Nancy Organizes!

Oahu Dress Donation Drive: 2/20 & 2/27

2010-02-20T09:14:00.000-08:00

Here's your inspiration to tackle your closet and do a massive clean-out!

Shasa Emporium in Kahala Mall is hosting a dress drive to benefit The Bella Project.
Donate to The Bella Project and get 15% off at Shasa Emporium!

DATE: Saturday, February 20 & 27
TIME: 11am - 3pm
LOCATION: Shasa Emporium at Kahala Mall

Bring in your new or virtually new cocktail dresses, formal gowns, bridesmaid dresses, shoes, accessories, and unopened make-up or make a monetary donation of $10+ to The Bella Project and receive a 15% off coupon towards your entire purchase at Shasa!

For more information on donating to The Bella Project, check out their website at www.thebellaprojecthawaii.org

Great Organizing Tips from OnlineOrganizing.com

2010-02-19T08:48:00.000-08:00

Free monthly "Get Organized" newsletter -- filled with tips on getting your life in order. Sign up today at OnlineOrganizing.com!

Nonprofit Candidate Sought for Office Organizing Makeover

2010-01-08T20:02:00.000-08:00

Hawaii Association of Professional Organizers provides its members opportunities for professional growth, education, networking, and support while promoting public awareness of the organizing industry.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 5, 2010

CONTACT: Ellyn Sollars, Co-chair 808-638-0613
Email: ellyn@declutter2design.com
OR Karen Simon, Co-chair 808-943-2053
Email: karen@yourpctech.com

NONPROFIT CANDIDATE SOUGHT FOR OFFICE MAKEOVER
Honolulu, HI --January is National Get Organized MonthSM, and the members of Hawaii Association of Professional Organizers (HAPO, Inc.) want to celebrate and help the community by giving an office makeover to a nonprofit/charity organization in their second annual event!

In January, 2010, HAPO will choose a non-profit organization, send a team of professional organizers to their office, create an organizing plan and spend one day working with staff to give a fantastic makeover!

Participating partners who will donate organizing products and supplies include: FranklinCovey, the global leader in effectiveness training, productivity tools, and assessment services (http://www.franklincovey.com/); Esselte Corporation, the world's leading office supplies manufacturer with brands such as Oxford and Pendaflex (http://www.esselte.com/); 1-800-Got-Junk?, the world’s largest junk removal service (http://www.1800gotjunk.com/).

Interested nonprofit candidates may request an application at http://www.hapoonline.org/ where donors too, can learn more about how to participate. For more information, email info@hapoonline.org. The deadline for completed applications is January 25, 2010.

Get Organized MonthSM, sponsored by the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), is a national industry-wide event aimed at raising awareness of the benefits of getting organized and hiring a professional organizer. “Getting organized is one of the top New Year’s resolutions people make,” said NAPO President Laura Leist.

Whether an individual, business, or organization, everyone can benefit from the increased order, decreased stress, and greater effectiveness that results from getting organized and working with professional organizers.

Take Action: This holiday season, I will get off junk mail lists to save paper, trees, and our climate

2009-12-07T16:49:00.001-08:00

Take Action: This holiday season, I will get off junk mail lists to save paper, trees, and our climate

Posted using ShareThis

VIDEO #3: Dr. Steve Lets Go Of Some "Old Wisdom"

2009-09-14T22:12:00.000-07:00

Do you have some "old wisdom" or other items that you'd really like to get rid of but have not yet because of the emotions tied to the objects?

Please share your story by posting a comment on the blog...it's easy to do so by simply clicking on the "comments" button at the bottom of this post.

Go ahead, you can even post it anonymously if you'd rather not provide your name!

Let's get organized together!

Nancy Organizes! with Dr. Steve: Reflections on the 1st Session (Video #1)

2009-09-06T01:16:00.000-07:00

Product of the Week: Teacher's Big Plan Book

2009-08-28T03:29:00.000-07:00

A Shout Out To All the Teachers, Educating Tomorrow's Leaders!

Websites To Help You Plan, Remember, and Manage Time

2009-08-25T02:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.evernote.com/ Evernote is a web service and software application that allows users to collect notes and information. It supports touch and tablet screens with handwriting recognition

http://www.rememberthemilk.com/ Remember The Milk (RTM) is a task-and time-management web application. It allows users to manage tasks from any computer as well as offline. Integrates with various applications including iGoogle, Google Calendar, Twitter, Blackberry, and iPhone.

http://www.toggl.com/ Time management you enjoy: Helps you see how you really spend your day and makes every second count.

Fascinating New TV Show on "Hoarding"

2009-08-22T20:42:00.000-07:00

Learn about it in my Nancy Organizes! newsletter

How to Prepare for the Back-to-School Influx

2009-08-22T00:35:00.000-07:00

If you have kids, you know how many papers, artwork items, and other things they bring home from school every day. Take this opportunity at the start of the school year to plan accordingly for the influx of school-related items in the coming months.

Get each child a plastic storage box with a top or create a large file for them in the kitchen or home office desk. (If you go for the file option, legal-sized folders are best as some art projects are larger than 8.5 x 11.) Have your children clean out their backpacks every couple days (every week at the absolute most). Impress upon them that they should keep only those things which are very special (or for the older kids, what may be needed for future study, as in comprehensive final exams) and discard the rest. The special "keepers" go in the box or file.

At the beginning of each month, go through the file or box with each child. Is there anything that can be discarded? If so, move it on out!

At the end of the school year, you can go through the box/file together again and at that time, more purging should take place. Time tends to clarify our feelings as to what really qualifies as a special "keeper."

Product of the Week: Organize Now!

2009-08-21T00:04:00.000-07:00

Organize Now! A Week By Week Guide To Simplify Your Space And Your Life

Organize During Your "Best Hour"

2009-08-14T15:51:00.000-07:00

Are you an early bird?

Or do you detest the mornings and prefer the night time?

Is your highest productivity usually in the afternoon?

Whatever it is, it's a great idea to try to schedule your organizing project during your "best hour." I always tell my clients, "I'm my best 'me' in the morning" so I try to schedule my appointments in the morning or early afternoon as that's when I know I will be the most productive.

When planning to attack an organizing project, consider your personal "best hour" and take on the project during that time. Productivity prevails when we are working during our own peak hours.

And what's peak for you may not be peak for others in your household, so if you're working on a joint project, keep that in mind!

Do You Facebook?

2009-08-11T13:15:00.000-07:00

Nancy Organizes! on Facebook

"Pre-Organize" Before You Buy Organizing Supplies

2009-08-11T00:11:00.000-07:00

In these economic times (and indeed, ANY time we desire to be choosy about how we spend our money), we may not have a lot of extra money to spend on organizing supplies. The good news is you often notice when you get into an organizing project, you likely have a lot of items around your home or office you can re-purpose for use in your organizing.

For example, a Tupperware container with a missing lid becomes a perfect paperclip holder for your office supplies drawer, a coffee mug serves as a repository for all your pens or pencils, ice cube trays separate earrings and bracelets beautifully. You get the idea.

With many clients, I have found that it takes a couple of sessions to really understand WHAT sort of containers or supplies you will need. This is because it’s only after a couple of sessions that the client has a better sense of WHAT they plan to keep.

Another article which speaks eloquently on the subject is available on Wise Bread: Personal Finance and Frugal Living Forums: http://www.wisebread.com/stuff-will-never-make-you-organized

33 Simple Ways To Organize Your Life!

2009-08-08T22:57:00.000-07:00

Organizing A Small Space In 15 Minutes

2009-08-08T17:27:00.000-07:00

As a professional organizer, I know firsthand that being creative with the use of your space is essential in any organizing project. Here in Hawaii, many of us don’t have a lot of room and we need to really maximize the space we have.

In a limited space environment, the primary space (and mood) killer is clutter. Clutter eats up any semblance of breadth and airiness in a small area. A small space is always going to feel tiny when there’s clutter…when it’s organized, however, it will feel “quaint” and “cozy.”

We all have reasons (read: excuses) for avoiding beginning an organizing project.

We don’t know where to start
It’s all too overwhelming
We’ll never finish…

What MATTERS is that we start! It doesn’t matter where, it doesn’t matter how, it just matters that you set your timer for 15 minutes every day (preferably the same time every day so it becomes habit-forming), and that for those sacred 15 minutes, you do nothing but address your organizing project. I refer to those minutes as sacred, because they ARE!

This means

No answering the phone
No checking our e-mail
No getting distracted by having the TV on
This is pure devotion to the task at hand

As it turns out, you may end up getting inspired and spending more time on the daily task. Consider that a BONUS. The important thing is that you start with the "Daily 15" and even in a week's time, you're going to see a tremendous difference.

No matter how busy we are, we ALL have 15 minutes. One week later, you’ll have done one hour and forty five minutes, one month later you’ll have done 7 hours!

Rome, indeed, was not built in a day, nor will you're home or office space be organized in that amount of time.

But chip away at it, and pretty soon your small (or big!) space will start to exude a charm you forgot existed!

What You Learn When You Live In A Laundry Room

2009-08-08T17:21:00.000-07:00

I am the youngest of nine kids. As you might imagine, you need a lot of space to accommodate that many people…so for the first thirteen years of my life, my bedroom was the laundry room. For the first five of those years, my bed was a crib.

I never remember feeling bad about the situation. In fact, when I ended up moving upstairs in the summer before I went to high school, I remember coming down to sleep in the laundry room for about two weeks after the move as I was having a hard time adjusting to all that space and freedom.

To this day, there is something particularly calming about the sound of clothes turning in the dryer…that’s the sound I fell asleep to night after night.

Looking back on that experience, one thing I learned from my parents is that you have to work with what you have…if you don’t have “space,” be creative with the space you do have.

When my brother’s family of six came from the Mainland to visit last winter, I wasn’t sure where we were going to fit everyone in my one bedroom apartment. Soon my lanai was converted into a bedroom by putting a blow-up bed out there and two of my nephews went “camping” on the lanai. To this day the lanai is referred to as “Joseph and Seth’s Room.”

In my next entry, we look at HOW to approach organizing a "small space". Stay tuned!

Oh yes, and that laundry room, small though it may have been, it was kept very tidy and it was indeed one of the coziest and delightful bedrooms I’ve ever had!