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Organizing Definitions:

Webster Dictionary:
Organize: To give definite structure, arrange put in working order.

Ann Marie Laino's definition
Organize: Every single item in your house has a home and you know where their home Is

Choose at least five areas of your space you would like organized. Determine which is top priority is and which lowest priority. Give yourself at least one month to achieve organization in this one space. After the month is over determine if the items that did not get organized are still a priority. If they are create a new list of 5 and add these items to your new list.

Whenever I go out to see a client and we have our initial consultation they always have a room in mind that they want to start with. There have been times when I go back to the client's home or office to start the organizing process they realize that the room they thought was the biggest priority and the one with the most interaction has now become the least on the list. I was once hired to do an office for a client. It was a home based business and her space was occupied with lots of books and papers. This was going to be the first area of business. When I got back to her house for the start of the project, she changed her mind and said this was not her priority, she said I only work in there one day a week, I'm in my son's bathroom and son's room more then I'm in my office. This is where I want to start. My point is it's ok to change your mind a couple of times before you decide on where you start, just as long as your start somewhere...I always come with my tools so changing where we start is ok with me...as long as we start...

Be a team player. Share your goals with your family. Tell them and include them in your projects. Get them involved, somehow, someway. Teenagers and kids love to be rewarded for getting a project done or make extra money for a newly added on chore...

Sometimes I feel my partner is the plumbers wife, the disorganization is in some areas under my roof. I'm not perfect, but the difference is everything has a home. The important items in my house have a resting place... Everyone comes to me for the big stuff, I can't find my battery for my camera, and did you see the manual for the new printer I just bought. I tell my partner, at the end of each day, clear your desk of all the papers put everything including your receipts from the day in your in bin and leave them in there and I will go through them and file and put things away for you, keep it organized, he's just not ready, so he struggles in finding things in his office which is home based (AHHHH) Thankfully there's a door on the office and I just close it. You can bring the camel to the water but you can't bring the water to the camel. I help him as much as my time allows.

Just think reward..... You are already rewarding yourself. Five minutes a day will start to open up more things for you. How many times do you think you have heard this five minutes, oh I know I use to say give me a break. My rule of thumb is 10, for me it's more productive and you get double the pleasure with just five more extra minutes, you will be surprised...just try it...set your times on your stove for 10 minutes...

You can only do one area/room at a time. One draw, one cabinet at a time. You need to be realistic. You will not get organized in one day it took us this long to get this clutter build up; it will take time to go through it.

You need 3 bins

• Donate
• Trash
• Don't know what to do with it ,no home yet

Give Away-Family/Friends...this one is for all my thoughtful clients who pass really great stuff off to people they know who can use it....my hats off to you ladies.....For me a brown shopping bag works great, label it with a marker and hang it on a hook until you know you will see your pals....or keep it An your car, and drop it off to your buddy

When I begin to start the organization process, I prefer to do a 3 hour session in the beginning and then as time goes by we add more hours to the sessions. Organizing can cause some people to get very overwhelmed and they begin to look the big picture instead of small segments of their home. Everyone is amazed on what 3 hours can do to their space.

You have to work on it everyday, sorry to say.....When someone looses weight they must continuously keep up the goal they achieved by eating right, and working out. If you don't work out or eat whatever you want, gradually the weight comes back it's the same as the clutter it sneaks up on you but its even more noticeable then the weight gain. You will see those results of the disorganization within a few days opposed to a month later, noticing a slight weight gain