Answering the Age Old Question, "What is a Professional Organizer?"
Ever get a late start to your day because you can’t figure out what to wear, what to eat, or where your keys are? Yep, that’s what we help with! And that looks different for everyone.
“Over the course of our lifetime, we will spend a total of 3,680 hours or 153 days searching for misplaced items. The research found we lose up to nine items every day—or 198,743 in a lifetime. Phones, keys, sunglasses, and paperwork top the list.” [Source]
Almost 6 years ago, as I was helping a friend organize her bathroom, I said, “I love doing this. This is my gift! Wouldn’t it be great if I could do this for a living?” That smart friend researched it and opened my eyes to a Professional Organizing world that I had no idea even existed! But what exactly do they we do?
The term “Professional Organizer” sometimes drums up an image from the reality show “Hoarders.” While that may be true in some circumstances, the typical Chaos Organizing client is usually just a busy person that becomes overwhelmed at the thought of tackling the huge task of organizing their home. They either don’t have the time, don’t know where to start, or don’t have the desire to do the work themselves.
So what is it that professional organizers do?
That’s where we step in! Well, we do a lot of things but here at Chaos Organizing, but our main goal is to make your house functional for you so you enjoy it and find peace being there. And that looks different for each and every family we serve. We organize your home so you are able to find what you need at a quick glance. Your grocery lists will be items you actually need!
Ever get a late start to your day because you can’t figure out what to wear, what to eat, or where your keys are? Yep, that’s what we help with! We can teach you life skills to implement in your day that save you time and money! (If your clothes are organized, you can see what you have and know what is truly needed, which means less impulse buying.)
We increase your space by eliminating what you don’t use or love so you can function more efficiently and effectively in a home that you find peaceful and happy.
Here are some statistics about clutter that you may find interesting.
1. There are 300,000 items in the average American home (LA Times).
2. The average size of the American home has nearly tripled in size over the past 50 years (NPR).
3. And still, 1 out of every 10 Americans rent offsite storage—the fastest growing segment of the commercial real estate industry over the past four decades. (New York Times Magazine).
Does hiring a professional organizer mean your house will never be messy? HECK, NO! We are busy people with busy lives! What it does mean is that everything in your home has a home, so putting things away becomes easier and sometimes even a new habit, freeing up time and energy.
Our homes are becoming places to store things instead of a place of happiness and peace. Professional Organizers can help you refocus your priorities so you are spending more time feeling peaceful and happy.
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Sweet Dreams and a Decluttered Bedroom
Sleep, good sleep, is like medicine. It restores and renews the body and soul. Along with eating and exercise, sleep is one of the most important parts of the health equation. Without good sleep you will sacrifice optimal health. Here are three things you can do to have a more restful bedroom.
Written by: Lisa Clement
Good night ...
Sleep well ...
Sweet dreams ...
Get a good night’s rest ...
How many times have you heard these expressions? Through the centuries people have been wishing these sentiments onto others for good reasons. Sleep, good sleep, is like medicine. It restores and renews the body and soul. Along with eating and exercise, sleep is one of the most important parts of the health equation. Without good sleep you will sacrifice optimal health.
There is much research on the benefits of a good night's sleep.
“Poor sleep is known to compromise cognition generally. So, if hoarders have cluttered/unusable bedrooms (and less comfortable, functional beds), any existing risk for cognitive dysfunction, depression, and stress may increase as sleep quality worsens,” explains Pamela Thacher, study researcher and associate professor of psychology at St. Lawrence University.
The sleep industry, according to Market Research, is forecasted to grow at a 4.7% average annual growth rate. What does this research tell us? It tells us we spend a lot of money trying to get a good night’s sleep!
Articles and publishings suggesting where to spend our money to achieve a good night’s sleep are everywhere!
“How to set up your bedroom to achieve the best nights rest.”
“Best mattresses and sheets to purchase for sleeping like a baby.”
“What is the perfect ambient lighting to install in your bedroom?”
“What apps help you achieve better sleep?”
These are just a few titles of articles telling us how best to spend our money for a good night’s sleep, but perhaps the key to a good night’s sleep is less instead of more. Here are three things you can do to have a more restful bedroom.
Clear the clutter from the flat surfaces on your bedroom.
Studies have shown higher cortisol (the Stress hormone) levels in people who live in cluttered homes. Researchers at the Princeton University Neuroscience Institute published the results of a study they conducted in the January issue of The Journal of Neuroscience that relates directly to uncluttered and organized living.
How is one supposed to feel calm and at peace when their mind is racing with thoughts like,
“Now I lay me down to sleep,
with 45 things on my to do list
that will not keep.”?
Cluttered side tables and dresser tops can leave the mind busy and cause restless thinking about what needs to be done.
“Notice how you can relax in a hotel room. Quiet, dark, cool and clutter free spaces are optimal for rest” says organizing expert, Martha Carol Stewart.
“One of the constant themes throughout much of the research I have studied is the thought to creating a comfortable environment. I’m sure most of us immediately think of our mattress and bedding, but we should think deeper.”
You cannot achieve comfort if you are stumbling
over your clutter to get into and out of bed.
Clutter is a thief. We have preached about this before and will continue to preach about clutter because it is so important to understand. Physical clutter seeps into mental clutter and sabotages everything with which it comes into contact. Clutter will affect your sleep, affecting your productivity in the following days and weeks. Lack of sleep impacts your health, your ability to function in your job which can have adverse consequences for other areas of your life.
All of this because of CLUTTER!
Make your bed every morning
According to Charles Duhigg, the author of “The Power of Habit,” daily bed making can become a keystone habit kickstarting a chain of other good decisions. Beginning your day with this simple habit can instill you with "a greater sense of well-being and stronger skills at sticking with a budget."
Put your phone away
This is a tough one for me because as a small business owner, time off isn’t a thing. A missed call or email could result in a lost organizing opportunity and lost income. I have read that the blue and white light emitted from electronics, can be harmful to your sleep as it suppresses your melatonin (sleep hormone). So, join me in my attempts to put away my phone and commit to better sleep because what I have learned over the last few years is that a tired organizer benefits no one.
Clutter is the antonym of PEACE. Let’s seek PEACE in this hectic world we all coexist within. Let’s start with a GOOD NIGHT’S REST.
Dream sweetly
Sleep peacefully
Wake happily
All About the Bathroom Clutter
Since the bathroom is such an important part of our homes, it is imperative we keep this space organized.
This room is used to start and end your day.
We try to incorporate into our daily challenges on social media quick tasks that go a long way to keeping you on track with getting and staying organized. This week’s challenges were centered around the bathroom.
The kitchen is consistently described as the hardest working room in the home and while it is a hard-working room, I am here to debate its claim to fame as THE hardest working room. After all, I know people who never cook favoring going out to eat as an alternative for most of their meals. I’ve even heard people say they don’t even need a kitchen since they rarely use it!
So, you ask, what is the hardest working room? Well my friends, I say it’s the bathroom.
Think about it. Unless you are lucky enough to be on vacation, the bathroom is the room that is sure to be used daily. There is no “I’ll just go out to bathe, brush my teeth, weigh myself, etc.” These things get done daily at home in your bathroom. Even when you are on vacation the bathroom is an intricate part of your “private” space. Some hotels have a kitchenette, but ALL hotels have a bathroom. (Well except the place my daughter stayed in near Big Bend but that’s another story for another day. )
Since the bathroom is such an important part of our homes, it is imperative we keep this space organized.
This room is used to start and end your day.
We try to incorporate into our daily challenges on social media quick tasks that go a long way to keeping you on track with getting and staying organized. This week’s challenges were centered around the bathroom.
Purge Old Perfume
Perfume has an average shelf life of three to five years from the time it is produced. While it doesn’t necessarily expire, overtime as perfume ages it will lose its concentration of original scent and it may start to smell like vinegar. Applying old perfume can also result in skin irritation, allergic reactions, or simply unpleasant aromas. Take a few minutes to do a smell test on your perfume and colognes discarding the stinky old ones.
Pro tip:
Perfume is best stored in opaque bottles with the top on in a cool and dark spot. I know, this is not the answer you were searching for as the bottles are oftentimes like works of art and look so pretty sitting on the counter on a tray. That’s how I keep mine too, but I make a point to use my stuff before it has an opportunity to start to smell differently than produced.
Clean Brushes and Toss Old Appliances
Does your bathroom cabinet, closet, drawer resemble a study in the history of hair?
· How many hair dryers do you own?
· Curling irons, flat irons, hot rollers?
· How many brushes and combs do you possess?
· Most importantly, what do you use regularly?
The items you use on a daily basis should be the items taking up the prime real estate in your space. Everything else should be stored away for occasional use. You may not wish to hot roll your hair daily, but you know there are times when those babies are needed. Store your rollers in a container properly labeled and placed it in a location for those occasions but out of the space you use daily.
This is about clearing your area for the things that matter most giving you a sense of space. Having that perception of space will go a long way in creating a sense of calm.
Wash Makeup Brushes and Toss Expired Makeup
Good makeup brushes are an investment. I used to use the brushes that came with the drugstore makeup I bought. However, as I’ve gotten older, I have made a point to invest in better makeup and most importantly better brushes. There are some drugstore makeup brands I still gravitate towards, but the higher quality brushes make even inexpensive makeup easier to apply.
I have started earmarking Sunday mornings as my time to clean my makeup brushes. This small task effects my everyday makeup routine in such a positive manner.
Additionally, toss any expired makeup products that may be taking up precious space. Expired makeup not only takes up room, but it can cause skin irritation or infection and no one needs that in their lives.
This image was originally posted by The Perfume Expert.
Pro Tip:
Check out this video on how to properly clean your makeup brushes. Create a weekly time to do this task. And check out these articles on The Perfume Expert and Today to learn more about makeup expiration and keeping products clean.
Toss Expired Medicine
Don’t further your family’s illnesses by giving them bad medicine. Check the expiration dates and toss the items that are no longer up to date.
Clear the Flat Surfaces
Starting your morning in a clutter free space allows you to focus on the tasks ahead of you setting the tone for the rest of your day. Clutter is a thief. It steals our energy. If you at least start your day sans the clutter, you are a step ahead.
Having a spot for your items will help you keep your bathroom clutter free. Even a tray to corral the items used daily is better than having them haphazardly strewn around the counter.
At the end of the day when you are winding down this clutter free environment will help induce a better night's rest which will impact the next day.
These practices have such amazing benefits and truly take little effort when placed into your daily routine. Give us a call if you need help finding your calm. We are experts at clearing the clutter and establishing systems to keep your home a sanctuary of calm, peace, and fun.
Capsule Wardrobes, Closet Cleanouts, and Pre-holiday Decluttering
“Your home needs to be a place of calm, peace and fun,” Stewart says. “Focus on more of the family, and less on the stuff.”
This article was first featured in InRegister. Original Source.
Despite Louisiana feeling like an actual oven, summertime is nearly over. The days are getting shorter and schools are back in session. However, there is no need to succumb to summertime sadness, because fall is only a few short weeks away. Ah, the season of pumpkin spice and sweater weather. Well, not really the second one. The temptation to break out a cute sweater is almost unbearable, at least until you step outside. The South has no understanding of fall weather. So what do you do when it’s mid-November and still 90 degrees outside?
“Have a capsule wardrobe,” says Martha-Carol Stewart, founder and CEO of Chaos Organizing. The versatility of classic, staple pieces will make seasonal transitions easier, while also creating more closet space. A win-win.
Stewart, who started Chaos Organizing with a mission to help people organize their homes so that they could live efficiently, shares a few tips on how to calm your closet no matter what the wardrobe demands of the season require. The key, she says: Define your goal and then ask yourself if each item is helpful or hurtful toward your goal.
“You want your closet to feel like a happy place,” she says, not a room filled with clothes you no longer fit into. Create a pleasing aesthetic by using matching hangers, and organize by labeling and having a home for everything. “It simplifies life.”
Decluttering our homes is especially important during the fall as we prepare for the upcoming holiday season, Stewart notes. The holidays, she says, have a reputation of unforgivably filling homes with chaotic clutter.
After all, tis the season of decorations, cooking, candy and, of course, presents. Yes, holidays mean peace and joy, but let’s be honest, they can be stressful. Think endless trips to the attic for decorations, desperate searches for the perfect presents, and wrapping paper everywhere. Basically, a clutter nightmare. How to ease the pain? Organize it.
“Your home needs to be a place of calm, peace and fun,” Stewart says. “Focus on more of the family, and less on the stuff.”
To avoid losing your sanity searching for Christmas presents, Stewart recommends gifting “experience gifts” like concert tickets, spa days and gift cards, instead of tangible items. This no-stress-needed method takes the worry out of shopping, and prevents the possibility of Christmas presents becoming clutter.
“Emotions are more attached to experiences,” she says. “My son’s 18th birthday present was tickets to Paul McCartney, and he’ll never forget that.”
These types of experience gifts are about the gift of time, and creating memories that will last much longer than a scented candle or clothing.
Since spending time with family members is a staple of the holidays, Chaos Organizing is hosting a clinic to share their favorite holiday-decluttering tips to ensure that the season will be centered around family, not stress. The clinic will be held Tuesday, October 1, at The Royal Standard from 10 to 11 a.m. Stewart and her team of professionals will cover tips like decorating without clutter, organizing gift wrap and clutter-free gifts.
“My goal for this class is to each people how to find peace,” Stewart says. “My Christmases are so special now, and not anxiety ridden.”
Every day during the month of December, Chaos Organizing will post clutter-free gift ideas on its social media and blog posts. For more information about Chaos Organizing, and tips on how to create an organized home, click here.
How Anxiety Rules Your Wallet
Identify one financial struggle or insecurity you have. Do you spend too much on food or clothing? Are your bills piling up because you don’t have a budget? Do you spend when you are stressed?
Written by: Ann Marie Stewart
I am an anxious person who thinks in circles like a dog chasing its tail. Just today, I had a near panic attack on posting for my blog because it was Wednesday and my post would run on Monday. I hadn’t written a word and so here I am, trying to write out my feelings. I have a litany of First World Problems like this that I subdue through various methods. I’ll get to that in a bit.
These heart-palpitating moments did bring up an opportunity for me to write about anxiety and money, so it wasn’t all bad. After all, who hasn’t felt anxiety over money? If you haven’t, you are missing out of some sweet lessons on how fear can simultaneously be your concierge motivator and paralyzer. Fun stuff. Hey, have you checked your credit score recently?
Money Anxiety Disorder
First of all, I guess there is a thing called “Money Anxiety Disorder” so let’s get comfortable with naming the beast.
It was not without a bit of irony that the best information I got on the disorder comes from an article in Psychology Today (circa 2010) and a more recent one published by Experian (the credit score company).
Bob Sullivan, a writer for Experian, and who has no degree in Psychology that I can tell, lists out habits that people with money anxiety disorder have such as hoarding money or things, overspending, being frugal to a fault, financial incest (sounds gross but it’s just controlling others with money), financial infidelity (saving or spending without your partner knowing about it), financial enabling (giving others money in a way that leads to dependency), and anxiety.
Anxiety causes financial anxiety. Yep. I had to read that again too.
What Sullivan explains is that in a Cornell University study (the link to this in the article led nowhere), people who suffered from anxiety and depression were less likely to put away for retirement. The darker side of this, it is explained, is that they may feel they aren’t going to live long enough to enjoy retirement.
Now We Can All Feel Alone, Together
According to the Psychology Today article by Brad Klontz Psy.D., three out of four people will name money as their number one stressor and according to information cited by Bob Sullivan in the Experian article, 57 percent of people report that if they were asked to cover $500 unexpectedly that they would have to go into debt to do it. As an added bonus, in case you haven’t been told time and time again, having a problem with finances is one of the leading causes of divorce. So great, now you have more to be anxious about.
How Stress Takes Money
I don’t know about you, but my former coping mechanisms all involved money. Retail therapy, a hefty gym membership, diet plans, late-night Amazon purchases, a long commute to a job that hired me first so I stopped looking for anything closer, and Diet Coke and the occasional bottle of wine all cost me money and gave back guilt with interest.
We didn’t have overdue bills and it wasn’t like I woke up one day, not knowing beforehand that we were $20,000 or so in debt. I had my excuses: not being able to work full time during student teaching, the cost of having two babies in less than two years, and getting a newer car than was necessary to fit two child seats. These were all choices, however. When we did come out of our fog of terror, we got real about our mistakes and our situation.
How We Conquered Our Finances and Our Stress
You know what we had to do to pay off our debt? We had to stop contributing to our retirement accounts. That was painful. It felt like we were admitting we weren’t quite ready to be adults yet. We then had to use all the money from our tax returns and extra income to pay down our debt. My husband worked a lot of overtime. I had to learn to cook more at home. We had to make a budget, cut up our credit cards, and get ready to stop having any fun. Two out of three ain’t bad.
During the two years it took to pay off our debt, we had so much fun. We minimized and made room in our home, we got really comfortable with the library, the children’s museum, and the zoo through the memberships we were gifted during Christmas. We biked to every park within a five mile radius, we played at free outdoor pools, and treated ourselves to 50-cent ice cream cones. I filled the calendar with every free kids event our city had to offer. It was beautiful.
Taking care of our finances is just a part of our daily life now. I use Dave Ramsey’s EveryDollar app and it has made budgeting and planning SO much easier. It’s worth the $9.99 per month. For some added incentive, listen to or view Ramsey’s podcast.
If you are interested in getting out of credit card debt and you aren’t sure about going down the rabbit hole that is Dave Ramsey, you might want to read this article by LendEdu on “How to Pay Off Credit Card Debt Fast.” This is honestly one of the fastest ways to gaining wealth.
Ways to De-Stress That Don’t Cost Anything
When I “found minimalism,” I had to change my spending habits and this took some time. There are still some areas I can improve upon but here’s some things I do when I am anxious.
I Give Myself a Time Out.
My children get a time-out when they are having issues with coping. Why shouldn’t I get one too? I tell my kids that mommy is taking a timeout and I go into my room, listen to music or read a bit of a book or an online article.
I Take Our Dog for a Walk
Nature is the most wonderful space to get away from it all. Most respected geniuses took regular walks or runs in nature to help gain back their center. You and your dog will be happier for it. Granted, I only get to do this when my husband is at home because it wouldn’t be stress free if I took my children along.
I Literally Tell My Negative Thoughts to Shut Up
Recently, while reading a book A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti, I was inspired by the protagonist’s practice of saying the word “Stop” to herself out loud to stop negative and harmful thoughts from taking over her consciousness. It works and it’s a relief.
I Listen to Music and Cook or Clean
This is something you do not because it is expected of you but because you WANT to do it. It’s like the errands thing. When someone suggests you run errands to take time for yourself, they are assigning work for you during the time when there should be no expectation of work.
Your Challenge for This Week
Identify one financial struggle or insecurity you have. Do you spend too much on food or clothing? Are your bills piling up because you don’t have a budget? Do you spend when you are stressed?
Take this challenge and plan your attack. Can you scale back to eating out once a week or go clothes shopping once a month? What bills do you have and what is your game plan for paying down debt? Develop a budget. Where do you go when you are stressed? What might be a better, non-spend substitute?
Want to see more from our awesome guest blogger, Ann Marie Stewart?
For more on the topic of mental health and debt, check out this article by creditcards.com.