Organize Your Life Around Friends for the Healthiest Life

Kim Wolinski, MSW
"Dr. DeClutter" www.DrDeClutter.com

• How many friends, real friends, do you have?
• Do you have a good, positive and uplifting support system?
• Did you know that it's imperative to your health to have them both?

Complete health is characterized by not only the absence of disease, but also a high level of both physical and emotional well-being. Exercising regularly, watching your weight, and not smoking are important choices for optimal health. However, they do not guarantee good health.

YA GOTTA HAVE FRIENDS....
Start taking more Vitamin "F!" Research shows that if you have and work on maintaining a satisfying social life and connections, you are more likely to be completely healthy -- healthier than people who don't.

TIPS: Keep your friendships and social network strong by having fun and sharing experiences. Here are some ideas.
1. Take your 'Vitamin F' Daily! Pick up the phone anytime and call a friend, or email often. (Don't always wait until the weekend or "the best time.")
2. Invite friends over to play cards or a board game (not always TV! and not always food or drinks.)
3. Schedule weekly get togethers for creative and fun outings, or innings! Visit a museum, art gallery, listen to music, go to concerts, festivals, exercise together, go out to eat -- activities and events where you can share and talk and enrich your friendships and interests that create deep and long lasting memories and bonds.
4. Join a group with shared interests: Join a civic group, hobby interest group, hiking club, travel group -- BUNCO!-BINGO-BOOK CLUB or SCRAPBOOKING! -- religious or spiritual group, or a recreational sports or dance group.
5. Hey, I know... create a group or start a club! You may have heard of the Red Hat Society, Girlfriends Unlimited or other groups. These have become international social clubs almost overnight through one or two friend's ideas of like-minded women (in these cases) getting together and having fun! Start your own! If you have an interest in something, others do to!

The choices are endless. Don't sit at home alone. Don't get stuck in a rut. Call, register, get involved -- talk, laugh, share, have fun! Life's short! Here's to your health!!

"A friend is one to whom one may pour out

all the contents of one's heart,

chaff and grain together knowing

that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it.

Keep what is worth keeping,

and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away."

~1866 Dinah Maria Muluck Craik/Pamela Lowery-Welch

To all my wonderful friends around the world... I am so grateful for our years of and ongoing joy of sharing and always being there for one another!

Blissings,

Kim

©2004 Kim Wolinski, MSW “Dr. DeClutter” Stress, Change and Organizational Skills Expert

See my books and other products to support your organizing every level, INNER, OUTER AND OTHER. http://www.redecisionsinstitute.com/kims_store.htmlAvailable now, my new ebook: THE WORRY CONTROL HANDBOOK, How to destroy the F.E.A.R. V.I.R.U.S. and take back your peace of mind at http://www.drdeclutter.com/worrycontrol.html

Editors and publishers are free to reprint blog articles as long as it is reprinted in its entirety and the signature line remains intact.

ORGANIZATIONAL MYTH #1

Kim Wolinski, MSW
"Dr. DeClutter" www.DrDeClutter.com

Myth: To be organized means to be neat and/or tidy.

Truth: Not so!

It's great to be neat, tidy and organized at the same time.

But, there is also a huge percentage of neat people who are extremely disorganized.

And, there is also a huge percentage of messy people who are very organized! (Count Albert Einstein in that group!)

So, what does it mean to be organized?

To be organized means:You find what you need when you need it and get everything done when it's due.

Keep it simple and enjoy your "space!"

Do you need help with organizing? Along the Front Range of Colorado, I'm here to help you -- "hands on!" If you're not local, I can help you over the phone! Email me at kim@drdeclutter.com or call my office 303-485-5280.

Life's too short to keep stressing over the same old stuff!

SAVE TIME: THE ABC'S OF RUNNING ERRANDS - WITH LESS STRESS!

Kim Wolinski, MSW
"Dr. DeClutter" www.DrDeClutter.com

Getting and staying organized can mean running errands.
There are ways to do this more efficiently and with less stress! Yea!

A. Prepare and Preplan the Two Most Important Items and Organizing Systems
1. Creating an Errand Station in your home. Maybe by the back door, in a closet area or mud room. A place where you can put drycleaning, items for repair, books for the library, notes on a cork board, etc. A "forget-me-not" space!
2. Create a running list of things, your "Errand To Do" List so that as you think of things you jot them down and don't forget! (My mom is the Queen of this list! She taught me well!)

Here are great time savers using your above two systems.

1. Returns: When you buy items that "might" need to be returned, make sure that you keep the receipts and all information together. Check for due dates and past due dates so that you don't create chaos and stress by not being able to return the item.
2. Dry cleaning items: Give them their own "home" and "bag or container" where they all are collected to be taken in fell swoop.
3. Mail: Have all of your outgoing mail ready, stamped and sealed, and/or have the information ready in a stack or put in a file folder with notes as to what each may still need, like copy of a form before sealing and mailing.
4. Make sure to check your "Errand To Do" list as see if there are greeting cards and such that need to be purchased and mailed too while you're at the Post Office.

B. The How To's After Prepared and Preplanned. On the Road Again!
1. Set aside a day and time to take back "returns" to stores; items for repair; pickup and drop-off film/pictures, dry cleaning, kids!
2 If not a day to do this, make it part of your trip to the grocery store or an appointment, even a business appointment, in order not to back track later.
3. Plan your route! There is a pattern to everything. Create the pattern to your errand list so that you don't zig-zag around town and lose time, energy and patience. It's not fun hearing yourself say, "Oh, forget it, I'll just do this later!" Planning your route also means being aware of times that stores, shops, offices and Post Office services are open. (Don't you hate being all prepared and the store is closed?)

C. Your Car the Tactical Center!
1. Make sure to have everything you need in your car for your Errand Trip. Maps, cell phone, all of your "To Do" List items and List, water, energy bar, coupons for eating lunch! and anything you might need for childcare if you have one along.

3 BONUS TIPS!
1. Here's some insider info to help you plan around the "rush hour errand time" of others! According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the worst time to run an errand to the post office or drugstore... is Friday at lunchtime. The most "daily trips" are made on Friday. The fewest daily trips are made on Sunday. More daily trips are taken between noon and 1 p.m. than between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m

2. Remember that "Errand To Do" List? DON'T leave it in your hand after viewing items, you can lose it so easily by just sitting it down to look at something! (I've found them sitting on shelves in stores while on my errand trips!) Create a routine of putting it in your pocket and always know where it is. And, have a pen handy to scratch off the items you've finished... ohhhh, that feels so good doesn't it?!!

3. TIPS For Family and Household Sanity -- show everyone else in your family/household that needs to add to the To Do List where it is and how it works so that there aren't those last minute arguements that sound like, "Why didn't you tell me before we left the store?" It's a good way not to become a martyr and to enjoy yourself and your family more. Another bonus... you're also teaching lifeskills in organizing to others... it's a good thing!

Bottom-line? Plan ahead. Create a system. Stay calm. Have fun!

Life's to short not to live it... fully!

©2004 Kim Wolinski, MSW “Dr. DeClutter”Stress, Change and Organizational Skills Expert

Need help getting your space (house, office, barn, backyard – thoughts, mind, time, schedule, priorities, or life) decluttered and re- organized? My new video “BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN, AND OTHER ORGANIZING TIPS AND TOOLS FROM DR. DECLUTTER” is a great help. You can find out more or order BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN and other products at http://www.redecisionsinstitute.com/kims_store.html

Editors and publishers are free to reprint blog articles as long as it is reprinted in its entirety and the signature line remains intact.

Letting Go With All Your Might -- Loss, Change & Grief

Kim Wolinski, MSW
Dr. DeClutter www.DrDeClutter.com

I have worked with several clients who have lost parents, spouses, siblings, children and friends... through long-term illness, accidents, suicide and other reasons... and now have all their "stuff." Has this happened to you?

Depending on the level of grief you are feeling, organizing, cleaning out and/or getting ready for an estate sale can be more than overwhelming. Many times the articles just stay in the basement, closet, garage, attic or storage unit for months and years before it can be moved.

If you find yourself in a situation like this,
1. Take care of yourself first always. Loss is so very hard sometimes and rushing to get rid of stuff can be a mistake creating regrets and more grief and sadness later.
2. Give yourself time, but not forever. Plan to start the process as soon as you begin to feel better.
3. Ask for support to clean everything out.
4. Ask family to come and go through items and take what they want, or what is disignated to them to help move it out.
5. If you have family and friends who can enjoy the process by honoring the person who has passed on, do so. Have a celebration and remember good times and your loved one.
6. Keep only what really belongs in your space. Too much can be a burden and never really fit in your space, energy and environment.

PLAN AHEAD
If you have parents who are aging and can't take care of everything anymore, or who are close to dying, help them to divide their possessions up by naming, claiming and labeling items for whomever they want to give them to. My grandmother did this and it was a great help to her children. Each one of us grandchildren received items with our names taped to the back or bottom and a little note of the history of the item as well. Great idea!

And...life is for the living. We will all leave the planet someday, and we certainly have no idea exactly when. Unless it's your "curse" on them!... make sure to be kind to your kin and starting organizing and cleaning out now so that they don't end up with overwhelm too!!

Life’s too short to keep dealing with the same piles and heaps – Inside and Out!

This workbook is being used by counselors and therapists with their clients around the world the country. To ORDER Letting Go With All Your Might, A guide to life transitions, change, choices and effective redecisions Workbook, go to http://www.redecisionsinstitute.com/kims_store.html Packed with stories, over 40 exercises, Kim's original 11-Stage ReDecisions Model for Change, over 100 inspiring, funny and thought-provoking quotations and more.

©2006 Kim Wolinski, MSW “Dr. DeClutter”Stress, Change and Organizational Skills Expert

Need help getting your space (house, office, barn, backyard – thoughts, mind, time, schedule, priorities, or life) decluttered and re- organized? My new video “BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN, AND OTHER ORGANIZING TIPS AND TOOLS FROM DR. DECLUTTER” is a great help. You can find out more or order BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN and other products at http://www.redecisionsinstitute.com/kims_store.html

Editors and publishers are free to reprint blog articles as long as it is reprinted in its entirety and the signature line remains intact.

How to Decide What to Let Go Of

Kim Wolinski, MSW

Dr. DeClutter, www.DrDeClutter.com

"People look at my shopping cart, call me crazy 'cause I save this junk. What shall we call the ones who buy it?"

~ Lily Tomlin as “Trudy” the street lady in her one woman show, The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe

MAKE DECISIONS
Clutter is a decision not made. Any and all heaps, piles, etc. are each at least ONE decision not made. Simple isn't it!!

So, it’s time to decide what to toss, pitch, shovel out, move, discard, etc. How?

Pick up one item at a time and ask yourself: “Is this something,

a) I (or someone else if not yours) need?

b) love for sentimental or other reasons?

c) use regularly?

d) Can make money with?" (Think eBay or Garage Sale).

If the answer to these questions is YES, then keep it. If the answer to these questions is NO, it’s time to make a decision to let it go!

Here’s another great tip, TALK TO YOURSELF! Yes, saying what you’re going to do with an item out loud helps to solidify your decisions. Also, if an item brings up grief, anger, fear or other uncomfortable emotions, put it aside and after you’re finished decide to

a) Deal with it straight on, the person or experience it’s connected to, or

b) Get rid of it so that it doesn’t create more stress and “Inner Clutter.”


© 2004 Kim Wolinski, MSW “Dr. DeClutter” is a Professional Organizer based in Longmont, CO. International speaker and author of Letting Go With All Your Might and Keep the Holidays Simple. http://www.redecisionsinstitute.com/kims_store.html

To find out more, or to discuss and schedule a “decluttering” appointment call 303-485-5280. Email: kim@drdeclutter.com or visit www.DrDeClutter.com.

Life’s too short to keep dealing with the same piles and heaps – Inside and Out!

Back to School: Organized and Stress-Free!

Kim Wolinski, MSW
"Dr. DeClutter"
www.DrDeClutter.com

Getting ready for "back to school" days can mean different things to different people. What does it mean to you? If you just responded with fear, anxiety, and stress over hearing the voices of your angels saying, "Mom, where’s my homework?" "Mom, where’s my lunch?" or "Dad, I can’t find my books and helmet," you’re not alone!

I want to help you keep your vow to be more organized and less stressed this year by offering you some preventative medicine, rituals, time savers and other organizing tips to help you and your children enjoy the start of another glorious school year!

Ritual #1: The "Back to School" Declutter Appointment
Enlist the help of everyone and get the house in order before school starts. A good deadline for everyone's room to be spotless is the Sunday night before school starts. Starting off with a clean house, rooms, porch, etc. creates a good sense that this is something new and positive and gives a baseline to how "clean" is supposed to look!

Ritual #2: Make a Fresh Start
No matter what your income, it’s nice for children to have some new clothes (even if they’re only new to them), new supplies, etc. with which to return to school. For some it can mean one or two new pieces of clothing or a pair of shoes, for another it’s a new backpack or office supply that helps them to enjoy studying more. This means organizing closets and drawers to sort out the old and decide on the new. If your child has outgrown last years clothes, again, and they are still nice and wearable, have a yard or porch sale – make some money selling them and use that money to get new ones! The Back To School clothing sales will start soon!

Ask Questions, Find Out Answers
As soon as possible ask your school and your child for a list of what they are going to need and the schedule for everything. Get off to a solid start with all of the right information the first time. This includes necessary supplies, equipment, lunch money, activities fees, sports and other schedules, etc.

School Information Central
Take all of the information from your Q&A and write it on the Family Calendar. This calendar needs to be in the kitchen, by the phone and where everyone can see it and add to it as necessary. Make sure everyone checks it so that there are no double-bookings when they can be avoided. Don’t let the "I didn’t knows" create crises, anger, stress and hurt feelings. If you have room, use a bulletin board where you can post the calendar, schedules, announcements, and invitations where they will not get lost and everyone can see and comment on them. For daily notes, get a dry-erase board for your frig or wall for quick notes that can be wiped off and changed daily.

Systems For Sanity
Teaching your children basic organizing skills and self-responsibility now will make them into much better children and adults. A lot of trees will be cut down just so that your child will be able to bring home lots of paper! One way to curb this chaos is to put a three-tiered wire or plastic basket by their bedroom door, or your kitchen counter.

Teach them to sort through their own backpacks and put papers that need "To Be Signed" by mom/dad in the top basket; another basket for "Important Stuff Mom/Dad Needs" (PTA info., fund-raisers, school policies, etc. Help your child know what these would be); and a basket for "Art & Awards" to be used as scrapbooking ideas and keepers. (Move these items to labeled plastic tubs for organized storage.)

And, set some rules, like, "If it’s not in the top basket by bedtime, it doesn’t get signed that night!" These tools and tips eliminate the last minute papers waving in your face, stress and bad feelings for the day and also gives you time to actually READ what you are signing! Also, make sure that you are on top of doing your part each night to check the files and go through them for your reading, approval and signature. Getting this system down will make a big difference.

Family Meetings
If you haven’t started this tradition yet, it’s never too late. We make schedules and appointments for so many things and for others but often forget to actually sit down, meet with, talk to, listen to and enjoy our own children. Designate one night of the week when everyone can be there, plan an hour or more to discuss and plan the upcoming week and share how school is going so everyone’s on the same page.

Fight-No-More Solutions
Sit down with your family and discuss what your routine arguments and hot spots are each year. Get out paper and pen and have each person help create solutions for pre-determining how to fix it.

Here are some examples.

Pre-Pick Daily Clothes: Stop morning delays and drama by laying out clothes on the bed or a chair the night before.

Bed-Time Blues: Kids need their sleep for better health. So do parents! Stick to a schedule of lights out and up again as well as meal times when the kids are home.

Sleep Routine: "B" above also means getting your child’s sleep-schedules and routines ready for the school year. If they’ve been up late all summer they’re going to need some practice going to bed earlier and getting their minds and bodies ready for the change. At least two weeks before school starts, re-introduce a school year bedtime. Get them started earlier and earlier, closer to the hour they'll need to rise when school begins.

Forgetting Things: No one forgets everything, but maybe certain things. Isolate out the problem areas and get ahead of it.

You will have a "Fight-No-More" list particular to your family, just make sure to sit down together and spend time listening to and helping them to better pre-plan their year; make better choices.
Routine

There’s a general routine to adult jobs and children’s school. The first week's routine can be made as close to a normal school week as possible so that it doesn’t feel overwhelming, or extra stressful, or a let down when it’s over and it’s "back the same grind." This means committing to make the above 7 tips a reality so that the first week runs smoothly. This creates a great path for the following weeks, and less "grind!" Good luck and have a great new Back to School Year!

©2004 Kim Wolinski, MSW “Dr. DeClutter”Stress, Change and Organizational Skills Expert

To find out more, or to discuss and schedule a "decluttering" appointment call 303-485-5280. Sign up for Dr. DeClutter's free newsletter at http://drdeclutter.com/ezine.html .

Need help getting your space (house, office, barn, backyard – thoughts, mind, time, schedule, priorities, or life) decluttered and re- organized? My new video “BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN, AND OTHER ORGANIZING TIPS AND TOOLS FROM DR. DECLUTTER” is a great help. You can find out more or order BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN and other products at http://www.redecisionsinstitute.com/kims_store.html

Editors and publishers are free to reprint blog articles as long as it is reprinted in its entirety and the signature line remains intact.

Life’s too short to keep dealing with the same piles and heaps!

Become a Professional Organizer

If you were born with the "O" gene and love organizing, maybe you should become a Professional Organizer! It takes more than just shoveling out people's closets and drawers, garages and basements. It's a business!

There are several very good resources on the market that will lead you through the process of becoming one.

Here is one! Click here... Becoming a Professional Organizer

Keys to Organize and Simplify Your Life

Kim Wolinski, MSW
Dr. Declutter
www.DrDeClutter.com

Henry David Thoreau said, “Simplify. Simplify.”

To follow his lead, here are two important ways to deal with clutter, get and stay organized and enjoy your life more today.

KEEP IT SIMPLE, LESS IS MORE
Do you have lots of “stuff?” How’s that working for you?

The next time you want to add more stuff to your surroundings,

remember this: 90% of life is maintenance!

Declutter and cull out what are not the special, enjoyable and necessary items surrounding you. Say goodbye to things that don't fit, are out of style, tattered or are unflattering. This goes for clothing, furniture, knick-knacks, and other possessions you're not happy with. Also, let go of pictures and memorabilia that emotionally upset you, make you sad, lonely, relive grief and lock you into the past.

PLAN EACH DAY AHEAD
It is said, “We don’t plan to fail, we fail to plan.”

Spend 10 minutes each night, planning for tomorrow. Make a personal TO DO LIST and get ready items that you’ll need when you awake. You'll be focused and ready to take on the world each morning!

Comedienne Phyllis Diller said, “Cleaning up after kids is like shoveling snow when it’s still snowing!” Organizing is a learned skill, a life-skill. Be a role model, help your children, your family to learn these skills too, and you’ll be in heaven!

Happy Holidays! Kim

©2004 Kim Wolinski, MSW “Dr. DeClutter”Stress, Change and Organizational Skills Expert

It's NEVER too early, or late, to stop another stressful holiday season from stressing you out! My 43-page content packed and idea-rich ebook, Keep the Holidays Simple will give you the permission and plans to make the changes that will help you stay centered, honor your needs and enjoy everyone, no matter what! Order and/or read more at http://www.redecisionsinstitute.com/id19.html

Editors and publishers are free to reprint blog articles as long as it is reprinted in its entirety and the signature line remains intact.

Life’s too short to keep dealing with the same piles and heaps!

Dr. DeClutter's 3 Kinds of Clutter

Dr. DeClutter
www.DrDeClutter.com

There are 3 Kinds of Clutter: Inner, Outer and Other
1. Inner: Emotions, thoughts, opinions, beliefs and perceptions
2. Outer: Material stuff and things in our environment
3. Other: People and boundaries with them

They overlap. Start on one, the others will be affected positively or negatively.
WARNING: Sometimes it gets worse before it gets better!

"The only way out is to go through."
~ Robert Frost

"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will."
~ Vincent T. Lombardi

“All you have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given to you.”
~ Gandalf, Lord of the Rings

"Things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse."
~ Lily Tomlin

ORGANIZING MADE EASY

Kim Wolinski, MSW
"Dr. DeClutter"
www.DrDeClutter.com

Do you need to get organized?
Do you procrastinate doing it?

Most people think getting organized is hard, overwhelming and stressful.

Use these keys to easy organizing and make your life flow again (or for the first time!)

1. Schedule at least 2 hours of uninterrupted time per organizing job to start with.
2. Start in one corner of a room and/or tackle only one drawer, closet shelf or pile at a time.
3. Get out your prep tools: Trash can, recycle box, re-route to other rooms/people box and donation box, file folders, hanging files, labels, pen/marker, dust cloth
4. You might need to purchase containers such as clear tubs of assorted sizes to corral "stuff" in for storage.
5. Make sure to label what you put back for easy finding
6. Get water, a piece of fruit and/or a chocolate bar or protien bar ready at arms length!
7. Dig in!
8. DO NOT LEAVE THE ROOM UNTIL THE TIME IS UP!

If it's too overwhelming, call a friend or family member to help. They can be objective and "toss" things that probably really need to go! And, you have PERMISSION to let things go!

Good luck!

©2004 Kim Wolinski, MSW “Dr. DeClutter”Stress, Change and Organizational Skills Expert

Need help getting your space (house, office, barn, backyard – thoughts, mind, time, schedule, priorities, or life) decluttered and re- organized? My new video “BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN, AND OTHER ORGANIZING TIPS AND TOOLS FROM DR. DECLUTTER” is a great help. You can find out more or order BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN and other products at http://www.redecisionsinstitute.com/kims_store.html

Editors and publishers are free to reprint blog articles as long as it is reprinted in its entirety and the signature line remains intact.