Organize 365 Podcast

Take a deep breath – it's time to get your hot mess room in order! This is one of the most requested podcast topics fro me to cover. If it helps, it was equally overwhelming for me to think about how I was going to inspire and motivate you to sort it out. What I finally realized was, you needed a 28 day course. And I didn't want money to be the reason you didn't tackle this already overwhelming space. So I created a FULL 28 day course complete with a 25 page eBook, 9 full color printables, and 28 daily emails with actionable tasks and daily videos or podcasts to keep you going.You can get the WHOLE course FREE here. Over the next 4 podcasts, I'm going to tackle your out of control storage area head on. Buckle up and get ready for the ride! Whether it's the storage room, garage, spare bedroom, or even your entire house, there's always going to be things that you just don't know what to do with. As things build up in one space, they become a jigsaw puzzle. It's your job to try and work out what items should go where. To move forward, you need to realize what's actually in there and then once you've achieved that, you can sort it out. There's two reasons why you have a hot mess room… You have a lack of time (and decision-making capabilities) You have a lack of space Lack Of Time There's always something that will be more important to distract you from addressing the hot mess room. The reason that things are in there in the first place is because you don't know what you want to do with them. They're all there because you don't want to deal with them. If you did want to deal with them, you would have! Lack Of Space Your goal is to have a functioning and organized storage area. The logistics of this will depend on your individual situation. If you have a garage and basement and lots of available space to fill, you may need to make tough decisions to reduce the amount of possessions you are storing. If you live in a smaller space, the reason that you may have a hot mess room is because you literally don't have a storage area at all. When we pick houses, we often don't make our purchasing decisions based on storage even though it's something that we all need. Storage is a natural by-product of life. We all need a certain amount of stuff and that is absolutely fine. Depending on your circumstances, you may need an off-site storage facility. There's nothing wrong with this. Here are 3 good examples of when this may be necessary… When two families blend together, especially if children are involved When you downsize, but the kids are still using the house as a storage facility If you move to an area where you don't have a garage or basement Make Storage Work For You Since I started offering physical products, I've really had to think about the organizational logistics for myself and the wider team. Initially, we used the Home Depot shelving in the garage to store everything and this very quickly expanded to include an off-site storage facility. This worked, but it wasn't ideal. As it got colder, we realized that a physical office with a door would be more appropriate for our needs. In all of these spaces, we used the Home Depot shelving – there were lots of trips to the store! The key to organization is to ensure that it works for your needs. If it doesn't, change it, find a better solution, and move on. The System Whatever your system, start from an empty space for the optimum organization. The more uniform, the better. Your shelving and storage need to be neat, tidy, and clearly accessible. I personally use the HDX ventilated 24" deep shelving from Home Depot. I love that it is heavy duty yet very flexible and lightweight. (How to set up your storage room and the exact products I use are in the the WHOLE course FREE here.) It works for basements, storage facilities, garages, and even attics because it is so adaptable in height. It's the system I LOVE for setting up a storage room. If space is limited, you can place folding tables on the top of the shelving to make a countertop to work on. It's a great money-saving tip. The beauty of this system is that you can find anything at any time. Color-coded bins will hold your items and the contents will all be indexed in a home reference binder. You will keep this in the house for when you need to use it. Sign Up! I'm offering you the opportunity to enroll in a special 28-day program just for the hot mess room. It's completely FREE! I'm super, super excited about how much this will help you. Sign up for this 28 day daily organizational challenge and you'll get… Daily actionable work that will yield real results A 2-minute video each day An eBook and a comprehensive shopping list of how to set up a storage room 9 colorful printables to track what you have stored in your storage area Imagine getting organized in just 28 days! It's a reality and it's my FREE gift to you! Click here to start your 28-day organizational hot mess room journey. Hey, have you signed up to join me in Dallas, Texas for the Organize 365 National Convention? I can't wait to meet you and give you a BIG hug! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/217

It's the big one guys! Over the last few weeks, I've been super excited to introduce you to some of the people that have really helped shape who I am over the last decade. So I couldn't think of a better way to finish the series than by inviting my very own sister, Emily Kelly, onto the podcast! Emily takes you on the journey of some of our life experiences and shows you how I've become the person and businesswoman I am today... and to dish the dirt on everything about me that only a sister can know! We're very lucky to be in such a special relationship. I'm also super excited to let you know that Emily is now part of the Organize 365 Team. She is running the Sunday Basket® Workshop Organizer Certification Program. Entrepreneurship Runs In Our Family We grew up in a 100% entrepreneurial family so the idea of working for someone else was just never entertained. For us, we were taught that you either owned the company or you started one from scratch. On the podcast, Emily takes us back to when she was 3 years old to the story of her first friend whose mom owned a home goods shop in the valley and our Mom who was running her business from our basement. Every day, they'd play "shops" with the little guest checks or receipts lying around from both homes. It was that or trading stickers. It's all we'd ever known. Everywhere we went, we were pretending we were in business. It was so much fun! By contrast, since I was 4 years older, I was often out babysitting and dreaming of the day I'd become a mom! To picture the scene, we grew up in a neighborhood in Akron with no traffic (or sidewalks!) and there were very few children. It meant that we had to make our own fun. I'll never forget the day Emily and her friend set up a lemonade stand outside the house. Entrepreneurism was everywhere for us, but it's lovely to reflect on the fact that we learned business from different perspectives because of our ages. Our Mom's Business Emily loves that we're both true to form with the women on mom's side of the family when it comes to business minds. We have inherited the attitude of "I have an idea and it's going to sell." Our grandma mailed fabric all over the world so people could make their own clothes. Grandma Green had a flower shop, and our mom's idea grew while working for a clothing business. Emily and I have such fun recalling the stories of mom and grandma taking clothes for a huge end-of-season event to Cleveland to maximize sales in the 1970's/80's. Everyone helped with it. Mom saw potential right away. Many people were being successful with the trunk parties, but no one had the undergarments. Cue mom! She literally got on a plane to New York, went to a show, and started buying lingerie. She had slips coming out of her ears! It was an old-school direct sales business that she'd created on her own. Emily says that just blows her away! It reminds me of when I got on the plane to Dallas and asked the manufacturer to produce my Sunday Basket® for me. Mom grew the business to where she had women working for her in 26 states when she sold it just a few years later. It was an amazing achievement with lots of reinvestment. We are both so similar in the way we approach business today because of how she was. White Gloves, Party Manners & Favorite Games Emily and I recall how when we were young, we took etiquette classes to learn all about silverware and to get our slips out for formal dinners (slips feature heavily in our childhood!). We also learned how to get out of a car in a skirt. I often wondered, would any of this help me see the royal family? We're both BIG royals. I would have put being Queen on my list of jobs to be when I grew up if I could. I can't wait for the royal wedding and new royal baby this year! We did love to play lots and lots of games when we were growing up, too. We came up with all sorts of games. By far, our favorite was one we made up called "big friend." Visit the blog post here to view a short video of Emily and I sharing our memories of the game. Entrepreneurism Ran In Our Dad's Family, Too Our dad was no exception to entrepreneurism. Sales was his strength and Dad's company had over 100 employees. His father and grandfather had a coffee company. Our father's company in Akron that he eventually became co-owner of was called Alcon Tool. Dad's enthusiasm for manufacturing made us fall in love with the industry. Dad's ethos on work is something that stays with us both today. It doesn't matter what role you play in the team, everyone is equally important. That's what I'm trying to grow at Organize 365. Dad's Passing Our father passed away 10 years ago just before he was 61. On the podcast episode, Emily and I reflect on this most upsetting time in our lives. We talk about how it was kind to put us both as executors, but not practical. We found our own roles and formed a strong team at a difficult time. Growing Independently It's true that we had a privileged upbringing in both education and financial support, but in every single generation, the businesses that our families grew started from scratch. There was no inheritance, but just a great idea and the determination to succeed. Dad started life as a salesman and left as a partner. When I reflect back, my best advice would be to take a look at what you have and not what everyone else has. I'm successful and I'm very blessed, but I work really hard. I want to give back as much as possible, but I create zero excuses for myself. Having my husband Greg working allowed me to start Organize 365, but Emily is a very successful single woman. So it's not your spouse that makes or breaks you. Think about the "something" you were uniquely created to do and give it to the world. Every reason why you're not pursuing it is an excuse. Take what's in your way and get rid of excuses to move forward. This podcast is about our family highlights because it's all about encouraging and inspiring you. When you focus on the positives, opportunities become bigger and brighter and you can chase them. If you focus on what could have been, things look darker and it's harder to chase your goals. Creative Memories The time when Emily and I worked for Creative Memories was a super exciting time in both our lives. Replacing my teaching salary with direct sales so I could stay at home with my family was my dream and I was going to do everything I could to get there. My dad helped me decide on Creative Memories. We both felt it had a big reach... it turns out we were right! As Emily says, I joined and went straight to the top! Emily was one of my great customers and after turning me down initially, I finally managed to get her to sign up, too. She went straight to the top as well! We built teams and were in the top 6% performers of the company. We take a lot of what we learned in those days with us now to run a fun community workshop feel. Emily & I As A Team Again This brings us to today and where Emily and I find ourselves in the organizational realm. Although it's not the most profitable, I'm staying with the home and paper organization, as it's the area where I feel I can recreate the community buzz of Creative Memories. I'm constantly pivoting and moving forward to create this feeling in your house and at our workshops. It's awesome to have Emily on board to run the Sunday Basket® Workshop Organizer Certification Program. Prices go up on April 1st so get in touch with Emily to talk about the next steps as soon as you can. We'd love to have you on the team! Emily and I see the vision of bringing people together all over the world. It's a space where you can share experiences and move forward from them. No one should feel alone and that's why the workshop model works so well. Emily is so excited to be on board and she feels just like she did when we worked together at Creative Memories. For her, we've never been better than then as a team. I love Emily and so will you, I am sure! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/216

I am so excited to introduce you to Melanie Moore on this week's Organize 365 podcast! As many of you know, I'm running a series of the top 5 people who have helped shape and define me over the last decade and Melanie definitely qualifies. Melanie is the Director of Training & Development at CinchShare, a social media scheduling software that helps entrepreneurs, business owners, and anyone using social media to spend more time doing what they love rather than being tied to a computer. We use CinchShare at Organize 365 and I'm delighted that CinchShare is sponsoring the Organize 365 National Convention on June 7-9, 2018 in Texas. Melanie is going to be the Master of Ceremonies! How I Met Melanie The first time we spoke, I was in Walmart when my cell phone rang. The lady on the end of the phone sounded so enthusiastic that I pretended to know exactly who she was (even though at that stage I didn't!). At the time, Melanie organized events where companies would come together, share ideas, and take them back to their own teams to grow their businesses. She asked if I would be a speaker and I couldn't wait to jump in and say yes. I'd always wanted to be a national direct sales speaker and this was the perfect opportunity to learn and develop. She couldn't pay me, but asked if I had a book I'd like to sell at the end. I said, "Yes." The speaking opportunity was in 2 weeks so I had 2 weeks to write a book... which, of course, I did!! :) Be An Action Taker After several meet-ups, we realized that we were both action takers. Being an action taker is a lot of fun. It opens up time to spend on things you enjoy rather than deliberating over things that don't hold so much significance. For example, when something breaks, I'll buy a new one right away. I won't take hours pondering it. If the new one doesn't work out, we'll try again. Why Melanie Is An Inspiration To Me Melanie's enthusiasm and expertise is infectious. And we both talk as fast as each other! I love that we both see the bigger picture in life. We're able to both draw on our direct sales experience and see what's working and what isn't. The opportunities for both of us that arise from this are just super exciting. Organize 365 National Convention in Dallas Tickets are available NOW! Describing this convention is something I am having a hard time articulating. It's a convention that meets a retreat with a splash of the group activities you did on school field trips. Think of it as a chance to meet and hug me (I'm a big hugger!). It's all about getting like-minded people in a room together and learning so much from each other. Prepare to meet new friends, enjoy new experiences, and open your mind to a world of possibilities that you never thought possible. Give yourself the time to take a step out of the real world and purposefully plan your next year. I promise you, you'll walk out of the convention as a new person. As Melanie says, "You'll be a new person on a new mission. You'll see clarity like you've never experienced. Clarity alone will bring you back every single year." Rise – YOU Are Enough I want you to leave the conference believing in YOU. The convention will give you the resources you need to continue on your organizational journey and open up time in your calendar and space in your life for the future you want to happen. The more organized you are, the better your personal and professional life can be. I have a burning desire to see people thriving and living a relaxed life where they can live out their free time. The Organize 365 community is super awesome. We all learn from each other, including me! For example, thanks to a suggestion from someone in the group (thank you!), I now peg my jeans instead of hanging them so I have a designated space for each TYPE of jeans I wear. The peg is a brilliant idea! Supporting each other also brings us to synergy and the idea that 1 + 1 = 3 (or for me and Melanie, 8 million!). It's important to get off technology and see people face-to-face. Melanie is such a wonderful example of this and I'm so happy that our paths crossed. There's so much value in speaking to people. If you dream it and believe it, you can achieve it. As Melanie says, she can't wait to see my dream of running a national convention actually come to fruition… and neither can I! We're super excited to meet you all. There are only 160 tickets available. Once they're gone, they're GONE! Join us for some big surprises, be ready to be inspired, and take action. Come to Dallas and rise with us. View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/215

I'm super excited to introduce Laura Vanderkam to the podcast. I'm a HUGE fan and I've wanted to get her on the show since I started out. Laura is the talented author of several time management and productivity books – I've read them all! She is here to guide us through life by saying, "Hey! It can be tough, but there's so many different ways to manage our time and make things easier." I feel like I already know so much about Laura from her inspirational podcast, "The Best of Both Worlds." I'm always searching for podcasts about successful women and how they do it (aren't we all?) and this is where I discovered Laura. The podcast is all about loving our families and our jobs as one, a concept that's often presented as oppositional, but this one aims to prove it doesn't have to be that way. Laura and her co-host Sarah Hart-Unger have taught me so much, not only about organizing my life for the better, but also giving me the confidence to speak up and stand my ground on the things that are important to me. Can You Have It All? Well, according to Laura – yes, you can. Not only that, she tells you how to hit it out of the park. My personal light bulb moment was coming across, "What Most Successful Women Do Before Breakfast," one of Laura's books. To me, the content really makes sense. It's about loving harmonizing your family and career, helping out, being flexible, and organizing your time to allow you to feel fulfilled in every part of your life. Grab Those Goalposts Use goals to manage your time. I'm a big believer that you can pretty much do whatever you want if you pick a goal and set steps to make it work. I definitely look at my time differently now thanks to Laura. Unfortunately, good things don't just appear like magic. You need to think about how you're realistically going to get to where you want to be. Set manageable targets within achievable timeframes and the goal setting process will start to flow. The book "I Know How She Does It" is really good for this. Prioritizing Family Time – Anytime Talking about looking at time differently, I love the concept of shaking things up. A simple change can affect your life dramatically. For example, if you feel like you're missing out on quality time with your family, why not try making your meal time together at the beginning of the day. There's so much pressure for family meals to be in the evening, but this can happen at any other time. How about breakfast? Breakfast food is fun and often people, especially children, are in a better mood in the morning. So it really can be a great option for busy families to have that time to sit together. Work out what works best for you and your family and shake it up. Looking At Your Time Differently Who knew the middle of the week was Thursday evening? I know, right?! This is a game changer. Laura explains that if you start from Monday morning, the midpoint of the week is really Thursday evening, even though it feels like the end of the week. For Laura, managing time is about balance. What does balance mean to you and how can you achieve it? Don't be leisurely about your leisure time. It's not about scheduling things you have to do – it's about scheduling things you WANT to do! While she doesn't suggest planning every part of your life, sometimes we do need to schedule our free time. If you want to go for a run, factor in that 20 minutes somewhere. Laura also says it's important not to blame anyone else. You are in control. Don't use the kids as an excuse for not being able to do things. I pick 1-3 things I want to accomplish and look at how that fits in with the family – at least then I'm in the equation. We need to think about ourselves. The Great Sleep Debate – Are We Getting Enough? I was inspired by Laura tracking her sleep over a couple of years and had every intention of tracking my sleep for 2 weeks – I ended up doing 2 nights! I've always said I need 6/7 hours, but the issue is I love sleeping in on the weekends. The purpose of Laura's study was to see, in actual numbers, what the life of a professional woman looks like. It turns out, we have a lot more free time than we think. It's how we use that time that's key. Outsource The Things That Actually Take Up Your Time We need to ask ourselves, where are we actually spending most of our time? It's likely to be picking up laundry or doing the daily house chores, but we definitely need to look beyond the obvious if we want to save time. Many of you know that I used to organize people professionally. I'd get constant calls from women asking me why they suddenly felt overwhelmed by the housework, despite work not changing and their kids being older. The reason was mostly because they'd gotten rid of the nanny who had been looking after the kids AND the housework. Often, they'd just need a part-time housekeeper to fill the gap and they'd be back on track. Laura points out that those little jobs we often multitask are actually taking up tons of valuable hours that we could be spending elsewhere. She says to set aside a time and, if it's not done in that time, it's probably not that important. We definitely underestimate the hours it takes to sort the home, but give yourself credit for doing that activity, whether you outsource it or not. Putting You In Control If something's not done, I feel like it's my problem. I know that I often put that on myself. I'm sure many of you can relate, but Laura says there's always a choice and I think that is so important to remember. Sometimes you are doing this to yourself and you can take back control. Balancing family, free time, and chores can be overwhelming. What I LOVE about Laura is that not only does she have great ideas for managing your time effectively, she's able to make me see that I can't do it all. I'm WORKING And best of all – that's ok! Looking Forward The next book from Laura is called "Off The Clock" and it comes out on May 29th. It's a time study about tracking time and how people look at their lives. How do people spend their time differently? Laura found that people who felt like they had a lot of time had done something different or memorable. They felt like they had more time because they were doing something with their time that they actually remembered. The conclusion was that when you do this, your time actually expands. I LOVE it! The date is already on my calendar to get it. To find out more about Laura Vanderkam, click here. Follow me on Facebook and on Instagram – I'm currently addicted to Instagram Stories! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/213

I have mentioned on the podcast many times before that there is one blog that I read every single day... it is Andrea Dekker's. There is so much great material on her blog andreadekker.com. Andrea has four children under the age of six and she explains how she manages all their very different requirements, and her own, with a simple "be prepared" mantra. She also shares with us some great advice on selling your unwanted items on Craigslist, something she does often with success. How We Both Got Started Both Andrea and I started out with very different blogs. For me, I remember I was going to be this "guru" to help when your kids had food allergies and other things. But then I realized that dealing with that and dealing with everything my kids needed me to do was just too much! That is when in 2012, I launched Organize365.com. Though for Andrea, it was a little different. Andrea explains on the podcast that she just fell into doing what she does. After finishing college, starting work, and getting married, she realized she hated her job. Her father gave her some great advice when he told her to find out what she enjoyed doing and figure out a way to get paid for doing it. In doing that, she would be successful even if she didn't make a lot of money. So, a job she really disliked ended up being the springboard to starting her own organizing business, which was essentially her dream job. This was back in 2006. She didn't even have internet in her own house. But eventually she began to write her own blog, and she took some work as a virtual assistant. One of many things I love about Andrea's blog is her level of consistency. She would post every day at 8am and, just like reading a newspaper, I would sit down to read her blog every morning. I even copied this routine when I started blogging. My posts went up at 8am because Andrea's posts did! Andrea is good at routine. She takes the normal, everyday tasks and makes them more efficient and functional. She explains during the episode that she doesn't have creative, cool things to share. She just focuses on functionality and frugal solutions. If It Doesn't Work, Change It I was delighted that Andrea was willing to share a couple tips for my Organize 365 listeners. And I can certainly relate to the first tip about constantly evaluating what works and what doesn't work. Take the kids' toys for example... if the toys no longer fit in their space, then something has to go. Don't continue to just accumulate without purging as you go along. I am a self-confessed consumer, but the kids' toys change as they get older. I find that spreading them out into different rooms, or making them responsible for their own toys in their own space, makes it less overwhelming for you to clean them up again afterwards. Making the house work for you and your children is key. Andrea makes her house work for her. It's almost like a preschool room... the kids can help themselves. I remember when my children were born, I kept the socks upstairs because that's where you keep socks, right? But we always put socks and shoes on in the family room. So when I moved the socks downstairs, it was like the heavens opened and the angels started singing because I didn't have to go searching for socks anymore. Make your house function for you and your family. It works until it doesn't work. And then when it doesn't work, change it. How To Sell On Craigslist The thing about purging and reorganizing is that you end up with a bunch of stuff that I tell you to load in the car, take to Goodwill, drop it all off, and move on. This is where Andrea gives us some great advice as she is so good at selling on Craigslist. On her website, she has some great articles on this topic where she goes into great detail about how to write the advertisement and what things are most important when selling via Craigslist. Click here to see her "Craigslist 101" posts. And she even has one on how she sold her house on Craigslist – click here to see it. She really is that good at this! Her best piece of advice is to be honest with yourself. Is it worth your time to take pictures, post the ad, respond to emails, and to sell the item? If not – donate it! If you are going to sell, make sure you take high-quality pictures and list the measurements. The more information you can give, the fewer emails you will get with questions about your item. Also with pricing, Andrea gives a great tip... Take a look at similar items in your area and price your item a little bit less. Even at just a couple dollars less, people will subconsciously be drawn to your item. This is where I am so different from Andrea. I have literally given things away that are worth hundreds of dollars just to have them out of the house. In fact, I did that with my daughter's guinea pigs. I gave them away and paid my daughter one hundred dollars before she changed her mind. I'm just not good at selling things. ;) - No guilt here if you too are in the survival phase of life and just want the clutter gone! Lighten Your Load Having been fully through the accumulation stage, (20s and 30s) I am working my way through survival (40-55). I am so pleased to direct those of you struggling with young children and mountains of toys over to Andrea's blog to see how she is thriving during the accumultaion years with 4 children under 6. In this week's blog post, I have lots of links to my favorite posts on Andrea's blog. If you want to see the crazy antics I am up to, follow me on Instagram and watch my daily Instagram Stories to see a peek into my life. View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/212

You are probably confused right now. Lisa Woodruff, muscles? Well, the muscles I'm talking about are your organizational muscles! Are you ready to build your organizational muscles? Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not very good at physical exertion at all. In fact, I think sweating is a sin! I prefer to exercise my mental and organizational skills. Really, I am pathetic when it comes to exercise. I can literally go days when my step counter on my phone reads less than a thousand. There was a time a few years ago when I was able to walk 10,000 steps, but I just don't have the time now. And I don't want to make the time to do it, but I am making an effort. My goal this year is 5,000 steps and so far I'm doing pretty good. Bear in mind, this is my whole exercise program. I'm just trying to move more. I'm not trying to lose weight, just maintain it. Organization is similar to exercise in that regard. You have to match your organizational goals to the organizational outcome you want. Only compete with yourself! Hitting A Roadblock A lot of you will hit a roadblock this week. Isn't it freaky how I know that. Well, here's what happens... Over the Christmas break, you had time off and decluttered like a mad woman. The first step to getting organized is to declutter so you can see what you have left to organize. You got rid of everything that didn't move. Even the dog and children were afraid to sit too still in your house! You followed my advice and bought the bookshelves and bins from Home Depot. You've taken down Christmas and your holiday decoration area looks amazing. You feel like a boss, you're on a roll. You go from room to room, decluttering, taking out the trash, making donations. It looks better, but it doesn't feel organized and you don't know what to do next. Maybe I haven't recorded a podcast for that particular room and you're stuck, but decided not to buy the 100 Day Home Organization Program. You're saving money and it's expensive. Maybe you'll buy it later. And you're right, it is a little expensive and it should be. It was designed by a professional organizer and it works! It's OK, you don't need to buy the 100 Day Home Organization Program. I'm going to tell you how to grow your organizational muscles on your own. I am going to show you step-by-step how to tackle two areas in your home, the master bathroom and your linen closet. Organizing The Master Bathroom In just 15 minutes a day, you can organize the bathroom that you use every day to get ready to the point you feel like I came in and did it for you. Day One - Take a look at your towels. Do you need all of them? Remove the ones you don't need. Wash the ones you need out on display and freshen them up. Then, you're done with towels. Day Two – Make-up. Get rid of old samples and colors you don't wear and perfume that gives you migraines. Consolidate them into one space. It might help to take a look at the blog I wrote about Organizing Make-Up. You could also add in some organizational tools like the Make-up Manager I use like this one on Amazon (affiliate link). Over the next few days, assess your nail polish, your jewelry, your underwear and socks (yes, I keep all of these in my bathroom). Then look around you at the walls, do you like what you see? Continue until you have organized every single cabinet, drawer, and shelf, and then do it again. This is how you get organized, by spending 15 minutes a day in the same space every single day until you can go into that space for two 15 minute sessions in a row and there is literally nothing to do. It takes repetitive action, but your master bathroom will be amazing. Organizing Your Linen Closet Back in 2006, it took me about 4 months to organize my laundry room. Every 2 or 3 days, I would spend half an hour trying different things until I was happy... new shelving, new cabinets, new countertops. I had a blast doing it. Nobody cared. No one goes in there, no one messed it up. I could do what I wanted. I would run the washer and dryer at the same time. It was like white noise. I couldn't hear the rest of the family. It was amazing! But in the podcast, I focus on the linen closet. First of all, you need to empty it all over the floor and check out the bulky items (towels, blankets, comforters). Be honest with yourself here as these take up space. Do you need so many? Why do you still have towels from the 1980's? It is a cycle... we buy new and store the old ones in the linen closet. It's the same with bedding, get rid of them. If you think you don't have this stuff, just wait until you empty everything onto the floor. You'll see that I'm right. I had four sets of 20 year-old flannel sheets that I loved as a child, but my children didn't want them on their beds! Get rid of old towels and donate others that don't match your color scheme anymore to a homeless shelter along with any old single sheets. Be ruthless, what's the worst that could happen? That is how you organize your linen closet. But if you're thinking, "Wait, wait. There's still more stuff in here." I know you'll figure it out. And if you don't know how to take the next step, then you need a professional organizer to guide you. The Beauty of the 100 Day Home Organization Program You can organize your house like we did in these two scenarios, going back in day after day. But, if like me, it takes you 4 months to organize your laundry room, you can see how long it would take to do your whole house this way. You will get the same result room by room, but with the 100 Day Home Organization Program we go through the entire house in 100 days, take a break, and then do it again. Each time, your whole house is more organized, not perfect, but better. But in addition to the 15 minute daily actionable tasks, the real beauty of the 100 Day Home Organization Program is that it comes with a lifetime membership. There are no renewal fees. Once you're in, you're in. Am I Too Late To Join? I launched the 100 Day Home Organization Program in December in order to capitalize on the momentum of January 1st. You're all fired up and ready to go as we hit the kitchen. Perhaps you didn't sign up because you just didn't have the money at the time. Or you had done the kitchen a couple of times already and didn't want to do it again. Or maybe you thought you could just do it on your own. Maybe now you're starting to realize how beneficial it would be to have a professional organizer, one that has organized 100's of homes, just to tell you what to do each day and you can go do it. Well, if like those that have emailed me asking when the 100 Day Home Organization Program opens again, you thought you'd missed out... surprise! I am opening the doors again this weekend only. If you join between now and Monday, you can start the program on January 22nd when everyone who started on the 1st is done with the kitchen and moving onto the master suite (bedroom, bathroom and closet). Don't try to go back to day one, jump in with everyone else in the master bedroom! You can join us mid-stream, not have to do your kitchen, and get both the Winter and Summer 2018 planners at no extra cost. To find out more and sign-up, just click here. I am SO excited to be able to offer you this opportunity and I hope you will join us as I know this program works. It looks like it's going to be a long winter. You're going to be inside a lot, so let's get organized while we're there. Join us! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/211

In 2018, I want you to start valuing and looking at your time differently. Who you spend your time with, what you spend you time on, and how you want to spend your time in the future. In today's podcast, I am answering the question, "How did I purposefully create the Organize 365 business and organized life that I am living right now?" It is true. I am fulfilled, satisfied, and debt free, but it hasn't always been like this. It has been a journey. For me, the change came when I hit 40. I think milestone birthdays are like a window of opportunity to think about how we spend our time and money, and to make shifts to propel us through the next decade. In this podcast, I share a few key transitions in my thought process, and how I spent my time and money in the last 6 years that really were the catalyst for this change. I shifted my focus from thinking about our income needs to how I wanted to spend my time. I focused on hiring help both at home and in my business. I expanded my thoughts beyond how to be a great professional organizer to how to change the organization industry. Finally, this past fall I reflected on all of these changes and created the... Organize 365 Mission, Vision & Values Mission: To inspire, motivate, and teach busy women to take back their home and paper with practical and doable organizing systems and programs that work. Vision: Through research, targeted surveys, and data analysis, Organize 365 will bring to light the organizational needs of the homeowner to shape and develop the discussion about the "stuff" in American homes through podcast conversation and book-thought leadership. As a trusted leader in home and paper organization, Organize 365 will be the "go-to" resource for busy women, future professional organizers and home-organizational brands, and the media. Organize 365 will help the homeowner finally get organized with home and paper organization courses, products that combine teaching and application of practical organization principles. Values: We value the power of positivity. Our words, mindset, and actions shape our reality. Organize 365 uses empowering words to shape personal change. We build community. In community, everyone can learn to be organized, action is easier and happens exponentially. Organize 365 believes organization is a learnable skill. We live life in abundance. Resources are not limited, but limitless. Through collaboration, Organize 365 connects the right people and resources for maximum benefit and sustainability. We believe in transformational freedom. As you let go of one thing, you are open to receiving the next. We strive to unlock your life's purpose through the process of decluttering, organizing, and increased productivity. I hope you have enjoyed learning a little about the roots of Organize 365! Ask yourself this... If I could do, be, and have anything in the world and I didn't have to worry about all the things that I'm worrying about, what would that look like? Follow me on Facebook and on Instagram – I'm currently addicted to Instagram Stories! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/210

Have you ever played Candy Crush? It is so ridiculously simple and mindless… but addictive. In this week's podcast episode, I compare organizing your house to playing this fun, addictive, and ultimately endless game of Candy Crush. It was around three summers ago that I played this game obsessively. I would find any excuse to play Candy Crush. I would even make extra time to play it, and play it for way too long trying to get through a level. Finally, I had to take it completely off my phone because I just have no will power. A couple of years later, I put it back on my phone and found I wasn't quite so addicted as I was the first time. A word of warning – if you have never played Candy Crush, don't take this podcast as permission to go and download it! When I first started playing it, I thought you could "win," that you could finish the game, but there are literally millions of levels. You can never win. I don't recommend wasting your time on it! What does Candy Crush have to do with home organization? As the new year approaches, we all start to set goals to get organized, lose weight, and put our finances in order, all at the same time. These are the top three New Year's resolutions that we all want to achieve. On January 1st, when people ask you what you're going to do, you say, "I'm going to lose 10 pounds, I'm going to get out of debt, and I'm going to get organized," because that is what everybody plans to do every single January! When it comes to home organization, at the end of the year you may say, "I'm going to get my house in order." What you mean is you're going to declutter, donate, sell, and basically get rid of things. That's what you mean by getting organized in the last week of the year. That's like the first 20 levels of Candy Crush. You go in, you play it, you go to the next level. Or, when organizing your home, you go in the room, you fill a trash bag, you take it out to the car, or you donate it and you continue like this… donating, trash, donating, trash. You feel good and you're also getting a bit of exercise while doing it! Another example – you're clearing the house, taking down decorations, and you feel like you're doing a great job, then suddenly you return to a room you have already done, checking for any other clutter, and you get a little stuck. You start to look for more help to make decisions about what you need or don't need. It's not as easy to get through the room. This is like Candy Crush – often they don't let you through the level on the first shot so you have to play it again until you finally get through it. What happens when you get stuck? Let's say you make great progress until you realize there are no more "quick wins." So where do we go from there? Maybe you buy some little containers and organize some drawers, maybe tweaking and maintaining things you've done before. By about the middle of January, there is still 80% that has not been organized successfully and you don't know where to start to resolving this. You wonder if there are organizers you can buy. This usually doesn't work, it costs a lot of money, and there aren't organizers you can buy for the space you need to organize... don't you hate that? This is because 99% of organization has nothing to do with the cute containers. It's like you are stuck on Candy Crush level 56 and you're asking yourself, what do I have to do to get through this level?! There are two things you can do when playing Candy Crush when you get stuck: Pay for help You can pay for more moves when you run out of your lives, plus other pay options. Head online – I go to YouTube Just search for "how to beat level 57 in Candy Crush" and watch a video of some genius who knows how to beat that level. Either you go spend the time watching someone who knows how to do it or you pay the money to take you to the next level. Guess what, it's the same with organizing. You start to get wins and you are flying through your house. You will want to spend more time organizing your house because you are having such success. Equally, when you get frustrated and your laundry room is driving you bananas, you are going to start figuring out how to beat that laundry room. Someone has to win the battle and you want it to be you. You get so determined that once it is complete, you have a sense of satisfaction and can give yourself permission to go and do something else with your time. When you're in the middle of January and you're going to tackle the front hall closet or the laundry room, for example, just like in Candy Crush, you have two choices: Go online You can go online and find many resources and people that can help you. For example, on Pinterest or YouTube, you can see spaces that have been organized by others and watch how they do it. Hire help You can get a professional organizer or you could do my 100 Day Home Organization Program. How I can help you? To help you get organized, I have two things to offer you that I am so excited about. The Sunday Basket® Podcast I'm so excited to let you know that on Sunday, December 31st, I'm launching the Sunday Basket® Podcast. It is available now on iTunes. Please go check it out and subscribe. Starting tomorrow, on the Organize 365 podcast I will be posting a podcast to listen to EVERY DAY through December 31st. I am calling this the Organize 365 BINGE. These are previous podcasts that I have pulled out and put in the exact order I would have you listen to them if you were brand new to Organize 365. They will help you with the mental mindset you are going to need going forward. So whether you are new to Organize 365 (welcome!) or you are a regular, take a moment to subscribe, listen, and share this podcast with your friends and family. Help lighten the load for everyone! Then from December 31st to January 7th, I will have 8 brand new episodes on the SundayBasket® Podcast. You have to subscribe to The Sunday Basket® Podcast, though, so be sure to do that so you get my daily tips and motivation! The 100 Day Home Organization Program Registration to my 100 Day Home Organization Program is now open – click here to join. The program gives you 100 actionable, 15 minute a day activities starting on Monday, January 1st. Every day by email, you will receive a 15-minute activity with a short video, an actionable step, and any links to material that I talk about in the email or video. It is designed to systematically organize your entire house in 100 days. Don't worry, it comes with a lifetime membership so you don't have to commit to do all 100 days IN 100 days. You can skip days and go back to them and do this over and over again. We do the program 3 times a year. Also with the 100 Day Home Organization Program, you get my amazing planner! On January 1st, I will go live in the private Facebook Group and take you through the first part of this planner to set your goals and productivity. I also do a weekly live Q&A in the group which I also post online. So even if you aren't on Facebook, you won't miss out. This is the game changer from waking up on January 1st, 2018 saying, "I'm going to lose some weight, get out of debt, and get organized" to waking up on January 1st, 2019 saying, "I got organized." My goal is to help increase your productivity to allow you to do whatever you were uniquely created to do. We as women are being taken out by the everyday and this is stopping us from being the unique individuals we are meant to be. I really want to be your coach, motivate you, and help you reduce the time spent on everyday tasks, to become more organized, purposeful, and productive through 2018. If you would like to join the 100 Day Home Organization Program, just click here. I hope to see you on the inside! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/208

On the podcast this week, I ask you the question – who is in your top five? Let me explain! A few years ago, a cell phone company had a benefit for their customers where you could select the top five people that you talk to the most on the phone and those calls would be free. They would run advertisements where they talked about you having a "top five." My husband, Greg, and I used to find the whole "top five" thing amusing, and I recall it was often the source of jokes with comedians! Then I heard a quote and it really had an impact on me. "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." by the late Jim Rohn. You're the average of the five people that you spend the most time with in terms of income, positivity, taking action, etc. The five people you spend the most time with are who you'll be the most like. I remember when I first heard this quote, it really caused me to think about who the five people are that I spend the most time with. At the time, I was thinking how true the quote was. My income was the average of the five people I spent the most time with. My gossip level was the average of the five people I spent the most time with! (I don't gossip anymore, but I used to gossip a lot!). I changed how I spend my time It was a conscious decision that I made to change how I spend my time. Hearing that quote over and over again and thinking, well, who do I want to be like? What income do I want to have? What kind of free time do I want to have? How do I want to spend my free time? What do I want to talk about in conversations? I don't listen to the news anymore, but at the time I was watching CNBC every day and I was freaking about the stock market… our money… every day. I lived in a very moment-to-moment life. Now I live a much more peaceful, purposeful, proactive, cultivated life. I have cultivated the life that I am living. I let the media and the people in that I want and I don't let in the rest. My life is not directed based on what comes across my desk or comes across my TV. Even in my free time, I am choosing not to be marketed to through commercials, and I'm choosing not to get my news fed to me through a regular network news program. Who are your five top people? Now when you hear this, you may think about the five people you spend the most time with. They may all be under three feet tall! You're not going to change that. You're not going to change your spouse, your kids, your parents, your parish, your church, your whatever. The people you spend the most time with are somewhat static and somewhat flexible. So, who you spend the most physical time with may not be as easy to change as who you spend your intellectual time with. Ask yourself, who do I want to learn from? Who do I want to be like? If I could hang out with them tomorrow, and we lived in the same city, who would I hang out with? I changed my top 5 through podcasts. I picked two or three podcasters I really liked at the time and I listened to every one of their episodes. And I would sometimes listen to their episodes over and over again so I would mentally be with them all the time. When I find someone I like, I listen to their podcasts and (virtually) I become their "best friend" and get to know a lot about them. You probably know a lot about me. You may listen to me every day. You may be interacting with me in social media. I like to think that I might be one of the top five people that you spend the most time with! Great characteristics of your top five people I want you to think about the average of the five people you spend the most time with, and who are the five people you most want to spend 2018 with? Listen to the podcast to hear about four characteristics of people that I think would be most helpful for you to have in your top five going forward in 2018. Change your mindset A year from now at the end of 2018, what do you want your life to look like? Who do you want to be associating with? How much money do you want to be making? Who are those people that are living the life you want to be living 12 months from now? Your top five don't have to be the physical people you see every day. So really, consciously, think about who is going to be in your top five going into 2018. Then follow me on Facebook or on Instagram. I would love to be in your top 5 in 2018... and beyond! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/207

It's the beginning of December, the time of year when we reflect back on the past 11 months. We set goals to accomplish the things we said we were going to get done this year before the clock strikes midnight on December 31st. This is a podcast that has been brewing in my mind for a while. I've often said "progress over perfection" and "done is better than perfect." But perfection is a good thing, not a bad thing, right? Should we strive for perfection? I don't think perfection is something to be idolized. I'm very goal orientated but I'm not a perfectionist, although I have lots of goals that I want to accomplish. I first realized I wasn't a perfectionist in 8th Grade. I couldn't get to that ideal of straight A's. I always had a floating C on my report card. I remember failing a test because I wasn't getting the information clearly. I was seeing it differently. Later, I found out I had dyslexia which made a lot of sense! We all see the world in a different way. There is no one exactly like you. When we strive for perfection, what is the outside marker that deems we are doing a good job? Who is the judge of what perfection is? Perfect to one person may not be perfect to another. I want to change our vocabulary from perfectionism to excellence I'm definitely a woman of excellence. I try to be excellent in everything I do, but I don't strive for perfection. The definition of perfection is "the condition, state or quality of being free or as free as possible of all flaws or defects" or "the action or process of improving something until it is faultless or as faultless as possible." The definition of excellence is "the quality of being outstanding or extremely good" and "an outstanding feature or quality." They sound pretty similar and, in some cases, the words can be used interchangeably. The difference is the intent behind the words and the way they make you feel. When you are going for the perfect room, the perfect picture, the perfect goal weight, you are fixated on what the outcome is going to look like. Is it your level of perfect or someone else's level of perfect? Expectations of others In the past, when I've thought I could get something perfect, the problem was that it never was. My husband has perfectionistic tendencies. When we were newly married and I would paint a room or complete an organizing project, my husband would come in, inspect it, and find the flaws... which I can tell you, I was not very happy about! I'm a good enough painter. I saved us a lot of money painting the rooms. They're not perfect, but they're beautiful. I did the best that I could with the resources I had and I finished the job. I did it with excellence. But when I tried to meet the expectations of other people, I felt judged. Am I ever going to be good enough? When you strive for perfection, the definition alone tells you "the condition, state or quality of being free or as free as possible of all flaws or defects." Free of all flaws and defects? Are you kidding? We're in a fallen world. We can't be free of flaws because we're human. Excellence IS achievable I am so much happier now that I'm striving for excellence. But I was 30 years old before I decided to be a woman of excellence. For example, I spent years watching my best friend do everything... parenting, being hospitable, and being a friend... with excellence. One day, I just started doing what she did. I used to spend a lot of time bemoaning the fact that I had chores to do, or waiting until the chores filled up a block of time, or resenting that I had to do the chores. Now, if I'm walking by and I see something that needs doing... laundry to put away, something to pick up... I do it right away. I've become a person of action and excellence. How does this relate to you? When you are looking to get your house organized or become a more productive person, there is a tendency for us to dream about what it's going to be like when everything is perfectly organized. It's not going to happen. I want to change your mindset here. If you're striving for perfection, your days are going to end in frustration and defeat. You are not going to get there. The thing I found out when striving for excellence is that "done is better than perfect." Excellence in action So, this is how excellence plays out for me. Everyday, I set out to do one to three big tasks, things I want to knock off my to-do list. Often, I've done most of them by noon and I add more. And everyday I am amazed at what I get done, but I don't set myself up for failure trying to be perfect at things. Excellence is taking the next step. It's not about having a perfect outcome. It's just looking at the next step that needs to be done, taking the action, then figuring out what the next step is. There's none of the inner dialogue. Whenever I am trying to do something to be perfect, I spend so much time thinking about it, talking to myself about it, and preparing to do it instead of just doing it. When I act as a person of excellence, I just want to have this house well-run and everyone have what they need. How do you feel about excellence? There's no real action to take, but I just want you to start thinking about the different feelings you have when acting in a perfect way or acting in excellence. How much time do you spend internally dialoguing with yourself over your own expectations? How your house looks How organized different spaces are How perfectly you do something How much of your time is wasted on the thinking and not the doing Sometimes in the doing, in the action, the perfect answer will come to you. A more excellent way will be revealed. If you have a couple of things on your list that you want to get done in the morning, just go ahead and attack those things with excellence, doing the next thing you know how to do. You will get so much more done than if you try to do one thing perfectly everyday. I would love to hear your feedback on this. You can talk to me on Facebook or on Instagram (I'm having lots of fun on Instagram Stories right now!) View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/206