I recently discovered a website by Smead (best known for office filing products) that is a wonderful interactive tool for people looking for help organizing their desk space or office (the #1 request I get as an organizer). The site is called Smead Organomics and it provides organizing solutions through an interactive website. With January being GO Month, there’s no better time to check out such a site.

The site is divided into five sections: My Organomics, Hot Topics, One Minute Answers, Organomics Calculator (which can figure out how much time and money is lost during organization) and Club Organomics. Each section has value and offers expert answers.

Below is an example of the kind of problem-solving information you can find on the Organomics website to help you become better organized. The right office product for your project and learning style can really make all the difference in your success in maintaining an organized office space.

According to research conducted by Smead, all work can be broken down into six different types. Once you understand the specific categories of work you do, it is easier to develop organizational techniques for each of these categories that can help you manage workloads more easily and with less stress. The different categories of work include:

Projects

Anything you work on over a period of time, or that involves multiple tasks. If you are detail oriented (there are 5 work styles detailed on the website), projects could be made easier by using Colored Classification Folders. Or if you are team oriented, 10-Pocket Project Organizers would be a good option.

Meetings

Any purposeful gathering of two or more participants where information or ideas are shared. For people who are visually oriented, meetings would be more effective with Smead’s Clear Brief Covers.

To Do Now Items

Anything you need to do right away. For goal-oriented people, “To Do Now Items” can better be managed with Smead’s Colored Poly Project Jackets, which provide room to hold task materials and can be prioritized by color.

To Do Later Items

Anything you don’t need to do, or can’t do, right away. Team oriented people are better able to handle “To Do Later Items” with Smead’s 6-pocket Weekly Organizer while detail oriented people may prefer Smead’s Daily and Monthly Desk File/Sorter.

Immediate Reference - Items you need to access right away or that you use frequently. All types of work styles can benefit by using Smead’s Viewables Labeling System, which enables people to color code different categories of information.

Future Reference- Items you don’t need to access right away, things that might be important sometime later, or items that would be difficult or expensive to recreate. Visually-oriented people as well as goal-oriented people should consider using Smead’s Colored FastTab Folders, which have a large built-in tab for easy labiling.

It’s the day after Christmas and even though I did a good toy purge before the holidays (in anticipation of the influx of new things) I am still struggling with finding a home for each and every new toy my two children received.  I am vigilant about creating a home for toys and then showing my kids where those homes are so when I say, “Put that away” they know exactly where to put it and don’t just move it to another pile somewhere else.

Still, I find myself purging yet again on December 26th.  I have started a pile by the front door of toys that didn’t make the first cut, but have made the second. Out with the old, in with the new!

I googled myself (have you ever done this?) and found this old great interview I did with Tampa Bay’s SKIRT magazine (now only online). It was pretty cute so I thought I’d share it again in case you wanted to know a little bit about me before you booked me.

Do you have any questions about holiday organizing? If so, please write in and I’ll answer them!

I go on a mother/daughter trip every year with my mom. We just did our trip the first week in November to Savannah, Georgia (my first time there).  We stayed at the amazing Mansion on Forsythe Park hotel.  Here’s the room, which was a delightful combination of traditional and modern with lacquered baroque furniture and chandeliers next to mirrored nightstands:

Here’s a piece of furniture from their dining area. LOVE this shiny orange lacquer! (though I know it’s not for everyone)

But enough about the decor. The real reason I’m writing is to confess that, though on almost every day of the year I am insanely organized, while traveling, I let it all hang out.  I live like a pig.  It’s funny because I spend so much time before a trip meticulously packing my bag, organizing every last piece of clothing and every last planned detail.  But once I arrive at my destination, it’s like a “Get out of organized jail” FREE card. I leave piles of clothing and papers around the room.  I don’t make the beds.  I don’t even put the cap back on the toothpaste tube.  It goes against everything I preach and everything I am, but there’s something ’bout being on vacation that makes me treat my hotel room like an 80s Glam Rock star.  Perhaps it’s that I know it’s only for a few days.  Or perhaps I am a closet sloppy person (doubtful).

Just wanted to share that confession with you and see if I’m the only one.  Do you keep your hotel rooms ship shape when you travel?

I scanned it in so you all could see.  This was SUCH a fun process.  I worked all summer developing a curriculum for the program and got to design the patch and to see it finally come to fruition is well, awesome.

The GSWCF stands for Girl Scouts West Central Florida.  For now, the patch is only available through their regional catalog, but once it has a big enough following, it will go national.  Here is the link to the Patch Program catalog in case you or anyone you know is a troop leader and might like to have their girls become Organized for Life–and get the patch to prove it. :)  (just scroll down and click on the Organized for Life patch).

… is now up on YouTube.  Check it out!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy0ZeQunKj8

Also, you can see my 30 minute interview (!!) on Fox 13 news with Kathy Fountain here in several sections (YouTube only allows 10 min videos):

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BeHrpfGils
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6BEVKuQhaU
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgp4U1cc_FM
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai9_rz4poLI

There is a realtor in my community who organizes a neighborhood-wide garage sale twice a year to promote her business and probably for a little community service. She puts fliers on everyone’s home and asks them to sign up if they’d like to be a part of it. She puts the ad in the newspaper and puts all the signs around the neighborhood pointing to your block (if you signed up) and she prints out a map denoting all streets with participating homes, as well as a one-line listing of what kinds of items that home is selling. It’s very well organized!

This past weekend was the Fall garage sale for my neighborhood and I LOVED seeing everyone getting rid of all their old junk, and all the buyers on their scavenger hunt for their perfect item. My purge-high did wane, however, when I realized that most of the homes would not have a charity truck coming to their house after the sale to take all the items that didn’t sell (like they do on Style Network’s Clean House). No, most of the homes would pull all that dusty old crap back into their home, where it would likely sit, un-adored and taking up much-needed space in a spare bedroom, closet, or garage.

My mom (who has a home a couple miles from me) participated in the garage sale and she asked me to help her (because of my expertise in this area) sort, set up and sell. The night before the sale I thought, “well, let me just take a look around my house and see if there is anything I don’t want or use anymore that I can sell at her table.” I was so proud to find that, as I walked around my home and opened cabinets and drawers, there was little I found that I don’t use often or love. I did end up parting with one salsa dish, one set of margarita glasses I have used once in eight years, and one wicker chair that doesn’t really fit in my daughter’s small bedroom. That was it! Pretty impressive!

My mom ended up making $200 at her sale (once I schooled her on how to price to sell), and I made a whopping $22.75 for my contributions. And I did make my mom load up her Jeep with the rest of her items that didn’t sell and take them to Salvation Army that day. She complied.

You know, everyone always touts “spring cleaning”, but there’s nothing like a brisk, Fall garage sale to clear out the clutter… before all those holiday gifts start rolling in to fill the space again. Consider recruiting even just the neighbors on your block to do a group yard sale. You will generate a LOT of traffic with multiple homes, and you can call out a charity truck to take everything after it’s over (since there are multiple homes). Have the kids sell lemonade and have someone grill and sell hotdogs for $2 each. Make it a fun, family event and price your items to sell! Make a little holiday shopping dough!

Oh, and if you love the garage sale hunt like I do, check out this fun blog: http://www.yardsalebloodbath.com/ which lets you enjoy the search without actually bringing any clutter home or spending any money.

Just wanted to share that I recently received my CPO certification.  To receive this honored designation, I have completed more than 1,500 hours of organizing and transferring skills (that’s a LOT of clients’ closets, cabinets, garages and files!!!!) and I passed a two-hour exam created by the Board of Certified Professional Organizers.

There are only a few hundred NAPO members in this country who are CPO certified, and only 11 in the State of Florida–of which I am now one.  To break it down locally, there are only 2 NAPO members in the Tampa Bay area who have the CPO designation, and I am one (the other is in Tarpon Springs).  It is truly an honor, and one I have earned through hard work and perseverence.  Here’s a picture of me with my certification card the night I went out to celebrate with a few of my girlfriends and some sangria. :)  Don’t I look proud?

I’m uber excited because my FIRST EVER Pile High Club starts this evening at 6:30pm at Aquastone Well Spa in downtown St. Pete.  Can’t wait to share how it goes. I have 5 women signed up and I know it’s going to be a really fun organizing Girls Night Out!

For another fun Girls Night Out for moms (e.g., an excuse to leave hubby at home w/ the kids), check out Andi Diamond Photograhpy’s workshop called “How to Take Better Pictures of Your Kids.”  It is Tuesday, August 25, at 7:00 p.m. Who wouldn’t want to learn that?  Here’s the flyer: