Organized To Perfection

professional home organizing

Controlling Paperwork

By Leave a Comment

I hope you are all having a great start to 2022! I am starting my 20th year in business and I feel so grateful to be able to help my clients with finding solutions to their organizing situations. I know it might sound crazy, but I actually do not mind working with paperwork with my clients and help them get through their piles of papers. Here are a few tips and suggestions on organizing and purging paperwork in your home and business office:

Tip One

Go to the place where you have your oldest paperwork and see what you have there. Are you able to shred the paperwork or recycle it? Ask yourself the question: What is the CONSEQUENCE if I do not have this piece of paper? Do I need this information for my taxes? Are you running a business out of your home and do you need to keep the paperwork for 7 years? If you are not running a business out of your home, I would look at WHY you need to hold onto the paperwork. Does your accountant or financial advisor or lawyer need the information? If your answer is no, then it is time to shred or recycle the papers.

Tip Two

If you have a file cabinet that holds your old paperwork, is it busting at the seams? Is it hard to open because there is so much paperwork in there? And the big question is, do you really need this paperwork? When you purge your paperwork as much as you can, you may find you have additional room and you may not need a large file cabinet. And if you have additional room in the cabinet after you purge your papers, you may consider getting a new file cabinet or one that does not take up as much room. Some older file cabinets do not have an easy way to hang file folders from the frame and it is hard to keep your files organized in the cabinet.

Tip Three

Label your files exactly to what the paperwork pertains to. For example if the paperwork pertains to your automobile insurance label the file “Auto Insurance” or if the paperwork is about a test you had at your doctor, label it as “Blood test 2022”. Many people are afraid that if they file the papers away they will never be able to find it again. If you label the file to exactly what it is, you will be able to find it right away. Also you can label your files to what makes sense to you and what is easy for you to find. I do not want you to feel like you are drowning in paperwork and as I stated before, the big question should be: What is the CONSEQUENCE if I do not have this piece of paper? Once you make your decision on that, it will be easier for you to decide what you really need to keep and what you can let go of!

If you are looking for additional ideas or solutions to organizing your paperwork, please contact me I would be happy to help you conquer your paperwork project!

Check Before You Purchase Advice

By Leave a Comment

How did summer go by so quickly!? Around here in Chicago, if you blink, you will miss the fall season also! As we make the change to another season, I would like to give you some organizing advice as we go into the new season.

Halloween: I know your family has grown and your Halloween decorating ideas have changed so much from cute skeletons to nice outdoor decorations. Check the decorations that you currently have in your home BEFORE you go out and purchase new decorations.  If you know last year you donated or disposed of old decorations and you know what you need this year, that is fine to purchase new items. I always tell my clients to see what you have first before you purchase new things because you may have already purchased the items or have too much of something. So have fun this year and enjoy all of the fun/cute costumes from the kids coming to your home!

Thanksgiving: This year you may decide or have the opportunity to host or go to a family members home or friends home for Thanksgiving. If you are hosting at your home this year, check out your kitchen items and see if you have what you need to prepare the meal and have enough space in your home to have guests. But in this case, be cautious before you decide to donate/dispose of some kitchen items or furniture because some stores may not have it in stock before the holiday due to the shortage around the country from retailers.

Christmas: This is a big holiday and I know you have MANY decorations from many years of decorating and you don’t want to part with any of it!  That is completely fine with me but maybe this is the year to sort/purge/organize your Christmas decorations before going out and purchasing new ones. Again, this is a holiday where your decorating styles have changed as your family has grown and your decorating styles have changed. I know or hope you would “have fun” going through your decorations and I believe you will keep more memory items than just regular decorations.  If you want to purchase new decorations, that is wonderful but if you can, check out what you have first before ordering the same item that you did last year and now you have two! If that is the case, you now have a holiday gift to give to family or friends!

My advice for this year:  Shop in your OWN HOME before shopping in other stores.  You will be amazed what you already have or have forgotten about it and now you will fall back in love with them again!

Have a wonderful fall season and if you have any questions or would like addition help with organizing, please contact me at beth@organizedtoperfection.com.

Organizing Intentions

By Leave a Comment

I hope your summer is going wonderful so far! I am sure when the weather was getting better you started to make plans and you set your intention for your summer plans. I would like to help you set your intention for your next organizing project!

Here are 3 steps I would like for you to think about as you start your organizing projects:

  1. What is your INTENTION for your organizing project? For example bedroom closets: What do you want to achieve to get your closets organized? Purge and sort through your clothes that you decide you will not be wearing to the office, clothes that really do not fit anymore and never will, or the clothes that are no longer your style anymore. Is it your intention to purge about 20 outfits, or only look at your pants or donate your evening dresses to a charity in your area? With every project, you must have an intention going into the work. I do this with every client of mine if I directly ask them or if you are not sure at the beginning, we find out your intention half way through!
  2. What is IMPORTANT for your organizing project? For example your garage: Is it important that you get a car into your garage space? My opinion is that your car is a valuable item and you should protect it the best you can. There are only so many categories/items that you can store in your garage. I know that in many parts of the country, we store large items in our garage for instance our snow blowers, lawn mowers, bikes and tool chests and we need to find out what is really important to keep in that space and make the room. There are several garage organizing products that can be used to store and organize these items and if need be, store out of season items in another area? Again, what is more important to have in your garage space; your car(s) or tools?
  3.  What MATTERS to you and your family about this organizing project? For example: Kids are going back to school in the fall be it grade school or college, and what matters the most to them about the organizing project that they need to work on before the fall? Do you want to make sure you all have a plan B in case you have to go virtual with your classes? Review and see what type of school supplies you need for your classroom and do you need to make sure your laptop is up to date with programs or get a new laptop? Do you want to make sure you have a good space in your home to do homework and work on projects? What matters the most for when you are planning your upcoming school year.

The start of your organizing project comes from planning and intention and then comes the hands on work but you must set your intention before you start or you will not know what you want the end result to be!  Good luck on your projects and I hope you have a wonderful and safe summer!

I love organizing junk drawers!

By Leave a Comment

I am doing well and no, I have not gone crazy with the title of my organizing blog this month! I know it is a drawer that really scares you but I like working on these areas and see what type of treasures are in there! Here are some tips and ideas that you can use to tackle those junk drawers.

  1. Dump out the items in your junk drawer on a counter or in a bin so you can go through it.  You will be surprised on what you find in that drawer and what you can get rid of!  Throw away all broken items/torn things or items you can recycle.
  2. I know there will be many different categories in the drawer, but sort the items in the categories of office supplies, tools you want to keep handy, important papers you need to refer to, Post It notes, keys, garage door openers etc. Pare down the items to a few small things only to keep in the drawer.  For example only 3 pens, a few paper clips, a few nails, 1 pair of pliers, scissors, screwdriver etc.
  3. Purchase a new drawer divider or use what you currently have and put the items back in the drawer. There are several different types of dividers you can find at Target, Walmart, Container Store. Measure the drawer length, depth and height so you purchase the correct size for the space.
  4. If you have items that you really can not identify or you know you need to keep it for some furniture item or a tool that is important keep it in the junk drawer.  And then later when you go to organize the drawer in the future, if you still can not place where the item goes or you know you don’t need it anymore, you can dispose of the item.

The junk drawer is meant for only a few things of many different categories and not to keep an abundance of things in that space. You don’t need 15 pens in the drawer but you can have a lot of different categories in there and that is fine!  And yes, if you need to have 2 junk drawers, this organizer is giving you permission to do so if you have the room and the items are essential to have in your kitchen area.

So take about 30 minutes and look to see what type of treasures you may find in your junk drawer and sort and organize it!  I hope you all have a wonderful spring and you are all safe and staying healthy!

PROUD & ACTIVE MEMBER

NAPO 35 Years      NAPO      NAPO Golden Circle      Certified Professional Organizer      President’s Service Award for NAPO