Organize 365® Podcast

Today on the podcast, I want to help you with the skills it takes to change your thinking. In the eight years of Organize 365, I have learned so much about the MINDSET of organization. The transformation from disorganization to organization happens first in your mind. The way you actually become organized is to change your thoughts. 

First, you have to believe you are capable of becoming organized. Spoiler: organization is a learnable skill, and anyone can learn to become organized (it just takes longer for some of us!). Every single person listening to this podcast is capable of having an organized life. But, the skills needed can be different depending on your phase of life and generation. I want you to have new thoughts and see just how capable of being organized you truly are. 

Second, you need confidence in your skills and your organizational journey. This podcast is designed to give you confidence each and every week. I am a motivational teacher, I want to inspire you to action. From listening to the podcast, your thoughts become organized and your physical reality follows - you will see the changes in your home and that will build your confidence.

Finally - action is the outcome. Once you have the capability and confidence to pursue organization, you will take the action necessary to manifest an organized life. In the podcast today, I explain all of this in more detail, and then give you several examples of how you develop capability and grow your confidence and move into action in all different kinds of life experiences.

I hope this podcast continues to provide the instruction you need to keep moving along your transformational journey. 

PS - Are you ready to take the first step? Everyone needs to start with the Sunday Basket ®. That will give you the foundation you need to manage your most basic organization needs and starts your mind on learning the skills of being organized. 

If you have your Sunday Basket ® system in place (and you are using it!), join us for the next round of the 100 Day Home Organization Program. We begin again on Monday January 6th. It’s not too late and we’d love to have you join us in this lifetime membership program!

Direct download: Org365-315.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Welcome to our newest Wednesday Transformational Journey Podcast. I wanted to give each of you a gift this week to celebrate the Christmas holiday. My special little Christmas gift to you is my conversation with my younger sister Emily. Emily is our Director of Marketing and has been a huge asset to our Dream Team.

In today’s conversation, Emily shares her 10 year challenge. We are going to look at the last 10 years, and 10 years ago with the last Christmas we got to share with our Dad before he passed away. Emily still lives in our hometown, and is 10 minutes from our childhood home. Our parents divorced later in life, and along with the 2008/2009 economy definitely left her with some challenges. Emily lost her job, is a single woman with a mortgage, and almost lost her home. 

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday.

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

 

Direct download: Org365-EmilyK.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Today on the podcast, I want to talk to you about why you are not as disorganized as you think you are. There are three things going on:

  1. You are overwhelmed.
  2. You don’t know where to start. 
  3. You don’t recognize the progress you are making.

I break down each of these and help you analyze them. I walk you through your thoughts and to find solutions for these issues. I want you to see where you are having success being organized, and I give you ways to get better at the other parts. Listen in to see how you can keep working on your organizational journey.

PS - If you want to try the 100 Day Home Organization Program before you buy, we have a FREE WEEK you can do as a trial. We give you access to the Laundry Room week videos, website pages, and printables from the planner.

Direct download: Org365-314.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Today, you will get to hear from a member of the Organize 365 Dream Team. Michelle P is our customer service specialist. She is the person who answers your emails, helps you find the right place to start getting organized, and manages our Organize 365 Facebook Group. Michelle is single, and lives with her mother in Boston. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do! 

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday.

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

 

Direct download: Org365-MichelleP.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Today on the podcast, I ask an important question, and I share my answers. What are you tolerating? What are all the things in your life that are broken or need maintenance? What have you been meaning to fix or address that just has not made it to your priority list to get done?

Listen in as I share about four major life areas where you may be tolerating things that you can address. I share my own experiences and stories, and I provide some of the solutions I have found that work. 

-What are you tolerating in your physical space (your home)?

-What are you tolerating in your family dynamics?

-What are you tolerating in your emotional well being and relationships?

-What are you tolerating in your free time?

As we head into 2020, think about these areas of your life. If you find that you want to make changes, make a plan. Figure out what you want to be different, and begin to change your life. I am here to help, and would love to hear from you!

Direct download: Org365-313.mp3
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Direct download: Org365-242Th.mp3
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Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

 

Today, Nancy A shares her journey of getting organized. Nancy and I go off script and skip most of the questions I usually ask the guests who share their transformations. Nancy was a client of mine back when I did in home professional organizing. We know each other well, so she has a very different perspective on the Lisa experience! I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do! 

  

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday.

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-NancyA.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

On the podcast today, I have the most interesting conversation with Eve Rodsky. We talk about the different tasks involved in running a home and keeping a family functioning. Eve spent several months capturing many of the tasks that people (women especially) take on in their families, and she focused on the ones that are especially invisible or “unnecessary.” 

Eve Rodsky has recently written a book (with a card game) that captures 100 tasks involved in running a home. Her book is called Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live). She helps the adults in the house identify their values and to make sure that the division of labor works for them (and EVERY family needs to find their unique balance). 

When dividing up the tasks, Eve explains the different parts of “owning” the task from start to finish: conception, planning, and execution. Spoiler: this explains why your husband brings home the “wrong” mustard and feels like he “can’t get anything right.” There is a system to help build trust and skills to support the home and family. 

As part of these concepts, Eve also explains different models that women use to understand their roles and which tasks they should have ownership of in order to have a fair division of labor at home, especially when considering gender. Women can be Intentional Traditionalists, New Superwoman, Accidental Traditionalist, and The Collaborator. Make sure you listen in so you can evaluate where you are today, and where you would like to go. 

We also get to talk about how getting your home organized gives you more time, and how you then need to figure out what to do with your time. Having a disorganized home can really function as a buffer or form of procrastination to avoid facing the hard questions about what you are called to do in life. Eve talks about how our culture shows us how to get to and through our first child’s baby shower, but then leaves us to figure out the rest of life without signposts or milestones. We talk about how to stay interested in our own lives. We share our perspectives to figure out how to still have a passion and choose things that interest us and are interesting. 

I cannot do the work for you in understanding all the tasks of your home, or in having the difficult conversations with the people you love. However, I do want you to know that you have choices about how to divide the labor of your home. I want you to figure out your unique gift and contribution to the world. For extra fun, make sure you stick around to the end to hear about Eve’s thinking on unicorn space and how to find it with the help of their spiritual friends.

Direct download: Org365-312.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Today, Maggie L shares her journey of getting organized. Maggie is the primary breadwinner while her husband stays at home with their two children (ages 9 and 4). Maggie shares how it took a long time to finally get started on her organizing journey. However, when her golden window showed up (after being let go from her job), she jumped in with both feet. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do! 

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday.

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-MaggieL.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

So… have you heard I have a traditionally published book scheduled to come out in August of 2020? I am planning a book tour to come see as many of you as possible. I want to go everywhere you are, and share hugs. I get to plan every day of this book tour, and I want to reach out to ask you to join in, help me, and celebrate with me. 

The book tour will kick off at Embrace (June 26-28, 2020, in West Chester, Ohio). I am already planning all kinds of surprises for you! 

I need your help in planning a year long Lisa Book Tour - September 2020 to May 2021 in the US. (For my international friends, the book is currently also scheduled to be published in Canada and the United Kingdom with details to come later. I am also hoping to come visit you!)

I want to learn about you and your hometown. If you are willing to help with ideas and connections for the book tour, here is my wish list:

  • Location - what is the best way to get to and around your hometown?
  • Book Signings - where can we get together to do a book signing?
  • Media Connections - please share any connections or recommendations for media (TV, radio, or print)
  • Speaking Events - please share any connections for conventions, events, or other opportunities where the Organize 365 message would be helpful
  • Corporate or Brand Connections - if there is a product or service that is headquartered in your hometown, I love to meet people in person and build community
  • YouTubers or Podcasters that share your home city 
  • Any other person, business, or community connection where the Organize 365 message would benefit the audience.  Especially if you can introduce or connect us

One of the things I am looking forward to about this trip is getting to see so many different parts of the United States. Every town and city will be different and I am excited to meet all of you and learning about the places you call home. I also want to keep making connections. No matter how far you have (or have not yet) gotten in your organizing journey, I’d love for you to connect me with other people where I can add value. 

Anytime you take on a big project like this or take action toward a dream, you do not have to know every step. You just have to know the first step. I have the book written and a publisher, so now the next step is to see how together we can share steps along our organizing journey.

Direct download: Org365-311.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! I love sharing these transformations women experience during their organizing journeys!
 
Today, Jessica E shares her journey of getting organized. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. Jessica is married with 4 kids and navigating the journey of getting educational needs diagnosed and addressed. She has been able to transform her home and family. She now has more time and energy to help her family heal and thrive. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do!
 
On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!
 
I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at organize365.com/wednesday.
 

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket ®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

Direct download: Org365-JessicaE.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Today on the podcast, I want to teach you how I ditched my long to do lists and every single thing I ever want to do ends up on index cards (notecards). I have shared bits and pieces of my system in Instastories and on some of my Facebook lives before, but today I want to share the WHOLE system with you.  

 

Listen in to hear:

  1. How I used to make long to do lists on legal pads and filled up notebooks, and why that that NEVER worked for me.
  2. The DETAILS of the process I use to record each to do or thought I have on an index card. I’ll tell you what to write, where to put the index card, and how it is SO much more effective to make a non to do list to do list. (Say that 3 times fast!)
  3. How I go from all of those individual thoughts and index cards to a single index card with my daily plan.

 

If you are struggling to keep track of your many different to dos, if you keep finding old to do lists that never got done, or if you just want to improve your planning and productivity, this episode is for you! I have been able to make such incredible improvements in my productivity since I have switched to this system, and I want you to be able to do the same. 

 

And, if you STILL have unanswered questions after today, please send me an email and I might do a follow up episode. As a teacher, I know if one person ASKS a question, probably several of you had the same question! 

 

PS - I hope you were able to join me the week of November 11th for the Holiday Blitz. We looked at the memory filled time from Thanksgiving through New Years and identified our priorities. We planned ahead for where to spend our valuable time, money, and energy to best take care of ourselves and our families during this busiest time of the year. It’s not too late to join us and have your best holiday season yet. You can register to get your free printables. And, the Holiday Blitz videos are now available on the Organize 365 YouTube channel for FREE!

PPS - You can also follow me on Instagram to see how I use my index cards!

Direct download: Org365-310.mp3
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Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast!

Today, Diane A shares her journey of getting organized. Diane lives with her husband and three children (and two guinea pigs). Diane grew up with parents who saved EVERYTHING and shares how she was able to get her home organized in time to host a family reunion. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do!

On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at organize365.com/wednesday.

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket ®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

Direct download: Org365-DianeA.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Today on the podcast, I want to answer questions that have been submitted about how to get organized with ADHD for both adults and children. I do start with a review of different executive functions. I want to be sure you hear me clearly - no one has perfect executive functioning. So, I want to share different ways you can adjust your mindset and behaviors to make progress on your organization journey.

Here is my best hint: consistency beats everything. Simple things done consistently over time will result in real, lasting changes in your life, home, and organization. If you fall off the wagon, or break your streak, just start again. Keep going. 

I start with telling you about different medications, supplements, over the counter, and support techniques I use for myself and my children. One that was Joey’s favorites was Alpha Brain Supplements

Listen in as I answer the following questions:

  • How do you get a routine going when you can’t stay consistent? 
  • How do I not get so overwhelmed so that I do nothing?
  • How do I stay focused?
  • How do you overcome out of sight is out of mind?
  • I have a 14 year old girl who never sticks with a system. Everything is always disorganized!
  • How do you maintain everything in its place? That’s so boring!
  • How do you get started when you do not want to do it, and the project looks overwhelming?
  • I am consistently inconsistent. Help!
  • How would you organize a student with ADHD?
  • How do you stay on task? 
  • Where do you start when getting organized?
  • Kids’ spaces are always disorganized. What should I do?
  • I’m overwhelmed because I have a very messy space. How do you move forward when your brain shuts down?
  • How do I learn to delegate?

I teach some different ways to deal with these issues and help you along your organizational journey!

I love to answer your questions. If you have another topic or questions you would like to have me answer, please email me - lisa [at] organize365 [dot] com. 

Did you miss the Holiday Blitz? You are not too late! Head over to the Organize 365 Facebook group or IGTV to watch the videos from this week and download the printable workbook at organize365.com/blitz.

Direct download: Org365-309.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast as women just like you share their transformations along their organizing journey.

Today, Ryan L shares her journey of getting organized. Ryan has been following Organize 365 for a while. She shares her home with a husband (who travels a lot), 2 sons in high school (and occasionally sees the son in college), and 2 cats. Ryan is passionate about protecting the earth and shares quite a bit about her preference for buying used and ensuring her discards find appropriate homes. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do!

On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community.

If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at organize365.com/wednesday.

Direct download: Org365-RyanL.mp3
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Recently, I’ve been talking about how learning to get organized is based in meeting different levels of needs and by being exposed to different teaching techniques. This week on the podcast, I want to move from theory to practice. I want to talk to you about some specific ways to fit organizational behaviors into your schedule. I want to move you beyond a certain way to fold shirts and, instead, help you to change your behavioral habits. These habits make up 80% of our actions everyday, and we must PLAN and WORK to create change.

Big change over time comes from changing little habits on a regular basis. When I teach, I think hearing about real people in real situations is super helpful in applying information. So, I answer your question about irregular, unpredictable schedules. I also answer a listener question about being in the accumulation and survival stages at the same time (and I talk about both time and your space for this question). A third question addresses being organized when working two jobs and going to school.

I will also send you back to some of my prior podcasts where I explore these changes in detail and give you much more information. Here are some other podcasts I have recorded that also help answer these questions and you can apply to working towards changing your habits and behaviors:

I hope this helps kick off some new habits for you! I would love to hear from you on Instagram or on Facebook

PS - If you are enjoying the Organize 365 Podcast, I'd appreciate it if you can leave a rating or review. It helps other people find us. 

Direct download: Org365-308.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast!

Stacy is the mom of 2 teenagers and AND 2 under 5 years old. She and her husband downsized from 2300 to 1400 square feet AND cleaned out 2 storage units. With little kids, she explains how she benefits from cycling through the 100 Day Program as her little kids keep growing and changing. She also shares how she was able to combine two households full of furniture and stuff by working through the 100 Day Program. AND, she shares about how she and her husband worked on getting organized together. She also shares her experience with the Kids Program if you want to hear some more about that! I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do!

On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at organize365.com/wednesday.

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

Direct download: Org365-StacyW.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Last week, we talked about the ways in which you need to take care of your physical and safety needs before you can get organized. Today on the podcast, we will talk about how you actually learn the skills of organization. 

Edgar Dale was an educator who studied the different methods teachers used to deliver a lesson, and he quantified how much a student could be expected to recall based on the approach the teacher used. The way you get information directly affects how much you retain. The retention does vary by individual learner as well, so it is helpful to learn how YOU best learn. 

Lessons can be delivered as reading, hearing, seeing, video (hearing and seeing), saying (teaching back), and saying while doing (experiential learning). I share with you how I analyzed this information and applied it to different places I have taught - as a classroom teacher, as the Sunday Basket ® instructor, and as the owner of Organize 365 while onboarding new staff members.

Organization is a learnable skill. The only way you cannot get organized, is if I fail to teach you. My job is to figure out how to correctly teach the skills of organization. I am continually working to learn better ways to teach, motivate, inspire, and help you meet your goal of getting organized.   

I offer 3 different levels of courses in getting organized.

You can start with the Sunday Basket ®.

Then you can join the 100 Day Home Organization Program.

Finally, you can get your whole life organized in All Access

I continue to make improvements, enhancements, and additions to help you get organized. These programs work because we have included every single learning strategy that Edgar Dale recommended. And, if you need even more personalized help, you can find a Sunday Basket ® Certified Workshop Organizer near you.

Direct download: Org365-307.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast!

Today, Amelia L shares her journey of getting organized.  Amelia has been married for 17 years and has five kids. She helped to care for her mother after she had an injury and is also beginning to homeschool one of her children. Amelia stays at home full time and shares many twists and turns along her journey towards getting organized. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do!

On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at organize365.com/wednesday.

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket ®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get organized!

Direct download: Org365-AmeliaL.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

As you go deeper into your organizing journey, you will find that things are empty. You may find empty shelves, empty cabinets, and empty space on your calendar. As you look for something to fill these spaces, you should consider the different kinds of human needs that benefit from being addressed. Maslow’s theory looks at these different kinds of needs as a pyramid, and I have found benefit from spending extra time and energy on each level at different times. 

I love to learn new things and apply them to the process of getting organized. Today, I want to introduce you to Abraham Maslow and his theory about the hierarchy of needs.

In the podcast, I explain and apply the 5 levels of human needs to different phases of the year and unexpected events. I explain how these different kinds of needs change as our lives cycle through different seasons. I want to help you spend more time in the highest levels so that you can live out your unique gift and share it with the world. 

 

Finally, I share how Planning Day before each new round of the 100 Day Home Organization Program helps you to review and revise how you will meet each level of need during the upcoming trimester. I want to help you move to a mindset where you can pursue your personal esteem and self-actualization needs without guilt. 

 

Understanding where you are in your organizational journey will help you take the next right step for you. Tag me in your Instagram post and tell me what your next step is!

Direct download: Org365-306.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast!

Today, Anna G shares her story of getting organized. She lost her mom to cancer in 2013, right when her first child is born. She grew up with lots of stuff, and it took a while for her to find her organizing groove. As her kids grow up, she is regularly evaluating and re-organizing the house. We celebrate her progress, not perfection today. She also shares her experience with the Kids Program if you want to hear some more about that! I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do!

On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at organize365.com/wednesday.

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

Direct download: Org365-AnnaG.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Today on the podcast, I want to share with you how I stay calm in chaos. I recently experienced two major unexpected events. One was an emergency, the other was not. However, they both happened at the same time and required me to completely rearrange my schedule.

When the unexpected happens, your priorities often shift quickly. Being organized and having time to think through how to deal with unexpected events has helped me change how I approach chaotic situations. Not every unexpected event or situation is fixable, but being organized means there is more margin to think and decide before reacting.

When I was disorganized, I had many tasks and projects crying out for my attention. I also often felt sorry for myself and I looked for more attention by complaining. As I got organized, I learned how to be a better problem solver. I also was able to shift my focus so I work deeper and faster on fewer active projects. 

This podcast will show you how I changed my mindset, and will give you some ideas for changing yours. I hope I can help you move from reactive to proactive and to find the margin that comes from a more organized life.

Direct download: Org365-305.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast!

Today, Rachel M shares her journey of getting organized. Rachel M was widowed 3 years ago and continues to raise her 2 teenagers. She’s a rebel  updating her home to reflect her current family arrangement. She’s in school working on her paralegal training and figuring out life as a single mom. She also shares her meal planning ideas for visually focused people. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do!

On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at organize365.com/wednesday.

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-RachelM.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast!
 
Jennifer B is a woman who has worked outside the home and then stayed home with her children. She is moving towards an empty next and redesigning an updated home for her next phase of life. She has recently lost her father and dealt with his lifetime of accumulated research. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do!
 
On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!
 
I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at organize365.com/wednesday. 

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-JenniferB.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

For today’s podcast, I want to bring you a new way of looking at personal growth. I believe strongly in helping all women find what they are uniquely created to do. I am not about pursuing a vision of perfection, but I DO want you to look at your habits, decisions, and goals. I want you to get your home and paper organized so you have the capacity to pursue your own unique purpose.

This podcast looks at the evolution of my desk and office as a way to share how I have experienced growth and change in my own life. I have had many different roles as a woman, and the different desks that I have used as I run the business of Organize 365 have changed with me. 

I share the practical and tactical decisions and changes I have made in my desks as my life has changed. As a business woman, I think sharing the real story of how I have grown this business can be helpful to you as you face changes in your own life. Listen in as I share where I have been, where I am going, and how YOU can take the next steps to change your own life.

Just for fun, if you want to see a VERY OLD post and pictures about how my desk has grown and changed, you can find it here

Direct download: Org365-303.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast!

 
Today, Michele V shares her journey of getting organized. She is a high school teacher in Wisconsin. She lives alone in a house, and has customized the 100 Day Home Organization Program to her life and schedule. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do!
 
On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!
 
I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at organize365.com/wednesday.
 

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-MicheleV.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

We have spent the last 2 months talking about how to get more done, and how to free up time to focus on your life goals. But, as productive as I am, I cannot work all of the time. Today, I want to help you understand how I make time to rejuvenate so that I can keep working hard on my business.

Social media shows us self care as girls’ weekends, spa days, or expensive salon days. So often, self care is shown as “getting away” from all of the people and places we work so hard to care for. For me, I focus on the things that fill me up, leave me feeling cared for, and energize me. 

Today, I want to teach you about how I select self-care activities. Most of the self-care ideas I share cost $5 or less. I know how hard it can be to take care of yourself when you are pulled in many directions (especially with children) or don’t have tons of extra money to splurge.

Spoiler alert - if you have been following me for even one week, you know I take a bath nearly every evening. The bath helps me to unwind, get away, and decompress. But, I also share several other simple, inexpensive, and relatively easy ways to focus on restoring yourself. 

Self care can be anything that you do for you. Things that make you feel good about yourself and how you present yourself. They are the things that fill you up. Please share your own self care tips and ideas (especially frugal ones) with our community. 

I'd love to hear what YOU do for your self care. Please share with me online.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/Organize365/

Instagram - @organize365

Direct download: Org365-302.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. On Wednesdays, we will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply here. I promise, I’m not scary and it’s just us talking!

Today, Bridget W shares her journey of getting organized. She is the mom of 2 boys and the owner of several goats. She went from disorganized to all in and has joined us as a Sunday Basket Certified Workshop Organizer. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. 

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-BridgetW.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

It’s time to FINISH!

This week, I want to talk about FINISHING. In our current, crazy lives, we often struggle to accomplish the things we start. Having so many open projects increases the clutter in our homes and our brains. As we head towards the end of the calendar year, I want you to direct your effort into finishing what you have started. 

In order to finish, I want to encourage you to keep working on your current organizing project until it is done. This is not a chance to beat yourself up for failing at perfection, but I do want you to feel like your project or area is finished. I definitely do want you to feel like you have accomplished your task with a sense of excellence. 

I want to give you permission to take the time you need to follow all the way through and complete your project. I want you to keep working and do the things that make your house into a home for you and your family. You do not need to keep up with anyone else’s timeline. Just keep working on YOUR area.

Small, consistent steps will add up over time. As long as you keep moving towards your vision, you are making progress, and that is enough to celebrate. If you want to work on your laundry room organization for this, we offer a FREE trial week of the 100 Day Home Organization Program. 

As you have the tools to get organized and actually see your progress, you will get more motivated. This will lead to a desire to spend more time getting your home organized. I recommend that you follow your organization energy and keep working on your selected area to finish your decluttering and organizing. The 100 Day Program is a lifetime membership and will be available as you can work on it. You cannot be behind when you are organizing! 

I also include important information about identifying your own organizing energy and preferred style for approaching organizing. I help you figure out how to make bigger time blocks to spend getting organized if that is something you desire. And, I give you blatant permission to plan to neglect some of the tasks that are currently filling up your schedule. Finally, I help you to see how finishing one project can lead to getting your next thing done faster, and how the final result is growing your productivity for your whole life.

Episode 243 - How to Get Organized Faster

Episode 244 - How to Get Organized with a Chronic Illness: The Spoon Theory (How to Get Organized Slower)

Episode 277 - Decluttering Jobs & Obligations

What is ONE project you could FINISH this week?

Direct download: Org365-301.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast!
 
On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action.
 
Today, Vicky G shares her journey of getting organized. She is an empty nester who loves crafts and has moved three times in five years. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do!
 
I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!
 
I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at organize365.com/wednesday.

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-VickyG.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Welcome to Episode 300! Thank you for all of your support over the 5 years of the podcast. If you are enjoying following me, please share with someone else and go rate and review the podcast on your favorite listening platform.

On to the show! For this week’s podcast, I really want to talk about one thing that has made all the difference in being able to be as productive as I am. It’s the way I look at time. I am running a company, renovating my house, homeschooling my daughter, visiting my son at college, sustaining my marriage, and I still have time left over.

An organized life gives you time. I want to teach you about how I came to view time in a unique way and share the way I currently understand time. For many people, time is an abstract concept and can be a struggle for many people to understand the passage of time.

Understanding time ensures that you know how long different kinds of tasks take to complete. It helps you understand how time passes and how to schedule time for your life. When you understand time, you have time for pre-task preparation, clean up afterwards, and transportation to and from your events. 

When you follow my method for understanding time, you will improve your focus. This will mean that you can finally get your home organized, or move your business into profitability, or have rooms for your other dreams and priorities. Changing your mindset about time will mean that you can schedule your time, improve your organization, and increase your productivity. 

After I learned how to manage my own schedule via time blocking, I also learned how to manage other people to have them take some of my house tasks off of my plate. And then, I used those same skills to grow my team here at Organize 365. Adding on other people allowed me to increase my capacity. I could give directions and oversee them, but I was freed up from physically doing tasks.

Here are some prior episodes where I share my own learning about how to delegate tasks to others. I like to say that I get my machines and people working first thing in the morning, and then, I do my tasks for the day. I have also included some episodes that help you batch your tasks into time blocks to make your work more productive.

Episode 65 - How to Outsource Your Household Tasks

Episode 89 - 10 Working Mom Hacks for a More Productive Week

Episode 128 - How to Hire Household Help

Episode 210 - Changing Your Focus From Money to Time

Episode 246 - Maximizing Your Time: Dividing Your Week in Half

Episode 261 - My Personal 7 Year Transformation

Direct download: Org365-300.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action.
 
Today, Kimberlie P shares her journey of getting organized. She has a blended family and an encore career after time as a military family. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do!
 
I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!
 
I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at organize365.com/wednesday.

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-KymberlieP.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

I have been talking with you about setting goals and planning. I want to see you succeed and reach your goals. But, I hear from many of you, and you share that you have some real challenges.

It is not a lack of time. It is not a lack of goal setting. It is not a lack of knowledge. Distraction is keeping you from achieving your goals and dreams. Distraction is stealing your ability to focus.

The ability to FOCUS is what will actually change your life. Today on the podcast, I want to share with you my own teachers for learning how to concentrate, focus, and improve your productivity.

Keys to achieving your goals:

  1. Plan your goals (and shorten your timeline)
  2. Go PRO
  3. Focus. Eliminate distractions.

I am multi-passionate and I think I can successfully multitask. I am the queen of distraction and procrastination. I have been working on my focusing skills for YEARS. Consistency in your behavior builds your trust in yourself and your capabilities. I want to show you how you can practice focusing over a long time so that you can build up your endurance. I will tell you how you too can learn to focus and transform your life. 

PS - If you want to listen to me on the Entrepreneurs On Fire Podcast, I am sharing the link.

Direct download: Org365-299.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. On Wednesdays, we will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply here. I promise, I’m not scary and it’s just us talking!

Today, Monique H shares her journey of getting organized and progressing to a career as a professional organizer. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. 

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-MoniqueH.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Going PRO as the Home CEO

Let's talk about how you can optimize your efforts as the CEO of your home in order to be more PRO:

  • Productive 
  • Proactive
  • Profitable
  • Positive 

I have studied organization and productivity strategies for years, but many of them are directed at men working in business, and do not cross over to running a home.

I want to give you actual tools you can use to make your home life productive. I know you are in charge of all of the household tasks, even if you do not personally do them. Some of you have outsourced things like house cleaning, laundry, and meal preparation.

Regardless of the number or kinds of tasks you are juggling, I can help you optimize the effort you put into your home. Professionals practice and that is how they get better. Practice will help you to learn new skills, hone your craft, condition your mind to stay on task, and to do more faster and with less effort.

Going PRO allows you to optimize the time, effort, and resources you spend in your life to complete the projects in your life and home. Listen in and see how you can gain productivity in your life in any role right now.

Share in the Organize 365 Facebook group or tag me on Instagram @organize365 and tell us about your #ONEgoal2019 and share your success!

PS I would love to guide you as you go PRO in your house this fall in the next round of the 100 Day Home Organization Program. We start on MONDAY! Join us!

Direct download: Org365-298.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. On Wednesdays, we will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply here. I promise, I’m not scary and it’s just us talking!

Today, Samantha R shares her journey of getting organized. She has transformed her home while homeschooling SEVEN children. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. 

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

 

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-SamanthaR.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

I want to help you how to have your most productive Fall ever. Make sure you listen in for the KEY concept to ensure you successfully  increase YOUR productivity!


In the last week weeks, we have reviewed how you can work on
decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity. If you need more information on the basics of these three steps, I cover them in detail in Podcast number 144, 145, and 147


Fall can be the MOST productive time of the year, if you are prepared to take advantage of the September and October energy. On the podcast today, I explain how I have increased my productivity over the last seven years. I have analyzed how I have improved my skills over the years and I give you the steps to help you improve your productivity.


I will show you how to gain control of your life and achieve your goals, especially in the areas of

  • Family
  • Finances
  • Home
  • Self


I want you to improve your productivity so you can get traction on your goals. I want you to succeed at transforming your life so you can focus on your unique purpose. Let’s start TODAY!

Direct download: Org365-297.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. On Wednesdays, we will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply here. I promise, I’m not scary and it’s just us talking!

Today, Lorie G shares her journey of getting organized after a flood. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. 

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-LorieG.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

As I tell you all the time, getting organized has 3 steps - decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity. Today on the Podcast, I deep dive into productivity. If you don’t move forward into organization and productivity, you can end up stuck on decluttering and get rid of too much.

Increasing Productivity 

Today, I answer your questions about productivity including:

  • How do I maintain an organized home?
  • How do I maintain an organized closet?
  • How do I keep up with daily tasks?
  • How do I keep my car cleaned out and ready to go?
  • How do I keep the kitchen clean during the week?
  • How do I keep up with home maintenance tasks?

Increasing organization and productivity give you more time. Time to follow your dreams and try new things! What do you want to have time for in your life?

If you have been around here for more than a few days, you know I love teaching you how to be more productive! Thank you for submitting your questions. Keep making progress!

If you are ready to share your story of success with Organize 365, you can apply here to be my special podcast guest.

Direct download: Org365-296.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. On Wednesdays, we will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply here. I promise, I’m not scary and it’s just us talking!

Today, Sandy O shares her journey of getting organized. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey.

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-SandyO.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

As I tell you all the time, getting organized has 3 steps - decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity. Today on the Podcast, I deep dive into organizing. Sometimes, people get stuck in decluttering mode and get rid of too much instead of moving forward in the cycle. Organizing is matching like with like and then ensuring everything has a home. Today, I answer your questions about organizing including:

  • How do I get organized when I don’t have enough space to sort, group, and categorize my stuff?
  • How do I get organized if I don’t have a traditional storage area like an attic, garage, or basement?
  • If I am in the 100 Day Home Organization Program, and I am “falling behind” (PS - there is NO falling behind when you are getting organized!), how do I know if I should keep working in an area or move along?
  • How do I handle items if I’m on the fence about keeping vs discarding?
  • How do I make sure I get the most important areas of my home organized efficiently?

If you have been around here for more than a few days, you know I love teaching you how to get your home and paper organized! Thank you for submitting your questions. Keep making progress!

If you are ready to share your story of success with Organize 365, you can apply here to be my special podcast guest.

Direct download: Org365-295.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

As I tell you all the time, getting organized has 3 steps - decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity. Today, I deep dive into changing your mindset to get better at decluttering so you can move towards a more organized home and life. I teach you how to adapt your thinking in order to be more successful in your decluttering. I answer your decluttering questions including: 

  • How do I stop bringing things I don’t actually need (like those pesky just in case items) into my home?
  • How do I get rid of the clutter associated with all the projects on my to do list? 
  • How do I keep book clutter under control without having to eliminate my entire TBR pile?
  • How do I follow through with my decluttering plans and actually get stuff out of my house?
  • What is the thing that is holding me back from getting rid of things I no longer want or need?
  • And, at the root of all of this, how do I move from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset?

I am here to help you get your home and paper organized in one year with functional systems that work. I help you figure out what questions to ask yourself to get some of your most difficult clutter out of your home and move towards a more organized life. 

I share some of my own challenges in clearing out my house. I also teach you how I was able to adapt my thinking to move me towards the organized and productive life I am living today. 

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

:)
Lisa

Direct download: Org365-294.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

So many of you asked me to create a virtual Embrace experience. I carried you in my heart the whole time Embrace was going on. And I kept thinking ...

How could I do that? I thought and puzzled and then puzzled some more. And then I did it!

Listen in to the podcast this week to hear the Embrace attendees telling you about THEIR experience at Embrace and THEIR transformations. Including:

  • Doing what you need to do to make your family better
  • Overcoming fear and guilt
  • Repairing a broken marriage
  • Depression happens, but you will get through it
  • A mindset shift from feeling like you are drowning to learning how to relax and let the next thing come
  • How to create a life purposefully and want the best for YOU - not just everyone else
  • We are all more alike than we are different
  • Dumping the guilt and not looking back
  • It's ok to be single
  • Grieving the loss of what you thought your life was going to look like
  • You are not broken
  • You are WORTH IT!
  • It is ok to accept the love you are given without trying to "pay it back"

And then consider experiencing Embrace for yourself in our new "Embrace the Journey Bundle". We even created a custom Organize 365 puzzle just for you to work as you puzzle through your own organizational transformation.

You can check out the whole bundle here.

Direct download: Org365-293.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about both the present and future of Organize 365. I wanted to fill you in on everything that’s been going on here at Organize 365.

That’s right, we’ve got lots of exciting things happening including an awesome book tour following the release of my new book that’s hitting the market in August 2020!

So, if you’re dying to hear more, tune into this podcast episode to discover everything you need to know about the big things that are coming to Organize 365 very soon!

The Evolution Of Organize 365

Sometimes, I have to really give myself a pinch when I look back at what we’ve accomplished to date with Organize 365. Setting out with the goal of helping people to organize their lives has inspired me in so many ways as I’ve moved forward on this journey.

Visions happen when you take the right steps to make them work. You’ve probably heard me say that before, but it’s so true!

Hiring a team gave me time to launch this podcast as a free learning resource followed by lots of amazing products that I’m extremely proud of including the Sunday Basket100 Day All Home ProgramPaper Organizing BindersWorkboxes and lots of great Masterclasses, too!

Along the way, we partnered with other professional organizers all over the United States in our Certified Sunday Basket Workshop Organizer Program.

Most recently, we came out with the Kids Program, which is a digital course designed to walk your kids through all sorts of skills they need for organizing their bedrooms, clothes, backpacks, and whatever else they manage to bring into the house!

With such a great choice of products and resources available, I feel like this leg of the journey has come to an end. We have all the basics needed to help you organize your home, develop your organizational muscles, and keep it going. So, it’s time to move onto the next thing!

NEW Book Coming Soon!

Did you hear? The Paper Solution will be published by Putnam Books next summer!

Since launching my business back in 2012, my vision of what I wanted Organize 365 to become has developed into something more than I could ever have imagined. My ideas continue to be crazy exciting, not just for me, but hopefully for you guys, too.

One of my biggest visions I have had was to become a traditionally published author and have a national book tour.

My main vision with this new book is to take the message of paper organization NATIONAL. In America, so many people are fooling themselves into thinking we’re a paperless society and we’re not. You can have less paper, but you’re probably not paperless.

The Paper Solution will help people from all over the country get their paper organized.

My Dream For The Book Tour

You might not know this about me, but I’ve always wanted to have a book tour. I don’t know how it’s going to go or where I’m going to go just yet, but I can promise you this – I am going to have the book tour to end all book tours!

If I could have my dream book tour, I would spend 12-14 days in a different part of the country every month for eight months. I know it might sound a little crazy, but that would be my dream.

In the first leg of the tour, I’d hit the West Coast and do morning TV, book signings at Barnes & Noble, and attend a few paper organizing retreats hosted by the certified organizers. Tune into the podcast to hear about all my dreams!

Are You Dreaming?

I bet you are! As you take back the organization of your home, you start to realize how much control you have over your space, your energy, and your time. The next step – to dream about the next thing you want to design and put your time and energy into...

Enjoy the last full week of July!

View the full post here: https://organize365.com/certification-update/

Direct download: Org365-292.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Learn more about the Organize 365 Kid's Program here

Direct download: Org365-291.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Have you ever wanted to make a behavior change to your personal or professional life?

Maybe you want to start eating healthy, pick up a new hobby, or live a more organized life. Whatever your "big change" is, there are five simple steps you can take to help conceptualize lasting and impactful changes to your behavior.

All these steps are outlined in the Transtheoretical Model, a biopsychosocial model that incorporates five sequential stages to help you modify your behavior long-term.

If you’re anything like me, you probably freaked out a little bit with the mention of the Transtheoretical Model. I mean, it sounds so serious. Thankfully, I know just the person who can help break it down for you into bite-sized chunks that you can follow and apply to your own life.

Meet Rachel Miller Kroouze, a Health Communication and Education professional with experience in health and prevention programming. Rachel has always been interested in health communication and helping others make positive health behavioral changes.

She’s also an organizer at heart and has a lot to say about the Transtheoretical Model and how it can fuel positive behavior changes in just about anyone.

So, if you want to make some impactful changes to your personal or professional life using a tried and tested method with a proven track record of life-changing results, dig in!

 

Stage 1 – Precontemplation

The precontemplation stage is when you don’t have any foreseeable intentions to change within the next six months. This is the very first stage of the Transtheoretical Model and you might not even notice you’re in it or have been in it in the past.

You might have a few habits that aren’t doing you any favors. You continue to do them because you aren’t aware of the consequences. You’re probably not even aware that a problem exists and if you do, you’re ignoring it.

Or, you might have even tried to put a stop to them in the past but failed and continued along the same path. Thinking the classic “failure is inevitable, so why try?” is a common thought to have when you’re at this stage of the process.

 

Stage 2 – Contemplation

Ah, contemplation… an inner epiphany in which you finally start to think about change.

This is when you know you need to make a change to your behavior and fully intend to do so within the next six months or so.

To move from precontemplation to contemplation means something sparked you to put this goal to change on your radar. Maybe your doctor told you that you needed to make lifestyle changes for your health. Or, perhaps your home has run out of storage space and you realize it’s time to declutter and get organized.

A wake-up call has happened and now you’re asking yourself what you should do next to address the problem. You begin thinking about what action you need to take, and you may spend weeks or even months hanging out in this contemplation stage, which is totally normal.

 

Stage 3 – Preparation

When you move out of contemplation and into preparation, you’re ready to make a change. You know that you’ve reached a crossroads and you can’t linger in the middle forever. You need to move forward.

The only thing stopping you is figuring out how you’re going to do it and what action you’re going to take. So, it’s time to make a plan of action.

If you’re trying to organize your paper or get fit and healthy, for example, this is when you prepare and get yourself ready. You may want to learn how to get organized across the board, in which case the All Access Membership may be for you because it gives you EVERYTHING you need to get your home and paper organized in 365 days.

But, if you want to focus on something more specific and keep most of your organizing to one day of the week, the Complete Sunday Basket System may be more to your liking.

Take your time and have a look through our different offers to find what works for you. What’s going to help you make the behavioral changes in your life that you desire? Once you can answer that question, it makes the preparation stage so much easier.

Rachel and I are both huge fans of the Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies Quiz, where you’ll discover whether you’re more of an upholder, questioner, obliger, or rebel. Understanding your tendency and how to leverage it to your advantage is a great way to help you find ways to plan for action, make better decisions, and meet your own expectations.

 

Stage 4 – Action

The action stage of the Transtheoretical Model is when you’re in the process of making behavioral changes with your actions. You’ve made different modifications to your lifestyle and are trying to turn these into habits that will soon become second nature.

The strength of action comes from the preparation stage. So, if you’ve prepared well enough, you’ll be more than ready to take some action and make the necessary changes in your life that you know you need to make.

Action is when you’ve convinced yourself why this is something you need to change and act on. You've prepared yourself, done the research, got all the approvals, everything is in line, and you’re ready to do the thing!

Remember that action includes making modifications as you go. Nothing is set in stone. If you find that something isn’t working for you and you want to change it, do it.

 

Stage 5 – Maintenance

Once you reach the final stage, you’re maintaining the changes for a prolonged period of time. You’ve been working hard to sustain the behavior change and as the months go by, you’re working to prevent a relapse.

The more you do something, the easier it becomes. As you develop new behaviors, the initial resistance you felt at the beginning gets lower. You start to see the benefits of what you’re doing, and you’ll be even happier with the decision you’ve made.

Maintenance is the stage we all aim for when we set out to make a positive behavior change in our personal or professional lives.

If you find that you make your way through these steps, only to find something that didn’t work for you or maybe you’ve “fallen off the wagon” and are right back at the first step again, don’t be too hard on yourself.

Each time you climb up the staircase, you build upon it. You’ve been there before, and you know where the squeaky step is. You know what not to do and you know what you need to change in order to make it this time. And you WILL make it!

Rachel is a member of the Organize 365 Facebook group and we expect a lot of interesting conversations to come from this episode of the podcast (and blog post) so if you want to talk to her more and get involved with the discussion, join the Facebook group – we’d love to hear from you!

View the full post here: https://organize365.com//transtheoretical

Direct download: Org365-290.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Learn more about the Organize 365 Kid's Program here

Direct download: Org365-289.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Do you have a big project looming over your head?

Maybe you’ve been procrastinating on it for a while and now you’re ready to get things in order. Or, maybe you woke up this morning with an amazing idea to start a big project in your home or office.

This is a great weekend to tackle those BIG projects!

Here’s a little-known fact about me – I love projects. The bigger the project, the better. I love everything about big projects from the planning stage right through to completion.

So in this episode of the podcast, I’m going to reveal how I tackle really big projects in hopes that it might help or inspire you to organize a big project of your own.

The Basement to Bedroom Project

It all began with a basement… last spring.

Abby had outgrown her bedroom and we’ve talked about the idea of her moving down to the basement for some time.

Did you know she has a pet ferret living in her bedroom with her? Yeah, those things need a big cage and they take up a lot of room. So, we decided she could move to the basement and have the space she needs for her and Willow (the ferret).

Plus, it worked out pretty well for me because I’ve been working from a home office in my bedroom for years and I knew Abby’s old bedroom would make a great office. So, it’s a win-win situation for both of us.

The only problem is that moving Abby’s bedroom to the basement is a mammoth task. One thing to remember about doing a big project in your house is that it doesn’t just affect one person. One room is like an octopus with tentacles that trickle out to other areas of the house and, before you know it, you’ve got the entire house involved.

To make the process go as smoothly as possible, I needed a plan. And before I knew it, project basement was underway!

In the podcast, I recount how I tackled that project:

Step 1 – The Planning Phase

Step 2 – Budgeting

Step 3 – Getting to Work!

Last weekend, I started... The Master Bedroom & Lisa's New Home Office Project.

I have been sharing my progress on all three of these projects in my highlights on Instagram. :)

What about you? Do you like to tackle really big projects? Do you have a project scheduled for this holiday weekend?

Tag me online so I can see!

View the full post here: https://organize365.com/big-projects//

Direct download: Org365-288.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Learn more about the Organize 365 Kid's Program here

Direct download: Org365-287.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

I’ve got some exciting news to share with you on the podcast as we launch lots of exciting NEW products here at Organize 365!

I’m going to walk you through everything going on including a deep dive into our brand new and highly anticipated Kids Program! If you’ve always wanted to get your kids organized and even encourage them to jump on this organizational train ride with you, this is your chance!

But that’s not all! (Yes, there’s more… a lot more!)

We’re also launching our new Lattice Binder, Kids Clips, and Volunteer Workbox!

I’m beyond excited to finally share this news with you! If you want to find out more about all these new products and all the amazing things happening here at Organize 365, tune in!

Inside The Volunteer Workbox

Let’s kick things off with the Volunteer Workbox!

It’s the eighth edition in our line of workboxes that are carefully designed to help organize your work both at home and you know, actual work. You can visit the Organize 365 Shop to browse through our collection of workboxes if you’re interested.

The Volunteer Workbox was the one thing we were missing in our collection. We wanted to launch a special workbox for all the different volunteer things you do. This could be anything from helping out at your church, hosting the local book club meetings, or participating in a volunteer organization.

The Volunteer Workbox will work if you have a support role in a Volunteer organization or you are the leader. :)

Exploring The Lattice Binder

We have added a new Lattice Binder to our office supplies. This deluxe 2" D-ring, one-touch heavy duty binder with an extended back will protect your slash pockets and help you containerize projects.

The Lattice Binder is a white on white basket weave that’s similar to the Sunday Baskets with an Organize 365 logo on the back. Because it’s white, you can use it for anything you want.

The Kid Clips

Next up… we’re bringing back the Kids Clips! (Hooray!)

If you’ve been around for a while, you may remember I used to sell little Kid Clips that were basically super strong magnets for your refrigerator. I called them the ONE Clip back then because you just needed one for each of your kids.

This time around, the Kid Clips are CUSTOMIZABLE. Grab your sharpies and color each clip to match your child's personality.

The Kids Program

Okay and now for the big reveal… the one you’ve all been waiting for – The Kids Program!

This program is designed to help organize kids of all ages 0-23. The current program supports kids 0-17 and the LAUNCH program will be added next year (at no additional cost) supporting kids 18-23.

What You Can Expect From The Kids Program

When you buy the Kids Program, you’ll get access to the dashboard. This is where you’ll find all the cute slash pockets and when you click on them, you’ll be taken to a new course, video, or download.

You’ll find five slash pockets inside the Kids Program. Each one is independent of the others, so you don’t have to do anything in order if you don’t want to. These slash pockets are organized into the following categories: Parents, Littles, Learn, Saturday, and Sunday.

Here’s a little more information about each of the slash pockets:

Parents – This one is for all the parents out there who need help getting their kids organized. I help you assess your home and your life and reveal what exactly you need to do to teach your kids to declutter and organize. Each lesson comes with a video and additional resources to help you along the way.

Littles – This part of the program is aimed at kids from birth through to age five. Trying to organize your home with kids under the age of five is like shoveling snow in a snowstorm. Almost impossible. But with this program, I help you with everything from organizing feeding zones, playing zones, sleeping zones, moving from one size clothing to the next, and so much more.

Learn – If you have older kids who happen to be organizationally inclined, you’re in luck. The Learn Program is where most of the videos are and it seriously takes you through everything, such as cleaning a bedroom and making it more like a mini apartment that’s divided into zones. With this program, I teach the skill of thinking like an organized person. And those skills will carry your kids into adulthood.

Saturday & Sunday – The slash pockets inside of the Saturday and Sunday slash pockets are all about creating habits and routines. Saturdays are the days when you clean and organize your bedroom. On Sundays, the slash pockets will walk you through how you’re going to plan your week using six simple steps.

You can read all about the Kids Program, watch a video showing you inside the program, and watch the replay of our Kids Program Masterclass all over at organize365.com/kids.

I hope you have a great weekend and 4th of July week! Snap a few pictures of your kid's cleaning their rooms and tag me on Instagram or Facebook! I can't wait to see!

View the full post here: https://organize365.com/new-products-summer-2019/

Direct download: Org365-286.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

I’ve been talking about health and fitness on the podcast a lot lately. In Episode 283, I shared my own wellness and weight loss journey. Then in Episode 284, I had my Director of Operations, Kelly Leardon, on the show to discuss weight loss and developing healthy eating and wellness habits.

What each of those episodes had in common was Amanda Tress’ FASTer Way to Fat Loss program, which Kelly and I both love. I’ve been following the program for the best part of a year and have seen amazing changes in both my physical and mental health.

I’m very excited that I got the chance to sit down with Amanda herself to discuss the FASTer Way to Fat Loss program and to share her story of how she became one of the most successful female entrepreneurs in the country.

Meet Amanda

Amanda is the founder of FASTer Way to Fat Loss, the premier virtual intermittent fasting fitness and nutrition program. She’s not only a fitness fanatic, but an inspiring business woman who I’ve been following for years (her Instagram profile keeps me motivated!).

Before she launched FASTer Way to Fat Loss, Amanda spent years training people in the gym. She experimented with different nutrition strategies and, remarkably, her clients began to see an epic change.

She spent a lot of time fine-tuning the strategies until she came up with the best way to bring them together for optimal results. Since then, she’s worked with over 100,000 clients, helping them to achieve their health and fitness goals.

Helping others improve their health and wellness came very naturally to Amanda, who always says, “I didn’t choose the fitness industry, the fitness industry chose me.”

Amanda and I dive into:

  • How to work from home
  • When is it the right time to hire people for your business?
  • Why do women put their health last on their to do list?

In these last 3 episodes, I have pulled back the curtain on how I am tackling and progressing through adding a new habit and mindset to my life. I hope it has been helpful for you to see how I have approached this new lifestyle and can relate that back to your organizational journey.

Watching other women chase and embrace their dreams is inspiring to me. Would you like to hear more interview podcasts like this on Organize 365? Let me know!

Next week, we will be diving into the NEW Organize 365 Kids Program. I can't wait to share with you the program we have been building for the last year.

Sign up for the Kids Program Masterclass being held Tuesday, June 25th to learn all about it!

View the full post here: https://organize365.com/Amanda-Tress/

Direct download: Org365-285.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Every weight loss and wellness journey is different. Everyone has their own unique story to tell and I don’t know about you, but when I hear how someone made a drastic change to their health and well being, it motivates me to do the same!

So, I wanted to invite Kelly Leardon onto the podcast to talk about her wellness journey because not only is it inspiring, but she actually used a lot of the same methods we talked about in the previous episode of the podcast – “Lisa’s Wellness & Weight Loss Journey.”

In this episode, we dive deep into what Kelly did to boost her nutrition, lose weight, and get her "mojo" back. It’s a great story and you’ll discover a few great resources along the way in case you wanted to try any of these things out for yourself!

Meet Kelly

As you may know, Kelly joined the Organize 365 team at the beginning of 2019. She keeps me on my feet for sure and I’ve never met anyone as good at setting goals and smashing them, too!

Kelly is an experienced Director of Operations with a history of working in the Executive Office industry. Welcoming Kelly onto the team as the Director of Operations means that I am leaving the management role of Organize 365. I have so much more free time and I am so grateful to have Kelly on the team.

When you hire someone onto your team, it does two things. First, it takes tasks off your list. Second, it forces you to level up your skills because you have to be more productive, proactive, and profitable. Interestingly, when she first joined, we were both in a very similar stage of our lives where we wanted to prioritize our wellness and weight loss. My main reasoning to do so was because, hey, I want to live to be 100 years old… you know, like one of those ancient tortoises.

Kelly wanted to slim down because she has a fabulous wardrobe and wants to keep it!

In this podcast, we dive into:

  • Establishing New Monthly Habits
  • How We Track What We Eat And Other Habits
  • A Closer Look At The “FASTer Way to Fat Loss

Are you on your own weight loss and wellness journey?

If so, I’d love to hear all about it!

Head over to our Facebook group and join to take part in the discussions. And here’s a fun idea... if you have any before and after photos of your weight loss journey, please share them with me on Instagram and tag me @organize365, I’d love to see how far you’ve come and plus, it’ll motivate me to keep going with my own wellness journey, too!

 

View the full post here: https://organize365.com/weightloss/

Direct download: Org365-284.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Most of us like to form our own opinions about what maintenance means to us. On the podcast, we talk a lot about the cycle of getting organized and increasing productivity.

But what about the maintenance stage of your organizational journey?

What does it really mean to maintain something?

According to the good old dictionary, maintenance is the process of maintaining or preserving a condition or situation or the state of being preserved.

While this gives us more clarity on the meaning of maintenance, it doesn’t dive into the details or tell us how it equates to the maintenance of our homes.

As we go through the 100 Day Home Organization Program and declutter and organize each space in our homes for the third or even fourth time, we enter a phase of maintenance which I want to unpack with you in this episode of the podcast.

What Maintenance Looks Like In The Physical Areas Of Your Home

If you asked me what stage of the organizational journey I’m currently in, I would say I’m living in maintenance. I don’t do much. Everything in my house is decluttered and organized (I am a professional organizer, after all).

But that doesn’t mean I don’t do the dishes or laundry. I still have non-organizational, cleaning related tasks to do just like anyone else. I still have to put things away at the end of the day. However, once you’ve decluttered and organized your entire house, it usually stays organized.

One reason why your house might not stay organized is because of the kids. I don’t mean just the toddlers either. No matter what age they are, kids are like little chaos creators. They tumble through the house like mini tornadoes and just have a way of messing things up.

But if your kids tend to mess up their own rooms and the joint family rooms but stay out of your storage room and master bedroom, etc., the work you’ve done to get the majority of your home organized is probably well maintained.

To me, living an organized life that’s maintained is when you reach the end of the day and you don’t have to start decluttering and organizing everything. All you have to do is pick things up and put them back to where they go. It’s simple.

In the podcast, I dive deeper into...

Maintenance In Different Seasons Of Life

Maintenance In Everyday Home Life

What Does Maintenance Mean With Your Paper?

One thing that you need to come to grips with when it comes to organizing is that your home will never be perfect. Perfect is not the end goal here. The end goal is to live a more organized and functional life and being able to maintain it as a result.

View the full post here: https://organize365.com/what-is-maintenance/

 
Direct download: Org365-282.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Your inner thoughts can have a serious impact on your state of mind. If you see the world through a darkened lens, that negative way of thinking can quickly become a way of life.

When I tell people that I used to be the queen of negativity, they find it hard to believe. I’ve since adopted a more positive outlook on life which I talk about in episode 261 of the podcast, My Personal Seven-Year Transformation.

Nowadays, thinking positively comes easy to me. I like to think about negative thoughts as weeds in our mind. Weeds that need to be pulled out from the roots. If the garden of your mind has become overgrown with persistent weeds that you can’t clear, it’s time to tackle the root of the problem.

When I gave myself the quest to declutter my negative thoughts, I did three things. First, I realized how negative I was. Second, I replaced anything negative in my life with a positive difference. And finally, I eliminated all the ways that negativity was coming into my life.

In this episode, I reveal the steps you can take to overcome your negative mindset and start living a more positive and happy life.

Ready to say goodbye to negative thoughts?

In this week's podcast, I cover these 3 points:

1. Be honest with yourself

2. Replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts

3. Eliminate the negativity

I hope that these tips help you to declutter your negative thoughts so that you can start living a happier life with a positive outlook.

The more I press into this, the more I truly believe that we are in control of our thoughts and feelings. You can literally design any future you can imagine.

Have you ever cut something negative out of your life and replaced it with something positive? Let me know over on Instagram or Facebook, I’d love to hear from you!

View the full post here: https://organize365.com/negative-thoughts/

Direct download: Org365-281.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Whenever spring hits, do you feel like you’re in a mad rush to get everything organized?

I know I do. I’ve often talked about the fact that I like to divide my year into three trimesters. Each one is carefully planned and, although it starts out completely organized, it ends in a chaotic whirlwind.

If you feel like you’re caught in an enormous tornado of tasks, not unlike the one from The Wizard of Oz, I want to help you step out of the chaos.

Focusing on what’s important and finding more planning time to eliminate some of the to-dos from your list will help you lead a more peaceful life.

In this episode, I reveal why you need an admin day. An entire day where you can go through your Sunday Basket and knock tasks off your list in one epic swoop.

Why You Need An Admin Or Errand Day

If you’re anything like me, you’ll discover a lot of administrative tasks when you go through your Sunday Basket. Things like forms that need to be scanned, scheduling doctor’s appointments, emails that need your attention, and so on.

The only problem is that a lot of these things can’t be done on a Sunday. The doctor’s office is closed, so you can’t call up to make an appointment. Before you know it, you’ve got a stack of administrative tasks or errands you need to do on a different day other than Sunday.

This is why you need to assign an administrative or errand day (or both!).

An errand day is when you take a full day to do your errands. You’re probably in the car going from one place to the next. An administrative day is when you’re at home (probably in front of the computer) and you’re plowing through things that can’t be done on Sunday.

If you’re new to Organize 365, you’re likely wondering why I talk about Sunday’s so much. Well, it’s because I have this thing called The Sunday Basket System. This is where you can defer all your ideas, mail, paper, forms, and to-dos into a pretty box that sits on your kitchen counter.

Each Sunday, you systematically go through the basket. To find out more about the Sunday Basket and how it can help corral all your kitchen counter papers and to-dos, click here.

Getting Organized In Each Trimester

On the Sunday before the start of each trimester, I go through my Sunday Basket as normal. I pay the bills, update my calendar, and all the rest. But there will also be an exorbitant list of things that I can’t get done on Sunday. I need a full workday for these things. And you might, too.

If you work nine to five for somebody else, finding the time during the week for these things can be tricky. But, it’s totally worth it to take a vacation day to do this. You can get a lot done with just one day off work.

So, the next time you do your Sunday Basket at the busiest times of the year, I want you to do something slightly different. Instead of putting everything that can wait until next Sunday, keep everything in front of you in a pile.

You’ll probably have a lot of index cards and papers you’ve repeatedly put back into the Sunday Basket and that’s okay. In previous podcasts, we talked about eliminating such pockets altogether in what I like to call Sunday Basket 3.0.

We also talked about decluttering obligations out of your Sunday Basket, and now we’re going to get into clearing all of the things you’ve been putting off time and time again.

Creating Your "Brain Dump" List

To help organize your time, I suggest making two lists. One for all the errands you need to get done and another for all the administrative tasks list. Or, you can combine the two.

So over on the errand list, you might have things like buy the end of year teacher gift, post that parcel to your mother in law, and things like that. The administrative list will be home to tasks like changing your passwords, replying to emails, making phone calls, and so on.

Make the biggest list you possibly can. Next, start crossing things off that you really don’t want or need to do. Then, grab a pencil (yes, we’re going old school for this one) and write down how long each task is going to take to complete.

When you’ve got that done, add up all that time to figure out how long you’ll need to complete the entire list. If it’s going to take you five hours, you’ll need to set five hours aside during the week to get those things done.

You might find that some things will take time and money that you just don’t have or want to invest in right now. That’s okay. Just cross it off your list.

Now that you have your lists cut down, it’s time to prioritize the tasks on the list in order. That way, you know what’s the most important things that need to get done compared to the things at the bottom of the list that you can probably do later.

You’ll end up with a concrete list or plan that you can follow on your admin or errand day.

Give it a try! Go through your Sunday Basket, do a big brain dump, and make a list of everything you want to get done. Then, set an admin or errand day and work like a trooper to get everything on that list done.

If you decide to have your own errand or administrative day, I’d love to hear how you got on! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips. Don’t forget to share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365!

Full the full post here: https://organize365.com/adminday/

Direct download: Org365-280.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

When our life gets unorganized, we tend to blame outside sources such as our spouse, our lack of money, not having enough time, and so on. But the truth is that your cluttered life (and home) has nothing to do with any of that. Those are just the things we like to think are holding us back. What’s really holding us back from living a more organized life is having a plan to achieve that life.

If you’ve tried to get organized in the past and failed time and time again, you’re in the right place. Today's podcast is designed to help get you organized and decluttered once and for all.

Before we dig into the good stuff, I need you to download this fun worksheet to follow along with the podcast.

We have ALL been unorganized at some point in our lives... even me.

Before I turned 40 back in 2012, I reached the most unorganized stage of my life. My home was so cluttered, it was tearing at the seams. My "epiphany" moment hit me on a random afternoon when I came home with a few bags of groceries and realized I had nowhere to put anything that I bought.

The fridge was packed and some of the things in there were way past their expiration dates. The cupboards were the same. But the madness wasn’t confined to my kitchen. Oh no. The clutter rampage had spread throughout my entire home. Every drawer was a junk drawer.

So, I sat down and made a list of every single space that needed to be organized and I spent the next 100 days organizing. I needed to regain control of my house and my life. It wasn’t easy, but I got there, and now I want to help you do the same.

Sometimes life just gets moving too fast and we literally get run over. Unfortunately, it is not a matter of if this will happen, it is a matter of WHEN. And when it does, it takes a herculean effort to get back up and get organized again.

Many of you ask me... "How do you know what I am thinking or what my house looks like?" Well, because we have all been there.

I know you feel like no one has ever ended up with their house as disorganized as yours, but we ALL have.

And after analyzing when and why this happens, I have actually determined that there are some key seasons in your life where almost everyone will feel like you do today...

In the podcast today, I unpack...

1. What’s your why.

2. What season of life are you in.

3. Understanding the Cycle of Organization.

And why we can get organized in one phase of life and everything seems to fall apart as you move from one phase to the next.

Now is The Best Time to Get Organized :)

Don't roll your eyes at me!

You know you are itching to clean out the garage, wash everything in sight, and declutter!

And you will... for a weekend. And then you will fall back into your daily routines and stop your organizational efforts.

It is not you. It is totally normal!

But do you want ordinary? Or are you ready for EXTRAORDINARY?

Living an organized and productive life is extraordinary!

The 100 Day Home Organization Program is your plan to move from an ordinary reactive life to an extraordinarily productive life.

Sign up! We start on Monday!

View the full post here: http://organize365.com/3reasons/

Direct download: Org365-279.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

I received an email the other day and it honestly had me in tears. It was from a listener of the podcast who reached out to thank me for being so open and honest about the struggles of motherhood in episode 261, "My Personal Seven-Year Transformation."

She also talked about her own challenges that she faces on a daily basis as a mother of three boys, one of whom was born with a very rare, life-threatening disease.

As you can imagine, she is not your everyday mother. What many of you find normal, she does not.

You ARE The Mother That Your Children Need

The subject line of this email read, “All I ever wanted to be was a mom.”

When I first read that, I was immediately hooked. As many of you know if you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, I shared the same dream when I was younger. I always wanted to be a mother and I knew I could relate to the sender almost immediately.

We all have an idea of who we will be as a mother. But, more often than not, that vision never comes into view.

I am keenly aware many of you have never been able to birth a child... like me. Which makes posts like these about parenting, or announcements about our Mother's Day coupons, hard to hear.

It is also why the 100 Day Home Organization Program doesn't organize kids, it organizes YOU... any woman in any size dwelling.

For me, when I found out I couldn’t get pregnant, I hit a roadblock and it almost floored me. But, I steered off that path and made a new path to motherhood. My own path. Adoption turned out to be my road to motherhood and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Motherhood Is Never What We Anticipate... Easy Or Hard

Let me share a few lines from her email:

“Our boys are not typical. Our oldest was born with a very rare disease and will most likely not make it to 18. Each time he gets a cold or any type of illness, it can cause brain damage. He has spent a good portion of his life in the hospital as we fight to give him the best chance he has.”

As you can imagine, not many mothers prepare themselves for such a heart-breaking and difficult roadblock. How can you prepare for something like that? You can’t.

It’s so easy to doubt your ability as a mother, but you ARE the mother your child needs you to be.

Motherhood might not look or feel the way you thought it would. But it doesn’t matter. This is your story as a mother, and you are the mother that your children need.

Parenting A Child With Additional Needs

Whether your child has learning or physical disabilities, your role as a mother becomes so much harder when faced with more than the everyday parenting challenges.

For me, the hardest part of mothering was stepping into and owning the mother my children needed me to be and not the mother that I thought I would be.

If you are struggling with the weight of your mothering right now, listen to this week's podcast.

Don't let society's expectation and what everyone else is doing change how you view your child, your relationship with your child, and what your child needs. You’ve got this and I'm right there behind you.

Happy Early Mother's Day! Still looking for a gift for your mom or what to ask for yourself?

We created Mother's Day coupons you and your family can use to give the perfect Organize 365 gift!

View the full post here: https://organize365.com/not-normal-parenting/

Direct download: Org365-278.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Do you ever feel like you’ve got too much on your plate?

Sometimes, we can be so focused on making things more organized, efficient, and productive that we forget to pull the brakes.

Do we really need to do all the jobs we’re doing?

If you’ve been listening to the last few episodes of the podcast, you’ll notice that I’ve talked about shifting mindsets and changing habits a lot lately.

We revealed how you can eliminate your to-do list, and what an organized life feels like. We also uncovered the Sunday Basket 3.0, which isn’t a new product, but a new way of tackling your Sunday Basket when you’re a seasoned pro.

Now we’ve reached the fourth episode of this mini four-part series, where I talk about decluttering jobs and obligations. You know, the things that have loomed over our heads for weeks and we really don’t want to do.

You might feel like you don’t have a good enough reason to get rid of them, which is why they’ve stuck around for so long.

But, I’m here to help you kick the guilt monster out and shut the door on some of those jobs that you just don’t care about anymore. So, if you want to finally declutter those jobs and obligations that have gathered dust at the back of your mind, tune into this episode and find out how to:

Take a step back and evaluate your current obligations

Identify your unique vs. competent abilities

Eliminate tasks from your calendar

And the controversial one... How to break away from a direct sales company.

I received a question about how to quit direct sales. It was a loaded question, but I could really relate to it because as many of you know, I used to work in direct sales. I loved it at the time. But I reached a point in my life and business where I knew I had to break away from direct sales.

Even though you work for a direct sales company, it doesn’t mean you’re obligated to stay until you’re old and gray. You’re a unique person with a unique gift and ability. Don’t sell your soul to any company. You don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors.

A company, no matter what size it is, will always put their best interests first. So, you should do the same and put yourself first, too.

I talk about all this in more detail in the podcast, but what I will say is that if you think now is the time to leave your direct sales gig, or any job for that matter, you’re probably right.

Ask yourself if you were asked to re-join the same company all over again, would you say yes?

If not, it’s time to pack your bags and move on.

It’s Okay To Say No

It’s time to eliminate jobs and obligations from your calendar that you just don’t want to do anymore. Remember – it’s okay to say NO. No can be a complete sentence if you want and need it to be.

If you decide to eliminate things from your calendar using any of my suggestions, I’d love to know how it went for you and how many things you managed to eliminate?

 

Follow me on Instagram to follow our adventures at the Cincinnati Homeschool Convention this weekend!

Registration for the next round of the 100 Day Home Organization Program is OPEN!! And.. we now have PAYMENT PLANS! I'd love for you to join us!

View the full post here: https://organize365.com/decluttering-jobs-obligations/

Direct download: Org365-277.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

A few weeks ago in my regular Facebook LIVE on Tuesday mornings for the women in the 100 Day Home Organization Program, I started to expound on and articulate how I have moved into a new level of using my Sunday Basket.

The first thing you need to know about Sunday Basket 3.0 is that it is not a physical product.

Lisa, what do you mean it’s not an actual product? You got me pumped up for nothing!

Hold on! I say it’s not a physical product because it’s an evolution of the original Sunday Basket System you already have.

If you’re not familiar with the Sunday Basket Club or the Sunday Basket System, let me explain real quick…

A Mini Lesson On Sunday Baskets

The Sunday Basket is a system for processing ongoing household projects and developing a weekly routine of collecting, processing, and maintaining it all in one place.

You start with a basket. Well, it’s more of a box but kind of looks and operates like a basket, hence the name. You can buy the Complete Sunday Basket System for $97.00 and receive all the necessary workshop materials you need.

This includes two sets of slash pockets called the 1.0 and 2.0 slash pockets.

With the 1.0 slash pockets, you get red, orange, yellow, green, and blue slash pockets. Everything you put into these slash pockets are things that need to get done this week. So, any errands, events or bills, etc. that need to be completed this week will go inside the 1.0 slash pockets.

The 2.0 slash pockets are monochromatic and include five pink, five blue, five green, and five purple slash pockets.

With the 2.0 slash pockets, each color represents a category. So, purple is for anything household related, blue is for family members, green is for financial, and pink is for your own hopes, dreams, projects, and goals.

When Sunday rolls around, you take everything out of the basket and sort through what you’ll do this Sunday and what can wait until next Sunday.

Eliminating Things From Your Sunday Basket

When your home is organized, you’ll generally have a lot less to do in terms of organizing. Another gift that leading a more organized life will give you is TIME.

Time to do a puzzle in the evening, give the dog a second walk around the block, and time for yourself.

But, when you have all this free time, many of you talk about feeling guilty. It’s like if you’re not doing something "proactive" and productive, you’re lazy or even selfish (which is crazy!).

One rule of the Sunday Basket System is if it can wait until next Sunday, it must wait until next Sunday. But, what if something in the basket can always wait until next Sunday? Do you keep it moving onto the following week for months or even years?

Well… you can if you want to. But if you want to get it out of the way, I suggest picking a time during the day or week to work on it and do it then. The more you live an organized life, the fewer things you’ll have in your Sunday Basket.

If you become a seasoned pro like me, you might not even need all the slash pockets in the Sunday Basket anymore. But getting to that stage of eliminating things from your basket will take time. And, as each task is completed and each week you’re organizing more and more, you’ll receive an extra gift of time each week.

So, what does all of this have to do with the Sunday Basket 3.0?

The Sunday Basket 3.0 is about eliminating things out of your Sunday Basket that are no longer serving you or that you just don’t want to do anymore (or ever).

Deciding What To Do With Your Free Time

When you are in the process of eliminating your to-do list and moving to the Sunday Basket, you develop the habit of writing down every idea that you have in your head onto index cards.

You’re also continuing to defer those things until the following Sunday when you can. This process helps you to make the decision if you're going to do it at all, and if so, when. For the most part though, you can knock out a lot of your index cards on Sunday. You may have to set time aside to do some of the things during the week and then anything that can be put off until later goes into your 2.0 slash pockets, which are for projects.

If you’re in a stage similar to me where your kids are grown up and everything’s pretty much taken care of, you’ll have all this time you don’t know what to do with.

Can you relate?

If so, here’s a little challenge for you…

Think back to when you were a teenager. What did you like doing? How did you spend your free time?

I hope you can come up with something because let me tell you, I can’t. I always wanted to be a mom. I got a teaching degree because I knew it would help me when I did have kids. But, after I got married, we realized we couldn’t have kids. So, we adopted.

My entire life has been about wanting kids and being a mom. And, I did it all. But now the kids are grown up and my "mommying" is kind of over.

So, now what should I do with my free time?

I have no idea.

Well, that’s not totally true. I like doing puzzles. Yes, I’m like a retired old lady, but you know what? Those guys in the retirement homes are up to their eyeballs in puzzles. They have a library, and they get their dinner made for them each day. Plus, they’re surrounded by their friends, and they don’t even have to go outside if they don’t want to.

To me (a.k.a someone that doesn’t like nature all that much), that sounds like a dream. So, yeah… I guess when “I grow up,” I want to be retired and doing all the puzzles in the world.

The Sunday Basket 3.0

So, when you reach the stage where your house is organized, and you’ve entered the Sunday Basket 3.0 era, it’s okay to have projects in there that you have no intention of doing. Just get rid of them.

You don’t have to stick to the same projects you wanted to do before you got organized. Heck, you don’t have to pick up the same projects you wanted to do yesterday! It’s OKAY.

Just because you had a passion for something before, it doesn’t mean it has to be your passion for the rest of your life. Passions aren’t always forever. Sometimes, a passion hangs around for a season and then it transitions into something new. And, that’s okay!

So, the next time you go through your Sunday Basket, and you sort through your 2.0 slash pockets, ask yourself if you still have the passion and desire to do that thing at all.

If not, it’s time to say goodbye and move on! No guilt necessary!

Are you in the Sunday Basket 3.0 stage yet? Let me know over on Instagram or Facebook and tell me, what are some of the things you like to do just for the fun of it?

Any puzzle fans out there?

View the full post here: https://organize365.com/sunday-basket-3-0/

Direct download: Org365-276.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

I talk about organizing a lot on the podcast (it’s called Organize 365 after all!). I’ve covered everything from discovering your why to the Psychology of the Sunday Basket and how to know Which Workbox is Right for You?

But surprisingly, I’ve never addressed what living an organized life actually feels like... until now!

In this episode, I reveal what an organized life really looks like. No unrealistic expectations. No idealistic dreams. None of that. Just an honest look behind the curtain of an everyday, organized life.

Setting Realistic Expectations

I’ll be honest with you. There was a rather delusional time in my life when I pictured a perfectly organized life to mirror Martha Stewart’s.

You know, with everything neatly packed into pretty containers, angelic children floating around the house, and waking up to an adorable puppy licking my nose as he waits for his morning walk. Like I said, delusional.

Once I started to declutter and really focus on living a more organized life, my previous expectations were, for lack of a better phrase, shot to hell.

I realized that you’re never going to have everything you want just perfect. You can drive yourself crazy trying, but it’s like trying to reach the end of the rainbow. It’s never going to happen.

The sooner you get rid of unrealistic expectations and focus on the achievable, the sooner you can start living not only a more organized life, but a happier one, too.

In the podcast I explore...

  • How an Organized Life Looks Different in Each Stage of Life
  • How an Organized Life is Being "Company Ready"
  • How Living an Organized Life is Having More TIME

So, what does an organized life feel like?

An organized life feels like all your basic needs are met and all of the things in your house are done.

And then the real work of stepping up to who you were uniquely created to be takes center stage.

THAT is what I want to see. WHO were YOU uniquely created to be and give to this world?

It sounds so Oprah like, but it is for YOU, too.

It is my greatest fulfillment in life to have found the time to create a curated program for you to get your home organized to free up your time so I can see what your unique gift is to the world.

Thanks for letting me be a part of your journey!

PS - If you are stuck in your organizing and are not sure why, I'd love for you to join me in my masterclass this month: 3 Reasons You Can't Get Organized And What To Do About It.

View the full post here: https://organize365.com/what-living-an-organized-life-feels-like/

Direct download: Org365-275.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Last week, we talked about why it’s impossible to be behind when you’re organizing. We covered how organizing will always pay you in time and finished with a discussion about why you should aim for progress, not perfection.

Shifting your mindset to focus on progress rather than perfection takes practice. We become so obsessed with ticking off every task on our to-do lists that we lose sight of the progress we’ve made.

A few of you recently messaged me and asked me to talk about how you can change the way you structure and plan your time. It’s easy to let your to-do list control your time and how you spend it, which is only part of the reason why I think it is time to eliminate your to-do list.

Yes, you read that right.

Eliminate your to-do list.

Don’t re-prioritize it. Don’t take tasks off and move them onto next week’s to-do list. I want you to take your to-do list, hold it up and set a flame to it (you know, hypothetically).

You might not know this about me, but it’s been 18 months since I wrote out and completed my last to-do list. I just don’t need it anymore.

If you want to join me over here in the (almost) stress-free zone with more free time than you know what to do with and no to-do lists to worry about, this is the podcast episode you’ve been waiting for!

How I Got Rid of My To-Do List

There was a time in my life when I lived for my to-do list. Or rather, I lived through my to-do list. I would list everything I needed to get done that day and, like most of you, ticked them off one by one as I completed each task.

When a task was left unfinished, I carried it onto my to-do list for the next day. It helped me to get things done, most of the time. But I found myself constantly referring to my list throughout the day, so much so that it honestly felt like I couldn’t live without it.

To go from that level of dedication to a to-do list to not having one at all is quite the turnaround, don’t you think?

The funny thing is, I didn’t even realize I didn’t have a to-do list anymore until people started asking me for advice on what to do with theirs. As someone who had an answer for every question about organizing, I was stumped.

Then, of course, I had the "a-ha!" moment when I suddenly realized I was living my life without a to-do list. And, you know what? The world didn’t stop spinning. I didn’t lose focus, and my productivity levels were better than ever.

At some point over the last seven years, I went from being depressed, overweight and in debt to feeling much happier, thinner and debt-free. But it didn’t happen overnight. It took a lot of small steps, and one of those steps was ditching the to-do lists.

I can't wait for you to email me and let me know that you too have ditched your to-do list!

PS - Do you feel stuck in your organizing? Sign up for the April FREE Masterclass, 3 Reasons You Can't Get Organized & What to do about it Masterclass here.

PPS - We just made our BIGGEST announcement of 2019... You can now buy the 100 Day Home Organization Program and ALL ACCESS with PAYMENT PLANS!

View the full post here: https://organize365.com/stop-to-do-list/

Direct download: Org365-274.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Do you ever feel like you’re behind in your organizing routine?

Maybe you went on a sunny vacation and came back with a stack of mail to sort? Or, perhaps you skipped a few days in the 100 Day All Home Program?

You might feel anxious, worried, or even a little guilty. But, here’s the truth…

After you start, it’s physically impossible for you to be behind in organizing.

Don’t believe me?

Listen to this episode of the Organize 365 podcast to find out why your organizing journey is more like an endless escalator than a staircase with an infinitive first and last step.

The Organizational Journey

To put all of this into perspective, I want you to think about organizing in a similar way to how a baby learns to crawl, walk, and run.

In the beginning, a baby will learn how to crawl on the floor. In organization land, this is basically you when you’re decluttering your house.

Next, the baby might stand up and take a few steps while holding onto furniture for support. This is when you’ve reached out for help and taken the first steps in organizing (congratulations, by the way!).

Maybe you signed up for the 100 Day All Home Program, or perhaps you hired a professional organizer to help you out. It’s all going well because you’ve got that extra support and encouragement.

Eventually, the baby lets go of the coffee table and starts taking its first steps on its own. Granted, they’re wobbly steps, and the baby looks a little like a duckling with its bottom stuck out and arms flying everywhere. But, at least they’re finally walking unaided, right? Sure, they might fall a lot but they’re making progress, just like you.

When you “go it alone,” you might stumble and even feel like giving up at times. But you’ll get there. Soon, you’ll organize all the main areas of your life so well that when you return to re-organize them the following year, it won’t take you half as long.

As you go through your organizational journey, your skills, or "organizational muscles" as I like to call them, will continue to develop and grow.

And, like the baby in this analogy, eventually you’ll start running.

Organizing is Hard. Productivity is Fun!

In Episode 251, I talked about the fact that decluttering is easy. Organizing is hard. And, productivity is fun!

Once you’ve got the hang of things and you start building your organizational muscles, you’ll become so much more productive. Remember that organization is a learned skill. You can’t learn it overnight.

When you first start decluttering like a mad woman, you’ll be left with things that you’re not sure if you want to keep or not. The things that you do want to keep will need to go into containers. At this stage of your organizing journey, you’ve swapped your declutter hat for a productive one instead.

When you go through the 100 Day Home Organization Program for the first time, it can be a bit overwhelming. You’ll get a lot done in your first round. You’ll declutter the house, and by the time you’re done, you’ll think, well, that should do it for another five or 10 years!

The truth is that you’ll never be done organizing!

In fact, I’d go as far as saying that it’s not until the second or even third time through the 100 Day Home Organization Program that you start having those big "ah-ha!" moments.

You’ll discover that organizing your kitchen for the second time with the program is so much easier and fluent than the first time. You’ll have productive formulas and routines in place for your paper. And, because your processes are more streamlined, you’ll be able to get a lot more done in that 100-day time frame.

Snap Photos of your Progress

When you’re in the middle of organizing everything, it’s tough for your mind to see the progress you’re making. So, grab your camera and snap a few before and after shots.

Give yourself that instant gratification of seeing what things looked like before your inner organizing ninja got to work. You don’t need to show anybody the photos if you don’t want to. They can be there for you to look back at on those terrible days when you feel like you’re never going to be organized.

Whenever you feel that way, you can look back at the photos and see how far you’ve come. You’ll know that you have made real progress, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem. Be proud of yourself. You’ve decided to start living a more organized life. You’ve put the gears in motion, and you’re building organizational muscles. That is something to be proud of.

On a side note… If you do decide to share your before and after photos, I’d love to see them on Instagram! Please remember to tag me @organize365!

Organizing Pays You In Time

In Episode 269, I talked about the time, money, motivation trifecta that’s necessary for change. Organization always gives you more time. It doesn’t pay in cash, but it does give you the time you need to balance other areas in your life.

When you’ve got more time because you don’t need to spend hours organizing paper, you can put that time to better use.

The 100 Day All Home Program is designed to give you the freedom to live your best life without worrying about organizing your home 24/7. It gives you the tools you need to make a lasting, incremental organizational change in your home throughout the seasons.

Once you complete the program, you’ll find that the areas in your home where you spend most of your time are all better organized. But, when you’re in the heart of the action all the time, it’s easy to look around and think about all the areas lacking the standard of organized heaven that you were reaching for.

But, if you take a closer look, you’ll realize that you’ve come a long way since taking those first baby steps. Your organizational muscles are growing. By the time you do the 100 Day Organization Program for the second or third time, you’ll find areas that you perhaps didn’t address the first time. And, you’ll realize that organizing comes a lot more naturally to you now.

Don’t aim for perfection, aim for progress!

Realize that reaching the perfect organized life takes time. It’s not instantaneous. But, even by taking that first baby step, you’re already ahead of the game. You’re one step closer to living a more organized life that gives you the time you need to live your best life.

Direct download: Org365-273.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Let’s be real. Not every item in your home will spark joy as soon as you see it or pick it up. And, it doesn’t have to.

In this episode of the podcast, I explore what we should do with the items that don’t give us any real joy in our lives. But first, I’ve got a question for you…

Have you ever read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo?

It’s a great book that encourages readers to transform their homes into a clutter-free zone using the KonMari Method. As an organizing nut, I’ve read this book from cover to cover. Although I enjoyed it, I don’t think its paper organizing solutions work for American women.

The KonMari Method challenges you to keep the things you really love and get rid of the rest. Literally. While this method might work for some, it doesn’t work for people like me who have a lot of stuff and no time to stop and think if an item sparks true joy.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for keeping items that have real meaning and decluttering the things that don’t have much of a purpose. But, what about paper? In her book, Marie’s key principle for sorting papers is to throw them all away (I know, I had to hold myself up after reading that, too).

There’s no way we can get rid of ALL our paper. I can’t function as an American woman, business owner, homeowner, wife, and mother without paper. I just can’t.

So, we’re going to dive into this further and figure out just how much paper we can get rid of and how much we can keep. Let’s jump in!

Sorting Your Papers

85% of the papers you have in your house are shreddable. That leaves you with 15% that you’ve deemed important or necessary enough to keep.

So, let’s take that 15% and start a complete paper organization overhaul, shall we?

Unless you’re a passionate organizer like me, sorting your papers probably doesn’t fill you with feelings of joy and happiness.

Instead of picking up a paper and asking yourself if it sparks joy, ask whether it is useful.

If you don’t have any use for it, it’ll meet its grim fate in the shredder. If it does have use, it can be organized into binders.

Should You “Go Paperless”?

Is going 100% paperless a good idea? And, is it even possible?

The short answer is no.

Yes, you can go digital with lots of different things in your personal life and/or business. But, paper is never going to stop. It’ll always find a way to slip back into your life, whether that’s in the form of a letter, tax return documentation, or your kid’s art pieces!

Although it seems like the world is taking everything digital, there will always be a place for paper. You can try to go digital. But sooner or later, you’ll need somewhere to organize your papers.

Take a young couple as an example. Yes, they’re all into technology and the "Cloud." But, when they have their first child and he/she returns home from school with a backpack filled with drawings, they want to keep them all forever. Three kids down the line, they’ve got stacks of old drawings and no storage space for all the paper they’ve accumulated!

If you’re in a similar situation, have a binder for each child. Then, choose 100 of your favorite drawings and keep those. You don’t need to keep every little thing your child creates. Sure, your kid might be the next Picasso, but how many pumpkin pictures does one family need?

Save the ones that are the most useful. They’re the ones that make you feel good and are laced with happy memories. If you need help sorting your kid’s school papers and art, check out our Kid’s School Memory Binder.

Organizing Your Reference Paper

Actionable papers and reference papers have different usefulness, profitability, and portability, which means you’ve got to organize them differently, too.

I recommend that every family have four specific binders:

1. Financial Binder

2. Medical Binder (for each family member)

3. Household Reference Binder

4. Household Operations Binder

(Each of these binders is also available for International use. You can find the International versions over in our Shop.)

All your reference papers can go into one of these binders, where you can access them easily and update as and when required.

You can’t haul a filing cabinet around with you. But, with all your papers neatly organized in binders, you can literally just grab and go.

Organizing Your Actionable Paper

Actionable papers are things like bills, receipts, forms, and things that require some form of action. Reminders like changing air filters, giving your dog flea and tick medicine, and so on all come under this same category of "actionable paper."

The problem with this type of paper is that it just gets everywhere. You’ll find them on your nightstand, on the kitchen table, and even tucked away in your car’s glove compartment.

So, how can you organize all your actionable papers?

The answer is with the Sunday Basket System.

Keeping all your actionable to-do lists, bills, reminders, and so on inside your Sunday Basket gives you complete control over those papers and helps you develop a more organized way of thinking.

Don’t Let Paper Control You!

I honestly can’t imagine a world without paper. Technology is great, but there’s nothing like writing things down and having a physical copy of the things that are important to you.

Remember that paper doesn’t have to control you, you control paper.

If you’ve tried any of my suggestions for paper organization, I’d love to hear from you! Share your stories or snaps with me on Instagram and don’t forget to join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips! Tag me in your posts @organize365 or use the hashtag #organize365!

Direct download: Org365-272.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Decision Fatigue

Do you suffer from decision fatigue? When you’re bombarded with too many decisions, your brain works in overdrive. And, you end up mentally and physically exhausted.

So many of you have asked me to talk about this issue on the podcast, so…here it is!

But, before you jump into this episode, it’s worth checking out the Time, Money, Motivation podcast (ep.269). The trifecta I talk about in that episode will help change your mindset.

When you learn to look at things differently, you’ll have the willpower to make real transformational change.

To help you out, we offer a FREE week trial of the 100 Day Home Organization Program. It won’t work miracles. But, it will bring you leaps and bounds closer to living a stress-free and more organized life (minus decision fatigue!).

The truth is that you don’t need to run a marathon or get a PhD to experience a transformation. You can achieve a very BIG change from a very tiny shift to your mindset and daily habits….and, I’m going to show you how!

What is Decision Making Fatigue?

When you’re lost in decision fatigue, you usually lack time, money or motivation (or all three).

When you wake up in the morning and go about your day, you’ll have X amount of decisions to make.

Your decision-making ability only goes so far. If you’re faced with decision after decision, you’ll burn-out. That’s what decision fatigue is.

A nasty little thing, isn’t it?

How can you beat decision fatigue?

Want to know how you can kick decision fatigue’s hypothetical butt?

Grab a hammer, lift your little decision fatigue monster up by the scruff of its neck and…. ah, I’m just messing with you!

To overcome decision-making fatigue, you’ve got to create rules and habits. Habits take up to 100 days to form and cross the barrier from something you do now and then, to something you do ALL the time.

My entire life is an outpouring of habit stacking. You wouldn’t believe the number of habits I’ve accumulated over the years. But, I wouldn’t have it any other way because they’ve helped me live a super productive life. And, supplied me with lots of energy.

However, habits take a long time to cultivate and develop. I’d be lying if I said it's easy. It’s not. My advice is to start small. Create no more than three habits per year and make them stick.

Next up, you need to have rules. Rules are instantaneous, and they can adapt.

The $50 Decision-Making Challenge

Everyone has a decision-making limit. An infinitive decision-making capability isn’t a thing. You only get a limited amount of decisions each day. You’ve got to decide whether the decisions you’re making every day are worth your time.

Is stopping to decide what shoes to wear to the gym worth sacrificing a decision slot? Probably not.

So, here’s my challenge for you….

When you go through your week, imagine that every decision you make costs $50. Deciding what to eat for lunch? $50. But, if you’ve already got your lunch prepared and you know what you’re having, you can put that $50 back in your pocket.

If you start looking at each decision as having the same worth, you’ll build your organizational muscles as you begin to see which choices are worth it and which ones are not.

Thinking about the where, why & what

The reward of organization is time. When you’re organized, you get to decide how you use your time. The fewer decisions you make, the higher quality decisions you can make.

To beat decision fatigue, you’ve got to consider the where, why and what.

  1. Where?

Where does an item go when you don’t want it?

Will it go in the trash or to goodwill?

When thinking about the where, make a decision for each physical item that you no longer want or need in your home.

It could be as simple as picking up an item and asking yourself if you want to keep it. If you do, put it where it needs to go. If you don’t, ask yourself if it’s trash. If it is, it goes in the trashcan. If not, it goes to goodwill.

The same can be said for shredding. If you’re faced with a stack of paper that needs shredding, you’ve got to decide where and when you’ll shred it. Don’t bombard yourself with questions. Keep it simple.

Will you shred it, or will you hire someone else to do it? When will you shred it?

The goal is to try to make your decision tree as small as possible. You can do this by creating rules that help reduce the amount of decisions you need to make before reaching an outcome.

  1. Why?

Next, think about your ‘why.’ Why are you making all these decisions?

Pick up your nearest item. Mine happens to be a cup. So, if you were me, you’d ask yourself whether you want to keep this cup. If not, decide if it has any value. If it does, it’s good enough for goodwill. If not, (maybe it’s got a chip or crack) then toss it in the trash.

During this thought process, you’ll have an entire conversation in your head about why you will or will not keep the item in your hand. But you’ve got to be ruthless.

Quiet the chatter in your mind, take control of your decisions, and move on!

The Sunday Basket is the physical way of learning how to detach your self-worth from what your brain is going on and on about.

  1. What?

Decision fatigue is partly about what you’re going to do with the object you don't want. But, perhaps even more than that, it’s about what you’re going to do about all the thoughts that you have about the object that you don't want anymore.

Don’t let your brain get in the way. That little inside voice you’ve got chatting your ear off 24/7 needs to be silenced.

Get in the habit of making tactical decisions.

Create rules that you feel good about. If you feel good donating to goodwill, make that a rule.

The key takeaway I want you to go away with is to make your decision of where, turn off your brain about the why, and then you'll have more time and focus for the what! That’s how you’re going to overcome decision fatigue.

View the full post here: https://organize365.com/decision-fatigue/

Direct download: Org365-271.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

I don’t have enough money to …

If I have more time I would …

I’m just not motivated.

These are the top 3 things holding you back from the change you crave and I finally figured out how they are RELATED!

Did you know what the most common New Year’s Resolutions are?

  1. To get fit/lose weight
  2. Pay off debt/get money in order
  3. Get organized

Did you also know that when you start on one of these goals, the others fall in line, too?

It takes time, but it will happen. I promise. And by time I mean … years.

I was an EXTREMELY productive child, working 40 hours a week babysitting because I could easily sell the moms I worked for into hiring me for more time if I told them I was available. (Suckers!) ;)

Time, Money and Motivation all go hand-in-hand.

TIME

Organization always gives you more TIME. ALWAYS.

If you decide to be a minimalist, you are, hands down, going to have more time.

Part of organization is decluttering. But decluttering involves more that just your physical objects.

You will declutter items from your calendar, out of your email inbox, organize your paper, and occasionally declutter past relationships that are no longer mutually beneficial.

Personally, I started my journey in the “getting organized” category. It took me about 18 months.

Organizing is proactively choosing how you are going to use your time.

If you are a reactionary, others choose how you spend your time.

Productivity is the outpouring of living an organized life.

MONEY

Your money is your resource.

Money comes from constraining yourself so that you can budget yourself and get out of that resource what you want.

No one has unlimited money. NO ONE. Money is a constraint that makes you CHOOSE what you invest in.

My money journey has been life long and it was not until about 2 years ago that Greg and I finally got consumer debt free.

And then we slipped. We are still working on this area together.

MOTIVATION

Your energy and your motivation come from your health and wellness.

With a great set of genes and not too much vanity, I haven’t minded a “few” extra pounds and unhealthy food choices.

Recently, I have started prioritizing my future health by being more responsible now. I could never have the time and money to focus on this in the past.

Listen in as I deep dive into my 7 year journey of health and wellness, from fast food and fountain cokes to salads and zone bars. I haven’t “arrived,” but I HAVE improved.

Habits change slowly, consistently, over time as you will see from my health and wellness story.

Listen to the podcast to hear the 3 steps I took in each area to make improvements.

It has been a 7 year journey from drowning in reactionary mode to the thriving productive woman you see today.

And I wouldn’t change any of it!

As I said last week, making major changes, one step at a time, is hard. And I can see in our FREE Facebook group Organize 365 and on Instagram, when people share their photos of the inner struggles they are facing as they make progress in their organizational journey and I honestly cheer OUT LOUD to see the progress and I think to myself, look how far they have come! :)

Organize 365 is here to support you on your organizational journey. What is your number one priority in the new year? I’d love to hear it.

I’m cheering for you!

The Self Coaching School - Brooke Castillo episodes mentioned in this podcast (32, 71, 76, 77, 85, 104, 105, 129, 243)


If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365!

Direct download: Org365-269.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

In this episode, Lisa invites Monique Horb back onto the podcast. Monique is a Sunday Basket Certified Workshop Organizer and runs her own professional organizing business, Organizing Your Chaos.

In today’s episode, Lisa and Monique tackle the nuanced and difficult conversations surrounding parenting children with special needs. Speaking from experience, both moms discuss the challenges and joys of parenting their unique kids and the documentation needed to do it well.

Organize 365 introduces the Warrior Mama Binder, a workbook and documentation powerhouse designed for moms by moms of children with unique learning needs.

Be sure to check out www.organize365.com/warrior-mamas for notes, links, and photos from this episode.

Like the show? Leave a review!

If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365!

If you’re ready to use my strategies to finally take back your home, jump right in to the 100 Day Home Organization Challenge. You can try a week free to see if it’s right for you!

Want more information on launching your professional organization business? The Professional Organizer’s Think Tank is for you.

Want more information on adding the Sunday Basket Certification to your current business? We’d love for you to join us in the Certification Program!

Direct download: Org365-WarriorMamaBinder267_UPdated.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

The past year in the life of the Sunday Basket  has been a whirlwind!

I wanted to pause and clarify the differences between the Sunday Basket Workshops, the Sunday Basket Club and the Paper Organizing Retreats.

Why do we need a Sunday Basket anyway?!

What do you do with your mail when it comes in your door?
What about the ideas that flood your head while you’re driving your kids to school?

How about prescriptions, coupons, “to do lists”?

I promise you are spending more time managing these things than you think. The Sunday Basket System is the answer to eliminating that to do list and freeing your mind from constantly trying to keep up with the hamster wheel of ideas that flood it daily.

If you haven’t started your Sunday Basket yet, you can purchase the Complete Sunday Basket System here. The purchase of the Complete Sunday Basket comes with a virtual “on demand” training you can access on Organize 365 in your dashboard.

I just updated those training videos last week. Additionally you can listen to the Sunday Basket podcast here to learn more about the Sunday Basket and follow along as you set yours up.

Where did the IN PERSON workshops come from?

The Sunday Basket Workshop was designed after my passion for Creative Memories workshops, where women would come from all over Cincinnati (and in my backyard) to laugh, drink wine or lattes, listen to 80s music and put photos into albums on the last Friday of the month in my home. It is my vision that we will have Certified Sunday Basket Workshop Organizers in every major city in America teaching and helping women organize their paper and be freed from the guilt and burden that piles of unorganized paper brings.

If you are looking for a Sunday Basket Workshop Organizer in your city or town to help you get organized, please check out our Certified Organizer Directory!

How about the Sunday Basket Club?

Because the Sunday Basket became so popular, and because I love community so much, when the demand came to have a “Sunday Basket Club” on Sundays where I would go through your Sunday Basket with you, I wanted to say yes, but I was overwhelmed with the prospect of having to teach that EVERY SUNDAY. However, two of our all star Sunday Basket Workshop Organizers volunteered to run it … so I said yes!  

The Sunday Basket Club has a 90 minute Facebook Live time where you can go through your Sunday Basket with Monique Horb and Ryan Lanier EVERY SINGLE SUNDAY.

The Sunday Basket Club is a virtual weekly workshop kind of like “co working” as you go through your Sunday Basket. But it is more than just your Sunday Basket papers. Everyone in the Club also has the basic 4 binders I use to ditch their filing cabinet.

To gain access to the Sunday Basket Club, you can sign up for the Complete Paper Program or All Access. You can learn more about and/or purchase the Complete Paper Program here. You can learn more about and/or purchase All Access here.

Last but not least, Paper Organizing Retreats.

Lastly, let’s come full circle. The Sunday Basket Workshops started because of the good ol’ Creative Memories days. And even though you can learn about the Sunday Basket System and Workshops from our Certified Organizers, or participate virtually by buying it on demand from Organize 365, and you can go through your Sunday Basket weekly in the Sunday Basket Club; like I said, I like community. And I LOVED hosting Creative Memories workshops and my famous “Winter Wonderland Retreat”. So naturally, Paper Organizing Retreats were born and I am LOVING hosting them and so excited about all the progress I have seen women make in this weekend away to really focus on and tackle those paper organizing projects.

So join me, my team and our Certified Organizers at an upcoming Paper Organizing Retreat in April! You can learn more and/or register here! We would LOVE to help you get your paper organized and most importantly, give you a BIG HUG!

PS Have you thought about becoming a Sunday Basket Workshop Organizer? The program is OPEN! But only until February 10th! Hop on over to Sundaybasketcertification.com to learn more and/or sign up! We would love to have you on the team. :)

If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365!

View the complete post here.

Direct download: Org365-266.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

In this episode, we get an update on Molly, who you first heard about in Episode 239.

As an almost-40 mother of three, Molly was living in a state of overwhelm. She found Organize 365, and her whole life transformed. This is the second six months of that transformation.

Lisa walks us through Molly’s year not as a perfect model to measure ourselves against, but to reassure us that an imperfect path to organization still leads to organization.

Resources from Molly’s journey:

The 100 Day Home Organization Program

Paper Organizing Retreats

The Sunday Basket

Friday Workboxes

Embrace: You are Enough National Conference

Be sure to check out www.organize365.com/a-year-to-get-organized-molly-update for notes, links, and photos from this episode.

Like the show? Leave a review!

If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365!

If you’re ready to use my strategies to finally take back your home, jump right in to the 100 Day Home Organization Challenge. You can try a week free to see if it’s right for you!

Want more information on launching your professional organization business? The Professional Organizer’s Think Tank is for you.

Want more information on adding the Sunday Basket Certification to your current business? We’d love for you to join us in the Certification Program!

Direct download: Org365-264.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Come peek at a year in the life of Molly, a woman who has decided that she has had enough; it’s time to take back her life. In order to do so, she needs to get organized, and that means organizing her paper, organizing her house, and becoming more productive. She wants to free herself from the everyday responsibilities that she thought were solely hers to open herself up to her unique talent. Lisa walks us through the first two rounds of the 100 Day Home Organization Program that is part of All Access, as well as a few of the bonuses offered with the program. If you’ve ever wondered what these systems are and how they can transform your home, listen in!

Check out the new web site (and the All Access Program)!

Binge the top 7 podcasts Lisa recommends to start.

Be sure to check out organize365.com/239 for notes, links, and photos from this episode.

Like the show? Leave a review!


If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook Group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365!

Direct download: Org365-239.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:55am EDT

In this episode, Lisa chats with Virginia Deane, the daughter of Holly Knill, and a productivity expert in her own right.

Lisa and Virginia examine the way that the Friday Workboxes, specifically the Corporate Workbox, can help a team of individuals cut through the paper piles, skyrocket their productivity, and truly enjoy their jobs.

Interested? Grab your spot at one of our free Master Classes and start tackling your scattered to do lists.

That Boot Camp Virginia mentions in the episode? It’s now the Grow Your Business Focus Day at our Paper Organizing Retreat!

Be sure to check out organize365.com/piles-to-productivity for notes, links, and photos from this episode.

Like the show? Leave a review!

Are you interested in joining us for one of our live events? View the upcoming events and come make progress (not perfection) on your organizational goals!

If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365!

If you’re ready to use my strategies to finally take back your home, jump right in to the 100 Day Home Organization Challenge. You can try a week free to see if it’s right for you!

Direct download: Org365-263.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

If you’ve ever wondered how Lisa finds “balance,” how she manages to grow a six-figure business while managing her home, you’ll want to listen to this episode.

In a heaping dose of vulnerability, Lisa shares how she has transformed over the past seven years professionally and personally after enduring a dark valley in 2012.

This episode is all about grace, and is a triumphant story about following a dream while still being Mom.

Be sure to check out organize365.com/my-transformation for notes, links, and photos from this episode.

Join us for the Embrace: You Are Enough Conference this summer and start (or continue) your own personal transformation.

Like the show? Leave a review!

If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365!

Are you ready to make this YOUR YEAR? Sign up for a FREE Masterclass to learn more about the 100 Day Home Organization Program here!

If you’re ready to use my strategies to finally take back your home, jump right in to the 100 Day Home Organization Challenge. You can try a week free to see if it’s right for you!

Direct download: Org365-261.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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