Get Crafty with Artwork 08/23/2010
 So what does a professional organizer do for fun? Well for this organizer, this weekend it was getting 'Crafty' with construction paper. Not my usual fair, yet there is a cute little girl that I know that has a bunch of artwork, and I had an idea on how to make a fun place for her to store it. Wan't to get crafty and try this out too? It could be a great way to spend quality time with the kids. Allow them a chance to get crafty and help decorate it. And, as you put it together they can sort their artwork and maybe decide to let go a few of their less favorite pieces. Narrowing down their collection to the ‘Best of the Best’ will help ease clutter and leave you all with their best works to praise over and over again. Here's all that I used to make this one: * 4 large sheets of construction paper (Cost: $4.00 at my favorite local Dollar Store) * Scissors & Tape * White glue * Ribbon for frills * A little imagination Tips: You don't have to stop with one. At approximately $1 per sheet, you can make many more and not break the bank. For example you can make one for each school year, and for each child (if you have multiple children). You can even create one to hold more craft paper for future works. Safety Tip: Remember to watch when using a stapler that you tape the seam up to prevent any snags on clothing or little fingers. Ouch! More Important Tip: Have Fun! & if you want to share your creation afterwards, I would be thrilled to see them and post them to my blog and perhaps newsletter. I relish the thought of getting to see just how creative my readers are!  Sure, you can tie shoe laces... Once you learned how, that is. I am certain that there was once a day when you didn't even know what shoe laces were, let alone how to tie the silly things. Yet, chances are now that you have mastered this skill. Right?! The same thing can go for organizing. It's about learning the steps and then practicing them. Eventually it becomes second nature. The first step; Recognizing that tying shoe laces is a good idea. How can you find any motivation to getting organized, when you are not familiar with what it feels like or even what it looks like to be better organized? In the same way we have to trip and fall a few times before we figure out that we better tie those darn pieces of string, sometimes it takes a painfully embarrassing missed appointment or missing valuable documentation for an important project, to make us think, 'Hmmm, maybe I could be better organized?" So, if you can relate to this. If you think maybe life and work could be easier for you, if you were more organized. If you want to explore this and find out what you can do to make things run a little smoother, professional organizers like me are here to help. And if you know someone that could be more organized, try sharing this blog with them. Everyone is welcome to go to my 'Home' page and sign up for Tidy Times too. Everyone that does will get my free gifts sent to get them too. Find out how you are doing with your organizational skills! Visit my 'Residential' and 'Business' links above for free copies of the 'Personal Assessment' & 'Workplace Assessment' One, Two Three… Prioritize! 08/10/2010
 Determining what ‘needs’ to get done, what ‘should’ get done and what ‘could’ get done, and in what ‘order’ is what we call ‘Prioritizing’. We all know that our priorities are mainly going to be items that come directly from our goals. However, along the way there will always be priorities that come to us that we didn’t expect or plan for. We also find that during our journey towards out goals, that we find new possibilities spring up that catch our eye. To help us stay focused on what truly matters here are three ideas to consider:
Baking Sheets, not just for baking anymore 08/10/2010
Too many bake trays, not enough baking going on? Need a way to keep the wet shoes and boots at the door from ruining your floor? Tired of trying to coral and contain the many little spice jars and sticky bottles of oil and vinegar in the cupboard? Let's rethink the possible uses of those extra baking trays... 1. Try using baking trays or pans as cabinet organizers. Gather up those small items such as small spice jars, pouches and small bottles and place them in a spare baking pan. Then treat it as a drawer, carefully sliding it in and out of the cabinet when you need to get items stored near the back. You can also use small to medium sized baskets if you have those instead. What ever you use the beauty of using baking pans or leak proof baskets is that it will catch drips and small spills thus making clean up a lot easier. Tip: For taller glass bottles use deeper trays. 2. Give your old baking pans the 'boot'. Rectangular baking sheets and pans can make wonderful receptacles' for wet boots and shoes. Again the pan or sheet can help catch muck from the street and when it's dry the pans can be washed and replaced easily. If they fit you can even slide them into existing cubbyholes at the doorway, taking their contents out of the way.  It brings me great pleasure to announce that Tidy Tiger will be participating in the 2010 Vancover Home and Interior Design Show this year, as part of the POC team! Being involved in the POC as an active member and participating on the BC Chapter Executive team is very important to me. Having opportunities to work with my fellow organizers in promoting our industry is something I place much value on. Please come and see us this year from September 9-12 at the New Vancouver Convention Centre. Details and tickets are available on-line. Just click the image above! Organizing Facts Report 07/13/2010
"3 things every busy professional should know... But probably doesn't" 1. There are only 4 decisions to make with tasks and mail Applying the 'One-Touch' rule can easily cut down on clutter as it's a fact that clutter is merely 'Postponed Decisions'. Try this: Look at each task in front of you, one-by-one, and make a decision: Delete It: If you don't need to do it, don't! As with all 'stuff', ask yourself if it has true value. Delegate It: Be clear about deadlines and expectations. Use delegation tools and track actions. Defer It: Create a 'Deferred List' and review often. If it has a deadline schedule it in. Do It: If you can do it in less than 5 min's, do it now. Imagine the immediate satisfaction! (Visit my 'BUSINESS' page for a free copy of the 4 D's) 2. 20% of our 'To Do' lists hold 80% of the value, Prioritizing is key I have seen some stressed out professionals scrambling on last minute deadlines, putting out fires and struggling with no clear priorities set. Spinning wheels on the 80% of tasks that contain little or no value can eat up one's energy pretty fast. The simple act of prioritizing tasks on only two criteria, 'Value' and 'Deadline', can help end this vicious cycle. The concept of the 'Time Matrix' can help save the day and give you an 'at-a-glance' look at what the top priorities and deadlines are. Stay focused and get more 'valued' tasks done and be more effective just by using this tool. (Get your free copy of my version of the Time Matrix & my 'Tiger Tables' by signing up for TIDY TIMES on my 'Home Page') 3. Over 200 hours a year are lost by the average business owner Disorganization in the workplace costs on average over $3600.00 per employee in lost wages per year as employees and business owners lose time looking for things. Average losses are estimated at 1 hour per day. Times that by 5 days a week, for 48 working weeks, at a starting salary of $15/hour and you'll see for yourself how much disorganization can cost a business. It can get worse when you consider a few other factors, starting with sick time and illness due to stress, lost customers that lose faith in the company, poor productivity from overlapping tasks, purchasing things you already own, forgotten invoicing and last minute 'overtime' created by poor planning. The costs here can be enormous depending on the nature of the business. Some signs that a change may be due are: · Desk cluttered with files and equipment. · Procrastination. It's either the fear of failure or simple indecision. · Being reactive instead of proactive. It Cost Too Much to Let-Go! 06/27/2010
 In my latest presentation to the Roaring Women's Group of Vancouver I shared a lot of information on common obstacles to getting and staying organized. What I didn't have enough time to cover was the 'Barriers' we come across when faced with the prospect of having to 'Let Go'. Obstacles and Barriers do cover some common ground, yet Barriers are more focused on the fears we have. Rather than going into details on the dozen of barriers that can be faced, today I will talk about one important barrier. That barrier that involves us hanging onto unwise purchases we regret. You'll know you've hit this barrier if you say something like: "I can't toss this, it cost me too much!" When you catch yourself saying this, it should be a sign that you need to seriously consider letting this item go! Why, may you ask? Because holding onto to something only because it cost too much is like holding onto crashing stocks. We fear that if we get rid of the object which we now regret buying, that we will make this loss ‘real’. It is 'real' already. Hanging onto this object of ‘regret’ however does nothing more than to remind us of our mistake. Ask yourself. Can someone else make use of this? Can I donate it and get a tax deduction? Can a sell it? Make the choice to free yourself from clutter that only serves to make you feel bad and make more room for 'happy' in your world instead. Out of Sight, but not 'Out of Mind'! 06/27/2010
 Sharing ideas on why 'To-Do' lists are more effective than 'Visual Reminders'. Visual reminders can be helpful, yet when they get used for too many things they become clutter. This clutter makes us feel overwhelmed, breaks our focus and can make us lose sight of our top priorities. We tend to think 'Out of Sight, Out of Mind', yet let's consider the role of the 'To-Do' list to help us to remember what our priorities are instead. Writing down our tasks and then putting away the file or project to where it belongs means we will remember to do it. And with projects out of the way we can then focus more clearly on tasks individually, thus being even more effective. My gift of Tiger Tables and the Time Matrix tools that I share with my newsletter readers is great for keeping priorities clear. They should be used in conjunction with your day-planner. If you don't have a copy, please sign up on my home page now and get your free gifts today. And remember to make sure that if a task is truly important, if it has a deadline, and if it will take more than 20 minutes, that you put it in your calendar. 'Getting the Stones Down' as they say. If you having trouble, are overwhelmed and need help to get started in the right direction, try my 'Get Your Life Back' package which includes 2 full hands on sessions and calls and emails to follow. A Field Trip, POC Style! 06/17/2010
Every year the executive team of the Professional Organizers in Canada (POC) plans outings for its members. For example, last year many of us got on a bus and headed down to the USA to visit two very popular 'organizing' product retailers. They were 'Container World' and the 'Storables'. How excited I was to get a chance to see these shops, yet I couldn't help but be a little disappointed that we didn't have something like this in Vancouver. Well, we do now, it's called 'Room in Order' and they are right in the heart of Vancouver! The collection of household, office and personal organizing products that they carry were fantastic. I was ecstatic to see some very useful, decorative and innovative products that I have not seen anywhere else! Room in Order is definitely worth checking out, especially if getting organized in a stylish way interests you. I managed to grab a few photos from my cell phone during the visit, so here is your sneak peak an just a portion of what they offer...  Comprehensive Selection of Affordable Closet Organziers  Wide assortment of Kitchen and Bathroom Containers to die for!  The Neatest Seats / Storage Containers I have seen for less than $40  Waste and Recycling options that are sleak, inovative and high quality  Handbags that could corner the market!  Ladies beware, the jewelry and cosmetic solutions were adorable too! See for yourself, or visit them on-line to learn more: http://roominorder.com Location | 1055 Davie St, Vancouver, BC V6E 1M5 Email | info@roominorder.com Call | (604) 684-8884 Is your home a 20 hour or a 200 hour home? 06/13/2010
Instant results! Done in no time! Faster than ever! Push button technology! Get it now! Western culture's way has us all believing that we can have anything done in a 'snap'. It will be 'easy' and all we need to do is push a button and our problems are solved. Yes, it's true that our microwaves, digital cameras, remote controls and other 'push-button' technology has made some things easy, and given us back a little extra time. So why do we still hear "I don't have enough time!"? Perhaps we do have enough time, if we just stopped and organized it a little better. When I have the honor of looking into an office or home that someone wants to have organized, I can approximately estimate how long it will take. A couple of important variables are the expectations about what the final results will look like, and of course what we find along the way, which may require more attention. I have been in 20 hour homes and I have been in 200 hour homes and I can tell you that in either case one thing is constant. One hour is one hour and in one hour you can do only one hour worth of work. No instant fixes, no 'push-button' solutions and no modern technology can change this fact. You can of course have the help of extra hands to help make this go faster. If you or someone you know has a space that is aching to be reclaimed, can you guess how many hours it could take? What I do know is this; if there is a mess, it didn't get there overnight and it won't disappear overnight either. Besides, what's the rush? Oh yes, those instant results we are used to. Actually, when it comes to some projects that I have been hired to work on, I really wish sometimes I could be locked in, given free reign and allowed to 'have-at-it!". Of course this may in fact lead to a burn out so doing work in intervals is fine and gets the work done over time regardless. With this is mind, lets now consider how frustrating it may be for someone faced with a 200 hour home. If they come to the realization that they could work diligently for hours and not 'see' the difference, how disheartening this could be for them. What is an important thing to remember, however, when faced with this prospect, is that just because the first portion of work won't be 'noticed', does not mean it is wasted time. For example, if you had 10 pounds to lose and lost 5 pounds, it would show right away. Just like 5 hours on a 10 hour kitchen. Yet if you had a goal to lose 100 pounds, 5 pounds would not show right away. On a 200 hour home this could mean you’ll need to put in 40 hours to start 'seeing' the difference and enjoy the benefits increased organization brings. Remember; a pound is a pound, an hour is an hour, and it will 'show' in time. Starting and working through the process, one step at a time, is what will make the difference. Many of the wonderful people that have allowed me to come into their homes and offices are talented, intelligent people that have just let things go for a while. That same 'while' is just waiting for things to change direction, that's all. As inspired to write about this today, I must pay homage to two wonderful ladies, Pam Young and Peggy Jones, also known as the "Slob Sisters'. Their book "Get Your Act Together: A 7-day get-organized program for the overworked, overbooked and overwhelmed" is an informative, insightful, entertaining and practical guide to help anyone get organized. There are many professional organizing gurus that offer expertise, their systems and even their personal experiences to help improve the state of our lives and our homes. These two wonderful ladies are in that category! With Warmest Regards, Michelle |   
Michelle Panzlaff
Organizer, Writer, Speaker & Creator of Solutions.
CategoriesAll ArchivesAugust 2010 |
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