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9 Hacks to Make Moving a Snap

3/28/2016

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Moving doesn't have to be hard! Check out these 9 tricks for simplifying your move BEFORE and AFTER the big day. #upstatecluttercoach #moving
A good deal of our clients at Upstate Clutter Coach are clients because of a move. Regardless of how recent (or long ago) the move was, they’ve decided to finish their move once and for all. If you find yourself in a similar situation, or you want to avoid the dread of unpacking, check out these time-saving steps to ensure a positive moving experience.
Help Moving to Greenville - Packing and Unpacking. Professional Organizer and Clutter Coach Lauren Flinte simplifies the relocation process with these 9 easy moving hacks.

​BEFORE YOU MOVE
  • Buy The Right Boxes. Stores like Home Depot, Lowes, and Staples carry several sizes. Although it’s tempting to get a ton of giant boxes, reserve those for pillows and comforters only. All of your other things will simply weigh too much and make moving the box through your home too awkward if you choose boxes that are too big. Bankers Boxes up to 18x16” are my favorites. Wardrobe boxes are nice if you’re traveling long-distance; but wrapping your clothes in a trash bag hangers and all is much easier. Go MEDIUM, or go home.

  • Edit Before You Box. It’s easy to fall into the trap of great music, fellowship of friends, and packing ALL THE THINGS. I get it, you’re actually trying to make packing FUN, but if you want to make it EASY, you have to focus. As you look at each category, ask yourself, “What am I using 80% of the time?” Thanks to the 80:20 Rule, you’re probably only going to identify 20% of the items in that category. It’s okay to hold on to a FEW of the 80% you aren’t using, but make an effort to let it go. If you’ve been thinking about buying new glassware or dishes, now is the time to do it. Donate all the old items and buy your new set when you get to your new home. For the in-between time, use disposable plates or as few “old” ones as you can so that you can easily say goodbye when you shut the door for good.

  • Pack By Category. Most clients want to pack by area from their old home without considering their new home. Instead of packing up all the cabinets on the right side of the kitchen sink into two boxes (area), pack up the cabinets by the type of contents they hold (category). Unless you’re moving into an identical home, packing by area just won’t work. Seriously, quit trying to tell me it will work. It won’t. Your move in will go much smoother when your belongings are grouped by category because you’ll have the freedom to decide what goes where instead of having to unpack ALL THE BOXES first.

  • Label Well. This is the top mistake folks make when packing for their move. In their rush to prepack before listing or toward the end of packing when exhaustion sets in, boxes become covered in the four letter word I dread: Misc. Misc might make sense to you as you’re tossing the kitchen junk drawer into a box, but it won’t make a lick of sense when you get to your new home. I’d prefer you to save yourself the hassle and just dump the junk drawer in the trash; however, if you feel like it must make the move, box it up and label it “Kitchen – Junk Drawer.” If you want your unpacking to go smoothly, always write the room the items belong in and a description of what the items actually are. Avoid Misc at all costs.

AFTER YOU MOVE
  • Take Boxes To Their Rooms. Hopefully you did this the day the movers were there to help unload. If not, do it now. Station these boxes to one side of the room so that you’ve got some space to work. There is nothing worse than being surrounded by mountains of boxes and not being to unpack because you lack elbow room.

  • Categorize As You Unpack. Hopefully you had the chance to pack by type BEFORE the move. If not, don’t neglect this step. You need to know how many pots and pans you have before finding their permanent home.

  • Unpack in Entirety. There is nothing worse than half-opened boxes littering a space. Instead, open one box and unpack the entire thing! Don’t allow yourself to get distracted. If you’re finding that you need more space for the different categories you’re unboxing, then just move some of the packed boxes out of the way.

  • Break Down Boxes. If room allows, I just stack my empty boxes to the side. However, if I’m pressed for space, I break down each box as I finish it to give me more working room. As you break down the boxes, set them aside in a “box pile.” Do the same with packing materials. Most moves create more trash than your waste removal service will pick-up. You can save yourself the hassle, and possibly earn a few bucks, if you offer up the used packing materials on Facebook or Craigslist.

  • Find Permanent Homes. I said permanent, not temporary, not “it kinda fits, so let’s just stick it here.” This is your new home and you’ve dreamed of all of the fun you’ll have here. Make those dreams come true by giving your storage solutions the utmost consideration. Any professional organizer would tell you that the best way to organize a home is to organize first in zones, and then by frequency of use. Let’s consider the kitchen. Every kitchen has at least these three zones: food storage, food prep, and cleaning. You can identify these zones by the fixtures in your kitchen. Food storage includes the refrigerator and the surrounding cabinets. Food prep includes the stove, oven, microwave, counter tops, and surrounding cabinets. Cleaning includes your sink, dishwasher, and surrounding cabinets. You’ll keep almost everything that goes through the dishwasher in the cleaning zone (plates, utensils, glassware, etc.). Don’t make the mistake of sticking your serving platters on a shelf that really should be holding the bread. Use your “not as convenient” cabinets for your “often not used” stuff, and protect the prime real estate of cabinets within easy reach. Your home will work more efficiently for you and you’ll be less stressed following your move if you make tough decisions now.

Not interested in doing the packing or unpacking on your own? No problem!

Let Us Do It For You!
Lauren Flinte is a professional organizer who transforms chaos into categories, leaning towers into stable storage solutions, and anxiety into peace by way of editing and organizing residential and commercial spaces. She can help you reclaim your joy today! www.UpstateClutterCoach.com #reclaimjoy #organizer #minimalist
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Help! My Life is Too Busy!

3/3/2016

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Learn how to schedule your time and implement time blocking so that you can get the MOST out of each minute! When we try to do too many things at once, we actually accomplish less. Get focused and gain time! #upstatecluttercoach #time #savetime #organize #schedule
Have you ever felt like you’re doing EVERYTHING around the house? Would you like your family to pitch in a bit? Wouldn’t it be nice to enjoy a break during the week so you can recharge?

The good news is that you can! You can experience freedom and reclaim joy at home simply by restructuring your schedule. Let me show you how!

The business world has this down to a science. They understand that in order to fit everything necessary into a standard work week, they’ve got to have systems and schedules in place. They’ve delegated company tasks to those who enjoy and excel in specific areas. When we apply the business model of work to the home model, life can change dramatically!

I want to take the next few minutes to share the concept of time blocking as it applies to your home life. Much like the business world, you’ll become more efficient when you group similar tasks together and spend dedicated time addressing each task.

For years, we’ve were told that it’s the bees’ knees to multitask. And it might be, but not ALL the time. Although women, in particular, are fantastic multi-taskers, we’re even better single-taskers!

Let me give you an example: meal planning. In total honesty, I HATE meal planning. Cooking isn’t a task I’m particularly excited about. Although I enjoy a good tasting meal, the prep work behind it just doesn’t get me excited. But, meal planning is a crucial part of running a home. If you don’t have a plan, you don’t know what to buy at the grocery store. If you don’t know what to buy at the grocery store, you’re just shopping for things that taste good. And if you’re just shopping for things that taste good, your dinner will consist of pie, hummus, and tortilla chips.  Not gonna cut it if there is more than one person living under the same roof.
 
When meal planning for the week, we must get 100% focused on the task in order to knock it out quickly and completely. If we can sustain our attention, we might even be able to plan an entire month using this free printable. High-fives all around!

If we multitasked meal planning, we'd be busy checking social media (which may have some good meal ideas on it….and the latest gossip….and the latest political argument…..), folding laundry, feeding the kids, and trying to remember where we put the elusive cup of coffee. The simple task of planning meals would take 4x longer than it needed to. Because, when we multitask, we stretch our minds thin. Sure, multitasking helps us GET THINGS DONE, but are we getting them done in the MOST efficient manner that uses the LEAST amount of energy in order to prevent overwhelm? Probably not.

So how do we start single-tasking?

One strategy is time blocking. The best way to understand why you’re exhausted is to visually observe what’s wearing you down --- on paper.
Step 1: Download this Time Map.

Step 2: Start by writing the first hour of the day when you TYPICALLY wake up. Time Maps are not exact. They are general reference points that help us better understand where our energies are going throughout a typical week. My map begins with 7am because that’s when I wake up.

Step 3: Write down the times every 30 minutes until the time you TYPICALLY go to bed (7:00am, 7:30am, 8:00am, etc). For me, bedtime looks like 12am. No, I’m not proud of that, it’s just life. Maybe one day bed time will look like 11pm on a regular basis. A girl can dream.

Step 4: Write in any long-standing and regular appointments or activities for each day. This includes your morning routine (Wake, Shower, etc), meals, school/work schedules, family time, and/or religious activities. (As a side note, if your “work” activities are occupying MOST of your week, you might consider time-blocking your individual work tasks to help you be more efficient in the workplace and spend less time in the office. This might look like only answering emails 4x a day or only working that specific proposal from 2-4pm.)

Step 5: In the spots you have left, pencil in the OTHER activities you need and would like to accomplish each week. These might include: laundry, meal planning, grocery shopping, carpool, dusting, mopping, taking out the trash, lawncare, hobbies, exercise, and plain old rest and relaxation. Be realistic about how much time each activity takes so that you can give it an appropriate amount of time on your map. Also, consider dividing up your cleaning tasks into specific days rather than cleaning specific areas. This will prevent you from trying to dust different rooms each day. Instead, just dust on Tuesdays and vacuum on Wednesdays. If you miss Tuesday dusting, at least you know Tuesday will come around again in 6 more days. Additionally, instead of getting out the Swiffer duster day after day, you’ll only be getting it out and putting it back ONCE a week.

Step 6: If your map is overflowing, you NEED to delegate. Delegating is hard for people. We like control. We like things done our way. But other people are just as capable as us. The end result might not be EXACTLY the same, but the differences are worth the ENERGY you were able to conserve by handing off that job to someone else. Case in point: cleaning baseboards. I’m not a stickler about this, but I like to make sure there isn’t a ton of dust left in clumps. My kids like to clean baseboards too. Their standard of “clean” is very different. But if I let them do it 3 out of 4 weeks a month, three magical things happen:
  • I save myself the energy.
  • They have a good old time with my Norwex cloths.
  • The baseboards get cleaned more often. I know I’m not alone in this. If I demand on doing the task all on my own, I might not actually get to it at all for several weeks on end because I’m busy. But if I let others help me, at least SOMETHING is getting done and some is better than none.

Let go of the pride, share the responsibility with others, and quit complaining about how much you have to do all by yourself. Sure there are things only you can do, but those are few and far between. LET GO and don’t look back. Simply enjoy the extra 15 minutes you found today because you released control of a task that really wasn’t life and death.

Some other tasks you can delegate are:
  • Laundry (collecting, sorting, loading, running, swapping, folding, returning)
  • Meals (meal planning, list prep, grocery shopping, putting groceries away, getting out ingredients, meal prep)
  • Vacation Planning (identifying available dates, scouting hotels/restaurants/activities, packing, driving/flying schedules)
  • Bill Paying (collecting the mail, sorting mail, identifying bills to pay, paying, filing/discarding)

If you've got preschool or school-age children in the house and are curious as to what tasks would be age-appropriate delegated activities, check out these lists by CleanMama.net. In order to hand off some of these chores to children, I recommend Norwex cleaning products that are safe for children. 
​
As you delegate, be mindful of the systems in place. Your spouse, partner, roommate, or child may use a different system than you to accomplish the same task. That’s OK. If you want to curb overwhelm, you’re going to have to be teachable and gracious.
​
For more information on Time Blocking in the office, check out this short video and this blog post.

Changing your life and reclaiming your joy is POSSIBLE.
​It takes time, commitment, and motivation.

Let Us Help You Reclaim Your Time!
Lauren Flinte is a professional organizer who transforms chaos into categories, leaning towers into stable storage solutions, and anxiety into peace by way of editing and organizing residential and commercial spaces. She can help you reclaim your joy today! www.UpstateClutterCoach.com #reclaimjoy #organizer #minimalist
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Reach Your Resolutions in 2 Easy Steps

1/1/2016

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Goal setting is easy. Following through is another story. Your success is guaranteed with these two steps. Check it out! #upstatecluttercoach #goals #plans #accountability #vision
January holds so many promises.

The goals seem so attainable. The new outfits we buy for our resolutions are fun to wear. And the best part is, we’re actually DOING IT! We’re working the plan, living the dream, making those resolutions a reality while looking like a rock star in that new Armani suit or snazzy Lululemon tank.

Then April rolls in.

The temperature is rising and the grass is growing like crazy. We really should be working on that resolution from January, but we’ve got to mow the lawn instead. Then there’s the kids’ soccer games, deadlines, and all that cleaning…

Spring! With all its demands, the season takes priority as those post-holiday resolutions are left to die in the sun.
And where do we end up? Stuck. Frustrated. Disappointed. (And we’re gonna blame it ALL on Spring because she’s an easy scapegoat.)

The fact is, we lost our momentum. Our goals seemed to disappear among the clouds, making them impossible to reach. Eventually, we will give up and simply make-do until next winter; when January comes around and reminds us of how “stuck” we’ve felt the last eight months.

Is it possible to avoid this annual paradox of deeply desiring to move forward but stalling out every time? Is it possible to do things differently this time around and win?

Absolutely! We can find success with EVERY SINGLE RESOLUTION with just TWO easy steps.
  • Step 1 – Find a Vision. Clear, measurable goals will help us SEE success over time. Understanding our goals and breaking them down into manageable, bite-sized pieces will keep us focused throughout the process, even when Spring comes knocking. Our success will ratchet up as the months pass, encouraging us to move forward.
  • Step 2 – Find a Friend. Accountability is one of the greatest forces for change. Whether our resolutions are something we want to do on our own (like building a website or cleaning out the garage) OR with others (like joining a gym or learning to paint), we need to find someone (like a colleague, coach, or community) that will consistently support and remind us of our goals and the small steps it takes to reach them. It’s impossible to go back to the way we were if we’re persistently moving ahead.​
​We partner with clients just like you to provide clarity, motivation, encouragement, and accountability as they pursue their goals of a healthier life through a decluttered environment.

What are your resolutions for 2016?
​Have you followed the most important steps to ensure success?

Connect with the Coach!
Lauren Flinte is a professional organizer who transforms chaos into categories, leaning towers into stable storage solutions, and anxiety into peace by way of editing and organizing residential and commercial spaces. She can help you reclaim your joy today! www.UpstateClutterCoach.com #reclaimjoy #organizer #minimalist
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How to Lose Weight this Holiday Season

12/9/2015

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Results are valuable. Especially quick results. Results motivate us. They confirm that we're on the right path, that we should keep doing what we're doing because it's WORKING!

Are you ready for an EASY, FAST, and PROVEN method to lose weight?! Me too! But we're not talking about YOUR body weight. We're talking about the weight of your stuff that you CARRY in your mind and emotions. Let's drop 100 pounds NOW! #upstatecluttercoach #weightloss #letgo
​Yes, really.

​And it was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

Decluttering (getting rid of all the things we don’t need, use, or love) is the fastest way to lose the weight this holiday season. Today, I chose to pair down my magazine stash. All 93 pounds of it. You see, I like looking at pretty things. I’m sure you do too. I like reading about how to prepare tasty dishes, coordinate paint colors, and repair leaky faucets. I take pleasure in flipping through the glossy pages. And because I take so much pleasure, I keep them around for a second or third look. I stash them in magazine boxes by title or theme. I lay out a few on the coffee table for quick glances at designer furnishings I can only dream off. Maybe a few end up in the car so that I’ve got something to check out while waiting in line. They even end up in the bathroom.

But how often do I really give these delicate inspirations a second look? Really? Rarely. If ever.

You see, I like the idea of being able to access them. I paid good money for and have been gifted subscriptions in the past. If I didn’t get a chance to read through them when they came in the door, I surely wanted to save them for a moment when I could.

But those moments are increasingly rare. I have a life I love. I have a family I enjoy. I’ve got kids that keep me on my toes (and not lounging on the couch…..though I wish I could). Those publications end up 10th or 11th on my “things to do” in a day, and they just don’t get done.

So instead of holding on to the weight, the dust they collect, and the space they steal, I’m letting go. I’m giving myself permission to pass on the pages that I never got a chance to read. And I’m thrilled!
Organize Declutter Magazines


​Now I have more space for the things I love, use, and need.


Now there will be less to keep dusted and stacked.

Now I have more time to enjoy the things I love instead of worrying about the things I’m neglecting.


​If you’re ready to thin out your publication piles, here are a few tips to keep in mind:
  • 13 Magazines are roughly 10 pounds. (This varies with the type of subscription.)
  • 15 Magazines take up roughly 5 inches of space width-wise when standing up and about 10-12 inches when stacked.
  • Almost every image and tidbit of information contained in the subscription is available online. (You may need to pay for an online subscription, but managing electronic documents doesn’t take nearly as much work as sifting through printed publications.)
  • Doctors’ offices, local gyms, and other public service locations will take up to 5 magazines on average. Your subscription information must be removed first.
  • If you’re parting with more than 5 magazines, consider recycling. If you don’t have recycling service through your waste management provider, click here to find the nearest dropoff.

Decluttering will impact your health and wellness too! Clearing your space will hone your decision making skills. It will also help you deal with some of the emotions (stress, guilt, depression, etc.) connected to eating. (Think that sounds crazy? Check this link out for more info!) Their air in your home will become cleaner as you have less dust to deal with. Your health will improve and your ability to process foods will do likewise. I’m not promising a personal 25 pound loss. I’m not even promising a 5 pound loss. I’m only promising that decluttering will have a positive effect on your body.
​

What are you trying to lose this holiday season? Decluttering can give you the success and motivation to improve EVERY area of your life.

Get Rid of Magazines
Start Shedding The Weight Today!
Lauren Flinte is a professional organizer who transforms chaos into categories, leaning towers into stable storage solutions, and anxiety into peace by way of editing and organizing residential and commercial spaces. She can help you reclaim your joy today! www.UpstateClutterCoach.com #reclaimjoy #organizer #minimalist
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    #DeclutteringGreenville #OrganizingGreenville

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