Organize Archives

Visualize your Organized Life

January 7, 2013 by Heather Filed Under: Inspiration & Education, Organize, Wellness & Mindset

As part of Get Organized month I’m sharing some of the big (& small) ways I use to set my intention and get going on the right footing for the new year. The first thing I did was set my intention with a word of the year. This year it’s all about being Radiant!

The next step in my practice for BIG (annual) planning/organizing/strategizing & goal setting is creating an Vision Board. I started this practice back in 2011 and over the last couple years I’ve been so amazed at how fun it is to choose where I want to go and set it down in a concrete visible way. Some people call these Vision Boards others call them Action boards (for those that feel the word “Vision” is to pie-in-the-sky). There are many ways to create these boards via fancy software, fun apps, images, text, or even Pinterest. I just go with the good old fashion cut and paste from magazines (which I always have on hand)!

How does this help you get organized? If you feel there are areas in which you would like a different outcome in your life try creating a vision board to activate and attract what you want to accomplish and how you envision it in ideal reality. Use images and words that feel the way you want to feel about your space and your life.

2013 Vision Board

I prefer one that is all words/text and in a month or two I may create another board with images. For me the clarity of a text board is more appealing and I find it easier to find specific words (rather than images that convey a feeling). I’ve been very careful about how I combine the words I place on my board to draw into my life the specific intentions I desire. When I’m finished I keep it in either my office or studio (alternating) & check in with it for inspiration throughout the year, if I come across something I need to add, I’ll do that as well.

However you want to create your board and whatever you call it, just know that by being very clear about what you want to manifest in your life and putting it down in a concrete way you are more likely to draw attention to theses aspects of yourself (actions, thoughts, etc). It’s all about the law of attraction. When I look back at the last years vision boards I’m truly amazed at the ways in which the specific wishes, desires, dreams and actions have been attracted into my life!

This year, I’ve chosen words that are bigger and bolder in both action and font/colors; I’m reaching for even more!
How do you envision the next year? What do you want to attract and are you creating any type of vision board to activate the process?

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Happy New Year 2013::FEEL, BE, LOVE…

January 1, 2013 by Heather Filed Under: Inspiration & Education, Organize Leave a Comment

Happy 2013!! With the beginning of each New Year many of us are full of resolutions, hopes, commitments, goals and eying up new opportunities.

We are envisioning a year where we accomplish MORE, dream BIGGER and behave BETTER. Maybe we have carried over some resolutions or goals from last year or maybe we are dreaming new dreams!

Whatever you have your heart, soul and mind set on for this coming year, know you are perfectly as you are meant to be right at this moment! Nothing is wrong with hopes, goals and resolutions but as you take the time to set you intention for 2013; ask yourself…

How do you want to FEEL, who do you want to BE, who do you want to LOVE more (yourself, kids, spouse, friends, parents?) and what do you want to LET GO OF in order to really LIVE WELL?

SpaceCraft Studio Makeover

December 3, 2012 by Heather Filed Under: In the Studio, Organize, Organizing Projects Leave a Comment

This week’s makeover features a retail shop I worked with back in October. This was a very fun job for me because it brings together my passions for organizing and crafting! SpaceCraft Studios is a new craft shop and studio where locals can meet other creative people and make stuff! The owner, Allison is already very organized but as you can imagine with any new business she was a little overwhelmed and re-organizing the supplies and storage in the back rooms were just not at the top of her priorities! That’s when she enlisted me to help because she realized that things could quickly get out of hand and starting a new business with good systems in place sets the stage for future success!

As both a craft store and a studio that offers classes there have been (and will continue to be) many donations of materials and supplies. As these came in they began to pile up in the storage room. Creating a system for this area was one of the biggest priorities so that future donations didn’t become overwhelming and un-useful. Without getting rid of anything (because there was an upcoming craft supply swap!) I sorted materials and supplies by category and re-organized how they were grouped and arranged in the space. Adjacent to this space was a smaller area that was storage for tools and additional supplies. Some items in this space were moved out and other tools (from other areas of the shop) were move into this area and re-organized.

[Even the tool boxes got a little makeover!]

The kitchen had become a catch all for a few categories that didn’t necessarily make sense there (tools). These items were relocated to make more efficient use of the kitchen for entertaining supplies, food and storage related items like bags, jars and soap making supplies etc used for some classes.

Most of the organizing I did was “back of house” but I re-arranged/re-organized the resource library (available for students and customers to browse) to make room for a new shipment of product. In this case I sorted books by craft category (sewing, knitting, paper crafting etc). I also worked on labeling some of the smaller already organized supplies in the studio space so that both customers and teachers can easily identify (and return) supplies as needed.

If you find it challenging to organize your craft stash maybe you will get a few inspiring ideas from this post and SpaceCraft Studios!

How do you like to organize your craft/art supplies? If you have any tips or brilliant ideas to share please let me know. For more craft supply organizing ideas I’ve got a great Pinterest Board!

Finding Electronic Files

November 9, 2012 by Heather Filed Under: Digital Organizing, Organize, Paper management, Productivity, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources 1 Comment

In my previous life as a Designer and Project manager, I witnessed a lot of different filing systems both electronic and paper. Some of these were quite effective but many were very cumbersome and way too complicated. Below, my take away is a system that I created based upon the best of everything I learned. I use this system across the board for all my files (on my computer, on paper and in the cloud- design-business-personal).

Having one simplified filing system that applies to all categories makes it simple to locate what you need wherever you need it.

Inside Level 1:: Broad Hierarchy based categories

You can see I have less than 12 folders that are logically divided by category. These live in my main documents folder (which is where everything goes).

Inside Level-2:: Sub Categories-Business folder (similar sub folders for other categories)

…again not many folders and I’m keeping categories broad but specific to help me quickly locate files.

Inside Level 3::Detailed Categories (Year- ‘Clients’ folder)

This is where all client folders are kept by year. I happen to keep my client folders alphabetically by last name but a numbering or other type of system would work equally well.

Inside Level 4:: Sub-folders or loose files

These are the specific files I need to keep for each category, they could be monthly accounting based or whatever I may need for working files.

I use a very similar Hierarchy system for my email files.

In this case I keep emails (when needed) in Outlook folders. Level 1-Broad, Level 2-Sub Categories, Level 3-Detailed categories

I hope this filing system overview gives you a few ideas of how you can simplify or re-arrange your computer filing systems.

What kind of computer filing systems do you? Are they simple or more complex than this? I’d love to hear about them.

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Makeovers of This and That

August 13, 2012 by Heather Filed Under: Organizing Projects 1 Comment

Today’s just a few misc. makeover projects from both our move and clients. The first is an example of a hall closet that contains some linens and a lot of “medicine closet” items that don’t fit into the bathroom. We didn’t buy anything for this project, just sorted through what was there, relocated some items to other areas and switched things around into containers that were more functional for each type of item.

We relocated all the cleaning products to the kitchen that were spread between there and the hall closet. This cleared up the whole top shelf for bathroom and linen related items. We used appropriate sized containers to hold hand towels, wash cloths, extra personal care items, medicines, make up and first aid items.

We were able to easily fit all the household cleaning supplies under the sink. We utilized on container to hold products that could be taken room to room for cleaning in other areas of the house. Moving along to my own house, I fell in love with this chandelier in our Dining room immediately! Unfortunately I don’t think it had ever been properly cleaned. And by properly I mean dis-assembling it by removing each crystal and soaking them, wiping them with a soft cloth and brush to get off the years of grime. This took me almost 4 hours and there are almost 350 crystals but what a spectacular difference it made!

Finally, this is our master bedroom before and after. It’s a small room and we are not able to fit our one large dresser in here but everything else works well and I love the serene blue of these walls which is almost the EXACT shade of blue we had painted in our MD living room before we left. I love this room!

Moving Monday::Kitchen Basics (hkpowerstudio.wordpress.com)