photo credit: ilamont.com

Today’s daily 15 minute task may save your life or life of someone close to you or at least make filling out papers at the doctors office easier.

Last week my husband went to the hospital for outpatient surgery. A half hour after the procedure was to begin the surgeon came out and told me that the surgery was called off due to a problem. The anesthesiologist couldn’t get a tube into my husband’s throat due to some issues. My husband was sent home without the surgery but feeling fine.

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photo credit: londoncyclist

It’s sad but true but it seems that crimes, especially thefts, are on the rise. I see ads all the time on Craigslist from people trying to recover their bicycles, four-wheelers, boats, quads, snowmobiles or motorcycles that have been stolen. Most of the time the ads don’t have pictures, just descriptions, because people don’t take the time to maintain records of the fun stuff they buy. It’s pretty easy to buy and sell used off-road recreation vehicles because in many areas you don’t have to register these items with any government entity like you do a car so there is really no paper trail.

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The weather is beginning to get cooler in many parts of the country and it is time to rearrange your closet and get out some long sleeves, long pants, sweaters and jackets. This is a great opportunity to evaluate your wardrobe and get rid of all of the clothes and shoes that are just taking up space.

There is no reason to store clothes you don’t wear.

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photo credit: ben matthews :::

Does today’s date seem important but you don’t know why? Did you get a cold shoulder when you came home from work and can’t figure out why? Congratulations, you just missed an important event like a birthday, anniversary or another holiday that requires you to acknowledge the event with a gift or flowers. Here is a free way to never forget an important date again.

Amazon has a free Gift Organizer service that keeps track of important events, gifts given and reminds you beforehand so you have no excuse to miss another anniversary.

Simply go to Amazon’s Gift Organizer and enter the names, birthdays and genders of your friends and family, important dates (don’t forget Valentine’s Day) then sit back and relax knowing that you will receive a reminder email when it gets close to the date. Even better, the email will contain suggestions for items that correspond with the person and the occasion.

The Gift Organizer will even keep track of prior purchases so you don’t accidentally buy the same talking Billy Bass fish for your Uncle Joe’s birthday. Never again forget the 6 week anniversary with your new girlfriend or your god son’s first birthday.

Everyone will think you are so thoughtful when they receive the perfect gift from you, on the correct day!

photo credit: Mike Sun

Have you ever had a project so overwhelming that just thinking about getting started made you cringe? If you have a ton of clutter this may be you. The clutter didn’t get there overnight and now, just the thought of cleaning it up makes you run screaming from the room.

Okay, maybe it isn’t that dramatic but one thing I hear over and over again is “I know I have too much stuff but I don’t know where to begin”. My suggestion is start with the room you spend the most time in or feel the most stressful in. For some people that room may be the family room and for others it may be the bedroom but whatever room makes you the most uncomfortable is the room you should start in. Click to read more →

Every year thousands of people have their homes broken into, are victims of fires, floods or other disasters that requires them to file an insurance claim. You may not remember everything you have in your bedroom until months or years later when you go looking for something and realize it is gone. I recommend everyone create an inventory of the items they have. This includes businesses as well as homes, garages, storage units, etc.

Here is the video of our theater in our home. I talk about what is in there and where it came from if I know. I don’t talk about the cost since there are receipts to show that.

Once you make a video, put it someplace very safe like a safe deposit box. You want to be able to prove you had what you said you had. The video is the first step in getting a home inventory together. You also need to keep receipts for everything you purchase so there is no question about how much the items were worth when you purchased them. If you have antiques or jewelry you may also want to have appraisals done then updated every five to ten years so if something happens to them, you get reimbursed for the current value not the amount you purchased them for.

I used a Flip Video Camera to take this video and as you can see it is adequate for the job. It’s important that you document your stuff so you don’t add more stress to the situation when trying to remember everything that is damaged or missing. If you took just 15 minutes a day, you could document each room in your house, garage or business in no time.

photo credit: schnaars

Do you find yourself dreaming about the day your house is organized? You’re not alone. Everyone can’t have a team of people come in and do it for them (unless you are one of the lucky people who aren’t embarrassed to show the world their mess on TV). Quite frankly, if you let someone else get your house organized there is a high probability that the house won’t stay organized. Getting rid of the clutter is only part of the problem. Once the clutter is gone, you need a process to stay organized. This is why I advise the 15 minutes a day strategy.

You may or may not have kids but chances are that once your home is organized 15 minutes is all it takes to get it tidy daily. Click to read more →

photo credit: moppet65535

The past few months have been a challenge for me to say the least. I’ve spent some time away from this website to focus on some other endeavors and am very happy with the direction my life is taking. I really enjoy organizing and love to help people get their stuff in order and I want you to know how much I appreciate your support and will make a solid effort to keep giving you useful tips.

How is your year going so far? Are you staying caught up on your business and personal paperwork? Have you been filing weekly and keeping up on your bookkeeping? If you haven’t had the time or inclination to do paperwork, what are you waiting for? Click to read more →

photo credit: charlesdyer

Yesterday I was sending some links to websites I have designed to a potential client and found out that one of my website databases was corrupt. It was so bad that the site wouldn’t even load. I started to panic when I realized I didn’t have a recent backup of this site. In fact, this site hasn’t been backed up since last April and I have a ton of new information posted on it that I didn’t want to have to recreate. Click to read more →

photo credit: Elsie esq.

I have one, my Mom has one, my co-workers have one and I bet you have too.  I’m talking about junk drawers.  You know, that one drawer in the kitchen or laundry room that you put everything in that doesn’t have a home or where you put stuff when suddenly company is at the door.

I haven’t opened my junk drawer in months but today I was looking for a little rubber foot that goes on my espresso knock box.  My junk drawer had old broken birthday candles, a lighter, shoe laces, keys to who knows what, and two dozen miscellaneous items that I don’t think I have looked at in the past year and a half.  I did however find some velcro that I needed for a project so that was a good thing and I found the little rubber foot I was looking for. Click to read more →