The first month of the New Year is a great time to re-focus on your goals and start taking the steps to reach them. I’m feeling energized and ready to take on new projects, looking forward to upcoming events and speaking engagements for learning and networking.

But fulfilling those New Year’s resolutions and achieving their goals requires more than just good thoughts; in some cases, we may need to change our old behaviors that stopped us from getting what we wanted in the previous year.

The theory behind the GO System for organizing is that we have to rewire our brains by following better habits. It takes time, but the idea is to consciously use “good habits” until they take root. That way, even when you are stressed or tired, your new good habits will kick in automatically.

This applies whether you’re dealing with improving the energy in your residence, keeping your surroundings in order or organizing your workplace. Good habits could mean always putting new contacts in your address book immediately, making and using a new regular schedule for organizing and clearing your office files, or just taking 10 minutes a day when you get home to put things in order.

FreedomFiler’s self-purging filing system will forever eliminate the hassle of cleaning out and reorganizing files! Tested and proven by professional organizers, FreedomFiler’s easy folder names let you file and retrieve up to 20 times faster than typical home systems. Your kit comes with easy to follow pictorial diagrams. This product is a must-have for any home. Watch this video and see how the FreedomFiler can eliminate your piles. Contact us for discount code to save 15% on your purchase.

What are some habits that you’re changing in the New Year to be more organized and productive? Do you have a secret that has helped you change your bad habits and become a more organized person?

If you’ve got a success story, or know of a colleague who has successfully changed their old disorganized situation, leave a comment or email info@outofchaos.ca. Your answer could be featured on this blog or in the popular Chu On This… newsletter.

To ensure your home is a disorganized disaster in no time, follow these tried and true ways:

1. Buy clothes and never wear them. Put them away in your closet with the price tag on and find them 3 years later.
2. Enter every contest and subscribe to every magazine you won’t ever read. Just let them pile up on a corner of your table until ‘one day…’
3. Plan a weekly shop at Costco and purchase as if you were a family of 6, even though you are only 2 left in the house.
4. Don’t open your mail until you get a cut off notice. Leave mail and flyers in a pile in your entry-way so you can trip over them on your way in the door.
5. Keep everything because you never know when you will need that waffle iron that you got 25 years ago at your first wedding.
6. Bring back a souvenir from every place you’ve ever travelled because you can’t have too many shot glasses, ball caps, and t-shirts.
7. Downsize from your 4000 square foot home and bring absolutely everything with you to your condo apartment, including your lawn mower.

If mastering your disorganization is not quite the achievement you were looking to win the trophy for, you might want to consider some of these quick tips from our archives:

• Could Your Clothes be Worth Thousands?
• Clearing Your Clutter Without Cluttering the Landfill
• Sharing Through Clearing

You’ve moved through the procrastination stage and finally worked through the hands-on organizing of your space. What a relief and a huge burden off your shoulders (and floor, desktop, drawers…). For most people this kick-start provided to you by your Professional Organizer is enough to keep you focused and on track to following a new set of habits in keeping your physical space organized.

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The big move is coming. They say moving is one of the top five stress-inducers, right up there with the job interview, the pink slip, divorce or critical illness. But the move doesn’t have to be a ticking stress-bomb.

Out of Chaos’ team of organizers helps both residents and business owners coordinate the move to make the process painless. Contact us.

Changing homes? Moving offices? Organizing before and during the move will make the transition go a lot easier. Here are some tips to help the move go as smoothly as possible.

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We all love taking photographs, but few of us enjoy organizing our photographs into albums. Instead, all our cherished memories are relegated into boxes and piles, if not still in the envelopes that came from the photo developing studio. And for the many that have converted into digital photography, your organizing dilemmas are no different with your electronic clutter.

Memories frozen in time – to be brought out to haunt our loved ones at their weddings, anniversaries, or graduations. As much as they can bring a smile to your face, many look at their photographs with an overwhelming feeling of anxiety and guilt.
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Have you given up on your storage rooms? Like most, storage and utility rooms become a dumping ground for your belongings when clearing other areas in your home. Often, you place items in your storage rooms that you promise to sort through later or items that you can’t bear to throw away. If your storage space appears to be cluttered and you can’t find anything, it is a good sign that you do not know what you are storing.

Your best plan of attack is to go through everything (yes, everything!) and weed through items that you no longer need or use. Ask yourself why you are holding items that are broken (tool, gadgets, furniture); items that do not belong to you; or items that were meant to be recycled.
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These areas are often the most challenging, since these rooms are out of site (and therefore, out of mind). As a result, people tend to use storage and utility rooms as dumping grounds when clearing other areas in the home and for items your can’t bear to throw away.

The key to making storage and utility rooms work for you is to ensure that your belongings are organized and protected, while the function of the space is still maximized for effectiveness and efficiency.
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