Decluttering Sentimental Items: Some tips.

Decluttering sentimental items can be tough; you need to be in the right frame of mind. It’s also why I never suggest starting an organizing session with this category. 

Now, remember: The special memories are in your mind, and in your heart…..not in the object. Letting go of the item, does not mean that you are letting go of those memories. Let that sink in.

Some helpful tips:

1. Display some of those special trinkets instead of keeping them in storage. Were you passed down a family heirloom, that you love but keep it away so it stays “safe”? What use is it doing collecting dust high up in a closet? Pull it out so you can enjoy it and let it bring joy to your day.
   

2. Were you gifted something but it isn't your taste, nor is it useful to you? Pass on the item to someone who actually wants it and will cherish it. 
   

3. Do you have something that you love, but won’t necessarily use? Repurpose that item into something useful. Pinterest is full of wonderful ideas on how to do this. How about those old baby clothes you keep in a storage bin? Choose the special ones and you can sew them together to make an adorable quilt.  These repurposing projects can definitely add character and you can get some use out of it instead of keeping it in storage.
   

4. Digitize the item rather than physically hold on to it. A picture is worth a thousand words. Often times, pictures of sentimental items are enough to preserve the memories associated with it, without keeping the items. 
   

5. Less is more. If you were passed down a collection of items. Give yourself permission to keep one or two from that group, and let the rest go. 
   

6.  Take breaks in between if you are feeling overwhelmed. You don’t need to do it all in one sitting; it can get pretty draining. Take a break, get some air, and come back once you’re able to continue. 

And remember, it is ok to keep some sentimental items, within reason of course. If an item is special and truly brings a smile to your face - by all means…..keep it. Fill your home with items that are full of positive energy. Don’t let an item with negative, guilt ridden feelings take up that valuable space in your home which you can use for other meaningful things. 

Easy tips for an Organized Car

Took some time out on this labour day Monday to get the car organized.

Some easy steps to keep that car tidy!
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🔹Trunk organizer: ⁣
My husband will tell you that I’m the one responsible for the trunk being full. Be it donations to drop off, items to return to the store, reusable bags, you name it. This neat trunk organizer definitely helps contain some of that clutter! I now have a space for my reusable bags, extra tissue paper, lysol wipes and baby wipes. Now I’ll only load up my car with donations or returns, if that is scheduled for the day.

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🔹Glove compartment:⁣
The glove compartment on the Mazda is much smaller than others. I can’t even fit the car manual inside. I decided to keep the car manual in the trunk because I rarely use it and I would rather keep my most used items in this prime location.

🔹Car visor tissue holder⁣
One of my favourite finds. No more tissue box that goes flying when I make my turns.⁣
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🔹Backseat organizer. I’ve got one for each child and I couldn’t be happier with these. It keeps things off the seats and floor and my kids are always entertained in the car - which is a plus!

What I do with my kids' artwork and papers?

My daughter loves drawing, and I mean loves it. Every picture she sketches or colours in is special to her. Being the daughter of a professional organizer means she knows she needs to set limits for herself. She cannot keep every one of her creations or she will soon be drowning in her own artwork.

The way I deal with her projects is quite simple and it still allows her to make her own choices.

I allow her one space, just one space. It can be one drawer, one storage container, or even one file folder.

She is allowed to keep anything and everything that fits that one designated space.

Once things start becoming too full, we pull out her papers and it is time to assess. She then sorts through and separates her favourites from the ones she is ready to let go of. Letting go of the item doesn’t decrease its value, in fact it just makes the ones that she keeps a little extra special.

Any paperwork that is ready to be stored longterm: report cards, school awards, and special crafts all go in my clear storage container. It has hanging file folders that I use to separate per grade.

Why Hire a Professional Organizer?

Organizing and decluttering your home can be a daunting task for anyone. Now imagine that task combined with any of the above situations.

Here are some reasons why you might look into hiring a professional organizer:

1. You want to regain control of your home but you don't know where to begin. A professional can help you plan the entire process and provide direction. They also teach you new and creative ways to declutter and organize your home. 

2. You are moving to a new home or downsizing. Moving can be stressful, but it doesn’t have to be. Hire a professional to help ease this new transition. An organizer can help with decluttering your space so it’s ready to be listed, as well as efficiently pack your belongings. An organizer can also be there when it is time to unpack so you can quickly feel right at home in your new space.

3. You are going through a major life transition; be it a new addition to the family, the death of a loved one, merging families, a divorce, or becoming empty nesters. A life transition forces us to step out of our comfort zone and face a new way of living. Making sure your space is functional is especially essential during this time. With everything going on, an organizer can be there to facilitate this process.

4. Your surroundings can influence your mood. Your home should be a refuge - a calm, inviting place to unwind at the end of the day. If your space is cluttered, you may feel stressed or have difficulty feeling productive. Let an organizer help turn your home into your haven.

5. Organizing a space is time consuming and let’s face it, you have things you’d rather be doing with your time. Sometimes it may be best to delegate certain tasks so it frees up your schedule. This way you can spend more time doing the things you love without your home getting out of control.

Managing a household is hard work. Often times you’re juggling a career, family, friends, and that never ending to do list. There never seems to be enough hours in the day. Don’t burden yourself with yet another task. Call in for help before you become too overwhelmed. Let a professional help.

Simplified way to track Monthly Expenses

If you had asked me years ago how much I spend on groceries per month, I wouldn’t be able to give you an estimate. Finances bored me and numbers overwhelmed me. 

It was right around the time that I was planning on quitting my full time job to become a stay at home mom that I decided to sit and take a hard look at the way we were organizing our finances. Personally, if I were to pick a system to follow every month it would have to be super simple for me to want to maintain it.

Don’t confuse this with budgeting. That’s just something that doesn’t really work in our household. Neither of us spend frivolously. The idea was to just keep track of the money coming in and out so that we can have a snapshot of how our monthly spending per category looks like.

Tracking each and every dollar you spend per month sounds more complicated than it is.  What really simplified this process was using Mint’s web-based personal financial management service. It’s free to use and It connects with your bank accounts and credit cards, consolidates all your transactions, and categorizes them. You can even personalize the categories. We rarely use cash in our household, so for the odd times we do, I manually track it to enter at the end of the month.

I plug in the numbers from Mint to an excel sheet I created. I’ve modified this template a few times over the years, but I’ve finally found one that really works for us. 

Now more than ever, it’s important to keep an eye on your spending. This snapshot will allow you to see where you can make adjustments if needed, or simply follow it on a monthly basis.

Click the image if you’d like to download this template. Feel free to modify to fit your own lifestyle.

Digital Photo Organization: My Monthly Routine

If I were to ask you how many photos you have on your camera reel, what would be your answer? Truthfully?

Now excluding photos you’ve taken with your cell phone camera, how many are screenshots? what about duplicates or blurry photos? And let’s not forget what happens when a child takes your phone and you find this?

I’ve always been pretty good at backing up my photos and keeping them organized, but I became pretty strict about it after losing a few months worth of my first born’s baby videos. It’s been 8 years since then but I still get sad thinking about it. Never again.

So let’s dive in.

• Connect your phone to your laptop and copy everything off.

• Create folders. I usually create a folder for each year, and then use subfolders for each month. If there was an event or trip where I took more pictures than usual, a new subfolder would be created.

Yearly view

Monthly subfolders

• Every month I then empty out my phone. It may take longer if you haven’t been doing this regularly. I go through each picture, deleting screenshots, duplicates, and those images not worth saving. If this is the first time you’re organizing your photos, I’d recommend starting from today’s pictures and get into a monthly habit moving forward otherwise it may be too overwhelming.

• Copy the pictures in their correct folder.

• I prefer the layout of google drive, but you can also use google photos as a cloud backup. I also have an external hard drive where I make a second backup.

• Delete off your phone.

Bonus points if you’re already going through each image, save your favourites in a separate folder. If you’re like me and you make yearly photobooks, half your work in choosing images will already be done.

10 Things to Toss : Bathroom edition

10 Things to Toss:

Bathroom Edition

For me, decluttering is a way to relieve stress. I feel a weight being lifted when I eliminate things from my home that don’t serve me purpose.

With us currently spending more time at home, our space shouldn’t be adding to our stress.

I know the last thing people want to do is spend hours cleaning or organizing their space. Let’s focus on small areas at a time .

Stretched out hair ties

You know the ones I’m talking about. You reach in to pull out a hair tie, it’s stretched out so you put it back and pull out another one. Let’s just go through them once and for all and eliminate those dreadful hair ties that don’t serve us any purpose.

Expired Medication

Personally, I don’t keep my medication in the bathroom because heat and moisture from the shower/bath can actually decrease their potency but I know many who still do. I mean, there’s even a “medicine cabinet” right in the bathroom, so I understand the confusion. Definitely have a look through your medication, regardless of where you store them and take out the expired ones. Separate them until you can safely dispose of them at the pharmacy.

Ratty old Towels

You won’t use them, so why are you still holding on to them? Remove those ratty old towels from your linen closet and save 2-3 for rags or gross spills. Donate all the rest to an animal shelter or vet. They are often under equipped and towels definitely come in use for lining their cages and wiping up spills.

Samples

Who else loves samples? I have a ton that I usually get in the mail, or at Sephora and I just forget about them. Just get rid of them. We all have our favourite products anyways. If you were going to use them, you would have by now. Toss, save that space for something else.

Old Makeup

So I’m guilty of this. I love buying makeup, but when it comes time to wear it, I have my go to products that I use and rarely touch the rest. Makeup has an expiration, especially once it has been open and exposed to air.

Here is a rough guideline.

Mascara: 4-6 months
Lipstick: 12-18 months
Pencil Eyeliner: 1 year
Liquid eyeliner: 3-6 months
Foundation: 12-18 months
Concealer: 12-18 months
Eyeshadow/blush: 1-2 years

Bathroom Cleaning Products

Take stock of what you have. Keep what do you actually use, throw out what you don’t. If you have multiple bottles with the same product, combine them.

Old Loofahs/bath mitts

When you exfoliate, dead skin cells can get trapped in the folds and the warm humidity can just cause bacteria to multiply. Dermatologists recommend to change out your loofahs and bath mitts every 3 weeks.

Bath toys

If you have kids at home, you surely have some bath toys lying around. Sort through the ones they actually still play with. Make sure there is no mold. Throw out the worn out ones.

Unused bath products/creams

Bath sets are always a popular gift to give. Sometimes we tend to have a little collection start up without us even realizing. Go through them. If it’s not something you have used in the past year - chances are you won’t miss it if you get rid of it. No reason to take up valuable storage space on something you won’t use. Same goes for creams. Yes, they cost money. If it didn’t suit you, or you just prefer another product - it’s safe to say, get rid of it.

Shower area

Last but not least, go to your shower area. Dull razor blades, little bits of soap, basically anything that looks old and unused - let’s toss it and keep only whats in use.

Maintain a sense of routine

Is 2020 over yet? How surreal is this situation we find ourselves in? Self-isolation, social distancing, quarantine – all these terms have become the new norm.  Whatever you may be feeling now, just remember you are not alone.

 Many cities have gone into lockdown with bans on social gatherings, travel, as well as work and school closures. While we may not have control over when we will be allowed back into the real world, what we can control is how we spend our time while isolating.

 As far as possible, try to maintain as much of a routine as you can.

Wake up and go to bed at healthy times to ensure you get enough sleep. Even though you are at home, get out of those PJ’s so your mind knows it is time to get started for the day.

 A healthy routine will require you to try and schedule tasks/activities throughout the day. Make sure to include these key points:

• Fitness. Get your heart rate up, even though you are at home and unable to go to the gym. YouTube has some great Zumba and yoga videos you can follow along as well. Most gyms are even posting daily online workout videos on their social media.

• The state of your home directly effects how you feel. I strongly believe in outer order brings inner calm. Keeping a neat and organized home will make you feel tranquil and energized. A little bit a day is all you need.

• Remain connected with family and friends. Have an online coffee date with them. We need each other more than ever now.

• Go outside for some fresh air. Go for a short walk around the block or even in your backyard.

• Click “next episode” on your shows, read that book you’ve been meaning to get around to, or take on a new hobby – when else will you have this much free time?

 Finally, test out your schedule. It’s not written in stone. Go along with it for a few days, see what works, what doesn’t and make the necessary changes.

See below for the schedule I’ve created for my kids and it’s working well so far.

 At the end of the day, do your best, but cut yourself some slack. This situation is not something we expected or prepared for. We’re all struggling but this will all be over soon.

Don’t forget to follow me on my social media. I’ll be posting more tips and tricks to keep you motivated.