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!