The late part of the summer is an intriguing time of year. Some of us, like me, are savoring the last days of the season. I’m looking forward to one final vacation before the cooler fall days arrive. For some, you have purchased your supplies, launched the kids off to college, and started your school year. In the northeast, we have about three weeks left before the kids go back. There are numerous ways you can help your kids switch from vacation to school mode. This can be done even if you’ve already begun the year. The tips I’m sharing will help make your transition and year go more smoothly and be more organized. 

The terrific design team at Stroller Envy was kind enough to create this fun infographic featuring my best organizing tips for back to school.

For a more in-depth look at the tips, check out my post, Organizing Help for Back to School. The seven tips coordinate with the infographic and include:

1. Cycle

2. Capture

3. Land

4. Center

5. Assess

6. Resources

7. Perspective

Have your kids returned or are about to go back to school? What is your go-to back to school organizing tip? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

Mindfulness meditation is one of my daily practices. Some of the benefits I’ve noticed is that exercise helps me to be more fully present with my attention, gratitude, and experiences. Mindfulness practice emphasizes the present, encourages us to let go of the past, and not stress about the future. These are useful pursuits. However, when it comes to helping my clients with their organizing challenges, there are other considerations. While we are working in the present, we might be grappling with the past or preparing for the future.  It’s useful to be aware of how a particular focus, as in the past, present, or future, will influence the ways your organizer helps you.

The Past

When we hold on to the past, it becomes especially difficult to let go. That can influence the volume of physical belongings that we’re hanging on to or old ideas that no longer serve us. When we’re living in the past, our minds and spaces have little room for the present. An organizer can help you face the “stuff” of the past to decide what is valuable and relevant today.

A client recently told me how she held onto things from the past because she felt that it was a happier time than the present. While organizing together, she identified that was no longer true for her. The now was, in fact, really good. With that ah-ha moment, she was able to release many physical belongings she had been reluctant to let go of before. This perspective shift and action that resulted helped her feel less burdened and more open to new possibilities.

The Present

When we are present-focused, we can more easily determine what is relevant and useful now.  Stuff enters our homes through free promotional items, gifts received, or shopping trips made. We often spend more time collecting than intentionally choosing what we actually want. Yet when we’re clear about what is meaningful and useful, it enhances the editing and organizing process.  It’s not uncommon to become overwhelmed by the number of shirts, toiletries, or desk supplies you own. Your organizer can help you set parameters, make decisions, and create organizing systems that honor your present-focus.

The Future

There are times when organizing work has a future-focus. While we are working in the present, we could be preparing for the future such as a move, job change, or arrival of a new baby. Using a future focus will influence your decisions. When you are amid life transitions like these, not all of your current belongings will be helpful. They might not be useful, relevant, or functional. They could have served their purpose and are strong candidates for releasing. Using a mindful, future-lens, your organizer can help pose questions to facilitate beneficial decision-making.

Whether your organizing work is past, present, or future-focused, with the help of your organizer, you can approach the process more mindfully. It’s useful to understand how your organizing goals connect with these periods, as they will influence the choices you make. 

Have you enlisted help from a professional organizer? How has the past, present, or future focus influenced your work together? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

When it comes to habits, we have some keepers, our good practices, and those less desirable or bad ones we’d like to see gone. Maintaining good ones and altering bad ones can be challenging. However, with some help and understanding about the science of habit formation and habit loops, it’s possible to make the changes you want.  When I think about my positive habits, they include meditating daily, walking in nature, and staying organized. Some of my less desirable habits are not getting enough exercise, eating too many sweets, and not planning meals. Can you relate to any of these?

There are two authors I’ve featured on the blog who wrote insightful and inspiring books about habit change. To learn more, click on the links below:

• The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

• Atomic Habits by James Clear

If you need help letting go of your bad habits, begin here. The folks at Quill just released an easy-to-understand infographic How to Reframe Bad Habits to Boost Your Productivity (see below) based on Charles Duhigg’s book The Power of Habit. The graphic concisely explains habit formation, habit change, and the three habit loop components- cue, routine, and reward. It also highlights the most common habits that can negatively affect your productivity and what to do about them. 

How to Reframe Bad Habits to Boost Your Productivity | Quill.com

As Charles Duhigg says,

“Transforming a habit isn’t necessarily easy or quick. It isn’t always simple. But it is possible. And now we understand how.”

Have you had success or challenges with habit change? Have you ever enlisted help to change a habit? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

As a professional that’s been helping people get organized for over 25 years, I’ve learned a few things about working with clients. My goal has always been to provide the best, most personalized service possible so that my clients receive the quality organizing help they deserve. While there are several factors that go into delivering this type of service, the overarching theme is communication.

As an organizing professional that specializes in working with many chronically disorganized clients that are challenged by the organizing piece in their lives, my client/organizer relationships tend to extend over a long period of time. Being able to maintain an open dialogue is essential.

5 Tips for Ensuring the Best Organizing Help

1. Use Two-Way Street

The best relationships are truly based on a two-way street. While I believe in the “client is always right” maxim, there still needs to be open, honest dialogue. It’s important to be able to discuss expectations and boundaries of both the client and organizer. The client/organizer relationship is collaborative in nature, so being clear about needs and expectations will result in better service and organizing help.

2. Accommodate Environmental Preferences

Many of my clients are sensitive to their environments. Sound, light, scent, movement, and temperature can enhance or detract from a productive organizing session.  I’m always watching out for these types of issues, but it’s wonderful when a client lets me know about their preferences. This way I can be more aware of their needs so that they will have a positive organizing experience. Some of the preferences and requests I’ve encountered have included:

• Wearing solid, dark colored clothes instead of patterns and bright colors to accommodate visual processing sensitivity

• Being quiet, not talkative, while working to accommodate attention and focus challenges

• Playing upbeat music to create a happier mood while organizing

• Not wearing scented products due to aroma sensitivities

• Being less active with my body language (as in don't move hands wildly while talking) due to visual processing sensitivity

• Talking more slowly and loudly due to auditory impairment

• Adjusting the room temperatures frequently (windows opened or closed, air conditioner on or off, heat up or down) to accommodate body temperature fluctuations

3. Clarify Goals

The more the client invests in communicating and clarifying their organizing goals, the better help they’ll receive. Flexibility is an essential aspect to any project, especially when the projects are multi-faceted. Yet even so, giving some pre-thought to each organizing visit helps to get things moving in a good direction. There are times when my clients get overwhelmed and aren’t sure what they want to focus on. It’s useful to take some time at the beginning of the organizing visit to discuss possibilities and to figure out some options together. The clearer clients are about what they want, the better organizing help they’ll receive.

4. Practice Self-Care

I love organizing and particularly helping others to organize. However, not all of my clients approach organizing with the same love and zest. They have the desire for the results, but they don’t necessarily enjoy doing the work to get there. So even though I work to keep the atmosphere fun and upbeat, all of the decision-making can be fatiguing for my clients. To get the most out of their sessions, it’s beneficial when they practice pre-session self-care. This includes showing up well-rested, minimizing distractions(as in kids, email, phones, and pets,) or being properly fed and hydrated. Then during the sessions, knowing when a water, bathroom or snack break is needed is also important. I watch out for the signs, but it’s great when my clients self-advocate. Then I can better support them.

5. Do Check-Ins

One of the keys for getting the best help possible is to do periodic check-ins with your clients. These can be done before, during, after or in between organizing sessions. A simple, “How are you doing?” can yield a lot of important feedback. Some clients will readily express what they’re feeling and experiencing, while others need to be drawn out. It’s useful to do a check-in at the start of a session to set the intentions (goals and timing) for that day. Checking in several times while organizing is important too. Doing a wrap-up, check-in is also helpful. Touching base between sessions can also be valuable. A check-in provides info-gathering moments that make time for sharing feedback and incorporating needed adjustments. 

Do any of these tips resonate with you? Do you have any you’d like to add to the list? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation!