In their book, Time for Life (p.91), Robinson and quoted the novelist Toni Morrison’s book, Let Go.

Happy Purging! Bridges

Can you find what you need when you need it?

Storage of some items are essential but the key is easy retrieval…and the ability to put it back easily! Here are some great tips from The Organizing Lady:

Ask yourself two questions as you organize your storage.

1. Will this item be easy to return?

2. Will this item be easy to get out?

If what you need is hard to reach when you need to retrieve it — you will frustrate yourself. If what you have gotten out is difficult to return you will be tempted to leave it out rather than struggle to put it back.

Several secrets are important:

• Do not crowd your items into storage space. It is hard to work with jammed in things.

• Put your grouped items into baskets and label the baskets with bold print (and maybe a picture especially if you have kids) so you will know where things are located.

• Put the baskets on shelves. Make your items easy to return and retrieve.

Happy Organizing! Bridges

Your organizational life will benefit.

GETTING IT ORGANIZED
A person who chronically struggles with clutter needs a straight forward and powerful plan in order to turn that way of life around. Any plan or process that works for you and is consistently followed has a place. If you need help developing that plan, hire someone who understands your needs and can help!

KEEPING IT ORGANIZED
Once the house is basically organized, you need a plan for maintenance. A big idea is to change your habits from leaving things out to putting them back as you use them. This is the famous STOW AS YOU GO™ war cry of Messies Anonymous

LOVING IT ORGANIZED
But there is a final instrument in the organizational orchestra. It is the nudge, the itch, and shall I say
it, the love of this way of life. No rules, tips, or strategies can replace the internal desire to keep the house nice in little ways that will never make
it to a list or plan. Keep going until you reach this stage and you will never go back to clutter again.

Thank you Sandra Felton with Messies Anonymous for this great article!

Happy Organizing! Bridges

CONTINUE TO CHANGE THE WAY YOU LOOK AT THINGS!

Sometimes we think of the bed as rumpled bedclothes that need to be straightened just because it is the custom in our country to do it. We think of it as a nuisance job that will only need to be redone the next day.

Instead think of it as the largest and potentially most beautiful piece of furniture in the house. Design your bed so that it is worth making up. Do you need a new spread or more pillows?

Obtain whatever inspires you to the point that your bed will cast a happy glow over your house. Viewed properly, making the bed can become a positive and creative pleasure.

Take control of your thinking and your actions will follow.

Happy Organizing! Bridges

Keeping a neat house is the same way.
Mess up a little less and clean up a little more.

“Mess up a little less,” means changing habits so we don’t clutter things up during our daily living.

“Clean up a little more” means to do a little each day to take care of debris that is messing up the house.

Doing these consistently will inevitably lead to an organized and well maintained house.

“Never underestimate the inevitability of gradualness.”

-from Messies Anonymous

Happy Organizing! Bridges

This is a great quote from on of my clients that I work with on a regular basis.  Organizing is a committment to yourself and you have to make that first step for the order in your life to come into your world.  I hope that you enjoy this quote as much as I did:

Until one is committed
there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back,
always ineffectiveness.

Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation)
there is one elementary truth,
the ignorance of which kills countless ideas
and splendid plans:
that the moment one definitely commits oneself,
then Providence moves too.

All sorts of things occur to help one
that would otherwise never have occurred.
A whole stream of events issues from the decision,
raising in one’s favor all manner
of unforeseen incidents and meetings
and material assistance,
which no man could have dreamt
would have come his way.
I have learned a deep respect
for one of Goethe’s couplets:

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can ….begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”

W.N. Murray
The Scottish Himalayan Expedition 1951

This is a great opportunity to get an extra hour of sleep, unless — like us — you have little ones who don’t really care what time the clock says.

To minimize the effects of Daylight Savings changes, we usually start adjusting our kids’ sleep schedules 15 minutes at a time in the days leading up the official switch. This week we’re in Disney World, so we’re hoping they’ll be so exhausted when we get back on Saturday that they’ll sleep an extra hour on Sunday morning anyway!

to read further…

Happy Organizing!  Bridges

“I’ll send this card to my bereaved friend ________”
(Now where did it go?)

“I’ll put the folded clothes up ___________”
(When did they get so scattered?)

“I’ll put this bill in a pile and pay it __________”
(Why is the water turned off?)

“I’ll unload the dishwasher _________”
(What a mess the sink has become!)

“I’ll make the bed __________”
(Oh well, it is night now anyway.)

“I’ll do a batch of laundry _______.”
(Underwear can be worn again — I think.)

“I’ll unpack this suitcase _________”
(What happened to all my clothes?)

And on and on it goes. If the missing word, LATER, is present in your life, you know how it can confuse your life and clutter your house. When we put things off until LATER we undermine
our organizing efforts.

“LATER” now equals CLUTTER now.

From The Organizing Lady.

Happy “NOW” Organizing! Bridges

MIGHT – As in “I might need that later.”
COULD – As in “Somebody could use that.”
MAYBE – Like “Maybe I will think of something to do with this.”
OUGHT – Like “I ought to read this book.”
SHOULD – “Somebody should preserve this for posterity.”

These short little words will torpedo your resolve if you let them stay in your thinking. They may be true but they don’t apply to your situation. Be alert
to their destructive force. Don’t let them
determine your action — or lack of action.
-by The Organizing Lady

Happy Dejunking! Bridges

Messiness is not always an individual matter. Sometimes the house is just the floor on which we do a dance of disorganization with others. It may be that someone in the house (maybe you) is resisting keeping the house nicer because he or she wants to show anger. An example may be a child who
is leaving stuff around the house, not cleaning up the room as a statement of independence. Or a spouse
who leaves things messy as a weapon in a family conflict.

A more subtle example is that deep in your own heart you may be resisting being made to do what you don’t
want to do. Maybe you are angry about the nature of life that forces you to spend your time doing grunge
jobs that you hate. Or maybe it is the voice of your mom, the neatness police, echoing from the past. Our messy behavior may have deep roots for some people that need to be considered because the rageful dance is very destructive to moving forward in neatness.

What does this make you think of? This answers some questions for me about my kids…hmmm!

Happy Organizing! Bridges