dependent upon selling goods to people whose needs are already met!
• Studies show that the more we acquire after our basic needs are met, the less fulfilling those acquisitions are. Therefore the tendency is to buy more to get the same feeling.
• Studies show that the more someone believes material things bring true happiness, the more likely that person is to suffer from depression, stress and anxiety. College students report 70% feel being VERY wealthy will mean they will be happy. This sets the stage for widespread discontent.
• It is proven that too many choices leave us feeling befuddled and over stimulated yet- 5.8 % of US adults are over shoppers. That is 17 million people.
• 3 out of 5 Americans who carry credits cards carry credit card debt. One half owe more than 6,600 and 13% owe over 25k.
• Our country is reporting negative personal savings which happened in 1932,1933 during the great depression.

We have come across an interesting challenge that we have seen on a few other sites. It’s called The Closet Hanger Challenge! We believe Oprah mentioned this first but we just think it’s such a smart and FUN way to clear out some of the extra!

Here’s the challenge:

Jan 1st, take no more than 2 minutes and turn all of the hangers in your closet backwards. As you wear the clothing, when you return it to your closet hang the hanger the right way again. Reassess your hangers on June 1st. If there are items still on backwards hangers, it might be time to consider donating that item.

See how easy this is? We hope you come back on June 1st to tell us how you did!

We have organized the cabinets in the kitchen and under the sink so in keeping with our holiday preparation posts let’s tackle the kitchen pantry next.

TASKS: KITCHEN PANTRY

-Go on a scavenger hunt and remove all expired food and items you just don’t use. If you are uncertain, ask yourself if you will eat it in the next two weeks. If the answer is yes, write it down and make a plan to use it. If the answer is no, consider getting rid of it.

-How far did you have to search to find your food? Unless your kitchen is very small, food outside of the kitchen is usually neglected and takes up valuable space. Try to keep your food where it will be used – inside of the kitchen.

-Get real about what you are actually using. Give up on he liver pâté or death defying hot sauce that came in a gift basket years ago. It is okay to let those items go and use what you love and know.

NEW WAY TO THINK

Now that you have gotten rid of the food that expired before the invention of Google, you can enjoy a sigh of relief knowing that you have just made health a priority for you and your family. Further commit by jotting down ways to use the odd ingredients you said you would use in the next two weeks. Still have a lot of good food? It might be time to have an eat down! Often we wait for special occasions to use things. See how much space you can create by making today special! Try to make your next few shopping trips consist of only perishables. Get creative and have fun. Let the family know what you are trying to do and get their ideas! Are there categories that you tend to over-buy, like packaged snacks that come in handy on crazy mornings? Take a minute to really decide what is enough in those categories. Perhaps re-purpose those as snacks that you can bring to soccer practice for the whole team to enjoy.

Take some time to connect to what kind of cook you want to be. Does that picture include farmers’ markets, fresh produce, less processed, less packaged, healthy dinners shared with your family? Interestingly, the pantry in that picture will keep itself organized as you simply replace old and bad items with more fresh items.

The only thing in your way is making this transition a priority. Having a pantry that reflects what you value is a great start.

Since our last task was in the kitchen let’s take a closer look at the rest of the kitchen storage areas. The good news is these cabinets make sense. The cabinets by the stove are usually the right size for pots and pans, the glasses usually fit above in a cabinet near the sink, and silverware easily fits in the drawer. It is like a blue print for how to organize the space. Your job is so much easier if you just follow that blueprint and try to only keep what fits.

TASKS: KITCHEN CABINET

1. Create zones for glassware, regular dishes, pots and pans, bake ware and finally serving pieces by deciding what cabinets are best suited for each zone. This will depend on their location in the kitchen. Decide what each cabinet is going to be and what you would like to fit into it. Remember the heavier things work best in lower or corner cabinets if they are big enough and glasses should be near the sink. Also consider how you like to load and unload the dishwasher when making these decisions too.
2. Choose a zone and within it look for sets and try to downsize the “orphans and strays”, taking it all out, wiping it down and replacing only what you love the most and what fits.
3. Move methodically through the rest of the cabinets and drawers.
4. Make the dishes fit in one cabinet, keep only the pots and pans that fit in their cabinet. If you find you have a full set of pots but only use 3 or 4? Listen to that. That one tricky platter or corn pot that gets in the way? Set it aside and come back to it in the end when you can fit it in where there is space.
5. Serving ware can be hard because they are usually odd shapes and cabinets are often not deep enough for them. Special occasion silverware can also be bulky and has the tendency to take over the silverware drawer. Keep storage in mind when purchasing too, do you have a place to put it? Are these items more trouble than they are worth or do they bring down the functionality of the kitchen?
6. The platter that your grandmother used might have to be stored out of the kitchen. Minimize in the kitchen by storing stuff elsewhere but don’t do too much of this and try to keep it to one area outside of the kitchen. Like a space in the pantry or on a specific shelf in the basement.
7. Are your cabinets overflowing? Rethink it, do I need a dozen? Probably not. back ups like extra settings end up overwhelming spaces that are designed to work within a reasonable range.
8. Be hard on the “just in case” and single vs multiple use items. What is your hardest working piece? Keep it! What haven’t you used in over a year? Donate it!
9. Really consider how some items are more trouble than they’re worth. They might be bringing down the functionality of the kitchen. Make a sensible decision about them.
10. A good rule of thumb is to keep ¾ of your counter tops exposed. Simply remove anything that does not have to do with cooking and dining. Start at one end and work your way around the kitchen, making decisions as you go.

A NEW WAY TO THINK

Get in the zone. Typically, kitchens are designed with zones in mind. The only thing in your way from optimally utilizing the design is either too much stuff or too many over sized items. Try to keep over sized serving pieces and specialty cooking equipment in other storage areas. Visualize or sketch out some zones where similar items can go (baking, cooking, serving).

Resist purchasing single function and single use items. Kitchen gadgets will not increase the amount of time you spend cooking. They create clutter and chaos in a kitchen. Instead of buying a gigantic platter, buy a few interesting matching ones that look nice together, give you versatility, and store easily.

When you know what you need and keep what you use fairly consistently, the kitchen becomes an easy space to keep cleaned and organized.

Here’s to creating a kitchen that works!

This is twice as high as the percentage of people diagnosed with OCD.  This statistic is interesting because it conflicts with the idea that HOARDING is a subset of OCD.  Studies are being done to differentiate the two and see how often several co-morbid conditions come into play in hoarding situations.  In fact 92% of individuals that hoard have been diagnosed with other psychiatric disorders.  The issue is further complicated because 85% of hoarders report having a first degree relative who demonstrates a hoarding behavior.  This condition makes it hard to discern what is genetic and what is learned.

After attending the NSGCD Conference in Austin in September it became evident that organizers are leading the way to find tools and strategies to help these clients.  They have developed rating scales that can be used by other professionals like therapists, emergency personnel and family members to easily designate where hoarders are on a spectrum of the disorder.  NSGCD has developed training and certifications specifically on hoarding to help professionals help their clients.

One of the pitfalls of working with hoarders is not understanding how they think.  You can see them burying themselves alive and often they are only concerned with the smallest minutia.  This obsession with detail is common and to ignore it creates an immediate lack of trust in you and in the process.  Success means taking time to build the foundation, make small changes and build upon them.

Their pain in letting go is real.
Their beliefs are real.
Their inability to see or define clutter is real.

It is our job to be a partner and make lasting behavior change.  Anyone can toss items in a dumpster; we are here to make a difference in thinking and behavior.

It’s nice and warm outside and you went to Kennyywood last weekend and want to find something different and fun to do this weekend?  Then why not join all the other frugalities and go on a bargain hunting expedition? Shopping at a yard sale can be a great way to find items that you wouldn’t be able to locate at a typical retail store like Target and the pricing is always rock bottom. This is because there is no tax and the goods are slightly used and if they don’t get sold at the sale than they will either be junked or donated to goodwill. There are always the stories of people finding rare artwork, jewelry, & silverware at a sale only to later discover that it’s worth 50 times what they purchased it for. The most famous being a Jackson Pollock purchased for $5.00 and after discovering its value was offered $9 million for the artwork. Knowing where to go in the Pittsburgh area for finding garage sales can be as easy as just hoping into your car and driving around neighborhoods early morning on Saturday and Sunday and finding the local bargains or you can save some money on gasoline and look through the Pittsburgh Post Gazette classifieds, the Pennysaver newspaper, and or you can go online to sites such as Oodle which syndicates it’s garage sale listings with a handful of other social networking websites and newspapers, as well as garage sales tracker’s Pittsburgh area garage sales section. If you are already on the road than no need to worry since there are iPhone applications for finding a local sale.  A service called EcoShop has created an app for .99 cents yard sale app that mines data from Craigslist to show you what local sales there are in your area. If you want a free app than garage sales tracker also has a free garage sale app in which you canplan  which sales in the area you want to go to that day and route accordingly. Now that you know how to find all of the sales here are some tips for holding a sale:

• Determine when to have the sale.  Summertime and Spring are naturally the best times and being an early bird pays off!  Winter is too cold but there are some indoor sales in the area just not a lot
• If you have a lot of stuff you may want to break the sale down into 2 days. Saturday and Sunday but if that’s too much than you can donate or give away everything after the first day   Arranging a charity to pick up the day after the sale will really help with clean up and make sure items just don’t get tossed in the trash.  You also get a receipt that will be helpful at tax time
• Advertising is very important utilizing the resources mentioned above as well as signage that you can pick up at any local hardware store or you can design your own sign just make sure that you put the address, arrows in the right direction, date of sale, time, and anything else that may seem enticing that you can fit onto the sign.
• Supplies such as balloons on the mail box, proper change, tables, tags for pricing, and cookies or brownies to get the children involved as well as enticing your visitors with a little something extra that another sale may not have.
• Placing the the parson in charge of the cashbox in the back of the sale makes people walk through the whole sale and increases the chance that they may buy something else as they make their way through.
• Make price tags big and place them on the top of the items.  You will be busy and the more obvious the price is, the less questions you will have to field.
• Have fun!

Rich of GarageSaleTracker.com

Distinguish between “to haves” and “to dos”. Most people are not going to be able to “have it all” and “do it all”, especially when they are just starting out in life! I drew a big red line down the middle of life and always asked myself, “Is it a “to have” or “to do”?” If it was a “to have” it could wait, if it was a “to do” it got priority! So we drove an old car and went heli skiing, we still have a used table from the Salvation Army (we got 16 years ago) as our kitchen table, but it looks nice and we make that and other things work so that we can take trips and do the things that will be great memories for us and for our children! Life is short; you have all the time in the world to accumulate “stuff” but not all the time to do things. So get out there and be a “do-er” not a “hav-er”

What to Keep
Keep what makes you happy and what is useful. Many times clients pull out items that have no use and hold bad memories and we urge them to let those items out of their lives to make room for better things to come in.

OVERPERSONALIZATION!
Many disorganized people tend to “overpersonalize” items and even give them human characteristics! They attach to item like they were living things and feel very bad discarding them. We play the “Friend, Acquaintances, and Strangers Game” to sort through their stuff. Our “friends” are active and are stored in prominent places in our homes. “Acquaintances” usually are less active and can be stored deeper in the home and we want to identify “strangers” and find a new home for them!

CONNECT
When clients connect with the places there unwanted items are going, the percentage of stuff they are willing to part with increases!