Our Birthday Special – Drinn Mobile/Cell Phone Holder

To celebrate our July birthday, today we are featuring the Drinn Mobile/Cell Phone Holder. This is a great little product that creates an instant shelf underneath your outlet. It keeps your cell phone off the floor and your charger cords neatly gathered.

Organized A to Z is celebrating our birthday in July, but we’re giving you the presents! Each day, we are offering our favorite products at 25% off. The discount is good today only, so get it now!

Today’s Featured Birthday Special – GTD Tickler File System

Whether managing household paper, bills, or business documents, the GTD Tickler File System will keep you on track. I chose to feature this system as a birthday special because I love the simple concept and its usefulness in many applications. You can store whole documents and always keep them easily accessible. When you need to organize by date and remember to tasks and papers, this is the system to use!

Organized A to Z is celebrating our birthday in July, but we’re giving you the presents! Each day, we are offering our favorite products at 25% off. The discount is good today only, so get it now!

Today’s Birthday Special – Faux Leather Charging Station

Classy yet functional, the Faux Leather Charging Station is Organized A to Z’s featured birthday special for today! I love the way this piece hides all of the cords and presents a clean, organized appearance on your bedroom dresser, in your office, or anywhere you choose to place it. No more searching all over the house for misplaced chargers!

Organized A to Z is celebrating our birthday in July, but we’re giving you the presents! Each day, we are offering our favorite products at 25% off. The discount is good today only, so get it now!

Today’s Birthday Special – Neat Scan to Office

Today’s featured “birthday” special is Neat Scan to Office!

Organized A to Z is celebrating our birthday in July, but we’re giving you the presents! Each day, we are offering our favorite products at 25% off. The discount is good today only, so get it now!

Today’s Birthday Special – Password.log

Today’s featured “birthday” special is Password.log, a simple little “grey” book that holds my most important info. Of course I keep it secure in my office, but it has become my Internet lifeline!

Organized A to Z is celebrating our birthday in July, but we’re giving you the presents! Each day, we are offering our favorite products at 25% off. The discount is good today only, so get it now!

6 Steps to Reducing Paper

Don't Agonize, Organize! $15.95

Thanks to Diane Hatcher, CPO® for contributing this excerpt from her book, Don’t Agonize, Organize Your Office Now!

 

The advent of computers promised to lead us toward a paperless society. Instead, our paper production has increased. We print out e-mails, make multiple copies on the copy machine, and send and receive faxes with the touch of a button. There is a solution, however. Keeping your paper under control with these 6 simple steps can make life more manageable:

1. DON’T ALLOW PAPERS TO BUILD UP: Handle your paper on a daily basis. Open mail daily. Don’t let it grow into a pile for days or weeks, otherwise it gets totally out of control and the difficulty for dealing with it actually increases.

2. MAKE A DECISION ON EACH PAPER THE FIRST TIME YOU TOUCH IT. This doesn’t mean that every time you get a sheet of paper that you have to work on it immediately. It simply means that, rather than putting it down somewhere ‘temporarily’–like on the dining room table or a desk (read as “pile”)–you have a plan for it. If it can be completed in 60 seconds or less do it now. Otherwise, place it in an action tray to be worked on at a more appropriate time. Separate items that need to be read or filed later. The other choices are to refer it to someone else or toss it into the garbage can.

3. IMPLEMENT THE PROCESS. Continuing the thought from step 2, it is important not to spend your day shuffling papers—for instance moving a sheet of paper from your in-box, to your desk, to your table, into your action tray and back to your desk. Instead, each time you pick up a sheet of paper, make a small dot in the upper right hand corner. Notice anything? You may be procrastinating. Three or more dots are indicative that it is past time to take action on that paper. Refer back to step 2.

4. BE RUTHLESS: 80% of what is filed is never accessed again and 80% or more of the paper you receive on a daily basis can be immediately discarded. Keep a garbage can or recycle bin within reach when opening mail. Toss unwanted papers immediately. Go through your “in-box” each day if others bring you papers. Toss anything that doesn’t concern you. Remove yourself from distribution lists and magazine subscriptions you don’t need. Purge your files once or twice a year at the minimum. Outdated papers and duplicates obtainable elsewhere should go.

5. THINK BEFORE YOU PRINT. Do you really need to print every single e-mail you get? Many e-mails, once read, can immediately be deleted. If you have to keep an e-mail, learn how to make folders for storage on the computer and back them up on a disk. If you must print an e-mail, or a web page, decide if you really need to print the entire thing. You can highlight a portion of an e-mail or a web site with your mouse, click on FILE, PRINT, then choose PRINT SELECTION. This prints only the portion you need.

6. FOLLOW RETENTION GUIDELINES. Your company or personal CPA may have retention guidelines setting out how long a particular paper or file must be kept. You can obtain guidelines yourself on the web. Getting familiar with these guidelines also helps manage the amount of papers necessary to be kept. At the very least, remove closed or inactive files from your active work area and get them to storage. Always indicate a “destroy” date on the box or page to ease the future purging process. An additional benefit of this process is that it serves to provide more space for the coming year’s papers. Space can be “reused” rather than adding new filing cabinets.

Author Diane Hatcher, CPO®, has been organizing offices and homes since 1998. She specializes in law offices, chronic disorganization and virtual organizing. Contact her at www.timesaversusa.com or 954-252-7511.

Organizing Paper with P.E.A.C.E.

Today’s post comes from Marlo Nikkila, the Organizing Coach. Organized A to Z carries her “Organize Out of the Box” product that provides a new, refreshing approach to getting organized.
Is the paper in your life driving you crazy?

Does it take more than 3 minutes to find what you are looking for?

Are piles of paper out of control?

Do you feel overwhelmed by your paper?

Do you want to make peace with your paper once and for all?

Paper is one of the biggest issues for people. There is too much of it and it is easy to get behind, often causing people to feel like they are literally drowning.

Following the P.E.A.C.E plan you will be able to reclaim your sanity for current and future paper in your life.

How does that sound?

P=Permission to let go.

Get this…80% of the paper you keep you will never refer to again! So, you now have permission to let go!

How does that feel? A little scary?

That’s okay, because I am going to ask you to begin with the easy stuff.

Begin with the backlog of old bills, receipts, warranties, recipes, articles, and bank statements. Make sure you have your recycle bin and shredder handy. (wink)

As a quick tip, if you are overwhelmed with all the paper around your desk, turn a pile upside down and start at the bottom. More than likely these papers can be tossed.

E=Evaluate the papers you have.

Sometimes it is out of habit that we continue to file papers we no longer need. Just because there is a file for it, doesn’t mean you have to keep it.

The key to evaluating paper is asking the right questions. With better questions come easier decisions and ultimately less paper!

• Can this paper be found somewhere else?
• Is this a duplicate?
• Have I needed this information before?
• Why am I keeping this in the first place?
• Am I required to keep this?  If so, how long?
• What next action is needed?

A=Act on it.

Your piles of paper probably exist because something needs to be done with individual pieces–sign, read, pay, call, research, follow-up, errand, etc. Am I right?

The best solution is if it takes less than 2 minutes, just do it. If it is going to require more time and energy, go ahead and jot down the info onto your calendar or to-do list and recycle the piece of paper. The paper no longer needs to serve as your reminder. (more permission to let go!)

If you find that the paper really is needed, then I suggest a tickler system or an action book.

C=Contain & Categorize your papers.

The best way to find it in less than 3 minutes is to create a specific home for your papers in places (and names) that make sense to you.

Do you have a mail center to capture your incoming mail? Is your filing cabinet in the area that you pay bills and process your paper? Are you naming the files appropriately?

The best question to ask yourself when filing or creating a home for your paper is this: Where will I find it? Do you see how this is more powerful than the more common “Where should I put it?”

If you would look for your car info under “Prius” instead of “Automobile” then by all means label it that way.

It will also help if you think in terms of categories for your paper. Examples would be, financial, health, hobbies, owner-manuals, utilities, etc.

E=Electronic solutions.

There are several ways you can take advantage of technology to reduce the amount of paper in your life.

• Receive electronic bank statements and utility bills.
• Use auto pay for utilities and other bills.
• Opt out of mailing lists—virtual and paper.
• Keep all you password and log-in information with SplashShopper ID on your PDA or desktop computer.
• Store important documents on a secured online server.
• Resist the temptation to print e-mails.
• Send real greeting cards from your computer with www.simplifymycards.com.

My hope is for you to experience the freedom that comes with making P.E.A.C.E. with your paper, once and for all.

Marlo Nikkila, “The Organizing Coach,” has created FUN organizing solutions through coaching, home-study guides, and a resourceful website for overwhelmed individuals who want clarity and peace in their life while living in harmony with our planet.

If it’s time for you to move forward and accomplish more than you are on your own, visit www.the-organizing-coach.com for an abundance of articles and resources, along with powerful workshops and coaching to help you become more organized.

Clutter Free Home Files & Paper Systems

Thanks to our guest blogger, Nancy Black of  Organization Plus, for today’s tips on creating a clutter free home file and paper sorting system!

Here are some ways that you can decrease the papers that come into your home.

• Pay bills online or put them on auto pay.
• Call 800 #s on catalogs & ask them to delete your name from their mailing list.
• Do not renew the magazines that you do not have time to read.
• Request to have your name deleted from charitable request solicitations for charities you will not be contributing to.
• When you fill in warranty forms check box asking them not to share your name.
• Shred credit card solicitations that you do not want.

Mail: Process each day and sort by what action you need to take on it. Have a desktop action file, with hanging file folders, or cubbies labeled with the action that you need to take or by category. Example: Calls to make.

School Papers: Have a folder in each child’s back pack for school papers. Review with your child daily, sign permission slips and fill out forms.

Magazines, Newsletters, & Newspapers: Set retention guidelines on how long to keep.

Post-its, scraps of paper with messages/addresses on them: Put info. in phone message book. You will have carbon copy of it.

Organizing Home Files:

My VitalFiles system is an excellent way to set-up an easy-to-use filing system for your home.

Creating filing system: Purchase functional products so that it will be easy to set up maintain your files.  Example:  Decorative File Folders. Homefile and VitalFiles systems give you suggested categories and retention guidelines.  Color coded files are easy to identify by category. Example: Bright green for finances. Choose color for each family member.

Organizing existing files: Set retention guidelines on how long to keep documents. Purge outdated information or categories you are not longer interested in. Check with accountant or attorney on how long  to keep legal and accounting files. Shred any confidential information you are purging.

Nancy Black, of Organization Plus, is an Organizing Consultant with over 25 years of organizing experience. She was quoted in the NY Times, March 26, 2009. She created the “3 Hour Transformation” to turn your piles into files. She specializes in helping people create paper-flow systems, organize their space and plan their time. These services are provided on site or through telephone consultations. Her Web site is www.organizationplus.com.

Organizing Household Files and Managing All That Paper!

At Organized A to Z, we understand that home filing systems are as different as the people who create them! Everyone has different priorities and different ways of thinking about how to organize their records – by category, by payee, by alphabetically by topic/subject matter. This month, we are focusing on offering tips from other Organized A to Z Professional Organizing Partners to offer you several suggestions. You’re sure to find one that fits your specific needs, personality and style!

Thanks to guest blogger Shelia Dingels of Successful Simplicity, LLC, for offering these tips!

First: Set up a system for the deluge of daily mail

Step 1:  Place a wastebasket and shredder next to your desk to dispose of the junk mail and credit card offers immediately.  Use a decorative basket to hold magazines and catalogs so they don’t start to form another prolific pile on your floor.

Step 2:  File each person’s daily mail into “in-boxes.” You can get creative with your in-boxes, using wall-mounted magazine holders or shallow baskets that sit on your desk. Kids can also put their school papers here for you when they get home each day.

Step 3:  REGULARLY sort what’s in your “in-box” into action files.  No procrastinating allowed; leaving your papers to multiply before your very eyes.  Your action files are folders labeled with headings similar to: To Pay, To Mail, To File, To Call, etc.   If your brain thinks a bit more creatively, try labels like these: This could be painful (for unpaid bills), Get it out of here (for things to be mailed or filed), and Call them or else (your mom fits into this category)!

Step 4:  Stand your action files in a vertical rack rather than piling them horizontally.  The phrase “File, don’t pile” really applies here.  Put your action files in the vertical rack in order of highest to lowest priority.

Our Natural Wood Drawer Organizer is a great choice to keep all of your home office supplies neatly stored and easy to find.

Step 5:  Purchase a drawer organizer, so your office supplies don’t get sucked into a black hole when you put them in the drawer.  You can use common household items instead if you don’t want to purchase one.   Empty checkbook boxes can hold pens or pencils.  Ice cube trays can hold push pins, paper clips, and stamp rolls.  An empty ziploc can hold rubber bands or staples.  Just a little imagination can go a long way!

Next: Establish a functional file system

Step 1: Take one stack at a time and sort papers into boxes or bins labeled with categories such as financial, medical, and home improvement.  Avoid the catch-all category of “miscellaneous.” Toss or shred information that’s outdated, unneeded, or easily found somewhere else like the internet.   If bringing your shredded paper to the Humane Society for animal bedding gives you a little extra motivation, go with it!

Step 2:  Purchase colored file folders and assign a different color for each category you have.  Use the color of the folders to make your own associations to the related category (e.g. green folders for financial information or yellow folders for medical/health information).

Step 3:  Once you’ve sorted and purged your papers, begin placing papers from each box or bin into smaller sub-categories in your colored folders.  Smaller sub-categories in your green financial folders might be investments, charitable donations, credit card statements, and so on.

Step 4:  Once your papers are in the folders, label each one using white labels with bold lettering to make the heading “pop.”   When you label the folder, put the broad category name first, then the sub-category name after.  An example would be Medical – Eye doctor, Medical – Orthodontist, Medical – Benefits plan.   Once your folders are labeled, put them into your filing cabinet and label the outside of the drawers.

Step 5:  Put miscellaneous papers like receipts for returns, dry cleaning slips, and coupons in a small expandable plastic folder.   That way you can tuck it in your purse while you run errands and have what you need at your fingertips.

Sheila Dingels
Successful Simplicity, LLC
Saving Time. Simplifying Lives
612.920.0747
www.successfulsimplicity.com

More Children Getting Injured In Furniture Tip-Over Accidents

 

Thousands of kids are hurt each year by furniture tipping over on top of them.

There’s a new report out today, and it warns of a household dangerous, but sometimes hidden, situation for our kids! More children are getting hurt in accidents where furiture tips over and falls on top of them. We all know how much little tots like to climb, especially when there are enticing objects up high. Unfortunately, they can easily pull over dressers, bookcases, and other furniture on top of them, causing injury, or even death.

This problem was highlighted just this morning on The Today Show and the CBS Early Show. (click the shownames to watch the video footage). The biggest danger, experts say, is a television sitting on top of furniture. When the furniture is tipped, the TV can easily slide off, potentially causing serious head injuries.

Anti-Tip Kit available from Organized A to Z

Organized A to Z can help you protect your children! Both morning shows highlighted an anti-tip kit device for large furniture. Our anti-tip kit is easy to install and tamper resistant.  And, it’s made from steel and galvanized aircraft cable, so you know it’s strong. Be sure to get enough for the furniture in every room of your house, and don’t forget the garage! Many of us have free standing shelving in our garage that can easily tip over, even on adults!