Taking Down the Christmas Tree and a Little More

The final step of Christmas "take down" is the tree.

The first step is to remove all the ornaments.  I lay a towel out so I can see them all on my oriental rug.....some of them can get lost in the pattern of the rug.  I sort them, on the towel, by kid's ornaments, fragile and non-fragile.  Then I start boxing them up.....wrapping the fragile ornaments in tissue paper and then placing them in a Ziploc bag.  The other ornaments are placed in their original boxes or in an ornament box I have.

Each of my children's ornaments is organized in their own box and labeled with their name. 

When the time comes, they will easily be able to take their ornaments to decorate their own tree.  

After the ornaments are all packed up snug in their beds, it is time to remove the lights from the tree.  

By this time you are ready to throw the lights in a box and be done but when you open that box next year, you will be sad you took that approach. 

I take each light strand and wrap them around these "wheels" I purchased several years ago.  

Each wheel holds 2-3 light strands.  They then fit nicely into their handy, dandy carrying case.  On top of the wheels, I place the cord that houses the "on/off" button for the lights. 

Then the tree goes out the door to where my Christmas elf takes it to dispose of in our woods in the back.  Therefore leaving me with mounds of pine needles to vacuum.  Years ago, I stopped up my regular vacuum cleaner by using it to vacuum up said mound of needles.  After that, I purchased my Shop Vac and it has done the job from that point on.  All that being said, no matter how much I vacuum, I will still be running into and finding pine needles in this room throughout the year......hard to get rid of those pesky needles! 

Here is the "and a Little More" part of the subject line.  In my last post I failed to tell you about my Christmas serving dishes and how I put them away.....so here

 is the rest of the story. 

Each of the dishes is wrapped in a Christmas Dish Towel to protect them while storing the Christmas towels......a two 

for one! 

AAAAAHHHH, finally the Christmas decorations are put away and stored safely in the attic.  And just like every single year, I walk downstairs celebrating and find the one.  There is always one decoration I seem to miss every single year, no matter how hard I try.......there is still ONE!  This year's winner......the pillow.

So I grab the pillow, put it in its place and then know I am done until next year, with the way time flies it will feel like next week. 

Now on to 2016!  Make it a great year!

Taking Down Christmas Decorations - Step by Step

It is that time of year.....you have enjoyed the Christmas decorations but now it is time to take them all down.  

Here is a step by step process of how I attack my "take down".  Hopefully you will find something here you can use while putting your decorations away. 

 Gather all your "like" items together. Your "like" items will be boxed together so it makes it easier to attack one box at a time when you are putting them up this year and when you are ready to decorate again next year. 

 You can see, from the pictures below, the "like" items I have:  Santas/decorative items, stockings/pillows/tree skirt, Nativity sets, framed Christmas photos and plaques, dishes, books, window lamps, window greenery, bows and outdoor spotlights and cords.     

Then it is time to box each of the items into their "labeled" boxes.  I wrap the fragile items in tissue paper I reuse each year or tissue paper I keep from the pile left over on Christmas morning.  
The bulbs of the window lamps are separated into a ziploc bag to protect them.    

Each year, as part of my Christmas decorating, I use decorative ribbon tied to lamps and candlesticks. To store my decorative ribbon, I wrap several pieces around a toilet paper roll or a cut paper towel roll and secure the end with a paper clip.  I then store them in a ziploc bag to keep them fresh 

from year to year.  

Lastly I attack the tree.  That is in my next blog post.....so go get the decorations done then come back and read about "tree take down"! 

ADHD and Organizing.....It Can Happen!!

I hear it all the time from clients or prospective clients:  I have ADHD or my kids have ADHD or my husband has ADHD.

I, myself, am convinced I have ADHD and I am a professional organizer! Granted, I am one of 7 children, growing up in the 60's when those acronyms meant nothing.  I am sure I had traits even way back when but had to somehow learn to cope and teach myself a new way to do things.  

Here are five strategies I have learned that have helped this distracted, procrastinating gal.

1.  I talk to myself, not crazy talking to myself, but talking my way through.  I remind myself to stay on task, to stay focused on my goal and to keep pressing on to completion. Sometimes, a task is best completed in small increments, rather than doing it all at once, and if that is the case, then that is certainly how I attack that task.  

2.  I keep a list of what I want to get done that day. I take some time, the night before to write a list, that goes in the car, of errands I need to run.  I write a list of things, that stays in the house, of the things that need to get done at home.  I scratch off what gets done and move forward to the next day's list of what doesn't get done. 

3.  I make sure my environment is not too cluttered.  Clutter, in and of itself, is a total distraction and takes up brain space you need to use to stay focused.

4.  I put everything away by category.  If it is related to laundry, it is in the laundry room.  If it is something that has to be done, it goes in my to do pile. I hang my clothes up by style and color, i.e. black shirts, white shirts, gray shirts, then black pants, gray pants, white pants, etc.  Putting things in categories helps you put things away more consistently and find things more easily. 

5.  I have figured out how much time it takes for me to complete certain tasks and I am realistic about allotting the correct amount of time to get them totally completed.  I don't pretend it is going to take me less time than it normally does and I keep myself focused on the clock so I am not late leaving the house.  

Yes, this ADD/ADHD girl has conquered the beast.....most of the time.  There are times I get bored, distracted and off track but with these strategies in place, it is easy to get back to where I need to be and get things done.  

Math....It Really Is Important

 

The other day it hit me.....a lot of the things I do are based on basic math principles. 

Here are several examples:

• If you want to weigh less you have to eat less junk food and exercise/move more.  

• If you want to have less clutter, you have to bring in less and get rid of more.

•  If you have only so much square footage, you can't fit more than that amount of stuff  into it.

•  If you want to have a successful marriage, you have to spend more time working on it  and less time fussing about it.   

•  If you want to increase the odds of raising responsible kids into responsible adults,  you have to take more time to nurture, teach, discipline and love them and less time  yelling at them, berating them, buying them stuff and expecting someone else to raise  them for you.

• If you want to have financial peace, you have to spend less and save more.

• If you want to be happier, you have to spend less time worrying, fretting and complaining and more time figuring out what you can do to change your situation, changing what you can and developing an attitude of gratitude. 

•  If you want to feel better, you have to spend less time indulging what you know you shouldn't be indulging in and more time on things that are good for you.

• If you want to make a difference, you spend less time on yourself and more time on helping others.

• If you want to live purposefully, spend more time doing the things you are created to do and less time comparing yourself to others.  

More and Less......basic math principles that equal some great results. See, you should have paid attention to that math class in school!  It really is important. 

How good is your math? 

Confessions of an Organizer

I am a Certified Professional Organizer....sounds impressive right???  Well, here is the truth about me:

1.  I can still be a messy Millie.  Check out this photo of my current work area.  Yes, it all makes sense to me, therefore, I am organized but it is still, nonetheless, messy. 

2.  I do not have my underwear folded or my t-shirts folded and stacked like a Banana Republic Store.   

3.  I do not have matching file folders with matching printed labels.  I have file folders (whatever was available in my home or on sale) some have printed labels and some have written labels....whatever was going to get the job done the fastest. 

4.  I do not have my sheets and towels folded in ways that make them stack beautifully and neatly on the shelf.  They are folded but not precisely.

5.  I do not have all my photos in albums with beautiful trim, borders, and extra accouterments to make the photo explode off the page.....nope, many of my photos are still in boxes (by year!) but in boxes.

6.  I do not have my filing done.....much of it is stacked on top of the filing cabinet. 

7.  My laundry room looks like a laundry room.....with dirty clothes and clean clothes commingled, staying enough apart for me to know what's what! 

8.  Sometimes at night, I leave dirty dishes in the sink.

9.  I haven't been able to let go of my kid's rock collection. 

10. I have a basket of shoes, overflowing, by my back door.  I hate wearing shoes and taking them off, the minute I walk in the door immediately relieves some of my stress.  

So, what makes me organized? 

1.  I can find what I need when I need it because I do not have too much stuff and I know where everything is. 

2.   My underwear does not need to be folded because no one else is going to see whether it is wrinkled or not and my t-shirts are folded well enough.

3.  I can find my paperwork when I need it.....again because I don't keep too much and because it is labeled in a way that makes sense to me for retrieval.  Matching folders are not magic....you still have to have a system that makes sense. 

4.  My sheets and towels have worked just fine not being folded perfectly. 

5.  My photos are in boxes, sorted by year and many of my kids' pictures are in an album for them but I still have a long way to go.  I will never be a scrapbooker, the tediousness of that makes me sweat thinking about it!

6.  My filing is not done...one small stack, on top of a filing cabinet is not killing anyone.  Remember it is small because I don't keep much paper!

7.  My laundry room is a place of function, not beauty.  I can get done what I need done very well, which is evident by everyone in my home having something clean to wear. 

8.  Yes, I am just plum tired some days and I leave the dishes in the sink.  The FlyLady would not approve, however, I do take care of it as soon as I wake up.  

9.  I love my kid's rock collection....I have it in the bottom of a vase with beautiful flora coming out the top.  A beautiful decoration for me.....a great way to keep memorabilia merging it with  with my decorating style.  There is nothing wrong with keeping sentimental stuff, there is only something wrong with keeping too much of it. 

10.  My shoe basket is overflowing but at least I have a basket, right?? 

All this to say, I am not perfect, I am not what many would call "organized" because I think they have the wrong idea about being organized.  As Julie Morgenstern (the organizer guru) says:  "Being organized has less to do with how something looks as how something functions".  My house functions great but does not look like I live in a magazine.  Life is busy and life is sometimes very overwhelming.  I work....all the time, I get tired, I get frustrated, I don't have time to focus on my house looking like a magazine.  I do have time to get systems in place, that work for me and my family and I have time to tweak those systems until organizing is just a side note in my life.  

None of this means that I can't organize to make a house look like a magazine because I can. It's just I know what works for me and I know how I think and my house is organized accordingly. 

So there you have it, the truth about this organizer........I guess Martha Stewart will not be calling to hire me any time soon :) 

10 Ways to Use Evernote

Evernote is one of my favorite paper buster tools.  When I use Evernote, I don't have a bunch of sticky notes sitting around.  I don't have notes written on little pieces of paper and best of all, I don't have to remember where I put those pieces of paper!

The information I have stored in Evernote can be seen on my phone, IPAD or computer.  If I am away from home and need the information, it is right at my finger tips!

Here are 10 ways I use Evernote to cut down on my paper clutter:

1.  Evernote Clipper allows me to save information I find on the web and organize it in folders.  I name the folders (just like you do in a paper filing system) based on how I want to retrieve the information.   For example, if I find an article about de-cluttering, I Evernote clip it and "file" it in my folder - De-Clutter Information. 

2.  I love a good quote.  I file quotes in Evernote.

3.  Air Filter sizes, printer cartridges, water filter types....all of those pesky household items that are size specific are filed in Evernote so I have access to them when I am in the store ready to buy them.  

4.  Birthday lists......need to remember when someone's birthday is and you are not at home with your master birthday list....store it in Evernote.

5.  Christmas lists!  Each year I write down who I am giving a gift to and what I gave.  I can easily refer back to the previous years and make sure I am not duplicating gifts!

6.  Writing down your goals is an important step to achieving them.  I keep my personal and business goals housed in Evernote.  

7.  Paint color lists....can't remember the name of that wonderful color you used in the bedroom....keep it in Evernote.  

8.  Evernote is a place I keep ideas.....writing ideas, newsletter ideas, gift ideas....things that come to mind that I don't have a need for right now but will want to refer to later.  

9.  Phone numbers - people I don't need very often....like a carpenter/handyman or closet designer.   If I store that person in my contacts, on my phone, I may not remember his/her name but if I store it in Evernote....I can quickly retrieve the name and number.  

10.  Medication lists.  This is a great thing to have in Evernote when you go to the doctor.  I personally and thankfully don't have any medications I take but for those that do, this is a great way to have that information with you each and every time you have a doctor visit. 

Hope this helps you think outside the box and find new ways to cut down on paper clutter with Evernote!

Click the link below to sign up free for Evernote today!

https://www.evernote.com/referral/Registration.action?uid=3419289&sig=6e5801be47bbde149f93d1a898bfaef2

Are You Going The Wrong Way?

I was recently traveling on I-95 going South.  I had to exit off I-95 and merge onto I-20.  I saw the signs for I-20, felt like I was paying attention but all of a sudden, something didn't feel right and my gut instinct was telling me I had missed I-20.  I don't have a GPS in my car but I do have a MAP thingy on my phone.  I quickly got on my MAP APP and I was 100% right....I had passed
I-20.  

How do you know when you are going the wrong way....in life, in work, in relationships, in anything? 

I would simply say that most of us know when we are headed the wrong way, we just choose not to listen to our gut instinct or the still small voice in our heads.  Many of know something is wrong but we would rather bury our heads in the sand so we don't have to deal with whatever issues are before us. Many of us know changes need to be made but we are fearful of what those changes will cost us.  Many of us have been given signs and in your face clues things are not as they should be but we refuse to take the steps towards making things better.....we just play pretend...UNTIL, we can't play pretend anymore! 

Eventually, the things that are wrong in our life, our work, our relationships, our anything, are going to catch up with us.  The things that are wrong are just not going to disappear, they will continue to reappear and reappear and reappear and then move into something worse. 

How do you know if you are going the wrong way?  You pay attention.  You look for the signs.  You listen to your gut instinct and the still small voice. When you know you are headed the wrong way, start changing what you can, when you can and do what you can with what you have.  It is always better to face things head on.....face the fear, in the end you will be better for it and stronger.