Palais Professional Organizer

Archive for June, 2010

There is a fabulous organizer in Texas who reviewed a great product today – http://organizenrefine.blogspot.com/ – and now I’m going to pass it on to you:  Kangaroom Photo Storage Trays. These “trays” are only $40 and hold 400 4×6 photos. The photo above doesn’t show the feature I love most but if you go to their website you’ll see that each of the tabs on top holds a photo and opens up into its own section. So you can put a photo in as a label for that section. No more searching and wondering what photos are in what box or labeling with a labelmaker. And the boxes are nice enough to have out on a dresser or counter so it doubles as a display piece. This product is the perfect solution to photo clutter.

As a society we are printing less photos these days but most of my clients have a backlog of photos they don’t know what to do with. This photo clutter is one of the biggest concerns people have. If putting photos into albums is too much of a project for right now these trays are a great option. You can still sort and organize them by event or year(s) and make decisions about albums later. Or if you already have albums and don’t know what to do with the remaining photos this is a great option.

If you hate photos and you keep everything digitally – my hats off to you! Buy one for a friend or family member – this is a great gift!  I’m not an affiliate – just to be clear – I just love this product.

If you end up purchasing it let me know how it works for you. If you have favorite photo organizers let me know what they are – I’d love to hear from you.

I am going to add a page to my site with all of the basic professional organizing techniques for closets, kitchens, bathrooms, offices, basements, attics, kid’s rooms, shelves, medicine cabinets, garages, rumpus rooms, sun rooms, saunas, sewing rooms, Arizona rooms, cars, trunks and broom closets.

I know these step by step, what to do, what not to do lists are important so I am going to do it. I had lunch with a friend yesterday who admonished me for the lack of organizing 101 information on my site so I will make it happen. I’ve been thinking about it, however, and I know why I didn’t immediately post these 10 ways to x,y, z list.

It is because after 10 years as a professional organizer what I’ve learned is that while these “how” steps are important – what is essential to lasting organizational success are the “why” steps. That brings me to today’s list.

This list is about what to think about before you start organizing if you want lasting success. I would say it is a bit about organizing your mind. So here it is…

The top 10, most important steps for organizational success are the 10 before step 101.

100. Decide to make lasting change. If you don’t really want to then don’t bother. It isn’t that important. See Seth Godin’s book The Dip.

99.  Ask for help from experts. Do you try to fix the plumbing if it fails or do you call the plumber?

98. Be willing to do things in a different way. Maybe a few times to find what works. Experiment.

97. Be willing to invest time and effort in new way of doing things.

96. Be willing to make small changes over time – go easy.

95. Be willing to let go of what is not working, literally and figuratively.

94. Be open to a new way of scheduling time as well as structuring space.

93. Keep it simple with whatever new systems you look to implement. (i.e. Color coding is usually a bad sign)

92. Realize this is not a brand new plan to get organized for now, but rather a habit you are developing that you will be working on and revising and improving on and changing for the rest of your life.

91. Have fun. (Really.  Find a way.  Play music, listen to a podcast, splatter paint, burn the piles of paper in a bonfire, sing, dance around the desk, jump on the bed…find your way -  but do it.)

Sometimes I think organizing is all about getting rid of the noise.  Visual noise distract and pull our focus just like auditory noise. Noise is just another form of clutter really…Looking around your office, what looks noisy? What doesn’t belong? What is pulling focus? If you don’t love it, it isn’t making you money and isn’t useful it can probably go. Keep clearing a little at a time until you hit the right note.

826 LA needs tutors for the summer! There are great projects coming up…like this one I posted about recently….

Tonight someone told me Grease was filmed at John Marshall HS.  This is so funny to me – not only because Grease was my favorite movie of all time for the first 12 years of my life but also because I just finished a project volunteering there with the 11th and 12th graders through the organization 826LA.  There was no singing and dancing (thank goodness) but there were words. Lots of them. Enough for 826LA to publish a  book in fact.

Tonight some of  kids read their stories from the book at a reception at Skylight Bookstore in Los Filez. I can’t tell you how inspiring it was to hear those kids bravely telling their stories. So proud to see their words in print. Their hard work paying off. The staff at 826LA is extraordinary – working around the clock to make literary projects like this happen. Word.

I got my hair cut today. Not such a blogworthy story. What is blogworthy about this particular hair cut is that my amazing stylist, artist, beautifier extraordinaire came to my home. After moving to a Beverly Hills salon she has made herself available to me in Venice, at my home, so it is more convenient and cost-effective for me – repaying me in spades for my continued loyalty. (Ok -  I strayed once. But never again!)  She has set herself apart from the rest in myriad ways.  This was the icing on the cake.

It got me to thinking…as I’m always thinking… about what sets me apart from other organizers. For another example, my hair stylist only cuts hair. She doesn’t color. Even though she could make more money these days if she did color. But in the long run it would not pay off to diversify this way. She is an artist and she is creating a niche. I think this long-term thinking is so smart even though it is hard to stick to at times.

What has always set me apart is that long term thinking. I am not looking for a quick fix for you. I want to inspire change that sticks. Change that works into your overall lifestyle in a way that is sustainable (for you and the environment). Long term. Therefore, my methods are not for everyone. Many call wanting an overnight solution – like the shows on TV where in 24 hours Tinkerbell (and her team of giants) has sprinkled her magic organizing dust on the cluttered home and POOF! Order is restored. I know that is satisfying to watch in some ways. But it is also demeaning in another way because no one learns anything … not the people who live there or the people watching. Come back to that home in a week.

Some people want a quick fix. They want the “problem” to go away. But that “problem” is called your life and it doesn’t go away. It is begging to be dealt with. I want to help people who are committed to doing things a little differently over time. Those little changes add up big time. I’ve seen it. You can’t trust something that happens overnight. That guy/gal you just met that is completely in love with you. The make it rich quick scheme. The drink this shake for a week and lose 20 pounds diet. All sounds great. Try it one and all and come back and let me know how it goes. If you think about your actual experience – successful, lasting change happens when you put in the effort, slowly over time. Might not be too sexy but the results are real.

Sometimes I’m working with a client and I’ll propose a new way of doing something that just doesn’t sound great to them. Like, throwing papers in the recycling bin instead of stacking them up for months.  I’ll say, “Well…maybe you can try it as an experiment, since what you’ve been doing so far hasn’t been working.” Sometimes this tack works and sometimes not.

But I like the idea of an experiment. I use it on myself all the time…I don’t have to do “x” this way forever. I just have to try it and see if it works. Getting up at 6:30am to exercise. Cutting eggs out of my diet. Cutting sugar out of my diet. Opening the mail as soon as it arrives. Being nicer to so and so. Ha!

Becoming a little scientist in your own life allows for a little distance, a little breathing room. You can go from, “I’ll never, ever do that” to “Ok…maybe I’ll try it.”

Who knows…maybe you’ll discover the cure for cancer. Or at least the cure to your clutter.

I had a new client today and I think I might have learned more from him than he did from me. My lesson: We don’t have to wait for a break-down or a break-up to have a break-through and want to make improvements in our life.

This guy’s story is he that he needed a professional organizer more for a tune up than an engine overhaul. He had some systems set up already and wanted my opinion of them. We did some tweaking to see if we could turn productivity up a notch: Weekly planning session, daily priority list,  intern for calls and email overflow.

When all was said and done I gave him a clean bill of organizational health (should I start handing out badges?) and went on my merry (Poppins) way.

I really loved my lesson…it’s one we use in some areas (trainer to get to the next level even when we are already in great shape) but not in others (the garage is in a shambles).

So nice to be reminded since I most often get someone at the end of their proverbial rope but it doesn’t always have to be back against the wall, wall on fire. Thank you, dear client. I’m learning.

The riot in Downtown LA was organized quickly. So quickly my friend and I were innocently driving right through it on our way home from an event tonight. It felt to me like those involved were organized, unified around being after or against something or someone – what and/or who? I couldn’t tell where I stood in it and just wanted out. Out was not that easy but eventually happened. Lots of police, more than I’ve ever seen, lots of noise, and I don’t know the purpose.

When organizing a riot of that scale, I think it is best to have a purpose, make a point. What’s your riot?

Venice is getting packed these days. So packed, that I had to drive around for quite a while, on a Wednesday (not even a weekend!) to find parking. I know – cry me a river! The point is that I couldn’t find my car tonight! Wandering the streets with my (very patient) friend I was taken by the fact of how beautiful the neighborhood is, how sublime the weather, how  subtle the flowering scents. Forgetting where my car was – well, it was quite a gift. And I actually received it.

Sometimes being disorganized is a gift. Ok …well…at least the process of getting organized can be a gift. If we can be present for it. Going through the old pictures – hey, you had crazy hair back then didn’t you?! Or, finding that thing you thought you’d lost – the heirloom, the love notes…

Sometimes…getting lost is its own reward.

How do you organize a team? Or stay organized yourself within a team? Everyone has such different styles and modes of communication. Keeping on track and productive can be an organizational tangle. There are a lot of tools today that are supposed to help…email, file-sharing, prayer circles…but do they actually work or add to workload by virtue of the amount of information to keep track of?

I think it depends on the leadership. When the leadership is clear on goals and shares information with the team,  everyone understands the key pieces of the puzzle/initiative at hand. Then people can act with authority within their own sphere…using the tools at their disposal creatively and productively.  Inspired, directed leaders =  focused, organized team.