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The Art of List making

May 31, 2016 by Heather Filed Under: Productivity, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources Leave a Comment

Here’s a Quick Tip on the “art” of List Making

I find that a lot of people’s idea of list making is to just keep one big ongoing “To Do”. Do you think about every single thing on your list as a “problem”? This seems to be the normal mindset around items that need to be done. Lists are a way to keep track of all the Problems we need to solve, right?

That may be the case but trying to hold onto all that info in your head is just not a reasonable expectation to have. Your brain is not a storage device, or a warehouse to keep things in! Really! One way I help clients with their productivity is to break lists up by category, just like you would do when filing papers.

Sample “List” categories:List Making Categories

  • Business
  • Personal
  • Creative/Hobbies
  • Wellness/Exercise
  • Community/Volunteer
  • Shopping (*see Our Grocery app)
  • Wellness/Health
  • Kids/Family
  • Pets
  • Financial
  • Projects (anything your planning that might be bigger-like travel plans, events etc)

Within these categories you could list out the items you want or need to do. List making can be done on paper (post it notes are great because you can move them from place to place), in a notepad, a calendar-using color coding if you like (see photo above) or with a technology list tool like Evernote. However you make your lists, keep track of what you are doing by category and ask yourself if it’s important enough to put onto your calendar? If it’s not worth putting on your calendar is it worth doing?

All hangers are NOT equal

April 26, 2016 by Heather Filed Under: Organize, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources Leave a Comment

How to create an orderly closet

Assorted Hangers

This can be next to impossible with a mish-mash of hangers. When working to create an orderly closet, having only a few types of hangers will save space and time keep as well as keep your clothes more neat. I admit it, I’m a hanger snob! When I start a closet organizing project the first thing I do is try to eliminate broken or flimsy hangers (wire, warped plastic etc).  All hangers are not created equally, some do a fine job for certain tasks.

closet mess

Below are my six favorite types of hangers, with a little explanation of what I recommend each for and why.

Wood Hangers these are sturdy and easy to find, not to expensive and great for suits, jackets and outerwear.  If you are using these you might want to get a few with clips for skirts and pants (if you prefer to hang them long).

Velvet Shirt Hangers you either love them or hate them! They’re great for keeping lightweight, loose garments on the hangers and they are super space saving! They can break easily (brittle) and some people with shoulder/arm disabilities find them difficult to work with. I don’t recommend them for pants, unless they are ultra light weight and I also don’t recommend the “gadgets” they sell to convert these into multi hangers or clip hangers, they tend to make them break more easily.

Hangers

No Slide Found In Slider.

Non Slip U-Slide Hangers are a great alternative to the velvet hangers. These are more sturdy than velvet (see above) and have grippy sections to keep clothes in place. These are an upgrade to the standard “plastic tube” hangers that deform easily and stuff slides off. The U-shape opening on one side make them easy to put clothes on and take them off.

Space saving pants hangers these are a new favorite, slimline, sturdy metal coated with non-slip rubber and easy to use. Everything you need in a pants hanger unless you like to hang them lengthwise in which case you will want a clip style (either wood above or basic plastic below).

There are a couple other hangers worth mentioning (and loads more to choose from) but there’s a reason most retail stores use these basic plastic skirt hangers. They save space, are inexpensive and do a great job holding onto your skirts and pants. Not everyone loves them but they are study, slim and keep things in place. Finally the padded satin hanger, not just for your grandmom! Although I recommend folding knits, if you must hang some of them these lovely hangers keep the shoulders from looking funny!

Multi hanger closet

The closet above has a jumble of different hangers making it difficult to get clothes in and out and hard to see what’s what. Below hangers and clothes have been streamlined into 2 basic types (wood and U-Slide) to save space and make clothes easier to find and hang back up!

Organized closetDo you need more tips to create an orderly closet? Sign up for my newsletter and get a free guide to Spring Closet Clean Out.

Short Organizing “Resource” books

March 15, 2016 by Heather Filed Under: Books, Inspiration & Education, Organize, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources, Uncategorized, Wellness & Mindset Leave a Comment

Recently there have been a lot of new organizing books published

Many people liked The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up (which I reviewed here) but there are some other wonderful new small Organizing Books and here are two, both excellent and quite different in their layout and approach of the same subject matter: Clutter Clearing!

Never Too Busy to Cure Clutter (More than 365 Tips to Maker Room for What’s Truly Important) by Erin Rooney Doland

Clutter Book1

I kind of feel that if I were to write a book on organizing it would be similar to this in many ways. Erin’s tone here is not one of preaching or stating that in order to successfully banish clutter you must do things in A—>B—>C order. Erin explains for some people priorities may be different, with a different emphasis on areas of the, some being more or less critical depending on your lifestyle. I love that this book is broken down by area of the home, identifying the ‘everyone’s use’ spaces and those that are more ‘private’. This brings me back to my days of doing hospitality work and maybe it would be helpful for you to also think of your home in terms of ‘Public’ and ‘Private’ spaces. Public or everyone spaces such as Entry, Living Room, Dining Room Kitchen and Bath are addressed first and more private areas in the second section. Each section (chapter) is broken down into tasks you can do in 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes or 15 minutes. In this manner she successfully makes it clear that living clutter free means always maintaining your home by doing small tasks with regularity. She reminds us that tasks will take each of us a different amount of time so to be aware of what task you choose and record it right in the book if it takes you more or less time. What I think works well about this book is that by repeating the same format of steps throughout the house but with tasks specific to those areas of the home she illustrates that there is a certain mindset behind living clutter free and she helps you to begin to identify what steps you need to take in each room on a regular basis to make lasting changes in your habits. In breakout sections through out the book she gives hints and tips on resources and tools (techniques, storage, apps, programs). Finally she concludes with some great examples of sample habits and routines including tasks and estimated time that can help us identify what we need to do on a regular basis. Maybe it helps to think of routines as rituals…like our morning ritual, house cleaning ritual, travel rituals etc. I’ve read quite a few small organizing “resource” books and find this one to be jam packed full of excellent practical advice and useful information.

Clear the Clutter, Find Happiness (One-Minute Tips for Decluttering and Refreshing Your Home and Your Life) by Donna Smallin

Clutter Book2

This book is almost what I would call a “Pocket Guide” to clutter clearing. Open it to the front and you won’t find a chapter index…she dives right into small tips and motivational words to get you clutter busting any time you are in the mood. The book has a warm and cheery energy with orange and gold hues throughout …(I love a books that have creative layout’s that are different!) The whole book is loosely organized by certain areas of the home but open to any given page and on each page you will find a motivational tip, quote or thought provoking mindset topic. In a very lighthearted way she probes into the “why” behind our clutter habits. Along with mantra’s and time savers like “Don’t Just Put it Down, Put it Away” there are a variety of organizing tasks to do within one minute (aprox). By the end she is really helping you to develop new healthy habits that will keep the clutter clear for good. In summary she ends by sharing that clutter comes from our bad habits, setting things down where they don’t belong, not having permanent homes for certain items, not making decisions that will keep us clear of clutter. It really comes down to two things…Commitment to Change and repeatedly following through by acting on these clutter clearing tasks. This is a great book for anyone who struggles with small day to day clutter tasks and keeping in the mindset of changing bad habits.

What Clutter Clearing books have you read or found helpful?

Do you ‘Feel’ Organized?

March 8, 2016 by Heather Filed Under: Inspiration & Education, Organize, Tips & Resources, Wellness & Mindset Leave a Comment

The other evening I was at a community event and someone came up to me and we began chatting. The conversation started discussing a common interest then turned and she was asked what I do. I said I’m a Professional Organizer and Artist and she asked…

“What do you organize? Do you work with people who are already organized or people who are not so organized“?

I loved the way she asked this and my answer surprised me because it was so simple and applies to all my clients.

I help people who have been more organized at another time in their life and want to feel organized again. This perfectly sum’s up almost all of my clients (and will become my new 10 second ‘elevator pitch’)! Some of them were organized before the got married, started a job, a family, moved, downsized into a smaller place, got divorced etc. What each of them have in common is that they KNOW what it feels like to be more organized but at this point in their life they just can’t keep up with the process, strategies they have tried or may not have the time or physical energy to do it themselves. I don’t just serve my clients in their state of dis-order or how they have felt in the past. I serve my clients by looking at who they are becoming!

State of Organization

NO shame in that right? I am really interested in airing out the shame side of this process…and am so tired of people making others who work with an organizer feel ashamed. It’s not fair or right and the people who are making you feel ashamed? I bet they might just be a little bit jealous:)

Feeling organized is relative from person to person but it’s a feeling we can each measure internally. Do we feel better or worse about our “State of Organization” now then we did at another point in our life? Using our own life as a gauge rather than others is the best way to determine if we feel good about where we are. Once we know how we feel we can choose to take action and change it, either on our own or with a little help.

18 Artists Share Studio Tips

January 7, 2016 by Heather Filed Under: In the Studio, Inspiration & Education, Organize, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources 1 Comment

Going back through the past year’s 18 featured Artists I realized there are some amazing artist studio tips on organizing and productivity to be learned from these creative’s! If you missed one or more, here are the highlights. I am so grateful to get to meet these artists and be invited into their creative sanctuaries and I’m especially happy to be able to share them with you! From Maine to Charleston, New Zealand, to Switzerland it’s been an inspirational year interviewing these artists!

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Cobalt Sky:: I am always out of empty (yogurt) paint cups!! I just got wise and switched to cupcake liners! My pillows hang to dry, so my space is very product specific. I have exposed beams in the studio, without them I am not sure how I could manage. Last winter when we renovated the space- everything went OUT and only pillow business stuff came back. Now I feel organized! Doing this for my work space greatly improved the whole business.

Everything gets put away and the work table is clear after every work shift. In Maine we call that “ship shape”.

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Karl B::Most of my sewing supplies are attached to my work table or in the closets behind me. I keep my trusty shears in a holster on my belt. I learned which tools I needed to purchase or make and hung them from hooks on my worktable, the wall or made shelf space. For safety’s sake I always try to keep the the floor clean and first aid easily accessible.

IMG_1445

Ruth D::For the number of quilts that get ‘churned out’ each year, my stash of fabric is actually reasonable small, and easy to access and sort through. It’s all located in the black crates which we use all through our house. They are large, sturdy, and stack on top of each other if we need to. I thrive on systems, and am always reviewing to help me work more effectively. I keep a calendar on my iPad, always have several projects scheduled in there, broken down into manageable tasks.

On her “stash”…I actually enjoy the challenge of working with a limited range of techniques and materials.

On planning her studio…Desks and storage around the perimeter of the room, under the sloping ceilings made complete sense.

IMG_6462

Selinde L::I have always been one to finish things that I start before launching something new, preferring to work linearly. We do so much multitasking in our everyday lives now that I actually find this singular concentration therapeutic and even luxurious. That said, I usually have at least two journals and a sketchbook going at one time, places to store the myriad of ideas that pop into my head so that I can access them easily whenever I need to.

IMG_6270

Jennythreads::Growing up, I was naturally messy, and my dad remembers nicknaming me “Tornado Jenny” because my room was always such a mess. When I was in graduate school iI worked for an antique repair shop. This place was absolute chaos inside, my boss would take tools from my work area or leave his messes on my table and it started to drive me crazy. Fed up, I covered my table with white butcher paper and told him it was off-limits. From him, I finally learned how inefficient and exasperating it is to spend more time looking for tools or supplies than actually working, and that’s when I started making an effort to be more organized.I LOVE to purge things regularly. I keep a constant Goodwill bag in the garage as things get edited out of the house.  At the studio, I tend to keep more things around because they are useful. I keep some stashes, but I keep them under control.

IMG_6794

Finkelsteins::I consider myself an organized person even if my techniques for organization only make sense to me. My habits happen organically through necessity. Systems occur due either to space availability or the need to contain a certain type of material. I try keep like items together so I’m not running around in the middle of a creative process tracking down ribbon or thread. My productivity really drops if I’m pulled away to locate materials. A tip that works for me, I try to stick to buying only supplies that I absolutely need. I use to buy materials because it was fun to raid the craft store. As my space started to fill I stopped myself from doing that. I have slowly purged my storage bins of things that just take up space.

The Pixeladies::Deb doesn’t like to throw anything away. “We might need it.” Kris was born to purge. Since we work together every day we learn from each other. Both of our fathers were career Army/Air Force officers. That kind of discipline obviously rubbed off on us. We both remember having to “put things back where you found them.”MarlisEgger_little_helper

Marlis E::No one ever taught me to de-clutter, it came naturally to me, probably because I’ve always lived in small apartments. I like to live in a minimalistic zen-like space where everything has its place and where there is a lot of space to breathe. Most of us creative people have hoarding tendencies. We are so afraid we might need something “later” that we pile stuff around ourselves “just in case”. For example, if you love to work with paper, but don’t enjoy working with glue, why do you keep 10 different brands and qualities of glue? Keep only what you love and what you enjoy working with.

IMG_7983

Whitney K::I have always been a list-maker and have folders and books with everything written out. I have to have all my busy work finished in the morning- dealing with clients, commission emails, working with galleries, etc.- and then have a large block of consistent time to only concentrate on the actual painting. I do a big purge a few times a year. And I wouldn’t be able to live without a big old school calendar to see the month mapped out.

Multiple Pen & Pencil storage drawers-Alan's Home Studio Hirona M & Alan J:: On storage…Alan-Organizing large drawings with flat files and storing materials came from my experience in architecture school and architectural offices. I’ve learned other habits through trial and error and looking for products that solve specific storage problems. I’ve also had furniture built to help with storage challenges. Hirona-I am very compartment oriented, if not organized in a traditional sense.  I try to mark things, but sometimes materials are hard to categorize.  Things that reflect light could also be things that magnify or are metallic.  I’d say that I learned these methods from my parents.  Both have very specific ways of fitting and organizing things that make sense mostly to them.Compartments hold a variety of found objects

On schedules and systems…Alan-I have a Monthly Planner where I keep track of all appointments, deadlines and other significant dates. This is invaluable for keeping me on track and aware of what’s coming up. I also have a daily journal where I keep my daily To-Do lists and where I write down events of the day. Hirona-I don’t set a schedule for myself, I let the pressure of deadlines or genuine inspiration motivate me.  By rotating my focus from piece to piece and seeing everything together I can keep tabs on my progress and regulate the pace I’m working at.

Artist Morgan Santander's Studio

Morgan S::I like heavy items on wheels. My studio needs to be able to easily convert into a makeshift woodshop, a photo studio, a show space, a painting studio, and an office at any given time. If space is limited take advantage of vertical space and build the necessary storage accordingly. Building a large table on wheels, one that is specific to the studio space and my painting needs was important.

IMG_6327

Heather AH::I like to know where to find things so I have developed my own systems for organization. For 7 years I had a studio that had a mandatory sprinkler system that propelled me down a path of using clear plastic boxes to organize and store materials etc. It allows me to see where things are and allows me to easily carry things to another studio and they are already packed for moving! Everyone is different and so it is best to be aware of how you work and support your innate logic and way of working. Whenever I see a “system” at another artist studio or home, I use it for inspiration and modify it to fit me. My studios are constantly evolving to suit my needs.

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Beth MS::All of my surfaces re recycled. We collect them from our daily travels. My husband brings many things home from his treks to rural places. We don’t have much of an organizational system but we won’t give up trying

On her legacy…I feel like what I’m leaving behind is more than a piece of art work…..it’s the idea of making use of objects that others might discard.

IBU Inspration Wall

Jamie B-IBU::On inspiration…I’m surrounded by inspiration! We have a huge inspiration board that has great magazine photographs and clippings.

On knowing her limitations…usually work on up to three items at once. Any more and I might get un-organized in my thoughts and processes and be more prone to make a mistake.

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Craig C::On his art…Things change. Very simply I would say I make systems and these systems are constantly being updated. A few years ago I had a very romantic vision of being a full time artist; I would sip tea and think in a bright colored robe. In reality I’ve never done that. I don’t even have a robe. I spend most of my time  promoting what I’m doing and\or chasing new opportunities. Which is certainly not a bad life. I have always thought art could expand beyond the work.

When I was younger I had a great memory. I could remember whole tour itineraries not anymore. I save everything I can now mostly so I can show my daughter someday. But I’m also leaving myself a breadcrumb trail. I meet so many amazing people in my travels I hope to document them all.

On Sound + Light…I’m coming at this from a touring musician’s start, I deliver and install everything myself. I have created a life that allows me to pack the van and hit the road. I am very proud of the pack. I like the idea of space and how we can manipulate it.

painting siupplies

Rob M::My paints are all in a central location, stored in my taboret. I don’t line my colors up in a row or organize my brushes but they’re all right there ready to go when I want them. I must admit I keep a lot of material that were passed down from my father, which I never use. I keep them around because they inspire me.

On staying motivated…the constraints in my mind sometimes say “why bother?” It’s then I remind myself, I’m painting for the ages and not just a quick sale in a gallery.

Karin Olah's studio

Karin O::Pencils, scissors, paint brushes are bouquets of art supplies in flower pots. I use my cool Lobo easel that can fold down to a table top for the fabric layer process. I have an L-shaped desk made of luan blank doors, sandwiched with a space that works as a flat file for paper, unfinished art, a wet palette, or anything to keep clear of my toddlers’ adorable fingerprints.

On time management…When I have a show or project coming up, I work 40 hours a week – 10 of which is in front of a computer, doing marketing, inventory, emails, and website stuff.

On planning…

  • I buy the frames for a show before I make the art.
  • I know my car measurements and space limitations.
  • I create a worksheet of blank canvas inventory and fill it in as I go.

IMG_1393Duke H::I am disciplined. The Creative process is work, nothing comes easily. I sit down and just do this (doodle and sketch). Never wait for inspiration to come to you. Just sit down and do it (that does take discipline!). I treat my art as a business, I keep files of expenses etc just to keep things efficient.

When it comes to archiving…A fellow painter died several years ago without archiving, it was a real mess. I have been serious about this for the past three years.

What have you learned or loved from the Inside the Artist Studio feature? Is there anything you would like me to ask or share from artists I interview in the future? Any artists you would like to see featured? Leave me a comment or shoot me an email, I’d love to hear your ideas!

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