1. Be Safe –Regardless of how you travel, make sure someone else has your itinerary and telephone numbers so they can reach you in an event of an emergency.

By car- make sure your car is road worthy.  Simple things like checking the fluids, tire pressure, and wiper blades can prevent bothersome road side stops. Fill up the tank before you go and refill it when the tank reads less than half full.

By plane/train/bus – keep your valuables on your person rather than in a carry-on or purse.  Always have a change of clothing and a toothbrush in your carry-on for unexpected layovers and delays.

2. Pack Light 

• Dress in layers and pack clothing that will mix and match.  Use packing cubes inside your luggage to keep things neat and accessible.  Only bring one extra pair of shoes.  Be sure to leave room in your luggage to bring things home with you.  

3. Ship Ahead

If you have gifts and things for people you will visit while traveling, ship them out the week before you arrive. It’s less hassle for you at the airport and less to carry. The Post Office’s flat rate boxes are a very economical way to go.

Enjoy this guest post by fellow organizer, Beth Giles!

Your closet may be the smallest “room”, yet it contains the most individual items.  You want it to function well, with convenient access to items and stress-free use.  Here are a few CLOSET tips to tackle the space and help you reach that goal.

Clear out – Take every thing out of your closet, so you can begin with a clean slate.  As you consider each piece of clothing, ask yourself the following questions.  Does it fit? Have I worn it in the last year?  Do I really like it? Is it in good condition? Is it in style?  Do I really need it?  Is it different from other pieces I am keeping? If you cannot answer yes, with certainty, to each of these questions, then it’s probably time to say good bye to that particular piece of clothing. If you are still hesitant to get rid of a few items, place them in a box, tape it shut, and mark it with a date 6 months out.  If the box is still sealed in 6 months, leave it unopened and donate it to your favorite charity.

Let it go- There are many people and places that can benefit from your discards. Consider donating your items to Dress for Success, Career Gears, or your local shelters.  If you want your castoffs to benefit your wallet or closet, take your clothing to a consignment shop or schedule a clothing swap party with your friends.

Organize – Now that you know what will be going back into your closet, sort them by clothing type.  A few possible categories are shirts, jackets, pants, skirts, and dresses. Within each category you may want to specialize a bit more, arranging them according to additional characteristic such as color or sleeve length.

Step up the amount of space –Several ways exist to create more space in your closet.  An over the door shoe organizer can act as storage for more than just shoes. Placing all long hanging items in one area and short hanging items in another allows shelving or bins to fit under the shorter items. Double your hanging space by purchasing a secondary rod that hangs from the main rod.

Expose your closet – For your closet to function well, all your clothing should be easily visible.  If your closet has sliding doors, consider replacing them with bi-fold doors to make the whole closet visible at one time.  A battery operated “tap” light installed inside the closet can help you see the items in the darker areas of your space.

Think “One in, One out” – You have probably heard this many times, but it is very true. If you want to maintain an organized and clutter-free closet, remember that when you buy something new, something old must leave to create space for it.

Following these tips will put you on your way to an organized closet that can serve you well throughout the year.

© June 2010 Beth Giles

For more information about Beth Giles visit: www.nworganizingsolutions.com

Connect with Beth on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NWOrganizingSolutions

Since I moved over a year ago, I find myself traveling a lot more.  My best friend always admires how I pack so little and said I should write a blog post about that.  Good idea – so here goes!

My motto when traveling is definitely “less is more”.  I am a minimalist when I travel.  I want to spend more time enjoying my trips; therefore, I make sure it takes less time to pack.

Natalie’s 7 Travel Packing Tips

1. Choose one main color scheme for your wardrobe. Black or brown are usually my main color. It’s easy to mix and match other patterns to go with these colors. READ MORE

Can you believe my sister sent me 10 pair of black pants?! I wonder how many pairs of black pants she still owns?

What’s in your closet? With the change of season upon us, and now is a good time to go through your closet sorting and purging your clothes.  Use these six easy steps to go through your wardrobe.

1.       Remove all of your hanging clothes from the closet.

2.       Sort by type of garment – shirts, pants, skirts etc.

3.       Let go of those things you haven’t worn in one year or that don’t fit.

4.       Now with the clothes remaining, decide how many pieces you really need to keep. If you have 10 pairs of black pants, for example, ask yourself how many you truly need.

5.       Make a list of clothing you may need to purchase to complete your outfits.

6.       Hang your clothes back in the closet by type of garment.

I recently went to a community event where the speaker delivered valuable information on AD/HD or ADD.  This topic is always of interest to me as one of my sons, now 19, has ADD.  He was diagnosed in the 3rd grade and was on and off medication.  The side effects of the medication were lack of appetite, hard to sleep, and “feeling weird” (per my son).  So we set about to find other solutions that worked for him.

One of the solutions was to get rid of his dresser.  Sounds weird, right?  But we had a constant battle with him about his clothes.  We expected his room to be cleaned up ( just once a week) and his clothes were always the biggest hurdle.  There were clothes on the bed, on the floor, falling out of the dresser – pure chaos to his professional organizer mom!  One day when he and I were arguing about this,  I asked “What’s it going to take to get you to put away your clothes?”.  His response was “I don’t like my dresser.”

What??!! What is there not to like about a dresser. It’s not your best friend, but it does hold your clothes… Then I asked more questions.  He eventually related that he hated having to open and close the drawers.  He only wore the clothes on top because he couldn’t see the ones underneath. He felt the drawers were a hassle.  I really listened and realized that although most Americans use dressers, it didn’t mean that he had to.  There were other ways to manage his clothing.  So we removed the dresser and here’s what we did:

1. Purchased more hangers, and hung up all his clothes. Yes, even his jeans and skater t-shirts.
2. Put 2 baskets on the shelf above the closet rod; one for socks, the other for underwear.
3. Seasonal items like his gloves, snowboard pants, and other winter gear we put in a clear zipper bag under his bed.

This simple solution cost less than $10.00 and has worked for the past 5 years!  Even now that he does his own laundry!  It works for him because he can “see” all of his clothes at a glance, he doesn’t have to fold anything, and he doesn’t have to open and clothes several drawers to get dressed in the morning.

Sometimes we have to step out of the mentality of  “that’s what everyone does or uses” and come up with systems that work better for us, whether we have ADD or not!  Please share some solutions you have come up with to help stay organized and on top of your day-to-day activities.   I would love your comments!

Fall is in the air finally! I love this time of year, my senses come alive with the color changes, the glowing pumpkins, the hot ciders and everything else. It is also a good time of year to work on your wardrobe! Here are a few tips to organize your closets

1. Hang all hangers backwards.
Sounds strange I know, but bear with me. When you pull something out to wear it, the hanger gets turned around and hung the usual way. At the end of the season it is easy to see what you did not wear; anything that is still on a backwards hanger! This way you can purge quickly as you prepare to change your closet for the next season.
2. Use different color hangers for clothes you want to wear a 2nd time. Many of our clothes are dry clean only so we tend to wear them a couple of times before they go back to the cleaners. Sometimes it is difficult to determine if this is a second wear or not. When hanging up something you have worn once already, use a different color hanger to indicate that you have one more wear before it goes in the dry cleaning bag. Speaking of dry cleaning….
3. Install a hook in the closet or behind the bedroom door to hang your dry cleaning bag.
This keeps the clothes from being piled in a corner or on a chair. When the bag is full, then it’s time to go to the dry cleaners.
4. Use multi hangers to create space.
There are some really cool hanger products on the market today. For example, one hanger can hold 5 skirts or 5 shirts, there are innovative pants hangers out there as well. Another tool that might help increase your closet space, short of a complete closet system, is a second bar. These are bars that hang, from the existing closet bar, down lower to hold your pant hangers beneath your shirts.
5. Use baskets on closet shelves for bulky sweaters and sweatshirts.
Our fall and winter wardrobes are a bit bulkier, so use the top of your closet to hold baskets to hold the bulky, less frequently worn items. Of course, at the end of the season if you have never worn the item, you should donate it. There are also shelf dividers. When positioned between stacks of clothing on your closet shelf, the dividers help everything to stay in its place, in an organized manner.
That’s all we ever want, right?