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Organize Your Desk: Common Traps and RAFTS

Organize Your Desk: Common Traps and RAFTS

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Dr. Katherine Macey

Hello! I’m Dr. Katherine Macey with Organize to Excel and over the next four blog posts we’re going to explore how to organize your desk so you can be as productive as possible. We’ll be covering the following topics:

  • Behavioral strategies you can use at your desk
  • Tools and supplies you can use to make it easier to work at your desk
  • Where to position your printer and other office supplies
  • How to create a clear workspace so you can be as productive as possible

We’re going to create some clear space for you so that you can have a clear mind as you do your work. Fewer things cluttering your workspace allows you to focus more effectively. If you have extra items around your workspace, your brain has to work to ignore them.

We’re going to make sure that the things that you need often are handy, without cluttering up your space. Let’s organize your desk!

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Reviewing and Renewing

Reviewing and Renewing

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The new year’s almost here, and it’s an exciting opportunity to make resolutions, keep them, and grow. In a past blog post we talked about how to set goals with the SMART PATH system, which encourages setting achievable goals, and working through them by focusing on the journey, not the destination. 

Another part of this journey-first mentality for achieving goals is reviewing and renewing—looking back at your commitments and refreshing them. It helps you do three important things: Get some direction, reset your resolve, and prioritize.  

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Best Closet Organizing Strategies

Best Closet Organizing Strategies

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We use our closet every single day (okay, except for pajama days.) It makes sense to make it easy to find the perfect outfit for your day. No mess, no stress. Streamlining your closet tells you a lot about yourself. How you dress tells people who you are. And how your closet is set up is also uniquely you. My closet is extremely practical – because I’m a practical kind of person. So if that’s what you are looking for – read on for closet organizing strategies!

What’s your style?

The first thing you want to consider when thinking about your closet organizing strategies is choosing a style. It may be dictated somewhat by your living arrangement and your budget, but you always have choices and it is up to you to create the closet of your dreams (within budget of course!) So whether you choose to use your built-in, have a stand-alone wardrobe, or do a free standing rack, it’s up to you.

I like a clean look in my room, so I prefer to have my clothes behind a closed door and in drawers.

Declutter using TRACKED
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Garage Storage Hacks

Garage Storage Hacks

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Garage storage can be difficult. The variety of shapes and sizes of items kept in garages can make storage tricky. Garages can be scary places. Spiders, stacks and stacks of boxes piled precariously, half finished projects, sports equipment and more. They can store forgotten treasures, tools and sports equipment, things to help you enjoy life, all of which you would use if you could reach them. Some garages have cars parked in them, but often garages end up as our last storage spot when we’ve run out of handy spots in our homes.
Garage storage don'ts
There are some things that we definitely should not be storing in the garage because they don’t cope well with temperature changes, humidity or pests. Some things to avoid storing in your garage are:
  • important documents – water damage, mice, other insect pests could make these documents useless
  • photos – water damage, mice, other insect pests could make these memories fade faster than your own memories
  • vinyl records – these will warp with the temperature changes
  • wine – needs cool even temperatures
  • food – mice and rats are excellent at finding small holes to enter your garage and will chew through packaging in a heart beat
  • delicate clothing – easily water damaged and don’t like uneven heat or humidity
  • paintings – easily water damaged and don’t like uneven heat or humidity
  • old paint – it will quickly become unusable with the heat
  • wooden furniture – it can be easily damaged if there is a leak
  • hazardous waste – be sure to drop off at a hazardous waste drop-off point
  • propane tanks – these need a lot of ventilation
  • and don’t store things in cardboard boxes – things inside can get water damaged if there is a leak.
Garage organization

Declutter your garage

Don’t use garage storage for stuff you no longer need or use. As a rule of thumb, everything in your garage (or substitute storage area) should be something that makes life easy or enjoyable. The things you own should be used. I’ve see many garages that house furniture from a deceased relative, from a move where two homes were merged, or the owners downsized their home but didn’t manage to downsize their belongings at the same time. If you have a specific reason you are keeping the items, for instance, someone has specifically asked for an item and given you a date by when they will pick it up, then by all means keep it if you don’t mind your garage space being used by that item. Otherwise, I recommend letting them go. This is the most important decision. After you’ve decided to let something go, you can decide how to let it go. You can sell, donate, or trash your items depending on the quality and state of the items. Do a little research if you think your items are worth selling, but resolve to let them go within a certain time frame. You don’t want the items still sitting in your garage because you couldn’t get the price you thought it they worth. That will cost you more in peace of mind than the items were ever worth.
Garage storage ideas

Best way to store things in your garage

Garages are notorious for having difficult storage needs due to the variety of items and their very different shapes and sizes. To determine your needs, collect things together that will be kept together. Some categories might be sports equipment, gardening supplies and tools, DIY tools, camping gear. Once you have collected these things together, decide which area of the garage each type of item will live. Consider using vertical storage where possible and aim to get things off the floor. There are hooks and racks on the market for just about everything. You can reach out to a professional garage outfitter like Jay at Organized Garage Solutions or Gus at OrganizIt! for more ideas or help if you need to install garage organization systems. Make sure you’ve decluttered before you have them come over – otherwise they’ll be building a system for stuff you don’t need!

If you’re doing it yourself and need extra shelving, cabinets, or overhead storage, consider the size, shape and weight of the items you want to store. All of these things will affect the storage solutions you ultimately end up using. Pay attention to whether your storage solutions are fixed or adjustable. The best solutions will be adjustable so you can change them as your needs change over time.

How will you change your world this year?

How will you change your world this year?

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What will you change in your world this year?

We have seen this week that what was normal is not okay for many people, black people in particular. I have already written on facebook about the tragedy of George Floyd and many others. A friend shared a picture of our kids protesting the death of Eric Garner 6 years ago. Their sign read “I can’t breathe.” I am a white woman from New Zealand and I have lived in Los Angeles for over 20 years. This is my inherited world.

So I ask, what will you change in your world this year?

Maybe you are in a position to affect policy change. Please do. Please make sure that the most vulnerable of our population are cared for, nutured, and encouraged to contribute their worth. Because they are worthy.

Maybe you are a business owner who is looking to hire. Who will you hire?

Maybe you are part of the privileged. Will you support higher taxes to ensure public schools get the funding they require? Will you donate time or money to help kids who need it most? Will you support our police departments to be less of a police force and more of a police community support?

Maybe you can have a yard sale to benefit a local group doing good in the community (Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper program has chapters in many places around the country, including Los Angeles: https://www.obama.org/mbka/)

Maybe, instead of buying something that you want, but don’t need, you could donate to a cause, or hire a young black person.

Maybe you are a black person – I encourage you to dream, don’t give up hope, and help us help you. Keep asking for what you need. I will listen. I will vote for the people who can affect positive change for you. I will support those organizations helping you. I will ask my clients to donate their items they no longer need to support causes that help people in need like you. I will stand with you and not be silent.