Home Organization Archives - Page 3 of 10 - SOS: Simple Organized Solutions LLC

Why I Say Professional Organizers Are Lazy

By SOS Simple Organized Solutions|2020-11-17T13:41:16-06:00February 19th, 2020|Categories: Home Organization|Tags: clutter, lazy, organized, productivity, stress-free, time management|

Why do I say that professional organizers are lazy? Because I am one so I know! What I mean by this statement, is that we know what it means to be organized. We also understand the challenges it presents when we are not, not to mention the stress it can cause. Professional organizers want solutions in place to make our lives easier, hence the lazy comment. The solutions we create for ourselves and our clients, allow a flow into our busy lives as if we are on auto-pilot. We want our clients lives to be easy and relatively stress-free like [...]

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Important Papers – What to Keep & For How Long

By SOS Simple Organized Solutions|2020-11-17T13:41:16-06:00January 23rd, 2020|Categories: Home Organization, Paper Management, Storage|Tags: document retention, guidelines, identity theft, income taxes, personal information, storage|

As a professional organizer I’m frequently asked about how long to keep important papers. There is no catch-all answer to this question. The IRS states - The length of time you should keep a document depends on the action, expense, or event which the document records. There is a different answer for each document. Some need to be kept forever and others have a life cycle. Going back to the basics for a moment, important papers are documents that include your personal information. They are considered legal documents. Some documents contain your social security number, others contain account numbers and other [...]

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Storing Stuff Where You Use It

By SOS Simple Organized Solutions|2020-11-17T13:41:16-06:00January 15th, 2020|Categories: Home Organization, Storage|Tags: increase productivity, save money, storage, zones|

Storing stuff where you use it just makes sense. Did you ever spend a lot of time looking for something that isn’t where it should be? Maybe you didn’t find a home for it when you brought it into your house. Or maybe someone didn’t put it back where it belongs. In the organizing industry we create zones. These are typically work zones for specific tasks. This is especially important in kitchens and offices, or office areas. By storing stuff where you use it, you are creating zones. In the kitchen there are various zones. Each zone has most, if [...]

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Consolidate to Save Space

By SOS Simple Organized Solutions|2020-11-17T13:41:19-06:00August 30th, 2019|Categories: Home Organization, Organizing Tips|Tags: containers, getting organized, lists, proactive, storage|

When you consolidate contents of containers with the same product, you save space. Many of my clients have multiples of one product with varying amounts in each container. These could be personal care items, cleaning products, office supplies, etc. We consolidate the varying amounts into one container and voila, more space! I often wonder how that happens. My thought is to use up all the stuff in one container before opening a new one. If it’s the same product, why open a new one? It could be that the container being used, gets pushed behind others so it’s not seen. [...]

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What’s Hiding in Your Closet?

By SOS Simple Organized Solutions|2020-11-17T13:41:21-06:00July 3rd, 2019|Categories: Decluttering, Home Organization|Tags: clutter, maintenance, organize, storage|

A closet is a great way to store, well, anything actually. Before they were designed in the build of a home, an armoire was used to store clothing. In modern times closets are designed and built into rooms in every house. Typically, a bedroom includes a closet to store clothing to replace an armoire of days gone by. A living room, or foyer may have one to store coats. It’s basically a confined space with a door intended for storage for that room or space. If space is an issue, a closet may be used as storage for multiple categories [...]

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Backs of Doors Storage Options

By SOS Simple Organized Solutions|2020-11-17T13:41:22-06:00April 17th, 2019|Categories: Home Organization, Organizing Tips, Storage|Tags: declutter, organizers, small spaces, solutions, storage|

The backs of doors are an under-utilized storage option. For those that have small spaces they can provide the additional needed storage. There are many options for this type of storage but you need to do a little research to understand what works best for your situation. You must be conscience of the size of the items stored in these locations. They need to be in proportion to the area around the door when it closes. Cabinets and pantries have shelves in them that you need to work around depending on the depth of the storage item. If you decide [...]

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What Important Things Would You Take in an Emergency?

By SOS Simple Organized Solutions|2020-11-17T13:41:22-06:00March 13th, 2019|Categories: Emergency Preparedness, Home Organization|Tags: digital records, emergency situation, home inventory, memories, portable fireproof safe|

Have you ever thought about this question? Do you know what items in your home that you consider important things? These are mainly things that would be very difficult, or impossible to replace if they were lost or destroyed. Imagine that you are in an emergency situation like a natural disaster, maybe a tornado, hurricane, flood or a fire. Sheltering in place is not an option. You could potentially have just minutes to evacuate your home. Obviously, the most important things to grab are not things, they are people and pets - your family members. After everyone, people and pets [...]

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Empty Nest Syndrome

By SOS Simple Organized Solutions|2020-11-17T13:41:22-06:00March 6th, 2019|Categories: Downsizing, Home Organization|Tags: downsizing, repurpose, transition|

You may have empty nest syndrome if…the kids went off to college, the kids got married, the kids moved into their first apartment, etc. The commonality here is that your children no longer occupy space in your home on a regular basis. This can be an emotional time for everyone - you, your husband and of course, the kids. You may be feeling like the momma bird after her babies left the nest. Maybe not as much for the kids though. They are getting out on their own and probably feeling liberated from the rules they had while living under [...]

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Organizing a Lifetime of Memories

By SOS Simple Organized Solutions|2020-11-17T13:41:23-06:00February 27th, 2019|Categories: Home Organization, Storage|Tags: containers, memorabilia, storage|

Let’s face it, we all keep objects that have memories attached to them. The memory typically has an emotional attachment to the item. That may be why we keep them. Some feel that they will forget the memory if they discard the object. That may or may not be true but there are ways to manage your memorabilia to keep your memories from fading away. Everyone has different ideas of what they keep in terms of memorabilia. I’m not talking about photos, that is a category all on its own, although it does fit the memories theme. What I’m talking [...]

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Organizing Cables – How to Avoid The Spaghetti Effect

By SOS Simple Organized Solutions|2020-11-17T13:41:24-06:00October 31st, 2018|Categories: Home Organization, Organizing Tips|Tags: containers, organizing process, plugs, recycle|

Do you have a box of cables that you don’t know what they are or what they belong to? Do the cords around your tv or entertainment center look like a mass of spaghetti? Do you have cables attached to power strips that are not attached to any device? Maybe they are attached to devices but you can’t figure out which device goes to which plug? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may have a cable organization dilemma! First let me say that you are not alone. So many of my client’s homes have this same [...]

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