I love beautiful wrapped packages tucked under the tree. How about you? My earliest memory of packages being wrapped with care was the year my brother was wrapping gifts for his girl friend. He carefully folded the ends of the paper under so there would be no raw edges and then he carefully wrapped the gift with ribbon. I thought “wow, he really likes her”.

Here are some organizing tips on how to prepare to wrap gifts any time of the year:

*Gather the paper, ribbon, bows, special embellishments, tags, scissors,pen and tape. Now having them all in one place it should be easy to just sit and wrap, but it isn’t so. At least not with me. I can sit or stand in the very same place and I either lose the tape or the scissors or both. This year I came up with a brilliant idea to stop them from taking off so I have to search for them.

*Put the tape and scissors, pen and tags in a little container. After using them put them back in the container—every single time. This has worked like a charm. The container (I used a little basket) is taller than the wrapping paper so it doesn’t get lost. This has saved me time and frustration!

What tricks do you have up your sleeve to keep track of things when you are wrapping gifts?

Marilyn Bohn is an energetic, lively, compassionate, hard working and creative organizer. She was born to organize! Before becoming a professional organizer she worked professionally in diverse environments. She is involved in her community, providing her clients with a broad base of experience and knowledge.  She is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO).

My third daughter was due to be born on December first. As you know December and the weeks before Christmas are busy any year let alone having a baby at that time.

I have always loved Christmas and I didn’t want to give up the joy and happiness of this season of the year by being overwhelmed with the birth of my baby. I made a plan and I stuck to it. The following organizing tips are what I did then and still do to this day:

1. I set a goal to have all of my Christmas gifts bought or made, wrapped and delivered before December 1st. And I did too, then she didn’t come until December eighth so I had bonus time.
2. I made a detailed list of everyone I would give gifts to and what I wanted to buy them. This way when I saw a sale early in the year I was able buy what I wanted at a reasonable price.
3. I planned time with my other two children by making goodies and paper crafts with them that we later delivered to families surprising them with goodies every night for 12 days before Christmas.

It has been over 30 years since that Christmas but it has been one of the most memorable. Because of the planning and preparation that I thoughtfully put into it in advance; * there was time to get gifts for everyone, *enjoy the decorations and music of the season without being rushed, and *spending time with my family and *being able to help another family at this
busy time.

What organizing tips do you use to plan ahead for the holidays that have made them easier and more organized?

My sweet 81 year old friend called today and told me she saved over $50.00 by using a suggestion from a sheet of organizing tips she had been given. Of course, I am always looking for organizing tips.

Now, I have to say, this tip is in the gray area between organizing and cleaning, but since I have several videos that border between organizing tips and other things (crafts, cleaning and interesting stuff) I am going to share this one.

Her dishwasher hadn’t completely drained the last two times she used it. She called the plumber who charged $50.00 just to come to the house. But he didn’t come when he said he would. She read on her sheet to use vinegar in the dishwasher to wash out the pipes. She used a gallon of vinegar without any dishes in it and ran the washer through a cycle. That took care of the problem. Imagine that one little idea saved her over $50.00!

Do you have any money saving organizing tips that we could use? If so, please share.

Marilyn Bohn is an energetic, lively, compassionate, hard working and creative organizer. She was born to organize! Before becoming a professional organizer she worked professionally in diverse environments. She is involved in her community, providing her clients with a broad base of experience and knowledge.  She is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO).

I think it is interesting that we use the term “organizing clutter”. If it is clutter why are we organizing it? I think rather than saying “I am organizing clutter” it would be better or more to the point to say “I am organizing my home, room, cupboard, closet (whatever it may be) and getting rid of the clutter.” Maybe it is just me, but as a professional organizer I find that to be an oxymoron.

If you are organizing clutter here are 3 tips to make it fast and simple:

•When you’re through using something, put it away then, don’t let it start a pile of clutter. (Like the phone book, a dirty dish, shoes)
•Put Seasonal clothes in a different closet than you use for your main closet, or fold and put away in a container and store on the closet shelf, or put in the back of your closet.
•Make it easy for your family to throw away trash—have several trash cans strategically placed in your home.

Actually, those tips will help you avoid collecting clutter. What kinds of things do you think of as clutter in your home?

Marilyn Bohn is an energetic, lively, compassionate, hard working and creative organizer. She was born to organize! Before becoming a professional organizer she worked professionally in diverse environments. She is involved in her community, providing her clients with a broad base of experience and knowledge.  She is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO).

Sunday morning before reading the comics I thought “I am going to look for organizing tips that I can pass on to my friends”. And guess what?…I found organizing tips! I must say I was rather pleased.

The comic Rose is Rose (no credit as to who draws it) was my inspiration for my organizing tips. There was a drawing of cute Mimi picking up leaves running here and there with an armful of leaves in each frame. In the last frame her dad said to her mom, “The raking would go a lot faster if Mimi wasn’t color-coordinating the leaf piles”! I will admit even as a professional organizer that was over the top for me. But….

Color coordinating can make organizing clutter in our homes easier and faster and help to keep them organized. This is especially helpful for people with ADD.

•Use colored file folders. They are easier to distinguish in a file cabinet, or when they are left out. They key our minds as to what are in them. Freedom Filer filing system is the color coded system I use. My mind immediately keys in to what is in the files by color. (Resource, permanent, active, taxes, remove/replace). This has saved me a ton of time. And it is a no brainer when it comes to filing.
•Color coding towels for different bathrooms helps immediately to know what room they go to by color.
•Sheets color coded by size immediately identifies what bed they go to.

Look around your home and see how many things you color code and please share with us your organizing tips on how this helps you with organizing clutter and how to be more efficient and organized.

Marilyn Bohn is an energetic, lively, compassionate, hard working and creative organizer. She was born to organize! Before becoming a professional organizer she worked professionally in diverse environments. She is involved in her community, providing her clients with a broad base of experience and knowledge.  She is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO).

Here is a poem from my daughter Julie

“She whispered in the wind, hoping her words would travel safely to the soft pink pools in their ears. Where they keep the memory of her childhood laughter, safely echoing and resting like she did in their arms when a child.”

I read this and thought that was nice. But I didn’t understand it until my other daughter re-read it to me and explained what it was saying. Wow! It is beautiful.

I think that is how it is with many of us; we want to get organized and we often “collect” organizing ideas and organizing tips but we don’t know what to do with the information. Sometimes we need someone else to help us understand organizing ideas or organizing tips in a different way.

I have a friend who bought a container to hold pens in her desk. The next day her girls took the container and were using it for something else. She jumped to the conclusion that containers don’t work and never bought another one for ten years. (GASP, containers make organizing fun, easy and simple). She had a good organizing idea but she needed more help or instruction on how to successfully use it.

A few things she could have done was to explain to her girls what it was going to be used for and if they needed containers for other things she would get them. She could have labeled the container. Labeling containers seems to anchor the contents to the container and it makes it easy to find things in them.

What is an organizing idea or organizing tip that has worked well for you?

Marilyn Bohn is an energetic, lively, compassionate, hard working and creative organizer. She was born to organize! Before becoming a professional organizer she worked professionally in diverse environments. She is involved in her community, providing her clients with a broad base of experience and knowledge.  She is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO).

Last week I was contacted by Paul Nelson from KSL, a Salt Lake City, Utah radio station. He had read an article I wrote on Child Proofing our Homes and asked if he could interview me for his radio show. Out of a 14 minute interview this is what was on his show which aired on October 7th:

Mr. Nelson quoted me as saying: professional organizer Marilyn Bohn said, “I can absolutely say, ‘Yes.’ If a home is terribly disorganized, it is much more unsafe for children”. Clearing clutter is very important when there are little children in the home, for safety sake.

Bohn is also a former child-abuse protection worker. She has seen cases of children getting hurt just from items being left lying around. Clearing clutter would certainly cut down the number of child neglect and abuse cases.

“Anything the child wants to get into. I’m thinking knives and other hazards in the kitchen, they could get into. Medicines are also a big problem, because often they are not kept away from children,” she said.

Bohn says she has seen cases when kids have become sick because families didn’t clean up after their pet thoroughly enough. She says the most important thing about child-proofing is just to do it. As a professional organizer she gives organizing ideas and organizing tips to parents with young children on how to child proof their homes for the safety of their children.

“It’s inexpensive, it doesn’t take a lot of time and it is so worth it,” she said.

This radio show was a great reminder for parents to child proof their homes. As a professional organizer I work with people to teach them how to de-clutter their homes for the safety of children.

Marilyn Bohn is an energetic, lively, compassionate, hard working and creative organizer. She was born to organize! Before becoming a professional organizer she worked professionally in diverse environments. She is involved in her community, providing her clients with a broad base of experience and knowledge.  She is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO).

You may know my daughter and her husband just moved to a different state. One of the things they had to do when they got to their new place was to get new phone numbers. This meant I had to program their new numbers in all my phones.

As I was programming their numbers I noticed there were several people I don’t call much anymore so I removed them from speed dial and added others who I call more frequently.

Because I am a home organizer my mind thought of my clients and you all who read my blog and I want to pass on this tip to you. Take the time this week to look at your programmed numbers and see if you too need to ‘clean up’ your phone numbers. And are you using all the numbers allotted to you? We had 20 numbers we could use that I had forgotten all about.

I called the phone company and found out how to program numbers (the last time I had done it was over two years ago) and then I typed up a list of speed dial numbers and made copies for every phone plus I will keep one in my planner. Speed dialing saves time, I love that feature.

Do you have a time saving tip you will share with us? We would love to know it.

Marilyn Bohn is an energetic, lively, compassionate, hard working and creative organizer. She was born to organize! Before becoming a professional organizer she worked professionally in diverse environments. She is involved in her community, providing her clients with a broad base of experience and knowledge.  She is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO).