I have decided to take an indefinite leave of absence from this blog. It has been so much fun to write about my organizing ideas and organizing trends over the past three and a half years, and I hope people will continue to use the archives as a resource until I'm ready to return to blogging.
Thank you for your loyal readership, and happy organizing!
Showing posts with label helping you organize. Show all posts
Showing posts with label helping you organize. Show all posts
Monday, September 10, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
3 year blogaversary
Three years ago today I posted my first blog to Helping You Organize. It was about Vicky and Jen's podcast What Really Matters and their Monica Ricci-hosted Big O organizing series in particular. That series is still running, and still as fabulous as ever. There is no end to organizing topics that they can cover.
I'm really happy to have maintained this blog for three continuous years. It's been a wonderful outlet for me to share my ideas and to create conversations with my readers and colleagues.
Since I like numbers, here are some stats about my blog:
Total posts: 341 (including this one)
Average number of posts per month: about 9 1/2
Current monthly page views according to Google Analytics: about 700
Current monthly page views according to Blogger: about 2,500 (Not sure what that's about since they are owned by the same company)
Visits my first day: 7
I'm hoping to keep maintaining the blog as I get used to being a mom, but frequency of posts might go down! Let's see what the next year holds.
I'm really happy to have maintained this blog for three continuous years. It's been a wonderful outlet for me to share my ideas and to create conversations with my readers and colleagues.
Since I like numbers, here are some stats about my blog:
Total posts: 341 (including this one)
Average number of posts per month: about 9 1/2
Current monthly page views according to Google Analytics: about 700
Current monthly page views according to Blogger: about 2,500 (Not sure what that's about since they are owned by the same company)
Visits my first day: 7
I'm hoping to keep maintaining the blog as I get used to being a mom, but frequency of posts might go down! Let's see what the next year holds.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Multiplying and moving
I have two friends who are both due to give birth in about a month. Both of them are also moving this month. One is moving about 50 miles, while the other is moving about 1,500 miles. I sincerely wish both of them luck with this unique and challenging endeavor.
While I can't (or, rather, don't want to) imagine the logistics of such a move: packing, labeling, moving, unpacking, plus the added bonus of figuring out a new city, figuring out new doctors and a new plan for where you're actually giving birth, I have thought of a few tips that might make the whole process a tad more organized. These two friends are inherently organized people, so they likely don't need these tips, but I felt it was the least I could do. Roslyn and Megan, this post is for you:
Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by awnisALAN
While I can't (or, rather, don't want to) imagine the logistics of such a move: packing, labeling, moving, unpacking, plus the added bonus of figuring out a new city, figuring out new doctors and a new plan for where you're actually giving birth, I have thought of a few tips that might make the whole process a tad more organized. These two friends are inherently organized people, so they likely don't need these tips, but I felt it was the least I could do. Roslyn and Megan, this post is for you:
- Ask for help. Being pregnant is a perfect time to recognize your limits and engage your family, friends and village to help make this life transition easier.
- Make lots of lists. Lists have a calming effect and help you capture ideas and to-dos that might be in your head one minute and out the next.
- Try to take it one step at a time. If possible, do a chunk of packing every day and a chunk of planning and preparation every day.
- Install some support people at the receiving end. Line up family or friends to meet you at the new location to help you settle in. You'll be exhausted by the time you get there and facing a houseful of boxes might be overwhelming.
- Get a lot of rest, if possible. Things will seem more manageable if you're rested.
Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by awnisALAN
Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
1000 Twitter followers and a special offer
I’ve reached 1000 Twitter followers and I feel like celebrating!
For a limited time, any new client who books a 4-hour session will get a 25% credit toward a future session! The subsequent session must occur before 12/31/11.
Sessions are immediately available. Call 818-269-6671. Visit www.lelahwithanh.com/packages/ for more information.
What would you like to accomplish this month?
I have never done a promotional event like this one before. Take advantage of it while you can!
For a limited time, any new client who books a 4-hour session will get a 25% credit toward a future session! The subsequent session must occur before 12/31/11.
Sessions are immediately available. Call 818-269-6671. Visit www.lelahwithanh.com/packages/ for more information.
What would you like to accomplish this month?
- Get the stacks of paper off your desk
- Finally figure out how to use your smartphone to help you save time and paper
- Get help figuring out the boxes of bills, receipts and mail that have been accumulating over time
- Make your kitchen functional again
- Be able to park your car in your garage
- Unstuff your linen closet
- Get your guest room guest-ready
I have never done a promotional event like this one before. Take advantage of it while you can!
Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.
Monday, August 22, 2011
It's okay to ask for help
Sometimes I hear from my clients things like, "I really should have been able to do this organizing project on my own," or, "I don't know why, but it's so much easier to do what I need to do with someone else here." The first statement is said apologetically, the second is said with surprise.
The truth is, that even people with good organizational skills or tendencies need guidance and help from time to time. And it's always easier to go through one's stuff when you have someone impartial there as a supportive presence.
Professional organizers often act as "body doubles," standing by while our clients sort and make decisions about things. We often say nothing, just stay and encourage with our presence. It sounds simple, but it makes a world of difference to our clients, and it isn't that easy. Energy flows between organizer and client, and the more decisions that are made about the stuff, the more energy gets used and renewed.
There's no shame in asking for help and in many ways it's a more efficient use of time, money and energy to hire someone to help you get a project finished than try to struggle through on your own and never complete the task.
The truth is, that even people with good organizational skills or tendencies need guidance and help from time to time. And it's always easier to go through one's stuff when you have someone impartial there as a supportive presence.
Professional organizers often act as "body doubles," standing by while our clients sort and make decisions about things. We often say nothing, just stay and encourage with our presence. It sounds simple, but it makes a world of difference to our clients, and it isn't that easy. Energy flows between organizer and client, and the more decisions that are made about the stuff, the more energy gets used and renewed.
There's no shame in asking for help and in many ways it's a more efficient use of time, money and energy to hire someone to help you get a project finished than try to struggle through on your own and never complete the task.
Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Poll # 1: Disposing of clutter
I'm starting a new feature on my blog today - the biweekly poll. Every couple of weeks there will a new topic in the sidebar at the right. I would love it if everyone who visited this blog participated! If you have poll topics that you'd like me to pose to the readers of Helping You Organize, just share in the comments. I'm looking forward to hearing the responses of my fabulous readers. Many thanks!
Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
A year ago: Happiness, freedom and empty space
Last year on Helping You Organize, I reviewed the book The Happiness Project
by Gretchen Rubin. The Happiness Project Blog is still one of my favorites and I've thought repeatedly about many of Rubin's tenants of happiness in the year since reading the book. The book is now out in paperback.
One of my all-time favorite posts was from May of last year about how the best things in life aren't free. I'm talking about stuff you get for free from friends, relatives, businesses and the like. Most often these free items come with the steep price of figuring out where to put them, how to take care of them and how to dispose of them and you are better off not accepting the thing in the first place!
Another great post (if I do say so myself) was on the virtues of an empty box or shelf. Just because there is an empty space in your space doesn't mean you have to fill it up with stuff!
Creative Commons free junk photo posted to Flickr by cogdogblog
Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.
by Gretchen Rubin. The Happiness Project Blog is still one of my favorites and I've thought repeatedly about many of Rubin's tenants of happiness in the year since reading the book. The book is now out in paperback.
One of my all-time favorite posts was from May of last year about how the best things in life aren't free. I'm talking about stuff you get for free from friends, relatives, businesses and the like. Most often these free items come with the steep price of figuring out where to put them, how to take care of them and how to dispose of them and you are better off not accepting the thing in the first place!
Another great post (if I do say so myself) was on the virtues of an empty box or shelf. Just because there is an empty space in your space doesn't mean you have to fill it up with stuff!
Creative Commons free junk photo posted to Flickr by cogdogblog
Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Busy is a four letter word
Being busy is a constant. The word means little due to overuse. We use busy to connote a full life, one that we can explain to other people with a shorthand term that everyone can understand. In today's world, over-saturated as it is with information, experiences, options, busy is practically not optional. And for many of us, busy is a good thing. Busy means jobs, school, family, life. It means we have something to show for ourselves. We might say to a friend, "Oh, I'm so busy," with a hint of regret, as if we wish things were different, but what we're really saying is that our lives are full and therefore not failures.
What would it mean to be not busy? Would we be not productive? Would we be failing at life? A part of me thinks that if you said you haven't actually been that busy lately, other people might judge you, as though you aren't making the most of your time or you aren't working hard enough. But that isn't true. Being busy doesn't automatically mean being successful, happy or fulfilled. And having free time doesn't mean you're lazy, apathetic or lack goals.
Though I too use the word busy as a shorthand to communicate to others that my life is full, I don't shy away from free time. I think free time is imperative to living a complete life, and I should probably be more vocal about its validity in my schedule. What are all our time-saving productivity tools about anyway, if not to create a chunk of real time that can be spent in idleness, or at least reading a trashy romance novel, instead of returning emails, getting the car washed or looking for your favorite lipstick.
I'm not going to strive to be busy. I'd rather strive to be complete.
Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.
What would it mean to be not busy? Would we be not productive? Would we be failing at life? A part of me thinks that if you said you haven't actually been that busy lately, other people might judge you, as though you aren't making the most of your time or you aren't working hard enough. But that isn't true. Being busy doesn't automatically mean being successful, happy or fulfilled. And having free time doesn't mean you're lazy, apathetic or lack goals.
Though I too use the word busy as a shorthand to communicate to others that my life is full, I don't shy away from free time. I think free time is imperative to living a complete life, and I should probably be more vocal about its validity in my schedule. What are all our time-saving productivity tools about anyway, if not to create a chunk of real time that can be spent in idleness, or at least reading a trashy romance novel, instead of returning emails, getting the car washed or looking for your favorite lipstick.
I'm not going to strive to be busy. I'd rather strive to be complete.
Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Still helping you organize!
Tomorrow marks the second anniversary of this blog. The second year absolutely flew by, and I'm really happy with the quantity and quality of the posts this past year. Here are some of this blog's stats:
Creative Commons nail tips photo posted to Flickr by lisa bentley
Creative Commons cake decorating tips photo posted to Flickr by Anne Hornyak
Creative Commons felt tip photo posted to Flickr by www.planetofsuccess.com/blog/
Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.
- This is the 229th post.
- The most-used label is "tips," used to describe 31 posts.
- The highest post-count ever for a single month was in July 2010, with 16.
- Facebook is my number one referral source of traffic, followed by Blogger.
- My single best day of traffic was due to my post Clutter-free gifts: Services being picked up on Stumbleupon.
- My personal favorite post from the past year might be January's Keeping stuff alive in 2011. Even though I wasn't able to keep all the plants alive that I mentioned in the post, looking at the pictures still inspires me.
Looking ahead to year three of this blog, I hope to keep up the frequency and encourage more commenting. Do you have any particular topics you'd like me to write about in the year ahead?
 |
| More tips. |
Creative Commons cake decorating tips photo posted to Flickr by Anne Hornyak
Creative Commons felt tip photo posted to Flickr by www.planetofsuccess.com/blog/
Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Announcing video organizing and a special offer!
I'm excited to introduce a brand-new extension of my professional organizing services, remote organizing consulting. For those clients who are out of my area or wish to work more independently, I can now offer a consultation via Internet video calling.
To kick off this service, I am offering a unique opportunity for my blog readers to get professional organization consulting absolutely free. I will provide a free 30 minute video consultation on any topic of your choice to anyone who requests one from now through October 31, 2010. Having trouble with time management? We can talk about it face to face. Want to show me your overflowing hall closet? Make sure your computer can capture it and I’ll give you expert advice about what to do to make it functional again. Since this is a new service, you get my knowledge, and I get to test how well my organizing methods and techniques work in this new setting.
If you try the free consultation and like the way it works, we can schedule follow-up sessions at a discounted rate!
Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com
Monday, August 2, 2010
A "helping you organize" story
Last Monday I posted about counting how many you have of something to put in perspective your things and maybe feel inspired to let go of duplicates.
A few days after that I received an email from a reader of helping you organize who had taken the suggestion to heart and shared with me a 37 bullet point list of everything she'd de-cluttered from her kitchen. Here's a selection of items (I'm sharing with her permission.):
This list warms my heart, first because it's a neatly documented list full of precise numbers, second because it shows that a simple idea (count how many you have of something) can make a big difference. This reader was happy to shed her duplicates to make room for new, greater things to come into her life.
You can do it, too.
Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by 0streussel
Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com
A few days after that I received an email from a reader of helping you organize who had taken the suggestion to heart and shared with me a 37 bullet point list of everything she'd de-cluttered from her kitchen. Here's a selection of items (I'm sharing with her permission.):
- a small rubber spatula (turns out we had 8 spatulas)
- a metal bread loaf pan (we have three more loaf pans)
- a can opener (we had 2)
- 3 sets of chopsticks (we have a matching set of 4)
- a pot holder - we have two, which i think suffices
- three cookie sheets (we had 5)
- laminated placemat with the presidents of the united states on it
This list warms my heart, first because it's a neatly documented list full of precise numbers, second because it shows that a simple idea (count how many you have of something) can make a big difference. This reader was happy to shed her duplicates to make room for new, greater things to come into her life.
You can do it, too.
Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by 0streussel
Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com
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