Creatively Organized Spaces for Organizing & clutter clearing tips for simplified living

Do I need a Home Inventory?

September 10, 2020 by Heather Filed Under: Kids & Family Organizing, Organize, Organizing Projects, Planning & Goals, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Do you have a disaster plan? Wondering if you really need a home inventory? Whether you have one started or have nothing at all read on to learn why you need a home inventory and how to protect your personal property.

Almost all of us need a home inventory, whether we are renting or own your homes or businesses. If you have insurance, you need an inventory to prove replacement value. Sadly, a lot of people think that because they have insurance they don’t need to worry about a home inventory. But unfortunately, that’s not true, having insurance doesn’t’ guarantee you will get replacement value for your property. There are so many irreplaceable things and all the little stuff really adds up. Having a home inventory will save you a huge potential headache, hours of time, or worse out of pocket expenses lost down the drain. When you’re trying to dig your way out of a disaster, that added stress is the last thing you need. When I became a professional organizer, I learned all about the different home inventory systems and tools available. I also helped clients with creating inventory systems both before and after disasters, mostly flooding, some theft. Trust me when I say, you don’t want to have to inventory your stuff after it’s been damaged or try to remember what’s missing! It’s not the insurance companies responsibility to take your word for all your personal belongings, and it’s not in their interest to help you with this. If you can’t prove you owned it (meaning tracking down receipts or charges, photo’s or other documentation) you may lose altogether.

What needs to be inventoried? The quick answer is everything! You are probably thinking this will take ages and depending on how much detail you want to include, it could be a significant undertaking but really not so bad if you take it step-by-step and room-by-room.

Without an inventory, you could end up with a mess on your hands and thousands of dollars in lost assets! Don’t get stuck sorting toilet plungers from kitchen utensils, holiday decor, and more. Document what you’ve got and what would need to be replaced.

I’ve worked extensively on creating inventory for insurance claims. Here’s what you need to know. Photos are your friends! Spreadsheets are super helpful and may prevent you from having to fill out additional information in the event of an insurance claim. But there are other systems out there that are super helpful and can do more for you than just a home inventory.

As the well known Sheryl Sandberg quote goes “Done is better than perfect.” So true in the case of an inventory! Just having photo’s is better than nothing!

A home inventory Checklist can help you to understand what information will be most valuable in the case of an insurance claim. Most insurance companies would like to have the following. The more info you can provide, the more accurate your claim and reimbursement will be. Remember, the more complicated your assets and estate, the more details you will need.

It may not be necessary to have all the information below. If you’re in a disaster situation and realize you don’t have anything, the short answer is to photograph every wall of every room, even opening cabinets, closets, and taking photos of contents by shelf. Take notes on contents to help jog your memory, noting location and a general description. Photograph anything specifically valuable in each room. These photos and notes will prove invaluable if you have to evacuate quickly and end up losing property.

Remember, “Done is better than perfect!” What follows is a more detailed guide of what your insurance company might request. Not having all of this does not mean you will not get reimbursed. The more you can provide, the quicker and more smoothly things will move along.

List items by room- This will help qualify content damage when structural damage has been done
Include a basic description
Make/model
Serial or ID number
Quantity
Assign value (replacement value will be paid based on current market value-ex. electronics that may have cost you $500 might be replaceable for $200 today)
Date purchased
Receipt if available
Reference photo’s

Home Zada is one of the most comprehensive home management tools out there and does everything from home maintenance reminders to home inventory. If you’re on the serious side of protecting your valuable assets, I can’t recommend a better way to manage it all in one place! This is a cloud-based option so you won’t lose it if you lose your computer!

Another great comprehensive but inexpensive system is Liberty Street Home Manage software (also cloud-based). It’s under $40 and allows you to enter all the important documentation and photo’s for all your assets (at multiple locations).

Several insurance companies have their own systems, so ask your insurance agent what they offer! It will probably be free and give them everything needed if you ever had to make a claim.

Home Contents is a UK Based app that makes home inventory a snap with your digital camera in-phone. And finally, in the app department, My Stuff has several free and paid options with great features for adding items to folders, tagging, etc for easier sorting and organizing.

If you prefer to stick with a spreadsheet-style inventory, just do a quick search for Home Inventory Checklist to find quite a few good options available for free. Most of these are templates that you can download and use on your computer/device.

Spreadsheet systems (I’ve used comprehensively with insurance agents to recover contents lost) can be clunky and it’s difficult to quickly see photos of items with their description. Another drawback is that unless you backup your computer or device, you run the risk of losing your inventory (photo’s and checklist) along with your contents in case of a disaster!

If a home inventory is something you want help setting up, let me know and I’d be glad to assist!

No matter what system you choose, I hope you will make a plan, schedule it on your calendar and start your home inventory today!

A fun & easy kids capsule wardrobe

September 6, 2020 by Heather Filed Under: Closets, Organize, Organizing Projects, Systems & Techniques Leave a Comment

More than once, I’ve walked into clients who were nearly in tears or having a meltdown over their kid’s rooms and stuff everywhere. This can be utterly frustrating, especially with most of us at home, almost all the time right now, living, working, eating, schooling together! Kids and their stuff, their messy rooms, and their over-bulging closets and drawers filled with way more clothes than needed can create the perfect storm for overwhelm and overreacting. Sadly what can often happen is parents beat themselves up, thinking “this is my fault, I let them have all these things and I don’t have the time and energy to manage it all!” No, No, No, it’s not all your fault!

I’m thrilled to work with parents who want to model and teach their kids how to manage the stuff overload. This is not just a problem for parents and kids, it’s something we all are dealing with to some degree or another.

Today, we will tackle one category of stuff that tends to make a lot of work for all of us, our clothes! There are strategies for parents and kids to help make it easier to choose what to wear. A kids capsule wardrobe can help reduce decision fatigue, save money, and the time it takes to get ready in the morning.

How to create a fun & easy kids capsule wardrobe

Here’s a step by step plan which works best when you can involve your kids, even the little one’s can have a strong opinion about the process!

Start with clean laundry that’s been sorted, and purged in each kid’s room which will give you a wardrobe to “Shop” from. The process isn’t that different than any other organizing one, where donations, trash, and items to keep are sorted into categories. The main thing to do differently is to create a simple and easy kids wardrobe for them to look through and purge further. Count how many items in each category of clothing they have and established some guidelines for what seems reasonable for them to pick their favorites from.

Create a Kids Capsule Wardrobe in 5 easy steps:

1. Clean all the clothes and gather in one place.

2. Sort and eliminate any that are not in good shape, don’t fit, or are impractical.

3. Look at the overall colors, styles your kids gravitate towards, and start gathering them into categories eliminating duplicates and oddballs that don’t fit with the scheme.

4. Put clothes away, hanging, and folding. You might want to try the Kon-Marie method of folding (Tee-shirt video here) or use a folding board. Arranged by category (shirts, pants, shorts, etc) and color to make it easier to mix and match outfits.

To make this work you may need to fill in some pieces if you find wardrobe gaps. Now you have the makings for a funky, fun, and easy mix and match wardrobe system! This could be a great way to simplify your kid’s wardrobe and from there, the closet’s and clothes storage might be a little easier!

Here is a general idea of what categories you might find helpful and how many of each item seems appropriate, some of these might differ for your kids:

Pants, shorts, and jeans-5-10 per season
Skirts and dresses-5-10
Shirts (not tee-shirts)-10-15
Tee Shirts-10-15
Sweatshirts and Long sleeve tees-5-10
Sweaters-5-10
Undergarments-7-14
Sports gear (yoga pants/tanks/athletic shorts)-5-10
Bathing suits-5-10

If your kids go to a private school or wear uniforms, that will be a separate category but manage the number of each style needed. They may also be very involved in sports and have a lot of gear, so count that as another category and keep the number of items per sport manageable.

These guidelines should help you create a basic and easy kids capsule wardrobe. These categories and quantities are a starting point for you and your kids if you think it’s still too much then whittle it down further. Less is more when it comes to maintaining an easy kids wardrobe, especially when kids grow quickly and tend to need things replaced more frequently than adults. Have fun and maybe this will inspire you to create a capsule wardrobe of your own!

Essential College Organizing (for in-person & online learning)

August 22, 2020 by Heather Filed Under: Kids & Family Organizing, Organize, Productivity, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources 1 Comment

This year, in particular, transitioning to or back to college might feel particularly overwhelming for both in-person and online classes. There is a lot that has changed over the past year but keeping organized is a strategy that will help improve study skills, lifestyle habits, and time management. These skills become more important the more we have at stake and college is a time where we are asked to juggle building new relationships, living independently or with new extended families, and building knowledge. Any of these on their own is a considerable undertaking, so approaching this transition should be undertaken with a good dose of strategy, support from people who care about you and want to see you succeed and a large heaping of self-care. If you’re feeling overwhelmed already, break it down into smaller manageable tasks and be mindful of your emotions! It’s a big change in the midst of an already crazy world, so don’t dismiss how you feel!

The intention of this post is to share some helpful strategies for getting and staying organized for both new and returning students. Some of you may have eagerly planned, shopped and packed over the summer and are settling in or getting ready to. There are still lots of folks preparing for the new school year, either in dorms or online. No matter where you are taking classes (in person, online), these Essential Organizing tips will help you get a handle on planning for and transitioning into this experience!

Productivity, Routines, and Schedules

By now you should probably have the school year calendar and have a target date for the start of classes and moving to campus. The following categories as they relate to routines and schedules can help make this a more mindful transition for life schedules and productivity.

Transportation-Will a car be available or will is it going to be transportation by bus or college shuttle? Is there a metro or other public transportation in their new city? Be sure to understand the best method of transportation and if cars are allowed on campus (not the case for many freshmen). Work out travel transportation arrangements ahead of time for upcoming school drop off, pick up and holidays (through the end of the year). This might include airfare so book ahead and know the rules and download any useful local apps for mass transit.
Planner or Calendar-Decide how to keep track of calendars so that everything needed is in one place, based on what works. Use either a digital or paper planner (there is a big trend to return to paper!) to keep track of important dates, orientation, move in, class schedule (and locations on campus), appointments, projects, finals, and holidays. Consider something like a whiteboard (in the dorm/room) to track schedules while adjusting to this new way of life. If possible, do this ahead of time before heading off to school where the tendency will be to get caught up in the excitement of new campus life! Planners are only helpful if they are with you so keep it where it’s needed (in a backpack or purse etc).
Activities, sports, and clubs (most will be transitioned to online or postponed this fall)-If your college planning to get involved in sports, clubs etc…get these activities booked on your master calendar along with the school schedule and decide on any necessary transportation. Cross-reference these activities with the school schedule and keep it all in one place. It’s great to get involved, but be sure there’s a sense of balance between schoolwork, activities, and “play” or free time to be with friends, socialize, relax, etc.
Productivity, routines, and study time– Think and Talk about to-do lists and schedule planning (daily, weekly, or monthly) to stay on top of important tasks, projects, classes, and dates. Consider what routines and systems have worked in the past and set up systems for successful and focused study time. This will be different from situation to situation but consistency is key, especially simple things like waking up at the same time daily, making your bed, weekly shopping & laundry, etc. When it comes to studying if you are easily distracted by other people being around, have a plan to seek out a quiet place on campus or at home (dorm or with family) that will enable successful focus. Create a few simple rules and rituals, like picking up daily (5 mins/day), keeping your desk clean, empty/repack your bag daily so you have what you need ready the next day. Have a plan for note-taking, setting up binders and folders by class (color code, etc), or other systems that have been successful. Find a routine for self-discipline, this means getting 6-8hrs of sleep a night, eating regularly, taking necessary medications, self-regulating screen time (games, apps, etc), and generally acting like an adult! All the freedom is fun but when things spiral out of control have a plan to get back on track. Most of us thrive with routines and it’s even more important in transitions to implement them for our own success:)

Supplies and Shopping

This is always a big part of school preparation. If you need to order equipment, uniforms, supplies, books, etc you may already be in the process of doing so. If your state (or the one the college is in) has a Tax Free Weekend (usually in August), plan accordingly so you can make major purchases over that weekend.

Supplies-Create a master list based upon all the supplies needed. “Shop” your house first, gathering anything on the list into one container (box or bag).
Budget-set a limit (realistic) on what you can and will spend so you don’t get sucked into extras.
Categorize-Break the shopping items into categories (see below). E.X. categories might include books, school/desk supplies, clothing, dorm room, meals, electronics, etc.
Shopping-Do a little preliminary research online and either make the purchases online or decide where you will go for what.

A-Z Dorm Essentials for Cleaning and Organizing

These are great resources to have on hand and will be helpful for a variety of uses in the dorm. I’ve created an Amazon Shopping list with suggested items here.

Backpack or bag
Bedside Caddy
Bed Risers (optional)
Hooks (a variety of sizes & types including command & over the door)
Hangers (check to see if you need to bring them but probably!)
Labels (a label maker or write on labels)
Laundry supplies (basket/bag, detergent)
Over the door or under bed shoe organizer
Overnight bag
Permanent markers
Poster Putty for hanging decorative things on the walls
Power Strip-surge protector
Small rolling Cart (with shelves or drawers)
Shelf &/or drawer dividers/organizers (assorted sizes)
Toiletry or shower caddy
Trash & recycling bins/bags (so many people don’t have them!)
Under-bed storage bins (will fit with bed risers-wait if you don’t know)
Zip bags in assorted sizes
Zip ties (assorted sizes for cables, hanging items, etc)

ABC’s of Dorm Packing Essentials

There are a ton of great resources and lists over on Pinterest, so I won’t recreate them but here are general packing categories. It’s best to wait on things like a mini-fridge, microwave, dishes (other than a cup/mug, plate and one set of silverware), Iron/Board (unless fashion is your thing!), vacuum (maybe a dustbuster and mini broom), TV and Printer. These are all things that others or the school will have. Besides, you might not need it at all or you can get them later.

Bathroom-Toiletries
Cleaning Supplies (lots of extra or a plan to get more as needed)
Clothing
Cooking & Dining Supplies
Desk Supplies
Dorm Room
Food
First Aid Kit
Electronics
Furniture & Decorations
Medications (Supplements, cold & Rx)
Personal Items
School Supplies
Sports Equipment

This is a lot of info in one place! I hope these Off to College Essential Organizing Tips will help prepare for schedule and lifestyle changes, supplies, and shopping, and finally packing before this next adventure begins!

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Don’t PANIC-PREPARE for natural disasters

June 30, 2020 by Heather Filed Under: Emergency Preparedness, Organize, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources 1 Comment

No matter where you live, it’s practically impossible to ignore and vital to prepare for natural disasters! With the change in our climate, especially for those of us who live along the coastlines, it pays to get organized, ‘Just in Case’ there’s a natural disaster!

On cue for Hurricane season, it’s time to Prepare for natural disasters.

Do you have a plan in place, know your evacuation route, have supplies ready?

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Apps with a focus on Personal and Business Productivity

May 20, 2020 by Heather Filed Under: Digital Organizing, Organize, Productivity, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources Leave a Comment

People often ask me what productivity Apps I use and recommend. It’s been a while since I’ve included a roundup on the blog so as requested, here are some useful Apps with a focus on Personal and Business Productivity.

Apps with a Focus on Personal and Business Productivity

Asana
Created by Facebook co-founder, Dustin Moskovits, and fellow Facebook associate Justin Rosenstein, Asana allows teams to track their work through project and task assignments that have the ability to feature notes, comments, attachments, and tags without having to use personal email to communicate. Instead, when changes are made to projects by team members, a message is sent to the project manager’s inbox through Asana’s internal messaging system.

Basecamp
Since its inception in 2004, Basecamp has seen two new product launches in 2012 and 2015 of Basecamp 2 and Basecamp 3, respectively. This platform stores and organizes your work in one place through the use of team message boards and comment threads, real-time chat, automatic check-ins, to-do lists, document and file storage, a centralized schedule, reports, and a very handy search feature for digging up old docs.

*Evernote
This multiplatform app comes in free or upgraded paid version. Evernote is best for note-taking, organizing, and archiving. Users create “notes” which can come in the form of formatted text, a webpage or excerpt, photograph, voice memo, or even a handwritten “ink” note. Notes can also includes attachments; be annotated, tagged, edited, commented on, or searched; and are exported as a page in a notebook.

*Goodreads
For the bookworm in all of us. Goodreads is an Amazon company through which “social cataloging” allows users to search and save books and reading lists. The platform is heavily driven by the use of its members who can create group book suggestions, blogs, polls, and discussion threads; generate library catalogs, and search through the Goodreads ever-growing database of books and reviews.

*Google Drive
Whether you are using it for business or personal purposes, Google Drive is a great option for accessible, user-friendly cloud storage. Google Drive features Google Sheets, Docs, Powerpoints, and a variety of templates that can be stored and edited by those they are shared with. Alternatively, users can upload their own files and images to the drive. One of selling points of Google Drive is that it is relatively low-maintenance and can be customized to meet the unique needs of each user through a variety of add-ons that can be downloaded from the Google App store.

*Our Groceries
Few things are more frustrating than arriving at the grocery store only to realize you have forgotten the grocery list on the kitchen counter. Our Groceries is a free mobile app that will save you this grief by saving your grocery list to your smart phone or web browser. Features include a drag-and-drop component to allow you to move items on your list based on the layout of your grocery store, a tap function to delete list items, and optional categories to organize your list into aisles or food types.

LastPass
Internet security is a growing concern these days especially when every platform we use requires a login and password access. LastPass is a secure platform that uses a master password that only the user, not even LastPass, has access to in order to safely store their passwords. Additional features include cross-browser synchronization, secure password generation, password encryption, form filling, importing/exporting of passwords, portable access, fingerprint identification, and credit monitoring.

*Ovuview.
This app is great for all women whether you have a pesky period or are trying to conceive or simply want to track your menstrual cycle. Ovuview uses features like cycle statistics, tracking and reporting of temperature and symptoms, calendars, fertility awareness methods, and more to help women maximize chances of pregnancy, avoid pregnancy, track weight gain, headaches, and other PMS-related symptoms, and conveniently chart their cycle on their phones.

Prezi
Prezi is a cloud-based service that allows users to create professional level presentations with great ease. Unlike Powerpoint, Prezi utilizes a single canvas that can be zoomed in and out on to a single group of text or images making for a very dynamic presentation. The freeform design also allows Prezi to be used effectively as a collaborative whiteboard, great for teamwork in the office or with clients.

RescueTimeBecause we have all fallen into the great abyss that is Facebook or Wikipedia or Buzzfeed. RescueTime monitors and tracks how you use your time on the internet. Reports are then generated that allow you to see just how productive, or not, you are being. For a slightly pricey premium upgrade, RescueTime will also track phone calls, breaks, meetings and even send you notification reminding users to get back on track.

Slack
The name is more than just ironic. Slack is actually an acronym that stands for Searchable Log of All Converstaion and Knowledge. The cloud-based software allows for highly effective team collaboration through features like topic-centered conversation, private and direct messaging, task and project management, file storage and sharing, and a search feature. Additionally Slack also conveniently integrates with other platforms including Dropbox, Google Drive, Trello, and and GitHub to name a few.

Stayfocusd
Whether it’s flashy ads or Facebook notifications, the internet often feels like it built as one huge distraction. Stayfocusd was designed to help users do just that – stay focused. The app has highly customizable features that block time-wasting websites, impose time limits on certain sites, and set times of day or days of the week to allow for a a quick web surfing indulgence or two.

*SwiftKey (Android)
For Android users, SwiftKey swaps out your traditional keyboard for a smarter, more user-friendly keyboard. This multilingual app allows your fingers to glide over the board and tracks your conversational habits to better predict what you are going to type. If you choose to, upon installation you can give SwiftKey access to your social media accounts to even better understand your typing behavior.

To-Do’ist
To-Do’ist is much more than an app to stores lists. The app is functional across multiple platforms, devices, inboxes, and browsers and includes a number of features that allow users to share lists, collaborate on lists, set notifications and reminders, make comments, form sub-tasks and sub-projects, give priority to certain tasks and lists, and organize with labels and filters. On top of it all, To-Do’ist also tracks your activity and produces visual reports to help you gage how most effectively manage your tasks.

Trello
Trello is a web-based project management tool that can be used on both a professional and personal capacity. Boards represent projects which contain task lists. Within each list are cards that, using the drag-and-drop method, can be passed from list to list or reassigned to different users. This system is meant to mirror the flow of projects from idea to implementation.

*Unroll.Me
Whether you signed up for them on purpose or not, subscription emails and newsletters have a tendency to muck up our inboxes and distract us from the more meaningful messages that should take priority. Unroll.Me solves this issue by consolidating your subscription services into a manageable summary. This way instead of receiving 20+ newsletters a day users of Unroll.Me get one much more digestible email.

Microsoft To-Do, (formerly Wunderlist see alternatives here)
Similar to To-Do’ist, take task management and personal productivity to a new level. Features include sorting lists into folders, list-sharing and collaborating, synchronization across multiple devices and with Microsoft Office, notes and comments, reminder and due date notifications, mail and print functions, and an add-to feature that can turn things you run across on the web into actionable items.

*Items I personally use-please note which apps are available for (Android, iOS).

Do you use any of these Apps? If so I’d love to hear what you think and if there are others I’ve missed, please include them in the comments below. Happy Apping!

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8 Easy Steps to Closet Cleanout

April 15, 2020 by Heather Filed Under: Closets, Inspiration & Education, Organize, Organizing Projects, Systems & Techniques

Tackle your wardrobe and seasonal closet clutter with these 8 Easy Steps to Closet Cleanout.

Spring fever and the extra hour of daylight spur many of us onto spring cleaning, especially right now while we are spending more time at home! We are still in the height of Spring Cleaning frenzy so if you haven’t yet tackled the closets, there’s still plenty of time before the heat of the summer and seasonal vacations and kids summer breaks are upon us!

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Help kids set goals with guidance

March 25, 2020 by Heather Filed Under: Kids & Family Organizing, Organize, Systems & Techniques Leave a Comment

Whether you call them goal charts, chore charts or habit trackers, it’s never too early to cultivate good habits. Home is the perfect place to begin teaching kids to make decisions about setting and keeping goals. Kids learn by observation, so set great examples by sharing your goals with your kids.

What to know when you help kids set goals…

1. Goals direct attention and effort toward goal-relevant activities and away from goal-irrelevant activities.
2. Goals have an energizing function. Goals create efforts.
3. Goals effect persistence. Goals prolong effort.
4. Goals rally us to bring task-relevant knowledge and strategies to the problem at hand.
—Edwin Locke & Gary Latham

Your children’s age is the first factor in helping them to set goals. Age appropriate goals for kids can include chores, tasks and good habits you want to help them cultivate. Schools and classrooms use goals as a motivational tool to teach kids how to work consistently as individuals or as a team to accomplish a task.

When you help kids set goals (for chores, tasks and assignments) you reinforce behavior leading to the creation of positive habits.

Work with your kids to get them motivated and excited about using a goal setting system. If your kids are excited about seeing their accomplishments and tracking the benefits then it will be easier to begin implementing a new system.

Another very important factor you help kids set goals is knowing how your child learns.

Are they visual and creative? If so create a vision board or goal sheet that is colorful and visually exciting.

Do they love electronic’s? Search for apps or “games” that help you and your children set goals and track them via tech tools you can both access.

Do they respond well to auditory cues? Set alarms or use sounds to reward or track progress.

All of these factors will be helpful when determining what kind of system to set up. Take into account your own preferences as well. If your child is very tech savvy but you don’t have the first clue, don’t set up a system you won’t be able to monitor. Help create a system will be successful for them in the long run. This may mean trying a couple things until you find the right strategy, don’t get discouraged, ask around, look online and keep working at it. Consistency is key to setting goals and forming new habits.

Types of Goal Tracking Systems

Chore Charts can be assigned as appropriate by age, starting small and working towards more complex chores around the house, at school etc. These can easily be created for small children who can’t read with picture graphics and check marks, stickers or magnets to keep track of chores by day or week.
Goal charts are great for tracking progress on school projects and keeping track of goals for personal growth. If you or your children prefer ‘progress chart’ is a good alternate term.
Habit trackers are great for teaching kids to be consistent when learning new habits like brushing teeth am/pm, making beds, drinking water etc.

Many of these terms are interchangeable and some households may prefer one term over another or a combination of these for different activities. The idea is to keep kids motivated and accountable to learning new habits, setting goals and doing what they are asked to do.

A Note about rewards…Some parents love to reward their kids with tangible praise by way of allowance or “Screen-time” like games and TV. Other parents prefer reward charts and coupons as an alternate way to track of goals, habits or chores with visual cues rather than tangible items.

Help kids set goals that are SMART!

When kids are 9-12 yrs old (earlier if they are mature and it’s appropriate), you may want to introduce them to the concept of S.M.A.R.T. Goals to teach them how to set and successfully reach their goals with accountability.

S. pecific-What exactly is the goal or habit you want to track, change or set?

M. easurable-How will you know you have accomplished your new goal?

A. ctionable-What are the steps needed to achieve this goal?

R. ealistic-Do you have the skills, time and supplies needed to achieve your goal?

T. imely-What timeline or deadline do you have and how will you break the goal down into time chunks to accomplish it by the deadline? (school year, monthly, weekly etc)

Talk to your kids about how and why they set goals. Why does this matter? It will help them to understand how setting goals empowers them to create success by their own definition.

When we create keystone habits, they can become routine and no longer require as much effort. This process becomes a catalyst for other positive goals and automatic behavior. This is a simplification of forming habits, but if you’re interested in learning more, I recommend the book The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.

Keep your kids charts for tracking goals and habits someplace easy to see, either in their room or incorporate them into your household Command Center. Check Pinterest for tons of free printable downloads or make your own on a whiteboard, blackboard or clipboard with printouts etc.

Goals are guidelines and should not be so rigid that they are make us unhappy so don’t forget to just enjoy life!

Pursuing My Life’s Work

March 16, 2020 by Heather Filed Under: Art, Art & Design, Creative process, Inspiration & Education, Uncategorized 3 Comments

In pursuing my MA, I’ve come to understand that the work I am doing is my life’s work! It’s exciting to be in a place in time when you realize that all paths have led you to this moment, the perfect experiences and guidance that will help lead you forward to pursue your vision and dream. That is truly how I feel about this process and I want to share the blurb that was included in a recent school newsletter, highlighting myself and one of my cohorts. Since I am only 1 1/2 semesters into my masters, I don’t yet have my thesis declared but think of it like this diagram-a three-legged stool, with my research focused on each of the ‘legs’.

My research stems from observing and interacting with artists as they craft a space known as the studio. In this space, the work of making crafted objects takes place through a universal and personal creative cycle of order and chaos. History and contemporary culture have much to say about the mess and order of the creative process. Having spent nearly ten years evaluating and co-producing these spaces to identify and construct systems that support organization of material culture and productivity, my curiosity led me to interview over fifty artists about how they construct these spaces, their habitus, their process of setting up their studio and their interaction with objects and materials in their space.

I am curious to learn more about the legacy of objects and spaces left behind by artists. How can individuals and institutions support craftspeople in establishing helpful working guidelines for maintaining legacies of material knowledge and material culture? By drawing upon research in the domestic and workspace design fields, I hope to gain a better understanding of how our identities are defined by the spaces we craft, in both domestic and public artists’ studios.

Successful paper sorting

March 10, 2020 by Heather Filed Under: Organize, Paper management, Productivity, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources 1 Comment

A couple weeks ago, we identified three steps to get paper piles under control, this week we will create a simple paper sorting system! If you missed that post, please go back and spend about 30 min’s preparing for these next steps. To recap, we start by identifying what overwhelms us about paper piles and how or why things are so out of control. This is a mental step but feel free to journal about it if that helps! Next, we list the categories of files and papers we need to keep. Finally we create a working space or staging area where we can spread out with our supplies gathered.

Many people suggest the first step to paper sorting is to gather all your papers in one place. I don’t start with this because I believe before we dive into paper sorting, we need to identify how we got here and where we want to be! I’ve written about setting intentions in several past posts. This step can be easy to overlook and seem like it’s unimportant, but it can make all the difference in creating lasting change.

[bctt tweet=”Setting our intention is a valuable part of creating successful and lasting change. ” username=”hkpowerstudio”]

Now, we are ready to gather all our papers to our working area. If you have a lot of papers in an existing office, it might make sense to start in that area. Gather everything to a table or desk where you can go through your stacks (or files or bags) and begin paper sorting into categories. In a prior post, I go through several kinds of filing systems, including the Tickler, binders and color coding. Before you commit to one filing system, take a look at some alternatives. This paper sorting process will work for any type of filing system!

*A quick note about shredding and sensitive papers. If you have a lot of papers to process at once, hold off on shredding and put papers to be shredded into a LABELED bag or box. If a piece of paper only has your name and address, you might want one of these great ID Blocker stamps so you can mark out your info and recycle.

With all your supplies and your staging area set up, let’s begin paper sorting!

Gathering papers is like a treasure hunt, you probably have papers hanging around over the place. Don’t forget to look in the kitchen, bedroom (nightstand drawers or surfaces), dining room, office or den and your car!
With your list of categories nearby, put each of your categories on a sticky note. If you come across a category you don’t have, just add another sticky note! We will review later. Don’t forget an “Action or To-Do” category and a “Delegate or refer to someone else” category. Common filing mistakes I see are overly complicated or very vague systems. See this post to review your categories.
Pick up your first stack and begin to sort into recycle, shred or one of your categories. If you have a lot of categories it can help to set up hanging folders in an empty box or file drawer. I prefer to start with a blank slate and work through old systems and stacks, sorting into the newly created system.

Continue the paper sorting process for a set amount of time, taking breaks every 30-60 min’s. If you’re unsure about items, set them into an “undecided” area to look back through later. Though I can’t advise on what specific papers you will need to keep, a helpful retention guide is available on the IRS website. For anything related to taxes and finances, you may also want to check with your accountant.

Going digital might be a consideration for information you can access online. If you’re not comfortable but want to try it out, pick one category like “Utilities” and begin to convert each account to paperless and see how that goes! If you like it, consider other categories such as banking, investments and insurance.

Once your through the paper piles, that’s it! The only thing left to do is label your final categories and make sure your files are in the drawers, binders or the file box you want to keep them in. There are some downright gorgeous file cabinets in a variety of styles, check out my previous round up here. Now that you have an awesome system in place, maintain it daily or weekly so you don’t end up with a backload of piles ever again!

Piles of Paper and no system in sight?

February 27, 2020 by Heather Filed Under: Organize, Organizing Projects, Paper management, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Does paperwork pile up around you at home and in the office? Piles of Paper everywhere and no system in sight…unopened mail, junk mail littering all your horizontal surfaces. There can be so many reasons that paperwork piles up but getting through your paper piles can be either overwhelming or totally rewarding! Today I share the first easy step you can take to Purge the Paper Piles in your home or office.

Piles of Paper can feel beyond our control but it doesn’t have to be this way!

A lot of organizers recommend gathering everything together first, but we are going to do this a little differently. Before you gather all the Piles of Paperwork it can be helpful to identify why and how you got to your current state of overwhelm. I don’t have all those answers for your situation but I can make some educated guesses based upon my observations with clients, friends and family.

A “Trigger Event”-such as an injury, death, move or birth put you off course. This event caused you to go totally off track and loose your system or maintenance of it.
Maybe you had a system started, but that system may not have been a good fit for you, not everyone works well with the same system.
You never learned how to create or maintain a paperwork system, it’s certainly not taught in school (in most cases)!

We all have our breaking points and for some of us there are more urgent things in life than dealing with a paper piles that seem so unimportant! We push them aside, figure we will have time later and we make a lot of excuses for not getting around to it, day after day, week after week and sometimes for years. When you get to this point, it’s certainly easy to understand why we are overwhelmed and don’t where to begin.

When we fall behind we tend to ignore what is present because we are worried about what is past.

What do I mean? Instead of feeling like you need to go back through everything in the past to get started, start where you are. In my experience if you lost every single piece of paper in your house in a fire or other tragedy, there is very little paperwork that can’t be replaced. I’m not saying it’s something you want to happen just that so much of what we need to keep can be replaced with a few phone calls and emails.

First (before gathering everything in your home/office), sit down and open only your most current paper pile of mail, receipts etc (today or this week’s). Think about what you have coming in. What categories do they fit in? Here are some general and sub categories.

Household-Utilities, finances, insurance etc
Medical-You & your family members
Vehicles-loans, DMV/MVA info, insurance
Financial-Banking, credit cards, investments, taxes
Professional-continuing education, employment, resume etc

Next, list of YOUR categories, don’t think about what you had in the past or what you “think you should have”…just start simple. As you go through what you have, consider going paperless with utilities and bank statements or anything you can easily access online. You may still need one general category for all utilities (to keep track of account numbers etc). By simplifying your incoming mail and what needs to be filed you will create a system that’s easier to maintain.

Simple systems work best, over-organized systems are cumbersome to maintain.

Before you get into purging past piles of paperwork, create a “Staging” area for this project and gather your supplies:

A file box or two depending on how much you have. I prefer the any that hold hanging folders and still close, like these. Bankers boxes will work, just don’t use the hanging files.*
File folders-new or used, different colors or one color…just don’t run out and buy them unless you need to.
Hanging folders are optional but they do make the job easier (used is fine).
Sticky notes for labeling categories, these will be temporary
Pens or pencils (pencils for starting, sharpies or labels for permanent labels)
Labels or a Label maker if you have one

The next step, pick up and sort through a pile to see how it fits into this new simple system. Depending on how long this first step took, you can estimate how much time you will need to sort and purge all your Paper Piles! If you don’t have a good system for your mail when it comes in the house, check out this post on Creating a Practical Command Center.

*Some people may prefer a flat filing system like the drawers below or binders, but for the purpose of purging I will focus on file boxes of some sort.