Opt Out Info

Here is some great information for you to use to help reduce some of the junk mail you receive on a weekly basis.

To get off pre-screened credit card and insurance mailing lists, go to:

 

Credit card and Insurance mail

 

To get off junk mail and unwanted catalog mailing lists, go to:

 

Junk Mail and Catalogs

What is a Hoarder?

Ever worried if you’re a hoarder?

According to the Mayo Clinic staff, hoarding is defined as – “The excessive collection of items, along with the inability to discard them. Hoarding often creates such cramped living conditions that homes may be filled to capacity, with only narrow pathways winding through stacks of clutter. Some people also collect animals, keeping dozens or hundreds of pets often in unsanitary conditions.”

Have you ever watched the TV show, “Hoarders” or “Hoarders, Buried Alive,” and thought to yourself, “That could be me”? Maybe you’re overwhelmed looking at your own piles of stuff, wanting to keep everything just the way it is, yet knowing deep down that you can’t continue living your life this way. The term “hoarder” has such a negative connotation, that people are often paralyzed at the thought of letting anyone in to see the state of their home.

 

However, there is another classification for people who like to hold onto their stuff, it’s called chronically disorganized.  You’ve tried to get organized before, and it worked for a little while, but slowly things just went back to the way they were. And then there are my favorites,  “pack rat”, or “collector”.

 

If one of the labels above rings true for you, what can you do to make a change? Whatever you call it, compulsive hoarding, chronic disorganization or collecting, they all have the same effect on you and your life. Organizing your hoarded home and improving your hoarding lifestyle are big steps and when you’re really ready, you’ll need to ask for help.  When you reach out and surround yourself with a caring and compassionate support system, you’re headed toward the change you desire.

There may have been a significant event in your life that started you down the road to hoarding, or it could have been that you recognized early on that organizing was a challenge for you. It may have started with one messy room, and before you knew it, your home was completely full of stuff and out of control. A kind friend or even a hoarding TV show may have helped you realize the truth of how you’re living.  Now you want to change your life.

Some people don’t believe that it’s possible to go into a cluttered room, and with the help of a Professional Organizer, have it completely organized in a couple of hours. Or even the ability to have an organizer get an entire house done in a matter of days. Yet it is true. When a person is truly ready to commit to a new start, and is ready to make some tough decisions, huge strides can be made each day. You can go from a home that is overwhelmingly cluttered, to one that is organized and comfortable. It can happen, and when it does, you feel so empowered to have gained control over your stuff instead of your stuff having control over you.

Just close your eyes and picture a different environment for yourself and your family – from a hoarded/cluttered home to a more livable, more organized home. Envision the improved quality time you will have to spend with your family or friends. Allow yourself to conceive of no more anxiety about inviting friends over. If all of this sounds like something you’re ready to experience, you can change your environment and your habits, and live a changed life! But just imagining a different future is only one step toward organization.

The next step is to enlist help. A Professional Organizer can help you see what needs to be done and help you develop a reasonable organizing plan. Working beside you, a trained organizer can ease your anxiety and help you take action as you dig out from the clutter.

You may be surprised that just asking for help, even if it’s just from family and friends, begins an amazing process of change!

Dealing with paper - Part 2

If you've read part 1 of this series of dealing with paper, you've got the older and most important papers in order, right? If you haven't read part 1, I recommend doing that first. Older papers and important papers take the least amount of time to deal with, yet you will feel such satisfaction with getting those taken care of. Time to move on to the more current, or daily influx of papers that come into our homes.

Once again, you're going to gather all your current papers into one location. This will include today's mail, yesterday's mail, last week's mail, maybe even last month's mail. Also you should be gathering receipts from purchases, repairs, advertisements, coupons, anything that you have deemed valuable enough to save in the first place. Next your going to need three boxes labeled TO DO, TO READ, TO FILE. Anything that doesn't fall into one of these three categories is most likely going to be trash, so have a shredder and/or a large trash bag nearby.

Begin sorting every single piece of paper into one of the three boxes. If you're not sure, put it in the TO FILE box and we'll deal with that later. This is called a defining sort and shouldn't take you too long to make decisions. Here's an idea of what you might be putting into each box:

Category Example To Do ·         Bills to pay ·         Invitations to respond to ·         Address changes ·         Requests from school that require a response ·         Bank statements to be balanced ·         Projects that you’re working on right now To Read ·         Newsletters ·         Magazines ·         Catalogs ·         Personal letters ·         School information To File ·         Bank Statements (balanced) ·         Credit card statements ·         Catalogs that you order from ·         Receipts for charitable contributions ·         Statements from financial investments ·         Statements from utility bills ·         School reference information ·         Receipts for repairs (home or automobiles)

Let's tackle that TO DO box first. Now, if you've never created a TO DO file before, it may feel a little overwhelming. At first it may feel like a huge project, but after just a few short weeks, it will become a part of your daily life. You may want to sub-divide it into different categories like; bills, phone calls to make, forms to fill out and mail, school papers to send in, etc. Whatever it looks like to you, just know that you'll feel more in control when this huge pile is whittled down to just a few things to handle daily.

If you don't already use some sort of planner, I advise you to start using one. I use Planner Pad https://plannerpads.com/index.asp and have come to love seeing in front of me what I have to do on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. With your TO DO box sorted into your categories, you should now put into your daily planner things that have the top priority. Next would come the items that aren't as high a priority to do within the next week, and finally, things that can wait go into the next months category.  

If you can, write down pertinent information about the task at hand into your planner and discard the paper. If you must keep the paper, get a folder and label it "TO DO" and keep the paper in there. Decide where your TO DO folder will reside and make sure it stays uncovered and on the top of your desk or work space.

The TO READ box will be the simplest box to deal with. Put the box near the space where you like to read. Take a little time each day to pull out and read a small stack of material. Some of these items will become TO DO items and should be handled accordingly; put them on your daily priority planner and tackle them like the other TO DO items you have. Some will become TO FILE items, and some will just go right to the trash or shredder.

The TO FILE box will require a bit more time and thought to tackle. First, if you've never set up a filing system, you'll need a few supplies. Some people will be fine with manila folders, a pen and a file box. Other people will feel the need to get out their label maker, colored coded file folders, hanging folders with tab markers, etc. (see photo). I fall into the latter category, but that's just me! I work with clients who are just as satisfied with writing the folder name on the manila file folder and call it a day. I say, "To each their own!" No one way is the "right way". Do whatever you feel comfortable with.

 

If you do have current files, go through them and purge what you don't need anymore. This will allow you to see what you don't really need to keep and what's most important to you. I want to point out here that this is the time to be realistic about filing. Only create a file if the item(s) going into it are so important that you know you'll be going back into it frequently or that you have to be able to find that particular piece of paper immediately when and if you need it. Statistically, 80% of filed papers are never referenced again. 50% of all filed materials are duplicates or expired information. So really give some thought as to what you're going to keep. Don't file it just because you have it. Is it information you can get somewhere else? Library, internet, reference book, etc. If so, consider letting the paper go.

Here are some categories to get you thinking:

Categories

·         Financial ·         Life Insurance ·         Home ·         Medical

·         Educational ·         Legal ·         Car ·         Charitable Contributions

If a category is too broad, like financial, you may want to break it down into subcategories such as: bank accounts, investment accounts utility statements, credit cards, etc. Medical to you may mean: insurance (medical, dental, vision), reports, flexible spending account, etc. Make sure it makes sense to you since the purpose is to be able to put your fingers on any document you may need within seconds.


Plastic filing box
 

Two drawer vertical cabinet

Decide where you're going to keep your newly set up filing system. There are as many types of containers as there are colors of folders. Make sure it has convenient access and that you can keep it up to date.

 

On a final note, creating this new system doesn't mean the papers will file themselves or put themselves into the shredder. You have to maintain your system on a weekly, if not daily basis. If you're using a new planner, be sure to write in time to file as one of your "TO DO's". By just having a system in place, the time spent on filing will be a fraction of what it used to be. You'll be able to make decisions quickly and know exactly where a piece of paper should live.

I hope you got some ideas to get your paper under control, and that you are motivated to do some filing and purging. Not many things feel better than having all the papers in your house containerized and off the desk or work table. You just feel so free and you now will have time to spend doing things you really like, rather than feeling the weight of all that paper hanging around your neck.

New blog pages

I added a few pages to my blog today, just to see if I could figure out how to do it, and I'm happy to say I did! Yay me!!  One of them is going to be an ongoing list of my favorite things, check back often because I'll be adding to it. The other is an "About" page. I meant it to be a brief description, but as I wrote, I found I had a lot to say. I thought about adding it as an actual post, but figured "why duplicate?"  So if you're interested in learning more about me and why I do what I do, take a look at that page.

Creating a blog is a huge learning curve for me, so my page may change frequently in its design until I find one that I really like. Please follow me and refer my blog to your friends. You can sign up to have new posts delivered to your email if you want, or tag me as a favorite in your bookmarks and check back often.

 

Have a great day and remember to be kind to yourself. You're doing the best you can with what you have!

Dealing with paper - Part 1

One of the main things I tackle when helping a client are those seemingly never, ever ending piles of paper. I'm here to tell you that organizers are not immune to the havoc that paper wreaks on our lives, and whether you have an at home business or not, paper seems to be a curse that we all must deal with. I have a few tips that will help you deal with all that incoming paper.

If your current method is to hide the papers in a bag, box or drawer, just know that you may never see those papers again if you don't make a conscious decision to go and pull them out and deal with them right then. Barbara Hemphill is one of my favorite "experts" in dealing with paper. She has a fantastic book called "Taming the Paper Tiger", and in it she states that "Paper clutter is postponed decisions. Paper management is decision-making."


The first step is to bring all your papers together in one place. I recommend having a large flat surface, like your kitchen or dining room table, not sitting on the couch in front of the TV. You need to have room to spread out, make piles and have a garbage can/recycling can and or shredder nearby. It helps to have it all in one place because you have a feeling of control right from the start. You think, Okay, this is all of it, now I just have to deal with it.  If you have more paper than you can control at one time, do it room by room, or even box by box.

The next step is to set up a process called C.P.R. (Categorize, Purge, Rearrange)
This particular blog post is going to deal with papers older than a year. If you have papers that are older than a year, you won't have as many categories to set up for these, most likely the categories will be:

1. Tax files - should go back seven years if you are being conservative.
2. Memorabilia - this is a tougher area, but you can help yourself with the decision making process by asking these questions: "Am I saving this to put in a scrapbook? Do I get pleasure from looking at this? Am I going to look at this again?" If the answer is no to all of these, then throw it out and move on.
3. Important papers - birth certificates, marriage licenses, home mortgage information, papers on any currently owned large purchase.

Get three cardboard boxes and label them for sorting. If there are papers left over that don't fit into these categories, or can't fit into another current category that you have established, then they must be trash and can either be put into the recycling bin or shredded if they have personal information on them.

To store these older papers, here are a few ideas for you:

• Tax files can be stored in manila envelopes (Mark them with the year on the outside) Save these in a plastic storage box and decide where you have space to store them; garage, attic, shelf in a closet.
• Memorabilia should be stored in an acid free container or box. If you're going to be storing these for individual family members, you should go ahead and do a quick sort and put them in piles before containerizing them. Only you know what categories to sort them into, but don't spend too much time on it.
• Important papers should be kept in a secure location such as a safe deposit box, a safe or somewhere where they can quickly be accessed in an emergency.

That should be enough to get you started and in an upcoming post, I'll share more ideas with how to deal with current papers and how to set up an effective filing system that will help you to have your hands on any important paper in seconds, instead of an hour!

Go forth and SORT!!