NAPO-DFW Professional Organizers

NAPO-DFWs 2010 Extreme Garage Makeover is a HUGE SUCCESS!

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 11:40:27 GMT

NAPO-DFW teamed with Easysale, Inc. to host a "Messiest Garage" contest for “Get Organized” (GO) Month in January 2010! Months of preparation led up to the 2-day event where, despite freezing rain, 22 professional organizers and 10 sponsors united to organize 1 garage, 1 shed, and 1 driveway that had been overtaken with "stuff."

Sponsors 1-800-Got-Junk hauled away 3 truckloads, Easysale submitted items on eBay (valued at approximately $3,000), SAM contributed two portable storage units, Sherwin Williams of Rockwall donated paint and supplies, and Starbucks contributed hot beverages. Both SAM and 1-800-Got Junk donated manpower as well!

We kicked off the contest with an interview of Trish Lengen, (President, NAPO-DFW) and David Goldstein (EasySale) on Good Morning Texas®, coverage in a local newspaper, live video streaming during the event, live news coverage by Fox News®, video news coverage by News Without the Blues, Rockwall Blog, a 5-station radio interview of Pam Bowers (Marketing Director, NAPO-DFW) and David Goldstein, and The Garage Slab Magazine's next issue is devoting 2-pages to the project!

Shortly after the contest's completion, NAPO-DFW followed-up with the Cory family. Mr. Cory is VERY excited about the garage and is doing a little something every day to improve his workspace. He was able to put a bike on a work stand and work on it for easysale! Goal accomplished! As Mrs. Cory says, this was "unheard of in the garage for who knows how long. Thanks so much for all NAPO-DFW did. It's very nice to be able to go in there and get something I need and know EXACTLY where to get it!"

NAPO-DFW is thrilled with the success of this event. We look forward to more opportunities to help local families and promote the value of professional organizers in DFW!

Click here to see photos of the 2010 Get Organized event!

Law and Order: How a Pro Helps Tackle Clutter

Wed, 5 May 2010 15:29:09 GMT

by Andrea Patersen and Jennifer Merritt

If you're aiming to organize a chaotic and cluttered home, the most dangerous place on earth may be the Container Store.

At least that is what some professional organizers say. That is because most people leave that Mecca of boxes, bins, shelves and hooks (the stores carry more than 50 different types of CD holders alone) without much of a plan. Armed with good intentions and a host of shiny new products, they often end up with just as much of a jumble. And even more stuff.

"It is the biggest mistake people make," says Laura Leist, president of the National Association of Professional Organizers or NAPO, a trade group. "They think if they buy something to put their things in that is going to solve the problem." (A Container Store spokeswoman says store employees -- who receive more than 240 hours of training on storage and organization -- can guide customers into making the right decisions about products.)

The most important part of organizing is actually throwing stuff away or "purging," Ms. Leist says. And that is where professional organizers say they can often be the most help, by gently and tactfully encouraging people to get rid of superfluous stuff.

Fantasy Closets
We've all seen magazines showing freakishly organized homes: closets with precision-stacked linens; alphabetized spices; orderly toy cubbies and designated bill-paying stations. Glossy shots like these inspired four lifelong pack rats to get organized -- with a little help.
Professional organizers were asked to tackle everything from a home-office overloaded with piles of paper to a closet stuffed to the ceiling with a melange of baby clothes (the kids are teenagers), school artwork and even an old mattress and box spring. Testers in varied living situations -- from a two-story house in the Atlanta suburbs to a one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, N.Y. -- were enlisted to hire organizers in our hometowns.

In general, we were thrilled with the outcome and were amazed at how quickly we saw results. Forced to justify what we wanted to keep, we were able to be much more ruthless in our purging. (Though, one of our testers did resort to hiding some purge-worthy note cards from her organizer's eyes.) Our organizers kept us focused and on task, and definitely got their hands dirty, digging into the depths of closets and lugging bags of trash. So we were able to avoid what Ms. Leist says is the second biggest de-cluttering mistake: getting distracted and tackling multiple projects at once, never making much headway in any. All this hand-holding didn't come cheap. Our organizers charged between $75 and $100 an hour (for a two-person team). We also ended up shelling out more money -- one tester spent $400 -- for new storage items that our organizers recommended, but the experts we worked with were sensitive to our budget concerns. Two of our organizers came to our homes for an initial consult and then returned for the actual organizing-an approach that seemed to yield the best results.

Anyone can call himself or herself a professional organizer, though those with the designation of "Certified Professional Organizer" have passed an exam and have a minimum of 1,250 to 1,500 hours of hands-on work with clients. All of the organizers we worked with belonged to NAPO (Organizers are searchable by zip code at napo.net.) We also checked references from previous clients.

In Brooklyn, we found Amanda Wiss of Urban Clarity through word of mouth. We wanted help with an entryway cluttered with shoes, coats, newspapers and baby gear and two front closets that were packed so tightly we could barely open the doors. After an initial consult, Ms. Wiss sent us an email with a shopping list of low-cost storage items to buy from the Container Store (A great place when you have a plan.) When she returned for four hours of actual organizing, Ms. Wiss had us take everything out of the closets and put items into four piles: one for trash, one for things we wanted to donate or sell, one for storage and one for items we'd keep in the apartment.

'Delayed Decision-Making'
She had a terrific solution for our biggest eyesore: the mounds of paper, books and other clutter that marred our beautiful six-foot-long dining room table (and often barely left us enough room to fit two dinner plates.) She had us buy an attractive "in-box" for the day's newspaper and mail and create a "project" shelf in one of our nearby bookcases to house the magazines we were saving to peruse later, travel books for an upcoming trip to Italy and novels we're reading. "Clutter is just delayed decision-making," she says. And the best part is that we've been able to maintain the systems she put in place: Weeks after her visit, we're still clutter free ... relatively.

In Los Angeles, we hired Regina Lark of A Clear Path to tackle a room in a four-bedroom house that does double duty as a home office and guest room. Ms. Lark, who has a doctorate in history, started off by asking, "What's driving you crazy?" While she had us sorting through and purging the mounds of paper on and in our desks, Ms. Lark went through a closet stuffed with photo albums, stationery and office supplies. She had some novel ideas for how to deal with the deluge of memorabilia a family of four had acquired, including a poster the 13-year-old twins had made: Instead of letting it take up space in the closet, we should "take a picture of it and put it on your desk," she says. She also recommended that we "Keep one thing that is representative of a time period, like a picture or letter," instead of several mementos that will just collect dust and create clutter.

In Manhattan, we wanted help setting up after a move to a new, bigger apartment. We settled on In Order to Succeed because the company specializes in relocations. When Robin Reid Hunt arrived for a four-hour session she toured our seven-room apartment and immediately went to work making suggestions; adding hooks in the hallway for coats (so we could reform our prior habit of tossing coats on dining-room chairs) and a second rod for the closet in the children's room to expand room for clothes. Then we tackled our biggest issue: the kids' toys. Here is where we wish we'd had a consultation first -- and the opportunity to buy some new storage items before Ms. Reid Hunt did the actual organizing. The organizer did dive in and help us purge and categorize toys, but we knew we needed to buy a new, bigger storage unit.

We did end up buying something similar to what was recommended after our session, but by then we were on our own to do the final set up.

In Atlanta, we needed serious help. A deep basement closet was packed with baby clothes, lamps, mounds of memorabilia from a decade living in Moscow, including nesting dolls and old newspapers, a mattress and even a papasan chair wedged up near the ceiling. Another closet was stuffed with files, luggage, pet food, cases of canned tomatoes and more old newspapers. We knew we had some serious editing to do. One of the best things about the company we hired, Chaos 2 Comfort, was that it recycles or donates purged items for you. Our two-person team was very sensitive to our feelings, suggesting we take a break when we felt overwhelmed and advising us to keep those items that had real sentimental value. In the end, we had five garbage bags full of clothes and toys for our organizers, Susan Fox and Teresa Taylor, to take to a local homeless shelter.

But that night we panicked: In our zeal, we had accidently tossed the blue sweat suit one of the kids had lived in as a toddler -- and we wanted it back. So we sheepishly called Ms. Taylor. Thankfully, the items hadn't been donated yet.

This article was published by The Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com) on April 8, 2010.
-Miriam Jordan, Betsy McKay and Judy Dixon contributed to this article.

Do you have an article to share with NAPO-DFW, Inc.? Please email your submission to communications@napodfw.com.

21 Rules for Social Media Engagement

Tue, 18 May 2010 13:49:01 GMT

21 Rules for Social Media Engagement

Social media is reinventing marketing, communications, and the dissemination of information. While businesses now have access to these rich channels, the true promise of social media lies in the direct connections between people who represent companies and the people who define markets of interest.

Today, many businesses approach this with the establishment of social media guidelines and policies. This is indeed an important step, and not one worth economizing. But it’s also not enough. I highly recommend establishing official procedures that remind representatives of the importance and privilege of engagement.

The openness of popular networks is trivial. Any business can join and create a profile. It’s the devices we employ, the intentions that motivate engagement, and the value we offer that dictate the significance of the brand-specific social graphs we weave. It’s a simple investment in either visibility or presence. In social media, just like in the real world, presence is felt.

Rules of Engagement

As social media continues to evolve, defining the “rules of engagement” will encourage thoughtful interaction that benefits the business, brand, customer, peers, and prospects at every touchpoint. In the end, we earn the attention, relationships and business we deserve.

The following is an outline of best practices to help you craft a practical set of rules to guide representatives as they engage.

1. Discover all relevant communities of interest and observe the choices, challenges, impressions, and wants of the people within each network.

2. Don’t just participate solely in your own domains (Facebook Fan Page, Twitter conversations related to your brand, etc.). Participate where your presence is advantageous and mandatory.

3. Determine the identity, character, and personality of the brand and match it to the persona of the individuals representing it online.

4. Establish a point of contact who is ultimately responsible for identifying, trafficking, or responding to all things that can affect brand perception.

5. As in customer service, representatives require training to learn how to proactively and reactively respond across multiple scenarios. Don’t just put the person familiar with social networking in front of the brand.

6. Embody the attributes you wish to portray and instill. Operate by a code of conduct.

7. Observe the behavioral cultures within each network and adjust your outreach accordingly.

8. Assess pain points, frustrations, and also those of contentment in order to establish meaningful connections.

9. Become a true participant in each community you wish to activate. Move beyond marketing and sales.

10. Don’t speak at audiences through canned messages. Introduce value, insight and direction with each engagement.

11. Empower your representatives to offer rewards and resolutions in times of need.

12. Don’t just listen and placate — act. Do something.

13. Ensure that any external activities are supported by a comprehensive infrastructure to address situations and adapt to market conditions and demands.

14. Learn from each engagement and provide a path within the company to adapt and improve products and services.

15. Consistently create, contribute, and reinforce service and value.

16. Earn connections through collaboration and empower advocacy.

17. Don’t get lost in translation. Ensure your communication and intent is clear and that your involvement maps to objectives created for the social web.

18. Establish and nurture beneficial relationships online and in the real world as long as doing so is important to your business.

19. “Un-campaign” and create ongoing programs that keep you connected to day-to-day engagement.

20. “Un-market” by becoming a resource to your communities.

21. Give back, reciprocate, and recognize notable contributions from participants in your communities.

Brian Solis is the author of Engage and a leading authority in digital branding and marketing. Connect with him on Twitter or Facebook. This article is a modified excerpt from Engage, the complete guide for businesses to build, cultivate, and measure success in the new web.

This article is dated May 18, 2010 from http://mashable.com/.

Get a grip on your mess with these clutter-busting tips from the pros

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 12:23:05 GMT

By CARLA JORDAN / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

It's no secret that in Big D, we love to shop. While this makes us among the stylishly elite, it also fosters the perfect environment for home-front overload, where closets bulge and rooms are bursting with too much decor. "In Dallas, our sport of choice is shopping, because it's convenient and fun," says Samantha Naeyart, owner of Muddle Management, a local home organization firm, and vice president of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers.

"Many of our homes are large enough to hold so much stuff that it isn't considered clutter until you can't close the closet or find what you need when you need it."

Birth of messy homes

It's easy for clutter to creep up on anyone, especially when there are mitigating circumstances. Experts point to priority shifts caused by life changes including birth, death, job loss, more travel, marriage and divorce upsizing or downsizing. They all act as clutter instigators.

Then, there are those people who'd just rather do something other than tidy up.

"It's easy to close off that junk room," notes Dr. J. Michael Brennan, a Dallas psychiatrist. "Part of the problem is that if we can compartmentalize the mess, we can ignore it – that's the reality of some people's mess."

Whatever the reason, restoring order begins with figuring out why the stuff has accumulated in the first place.

Mark Brunetz, a Los Angeles designer and co-host of the Style Network's Clean House, a show that rescues homeowners from their clutter, has heard it all. In his new book, Take the U Out of Clutter (Berkley Trade, $16), he points to five excuses people give for hanging on to more than they should:

•I might need this someday.

•That was given to me. I'd feel guilty if I got rid of it.

•I've had this since I was a child.

•I can't pass up a sale. Look at all the money I'm saving.

•This isn't clutter. It's a collection!

Sound familiar? If so, then it's time for a change. "When you adjust the way you live your life to accommodate your things, you need to take a look at what you have and why, then instill some discipline and get serious about decluttering," advises Trish Suhr, Clean House organization expert.

The clutter-buddy fix

Even if your home looks as if it'll require a bulldozer to see the light of day, Suhr says there is a practical approach to tackling home organization:

•Go one room at a time until the job is done.

•Enlist a clutter buddy – someone to talk you off the ledge when you're going through your stuff.

•Resolve to not bring anything into your home unless you know for sure it already has a place. This goes for clothes, decor, food – everything.

Handling discards

It may be easier to let go of stuff if you give castoffs a new life. Donate them to a charity (you'll get a tax write-off) or take them to a consignment shop where you can make some cash.

For items in deteriorated condition, call a junk removal service such as 1-800-GOT-JUNK, which will remove almost anything, from old furniture to appliances.

Store it stylishly

Once decluttering is completed, get decoratively proactive and store what you have in a good-looking way. This is in keeping with the look of your home and makes it enticing to keep everything in its place.

~Carla Jordan is an Irving freelance writer. View original print of article at DallasNews.com.

Three steps to a clutter-free life

1. Label four bins and sort accordingly. We recommend these labels:

Retain: items to keep just the way they are
Release: items to donate or resell, plus a garbage bag for rubbish (stuff not fit for anything else)
Repurpose: items to update or modify for other uses
Reserve: items to set aside after setting a specific deadline to address them

2. Get fired up

Ask yourself: "If my house were burning down, what's the one thing I'd grab?" Your response reveals what you truly value. Then, based on the size of a room, set an egg timer to one, two or three minutes.

With a pack of sticky notes in hand, place one on all of the things you'd grab in case of a fire. Consider reallocating or getting rid of anything without a sticky.

3. Act counter-intuitively.

The clutter process begins at the counter of your favorite store. When shopping:

Create a purpose-driven list and stick to it.
Make sure everything you buy will have a space to be stored and easily accessed.
Ask yourself, "What's the worst thing that could happen if I don't buy this? Can I live without it?"

SOURCE: Take the U Out of Clutter by Mark Brunetz and Carmen Renee Berry (Berkley Books)

Also online at the Dallas Morning News: How to tackle clutter at home

Muddle Management's Spiral Method

Thu, 1 Jul 2010 14:41:27 GMT

The Muddle Management Spiral Method (MMSM) provides a method to keep your to-do’s and thoughts in one place. A few of the benefits are:

•Saves money
•Saves time due to easy access to inventory (no website needed to order additional pages)
•Avoids pre-set organizing strategy
•Saves space – fold over to write on page as opposed to composition books
•Easy to transport and fit into your lifestyle
•Provides one location for the myriad of thoughts and to-do’s in your life – as opposed to tablets

What You Need:

Writing Tool: I suggest that you use a pencil for easy changes instead of a pen. But if using a pen, simply clip it to the spiral or use the pen holder to keep everything together and available for quick notes.

Paperclip: Place a paperclip on the first available page or the page you are working on – this saves time in trying to write down your next note. If working on more than one specific project just clip the paper clip to another section of the spiral on the first page.

Always have this spiral with you – this is your brain on paper. If it is not convenient to carry it in for lunch, etc. at least keep it in your car close by.

With each new day, write the date in the top right (either on a new sheet or to create a new section on a page).

Write all ideas onto the page one line at a time (this may take up 3 or 4+ pages when you first start).

Write each to-do or thought with a dash to the left (or square) to check the items off as you deal with each. Use your own coding system, you do not have to write in complete sentences or even write every step of a project down, just something to jog your brain about the thought or project. Keep it simple.

Place a star next to all items for completion outside the home or office – this then easily becomes your errand list.

Move to next page as needed – could use front facing pages for work and back facing pages for personal. You do not have to complete a page before starting a new one.

Each time to sit at your desk, open the spiral to remind and provoke .

Check off as you complete each to-do or work through each thought.

Once a few days have passed and you have remaining to-do’s or thoughts to deal with, write an M with a circle around it and the new date and move the to-do or thought to that date’s page.

Once all items are checked off or have an M next to them, place a check at the top right of the page – this is an important step; it saves time when going back through your spiral.

When the spiral is complete write the beginning and ending dates on the front and place on a bookshelf close to your desk for future chronological reference.

Additional Ideas:

If you write or someone else hands you a sticky note, place the note on a page, this gives this note a home. Deal with the note as necessary and be sure to have the date on the page.

Use the pockets to hold business cards handed to you but do not use as a storage system for business cards. Develop the habit of opening the spiral at your desk, taking out the business card and putting the information where you need it:

Either scan the card into your computer, or
Enter the contact information into your address system and/or phone, or
Enter the URL and save the website as a “favorite.”
Place the card with your other business cards.

If you have a page with research information for a particular project, either take out the page and file (either hot file or storage file) or scan the page and place into a folder in your computer.

When in your car, place the spiral between the driver seat and console (if possible) so that it has a home and if you hear something from the radio that you want to research or purchase, just take the spiral out at the next red light and jot it down quickly.

The idea here is that this system is simple, inexpensive, easy to keep going all year long, provides one location for all of your thoughts and a reference for the past.

For more great ideas from this NAPO-DFW member, view Samantha's profile here.

Do you have an article to share with NAPO-DFW, Inc.? Please email your submission to articles@napodfw.com.

The Hidden Cost of Clutter and the Sale of Your Home!

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 11:53:07 GMT

Homeowners often struggle with the task of decluttering when preparing for the sale of their home and the upcoming move. As you make decisions to keep, fix, donate, or toss items in your home… there is another factor to consider: The HIDDEN costs of keeping it. Ask yourself this simple question: How much will it cost me to keep it? If you say, nothing…

Consider these real hidden costs:

Monetary
• What would the cost be to fix it, repair it, or mend it so it is usable again?
• What is the cost to store it properly?
• What would the cost be to move it?
• What are the lifetime maintenance costs?

Let's say clutter takes up 20% of the total square footage of your home (which is VERY conservative). Now calculate what your home costs per year to heat, light, maintain, now add in mortgage costs and property taxes. Finally, take 20% of that total number and that's what you're paying per year to keep all your extra stuff!
Many move to a larger house thinking they've outgrown the current one. Often, if they just purged all the “stuff” they didn't really need or use, many of them would already have enough space or wouldn't need to spend quite so much on the next house because they'd realize they don't need all the extra room.

Physical
• Consider the exhausting work of packing, lifting and moving boxes, and then unpacking them at the new home…. for items you don’t use, do not LOVE, and are not essential.
Emotional
• The cost of living in a cluttered, stress-inducing space versus a clean and serene home
• The missed opportunity to recycle goods to those less fortunate who could really use that coat, or the toys that are still in good enough condition to make a child's eyes light up.

Finally the last and most important:

The Sale of Your Home

Ask yourself, how much will it cost if I have not decluttered my home for selling, and I lose a potential sale because buyers cannot see past the clutter. Houses are filled with objects we love and treasure. Look in just about every home and you'll find a shelf stuffed with favorite books, a mantel loaded with collectibles or a wall covered in family photos. But when it comes time to sell a house, those items we cherish may look like just plain clutter to prospective buyers.

Consider the following:

1) If you have your belongings falling out of cupboards, shelves crammed and closets bursting, it sends a subliminal message to viewers; not enough storage. The logical mind knows that THEY will have different furniture and different belongings but it’s not the logical mind we are talking about here.

2) There is one single thing everyone wants when they buy a property: Space. The less stuff there is in your house the bigger it looks. A simple mind trick; your home isn’t actually any bigger, it just looks like it is.

3) It saves time later. If you starting eliminating all your less-than-loved items now, it will be much easier to keep clean, and easier to tidy up when viewers come around. In addition, you won’t have to rush when you finally pack your belongings at moving time, and you will reduce time when unpacking and having to find places for all that stuff in your new home!

The Competitive Edge

Even though it is YOUR home-sweet-home, it's a good idea to get used to the fact that your house is now a product. It has pluses and minuses, as well as competition. To be competitive, your house should be priced right and look better than the others. You have to look at your home with a buyers' eyes, The house needs to be as perfect as you can afford it to be.

Since you're going to be packing to move anyway, how about a head start by making your rooms look larger by boxing up excess items and crowded or unnecessary furniture. This allows the buyer to mentally move their furniture into your home. By removing some of the clutter, the focus shifts from the "stuff" in the room to the room itself.

Ok, I need to declutter, Now What?

First, realize you're hardly alone when it comes to clutter. Most American households now struggle against an inflow of more items than they can handle.

As a starting point, visit your next residence (if it’s already known) to take photos and room measurements to see what will fit and where it can go. Next, set a schedule for your decluttering program, allowing two to three times as long as you'd expect it to take.

If you are crunched for time, are feeling overwhelmed, need advice, or just don’t know where to start; contact a Professional Organizer.

For more information on how to contact this NAPO-DFW member, view Sandy's profile.

Do you have an article to share with NAPO-DFW, Inc.? Please email your submission to articles@napodfw.com.

Hosting a SWAP Party!

Sun, 1 Aug 2010 20:02:56 GMT

Here’s a great idea for folks that want to de-clutter their home but are mindful of not adding to the landfill. Be the first in your neighborhood to host a “Shop for SWAPS” Party. The concept is simple – you trade (or swap) your unwanted items for those belonging to your friends and neighbors. And voilà, your trash becomes someone else’s treasure!

Start by picking a date and inviting your guests. Give them enough time to search through their homes for appropriate swaps: old gifts (they never liked), sale items (they never opened), household décor (no longer matches), etc. Specify how many items each guest should bring and be sure you have adequate space to display them all. You may want to choose a theme for the swaps, like kitchen items, or clothing and accessories. If it’s a co-ed party, maybe you include tools and garage stuff in the list of possible swaps.

Once all the swaps are displayed and everyone has had a chance to mingle and check out the merchandise, then it’s shopping time! At my recent party, I gave guests one wooden clothespin for each swap – if they brought 5 items, they received 5 clothespins they could mark with their names. We set a timer for 15 minutes for everyone to “pin” the items they wanted. Then we went through the room and held tie-breakers for any swaps where more than one person had clipped their pin. By special vote, we also allowed guests to place multiple clothespins on items they really, really wanted to win!

Hosting a SWAP Party is a great idea for many reasons:

• A FUN and FREE night of entertainment with friends

• The chance to encourage RE-USE and RECYCLING

• A DE-CLUTTERED home

• And all the leftover swaps are DONATED to CHARITY

So, try the latest “green” trend in organizing…. Host your own SWAP Party!

For more information on how to contact this NAPO-DFW member, view Cheri's profile.

Do you have an article to share with NAPO-DFW, Inc.? Please email your submission to articles@napodfw.com.

Get Organized for School!

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:35:47 GMT

Back to school means many things to parents and kids. For parents, it's the mad rush to purchase school supplies, find uniforms or new clothes, and face the dreaded thoughts of, "How am I going to keep up with all this?" If you're like most parents, you may remember a struggle you faced somewhere in a past school year when keeping up with the many schedules and demands for your school-aged children. We have the answer for you! Our tips + your desire to make the process a little easier and less complicated is exactly what is needed to prevent a repeat of those less-than-memorable moments.

Join Terri Cox, Professional Organizer and owner of Organized by Terri for her answers to the most frequently asked questions on back-to-school organizing!

What are some common organizational challenges that come with back to school time and what are your suggestions for solutions?
Back to school schedules for children have a direct impact on them as well as the family life and its schedules. Areas for coming and going in your home, which I refer to as taking off and landing areas, as well as school supplies, homework, schedules, communication and paper flow for necessary communication between parents and teachers. Each is important and can dramatically effect any given day. The following tips and processes may give you some ideas to make your life a little less stressful.

How can parents organize kids' clothes to make mornings go smoother?
• Finding age appropriate systems for each. Young children that are not reading or those that can, do well with color organization. Closet organizers, attached over the rod, create a group of 5 shelves offer an easy solution.
• Parents can help their children pair up outfits to place into each of the shelves as a daily organizer. This way the decisions have been made before hand and little if any discussion except identifying the color/day separations, or if our Texas dramatic weather changes- necessitate a change.
• For older children, simply use open bins in a closet or drawers for storage of clothing separating tops and bottoms, underwear and socks. Use an organizing system to keep belts, hats, jewelry and accessories within easy sight and reach. Have them plan the night before what they will wear, making sure all items are clean and pressed and ready to wear.
• Closet hang space should be easily accessible and an outside hook could hold an outfit for the next day.
• Make your children a part of the process further by providing a laundry hamper in their living space, preferably inside a closet.
• Beside the obvious of what we hope for, teaching responsibility, they will reap great dividends, clean clothes and the satisfaction of ‘doing it themselves!’

What are some ideas for organizing a kid's study area to encourage the most productivity?
• Homework areas should be user friendly with respect to a quiet area and the necessary age appropriate supplies on hand.
• Pens, pencils, erasers, scissors and glue can be containerized and made portable if needed like the handy sorter from The Container Store for the desktop. Otherwise a drawer in the kitchen area could hold these items keeping them accessible for everyone such as The Container Store desk/drawer organizer.
• Some adults remember doing their homework around the kitchen table; this is still considered an optimum place. If noise levels and interruptions can be kept to a minimum, this is a great area to spread out. Otherwise, consider having a desk in his or her room with supplies and a good study light for reading and writing tasks.
• Remember to keep healthy snacks on hand for the homework process.
• Choose also the best time of the afternoon for getting the homework done. I always made my kids to homework right away (after a five-minute snack), before TV or any other privileges. This motivated my kids to do a good, quick job.
• On the other hand, I’ve known of other kids who needed an hour to decompress from their day by recharging once they had a bit of quiet time, got their snack and then went to work. Plenty of time before dinner and time to spend on other activities before bedtime.

What are some of your favorite products for organizing?
• Message Centers:
Office supply Stores and The Container Store:
Dry Erase Boards/markers
Magnetic pockets
Magnetic Message pads

• Clothing Organization:
Daily clothing organizer bins - Lillian VernonHooks and holders-Container Store
Open bins - Container Store
Hooks and holders such as the Command Hooks for Accessories, belts
Boxes and clear storage for Jewelry- Container Store

• Study Time:
Office Supply Tote- Hobby Lobby- Rubbermaid- The Container Store
Reading lamps-Office supply stores and Target for clip on lamps
Junk Drawer Organizer- drawer supply storage Wal-Mart-Container Store
Snacks-Granola, Trail Mix, fruit; water, juice- Whole Foods

What do you suggest for a family communications center to keep schedules, messages, etc. organized?
• To help keep track of everyone, try placing a large monthly calendar in a central location for schedules and events to be added as they arise. This may be on the side of a refrigerator, or at a desk in the kitchen area. Available are many dry erase versions of a month-at-a-glance to add activities as they come up.
• Use color markers to designate between children or activities.
• For older children, set up a communication center with magnetic pockets and note pads for messages. This is a great way for parents and children to communicate, if home arrival times vary.
• In this area include a pad for lists for groceries and other necessities needed. Family members can add to that list as needed.
• Handling the school notes that need a response, set up a horizontal file with stackable trays as an ‘in and out’ mail system for those that need to be returned to school.
• Schedules that arrive on 8-1/2”x 11” sheets for sports and activities, for a season or the year, may be placed in top loading protector sheets, then place into a desk directory for the family. This “Lifestyle Notebook” can be used for the entire family, with different sections and categories to handle all those schedules, list and important information and much more.

Create “Landing Areas:” As soon as you get home, download all the gear to its designated place for ‘landing.’
This should include:
• Hooks for coats, scarves and backpacks, umbrellas
• Lower bins for shoes, and gear.
• Upper bins for gloves and accessories.
• Remove homework items and replace backpack on hook. All notes to be signed immediately go to the horizontal file to be read and signed. Once the parent signs, it then should be placed in the ‘Out’ horizontal file.

Create “Taking off areas:”
• These are the same as landing in reverse. All items are now at the ready to “Grab & Go.” Only signed notes should be retrieved at this point and packed for school.

What kind and how much school work should I keep? Keep the work that the child is proud of and is a good example of what they are capable of. Keep all papers and sort and purge them twice during the school year in January and in the first month of summer using these guidelines:
• Examples that reflect the beginning of the school year and at the end, which show their progress. Handwriting examples, poems and stories written.
• Use Acid free storage size 9” x 12” boxes such as the archive safe items from the Container Store to store the papers that you have chosen from the twice-a-year papers you wish to keep permanently. Consider using one for each year during the elementary years and then combine maybe two years at a time for the same child as the work becomes less into the junior and high school years.
• If extremely large or bulky art or science projects are made. Take a photo of the child with the project and let the ‘bulk’ go! This is a great idea to remember the project but more so what your child looked like during the time it was made.
• Start a scrapbook for each child, include in it class pictures, certificates and ribbons. This is a great place to display the ‘child-artwork’ pictures with some journaling about the project.
• Trophies for academics and sports alike should be somewhere in their space, on a desk or shelf.
• Most children would probably use a bulletin board for all the current events, photos and memorabilia collected throughout the year. At years end, you may like to add these items to their personal scrapbook. Offer these options, and they will learn to sort, purge and feel good about themselves and their accomplishments.

"Creating that special place in our homes to share our lives, from the ordinary becomes one of life’s other challenges. In that challenge we can find great satisfaction.” -Terri Cox

For more information on how to contact this NAPO-DFW member, view Terri's profile.

Do you have an article to share with NAPO-DFW, Inc.? Please email your submission to articles@napodfw.com.

Is Clutter Holding You Back?

Thu, 2 Sep 2010 10:05:43 GMT

The word clutter means different things to different people. While some people have no problem with messy sock drawers, others get lost in piles of paper and lists that keep them going in circles and accomplishing little in their job searches. That's the kind of clutter that interferes with your goals, and nothing is more crucial than having clear goals during a job search.

Controlling clutter has a lot do with a job search, said Samantha Naeyaert, vice president [sic NAPO-DFW] and owner of Muddle Management. She describes clutter as delayed decisions that happen when priorities are out of line. Clutter keeps people from having peace in their lives and accomplishing their goals.

So, you've got clutter. That's not so bad, right? When you avoid the decision to deal with a messy desk or unread mail, you make a delayed decision, and instead of putting papers where they belong and discarding unnecessary mail, you set up the path for disorder.

Clutter grows when there is no system in place to deal with the papers and materials needed for your job search.

Clutter can be your worst enemy when you're looking for a job. It can fog your mind precisely when a clear mind is needed to focus and plan your next steps. A chaotic work space takes your mind off of your priorities.

Time is valuable when you are job searching, and you can easily lose track of time when you're disorganized. Take for example the important task of following up with contacts during your job search. Studies indicate only about 5% of job seekers send thank-you notes.

One simple way to make your job search more effective is to stand from the crowd by taking the time to acknowledge people by sending thank-yous. It's hard to send notes in a timely manner when clutter abounds.

Clutter does not build confidence. In fact, it does the opposite. It can increase your anxiety level, create a feeling of restlessness and lead to depression.

Picture a job seeker trying to describe their value to a perspective employer during a phone interview. Now, look at the job seeker's work space. There are stacks of paper and dishes, grocery lists, school work and mail scattered all over his work space.

It's hard to be confident when your space is cluttered with stuff, but that's a common scenario when there is no system for managing your job search.

Naeyaert encourages job seekers to keep as much information as possible in digital folders where it can be accessed easily and quickly. Clutter builds when there is no system in place to deal with papers you need to keep for your job search.

Here are some organization ideas:

• One way to create a clean work space is to create a system. Don't delay filing that piece of paper. If you have a system, you already know where it goes. The decision is made already.

• Create large headings for files. Avoid using manila folders, if possible. Remember the Pareto Principle . This is the 80/20 rule, and it is a reminder that if you file 80% of your papers, you will need only 20% of them, so avoid creating a detailed filing system that takes too long to use.

•Keep regularly used items closest to your work space, and put rarely used items out of the way.

• A clear desk leaves room for creativity. Be sure to leave desk space to work.

Has clutter interfered with your job search?

---

For more information on how to contact this NAPO-DFW member quoted in this article, view Samantha's profile.

For more from the author, Kim Thompson of Career Rescue, view Kim's blog.

Do you have an article to share with NAPO-DFW, Inc.? Please email your submission to articles@napodfw.com.