NEAT & SIMPLE LIVING with Ariane Benefit, Organizing Coach

Digital Camera Review: Samsung L74 Wide Angle Lens for taking Organizing Makeover Photos

Back in May I wrote about a couple wide angle camera I was considering.  See

• Looking for a Digital Camera with a Wide Angle Lens for Taking Real Estate or Room Makeover Pictures?
• Update to Digital Cameras with a Wide Angle Lens

Last month a flurry of wide angle cameras hit the market! The Samsung L74 was only $237 and had tons of features that sounded amazing so I bought one.  Big Mistake.

I have owned several Olympus digital cameras and have used Nikon, Sony & Canon cameras.  They each have their own strengths and weaknesses, but at least some consideration of the user experience went into the design. Using this Samsung was like a bad dream. It has so many odd and poorly conceived features you have to wonder if anyone on their design team ever thought to at least try out their competition's cameras. Here are the problems I have with this camera.

1. Wrist Strap. For starters the wrist strap holder is a little metal bar that sticks out from the camera into your right hand when using the camera. Ant's quite sharp. Every other camera I've owned has it rounded and recessed so you don't feel it. At least they should have made it easy to remove so that it doesn't stick into your hand while you are trying to take pictures.

2. Batteries. Figuring out how to get the battery took nearly 10 minutes!  I've never had to look at the directions to put a battery in any of the hundreds of battery-operated devices we own. The description said this camera uses AA batteries - it does not. I gave this camera a try only because I thought it would run on my rechargeable AAs.  I need to have spares with me because I use my camera to photograh my work in client homes.

3. Touch screen. At first I this was a neat idea. In reality, you have to use a STYLUS PEN to operate it!!!  I tried using my finger nails but it did operate properly. When I'm taking pictures the last thing I want to worry about is finding the stylus pen and then how to hold on to it while I'm taking the photos. There isn't a place in the camera to stick the pen when you aren't using it.

4. Transfering Photos to PC.  It took about a half hour before we were able to actually take pictures after opening the camera. I've never had to look at a camera's instruction book to get to the point of taking the first picture. To operate special functions - yes - but just to take a simple picture?  Once we did get a few pics taken, getting them transferred to the PC was an even bigger pain in the neck. My husband is a computer engineer and he had trouble!  Turns out you can't move the pix directly to your computer with a USB cable from the camera's memory like you can with every other camera out there. You can't even do it from the disk.  You have to install their software and use their software to make the transfer!!  The camera instructions have multiple warnings throughout the manual that you will lose your photos if you don't use their software. This is ridiculous. You should be able to easily & quickly transfer the photos to ANY PC anywhere with that disk.  Even worse, you have to transfer the photos from camera memory to the disk, then you can move it to your computer.

5. Picture Quality.  The picture quality was not the worst I've seen, but it also wasn't great. I use photos of my work on my website (see www.neatandsimple.com/gallery) and in my e-books.  The pictures don't have to be perfect, but they need to at least look good enough to see the work clearly. That means I need a camera that takes really good quality indoor shots. 

What I Bought Instead

As of October 1, 2007, there are a lot more cameras with wide angle lens out there.  I was hoping Olympus would make one and they did!  So I bought the Olympus Stylus FE-290 7MP Digital Camera with 4x Wide Angle Optical Zoom at about the same price as the Samsung from Amazon.com.  I've had it about a month now and I LOVE it!!!!  It even takes great VIDEOS!!!!  I'll eventually post a review of this separately with some sample photos and videos.

My Office Redesign and Reorganization is Finally Finished!

Check out these photos of my new office!  I've been working on this redesign & reorganization since last Thanksgiving.  I moved in last weekend and I'm LOVING IT! Bear with me here.  This is a LONG post explaining all the steps and ingredients that went into designing the office - with pictures.  I hope you find it worth the long read!

Here is the BEFORE which I showed you in my Show Me Your Desk Challenge.

PHOTO 1 - BEFORE

THE MISH MOSH HAD TO GO!

As you can see, I was using a mish mosh of leftover furniture which was functional, but not very attractive.  That was fine when I was doing corporate consulting and no one came to my office.  But now I interview people and have some client meetings here, so I decided it was time to do what I do for others and redesign my own office!

I aso decided to move to a larger space to accomodate the greater number of projects I have going on. My dear husband suggested we dismantle our guest room, which was not used often, and offered to help me build the office of my dreams!  He has been so awesome.  He spent many hours painting and 5 hours building my new desk and file cabinets.  I could not have done this without him!

THE BUDGET

With a budget of $1000 in mind, I started sketching a design for the office and for a desk that would meet my list of needs.  Then we started shopping around for furniture. The good news is I only spent $700 including new desk, monitor riser, shelf file cabinets, and new storage containers in my accent colors Chocolate Brown & Black.

PREPARING THE NEW SPACE

First step was to empty the guest room.  We then repaired the peeling walls and ceiling and stripped the radiator of 60 years of cracking paint and repainted it.  (The perfectionist strikes again.  At least I didn't try to strip the windows! Okay I confess, I tried, but gave up after I realized I was destroying the grooves in the molding.)

After several attempts at priming that did not cover the stains from old wallpaper glue, we finally put a thin layer of joint compund over most of the walls and voila, no more stains!  We also customized the built in bookshelves that were intended for a child's room by removing the decorative moldings that blocked full use of the shelves (see photo 6).

Choosing the Paint Color

We painted the room a gorgeous light sky blue that has an alive feeling to it.  (Benjamin Moore 2067-65)  I chose this color for several specific reasons. 

1) Blue is an excellent feng shui choice for study. 

2) Light blue is also the feng shui color of harmonious expansion and gentle growth.

3) Blue & White (my trim color) brings the energy of the unlimited sky and happiness in to the space.

4) Over the years I've met people who do Aura readings and I was told that my aura is a very light sky blue.  I was told to surround myself with that color would bring out my highest potential.  Is this true?  I don't know, but it can't hurt and I LOVE the color! And in the growth phase I'm in right now, I need all the help I can get to stay centered.

It took 6 months working on it here and there when we could, but boy was it worth it!  Here's my new office! I now have storage to my right AND to the back of me that is all I need and more.  It's like a spiral around me.  I LOVE IT!  On my monitor, the blue looks kinda purple, but it's not.  It's definitely blue.  : )

PHOTO 2 - AFTER - View from my office door

THE STORAGE FURNITURE

I was able to repurpose existing Ikea shelving (IVAR) we had stored in the attic along with pieces I'd been using in my old office so that saved a bit of money - but even if we had to buy it new, the IVAR series is not very expensive.   

Here's the view behind me.  The entry to my new office is directly in front of the door.  In a way, it's like a cubicle...only much better! You walk in the door and straight into my "nest" as my husband calls it. : )

PHOTO 3 - The storage system behind me

THE DESK

For my desk, I sketched what I wanted, then shopped around at untold number of websites and furniture stores. After using the neat online office space planner at Ikea, I finally chose the GALANT system from IKEA because of it's versatility.  With the add on pieces I was able to design a desk exactly to my needs.  It flows from the back wall to the window you see in Photo 4 below.  Then it flows and aligns with the door.  It's like it was custom built for the space! Well, I guess it was actually custom built : )

Using the T legs, I got to adjust the height of the desk to my perfect ergonomic keyboard height. 

Another feature I love is that there is nothing underneath the desk!  The frame of the desk allows the whole thing to be supported with just 3 legs so I can slide my chair around with NO interference.  You can't do that with 2 desks put together in an L like I had before. It also allows me to easily keep my MailMate shredder, trash and recycle bins under the desk See Photo 5. 

We built a monitor riser (shown below) so that I can slide my keyboard under it if needed. And I can keep phone chargers, digital recorder, etc. under it. We built the monitor riser using one of the half-rounds that go with the Galant desk and attaching 6 inch legs called CAPITA to it.

I also got my computer OFF the floor finally so I can easily use my USB ports and card slots to get pix off my camera!  I can't believe I kept it so far from me for so long.  What was I thinking??? oh well.  Fixed now!  : )

BTW - My cat, Alex still has a home on my desk.  I just moved it so you could see the desk. : )

PHOTO 4 - The Monitor Riser, Computer, Action Zone, Client Booking Zone

This desk now has very functional zones for:

Booking client appts  Everything I need is handy in this zone. My phone, calendar, voice mail log and client folders.) BTW: I have my client folders in my Feng Shui prosperity corner with a light shining on them.  Since I moved in, I've been booking a new client every day this week - And this is normally my slow season!

Action Management - My action system is to the right of me. I'm using my Heart Shaped Napkin holder (Photo 4) to hold my High Priority action papers. I have a step file behind it. It has action folders for:

• To Purchase
• Enter at Computer
• Notes
• Blog & Article Ideas

Project Management Zone- To the right of my action system are all my project folders and binders.

Hanging Files and Supplies - Under my project system are 2 file cabinets (IKEA JONAS Drawer Unit) with file drawers and supply drawers to replace the ones my old desk had.  Instead of using the casters that come with JONAS, we slipped the drawers into the IVAR 20 inch deep shelves.  They fit neatly and don't roll around when I use them that way.  Plus it lifted them off the floor so the file drawer was not so low.  The only thing I don't like about this file cabinet is that the files go in sideways...which makes them a bit of a pain to get in and out of the drawer.

PHOTO 5 - My Hanging Files with Shredder, Recycle Bin and Archived Folders under the desk

Mail Processing Zone - To the left of my phone I use a magazine file as an inbox.  I also have one to hold a notebook and my Voice Mail log.  Next to that is my To Read magazine file. What you don't see in the picture is my black cat cup which holds my favorite pens, letter opener and scissors.  Everything I need to process my mail in minutes is right here.  letter opener, shredder, computer, recycle bin, calendar, action system, hanging files, etc. Anything that needs to be filed or shredded gets filed or shredded instantly.  If it's a To Do item and will only take a minute or 2, I do it immediately.  E.g., a bill to pay (I use online bill pay so it's REALLY quick.

PHOTO 6 - My View Out the Window, Mail System, Client Booking Zone

THE POWER OF REDESIGN

Redesigning this space was so much fun...and made such a huge difference in my productivity and ability to focus that I'm seriously considering formally adding Redesign / Interior Refining to my services.  I already do redesign furniture layouts for clients but I always thought of it as just part of organizing as you can see in my office redesign photo gallery.  I even redesigned my backyard which you can see pix of here. 

Redesign makes it hard to take recognizable before and after shots, but who cares.  It makes a huge difference in how my clients feel about their spaces and makes them much more likely to maintain the new systems.  Everything is positioned to make their activities easier AND look good too.

I'm learning more and more that not all professional organizers do this.  But there are several who have gotten additional credentials and made it a full-on service, like my friend and colleague, Brandie Kajino.  I'm even taking a FREE teleclass she is teaching!

I'm really excited about diving deeper into how organizing and redesign combined affect the emotional, mental, and spiritual side of changing one's habits.  It's simply not enough to decide to change.  There is always a need to organize to make your new habits easier to act on.  Making systems and spaces "attractive" is a critical component of changing habits as well.  For me, the changes in my space have made an unbelievable difference in my habits and in how I feel about everything!   

Okay, if you are still here, thanks for reading this far and forgive me any typos as I curb my perfectionism and decide to post this even though I want to re-read it for the 20th time!  : )

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Update to Digital Camera with a Wide Angle Lens for Taking Real Estate or Room Makeover Pictures?

Many thanks to Brandie Kajino from Organize Simplify for commenting and letting us know that there are 2 other affordable digital cameras with wide angle zoom lenses!  Here is my original digital camera review post, luckily I haven't purchased the Kodak Easy Share v705 7.1 megapixel 5x ultra wide angle Dual Lens optical zoom yet!

Here are the 2 new contenders

1) The Canon PowerShot SD800 with 3.8x Wide Angle Image-Stabilized Optical Zoom

At around $300 the Canon PowerShot SD800 is similar to the others, and it has received very good reviews from Digital Photography Review and CNET.com  (7.8 out of 10)

2) The  Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX01  It looks great too.  It come in colors including pink!   Here's a review of it from Digital Photography Review.   http://www.dpreview.com/news/0602/06021404panasonicfx01.asp

This is a much tougher decision now! 

Looking for a Digital Camera with a Wide Angle Lens for Taking Real Estate or Room Makeover Pictures?

Me too!  I've been looking for a wide angle camera to take pix of the rooms I work on.  Fellow professional organizer, Sarah Roberts, from Texas, discovered the RealPIX at $299.   

I like the Realpix because it's true that the most important parts of the camera for quality pix are the lens and the flash.  If the RealPix camera truly has a lens that doesn't distort the way most wide angle lenses do, AND a built in flash that will project to 20 ft - $299 is a fair price.  I paid nearly that much for a wide angle lens and nearly $200 for a powerful flash unit for my 35mm (non-digital) Nikon system.  Eventually, if the camers sells well, it will become cheaper.  Especially if they sell it through places like B&H Photo, Butterfly Photo or www.Amazon.com. (I've purchased at all these places and the service / hipping was great.

Here's what I don't like about the RealPIX.

• No LCD viewer to see the pix you've taken, so if the picture does not come out right, you don't find out till you get back to your computer to upload it.
• No memory disks so that you can transfer pix without a cable - it holds 400 shots in internal memory and you upload with a USB cable (as if I don't have enough cables on my desk already!  : )
• Battery is built in - which means it is designed to eventually just be thrown away and if you do let it discharge completely, you can't just throw in spare batteries.  It says it will provide many years of service, but that depends on how you use it. It does come with a car charger. 
• 640x480 is the only picture size it takes - They designed that for uploading to real estate websites using and auto uploader.  But for websites like mine, I can go bigger.  And often I crop out the ceiling etc that people don't need to see.  With this camera, this is no room for cropping.

All in all I think they limited their market and should have considered interior designers, real estate stagers, and professional organizers.  That would have doubled their market.  Or at least come up with another version of the camera that offers the quality pix with some of the other basic conveniences of digital cameras.  Even if it is more expensive.  Personally I'd rather pay more for a camera I like than pay less and not be happy with it.

The only other wide angle I've found is the Kodak Easy Share v705 7.1 megapixel 5x ultra wide angle Dual Lens optical zoom, ($230 on Amazon Retail $349) but according to the reviews, there is some distortion and the picture is "soft" or not sharply focused. That's probably because it's an optical zoom lens and not a fixed lens.

But at least it has an LCD viewer, memory disk, replaceable battery, and all the other conveniences we've become used to in a digital camera.  This means you can use it for your wide angle shots and for other purposes such as closeups of work you've done.  It even takes video clips and has digital image stabilization.  And the spare battery is only 16$

It's predecessor was the 5 Megapixel version and on that page you can see LOTS of photos taken with camera including 49 photos that have been uploaded by customers. This cute cat was the only one I found of a wide angle shot indoors.  As you can see it is a little dark...and there is distortion.  Not sure they used flash - it doesn't look like it. But with a wide angle lens, you will see more distortion the closer you are to an object.  This looks like it was taken pretty close. 

The panorama stitch function may be better for some rooms. See the panoramic photo taken inside a van by one of the Amazon reviewers.  (Click to see it larger) 

***UPDATES***

1) Thanks to Susan Kousek for sending me an email pointing out that with the Kodak camera "the flash won't fire while you're in panoramic mode." 

2) Thanks to Brandie Kajino for pointing out 2 more wide angle cameras - Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX01 and the Canon PowerShot SD800   See my update post

They all sound great!  I don't know what I'll get right now, but either way I'll post pix and let you know when I do.  Maybe I'll get them all and test them out!  : )

Do Professional Organizers Keep Their Desks Neat All the Time? See for Yourself!

This weekend, Monica Ricci  (who is hosting the HGTV Spring Get Organized Challenge! for the next eight weeks) and I were emailing and discussing Meyers Briggs personality types. On one website, my personality type (ENTP) was described as "messy & disorganized"  SEE:  http://similarminds.com/jung/entp.html    (WHO ME??? SEE my rebuttal at the end of this post)

Monica on the other hand was described and "neat & organized".   So Monica had the brilliant idea to post pictures of our desks on our blogs so we could see for ourselves!  I thought it would be great to challenge all professional organizers who blog as well as other bloggers to do the same thing! 

_______

Welcome to my Office!  Here's my desk pix taken at 7:00 AM  this morning.

Desk 1 - Where I write, talk on the phone, process mail, work on projects, to do's etc.

To the left on the wall are my horizontal trays which allow me to indulge my "piler" tendencies without looking too messy.  One tray has a box for me to dump coupons in, and one for me to put things I want to talk to my husband about, and one for my P-Touch)

I also keep my calendar (the black open binder) to the left.  The purple folders are my client files, (which I wrote about here - Clutter Clearing Pays Off Big Time!) The yellow folders are my project files. My office phone which you can barely see is in front of my purple files.  My backup phone (home line) is the one on the upper shelf.

On my desk are projects and TO DOs in progress.  To the right, my printer, scanner, copier & pens. My recycle bins for paper and plastic are under my desk drawers, and my financial files are to my right.  My shredder is on the floor under my computer desk.

This 2 desk setup allows me to open mail and then instantly either toss, recycle, shred, put dates in my calendar, list to dos in my to do notebook, put the papers in my action files, make a call, type an email, or just file it away.  It may not be extremely pretty or neat, but it works for me!

 

DESK 2 - My computer Desk, with a home for my cat Alex!

Here you can see all my timers I use to keep myself on track and to time projects when I'm doing client work in my office vs. on-site. My inbox is to the left as is my essential oil diffuser and oils. 

And there's Alex, my adorable cat, who you may remember from these posts a year ago when he took over my TO DO basket!

http://blog.neatandsimple.com/blog/2006/02/heres_a_purrfec.html

http://blog.neatandsimple.com/blog/2006/02/purrfect_conten.html

I sent his pictures to www.cuteoverload.com but they never published them.  Can you believe it???  : )

Okay, so my desks are NOT perfectly neat.  But do I look terribly messy & disorganized to you? Let me know what you think & leave me a comment!  

While you are here, why not pick up my FREE 22 page ebook "Neat Living Goes to the Office" which has over 75 organizing tips for your papers and desk! 

And now I challenge my organizer and blogger friends...Can we see your desks???  See my complete list of organizers' and bloggers' who have shown us their desks!

Leave me a comment and let us know when you've shown us your desk!  : )   I'll add you to the list here!

My rebuttal to the description of my personality type as seen at: 

http://similarminds.com/jung/entp.html

___

acts without thinking, wild and crazy, dangerous, fearless, careless, thrill seeker, life of the party,  experience junky

(not since I was a teenager - I admit I did ride my bike down a set of stairs when I was 12 and ended up in the hospital...and I did hitchhike to FL when I was 13.  So I suppose I was rather fearless then, but today?  I'm very boring and I generally think a lot before acting : )

___

risk taker, outgoing, social, open, rule breaker, adventurous, spontaneous,i mproviser, not into organized religion, pro-weed legalization, adaptable, comfortable in unfamiliar situations, appreciates strangeness, (generally true)

___

messy, disorganized, !!!!!  (I can be at times when I'm really involved in a project, used to be worse and I do have to work at staying organized...it was never extreme, though.)

___

dominant (my husband calls me "the will" because I make things happen.  So yeah, at times, even though I hate to admit it - I do have dominant tendencies and tend to get my way a lot at home)

___

emotionally stable, talented at presentation, (I hope this is true!)

___

player, always joking, aggressive, attention seeking, insensitive,  (nobody who knows me would agree with these, I do have a sense of humor, but i tend to be serious and philosophical, I'm also very sensitive to people's feelings and don't like to call attention to myself other than through writing and teaching.)

___

carefree, easy going, not easily offended  (I try to be these!) 

Recovering from Waterproofing A Flooded Finished Basement!

You haven't heard much from me lately because I've been dealing with the aftermath of a flooded basement! Again!  And we just renovated our laundry room and finished basement in August! 

We were relatively lucky though - look what the storm did to the house across the street from us!  (Click photo to see it full size)

The fire dept. and tree guys were there all day & night chopping that oak up.  I was amazed the damage wasn't worse than it was.  These 80 yr old houses were built quite sturdy!

So back to our basement...here's our "before and after" pictures:

BEFORE - our finished basement has the laundry room, a decent 2nd spare bedroom & TV area, & a Lego area for my husband.  The door goes to the laundry room (Click Photos for Full Size)

AFTER / DURING WATERPROOFING

We called in a company to suck up the water and do basement waterproofing so this can't happen again.  I don't know which damaged the basement more..the water or the waterproofing!  This is almost the same view as the above... the window & pipes are the only thing that let you know these pix are the same place!  Note that the drywall was cut all around too.

They had to jackhammer the entire perimeter of the basement to put in a french drain and 2 sump pumps that connect to our exterior drainage system.  Every closet had to be partially or fully emptied. Everything was moved to the center of the floor and "covered" to protect it from dirt and dust.  NOTE: Covering stuff with plastic didn't protect it! -  If you ever decide to waterproof your finished basement - EMPTY THE ENTIRE BASEMENT FIRST!

We took a lot of stuff out of the basement and filled our attic, garage, dining room and sunroom. But if I'd known how filthy everything would get, I would have packed it all up and moved it out.  Even if I had to get a POD or sacrifice my living room and guest room. We have to take everything out anyway to replace all the flooring - (again - we just did that in August!), fix the drywall, and Repaint (yet again).  PLUS I have to clean EVERYTHING that was covered with dust. I mean it is a THICK layer of dust.

So forgive me being quiet for a while...life's little ordeals have shifted my priorities!  But I do have a bunch of neat ideas lined up to share with you when I get time...so stay tuned!  In the meantime...here's more before and after pix of our laundry room & waterproofing pains.  We aren't done yet...but will share more pix when we have the situation restored. 

BEFORE

During

Digging the trench around the basement perimeter...

 

Laying the drains - that black liner you see there - is now sticking out about 4-6 inches around EVERY wall...so we have to build a custom baseboard to cover it.

If I'd known the result would look like this and we would have to do so much work after the waterproofing...I'm not sure I would have done the waterproofing! 

I might have just put a stone floor in, lifted everything off the floor, and gotten throw rugs that I could pick up whenever it rained.   

 

More During Waterproofing Pix

There are the steps down to the basement and the inside of a storage closet.  The stuff that was "protected" ALL has to be cleaned. I had my donation bin and gift bin in this closet!!! 

Here are some of the damaged carpet and buckets of mud removed from basement during waterproofing.

I'll be back with more Neat Living Ideas & Solutions when I get my own Neat Living back!  : ) 

All the best,

Getting Under the Bathroom Sink with the Organizing Junkie!

Here are some neat tips from Laura, the Organizing Junkie on how to clear the clutter under your sink! She does a great job of giving really detailed tips that explain how to get bathroom clutter under control.

http://orgjunkie.blogspot.com/2006/09/saturday-solutions.html

Here are her before and after pictures...

http://orgjunkie.blogspot.com/2006/09/before-and-after-photos.html

Here's the post with before and after photos I did on cleaning out and organizing under the kitchen sink!

http://orgjunkie.blogspot.com/2006/09/saturday-solutions.html

Neat Living Featured in Psychology Today - UPDATE - BEFORE & AFTER PHOTOS TO ILLUSTRATE TIPS

UPDATE:

I've seen the article in the October 2006 issue of Psychology Today !  It's an interesting take on folks who are obsessively neat.  And no, I'm NOT one of them!  I do like order and neatness, but I'm not obsessed with perfection.  My use of the term neat is meant to be more as in "neat ideas."   

I was quoted in the sidebar "Get Neat Freakier". I was excited to see  Judith Kohlberg: Author of Conquering Chronic Disorganization and ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life  was also quoted in the article!  I love her!

I was less happy to see that one of my answers to Carla's questions was taken a bit out of context and doesn't quite represent my advice accurately.  For example, the sidebar starts out with this:

"Get rid of half your stuff says Ariane Benefit, professional organizer...."

For the record, I NEVER tell people to get rid of half their stuff. 

I kinda cringed when I read that. What I said was that with some clients with extreme clutter we have had to get rid of half their stuff in order to get them organized.  She asked if that was common and I said that many people could live without half their stuff and still be fine.

I feel like that's a big difference, what do you think?  Do you think I was quoted accurately?

My website address www.neatandsimple.com was given as my blog address, but that's okay people can still find my blog.

They also published one of the many tips I gave which really works!  If your drawers are overstuffed, one way to get back nearly half the space in your drawer is to roll your clothing instead of laying them flat in the drawers.  This is one my clients FAVORITE tips.  They go and do this to every drawer they have!

So I thought I'd share a before and after picture to show you how this works.

Here is a kids pants drawer where the pants are folded once and laid on top of each other: (Click images to see them larger)

Here is the AFTER shot.  We folded each pair of pants one more time and lined them up vertically. We also sorted by pant length and color.  Now Mom can see exactly what clothing her son has at a glance and it's super easy to put things away and get them out.  This took less than 2 minutes to do!  It worked out so well, we were able to put shirts in the drawer too!  We freed up so much space that we combined 2 drawers into one, Mom could pick out an outfit by opening just one drawer, and  we were able to take a lot of things out of the closet that didn't really need to be hung making her laundry chores easier! 

Tackle it Tuesday - UPDATE to Sofie's Desk - Home School Organizing Project

             

Back in January, I posted Sofie's Story (fictitious name) about a family that was living in a virtual prison of clutter. I posted BEFORE and DURING photos, but never got around to actually posting the AFTER photos. So my Tackle it Tuesday project is to finally get the update on how the project turned out posted for you!  : )   Here is a BEFORE picture of her home schooling area / dining room which you can click to see larger.

Here's the original post where I posted BEFORE and DURING pictures. http://blog.neatandsimple.com/blog/2006/01/current_project.html   

NOTE: You can also see the full story with lots more photos of the project in our Neat & Simple Living PhotoGallery.  Haven't updated that yet though. That will be another Tackle it Tuesday project! : ) 

Below are several photos from the completed project which were actually taken in March!  The desk is now set up in an L-shape.  Since her desk had no filing drawers and she didn't want to buy a new desk, we

Tackle it Tuesday - Laundry Room Makeover

The weekend before this past one we finally finished cleaning our basement and put in the final touches on our flood cleanup & Laundry Room renovation project. (See Photo Below) We had a flood down there a few weeks ago when the plumbing backed up.  We had to throw out all the linoleum and carpet and disinfect the floors, then put new flooring & carpet in. 

TIP: In the basement, never tack down the carpet and linoleum! We buy very inexpensive carpet remnants just so that we can easily change it all out if there is a flood.  After all, the water heater, washing machine and a toilet are all down there!) We also keep everything off the floor unless it's in plastic bins.  So, luckily we didn't lose anything but the flooring! All we had to do was cut the wet carpet into pieces, put it in contractor bags and trash it.  Granted it was a nasty job...but it could have been worse!  : )

While were at it, we took the opportunity to get a new utility sink to replace the disgusting one that was there for probably at least 40 years - if not since the house was built 65 years ago.  (Click the photo to see it larger)  So sorry I forgot to take before pix!  : (  But I was just so anxious to get it all done! )

As you can see, we painted the previously all boring white room in a gorgeous blue by Benjamin Moore (809 - Soft Jazz) and painted all the yucky looking pipes white.  (NOTE: To paint pipes, you first have to prime the pipes with a special primer.) They look kinda like art to me.  I love spending time doing laundry in there now!  : )   FYI - We got the utility sink with cabinet & awesome faucet and everything you need with it at Lowe's for around $200.  It wasn't available at Home Depot.  Because we are in a 65 year old house, though, Alan did have to get some additional plumbing pipe fittings and supplies to make the hose and drain pipe work. I'm so lucky he's so handy!!!   It would have cost more than the sink to get a plumber in to do the work.

The storage we have in the laundry room is a wardrobe which is actually a child's wardrobe from Target.  The wardrobe was originally bought more than 10 years ago for the huge bathroom I had in my Victorian apt. which had no storage at all.  I think you can still get similar units at Target.  (p.s. I also changed the knobs to make the unit less child's room looking.)

The counter / folding table was from Caldor (which no longer exists) but you can find this kind of counter height table in lots of places. You can also get tables that fold down from the wall.  I bought the counter / table about 15 years ago for my kitchen when I was in the victorian apartment in Montclair.  These items repurposed beautifully to the laundry room in our new home!    I LOVE furniture that is multi-functional!

Hope you have a great Tackle It Tuesday Project!

http://www.5minutesformom.com/category/blogging/meme/tackle-it-tuesday/

Read more about the background here:
http://www.5minutesformom.com/160/tackle-it-tuesday-update/

Sending Neat Thoughts!

Tackle It Tuesday - Inspiring Organizing Makeover Photos!

If you are looking for inspiration and examples of Do-it-Yourself organizing makeovers, you will LOVE the Tackle it Tuesday posts on the 5 Minutes For Mom Blog!

Tackle it Tuesday was created by Janice and Susan, identical twins and founders of 5 Minutes for Mom as a way to motivate themselves and others to get their homes under control!  Each week on Tuesday, they post before and after pictures of a project or trouble area that was tackled this week. Many Moms are participating! 
http://www.5minutesformom.com/category/blogging/meme/tackle-it-tuesday/

Read more about the background here:
http://www.5minutesformom.com/160/tackle-it-tuesday-update/

I love this idea!  What a creative use of blogging!  It doesn't have to be a big project...any little thing will do! 

UNDER THE KITCHEN SINK

Even though I did this a while ago, I'm sharing the before and after pix from my under the kitchen sink project!

BEFORE

When we moved in 5 years ago, I used an old dish drainer and a blue basket you can barely see in the back...but the stuff had outgrown the containers and it was a pain to get to stuff!

AFTER

The dish drainer got donated and I got a locker shelf from Staples and a shelf/basket unit from my Neat Living Store to  organize things better! The blue basket now has all my plant watering & feeding stuff.  (Yes, I use an old water bottle : )  And the shelf/basket with drawer is PERFECT for holding sponges and smaller stuff.  I love it! It's really great quality too. And it fits perfectly in my small sink cabinet.  Every other time I had tried to buy a similar unit at LNT or something, I had to return them for being too big.  So be sure to measure first!

You can get the shelf/basket (FREE SHIPPING TOO!) here http://www.organizedshoppingcart.com/product_detail.php?product_id=1107&ref=1123439731

Sell the Benefits not the Features - Even When it Comes to Getting Organized

Once again Des Walsh, one of my wise Linked-in Blogger friends has provided some great advice.  Writing and speaking about any subject plainly and clearly is a challenge, but especially when writing about technical subjects such as RSS feeds.  Even though I've read a lot on RSS, and Des provides an excellent resource in his post at Thinking Home Business :: For RSS as For Anything, Sell the Benefits not the Features, I still only understand enough to respect it and take advantage of it.  That's really all I need to know!  I don't need to know all the details of what RSS is, I just need to understand what it can do for me in making my blog accessible to people.

This is true of organizing as well.  You can't just tell people they need to be organized.  You have to show them how it changes their lives.  95% of people who have difficulty getting and staying organized have been told that many times.  They already know many organizing methods. They may even have been given organizing supplies and tools as "hints" to get organized. For example, several of my clients have been given label makers by well-meaning people who told them they should use it to get organized.

But they never understood the benefits so they never used it. Often people just don't get how spending time organizing themselves will do anything but take up their time. Many people have an underlying belief that being organized means being rigid and uptight and following lots of rules, or that it's bureaucratic, or stifles creativity and spontaneity...or that if you are organized you must spend all your time doing it and never have fun.  They think that labeling (and other organizing technique) will take a lot of time and just be "overkill."

So for me, a big part of helping people get and stay organized is to help them overcome these self-limiting beliefs and change their perspective so they can see that organizing is not "all" or "nothing" and that there is real value in becoming "reasonably" organized.  They can save time, money and have less conflict with their family, less stress, and more creativity!

Every time I explain and demonstrate the benefits of labeling, how easy and inconspicuous it can be, and how labels can be used to solve actual problems they are having, a light bulb goes off.  They wipe the dust off their label makers and start labeling all kinds of things!  Once they see that labeling strategically is a way to communicate with their family, teach their kids, support their memory, save time, and have their family, babysitters and even cleaning people support their efforts to get organized, they see it in a whole new light. 

In the picture shown, we used labels inside the dresser drawers so that my client's children and the cleaning lady would know where things go when putting laundry away.  Not everyone wants or needs their sock and underwear drawer this neat, and that's fine, but it solved a problem for her, so we did it and she loves it. 

I don't try to make neurotic perfectionists out of people who have a visible label on everything they own or never have a thing out of place.  I just try to help them see they how we can solve specific issues in their lives by applying organizing skills and concepts.  Once they are "sold" on the value of being organized, making simple changes in the way they do things, like labeling, is easy.

For more photos of organizing makeovers, see www.neatandsimple.com/gallery

Geek to Live: Extreme makeover, filing cabinet edition - Lifehacker

Here's a GREAT post showing how Gina Trapani, the editor of Lifehacker created herself a neat file system! Geek to Live: Extreme makeover, filing cabinet edition - Lifehacker.

Her photos are great, her system works, and she explains in detail how she did it!  There are lots of comments from readers providing even more tips and variations on the process.  This is as good or better than most of what I've read in books about how to create a filing system!   My only suggestion would be to make sure you separate ACTIVE or OPEN files from ARCHIVE or CLOSED files.  She shows tax folders from 2001 - 2005 which should be Archive or Closed files since they are no longer frequently used.

FILING TIP:  GIVE YOUR SELF SPACE
Keeping only active files in your office takes up much less space and makes it much easier to file.  Also, you should have at least 25% of the space in your file drawers free so you can easily move the files and open them to add more files.  This is the biggest most common mistake people make and is far more important that having typed labels.  If you don't leave room for yourself to easily use the system, you won't keep it up!

You can get more of my FREE FILING TIPS (not found in Gina's article) in a 3 page booklet when you sign up for my newsletter!   

FILING WITH BINDERS
My next newsletter is going to cover a super-easy system on filing using binders.  It will provide a list of supplies you need to make it easy and 10 creative ways to use binders! So why not sign up now?

SEE MORE ORGANIZING MAKEOVERS  like the one shown below at www.neatandsimple.com/gallery

    

  BEFORE

   AFTER

Neat Kid's Playroom, Art & Craft Room Makeover Photos & Tips!

I finally got a chance to put up some more Before & After Photos! 

I gotta tell you it's not easy doing these.  Especially when all the furniture is re-arranged!   Or when you can't stand in the same spot to take both pictures.  Or when there's a lot of time between shots and you can't remember where you stood or whether the camera was vertical or horizontal!  Or sometimes I'm so focused on helping the client I forget to take the before shots.  And of course not everyone wants me to take pictures.  So when someone does agree I try to be as respectful as possible.  I truly appreciate my clients that are willing to share their photos in the hopes that it will help someone else.  I hope they help you!  So go have a look around my gallery!

Here's the link to see a neat playroom!  http://www.neatandsimple.com/gallery/kids.html

Enjoy!

Breaking Free from a Prison of Clutter - One Family's Story - with Photos

Step 1 - Working up the Courage to Make the Call

I'm currently working with a truly sensitive, warm, kind and generous woman and her family.  When she called me in December, she was terrified of what my reaction would be to the condition of her home. Even though we haven't finished, she wants to share her story - photos and all - just in case it will help others in her situation get up the courage to make the call and begin the journey of breaking free from clutter.  How awesome is that? 

When she got up the courage to call me, she was surprised to find that I didn't criticize her at all and I wasn't shocked. I only wanted to help  - that's why I got into this business - to really make a difference in people's lives.  Most organizers I know feel the same way. 

Step 2 - Getting to Know the Family, Their Situation  & Needs
My client, whom I'll call Sofie to conceal her identity, is a 26 year old mother of 3 beautiful kids and is married to an incredibly patient man who is by nature a neat freak.  When she lost her mother several years ago, she took in all the stuff her mom left behind.  She just couldn't bear to part with any of it - it would be like losing her mom all over again.  The stuff became a way to fill the emptiness and distract her from the grief inside. 

She then began shopping compulsively as a way to escape from her pain and get a brief high.  As you can see in the photos below, over time, her home became so cluttered that you literally had to move stuff out of the way to walk from place to place.  We are only showing one room here. More rooms will be covered in the project profile we are creating for our Before and After Gallery. 

CLICK THE "BEFORE" PHOTOS OF THE DINING ROOM / COMPUTER DESK / HOME SCHOOLING AREA TO SEE IT LARGER

As you can imagine, the tension, frustration, and stress level was so high among all the family members that fights broke out over every little thing.  Everyone dreaded coming home and no one could relax.  Sofie began to realize that if things didn't change, she might lose her husband and family.  She knew it was time to start letting go of the grief and the clutter that came with it.  She started going to organizing websites for inspiration and made many attempts to organize.  But because of the overwhelming amount of stuff, stress and tension, it was impossible to maintain any of these attempts.  The family couldn't support her because they really didn't know how.  No one could remember what they were supposed to do. Each small attempt was inconsistent, and wasn't part of a complete solution. When one space was cleared, it just became the new convenient place to dump stuff.  It was overwhelming for everyone.  That was when she realized she needed a professional to really break free.

Step  3 -  First Aid
During the first hands-on session we worked on what I call "first aid".  We addressed the biggest safety and health concerns, and got bathrooms and kitchen cleared and cleaned.  We also got the cat's litter box out of the bathroom and out of reach of the one year old by putting it in a small closet on the second floor. 

Step  4 -  The Plan
During the second session we had a family meeting.  During this meeting we established family goals and put them in writing.    The goal is to create a functioning, spacious home that allows them to have the loving family they all want.  A home they all enjoy coming home to.  We then set up a 3 part plan for getting rid of the clutter so that we can start really getting organized. Here's the plan.  It's sounds simple, but it's not easy.  It takes a lot of commitment and emotional strength to let go of old habits. 

1. No More Stuff - Everyone agreed to stop bringing unnecessary stuff into the home - no more buying, and no more gifts or freebies from others that there simply isn't room for.  We started documenting a set of guidelines for shopping, gifting, and accepting freebies that will help prevent the clutter from returning.

2. Support Each Other - As anyone with an addiction knows, you can't just stop doing something that is filling an emotional need without replacing it with something else...so we set up some alternatives to buying stuff - healthier ways to fill the void.  In addition to frequent telephone calls with me, here are a few of the things the family decided to do to support each other:  Start noticing all the progress and good things each other is doing.  Thank each other every day for something you appreciate. Spend time as a family without TV, and other stuff.  Have meals together and listen to each other's day.  Give each other clutter-free gifts such as trips to the day spa, massages, or babysitting time so the other can get away for a while.

3. Clear Space and Purge - This is where we go through everything they have collected and start letting go of the past as well as anything that isn't loved, hygienic, or used regularly. Some treasured things that have been damaged or are literally disintegrating will be photagraphed for a digital album. 

Step  4 -  The Purge

To date we've had several purging sessions.  We've made great progress in improving the functionality of the main areas of the home.  We've filled the dumpster a couple times and now have a lot more clear surfaces and functional areas.  Much of the good stuff has been sorted like with like into bins, labeled and put out of the way until the purge is complete. 

Sofie has come to love purging!  Once you get a taste of the freedom and energy it brings to purge the past, it's exhilirating!  She and her husband are now doing lots of it on their own. 

TIP: As we purge we are taking all the empty containers and putting them in our own little "container store".  When we need a container we "shop" there - for FREE!  : )    Here are a couple photos that show the progress we've made. 

CLICK THE "ALMOST AFTER" PHOTOS OF THE DINING ROOM / COMPUTER DESK / HOME SCHOOLING AREA TO SEE IT LARGER

We've cleared the desk and gotten all the important TO DO papers in one place.  We've made a temporary home for important things like receipts, planner, wallet, and homeschooling lesson plans and worksheets. 

We still have to empty all the drawers, bins and boxes that haven't been sorted and purged yet, but we are getting close. 

Once we finish the purge, we'll have space to put things away the things that are truly used and loved.  THEN we'll determine what, if anything, needs to be purchased to make the home function well for them.

UPDATE:

Here is a photo of her desk after we completed going through everything and decluttering.

I rearranged her workspace and desk to create an "L" and placed her file cabinet right next to her to make it easier to file instantly - instead of creating To File piles.

Using mostly things she already had, we created a simple hanging file system, a desktop project filing system, receipt system, kid's artwork system, mail inbox & processing system and gave everything a home.

The old table you see next to the desk in the prior picture became an art table for the kids.

_______________________

I hope you've found this mini-project profile inspirational.  See more Neat Living Home Office Makeovers here. Remember, no matter how cluttered an area has become, there is hope.  Sometimes you just have to make that first call for help to get started. 

Sending Neat Thoughts,

If I can be of service to you, I am available for coaching by telephone, so don't be afraid to call!  Life is too short to put off getting help any longer.  My contact info can be found at www.neatandsimple.com

Neat Makeover of Home Office / Kitchen Work Center - On a budget!

Here is a recent organizing project we completed at a home here in northern NJ that made a world of difference in the homeowner's ability to get things done.  This work center / home office is located in the kitchen and is the main area where:

• Incoming and outgoing mail is processed
• Kids calendars, activities and related paperwork are maintained
• Coupons, receipts, giftcards, recipes, bank deposits and more are stored and processed

Here is a brief overview of how we accomplished this makeover in about 5 hours. CLICK THE PICTURES TO SEE THEM FULL SIZE.

1. CLEAR THE SPACE - We started by completely clearing the desk and giving it, AND the equipment, a good cleaning. This is a very important step.  Once you see it all clean and spacious again, it's MUCH arder to put clutter back.  And, it makes it easier to get rid of stuff.

2. SORT LIKE WITH LIKE - As we pulled everything off the desk, we put all paper in one bin, all writing implements, all office supplies, etc.  We also had a bin for stuff to go elsewhere, be donated, recycled, or trashed.

3. MICROSORT EACH BIN - Before putting any thing way, we sorted things into fine categories.  For example, we sorted all the writing implements into pens, pencils, markers, etc.

4. CHOOSE THE BEST STORAGE SOLUTION AND LOCATION FOR EACH GROUP OF ITEMS - In this phase, it's critical to choose solutions that support how you really work and make it easy to maintain.  We also needed to maximize use of space. So, as you can see in the final result, we used vertical storage and bins wherever possible to contain items.  Here are a few of the ideas we implemented based on Mom's organizing style.

INBOX
The basket on top is an "Inbox"  Anything family members want Mom to process must go in that basket.  Mom then processes the content into a READ FILE, URGENT TO DO Basket, to the CALENDAR, or the new ACTIVE REFERENCE FILE system in her file drawer. The Active Flile System is where she now keeps Girl Scout Drive Materials, School Calendars, etc.  These files are used often and reviewed frequently to keep them clean and active!

PROJECTS TO BE DONE
She also has a fairly large bin above the file drawer now with projects that need to be completed, such as recipes to be entered into the computer, patches to be sewn, etc.

OFFICE SUPPLIES
Since she doesn't have a drawer in the desk, we created one!  We used a bin and several small dixie cups to inexpensively and quickly subdivide all the little things like paperclips, rubber bands, glue sticks, etc.  This gives every item a home, and it's almost impossible not to put things back where they belong.  Overflow supplies are now kept in drawers under the new printer stand.

PRINTER /COPIER STAND
The printer was moved off the desk along with paper and supplies to a new printer stand.  This was very inexpensive and purchased at Target. See the bottom half of the  Printer Stand  here.  The matching top has 2 shelves. It's actually intended for a closet, but works perfectly here! Now anyone in the family can access supplies they need or make a copy without disturbing Mom!

GETTING VERTICAL
Another change we made is to store all writing implements vertically.  We used some decorative mugs she had on hand to sort and store pens, markers, pencils, and scissors.  Every item she uses now has it's own permanent home! 

TIP:  Put a folded up paper towel in the bottom of the mug so that it isn't damaged by ink from the pens!

All these changes and more were accomplished for less than $100 in supplies (including a new printer stand, a few new binders & creative binder supplies and bins (We only spent $15 on bins, everything else came from hunting around the house or creatively using things like Dixie cups!) 

Hope this inspires you to get some cluttered areas in your home back under control!

All the best,

Ariane