For Kids and Grown Ups

A friend shared with me that she implemented a new chore system for her kids so our family discussed it and did it too!

As a child I learned nothing about the value of money, money management or saving and charitable donations. I had and still have amazing work ethic so earning has rarely been a challenge, but having a responsible relationship with money has been an issue.

The chore system teaches responsibility for maintaining an organized home, work ethic, the value of a task or job, responsibility for reporting work activity, the idea of taxation, charity and savings.
Each task is given a value and is tracked throughout the week. On Sunday the children calculate earnings on the chore chart. They put 10% into a charitable donation jar and 15% into savings; all of this is calculated by the children prior to bringing it to me to be paid. This serves well to teach them that when you receive a paycheck you will have deductions; whether for taxes, 401K or other reasons. They get use to the idea that the full amount is not usually received on the spot.

So when you ask “How can I get organized” this is a fantastic way to get the whole family involved in keeping the home in order.

We sat as a family and brainstormed all the things that need to be done around the house and made a list; feed the cat, feed the dog, set the table, make lunches, sweep the patio, just to name a few. We then let the children take turns choosing the chores they want on their list so they are doing what they want to do and feel empowered by the process.
Think about breaking tasks down to keep things in order. If you can’t pay for chores then work as a family to decide what the reward will be.

Happy Organizing!

Whether local or long distance, a move can toss everything into the air and things don’t always fall where we like.

I moved this year, I’ve moved a lot in my life and have usually done well with it. As an organized person I can manage a great deal of the stress by being prepared and having things planned; packed, labeled and a plan for where things go helps. A list of address updates and minimizing the change in routine keeps things from feeling too overwhelming.

I moved this year, 1 mile away, in with my boyfriend. I packed and labeled and prepared and I felt completely overwhelmed – that’s the truth. Granted there were other big events happening in my life, family related, so there’s some cross over of overwhelm – but overwhelmed is the truth.

I felt bad about these feelings for a while and slowly let myself off the hook, I may be organized but I’m human first and foremost. Change is challenging, big changes can bring big challenges.

I gave myself permission to be overwhelmed and not deal so well – with less energy going towards beating myself up I have been able to focus on getting back on track and feeling better.

It’s so important that we be kind to ourselves in the midst of change; big or small. The stress won’t be bettered by beating ourselves up. Be kind to you with all the change you may be going through!

When traffic is moving along and we can see a little way down the highway we’re good but enter delay, stop and go and the inability to see what is ahead and tension rises.

Humans, for the most part, like predictability. There is a slice of population who thrive on adventure but for the most part we take comfort in routine and organization.

When we know where to go and what time to be there we feel better; when we know where things go we can easily get them back and keep our space clean which keeps the stress level down.

Calendars and planners can be great tools for keeping your schedule on track and preserving predictability; whether electronic or paper. Don’t wait for the new year to implement plans to keep yourself organized.

Paper calendars are great for the tactile person who likes to see and feel their schedule. Electronic calendars are perfect if you need to syncronize with other calendars or other associates.

Set yourself up for success – know where you’re going each day and keep the road smooth so that if you should get stuck in traffic temporarily or lose site of where you’re going you wont’ feel stressed out – just consult the calendar!

Here are a few tips to help:

1. Schedule – whether it’s on a poster board or family calendar, write down what you’re doing and what needs to be done along with it (e.g. laundry, trash, bill pay, activities, and appointments). This can shine a light on an overscheduled life and allow for some “No’s” here and there. It is ok to say “we are not available”. You don’t have to say why.

2. NO CLUTTER ZONE – have at least one place in the house that is clutter free; bathroom, back patio, master bedroom or any other room. If you have a place to go when you are overwhelmed you can benefit greatly by being still and quiet if even for 3 minutes.

3. Get help – get your family on board with projects big and small. In 15 minutes a family team can tackle a drawer, a closet or the car. Set the time and get ‘er done. If family isn’t the solution enlist a friend to help keep you on track and reach your goal.

4. Simplify – Look at your life; physical, mental, spiritual, relationships – everything and decide what you can let go of. Think about the things that weigh you down, feel into what steals your energy, pay attention to people who take without giving and decide if it all still works for you.
Be willing to see that you have created the life you have. Is it working for you or are you ready to shift how you live.

Kelli Wilson is the author of The Clutter Breakthrough – Your Five-Step Solution to Freedom from Clutter Forever. She is a professional speaker and Clutter Breakthrough expert.

Clearing the closet can be a challenging task for anyone but especially us girls. Here are a few tips for going through the closet:

1. Worn, torn or tattered – If something looks work out chances are so will you when you ear it…let it go. Tears that cannot be repaired should be tossed with the item of clothing and tattered edges (unless they are made that way) should be let go.

2. Too big, too small – It’s ok to keep a size up or down if you tend to fluxuate in your weight but if it’s much more than that let it go – live in the moment and live into the clothes you have today.

3. Out of date – my client jokes about her “old lady” phase and she has some stuff she let go of that aged her. Clothes can give your age plus 10 years if you chose to be aged by your clothes. On the other hand consider age appropriate items that flatter but don’t reveal too much. Enlist and honest friend to help with this.

4. Use to look good – if you hear yourself talk about your clothes in the past tense stop and listen; if it use to fit, use to feel good, use to be in style, use to look better consider the “use to” and send it away.

You are worth looking and feeling great in your clothes

Clutter that has taken over our lives and sucked the energy out of us could have anger, frustration and especially tears directed at it. These are healthy emotions that need to be felt to help move through them. If we aren’t feeling we’re stuck so, by all means, feel.

Feel sad for the box of photos and letters that belong to a recently lost loved one. Feel sad for the loss of a job or business whose remains still over take a room in your home. Feel sad for the loss of your home which now means all your stuff is crammed into storage or a small apartment.

Feel sad, I mean really feel it, and then decide what you need to do to move forward.

Feel angry that someone else is filling your shared space with clutter; feel angry that your best employee quit leaving your office a mess. Feel angry that you lost your loved one to cancer and you are left to liquidate the estate.

Feel angry and then decide what you need to do to move forward.

Feel frustrated that as much as you try to keep your day on track you still feel like you’re a day behind. Feel frustrated that you keep trying to stay ahead of the toddlers in your home but cannot. Feel frustrated that you are paying late fees because you just can’t seem to keep you paperwork in order.

Feel frustrated and then decide what you need to do to move forward.

As a professional organizer I have seen this in a majority of my client engagements. A client is often overwhelmed and stuck; and beating themselves up about it until, that is, I find out that they just experienced one or more of the following events; death of a loved one, new baby, new home, lost a home, got married, got divorced just to name a few. This is when the beating stops and we get to work.

More often than not I come in contact with clients who are experiencing or have dealt with many of these life happenings simultaneously.

The first and most critical step in helping people get back on track is to get them to cut themselves some slack. Recognize that the pace of life, in general, has picked up and that we need to be kind to ourselves.

Next, determine realistic goals for what needs to be done; complete overhaul or fine tuning. Some clients just tend to need support to get a game plan and get started, others want side by side support.

Finally, follow through support to make sure the client reaches their goals and not only feels better about the space but better about where they are.

Remember, loss or gain, it’s change and if we resist change too much we can make the transition difficult to navigate which may get us stuck. Go with the flow, cut yourself some slack, set reasonable goals and ask for help. Sounds simple but for some, it can be tough.
You can do it!

More than ever before the term “clothes make the man” (and woman), we create an impression in the world by the clothes we wear; we can appear refined, sloppy, just out of bed, wealthy, self assured or frumpy. We can often lose who we really are behind the clothes we wear if we stop paying attention to ourselves.

I’ve been in many overstuffed closets discerning what people say about their clothes, “I use to look great in that.” Let it go. “I love that and it still fits.” Keep it. “Oh, that’s where that was.” The jury is still out.

If you love it, if it fits great and you feel good in it then it earns a place in the coveted closet space. It it’s worn out, doesn’t fit, pinches, pulls or cuts off circulation consider eviction to make room for something that loves being on your body.

Shoes? Well, that’s a whole other blog post and a passion for this organizer, like many women, so stay tuned for another post on shoes!

Click one the links to see previous posts in this blog series! We’ve talked about books, photos, greeting cards & letters, crafts, baby stuff, paperwork, kid’s artwork, and taxes.

Kelli Wilson is the author of The Clutter Breakthrough – Your Five-Step Solution to Freedom from Clutter Forever. She is a professional speaker and Clutter Breakthrough expert.

I remember growing up with stuffed animals, each with a name and personality; how difficult it was to part with them. Then movies like Toy Story add to the challenge by crawling inside our hearts and making us believe that toys feel the same love for us as we do for them.

So, today my focus is not on tossing toys but rather encouraging them to venture out and find another child to love – there are so many kids who need love and what better way to serve in our world than to send toys out of your playroom into another!

Wouldn’t Buzz and Woody agree???

You can use positive works and assumptive language to help kids “release” toys that are cluttering up the house and their rooms. Try these examples:

“Today we are going to choose 5 toys to give to children who don’t have toys to play with” hold the bag open and let the children put the toys in. Put them immediately out of site – in the truck and to the donation center that day or the next morning.

“Today we are going to choose our 3 favorite art project kits to keep out and play with” the rest go into the closet and get taken out only to replace one of the three that get discarded, gifted or donated
To see the other posts in this series click on the links below.

Click one the links to see previous posts in this blog series! We’ve talked about books, photos, greeting cards & letters, crafts, baby stuff, paperwork, kid’s artwork, and taxes.

Kelli Wilson is the author of The Clutter Breakthrough – Your Five-Step Solution to Freedom from Clutter Forever. She is a professional speaker and Clutter Breakthrough expert.

Kids, at least mine, tend to do very well when they know what’s expected of them and what the plan is.

We have chore charts that outline each child’s chores for the week with a place for them to check off what they have completed. My kids love this; we discussed what chores needed to be done around our house and we ALL made choices about what each child would do. This is our chore chart. This is a great and easy tool – each Sunday I put a new one on the fridge and our week is ready.

We also sit down and decide what our weekly meal plan is; taking into consideration my work schedule, baseball schedule, girl scout schedule or other activities. Each child cooks one night (they are 7 and 10); top ramen to tuna casserole, it’s all good. When we make our menu we make our grocery list and on Saturday or Sunday we get what we need for the week. This keeps us out of the drive through and keeps me from shopping for things I don’t need which always saves money.

Check out my Weekly Menu & Chore Chart

Kelli Wilson is the author of The Clutter Breakthrough – Your Five-Step Solution to Freedom from Clutter Forever. She is a professional speaker and Clutter Breakthrough expert.

Does any of this sound familiar?

Here’s what we did. I applied two element of my profession to help move her through without doing it for her.

First: Break it down. Her report called for eight separate elements of study with a paragraph for each plus the opening and closing paragraphs. With four days until it’s due we divide the elements by 4 and determined she needed to do two paragraphs a day plus the opening and closing paragraph. Whew! Bite sized pieces that she can easily do.

If you know you only have to do two paragraphs rather than ten wouldn’t you feel better too!? Whenever you can, break things down so you can concentrate on the task at hand.

Second: Body Doubling. This simply means sitting with someone while they work so as to help ground them. A technique often used with ADHD clients, body doubling helped my daughter by supporting her to stay focused. Even though she is not ADHD body doubling still calmed and aided her progress. Body doubling is not doing the work for someone, in fact, rarely do either party speak to each other; it’s simply the act of grounding energy.

These were simple steps to support my daughter and she gets her smile back rather than freaking out about the report. Actually she got everything done with time to spare by taking the overwhelming feeling out of it and making it a little more lighthearted so her creative energy was still first and academically she met all the requirements!

I encourage you to think about these simple techniques if you feel overwhelmed.

Kelli Wilson is the author of The Clutter Breakthrough – Your Five-Step Solution to Freedom from Clutter Forever. She is a professional speaker and Clutter Breakthrough expert.

Recordkeeping: What to Keep and What to Toss

Once you’ve filed your 2010 tax return, you may wonder what records you need to keep and how long you need to keep them. Here are some recordkeeping guidelines that will help you keep important papers and minimize the clutter.

* TAX RECORDS. Keep tax returns (and any records used to prepare them) for at least three years after you file the return if you have only W-2 and interest income, preferably seven years if your returns are more complex. That’s because the IRS can audit your return for up to three years after it’s filed – up to six years if you underreport income.

If you own property or businesses in more than one state, check the statute of limitations in each state since some are longer than the federal statute. Save copies of the tax returns themselves permanently because you might need information in the returns for other purposes.

* HOMEOWNER AND PERSONAL RECORDS. Keep homeowner records (deeds, escrow statements, mortgage and title papers, etc.) at least seven years after your home sells. For household purchases and home repairs, keep receipts and cancelled checks for the warranty period of the item. Before you toss insurance policies, check with your agent. Generally, you’ll want to hold insurance policies for the life of the policy plus three years.

* INVESTMENTS. Keep monthly or quarterly investment statements until you receive the year-end summary. Save year-end statements and ownership papers until you liquidate the investment, plus seven years. Retain annual reports for IRAs and other retirement plans permanently.

* OTHER RECORDS. Important records, including vehicle titles, wills, trust documents, insurance policies, contracts, and birth and marriage certificates, should be kept in a safe place. An inventory of your valuable property, along with photographs or a video, should be made and kept current in the event your house is robbed, damaged, or destroyed.

If you have questions about retaining records, contact our office at (916) 788-7278 or email me at karen@karenpeakcpa.com.

Kelli Wilson is the author of The Clutter Breakthrough – Your Five-Step Solution to Freedom from Clutter Forever. She is a professional speaker and Clutter Breakthrough expert.