Welcome to May! With May comes many things but one in particular is Garage Sales! I was asked to talk to the crew from the KDKA Radio morning show early this morning about garage sales and I wanted to share a few more tips with you here, whether you’re shopping or selling, here are a few things to help you along the way.

If you are looking for sales in your neighborhood good places to start are the Pittsburgh Post Gazette classifieds, the Pennysaver newspaper, and Craigslist. You can also search 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 smartphone applications for finding a local sale.  A service called Garage Sale App is available for .99 cents. The app mines data from Craigslist to show you what local sales are in your area. If you want a free app than Garage Sales Tracker also has a free app you can use to map out which sales in the area you want to go to that day and route accordingly. Another fantastic app is iGarageSale where you can search sales for specific items! It’s available on both iPhone and Android smartphones.

Now that you know how to find all of the sales, here are some tips for holding your own garage sale:

• Determine when to have the sale. Summertime and Spring are naturally the best times and being an early bird pays off!
• If you have a lot of stuff you may want to break the sale down into 2 days.
• Advertising is very important. Utilize 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 you put the address, arrows in the right direction, date of sale, and time.
• Supplies such as balloons on the mail box, proper change, tables, and tags for pricing.
• Placing the the person 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.

Most of all, Have FUN!

TODAY’S TASKS

* Remove any product you don’t use or love – especially if there is less than an inch of product left in the bottle.
* Remove anything that is old or worn out – look at razors, scrubbers, and even the shower curtain.
* Clean the tub and make it shine.
* A certain peace comes with less decisions. Try living with one shampoo, one conditioner, and one soap this week. What did you miss? What was OK?

A NEW WAY TO THINK
Are you looking for a quick fix or magic potion when you collect shampoos, body washes, and lotions? In your search, you may have found several duds. If you can’t seem to use the last drop of anything, you may struggle with completion issues or with feeling that you are undeserving. Saving everything simply puts obstacles between you and your best things.

I had one client who creatively solved this problem by concocting her own shampoo by marrying the last few drops of several favorites to simply get rid of a collections of bottles. It was quite an effective solution.

If you don’t want to combine nor throw away usable soaps, you can keep one of the bottles inside your shower and store the rest outside of the shower. You can move on to the bottles in storage after you’ve successfully finished the one in the shower.

Your reward today is just too obvious, pamper yourself with your favorite little potion!

TODAY’S TASKS
* Start with your night stand. First, resist the urge to point to your partner’s night stand. You can tidy up your nightstand and inspire him or her to do the same via example.
* Clear everything off the top, empty the drawers, and move everything that is stacked beside or under.
* Return only items that bring you peace and replenishment. Ask yourself this: What would be on a bedside table at a hotel?

A NEW WAY TO THINK ABOUT IT
What just landed on your nightstand as a catch-all, and what was truly meant to be there? Avoid placing to-do type things on your nightstand. They are energy zappers. What would you like to be on
there? Do you really want that pile of work to be sitting next to you each night? Consider replacing it with just one, current book or your iPod. Take away the pile of books collecting dust and making you feel guilty because you can’t get to read them as you seek rest from a hard day. Remove unnecessary medical items. Think of what you want to look at as you wake up. A picture of a loved one? A single flower from your garden? Yes, pampering yourself is OK!

If racing thoughts keep you awake, consider putting a little notepad there with a pencil. If you think of something at night or in the morning that you need to do, you can easily write it down for later and move on to enjoy relaxing and a good night’s sleep.

Here’s to creating restful spaces in your room!

Procrastination Statistic

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The “Odd Couple”:
This is a couple who wants to work on some common issues together. This usually means detail work is very different for each of them. I encourage each of them to both define spaces where they can be themselves in but they also must define common spaces where there are different rules. These rules are for spaces where everyone needs to coexist and be happy. It’s interesting to see what people are asking for in this sort of setting because if they are asking for organized common space, they are usually doing so for the good of the family verses if they are looking for personal space they are usually doing so for themselves.

A Couple and Their 2nd Marriage:
In most cases there is double the stuff. Two coffee pots, two sets of living room furniture, two sets dishes and so on. This couple is either moving into a new house or one of their existing homes. Typically, there is a lot of hope with this couple because it’s a new situation for both of them and they are looking forward to a new life. Their big issue is to really just week out their stuff and they usually need help working through it.

The Aging Couple:
This situation can be difficult on the couple, usually they need to make adjustments in their home for medical equipment and sometimes even re-purpose rooms so that they are easier to access. Usually emotions are running high but at the same time the able spouse wants to make things easy for the spouse in need they also are upset and worried about the health of their spouse. Helping them think about alternative ways to use the space they have is my main goal along with making sure pathways and room access are clear and easy to maintain. My main rule of thumb here is safety first. If an item is blocking room access or isn’t structurally safe then a decision needs to be made for the sake of safety.

As we continue through our three part series about working with couples, please see part one about Organizing With Couples. In part two I thought it might be interesting to share some thoughts with you about working with new parents and how organizing yourself and your new roles as a new family is so important as you welcome a brand new member to the family.

New Parents:
I love working with new parents, they are fun because they’re full of possibility and are engaging in a really positive process and are usually very open to new ideas and systems. If you were slightly disorganized prior to becoming a parent, it is really important to acknowledge that and see the need to have systems for your new needs in order to make it work. Otherwise, that new little bundle can swiftly amplify the problem.

New parents are really looking for an answer and it’s a really good time to find these new systems because they haven’t really established the rules yet. It’s nice to help them make those rule together so that one person doesn’t end up doing it all only because they are the one who put the system in place.

Responsibilities:
When talking about roles for couples, there are a lot of different things that happen within a family that need attention like daily money managing, long-term financial estate planning and insurance. When a couple decides on who is responsible for these items it is important to consider which person might be better suited for the day-to-day finances verses who might be better working with the long-term planning and insurance. You might be surprised to find one person may not fit both roles. The same process should be used for deciding who would be better at keeping the family social calendars or making travel plans. Think about who is in charge of what duty and clearly establish the roles.

Historical Roles – Do They Still Work?
We typically fall into similar roles that our parents were responsible for. But it’s important to take a step back and question those roles.
Ask yourself these questions:
Does this work for me in my current position in life?
Can I do what my dad did?
Does that makes sense?
Does the role my mom played work for the life I’m are leading now with the job I have outside of the home?

I think for the most part this is the first generation where previous roles really do not work like they used to. I tell new mothers that you have no role model for this. This is new territory so you need to organize it and think about how you want it to happen because it’s not going to come from the seat of your pants.

Working with couples is one of my favorite parts of what I do. In this three-part series I am going to share some insight about working with couples including tips on keeping the peace while organizing together. Look for the next posts in this series to outline different life changes that trigger a need for reorganization.

Couples:
There are different types of couple situations, sometimes there are both chronically disorganized and sometimes it’s one person who is living with someone who is disorganized. Often, they just want a fresh start. Both of them want the same thing they just need a little guidance getting there.

Changes in life are often triggers for couples needing for organizing help. Life changes can include aging and the possibility of one spouse having to take care of the other. Brand new parents are also part of this group. They are going through a great transition that allows for new habits to be formed so it’s a good time to get those systems in place to avoid bad habits in the future. Couples who are starting out on their second marriage often need a little guidance as well as they learn to work with someone new.

Attitude:
In most every situation there are different attitudes towards each other and the issue at hand. Red flags can be a complete lack of awareness on one side of the couple, where communication becomes the blame game.

With some disorganized people their red flags fly when they make unrealistic plans or time lines. Ifthey haven’t done it yet they aren’t going to get it done in an hour or in a week or whatever is promised. It is really important to see how they are with each other and set some rules for them to follow when working on organizing.

Respect:
Reminding them that they need to respect each other and that blaming isn’t going to help. Teach them the skills and this will help them find common ground together. It is helpful to define a space for joint items during organizing. Use it as a place to put things that you can’t decide on right away and return to those items in the end. Sneaking items out of the house that belong to your spouse can backfire. This usually makes the spouse hold on to items tighter in future similar situations.

Keeping the tension at bay is important too, it helps to have an neutral person there, an organizer, is a good choice because they are the expert and can also help make everyone feel heard which defuses the situation. If there are still disagreements over specific items, put the item aside and agree to make a decision together at the end of the organizing session. Putting priority on item safety.

Come back next week for parts 2 and 3.

It’s Valentine’s day and we thought we would share this quote from a recent article in ClosetsDaily.com. Writer Denise Butchko states, “A recent poll featured on The Nate Berkus Show said that when people were asked which they like more – cleaning their closet or having sex – 31% said they preferred cleaning their closet.”

My reaction? WOW! I guess I’m in the right business! As an organizer and closet designer I see the “happiness” a clutter free space can bring clients. I am often surprised at the way clients work very hard for several hours while we are there and seem to always have more energy at the end of a session then when they started. But I have yet to have a client light up a cigarette when they leave!

Follow this link to find the full article titled Clean Your Closet or have Sex? via ClosetsDaily.com.

So what would YOU rather do?

(Photo credit: ClosetsDaily.com)