How to Simplify your Life...

I think most of us talk about finding the balance in life. I come from the belief of there is no balance, just living life on lifes terms and therefore feeling balanced. There is no magical way to balance work, life, love, family, friendship, volunteering, housework etc. as we will always have a feeling of guilt in one or two areas of our lives since we are doing too much. We can look at simplifying our lives to make it less hectic. Here are some tips on how to do this;

1.  Cut down on the amount of paper coming into your house/life; reduce subscriptions, paper bills (set up automatic payments online), flyers and other adverts.

2.  Go through your mail once a week. Make a specific time to go through it, pay any bills and file any papers that need to be filed. This will stop you from piling papers all over and will allow you to finish the task at hand, not trying to go through mail daily and multitasking, ike most of us do.

3.  Start donating more things as opposed to buying more things. Have a donation box somewhere in your house, the garage, front closet or in your bedroom closet. Make it a habit to add things to this box daily. Do you have multiples of a certain item? Do you have 3 items that technically do the same thing? donate 2 of them. Once your box is full bring it to your local shelter or Salvation Army.

 

4.  Take a look at your schedule, how many commitments do you have? Can you reduce them? Is there a committee you belong to that is not what you thought the group was going to be about? Start to say no to new commitments until you finalize other deadlines. The groups that you are committed to be sure you are passionate about them still, if not move on your time can be used elsewhere as you are most likely resentful at having to attend and are not producing your best work.

5.  Make time for you, some quiet time, no electronics. Either reading, meditating, doing yoga or breathing exercises. The main pint is to decompress and slow down.

6.  Take on a weekend decluttering project; your attic, garage or basement. Going through everything and donating and tossing items you no longer use. Ask yourself: Do I use this? Does this make me happy? When will I use this? Do I need this? If you can answer yes find a home for the item.

7.  Use up all that is in your freezer and pantry before you buy more groceries. This will cut down on your time of shopping that week, use up what may be going bad, Keep things in perspective; we do not need to store so much food we will not go hungry. This is a time where hoarding canned goods and toilet paper is rewarded. Most items go on sale every 6 - 8 weeks so we do not need a years worth of items when they go on sale. If you buy what you need when you need it you will actually end up spending less, since you won't be buying up 2 - 6 of one item on sale, and will not have a cluttered home.

I hope these tips have helped you to start new rituals in your day to day living. Simlplify what you have to do so it does not become such a lage task at hand. Share your tips to help others and to motivate change!!

Serenity Organizing Solutions first video check it out!!!

10 ways to keep your bedroom closet organized...

We use our bedroom closets everyday and they have a chance to get cluttered regularly. If you start from a solid base, set-up your closet in an organized fashion, then you can keep your closet neat and tidy on an ongoing basis. Here are helpful tips on how to organize your bedroom closet:

1.  Use the same style hangers throughout your closet, this will keep a uniformed look.

2.  Hang like with like; all tank tops together, all skirts together etc. This will make it easy to find what you are looking for and to simply create outfits
3.  Colour co-ordinate your clothes, from lightest to darkest.

 4.  Keep only seasonal clothing in your closet. Use bins, old trunk or old suit cases as storage for off season items.
5.  Use hooks on your closet walls for extra storage, for belts, scarves, etc.
6.  You can add shelf dividers to create spaces for your folded sweaters and other items above your hanging clothes.
7.  Use the space below your hanging clothes for shoes, clothes hampers, stacked bins/boxes for storage of accessories and off season items.

8.  Use an umbrella stand to hold off shaped items, such as; a yoga mat.
9.  When storing items in your closet keep the most worn items to the front/or at eye level, keep the least used items up top or way down and in the back.
10.  If in a small space replace your closet doors with curtains. This will create more space in your closet and less space being used from an open closet door.

If you use the above ten suggestions your bedroom closet will have a basis to start fresh and organized. This will keep the space uncluttered and easy to find items when needed. We use this space daily so keep it neat on a daily basis; it is your choice whether to hang your item back up where you got it or just cram it in where ever. I hope you are inspired to get control of your bedroom closet, it is not as hard as we think it will be.

Share your photos of before and afters!!

How to spruce up a room with minimal cost.

I like to share any knowledge I have about organizing, decluttering and decorating. I find we always think big when it comes to making a change, when we really only need to make small changes for a big impact. Here are a few ways you can spruce up a room and make it feel new again.



Colour: It is affordable and easy to repaint a space. I encourage folks to use a neutral colour so it will not look dated in a year or two. Crisp clean newly painted walls can make a room feel like you have changed everything about it. Fall in love with your space again through paint.



A dash of boldness: use accessories to reinvent a room. Use pillows, throw blankets, rugs and window coverings. There are places to purchase pillow covers of all sizes. Pick a colour palette that will compliment your wall and furniture colours. Use up to two new colours in the space, too many colours and it is too distracting to the eye and overwhelming. Use a colour wheel to pick out the accent colours. The trick to the colour wheel is stay with colours right beside each other or use the colour that is completely opposite your base colour as it is the complimentary colour. When using accents use different textiles for juxtaposition of fabrics and shades of colours.

A pop of freshness: You can use fresh flowers, faux flowers, a plant and or fruit/vegatables to add colour to a space. This freshness will create a new and clean feeling in the space you choose. If you use flowers and fruit they will need to be changed out when they start to die and over ripen. Most popular fruits/vegetables are lemons, limes, granny smith apples, gourds, tomatoes and red apples.

Art: Use art work that you love. This can be pricey if you are choosing to display original works but there are many places to purchase reproductions, copies and photography. Another great idea is to showcase your child's art. You can purchase picture frames that have a cork background so you can tack any size of art work to it or buy the frames that you can open and change out art pieces quickly and easily. 

I hope this has inspired you to spruce up a room or two in your home and to fall in love with it again. Share any of your results with us to keep people inspired.

New Year, Fresh Start...

We tend to make unattainable New Year's Resolutions and in 3 weeks feel defeated and stop working toward our goals. I want to give a few tips on how to start a new year with easy to incorporate actions to make a huge difference in your household organization and decluttering. The main objection for a professional organizer is to create a functioning space that is organized and creates less stress in one's day to day living.

1.  In all your closets take the hangers and hang then backwards. When you wear something hang it back up the correct way. At the end of a season all the hangers that are still backwards are the clothes you do not wear; donate them to a local shelter or clothing bank. This will lighten your load of clothing and make packing up your out of season clothing easier as you have already sorted through them.

2.  At your front door area make a spot where you place or hang your keys, keep your sunglasses, mitts hats, gloves, sunscreen etc. so that you have everything you need at your finger tips for when you head out for the day. Make sure each family member has their own spot so they can do the same. This makes getting out of the house easier and fast as you are not rushing around looking for your keys or gloves.

3.  Make it a habit to take the mail to a designated paper area, meaning a place that you go through your mail and sort and file it. Try not to open your mail until you know you have the time to go through it all at once (this will stop the piles of papers you have all ove your house) and are able to take papers to correct areas of the house if needed; office, filing cabinet, kitchen etc. If you create a paper station even better. Use hanging files to create sections for specific papers; bills, coupons, taxes, receipts etc. Use this station daily and make it a weekly task to go through the folders and take the actions needed; such as pay a bill, make a phone call, file paper away.

4.  Every night before bedtime get into the habit of having a tidy up time for 10 minutes. Get all the family members involved, at any age, and put away items that are in the living room and take items to where they belong if not supposed to be in the living room. Take all toys and other items that are designated for bedrooms with you when heading up to bed.

5.  Make it a habit that everytime you leave a room you take something from it to return it to its home. We are human and we will always leave things laying around as we were in a hurry or got distracted by something else. This will lessen the amount of tidying up you will do in one given time throughout the day/week.

6.  If you have children make it an after school routine, you and the children go through their back packs, go through agenda, empty out the lunch bag/thermos, complete homework and then prepare their back pack with all the needed books and homework for the next day.  Make your child's lunch for the next day while they are doing homework and keep it in the fridge until the next day for them to take to school. This will make the morning go by easily and with less to do.

I hope you have found the above tips/actions helpful. Try one tip at a time, when you feel comfortable with it add another one and so forth. We need to do things step by step not all at once, we will set ourselves up to fail if we do.

As a professional organizer I am always looking for new ways to support my clients and to create easy and organized routines in their lives. If you have a helpful tip please share it with us.

Thanks for stopping by, from Serenity Organizing Solutions, we want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Safe and Healthy New Year.