With the heavy snowfall came a real organizing buzz– the snow just keeps coming and people just keep finding order!

I am so surprised how many people have commented to me that they were getting organized while they were stuck at home. I thought it might be interesting to explore some reasons why that might be happening. Here are a few I came up with, and PLEASE feel free to comment on a few more!

• It creates time available to organize. Our regular agenda shifts and our normal routine moves to the back burner
• It provides chunks of time that are required for bigger projects
• There is time to clear the decks of the little things
• Nothing is competing with organizing
• Organizing gives us a sense of accomplishment and it’s a way to not feel stuck

Here are some tips for organizing when you are stuck at home:

• Organize your tax information and be ready now so you can enjoy that spring weather in April!
• Pull out those photographs and spread them out on the dining room table and start sorting!
• Delete all those emails that are clogging your inbox and get rid of files you will never use.
• Clean out that recipe box, you may find the perfect cozy treat.
• Update your calendar with birthdays and anniversaries.
• Update your address list and card lists so you are ahead of the game next holiday season.
• Go through your medicine cabinet to clear out expired medications.
• Clean out and update your music on itunes.

If you are standing in your bedroom and have to go downstairs to get it — is that a SYSTEM FAILURE or SYSTEM SUCCESS? While working with one of my all time favorite clients it occurred to me that we had very different definitions for SYSTEM FAILURE! My client viewed this as system failure if she had to travel to get what she needed. Her vision for a system that works included having “redundancies” all over the house as a “convenience”. It was a powerful moment when she re-framed this and realized that these duplicates were becoming clutter and more trouble than convenience. Beautiful, well designed spaces designed for holding bathroom items were holding “backup” supplies and were losing their functionality! You can be a good provider, homemaker and mother and only have ONE pair of scissors or one roll of tape.

There is not one right answer here! Just considering what ENOUGH looks like is a big win and helps you live more intentionally! Of course some items need to have duplicates, but if you tend to over-do that, ask yourself these questions:
Are there duplicates in this room?
Do I have a favorite?
Am I using it or saving it?
Am I backing up my back ups due to lack of confidence in my system?
Are there duplicates in other rooms?
Do I feel the need for each person to have there own?
Are you having trouble committing to a “home” for an item?

Sometimes “choice” becomes a burden and backup get in the way of order.

Getting stuck is all about perspective.  Often by the time clients call for our help they really have had several failures and their veiw of their problem is blown out of proportion.  They are seeing everything from an extreme point of view.  They are CATASROPHIZING!

• They have decided that I am PERFECT and will think they are terrible.
• They have decided that their space is the worst space I have ever seen.
• Sometimes they see it as impossible or hopeless
• They think that they or the people in their lives will be traumatized by letting go of certain items.

But often what is trally happening is that i have seen spaces that are in worse shape and all I am really looking at is the person, not the stuff.  I am trying to understand how they want to live in the space and what might be getting in their way.  Often letting go brings energy and a sense of empowerment and control to everyone involved.

Be careful if you tend to think in worse case scenarios.  This highly emotive thinking can get in the way of clear decision making and making decisions is the key to processing the things that are in your life.  Building your decision making muscles and confidence will help you keep a healthy perspective as you face challenges.

Yesterday I pulled out of my driveway and scraped my car against the corner of my neighbors house. This of course resulted in a srapes along three panels of my car and the corner of my neighbors house FELL OFF! My husband was in the drivway and helped me sort of re-attached some loose trim and talked to the home owner. Finally we both drove off to our appointment and I hear a THUD. I look in my rear veiw mirror only to see all of my husbands papers, drawings and measurements for a closet install scattered all over the road behind me. Apparently he had put these on the roof when he stopped to help! From there it seemed like my bad day was building. I felt like everything little challenge yesterday was overwhelming. Normal things like even deciding what to have for dinner were a struggle.

Looking back, I was building a bad day. If I had changed my perspective, I may not have had categorized the string of events that followed as part of my “bad day” and I may have handled them with a more positive attitude. Shift in thinking are so powerful. Often when people are disorganized, they have “strings of events” that turn south. Try not to wallow in it. Stop and make a mental shift and see how you can get on with a good day!

You are not alone! Many of us are so overwhelmed with to-do’s and commitments and distracted by multiple media streams competing for our attention that I think it is like “Self Inflicted ADD”. There are so many things competing for our attention that we lose track. The first line of defense is to slow down and unload some of the things that distract you.

If this doesn’t help and you find that this is a life-long problem it is time to face it and use tools to set yourself up for success. I often recommend electronic calendars/organizers to clients who suffer with these time challenges. Having these features incorporated into a smartphone really helps. First of all, it is a fact that people learn to use their phones! The more features that are integrated into a phone the more these tools can help. They also sync with your computer, so that if you lose the handheld phone, the data is protected.

Using alarms to keep you on track really helps.  It may feel silly at first, but if it works do it!  When transitions are the problem set alarms that require you to actually get up to turn them off.  Moving out of your space is a big component to get you up and able to transition to the next step.  Setting up a reminder rich environment with minimal distractions is the key.  Accepting this trait to be part of how your brain works and putting systems in place will empower you to start making the changes you need to succeed.

Make sure to plan to do something FUN every day. Start your list or look over your week and make sure there are fun activities included. When you think about it, isn’t that what life is about! It simply works to insert MOTIVATION into your life.

The easiest way to do it is to simply start your daily to do list with the word FUN and don’t write another think until you fill in something beside that word that is fun! It works! Either you will add more fun to your life, or you will notice that you are already doing fun things and give yourself a pat on the back!

Two words in a text message and I am weeping in a big puddle on the side of the road! Where did that come from? My daughter is off at the University of Vermont as a freshman and I am really doing incredibly well with her departure. She is perfectly happy and I know she is in a great place. So out of the blue when she texts It’s Snowing , I just lost it! How could she be in a “first snow” with out ME? This is a time when we are dancing in the kitchen! I have never missed the “first snow”! Well, I never knew how important it was or what a tradition we had created, but it was there and it was powerful.

As an organizer, I run into moment that are emotionally charged like that with my clients and WE did not see it coming. All of a sudden a pair of Grandmother’s boots has us in tears. It is hard to be ready for that, but it sure is good to be with someone when you go through it! If getting rid of things was easy, people would just do it. Sometimes sessions are just a journey. Sometimes clients need to just tell me something little about the item before they can let it go. If these little ceremonies help you move forward-let it happen. The result will be a more positive feeling about the process.

Yes, I know it is National Preparedness Month!
Yes, I was watching IKE! (Hugs, Ellen)
Yes, I am a Professional Organizer!
Yes, the lights flickered a few times!
NO, I was not completely prepared!

I guess my unending optimism got the best of me! I have supplies, batteries, extra cash, a home safe but it’s the little things you forget. I had to appear on KDKA’s Pittsburgh TODAY Live, this morning and when the lights went out—so did any chance of getting my hair to look nice! For all my good planning and preperation for the segment, it did not occur to me that I would wake up with bed head and be powerless to do a thing about it! Well at least this short fall did not involve any real danger and I learned a lesson in how those little things make a difference! My heart goes out to all those folks in Houston!

PS Patrick…this MOBILE blog is for you!

OK, I’ll admit it, I really don’t like 3 ring binders! This is a huge confession coming from a professional organizer! Organizers LOVE binders. Professional Organizers will “binderize” anything that is not nailed down! I always found it laborious to punch holes in hand outs and those jaw-like clips scare me! More things would lay on top of my binder than get in. But the point was driven home when i was reading Donna Goldgerg’s book, The Organized Student. She addresses the student’s organizational style and suggests that binders don’t work for some students. Her main point was that LEFT HANDED students can’t write on paper that is attached to a binder. Well call me slow, but I AM LEFT HANDED and I really never realized that all of you RIGHTIES were actualy writing in those binders. No wonder I can’t stand them. I guess on some level I knew because LEFTIES even have trouble with spiral notebooks, but I felt so much better after seeing it in print! So Mothers of LEFTIES, please don’t make your child use a binder if they resist. Use an accordian file or folders and you may see them have more success!

What does an organized person look like? Many people envision the classic “librarian type”, with hair pulled back tight, thick glasses in well pressed blouse. Someone who follows a rigid set of rules in sensible shoes! Well, today during a NAPO Pittsburgh Meeting Lynn Staab said, “organize with flexability and change in mind”. This struck me as very interesting and so true! To me someeone who is rigid in their thinking is in danger of being disorganized. They keep trying to work in the same way they used to as their life continues to change and they outgrow their systems. So think about what organized looks like, and realize it can look like you!