At the beginning of a new year there is always a big push for getting organized. Is it the lure of a fresh start? A cleanse from a month of holiday over indulging? Whatever the reason, I say, embrace it! In fact my own New Year organizing marathon is partly to blame for my lack [...]

Has it happened? Full blown Christmas mode complete with carols on repeat and children on a constant sugar high? My girls started the Christmas countdown before the Thanksgiving leftovers were even done! Holidays can be an opportunity for fun activities and creating wonderful memories. We also know that holidays can bring stress and frantic days too. Fortunately a little time [...]

I splurged. I mean really splurged. I have been lusting after this planner since I first saw it, 42 weeks ago according to Pinterest. And ever since fall rolled around I have been waiting for the arrival of the 2013 planner by Laurel Denise. Mine arrived today! Source: laureldenise.com via Autumn on Pinterest   Then I snapped [...]

I am thrilled to be featured on the fabulous Summer Organizer Spotlight series ”I’m an Organizing Junkie.” Organizing Junkie, Laura, is asking a handful of questions to professional organizers and I am giddy to be included with this group of top-notch ladies! Pop on over to read my favorite places to organize and my favorite organizing product, although my choice might not [...]

Space for Living’s giveaway is here! Find out all the details and enter to win.   It is not too late to plan your summer schedule! I was inspired by a recent guest post here on Space for Living. Micki from Confessions of an ADD Housewife was sharing her summer schedule for her 6 kiddos. Something [...]

With Father’s Day right around the corner, I started to reminisce about my dear old dad. You may remember how I learned to organize from my self-proclaimed “disorganized” mom, but I’ve also shared a little about my dad in previous posts. Do you recognize the before and after pictures of the home office? Yup! That’s [...]

Today, I’m so excited to be participating in the Grow.Swap.Share blog hop. A blog hop is a chance to trade blogs for a day. I’m posting over at Confessions of an ADD Housewife about how to get the most out of your blog browsing. Who doesn’t want more time to read blogs?! I’d like to welcome Micki from Confessions of an ADD Housewife. [...]

It’s Spring! Along with the sunny weather, spring conjurers up an overwhelming desire for spring cleaning! While I am extremely fond of huge spring clean up projects (such as a good garage clean out session); I also like to think about new ways to organize tasks. Especially how to organize our days and weeks to [...]

I think we can all agree, having a plan in place can make a huge difference. A plan to reach a goal (running a 5K, getting out of debt…) gives direction and can help you reach that finish line even when you start to lose motivation. So, it makes sense to create a plan for [...]

Now that we are almost a week into the new year, have you grown tired of all the headlines; get fit now, get organized now, lose weight now… The promises of “easy solutions” and “fast fixes” seem to come from every direction. Before we get sucked into all of the resolution hype, let’s take a [...]

My oldest just turned 5-years-old and that means we might start an allowance soon. We’re still working out the structure, but we know that chores will be a part of it. I am on the hunt for a simple and easy to use chore chart to create more structure in my kiddos’ chores. A chore [...]

Last week I shared the paper planner system I am using for my next actions list. My recent change, adding a “Today” page, has upped its effectiveness. With a main page dedicated to organizing today’s actions, I can  plan the day ahead of time and assess the priority of project tasks with a single glance. If I don’t get to a task, [...]

I’m a long time fan of Amy Lynn Andrews’ blog Blogging with Amy. Amy gives straightforward advice (for the non-techie) on all things blogging. Her tutorials have guided me through many a dilemma over here on Space for Living. When I saw she had an eBook on time management I was instantly curious of her strategy for the well covered subject (see [...]

I’ve been forced back into the dark ages of paper and pencil! Pretty dramatic I know, but since my iPod Touch (along with my digital calendar) officially died last weekend, I am feeling lost and disorganized. You might have read along as I debated the merits of paper vs. digital planners, but ever since I finished reading Getting [...]

  When you walk into Mrs. Norman’s house everything is spotless. Mrs. Norman was the mother of my very best friend, and in her house there was nothing out-of-place, and not a spot of clutter visible to the human eye.  It looked like a model home and not just once a week, but every single [...]

  Have your kids started school yet? Are you about to start a new school term? Have you already had one of those morning when you think, “There has to be a better way?” I have shared my love of routines, including routines for kids. But as much as I love structure, I know when [...]

I have always had an affinity for routines and schedules. As a child, I would ask my mom to write schedules for me including any chores or homework I had to do. I remember how invigorating that feeling was; having a plan to get everything done, and knowing each step to take. I would grip [...]

  It has been a while since my last book review.  Let’s just call that a little spring/summer break, shall we. I am back this month with a doozy you may already be familiar with, Getting Things Done by David Allen. I’d heard of the title, but I was totally unaware of the wealth of [...]

  Since we are on a “planning our day” kick, let’s go full to circle to talk about planning our year! Call me crazy, but one of my favorite parts about getting ready for fall is shopping for calendars.  I know it is barely August, but many calendars start in August to capture all of [...]

I know I often say a 10 minutes Tuesday project (only 10 minutes!) can make such a huge difference in a space or in your mood.  But 10 minutes of planning can also make a huge impact in the direction of your day.  Anyone who has dashed out of the door only to forget that important piece [...]

Please say I am not the only person who struggles with staying focused while online: so many links to click, articles to read, and pics to Pin! For example, I love twitter. It’s so easy to navigate through tweet after tweet, with most of them offering a link to click or picture to view. But [...]

My mother lovingly jokes that my grandmother’s organizing skills skipped a generation and landed on me instead of her. It’s sweet of her to say so, but that has not always been the case. Growing up there were many times I was embarrassed of the clutter that seemed to plague our house and kitchen counters. [...]

Back in December I lamented about my stuffed inbox with 846 emails and wondered how anyone could possibly ever have an empty email inbox. In January, I resolved to take back control of my inbox! My first plan of attack was to go through a month’s worth of old emails each week. It started off [...]

  I must admit that in the big scheme of things organizing might at times sometimes seem trivial.  Life is by nature disorganized, with countless situations that are out of our control; illness, job loss, divorce, death in the family just to name a few. Turn on the news any day of the week and [...]

In part 1 of the digital vs. paper debate, I shared all the fun planner/to-do apps I played with (all in the name of research of course). I found some great options, but even with all of those choices, I still don’t use any of them in my day-to-day scheduling. I must first start with [...]

One of the hardest things about being a mom (work-at-home, working mom, single mom, homemaker) is becoming a self-starter. No one will check up on your work or evaluate how you spend your time. There are no quarterly reviews to evaluate your progress and goals. It is all up to you to get things done [...]

  If you missed my December Read find it here. January is a great month to get back to basics and focus on what is important to us. This months read does just that. Anyone who wants to get organized is probably familiar with must-read author, Julie Morgenstern. Although I’d checked out a few of [...]

I had a blast exploring task manager apps for my first app review, so I decided a part II was in order! These are my favorite apps– the ones I use all the time. You can call me obsessed but I promise you, I don’t spend all day playing with apps…really I don’t. But what [...]

Today’s question is about a rarely seen but often rumored phenomenon… An empty inbox?  Is it even possible? The blogosphere is abuzz with speculation and ideas about the empty inbox. Qblog   On a whim last summer, I challenged myself to actually empty my email inbox. It took me a few weeks. It was pretty weird to see [...]

In preparation for pending holiday travel, let’s prep a pre-packed travel toiletry bag (try saying that ten times fast!). I’ve seen this suggestion before but it wasn’t ever something I’d tried, until recently!! I made one simple change that totally convinced me to add this to my household. Now I believe it is worth the [...]

With only 4 days until Christmas it is important to stay organized so you can enjoy all of the magic of this season.  A great place to start is with a “Countdown to Christmas to-do list”!  Today’s 10-minute Tuesday will get those to-dos organized.  Believe me, taking 10 minutes to do this now will save [...]

  I have been on a mission to find the perfect app for my ipod touch to take the place of my paper planner.   Ideally it would contain a calendar with a task list.  This was a lot harder than I initially thought.There are a lot of to-do and calendar apps but I really wanted it to [...]

  …with a calendar!  I know, I know, those are strong words but I just feel it welling up inside of me.  In my long, anticlimactic hunt for the perfect planner, I eventually settled and decided to continue the hunt in preparation for next year.  Well, I found it at Orange Circle Studio.   This calendar has [...]