Have the catalogs been arriving faster than you can leaf through them? With the holiday season comes the catalogs with their beautiful photos, intriguing item descriptions and the promises to make our holidays the happiest ever!

The reality is that we simply cannot review every irresistable item nor find a home for the growing stack of slick-covered catalogs that tend to topple. The pile of catalogs becomes a puddle of yet-to-be-read pages.

Here are some tips for Conquering the Catalogs this holiday season:

• Assess your usual gift-buying tendencies. Do you buy from catalogs frequently, occasionally, seldom, or never? If catalogs are a tool you use frequently, you may want to save the catalogs that look promising. If you seldom or never order from catalogs, recycle them or share them with someone else.
• Everything that is pictured in a catalog is likely available on the internet. You can tear off  and save the front or back page of a catalog to remind you of the website or company. Discard the rest of the catalog. You have just reduced your load and still have a reminder of the company in case you want to order something from the internet.
• Share. The retailer who sent you the catalog would probably be delighted if you would share your copy of a well-liked catalog with someone else. It lightens your load and someone may appreciate your thoughtfulness.
• Discard outdated catalogs. Unless you use a catalog as a reference for some reason, discard past versions of catalogs. The merchandise is often unavailable, prices may change and other terms such as free shipping may no longer be in effect.

Some advance planning will help you Conquer the Catalogs. We would like to hear how you treat the catalogs that arrive in the mail at your home or business.

 

The holidays are just around the corner.  Do you have a plan?  You might consider creating a Holiday Mission Statement to get yourself started.  A mission statement can be your guide for the holidays.  It can keep you focused on your goals.

The first step to creating a Holiday Mission Statement is to start asking questions. Talk with your spouse and discuss questions like this:

• What is our budget?
• What do we want to teach our children this season?
• Are there some new experiences to share with our children?
• Is there anything we want to do different this year?

Now you are ready to bring the family together and have a family meeting.  Some more questions could include:

• What is your favorite family tradition?
• What do you remember from last year?  Your favorite memory?
• What are you most looking forward to? What are you dreading?
• What was your favorite way/thing to give to others?

You may be amazed at the things your children remember and want to do again this year.  From here you have can make a mission statement.  Just a sentence will do.  This will keep you focused on the traditions the are the most meaningful to your family. 

The Tokos Family Thanksgiving Mission Statement is to have great food and focus on being thankful. 

Pretty simple but it says a lot.  From here I asked my family to define great food.  Are we making the traditional fare or making something different?  Thankfully they mostly insisted on the pumpkin pie.  Focus on being thankful.  How?  The kids want to make a thankful tree.  We do this every year and it consist of tree branches and construction paper leaves.  We write on each leaf something we are thankful for.  We are also going to talk each evening at dinner about what we are thankful for.  Pretty simple.

We are still working on our Christmas mission statement.  Have fun with this and let me know how it goes.  I would love to hear some of your mission statements.

Technorati Tags: Amy Tokos,Freshly Organized,professional organizer,Omaha,holiday,planning,mission statement,family

It’s that time of year.  Pruning time.  We have some fruit trees on our acreage, and last year I was talking with a landscaper friend who told me about the benefits of pruning our trees.   After a hard freeze is the best time for pruning.  The tree sap is greatly slowed by the cold, resulting in less harm to the tree itself.

                                                 

The task of pruning involves the ‘cutting away’ of branches from the tree that have grown, unchecked, during the year.  They serve no good purpose, these sprawling branches, and only spread the tree out over more space, resulting in the tree being much less effective.  Pruning also includes cutting away the little ‘sucker’ shoots that sprout from the base of the tree, and pull fruit-bearing energy away from the tree, just to sustain these little shoots.  They tend to be ‘life-drainers’.    Hum-m-m-m.

So, last year, I went out to my apple trees and did the deed.  I pruned.  The benefits of pruning weren’t immediately noticeable.  Then spring came and the blossoms and leaves were so much fuller in the pruned version of my trees than they had been in the larger, more strung-out versions from last year.  And THEN came harvest season..……my, oh my!!!  A tasty bumper crop of apples like we’ve never seen before!

So….CUTTING BACK yields richer, fuller results down the road?  I think I get the picture!  Life Editing.  The benefits of doing some ‘pruning’ in your life might not be evident right away, but definitely, in time, you will reap a more bountiful life.

Kids make some really fun and cool stuff at school.  Last week I wrote about some things to consider when keeping their work.  This week I want to share some ideas on how to keep the treasures.  You can do one of these or a combination of them, whatever works best for you.

• Keep everything you want for the school year in a box or on a shelf.  At the end of the year you can sort through and pick 5 items that are the keepers.
• Post all the artwork on a bulletin board.  When the board gets full take a picture of your child next to all the work.  Now you can clean off the bulletin board and start again.  This works great for the pre-K kids who bring home art projects every day.
• Make a book. This is fun and easy.  You can make a book for each year of your child’s school or you can make one big book that includes all of the elementary years.  There are a couple of ways to create a book.  An easy non-techy way is to purchase a binder and just use a hole punch to put the work in the binder.  You can even purchase sleeves to insert the work into.  The more techy way to do this would be to scan the work and make a photo book.  There are scanners at a lot of discount stores and grocery stores.  They typically have people to help you if needed.  From there you bring home your disc and make a book online.  One of my favorite sites is Heritage Makers for making the photo books. 

These are just a few ideas.  If you like to save the kids work just get something set up so in 10 years you have a treasure not just a box of stuff.  What kind of system do you have set up?   What works and what doesn’t work for you?  I would love to hear your ideas.

Just a note about the picture:  This is my 1st graders recent work.  He drew everyone in our family in the picture except me.  He said I was at the gift shop buying stuff while they visited the tee pee.  It made me laugh so the artwork and the story are making it into his book.

Technorati Tags: Amy Tokos,Freshly Organized,professional organizer,Omaha,kids,artwork,photo books

Do you own things or do your things own you?

How often have you asked yourself this question?  You need to ask that question with every single item in your home.  Do you feel you need to keep and hold on to gifts you have received from other people.  Ask yourself this question:  Do you expect every person that you have given a gift, to keep it forever?  I don’t think so!  So why do you think YOU have to keep every gift?  Just because it was given to you by someone special, doesn’t make the item special.  The person is special; the gift is just a token.

Let’s celebrate this fun holiday called Halloween, those little ones (big ones too) deserve to have a fun time so let’s have a ball. 

A few ways to make the day easier especially if you have to work and then come home to get everything ready is to plan ahead and be organized for the fun to come. 

• Make a list of all the things you need to do before the big day.
• Decorate for the season.  If you have children you may want to put the art up that they made at school of pumpkins and skeletons.  If you want to make it simple, you can go as easy as a wreath on your front door.
• Make sure and pick out costumes early as they sure do thin out fast at the stores, or put a deposit down on a rental costume.
• Make a note on the calendar to watch the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and other fun Halloween shows and cartoons.
• Buy your treats while there is a good selection early in the month and put them in a cool place as not to melt the chocolate.  Putting them away also saves your waist line.
• If your child requires treat bags for school, do them one night after dinner and let them sample a few of the Halloween candies early.
• Take a few pictures to enjoy the memories.
• Have a FUN and SAFE night and don’t forget the flashlights!

Most of all Enjoy the Season and the beautiful fall foliage this year!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The laundry process can be overwhelming for many people. For those with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) getting the laundry done can be a frustrating and dreaded task.

Here are some tips (we call them secrets–it’s much more fun that way!) to help the ADD-er get the laundry started….and finished.

• Strip the laundry area of all things non-laundry related. You want to be able to focus on just laundry.
• Invest in several quality clothes baskets that nest. Have one for each area that dirty clothes collect.
• Pitch the closed hampers and bin sorters. They become deep, dark holes that collect scary things.
• Enlist and train others to be part of the laundry team. Be specific about your expectations and time-table for the laundry process. One friend randomly hid quarters in unfolded socks as an incentive for her kids to participate.
• Buy fewer clothes and towels. As the mounds of dirty, or even clean, laundry get higher, the task seems more daunting.

Although we all need clean clothes, there are options to doing all the laundry. Consider hiring someone to do it in your home. A qualified professional organizer can help you streamline your process and recommend strategies that will work with, instead of against, your ADD.

Do you have ADD laundry secrets? Share them with us–we would like to be in on the secret, too!

Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up. 

A. A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

Moms love to save things, especially things that are made by their children.  It is what we are suppose to do…right?  If you like to collect the things your kids make,  you should consider having a goal in mind.  What are you planning on doing with all that cute 1st grade artwork?  Pass it on to your child when they are all grown up? 

Recently a friend pulled me aside and told me a funny story about her adult child’s visit a few weeks ago.  She had identified a few boxes in storage of things she had collected for him.  You know the things…school papers and artwork.  During the visit she presented the boxes to her child who, not appreciating the collection, proceeded to look at a few of the papers, make a few comments and then… put them into recycling. 

I share this story because, with 4 school age children, I am in the thrust of collecting school work for my kids.  I do this in an easy and organized manner  but my friend really gave me something to think about.  I am now asking myself…”Why am I doing this?”   The answer use to be  “for my kids” and “because I am suppose to“  but I am now considering a change in my reasons.  The reality is that I think my kids, like my friends son, are not going to want the stuff.  They will think I am crazy for keeping it and even crazier for giving it to them.  I have come up with a new goal…my new goal is now to only keep the items that I want to keep for me.  I am going to have no intentions of passing the collection on or expectations that my kids will want the collections.  It will now be a small collection just for me.  Keeping it simple. Gotta love that.

Technorati Tags: Amy Tokos,professional organizer,Omaha,Freshly Organized,children’s artwork,kids activities,memories,expectations

Every home needs to store extra batteries.  You would not want to have to “run out” and buy new ones every time one dies. I personally keep mine in a decorative hat box, but find “just the right place” in your home.  The following information was found at www.goodbuyguys.com

Keep batteries in original packaging when possible.

Do not store new and used batteries together.

If a battery feels warm, it should be discarded.

Ideally, batteries should be stored in a cool, dry place.

Never store batteries at temperatures over 130 degrees F.

Remove batteries from equipment if it is not going to be used for 30 days or more.

Don’t remove plastic caps from 9V batteries until it is time to use them.

Don’t let the terminals of stored batteries come in contact with each other.

Remember-Duracell Procell batteries have a 7 year shelf life!