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.

A year ago on Helping you Organize

Now that I've been writing this blog for a year, I'm going to introduce a new type of post, the "a year ago" post. Unclutterer does this, as do some other organizing blogs, and I think it's a nice way to remind readers of the backlog of content that's available here.


So, last year at this time I was posting about:

Vicky and Jen's What Really Matters podcast featuring Monica Ricci - still one of my favorite resources for organizing inspiration.

My search for a label maker, only very recently acquired.

A review of the book Organizing for Your Brain Type by Lanna Nakone.

A rumination on the organizing challenges faced specifically by Angelinos.

And a list of reasons why one might want to hire a professional organizer.

Happy reading!

Creative Commons line drawing from Flickr posted by bradley j
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 

Organizer's blog digest: Earth Day

From time to time I like to highlight great content found on other professional organizers' blogs. Here are some of the best recent posts on Earth Day, which is tomorrow, April 22.

Christie at SOS Organize gives some statistics on why junk mail is so bad for the environment, and advice on how to stop it from cluttering up your home.

Lorie at The Clutter Diet Blog exhorts us to dispose of hazardous waste properly, and to donate and recycle the waste that gets exposed when we clear clutter. She says "Organizing exposes a lot of waste in our own personal environments."We can all learn from that and try to make a conscious effort not to purchase items that are going to create a lot of waste in our own lives and for the Earth as a whole.

The topic of waste ties in to Abbie at Organizing-Life's recap of her packaging series, in which she examined everyday household items for wasteful packaging. Her conclusions and recommendations are well worth a read.

Vicky and Jen of the podcast What Really Matters post about compost. Composting is an easy and rewarding way to cut down on the amount of organic waste heading to landfills. If you live somewhere with access to a garden, you should compost.

If you want a whole avalanche of "green" themed blog posts, just check out this month's Professional Organizer's Blog Carnival, the topic of which is green organizing.

Creative commons Earth Day photo posted to Flickr by Beverly & Pack
Creative commons raw compost photo posted to Flickr by stevendepolo
Creative commons compost dirt photo posted to Flickr by wisemandarine


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 

Clutter-free gifts: Technology

Next in my series of clutter-free gift ideas: technology. This category of gifts was inspired by professional organizer Monica Ricci. Her awesome series, The Big O, on the podcast Vicky and Jen: What Really Matters has a terrific episode all about clutter-free gifts that I highly recommend you check out if you want to do more research on this topic. One of the major categories of gifts she talks about there is technology, and I think it is a great idea for a lot of people.

Many of these gifts take up no space at all, except perhaps hard drive space. They are items that get used every day. They are unique without being too specific, which is good if you aren't sure exactly what kind of games, music or books your tech-savvy friend or relative is interested in or already has.

• Online music subscription or credit, such as iTunes gift cards or Rhapsody subscription
• Software (some nice organizing-related software: Paper Tiger (PC only), Bento (for Macs)) 
• Online subscriptions for services like Flickr Pro or Evernote
• Phone cards or Skype credits
• Netflix subscription
• Gamefly subscription
• ebooks
• ebook readers like the Kindle or Barnes and Noble's new Nook
• External harddrive, great for backing up data
• Gift card to get digital photos printed or books made from them (such as at Snapfish)
• Printer or photo paper
• Printer ink (always appreciated by me!)

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

Organizer’s blog digest

If you are like me, and spend a good amount of time online during the day, either for work or play, you know that there are a lot of really amazing blogs and resources on the web for almost any topic you can think of. A lot of us use feed readers to organize our RSS subscriptions so that we don’t have to visit each individual blog we’re interested in all the time to see new posts. If that last sentence read like Greek to you, or if you haven’t figured out how to use a feed reader, take a moment and set one up, now. I recommend Google Reader, since pretty much everyone already has a Gmail or Google account and it is very easy to use. Here’s a nifty How To on the subject to help you get started: How to Use Google Reader

Anyway, I made a folder to hold all of the organizing blogs I’ve come across, and I catch up on these posts every day. There is always something new to be learned in the world of organizing, as well as new ways to get inspired. Here’s my own version of a mini feed reader, the best in organizing blogs over the last week or so:

Unclutter is a great blog, full of good advice and an amazing network of readers whose comments are often inspiring and insightful. This week they mention the Butler Bag, a nifty line of ultra-organized handbags that I am a big fan of. Check out their post and the Butler Bag website.

Monica Ricci is a favorite of mine, and this week on her blog she asks readers to tune in to her new Vicki and Jen podcast edition of The Big O, which airs this week. Read her post, and then my post about the same awesome podcast series!

Lorie Marrero at the Clutter Diet Blog always has the best advice and a really clear way of explaining things. This week she wrote about what we can learn about organization from bees among other interesting topics.

Recommended: Vicky and Jen - What Really Matters Podcast

I found Vicky and Jen's podcast "What Really Matters" the way people tend to come across new media these days...I clicked on a  link in a tweet posted by Monica Ricci, a professional organizer I started to follow after finding her blog on John Trosko's blog roll, who I found via a Google search for Los Angeles professional organizers. 

Monica Ricci is a regular guest on Vicky and Jen's podcast, as part of their series called The Big O. The O, of course, refers to Organization (why, what were you thinking?), and it is fabulous. I subscribe to a lot of podcasts via iTunes, mostly short ones that I can listen to or watch in two or three spare minutes, such as the song of the day podcast from KCRW, or Current TV's Target Women segment. An hour or more at first seemed like a long time to devote to listening to other people talk, until I actually decided to use my iPod Touch for more than a portable photo album. I loaded up the iPod for the car, to take on my (almost) daily walk, and to listen to while doing the dishes. Lately, I've actually been excited to do the dishes because it means I can listen to Vicky and Jen. 

These ladies are funny, smart and they have great taste in guests. Though I have mostly listened to The Big O, which is chock full of fantastic bits of wisdom on everything from clutter free gifts to basement clear outs, they have a couple of years worth of really interesting topics, mostly pertaining to parenting and how to live better so you can appreciate "what really matters." It's a great goal, and they combine useful/interesting information with sensible opinions and a dose of realism and fun. Give them a listen!

For more information: 

Monica Ricci's blog and Twitter account

Vicky and Jen - What Really Matters website, Twitter account and blog