In this technical day and age full of emails and digital photo sharing there is still something very special about receiving a hand written note. I still like getting the mail to see what goodies are in there but all to often it’s just a bunch of bills!

Make it easy to stay in touch with a loved one by creating a greeting card organizer stocked full of the supplies you need to send out a quick note. You will want to include some of the following:

• Greeting cards (Next time you are at the store stock up on a few cards that you love so you have plenty on hand to choose from)
• Thank you notes
• Personalized stationary
• Return address labels
• Colored Pens
• Stamps

Grandparents enjoy seeing your child’s artwork! Make sure you mail of a few pieces from time to time to share the love.

I quickly learned after my first child was born that much of the cutesy stuff hanging in the closet would hardly get touched. It seemed like between changes and messes and drooling my son lived in onesies until it was time to go outside. Most of the clothes were never worn because he grew out of them so fast. Now 9 years later I am happy that his school has a simple dress code. It helps take the guess work out of what we need. I simply buy what we need for a little over a week, because we rarely go over one week for doing laundry. After having three children clothes can get a little pricey so this guideline has helped us keep clothing under control. Of course we throw in a couple of extra fun outfits and the grandparents and aunts tend to send extras as well but by keeping the clothing we buy to a minimum we really cut out the clutter.

What about you? Do you keep tabs on how much clothing the kids have or do you go all out?

Whether you are decluttering your kitchen or your closet, here are a few simple questions to think about while you are sifting through your stuff. Sometimes decluttering can be an emotional process and asking yourself these questions will help you determine what’s worth keeping and what’s letting go.

1. Do I Love It? … I forgot about this award I got when I was in college…should I take a picture of it and let it go, or do I want to display it?
2. Do I Need It? … Are You kidding me, part with my hair dryer? Never!
3. Will I Ever Use It? … These black boots are cute, but I haven’t worn them in 6 years!?
4. Is It A Duplicate? … Wow, I really have three melon ballers?
5. What Is The Worse Thing That Will Happen If I Let It Go? … Ok, I’m letting go of two of my melon ballers. If I have a big melon decorating party I will just have to borrow a few more.

What questions do you ask yourself when decluttering?

Summer is approaching and if you are like us school may already be out! Here are a few ways you can get your summer organized now so you are ready for the fun!

Create a summer fun bin with outdoor toys like water guns, bubbles and sidewalk chalk! These are definitely favorites in our house.
Stock up on bug spray and sunscreen, keep them in an accessible location so you don’t forget to use them when the kids go out. Sunscreen can lose effectiveness over time. Some have expiration dates while others don’t. Sunscreen can last one to three years but I say, when in doubt throw it out!

Now is the time to go crazy with the labels! Label all of your pool gear so that you can easily find your belongings when it is time to leave. Don’t forget Mabel’s Labels Tag Mates for your towels!

Thanks everyone who submitted questions for Ask the Organizer! I will be answering them throughout my regular posting schedule. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask! Here is this month’s Q and A.

I have all my children’s artwork and schoolwork and am having a hard time parting with it…any ideas on what to save? I have tried the “save 2 a year” thing and can’t quite pare it down to that.

Oh dear, I wouldn’t be able to pare down to two a year either… in fact I save quite a bit and it takes up very little space! I sit my kids down at the end of the year and we pick out our favorites. Then we take pictures of them and let the physical paper go. Once I have enough art saved up for each child I will have a book printed out for them to flip through. How thrilled will they be to see their art published!

Here are a few guidelines to help you wade through the artwork madness…
1. If it was painted by your child, keep it.
2. If it was pre-cut pieces that your child simply glued together, toss it.
3. If your child used his or her imagination only, keep it.

As for the schoolwork, I scan the big reports the older kids do every year and maybe a couple of “great job” papers. For the younger kids, I simply save a coloring and writing sample from the beginning and end of the year to see how they have progressed.

Sometimes the kids might have a hard time with the purging of the papers in the beginning, but taking pictures of the artwork lets them know that all is not lost. This activity will help your child build that “it is good to let go” feeling.

So you’ve switched out the seasonal clothes and you have a donation bin but you still aren’t quite happy with how your closet is working for you. It’s still missing some of that organizational flair!

Look no further than your hangers! If you’re still sporting wire hangers, those should be the first to go. In my honest opinion they are not to be used for the long-term so send ‘em back to the dry cleaners! Wire hangers will make a closet look disorganized no matter which way you look at them.

Instead opt for plain tube hangers and stick to one color. I know some of you might want one color for business, one color for casual and so on but that might be adding more headache than it’s worth. Stick to something simple and if you really want an organized look, go all out and get wood hangers for a sophisticated looking closet!

When I tell people that I am a professional organizer they always assume my house is perfectly put together. My answer is always “No, our house is lived in!” My house is not the epitome of perfect. But I do have a little secret for making it look company ready in 10 minutes or less. I do a Laundry Basket Clean Sweep. All this entails is taking a laundry basket and picking up all the clutter I see in 10 minutes and then stashing the basket in an unseen place. Let’s be honest here, in a perfect house I wouldn’t have clutter to stash but this house is not perfect. Sometimes I get busy, sometimes life happens, sometimes stuff accumulates. Sometimes you need to give yourself permission to not be perfect all the time and allow yourself a few of those clutter stashing moments.

There is one major rule to this game though:
You must tackle that basket first thing the next day! Don’t stash it and pretend it never happened!

So what about you? Do you have clutter stashing days of your own?

This organizer has officially become a soccer mom! And this organizing mama is getting things together right away! Here is how I am tackling all of this new soccer STUFF.
- A good sturdy bag…check.
- A label for son’s ball…check.
- Store stuff in bag when not in use…check.
- When done washing uniform, keep it together with other stuff in bag…check.

Three weeks into soccer, I have realized what really works for me is to just keep all of the soccer gear together in one bag. Period. When it’s time to go, we pull out the bag so he can get ready. Ball is there so just grab water bottles and go.

Oh, and in case you are wondering… our Mabel’s Labels Sticky Label has held up really well against all of the mud and kicking!

People often tell me I make things look easy. I think the reason I make things look easy is because they often are. A perfect example is the neighbourhood Easter egg hunt I recently organized. Please note that when I say “organized”, I am using the term very loosely. I sent out an e-mail to everyone on the neighbourhood e-mail list. It was the same e-mail I sent out last year.

So I managed to get some cred and kudos for doing pretty much nothing.

The e-mail included information about how many eggs to stuff per kid in your family, what area of the park to hide the eggs in (based on kiddo ages) and what time to have it done so that we would be ready to start on time. Oh, I also told egg hiders to bring plastic bags with them in case they came across some dog poop or other park treasures.

That’s it. That is me organizing the egg hunt. Note what I didn’t do:
- I didn’t stuff eggs for kids in the neighbourhood;
- I didn’t hide eggs for kids in the neighbourhood;
- I didn’t go and clean up the dog poop in the park before the egg hunt.

Surprisingly, with all that I didn’t do, I still got a handful of e-mails from highly appreciative mamas. They all mentioned how remarkable it was that with six kids and a business I could find time to organize the egg hunt. I reminded them that forwarding the e-mail from last year took me about 15 seconds. Regardless, these appreciative mamas unanimously came back with “Well, someone had to send it out – so thank-you!”

Perhaps a case can be made for the old expression: “if you want to get something done, ask a busy person to do it”. Maybe all of us busy folks have just figured out the real trick – don’t just make it look easy, make it easy!

Spring is a great time to re-evaluate your wardrobe. See what you need for the upcoming season and come to terms with the stuff you really don’t love. After you are done spring cleaning, take the opportunity to reward yourself by throwing a little party… A Clothing Swap!

Get your closest girlfriends together and all of your no longer loved clothes and swap until you drop! Have everyone bring 10 – 15 items they no longer love, accessories included, and set up your house like a retail store. Allow your girlfriends to shop and take what they like. You can get rid of some clothes and get something new in the process without spending a dime!

This works with kids’ toys too!