http://clutterrescue.com.au Wed, 16 May 2012 23:00:46 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Copyright © Clutter Rescue 2012 helen@clutterrescue.com.au (Clutter Rescue) helen@clutterrescue.com.au (Clutter Rescue) Clutter Rescue Podcast 1440 http://clutterrescue.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/iTunes-logo-600.jpg http://clutterrescue.com.au 144 144 Today on the Clutter Rescue Podcast: Clutter Rescue is a Professional Organising business who work with busy Mums to organise their Space and Time. These Podcasts are from the Clutter Rescue Blog with stacks of tips, tricks and ideas to get Mums organised - bringing more clarity to their Space and Time. clutter, organising, organizing Clutter Rescue Clutter Rescue helen@clutterrescue.com.au no clean http://clutterrescue.com.au/finding-my-inner-zen-in-10-minutes-a-day/ http://clutterrescue.com.au/finding-my-inner-zen-in-10-minutes-a-day/#comments Wed, 16 May 2012 23:00:46 +0000 admin http://clutterrescue.com.au/?p=4995 http://clutterrescue.com.au/finding-my-inner-zen-in-10-minutes-a-day/feed/ 0 0:02:30 Like many women I tend to have lots of things on my to do list.  Some days I achieve a lot – and feel like I’ve succeeded in moving toward my long term goals – whereas other days I feel like I’ve been chasing[...] Like many women I tend to have lots of things on my to do list.  Some days I achieve a lot – and feel like I’ve succeeded in moving toward my long term goals – whereas other days I feel like I’ve been chasing my tail. Does that sound like you? One thing I know I must do on a daily basis is give myself quiet time.  Zen time.  Time to reconnect with myself.  I know that meditation and relaxation isn’t for everyone – and that’s fine – but I really need it to centre myself, to find a fleeting moment of inner peace, and then move onto the next thing on my to do list. I have been finding it hard to schedule the 10 minutes I need each day to centre myself and find clarity.  I’m always up early (thanks to Hubby who’s like a city-based rooster, waking everyone around him at sunrise!!) and ‘doing’ from the moment my feet hit the floor. But about two weeks ago it came to me like a bolt out of the blue! I will take 10 minutes out before I collect Mr 6 from school. Sometimes I’m a slow learner.  For the past 18 months I have arrived at school early in the afternoon (sometimes out of habit but mostly because it’s so damn hard to get a park!!).  I have faffed around in this time, checking email, Facebook, Twitter, making the odd phone call – but essentially wasting time. Interestingly I even heard on the radio a few months ago that one of the presenters uses this time to have a ‘nanny nap’ before she collects her children from school. So, you see, even though I heard it on the radio months ago it took my brain a long time to process that information and realise that would work for me. Doh! So now, every afternoon I arrive at school about 20 minutes early.  I turn on my iPod, recline my seat, start a 10 minute guided relaxation and settle in for my Zen time. And then I pull myself together and go in to collect Mr 6, feeling calm and relaxed. I know other Mums who also arrive early for school pick up.  One of them reads; another one crochets. How about you?  Do you have a 10 minute space in your day where you can re-connect with your inner Zen? Until next time, happy organising!   clutter, organising, organizing Clutter Rescue clean no http://clutterrescue.com.au/our-weekend-away-and-our-amazingly-helpful-kid/ http://clutterrescue.com.au/our-weekend-away-and-our-amazingly-helpful-kid/#comments Thu, 10 May 2012 00:30:54 +0000 admin http://clutterrescue.com.au/?p=4965 http://clutterrescue.com.au/our-weekend-away-and-our-amazingly-helpful-kid/feed/ 0 0:05:35 Hubby, Mr 6 and I just returned from a short break at the beach. Hubby had a bike ride to do (170km – yes, he is crazy!!) so Mr 6 and I spent a lot of time playing, hanging out at the beach and spending time with friends. Ther[...] Hubby, Mr 6 and I just returned from a short break at the beach. Hubby had a bike ride to do (170km – yes, he is crazy!!) so Mr 6 and I spent a lot of time playing, hanging out at the beach and spending time with friends. There were many things that happened that made the weekend run smoothly but the biggest one was Mr 6 and the things he did without us prompting him. These are the things he did to help organise himself for the trip: Got up on Saturday morning and packed his own bag. We didn’t even ask him to do this – he just started doing it himself. He packed his clothes, shoes, some toys and books. The only thing I had to do was get his small suitcase out of the cupboard for him (as it was stored up high in the spare bedroom cupboard). Took his suitcase and pillow out to the car for Hubby to put in. Was ready at the car when it was time to leave. Once we arrived and had unpacked the car we explored the unit and found Mr 6s bedroom. He then went out to the lounge room (on his own – no prompting needed), found his suitcase, went into his bedroom and completely unpacked his things. He did such a great job of unpacking that I took some photos as a memory (because I am sure when he’s a teenager he’ll be doing something completely different!!) – the photos are just down below this list. When it was time to come home he packed his bag and took it down to the car. As soon was we arrived home Mr 6 helped us unpack the car and then took his suitcase to his bedroom and completely unpacked it. Everything went exactly where it was meant to as well. Came to us with his empty suitcase asking us to put it away. This is what the drawer system in the unit looked like:               This was the top drawer once Mr 6 had unpacked:               The second drawer once Mr 6 had unpacked:               And, too cute, the third drawer!               Now, just for the record, I am a little amazed at all of this as well!! We made a HUGE deal of it, because let’s face it, it’s kinda cool!! The time Mr 6 saved me by doing this himself was worth bottling. The interesting thing too was that I had a clearer head and could think of other things I needed to do before we went away. “And did he forget anything?” you ask. Just his cuddle toy – which I grabbed as we were heading out. Not bad! How about your children? Have they done anything like this that completely amazed you? Until next time, happy organising! clutter, organising, organizing Clutter Rescue clean no http://clutterrescue.com.au/baskets-versus-tubs-which-is-best-for-your-organising-problem/ http://clutterrescue.com.au/baskets-versus-tubs-which-is-best-for-your-organising-problem/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 00:30:36 +0000 admin http://clutterrescue.com.au/?p=4666 http://clutterrescue.com.au/baskets-versus-tubs-which-is-best-for-your-organising-problem/feed/ 0 0:02:50 In nearly every organising job we do we use baskets and tubs.  What this looks like depends completely on the client, the look and feel of their home, whether they already use baskets or tubs and the reason or purpose for them. So h[...] In nearly every organising job we do we use baskets and tubs.  What this looks like depends completely on the client, the look and feel of their home, whether they already use baskets or tubs and the reason or purpose for them. So how do you choose? Firstly let’s define each one! A basket is something that is pretty.  It may have a pattern on it, be made of bamboo or fabric, and can be used for decorative as well as practical organising purposes.  You can use baskets to store electrical cords, dirty washing, car keys – anything you can store in a tub. A tub can also be pretty but is usually used for something more practical, such as children’s toys, storage of warranty and instruction manuals or shoes.  Many tubs (like trugs) can be colourful and used for decorative purposes as well.  Often tubs are clear and have lids and are more sturdy than baskets. (BTW – these are my definitions, not ones from a dictionary.) Not much difference is there?  I could be pulling at straws here – and to be honest there isn’t much difference between baskets and tubs – however it’s worth looking at them in relation to your organising problem. So how do you decide whether to use a basket or tub when you are organising? Here are some ideas to get you started! Why do you need a basket or tub? Don’t go shopping until you know exactly what you need, what you need to store in it, and the space it’s going to live. Where do you want to use the basket or tub?  Is it in a space that you want to decorate and look pretty, or will it be stored out of sight?  My feeling is to spend money on something beautiful if you want it seen by visitors to your home and keep the clear ones for storage in the cupboard. What volume of stuff do you need to store?  If you want a nice basket to put your keys in near the front door it can be quite small, however if you need to store seven years of tax archive documents you probably want a much larger tub. Who else needs to use the basket or tub?  Children?  Hubby?  Visitors or people that work for you (for example a cleaner)?  Buy the right sort of tub for the size and the people who will use it.  Children tend to be quite hard on their things so a tough plastic tub may last longer than a rattan basket. So – basket or tub?  Which ones are your favourite and why? Until next time, happy organising! clutter, organising, organizing Clutter Rescue clean no http://clutterrescue.com.au/busy-mum-struggling-with-juggling/ http://clutterrescue.com.au/busy-mum-struggling-with-juggling/#comments Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:30:55 +0000 admin http://clutterrescue.com.au/?p=4732 http://clutterrescue.com.au/busy-mum-struggling-with-juggling/feed/ 0 0:05:35 This weekend in The Sunday Mail’s body+soul lift out there was a great article titled Stop Struggling with the Juggling.   The article highlighted ways Mums can work toward managing, and hopefully balancing, their work and fam[...] This weekend in The Sunday Mail’s body+soul lift out there was a great article titled Stop Struggling with the Juggling.   The article highlighted ways Mums can work toward managing, and hopefully balancing, their work and family life. A great quote from the article was: “The more that is expected of us, the more we demand from ourselves to be the best wife, doting mum and caring friend because we don’t want to let anything slide.  But feeling frazzled, and the ripple effects on your professional and personal life, aren’t healthy for you in the long run.  Something’s got to give.” This is more than true.  I meet a lot of Mums through my business and nearly every one of them says they feel frazzled – or guilty – because they can’t do everything that’s expected of them (whether they are internal or external demands). So I thought I’d take this article and each of the areas it outlines and give you some more information from an organising – and Mum – point of view. 1. Put yourself at the top of your to-do list Easier said than done.  We’ve all heard it before but many women seem to struggle with the concept.  So how do you actually do this? Firstly make the choice to put yourself first. Then read Are you Sabotaging Time. 2. Think less is more Stop Struggling with the Juggling says to stop multitasking.  I know you’ve heard this before but did you know that if you multitask you can be up to 40% slower to complete the tasks you’re attempting to do?  I don’t know about you but I don’t have an extra 40% more time in any given day or week to get things done just because I’ve decided to multitask!  This is just one of the hidden perils of juggling too many jobs. 3. Snooze away stress I am a big fan of sleep – always have been!  But we know as busy Mums we never feel like we’ve actually caught up on all the sleep we’ve lost. I am reading a great book at the moment called Organize Your Mind Organize Your Life and in it there is a quote which sums this up nicely – “A regular sleep schedule is what your brain needs.  If you are not getting adequate and regular sleep, you’re not going to remember things as well.”  With all those to do’s running through our heads what more reason do we need?! 4. Eat well This is possibly one of the easier items on the list – if you give your attention to it.  Like all things, if you are not focussing on it, chances are you’re eating poorly.  I know I’ve fallen into this category before but I am now making a conscious effort to eat better – and definitely feel like I have more energy because of it. 5. Exercise your options You know this one as well – exercise for at least 30 minutes of most days.  My thoughts on this are – yep, great, easier said than done.  But once I said, you know what, instead of exercising on a Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday I am going to exercise every day of the week I feel much better – and it’s easier to remember! 6. Don’t be the Clean Queen No argument from me here!  Learn the 4D’s and you’ll be well on your way to finding more time – and not spending it all cleaning! 7. Catch your breath We all know the benefits of yoga, relaxation and meditation.  I’ve recently returned to yoga twice a week, on top of pilates once a week, and I feel SO much better for it.  My favourite yoga pose for stressed-out Mums is down dog – it gets the blood flowing back into your head and is a great way of releasing all of those crazy thoughts going around in that grey matter. 8. Take notes The idea of taking notes is that if you get something out of your head you don’t need to remember it.  It’s a great idea as our brain is a muscle and isn’t that good at holding lists (as it would much prefer to solve a really big problem!!).[...] clutter, organising, organizing Clutter Rescue clean no http://clutterrescue.com.au/ive-got-a-paperwork-confession-to-make/ http://clutterrescue.com.au/ive-got-a-paperwork-confession-to-make/#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:30:51 +0000 admin http://clutterrescue.com.au/?p=4653 http://clutterrescue.com.au/ive-got-a-paperwork-confession-to-make/feed/ 4 0:04:56 For some reason people think Professional Organisers live in display homes – a minimalist life with only the bare basics and storing (as I like to call it) lots of “air” in our cupboards. Well I don’t live th[...] For some reason people think Professional Organisers live in display homes – a minimalist life with only the bare basics and storing (as I like to call it) lots of “air” in our cupboards. Well I don’t live that life. If you came to my home it would look uncluttered to you (particularly if you have an “insight” organising style) but my filing cabinet – until recently – held a dirty secret. It was cluttered – particularly the top drawer. It stored everything related to our home – bills, bank statements, mortgage documents, school notes, warranties. You name it, it was there.  It looked like this. “How did it get like this?” you ask. This is what three years does to an average home filing cabinet. You see it’s been three years since I last culled my filing cabinet. A lot has happened in that time – my business grew, Mr 6 started school, we did two big renovations, we bought and sold a house. My “Home” drawer was starting to bulge! So what did I do? I called in The Big Gun! Obviously I have the skills to organise my own filing cabinet, but like a lot of Mums I have MANY other demands on me – and I knew if I didn’t schedule someone to come and help me it would never get done (actually, it would get done, but just at a much later date!). And that’s what I did! I asked my lovely friend (aka The Big Gun) to schedule an appointment with me – which would be a paid job (no mates rates!) – and in we went, head first, organising my filing cabinet and paperwork. To set the scene for you this is what we had to tackle: A three drawer filing cabinet. The first drawer was “Home” and needed a lot of work; the second was “Work” which wasn’t as bad but had a mix of current and previous work; and the third drawer was “Investments and Tax” which didn’t store much investment stuff at all – all of that paperwork was stored on a bookshelf in a folder. The Investment folders, currently stored outside the office on a bookshelf. The folders had categories that made no sense to me at all. So where did we start? The Investment folders of course. Why? Because this was the messiest filing, having been set up by someone else who wanted me to follow their system which clearly wasn’t working for me. This is SUCH an important concept I want to harp on it for a little while (sorry!).  The reason the folder didn’t work for me was that: It was set up in isolation – by someone who thought each section was relevant.  After using (or not using!) the folder for a few years now I can tell you there were lots of irrelevant sections. I don’t personally use folders to file.  For me my filing cabinet works.  If folder work for you don’t change it! OK – back to my Investments and Tax filing! We knew this part would involve brain power – and because it was the start of the day we had stacks if it! The Big Gun and I went through the investment folder and all other relevant investment paperwork in the filing cabinet drawer – and this is what it looked like after two hours. Not bad! We had created our own, new Investment and Tax categories and sorted them on the floor.  We used post-it notes to label each section. Five minutes on from this our new categories looked like this: From here we transferred our newly categorised files into the bottom drawer of my filing cabinet. Now it looks like this. Yay! All those crazy categories in the folders now made sense to me. Our next task was the top drawer of the filing cabinet. Remembered the photo from the top of this post? That was it! It looks pretty bad right? Normally I’d agree with you but the good thing was that the categories worked – all we needed to do was (i) take the warranty information out (as I didn’t want it clogging up my filing cabinet) and (ii) cull [...] clutter, organising, organizing Clutter Rescue clean no http://clutterrescue.com.au/the-most-common-organising-problem-i-hear/ http://clutterrescue.com.au/the-most-common-organising-problem-i-hear/#comments Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:30:37 +0000 admin http://clutterrescue.com.au/?p=4601 http://clutterrescue.com.au/the-most-common-organising-problem-i-hear/feed/ 0 0:02:52 “Good morning Clutter Rescue, Helen speaking.” “Oh Hi Helen, my name is Jane/Ann/Fred and I don’t know if you can help me.  Are you the organising lady?” “Yes, Jane/Ann/Fred, I am.  What organisin[...] “Good morning Clutter Rescue, Helen speaking.” “Oh Hi Helen, my name is Jane/Ann/Fred and I don’t know if you can help me.  Are you the organising lady?” “Yes, Jane/Ann/Fred, I am.  What organising challenge can I help you with?” “Oh, it’s my office …” And so the conversation goes, with a discussion around the physical office space, the paperwork that has built up over a short/medium/long period of time, and the distress it’s causing Jane/Ann/Fred. If you are of a certain vintage – say over 35 – you would remember the term “paperless society” where technology was supposed to save us from those annoying piles of paper that line our kitchen benches, dining tables and office floors (BTW – paperwork piles are a legitimate organising strategy as long as everything in the pile relates to one topic/subject).  The idea of the “paperless society” is great, and I am sure you receive certain ‘paperwork’, such as credit card, gas or electricity bills via email or your internet banking, but be honest – how often do you print that bill so that you can have your own hard copy? There is so much that goes into organising an office – too much to write in one blog post – so I thought I’d give you five quality tips to get you on the right track. Invest in a good quality paper shredder.  It should become your new BFF! Only keep the paper you really need.  This goes for electronic ‘paperwork’.  If you know you’ll never need it again get rid of it via your new BFF (or the delete button). Get others to take responsibility.  If you are a working parent with another adult or children in the house everyone can help out.  Even my 6 year old gets his notes out of his school bag each afternoon (we are still working on where to put it other than to present it straight to me – but that’s OK!!). Purge regularly.  If you store your paperwork in a filing cabinet it WILL start to bulge after about three years (and this is only if you did a cull three years ago!).  Get in and purge – and again use your BFF to help out. Encourage others to go paper free to reduce your paper volume.  This could be as simple as asking school to email home the newsletter or tuckshop list.  At the very least try and receive bills electronically that you don’t want or need to print. I am sure you have other ideas – we’d love to hear them! Until next time, happy organising! clutter, organising, organizing Clutter Rescue clean no http://clutterrescue.com.au/getting-the-most-out-of-your-wardrobe/ http://clutterrescue.com.au/getting-the-most-out-of-your-wardrobe/#comments Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:30:50 +0000 admin http://clutterrescue.com.au/?p=4425 http://clutterrescue.com.au/getting-the-most-out-of-your-wardrobe/feed/ 0 http://clutterrescue.com.au/too-many-toys/ http://clutterrescue.com.au/too-many-toys/#comments Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:00:22 +0000 admin http://clutterrescue.com.au/?p=4124 http://clutterrescue.com.au/too-many-toys/feed/ 0 http://clutterrescue.com.au/five-back-to-school-to-dos-to-save-your-sanity/ http://clutterrescue.com.au/five-back-to-school-to-dos-to-save-your-sanity/#comments Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:30:45 +0000 admin http://clutterrescue.com.au/?p=4055 http://clutterrescue.com.au/five-back-to-school-to-dos-to-save-your-sanity/feed/ 2 http://clutterrescue.com.au/tech-101-more-cords-than-you-know-what-to-do-with/ http://clutterrescue.com.au/tech-101-more-cords-than-you-know-what-to-do-with/#comments Wed, 15 Feb 2012 23:30:02 +0000 admin http://clutterrescue.com.au/?p=4059 http://clutterrescue.com.au/tech-101-more-cords-than-you-know-what-to-do-with/feed/ 0