by Katherine Macey
Do you have more paper clutter than you know what to do with? Can you find a specific piece of paper when you need it? How do you manage the information contained in all the paper you have?
Control your paper clutter – FAR your mail: File, Action, Recycle.
If you have piles of paper, try doing a pre-sort first. It’s easier to keep only a few categories in mind to start with. I use the FAR method, adapted from Julie Morgenstern’s FAT method. She uses File, Act, Trash. I take her trash and put it in the recycling. Now we’re going FAR with our mail! This initial pre-sort can be done very quickly into two piles and the recycling bin.
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by Katherine Macey
This seems to be the hardest part of “being organized” for many of my clients. So often, I see people put in a big effort to clear the clutter they have accumulated over many weeks, months or years without making the small changes every day that would help make their lives easier in the long term.
Being organized is all about the habits that you have and that you create. Habits that promote being organized will lead to an organized life, leaving you free from worries (at least, freer!) and the opportunity to live life in the moment – those Zen moments when you get to be totally involved in what you are doing, who you are being, or the experience you are having right now!
What could a small step towards a new habit be?
Here are a few options, and I hope you’ll find one or two that would be ridiculously easy to implement – that’s the idea. To maintain organization, start with the one small change to make this week that you’ll find so easy. Then check the list again next week and if you find another ridiculously easy change to make, do that one too. And before you know it, you’ll be on the path to an organized you!
1. Open one piece of mail before you add it to the pile of mail each day.
2. Complete one action on your inbox each day.
3. Put one thing that has been lurking away each day.
4. Decide now what you will eat for one meal next week.
5. Type up your shopping list for the week on the computer and save it to refer to next week.
6. Return a phone call each day.
7. Delegate one task for a week.
8. Set a timer for 5 minutes each day to do some tidying.
9. Take one item from your closet this week that you know you will not wear again and either donate it, give it away, re-purpose it or throw it away.
10. Imagine doing just one of these things. Can you think of any other small changes you could make to your daily routine to maintain organization?
Here’s to your happy habits!
by Katherine Macey
You frantically search through the overstuffed rack of clothing, looking for that long sleeved, white blouse you know you have somewhere. Maybe it’s still under the plastic from the drycleaner. Maybe it’s jammed between your long overcoat and the pants you wore it with last. Maybe it’s in the laundry. Oh, now you remember, your sister borrowed it last month and hasn’t returned it yet. Now you find a different blouse you like, but this one doesn’t go with the pants you were going to wear. Now you search for the pants you like to wear with the blouse you chose. 25 minutes later, you scrabble for your keys and rush out the door without your breakfast – again.
Is this your reality? It doesn’t have to be. Here’s an alternative.
You get up in the morning; you go to your closet and find the clothes you want to wear right away. It takes less than 5 minutes to put together your outfit. You change and have plenty of time for breakfast, leaving you calm and ready to face the day.
Sounds much better right? So how can you make this your new reality?
If your closet is over stuffed or you know you have things in there that you haven’t worn for a while and are not likely to wear again, it’s time for a purge. Take some time and go through your clothes one by one. You need to identify what to keep and what to donate or sell. Here are three tips for helping you purge your closet of clothes you no longer wear or like.
Tip #1) Ask questions. 
Ask yourself the following questions to decide what to keep:
1) Have I worn this in the last year?
2) Do I look good in this?
3) Does it fit me well?
4) Do I love wearing this?
If you work better by finding what to pass on to someone else, ask yourself these questions:
1) Was it more than a year ago that I wore this?
2) Could someone else make better use of this than me?
3) Is this the wrong size for me now?
4) Is this tired/worn/outdated?
Tip #2) Use the reverse hanger trick.
If you are having trouble being honest about what you wear and what you don’t, use the reverse hanger trick. Turn all your hangers so that they are in backwards. Give yourself a time limit; 3 months, 6 months – your choice. When you wear something, put it back the right way round. Anything still hanging in reverse after your time limit, you haven’t worn.
Tip #3) Be kind to yourself.
Do give yourself some slack on the sizing if you have just had children or have some temporary medical condition that has caused a change in size. But if it was five years since your last child and you still don’t fit those favorite old pants, it’s time they went.
Now you have clothes you love in your closet. Now it’s time to organize them.
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by Katherine Macey
‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’
‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.
‘I don’t much care where–‘ said Alice.
‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.
‘–so long as I get somewhere,’ Alice added as an explanation.
‘Oh, you’re sure to do that,’ said the Cat, ‘if you only walk long enough.’
-Lewis Carroll, from Alice in Wonderland
I believe that one component to being happy is doing the things that are important to you. Some of those things may be things you don’t want to do, but nonetheless, they are important. Life can seem hectic and overwhelming because we have so many options available to us. The skill to learn is how to distill the things that are priorities- to identify your destination. There are five simple steps you can follow to do this. I’m going to apply these to living a balanced life, but you can apply this technique to any part of your life you choose, such as your work environment, your spiritual growth, even how to arrange your office desk or your kitchen.
You will need some time to reflect and a way to record your thoughts (paper or electronic, which ever you feel most comfortable with.)
The first step is a creative process. I recommend using mind maps or something similar. You can do this in list form if you prefer. Write down or draw every activity that is important to you that you do now or you want to do. Keep the categories broad – for instance, “date night with my husband” would come under “Family relationships.” Here’s an example:mind map example
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