They helped to disorganize it. Give your kids the gift of organizing by having them help you get the spring cleaning done. Train them early and often. You’ll appreciate it in the long run and maybe so will they.

Recruit Your Kids For Spring ORGANIZING And Make it Fun!

Spring is a time of renewal, and for many of us, a time for cleaning and organizing our homes. The melting of winter into spring is a great time to bring order to your abode after the inevitable chaos the hibernation season brings. But spring cleaning can be a daunting task, particularly if you tackle it alone. Simplify and speed your organizing day by enlisting your family to help. Don’t think your kids will participate? Make it a fun event and you’ll have volunteers you will enjoy spending the day with.

Like many organizing activities the key to success is to plan ahead. Pick a date you can dedicate the whole day to both the work and fun. Make certain you have the supplies you need, including handy snacks and drinks. Work in teams of 2 or 3 and then switch halfway through the day. Don’t forget to choose some up-tempo music to keep the energy levels up, and make certain each member of the family enjoys listening to their favorite CD during the day.

Most kids have four basic possessions -clothing, toys, books and school related papers. These items are forever changing and accumulating. The change of season is a great opportunity to sort through the excess taking up valuable space in your home. To keep your kids interest in check during your spring organizing day, give one or two of the following ideas a try.

Let’s begin with making room in the closets. Tell the kids you’re having a fashion show and let them try on all of their clothes (no, not all at once!). What doesn’t fit gets handed down to a sibling or packed into a box for donation. Sort what does fit into outfits and stack in drawers. Have your child make a list of new clothing needs for the next shopping excursion.

Create a treasure hunt for younger children by hiding chocolate coins or an appropriate incentive among their toys. Send your child to find the treasures while collecting any toy found on their search. When their basket is full, have them pile the toys in the centre of the family room. Afterwards, sort the mess into “keep” and “part” piles, and find permanent homes for the toys that are staying. Separate the remaining toys into separate bins for garbage, donations and garage sale items. Take the time to deliver these bins to their destination. The last thing you want is for these items to clutter up your garage, or find their way back into the house!

Next, locate all books and spread them on the floor -parents too. Donate as many books as possible to a local daycare or charity. Toss ripped and damaged books. For the keepers, make certain there is adequate storage in your home, without creating unwanted clutter.

Kids collect a tremendous amount of school memorabilia throughout the school year. Keep arts and crafts and miscellaneous papers from school in one large under bed storage bin or bankers box. Near the end of June have your child sort through the bin, keeping only 25% of the pile. Put a few special items out on display, either in frames or on a peg board. Store the rest in a pocket folder decorated by your child. Help them create a wonderful keepsake by including favorite moments, friends, teachers and photographs.

Finally, at the end of a productive day, reward your team with dinner out at a favorite restaurant. Allow them to choose the sweetest dessert they can find on the menu. They deserve it! If you are too exhausted to leave the house, order in pizza and enjoy a good movie. Tell your kids how much you enjoyed spending time with them, and congratulate your family on “Spring Success”.

Sylvia Daoust, Professional Organizer, is the owner of Sort it Out, a company focused on creating streamlined homes and businesses. We provide organizing solutions to fit your needs and your budget…with support every step of the way.
Visit http://www.sort-it-out-today.com and receive 2 gifts that will help you stay on top of everything!
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Lean is a whole system that I could not even attempt to explain implementing in this short article. However, I can give you an overview to decide if Lean is something you should research further.

Lean’s whole premise is to add value to your customer and eliminating waste. The customer is the central focus when determining waste. In fact, when analyzing your workflow, value stream, you begin with the customer and work backwards. As a professional organizer it is my inclination to start from the other end. It takes a bit to wrap your mind around that. But if everything you do revolves around value to the customer then starting with the customer makes complete sense. The traditional thinking for determining the price of a product is cost + profit = price. In a Lean organization it is price – cost = profit. Therefore, price is determined by the market (ergo your customer). The key component to increasing your profits is reducing your cost. I call that a very good incentive for being efficient.

“The office waste may be compartmentalized into four elements – information, process, physical environment and people.” – Flow in the Office, Carlos Venegas. A broken down grid with specific examples of each of these types of waste is available in “Flow in the Office” by Carlos Venegas. The grid gives you indicators to determine if one of these is a problem in your office. When implementing Lean Office is not about picking and choosing but changing the whole way your work and think.

Another powerful element of implementing this system is the involvement of everyone who is part of or affected by the value stream. Coming up with solutions is a team effort. The experts about the work are those people who are performing it everyday. They know what is causing the bottlenecks and frustration with their workflow. The atmosphere is one of discovery not blame. Giving the people on the front lines the ability to do continuous improvements on a process is a great use of resources. There is a continuous flow of information from the bottom to the top and vise versa. Creating an environment of open communication.

The more I learn about Lean Office the more I am amazed at the difference it can make in productivity. I would recommend any management or owner who is unhappy with the overall performance and competitiveness of their business take a look at Lean and see if it would work for your organization.

Cynthia Marsh-Croll Turning Business Piles Into Profits! Croll Organizing, LLC PO Box 98 Westtown, NY 10998 845-649-2778 cmc@crollorganizing.com http://www.crollorganizing.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cynthia_Marsh-Croll

Creative people need different ways to organise themselves because traditional methods won’t work too well for them.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to organising; in fact, I believe that since each person is unique, each person’s organising system should also be different.

Let’s look at four areas to organise yourself for success:
1. Attitude
There’s a myth going around that creative people can’t work in a structured environment. On the contrary, having a bit of structure in your life actually enables you to be even more creative and to do better work.

A few weeks ago, a client emailed to tell me how she’s been energized and has been creating beautiful things again.

What was the difference in her life? We’d worked on organising her office space and within the order, she could be creative once again.

Stop telling yourself that you can’t be organised; rather tell yourself that you organise yourself in non-traditional ways. And that’s perfectly in order.

2. Schedule
Traditionally, we’ve all been told to work according to the clock. I’m telling you to work with your energy cycles; don’t try to battle them.

If you know that you go through a bit of a slump around lunch time, maybe that’s when you want to run errands or exercise to give yourself an energy boost.

If you design websites and you know that you’re most creative at midnight, then design your websites at midnight Who says you have to start working at 8am?

3. To-do list
Scrap the to-do list. Yes, you read that correctly. The to-do list may set you up for failure especially when you feel you’re not getting things done.

Rather use an Eat the Frog list. This list helps you be more flexible so you only need to get the most important things done. My clients are always a bit shocked when I tell them, “the less you have on your list, the better it is”. Just make sure those are important things on your list.

4. Workspace
When you can find your equipment and supplies easily, your valuable energy is used for actual creativity and not wasted on looking for things.

It’s so important to have your workspace set up according to your organising style. Are you a visual, auditory or kinesthetic learner? Are you a paper or electronic person? Maybe the reason you can’t seem to get your papers organised is because you’re actually an electronic person.

I’ve had clients with very messy offices whose computers are perfectly organised, and vice versa. It’s so important to play to your strengths.

If you join in on the Virtual Organising Seminar, we’ll definitely be uncovering your unique organising style.

My challenge to you
Check your attitude and tell yourself you can get more productive once you organise according to your style.

Marcia Francois is a time management and organising coach who empowers small business owners and other busy professionals who want to make the most of their time. You’ll get simple, practical organising and time management secrets to help you work less and enjoy life more! Visit http://takechargesolutions.org for your free Organising Success Pack.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Marcia_Francois

For more information and support for creating more time for yourself and what’s important to you, visit http://www.GalileoLS.com/consult.html for a free coaching consultation.

When it comes to organization, electronic files have to be dealt with like everything else. There are ways to keep these organized and save time as well. It will help to eliminate some of the time spent searching for the file that you need. Wasting time searching for an electronic file defeats the purpose of doing the task electronically in the first place and causes you more headache than if you had done it by hand.

Organizing electronic files can be done rather simply with techniques that involve little effort on your part. Time is all that you need to do this and it will, in turn, save you time later on since many areas of our lives are driven by the use of electronics.

The basics of organizing electronic files remains the same no matter what type of system you are using. The first thing you should remember is that computers do not organize information the way our minds do. It will be arranged by the application source or format that was used to create the file in question.

Second is remembering that we can use a name for the file that contains as many as 225 characters and can use a search on the computer to find them. This makes naming files properly a must. This will save time that is often wasted doing things that you have already done.

The third step is to use keywords to keep the files that you need in order. This makes it easy to find them in the search options. This will allow you to change them later if you need to.

Directories are the next step. Put files into designated directories that you made for each of them. Sub directories can be made for each program that you utilize during the time you are on your computer. If something is for work, you may designate one directory entitled “work” and another entitled “personal” if something is of a personal nature. The fewer directories the less you have to search. General directories that are broken into sub categories will save time.

Next are the folders. You can create different folders to keep your files in. The names of these folders should be something that helps you to remember the content of them.

Now that you know what to do with all the new files you create, it is time to put old files in the appropriate place which may take some time. You want to make sure you have the correct file in the correct place. This is simple; you move the files you still need to relevant folders and directories. Then you take the files that you no longer need and back them up to a flash drive, CD or even an online backup service. Once the file is backed up you can now delete them from the computer and you still have the backup copy if you need it in the future.

For ideas on keeping your home and office organized, download a free copy of the ebook “The Essential Guide to Organizing Your Home”. Download it free here: Organizing Tips.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lynn_Cressy

For more information and support for creating more time for yourself and what’s important to you, visit http://www.GalileoLS.com/consult.html for a free coaching consultation.

Getting and keeping your home organized can save you time, stress and headaches. It does not have to be hard but it does require a bit of planning. And getting your kids involved in getting your home organized can not only help you but teach them valuable lessons as well. The trick is to make it fun both for you and for them.

Let’s start with the basics: Set aside some home organizing time every day. Many different home organization tips books encourage this one. Keeping your home organized is going to require some specific dedicated time every day. Use this time to organize mail or to focus on a specific home organization project.

And while you are working on your home organization project, have your kids either working on their own home organizing project or have them help you with yours. This helps teach them good life lessons about staying organized and gives you some helping hands with your organizing projects as well.

Use some creativity to keep it fun and interesting for both you and your kids. Let’s face it, most home organization tips and tricks are boring and dull. But you can make it fun if you just use a little imagination. Some ways that you can make home organization fun is by making it a game. Make it a contest to see who can get their room cleaned up and organized the quickest. Make sure there is a reward at the end that makes it worth it for your kids. To “test” how organized your kids’ rooms are, ask them who can find you a pen or a specific kind of toy first.

For younger kids, you can incorporate imaginative play into home organization. Make getting and keeping their toys organized a way to teach them and have fun at the same time. So explain the noises that each of the toy animals makes as you put them in a specific drawer and explain that all of the animals “live” together in that drawer. Then do the same thing with the toy cars, etc.

As a working mom, one of the best home organization tips I ever learned was to plan out the meals for the week. This saves me so much time and headaches throughout the week. Every lunch and dinner is planned and sometimes even partially prepared by Sunday night. The part I like the most about this one is that it allows me to spend more time with my daughter because I am not trying to figure out what I need to make right before mealtime and whether or not I have the ingredients.

Need more free help getting your home organized? Get more free home organization tips at http://www.YourHomeIsOrganized.comArticle Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jill_Borash

For more information and support for creating more time for yourself and what’s important to you, visit http://www.GalileoLS.com/consult.html for a free coaching consultation.

Working from home is a dream for many consumers today. The flexibility, control, and lower costs involved often means a greater amount of productivity in a smaller time frame. One of the challenges for the home worker is simple office organization.

When a home business is disorganized or cluttered it can make working sheer torture. Misplaced paperwork, products, or missing receipts can quickly cause frustration. Many home business owners have even hired relatively needless employees because they didn’t consider the efficiency they can regain just by a deliberate arrangement of office space and assigned places for their supplies. Organization not only makes your job easier, it can save you much time, money, and effort.

Look at the overall picture when you start to organize your office space. How is your furniture placed? Is there adequate room for movement? If it is a smaller space, could it do with less furniture? How are your supplies currently placed? Is the trash can within reach of the desk? Is the telephone placed where the computer can be accessed if needed?

If you are manufacturing a product, are the items needed for assembly placed for easy access? For example, if you are making beaded jewelry and accessories, are all items needed placed near one another? Do you have lidded containers to separate and manage your beads? Are all necessary tools in one carrier?

When you are organizing your office space, you should go digital as much as possible. Digital documents are just as professional and can be transmitted more efficiently than print documents. Digitized documents are easily stored on compact discs, DVDs, or portable flash drives. Routine paperwork can be stored in template form and only printed out as you need it. Customer files can be digitized and stored with the help of a scanner. You can store original paperwork in an airtight plastic container in your closet or even your garage. A good spreadsheet program will assist you in creating order forms, records, and any inventory management you may need.

Instead of using a traditional planner that you must correct with liquid paper and pen, consider a desktop calendar on your computer. Entries and important events can simply be deleted or reentered. Many programs will offer auditory and visual alerts for important events. Even removing a simple desk blotter can free up space for desktop organizers or create more room for your keyboard and mouse.

If you have pictures or figures on your desk, you can purchase “floating” shelves and install them above the desk. You can place your personal items on the shelves as opposed to your desk.

Receipts are needed for tax purposes and their collection can seem daunting. A year’s worth of receipts may take up a fair amount of space that could be used for other things. Consider purchasing a messenger bag at your local discount store if you collect your receipts. These can be suspended from a closet rod by a sturdy hanger and you can slip receipts into this. A messenger bag is the perfect size for plain brown mailing envelopes. These are used to separate them by month or by deduction. If you don’t have spare closet space, consider slipping the bag beneath your desk or even under your bed.

You will need an adequate wastebasket for your office. Many advertised for typical home offices are good for occasional use, but if you are working at home, you will need a receptacle that is large enough for daily use. A compact shredder can also help reduce the size of your waste and some people recycle the shredded paper in the preparation for their own mulch.

Recycling unneeded paper, plastic, and glass is another good way to responsibly dispose of your office trash and is easier than you imagine. Separate containers for waste can be stored under your desk or in a closet. This allows you more time in your work area and less time traveling to other parts of the home. It will also reduce the amount of waste in your garbage can.

Filing cabinets can be tedious to have in a small office. Before you invest in these cabinets, be certain you need them. Is it mandatory for your organization or are you just looking for storage space? If storage is more your need than what a filing cabinet may offer, consider installing a large bookshelf.

Plastic organizing containers can be purchased in a variety of colors and sizes and most will fit on a wide bookshelf. Instead of having a standard cabinet that may have four drawers, a tall bookshelf may have six levels of shelves where you can place multiple organizers. If you use a large bookshelf, please ensure that is securely fastened to the wall to prevent tipping over.

Organizing your home office is an exercise well worth the effort and time involved. Having a well arranged space will help you fulfill your duties faster and make the overall work easier.

Laura Wright is a multi-published professional writer. She has held a variety of positions in the writing field. She currently instructs two web courses and maintains several web domains. She also works as a freelance provider and novelist. Her primary web site is: http://www.laurawrites.net

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Laura_Wright

For more information and support for creating more time for yourself and what’s important to you, visit http://www.GalileoLS.com/consult.html for a free coaching consultation.