Unstuff Your Linen Closet

Do you still have every towel you ever owned- including the ones you used in college?  Is it impossible for you to pull anything out of your linen closet without everything coming out because it’s so stuffed? Perhaps it’s time for you to give your linen closet a makeover.
 
Let’s figure out how many sheets, towels, blankets, etc., you really need.
 
Sheets: for each bed in your house, you need two sets of sheets: one on the bed, and one in the closet.   When you take off the sheets to launder them, remake the bed with the second set.  Rotating them keeps both of them fresher. 
 
Pillowcases: keep any pillowcases that match your sheet sets, and rotate them as well.  Keep some extra pillowcases that are in excellent shape, since they can be used in different bedrooms, regardless of the size of the bed.  Discard any pillowcases that are soiled or frayed.
 
Blankets: they can be very bulky, so you don’t want to keep more than you need.  One summer and one winter blanket for each bed should be sufficient.  That still provides you with extras in case of a sleepover.
 
Bath towels: each person in the house should have two towels, which should be rotated on laundry day.  Also keep one extra towel for each overnight guest that you can accommodate.  (Hint: if you only have sleeping accommodations for two overnight guests, you don’t need 12 extra towels!)
 
Hand towels:  two per bathroom.  Rotate them on laundry day.Dish towels: these can get soiled easily, so you may need to change them between laundry days if necessary.  Three to five should suffice.
 
Beach towels:  this depends on your family and your habits.  If you go swimming frequently as a family, then you’ll need more than if you rarely go swimming or if only one or two members of your family swim.  A basic rule is one per family member, plus one or two extra for guests, but adjust that up or down depending on your situation. 
 
Tablecloths and napkins: do you actually use these?  Or are they a leftover from an earlier period in your life?  Feel free to part with them if you never use them.  If you do keep them, make sure you keep only those that fit the table you currently have, and only those that are free of stains.
 
Where to donate used linens

Now that you have streamlined your overstuffed linen closet, what should you do with the discards?
 
The ASPCA is in need of thick towels and blankets for taking care of homeless animals.  All bedding should be laundered and clean.  They may be dropped off at the ASPCA Adoption Center at 424 East 92nd Street, between 1st and York Avenues, on Monday to Saturday from 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM or Sunday from 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM.
 
Young Israel Yeshiva of Brighton Beach, located on Neptune Avenue in Brooklyn, will pick up linens and blankets (as well as men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing, shoes, dishes, and toys).  You can call 718-385-5002 to arrange a pick-up in Brooklyn or Manhattan, and perhaps in other boroughs as well.

Business Cards: Information or Clutter?

They’re everywhere – those cute little 2- by 3 ½-inch paper rectangles with colorful logos, attractive graphics, and snappy tag lines.  We pick them up at stores and doctors’ offices.  People hand them to us at business meetings or social events.  We feel empowered and connected because now we have information.

Now what?

If your business card collection is sitting in a big pile with a rubber band around it, or in a shopping bag in the back of the closet, then that’s not information.  That’s clutter!

The purpose of a business card is to communicate contact information so that future contact can be made.  Unless you make that contact information available to you, you might as well throw the card away.

So what can you do turn that clutter into actionable information?

- Transfer the data from the card to your contact database of choice.  It could be your e-mail program, your cell phone, or a robust contact management program like AIM.  Whatever your preferred way of maintaining contact info, moving that data off the card and into your contact database is key to making it actionable.

- Don’t like to type?  Consider getting a business card scanner.  I have a CardScan Executive.  It’s fast and it captures an image of the business card.  This is helpful for those people who are visual and need to see the card to have better recall about the person.  However, as with all optical scans, you need to proofread the results and make sure that all of the information was accurately captured and that it went into the right data fields.  The fancier the business card, the more editing it will need after scanning.

- To increase the value of the information, be sure to add some notes about this contact.  Where and when did you meet this person?   What did you discuss?   If it’s a card from a store, what do they sell there and why are you interested in retaining this information?  If your program allows you to categorize your contacts, that is also useful.

- Try to process your business cards as you collect them instead of waiting until you have a big heap.  Doing one or two every few days will prevent this from being a big chore.  It will also enable you to have better recall about the circumstances surrounding the cards.  Many of my clients will pick up a card off their desks and say, “I have no idea who this person is, and why I saved this card.”

And that, my friends, is clutter!

Innovative Ways to Store Shoes

Are your small New York closets incapable of accommodating your love affair with shoes? 

One of my proudest moments as an organizer is the session in which I helped a client reduce her designer shoe collection from 75 pairs down to 50!  Another is the stroke of inspiration that liberated a client’s shoe collection from the top of her closets into an unused bookcase with glass doors.  Considering the dollar investment she had made in them and how beautiful they were, why not display them like works of art?

If you are a shoe lover, here are some innovative ways for you to store your collection.

The Shoe Wheel has a footprint of approximately 29 inches by 13 inches, and holds 30 pairs of shoes.  Slide your shoes into the expandable pockets, and simply rotate it to pick out the pair you want to wear  The company also offers a shorter version, called the Shoe Pod, which is only 10 ¼ inches tall and is suitable for mens’s shoes. 

If your closet has too little floor space to accommodate the Shoe Wheel or Shoe Pod, try the Shoe Organizing Bed Skirt.   It fits under your dust ruffle and holds 18 pairs of shoes.

Thanks to organizers Monica Ricci and Jeri Dansky for bringing these great products to my attention!

In Praise of Deadlines

Do you consider yourself a procrastinator?  Interestingly, most people do.  Even though I teach time management and productivity, that’s no guarantee that I won’t succumb to the lure of on-line Sudoku in spite of my beautifully prioritized to-do list.

Recently, I had two tasks that I just couldn’t get started on.  I got everything else done but still couldn’t get started on those two.  When I ran out of time-wasters, I even did some productive things that weren’t on my list, just to put off those two big tasks. 

One of them had a deadline that was imposed on me, and the other had a deadline I had imposed on myself because it made the most sense for my business.  Both were due at the end of the first week in January.

What finally got me started?  The looming deadlines.  When the holidays ended and the world got back to serious pursuits on January 4, I realized that my time was up.  If I didn’t put in some focused time on both of those projects, I would miss the due dates. 

I broke the tasks down into small chunks and alternated between the two throughout the week.  As usual, once I got the ball rolling, I found that I was able to finish them with more ease than I had suspected.  I ended up being very satisfied with the quality of both.  Yet I was annoyed with myself for having escalated them into crisis mode.

If those tasks hadn’t had deadlines, I might be putting them off still!

Do you have tasks or projects that you have been putting off?  If the task comes with a deadline, be grateful!  Figure out exactly what needs to get done, and then plan it out in your calendar so that you meet the due date.  Break it down into small pieces to ensure daily progress.

If you don’t have a deadline, then give some thought to why this task is important to you, and when it makes sense for you to complete it.  Perhaps you are putting it off because this isn’t really the right time for you to be doing it. 

But if this really is the right time, impose a deadline on yourself and use the same technique I described above for accomplishing something that has a due date that is not of your choosing.  Make sure you honor your commitments to yourself as much as you honor your commitments to others.

Small Spaces, Fast Paces

Introducing my new e-book, Small Spaces, Fast Paces: New York Organizing Secrets.

This book contains the first two years worth of my “Organizing Tip of the Week”.  That’s 95 tips, organized into 13 topics, and easily navigatable thanks to the wonders of technology! 

Why should you buy my e-book?

If you are a newcomer to my organizing gospel, you’ll get a jump start on your organizing efforts by having 95 very specific, practical organizing tips to help you to achieve your vision of your life.

If you’ve only recently tuned in to my tips, you’ll want to have access to all of the topics you’ve missed!

If you’ve been reading my Organizing Tip of the Week from the beginning, you will benefit from having them organized by topic and easily accessed with one click.

To learn more about my book, or to purchase it, click here.

Simplifying New Year’s Resolutions

New Year’s Resolutions have become a cliché.  Everybody makes them . . . and everybody breaks them!  How many times have you made a solemn vow to yourself on January 1st, only to give up in frustration by January 8th?

Here are an organizer’s guidelines to making New Year’s Resolutions that stick.

• Make only those resolutions to which you are sincerely committed this year.  By selecting only a few items off of your long-term wish list, you greatly increase your likelihood of success. 
• Make a plan for each of your resolutions.  For example, “Spend more time with my family” is impossible to do unless you figure out which activities you will eliminate from your schedule to create new-found family time.  Think through how you will implement each of your resolutions, then — and this is important — write your plan down.
• Don’t expect overnight results.  Experts say that it takes three weeks to develop a new habit.  Don’t give up on a resolution until you have tried for at least three weeks to make it a lasting change.
• Phase them in over the year.  Don’t try and start everything at the beginning of January — you’ll be overwhelmed.  Prioritize your resolutions, and give yourself time to make one set of changes before beginning to implement your next one.
• “Get Organized” is one of the most popular New Year’s Resolutions. If this makes an appearance on your list, I’m here to help!

Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2010!

One Bite at a Time

Are you vacationing at home this week and hoping to use the time to get organized?

One of the biggest organizing mistakes that people make is thinking that a huge chunk of free time will solve their organizing issues once and for all.  They usually end up frustrated — and just as disorganized — by the end of it.

So what’s the right way to tackle your organizing project?  The same way that you eat an elephant – one bite at a time!  A bunch of small successes will add up to one large success.  Here’s how to get started.

1. Make a plan.  Compile a list of all of the areas in your home (or office) that you want to organize during your time off.  Then assign each mini-project to a time period (e.g., “Tuesday afternoon”, “Thursday morning”).

2. Set your expectations.  As you get ready to start each mini-project, decide what your goal is.  Do you want to process every single paper in the pile on your desk?   Or do you just want to get the pile of papers sorted so that it can be processed another time?  Knowing what endpoint you have in mind will keep you focused and prevent frustration.

3. Work in small increments.  If the mess is overwhelming and you don’t know where to start, pick a small area and get that done.  One way to select an area is to take a paper towel roll and look through it.  The amount you can see in that small circle will be just enough for you to tackle.  When that is done, move on to another small area, then another. 

4. Take frequent breaks.  After you finish each segment of your organizing project, get up and stretch, have a drink of water, eat a snack, etc.  If you keep working without breaks, you will burn out quickly and abandon the project.

If the week ends and you haven’t tackled every disorganized area, don’t be discouraged.  Celebrate your successes, and set aside small amounts of time in the coming weeks to continue tackling that beast one bite at a time

In With The New, Out With The Old

As you open up your holiday presents this month and think about how much fun you are going to have with your new stuff, give a thought or two to your old stuff.  Are there CDs, DVDs, video games, software, or books that no longer hold your interest now that you have new ones?

Think about donating them to the Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter (NCS). 

NCS runs Emporium Online, a 16-week on-the-job training program for homeless (and formerly homeless) men and women, through which they operate an online virtual store selling new and gently used donated items like the ones I listed above.   Participants spend half of each day in computer instruction and employment workshops, and half running the online store.  

In addition to stipends, the participants receive valuable experience gaining skills in technology, administration, and customer service.  The program has a 94% completion rate, with 81% vocational placement.

If you would like to donate new or gently used goods to Emporium Online, please contact Mark Adiedo at madiedo@ncsinc.org or (917) 477-2210.

And next time you’re looking to buy one of those types of items, consider purchasing it from Emporium Online, which can be found on Amazon.com by clicking this link: http://www.amazon.com/shops/support4homeless

The World’s Thinnest Wallet

I’ve written before about how to keep your wallet and/or handbag clutter-free.  Here’s another way to streamline your load when you are out and about.

How about owning the World’s Thinnest Wallet?

That’s what All-Ett Billfolds calls their products.  The All-Ett World’s Thinnest Wallet was created specifically to prevent sciatic nerve damage and the back pain that comes with it, particularly for those people who carry their wallets in their pockets.  It’s also a great space saver if you carry your wallet in your handbag.

All-Ett wallets come in 8 different styles, as well as in different materials and colors.  Some of them are even recyclable!

I was notified that you can get 25% off of any color products through 1/15/10, although I noticed that color items are going into the shopping cart at 50% of the original price.

If you’re still struggling over what to get some people for the holidays, this might be your answer.

Recycled Wrapping Paper

Wrap those holiday presents in style, and do something good for the earth at the same time by using recyclable wrapping paper and other holiday consumables.

Earth Presents (http://www.earthpresents.com)  produces “100% recycled and recyclable wrapping paper.  Our designs are inspired by the artwork of students with special talents and special needs at WVSA, a unique nonprofit organization.  A portion of the proceeds from the sale of our products benefit WVSA’s School for Arts in Learning. And our matching gift tags and bows are also 100% recycled.”

Ecosaurus (http://www.shopecosaurus.com) is an “online green paperie specializing in eco-friendly notecards, greeting cards and gift wrap, all which are made in the U.S.A.  Our passions are paper and the environment, and our company combines the two by producing fresh designer goods that are 100% recycledand recyclable.”