Organizing Your Summer Vacation

I have just returned from a weekend trip to Savannah with my daughter’s Girl Scout troop. As the troop leader, it was my responsibility to make all of the arrangements and reservations and then make sure we got where we needed to be when we needed to be there. Doing this with a group of eight 5th grade girls sometime felt like herding cats at times, but I digress.

It’s a trip such as this one or your upcoming vacation that underscores the need to be organized when you travel. I suggest getting a bright colored folder to use for all your travel. For this trip I found a vinyl folder at Wal-Mart with 3-holed prongs in the center and pockets on each flap. One side even had an extra envelope type pocket that was great for storing receipts. The reason I suggest a bright colored folder is that is much easier to find in the depths of your tote bag or on the floor of your car. In this folder you can put all the printouts of confirmations your hotel reservations, flight plans or maps and any other relevant travel information you may need. Having a single place to look for all the details was a life-saver this weekend!

So before you head out on your summer vacation, take a few minutes to organize your travel documents. Then have a great time!

Video Game Invasion

Is your home overrun by video games – the cases, the discs and cartridges, the game systems themselves and the peripheral equipment? I have a client that whose house seemed overrun by video games. She has a teenage and a preteen son as well as a husband who love to game and in fact own at least 3 gaming systems. It is not an exaggeration when I say hundreds of game cases littered almost every room of the home. When I asked if the boys played all of these games, the answer was an emphatic “No!” What should you do in this situation?

For my client I suggested gathering up all the unused games and systems and taking them to a gaming store, such as GameStop, that buys used games and systems. My client rallied the troops and they took an enormous number of games to the store, making enough money to buy many new games that they had wanted. The bonus for my clients was much fewer green and white plastic boxes floating around, gathering dust and getting broken.

Another option is more philanthropic. Consider donating your used games and systems to local children’s hospitals, abused children’s centers or battered women’s shelters. These types of places are struggling for funding but also need to entertain the children they serve. The Get-Well Gamers Foundation works to bring video games to children’s hospitals. You can also donate your gently used games and gaming consoles to the US Military troops through organizations such as Fun For Our Troops.

So make it a summer project for the kids and do something with all those unused games. Just another step to get past the clutter and get on with your life!

Things I Learned from My Parents



Me and My Parents - just a few years ago! :-)



Like most kids I never understood the chores and rules my parents gave me. Why did I have to fold the laundry right away (or at all)? Why did I need to go to bed before midnight on a school night? Frequently these felt arbitrary and irrational to my teenage mind.



However, as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized that doing things in a certain order or at a particular time actually does make sense. Hmm, who knew that Mom actually did know what she was talking about? As Marie von Ebner-Eschenback said, “in youth we learn, in age we understand.” Here’s just a few of the revelations of daily household chores that I now truly understand.

Make the Bed Every Day - I admit this one took me a while to embrace. It truly seemed like a non-necessary repetitive task. Then I went to college and lived in a small dorm room. More accurately, I lived on my bed. This is where I slept, studied, ate, watched TV and visited with my friends. After a few weeks at school I realized that I really didn’t want food crumbs and dirt in my sheets. Yuck! That was a turning point in my bed-making revolt.



Now as an adult I don’t use my bed for quite so many activities but I still make it every day. I love having a nicely made bed in my bedroom. It looks finished and clean and it makes my bedroom feel calm which is what your bedroom should be. Consider that your bed is likely the largest single surface in your bedroom. No matter what kind of other chaos is going on in your room, your house or your life, when your bed is made, at least there is one point of calm in all the craziness.

Empty the Trash Can - Taking out the trash is probably one of the most universally despised chores. Let’s face it, it stinks – literally! As a child on the night before trash pickup my dad would hand me a bag and instruct me to empty the small trash cans all over the house. Whining usually ensued at this point.



Now as an adult, having an empty trash can actually makes me smile. Try this experiment. Grab a garbage bag and walk around your house emptying all your small trash cans. Again, like the making bed having an empty trash can will bring a sense of tranquility to your home at least until next candy wrapper gets thrown away.

Hang Up Your Clothes - Sometimes in the middle of doing laundry my mom would have leave to run errand. She would tell me that there were clothes in the dryer that needed to be folded when the buzzer rang. Again, complaining and eye rolling commenced. At the young tender age of 16 I thought it was great if the clothes just made it in the laundry basket!



When I got married and had to launder my husband’s work shirts, I finally realized the genius in dealing with the laundry now. If I didn’t take the shirts out of the basket quickly, they were wrinkled and I had to iron them which is truly one of my least favorite chores. But if I put them on the hangers quickly, there were no wrinkles. The moral of the story is to fold or hang the laundry quickly to save yourself more work later. If you are one of that rare breed that enjoys ironing, feel to ignore my advice and wrinkle to your heart’s content!

Part of my goal in my business, Good Life Organizing, is to help people find ways to simplify their lives, whether it be through decluttering their possessions or finding better ways to complete their daily tasks. If doing these few simple tasks can improve your quality of life, then my job here is done!



Living in a Box

Do you ever think, "if I only had more space, I would live more comfortably?" This man lives incredibily in a 258 sq. foot apartment. It is so ingenius I wanted to share it with you. (Thanks to Erin Doland of Unclutter.com for sharing this on her blog.)

It reminds me a lot of the paring down experience my parents went through when they moved full time into their RV. Every inch is precious and every space must pull double duty. Every item MUST have a home and be returned there when you are finished with it. If only we would apply this concept to our "normal" size homes, I think we would realize that we have WAY more than we need and simplifying would truly make things better!

Finding the Perfect Purse

Ladies, I think this may be the eternal quest – finding the perfect purse – that elusive beast that can contain our lipgloss, tissues, keys and various sundries that seem to be required throughout the day while still looking cute and fashionable and sized somewhat smaller than an ocean liner. Not to be smug, but I think I may have found IT!

A few weeks ago I was shopping at Kohl’s, one of my favorite haunts, and I was looking for a small purse for a vacation. I struck out on the small purse but out of the corner of my eye, this beauty caught my eye – a giraffe print bag with a just right handles and just right pockets. The large outside pocket will easily hold my Nook or the iPad and I can even put a large water bottle inside the purse and still zip it shut!



LOVE IT!!


The only thing wrong with it, in my mind at least, was the center of the purse was just one large open space. I generally shy away from big sack-like purses because there is no way to organize and later find my things. Luckily for me and this lovely satchel I had recently found a solution to this problem.

When I attended the National Association of Professional Organizer’s  recent national conference and expo, I met a lovely lady name Lyn Marsteller who has designed a dream product for women AND their handbags. The Purse Perfector is a purse organizer that according to the website “adapts to all your purses, handbags and totes for all parts of your life.” This great little organizer packs a wollop for its size.

The Purse Perfector - Large, Black/Berry

Check out all the “stuff” that was in my purse before.

What IS all that stuff?

And now look at all the “stuff” afterwards.

The only things that didn't fit where my sunglasses and receipt enevelope which go in the outstide pocket anyway.

I purchased the large size Purse Perfector because I wanted to be able to fit my large wallet into it, but the slightly smaller size works just as well. I love being able to get my hands on my lip gloss at a moment’s notice, I love the bright colored interior which helps me find it in the bottom of my bag and I love that I can easily move the Purse Perfector from one purse to another.

Everything has a home in my purse

Not that I’m going to do that anytime soon, because I know have the perfect bag inside and out! Can you hear the smile?