In 30 Minutes!!

Set aside 30 minutes today!!!

ONLY 30 minutes.

JUST 30 minutes.

Okay! Now pick one thing to tackle and do it for 30 minutes. It doesn't matter what you choose. IT could be decluttering the junk drawer in the kitchen. Maybe its clearing off the floor in the bedroom closet. Attention might need to be paid to the kitchen table. Papers everywhere. Go through them!

I believe in you! I KNOW you can set aside 30 minutes. It doesn't matter if you finish in 30 minutes. You can continue OR stop when the 30 minutes are up! that's up to you. At least you can eliminate ONE sentence from your vocabulary:

I don't have time!

YAY!!! You Can Set Aside ONE Hour to Organize!

I just wanted to support those of you who are are following my Friday tip to set aside ONE HOUR this weekend and clean, sort or organize. If you did this yesterday (Saturday), congratulations! I am so proud of you ! If you are doing this today (Sunday), I'm your biggest cheerleader !!! You can do it! You will feel so much better.

This is a representation of time management. You can set aside an hour on any day of the week. YAY!!

A Beautiful Morning IN Sacramento!

Doing It For Yourself!

I am SO proud of you today! I hope you followed one or more of my tips this last week . If you did, I am happy and excited for you! If you haven't yet, there is always time to start one of them. They were tips for the week but they can apply to ANY and EVERY week!

End Of The Week Tip!

Here is a tip for the weekend:

Today, schedule ONE HOUR sometime this weekend and vow to clean, sort, or organize something or someplace in your house!*




*We place restrictions on ourselves. We always say we are TOO busy. In reality we DO have time. You have to WANT to eliminate something or change a piece of behavior to make change happen.

Thursday's One Sentence Tip!

Today's tip is:

When weeding out a junk drawer, collection, bring it all out to a large space (a table, area of floor, bed) to make it easier to make piles for keep, giveaway, donate, trash. 

Midweek One Sentence Tip

Here is today's one sentence tip:

Consider getting clear containers to store items in.*



*They have clear containers on the market in different colors, so when you store them on shelves, they can fit in to the decor of your space. Clear containers are great to SEE what you have. They are also a great monitoring tool for how MUCH you have.

Today's One Sentence Organizing Tip

Today's one sentence tip is:

Go thru your house, the whole house, and gather all pieces of jewelry (earrings, bracelets, necklaces, broaches, etc) and put them all in one place and if you don't have a case, grab a box/basket/big hat/something to put them all together.*


*And then vow to at some point get jewelry organizing box or hanging products and organize your jewelry. And keep them all together in one place!

The Week of One Sentence Tips!

Everyday this week , I will present a tip in ONE sentence. I am doing this in honor of our fast paced world of short attention spans and "cut to the chase" conversations. People want easy answers, quick solutions, short soundbites. So here we go.

Today One Sentence tip is :

Be truthful to yourself about your messy, unorganized, cluttered situation, it will set you free and can create the beginning of change.

5 Random But Useful Tips!

Take a large trash bag and go around the house/apartment and dump the trash in it from the smaller trashcans.

Flowers do wonders for adding beauty to any room!

Vacuuming can refresh a room.

Dusting can refresh a room.

Clear off the the top of the fridge.

Eww, What's On There!

Recently I have learned to look at my sponges. Yes, sponges. I saw a study that stated there are around 10 million bacteria per square inch of a kitchen sponge and a million per square inch on a dish cloth. I believe it!

Sponges are things we use everyday and may forget to think about changing out. I encourage you to change them out! I change mine when they smell, or when they are super frayed, of course. But now I just replace my sponges on a regular basis. I check them about every two weeks. 

Cobbwebs, Dustbunnies, Clutter Oh My!

I'm always concerned for home safety. Especially for homes with lots of clutter and "stuff". You don't want to create fire hazzards. It's another reason to clean out and organize. Here are a couple of reminders/tips:

Don't place anything on radiators or floor air/heat vents.
Don't place anything in shelves above radiators or floor air/heat vents.
Don't place anything too close to radiators and floor air/heat vents.
Vacuum radiators, floor air /heat vents, air conditioners every couple of weeks.

Give IT A Thought!

I invite you to think about why you aren’t organized and how its affecting your life. Then I want you to think of why you would want to get organized and how your life could improve because of it.

I ask you to think about your goals of organization, both big picture and small immediate plans. For me it was:I’m organizing to enjoy my life to the fullest. My goals are to have my office, home and yard organized. My immediate goal is to organize my home office and closets. Okay. That’s settled. NOW when can I start???

Getting started is the biggest hurdle! I give tips on this blog on how to start and different techniques and way to start. What I am asking now is WHEN to start? We ALL have busy lives and its easy to say, “I don’t have time to organize” or “I’m too tired these days”. There is ALWAYS time to organize! You don’t have to schedule LARGE chunks of time. I want you to be REALISTIC and HONEST with yourself on why you AREN’T organized? And apply the same rules of being realistic and honest and ask yourself, can you make the time to get organized? There are no rules on exactly when you organize. Every day you wake up is a day for you to start the organization process in your life.

Start in the summer months? In the Spring for Spring Cleaning? Start of the school year because the kids will be out of the house for 8 hrs a day? Right before a big family holiday like Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas? Maybe during part of your vacation? You take 2 weeks off. One week organize, the other GO on vacation. Or maybe its THIS weekend? Or TOMORROW? or TODAY????

When can you start organizing????

An Important Tax Tip !

IRS Tax Tip 2014-52, April 10, 2014

The April 15 tax deadline is approaching. What happens if you can’t get your taxes done by the due date? If you need more time, you can get an automatic six-month extension from the IRS. You don’t have to explain why you’re asking for more time. Here are five important things to know about filing an extension:

1. File on time even if you can’t pay.  If you complete your tax return but can’t pay the taxes you owe, do not request an extension. Instead, file your return on time and pay as much as you can. That way you will avoid the late filing penalty, which is higher than the penalty for not paying all of the taxes you owe on time. Plus, you do have payment options. Apply for a payment plan using the Online Payment Agreement tool on IRS.gov. You can also file Form 9465, Installment Agreement Request, with your tax return. If you are unable to make payments because of afinancial hardship, the IRS will work with you.
2. Extra time to file is not extra time to pay.  An extension to file will give you six more months to file your taxes, until Oct. 15. It does not give you extra time to pay your taxes. You still must estimate and pay what you owe by April 15. You will be charged interest on any amount not paid by the deadline. You may also owe a penalty for not paying on time.
3. Use IRS Free File to request an extension.  You can use IRS Free File to e-file your extension request. Free File is only available through the IRS.gov website. You must e-file the request by midnight on April 15. If you e-file your extension request, the IRS will acknowledge receipt. You also can return to Free File any time by Oct. 15 to prepare and e-file your tax return for free.
4. Use Form 4868.  You can also request an extension by mailing a Form 4868, Application for Automatic Extension of Time to File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return. You must submit this form to the IRS by April 15. Form 4868 is available on IRS.gov.    
   
   You don’t need to submit a paper Form 4868 if you make a payment using an IRS electronic payment option. The IRS will automatically process your extension when you pay electronically. You can pay online or by phone.
5. Electronic funds withdrawal.  If you e-file an extension request, you can also pay any balance due by authorizing an electronic funds withdrawal from your checking or savings account. To do this you will need your bank routing and account numbers.

Visit IRS.gov for more information about filing an extension and the many options you have to pay your taxes.

Under The Bed Storage Space!

I’m a fan of using the space under the bed for storage. In some spaces, it is necessary to use under the bed to store items such as toys, sweaters, pictures, etc. I lived in what they called an efficiency. It was a studio apartment without a real kitchen and I didnt have a closet or closets. I had to be creative with my storage space and under the bed worked really well for me.  OF course, I say this with the understanding that the bed needs to be neat and organized under there.

You can get those giant zipped type plastic bags where you hook up the vacuum and it sucks the air out. You can store A LOT that way! Also there are different size plastic containers that can slide in and out from under the bed. And of course some beds come with drawers underneath for storage.

One place to start looking is thecontainerstore.com

Another place to find them and they are a little cheaper at Big Lots.

I Want You All To Be Super Organized!!!

I started this last year and think its appropriate this year and always!  I will ALWAYS try to convice you to become ORGANIZED! SUPER organized!!! 

Here are some great reasons:

Less spending time for locating things.

Setting a good example to others.

Gaining a sense of self-control.

Make more money and spend less money.

More time to do the things you like. Hobbies, sports, TV, friends.

Stress and frustration will be reduced.

More time for the kids and/or partner.

No more feeling overwhelmed.

Clean spaces.

More room.

Helping the environment.

You may have more reasons and some may be very specific to YOU. But this is some examples of how NOT being organized doesn't benefit you! So lets get organized!!!!

Which Way Is UP!

All of my papers/documents in file folders start with most current and then go backwards in time!

Usually if you need to reference an item, it's usually the most recent you need to look for. Also keeping the files in that reverse order makes it easier to search through and when its time to throw out old files, you start from the back. Easier to find!

When Can You Throw Away Old Tax Records?

Papers Papers Papers Papers!! Doesn't it seem like papers multiply like rabbits?! Papers can be a nuisance yet some papers are important and necessary!Tax season is in a last few weeks and I'm all about the purge, but before you do so:

Certain papers and documents and files are to be kept for a certain number of years. Check your tax professional, accountant, office manager, whomever handles this and make sure you keep the right files. Once you do than you can file them away OR put them in storage (labelled of course) and purge the rest!!!

And also another tip is to get a scanner and you can scan your documents onto your computer and keep them in a folder. AND again because you don't want clutter on your computer either, check with your professionals as to when you can delete that file,.

If You Celebrate, Then Happy Easter

I just wanted to wish everyone who celebrates a Happy Easter Weekend!

Growing up Easter was a fun holiday. The coloring of the eggs, then waking up that morning and hunting for them ( I do like to eat hard boiled eggs), the Easter Baskets filled with chocolate and bunnies. Then we would go to church and come home to an Easter feast!When I was older, my stepmom would get the plastic eggs and fill them with fun stuff like money, little perfumes, rings. My little sister (who was 20 years younger) and I would go hunting. And laugh and laugh.

Now I don't do much for Easter. I leave it for the kids, but I do have fond memories when it comes around every year.

One Way To Handle Winter Clothes

It's that time of year that we bring out the spring and summer clothes. You have to find room for it in your closet and drawers. To do that, you need to put away the Winter Clothes. I have clear bins marked Winter clothes that I store on shelves in my garage.  I have client that keep them in the back of the closet. No matter where you keep them, you need to make room and you want it to be organized.

My suggestion is to look at each piece of winter clothes and shoes and really give them a good look over. DON'T keep anything that is torn, ripped, don't fit, worn out or never worn.  Throw them out, pass them on, donate! The goal is to make room in those bins. Maybe you'll even reduce and downsize. That is always a good thing! 

It will be tough. You had those shoes for the last 5 years and they are so comfortable. But the soles are worn down and there are holes on the bottom. It will be difficult. You bought that ski outfit 2 years ago, but you have yet to wear it OR go skiing. It can be fun..next season. You can always go shopping next year and get NEW outfits. AND you'll have room because you will have gone through your spring and summer clothes and thinned them  out.