by Marla Dee
When spring energy hits we feel compelled to clean out & organize!
One of the most needed and popular areas to organize is the clothes closet. Today I will share my top tips for making this area fun & functional.
TIP 1– Hanger Hell or Hanger Heaven
The easiest and cheapest closest transformation is getting the same color and type of hanger. Our brains and bodies go to color first. If you have hangers in all the colors of the rainbow, your brain can’t focus on the clothes. Then, along with the same color, choose the same type – all plastic or all wood. The best place to get the hanger you love is The Container Store. They have the largest selection.
TIP 2– Sort by colors and types
To make it easy to find the piece of clothing you want, sort them first by color (refer to the tip above) and then by type.
TIP 3 – Clear the floor
The floor is not the place to store your shoes or homeless items. Get them all contained. Put the shoes on shoe shelves. Put the dirty laundry into a hamper. Do not store other stuff in the clothes closet.
TIP 4– Use cool containers for the small stuff
Containers make the difference between a cluttered closet and a gorgeous closet. Put accessories such as scarves, bags, jewelry and such into their own containers. Remember to label the containers and the shelves so it is easy to find what you need.
Invitation:Have fun clearing out your clothes closet and share before and after pictures with me at www.facebook.com/clearsimple/
I want you to get organized and have fun doing it!
Marla Dee
by CS Team
Are your precious photos stashed in boxes & bins in the basement?
Do you have thousands of pictures on your phone and computer?
Photos can be our most precious possession yet trying to keep them organized can be a nightmare.
We are excited to share our best tips and systems for photo organizing all month long. This blog is all about the Sort Step in S.T.A.C.K.S.© (Sort, Toss, Assign, Keep it Up & Simplify). We are also sharing the fabulous ABC’S system created by Cathi Nelson, President of APPO (Association of Personal Photo Organizers).
Watch Marla talk through the ABC’s on KUTV Fresh Living!
The first step is to SORT into general categories such as family, friends, major events, or time lines such as increments of 1, 2 or 10 years. This is your general sort and it goes easier if you stick to the categories.
Next take each category and SORT again using the ABC’S© system. SORT the photo’s into the following four categories:
• A stands for ALBUM. This is for the photos that you know you want printed for albums or photo books. These are the treasures that you want to look at often and share with your loved ones.
• B stands for BOX or BACKUP. These are the pictures you want to keep but don’t need to see regularly. Printed photos can be stored in a photo box. Digital ones can be stored on your computer and in the cloud.
• C stands for CAN (Trash Can). These are all the duplicates, the bad shots, and the meaningless shots! You will be amazed how many of these surface when you are going through the piles.
• S stands for STORIES. We remember most of our life by events and stories so keeping your photos this way works wonderfully.
Remember – you can get help from a professional organizer. Go to www.APPO.org to find a trained one in your area. For those of you in Utah, we have two excellent organizers.
1 – Natalie Avery, of 2sparehands, is a member of APPO and can help with all levels of the process.
2 – Donna & Scott Harper, of SharperTransfer, can help you with your photos and your old movies.
Or – Come to our August 19th LIVE workshop to meet the experts and see all our tips in action. you even get to bring 25 treasure photos and have them scanned onsite. clearsimple.com/photoworkshop
We have experienced such fun and freedom having our photos organized and ready for viewing and hope you will too! Marla, Kate & Team
by CS Team
Travel can be stressful so enjoy our tips that simplify & help you organize all your trips!
We have used all the tips & tools below to radically reduce the stress and struggle that travel can bring. These tips are the SEE IT. MAP IT. & DO IT. steps for travel. Try them out and let us know what you think!
Marla sharing her personal “bag lady” story and more…
- The perfect suitcase is the key.
- Size, weight, color, material, design
- Each person needs and deserves their own suitcase
- Have an ID tag that is current (no address)
- Simplify the clothing
- Choose a capsule wardrobe so you can mix and match easily
- Choose to roll your clothes or use the pack-it systems
- Apps and online resources that help: clearsimple.com/travelapps/
- Use Wunderlist – have a standard list for your different types of trips and then easily adjust for current trip. Yes a list makes a difference. You can even print the list so you can check the items off.
- Use Last Pass for all your key & private information
- Tripit stores all the trip details
- Get AAA or similar service for travel troubles
- Uber and Airbnb are some of our favorites
- Get your TSA Precheck to save time every plan trip
- Check out Costco Travel – especially for car rentals
- Get an extra set of all electrical cords and chargers. Keep these packed and ready to go.
- Have your body care items already on hand – refill after each trip. Use smart containers for your body care items.
- Find the perfect tote or carry-on bag that can hold all you need and feel easy to carry.
- Carry-on Essentials Kit ready to go in the perfect carry-on.
- Medicines (get the small plastic medicine pouches)
- Soft light sweater or jacket and socks
- Toothbrush, wipes, body care & eye mask
- Book to read or game to play
- Easy water bottle like the collapsible water bottle
- Gum and food snacks, including protein
- Ear buds or head phones that you love
- Safe holder for passport, id and credit cards (make a copy that stays home with an assigned person who can help). Use Last Pass to hold all the vital information.
- Check out The Container Store for some of our favorite bags and tools.
- The Power of One. Try taking one book, one notebook, one technology device, etc. Then decide one purpose (most important) for your trip. clearsimple.com/travelstuff/
by CS Team
Traveling is FUN, but planning & packing can be stressful. Apps can make it easy.
From Marla – I love to travel but have always put off the planning and packing till the last minute. Of course this just adds to my stress and my belief that I can’t make traveling simple. Well I am happy to share that all aspects of traveling have changed for me and now I get excited when it is time to plan a new trip. I give the credit to the apps below. Planning my first fun trip of the summer has been a blast and quite simple. Instead of being in stress mode, I had fun preparing to visit my dear friend Michelle in CA where we will have 5 days to talk, create, walk, explore, laugh & cry.
I want to thank my business collaborator Kate Fehr for teaching me about these apps and strongly encourage you to check them out and use them on your next trip.
From Kate – For me, the biggest stress around traveling used to be the giant list I would create of all of the projects that just “had” to get done before I left town. THEN I would start thinking about planning and packing for the actual trip. With next to no time left, I would pack way more than I really needed, or even wanted. Now when I plan a trip, I get my itinerary and any related travel information into TripIt. Then I go to Wunderlist and create my plan, from what I want to get done before I leave (like making sure my home is clean) to what I want to take with me. Simple, brilliant, and oh so freeing!
1. TripIt When we first heard about TripIt two years ago, we were ecstatic…but could it really make things that much easier?! We found out it helps more than we imagined. After you book a trip, you simply forward the confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and the system builds an itinerary for you. If you make changes, simply forward that confirmation email and TripIt updates the plan for you. Once the itinerary is built, you can go in and add, change, and/or delete things. If you prefer to not send your emails, you can input the itinerary yourself or sign up for the Pro Plan where the app will update things automatically. For more details read our earlier blog here.
2. Wunderlist Wunderlist is a life changing app – you can use it for all the lists in your life. We are now running our whole business and our personal lives using this cool tool. Marla loves that it reminds her what to do and when to do it!! Kate loves having one place to dump everything from her brain, then knowing she can access it everywhere she goes. Get more details here.
3. LastPass – When Kate talks about digital organizing, the very first thing she discusses is a password keeper. She has found that one of the number one stressors around our digital lives is trying to remember and/or track all of the passwords our lives require. We love LastPass not only because you can store passwords, but you can also save banking and credit card information and digital records like insurance cards, membership cards and misc. notes. Their app is available on most devices and can be accessed offline. All of that information can sure come in handy while on a vacation, especially if you lose a credit card!
We hope you have a fabulous summer filled with travel of all kinds. We would love to hear about your adventures.
Marla, Kate & Team
