A Collection of Organizing 'Funnies'

It's the holiday season. We know that it doesn't take much to make his time of year feel stressful. Everyone is talking about how to get and stay organized for the holidays. And, yes--it's important to be organized, but it's also important (and necessary) to sit down for a while, rest your weary "I've been cooking, shopping, doing-for-others-all-day" bones and LAUGH.

I've been seeing a lot of those 'your e cards' from somecards.com on Pinterest. They always give me a good chuckle so I thought I'd share and put a bunch of my favorites here. I could give you organizing tips, but I thought I'd give you a good belly laugh instead...

Yikes!

Gotta love Maxine's sense of humor...

This reminds me of the children's book, Swimmy by Leo Lionni...

A little scientific organizing humor...

Even animals can benefit from getting organized!

And this one's for the ladies...

Hope I made you smile. Happy holidays!

My Favorite Organizing Pins on Pinterest

If you spend a good amount of your time surfing the web, I'm sure you've heard of Pinterest. If not, run--don't walk to the site that is taking social media by storm.

According to their website, "Pinterest is a tool for collecting and organizing the things you love."

As a user, I would say that, "Pinterest is a tool for collecting and organizing images of inspiration."

A little over a year ago, I joined Pinterest--read all about it here: Organized Artistry is on Pinterest!. I've been having a great time with it.

On Pinterest, you create and categorize 'pin boards' according to your interests. After you create your themed-boards, you load your own visuals or 're-pin' visuals posted by others to your boards. I created boards for my organizing business and some that have to do with the book I'm writing for brides.  I thought that would be my only use for Pinterest, but it has much more to offer...

- When the time comes to make some major changes in my home, I'll not only be flipping through decorating magazines, I'll also be looking for decorating inspiration on Pinterest.

- I have found recipes to cook for my son who has multiple food allergies.

- There are tons of posts on clothing, makeup and health that I have learned from.

It is very easy to get sucked into the visual wonderland of Pinterest for HOURS at a time. There's so much to see and learn!

Besides other categories, there must be thousands of 'Organizing' pins on Pinterest. So many great ideas to learn from and implement in your life!

Since time is precious, I would like to offer you some of my favorite organizing pins on Pinterest. Some I created myself and some I re-pinned from other boards.

Disclaimer: Although I love Pinterest, I think that there are many visuals on the site (especially the 'Organizing' visuals) that promote 'perfection.' Items in the photos are neatly lined up, labeled and look as if they are untouched by humans. Being organized is not about being perfect. It's about being able to find what you need when you need it--plain and simple. I try to not promote or perpetuate the idea of perfection in my boards/pins, with my clients and in my own home.

I've seen some creative and mega-cool organizing ideas on Pinterest. Here are a few I think you will enjoy, appreciate and find inspiring...

From my 'Kitchen Organizing' Board

This pin is from my blog post, Top Ten Helper Shelf 'Hot-Spots' for Your Home. At last count, I have approximately 15 helper shelves in my home with most of them being in the kitchen.

Thought this was a creative idea. Hang cork board squares on the inside of a cabinet to manage and also hide papers such as invitations, receipts and shopping lists.

I dream of this in my kitchen. PULL OUT DRAWERS! LOTS of them! Never lose food in the back of your cabinet again. 

Thought this was a very organized way to grate and store cheese. Also perfect for grating cheese in advance. Store bagged cheese in the refrigerator until you're ready to use it.

From my 'Get Ready for Spring Cleaning' Board

Spring Cleaning or all-year-round cleaning--this is my favorite cleaning product. With two little boys in the house, I use the Magic Eraser A LOT! Most of its use is in my kitchen with white appliances. It 'erases' dirt--yes, magically and is the only thing I have found that can cut through the greasy, sticky spots on my stove top.

Though this idea was so smart. At the end of the winter, store your boots with cut up pool noodles inside of them. I bought pool noodles at the end of the season last year in Target for less than a dollar. That's a very inexpensive way to retain the shape of your boots until next winter. 

As soon as I saw this 'pin' I knew I had to add it to my Get Ready for Spring Cleaning board. I work with a lot of clients in their closets and have seen many of these commandments broken. My personal favorites are #2 and #3.

From my 'My Favorite Organizing Products' Board

You won't find this organizing product at The Container Store. It's a productivity app called Evernote.  From their website: "Evernote helps you remember, act upon (and share) ideas, projects and experiences across all the computers, phones and tablets you use." Every time I get an idea or wish to record information about some aspect of my business or personal life, I store it in Evernote for future reference. My desk would have a zillion post-its strewn across it without Evernote.

I know that many people love and swear by 'huggable hangers.' I'll be honest with you--they are not my favorite hanger. I use and recommend crystal hangers. Although they take up more space in a closet, they work well to prevent those 'shoulder bumpies' that can ruin a top very easily.

This is my Brother P-Touch label maker. I'll admit--I love it...maybe even more than the Magic Eraser. It has been quite a workhorse--creating labels for clients and my personal usage for the past ten years. Labels just make things look more organized--don't you think?

This is only a partial list of my Pinterest boards and pins. To see all of my boards and everything I've 'pinned', head on over to Organized Artistry on Pinterest.

Did any 'pin' gave you organzing inspiration?

I'm Attending the NAPO Conference 2013 in New Orleans!

In a few days, I'll be attending the National Association of Professional Organizers 25th Annual Conference. This year it's in New Orleans. I've never been to 'NOLA'--I'm very excited to go! This will be my fifth NAPO conference since I started my business back in 2002.

Last year's conference in Baltimore was a blast. It was jam-packed with meeting new people, learning new ways to grow and enhance my business, and it started off and ended with my first lengthy solo drive (for 3.5 hrs each way from NJ).

This year, since the solo drive would be MUCH too long, I'll be flying. I'll be packing everything I need in a carry-on bag--this is where my skills as a Professional Organizer will prove very useful. I've decided that despite the warm weather report, I'll base all my outfits around the colors black, red/purple/pink. I'm trying to limit the shoes I bring to three pair. The true challenge will be paring down my bag of medical/health/makeup products!

Last year, I took some 'techie' workshops--this year I'm focusing on some areas I have little or no knowledge of. The workshops I'm signed up for are:

Self-Confidence: The Secret Success Mindset (taught by NAPO-NNJ's Chapter President, Cena Block)
Organizing: Eyes Toward Re-Design
Packages, Programs and Value-Based Pricing
Pinterest for Business
Becoming a Kindle Book Author
Turning 'Likes' into Paying Clients

There will be two 'Ask the Organizer' Panels - one of which will feature Golden Circle Members on the panel (those who have been in business over 5 years). I always learn something new from my colleagues at these panels.

In addition there will be three Keynote speakers, a NAPO Business Meeting and Luncheon, and a NAPO Awards Luncheon. If it's anything like last year's Awards Luncheon, it's sure to be a three hanky affair...

And let's not forget the place to learn about new and exciting organizing products--THE EXPO! Big names like Rubbermaid, Ziploc and 3M are there as well as small business that provide Professional Organizers with products to revolutionize our client's lives (and ours, too!), If the Command Hook people are there, I'm going to have to stop by for a demonstration. I always forget how to use those hooks properly...

Stay tuned for my post-conference blog post!

Organizing Encouragement - Baby Steps

It's the end of January. Many of you have made New Year's resolutions or have set goals for yourself in 2013. You shouted from the rooftop, "This is the year I'm going to get organized!'

Have you started yet? Made a plan? Mapped out some mini-goals for yourself? If yes, then great!

If not, that's OK. No beating yourself up about it. It's been cold. Maybe you or a family member has been under the weather. Maybe 'life' has gotten in the way. Or perhaps, you just don't know where to begin.

No worries--take 'baby steps.'

No one expects a baby to stand up one day and walk across the room. There's a lot that goes on before a child meets that developmental milestone. They sit up, they crawl, they practice standing up in their crib. They take 'baby steps' towards mastering their actual baby steps.

You can take baby steps to reach your organizing goals, too. Here are a few examples:

- Toss expired medicine. Next chance you get, do the same with health products.
- Sort and purge your piles of coupons while waiting for pasta water to boil.
- Schedule 15 minutes on your calendar to organize your sock drawer.
- Read a few posts on organizing blogs that pertain to your organizing challenge(s).
- Look at organizing ideas/products on Pinterest (don't get sucked in, though!).

All of these teeny-tiny organizing projects/tasks are baby steps that will eventually get you where you want to be.

I often tell my clients to visualize their organizing goal as an iceberg. Baby steps are equal to the act of chipping away at that iceberg. Some days you may feel like you're chipping away with a hammer, other days, with a toothpick. Regardless of your tool, if you keep working at it, you will reach your goal, however challenging it may be.

You can get organized in 2013. I know you can. Just take a baby step--one little step in the direction of the organizing goals you have set for yourself. In the beginning, it may feel as if you're not making much progress but let me assure you--every 'baby step' you take towards reaching your goal will get you one step closer to the day when you can proudly shout from the rooftop, "I did it!

Organized Artistry is on Pinterest!

Do you love social media? Are you also a visual person? Then unless you've been living under a rock, you know about Pinterest.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, Pinterest (according to their website) "is a 'virtual pinboard.' Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web."

I first noticed it when a few of my organizing colleagues began posting their Pinterest boards on their Facebook Pages. It looked interesting so I checked it out and was immediately hooked (it can be very addictive)! I'm a visual person with an art background--I find it to be a great way to collect and share ideas with others.

You have to request an invite to 'join' (which could take a few days or a few weeks) or ask someone already on Pinterest to give you an invite (that's what I did). Once you're 'in' you can start creating boards of topics that interest you and 'pinning photos and videos to them.

Tip: Load the 'Pin it' bookmarklet to your browser--it allows you to 'pin' any photo/video from the web to your Pinterest boards.

I have a bunch of boards on the topic of organizing and I've created a few on the topic of weddings related to my book and the manuscript I'm working on. If you look in the right column of this blog you'll see a button that says 'Follow me on Pinterest.' Click to follow me but if you'd like, first take a quick glance at my boards...

Organized Artistry's Organizing Boards
Organizing Product I've Blogged About
Helpful Organizing Books
My Favorite Organizing Products
Organizing on the Cheap
Kitchen Organizing
Quick Organizing Tips
Get Ready for Spring Cleaning!
YOUR Favorite Organizing Products

Organized Artistry's Wedding Boards
Organize for WeddingPlanning
Stylish Wedding Thank You Notes

Then there's my board called 'OMG--So Cute!' There's a lot of cute stuff on Pinterest--can't be about business ALL the time, ya know...

To learn more about Pinterest, here are a few articles that will be helpful to beginners:

Beginner's Guide to Pinterest Basics

Pinterest: A Beginner's Guide to the Hot New Social Network

Pinterest Tips--A Tutorial Guide for Beginners

Happy pinning! Anyone need an invite?