More Brief Overviews of Organizing Products

It’s a bit mind-boggling that it didn’t occur to me sooner to share these various products – whatever they might be. My thinking had been narrow, yet as I shared last time – just because I’m not prepared to write an independent review doesn’t mean these aren’t worth sharing. In this world where we can be overwhelmed with the choices available to us, there’s a line between being informed and being paralyzed by the options.

Without further ado let’s jump right into the products.

1. DoubleSeal Envelopes from Ampad – We’ve probably all known someone who moistens the envelope flap and then puts tape over the flap as well. Heck, there are times when the moistened seal doesn’t seem to be adhering well and we need the tape to keep the contents contained. Here’s a product that provides that tape right on the envelope itself – no running to retrieve the tape – and adds that extra level of security. This isn’t a product for everyone, though if this is something that would make your life easier – know that it’s available.

Double Seal Envelopes from Ampad

2. Packaways – This was a new product for me from this year’s 2013 NAPO conference and I really wished they had a miniature sample to bring home with me and let everyone play with it. These are reusable plastic storage boxes that come in translucent and 3 bright colors in all three styles they make: classic (3 sizes), under bed, and tote. There are a number of features which make them unique: they collapse and reassemble repeatedly without anything else required – no tape, they have wipe away panels for labeling on 2 sides of the box, corrugated plastic construction protects from water and humidity, and all styles are designed to have the same footprint which makes stacking them easy. This was certainly a product that surprised me this year – playing with pressing the opposing corners to make the bottom fold into place and then collapsing them – I was impressed with the apparent durability and ease. There’s a good chance I will purchase at least one of these eventually and if it’s as good as it seems, I will share my impressions with you.

Packaways green classic plastic storage box

Packaways Classic Plastic Storage Box

3. OrganizedUp Heavyweight Vertical File Folders from Smead – Here’s another organizing product that offers the vertical option, although it does have the option for using and labeling on both the vertical and horizontal to make it more versatile. I’m happy to see that the vertical options are growing – that approach makes it easier to identify the specific papers you are looking for since the title will be at the top of the opening. This style also makes organizing papers in backpacks and similarly designed bags easier. These are water resistant, closed on two sides, and designed to hold up to 25 pages. Each pack comes with 3 colors – either earth tones or bright tones.

Vertical File Folder, heavyweight, from Smead

4. Pliio – This product is a clothing filer – yes, a way for you to file your clothes (it just might help me shift my reaction to the idea of “filing”). The design makes it quick and easy to fold your clothes while keeping the shape uniform which then means it’s easier to find the clothes you are looking for. How intriguing that by using these you could line your clothes upright; no more toppling stacks of clothes as well as not needing to dig to the bottom of the pile to get the item you want. These help make the most of your storage space and when you are packing for a trip. Even better they are now available at Bed, Bath & Beyond so you can see them for yourself in person.

Pliio – clothing filer

5. HomeZada – This is online and mobile software for organizing your home with a free version and a paid, premium version ($59.00 a year or $5.95 a month). With the free version, Essentials, they offer: a home inventory where you can collect warranties, owner’s manuals, receipts, and pictures; property documents where you gather insurance and mortgage documents, plans, permits, and tax documents; contacts for your service providers and emergency contacts; and news & alerts which provide you with maintenance tips and seasonal checklists. With the premium version you get everything that Essentials include as well as many benefits relating to home maintenance and a section for home improvements projects: templates, financial planning for the projects, and shopping comparisons, and finally the option to manage up to 3 homes, which could be great for landlords.

Screenshot from Home Zada and home maintenance

Screenshot from HomeZada and its home maintenance section

As with any and all products it’s important that we evaluate what could help us and avoid the temptation to get simple because it’s neat. For me, the Pliio is the latter – it seems neat and could be fun, yet I already manage my clothes well, it wouldn’t help me simplify. We also need to be mindful for the time and energy we have to put into things – when it comes to programs, it’s easy to become enamored of the idea that it could make things easier except that we’ll need to learn it and use it – sometimes this easier said than done.

I’ve tried to include a variety of products that are out there which were developed to help us get and/or stay organized. These are not products I’ve used (and abused) to see how well the function – they are simply options that I know about. Would any of these meet your needs? Are there things that you need yet the products you know about don’t fill those needs? What products are you interested in knowing more about?

Misplacing Things?

It happens to all of us – we forget where something is or can’t find that thing we need. I’m currently even in the middle of one of those times – one of our magazines has a place, I’m sure of it – yet I cannot seem to locate where they are. It bugs me! And granted I can be a bit of a perfectionist; it’s more than that though, it’s unsettling to know you have something yet cannot get your hands on it. Although on some level losing things is inevitable, it’s worthwhile to work at minimizing that. Therefore let’s look at some of the causes of losing things as well as steps to take in order to limit how much we misplace.

We don’t put things away when we’re done with them.
- Put things back into their home when you are done with them. How’s that for an obvious solution? Yet, the better we can get about this, the easier our lives can be.
- This can happen for any number of reasons and sometimes it can even make sense at times. There are steps for dealing with things we aren’t ready to put away so they won’t get misplaced in the process. First, is there a place nearby the home that keeps the item more accessible? For instance you have an item you pulled out of the bathroom medicine cabinet/drawer/cabinet and want to leave on the counter – it might be the reminder of seeing it or making it easier to access. I have a counter of sorts for in process stuff – everything goes there, waiting to be used and then returned to its home.
- Also, keep things moving toward their home – I know I don’t always want to run upstairs/downstairs to just put something away – yet I have containers for items that need to go in that direction, so the next time I’m moving that way, I take it along and take the few moments when I get there to put the things away.
- Does something else need to change? We had a chronic problem with scissors in our home – they kept disappearing. When we talked about it, we realized that we really wanted more around – it was too inconvenient and not easy enough – and once we got a couple of more pairs, they each go back to their homes after they’ve been used.

We put like things in different places – whether that’s forgetting where we’d put that x thing before, or wanting those x things in multiple areas for ease of use, or changing our minds about where to keep x and not moving the earlier place into the new place.
- Put x in only one place and do it every time.
- Early on in getting things organized, focus only on choosing a place and putting the things in that place. That’s the most important consideration initially and later you can think about other considerations.
- Also, if you’re early in the organizing process, remember to think in broad categories first – so all “office” supplies get put in one place, or like I talked about recently with papers in Paper Pyramid, all papers to be filed in one place. You can refine these once you’re further along, though those things will likely be close together at that later point too.
- There can be times when having more than one place for x thing: cleaning supplies in each bathroom, items you want on each floor of your home, products that are currently open and being used like Ziploc bags, toilet paper, garbage bags, etc. are examples that might have two locations – those that are in use and those that you pull from when needed. As with almost everything, it’s not completely an absolute – unless you can make it so.

Here I’ve only covered two of the reasons we can misplace things among the many possibilities that exist. I’ll discuss more in the coming months. And you will probably begin to see how much overlap there can be among the culprits that lead to our misplacing things. With these two examples – we might not put things away when we’re done with them because that item could go in more than one place – so it’s easier to simply not put it “away.” It can help to examine which is your primary struggle with misplacing things and then try different strategies to limit or even eliminate these tendencies.

Herding Papers into the Filing Cabinet

I have a vision of trying to herd cats – with them flying in all directions! I’ve only met a few people who actually enjoy filing, and the rest of us try to manage it. This can be especially challenging if you have put off handling your papers once you’ve finished the action they needed – as well as if your filing system is over-full from lack of purging. When you are facing this situation you have a decision to make about what your first step will be – do you begin with thinning your filing system or by corralling all those loose papers?

First some questions: (familiar from my “Paper Pyramid”)

Do you currently have a system for your papers?
Is there room within your system for adding papers? (i.e. is your filing cabinet or whatever stuffed full or not)
Are you happy (relatively speaking) with your current system?
How many papers are waiting to be added to your system?

If you can answer yes to the first 3 questions, then your progress can move forward more easily – how much so will depend on your answer to the final question. (If you answered no, check out the link above to Paper Pyramid.)

The most satisfying first step regardless of your answers is typically to get all those loose papers together. Toss all those that you don’t need or want to keep – as long as it’s obvious quickly; otherwise wait to decide until you get farther along. There will be more opportunity for purging in the process.

Just like if your answers from above were no, the foremost consideration as you look at each piece of paper is whether you will need this in the short-term or not. Depending on the amount of papers, this might be all the distinction you need – 2 piles of papers: needs action and to file. It’s critical that you keep all papers that need your attention separate and together through this process – until they can be tossed or moved into a pile for organizing/filing.

Hopefully if you answered yes, you’ve already made the decisions about how long to keep papers that are exempt from governmental guidelines. If not, there’s still hope – you just need to think about and decide for yourself how far back you need to keep certain records. There are many opinions out there about how long to keep your papers (besides property and tax related) – which I talk about some in Paper Retention. Remember at this stage it’s fine to add all papers to their pile, the decisions can be delayed for the time being.

Depending on your answer to the last question, “How many papers are waiting to be added to your system?” the next probably step is to subdivide. For instance, get all your financial papers together, all the instruction manuals, everything that can fit into a category – make sure the pile of papers is relatively small so that the filing process can move along smoothly.

Since you answered yes to the first three questions, consider another question:

When was the last time you purged papers from your files, even if they are not overflowing?

If you don’t know or it’s been more than a year – as much as you might not want to hear it, this is the ideal time to organize your files. This is not about emptying the file drawer and surrounding yourself with piles of papers.

It is about taking the best opportunity to make sure only papers you need and want are taking up the valuable space in your system. Therefore, you have a pile of financial papers ready and waiting to go into their file. Pull out the file – completely out of the filing cabinet. Look through it, this doesn’t need to take much time once you’ve decided how long you’re keeping each type of paper – and remove all those papers that are older or no longer relevant. Then add the sorted papers you’ve gathered from around your house into their appropriate file. Continue with each file.

One of the things I’ve done to streamline the purging of older papers is to place a single tabbed divider between each year in every file. This means that at the beginning of the next year I pull out all papers in front of the first divider and shred them, and move the tabbed divider to the back of the file and add all current papers behind it. This makes regular purging a simple process that requires virtually no thought.

Remember that one of the things that can break a filing system down is having too many papers in one file. There’s a fine balance between too few and too many papers in one file. And to state the obvious, if we don’t purge the papers from our files, they will overflow – or more likely we’ll stop doing the filing to avoid dealing with that cramped file. Any way that you can make purging papers an easy part of the process will save you time, energy, and most importantly – your sanity throughout your life. Your files will no longer threaten to explode and any resistance to getting those papers into the filing cabinet will come more from just the dislike of the filing process than actual problems.

Getting papers from around the house into the filing cabinet should not at all be like herding cats. Ideally it’s not a chore, it’s something that can happen fairly easily. Although I admit, filing remains a chore for me. It’s still not like herding cats – I have an inbox designated for papers that need filing in a discrete place that also has limited room for growth – the paper corral. If my papers have moved past any necessary action, they go directly to the “inbox,” and this is where they stay until I manage to get them into the filing system. This means my papers are in one of three locations only: action needed, the “inbox,” or in the correct file. It’s only the last step that I can still struggle with – yet it’s completely organized as it is. It’s all about finding what works for you – so herd those papers into the filing cabinet and regain control of your space.

Brief Overview of Some Organizing Products

The NAPO conference each year is such an experience of learning – both from the presentations about various topics and the expo hall where vendors display and sometimes share samples of their products. I’ve started sharing products that I want to review, yet there are plenty of products that I’m not inclined to review. That doesn’t mean they are uninteresting or wouldn’t be useful – it’s more about seeing those products as fairly self-explanatory, obviously useful or not depending on your individual needs. Then it occurred to me that you all might know these things even exist, therefore I’m here to share several products shared at the NAPO conference expo this year.

1. Bankers Box – We’re probably all familiar with these, they hold file folders perfectly with lids and handles. What you might not know is that they are offering more specialized boxes for home storage (Fellowes Bankers Box Home Organization) – they have a prettier design than the straight cardboard as well as this line of products provides windows on the side of the box in order to see some of the contents. This line also includes an ornament storage box in red and green (including the window and handles).

A banker’s box from Fellowes Home Organization line

2. EZ Flag Writing Pad – This is a traditional notepad with the perforated edge on top, with a couple of additional features – repositionable stick-on flags for labeling and highlighting on the bottom of the pad. It means you can leave your highlighter and flags at home and still have them with you.

EZ Flag Writing Pad with flag and highlighting stickies on pad itself

3. Vertical Reinforced Expanding Wallet – There seems to be a movement toward shifting the orientation for paper organization and this is one example. We know about expanding wallets with (then called accordion folders) or without dividers – now when you look in, the top of the papers are easier to read and find – if you don’t mind the necessary depth.

Vertical Expanding Wallet (sorry for the blurriness -it’s hard to hold steady while snapping a picture)

4. Privacy CopySafe File Jacket – These are just like all the 2-sided poly sleeves (or jackets) except this one has a privacy pattern on it. That means any potentially prying eyes won’t be able to tell what your papers are while still providing you with some visibility.

Privacy CopySafe File Jacket with a paper partway in to see the effect

5. What’s That Paint – Here’s something new – labels made specifically for your paint cans. It has space for you to put information about the paint and your use of it: area/room, color, finish & base, brand/store, date, other, and a place to dab the color on the label. You’ll never have to wonder when or where you applied what can of paint again.

Labels for your paint cans from What’s That Paint

These are a handful of products that have been displayed and shared at the NAPO conference expo. They certainly fill the needs for some people and are straightforward in their capabilities. And just as much, not everyone will have a need for them. Yet, I believe it’s always great to know what is out there and possible for filling a need – whether now or down the road.

Paper Pyramid

Are you trying to imagine a literal pyramid of paper? Fortunately I am not talking literally – though it might be interesting to see one, though I’d imagine none of us would want to deal with it. Nevertheless, papers are the most common struggle we all face – and it can feel like a pyramid. And there can be a pyramid effect to papers, just like my recent discussion, The Pyramid Effect of Getting Organized. Because papers are challenging, it warrants its own discussion – these small pieces need to be evaluated and have a decision made about each one – time and energy consuming.

First some questions:

Do you currently have a system for your papers?
Is there room within your system for adding papers? (i.e. is your filing cabinet or whatever stuffed full or not)
Are you happy (relatively speaking) with your current system?
How many papers are waiting to be added to your system?

When your answers to the first 3 questions aren’t all yeses, it’s time to consider using the idea of a pyramid to deal with your papers. And if you answer no to all 3, then the pyramid will be the most efficient way to handle those papers. This also reduces the chaos in the short term. Warning – it might feel inefficient and time consuming – that’s because we’re looking at the bigger picture of getting your papers organized in order for you to maintain them and be able to find what you need when you need it, in the long run.

Think about the base of the pyramid – it’s wide and broad. Figure out your broad categories of papers in your life – like financial, health, recipes, articles, personal/kids, memorabilia, photos, and etcetera. There’s a caveat though – you don’t want to separate them into file size divisions. It’s too soon in the process to be attempting this – you’ll get there.

One important category will be those papers that need action from you in the short-term. You need to make sure to keep those available during the process, though once you’ve taken the necessary action you can add them to one of your other categories.

These categories are also meant to be small enough that when you’re ready to move onto the next step, you’ll be close to creating the files. The categories are based on your life, your comfort, and the papers you are dealing with. With one client, the bulk of papers we’re organizing are from her years as an art teacher and her own art supplies – so we created broad categories of images/pictures, technical art info, projects/ideas, blank papers, art history, recipes, articles, and health info.

Keep going through all the papers you can find, adding them to your broad categories – fewer than 10 categories total. Ideally you will not move to the next step in the pyramid until you have gotten all your papers into these groupings – whether they stay in the same category or get moved later in the process. It’s simplest to have all the papers you need to organize all together – in order that you can figure out what and how much you are dealing with. Therefore don’t forget the papers that are already in your filing system, as these will need to be considered in the next step.

Now you’ve gotten all your papers into their broad categories, you pick one of your categories and begin to subdivide that. This is when you can start to think about your specific files, though I’d wait until you’ve sorted everything in that category before doing any actual labeling or filing. As you’re making the piles of papers, you can begin to visually see how small or big they are – giving you a chance to consider whether another division would make sense in order that a file doesn’t become unmanageable.

Once you’ve sorted one category, you can label, put into files (and hanging folders), and into the filing cabinet – if that’s your system. This can also be the time to consider other approaches since using a filing cabinet is only one option for having a system for your papers. Being at this stage means that you will know what your needs are for your papers – at least for this category – and what options are even possible.

After doing this with each category you’ve created, not only will the paper pyramid be gone – it will be organized. By following this process you’ll have created a system that has been tailored to your own needs and will be easy to use – at least when you get around to putting those darn papers away! Yet, with having gone through this process, when the time comes for adding more papers to your system – there will be room and no additional dread. Hopefully now there’s less dismay when you’re ready to tackle the paper pyramid.

The Pyramid Effect of Getting Organized

You can’t do “a” until you get “b,” “c,” and “d” done. And sometimes that’s a short version – since there are times you have 10 things to accomplish before you can work on the thing that you most want to work on. This is one of those common struggles we all face. It doesn’t necessarily correlate to how much space and stuff you have. Nevertheless, a series of things need to happen before you can achieve your goals.

First, it’s most helpful to make a plan before you dig into anything. This can feel counterproductive – you want to use the energy and motivation to jump in and start getting things done, not to be still and think about the process. It will save you time and energy in the long run since you can avoid making more of a mess in an area that needs to wait until further into the process.

Often this means making a list, which some of us do better than taking action. 🙂 For instance, if you have furniture that needs to be shifted between rooms, it can help to figure out what needs to happen in order for the space to be made available.

You know you want the dresser to be moved into the spare bedroom.
- The spot for the dresser in the spare bedroom has a reading chair and a desk.
  - The reading chair needs to be moved to another space in the spare bedroom.
    - The only other space in the spare bedroom is filled with random, full bins – they need to be moved somewhere.
      - The bins need to be sorted and organized.
- The desk needs to go to the corner in the dining room.
  - The corner in the dining room has spare chairs for the table; those need to go to the basement.
    - The driest place in the basement for the chairs has boxes that you need to break down to make space for the dining table chairs.

This is a relatively simple example of the pyramid effect just to get the dresser into the spare bedroom. It’s even easier because it deals with large items that are fairly clear-cut. And you know that you it will be simplest for you to break down boxes in the basement as the first step, then to move the chairs from the dining room down, and then you will be able to move the desk into the dining room.

Making these types of plans only work when you know what you want to do with each of the items in question. It can be further simplified when you are getting rid of things – if you were getting rid of the desk – then all that would be left is dealing with moving the reading chair.

Second, when considering the pyramid effect of getting organized, you might need to think about the big picture and avoid small picture thinking. Thinking about planning for the small details will be important, although you’ll be more effective if you wait until the time is right. So, like those bins from the example above – it would make the most sense (probably – since there can be variables to change that!) to wait to dig into them until after the furniture has been rearranged.

Initially, think about broad categories (or zones, activities, etc.) that relate to your life and stuff. These will vary from person to person as well as be different depending on what and how much you’re working on. You might need to consider the relevance for life right now – are there things that you need to keep quite accessible versus things that can be buried a little deeper (though still with related things)?

Sometimes it makes the most sense to make bins, piles, whatever in a specific, available space related to a broad category and leave it for a while. If you have all your gift wrapping supplies piled in a corner, bin, etc., even without any further organization – you still know where they are when you need something. This can apply to any category – office supplies, recipes, financial papers (not needing your attention), tools, exercise equipment (small ones), art supplies, articles of interest and everything else.

The degree that you apply this can vary – a lot will depend on the space available as well as the “homes” you already have set up. If you already have a place for office supplies, even if it’s full, you’d put all other office supplies as close as possible to the ones you have.

The initial steps are to get everything that’s in the same category together. It’s challenging to create good organization for things when you don’t have all of it available to you. Once you have all the like things together, then you can begin to organize it – you can see that you will need more space for tools (or whatever), that you need to make space “here” for this, the subcategories you need for these papers, and then consider what containers and organizing tools will support you.

If we continue with the pyramid analogy, you need to create a strong foundation to build on – which means waiting to make decisions about the small details until you get the big stuff (categories) together. There’s no arguing that it can make things feel more tedious – especially if you’re eager to get organized. Yet in the long run you will find more success that you take things slowly and methodically.

Review: Accordion Folders

Pros:

Here’s an accordion folder I used for our wedding!

portable
one system, one piece
contains papers together yet separately

Cons:

limited number of papers within
doesn’t expand with need
isn’t conducive to flipping through the papers

Review:

One of the things I’ve found in working with people is that they haven’t always thought through the pros and cons of the “typical” organizing options. Accordion folders have been around a long time and can be quite useful. Let me say up front that I am not a fan of them personally. Yet, as I practically preach about – we each have to find our own ways, the products that work for each individual.

Accordion folders of various types are portable. If you need to move a collection of papers around or carry them somewhere, these folders can simplify that easily. The papers stay organized and can go with the person wherever they need them – even if it’s from room to room.

Here are 2 (of many) styles for accordion folders

Due to the design and function of accordion folders, there’s little to decide about – mostly a hard or soft cover. You don’t need to decide if you want to have hanging folders with file folders or just file folders (which lean without the framework of the hanging folders). Color options are fewer, though everything’s contained and you won’t be thinking about what color signifies what. The accordion folder offers you one system – all together, in one unit.

Since part of the design is the divided sections, you have a way to organize your papers together yet separately. You can use the accordion folder for one category of papers – like financial or medical – and each section holds some distinct type of paper related to that category. Or you can make it more broad where it’s all your recurring bills – credit cards, car payments, mortgage, medical expenses, etcetera.

Depending on how it’s used, this is where its limitations can become an issue. Since it is a self-contained system, it can only contain so much. The pockets are designed for a certain amount of papers before it the folder itself gets misshapen. Although file folders also have a limit on how many papers they can hold, the accordion folders pockets can hold significantly less. (Those creases at the bottom of file folders make their expansion possible and much easier.) Once you’ve maxed out the amount of papers in the accordion folder, you have to make adjustments.

Check out the bottom of an accordion folder – the frame has creased paper going up into each section – limiting how it holds your papers. This design is part of how paper is restricted within each section. Although you can expand the sections, that creased paper goes up into the section regardless of how much paper is stored in there. This also means that papers are more prone to getting bent, if that matters to you.

Here’s the side and bottom of an accordion folder which shows the creases

If you need to peruse a section of papers, looking for a specific one that isn’t in the front or back of the pocket, the design of the accordion folder makes that more challenging. The section dividers only move so far, which means seeing inside the pocket to the words on the paper isn’t much of an option – so you’ll probably pull all the papers out of that section to find the paper you need. In my mind that means more work for the user – and papers don’t always go (back) in neatly.

It’s probably pretty clear that the limitations of accordion folders have created a bias for me. I’m not much of a fan. Yet that doesn’t mean that I haven’t used them – there is something wonderful about their portability. As well as how useful they can be – depending on how you will use them. Just like with every product and tool out there, if a product meets your needs with its limitations (and every product has drawbacks) then use it.

Ready to Escape the Pain

There’s a reason I don’t sell gift certificates generally. Never mind that some people would be mortally offended to be given a gift of a professional organizer, it would be a waste of money unless the person was ready. They need to decide there’s a better way and to make the effort to change. If I only had a magic wand, this could be different, maybe. When we pause to consider that someone has to be ready to make changes otherwise nothing else will make a long-term difference, we can see how true it is. The first step is that when the pain becomes too great, we’re inspired to figure out alternatives.

My husband and I have had long interesting conversations about pain. Generally you hear how having a high pain tolerance is a good thing, “it makes you stronger.” I know I associate the idea of a high pain tolerance with resiliency; the strength to make it through whatever comes my way. And we’ve come the conclusion that for many things we have a low tolerance for pain.

Consider the person who is constantly losing their keys, phone, purse, wallet, etc. I have a friend who struggles with this and they race around in some degree of panic searching – eventually finding whatever it was and moving along with their day. And it happens again and again; and yet it seems normal to them, it’s just how it is.

Then there’s other people who’ve lost their keys or whatever, get frustrated, and decide to do things differently – they get determined. They make a decision for how to avoid it happening and begin to implement that change. It doesn’t get fixed overnight and it doesn’t mean that it never happens again. Yet, it does mean that it’s more of a rare occurrence rather than a common one.

The second example is someone with a low pain tolerance. The “pain” of losing that item is too great to simply continue in the same way – it instigates the desire for change. The frustration or annoyance is greater than the challenge of finding a new way of doing something and making that new system work. This includes failing and faltering along the way to the new system, yet determined to avoid the pain of lost keys with any frequency.

The frustration of a spouse, parent, or sibling is fairly irrelevant – the pain has to be yours if true lasting changes are going to be made. And that’s not to say that the frustration of a loved one isn’t motivating, but it can spur movement that is short-lived. Consider the example of alcoholics – the person needs to make the decision on their own to change otherwise they’ll return to drinking. The impetus for change wasn’t coming from within. The context is irrelevant, the person needs to reach the point where they want things to be different, better.

Let me be perfectly clear – we all live our lives the best we can. If you are someone who loses your keys regularly and haven’t done anything about it, that’s fine – there is no one right way. People can lead great lives while constantly losing their keys, although they might be frustrating their spouse. 🙂 That’s not the point. If YOU don’t mind losing your keys, what would motivate you to change that?

As I’ve touched on before, facing changes can be challenging, even when they’re wanted (or positive). Therefore, when the risk of doing something different is less painful than staying the same – we embark on the process of finding better ways. It might well even be a process of 2 steps forward, 1 step back – it’s a journey into unfamiliar territory. It’s also a way to learn about yourself and discover that having a low pain tolerance makes you strong.

The Experience – That’s What Matters

I’ve talked before the idea of gifting experiences instead of stuff. As well as talked about how the containers and tools we use for organizing need to fit our needs – their purpose is to make our life easier. Earlier this year I talked about Technology Tools and how these too need to be evaluated on how they could help us. Therefore, let’s move into media – my beloved books and music!

You might be getting sick of hearing how I hold onto books and CD’s, yet these too are about the experience. When I read, I’m learning or exploring – it’s information that I delve into and appreciate greatly. When I listen to music, whether it’s on in the background or I’m soaking it in – it’s part of my experience. These mediums are essentially about the experience of them. If they’re not used, they become either décor or clutter.

Since their purpose is to be used – are you using them as effectively as you can and want? For me, I knew I was missing much of our music. I simply forgot what we had, even with as organized as the CD’s are, and so they would stay in their drawers. And I was resisting the idea of digitizing our music. Yet as I thought about all the lovely music we have – about 800 albums of a wide variety of genres, and the ensuing guilt over owning yet not appreciating them – I agreed to move them into digital form.

We used an external hard drive to store the digitized music, purchased the Sonos system to have access to our music wirelessly, and presto we have digital access to our entire music library. Now we can listen and appreciate the music we love, which is what matters most. In addition, we used the process of digitizing our music to purge – was there any reason to keep those albums we ended up not loving?

I’ve not jumped into an e-reader yet – and am not sure if I will. I read daily and our books are organized so I can find what I want or need. Yet, as I’ve talked about with all these other things – what are your personal needs? This isn’t about following the crowd, but rather about whether an e-reader would facilitate your needs and values.

Remember, this is about the experience – and whether you hold a book in your hands or an e-reader, you can jump into the words, knowledge, and world either way. If I was traveling more I don’t think I could resist getting an e-reader – having any number of books available in one convenient place (without any additional weight). I’m impressed with the ease it can offer for people to read – in the waiting rooms, lunch breaks, wherever there’s some available time.

As with virtually everything I talk about – I am not advocating one thing or another. It’s about your life and what can help you in living it they way you want – to make the most of the experiences you want. And, I’m not saying that you need to get rid of the physical items even if they’re digital. We kept most of our CD’s, only parting with about 70 of them. Similarly, I couldn’t imagine parting with many of our books.

It’s all about experiencing the content. If you’re not accessing them, is there a better way? What’s getting in the way of using them? The digital possibilities offer us options in order for us to have the experience of them regardless of the medium. If you consider yourself a book or music lover, does your life reflect those values? If not, it might be time to consider alternatives that can help you in living your values.

Productive Spending

Just by my title you might be cringing, or rolling your eyes, or something. And if you’ve been following me a while, you hopefully will realize that I’m not here to tell you what to do – I do aim to challenge the way you think about things. It’s your life after all and no one but you is living it. Similarly with organizing principles, it’s about finding what works for you – taking the pieces and creating your own version.

Therefore, here’s one of the things I’ve learned for myself – there are times and places to spend more money. We hopefully all know that it’s wise to watch what and how we spend our money (though some statistics show few of us keep a budget). Yet, as with so much of what I talk about – I encourage you to be mindful.

Coming from parents who have tendencies toward being frugal, I can struggle to spend a couple of dollars for a treat. Once a year, chocolate oranges are available – around Christmas and I patiently wait for opening the stocking since my husband knows how much I love them. This year he wasn’t home and I walked into a store and happened to see them. I almost walked away, yet this is a treat I enjoy once a year, so why not? I bought myself two and savored every bite – those few dollars were well spent.

From an organizing perspective, I probably make my strongest suggestion during the whole process for their waiting to purchase supplies – those desirable containers and tools for helping with organization. This doesn’t come from a frugal point of view; it’s purely practical though it most often saves time and money in the long run too. If you buy a neat organizing tool before you’re ready to use it, let alone know if it’s going to meet your specific needs – it often becomes clutter. If you wait until you know what you need and can use it – you can bring it home and put it to use immediately.

When my husband and I moved into our new home, our first house, we bought a stud finder. We knew nothing about our walls or what kind of stud finder would be best for us and we went with a fairly inexpensive one. It turned out to be useless. Yet, this doesn’t mean the highest end product is the answer either. It does mean that it’s worth considering what your needs are – both for yourself and future.

It’s not always easy to know what is the worth spending the money on – when I first got my iPad, I picked up a stylus to use with a handwriting program. It worked, though too often it was frustrating and inconsistent. After talking with my husband, I purchased a different model that works really well. I appreciate its quality and have begun eliminating paper clutter from phone messages by using my stylus and iPad.

As you can see, this isn’t about a suggestion that will fit all of you – it’s about your life and stuff. Yet, it is about thinking about the things that have value and use in your life – and not scrimping on spending the money that will help support you. Living on either extreme rarely serves anyone. Therefore, when and where does it make sense to spend some more money for your needs?