Organize 365 Podcast

I have been hedging my affinity for Goodwill due to the backlash in public sentiment. My goal is to help you declutter your house, not debate current news events. However, when I received an email from the Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities agency asking to help spread the word about the goodwill that Goodwill was doing in our community, I was excited to jump in. In today's podcast, I go more in depth about my affinity for Goodwill over the last 20 years and how I have experienced excellent service and amazing opportunities in my community for the disabled because of the opportunities Goodwill provides. By using the voucher in today's post, the value of your Goodwill donation will NOT be sold. It will be given as a CREDIT to the less fortunate in our community to use as money in the Goodwill shops. It has been my experience that Goodwill lives up to their mission, "Goodwill Easter Seals of Miami Valley and Ohio Valley Goodwill Industries provide vocational training to people with developmental disabilities. Goodwill's core mission is to empower people with disabilities and other needs to achieve independence and to enhance their lives. The local Goodwill organizations are a part of the world's largest and most successful network providing employment and training services for people with disabilities and other barriers to employment." No matter where you donate, giving the items in your home which have become clutter to others in need is always a blessing! View the post and voucher link here: http://organize365.com/spring-cleaning-donations-goodwill-vouchers-people-butler-county/

This week, you will turn your clocks forward and lose an hour. Oh, how I hate to lose time! However, the changing of the clocks reminds me to do a few other semi-annual maintenance tasks! Here are 12 things to do When you change the clocks this weekend.

I LOVE to sort paper! But I know even the strongest man will break out in a cold sweat at the thought of sorting a mountain of paperwork. This week in the podcast, I am walking you through how I think about paper and where it all goes. I don't even think it is the sorting as much as the KEEP pile that will drive you bananas. I keep paper in 3 places: The Sunday Basket Binders Files/Or scanned You can see pictures of the process and download a printable over on the blog post, but if you want to understand how I decide if a paper is a basket, binder, or file paper, you'll want to listen to the podcast.

The days I can get both kids to school ALL day and actually be ABLE to work are a mini miracle. After spending years and years wishing .... there were no snow days.... children didn't get sick.... my home didn't need maintenance... unexpected tasks wouldn't pop up... I gave in and realized that the only thing I can control is ME. So I set out to streamline, systematize, and proactively take care of anything I needed to do for the week... in advance. Did you know that for every hour you spend planning, 3-4 hours are saved from redundancy, waiting for information, and not being prepared. I don't know about you, but I'll take that trade any day! In the podcast, I share a few more productivity stats and tricks. I have set aside my Sundays as the day that I get done everything I possibly can. Obviously that entails doing the Sunday Basket, but here are 10 more tasks I do each Sunday that save me HOURS and HOURS each week.

Today is all about YOU. Why do we save what we save, and how can we make the decision to get rid of it? In this podcast I am sharing the 10 items I have help on to for 35-15 years. How I acquired the item, what it means to me and why it is time to let it go.

This week's podcast and post is week 2 of a 3 week series dealing with different types of MEMORIES. This week is all about what you save when a loved one passes... a spouse, a parent, or a child. Tough stuff. No one is ready. And the decisions sometimes need to be made quickly. The podcast is full of lots of details that get lost in a blog post. Losing a parent is never easy. Any items that are left in your parents' house not only have meaning because your parents used them, but they are from your childhood as well. So I'm not going to lie, I filled a 27 foot U-Haul full of stuff and brought it back to my house after my father passed away. View the whole post here: http://organize365.com/what-to-save-when-a-loved-one-passes/

For years I just "organized" my piles in cuter containers, better systems and a larger house. But organization is not about containers or beautiful systems. It is about keeping what you want and love so you can enjoy those items now and in the future. So today I want to talk about the items you are saving for your kids. Specifically - kids artwork, clothing, school papers, old toys, pictures, cards, books, old sporting equipment, etc. 1. What do THEY want? The first question you need to ask is what does your child want to keep? So often I and other mothers save everything "for our kids". But what I realized is I was having trouble letting go. Letting go of memories, stages of life and opportunities to do more in their short years at home. At first we save ALL their clothes in case we have another child. But when no more children come, we just say we are saving the clothes for grandchildren. REALLY?! I DID like it when I had some of my baby clothes to reminisce with my mom about when I had my children. But none of them fit. The stains you can't see now - we glaring when I looked at those clothes 30 years later. My kids are pretty good at getting rid of things when they are done with them. WE put them in the basement! :) So really ask your kids - starting at the age of 4 - what THEY want to keep. 2. What do YOU want? Honestly your kids do NOT want every. single. spelling test they ever did. But I know a mom who keeps them all. Her child's handwriting is so precious to her. That is TOTALLY FINE. Just know you are saving the for YOU not them. Think about it this way. What if your mom showed up today with 18 boxes of every single school paper you ever did? Nostalgic? Would you like to see them? Sure of course! For a few hours. Would you want those 18 boxes in your basement? How about your baby clothes? 5 large tubs full? Every single toy you played with? 3. WHEN do you each want it? I'm not totally clueless. I know your storage room is accumulating boxes of things your kids DO want to keep. And those kids want to keep things at YOUR house long after they leave. It's all about making decisions. While making a scrapbook of pictures, a binder of school papers and a baby blanket {more below} all take TIME - and lots of it. They are a way to: Process through the piles. Pick the best. Experience the memories together. Enjoy a NEW creation. Empty out your storage room without emptying out your heart. I have explained in great detail how to make photo albums and save your kid's school papers in binders. Today let's tackle baby clothes. Head on over to the blog post to see how I turned our kid's baby clothes into blankets.

1. Collecting tax documents. Collecting, organizing and preparing tax documentation is overwhelming. I think it is because the information you need comes to you in a trickle through the mail, your email inbox and your own receipts - little by little - every day for weeks like Chinese water torture. So I have come up with a few ways to alleviate my anxiety and take the torture out of tax preparation. Have a file, box or basket to put ALL incoming tax information. Make a master list AFTER you file your taxes this year of the documents you needed to find. Above is a picture of my list. Set aside a 3-4 hour chunk of time to organize and prepare your taxes in one sitting. I actually look forward to this day. :) 2. Purging all my files & creating a color coded filing system. After I file our taxes in early February I purge our filing cabinet. The first time I really did this it took days and I was able to get rid of 80% of what I had. Download my FREE Printable - To Shred or Not to Shred So I thought and thought and came up with this simpler, yet still cool, system. I already had colored hanging files {which I LOVE!!} and I assigned each category in my filing cabinet a color. Then I purged each file as I put the contents in the new colored file. 3. Systematizing my home based business income & expenses for 2016. Tax time has been a breeze the past few years because I have kept up with my business taxes each month. Having been in business for myself for over 20 years, I know how hard it is to keep everything organized. This year I disciplined myself to do my finances in my business all by myself DAILY! Each month I would reconcile and do my tax prep on the 1st of the month. I actually started to look forward to it because I have created a checklist and form to fill out each month so I didn't miss any expenses. Each month I knew how much I actually made. I was able to continually refine my process and reduce my expenses. This year I had my graphic designer make my pages in to adorable printables and they are available in my ETSY shop both as a digital download or printed with divider tabs in a DUO Binder. Click here to read the full post, download the printable and enter the giveaway!

My goal as a professional organizer is to help people get rid of the stuff they don't want so they can breathe and enjoy the stuff they choose to keep. Honestly, the quickest and easiest way to do this has been to donate everything that can be donated at Goodwill and trash the rest. However, as I have matured as an organizer and grown my Cincinnati team, I have started to see how the items you may no longer want or need will fit a need somewhere else in the community. As our team had moved in to organizing and cleaning out family homes for sale it has become more apparent that we should and could be sharing these treasures for good. So, this fall our team set to work and researched who really wanted and needed the stuff our clients no longer used. I am so sad I had not taken the time to do this earlier. :( The items you and I no longer like or need -really do fit a need someone else in the community has. This list is specific for Cincinnati, but it will get you thinking outside of the box no matter where you live. This list will continue to be updated and refined. Feel free to leave a comment or contact me with more current information and additional donation locations I have not found. Click here to read the full post.

Congratulations!! You made the decision to GET organized. There is just one problem... where do you start? In today's podcast you will learn all about HOW to start, WHERE to start and be encouraged to just START! Check out the complete post and links here: http://organize365.com/ask-the-organizer-where-do-i-start-organizing/