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At
the stroke of midnight, Jan. 1, 2006, you
were absolutely resolute about organizing
your home.
Perhaps it was the champagne. Maybe those
small animals nesting in your garage
prompted you to action. And then there's the
cat. You've heard the meows, but you haven't
seen him since Christmas. Unfortunately,
whatever motivated you to get your house in
order wound up in the pile you planned to
clear. You just need is a little timely
hand-holding and a few bright ideas. Coming
up with the courage is still your job. So
hold out your hand and consider these ideas
from organizational extroverts who want to
help get the orderly you out of the closet
-- so you can clean it and the rest of your
home. 1. Optimize Your Timing To Organize.
It's a good time to organize now. You are
rained in, snowed in or just plain fed up
with winter's mush, slush and freeze and
you've pretty much had it with guests
trudging through your home. After spending
most of the month clearing holiday litter,
you've already got a head start. It's not
surprising organizing is a top New Year's
resolution. It's also no coincidence that
the National Association of Professional
Organizers designated January as Get
Organized Month. That's makes it a good time
to easily find organizational help, hints,
tips and lists as organizers market their
services and the media gives you the scoop.
2. Realize Your Limitations. Your home
wasn't cluttered in a day. Understand
cleaning, removing the clutter from and
organizing a 1,500 square foot storage bin
is going to take more time than it took you
to come up with a promise to clean house. 3.
De-emphasize Excuses. The popular refrain,
"I might need it someday," is
little more than an excuse to put off until
tomorrow getting rid of something you won't
use today or anytime soon, especially if you
haven't used it in six months or more.
Likewise, "It was expensive and I can't
stand to see it go to waste," is
nothing but denial. The item is already
being wasted if you aren't using it.
"It was a gift." So, re-gift it.
The gift giver may have already done that to
you. 4. Miniaturize Tasks. Start small. Real
small. Sign up with "FlyLady"
Marla Cilley and let her tell you what to
do. Daily Missions assign you to a small
task each day in one of a half dozen
"Home Zones." "These missions
will take you to places you may have never
been before," she says.
The not-so-bold missions are also posted
online on the Flight Plan page where small
Home Zone tasks are tackled individually to
prevent you from becoming overwhelmed by the
greater task at hand. Last week, for
example, your mission was to grab an old
toothbrush and scrub away the gunk that
gathers around the bathroom faucets -- a
five-minute chore. 5. Systemize Tasks.
Instead of a hodgepodge, willy-nilly system
of bins and baskets and shelves and racks
that don't mesh, consider one sane,
organized, built-in or matching storage
system. Do-it-yourself or hire out. The
once-and-for-all proposition can be used to
organize everything in a given room (say,
garage or office), closet, nook or cranny.
"At first it might seem like you're
fighting a losing battle, trying to get your
garage organized, but by following some
simple suggestions and using some of today's
best storage tools, you can transform a
garage from a disorganized storage shed into
a fully functioning room in a matter of
days," says the guy who wrote the book
on garage-guilt, Bill West, author of
"Your Garagenous Zone: The Complete
Garage Organizer Guide" and a partner
website, Garagez.com. 6. Deputize Your
Family. Delegate. Send the kids to their
room and Pop to the garage as you take on
the kitchen. Give specific instructions to
your troops. Tell the kids to pick up their
clothes and put them in the hamper or make
their beds. Tell Pop to hang the tools and
sort the trash from the recyclables. You get
to choose your own kitchen job. 7. Optimize
Your Efforts. During hard-core efforts to
organize, take a few minutes every hour to
reward yourself while taking stock of the
task at hand. Over a cup of joe, make a list
of what's yet to be done, prioritize it,
spend a few minutes on breathing exercises,
hug the babies, kiss your wife and get back
to work with renewed spirit, says Cilley.
The exercise prevents headless-chicken
behavior by keeping a plan at hand. 8.
Capitalize On Your Efforts. Teaching is one
of the best ways to remember what you've
learned. Consider becoming a professional
organizer. Online Organizing offers a host
of learning tools that can help you
determine your organizing
"personality" and if you have what
it takes to be a pro. It'll also give you a
lot of insight on your organizational pluses
and minuses and what you'll need to know to
make a living telling others how to clean up
their act. Even if you don't find a career,
you will find a job -- or three -- around
your home.
9. Capitalize On Your Junk. Among the
growing number of eBay Trading Assistants
(TAs), there's probably one who can take at
least some of that stuff off your hands and
give you some cash for doing so. TAs are
sort of like online consignment shops --
inlets instead of outlets. They will help
you overcome your fears of selling online or
the dread of garage sales and sell that
stuff you don't want to "waste."
Plug in your ZIP code, find TAs in your
neighborhood, call for a pick up or drop off
your unwanted treasures. You may have to pay
the TA a commission as high as 50 percent of
the sales price, but whatever cash you net
is more than you are getting for storing
stuff you don't need. Cash in hand also
takes up a whole lot less space. Don't
expect to unload junk on TAs. They've been
around the trading block a few times and
they know what will sell and what won't. 10.
Hire An Organizer. Bite the bullet, accept
that you'll never get the job done on your
own and get some help. Visit the National
Association of Professional Organizers for
help from a service industry developed to
help home owners and others organize. The
association swears by the habit because, it
says, organization breeds efficiency.
Efficiency gives you more control over your
surroundings and your life. Control allows
you to get more done in less time. As you
know, time is money. It's a theory worth
considering.
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