Welcome Christine Janes

Please join me in welcoming our new blogger, Christine Janes, to our blog pages.  Tomorrow will be her first posting day.

Chris is a Trained Professional Organizer and member of POC. She brings 10 years of corporate experience managing people and processes to her organizing work. If your kitchen looks like a tornado passed through it, Chris will bring her appreciation for balance and harmony, a commitment to helping others and a healthy dose of good humour to show you how the busiest room in your home can be calm and functional.  Welcome aboard Chris!

Welcome our New Authors

Calm the Clutter is expanding.  Starting this week, the blog will have two additional authors.  Please join me in welcoming Chris Janes and Jennie Vlietstra both Associates with Wellrich Organizers.  Stay tuned for more scoop on both these authors and their initial posts later this week!

Welcome aboard Chris and Jennie.

It's About Time

My clients are equally split between the number that use electronic calendars and those that use paper calendars. The electronic device allows you to have instant access to your schedule 5 years out or five years back without the weight of 5 books. They also allow you to flip things around with the touch of a role ball, touch screen or mouse. No need for those messy erasers and rewriting the re/re/rescheduled appointment in question.

For many people, no matter how easy the electronic device may seem, managing time does not work for them on a small device, small screen and fiddly tool. A month at a glance is easier on an 8 in X 11 in paper than a 1.5 in screen. Those with kinetic learning preferences may find the act of writing in appointments helps to secure the appointments existence into their mind - more so than typing an appointment once then hitting the recurrence function for the balance of the year's appointments.

I seem to be one of these people and I am in the process of trying out a paper calendar again. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. Meanwhile - what has been your experience?

Love that Car

Its winter - cold, wet and sometimes just plain grey. You, like many of us, may have limited your trips to the drive-thru car wash and vacuum station while the snow flies and Canadian wind howls. I know I have. You may also find yourself increasingly frustrated or discouraged with the debris in the car that doesn't get cleaned out when those freshen up stops at the service station get curtailed. Try these quick tips to help stay in control of the clutter until the next sunny, warm day.
1. Grab a garbage bag - check through the car and load up that bag. Most of the clutter in cars is associated with garbage that just didn't make it to the bin.
2. Give the kids their own garbage bag for their part of the car. Next time you fill up with gas, get them to toss it in the bin.
3. Put a box in the back for wandering gear - this can be as fancy as a "car gear box" available at many retailers or as simple as a cardboard box. Toss all the bits and pieces that have to stay with the car in there - cables, hitches, wrenches (for the hitches), ski box accessories and the like.
4. Clear the glove box - take out all the old napkins and receipts. The first goes in the garbage, the second to your tax file. Try replacing the napkins with hand wipes from the drug store - they come in a resealable package and are great for dealing with coffee spills and ketchup!
5. Wipe the dust off the dashboard with a dry napkin.
6. Check your windshield fluid.
That should hold you until the sun shines.

Getting the Kids "To Do's" into "Got Done"

If you have school age children you are very familiar with agendas, projects, dictation, reading lists and the myriad of tasks that come home for the children to accomplish. You probably even monitor that your children sit down and do homework each evening in order to get through the list. Maybe you go as far as to check that they have the due dates in their agendas.

Have you ever taught them how to write the To List so that it gets done?

Try teaching your children to write their To Do's with action verbs up front. For example:

"Project Outline" becomes
"Write rough copy of project outline".

The task is clear and limited. You will both know what needs to be done and when it got accomplished.

Back From Summer Vacation?

How was your summer? Was it cold and wet like here in Toronto (Canada)? Did you run away from your clutter and chaos and get some vacation time in beautifully organized hotels? Maybe a trip to the cottage where organizing takes on a very relaxed form of archival collecting? I'd love to hear your stories.

And what did Wellrich Organizers do that left the blog pages silent for so long?

I took on the staging job of a lifetime. With the family farm sold off in the spring, the family house was next. I am pleased to say that a summer's worth of work paid off: new hardwood floor in the kitchen, new kitchen, stripped floors everywhere else, new carpet in the basement, one storage shed, innumerable bags of garbage and recycling - amidst Toronto's garbage strike - several contractors, the benevolence of soem very dear friends, a few shares in our local hardward store and the help of another stager, Pamela G& Co. The house sold within 48 hours of hitting the market for a very nice sum over asking thank you very much.

The experience has left me with a renewed appreciation for the emotional challenges that face anyone downsizing the family home. Forty-six years of accumulation is a struggle for even the most clutter averse individual. The family history contained in all that accumulation is bittersweet to review and overwhelming to confront.

We got through by chipping away one little bit at a time. The project to clear out the 46 years started several years ago and thank goodness it did. The sooner one starts to clear out the unused, unnecessary items around the house, the freer and easier one can live one's life today.

Does anyone else have family home downsizing stories?

Downsizing Dilemmas - Auctions

When it comes to the really big downsizing projects - from the family home to a 900 sq.ft. condo, sometimes there just aren't enough family members or grandchildren to absorb all the pieces of furniture - loved though they may be - that have accumulated over the years. Furniture consignment stores are popping up all over cities these days in an attempt to keep some of the items in circulation, make a little money for the original owner and establish a new industry along the way.

Another alternative is to auction off your unwanted items at a local auctioneer. Many of you are familiar with the names of high end auction houses; the names we sometimes hear about when a piece of artwork is sold, such as Waddington's or Ritchies. Do you know the names of local auctioneers in your neighbourhood or city who are familiar with the auctioning of estates, farm or recreational properties or just the accumulation of items that are no longer needed by someone?

Auction houses usually work on a percentage basis i.e. they keep a percentage of the sale price of your items after the sale and give you the balance. Some will pick up your items, usually for a fee. In some cases, if an entire home is on the auction block, the auction house will hold the auction at the home itself. In other cases, several estates or home contents (lots) will be sold off at a regular auction held by the auction house.

To find an auction house, check online for auctioneers in your area. In Ontario (Canada) you can also check with the Ontario Auctioneer Association.