NEAT & SIMPLE LIVING

Clutter Clearing - Losing 50 Pounds over night?

I just read such a neat post!  Amanda at the Stumbling Christian Blog got inspired by one of my posts about How Clutter Affects You and decided to spend a day getting UNSTUCK.

Amanda says

"Have you ever dreamed of waking up one morning and having 50 lbs suddenly gone? That's what this felt like. Though, sadly, I didn't lose any body weight (that might have something to do with the chocolate, however) I did lose a lot of stuff that was weighing me down."

Check out her before and after pictures! 

p.s. She has some good but loud music that plays when you go to her site...so check your speakers! Mine were way up loud and I nearly jumped out of my skin! 

p.s. I've posted some new free gifts as a thank you to my loyal readers! 
With just one sign-up you'll get my new 40 page e-book with my articles on Clearing Clutter PLUS, you'll get my newest e-booklet:  Feng Shui Tips For Creating a Space You Love!

PLUS - You can download my Clutter Quiz that helps you determine where you are the Clutter scale!

I hope you like them and find them helpful.  Let me know what's inspiring you to clear clutter this month!

NAPO-LA is hosting an Awards Extravaganza - Feb 1

I just got a note from my friend John Trosko of www.OrganizingLa.com  who is president of the NAPO LA Chapter that their 2008 Los Angeles Organizing Awards Show is a go on Feb 1 2008 - in spite of the writer's strike.  Sherri Shepherd is hosting and lot's of celebrity organizers will be there including:

• Julie Morgenstern, best selling author and winner of the 2006 Award for Best Organizing Book
• Peter Walsh, organizing star of Clean Sweep and author
• Monica Ricci, the new Office Depot Spokesperson and star of Mission Organization
• Lorie Marrero, Creator, The Clutter Diet
• Joyce Dorny, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Organize Magazine
• Standolyn Robertson, President,NAPO

They will be taping the show...can't wait to see it!  Congratulations, John and to all the nominees and finalists:  You are already winners!

Read more here: 2008 Los Angeles Organizing Awards Show  and get registration info and details  here

p.s.  I've decluttered my right column,and created a new A-Store of my favorite books on a wide variety of topics. 

(Actually my new virtual assistant, Janet Barclay, did it for me!  YAY!  I'm so excited about my new partnership with her as my VA.  She's wonderful!  Check her out!)

"Whip Your Office Into Shape"

I was so thrilled to read this review of my new e-book "Neat & Simple Guide to Organizing Your Office" by Dwayne Melancon of Genuine Curiosity.  Check it out

Whip your office into shape

I've also added more reviews, free e-books, and more details to my description of the contents here: 
"Neat & Simple Guide to Organizing Your Office"   Check out my fancy new widget which allows my clients to review my services online!  It's so cool!

Home Office Organizing - Non-Intuitive Tips!

Mark Shead over at Productivity 501 just posted a brilliant interview with Productivity Experts (including yours truly : ) on one of my favorite topics, Home Office Organizing!

He asked us to give him our most important non-intuitive piece of advice for setting up a home office. Check out the all the responses (including my comparatively long-winded) one here!

Advice for Setting up a Home Office - Group Interview

p.s. this may be my shortest post ever!  : )

Understanding Chronic Disorganization: Are You Chronically Disorganized?

We all experience situations in life when we become disorganized. During an illness, or while working on a project at work that requires a lot of travel, or during a life change like moving, getting married, having kids, or starting a new job. Professional Organizers call that being "Situationally Disorganized." This means disorganization is a very understandable and normal side affect of a life situation.

What makes chronic disorganization different is that when these life events happen to you, order is not quickly and fairly easily restored. Instead, the disorganization does not improve and may even continue to worsen over time. At a certain point, daily life becomes overwhelmingly stressful and help is needed to recover.

If your quality of life is suffering, you feel stressed and overwhelmed much of the time, and you don’t feel like you can fix it yourself, you may be "chronically" disorganized.

To learn more, check out the new in-depth article I have posted on my website called:

Understanding Chronic Disorganization: Are you Chronically Disorganized?

It covers:

• What is Chronic Disorganization?
• Causes of Chronic Disorganization
• Are You Chronically Disorganized?
• Getting Help

Let me know if you have any comments or questions about the article by posting a comment here!  I love hearing from you!  I can't always respond to comments immediately because I do work in clients home 3-5 days a week, but I will get back to you! 

Thanks!

Client Success Story!

Need a little inspiration?  Check this out!  One of my very creative and talented clients,  Alma Schneider has gotten so great at keeping herself, her family and her huge home reasonably organized, that she decided to start her own business, too!  She has a Social work degree and is an amazing cook, so she combined the two into a service called "Take Back the Kitchen" where she helps women overcome psychological and practical obstacles to cooking. She has a new blog called  www.takebackthekitchen.blogspot.com. 

If you have a minute, help inspire her to keep writing by stopping by and leaving her a comment!

Prospering and Learning in 2008! Don't miss my Free Teleclass On "Organizing for the Creative Professional & the Chronically Disorganized"

I am so honored to have been invited to be a guest speaker in the "PROSPER YOUR PRACTICE" community hosted by Ellen Shapiro and offered FREE!  Ellen generously and expertly hosts free monthly "teleclasses with special guest experts to share their information and wisdom about different aspects of running a successful business."  Learn more about Ellen Shapiro here

In addition, she offers monthly "repatterning" sessions designed to help you incorporate the  learnings you "resonate with" from the guest speaker sessions into your belief system and empower you to put them into action! 

(p.s. I did a couple repatterning sessions with her and found them very helpful in refocusing me to take action on my healthy eating goals, which I'll be sharing with you soon along with big announcement : )

I'll be speaking on the topic:

"Organizing for the Creative & the Chronically Disorganized"

We'll be discussing what chronic disorganization is, why it affects so many creative people, and we'll also discuss some simple strategies & principles to help creative professionals become more organized using systems that are super easy and don't take a lot of time to maintain. 

Knowing me, I'll probably have some kind of neat freebie to offer people who attend...I've got tons of ideas floating around, but I think I'll just surprise you!

_________________________________________________________

Here's what you to do if you don't want to miss this!

1. If you want the chance to ask me questions live, Mark March 27th, at 8:45PM EST in your calendar. If you can't make it for the live session, you can listen to the recorded session later, but you have to register to the get the link to the recording!

2. Head on over to Ellen's site to register for the Prosper Your Practice group so that you'll be sure to get the emails with the teleclass info and the follow up link.

That's all you have to do! This is an easy, no-cost, no-obligation, no-spammy sales pitches way to discover what Repatterning is about, AND to visit with me live, and learn more about how to be more organized, even if you've never been able to do it before!

Hope to "see" you there!

Compulsive Hoarding: Special FREE NSGCD TeleClass Open to ALL Professionals Working with Hoarders!

Over the last couple years, I have been so deeply touched by people living with hoarding or severe clutter and disorganization, and also very frustrated with the lack of resources to help them.  There are very few resources to learn to help them as well.  I have become deeply committed to helping address this gap in understanding and resources to serve people suffering with chronic disorganization, severe cluttering, and / or compulsive hoarding and acquiring.

What to do with old postage stamps

Here's a FABULOUS tip from a Neat & Simple Reader!

Hi Ariane,

As I sort through all my packrat paper piles, I keep finding old unused postage stamps. 33 cent stamps, 34 cent stamps... You can't exchange them for current rate stamps. They have to be used or discarded.

Here is a tip I learned from my local post office. Next time you need to mail a package, take all your old stamps to the postal counter. The clerk will apply those old stamps to your package rate.

Happy New Year!

Val

Thanks so much for the tip! 

Happy New Year!!