Amy Volk professional organizer, declutter-er, mom blogger, and systems creator.

051313 • Organizing Paper: Because a Pile is Not a File System!

Originally posted as part of the Live Better Friday series, I was reminded these past few weeks that these principles and practices never get old and can never get talked about enough!

Today I wanna talk about paper. Did the feeling of doom just settle over you as you look at your stacks of mail and randomness? Fear not, a solution is near, but you may not like what I’m gonna say.

What I will share with you goes for both home and your business, especially if you work from home! Treat your home office like you would any office space. Just because you might work from home doesn’t mean you can wing it.

To start, you need to keep VERY FEW papers. This includes bills, receipts, articles, newspapers, magazines, & notes. And don’t even get me started on the kids papers. That’s a whole ‘nother topic! In our digital age, almost anything you need to look at can be pulled up from a website. Plus, with a home scanner you can scan your way into digital bliss. Scan it, file it, and throw the hard copy away!

So, what you do decide to keep, you need a place to put it. A pile is not a file system! If you want to keep papers, make a hanging file system and label each file with the topic. I think in broad categories, like insurance. In this file I will have insurance policies for the house, the car, the _______. If you like it teased out more specifically, fine, but don’t over complicate it and get all caught up in the labeling. Just create a file so you have a place to stick the paper.

I beg you to consider a digital file system and use something like the Neat Receipt scanner by the Neat Co. It can change your life. No lie.

Ok, now go get some coffee and sit here for a while. I want to talk mail with you. I will not bore you the details of creating a mail system right now, but I want you to start dealing with the mail. What I mean by that is I want you to start OPENING the mail everyday, throwing junk out, and have a specific place you put your bills to pay and important papers you need.

Get yourself a shredder and a small trashcan. From today forward, when you get the mail, deal with it. If you don’t have time to deal with it today, then leave it in the mailbox. Getting the mail from the mailbox and putting it in a pile is complicating your life! Stop doing it. (just in case you’re wondering, yes, I am feeling a little Nanny 911 today. Some intervention needs to happen here!)

If you keep lots of papers it usually for one of two reasons: 1)You are afraid you can’t or won’t be able to find this information anywhere else ever again and therefore you MUST keep the paper! OR 2)You love information and it makes you feel safe and secure knowing that you have the information:) Either way, the papers will start to take on a life of their own and you will start drowning in them.

So today, I am asking you to take a look around and decide which pile to start tackling. What can you throw out right away? What changes can you make to start taming the paper beast? Don’t even make me come over and do it for you! You won’t like me for it!!

And just in case you needed a little guideline, here is an article (digital of course, and DO NOT print it off!!!!) on how long you should keep papers.

Filed under Organization Tips For Work, Organizing, Organizing tips for the home, Time Saving Tips • Comments (0)

051213 • Happy Mother’s Day 2013

Happy Mother’s Day! Sharing a few things from my day today.

Feeling immensely joyful.

And also thankful.

To everyone of you, thank you for being part of my motherhood journey!

My son is a man of few words, but he couldn’t have said more that meant more.

We ate breakfast at a place in Sundance Square called Cowtown. It’s officially my favorite joint now. Here are two things I loved from it.

I know it’s blurry. But it’s the coolest antler chandelier that has been spray painted silver. Really like.

Cowhide lamp. See the antler chandelier behind it? Love.

Here’s my real love, though.

Filed under Life Reflections, Parenting • Comments (0)

051013 • Half Hour Organizing Project #18-Create an Emergency Weather Kit

I’ve talked about being prepared for emergencies before in other posts, but this Half Hour Organizing Project happened when we recently cleaned out our garage and I realized that we did not have all of our hurricane supplies in one place. They were in various places throughout the garage and even the attic! Not great when the lights go out and a storm is barreling down on your home.

I live on the East Coast and while hurricane season doesn’t officially start until June 1st, I wanted to get my new hurricane and emergency container ready now. Hurricane Preparedness Week actually runs May 26th-June 1st, so hey, you’ll be ahead of the curve! Wherever you live, it’s a good idea to have a container with basic emergency storm supplies. Here is a quick list:

Flashlights and/or lanterns

Batteries

Landline phone (not cordless)

Candles and matches

Water

Shortwave radio

Filed under Half Hour Organizing Projects, Organizing, Organizing the garage, Organizing tips for the home, Video • Comments (0)

050813 • How to Delegate House Work

This is a reprise of a post from last year, but because I am speaking next week to a group of professional women on the topic of, “Can I Have it All?”, I’ve had the task of delegation on my mind.

Over the years of working, between working full-time to owning a business, I have learned to delegate those tasks that are not MY best and highest use of me. Yes, there are things and tasks that I do best and things and tasks that others do better than me. Those things, which I value the most and do the best, I cannot delegate. The rest, well, either it doesn’t get done or it gets done by someone else.

There is a great article this month in Working Mother magazine called Get Rid of Messy House Gui lt. It really does give great advice, starting with the notion of letting the standard of perfection go. Amen sisters.

But I’d like to stir the pot a little with another notion…that of delegation. I have long spoken to women, especially those of us who work any measure outside the home, about delegating. This isn’t the same as giving your kids chores to do. That should be a no-brainier. They should have chores and they should get rewards for doing them. But sometimes when I ask my kids to do something extra, they will say “what do I get for doing that”? Excuse me? You get to live here. And eat. And sleep in a bed. That’s what you get.

Sorry, I digress. Back to delegation. Here are the questions I pose to every group of women when I am speaking with them about How to Get it All Done, housework being one of them.

1. What am I doing that other people could or should be doing?

2. What am I doing that is really a way to hide from doing the things I don’t like doing?

3. What am I doing that I know I need to STOP doing?

Who else could clean your house? Maybe you can’t afford a house cleaner, but think about how you can delegate some of it, or all of it. Swap, trade, barter?

What are you doing for the people in your house that they could really do themselves? What do you hate doing?

I share this story often. I loathe two things…1) pairing socks from the dryer and 2) shredding papers. One day a magic thought happened and I decided to pay my small people to do these tasks. $1 for pairing socks in a giant basket I put them in and $5 for shredding (they were about 9 when I started this). They were thrilled and guess what? I was relieved.

Sometimes you tinker around the house doing things to avoid the “elephant in the room” and sometimes we do it to use the excuse of “I’m so busy, I couldn’t possibly__________(fill in the blank)”.

Even though I really like to clean (I know, I’m a freak of nature), I pay a house cleaner to clean twice a month. She does a terrific surface job but I still need to vacuum, pick up, manage the kitchen everyday, etc. But I never have to worry if the bathrooms will get cleaned, if the sheets will get changed, if the furniture will ever get dusted. It’s worth every penny. I will stop eating out and color my own hair before I let her go. It’s worth it that much to me.

So, answer the questions above honestly and get back to me.

Filed under Organizing, Organizing tips for the home, Parenting • Comments (0)

050713 • Letters to Mom #1 {Mother’s Day Series}

Dear Mom-

I’m supposed to know what to say to you after all these years, but I can’t figure out where to start. I once asked my counselor how I would know that my heart is healed from the wound it had after you died and she said, “When you can touch it and it doesn’t hurt anymore.”

I can touch the place where the memories live now. And it doesn’t hurt. But I still feel lonely. I’m not lonely, really. There’s lots going on around me. I have an amazing husband and these two kids that I can’t believe are mine and most of the time the house is noisy and busy and my work and commitments bring along full days with them.

But there’s a corner of my heart that I suppose has the word “Mom” over it’s entrance and when I peek inside, it’s vacant. It’s that kind of feeling. Hollow.

My sweet little family has taught me so much about loving and being loved. And now that I’m a mom I totally understand the saying, “Wear your heart outside your chest.” I know you loved me. I wish you had loved yourself more than you did. Still, I have some fun memories of how you showed your love for me.

1. Always wash your ankles. If you’re in an accident, you don’t want to go to the hospital with dirty ankles.

2. You made meatloaf. It was the best meatloaf ever and I still make it the same way!

3. I think you tried to show us you loved us by making Swiss steak, white rice with brown gravy, and brussels sprouts, but I hated that meal. Sorry.

4. You took me to John’s Shoes to buy corrective shoes every year for school. I remember climbing up on his loft area where he measured my foot and then fitted me with proper shoes.

5. Kerrie remembers this more than me, but we would go shopping for school clothes with Nanny to JCPenny and eat lunch in their restaurant. You always liked Patty Melts.

6. When I was 11 and got baptized at 22nd Baptist Church on Christmas Eve, you bought me those fake leather boots that I had wanted for so long!

7. My hair. Do you remember wetting, combing, brushing and pulling my hair into pigtails? You did it every day and made them so tight that it made my eyes slanted and I would get a headache.

8. One of my last, and most embarrassing memories, was when I was at Officer Indoctrination School with the Navy and you sent a care package to my dorm room. When I opened it up I found a replica of my child hood baby blanket that you had handmade. You had remembered that it had gotten destroyed in my move and how much I loved when it got cold and I would run my hand back and forth across it to fall asleep. I wanted to die in that moment as my roommate looked on! But secretly, it was awesome.

Sometimes I think my memory isn’t very good anymore. I have trouble remembering things about you and I have been praying that I would remember things. I will never, ever understand why you left us. That still makes me mad at you. You never let us love you to wholeness and you are missing out on so much here.

Now that I touch that, it hurts a little.

I love you. Till next time…

Filed under Life Reflections • Comments (3)