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I spent this past Thanksgiving holiday with my son and his extended family in Florida. Traveling during a major holiday has never been my first choice, but as a professional organizer, I realize that being organized helps to lessen the stress that holiday travel can bring. Most would agree that Thanksgiving has the best part of Christmas (family gathering) without the gifts getting in the way. In my profession, I see many gifts go unused regardless of the generous spirit in which they were given. Some of my clients dread the pending influx of additional clutter and want suggestions on how to curb the CRAP.

As a result, I often recommend clutter-free gift giving. A clutter-free gift is the gift of time, memories, an experience, or health. You can also give a gift that helps others who have needs beyond our imagination. Here are some suggestions:

CLUTTER-FREE GIFTS

• Car wash coupons
• Cooking lessons
• Dance/Yoga lessons
• Gym membership
• Movie tickets
• Museum membership
• Pottery/glass-making glasses (think Goggleworks)
• Savings Bonds (purchase online at www.treasurydirect.gov)
• 529 plan contributions
• Self-defense classes (think young women)
• Tattoo in honor of someone (my son did this for my husband and me)
• Tickets to the symphony/theatre

GIFT CARDS (not entirely clutter-free)

• Garden nurseries, home improvement stores, and bookstores
• Gas stations, grocery stores, and convenience stores
• iTunes, eMusic, and Ticketmaster
• Restaurants, coffee shops, and fast food restaurants
• Spa, facial, and massages

NON-PROFIT GIFT GIVING

• Cash donation to a charity in honor of the recipient. Let the recipient know via a card.
• Give a gift certificate so they can choose what charity to donate to: www.justgive.org.
• International Relief Fund: www.oxfamamericaunwrapped.com
• Green gifts for global impact: www.thegreenguide.com
• Life-sustaining gifts to help abolish global poverty or renew our planet’s environment: www.altgifts.org
• Donate an animal in honor of someone: donate.worldvision.org or www.heifer.org/gift
• Participate in the local toy drives
• Give a tree in honor of someone: www.newgrowth.com
• Donate a book on health information to communities all over the world at www.hesperian.org

GIFTS OF TIME

• Join a friend (instead of exchanging gifts): local art studio classes, yoga, book club, film club, craft and scrapbooking classes
• Babysitting coupons for nieces, nephews and grandchildren
• Take a child: to lunch, on a day trip, to the museum, to a local college for a sports event, to the zoo
• “First Christmas Together” (or other name) coupon book: Make a list of the things you know your partner would enjoy and include practical and fun things: e.g. a back rub, do the dishes for a week, make a candlelit dinner, do grocery shopping, etc.

Finally, if you can’t go clutter-free, choose a gift that donates a portion of its profit to a favorite non-profit agency of your choice. Verify the charity at www.give.org.

Organize your best holiday season by starting early and focusing on family. Happy Holidays to you and yours!

“The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.”-Ralph Waldo Emerson

For most of us summer means taking time to recharge our batteries and spend quality time with family. Vacation is also about choosing what we want to do on our own timeline. Whether you are going away for vacation or enjoying a ‘staycation,’ quiet time is a great opportunity to get organized in small ways that make a big impact when the rat race begins again in the fall.

Whether you are sitting on a beach, in a plane, or on your back deck, here are 10 ways to spend some of those lazy hours:

1. Organize your cell phone. Delete unwanted items and add missing contacts. Add names you call often to save time. Even if you don’t have the phone number, you can add the number later.

2. Learn how to truly use your phone. Do you have a new phone and not know how to use it to its fullest potential? Take the time to search around and focus in on what you want to know. If you have a smart phone, go on the company’s website and find answers.

3. Take your ‘reading pile’ when you travel. We all have a reading pile, so carry your accumulated unread magazines and miscellaneous mail with you and throw it away as you read it.

4. Clean out your computer. If you are like me, you take your computer with you when you travel. Use the time to delete unwanted files, reorganize documents into folders, and put old files into other file folders to avoid cluttering current projects.

5. Write down your list of future ‘wants.’ Having a list of the things you want to purchase, big and small, now and in the future, makes it easier to avoid spending money on things you don’t need and really can’t afford. Keep the list on your smartphone under Notes.

6. Do a ‘brain dump.’ When we’re away from home, it doesn’t mean our minds suddenly slow down. A brain dump means writing down everything that’s on our minds so we don’t forget what’s important. Putting our mental ‘lists’ in writing also helps us organize our thoughts.

7. Cut down on calls from telemarketers. Call 1-888-382-1222 and register all the phone numbers you don’t want telemarketers to use. You can also register online at www.donotcall.gov, but calling is easy. Your registration will not expire.

8. Opt out of credit card offers. Call 1-888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688) to get your name and address removed from the main consumer credit reporting agencies mailing lists: TransUnion, Experian and Equifax.

9. Clean out your purse/wallet/briefcase. How much do you REALLY need to carry with you? Most of the time, we aren’t in a third world country where the conveniences of life aren’t readily available. Don’t burden yourself by carrying around everything you or anyone else needs to survive every catastrophe.

10. Schedule fun stuff and down time. Place entries on your calendar for family time, long weekends, vacations, and personal projects to ensure you’ll take the time to do it.

Finally, did you know the word leisure comes from the Latin licere, meaning ‘to be permitted’? Many of us have to permit ourselves to be leisurely so make sure you take time off and use a little of that time to get organized so you have time for the joyful things in life!

“Joy is not in things: it is in us.” Richard Wagner, German author

Fall is a time for change and I’m not just talking about the leaves changing color. With the kids going back to school and families getting back on a schedule, many homeowners are looking at their current spaces and what they might be missing in their home. I’ve been working with a number of clients who want to transform an existing room (extra bedroom or the room where everything gets dumped) into a place where they can fulfill a dream that revolves around a hobby, a passion, or a business.

Do you want a room where you can start sewing, doing crafts, getting out the scrapbooking supplies, or creating a new office for a home-based business? Sometimes a room has to do double-duty, but the main focus is to create a space to go to and get those creative juices flowing. Let’s break it down:

The first step is to decide which room is the one to transform. Your new room/space should:

• be on a floor that will be conducive to using it.
• have a window to look out of if you want one.
• have a door so you can close the door and leave things “out” and not put everything away when you have to stop for the day.
• function independently, or it can do double-duty (e.g. guest room/office).

The second step is to clean out the room you want to move into. First, sort through the items you can see. Sort the closets and drawers next. Set up a staging area on a bed, desk, or table to sort items (sorting from the floor kills your back). Make categories for:

• belongs in another room
• donate (to people and animals)
• sell on eBay, Craig’s List, or consignment
• return to/belongs to someone else outside the home
• trash
• keep in the room

Try not to leave the room while you are sorting. If you have difficulty making decisions on whether to keep something or not, do a quick sort first and then make a second pass at the more difficult items. After you are done sorting, take all items that don’t belong in the room to its new home.

The third step is to look at the furniture in the room:

• Determine what isn’t going to stay in the room and take it out.
• Bring in any furniture that you’ll be using for your new space.
• Try to remix, reuse, or repurpose things you already own instead of buying new.

Finally, organize the new room by zones:

• Working table/area
• Storage areas inside closets, on shelves, and in cabinets.
• Use room dividers or rugs to zone off the room if needed.
• Containerize your items by how you will use them: open, closed, opaque, solid, pretty, or utility.

Change the layout of your room as your life changes or as you change the projects you are working on. As the saying goes, life is not a dress rehearsal; don’t wait to follow through on those dreams and wishes for your home, especially if it’s just a matter of rearranging and not major construction. Don’t just dream about what your truest life could be, organize it to be so! Good luck!

Clutter Quote: “Our truest life is in our dreams awake.” Henry David Thoreau, American author, poet, philosopher.

I went to see The Lorax with my niece and we really enjoyed the movie, including dancing to the song at the end of the movie after everyone had left! The environmental theme revolved around saving the trees so I told my niece that I would take her to IHOP for pancakes since they are offering free tree seeds as a promo for The Lorax. I’m hoping that Universal Studios keeps with the green theme of the movie and doesn’t decide to flood the market with Lorax theme-based stuff: toys, plush animals, games, etc. However, there’s probably not much chance of that happening.

The main theme of the story however revolved around the word ‘UNLESS’. The Lorax said, “UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” At my previous employer, there were a lot of built-in opportunities to “care a whole awful lot” such as volunteering, raising funds for various charities, and hold clothing and food drives. It felt like we were making a difference in the lives of people on an almost daily basis. Now that I have my own business, I look for ways to volunteer in my own community.

My former college roommate and I spent one Saturday morning with our fellow alumni from Shippensburg University volunteering at the Reading Berks Food Bank. We packaged boxes for elderly clients of the food bank. A few months ago I spent a morning working with volunteers from Habitat for Humanity by laying a floor in one of the offices at the Blind Association in Reading. I had never laid a floor before so that was really fun!

If you are cleaning out the kitchen and pantry, donate your unexpired dry goods and canned food to the food banks in your area. If you are cleaning out the bathroom and linen closet of toiletries, make-up, linens, and personal products, donate your excess personal items to emergency shelters, women’s shelters, elderly organizations or any other agency that could use your unneeded items. Go to the website for the agencies in your area and find their wish lists for the most needed items.

Back-to-school time is upon us. Organizing is critical for a smooth exit in the morning, to make sure homework gets done, and to achieve a tranquil household. Moreover, you are teaching your children how to organize their own lives when they enter the work force on their own. Let’s break it down:

Mornings and Evenings

• For stress-free mornings and time for breakfast: pack lunches the night before, have papers signed, and backpacks packed.
• Have a designated area for an easy exit (preferably where you actually go out the door) for backpacks (with homework and signed papers), coats, and after school activities stuff (clothing, sports equipment, and/or instruments).
• Depending upon the age of the child, have clothing laid out so dressing is a cinch. Use the collapsible sweater shelves that hang from a rod in the closet and mark them with each day of the week (or just leave unlabeled). Kids can put an outfit, socks, underwear and even shoes in each slot so there’s no hunting for items in the morning. This could be done on a Sunday quickly and quietly and then each child is set for the week!
• Have a family calendar in a central location and review the next day’s schedule. Use this area to post upcoming events.
• Have homework areas designated according to the age of the child, the amount of supervision she needs, and your space restrictions. Typically the younger the child, the more supervision he or she needs. The kitchen is a good place for parents to keep watch over children and help with homework. Offices work if a child’s room has too many distractions in order to focus. Teenagers typically choose their bedrooms; some may or may not need a desk. You can always change the location if grades go up or down.

Child’s Room

• Involve your child in organizing her room. Interview your child as a professional organizer would and ask her what she likes and dislikes about her room.
• Integrate as many of her suggestions to increase the chance the arrangement will work. Allow experimentation with the layout even if the room may appear chaotic at times.
• Divide the room into zones for different activities so everything has a ‘home’. Use furniture as room dividers instead of ‘lining the walls’ with furniture.
• Go vertical wherever possible: hooks, single shelves, book shelves, pockets on the backs of doors and inside closets.
• Use bed risers used by college students to boost the bed to store items underneath (use rolling bins).
• The less time she has to spend opening a lid, using a hanger, or opening a drawer, the more chance it will stay that way.

Start Organizing Early

• Unclutter after birthdays and holidays. It’s an easier time to let go of things.
• There’s only so much room; if you buy something new, get rid of something old. Teach your child charitable giving.
• Allow your children to sell their belongings at yard sales or on EBay.
• Set a good example and organize your own spaces.

Clutter Quote: “Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling your walk before it stops snowing.” Phyllis Diller

Garages tend to become the dumping ground during the winter. But the best thing about organizing the garage is that if we do a really good job, it usually stays that way for at least a year. In reality, families use garages as storage facilities rather than a place for the car. That stuff can include obsolete electronics, delayed decisions about where to put something, overflow from the house, and unneeded building supplies. Since the whole family probably uses the garage, bring everyone together and make it a family affair. Let’s break it down:

Start with a clean slate and unclutter

• Pull everything out onto the driveway if you can. Sweep it out and eliminate the cobwebs.
• As you pull items out, sort them by categories:
  • lawn and gardening, work bench, sports equipment, dry goods overflow, car accessories, tools and power equipment, paints/solvents, lawn furniture, beach items, camping, etc.
• Talk to your children about their items and help them eliminate clutter. Consider having a garage sale to sell their unneeded toys.
• Finish or get rid of the unfinished projects (two years old or more).
• Find a new home for stuff that shouldn’t be stored in an uninsulated garage (e.g. photographs, items that could melt).
• Eliminate duplicates and donate unneeded tools, doors, windows, appliances, or anything to build a house to Habitat for Humanity in your area.
• Take hazardous waste items (e.g. oil-based paint) to local semi-annual cleanups.

Stay in the Zone

• Divide the garage into zones according to the categories you’ve established.
• Think “grab and go” and store things where they are convenient.
• Hang tools where they are most accessible.
• Keep car accessories close to the cars.
• Store overflow from the kitchen close to the door near the house.
• Reposition some zones as the seasons fluctuate: move bikes, beach items and lawn furniture down in spring and move the skis and sleds up high.

Type of storage/system

• Put big items back first and the rest goes around those items.
• Think ‘up’: store infrequently used items on high floating shelves or beams.
• Metal on cement will rust the metal. Rest metal on wood or up on the wall.
• Studs with no dry wall are great for peg boards. Cut different sizes according to the types of stuff you have.
• Use open wire epoxy-coated steel shelving: wet things can dry, mesh prevents dust.
• Consider a garage storage system. Search the Web or go to Lowe’s or Home Depot.
• Use different colored plastic bins for different zones so it’s easier to put them away.
• Hang long things vertically so they take up less space. If garden tools don’t have a hole to hang, drill one.
• Remix things you may already have: Use old drawers/cabinets, shoe bag on the wall to hold small garden tools, old table for work bench, etc.

Finally, if you enter your home through the garage make sure it’s clutter-free and welcoming. Hang a welcome home sign, clean the door, and put a nice door mat in place. You deserve a nice welcome home!

And remember: “Every time you put something back where it belongs, it’s a gift to yourself.”