

Organize 365 Podcast
Lisa Woodruff
Lisa Woodruff is a home organization expert, productivity specialist, and author of multiple books including The Paper Solution.
Lisa's research-based teaching shines a light on the invisible work being done at home and in the workplace. Lisa's sensible and doable organizing tasks appeal to multiple generations. Her candor and relatable style make you feel she is right there beside you, helping you get organized as you laugh and cry together.
Lisa believes organization is not a skill you are born with. It is a skill that is developed over time and changes with each season of life. Lisa has helped thousands of women reclaim their homes and finally get organized with her practical tips, encouragement, and humor through her blog and podcast at Organize365.com.
Lisa's research-based teaching shines a light on the invisible work being done at home and in the workplace. Lisa's sensible and doable organizing tasks appeal to multiple generations. Her candor and relatable style make you feel she is right there beside you, helping you get organized as you laugh and cry together.
Lisa believes organization is not a skill you are born with. It is a skill that is developed over time and changes with each season of life. Lisa has helped thousands of women reclaim their homes and finally get organized with her practical tips, encouragement, and humor through her blog and podcast at Organize365.com.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jan 9, 2023 • 37min
466 - The Lisa Glossary Part 9: The Paper Solution
For 2022, we are adding to the Lisa glossary. This week, we are talking about The Paper Solution. In 2020, I published a book called The Paper Solution. I also want to be your teacher to help you get your home and work paper organized and functional. No matter when you begin your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. Listen in as I teach you about the ideas and beliefs that are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing. Paper is my thing. I love writing on paper, I love organizing paper, I love everything about paper. But, as a professional organizer, I realized there is very little information available about how to organize paper, the categories of paper we deal with in our lives, and how to actually use paper in everyday life. Less Paper, not Paperless. Although we have been promised a "paperless" society, the reality is that the US is a paper-based society. We are able to handle more things digitally than ever before, but we still need physical paper for many things in life. In America, our vaccine cards, birth certificates, vehicle titles, and medical records are all physical paper. Other parts of the world have digital systems for these things, but because of the uniqueness of our government and our focus on freedoms, we do not have universal, digital records for these things. In my own life, physical paper has saved me over and over. Paper means that I can avoid expensive professional fees, and it gives me authority with lawyers, doctors, and school principles. In America, paper is the way I (and you) can substantiate claims and provide proof of what you know. Paper is useful in settling estates, advocating for children during IEP meetings, and for communicating vital health information during a medical emergency. The Paper Solution The Sunday Basket® is the foundation of an organized home. The Sunday Basket® starts as a physical basket that holds actionable papers. But, really, it is so much more. It is a weekly habit of processing and looking proactively at the upcoming week that keeps the household running more smoothly. In 2020, I published The Paper Solution as a physical book. It is written to change your mindset about papers, and to give you the practical tools to get your household papers organized. The Big Purge As a professional organizer working in people's homes, I saw over and over that file cabinets allow us to save much more paper than we ever in. Surprisingly, most Americans can get rid of 80% of their filed papers and will never need them again. You can declutter your papers in as little as 15 minutes a day. Take a few file folders out and review them. Make piles for papers to recycle, shred, and save. Put the "save" papers back in the file cabinet. If you have ever taken care of a loved one's papers, you know how vital it is to have important papers organized and easy to find. Take care of the people you love by clearing out all the old papers that no longer need to be stored or saved. Types of Paper - Actionable and Reference Of the papers that should be kept, there are two main categories. Actionable papers are papers that require you to take some action — bills to pay, grocery lists to buy, or a note to book that vacation hotel. Reference papers are all of the other papers we save — bank account numbers, retirement statements, wedding cards, and love letters. These we may look at again sometime in the future, but they mostly need to be kept safe. Ditch the File Cabinet After years of helping people get their files color-coded and organized in a file cabinet, I had several clients who were facing emergency evacuations. The reality was that they did not have time to pull out important documents during their emergency. That is when I realized that our reference papers need to be portable and there must be a constraint on how much paper we keep. It's not realistic to load up an entire file cabinet when trying to get away from a forest fire or a hurricane. For several years, I have been teaching people to ditch the file cabinet and replace it with several essential reference binders. (More on this in the next podcast). Certified Organizers America is going to need a team of trained professionals who understand the skill of organizing to teach it to others. The Organize 365® system offers different levels of assistance for learners depending on their personal needs. Certified Organizers are trained by Organize 365® to provide 1:1 or small group coaching, assistance, and support. I want you to have what you need to get organized and to be successful. We all need to have our paperwork organized. You can do it now, or you can do it after an emergency. It is a blessing to do it now — it is a gift to yourself and those who love you. Organize 365® offers The Paper Solution for any type of paper you have. Actionable, household, reference, or work. Learn more at organize365.com! This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

Jan 8, 2023 • 36min
340 - The Lisa Glossary Part 8: Special Circumstances that Impact Your Organization
See the full blog post at organize365.com/special-circumstances-organize-365-story-part8 This is part eight of a series sharing the Organize 365® Story. I want to talk with you about some special circumstances that impact your organizational journey. As always, I start with helping you to get the right mindset about home organization. I want to give you the ability to look at your life circumstances and understand the ways in which they are impacting your organization. Getting your thoughts and mindset ordered is vital to ordering your physical spaces. I want to share with you some life circumstances and talk about how they affect your thinking and your organizing work. This week, I want to share some special circumstances you may face in order to help the Organize 365® community to have a shared vocabulary and foundational language. No matter when you begin your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. Listen in as I teach you about how I special circumstances and their impact on organization. These ideas are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing and will help you take those first steps towards learning the skills of organization in order to progress along your transformational journey. See all eight parts of this series at organize365.com/glossary This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

Jan 7, 2023 • 51min
339 - The Lisa Glossary Part 7: Redefining the Meaning of "Work"
See the show notes at organize365.com/redefining-work-organize-365-story-part7 This is part seven of a series sharing the Organize 365® Story. I want to talk with you about how you define "work." As always, I want to share my mindset and thinking with you. I also want to share how owning a home or running a household can also be your work. In this podcast, I also share many of the words I use surrounding the concept of work that help me to be more efficient, productive, and effective. This week, I want to share my perspectives on work to help the Organize 365® community to have a shared vocabulary and foundational language. No matter when you begin your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. Listen in as I teach you about how I think about work. These ideas are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing and will help you take those first steps towards learning the skills of organization. This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

Jan 6, 2023 • 46min
338 - The Lisa Glossary Part 6: Redefining How We Look at Time
See the blog post at organize365.com/redefining-time-organize-365-story-part6 This is part six of a series sharing the Organize 365® Story. I want to talk with you about how you look at time affects your organization and productivity. As always, I focus on helping you get the right mindset about how you spend your time. Time is the most abstract concept that will have the longest impact on how you spend the rest of your life. I want to share with you some of the ways you can change your mindset and how I think about time has changed over time and has helped me to grow in productivity. This week, I want to share my perspectives on time to help the Organize 365 community to have a shared vocabulary and foundational language. No matter when you begin your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. Listen in as I teach you about how I think about time. These ideas are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing and will help you take those first steps towards learning the skills of organization. This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

Jan 5, 2023 • 34min
337 - The Lisa Glossary Part 5: Home Organization Perspective
See the full blog post at: organize365.com/home-organization-perspective-organize-365-story-part5 This is part five of a series sharing the Organize 365® Story. I want to talk with you about getting your home organized. As always, I start with helping you to get the right mindset about home organization. I want to give you the ability to figure out how to organize your home for yourself. Getting your thoughts and mindset ordered is much more effective than ordering your physical spaces. I want to share with you some of the ways you can change your mindset and the way you name the spaces in your home. This week, I want to share my home organization perspectives to help the Organize 365® community to have a shared vocabulary and foundational language. No matter when you begin your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. Listen in as I teach you about how I think about how we get our homes organized. These ideas are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing and will help you take those first steps towards learning the skills of organization. This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

Jan 4, 2023 • 37min
336 - The Lisa Glossary Part 4: Renaming Everyday Home Spaces for Modern Life
See the full blog post at: organize365.com/renaming-home-spaces-organize-365-story-part4 This is part four of a series sharing the Organize 365® Story. This week, I want to share how you rename the spaces in your home to make them more functional as part of your transformational journey to an organized life. I define and explain things like a hot mess room and a drink station. I share how the names you give different spaces in your home can dramatically affect how you think about them. This podcast and our new glossary will help the Organize 365® community to have a shared vocabulary and foundational language. No matter when you begin your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. Listen in as I teach you about different ways I organize homes to make them functional. This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

Jan 3, 2023 • 48min
335 - The Lisa Glossary Part 3: From Overwhelm to a Plan
See the full blog post at: overwhelm-to-plan-organize-365-story-part3 This is part three of a series sharing the Organize 365® Story. This week, I want to talk with you about what happens as we move from one phase to the next. Typically, we get overwhelmed, feel like we are living in chaos, and struggle to have a plan. We struggle to keep pace with the new change while we are trying to learn a new level of organization, and the transition takes longer than we expect. As things get moving faster and you begin to feel overwhelmed, the way to regain clarity and be able to adjust from being reactive to productivity is the Sunday Basket®. This week, I want to share the details of the Sunday Basket® to help the Organize 365® community to have a shared vocabulary and foundational language. No matter when you begin your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. Listen in as I teach you about how I think about how we get our homes organized. These ideas are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing and will help you take those first steps towards learning the skills of organization. This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

Jan 2, 2023 • 39min
334 - The Lisa Glossary Part 2: Discovering Cycles & Seasons of Organizing
Check out the blog post at organize365.com/cycles-seasons-organize-365-story-part2 This is part two of a series sharing the Organize 365® Story. This week, I want to share the cycles and seasons you will experience along your transformational journey to an organized life. This podcast and our new glossary will help the Organize 365® community to have a shared vocabulary and foundational language. No matter when you begin your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. Listen in as I teach you about the cycles and seasons that influence your organizing journey and that are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing. This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

Jan 1, 2023 • 36min
333 - The Lisa Glossary Part 1: Organizing Foundation
Check out the blog post and more details here: organize365.com/organizing-foundation-organize-365-story-part1 This week on the blog, I am starting a series sharing the foundation of Organize 365®. I share the five foundational principles that are the bedrock of everything I teach inside of Organize 365®. I want to ensure that we have a common vocabulary and you know what the foundational principles are. No matter when you being your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

Dec 31, 2022 • 1h 28min
Bonus - Organization is for Me in 2023
Has your New Year's energy kicked in yet? It's time to capitalize on that energy! We know you have goals and we have the tools you need to get you there! One of the things that I have learned over the last decade is that life is work. There's unpaid work at home and paid work at work and sometimes there's unpaid work at work and sometimes there's paid work at home. It's all work. In order for me to be the best me I can be I need to plan for both the unpaid and the paid work that is my privilege and responsibility as a contributing member of society. We have heard from many of you that you are trying to decide or pick what your focus will be in 2023 and I say we should just have it all. An organized person unlocks their time, allowing them to pursue what they are uniquely created to do! The start of the new year feels like the turning of a page, a clean slate to make lasting organizational change in our lives - at home and at work. Organization is a learnable skill. One that will take you wherever you want to go. Follow your renewed energy that the new year brings and use it to maximize your progress! Half the battle in learning the skill of organization is deciding what to do next. The "Organization Is For ME 2023" Bundle can make those decisions for you. This bundle will assist you with getting organized and making consistent progress towards your goals at HOME and at WORK. Why can't we have it all? Why can't you be organized with your paid work and your unpaid (but oh so fulfilling) unpaid work? That's why we've put together the Organization is for Me in 2023 Bundle - to help you do just that. You don't have to choose between work and home. This bundle is going to give you the courses and tools you need to excel at both. In this bundle you'll get The Productive Home Solution™ with Planning Day. As well as The Friday Workbox® system with the Goal Planner and Planning Day for your work. Imagine how amazing it will feel to unlock your time in 2023?! How it would feel to come home to an organized house and create a system and routine for managing your work, passion projects or business? This is your YEAR! Be all you can be with the Organization is for Me 2023 Bundle! Episode Resources: Watch the video Organization is for Me 2023 Bundle The Productive Home Solution™


