Peek Inside Professional Organizers' Homes!

Once again, I'm so excited to be included in this month's Professional Organizers Blog Carnival!

What is the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival?  It's a monthly blog post that professional organizers contribute to.  Each month is a different theme and includes posts related to that topic from several professional organizers.  It's a great place to find advice, ideas, and tips for the theme of the month.

This month is all about pulling back the curtain and seeing what happens inside professional organizers' homes! Find out our dirty little secrets ... kind of like when Toto pulls back the curtain in the Wizard of Oz. Yep... we're just human beings like you... not magical wizards. BUT... we love to organize and in these posts you'll find lots of tips to help you organize your homes!.

Bedroom Organizing Tips From Professional Organizers

Once again, I'm so excited to be included in this month's Professional Organizers Blog Carnival!

What is the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival?  It's a monthly blog post that professional organizers contribute to.  Each month is a different theme and includes posts related to that topic from several professional organizers.  It's a great place to find advice, ideas, and tips for the theme of the month.

This month is all about organizing bedrooms.  They can become quite cluttered and disorganized because we often dump things in them and close the door.  I'm not the only one who does that right?! And kids' bedrooms definitely can become overwhelming with all their toys, sentimental items, and clothes of various sizes.  But organizing bedrooms can make such a huge difference. If everything has a place it's easier to keep them clutter-free. So you can relax in your room!

Check out all the tips in this post and find the ones that will help you organize your bedrooms!

Making Lists: Tips from 25+ Professional Organizers!

Once again, I'm so excited to be included in this month's Professional Organizers Blog Carnival!

What is the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival?  It's a monthly blog post that professional organizers contribute to.  Each month is a different theme and includes posts related to that topic from several professional organizers.  It's a great place to find advice, ideas, and tips for the theme of the month.

This month is all about making lists.  I LOVE lists!  I make them for so many things in my life... to do lists, packing lists, grocery lists, gift-giving lists, inventory lists, and on and on :)  They help me keep things from falling through the cracks because I honestly can only remember so many things in my brain, and if I don't write important things down there's a chance I will forget them.

Check out all the tips in this post and find the ones that will help you make lists that will help you stay organized!

Would You Like To Be A Professional Organizer? {24 hour Black Friday training special}

I've been a professional organizer for over 2 years now and I absolutely love it!  I love the difference I see in my clients' lives after we've worked together.

They call me because they are overwhelmed with some aspect of their home or office and I help them find solutions that simplify and organize their space.  Sometimes that's just a closet that's not functioning well.  Or it might be a mountain of paperwork to go through.  Often it's their whole home that needs to be decluttered and organized.

Whatever the need, I work with my clients to let go of the things they no longer need, use, love, or have the space to store (AKA clutter).  Then we organize what they're keeping.

When we're finished, they not only have a less cluttered and more organized space, but they've learned how to maintain the systems we've set up.

This means they have more time for the people and activities they love :)

Holiday Gift Giving Organizing Ideas Galore!

I'm so excited to be included in this month's Professional Organizers Blog Carnival!  It's my first time contributing and I can't wait to read all the other posts.

What is the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival?  I'm glad you asked!  It's a monthly blog post that professional organizers contribute to.  Each month is a different theme and includes posts related to that topic from a bunch of professional organizers.  It's a great place to find advice, ideas, and tips for the theme of the month.

This month is all about Holiday Gift Giving.  Perfect timing so you can start getting your holiday gifts and wrapping supplies organized.  And there are several posts on clutter-free gifts too!

Introducing the "New" From Overwhelmed To Organized!

If you've read any posts in the last 3-4 weeks, you've probably noticed things look a little bit different around here than they did before.  While working on the 31 {Cheap & Easy} DIY Organizers series last month, I was also busy working with a designer on a new look for the blog!

There wasn't really anything "wrong" with the old design.  It had been the way it was for about a year, after I made some changes to the menu and some changes to the sidebar last fall.  Both of those changes were a big improvement over how it was before. 

But as the blog continued to grow, and new people started reading it, I found it was getting challenging for people to navigate their way around and to find posts that applied to a particular need.  I really wanted a drop-down menu.  I also wanted my social media icons to be easily accessible in the header, rather than lost in the sidebar. 

So, today I want to take you on a little tour of the "new" From Overwhelmed to Organized!

When Life Gets Busy: Doing the Bare Minimum to Stay Afloat

I wrote a post a few weeks ago showing pictures of my messy home after a particularly busy time this summer.  It was well received and many of you commented on how you appreciated my honesty and that you felt better knowing that even a professional organizer's house gets cluttered sometimes.  You definitely helped me feel a little better about my mess and my decision to share it publically :)

I've been meaning to do an update post to show you the after pictures and give some tips on how you can cope and not get as overwhelmed during those particularly busy times when "life" happens.  Only I've still been quite busy so I never did.

Yesterday, I finally went to get started on the update post.  But, when I went to delete what I thought was a draft of a post I started earlier, I actually deleted the original post with all my messy house pictures. 

And I haven't backed up my blog recently.  Because, well, life's been busy.  Back to school, sick kids, new organizing clients.  You know how how it is (well your busy things will likely be different than mine but you get the idea).

Yep.  The post was gone.  Grrr.

When Life Happens: A Professional Organizer's Messy Home (Recovered Version)

[Note: I accidentally deleted this post yesterday but I was able to recover the content so I'm re-posting it today.  If you commented on the original post, those comments are now lost :(  I'd love it if you commented on this post again!]

Do you get overwhelmed at times when things get busy and you can't keep up?  You're in a hurry in the morning so dishes are left in the sink.  You rush home and drop what's in your arms at the door.  Things pile up to deal with "later".

Usually you you can stay on top of things, but there are those periods when it's hard to keep up.

Life happens to all of us.  Including professional organizers.

I've mentioned several times this summer that I have a few clients that I'm doing a lot of work for, including one who had to declutter and organize her whole home to prepare to sell it.  I love my job but I've been working so much this summer that I'm not keeping up at my home.

I've been rushing out the door in the morning to drop my kids of at day camps or grandparents' homes, working long days, picking the kids up, quickly getting dinner ready, and then racing out to baseball practices or games or other activities most evenings.  By the time we're all home and the kids are in bed, I'm pooped out and need to recharge before doing it all over again.

One of the drawbacks of helping others declutter and organize their homes is that I end up being too tired sometimes to deal with our home.  I'm not always as busy as I've been lately, but now that I've got a few weeks without clients, I need to take back my house!  I looked around my house this morning and this is what I saw.

How To Organize Your Summer

This is the first week of summer holidays for my kiddos and so far we're loving it!  We've been taking it easy, enjoying the warm weather, and working out our plans for what we'd like to do with the next 2 months.

As I mentioned in my July Goals post, today I want to share some of our summer plans and routines with you and give you tips to help you organize yours.  Hopefully they will give you some ideas, especially for those of you who have already been on summer holidays for awhile and are perhaps at that "I'm bored" stage :) 

Takeaways From My First Organizing Conference

Have you ever felt like you met a group of "kindred spirits"?  People who shared your passion for something?  Who thought and felt the same as you?

I felt that way when I went to the Professional Organizers in Canada national conference last month.  Every conversation was with someone who loved organizing as much as I do.  Who understood the freedom of purging, and the exhilaration of seeing an organized closet or garage.

And it was as if every keynote speaker and every workshop leader was speaking directly to me.  The tools and resources they shared are ones I can apply to my organizing business and this blog {think of this post as a preview to some of the topics I'll be blogging about in the new year!}.

I know some of you have been to blogging conferences and know what I'm talking about.  Join me today while I share some of what I experienced and learned {and check out some fun pictures}!

Profitable Organizer's Black Friday Special Is Live!

Happy Black Friday everyone!  Hope you've already found some great bargains.  Just remember not to fill your home with "deals" that end up becoming clutter :)

OK, on to the post.  On Monday and Wednesday I shared links to Cynthia Murray's videos about why professional organizing is a great career and case studies of people who wanted to become professional organizers but weren't sure how to get started. 

Cynthia's 3rd video on professional organizing and her Black Friday special are now live!  

[Update: this sale is over, but you can still get free information about joining Profitable Organizer by clicking here.]

Profitable Organizer's Black Friday Preview!

Stay tuned for another post today about my kitchen!  But first, today I'm posting separately again about another great organizing video.

On Monday I shared a link to Cynthia Murray's video about why professional organizing is a great career and I mentioned that Profitable Organizer is having a Black Friday sale in a couple of days.

Today, Cynthia released her 2nd video on professional organizing. [Update: This special is over and the videos are no longer available, but you can get free information and other videos from Profitable Organizer by clicking here]

Want to Get Paid To Organize?

I'll be publishing a post in a little while about my kitchen cupboards, but first I want to let you know about a brand new organizing video.


If you read my post last week, Everything You Wanted To Know About Being a Professional Organizer, you'll remember that one of my recommended resources was Profitable Organizer.

Well, it turns out, they're releasing a series of videos this week, all leading up to a great Black Friday special!

Everything You Wanted to Know About Being a Professional Organizer

Have you ever wondered what a professional organizer is?  Or what a professional organizer does?  Have you ever thought about becoming a professional organizer but weren't sure how?  Have you wondered if a professional organizer can help you deal with the clutter and disorganization in your home?

Then read on, because today's post will answer all those questions!

31 Days of Organizing Tips: Day 31 (Getting Help to Organize)

Welcome to Day Thirty One of the 31 Days of Organizing Tips series!  

Do you struggle with organizing because it seems too overwhelming to tackle alone?  I've shared a lot of organizing tips in this series and many of you will be able to get organized by implementing some of them.  But others of you need a bit more help than that.