This week I had the pleasure of working with Nancy (names changed to protect confidentiality), a very special, very motivated client who not only paid for me to help her at my out of town rate, but also brought in a friend, Betty, who does some organizing on the side. I was once again reminded of the power of women working together with a common goal.

In this case the organizer, Betty, and I were completely committed to helping Nancy clear her space of clutter and organize what remained. Nancy has been going through some very difficult life challenges in the past three years–a divorce and caregiving aging parents. I suspect our empathy for her current exhausting life circumstances as well as our desire to help set her up to be able to reclaim her own life once her parents have passed on, fueled our efforts. Betty and I had just met that day, but we worked together like partners united with a common cause. It was an incredible feeling to be in the middle of that tornado of positive energy.

By the end of the day we had covered a lot of ground very quickly. We reorganized her dining room/home office which included setting up a filing system, moving a shelf that was blocking a hallway, and reorganizing parts of the garage. I was astounded and impressed with what we accomplished and how well we worked together! And, best of all, during the five hours we labored Nancy transformed from being tense, anxious and uptight to being playful with a relaxed, relieved smile on her face. Women helping women! It is powerful and magical!

Clearing clutter takes time. Excavating a neglected space can take an incredible amount of time. I remember spending two hours sorting the contents of three drawers for a client. Areas that melt down over time and become disorganized masses of stuff truly take more time to confront and resolve than most people have day-to-day and week-to-week. On the other hand, putting items back where they belong on a daily basis usually takes just a minute or two. Yes, you have to do it over and over again, day in and day out. But, doing that ensures that you don’t end up with a nightmare of your own making.

We all have avoided doing an unpleasant task because we thought it would take forever to do and we just couldn’t face it. When we finally made ourselves tackle the chore, we found that it took much less time than we expected.

I remember helping Elsa clear out a bathroom that she had neglected for months. It was loaded with a huge tumble of dirty clothes, cosmetics, toiletries and cleaning products on the floor and on every flat surface. It was also filthy. Dust and soap scum combined to form a grime everywhere that was truly off-putting. It was very difficult to face. It looked like a job that would take days to do.

Focusing on the big items first, the clothing and towels, we saw immediate progress. The task Elsa had avoided dealing with for a month was put in order in 45 minutes.
That kind of progress would not have been possible had Elsa been working alone. It did require a professional who knew where to start and how to make things happen quickly. But, this story clearly demonstrates that the timeline in your head, the one you form when you look at the mess before you and imagine the work that must be done, may not be accurate. If you use an effective process for clearing clutter, it can happen more quickly than you expect.

This blog entry is offered with permission of the author to help you get organized for good health and a healthy weight. Enjoy!

By Charles Stuart Platkin

While there haven’t been any studies I know of linking clutter to obesity, I do know that being disorganized doesn’t help. Think about the factors that facilitate weight loss: increased physical activity, eating healthier foods, good sleeping habits and a balanced emotional life — all related to an organized, clutter-free life.

The fact is that most failed dieters complain that maintaining a diet is just too much work. The amount of information and control required can be extremely difficult to sustain. This becomes especially important when your control systems are weakened — like when you’re disorganized or stressed. When distractions compete for your attention, the mental workload can be overwhelming. That alone could be the reason you fall off your diet. Therefore, you need to arrange your personal environment to maximize your chances of controlling your weight and minimize your chances of slipping up.

One of the leading barriers to increasing your physical activity is time. If your home and office are disorganized and filled with clutter, you’re probably spending a lot of time simply looking for things you need. When you get rid of the clutter, you can make room for a small exercise area and have easy access to your gym clothing so you can get to the gym. Think about it: If you spend 10 fewer minutes a day looking for things, you can spend 10 more minutes exercising.

Keep in mind, while you’re cleaning and organizing you’re also burning 210 calories per hour – not bad. Here are a few key strategies to help you get organized and declutter:

Organize Your Pantry and Have Healthy Spices Available and Easy to Use

If you believe you can easily prepare healthy foods with a disorganized pantry, you’re mistaken.
· Take everything off the shelves.
· Get rid of expired items and foods that have unhealthy ingredients (e.g., partially hydrogenated oils, high-fructose corn syrup). “Trigger foods” also must go. These are your go-to foods that can lead to binges.
· Clean the shelves and, if possible, paint your pantry white, or some bright color so you can see the foods you have.
· When restocking the shelves, group like foods together and try to make healthy foods easily accessible so that you reach for them first. Several companies make storage containers and tools to help you get organized. ( www.spacesavers.com, www.containerstore.com/shop/kitchen)
· Create an easy-to-use spice section. Spices make bland foods taste great, and should be used as part of your cooking process.

· Make sure you have the following:

o Fat-free cooking sprays.
o Fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth.
o Rice vinegar, apple cider vinegar and balsamic vinegar to add a lot of zing.
o Canned beans.
o Whole-wheat bread crumbs and flour.
o Soups and other healthy canned foods: It is not cheating to open a can of low-calorie soup or tuna for a fast dinner. Stock up on these foods — they’re filling, inexpensive and right there when you don’t feel like making a big deal out of dinner.

· Go through your utensils do you really need everything you have? Put things you don’t often use on a top shelf where they won’t get in your way.

· Things you do need:
o Several small plastic cutting boards or mats that fit into your dishwasher.
o Very sharp knives, along with a knife sharpener.
o A food processor or blender to slice, grind, dice, chop and shred.
o A microwave: Great for defrosting meat and reheating leftovers. It also cooks a potato in about seven minutes.

o Pots and pans, readily available and in good working order.

· Make sure your countertops are clean and free of unopened mail, old newspapers and magazines; they’re supposed to be for food prep.

Refrigerator Makeover

Take the Fridge Quiz at www.dietdetective.com/column/refrigerator-quiz.aspx. Would you shop in a dirty, poorly laid out grocery store? Keep your fridge clean and organized into sections, just like a supermarket. Soda and juice are high in calories; try to keep water or unsweetened iced tea in the front so you grab them first. Better yet, toss the cola.

Fruits and veggies should be front and center and at eye level so you see them. Keep all the high-cal foods in the fruit and veggie drawer or in the back.

Be Fitness Prepared

Have a gym bag packed and ready to go. Buy a crate to store all your fitness items, including sneakers, bands, pedometer, gym clothes, fitness DVDs, jump-rope, etc. Make everything easily accessible and ready to use.

Organize Your Closets and Garage
Get all the areas of your life organized, including your closets and garage. Using storage bins is great, as long as they don’t serve as another place to hide stuff you don’t need. If you haven’t used something in the last two years, chances are you will not use it at all. If you do end up storing things, make sure to label and make detailed lists of what’s in each container.

You’ve tried before and it didn’t work? Check out a few of these Web sites:
Real Simple: http://tiny.cc/eQYSZ
Good Housekeeping: www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/getting-organized
Oprah magazine: www.oprah.com/home/Clean-Your-Messy-House-in-6-Months
Unclutter Blog: http://unclutterer.com/
Clutter Diet Blog: http://www.clutterdietblog.com/

And if you can’t do it yourself, find someone to do it for you. The National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) has about 4,200 members — visit their Web site at www.napo.net. You can also take a “help wanted” ad for an organizer on Craigslist.org, or have an organizing party with your friends. (There are always a few friends who would love to get their hands on organizing your house.)
____________________________________

CHARLES STUART PLATKIN, Ph.D., M.P.H. is a nutrition and public health advocate and founder of DietDetective.com. Copyright 2010 by Charles Stuart Platkin. All rights reserved. Sign up for the free Diet Detective newsletter at www.DietDetective.com

You may not have a desk like this, but do you ever feel as overwhelmed as you do when you look at this photo?

If you: have too much stuff (and can’t manage); are overwhelmed by disorganization, or are unable to reach your goals, then stop spinning your wheels – just for three hours.

I am leading a workshop to address this.  The workshop might be just the extra push you want to clear clutter and progress toward the life you really want.

Get energized.  Get direction.  Catch your breath, and then get back on track. My workshop, “Organizing for Productivity and Success,” covers essentials of organizing your stuff, your tasks and your time.

• What are your organizing stumbling blocks?  You’ll get some great ideas about how to overcome them.
• What keeps you from being as productive as you could be?  You’ll learn some ways to address what’s holding you back.
• Are you getting what you really want from your time and your efforts?  You’ll arm yourself with ideas and information to take you from where you are to where you really want to be.

When you finish the workshop, you’ll know how to tackle the clutter challenge using the Love It, Use It or Lose It™ method. You’ll be motivated.  You’ll seize control of your time and tasks using proven, simple approaches. And, you’ll find yourself armed with an array of organizing tools.  You’ll use your new tools to work with more focus, more momentum and less stress.

I am offering the workshop on two dates: Thursday, April 22 and Saturday, May 22.  Both dates are 9 a.m. to noon.  The workshops will be held at the Enterprise Meeting Center, 2706 Enterprise Pkwy, Richmond, VA 23294.

Cost at the door is $77.  Save $30 (cost $47) three ways:

• if you’re a member of the VA Chapter of NAPO –National Association of Professional Organizers,
• if you’re a client of Bowie’s Rock Scissors Paper Institute, or
• you RSVP and pre-pay before April 15, for the April workshop, or before May 15 for the May workshop.

Students of her February workshop get in free.

Register in one of two ways:

• By phone at 804-730-4991. Please provide your credit card information including name on the card, card number, card expiration date and the three numbers on the back, or
• By mailing a check for $47, postmarked on or before April 15, for the April workshop or May 15, for the May workshop.

Please mail to:

Debbie Bowie

Rock Scissors Paper Institute

7293 Jay Way

Mechanicsville, VA 23111

When you make decisions about what tasks to do on any given day, how do you do that? Do you carefully plan out your day based on clearly defined goals? Or, do you get up and just handle whatever comes at you?

In a world of ever increasing complexity, opportunities and distractions it’s so easy to drift along and grab on to the next wonderful possibility that comes along. Even people who do not have a diagnosis of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) can feel like they do have the diagnosis because it’s so easy to bounce around responding to the onslaught of information and technology that comes at them on a daily basis. If you aren’t intentional about choosing how you spend your time, you are at high risk of finding yourself with a life you never really wanted.

Recently I gave a seminar, “Organizing for Productivity and Success”.* I told the attendees that choosing the things they keep in their home, the tasks they do and how they spend their time should be based on what matters to them, those goals and values to which they are committed. It was obvious by the blank stares I got from some of those seminar participants that they had not thought of clutter clearing and time and task management in that way.

Are you completely conscious of what matters to you? I believe that it’s the norm to hit the floor running each day to do the next thing on our to-do list without pausing to think about whether what we are doing is in alignment with our big picture of what really matters to us. We do things because they have always been done that way. We do them because someone else thinks we should. We do them because we think we should. But, if we do those things, will we get what we really want?

I think we’ve learned to put the cart before the horse. The cornucopia of activities available to us, the press of excessive responsibility and an almost obsessive need to get things done so we can avoid losing control drives us into a state of unconsciousness about what’s going on in our own hearts.

It’s time to slow down, go inside and get reacquainted with yourself and what really matters to you. It’s easy to float along with the crowd that is doing the next best thing out there. It may be easier, but in the long run it’s riskier. It takes courage to put on the brakes, pull in and get clear about your heart’s desires. If you do that, you could get behind. You could get off track. But, when you are on autopilot are you sure you’re really on track, your track?

Make the time to stop, have a cup of coffee or tea, and create a list of those things that are most important to you. For example, what really matters to me is to have a happy, healthy and growing relationship with Bob, my husband, to be financially free, to travel and have adventures, to do work that makes a difference in our world, to be healthy and continually learning, to maintain loving and healthy relationships with family and friends, and to have and maintain a lovely and comfortable home and yard. This list may not be complete, but it hits the high points. It is my guide when I get lost in the swirl of possibilities of things to do and have in our world that seems to value productivity over relationship, doing over being, and speed over stillness.

Next, evaluate whether the things you have around you, the tasks you have been doing and how you’ve been spending your time are in alignment with your list. Post your list in a place where you see it often, where it can serve as your compass when life takes over and you find yourself lost in your busyness. Use it as your guide to getting more of what you really want.

“Organizing for Productivity & Success”, a three hour seminar, is being offered again on Thursday, April 22 and on Saturday, May 22 from 9:00 a.m. to Noon. Go to www.rockscissorspaperinstitute.com for more information or call 804-730-4991.

Picture this. . .you desperately need to find one item in a closet jam packed with coats, games, gloves, hats, a vacuum cleaner, and yard flags. Would you be inclined to shut the door and forget the urgency of your quest? Closets become physical nightmares when they’re arranged with the “just throw it in the closet” technique. Is it any wonder that many closets are a variant of the one described above?

What many people don’t know is that a packed closet adds stress to their life. Feng shui teaches that everything in a space is alive with energy, positive or negative. Everything! Individual items in a closet may have good energy because of their quality, their usefulness, or their associations, but when many items are packed in so tight that it’s hard to access any one particular item, the closet as a whole takes on a stressful negative energy. It’s hard to get anything in or out of the closet without creating a mess. Just opening the door is stressful!

What’s the best way to organize a closet? First decide the categories of items that belong in the closet. For example, a closet near the front door usually holds coats and other clothing to protect against the whether. It may hold decorative items for the front door, like flags. It could also house the vacuum cleaner. Three categories: outdoor clothing, outdoor decorative items and the vacuum cleaner.

Second, pull things out of the closet that don’t fit the categories you’ve identified. Put them to the side to be addressed when the closet is done. Notice that it’s not recommended that you immediately put those things somewhere else. You run the risk of getting sidetracked and not returning to finish organizing the closet. Also, it is not necessary to completely empty a closet in order to organize it. You will save significant time if you organize the items without taking all of them out.

Next, evaluate the items that do fit the identified categories to see if they are all of high value, worthy of taking up space in the limited confines of the closet. Ask yourself, “Do I love it? Do I use it?” Items that you love for their usefulness, their aesthetics, or their association, are keepers. So are items you use at least once a year. When you love an item or use it once a year, there’s a good chance that it has positive energy. Items that aren’t either loved or used are good candidates for pitching. They are taking up prime real estate and are likely to have a stressful negative energy.

Third, devise ways to keep the different categories of items separate and clearly visible. This usually involves using containers or building shelves and compartments with a company like California Closets or the Closet Factory. In the closet described above, adding separate bins for hats, gloves, scarves and flags is helpful. The idea is to keep items in one category together yet separated from other categories of items. You run into closet chaos when different types of items are thrown together with no clumping into categories and no visible boundaries between categories.

The larger the closet, the more complicated the organizing challenge because there are likely to be more categories of items to consider. A good rule of thumb for organizing any space is to make sure to place items that are used most frequently in the most convenient locations, no higher than your shoulders and no lower than your hips.

Harlan Brubaker, closet designer with California Closets, reports that, “There are shoe collectors out there for whom 60 pairs is the norm. However, there usually are 12-20 pairs that are used regularly. I try to put them in a high visibility area. The rest go high or low in the closet, preferably in boxes to keep them from getting dusty.” While it would be optimal to have all those shoes stored in one location, all fully visible, it is often not possible.

So, tackle a closet using this four step process.

1. Decide the categories.
2. Remove items that don’t fit the categories.
3. Evaluate and keep only the best items that do fit the categories.
4. Use containers to keep categories separate.