I don’t know how your summer is going so far, but mine is whizzing by. In the interest of saving you time and allowing you maximum time in the sun/with your kids/with your friends… whatever… I’m just gonna give you ten fast and dirty tips that will make your day, your week—and possibly even your summer—the best it can be. (bold promise, no?)

1. Little reminders.
The next time you have to pick a password (or update an old one) choose a phrase that refers to a trait you want to develop (BeStr0ng! Lose12Lbs! Make250000!). Typing these little “reminders” will reinforce your motivation and make you smile every time you log on.

2. Take 30 minutes to edit your book collection.
I just did this last weekend. Go through ALL your books (including cookbooks and coffee table books) and set aside the ones you’ve already read and don’t plan to read again, the ones you read and didn’t like the first time, or the ones that didn’t bring you joy, the ones with reference info that’s probably outdated (travel, business, parenting books). Take the rest to your local assisted living facility or exchange them on www.paperbackswap.com.

3. Outsource.
In an April survey in Real Simple magazine, 43% of people would choose to outsource housecleaning over outsourcing laundry (17%), shopping for groceries (13%), doing yard work (10%), and paying bills (8%). Figure out the thing that makes you grumble most during the week and find someone else you can pay to do it. If your money is tight (whose isn’t?), pay someone to do it once every other week.

4. Get wacky with your label maker.
I know it sounds silly, but start labeling things around your house. For some reason, a label becomes an obligation. When I see an empty spot in the medicine cabinet with a label underneath that says “toothpaste” there’s no way I can put my perfume or razor there. Neither will your husband or kids be able to.

5. Change your vocabulary.
Rather than say, “I’ll try to take a run today,” or “I’ll read my book this evening if I have time,” change your wording to reflect action. Say, “I’m going to run 3 miles this afternoon,” and “I’m going to go to turn off the TV and read 2 chapters in my book this evening.” Don’t leave things to change. Make them happen.

6. Test your wake-up time.
Tomorrow morning write down exactly how long it takes you to do everything in the morning (shower, brush teeth, do makeup, eat breakfast, get dressed, etc.). If you’re always running late in the morning, it may simply be because you think it takes you 45 minutes to get ready, when in actuality it takes you 57 minutes. Knowing this and getting up just 12 minutes earlier every day could mean the different between a good and bad day.

7. Just admit you don’t like it.
Whatever “it” is, whoever gave “it” to you, if you don’t (and never will) like “it”—get rid of it!

8. Kick your binge shopping habit.
Regardless of the economy, many people (many of my clients!) treat anxiety with a trip to the mall. To avoid bringing more clutter into the house (and racking up your credit card bills) focus on the feelings that sent you to the store in the first place and try to find a different way to deal with them. Recognize your patterns, know your weaknesses and protect yourself. If you’re a makeup junkie (“… one more lipgloss will just make me feel better!”) and you’re heading to a mall with a Sephora, don’t take your credit card.

9. Put fun first.
Just saw this one in the June issue of Self magazine: “We tend to delay enjoyable activities because we expect free time to eventually materialize, but summer goes by quickly,” says Suzanne Shu, Ph.D., assistant professor of marketing at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Pull out your planner now and schedule in some fun things. If it’s not on your planner, you likely won’t do it. And be sure to pepper fun into your workweek. Don’t try to save everything fun for the weekend; you’ll never have time.

If you read the Your Home Editor Facebook page then you know that last month my husband won a $5,000 shopping spree at Saks Fifth Avenue at a fundraiser we attended. Yesterday we spent said $5K and shockingly, it was NOT easy.

First, there were rules:
1) We could only buy full-price items (no sale items). This was very hard for us, as we are hard core “Clarence and Sally” people (a.k.a. Clearance and Sale).
2) We had to spend exactly $5,000. We couldn’t buy something that went $75 over the limit and pay the difference. It had to be exact.
3) We had to spend it all in one day. We couldn’t spend $1,500 today, another $700 next week, $800 later, etc. All. In. One. Day.

Second, we went there with our two young children, with only the intention of “browsing” first to get a lay of the Saks land, but ended up deciding to spend our money that day… with kids in tow. In retrospect, a foolish choice.

Five hours later (!!), we walked out with $4,998 in merchandise, weathered, weary, bewildered, and a little shell shocked. My dear, precious husband kindly shared his winnings with me so each of us got quite a good bit of booty. If you’re wondering what all this has to do with organizing, it’s that the session taught me a few things about properly stocking your closet, and I thought I’d share with you.

Choose classics over trends.
Though tempted to buy the long, flowy, bright-patterned summer dresses I see on all the movie stars right now, I shied away from trends. I believe you don’t need a lot of clothing in your closet, if what you have stands the test of time. I chose things that would not likely ever got out of style, like a Diane Von Furstenberg frock that I can easily wear to a cocktail party next week, or to my grandson’s graduation. My grandmother taught me this. She didn’t have a huge wardrobe, but the things she did have were classic and looked as good on her when she was 50 as they did when she was 75. Think crisp, perfectly tailored white shirt, pencil skirt, fabulous Ferragamos and a Valentino scarf. Timeless.

Go for quality over quantity.
I have several jackets in my wardrobe ranging in price from $50 - $100, all of which I like, but none of which I love. At Saks I bought one seriously classy jacket by Nanette Lepore ($425) that will become my signature jacket. I will wear it more than all my other jackets combined, and I will get compliments on it everywhere I go. I can dress it up with a skirt or dress it down with jeans. I will wear it for every TV and newspaper interview I do. I will wear it when I’m on The Today Show sharing quips with Meredith and Matt ten years from now. People will know me in this jacket and it will be worth every penny.

Tomorrow I am going to purge several of my other jackets and exchange some of the quantity in my closet, for quality. I am also going to keep this in mind for future purchases. Better to save up for a couple months for one really good piece of clothing, pair of shoes, or handbag, than to have a mountain of mediocre taking up space.

Rethink your wardrobe expenses.
I had a client tell me once that she looks at prices on clothing as a rental fee, not a price tag. So, if she buys a $300 dress and wears it 5 times, it only cost her $60 per time. This, to me, makes good sense. Mainly because when it’s time to purge it, you don’t come up with the excuse of “I can’t get rid of that, it was $300!” (even though you never wear it anymore, or perhaps haven’t fit into it for several years). Instead you can say, “I got a lot of mileage out of that $60 dress. I should let it go.”

I will do this with the $300 pair of Chanel “Jackie-O” sunglasses I bought. I can justify that price for sunglasses because I live in Florida (the Sunshine State, in case you didn’t know) and I literally wear sunglass 365 days a year every time I’m in the car or outside. Assume I keep these classically styled glasses for several years, and divide that up by $300. That’s less than a penny a day! Now they seem like a bargain.

It’s only fabric, buttons, and zippers.
As we carefully put our items into our closet, a sudden fear ripped through me. What if we got robbed tomorrow? What if our house burned down next week before I got a chance to wear my new duds? What if my 3-year-old got her markers and scissors and decided to “pretty up” mommy’s new threads? Then I took a deep breath and reminded myself, as I remind all my clients when I’m convincing them to purge their closets: it’s only fabric, buttons, and zippers. That’s all. It doesn’t matter what it cost when you bought it (or even if it was free and you could never afford anything like it again). At the end of the day, it’s just clothing.

I will always have the memory of my husband’s face as they announced his name as the winner of that prize. I will always have the feeling of love and gratitude for my husband as he spoiled me by sharing his riches, and I will always have the experience of the day he and I spent 5 hours and 5 thousand dollars at Saks Fifth Avenue. To me, all that is worth infinitely more than the fabric, buttons and zippers, and it can never be taken away.

SIDE NOTE: Those of you who are avid readers know I am currently on a 90-day spend freeze. I would like to note that even though I shopped yesterday, I did not spend one penny, thus I am still in compliance with the freeze (though it still feels like I cheated!)

I don’t know how many of you who read this blog have children, but if you do, your weekends probably run something like mine:
SATURDAY
10:30 – 12:30 – Birthday party for the classmate of one of my kids at some pool or gymnastics studio
1:00 – 4:00 – Another birthday for the classmate of my other kid at Chuck E. Cheese / Game On (laser tag) / Giant Bouncy-House-Type-Playzone / Public Playground

SUNDAY
2:30 – 4:30 – Yet ANOTHER birthday party, baby shower, or BBQ at someone’s home

Now I’m all for real life social networking (as opposed to online social networking) but do any of you feel like the birthday parties your kids get invited to take over your weekend? I’m so over this, and my kids are young, so I have about 6 more years of this!

It’s not just going to the parties that are time-suckers. It’s shopping for an age-appropriate gift and card beforehand, wrapping said gift, and then finding a place for all the party gift bag clutter the kids bring home.

The amount of social commitments for my 3- and 6-year-olds is ridiculous. And since I am the chauffer for the 3- and 6-year-olds, that means my commitments are equally ridiculous. Actually, my social commitments often take a backburner so that I don’t deny my kids their social commitments.

So here’s what I’ve done to keep things as simple as possible and keep the weekends bearable when it comes to birthdays.

HAVE A GIFT CLOSET.
Or at least have a gift bin. When I see toys or gifty things on clearance at Target and Walmart, I buy them for my gift bin. One time there was a sale on Cabbage Patch Dolls (good for girls age 2-7). They are $25 but were on clearance for $10, so I bought 3, knowing I would use them up at parties (and I have used them already this year). I also check the clearance aisles at Target for things like journals (good for girls age 6-16) or sports equipment (good for boys and girls of all ages).

I also look on the clearance shelves at bookstores like Borders. I don’t just pick up kiddie books; I pick up adult picture books on things like insects (I got a GREAT one with lots of photos for only $3.99 that I gave to a 4-year-old boy who LOVED it), or horses (what girl doesn’t love horses?) or motorcycles or sports… the subjects are endless.

Having gifts on hand means you won’t have to rush out last minute and waste your time, gas, and money (buying something full price) when a birthday invite arrives.

HAVE A WRAPPING STATION.
OK, even I don’t have a wrapping station (though I will in my dream house someday). But I do have a designated spot where I keep all my gift bags, wrapping paper, tissue paper, boxes and ribbons. I also keep scissors and tape in the same bin so they’re always there when I need them.

DON’T BUY CARDS FOR KIDS.
This does not apply if the birthday party is for someone in your family. But I find, when the party is just for a classmate of one of my kids, a card is a waste of time and money. The kid doesn’t want the card (just rips past it to get to the present) and the parents don’t (usually) keep the card. So that’s $2.99 down the drain.

A better solution is to get gift tags that have your kids’ name on them. There are tons of cute ones out there. Locally, I like Lynn’s Lines.

In the past I’ve even bought some round stickers from Office Depot and printed a simple saying using a cute font and put those stickers on gifts or gift bags.

DON’T KEEP GIFT BAG CRAP.
Basically, I’m suggesting (through personal and professional experience) that your kids will play with the stuff in their party gift bags for approximately 24-48 hours. After that, those little plastic nuggets of foreign labor will be thrown into the pit of toys that already is causing you a headache. Unless your kid is particularly attached to an item, you can pre-empt that headache by throwing out those things that same evening once the kids are asleep.

Permission to do this guilt-free is my birthday gift to YOU! ☺

Two things I must mention front and center:
1. NAPO HAS FINALLY UPDATED THEIR WEBSITE. You must must must go check it out right now. It’s modern and fabulous, as it should be.
2. As a testament to how much I love my work (lest you think I’ve been lying all this time), check out this article in which I appeared in The Calgary Sun (yes, that’s Canada, so I’m now officially international!). Scroll down halfway for my blurb.

OK, on to more pressing matters. So I’m a little mad at myself lately, as my purse has gotten out of control. I am constantly digging, but never finding. It’s embarrassing, really, considering I’m supposed to be organized by profession. There is really stuff in there that shouldn’t be. And a lot of it. Most of it is stuff that I might need someday in an emergency situation, which, if a client were to ever tell me that, I would give them the “tough love” and ask, “Seriously? Are you seriously ever going to need any of this stuff?” Stuff like…
Feminine products
Toothbrush
Tape measure
Floss (apparently, I’m big on oral hygiene during an emergency)
Starbucks gift card
Package of M and Ms from Valentine’s day
Hair ties (even though my hair is now too short for them)
Scads of pens and pencils I can never find when I need one
A digital camera
Small notebook for jotting… notes
Cell phone
Hand-held mirror
Hand sanitizer + 3 types of hand lotion + Sample packets of hand gel
Raffle tickets I’m selling for my local Zoo fundraiser Gala
Mints
Random people’s business cards
Lip gloss (a-doy!)
Face blotters
Nail file
Band Aids
Visine
Bayer and Advil

WOW. My purse is so ridiculously full, in fact, that at dinner tonight as we were leaving my husband picked my purse up off my chair to hand it to me and said, “Man, that thing is heavy.”

Right.

So I’m going to steal a page from my favorite blog, Simply Stated, and share her thoughts (which, hopefully she won’t mind, since I’m giving her credit). She has some great ideas on organizing in a purse, and I will implement them as soon as I am done typing this. Below is her recent entry.
* * *
I like carrying a small purse. If I have a large purse, I will fill the large purse up with stuff — stuff that I have no reason to be carrying around with me all day.

However, I still need my purse to carry the things I need.

To keep from carrying so much stuff with me every place I go, I divided my things into small pouches based on purpose.

* Gym Pouch: Pad lock, gym membership card, headband, and earphones (When I’m at the gym, my jewelry goes into the pouch)
* Braces Pouch: Travel size toothbrush, travel size toothpaste, floss, and braces case (I have Invisalign braces right now)
* Makeup Envelope: Lipgloss, lipstick, powder brush, and powder
* Essential Envelope: Debit card, keys, cash, small digital camera, and cell phone
* Flat Wallet: Checkbook, gift certificates, and membership cards (If I buy something, I also store receipts in here temporarily)

If I’m going out to eat with friends for dinner, I’ll grab my Braces Pouch and my Essential Envelope only. When I go to the gym, I only toss into my purse my Gym Pouch and my Essential Envelope. If I’m going shopping at the mall, I take my Essential Envelope and my Flat Wallet. A night out on the town might include my Braces Pouch, Makeup Envelope, and Essential Envelope. I use only clear plastic pockets so that I can always see what is inside a pouch. Having designated pouches means that I can continue to carry a small purse and only take with me the things I need.

It might surprise you to know that some of my messiest clients are perfectionists. It’s true! Walk around your office at work and find the person with the messiest desk, and I’m willing to bet they consider themselves a perfectionist or neat freak, and though their desk may not reflect it, they are not wrong. That’s because, in my experience, perfectionism is not about excellence, it is about fear. There, I said it. Perfectionists everywhere, deal with that!
The mess in perfectionists’ lives most often comes from procrastination. People procrastinate because they fear they are going to do something wrong or poorly, so they just don’t do it at all. Perfectionism, in other words, is procrastination’s BFF.
To overcome the perfectionism stumbling block, simply change your vocabulary. Instead of “perfection,” strive for “EXCELLENCE!” There may not be a perfect place to store your photo albums. But I’m sure that there is an excellent place to put them. Rather than letting them pile up in the corner of your guest room because you haven’t yet found the perfect place to display them, let go of the need for perfection and just make progress by putting them in an excellent spot.
Speaking of excellence, a friend recently gave me an excellent book called Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much by Anne Wilson Schaef. In it she says,

“Trying too hard and never trying at all are two sides of the same coin of perfection. Unfortunately, it is a coin that never pays off.” Love that.
Later in the book she says, “Perfectionism is self abuse at the highest order.” Love that too.
Really, when push comes to shove, the only standard of perfection we have to meet is to be perfectly ourselves. And if being yourself means that you don’t have the time or desire to store your DVDs in alphabetical order, so be it. Let it go already.

Listen to my recent radio interview with author and life coach Sherry Sexton to hear more about how I started Your Home Editor and see (rather, hear) how it alllllll started.

Also, fresh off the press, Sherry Sexton’s new book The T-Shirt To Prove It is here, and my organizing business, Your Home Editor, is featured in Chapter 2. The day that 25 women come together in one powerful book of women entrepreneurship and girl power - is finally here. Read these inspiring and empowering stories of women who made the choice to take control of their own destiny and launch their own business. Feel free to take a moment to read more about me and the other amazing women in this NEW book at www.imaginecoaching.net – click on the Author link.

My kids had spring break two weeks before the rest of the world, and I used up all my bright ideas then to keep them entertained during their days off. So last week when we had (another) 4-day weekend with Good Friday and Easter Monday (how is that even a holiday?), I had to get creative.

My solution was something I have recommended to clients quite a few times, but never actually done myself until now. We had a 100% FREE day. Basically, you dig into all the gift cards you have stockpiled and use them up all in one day, rather than waiting for the perfect time to use them (which usually results in holding on to them beyond their expiration dates).

So I piled the kids in the car along with all our coupons and gift cards from various birthdays, holidays, thank-yous, giveaways and silent auctions, and our day went like this:

• Free donuts with coupon from Dunkin Donuts
• Free game of 18-hole mini-golf for the 3 of us
• Free haircut for my son at the local barbershop
• Free chicken sandwiches for lunch at Chic-Fil-A followed by 2 free ice cream cones
• 3 Free movie tickets took us to see an after-lunch flick (w/ free popcorn of course)
• Free books for each of us at Borders (thank you, Santa!)
• Free dinner at Chile’s
• Free massage for me after a fun day with the kiddies

MAN, that was fun! You gotta try it. I KNOW you have gift cards piled up somewhere. First, find them, then schedule ONE day to use them all. Then write to me here and let me know how much fun you had.

I live in Florida, and we have had an oddly COLD winter here. Our winter usually lasts from December to February and the coldest it will get is the low 60s.  But this year, along with the rest of the country, we’ve had a looooong, coooooold winter with temps in the 30s and 40s.  Because of this, our backyard, which is usually bustling with activity, has been neglected.

This past weekend we finally saw spring for the first time in months, and with it… our cluttered backyard.  Yikes!  So we spent the whole weekend working on the side yard that had become a dumping ground.  I truly wish I would have taken a “before” picture so you could have seen how cluttered it was.  The side garden was so overgrown you couldn’t see the fence or lovely black river rocks I had peppered it with last spring. There was a pool fence we’d taken down over a year ago sitting on the pavers on the side of the yard (now a condo for love bugs), along with a tricycle my 4-year-old is way too big for.  The sandbox my father had given my now-seven-year-old when he was two had disintegrated into rotten wood and a leaf-laden sand pit.  And the car cleaning accessories my husband had been collecting and leaving on the side of the house filled the red wagon my kids never use anymore, along with half-finished Home Depot projects and planters filled with weeds.  To boot, the recycle bins were filthy and overflowing.

My yard was embarrassed and it was begging for a makeover.

My husband and I started by collecting all the “things” out of the garden bed (toy shovels and trucks, garden tools, trash that had blown out of the recycle bins, etc.).  Along the way we came across several of my dog’s toys (my dog was put down 2 weeks ago), which was rough.  But just like in the homes I organize, the cleaning and purging process was cathartic and healing (as was the long-overdue sunshine we enjoyed as we worked).  We tore out the sandbox and moved some plants into its place. We raked a winter’s worth of leaves and chopped down some of our tropical plants (banana trees) that didn’t make it through the cold this winter.  We pulled out all the toys the kids no longer use and trashed them. I recovered and rinsed off all the river rocks from the garden bed and repurposed them around some pony tail palms I moved from the pool area.  We swept and sprayed down the pavers and took the recycling bins to the center.

The yard still needs some new sod, but man, what a difference! 

Here’s an “after” shot of the side yard:

This is just a reminder that-as your own yard starts to thaw-don’t forget that your yard is part of your home too, and it should be free of items that are not being used, or are no longer age appropriate for you or your kids.  Here’s to SPRING!

Just got back from the Los Angeles Organizing Awards.  Though I didn’t win the Philanthropy Award, I had an absolute BALL and I learned something really valuable: you don’t have to make it big to make a big difference.  More on that in a later post (need to get permission from client before I can post her testimonial, but it’s a good one!).

<br>

Here’s a picture of me with some of the biggest names in my industry sharing a Friday night cocktail at The Standard in L.A. From left: Me, Hellen Buttigieg (host of Canada’s organizing TV show, NEAT), Lisanne Oliver (Australian organizing celebrity and author of SORTED!), and Jodie Watson, organizing expert on TLCs Real Simple, Real Life.

The following night was the awards ceremony where expert organizer Peter Walsh was the presenter for my category of Philanthropy Award. He was a doll!

And me with a very good friend and fellow organizer who I met at last year’s NAPO Conference, Gail Gray of A Fresh Start. Thanks for being such a great support, Gail!

More details to come…

Just found out I’ve been dubbed ORGANIZER OF THE MONTH by OnlineOrganizing.com.

This is an especially cool month to be THE organizer since it’s GO Month (Get Organized Month) per NAPO. Wheeee!