What is Keeping You From Your Goals?

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I have been in an academic competition this week. I was required to consider approximately 40 questions and have a response. One of them in particular got my wheels turning because it connected so well with the clients that I help. The question? "What is your definition of success and give a recipe for it."

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Some people would say that success is making a lot of money, having a good job or driving a fancy car. I don't think success is linked to material things at all. In fact, a lot of people have great jobs and drive fancy cars and even make a lot of money but they are not successful.

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Success is when you achieve the measurable goal that you set for yourself.

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I say "measurable" because if you have some generic goal, such as "I want to earn a lot of money", you will never really know when you get there. If you say, "I want to be earning $100,000 per year or more by the end of next year", you can tell on December 31, 2012 if you are indeed earning $100,000. You were either successful or not.

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My recipe is as follows:

1. Set a measurable goal for yourself.

2. Evaluate yourself (I like to do it daily, but at least do it weekly) to see if the things that you are doing are bringing yourself closer to your goal or hindering you from getting there.

3. Make yourself stick to it when (NOT "if") obstacles come your way.

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As it looks for my clients, it might go something like this:

1. I want to get this desk clean and organized by the end of next week.

2. When you evaluate yourself daily, ask yourself, "Is my watching 4 hours of television after dinner helping me to reach this goal or keeping me from working on it?"

3. When your friends call and want you to go to the movies on the night that you planned to get your files purged, just take a rain check and stick to your plan.

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Set small goals for yourself to build your confidence and find ways to reward yourself. A good example would be something like this:

"I will clean out my junk drawer before I go to bed tonight."

Each time your T.V. show goes to commercial, work on the drawer. Your reward is getting to watch T.V. but you must still work towards the goal. It is a small goal and when you are successful, you will enjoy the great feeling that goes with accomplishment instead of the guilt that comes from the feeling of wasting time and getting nothing done.

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Need help with setting and reaching your goals? Let's make a plan for you! Call me today and we will get started on a road map that will be easy for YOU to follow. 770.510.3050

Moreganizers: Taking Care of the Sick

A few months ago, one of my regular clients hired me to do some organizing for a friend of hers. This woman had 2 small children and a chronically ill husband who is disabled and very sick. The came thisclose to losing their house before it was foreclosed on. They sold it and downsized to a very small rental. She was having trouble with unpacking while trying to take care of his needs, manage his meds and shuffling the kids to and fro. She needed us and we were so touched by their plight, we decided to donate 4 more hours of time to them.
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When we got there, our client told us how important it was to her husband's health to have some order in the house. Since the bathroom was one of his main areas, we decided to tackle it along with some shower curtains that needed to be hung in this older house. Here are the before and after pics:
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Bathroom Before:

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Same space after:

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Shower before:
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Shower after:

No, this bathroom didn't take us 4 hours. It only took 2. We spent the other 2 hours on the bedroom, attic and kitchen. We are grateful for the opportunity that we had to serve this family! If you could use the same kind of help with your project, we'd love to hear from you! Give us a call today at 770-510-3050

What can be done in an hour?

I gave a presentation this morning about my organizing business. After I had finished, an audience member came up to speak with me. She inquired about hiring me to do some basement clean up of her late fathers things. I gave her my standard rate of $130 for 4 hours. She said, "What can you do in 4 hours?" Well, let me show you what I did in 1 hour last month for a client:
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Office Area Before.

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Office Area After (wish you could see the cleaned up desk & files!).

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Sitting Area Before

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Sitting Area After

In the 4 hours that my associate and I worked at this house, we did this room, purged 8 years worth of files, took boxes up to the attic and did an entire wall bookshelf. You would be amazed at what can be accomplished in 4 hours. Let me show you how we can make a huge dent in your project. Call me today to set up your appointment: 770.510.3050

Seeking Solutions

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Hoarding is a psychological disorder that sparks a need to acquire and keep things - even when those things are unecessary, unsanitary, dangerous and even utterly worthless. Keeping these objects becomes more important to the hoarder than safety, an orderly life, and even their relationships. It is something that should be treated by a qualified therapist for the compulsive/obsessive portion.

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When it comes time for the hoarder to start to take real action, they usually need a compassionate helper to slowly talk them through evaluating their need for the things that they might want to keep. If they aren't allowed to go at their own pace, they will surely be beack in the same boat only months down the road. Each item represents something to the hoarder and, oftentimes, a real solution needs to be found.

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I once had a hoarder who hired me to help her because her daughter suffered from allergies and was not ever able to have friends over to play because the condition of the house was so bad. The first box we opened that was blocking the front door from opening all the way was full of old sawdust-stuffed animals that were moldy and very dangerous. She didn't want to part with them because they were won for her by her husband during their courtship. However, she knew that they were absolutely unhealthy for her daughter. She was torn.

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After I saw how attached she was to the memories of them, I proposed a compromise: I took a photo of her husband with all of the stuffed animals that he had won for her with my digital camera. We had a print made and then tossed the animals. She still had the memories but not the danger.

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When I work with hoarders, I try to always respect their space, their things and their memories. I work to find solutions to the problems that keep hoarders from living in freedom from their compulsions. If you know of a hoarder who could benefit from this type of compassionate care, please have them call me at 770-510-3050. I work in Roswell, Kennesaw, Marietta, Acworth, Smyrna and Atlanta, Georgia. Call me today and let's find real solutions!

Becoming Organized: Increments!

A common topic that comes up when speaking with clients is that they don't feel like they have the time that it takes to become organized. The reason that they believe this is because they look at the big organizational picture - how long it would take to organize absolutely everything - and they know that there is no chunk of time that big in the foreseeable future. They are absolutely right!
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Even if they had that time, they still would not be able to tackle everything at once because it is mentally draining and physically taxing. Take, for example, a recent client of mine who was a hoarder. He said that the problem began because he was at work so often that when he came home, he was too tired or had too many family commitments to deal with the mess. Then, he was laid off from work for a year. In that year, the problem didn't get better at all - it got much worse! To relieve his stress, he would accumulate more things. Then, he would feel more stressed about the way his house looked and the feeling that he wouldn't even know where to begin. This just became a cycle and very soon, there were serious problems with his marriage.
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This is an extreme case to illustrate a basic point - the lack of time isn't the problem. It's the thought of doing everything at once that keeps people from doing anything at all. I am here to tell you that it all starts with doing one thing. Here is what I recommend to my clients about how to get started:
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1. Use a timer! An egg timer or one on your microwave or watch... it doesn't matter. Just use something with an alarm.
2. Choose an area that has been bothering you the most. It could be where you put your mail, the junk drawer in the kitchen or the entryway into your home that is the first place that you and everyone else will see when entering your home.
3. Get a trashcan for garbage, a box to put things that go somewhere else and a box for things that you would like to donate. Many people don't get rid of things that they don't need because they don't want to throw them away. Donating them helps you to know that someone will be making good use of your item, you are helping a charity and you can get a tax write-off in most cases.
4. Set the timer for a small increment of time, either 15 or 30 minutes.
5. Get to work! Start in one corner (of the drawer, closet, desk...wherever) and work your way to the opposite end. Toss trash and move anything else that doesn't belong there to the "relocate" or "donate" boxes. When the timer goes off, your chore is over.

The next time that you have 15 minutes, put the things in the "relocate" box away and when the "donate" box is full, drop it off at your charity (many offer free pick-up). I recommend that you keep these boxes handy so that you are ready for purging at any time.

To make this a habit, tell yourself that you have to do at least 15 minutes before you can watch TV or surf the web. Another variation of this is to work on an area during the commercials while watching your favorite TV shows. You can, on average, 8 minutes per 30 minute show or 16 minutes per hour long show. You do have time, you just need to take baby-steps towards a clutter-free home.

If you would like more information on organizing your home and your life, please give me a call. I work in the north metro Atlanta area (Marietta, Acworth, Woodstock, Kennesaw) and I would love to help you get started on your journey to an organized life. Please call me today at 770.510.3050 and let's make a plan!

Organizing Your Vacation

Vacations should be relaxing, but very frequently are not. It's not because you don't have a wonderful destination or that you can't have fun on a limited budget. It's usually because one person is making all of the arrangements and fixing the unexpected problems that cause you to deviate from the budget. Here are some easy tips that you can use to organize your vacation:

1. Start with a small notebook. When you book hotel rooms or make reservations for dinner, write your contact information and confirmation numbers. This way, you'll have all of the information that you need with you.
2. In the same notebook, record the names and addresses of people that you might want to send postcards to. I also like to paperclip a book of stamps to that page so you don't waste your time looking for them by the beach.
3. Don't pack for others, but do give them a generic list of what they should pack. If you create a simple document, you can print several copies and hand them out to everyone. Add a check box so that when they put the items in the suitcase, they can check them off. This way, nobody forgets to pack a toothbrush or clean underwear. Keep the lists with you so when it's time to come home, you can go back over the lists to make sure nothing is being left behind.
4. Contact the newspaper to suspend delivery until you return.
5. If you'll be gone for more than a few days, request that your mail be held until you return.
6. A few days before you leave, review your vacation calendar to see what you're doing. Then, think about what items you'll need for that day. Going to the beach that day? Be sure to pack sunscreen, towels and flip-flops. Going hiking the next day? Don't forget bug spray, a camera and hiking shoes. If you think about the activities of each day and what you'll need, it will help you to not forget to pack things and force you to buy them at the expensive tourist traps where you're going.
7. Charge your cellphones and other electronics the night before you leave. Charge them in a very prominent place so that you don't forget to take them with you.

By following these guidelines, you can devote your vacation time to relaxation and memory-making instead of problem solving and finger-pointing. Have fun!

Seeking Peace

I have never received a call from a new client who felt a sense of peace in their life. The reason that people call a professional organizer like me is because the chaos in their lives have overwhelmed them. Not always, but quite often, they are at the stage of depression over the way that things that have seemed to just "get away" from them. They always have the very best intentions, but just don't know where to start.
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I always tell them the same thing:
YOU JUST STARTED!
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When you make the decision to take action and make the call, you have just taken control of that thing that has been controlling you. It might be a disorganzied office, a non-existent filing system or a house that has been overtaken by hoarding. It doesn't really matter - you have now taken the first step in being master of your domain! People who make the call follow through and see their project to the end. And do you know what's at the end?
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Peace.