Get Organized TODAY is a key tool in building a successful life; to bring ease and flow to your day-to-day living when clutter has got you down. More professional and personal organization and preparedness expertise is yours with these insights from Nancy and her organizing peers. With Get Organized Today, you will better manage your life and be ready to handle any situation with ease. To support you on your mission to live an organized and balanced life.

Free Teleseminar Series to learn more!

This book includes expert strategies to:

• Capture the Vision to Create a Space You'll Love
• Create a Productive Environment in Five Steps
• Overcome Chronic Disorganization
• Build the Perfect Closet
• Create a Home Office that Works for You
• Conquer Paper Piles
• Organize for Disaster and Be Prepared!
• and more...

Including Nancy's Chapter ->  Get Organized for the Planet, that outlines 10 incredibly easy ways to turn your matter (clutter) into energy (where everything is in its place waiting to serve you) in an Eco-Friendly way!

Cost:  $24.00

Planet Tip – Create Less Trash

It has been measured that each year Americans produce 4.6 pounds of garbage per person every day. Let’s take a simple step to help sustain the planet by creating less Trash! Here's a few easy ways to cut back on your weekly waste, sourced from Real Simple Magazine:

• Banish plastic packaging - On your next shopping trip, steer clear of plastic containers. Look for comparable items packed in paper cartons or sold in bulk.
• Stock up on sponges and handkerchiefs. Forgo the rolls (and rolls) of paper towels you use and try reusable sponges or washcloths to clean up spills. Or put in use some old fashioned handkerchiefs in lieu of using those big boxes of tissues everywhere, cluttering up your garbage cans.
• Feed the Earth. Compost food scraps instead of throwing them away with your regular trash. They'll break down and help create fertile soil for the garden or houseplants. Indeed, the Secret to some of the most productive gardens is the use of compost. You will find "how to build a compost bin" instructions all over the web. Here's my favorite: http://simplemom.net/how-to-make-a-compost-bin/
• Concentrate. Choose concentrated versions of household basics, such as laundry detergent. You will use less of the product and won’t have to throw away big containers as regularly. Especially if you have soft water, which means you can use about half the recommended detergent per load!

"Qi" is a central concept of Feng Shui (also written Chi or Ch'i, pronounced "key). It is best defined as "life energy," "life breath," or "active energy that flows through all things".

Everything is constantly in motion, everything has its own energy field and is connected in some way. All energy fields directly influence each other. Whether strengthening or weakening, everything flows. It is easier to follow the stream of Qi and to know what it favours, than to swim against the current. Clutter swims against the current; that is, it impedes the natural flow of positive Qi. It weakens...

In other words, according to Feng Shui teachings, a messy home or office indicates a disjointed life. If a stack of old newspapers or a pile of paperwork hinders the flow of Qi over a long period of time, Sha Qi will impose its negative influence on other areas, making you tired and even depressed.

• A congested entrance indicates a lack of openness toward new things.
• A mess under the bed may well keep you from getting a good night's sleep.
• Such "blockages" also occur when you postpone paying invoices or making an unpleasant phone call.
• Check your pockets or wallet: If you find ticket stubs, sweet wrappers or old receipts, throw them away, to ensure the free flow of money!

For harmony and free flowing positive energy in your space, start with eliminating your clutter! Like I always say, when you get organized you are turning matter into energy.

And, as ever, if you need help, call me!

Most of us are familiar with the concept of donating our possessions to a donation center. Often, however, I still see bags of clothing and such that end up sitting stagnant in a corner as clutter. Make it easy to get these items out of your space and into a new space by findng a donation source that is meaningful to you and easy to get to in your "life route". 

Add these three simple steps to your life:

1.  Keep a donation box or bag in every bedroom of the house and in utility spaces, so adults and children in the household get into the habit of filling it up when clothing or possessions are ready for a new home. (That’s a great way to start good habits if you have children!)

2. Choose a donation source whose mission you value, so that it motivates you and your loved ones to donate often. If you are a pet lover, find a pet organization that takes donations.

3. Finally, if possible, find a source that is in the neighborhood, maintains hours that work with your busy schedule and is in an easy-to-get-to location. Ideally, a place somewhere on your normal work or errand route or near a place you go often. That way, it’s easy to get these items out of your space and into the hands of someone else who can appreciate them.

The Salvation Army (http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/) and Goodwill (http://www.goodwill.org/) are great national sources, but don’t forget to explore local organizations as well.

My favorite source in San Francisco is Community Thrift, where you can choose the charity (from a long list of local and national charities) who gets a percentage of the proceeds of your donation items once they are sold at the store. I call it the double give!
The Community Thrift Store
623 Valencia St
San Francisco, CA 94110
Community Thrift is a non-profit thrift store in San Francisco that relies entirely upon donations to stock it's shelves, and they even have a super easy drop-off window though check out their site for directions to it and to learn more:  www.communitythriftsf.org

These basic truths about kitchens will help you put yours in an order that serves you. Where every item you want is in the right place, appropriately accessible and waiting to serve you.  The way to start is to understand the core activities performed in the kitchen and then "zone" your space accordingly.

The typical activity zones are:

• Food Preparation
• Cooking
• Dishwashing and Dish Storage
• Food Storage
• Utility
• Household Information Center

Food Preparation Zone
In this zone you are chopping, mixing, cutting, seasoning, and so on. The longest available counter is best for this zone, ideally between the sink and stove or the sink and refrigerator. In the cabinets above and below this counter area, store cutting boards, knives, mixing bowls, measuring cups, spoons, appliances, seasonings, and other food preparation items.

Cooking Zone
Clearly, the cooking zone is best located near your stove and cook top, and near this location you store pots, pans, pot holders, bake ware and cooking utensils.

Dishwashing and Dish Storage Zone
To make clean-up and storage of everyday eating and drinking items easier, you want this zone near the sink and dishwasher or dish drainer. It will include everyday dishes, glassware, flatware, dish towels and detergent.

Utility Zone
This zone houses the heavy-duty cleaning and maintenance supplies for the kitchen and is usually under the sink. For outsized mops and brooms, you can store them in a closet or on hooks nearby.

Food Storage Zone
This is where food is kept, including the refrigerator and pantry space. In kitchens with no pantry, consider storing the food in the cabinets nearest the refrigerator.

Household Information Center
Finally, every kitchen has some level of paperwork or where all the mail gets dumped. This area can include everything from notepaper and cookbooks to a computer and household files. Determine what reasonably gets done in the kitchen (set boundaries) and make the right space for it. Managing household paperwork is a “big” organizing challenge, so stayed tuned to balancesf/blog for more on household paper organizing.

Once you have arranged your kitchen with zones, you will find you spend less time traveling within your kitchen to get things. What you need will be close by and convenient. Kitchen tasks will be simplified and clean-up will be easier. You’ll save time and stay organized.

Bon Appetit!

You often hear the story about the young guy who gets famous with some techno business idea and you may think, darn I wish it were me. This story is so super fine and cool, you won't be green with envy, but it is green! Terracycle was founded in 2001 by a 19 year old Princeton Univ. freshman named Tom Szaky whose dream was to find a more responsible way of doing business that was not just good for the bottom line, but good for the planet and for people.

www.terracycle.net

Terracycle is an extraordinary operation that turns your “trash” into useable stuff. Send them your juice bags, for example, and they will turn them into colorful purses and pencil cases and resell them at Target or Walgreens. They’ll even donate money to your charity of choice for each item you send them.

To participate in the Candy Wrapper Brigade, for example, all you do is sign up online and you will receive prepaid postage labels and collection materials from Terracycle. Once you collect enough candy wrappers to fill a collection bag, you affix the prepaid postage label and drop it off to UPS. The program is designed for schools, universities and other non-profit organizations that get money back for each item collected.

As of this writing, Terracycle has over 8.6 million people collecting trash, are making 181 products and have donated $562,000 to charities.

Go Tom. Get Green.  ...and the planet lives on.

In the world of getting organized, "containers" are anything from a hook on the back of a door to a bin or box or even an entire shelf system or custom closet installation.

As ever, The Container Store is having their annual elfa sale. elfa is a modular shelving and drawer system that can be customized to your needs and your space to help you get organized. You can use the systems in just about any room, including the closet, office, garage or pantry. It's a relatively low cost and attractive "do it yourself" way to create a custom built-in closet and or a shelving system. Until Monday, 15 February, you can get 30% off a closet or built-in system!

But WAIT!

It's unlikely that you will get organized if you start by going to Target or The Container Store or to IKEA; a mistake many people make when they set the goal to get organized. While these are all great sources for "containers", the FIRST step is to sort your stuff and purge, or edit. Editing as in letting go of what no longer serves you. Yes, it's true, organizing usually involves making some choices to let go. These decisions can be difficult, but they are always ultimately LIBERATING and REWARDING.

So, step 1 and 2 - Sort your stuff and edti.  Let go of what doesn't serve you now in your life. Then, step 3, decide where the rest of the stuff goes. Then, and only then, if you need a shelf or a bin, it's not until step 4 that you head to the store, because that is when you know what you have!

(And don't forget, it's good for the planet if you repurpose those bins and boxes you bought the last time you tried to get organized!)

Make sense? Contact me if not.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture*, if the typical "stay-at-home" mother in the United States were paid for her work as a housekeeper, cook and psychologist among other roles, she would earn $138,095 a year. OK, so first may I say what's with the "stay at home" mom descriptor? As if, tra la la, I'm just staying at home, bon bons, etc. Jeez oh Pete... not the Mom's I work with. So, please, "full time mom" ...it's an occupation and in my mind, the most important one any man or woman can take on.

So, is it hard to stay organized if your job is "Mom"? Yep, because, to meet that $140K salary, you would have to hire: a cook, a child care provider, a laundry service, a driver, a facilities manager, a janitor, a computer operator, a chief executive officer (oh yea, you are so good at that) and a psychologist. So you, master multi-tasker, are doing the job of many people. How do you keep it all sorted out?

First, simply accept the challenge you have taken on and know that at times it will be difficult to keep everything organized. Forgive yourself and have fun. Second, when you have a chance to breath, (sigh), review in your head what your top priorities are at this given moment. Not each individual action, just the top level goals and priorities you have as the family CEO. E.g. Jenny's Birthday, travel trip coming up, working with Tommy's learning issue, my husband/partner's xyz problem, the broken jfk, ... etc. Don't worry about the action times, those will likely just happen naturally by doing this.

Finally, about that breathing thing, no really, try to breath. Deep belly breath, eyes closed. And Thanks for what you do.

* SOURCE: U.S. Department of Agriculture; "Baby Bargains", Denise Fields, 7th Edition.; Salary.com