Are You Social Networking Enough?

I am going to tell you now that I am not. But, I have a plan to change that.

I visit facebook and twitter everyday, but I have been avoiding Linked In (other than having a profile on there). I recently saw the error-of-my-ways and got motivated when I read Gary Vaynerchuk’s Crush It. An awesome book that inspired me to move outside of my regular social media practice and learn something new.

I gathered a group of entrepreneurs to take Linked In lessons from Juli Monroe of 1 to 1 Discovery. Juli is wonderful. I worked with her to learn the ins and outs of facebook and twitter, so you may see a trend here. The lessons start soon and will focus on Linked In. We should be up and running soon!

For more information on LinkedIn, read 10 Reasons Why You Need Need It by Kristin Johnson. If you need a reason why you need to be involved in Linked In it here.

Recommending Swizzle.com

I love reading blogs but they drastically fill up my email inbox. To solve this problem I started using Swizzle.com. It’s easy to sign up and you’ll start receiving one consolidated email a day with all the regular emails that you choose. It’s great. I save my Swizzle email for the end of the day, when I am relaxing on the couch. That’s when I peruse the blogs and decide what I want to read. Now my inbox is not-so-overwhelming. Try it.

Marrying Your Personal and Business Schedule

Do you have more than one calendar? Keeping personal appointments on one calendar and business appointments on another. Or maybe you use a paper calendar at home and carry an electronic calendar with you during the day. Please, please, please don’t do this – This is a recipe for disaster.

Schedule family activities, business appointments, sporting events, vacations, and personal projects into ONE SINGLE planner. Get a planner that includes weekends and evenings. Use your planner everyday, often, very often. Refer to it first thing in the morning, so you can plan your day. Write everything down. The more you use your calendar, the better you will be able to manage your time.

Try it.

15 Minute Organizing – Under the Beds

There are so many small organizing project that you can do quickly. To give you some ideas of quick projects this is a series of posts that will get you more organized and then make it easy to maintain the order.

Under the Beds

From a young age we are told that bad (scary) things live under the bed. Is it still that way in your home? Do you know what’s under your bed? If you are a follower of Feng Shui  you’ll know that you should not store anything under your bed, as it impedes the follow of energy through the room. I subscribe to this idea, but you may need to use this space for storage.

So what’s under your bed? Let’s clean it out and organize what’s there. This quick organizing project is quick and easy and can provide extra storage space if used well.

Here are some great options from Pinterest.

Here’s a beautiful storage box from Lombok. I think you can get something similar at local stores in your area. It’s important to have storage with a lid, so dust doesn’t collect on your items. If you can see your under-the-bed storage when it’s under your bed look for something stylish, as a opposed to plastic bins.

Maybe you are looking for something more permanent. Consider something like these drawers from Tofufu Studios. Drawers would certainly make it so easy to make the under-the-bed space user-friendly.

Another possibility is a bookcase, like this one from Western Living Magazine. I have seen similar using bookcases from IKEA.

A little creativity goes a long way in a small space.

Sort, Purge, Group, Contain, Maintain.

What’s under your bed?

Out With the Old and “Forceably” In With the New

I haven’t posted in a few days. I have had a lot of new things come into my life, some wanted and some unwanted. I am dealing with it.

First, I got a new car! Insert HAPPY DANCE! I love it. This was planned, researched and shopped for. What I am most excited about is that it has “all the bells and whistles”, leather, sunroof, GPS, Bluetooth. Stop right there at Bluetooth. This is where the “Out with the Old and In with the New” was forced.

The Bluetooth won’t work with my phone. Granted my phone was not old, but apparently not all new technology works on all other new technology. Wink, wink!? I did get some great help from my friendly cell phone service when they told me that I could qualify for a new phone under my plan in 8 days.

Jump forward a few days. I decide to download the contents of my old phone in preparation for my new purchase. Wait just a minute, in the middle of the operation my old phone decides to crap-out. I mean dead, not even the cell phone people could help me out. I was purchasing a new cell phone and not able to take any of my contacts, music, photos with me. So they said.

Thanks to a few techie friends of mine and a little time on my part. I now am the proud owner of a new cell phone, that includes my contacts (music will be downloaded later – maybe I’ll ask for that for Mother’s Day), my email and of course BLUETOOTH, the reason this whole thing started. It works! LOVE IT.

But wait! Not done. I am on a mission to load the apps that I used (and lost) from my old phone now. First one, PayPal Here. Again, no success. I learn from my lovely PayPal rep that it doesn’t work on my new phone. OK, I give up. I won’t fight it and just go back to the old way I did things, until I can find another way.

And so I saga continues. Sometimes we love change in our lives and sometimes not-so-much. I working through it and know that soon everything will be fine.

A Lost and Found Basket Works!

“Keep a lost & found basket in a central location where family members can stash things they find lying around the house and look for things they have lost.”                                                                                          - Harold Taylor

I do this and it works!

I use it a lot. Way more than the rest of the family. Since I like everything “more” neat and organized than everyone else, it makes me crazy when things are lying around, out-of-place. “Everything in its place” is my motto. Using a basket, bin or box to coral wayward items quickly makes the space look more organized and provides a central location for all family members to look for items that are “lost”. It’s quick and easy. You can choose to walk the circuit in your home once everyday to collect things or just grab as you go through out the day. You can create order in no-time-flat!

Basket Basics

by Basic Organization team member Tracy Wells.

Baskets are really a great and ancient way to store things. Not to mention they can hide items that are not so beautiful, yet make your space more beautiful because of their disguise and uniformity. Recently I added some baskets to my bathroom closet and clothes closet. Check out how I color coded my clothes! The baskets I purchased were from Lowes but you can find great baskets almost anywhere. For my clothes closet I stored belts, small hand purses, gloves, cosmetic bags, etc… For my bathroom closet I stored facial lotions, feminine products, soaps, and wash cloth’s  in each basket. I really like how it looks and these baskets hold a lot. Well, I hope I’ve inspired you to check out your closets today to see what items you can store in baskets!

15 Minute Organizing – The Coat Closet

There are so many small organizing project that you can do quickly. To give you some ideas of quick projects, I am starting a series of posts that will get you more organized and then maintain the order.

The Coat Closet

Awhile back I wrote about storage ideas for you most used coats. What I didn’t tell you in that post is that we hang most of our coats on hooks out of necessity. Our coat closet is tiny and can’t hold more than 8 coats. Not enough for a family of 4 – forget guest’s coats. If you are lucky enough to have a large coat closet, organizing it can be a great, quick project.

Here are some other great options from Pinterest.

This closet from Deliciously Organized makes great use of the floor for storage. Space for shoes, boots, baskets for hats, gloves and scarves. I love it!

I also like the way Wayside Sacraments used the back of the closet door to store often used items.

A little creativity goes a long way in a small space.

Sort, Purge, Group, Contain, Maintain.

What’s in your coat closet? Read Tracy’s post for some more ideas.

Getting Organized Magazine

Introducing our affiliation with Getting Organized Magazine.

Providing simple, effective, how-to organizing ideas and products, Getting Organized Magazine is the go-to resource for those looking to organize your home or work space. It is the only magazine on the market today solely dedicated to helping people organize their lives

From the closet in your home, to the endless emails at work to the greatest mobile apps available, we have it covered. You’ll get previews of the latest products, tips on how to conquer your paper piles, advice on issues like attention deficit disorder (ADD) and much more.

To sign up for a quarterly subscription click here.

Creating More Storage Space

by Basic Organization team member Tracy Wells.

This is for anyone who has very little storage in their basement or garage. My basement is small and I needed a solution to store all of my items with some room left over to have a drum set. So, how did I create even more space? I purchase these great wire shelves on wheels. They are 4 feet wide, 18″ deep, and 6 feet 5″ tall. They each have 5 shelves.

The solution for me (and maybe you) was to purchase 6 rolling shelves and make 2 rows of 3 shelves side by side. I have a total of 6 rolling shelves and they are all close to each other. The shelves facing the front have the items that I use the most (pictures, seasonal items, kitchen supplies, household supplies). The second row of shelves have items I use not as often (luggage, humidifier, heaters, sleeping bags, donation items). The third row of shelves store items that I use one time a year(Christmas) or not at all because they are a family inheritance that I am saving for my children.

I managed to take advantage of the ends of the shelves by adding a shoe storage holder.

Under the front shelves I have my wrapping paper supplies stored in under the bed boxes. These slip really easy under the rolling shelves.

 

When I need to get to the second or third row I just pull the front shelves out-of-the-way. They hold a lot of weight and items and the wheels make them easy to roll. For me, it has created the storage space that I needed and allowed me to have a drum set. Often times, our stuff gets in the way to deter us from having something that we really could enjoy. Why not evaluate your stuff today or call us to help you make space for the things you really want to enjoy?