Managing Modern Life Blog

Ahhh, summer! Soon it will be time to head out to your favorite vacation spot. To ensure a carefree trip, it’s a good idea to get organized even before you pack up the family and hit the road.

Your pre-vacation to-do list might include some of the following tasks:

Reading the news some days can be pretty depressing: earthquakes, floods, oil spills, tropical storms and other disasters are devastating. There’s not much you can do to prevent some of these events from occurring, but you can minimize their impact on your home and your family by assembling the things you’re likely to need in the event of an emergency.

In my work with hoarders, I have probably seen thousands of photos of events from baby showers to graduation, and everything in between. If there’s one thing most of us seem to have in abundance, it’s photographs! But how can you take a pleasant walk down memory lane if your pictures are mixed up with recipes, bills, and last week’s flyers? Digital photos may not clutter your home, but if they’re not organized, they can clutter up your hard drive.

Decide whether you’d like to organize your film or digital photos first, then follow these four steps.

During the eight years I’ve been a professional organizer, I’ve learned that every person has their own unique organizing style. Creative people are especially known for having a non-traditional approach to organizing.

Today I’m going to explore this theme by interviewing a caricature artist, Victor Dorobantu.

Memorial Day is almost here! Are you ready for it?

Whether it’s a rash, hives, bee sting or mosquito bite, or whether you’re a parent of one or a parent of multiples, having a well-stocked, family-friendly first aid kit or medicine cabinet is a must. Gathering essentials and being prepared is a necessity – plus, organizing a first aid kit is an easy-to-assemble, thoughtful project and loving gesture that will be greatly appreciated when it’s needed. Assembling the contents in a fresh, clean, easy-to-find yet out-of-reach place doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive – it just takes a bit of planning.

Thanks to the popularity of TV shows, blogs, and articles written by scholars and journalists, it’s becoming easier to obtain information about compulsive hoarding. This benefits everyone involved with hoarding situations — professional organizers, therapists, families, and even hoarders themselves.

A great new resource is a two-part DVD presented by Renae M. Reinardy, PsyD, LP, founder of the Lakeside Center for Behavioral Change. The DVD set, titled “Information About Compulsive Hoarding,” presents a good blend of education and practical steps that can be utilized by anyone involved with this population.

Not too long ago, I received an email from a reader asking about filing household papers. She explained that she has ADHD and is so confused about which papers to keep and which to throw out that she ends up saving every single slip of paper.

Today’s guest post is written by Lynn Ubell, a 57 year old mother, wife, and business owner of a catalog production and graphic design studio. She’s an entrepreneur at heart. She’s raised two sons and bought her own apartment as a single mother, and re-married 5 years ago to a wonderful man who actually wanted to marry a woman with children (she wasn’t going to let him get away). She has a Master of Fine Arts in painting from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI, and a B.A. from Albion College in Albion, MI.

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Today’s guest blogger is author, C.J. Omololu who recently wrote a young adult fictional book, set inside the home of a hoarder. The name of the book is Dirty Little Secrets.

Looking at Junk from Another Perspective

If you picked 10 people out of a crowd, showed each of them an empty glass jar, and asked, "What would you, or could you, do with this?" you would probably get at least five , or more, answers:

-  "Recycle it"  -  "Throw it away"  -  "Turn it into a vase"  -  "Keep change in it"  -  "Save it until I find a need for it" etc., etc.

You get the picture.