Category Archives: Organizing

Organizing

Organizing as a Form of Self-Care

One of the social media groups I’m in does self-care Sunday every weekend, and there are a lot of posts about taking time for yourself, bubble baths, and buying something you really want as a way to be kind to yourself – and those are all great ideas – but organizing things around your home can also be a form of self-care.

Organizing and Self Care Image by CoiffeurTeamLaurentius from Pixabay

Decluttering as Self-Care

When you declutter your living space, it reduces the stress you feel, and that makes it a form of self-care when you declutter.

Organizing and working on things around the house may not feel like taking care of yourself right off the bat, but if you think of the satisfaction you get when completing a task that makes your environment more beautiful, you can start to see the self care in performing routine tasks.

Managing stress and self care is a holistic process, in the sense that if one part of your life is out of balance, it’s a sign that everything is. People can typically understand your psychological state by looking at your physical environment.

Self-Care for Everyone

Personal self-care is the foundation we all build upon when we want to level-up in life. Without practicing self care, especially the kind of emotional self care that’s bolstered by tidying and beautifying our surroundings, we can end up stuck, fighting the same battles over and over.

This interesting TED talk on self care discusses why taking care of yourself first isn’t selfish.

Now, if you absolutely hate organizing, tidying up, or cleaning the house, by all means, you should hit the spa for a facial or massage, but keep in mind that self care is more than just pampering yourself, and if organizing benefits you, then it’s self care, too.

Storage for Small Spaces

Getting back to the organizing aspect of self care and self-wellness, if you’re working with a small space it can be hard to keep things organized, so you may need to get or make some storage solutions for small spaces.

Self care, wellness, and positivity can be enhanced by having a place to put all your things and having those things in their places when you need to get them.

These solutions for storage can include plastic bins that stack neatly in your closet, cardboard boxes that hold items in an organized way in your dresser drawers. Storage solutions can even be decorative, like cute baskets filled with small items on a wall shelf that matches the decor in your home.

Closet Storage Solutions

There are a lot of companies that will design custom closets that are suited to your personal organizing needs, and there are also closet solutions available in hardware stores and online venues.

If you’re working with a smaller space, you may be able to apply some no-closet solutions for storage, such as hanging shoe racks, over-the-door hooks, corner shelves, and curio cabinets.

I actually have a shelf that’s kind of rickety and clunky in my closet, but it helps me keep my things organized and gives me a place to keep seasonal items packed neatly out of the way.

Learning self-care helps you rewire your brain and the magic of tidying up is, strangely enough, an important part of healthy self care.

Thank you for visiting Intrinsic Vicissitude! Please enjoy browsing around the site for more tips on organizing and self care, or visit the Intrinsic Vicissitude Facebook page to join the conversation there.

Fitness, Intrinsic Vicissitude, Organizing, Positivity, Rewrite Your Life Story

Products to Help You Achieve Body, Mind and Spiritual Balance as We Ring in the New Year

The new year is the perfect time to set goals for achieving body, mind and spiritual balance, but those goals don’t add up to much unless you find a way to make them stick.

Body Mind and Spiritual Balance
Medicine Wheel image courtesy of Pixabay

This year, set yourself up to succeed in your goals by making it easy on yourself – set goals that align with your core beliefs and, if necessary, pick up some products that help push you to succeed.

I’m going to share a few of my favorite tips and products here, and I hope you’ll feel free to add your own ideas in the comments section at the end of the article.

Achieve Body, Mind, and Spiritual Balance

I’ve found that things in my life are generally connected, and that seems to be a fairly common thread for people everywhere.

When good things start to happen, they snowball and more good things keep piling on, and it’s a great time – but when things start to go wrong, the same thing happens only in reverse – the negative things keep piling on until every part of life feels disastrous.

That’s why it’s so important to set yourself up to succeed and to achieve a healthy balance in life – every little success snowballs to become part of a bigger success, and part of a happier healthier life.

For Better Health

While there are so many things that go into better health, I’m starting with fitness, since I’m thinking about my own new year’s goals right now.

Personally, I’m not a person who is likely to ever go join a gym, because it would be inconvenient for me, plus, the last thing I want is to pay to exercise with people looking at me, so I wanted to find a program I could do in the privacy of my home.

I love thisprogram because it lets me access all the workouts, from any device, for less than I would pay per month at my local gym, and – plus – and this is a big plus – they give a 30-day free trial.

For Mental Stimulation

For mental stimulation, it’s hard to beat reading – and when it comes to feelings of success and inner peace, you can so easily turn to the masters by picking up or downloading a book from one of the masters of positivity, like Anthony Robbins, Napoleon Hill, Ralph waldo Emerson, and W. Clement Stone – just to name a few.

So, for a place to find a great selection of reading material to stimulate your mind and forge a path to better life, I wanted to share this link to .

While I love, and expect to always love, having a paper copy of a book to hold and reread, I find I now download books more often than I get paper copies – it saves trees and the gratification is instant because I can start reading within minutes of paying for the book.

For Inner Peace

Choosing something to share with you about inner peace is a little harder, because everyone finds peace in a different way, and I don’t want to leave anything out, but this is getting long and I will be back to share different things that I find.

My first thought was that I would share information on yoga or meditation, but that’s so closely linked to fitness that I decided to go with upgrading your home with pieces that make you feel comfort and pleasure.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the idea that you have to fix every little part of your life before you fix up your surroundings, but turning your home into a place you are proud of gives you a psychological boost, and besides, you and your family deserve to be surrounded by things that give you pleasure.

So, the third place I picked to share with you was a company called Rejuvenation. I loved the unique blend of restored antiques and elegant newer pieces this site offers, and it was a joy to be able to tell you about their unique decor items.

By: Laure Justice

I was honored to partner with Daily Burn, Barnes & Noble, and Rejuvenation to bring you this article about achieving a balance between your body, mind, and spirit.

Intrinsic Vicissitude, Organizing, Rewrite Your Life Story

Organizing Ideas for a Small Bedroom

Your bedroom should be your peaceful oasis, where you can just relax and feel at ease with the world, but that can’t happen if there is chaos everywhere you look – and a small bedroom makes it even harder to stay organized, so consider trying some of these small bedroom organizing ideas.

Small Bedroom Organizing Ideas

Small Bedroom Organizing Ideas

Underbed Storage: You can take advantage of space under your bed by sliding under-bed storage containers filled with garments, shoes, or anything you want to store in an organized manner out of sight.

Corner Shelves: To take advantage of wasted space in the corners of your small bedroom, you can hang storage shelves designed for use in corners, or place a triangular curio cabinet in the corner to hold small items.

Decorative Stacking Baskets: Stacking baskets and bins let you take advantage of dresser tops and closet shelves by neatly storing small items inside the stacked baskets or bins.

Drawer Organizers: While not only for small bedrooms, you can buy drawer organizer to keep your small clothing items, like socks and underwear neatly organized in your dresser, or you can make drawer organizers from things like cereal boxes.

Hanging Baskets: This won’t work if you aren’t able to hang things from your ceiling or walls, but if you can… rather than decorative things like planters from corners of your ceiling, you can hang baskets and then fill them with small items to keep them organized and neatly out of sight.

Cedar Lined Trunks: If you have room for a trunk in your tiny bedroom, you can fill it with linens or garments that are out of season, and then fold a blanket or lace a cushion on top of it, so it can serve double duty as a seat and a storage trunk.

Because each home is different, not all ideas will work in all homes, but you can mix and match these small bedroom organizing ideas to fit your available space.

Intrinsic Vicissitude, Organizing, Rewrite Your Life Story

How to Organize Your Laundry Room

Organizing your laundry room might not seem important in rewriting your life story, but anything chaotic causes stress and lost time, and a laundry room is also an important room in the home because walking around in dirty clothes can make you feel bad.

How to organize your laundry room

Tips for Organizing Your Laundry Room

  1. Set your laundry room up like an assembly line. Dirty clothes hamper -> Washing machine -> Dryer -> Folding area – Hanging rack.
  2. Get baskets or plastic bins to hold your laundry supplies.
  3. Keep your stain pretreater by the dirty clothes hamper so you can treat stains before tossing the soiled items in the washing machine.
  4. Keep the laundry detergent with the washing machine so you can put it in the machine without running across the room to get it – same with liquid fabric softener, if you use it.
  5. Keep the dryer sheets with the dryer so you can grab one and toss it quickly in the dryer.
  6. Keep paper towels or a hand towel handy for wiping off the surface of your folding area so your clean clothes won’t get dirty when you fold them.
  7. Keep a few hangers on the hanging rack so you can take clothes right out of the dryer and hang them before they have a chance to wrinkle.
  8. Hang up a dry erase board and keep a dry erase marker tied to it so you can make immediate notes about laundry supplies you need to get.

An organized laundry room by itself won’t change your life, but it will reduce the amount of time spent chasing down misplaced laundry supplies and it will remove one small bit of stress from your life.

 

Intrinsic Vicissitude, Organizing, Rewrite Your Life Story

Decluttering Tips for a Small Bathroom

Small spaces can be the most challenging to organize because there just isn’t a place to store everything you need.

This is as true for the bathroom as it is for any room in your home or office: when you create a place to put things, it’s so much easier to have a neat and organized living space.

Decluttering Tips for a Small Bathroom

Corner Shelves Take advantage of corners: Corners often get ignored when it comes to decorating and storage – especially storage. However, small items, such as the toilet brush, spare rolls of toilet paper, and even cleaning supplies can be stored out of sight in triangular cabinets and shelves.

Use the wall space effectively: The space above eye level is an ideal spot to hang shelves and small cabinets, or even hanging  baskets for storing things like towels and washcloths, or healthcare and beauty supplies.

Over-the-Shower Caddy Use a shower caddy: A shower caddy that hangs over the shower head or is suspended with suction cups provides a place to keep your shampoo, conditioner, and body wash, as well as shavers and a washcloth or body puff.

Install an over-the-door hook: An over-the-door hook (or two) gives you a place to hang a robe, a towel, a change of clothes, or even a small mesh laundry bag, which can replace a hamper in your small bathroom.

Under Counter Storage Baskets Use containers in available space: If you are lucky enough to have under-counter space in your small bathroom, take advantage of it for storage and organizing purposes. Use plastic containers and baskets to store things in, and label them so you can quickly find your things when you need them.

You can have pretty much everything you need to get ready on hand in your bathroom, even if it’s small, by taking advantage of organizing tools like hooks, shelving, shower caddies, and corner shelves.

Intrinsic Vicissitude, Organizing, Rewrite Your Life Story

Affirmations for Creating a Clutter-Free Life

If you’ve heard about the emotional advantages of living a clutter-free life and you’re ready to get started, writing down and repeating simple, positive affirmations can help you get started and can help you keep on decluttering when you hit a hard spot in the process.

Affirmations for Creating a Clutter-Free Life

Decluttering Your Home State your affirmations in present tense, as if you have already achieved a clutter-free state, and write them down.

Using present tense and the act of writing your desires down in your own handwriting have an impact on the way your subconscious mind processes your affirmations and they affect how much success you have in the long run.

5 Examples of Affirmations for a Clutter-Free Life:

(Feel free to use these, or adapt them as needed to suit your lifestyle.)

  1. I make progress every day by getting rid of at least three pieces of clutter.
  2. Every day, I enjoy my life more because I have a clean, clutter-free living space.
  3. I no longer feel the stress that comes from dealing with unwanted junk all over my home.
  4. I always know where my shoes are, because my home is neat and tidy.
  5. I don’t waste time looking for lost papers and keys because everything in my office has a place and I put things where they belong.

Dare to Enjoy a Life Without Clutter

“If you’ve had something for more than six months, and it’s still not repaired, it’s clutter.”  – Gretchen Rubin

Deciding which of your treasure are clutter can be a challenge. One approach is the six-month test mentioned above though I would add one exception – if it gives you joy, even if unused for six months, it might not be appropriate to call it  clutter.

  • So, for example, you’ve recited your affirmations about decluttering and you’re ready to tackle cleaning out your overstuffed kitchen cupboards…
    • You toss out old pans with scraped off nonstick coatings and plastic containers with missing lids – easy choices.
      • Then, you get to your grandmother’s gravy boat – you haven’t used it in over a year, but you love it nonetheless.
        • It gives you joy!
          • So – keep it, but make sure to make a proper space for it.

Back to Your Affirmations…

To get the most results, write your affirmations on a slip of paper and keep it handy, so you can refer to it and read it, at least, three times a day.

When you read the affirmations about decluttering, picture how your home or office will look, and let yourself experience how it will feel.

The more vividly you can picture the lifestyle you want, the more inspired you will be as you begin tossing out the clutter.

Once you have your chosen affirmations in hand, go another step and get started on decluttering to get organized- as great as affirmations are, you still have to do the work to get the lifestyle.

Organizing

Organize Your Life With These Easy Organizing Ideas

Getting organized will almost always take some work (unless you hire someone to do it for you) but it’s worth it because being organized reduces chaos and stress and is better for you, overall.

Organize Your Life With These Easy Organizing Ideas

Brother P-Touch Label-Maker for Organizing
Click here to see this on Amazon!

Getting started may not be the hardest part of getting organized if you are cleaning up a lot of clutter, but without taking the first step, you already know you will never have a neat and organized life.

Start with a planner: Planners can be in your phone, computer, another handheld mobile device, or traditional paper planners. Choose the type of planner that best suits your personal taste. Then, schedule some time into each day to work on getting organized.

Pick a system for getting organized: Browse through the details of different plans or systems for organizing, such as my free ebook, the Three-Bin Organizing System or any plan that interests you. Choose the approach that best resonates with the way you like to work before you begin your organizing project.

Make some labels: Having a place where everything belongs is important for getting things organized, and labels make it easier for everyone else using the area to find things and to get things back where they belong.

  • I like to use a P-Touch label maker for my labels, but I have also seen beautiful labels made on a Dymo labeler, and even handwritten masking tape labels are effective.
  • The advantage of using labels instead of just writing on the surface of something is – it is easier to move labels if you decide to rehome an item.

Get help if you’re overwhelmed: Almost anyone can end up dealing with a disorganized mess, and it can make you feel stuck, isolated, and alone – but you don’t  have to keep dealing with it and you don’t have to tackle it alone.

If you can’t ask a friend or family member to help, you can hire professional organizers can come in with an impartial pair of eyes to help you find a way to keep the items you value most, get rid of the junk, and organize what you choose to keep so you don’t end up with a recurring problem.

Organizing

10 Best, Easy Tips for Organizing Your Home

Reducing stress by reducing clutter is an easy way to make an almost instant positive feeling in your life, so browse through this list of ten easy ways to start getting organized around the house.

Storage Container
Click here to buy this storage bin!

10 Best, Easy Tips for Organizing Your Home

No matter how big the mess is, getting organized almost always starts at the same place.

  1. You have to sort things and you have to have a place to put them.
  2. If every inch of space is filled with clutter, then you have to make a new space for things as you sort them.
  3. Plastic bins for storage are perfect for creating a space to put things, so the sorted items are separate from the rest.
  4. This also lets you see your progress by simply looking into the storage containers.
  5. Get at least one large storage bin, because when you really start making progress, your storage containers fill up fast!
  6. A large bin lets you work longer without stopping or shifting your focus away from your organizing task.
  7. If you don’t need it, throw it away, sell it, or donate it to charity.
  8. Pace yourself – if you over-do it and end up with an aching back or sore legs, it’s tempting to give up.
  9. Make daily progress and record it in a diary or photo journal. This gives you something to be proud of – and increased self-esteem reduces the chance of you becoming a clutter-re-offender.
  10. Ask for help or share your  stress with someone who has been through it – or someone who is going through it now.

Feel free to share your best organizing tips or ask for ideas if you find you’re just stumped on how to tackle an organizing project,

Organizing

Easy and Effective Office Cleaning Tips

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It is so hard to get your work done in a cluttered, dirty office, and it can be so easy to take control of the chaos.

Office Cleaning Tips

Office Cleaning Kit: Office Cleaning Tips
Click here to buy this book!

Start with a plan. Look around the office and make a list of what needs to be done – the two common things are organizing and cleaning, but an awful lot can go into those two broad categories.

  • Grab a pen and paper and give yourself five or ten minutes to make that list mentioned above.
    • Don’t worry about putting things in any order, just write them as you see them.
  • Review the list to see which things you can group together.
    • For example, if you have one area that is dirty and needs industrial strength cleaner, coat the area with cleaner while you tackle a smaller mess for ten minutes while the cleaner soaks in.
    • Then go back and wipe up the cleaner – if it has soaked long enough, you won’t even have to scrub.
    • (That’s a tip from my days working for a cleaning service – and it really does work as a time saver, and saves your arms from scrubbing, too.
  • Use the list as your guide as you clean the office, and make sure to check off each thing as you complete it because checking things off a list is an emotionally satisfying thing to do – it says, “Success!”

Professional Cleaning Tips

Let the cleaner have time to do its job and use the time while you wait to tackle something else.

Have two brooms and a mop for cleaning hardwood floors. Sweep, mop, then sweep again with the clean broom – this is also a tip from my days working with a cleaning service.

It just gets your floor so much cleaner and it’s worth the few extra minutes.

Set up several baskets, so you can sort clutter as you sift through it. This reduces the time you’ll spend later when you’re ready to file papers or deliver lost items to other offices or rooms.

Office Carpet Cleaning

If the carpet in your office is looking shabby, you can either replace it, clean it yourself, or hire a carpet cleaning service to do it for you.

  • Since it typically isn’t practical to replace it due to expense, you can decide between doing it yourself or having it professionally cleaned by checking to see just how dirty it is.
  • If it is lightly soiled, you can generally pick up a steam cleaner and tackle it yourself.
  • If it is deeply soiled, however, a pro can get it much cleaner, and often make it look like new.

Green Cleaning Products

Grab some eco-friendly products for green cleaning the office, and be kind to your skin, your lungs, and still get your office sparkling clean.

Take full advantage of the tip above about letting the cleaner soak in – you’ll use less cleaner in the long run and you’ll save your arms and hands from a lot of abrasive scrubbing.

Organizing Tips for Office Efficiency

I already touched on this tip, too. Put out bins or baskets – one for each type of thing, or each destination – sort of surround yourself with them if you’re cleaning a large mess – so everything you need to reach is within arm’s reach.

  • Then drop items into the different containers.
  • Then, as you deliver the containers, put everything in the container away before you do anything else.
  • Finally, move the containers as you expand your arc of cleanliness – so everything stays easy to reach.

Make cleaning the office as easy as possible, so you can get back to work and enjoy a stress-free work area.

By Laure Justice

Updated June 13, 2017

Organizing, Rewrite Your Life Story

Underbed Storage Tips to Help You Organize Your Bedroom Quickly

Underbed Storage Container
Click here to buy this underbed storage container!

When I was a kid, one of my family’s favorite “cleaning tricks” was to stuff things under furniture to hide clutter when company was coming over, and while it made the house look clean and organized really quickly.

I hated it because I could never find my things after our company went home.

So, imagine my surprise (and delight) when I discovered there was a way to make use of space under the bed for something other than an abyss for hiding things that should have been put away right in the first place!

Underbed Storage Tips

  • I like to store things under the bed that won’t be needed for at least a season, so my first tip is to neatly pack the container you are using.
  • My second tip is to be aware of the underbed conditions, such as prone to mildew – or mice – or moths, and pack necessary things to battle any known problems along with the things you are storing down there.
    • (It’s easier to tuck some fabric softener sheets in the containers to repel critters than it is to find your favorite sweater or your high school sweetheart’s love letters  chewed to shreds.)
  • My third tip is, don’t underestimate the value of accurate labeling. Use a P-Touch or Dymo labeler, or just grab a Sharpie and list the container’s contents on an easy to see spot.
    • That way, you don’t have to pull it out and unpack it every time you can’t find something – you will know at a glance exactly what is in the storage box under your bed.

Container to Store Garments

While storage units are great and serve a purpose in certain situations, at home storage is tops for  convenience, even when it’s physically under the furniture.

Some natural fiber textiles do best when packed in breathable cedar-lined trunks or drawers, but most clothing can safely be stored in plasticized storage containers for at least a couple months.

Shallow Underbed storage

Long, narrow, and shallow, plastic box storage containers are the most common type of underbed storage container.

Plastic Bins for Storage

As far as brands, the best way to find the perfect container for your needs is to take measurements of your available space, and start by looking at the selection of Rubbermaid underbed storage container units.

  • I suggest starting with the brand name, at least as far as the shopping and comparison stage, because the Rubbermaid logo is easy to spot, and it lets you see the available features offered by the company that pretty much sets a high-quality standard in storage containers.
  • That in no way means I’m recommending one brand as the best because there are a lot of excellent storage container brands, but Rubbermaid containers, in my experience, are good and worth checking out while you make price and quality comparisons.

Cardboard Boxes

For short term underbed storage, cardboard bed boxes provide a less costly alternative to plastic and are every bit as effective at keeping your stored items neatly organized – as long as you label the boxes.