Organize 365 Podcast

In this week's podcast episode, I discuss how best to declutter and organize your closet. I discuss capsule wardrobes, how you can purge too much, and how you can have a variety in your everyday clothing while loving and wearing everything in your closet! I started this year with three episodes about the importance of decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity. In those episodes, I explained that when you reduce the amount of "stuff" you own and get it all organized, your productivity will increase. This will give you LOTS of extra time to focus on what you were meant to do in life. Productivity is a result of living an organized life. This week's episode builds upon those topics. So if you missed those episodes and would like to listen to them first, they are #144 – Declutter!, #145 – Organize, and #147 – Increase Productivity. What to buy? When I was in high school, my mother taught me some important lessons on how and what to buy when it came to clothes. Here are the tips she shared with me that I still find helpful today: "Cost Per Wearing" Analysis – Evaluate the cost of your clothing by how many times you think you will wear it. A $150 coat is worth the investment if you wear it 100 times, bringing the cost of the coat down to $1.50 per wear. Compared to a $15 "bargain" top that you only actually wore once, meaning the cost per wear is $15. The $150 coat was a far more economical investment. Buy In Outfits – Focus on purchasing items that are interchangeable. By focusing on a specific color scheme or style in mind, it will save you time and stress because everything will match. What to keep? Now that you have some ideas for how to shop for new clothes, what should you do with all of your existing clothes that are sitting in your closet? It's time for you to decide what needs to stay and what needs to go. Just recently, I went through my own closet to decide what to keep and what to get rid of. Here are the rules that helped me when decluttering my own clothes. Keep clothes that fit you – We all have that one item of clothing we are keeping until we can lose 5 pounds and it will fit once again. It NEEDS to go! You should only keep clothes that fit you and make you feel great. Don't keep clothes that make you feel like you should change to be able to wear them. Keep items that match each other – If it doesn't match anything else in your wardrobe so you have nothing to wear it with, it needs to go. It doesn't matter how cute or comfortable those shoes are if you are never going to wear them. No extra purses – Most women do the same with purses… we usually stick to one primary purse yet hold onto our old purses, telling ourselves we might one day need them. This ALMOST NEVER happens! Try to keep your everyday purse, as well as a particular favorite, and get rid of the rest. You really DON'T need them all. Types of wardrobes to consider... If you're looking to try something entirely new when it comes to organizing your wardrobe, there are a couple different options out there for minimizing your closet. Capsule wardrobe – This type of wardrobe limits you to a certain number of items per capsule (not including your under garments). You set the number to what you would like and you limit your wardrobe capsule to that number. Have capsules for work, seasons, or specific occasions, it's up to you. You can keep the rest of your clothes, but it takes the stress out of planning your day-to-day outfits. Uniform wardrobe – Many successful executives such as Steve Jobs, Barrack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg have utilized the uniform wardrobe. Clothes in this kind of wardrobe are all similar and interchangeable. For example, my wardrobe consists of mostly jeans, sweaters, and tops. Jeans match pretty much everything so it is easy for me to buy a large variety of tops to interchange with them. As parents, our wardrobes often fall to the wayside as we spend all of our time and money making sure that our kids (who are constantly growing) are getting the clothes that they need. I'm here to tell you that it's IMPORTANT to update your wardrobe, too. Instead of buying the occasional, random item for yourself on a whim, make a point of finding yourself something nice that matches your wardrobe. It's essential for you to look and feel good about yourself, too. Now that I have shared my ideas for decluttering your wardrobe, I challenge ALL of you to walk into your closet and come out with 15 items that you no longer need or want. This is a great first step towards getting your closet decluttered. By following my tips and getting your closet organized, you'll be able to get dressed quicker, feel better, and get on with living your best life. Now go declutter! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/186

I'm excited to announce that next week I'm running a Back To School Blitz. It's a 5-day challenge designed to help get you ready for a really productive fall and fully prepared for the new school year. So in this week's podcast, I talk all about the Back To School Blitz. Why run a Back To School Blitz? For me, the start of the school year signifies the start of my 12-month year. I discussed this in podcast 134 where I explained that I have 3 different "mini new years" in my year. It starts in September... the beginning of the school year, then January... the beginning of the calendar year, and finally June... the beginning of summer. Each has a different set of possibilities, but September has the most possibilities for me. It's when I set the BIG goals for my year ahead. In my opinion, it doesn't matter if you're not going to school, the beginning of the school year is when we should all get everything in order and set our goals for success. Productivity starts with being prepared. There are plenty of little things that we could do now to set ourselves up for a productive school year. So, my 5-day Back To School Blitz is designed to help set everyone up for a productive school year... whether you go to school or not! I'm more excited about doing it for myself than for my kids. What is the Back To School Blitz? It's a 5-day challenge that you need to sign-up for here. It's delivered to you by email. Every day at 5am EST, you will receive checklists via email. You should print a copy for everyone in your house who is taking part in the blitz. For example, I'll print off three... one for me and one for each of my two children. Since my kids are teenagers, I'll try and convince them to do the checklist themselves. Don't worry, the checklists are not lists of things to buy. In fact, my Back To School Blitz does not involve buying anything at all! Instead, it's all about decluttering, culling, and making inventories of what we have in our house so that in August we can go ahead and buy exactly what we need. This will stop you from over or under buying things. So here's what it involves: Monday: Clothing – Going through your closet and figuring out what you need, what needs altered, etc. Tuesday: Set up a command center – A back to school Sunday Basket™ that you will set up next week and continue to use thereafter. It will help you take note of the various things that need to be done before going back to school (i.e., supply lists, school uniform, car pool arrangements, etc.). Wednesday: Supplies – A supply list for your home or your home-based business. It's the best time of the year to stock up on things like pens, binders, highlighters, etc. Thursday: Personal grooming – Look at what you have and what you need. Schedule manicures, haircuts, other treatments, etc. Friday: What does it take to get this family out the door? – Backpacks, lunches, purses, car, etc. Since everything is delivered by email, you need to sign up. In addition, every day I will go live on Facebook at 10:30am EST to provide support and share additional tips and advice. Together, we are going to get our kids and ourselves ready for a really productive fall and new school year. Are you with me? View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/185

It's a rite of passage almost no one will escape: the difficult, emotional journey of downsizing your or your aging parents' home. Here, nationally syndicated home columnist Marni Jameson sensitively guides readers through the process, from opening that first closet, to sorting through a lifetime's worth of possessions, to selling the homestead itself. Using her own personal journey as a basis, she helps you figure out a strategy and create a mindset to accomplish the task quickly, respectfully, rewardingly—and, in the best of situations, even memorably. Throughout, she combines her been-there experience with insights from national experts—antiques appraisers, garage-sale gurus, professional organizers, and psychologists—to offer practical wisdom and heartwarming advice so you know with certainty what to keep, toss or sell. Downsizing The Family Home: What to Save, What to Let Go

Doing laundry always seems like it takes a lifetime, doesn't it? But how long does it really take? For this week's podcast episode, I timed how long it took me to complete ALL of my laundry. Over the course of a weekend, I used a stopwatch and I timed from when I began a laundry task to when I completed it. By doing this, I was able to get an accurate idea of how long completing all of my household laundry really took. My Findings The truth is, the actual tasks involved in doing laundry didn't take up too much time. Every time I went into the laundry room to complete a task, I was usually only in there for about 5-8 minutes. So it really wasn't taking me very long. I discovered I was able to do 9 loads of laundry in only 61 minutes. BUT... and this is a big but... the 61 minutes were spread over 3 days. So I pretty much felt like I spent 3 days in my laundry room! So what I came to learn is that, while the tasks don't take very long, laundry can seem so much more time consuming than it really is because it occupies so many of our thoughts as we are doing it. I found I was always thinking about things like when the current load will be complete, whether I have gathered everything for the next load, where are the hangers, and so on. My Laundry Tips Fortunately, there are ways to save yourself both time and stress when it comes to your laundry. Here are my top tips for making laundry easier: Sort by weight – Instead of separating your laundry into loads by color, try separating them by how much each item weighs. Heavier items take longer to dry and lighter items take less time to dry. This will save you drying time on those little loads. Difficult load first – We all have that load of laundry that is just more difficult than the rest. Do your most difficult load of laundry first and this will make the rest of your loads less stressful. Multiple days of laundry – By spreading your laundry time throughout the week and doing some of the easier loads on weekdays (towels for example), you will save yourself time and stress on the weekends. Set a timer – Every time you start a load of laundry, start a timer on your phone. By setting the timer for 45-50 minutes, it will help prevent you from forgetting about the laundry and losing track of time. Of course, hiring someone else to do the laundry would be the ultimate time saver! This might not be an option for everyone, but it's definitely something to consider. There may be no perfect solution to doing laundry, but I would LOVE to hear your suggestions for making laundry quicker and easier. Please share your ideas in my Organize 365 Facebook Group. A special thank you to this week's podcast sponsor, TidyLiving! Use the promocode ORGANIZE365 to save 10% View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/183

In her latest book, Lisa Woodruff explores the executive functions of the mind that directly affect your ability to organize your home: flexible thinking, working memory, self-monitoring, task initiation, planning, and organization. Along the way, she provides tips and strategies for overcoming obstacles—tools you can use to get the organized house you've been dreaming of. Now available as an Audible Book. How ADHD Affects Home Organization

This week's podcast is about the times when you find yourself in a tough phase of life. It's about the times when you literally have no time to get organized no matter how much you want to. It may be that you're SO busy you struggle to find even 15 minutes a day to get your home organized. Or you have the time, but what you want/need to do requires money and you literally don't have a spare $15 right now. It may be both, you don't have a spare 15 minutes AND a spare $15! They're not phases that we want to find ourselves in, but nonetheless, it can happen to us all and probably will at least once in our life. I can easily draw upon my own personal experience with this topic. I'd LOVE to say that I was stuck in this phase of life for a week or a month, but it was more like 6 years! In the episode, I touch on how to get organized if you have a chronic condition (like fibromyalgia or a physical ailment). I'm afraid I have no magic answer ,but my main advice is to get someone to help you, either paid (if you can afford it) or unpaid (friends and family). When you have help in place, you then need to think about how you can incorporate help with home organization as well as physical care. People want to help you, and so, broaden your thinking on how you can use that help. If you're a parent, a lot can depend upon the age of your children and what I like to call the "stage of parenting" that you find yourself in. I recorded a whole podcast episode on this very topic: #130 - The Three Stages of Parenting. Age 0-6 is when you're doing EVERYTHING for your kids. You're at home a lot. It can be exhausting. And there's SO much to organize because the rate of change when it comes to clothes, toys, etc. is mind boggling! Age 6-12 is when you do things with your kids. You teach them how to start looking after themselves. 13+ is when they're becoming a young adult. Then, it's more about coaching and mentoring. So what do you do when you're in the middle of a phase and you don't have time or money to get your house organized? My answer is to work on changing your mindset. A lot goes on in your head before you see it in physical reality. I notice this with my business, my finances, my relationships… the world is more mental than it is physical. Positivity feeds and attracts more positivity, and negativity feeds and attracts more negativity. I reference in the podcast a documentary series on inventions that I watched and loved. If you'd like to check it out, it's by National Geographic called American Genius. If you're in a hard place and you feel stuck in a tough phase of life, this doesn't mean that you should give up the desire to have an organized home in the future. If you think about having an organized home and you want it enough, you will manifest it. Having a Sunday Basket™ will really help you too. The Sunday Basket™ helps bring order, it develops the right skills, and brings about the discipline required for an organized house. Of course, please continue to listen to my podcast and other podcasts on home organization, too! Continue working on your mindset, even if you're somewhat limited in the action that you can take right now. You will be amazed at the power of a mindset shift! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/176

This week's podcast episode is a special one for me as it's all about my new book, How ADHD Affects Home Organization, which launched June 1! In this week's podcast episode, I share a lot about why I decided to write the book, what my goals are, and how I truly believe that this book is REALLY going to help people with ADHD feel empowered and able to take control of their home organization! If you'd told me years ago that I'd one day be the author of a book called How ADHD Affects Home Organization, I'd have found it hard to believe... I don't have a degree or PhD in the subject! However, it's a topic that I've specialized in for almost 20 years in order to help my children. I've worked hard on overcoming every challenge that my children have faced, no matter how many attempts it took. We've tried a 100% natural approach with no medication at all, and we've tried various medications and alternative therapies, too. I've read medical journals, researched like crazy, and over the years I've developed an obsession with understanding how the mind works and how we can improve it. I've parented, taught, and professionally organized people who struggle with ADHD. I've helped people from all around the world get their homes organized and stay organized. My podcast series on ADHD last spring was very popular. SO many people got in touch to say how much it had helped them and how I was able to explain things in a way that no one else had ever managed to before. Through all of the above, I came to accept that I am an expert and I can and should use my expertise to really help others. It seemed about time to write a book and so I did... and that's why I'm launching How ADHD Affects Home Organization. This book is for people who find themselves overwhelmed, even paralyzed, with home organization. Where you put effort in and don't make progress, and you spend money on organizing solutions that just don't work! My book is for people who know what to do, but just can't get started! Organization is not easy. And if you have ADHD, it's a lot harder, but it's not impossible! It's all about understanding how your brain works, then working with your brain and not against it. It's about recognizing your strengths and weaknesses, using them to your advantage, and finding strategies that work for you. How ADHD Affects Home Organization explores the executive functions of the mind and how they affect your ability to organize your home. In particular, I take 6 executive functions (flexible thinking, working memory, self-monitoring, task initiation, planning, and organization) and explain for each one what it is, why it's important when organizing your house, and I share solutions to problems that you may face. The kindle book is free from June 1st - 3rd. Then from June 4th, it'll be 99 cents for the rest of the month. If you buy the Kindle version, you'll also receive a discount when downloading the audio version from Audible. Please get a copy of the book and please, please review it, too. It really helps more people receive the message that they too can get organized! This book will help the loved ones of those who have ADHD, too. Once you understand how the brain of a loved one with ADHD works, you understand them as a person a little bit more than you did before. I truly believe it's going to be a game changer and really help a lot of people. I'm so EXCITED! I want to remove the cloud over people who have ADHD and offer them hope, solutions, and empowerment. To get your copy, please click here!

Welcome to the final episode of my three-part series all about the different phases of life and how specific life experiences can cause them to overlap. In this week's episode, I talk about what happens when we lose a loved one. Specifically, I focus on losing a parent. It's rather poignant for me that when I recorded the episode, it was 8 years to the day that my father had passed away. Losing a loved one moves you into three phases of life Survival When your parent passes away, immediately you're thrust into the survival phase. You have a lot to do. You have to plan the funeral, speak to other family members, help organize the estate, and many other things at an incredibly stressful and emotional time of your life. You're in the survival phase. Accumulation You will accumulate a lot of belongings from your parents. At such an emotional time, you don't want to let go of things in haste. So I recommend finding an off-site storage unit for a certain period of time just so you can take time to decide what to keep and what to let go of. If you're anything like me, you may find yourself trading-up many items that are actually nicer than those you already have! Downsizing & Legacy After about a year, you enter the downsizing and legacy phase. The legacy phase comes first and it lasts for about 3-4 years. You start to think about what you'll keep longer term that once belonged to your parents. What do you want to be a part of their legacy? It's all about how you're going to take the essence of the person who passed away and put it to use in a meaningful way. I really recommend finding interesting and creative ways to keep the items that carry sentimental value to you. For example, I have a shadow box and every time I find little things that remind me of my Dad, I put them in the shadow box in the basement. About year 5, you're going to find yourself focusing more on downsizing. At this time, not only will you be thinking about what you want to keep that once belonged to your parents, but you start to think about yourself, too. You start to look at YOUR belongings and think about what will be YOUR legacy. You realize that someone has to get rid of it all someday! I could record podcasts for weeks about how different life events, in addition to our chronological age, impact what organizational phase of life we feel like we are most in at any one moment. My goal in recording these podcasts was not for you to be able to better categorize your phase of life, but to recognize that we are all floating between the phases at any one time and can learn and grow at our own pace and stage of life. A special thank you to this week's podcast sponsor, the National Association of Senior Move Managers!

Last week, I introduced you to the 4 phases of life and how when you have your babies can impact upon your phase of life. This week, I explore this topic even further and share with you how caregiving for family members can also affect your organizational phase of life. Having a baby, the topic of last week's podcast, is a welcome and joyous life event. When you have a baby, you're thrust into the accumulation phase. All of those toys...food...clothes...furniture...! This week's focus is on when you become a caretaker for a family member. Unfortunately, when you become a caretaker of a family member, that's not such a joyous life event. Sometimes we'll see it coming and have a gradual lead in, other times it rocks our world in an instant! Often this will be due to medical emergencies, like when a loved one falls and breaks their hip...which I've found in recent years is a real thing and it happens A LOT! I can share from first-hand experience that being a caretaker is EXTREMELY time consuming. You have an immediate prioritization shift in your life. You're thrust into having responsibility over two sets of everything...two households, two sets of bills, etc. Whatever stage of life you were previously in, when you become a caretaker, you're also now in the survival phase, too. In this podcast episode, I share with you some really useful ideas on how to cope if this happens to you. I also have two super useful products that are designed to help you keep track of, and ultimately share when needed, important personal information. One focuses on medical information (i.e., insurance, current and past prescriptions, medical history, etc.). The other focuses on financial information, mainly for spouses to keep a joint record (i.e., bank details, etc.). They are editable so you can fill one in for yourself, another for your parents, and I even fill the medical record out for my children. It's just so useful to keep all the information that you have in one simple record. Next week, I look at how losing a close family member can affect your phase of life. I'm sure you can guess what phase you find yourself in when that happens! Full blog post can be viewed at organize365.com/170 A special thank you to this week's podcast sponsor, the National Association of Senior Move Managers!

I'm super excited to share with you my next series of 3 podcasts which are all about the different phases of life and how they overlap. Most people are living in overlapping phases of life. I really want to address this topic and explore what it means for you. This is something of a storytelling podcast - there's not a lot of direct action for you to take, but lots of learning! I've actually been wanting to record this podcast series for about 9 months, but it's a topic that is best approached when the timing is just right! January is all about organizational projects, March is about decluttering... May is the perfect time to reflect! It's all centered around what I consider to be the 4 phases of a woman's life. The Childhood Phase (birth to around 18 years old) - Limited organizational requirements and heavily influenced by parents. The Accumulation Phase (around 18-39 years old) - A period of learning and accumulating. You accumulate more and more belongings! Usually in this phase, you accumulate a spouse and family, too! The Survival Phase (around 40-54 years old) - A mindset shift takes place at this stage. Most people are working during this phase and, in addition to that, they're looking after their family and running the household. And if you're anything like me, you're in your car all the time! The Downsizing & Legacy Phase (age 55+) - The big clear out! Kids are moving out and you naturally start to reduce the amount of items in your house. You also begin to consider your legacy - what will you save and why? There are three big life events that affect these phases of life - having children, becoming a caretaker for someone, and when someone close to you passes away. This week's focus is on having children. When we have kids, we go into full blown accumulation mode. Even the most minimalist of people can't resist accumulation when it comes to babies! As more and more millennials are tending towards having children in their early 40's, what does this mean in terms of the stages in life? Having a baby in your 40's = an overlap of the accumulation and the survival stage. Next week, I look at how becoming a caretaker for someone can affect your phase of life. Have a great week!