The state of my closet

As I write this post, my clothes closet is something of shambles. The top shelf, meant for purses and hats, is a jumble of both of those plus a few scarves for some reason.  The main clothes hanging area, usually organized by color and then by article of clothing type, isn't too bad, but more than half of what is hanging there isn't currently in circulation, due to my pregnant state. The bottom, which has a built-in shoe incline, looks the worst, with an errant overnight bag vying for space with a dozen jumbled pair of shoes, again, only two of which I'm actually wearing at the moment. I'm lucky in that I have a dedicated deep cupboard above the closest that is perfect for luggage storage. The overnight bag usually lives up there, but I've been using it semi-frequently and putting it away, which involves getting my step ladder from another room, seems more trouble than it's worth lately.

Why am I sharing my closet woe with you? Well, I think it's always nice to hear someone who is supposed to have organization down to a science admit to imperfection. Professional organizers are people too. But this story also illustrates how easy it is for a well-conceived system to fall apart when you don't spend the time to maintain it.Your clothes won't put themselves away by color and type. If that's how you want them, you have to put them away that way. And in the last few weeks, a meticulous closet hasn't been at the top of my priority list. That's okay. The good news is that even though I haven't been maintaining it, because I do have a system in place, it will take me much less time to return it to its organized state than if I was starting from scratch.

You'll notice I only included the "before" picture. Closet maintenance will rise to the top of the list one of these days, so until then, you'll have to imagine the "after" shot.


**An exterior shot:

Software updates

How often do you download and install software updates on your computer? Most operating systems make it easy as clicking a button to set this process in motion, and they will remind you when critical updates are needed. Some software has to be manually updated. But if you are using a computer, you need to do the software updates. Don't think of it as optional. This is mandatory maintenance.

I find people are resistant to updating for one or more of a few reasons: they think it will take too long, they don't think it's necessary for their programs to run, or they are afraid that updating will do some harm to their program or their computer. In general, software updates are essential for keeping a machine running efficiently, and any time spent downloading and installing updates (which can usually be done in the background while you work on other things) is minuscule compared to the time you may spend if you find yourself losing speed and functionality by using outdated software.

So get in the habit if clicking Yes! when asked if you would like to perform software updates now. Update early, and update often.

Need a professional to help you get updated?

Call Lelah at 818.269.6671

or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

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Your filing system won't work if you keep everything

In my home office, I have three file boxes, one for personal business, one for my professional organizing business and one for my creative writing projects. Yesterday I blasted through the first two, letting go of a bunch of papers I no longer need to hang on to. I hadn't done it in a while, and it took about an hour, but I felt confident when I was done that the items I had left behind were essential to my life right now and will be easy to find when I need them.

I'm not going to go into a big post about the best way to organize papers or set up filing systems, as that is different for almost everyone. I will say, though, that there is no filing system in the world that will work if you keep every piece of paper you come across. No filing system can support all the paper that comes into our lives.

The vast majority of the paper we come across is not essential. Most information we can track down if necessary. Haven't you ever wanted to just pitch all the piles of paper that are on your desk into the trash and be done with it? I don't advocate doing that, unless you are sure there are no checks or birth certificates in the pile, but if you constantly recycle and shred superfluous paper (remember Always Be De-cluttering?), your filing system will be able to function and you will be happier.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by BLW Photography

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 year ago: preventing clutter, organizing blogs and maintenance

This week last year I posted on one of my favorite topics: preventing clutter. Being organized is not going to become a permanent aspect of your life unless you commit to reducing the clutter than comes into your life before it can get there and start draining your energy, time and money.

I also talk about the set up and maintenance of organizational systems via a brilliant metaphor about brushing your teeth.

Finally, I posted my very first "organizer's blog digest" where I mentioned some of my favorite organizing blogs. These are still some of the best written blogs with the best content out there.

Enjoy and come back next week for another trip down memory lane!

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by Martin Kingsley
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 

Organizing myth: Organize once and never do it again

Organizing Myth #002: If you take the time to get your space and your life organized, that's it. You're set. You'll stay organized forever.

Organizing Reality: Doing a massive organizing push to get your home, your office and your life in order is satisfying; you get to see dramatic results pretty quickly and it feels really good. However, it's not like a vaccine you get once to be clutter-proof forever. It's not even like a flu vaccine you get once a year. Getting organized is the imperative first step, but staying organized is like taking allergy meds--they work best if you take them every day. Staying organized is simple--it just requires maintenance. Even if you hire a professional organizer to help you start your life down an organized path, it will be up to you to do the work it takes to keep your space and schedule organized. The good news is that once you have the organizational systems in place that work for you, it's much easier to do the little work it takes to stay organized than it is to let your life slide back into old patterns and have to deal with the clutter all over again.

There is no clutter vaccine.

Quick tips for maintaining an organized life:

• Return things to their homes immediately after you are done using them.
• Open and organize your mail every day.
• Leave the kitchen counters clean and dishes done every night before you go to bed.
• Keep a running to do list in your favorite format and set each day's list the night before.
• Stay in the moment and do things as they come up, if they can be done quickly. Otherwise, add them to your to do list so you don't forget them for later.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by alvi2047

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

Rumination: The teeth brushing view of organizing

One concept I hear a lot as a professional organizer is the idea that anyone is capable of creating an organized routine, since we are all capable of brushing our teeth at about the same time every day, using materials that have a dedicated home that is near the place where we use them.

This makes a lot of sense. What’s so different about keeping your toothbrush and toothpaste near the sink and making the time to perform maintenance on your teeth and keeping your filing cabinet near your desk and making the time to perform the maintenance of filing away your papers every day? Not much, except a mental block. We don’t want rotting teeth, so we do what we have to do prevent that. Just a few minutes a day, and voila, our dental hygienist doesn’t give us a lecture at our next cleaning. We probably don’t want a messy office where we can’t find anything, either, but somehow it’s harder to find the three or four minutes to put the day’s forms, receipts and bills away.

How hard is it to store things next to where we use them? Why put toilet paper in the basement, when you know that is not where you’re going to happen to be when the roll runs out? We know to keep our toothbrush next to the sink, so what’s stopping us from keeping napkins in the dining room, shoe polish near the shoes, and cookbooks in the kitchen?

Also, when was the last time you consciously remember brushing your teeth? For most of us, it is a habit so ingrained we do it mechanically, after all we’ve been doing it since we were kids. While I’m all for being present in the moment, it is also nice to realize that we can make habits and stick to them, even if the task isn’t super exciting, simply by knowing we have to do it every day (at least twice). 

I’d like to take this metaphor one step further. Some people think that if you can’t see the disorganized mess, it doesn’t count, so drawers and cabinets and even entire rooms (if they have closable doors) can fall victim to clutter, as long as the surfaces look clear. If we apply the tooth brushing model to organizing, let’s think about what would happen if we only brushed the teeth that people could see. Our front teeth would be shiny and clean, and our back teeth would be grimy and disgusting. Sure, it might save a few seconds of brushing time (to what end?), but we would be able to feel how gross those teeth felt even if no one else could. So it is with organizing. Maybe your guests can’t see the piles of paper stashed in your credenza or the disaster area of a closet, but you know, and you won’t be able to enjoy the parts of your space that are organized as much as a result. That’s why I think it is important to take a holistic approach to organizing. You can accomplish it in chunks, but if you don’t try to tackle the whole problem, you won’t be able to reap as much of the reward. As Karen Kingston teaches us in Clearing Your Clutter With Feng Shui, there is no good place to have clutter build up, since each area of your home affects the energy of a different part of your life.

So the next time you are brushing your teeth, you can congratulate yourself on creating a functioning, organized system for dental hygiene and realize you can make that happen in other areas of your life.

Toothpaste on toothbrush Creative Commons photo posted to flickr by Shermeee

Black and white toothbrush and mug Creative Commons photo posted to flickr by ne*