You know it’s time to reorganize your home office when you find yourself working on the dining room table instead of in your office.

Just recently I have found myself moving my laptop and various projects to the dining room. Initially I thought perhaps I was just needing a change of scene to motivate me to tackle some difficult tasks. Or perhaps I just wanted better lighting. But, as I paid attention to how I was feeling about my office I finally realized that I had become increasingly uncomfortable in that space. Hmmm. . . . What’s that about?

I have a hunch that it’s time for a change in my office because there has been a significant shift in my business. My first book is out. And, I’m now marketing myself first as a speaker, then as a professional organizer and feng shui practitioner. With those changes I find I need more surface area in my office. My little desk no longer comfortably accommodates me.

Any time there is a significant change in your life, you’ll find a need to change your space. As you change, so too should your space. Enjoy the process!

© 2012 Clutter Clearing Community | Debbie Bowie

“Author, Organizing Expert and Feng Shui Practitioner Debbie Bowie, is a leading authority on clutter clearing to attract more of what you want in your life. If you’re ready to finally clear the clutter from your life and move your life forward, get your FREE TIP SHEET, “Feng Shui Tips for Instant Success” at http://www.clutterclearingcommunity.com.

The energy of items that you no longer love or use dies. For example, an old pair of shoes that is no longer worn because the shoes hurt your feet has a dead energy.

You will find dead stuff in all parts of your house. One way to clear clutter from your house is to become a dead energy sleuth. You do that by constantly looking for dead stuff. Every time you open a drawer, cabinet, closet, the attic, basement or garage, be looking for dead things to move out of your home. If you develop this new habit and pitch dead stuff when you encounter it, you’ll rarely have to do a major clutter clearing.

Just do it! Look for dead stuff! Pitch it and keep on moving!

© 2012 Clutter Clearing Community | Debbie Bowie

“Author, Organizing Expert and Feng Shui Practitioner Debbie Bowie, is a leading authority on clutter clearing to attract more of what you want in your life. If you’re ready to finally clear the clutter from your life and move your life forward, get your FREE TIP SHEET, “Feng Shui Tips for Instant Success” at http://www.clutterclearingcommunity.com.

Recycling Greeting Cards

I get such great ideas from people who hear me speak or read my news tips and blog! Terry Jones shared her method of recycling greeting cards with me. She gave me permission to pass it on to you.

“What I do now to recycle my greeting cards is save all of this year’s cards together and pull them out when writing next year’s Christmas cards to make sure I do not forget to touch base with someone who is probably going to send me a card again next year. After I have sent out this year’s cards, I take the old ones I received last year, cut off the fronts and use them as gift tags for my wrapped presents. It gets the paper clutter out of the house and allows me to enjoy several minutes of reflection, enjoying last year’s cards and the handwritten notes included in them.”

Terry D. Jones

© 2012 Clutter Clearing Community | Debbie Bowie

“Author, Organizing Expert and Feng Shui Practitioner, Debbie Bowie, is a leading authority on clutter clearing to attract more of what you want in life. If you’re ready to clear clutter and move your life forward, get your FREE TIP SHEET, “Feng Shui Tips for Instant Success” at http://www.clutterclearingcommunity.com.

In a recent news tip I wrote about what I do with photos I receive in Christmas cards. A dear friend and networking buddy, Carrie Emery, read my tip and sent me an email sharing what she does with those photos. She gave me permission to share that with you.

“Most of my friends got married and had children long before I did and they would send adorable pictures of their families. I started a photo album–very basic album with the sticky pages–and have added the pictures each year. Each family has their own page which grew into pages. Since it was such a basic notebook style album, I would just add a new page when one was filled up.”

“What I have now, many years later is a photo album that shows the children from birth to high school for some. It has turned into a treasure. I can open it up at Christmas, usually as the season is winding down, add a few photos and look back at how the children have grown over the years since each year is right there on their page(s). And, it is a small manageable task that I can do in just a few minutes while watching the news or while waiting on perma-hold on the phone.”
Carrie Emery
Mary Kay Cosmetics

Speaking about paper and war in the same sentence sounds rather dramatic, but if you’ve ever been buried under piles of paper you know what I’m talking about. Keeping up with and organizing paper is the biggest organizing challenge for many people. Even very competent people can be reduced to tears of frustration and overwhelm by a pile of paper.

One way to maintain control of paper is to deliberately create specific paths for specific kinds of paper. For example, when paper comes into the house, make sure it lands in one spot to be sorted into categories instead of allowing it to land in any one of a number of different locations. If you decide the kitchen counter is that spot, make sure everyone in your family knows that mail always lands on the kitchen counter.

Then, once the paper has been sorted, make sure the different categories of paper are moved directly to their next location. Bills, for example, would go to the bill paying area. Once the bills are paid, the paper associated with them would then be filed or pitched.

So, the paper path for a bill might be: from the mailbox to the kitchen counter; from the kitchen counter to the desk of the home office where the bill is paid; from the desk to the filing cabinet.

It’s important to create paper paths for every category of paper you regularly handle. To simplify this process, consider having all paper move from its sorting location to a home office where the different categories can be processed and stored if necessary. That way the path would be: from the mailbox to the kitchen counter for sorting; from the kitchen counter to the home office desktop for review and action; from the the desktop to the filing cabinet or the recycle bin.

Making papers follow specific paths puts you in charge of paper instead of feeling at the mercy of paper. Your work is to determine the paths and to discipline yourself to make paper follow those paths every time. Just one lapse in maintaining your new paper system can cause paper to spiral out of control. Remember, digging out takes much more time and energy than maintaining paper paths!

Win the war against paper! Use paper paths!

© 2012 Clutter Clearing Community | Debbie Bowie

“Author, Organizing Expert and Feng Shui Practitioner Debbie Bowie, is a leading authority on clutter clearing to attract more of what you want in your life. If you’re ready to finally clear the clutter from your life and move your life forward, get your FREE TIP SHEET, “Feng Shui Tips for Instant Success” at http://www.clutterclearingcommunity.com.

“God sent you to help me!” Roberta said as I entered her office. It was quite coincidental that I stopped by her office just as she was receiving word that she would have to put her beloved dog to sleep. As you would expect, she was crying. And, she was working very hard to convince me that she was OK.

As I observed Roberta working so hard to pull it all together I felt both disturbed and angry. I was disturbed that she was doing what has become a norm in our society. If you lose a loved one, especially someone as insignificant as a dog (I’m being sarcastic), it’s expected that you get back to “normal” as quickly as possible. Why? So other people won’t feel uncomfortable being around you when you are grieving.

I felt angry because that special woman has a right to be human and grieve, even though she holds a leadership position. In fact, her sharing her loss with others could really make a positive difference. It would give others permission to be human too!

As I was thinking about this situation, I thought about the effect of grief on productivity. What is the cost of not grieving to work settings? When you don’t take the time to grieve, to allow the release of sadness, and to honor the person or animal who is no longer part of your life, that grief stays bottled up inside. It’s strength doesn’t dissipate. It is carried as a weight of unexpressed feelings. It takes energy to carry that weight, energy that is not available for efficiently getting things done.

The grief, even when it has gone unconscious, is also very distracting. When you carry grief it’s difficult to get and stay focused on anything for any length of time.

Imagine how much more productive you could be if you routinely took a break to grieve privately when you experience a serious loss instead of immediately getting back to being “normal.” Imagine how wonderful it would be if you could grieve and not worry what others will think of you when your sadness shows.

© 2012 Clutter Clearing Community | Debbie Bowie

“Author, Organizing Expert and Feng Shui Practitioner Debbie Bowie, is a leading authority on clutter clearing to attract more of what you want in your life. If you’re ready to finally clear the clutter from your life and move your life forward, get your FREE TIP SHEET, “Feng Shui Tips for Instant Success” at http://www.clutterclearingcommunity.com.

Cross one regular obligation off your calendar. Yes, I’m serious! In the ten years I have been helping overwhelmed people get organized, it’s been very clear to me that the more you have going on in your life, the more difficult it is to get and stay organized.

Most women I work with have no clear picture of how heavy a load they are carrying. When we make a list of their obligations so they can see why they are feeling overwhelmed, they are amazed at what they see. Keeping themselves in the dark about their reality has kept them going and kept them feeling overwhelmed and on a path to exhaustion, burnout and health problems.

Make a list of your obligations. Rank them in order of importance. Then make arrangements to let go of the least important obligation. Do it as an expression of your commitment to lightening your load so you can get and stay organized, eliminate overwhelm and avoid the serious health problems that you will attract if you continue to live in a state of overwhelm.

© 2012 Clutter Clearing Community | Debbie Bowie

“Author, Organizing Expert and Feng Shui Practitioner Debbie Bowie, is a leading authority on clutter clearing to attract more of what you want in your life. If you’re ready to finally clear the clutter from your life and move your life forward, get your FREE TIP SHEET, “Feng Shui Tips for Instant Success” at http://www.clutterclearingcommunity.com.

“Where is it? What did I do with that deposit?” Those were my thoughts as I was hunting through the front seat of my car. Being a professional organizer makes it that much more frustrating to lose things. I’m supposed to be able to find everything at all times! Ha! Yeah, right! Unfortunately I’m as human as the next person. And, when life gets complicated, the pieces of my life can get scattered just like those of anyone else.

One of the gifts of being an organizing professional is that I not only watch what other people do that helps or hurts them in their attempts to get and stay organized, I watch myself as well. On this particular day I noticed that I went on autopilot and systematically straightened up the front seat so I could determine that the deposit really wasn’t there. As I observed my behavior it occurred to me that when we lose things we are actually being given an opportunity to clean up and get more organized.

I’ve watched many clients search for lost items. The most common method that they use is to tear through their piles and space, creating more disorder in their attempt to find one item. I usually urge them to straighten up the space so it’s more likely that they’ll see the item if it’s there. That is so hard for them to do! I’m sure they’re not really conscious that they are often making it more difficult to find anything. Perhaps their anxiety gets the better of them, shutting down their rational brain. Or, they don’t see the benefit of that practice–they would end up with an organized space when they were done instead of having a bigger nightmare than when they started.

The next time you lose something, watch what you do. Do you create more chaos when you search? If you do, remember that you do have the option to take the same energy and use it to create order instead of chaos. I’ll bet you’ll have better luck finding your lost item with that method too!

© 2012 Clutter Clearing Community | Debbie Bowie

“Author, Organizing Expert and Feng Shui Practitioner Debbie Bowie, is a leading authority on clutter clearing to attract more of what you want in your life. If you’re ready to finally clear the clutter from your life and move your life forward, get your FREE TIP SHEET, “Feng Shui Tips for Instant Success” at http://www.clutterclearingcommunity.com.

Feng Shui teaches that everything is alive with energy.

Big pieces of furniture hold a lot of energy. If you move a big piece of furniture, you will be causing a HUGE shift in energy. Huge shifts in energy can affect significant changes in your life.

Is there a big piece of furniture in your home or office that you have been putting off moving? Have courage and move it! Then pay close attention and watch for changes in your life!

© 2012 Clutter Clearing Community | Debbie Bowie

“Author, Organizing Expert and Feng Shui Practitioner Debbie Bowie, is a leading authority on clutter clearing to attract more of what you want in your life. If you’re ready to finally clear the clutter from your life and move your life forward, get your FREE TIP SHEET, “Feng Shui Tips for Instant Success” at http://www.clutterclearingcommunity.com.