Getting Sorted

I have to confess that for a control freak like myself, the topic of organisation is heavenly.

If you follow me on twitter, then you'd also know that I'm quite addicted to any reality tv shows that feature hoarding/organisation.... think Hoarders on Biography Channel, Clean House on Style Network, and Clean Sweep on Discovery Home and Health.

Unfortunately I was also born with the hoarding gene (it's on both sides of my family). I find it extremely difficult to throw anything away that might be useful one day.

It was definitely time for an intervention!

On Saturday, I was lucky enough to spend the day at a hotel in the city at the 6 Steps Workshop.


The workshop featured three fantastic, passionate Professional Organisers who presented a range of topics around de-cluttering, organisation, and simpifying your life.

Lissanne Oliver from SORTED!
Chantale Bordonaro from Simplicity Source 
Joshua Zerkel from Custom Living Solutions 

The sessions were:

• Cut Clutter Forever
• Manage Paperwork Without Pain
• Moving or Downsizing - Think Outside the Box
• Need Storage? - Reclaim Your Space
• Master Your Paperless World
• Skyrocket Your Productivity With Online Tools

I can seriously say that I've started making changes already which are going to make my life sooooo much easier - most importantly for me I think it will improve the following dramatically

• No more forgetting things (lack of oxygen to the brain has seriously affected my memory skills)
• No more double handling of things (means less energy expended)
• No more searching for things in the craft stash (time saver)
• No more re-buying things I already have just because I can't find them (money saver)

Some of my favourite tips from the day that are really easy to implement.

• Stop things coming into your house that you don't need
• Insist on consumable gifts (chocolate is always welcome if you're giving me a gift)
• Filing Cabinets are nursing homes for paper
• Think about retrieval, not storage. If you store it, can you find and access it when you need it?
• Done is better than perfection (great tip for those of us who read lots of perfectly pretty blogs)
• Label Label Label (I currently suck at this one)
• Think Rightsize, not Downsize.

I'm such a technodork - I also finally learned what 'in the cloud' actually means!

All of the online / tech solutions were really interesting. These are the two that I'm using now.

The best one for my needs is going to be EVERNOTE

You can create all sorts of lists and notebooks.
I've taken photos of the business cards I've collected and made a business card notebook in Evernote, so that the actual cards can be thrown away (its ingenious).
I've also made a grocery list, and as I remember what I need, I just add to the list in my iPhone. It can also be synced with my PC and Laptop.

We also learned about DROPBOX

I originally found out about Dropbox from Michelle at Frankie & Swiss. I use it to share my fabric design files so that she can just access each one when I send through a printing order. It's fantastic.


Another thing that I really liked was that it was re-iterated that there is not a one-size-fits-all solution to anything. It's important to do a little research and find the solution that fits the needs of the problem that you have. The storage and organisation solutions that I need to take control of my craft/space and back up supplies, are going to be different to what I need in the office to take care of personal and business paperwork.



The trick to everything that I've learned being implemented is to take action within the first 3 days (that means make a start... not a finish).
 

So today I toodled off to Officeworks and bought some supplies, and then came home and started organising.

My sewing patterns are now all stored in pretty magazine holders. I can't see the mess of all the different sizes / packaging types (apart from a few largish envelopes that are peaking over) 

 

 

This was another great tip - all of the stacks of paperwork and receipts that come in via my front door end up in piles on the kitchen bench. I'm now going to categorise them (and separate the personal receipts from the business receipts) as they come in, so that I stop losing things.

I have a little cupboard with packaging supplies for my online orders. It's a bit messy, and it was hard to find which business card / swing tag / postcard I needed each time (depending on what I'd sold)
 

I bought some business card and postcard holders, so that I can now see the fronts of each type of card and easily retrieve them when I need them for my packages.

I have to also confess that I bought myself a new box of labels at Officeworks and when I moved all the cards around, I found the box of labels that I already had!

My next job is to tackle this cupboard. The plastic containers house all of my bag / pouch making supplies - from flex frames, to magnetic snaps, o-rings, d-ring, slide adjusters etc... you name it, I hoard it (and yes I do have an entire basket of zips....and screenprinting ink - don't ask).

The good news is that I do at least have them containerised. The bad news is that I can't find what I need because there are no labels!

I have a discount code that I can share with everyone for Lissanne's webstore - you can get 10% off all products and services until Nov 7th by using the code 6STEPS.

In the meantime.... I'll get back to my organising.