· Clear your desktop and drawers of everything except large items like computers or printers. While you have your desk clear, wipe down surfaces and drawers.

· Put desk accessories (pencil cups, calendars, desk pad, rolodex) back on the desk where you are able to easily reach or see what you need. Insert drawer dividers or other desk organizers you need to keep like items together and stay organized.

· Sort the items you cleared from your desk. Set up boxes with categories like: shred, recycle, trash, office supplies, equipment, papers to file, decorations, and elsewhere (items that don’t belong at the desk to be put away later). Place items in these boxes.

· Put items you have sorted away. Place the things you use daily within easy reach, items you use weekly close enough to reach them with little effort, and supplies you use monthly or less often away from your desk. These can even go in a closet or storage area in another room. Keep your workspace clear so that you have a clutter free environment that allows you to focus on your work and put like items together so you can easily find them.

· File papers. If you do not have a good filing system, set up simple system for handling paper where you can find the paper you are looking for in less than a minute. Don’t pile—file!

· Place any decorative items where they can be seen and enjoyed, but not on your workspace. Display items that inspire you most, but minimum the amount of decorations so you are not distracted from your work.

· Maintain the hard work you have done. Take time to put things in their proper place each time you use them. When you are working your desk can become cluttered, which is understandable. Just make sure that at the end of the day everything is put away and the desktop is clear, ready for a new day of work.

Cathy Bates is owner of Practical Solutions Professional Organizing and a Golden Circle Member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO). They offer hands on organizing help for homes and offices. To find out more about how they can assist you, contact them at www.psorganizing.com or call (909)810-3719.

The state of the economy is on consumers’ minds again this Christmas season. Some spenders plan to reduce their budget, while others do not. I would like to suggest that the attention put on financials could actually be a positive. Yes, it might be a good thing…. for the spirit of Christmas and the Holidays.

I challenge you to move away from the “materialistic focus” of gift-giving to a “love focus.” Instead of giving stuff, give the gift of time, experiences and gratitude. Don’t buy a gift, just to get another person crossed off your list.

Clutter-free gift (CFG) giving is the act of gifting items that do not add more stuff (often unneeded) to the recipient’s home. Many CFGs also let the person know you were truly thinking about their likes, passions and interests.

Easy Action Steps to Clutter-Free Gift Giving
1. Make a list of those you would like to give a gift to.
2. Really think about each recipient. What are their likes and dislikes? What are their hobbies? What dreams have they talked about? Brain storm on paper or the computer and an idea or clue might pop up.
3. Make a list of your top 3 ideas for each person. Pick one for this year and file the list away for the next gift giving opportunity.
4. Add to your list throughout the year.

Clutter-Free Gift Ideas to Get You Thinking
• Experiences (indoor water park weekend, tickets to sporting event, spa day with your girl friends)
• Donations (food pantry, church, cancer research, local library)
• Consumables (gift cards, food, gift of the month clubs, gym membership)
• Time (offer to watch your friends kids while they finish up their shopping, volunteer at a soup kitchen)
• Expressions of your love and gratitude (a letter to your parents thanking them for all they have done for you, forgiveness)

As the Organizing Expert for Moms, Paula Constable works with busy moms and families who want to make their daily lives easier through organization. She provides her organizing services both in-home and via Teleclasses and workshops. Receive Paula’s free reports, The Clutter-Free Gift Giving Guide and 5 Must-Know Organizing Tips for Busy Moms, when you sign up for newsletter at www.stuff2borganized.com or visit her blog, Organizing Tips and Thoughts for Moms.

“I just don’t have the time to do the things I want to be doing.”
“If I just had more time…..”
“Once I get caught up, I’ll have more time.”

Sound familiar? These are the types of statements I hear quite often from clients, friends, other moms and business owners.

Many people struggle with how to go about making sure the important stuff gets done and gets the attention they desire it to have. Here are some tips for you to help you make the most of your time.

1. How you spend your time will be determined by your priorities not your availability. Too often we forget to look at what is truly important to us and our families before we add another thing to our already busy calendars. Take the time to reflect on what matters most to you and your family and write them down. Ask, “Do these requests of my/our time fit with my/our priorities?

2. Try to be proactive instead of reactive. In other words, plan ahead as much as you can. Plan your meals out for the week and then make your shopping list. Take time to plan your next day the night before. Planning also includes grouping like activities and tasks together to make the most of your time. For example, it makes sense to do all your errands on the same day.

3. Don’t overload your calendar. When we over-commit ourselves and our time, the results can be counter-productive. Busyness leads to stress, frustration, and fatigue (mentally, physically and emotionally!). Be sure to include down time on your calendar. I mean physically write it down like you are setting an appointment with yourself. If a request of your time comes up during that “free” time, simply say, “I’m sorry, that’s not going to work for me.”

4. Look at time as a gift. We know that we can’t make more time or borrow time or buy time, but we can cherish our time. Our time is limited. God willing, we are given 24 hours a day – that’s about 730 hours a month, and almost 8766 hours a year. Subtract the time needed for sleep, work, everyday household tasks, commuting, etc and you are now left with a very limited amount of time.
How do you really want to make the most of your time?

Your Success to Organization Assignment
1. Write down the activities you want more time for.
2. Set an appointment with yourself to do one of these activities (actually write it on your calendar).
3. Do it!

As the Organizing Expert for Moms, Paula Constable works with busy moms and families who want to make their daily lives easier through organization. She provides her organizing services both in-home and via Teleclasses and workshops. Receive Paula’s free reports, The Clutter-Free Gift Giving Guide and 5 Must-Know Organizing Tips for Busy Moms, when you sign up for newsletter at www.stuff2borganized.com or visit her blog, Organizing Tips and Thoughts for Moms

I love routines to help me make the most of my time. It’s about picking a day or time of day to do recurring tasks or activities. By doing this you take control and decide, based on what works best of you and your schedule, when you want to get stuff done.

It’s all about having a game plan. Of course that plan can always be done away with when you are a mother, but I find it’s helpful to start with one; you can always adjust as needed.

Here are some examples:
• Meal planning for the week on Sunday night and shopping on Monday.
• Paying the bills every Thursday or on the 15th and 30th of each month.
• Washing 1 load of laundry everyday or all of it on Wednesdays.
• Planning your next day the night before or first thing in the morning.
• Devotional and prayer time in the morning.
• Checking email at the kids’ nap time and after the kids go to bed.
• Returning phone calls between 9 and 10 a.m.
• Vacuuming on Mondays, dusting on Tuesdays, and washing the floors on Wednesday.
• Starting meal prep 1 hour prior to dinner time.
• Opening and sorting the mail everyday after dinner.
• Filing your “to file” pile the same day every week.
• Waking up 30 – 60 minutes before the kids to get yourself ready for the day.
• Exercising on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.
• Eating out with the family on Thursday nights.
• Blogging on Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays for 45 minutes.
• Run all your errands on the same day(s).
Steps to Help You With Your Routines:
1. Make a list of those recurring activities that you do on a regular basis.
2. Have you calendar close by to consult.
3. Sketch out your weekly routines. To start out, you may want to actually write your routines on paper or your calendar-it’s like setting appointments with yourself. You are purposely giving yourself time to do a task that needs to get done. Flexibility is a must -it’s not about scheduling your every waking moment.
Remember, it’s also not about cramming more and more into your schedule; it’s about making the most of your time so you have time for what’s important to you. Don’t forget to allow for some down-time in your schedule, too! Balance is important!
What are some of your routines that work for you? Share them with us!
As the Organizing Expert for Moms, Paula Constable works with busy moms and families who want to make their daily lives easier through organization. She provides her organizing services both in-home and via Teleclasses and workshops. Receive Paula’s free reports, The Clutter-Free Gift Giving Guide and 5 Must-Know Organizing Tips for Busy Moms, when you sign up for newsletter at www.stuff2borganized.com or visit her blog, Organizing Tips and Thoughts for Moms.

Think for a moment how your family starts off the day. How would you describe the mornings in your household? Do they tend to be calm and peaceful or rushed and stressful -or, somewhere in the middle? I found that planning ahead really helps to curb the morning madness. Here are nine quick ideas to help make your mornings less of production for you and your family.

Tip #1: Get up 15-30 minutes before the kids. Give yourself time to get up and ready to go before the children need to be up. I find that when I do this I am more relaxed and able to focus on helping my children. The day is more likely to start off with conversation rather than prodding and nagging. I also feel better about myself. When I feel good about myself, it has such a positive impact on my day!

Tip #2: Make sure the kids have adequate time to get ready for school without being rushed. Note how much time it takes them to complete all their necessary morning tasks and chores. Ideally, I like to have a 15 minute cushion of downtime before they walk out the door.

Tip #3: Have the kids empty their backpacks after school, not the next morning, to avoid any last minute surprises. Designate a drop-off spot for school papers, notes or permission slips that you need to see.

The Night Before
Tip #4: Have your children layout their clothes they want to wear the next day. Make this simple step a part of their bedtime routine.

Tip #5: Make sure the backpacks and school supplies are ready to go near the door. Maybe even the shoes and jackets, too. During the winter month, I get all the snow gear out and ready to go.

Tip #6: What about the lunches? Can they be made ahead of time? Does money need to go to school to pay for hot lunch?

Tip #7: Determine the breakfast menu and set the bowls and cereal out after dinner.

Tip #8: Develop a bedtime routine that works for your family and stick to it the best you can. A rested child is able to focus and learn better than a tired one. Tip #9: Double check your calendar, including the car pool schedule. What tasks do you want to accomplish the next day?
As the Organizing Expert for Moms, Paula Constable works with busy moms and families who want to make their daily lives easier through organization. She provides her organizing services both in-home and via Teleclasses and workshops. Receive Paula’s free reports, The Clutter-Free Gift Giving Guide and 5 Must-Know Organizing Tips for Busy Moms, when you sign up for newsletter at www.stuff2borganized.com or visit her blog, Organizing Tips and Thoughts for Moms.

As a Myers-Briggs personality profile facilitator, I have learned that stress relievers are not generated from the areas of your natural giftedness, but the opposite. Can you see that moving out of the area where you spend most of your time is a break from the usual – a relief?

For some, cleaning and organizing provides that break. Here are a few 5-minute stress relievers in this area:

1. Clean out a drawer.

2. Clean out a drawer or shelf in the fridge.

3. Make a list of your favorite things to do, and plan when you will do one.

4. Declutter a room or surface.

5. Make a to-do list or prioritize the one you have.

6. Clean a bathroom sink or counter.

7. Dust.

8. Go through a magazine rack and toss old magazines.

9. Declutter your car.

10. Empty one shelf of the dishwasher.

11. Clean your kitchen sink.

12. Fold a basket of clothes.

13. Clean out your purse or wallet.

14. Take out the trash.

15. Organize a shelf in your pantry.

16. Organize a closet.

17. Sit in a room that is irritating you and think about what is not working.

18. Make list of possible options for your dinner menu next week.

19. Remove and hang clothes from the dryer.

Set the table for your next meal.

If doing some organizing and cleaning will relieve your stress, take five!

Beverly Coggins is an organizing expert, speaker and author of the 1-2-3…Get Organized series – books, workbooks, and ebooks written for the organizationally overwhelmed. Her blog contains tips on organizing time and space. Contact information: Bev@1-2-3GetOrganized.com. 330-922-0755

You’ve race around all day running errands, cooking, picking up and dropping the kids off. At the end of the day, you plop down in your bed – exhausted and feeling as if you did so much yet accomplished so little. Sound familiar?

A disorganized schedule can lead to stress, frustration, anxiety, and quarreling with loved ones. Fortunately, hope exists for those families with extremely busy schedules that usually leave a burden on Mom.

One of the easiest and fastest ways to take tasks off Mom’s hands is to assign those tasks to the children. This not only helps Mom in clearing her schedule, it is an extremely important means of teaching your children responsibility and domestic skills.

From the time that I could remember, it was almost an unspoken rule in my house that if my sister swept the floor, I’d have to mop it.
Likewise, if I did the laundry, she’d have to fold the clothes.

Nowadays the dishwasher automatically washes the dishes. But I remember growing up my sister and I traded dish washing nights. One night it was her turn to wash the dishes and the next night it was mine.

Until this day, I can not stand to see dishes in the sink for too long.
So the habits have even stayed with me through my adulthood.

Start teaching your children about chores at an early age to help them form the habit. Show them what and how you would like them to clean a certain area. You can start out by teaching them to clean their room.
Then move to bigger areas as the child gets older.

Remember that children are like sponges absorbing everything you do rather than everything you say. So be sure to leave enough housework for you to do. This way, they can see you doing something as well.

If you have teenagers, appoint them to run errands to the store or to pick up/drop off younger siblings. Teenagers will jump at any chance they get to drive. This not only teaches them to be independent, it makes them feel like you trust them.

Set up a reward system. However, use rewards carefully. You do not want to give your children the idea that cleaning and helping around the house is only done to get something in return. You know your child better than anyone and you know what works for him/her.

Make helping out fun for them. Crank up the music to their favorite CD or radio station. My sister and I would turn on the music on a Saturday morning and dance around the house while we dusted, swept, wiped, and cleaned the house. Now, some of my most relaxing and enjoyable time is spent while cleaning and singing my heart out to the world because it brings me back in time to those days.

While your kids won’t necessarily enjoy doing chores, I guarantee that they will thank you in adulthood. It will be difficult at first, but will be all worth the while.

You’ll be able to free more time for yourself while teaching your children lifelong skills and responsibility.

Sheila Zayas is president of Harmony Perfect Organizers, a professional organizing company based out of West Palm Beach, FL that specializes in helping families organize their schedules so they can live happier and fuller lives. She succeeded in helping a family in which the parents were on the verge of a divorce as a result of a disorganized schedule and lack of goals. Sheila is a speaker that addresses the topics of time management and document control. She can be reached at info@harmonyperfect.com or (561) 512-8771 .

Start to Declutter and organize your home today with Clutter Diet

Overwhelmed by all you need to do? Write it down! Make a list of everything you need to do.

Next, assign a day to each task. Those things that are most important and urgent should be assigned to an earlier day. Beside those items you will do on Monday, write an M. Put a T beside the things you will do on Tuesday, and so on.

Then, look at the items you have on your list for today. Prioritize them by putting a 1 beside the most important and urgent item on the list, 2 on the next, etc.

By tackling #1 on your list, you know you are doing the most critical task on your list. Even if that’s the only thing you accomplish today, you know you have spent your time on the highest priority on your list.

Transfer today’s prioritized list to today’s page on your calendar. Transfer your lists for each day to the corresponding days on your calendar.

At the end of today, evaluate undone tasks on today’s list and those items on tomorrow’s list. If necessary, reprioritize your list for tomorrow. By doing this tonight, this allows you to get started quickly on your day tomorrow with your most critical task.

As a result of creating and prioritizing your to-do list, you may realize that it is humanly impossible to do all the tasks on your to-do list. You will need to delegate, ask for help, or lower your expectations.

As things came to mind, add them to your list so everything is in one place. If you write things down, you won’t have them rambling around in your mind, and you won’t forget them!

By creating and prioritizing your to-do list, you stay focused on what you need to do,  you’re motivated to use your time well, and you are forced to live in reality as far as what you are humanly able to accomplish.

Beverly Coggins is an organizing expert, speaker and author of the 1-2-3…Get Organized series and blog. Her time management books help you determine your priorities, passions, and gifts, and thereby schedule your life around what matters to you.  Contact information: 330-922-0755.

There are a number of ways to maintain your peak energy level during your work day. Experiment with the following:

- Get organized the night before. By getting your clothes, lunch, and briefcase ready the night before, you’re less likely to be rushed and/or late. A calm and controlled start to your day allows you to focus readily and lucidly when you get to work.

- Get enough sleep. Sleep deprivation results in irritability, stress and slow reaction time similar to being drunk, not to mention many other health risks. Your body keeps track of the sleep you’ve lost. Falling asleep when sitting quietly is an indicator that you may be sleep deprived.

- Take breaks! Take those your employer offers or create your own breaks if you are your own boss. Go for a walk, go outside, climb a few flights of stairs – move! Just a few minutes of change refreshes your mind and your body.

- If you are in a noisy area, close your door or wear headphones to reduce sound, if acceptable at your workplace. Go to a quiet location to work, if possible.

- Eat. If you are running low on fuel, you will not be able to function properly. Have a healthy snack during your breaks.

- Drink. Keep yourself hydrated. Coffee from our well-known coffee cafes is three to four times stronger than regular coffee. And if you get a specialty coffee, it’s loaded with sugar. Stop for one on the way to work, and expect your energy to crash in a couple of hours as the caffeine and sugar wear off. Better to have some green tea or water.

Be intentional about maintaining your energy level, and you’ll find your productivity will increase. As your productivity increases maybe your paycheck will too!

Beverly Coggins is an organizing expert, speaker, and author of the 1-2-3 … Get Organized series. She also writes a daily blog on organizing your office, time, and home. Contact information: Bev@1-2-3GetOrganized.com; 330-922-0755.

Whether you have kids returning to school in a couple of weeks or you just have a busy life, routines can help you make the most of your time. They will help you accomplish all you have to do in your busy schedule, leaving time to enjoy life.

We all tend to have more time in the evening than we do in the morning, so it’s nice to accomplish the jobs can the night before. Here are some ideas for tasks you can add to your evening routine to make your morning less hectic:

• Lay out the clothes you plan to wear the night before so you are not running around in the morning looking for what you need or finding you need to iron an item.
• If you or your child takes a lunch, prepare lunches the night before and refrigerate it. Then you can just grab and go in the morning.
• Pack backpacks or briefcases and have them ready by the door to grab on the way out.
• Add the coffee and water to the coffeemaker the night before so all you have to do it press start. If you have a coffeemaker with a automatic start, set it to go off so that it is ready when you wake up.
• Set the table for breakfast the night before and have simple breakfast options that require little preparation and clean up.
• Before everyone goes to bed, have them make sure all bedrooms, living areas, and the kitchen are picked up.
• If you still find that you are too rushed, set your alarm 5-10 minutes earlier than you need to make time for those unexpected incidents.

By doing some of your morning tasks the night before, the family will rest well in a clutter-free home, knowing they are caught up and ready to begin a new day.

Cathy Bates is owner of Practical Solutions Professional Organizing. The offer hands on organizing for your home or office. Contact Practical Solutions for more information at 909.810.3719 or go online to www.psorganizing.com.