It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.
~Walt Disney
If you are in the Jacksonville/St. Johns area and would like your home better organized, and would like the assistance of a professional organizer, e-mail juliebavi@gmail.com You can also find me on Facebook by clicking HERE or by searching for Organize With Julie. Stalk me on twitter @juliebavi.
Happy Fall Y’all!
Autumn is welcoming us to a new season today!
What better time to make a quick list about our favorite Fall things?
Cooler Weather
Colored Leaves
Apples
Apple Pie
Pumpkins
Fun Costumes
Neighbors
Warm drinks
Pumpkin Bread
Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin Muffins….
What’s your favorite thing about Autumn?
If you are in the Jacksonville/St. Johns area and would like your home better organized, and would like the assistance of a professional organizer, e-mail juliebavi@gmail.com You can also find me on Facebook by clicking HERE or by searching for Organize With Julie. Stalk me on twitter @juliebavi.
Sometimes the questions are complicated
and the answers are simple.
~Dr. Seuss
If you are in the Jacksonville/St. Johns area and would like your home better organized, and would like the assistance of a professional organizer, e-mail juliebavi@gmail.com You can also find me on Facebook by clicking HERE or by searching for Organize With Julie. Stalk me on twitter @juliebavi.
It is still Summer here; Fall has not yet “officially” begun. But friends, it is a mere 99 days until Christmas.
While we here at OWJ do not start Simplifying the Season with you for a few more weeks, we thought it was worth the mention. The clock is ticking.
Don’t forget to check out the countdown with List Mama, Jennifer Tankersly of List Plan It. http://listplanit.com/ There will be plenty of things to learn in her daily emails as well.
Meanwhile we will dust off our Simplify the Season Crate of OWJ wisdom and giveaways. Stay tuned here for ways to ease into your holiday planning with us for Simplify the Season 2011!
If you are in the Jacksonville/St. Johns area and would like your home better organized, and would like the assistance of a professional organizer, e-mail juliebavi@gmail.com You can also find me on Facebook by clicking HERE or by searching for Organize With Julie. Stalk me on twitter @juliebavi.
A teacher affects eternity;
he can never tell where his influence stops.
~Henry Brooks Adams
If you are in the Jacksonville/St. Johns area and would like your home better organized, and would like the assistance of a professional organizer, e-mail juliebavi@gmail.com You can also find me on Facebook by clicking HERE or by searching for Organize With Julie. Stalk me on twitter @juliebavi.
I talk to many people about what their number one organizing issue is. The answer always boils down to the same thing: PAPER. I’ve written about paper management before. I even give talks on it! At these talks, I often meet parents who are overwhelmed with the amount of paper creations their children make. Children love to create. And as parents, it is sometimes hard to know what to treasure and what to trash. Pay attention to the following, and you just may learn how to whittle down that enormous tower of art hovering in the corner.
For most of us, it is the beginning of a new school year. The children have all gone back to school and we are starting to get a handle on having a new schedule and some different routines than our Summer months allowed. What a perfect time to set up a system for acquiring your child’s artwork.
Display.
We are all so proud of our children for the hard work that they do. Set up a display place for their art and good works to rotate. It can be a special bulletin board, the refrigerator door, or a rotating frame gallery. I especially like an art wall a friend has made by stringing some heavy wire between two wall hooks and using clothespins to attach art and create a gallery wall. 
Leave things on display as time and space allow. When new creations come in, the older art can move to the next phase…
Gather.
Whether it is a fancy basket, a cardboard bankers filing box, or a plastic tub – designate a location for art and special papers to collect. We will call this the “Art Basket”. Just having everything in one spot makes the next step so much easier!
Sort Together.
Pick a time each month to sit down with your child and sort through the Art Basket. Keep 4 items total for each month. Let you child choose favorites and have him tell you WHY it is a favorite or WHAT makes it special. If you choose 4 pieces of art for each month, that is approximately one per week. Think of your child’s entire elementary school career. You will be saving roughly 36 pieces of art each year, multiplied by 6 years for a total of 196. That’s nearly 200 projects to look back on with warm fuzzy memories! (Add to that special holiday memorabilia, summer camp, and at-home creations and the number reaches even higher!)
Go digital.
Because it may be hard to let some things go, particularly if you think that SOME DAY my child is going to miss this precious piece of paper and the accomplishment that it portrays – then by all means, take a picture. It may even be fun to take a picture of your child WITH his art so that you can see how small he was when he made that gorgeously weird squiggly thing-bob. Keep the printed pictures stored with the other artwork so that everything remains together as a fond memory unit. Not much of a photog? You don’t have to be! Many art pieces can even be scanned. Store all the art in one digital file so that you and your child can watch their artistic progression as a slide-show!
Letting go.
Yes, friends this is the "TRASH” step. If your child (or you) have a difficult time throwing out all of the artistic genius that lies before you, mail it to relatives for them to enjoy. If there are grandparents living far away, it may be a good way for them to stay in touch with your child and it will also give your child something to share with their grandparents. 
Store.
Now that I have all of this artwork sorted, what do I do with it? Notebook, portfolio, memory box. Choose one way to store it and SET A LIMIT. Need more ideas on specific storage? Drop me a line!
Keep it up!
This does require time and maintenance, just like anything else in life. Your child will probably look forward to spending time with you, looking through their monthly accruement of papers and sharing memories about the special creations. As you sort with your children, you are teaching them several important life skills! You will not only enjoy spending time sorting through art with your children, but also the fun of creating an art gallery to showcase their work. Doesn’t that sound better than a pile of papers that needs to be shuffled around the dining room table? Bonus!
If you are in the Jacksonville/St. Johns area and would like your home better organized, and would like the assistance of a professional organizer, e-mail juliebavi@gmail.com You can also find me on Facebook by clicking HERE or by searching for Organize With Julie. Stalk me on twitter @juliebavi.
I heard that quote recently from Peter Walsh during his OWN show “It’s all too much” and I’ve been pondering it ever since. It’s simple really. I’ll make a decision about that LATER. I’ll throw that out LATER. I’ll go through that box LATER. I’ll pile the donations here for now so that I can donate them LATER. So then what happens? All of those piles for “later” tend to sit around and take over. They begin to take on lives of their own and make friends in the process of waiting. Those “later” items begin to take over and now they have morphed into CLUTTER.
Problem #1: When is “later”?
Later needs to be better defined. I may fold the laundry and leave it in my laundry room until all of the laundry for the day is done so that it can all be put away together “later” – at the end of the day when the laundry is done. I do not care to run laundry around my house 9 times in one day just so that it can all put put away at the end of the cycle.
I may place the recyclables in the garage so that the next time I go outside “later” I will take them with me to the blue bin – the next time I go outside. Especially in the heat, I try to go outdoors as few times as possible. Those empty plastic bottles can definitely wait half a day to complete their journey.
What’s the solution? Set a deadline for “later”. Heck, write a date on the donation bag and plan time in your daily log to take it to the donation site. If you can’t take it by that date, then promise to call a charity to pick it up on that date.
Problem #2: Is keeping something for “later” always a bad thing?
I may toss a magazine in a basket to read “later” when I have some free time – but what if that free time never arrives? Good question. In the case of the magazine in the basket: The basket is only so large. While a certain amount of magazines will fit into the basket, eventually it fills up. Do I get a second basket to hold even more magazines? Do I find a larger container? NO!!! My magazine space has been filled. I have some options. I can go through the basket and get rid of those magazines that do not interest me, are out of date, are no longer relevant… OR I can just refuse to let any more magazines enter my home. Either way, there is a finite amount of space allotted for magazine storage. When that amount of space is full, a decision has to be made. Does it make sense to set aside pleasure reading for “later”? SURE. What sense would it make to drop everything in order to read each magazine the moment it came in from the mailbox? That would really get my Time Management Panties in a wad!
Is Later really Clutter’s best-friend? In many many instances, I would have to say YES! If Later has a short-term deadline, I believe that is acceptable. If Later has a SMALL, reasonable limit, I believe that is acceptable. It is when Later never comes that Clutter is able to breed and grow.
What do you think about LATER? Do you have any related points to ponder?
If you are in the Jacksonville/St. Johns area and would like your home better organized, and would like the assistance of a professional organizer, e-mail juliebavi@gmail.com You can also find me on Facebook by clicking HERE or by searching for Organize With Julie. Stalk me on twitter @juliebavi.
Education is the movement from darkness to light.
~Allan Bloom
If you are in the Jacksonville/St. Johns area and would like your home better organized, and would like the assistance of a professional organizer, e-mail juliebavi@gmail.com You can also find me on Facebook by clicking HERE or by searching for Organize With Julie. Stalk me on twitter @juliebavi.
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