When your purse is overflowing it is hard to find what you need. How many times have you dug in your pocketbook to find your phone? This purse organizer gives you easy pockets to line the inside of your purse so finding objects quickly is a breeze. It also helps you transfer your pocket books quickly without having to reorganize everything every time. Visit the Organized Lifesytle Store, http://www.theorganizedlifestylestore.com/ for more information.

Busy Moms Get Organized with the Mom Agenda

Keeping track of schedules when you are a busy mom can be difficult. One of my favorite products to help busy moms is the Mom Agenda. The Mom Agenda creates a simple system to track your own schedule and has rows underneath your schedule to track each of your kids activiites. In one portable place you can know where each of your family members is supposed to be. In addition, there are sections in the back of the Mom Agenda which list birthdays, addresses, help you with party planning and more. The Mom Agenda retails for $39.99 and can be purchased at The Organized Lifestyle Store (http://www.theorganizedlifestylestore.com/). Call for more information at 203-458-7674.

More Spring Cleaning Tips

Simplify your cleaning supplies. Many times I see people with cleaning supplies overflowing under their kitchen sink, filling up a linen closet on the second floor and spilling out into bathrooms. If you pull out all of the cleaning supplies and look at them collectively you can start to see many duplicate items, empty bottles and old supplies that haven’t been touched in years because they were buried in the back pile. Remember too many choices can be just as bad as too few.

My suggestion is just keep the basics. Most houses can be cleaned with window cleaner, a multi-purpose solution, a tub and tile cleaner, bleach, toilet bowl cleaners, dusting polish and a good floor cleaner. Be careful not to fall into the trap of buying all the newest products without throwing out some of the old ones that haven’t worked. Cleaning is so much easier when you only have a few choices to deal with and one central location to grab them. Inventorying supplies is also a cinch because you will quickly see when items are running low. You will save money, space and avoid overbuying items you don’t need.

Easy access to your cleaning supplies will also make it much easier to grab what you need and get the job done. Paring down supplies will allow you to have a kit that you just pull out when you are ready to straighten everything out. Put your most essential supplies in a bucket that you can take from room to room. Make sure your vacuum is not jammed in a closet that makes it so difficult to get out that you never want to use it. Items like mop and broom holders mounted inside a closet, basement or garage wall can also make these items easily accessible and more appealing to use.

Spring cleaning time is here and there is no better time to put these items in order so you can breeze through your responsibilities and begin enjoying the warm weather in your free time.

Organization Workshops offered at the Organized Lifestyle in March

The Organized Kitchen

Do your cabinets take on a life of their own? Do you spend time searching for items or money on duplicates? We can teach you how to make your kitchen simply organized and functional.
Taught by Professional Organizer Kristin Mastromarino

Tuesday, March 18, 20087-8 pm @ The Organized Lifestyle Store

or

Thursday, March 20, 200812-1 pm @ The Organized Lifestyle Store

Pre-Registration Required: call 203-458-7674
Cost: $10

The Paper Chase

Is your desk overflowing with paper? Old bills, piled magazines, junk mail invade our homes and officesat rapid pace. Learn tips and tricks to gain control of paper that is creating physical and mentalclutter in your life. Discover the different ways to file, discard and keep paper.

Taught by Professional Organizer Kristin Mastromarino

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

12:30 -1:30 pm @ East Haven Chamber of Commerce's Women in Business Luncheon, The Village At Mariner's Point, East Haven, CT
For more information call 203-458-7674

Spring Cleaning Tips

Many of us fall into the trap of using our free time just to keep up with what is around us. I live in a small apartment by myself and I still find it difficult to keep everything in order! Throw in a family or a spouse that doesn’t care as much about keeping order and you could be saying good bye to your spare time just to get it together each week.

Most people do not have the luxury of hiring a cleaning service. And even those that do can do a great injustice to the house during the time between visits. Being as organized and as simple as possible in your home will help decrease the time and energy you must place on keeping everything clean and dust free.

One of the first things that I suggest is really simplifying your surface areas. The more small knick knacks, picture frames, candles etc. you have taking up your counters, bookshelves and tables the more you are going to have to clean. In addition to creating more surfaces to clean, too many of these types of objects in a space can create visual clutter that detracts your eyes from focusing on the beauty of the pieces.

Rotate your pictures instead of adding a new frame every time you want to show off a new photo. Put away candles that you are not currently burning. Focus on displaying pieces that have meaning and decorative impact on your room not just throwing things up on shelves because there is a space for them. By editing these small things dusting will be much easier and your room will feel more streamlined.

Paper Organization Tips from The Organized Lifestyle

Here are five tips that owner and Professional Organizer, Kristin Mastromarino, offers to make an immediate impact in your paper piles:

1. Use one To Do list every day to document the papers that you are keeping just to remind yourself of an action you need to take, then throw away the paper. If you have a place that you regularly refer to you will keep less paper.

2. Use one calendar to document the events you need to schedule. As soon as you get a paper letting you know about a speaker coming to town or a meeting you must go to, write all important information in your calendar and toss the paper.

3. Set a deadline to read magazines and newspapers. Most news is old news by the time the next newspaper or magazine issue comes. In addition, articles get recycled every season. Only keeping the latest issue will help you unbury yourself from too much paper and limit the guilt you have when you look at your pile of unread articles.

4. Use a tickler file system on your desk or on your kitchen counter to file all your current projects. For instance, have folders labeled “Bills to Pay”, “Addresses.” “Schedules,” or “John’s Wedding” and you will have a spot for to place all of that paper that just ends up sitting on the counter or desk.

5. File for retrieval not for storage. Ask yourself when you are about to file something away, “Do I really need this?”; “Can I find this information on the Web?” Most of the time the answer is no. We are just putting it in a file to avoid making a decision on it. (Buy the HomeFile System Pictured above at www.theorganizedlifestylestore.com for $24.95)

Welcome to the Organized Lifestyle Blog

The Organized Lifestyle store is a retail store located in Guilford, Connecticut that sells products with a focus on home and office organization. In addition, to products, the store has partnered with Carl’s Closets, a custom closet organization company and Livable Solutions Professional Organizing, which offers on-site services with a professional organizer to help with home and office organization projects. Through excellent customer service, advice and these outside services, the Organized Lifestyle achieves a one-stop shop for all organizational needs.
Established in August 1, 2006, the OLS’ uniqueness lies in the fact hat it is the first store in the state of Connecticut to offer professional organizing services through a storefront. A professional organizer helps his or her client create organizational systems in his or her home or office to maintain order, access items more quickly and increase efficiency.