Tuesday Tips ... Your A-Z Guide to Getting Organized

Originally posted Tuesday, January 12, 2010.

Your A to Z Guide to Getting Organized
By Melody Warnick
Womans Day Magazine January 2010
Intro by Alice Shaffer

After the holidays and vacation, I found myself with a large pile of mail and magazines. I love all the various magazines I get for free through various offers. I found the January 2010 issue of Womans Day. As I was thumbing through it I saw a two page spread with the first letter of alphabet in bold colored print. I continued reading....it was an A to Z Guide to Getting Organized. I read three of them and was hooked! I personally want to be more organized in 2010.

Read the entire article here.

Tuesday Tips: Organizing Your Bills & Paperwork

Tuesday Tips: Organizing Bills & Paperwork
by Kristen Kanoski


Filing bills and papers can be an overwhelming task. If you have the right tools and a system that works, that is easy, filing bills and papers can be a snap. My favorite system of filing came from a book I read called, Organizing from the Inside Out, by Julie Morgenstern. Chapter 10 is the chapter you want to read, it is called Household Information Centers. It breaks down everything, from zones like mail & paper flow, bill paying, filing & record keeping, and so forth. She writes how to sort, papers, recipes, photos, organize your financial & vital records, and lifestyle paper work. The best is the “How long should I keep certain papers”, this was a huge help. I always kept everything, because well, I didn’t know how long I should keep it. From financial papers, receipts, tax records and vital records, she has a keep date.

I have three filing cabinets in my office, one in my desk which houses all our mortgage documents, heath and life insurance and taxes. I do that because I know my husband will be able to find them. I have a two drawer filing cabinet that in the top drawer is, yikes, all my warranties and instructions for everything that we have in the house and all my rebates and printed orders from the internet. In the bottom drawer is our resume, past newsletter from two professional organizations and all my conference related materials that I want to keep. The last filing cabinet is four drawers, the top drawer is my bill paying drawer, next is my family drawer, and the last two are my husbands.

I realize that not everyone can have that many filing cabinets, you might need less or more, or even just a simple portable file box, and it just depends on your needs. You will need to have a few things to help you file so that it will be super easy to maintain your system. You will need Hanging folders, file folders that have a left, center and right tabs (which I love to buy both of these in different colors), and folder labels. First break down your paperwork into categories such as bill paying, insurance and personal, for like vacation/travel info.

The first set of folders will be Bills. I have one file for Bills to be paid for the month and bills to be paid the next month. Use a left tab for this folder. Then I have a file for each of my credit card accounts; use a center tab for these folders. Then I have folders for each of my bank accounts; use a right tab for these folders.

I know a lot of people pay bills on-line. Here is my suggestion to help you keep track on how much you paid and on what day. Take your center tab file and on the inside of the cover put a sheet of paper, use tape, staple or paper clip. When you pay your bill write across the paper, the date, how much you paid and your reference or authorization number. Then if there is any question with that account you have all your information in one folder.

The second set of folders is Insurance. I know everyone has such difference insurance I hope this covers everyone. We have a Health Care spending account and this how I keep our files. Left tab, bills to be submitted. Center tab, bills submitted. Right tab, explanation of benefits for the year, I toss them after all bills have been paid and health care account is spent. This is usually done by Feb.1, that way if there are any questions I have this useless information. Another left tab may be for those of you who still need Blank claim forms. You can use this system as well for your Homeowner's Insurance, Renters Insurance, and Car Insurance. Make sure you have your current policy information in the file as well.

The third set of folders is vacation/travel. Left tab put your Frequent flyer reward program, first airlines then hotels. Center tab, you can have several, like for day trips, weekend trips, Spa day, Conferences. Right tab, I keep my past vacations, with just a few things, if I went somewhere at that destination that was helpful like a map or restaurant listing.

I would suggest checking out from the library or buying Julie Morgenstern’s book, Organizing from the Inside Out. It is an easy, plus you can skip right to Chapter 10. Good luck.

Kristen Kanoski was a professional nanny/household manager for twenty years. Organizing is something that comes easy and is fun for her. She has been married for six years to an extremely unorganized hubby, whom she still loves, and is currently a SAHM to a active and silly two year old boy.

You can read Kristen's Blog, Beyond Bottles, on life with babies beyond the bottle. She provides reviews of products, and how to organize your nursery.

Tuesday Tips:Your A to Z Guide to Getting Organized

Your A to Z Guide to Getting Organized
By Melody Warnick
Womans Day Magazine January 2010
Intro by Alice Shaffer


After the holidays and vacation, I found myself with a large pile of mail and magazines. I love all the various magazines I get for free through various offers. I found the January 2010 issue of Womans Day. As I was thumbing through it I saw a two page spread with the first letter of alphabet in bold colored print. I continued reading....it was an A to Z Guide to Getting Organized. I read three of them and was hooked! I personally want to be more organized in 2010.


These are the letters that spoke to me:
E: Evaluate Your System This is why I am thankful I have two friends in my life who enjoy organizing people's stuff. I let them practice on my stuff. It is time for another purging of the system in the next month or so.
F: File Faster-I love how this was just a simple 4 file system. I am going to alter this a bit and use a notebook with pockets in it, since I have an abundance of those around and they can go in a bag to take on the go.
Q: Quit Collecting Pick a number and stick to it. If you go over the number one item must disappear from your collection. If you know me, you realize I love turtles and have a large turtle collection. I also have an decent size original Winnie the Pooh collection. I have cut off the collections in the past in not adding. Now I add true original looking items that are not necessarily massed produced. I think I will be adopting this rule to my Stamping collection for 2010! I have so many stamps and items to go with stamping that I am not sure anymore what I have and don't have.
U: Unclutter with Color This was a cool idea, put a colored sticker on items and if you don't use them in 6 months they get donated, sold or passed along to someone else. When you use it you take the sticker off. This will be handy for my clothes.

to read the full article please visit Woman's Day

Your A-to-Z Guide to Getting Organized

Start the new year off right by getting everything in order

By Melody Warnick Posted December 15, 2009 from Woman's Day; January 5, 2010

Tuesday Tips:Organizing Inside & Out.

Tuesday Tips: Organizing Inside & Out
by Kristen Kanoski

I love to organize. I read a lot of books on organizing. Here are a few that I really like.

Organizing from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern

My all time favorite organizing book. On the cover it reads “The Foolproof System for Organizing Your Home, Your Office and Your Life”. I would say that is true if you follow her easy steps. Organizing for the inside out is a system that is built from your needs, personality and goals. It spotlights who you are and what is important to you so the system will mirror that.

The book has 240 pages, and I would say the first 58 are the most important to read. Why, it gets you to look at organizing in steps, tackling the clutter and simplify how to organize. It gets you to look at what is holding you back and how to break that cycle.

Then the book breaks down every room in the house and tells you how to organize the room based on your needs. Julie Morgenstern uses the SPACE formula. Sort Purge Assign a home Containerize Equalize

Does it work? Yes. I did this at my sister’s house with their basement. My sister has four children, and when they were younger she wanted to organize the basement as their play room. Boy, was it gross when we started. It took all day, but we followed the SPACE formula and it took about 6 hours, with an hour break for lunch to get it organized. My sister and the kids were able to keep this area clean and organized for almost two years. Until the kids grew out of that space and moved upstairs.

It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff by Peter Walsh from TLC's Clean Sweep show

It’s All Too Much focuses on what to do when you reach the point of where you just don’t know where to start and how to start.

The book has 230 pages and again the first 56 are important because it helps you understand your excuses for clutter. Then Peter Walsh works with you to put clutter in its place. From garage sales to a peaceful organized home.

The book breaks down each room and helps you come up with a room function chart. Peter uses the F.A.S.T. plan. Fix a time, Anything not used for twelve months, Someone else’s stuff and Trash.

Does it work? Yes, I used the F.A.S.T for our garage. Wow, did it make a difference. I will be honest and say it took about a month over the summer to organize the garage. We did it on weekends when my son was asleep as well as an hour here or there. Since some stuff was my husband’s, I couldn’t really do anything with it, I sat with him and went through it. Once I organized everything he wanted to keep, he couldn’t find the items. We then redid those items together.

Another thing I really like about the book is the last step. Step 6 is all about new rituals and walks you through The Calendar For An Organized Home. It breaks down each month and tells you what and how to do things.

10,001 Hints and Tips for the Home by DK

This you will have to buy used or from Amazon. The book has 637 pages. The good thing is there are only 3 pages that I would say you should read, they are just on how to use the book. The book is filled, and I mean filled with hints and tips for everything. There are four sections Organizing Your Home, Decorating, Cooking, and Gardening. This book has some cool and easy ways to help with everything. My favorite is the dealing with stains. It is a great book if you don’t want to read a lot about organizing by being able to go right to the tip or hint you want. They have tons of pictures and illustrations.

Kristen Kanoski was a professional nanny/household manager for twenty years. Organizing is something that comes easy and is fun for her. She has been married for six years to an extremely unorganized hubby, whom she still loves, and is currently a SAHM to a active and silly two year old boy.

You can read Kristen's Blog, Beyond Bottles, on life with babies beyond the bottle. She provides reviews of products, and how to organize your nursery.

A Fun Storage place for receipts & work notes!

A while ago, over at The Financial Nanny, I wrote about how not to organize your receipts! I want to share a fun little tool to organize your coupons, receipts and notes for work/personal life. I love the one I got a few months ago!

Over at Letters by Design, they have this adorable Accordion Organizer with the money design from Andy Warhol! I love the quote on the spine of it "Cash. I just am not happy when I don't have it." How true is that statement! We should all be striving to work off a cash budget.


The Organizer has the following features:
Measures 1 x 4 x 6-1/2 "
Notepad has 40 lightly lined sheets
6 divider pockets
Elastic Closure
Elastic Pencil Holder

The regular cost of the accordion organizer is $9.50, but you can get 10% off this and any other purchase from Letters by Design link for NNRW this month! So considering picking up one for yourself and others!

Back to School Organizing Tips by Jacquie Ross

During the school year, do you find yourself running out the door each morning feeling disorganized and stressed due to the morning rush? If this sounds familiar, I have some tips that will help your mornings run a whole lot smoother. A lot of things that need to be done before your children leave for school can easily be done the night before, or sometimes even earlier. If you follow just a few of these suggestions you will be surprised at how much more time you have in the morning.

Wake Up Earlier!:
Seems obvious, but this is one of the easiest ways to eliminate the morning rush and also the most under utilized! Waking up just 10 or 15 minutes earlier can make a big difference to your morning. Combine this with some of the following tips and you’ll be amazed at how much more relaxed your mornings will become.Quick Tip: Set your alarm clock 10-15 minutes earlier or retire to bed 10-15 minutes earlier.

Get Dressed Faster:
Select up to 5 outfits for each day of the week for each child. Consider the upcoming forecast when choosing the outfits and you may even include your child in the process. This is a task that you can do on weekends. If your weekend is extremely busy, don’t throw your hands up in the air and give up -just pick another day of the week. It doesn’t matter if it’s Wednesday. Just do enough for the next few school days. Place all the outfits in the closet and have your child select which outfit they would like to wear the next day.
Quick Tip: For the first few weeks, make a note in your planner to remind yourself to select your child’s outfits. Soon it will become a habit and will be one less thing to worry about each school day.

Breakfast Prep:
1. Set the breakfast table the night before and involve your children in the process. Consider setting up a rotating schedule for your children and have it be their job to set the breakfast table each evening
.2. Take breakfast orders the night before and post the orders on the refrigerator.

Quick Tip: Make it fun. Have your children take the orders the night before. They can pretend to be “Chef of the Night”!

Packed Lunches: If your child brings in a packed lunch to school, you can prepare it the night before. Sandwiches can be made ahead of time and sealed in plastic wrap or sandwich bags. If you are making the sandwich more than one day ahead, double bag it into a zippered bag before refrigerating. Some sandwiches can even be frozen, which would allow you to prepare several days of sandwiches ahead of time.

Calm the After School Chaos: If your children go home immediately after school, have some snacks ready. Healthy snacks are best. To save money, try to make some things at home to avoid pricey pre-packaged items. The internet is a great resource for a variety of snack ideas.

Quick Tip: Running out of lunch or snack ideas? Do an internet search for packed lunch and snack ideas, or look for books at your local library.

Homework/School Papers:

1. Have each child place completed homework assignments into their backpacks.

2. Check to see if you have any forms to sign and give to your child to place into their backpack.

Quick Tip: Create a check-list of things that you or your children need to do before bed and post it in a convenient place.

By taking care of routine tasks the night before, you will have more energy the next day and will begin the day feeling relaxed instead of stressed.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com/

Jacquie Ross is a Professional Organizer, speaker and award winning small business owner in Maryland. Jacquie owns CastAway the Clutter! and Halo Organizers, and serves clients in Maryland. She is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) and is on the Board of the NAPO-Baltimore Chapter. Sign up for her free monthly organizing tips at CastAway the Clutter!

Jacquie also has a website for purchasing organization products.
www.haloorganizers.com