Heading into the new year may be just the time to look at order and disorder in the workplace.

Your desk is a mess. You can’t dig out your to-do list from the overflowing pile, never mind tick off any items on it. You have dozens of e-mails waiting to be read. And you keep getting distracted every time a co-worker stops to chat, your in-box signals another message has arrived or the phone rings.

Workers everywhere can identify with that. And it’s only getting worse.

Downsizing and layoffs have resulted in fewer workers but no reduction in the workload. Those who have kept their jobs are functioning in a state of semi-chaos, scrambling to bring order to their work lives. And far from helping us stay on top of things, technology has only made things worse, says Linda Chu, founder of Out of Chaos, a professional organizing firm in Vancouver. Business has moved to a 24/7 economy and workers are now always on. We try to multi-task and it’s not working, she says.

Disorganization in the workplace can range from merely annoying to nearly paralyzing, and it costs companies both time and money in lost productivity.

“Things pile up, people feel mentally defeated and exhausted, and the task of organizing seems impossible,” Ms. Chu says.

Heading into a new year may be just the time to look at order and disorder in the workplace.

You know you need help when
1 . You spend more than 15 minutes each day searching for misplaced items.

2. The pile of papers in your inbox is always more than eight inches high.

3. Your book shelves are used for storing items other than books.

4. You have more than 100 old e-mails stored in your computer’s inbox.

5. You are constantly asking people to resend their contact information to you.

Source: Professional Organizers in Canada website

Calculating the cost of chaos
Your messy desk or jammed e-mail box may not seem like a big deal, but it could be costing you, big time. Find out the real cost of chaos with Tennessee-based DME Consulting & Training’s “cost of disorganization” calculator (http://www.thegosystem.com/cod_start.asp)

Enter your company name, number of employees and average hourly wage to learn the amount of time lost each day to disorganization.

Three common saboteurs to workplace organization, and how to beat them
Clutter Control
PROBLEM: For many, the desktop has become a storage place. Next to the family photos, you might also find yesterday’s lunch leftovers and an Aspirin bottle, not to mention overflowing piles of paper. People are still more comfortable reading physical documents, so they print every e-mail, memo and report that comes their way. Without the time or a system to deal with the material, it, too, ends up in disarrayed piles.

SOLUTION: Make it a habit to always put things away. Toss the garbage and return useful items to drawers when you’re done. Create a system for dealing with paper by segmenting it into three categories: active files; archival materials, research or information on projects you might need; and reference materials, contact info, or items you may need for a future project. The only folder that should stay on your desk is the active file you need to get the job done today.

E-MAIL
PROBLEM: Besides the distraction of checking e-mail messages either immediately or shortly after they arrive, many people also neglect the delete button. These days it’s not uncommon to see 1,000 e-mails stored in an inbox, Ms. Chu says. “It’s a fear of out of sight, out of mind.” But the sheer volume of messages makes it overwhelming and mentally exhausting each time we go online.

SOLUTION: Check e-mail on a schedule and stick with it. For some, that could be three times a day, for others it could mean every couple of hours. “Then get rid of the crud,” Ms. Chu says. Use the functions available on your e-mail program to manage your mail. For example, set up folders and move mail you really need to keep into the appropriate location. Create a rule that sends subscriptions, such as newsletters or news alerts, directly to a folder. The key is to process as much mail as you can as it comes in.

PERSONAL PRODUCTIVITY
PROBLEM: With the constant barrage of interruptions by managers and co-workers, the obsession to check e-mail and voice mail and the Web, and an overwhelming list of tasks to complete made only more onerous by belt-tightening and staff reductions, we’ve lost our ability to focus, Ms. Chu says. As a result, workers often reel from one task to the next without making any real progress.

SOLUTION: Develop a priority action plan each day. A to-do list is a useful way to declutter the mind and determine which items are a high priority. That means when a phone call, an e-mail or a co-worker interrupts, you can decide if the interruption is important enough to trump what you’re currently doing or can wait until you finish the task at hand.

Divide and Conquer
Split your clothes into two seasons, winter and summer. Store any items (like heavy skiing sweaters) that you would never wear out of season.

Birds of a Feather
Put pants in one pile, T-shirts in another and so on. Subdivide the piles into casual and dressy items. Take it one step further and sort by colour or sleeve length – a great way to discover a glut of items. Do you really need a dozen black camisoles?

Tough Calls
If you’re waffling on an item, put it in what Chu calls the “not-sure box.” List what’s in the box with the current date and the contact information of a charity and attach it to the box. Make a note in your calendar a year from now. If you haven’t missed anything in the box by then, you can donate it to charity without opening the box (and risking a trip down memory lane).

Two Questions
Question each item using two principles of purging: When was the last time you used it? Were you surprised to find it?

Air Time
Clothes need to breathe, so don’t store them in plastic boxes. Be sure to label the containers.

Call for Help
If you feel overwhelmed by your closet, Chu recommends having someone support you in the process. Make a deal with a friend to work on your closets together, or hire a professional organizer for help restoring order to your space.

View full magazine spread.

We thought we would ask a few experts—people whose job it is to help others stay on track, stay focused, and accomplish their goals, whether those goals are about career, health or just plain being organized. We hope their thoughts and advice will inspire you to pick up where you left off, and take charge of your life—in all areas. Because you can do this.

The Time Factor
Busy working mothers juggle a lot of hats these days. Even stay-at-home moms seem to have too much going on. How can they get rid of the mental clutter and help themselves focus and relax, exercise occasionally, and maybe even carve out some personal time? How do they juggle work and family without sacrificing one or the other?

Linda Chu:

Focus is the key. When the mind is cluttered, it’s like a kid in the candy story, not knowing what to pick first. The time honoured to-do list is key. The only problem is not the list itself, but our lack of focus, prioritization, and follow-through. Jotting down all your to-do’s only de-clutters the mind. Prioritizing what to do next and when, is critical in helping to keep you on track and in focus.

Using a priority action system will keep you on track. Note: this system can be modified to suit individual needs. When you have a priority action system in place, you are able to plan your highest priority items each and every day, but most importantly when emergencies come up (and with kids, the unexpected does happen), you are able to re-shuffle your priorities, as long as you know in advance what they are.

If you want to start your own business, a business plan is key, where you spend time to determine what your goals are and how you will achieve these goals, including monetary & time goals. Without a map, you have no sense of direction.

Obviously family life is important, so this needs to be factored into your ultimate daily schedule. Do you want to only work weekends? Are you only available after your drop off your children and before you pick them up from school? Find a line of work that will give you the time you need, the income you want. If it is important enough, you will schedule the time to make things happen. Just like all those competing weekend birthday parties & multiple kids’ activities.

Patti Bishop:

“Not enough time!” is definitely the biggest obstacle I hear from my busy moms. Notice I said “obstacle” and not “barrier”—there are ways around it! Instead of having a workout be an hour—you can split up the time throughout the day in smaller blocks; 15 minutes in the morning, half an hour at lunch and 15 minutes after dinner. It is the cumulative time that counts but you have to make the best use of your time.

Try incorporating exercises into your morning routine: pushups at the kitchen counter, balance on one leg while getting lunches ready, step-ups while brushing your teeth, triceps dips at the edge of the bathtub, crunches on the floor and squats while waiting for the shower to warm up.

Stroller Stride type classes are fantastic for new moms, but once a baby starts to walk and move, workouts need to change. If finances are an issue, moms can get together and create a babysitting co-op where one mom baby-sits while the other two workout. Sharing the cost of a babysitter is another option or tag-teaming the babysitting between partners. While one partner works out, swims or goes for a jog, the other partner watches their child and then they switch after an hour!

Many gyms offer babysitting between set hours. If you can make it to these times, the actual cost can be quite reasonable. Once your children are able to play safely on the playground equipment, the playground can be your gym too! There are so many fun ways to turn an hour at the park into a workout for you. Try decline crunches on the slide, walking lunges, hamstring curls and knee tucks with the swings and of course pushups—you can always find a space to do pushups!

Christopher Flett:

The first step to a woman getting past the guilt around family/work balance is understanding that she can “have it all.” Being a good parent doesn’t mean you can’t have a career, nor does focusing on your career make you a bad mother. The secret is having separation in your life. When you are with your family, be with your family. When you are at work, focus on your work. Unless you are a neurosurgeon on call, turn the cell phone/blackberry off when you get home and on weekends. Work will always be there.When you are at work, work diligently to increase your professional value and find joy in the work that you are doing. Having success in both parts of your life comes from having systems and backup plans. Don’t just have one babysitter, have three. That way if one isn’t available, you have a backup. When you are taking time off to be with your family, find someone you trust to cover you in the event of an emergency at work or in your business. Train this person how to handle situations that can come up, and then let it go. Kids don’t like it when mom is continuously checking her blackberry and work doesn’t like it when a woman misses a meeting because she has to get her kids from school. Find resources to cover your transitions between work and family and your stress will go down.

One local resource for women looking for multiple babysitters is Lullaby League. This service allow parents to meet 10-20 babysitters at a mixer in under an hour. Another well known service is Nannies on Call.

Set personal, professional, and financial goals for yourself. Make sure that every goal has a measurable plan associated with it. Find an ‘accountability’ partner to share your goals with and to keep you on track. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Women put their own goals behind those of their partners, their family, and their friends. Focus on yourself so that you can empower other women to do the same. It is women’s time to shine but you have to step out into the light.

The STUFF Factor

Children’s toys, books, homework, STUFF always seems to be a big issue for moms. How can they organize all the stuff and get their kids to maintain it? Is there a way to organize your

Linda Chu:

Less is more. In these economic times, gluttony is not a game to be playing. A serious purge session is in store for everyone. Get everyone involved. Start kids young by personally taking them down to transition homes & street youth centres, etc so that they can see for themselves those in need and less fortunate.

Create a box for each person of items that you know you have not used, but can not bear to let go of. List an inventory of items. Date the box. Identify the name & number of a charity for donation. Store the box away in your garage/ basement/storage locker. Mark a date on your calendar for 6 months or 1 year for this date (whatever is reasonable to you). If you have not touched these items in this period, your commitment will be to donate the contents of the box. Do not open the box, hence the inventory list. Touch/feel/smell will bring back memories & intentions making it harder to let go…

Regarding husbands…a family counsellor/therapist I am not! [laughing] I would recommend that communication is key. Just like when your got married and talked about children, your expectations and goals must be out in the open and talked about. Be clear in what each expects of each other. Who is responsible for what. Division of tasks is very important. Do not overlook that unpaid work (like being a stay-at-home mother) is still work, with all the emotional and physical demands of working outside for a paycheque.

If budget allows, you may want to look at leveraging off some tasks to auxiliary services like a housekeeper, lawn-mowing service, personal chef, professional organizer etc. What is your time worth? Is time better spent on family vs. the entire weekend on certain chores? You decide.

The Legal Factor

Most parents have RESPs and RRSPs in place, savings accounts and life insurance set up, all to protect their families. Is there anything else they should be doing?

Jacqueline Flett:

GET YOUR WILL DONE. This is item one, two and three on this list. In your Will, the following issues should be addressed:

1. Name a guardian. If either you or your spouse (who is your child’s biological parent or adoptive parent) pass away, the survivor would become the sole guardian. But if you both pass away, the court will appoint a guardian. The court will usually appoint the closest relative (next-of-kin). This is problematic if:

a. There are two equally related next-of-kin who both want to be guardian (i.e. your parents and your parents-in-law)

b. There are any relatives you do not want raising your children;

c. There are any relatives you expect may pursue a battle over guardianship;

d. There are no suitable relatives;

e. You want your child to remain with a step-parent.

2. Name one or more alternate guardians. If your named guardian is someone that you are close to, it is possible that you could be in a common disaster with that person. Have a back-up just in case.

3. Appoint an executor and an alternate executor of your Will. These people need to be capable of managing your children’s inheritances for the long-term. If your children are young, your executor will likely be handling their finances and dealing with the guardians until your children reach the age of majority.

If you are a single parent because of a breakdown in your relationship, your former spouse would likely be awarded guardianship of your children. If your children’s other biological parent is not in the picture at all, it is even more critical to have a guardian appointed in your Will because you do not have a second-parent safety net. If you are concerned about your children being returned to an unfit or abusive former spouse, you need to raise those issues with your lawyer to ensure that your reasons for wanting to exclude that person as a guardian are properly documented.

Some factors to consider when choosing a guardian are:

• Does the person like your kids?
• Do your kids like the person?
• Do you have similar parental values and parenting styles?
• Does the person have sufficient financial resources and, if not, do you have sufficient life insurance to provide that person with access to enough resources to care for your children until they reach adulthood?
• Is the person’s location satisfactory?
• Is the person young enough and in good health to take care of your kids until they reach adulthood?

The Work Factor

Women face a lot of choices in the workplace or when running their own business. How can they get ahead and stay on top? What should they avoid doing?

Christopher Flett:

Women give up their power and this can be challenging to get back. They need to be clear that business today is not gender specific. Their actions will either play into stereotypes, or will support them being seen as an exceptional professional. In the book, “What Men Don’t Tell Women About Business”, over 16 points are covered on how women inadvertently give up their power in business.

Here are some of the more common pitfalls:

• Make excuses
• Not getting to the point
• Taking things personally
• Declaring open war on others
• Gossiping
• Not understanding professional endorsement
• Accepting poor treatment
• Being selfless rather than selfish
• Not asking for what they want (instead asking for what they think they can get)
• Expecting that everyone will act fairly towards them
• Not having a Plan B (backup plan)
• Being too loyal

Get advice on how to build your business from other entrepreneurs who understand the challenges moms face. Beware of government resources online, most have been built by government employees, not business owners. Find someone who understands business and the dynamics of being a parent.

Know that women are leading the edge of self-employment based in the home. You aren’t alone in doing this. Find a good mentor who can help you through the challenging parts and you too can join the ranks of successful female entrepreneurs that can have it all.

The Health Factor

What’s the best way for busy moms to lose those post-baby pounds, get more energy and stay healthy and strong?

Patti Bishop:

When it comes to losing body fat, what you eat is number one! Getting back to or developing healthy eating habits are key to fat loss. Along with diet, comes strength training—they go hand in hand. If you dramatically change your diet but don’t start or maintain a strength training program, you can lose muscle mass. Your muscles are your fat burners. Thirdly, you want to add in cardio because you need to keep your heart and lungs strong too. Instead of doing steady state cardio for long periods of time, add in some high intensity bursts of speed to both challenge yourself and boost your metabolism.

The first year after birth is a challenging time for fat loss. You need to be kind to yourself—your body has gone through a lot—you just made a baby! Your body will hold onto body fat while you are breast feeding and if you are stressed out. Sleep deprivation is definitely a stress. Once your baby gets on a more regular sleep schedule and your sleep improves, your body will start to relax and let go of the extra pounds.

Watch out for the following common pitfalls that mothers are most prone to:

• Eating what their kids eat
• Eating their children’s leftovers
• Eating prepackaged food
• Not preparing ahead of time
• Skipping meals
• Eating late at night
• Waiting too long between meals
• Not drinking enough water
• Depending on coffee for “energy”

My favourite thing is to put a sticker on my kitchen calendar after I have completed a workout (walking, strength training, swimming, yoga, etc.) The more gold stars I see at the end of each week, the better I feel!

Download printable pdf

By Jennifer Fresher – WestCoast Families

Closet
If you’re scared to open your closet door, why not take it off? Chu has suggested this seemingly radical move to several clients, to great applause. Without a door, the space is accessible to everyone, including smaller children. But it also means the area needs to be well organized. This can happen by taking down the hanging bars and installing easy-to-use hooks for coats and hats. Floor baskets in everything from wicker to sea grass hold sporting goods and other accessories. And for that high, hard to access shelf, try a clear container that shows what’s inside.

Walls
Taking a page from elementary schools, wall hooks offer a great way to organize coats and handbags. Make sure you have enough for every member of your household, plus a couple more for guests and extra goods. They should be high enough that coats don’t drag on the floor but low enough so everyone can access them. Combo units that offer a mirror, shelf and hooks are a space-saving way to hold house keys and other items you use every day.

Drawers
If you’re lucky enough to have room for a hall table, keep it clear by choosing one with drawers. Tuck individual trays inside to contain keys, change, sunglasses and other smaller goods. A vase filled with beautiful blooms is a more welcoming sight than a tangle of transit tokens and receipts.

Storage
Footwear is the beast in every household, says Chu. One way to gain control is to have each family member choose one or two pairs of shoes to leave out, and then store the remainder in their rooms or a separate area of the house. Racks get footwear up off the floor but can get cluttered. A storage ottoman or bench provides both a place to perch and hide shoes (plus other bulky items) beneath.

Corners
Spring means umbrellas and raincoats. A corner coat rack conveniently offers a place to hang both items. (Add plastic mats for the winter to protect your floors from snowy boots.) Or, opt for a separate umbrella stand in a decorative ceramic that matches your style. “Unless you have an special table or other piece of furniture, in such a small space it’s wise to go for a uniform look,” Chu explains. “This way everything looks as it is supposed to be there.”

That can start with making sure your bedroom isn’t contributing to the reasons why you find yourself laying awake at night.

In the era of 500-square-foot condos and bachelor apartments, bedrooms can have the tendency to be a collecting ground for articles people don’t know where else to put such as exercise bikes and unfolded laundry.

“Bedrooms are tough. People tend to say, `Oh no, we have people coming over’ and then throw everything into their bedrooms and close the door,” says Linda Chu, president of the Professional Organizers In Canada. “If you believe in the concept of clear space, clear mind, it has some merit.”

Chu references the Chinese art of feng shui, which considers the careful placement of furniture and centres around a movement of energy.

“If there is clutter in the room, that’s not very restful,” says Chu. “When you’re sleeping that’s the time the body is decompressing, but if you have things getting in your way on the way to bed – if you have to clear the bed off and there is laundry on the floor or the exercise bike is there nagging you it’s not conducive to restful sleep. You may be going into a cluttered room that reminds you of all the things you once again failed to do that day.”

That means living leaner, finding solutions to store articles in appropriate containers under the bed or in storage boxes in the closet or off-site storage units and labelling so you know what is in the container.

“At the end of the day, my theory is keep everything you want, provided it doesn’t stress you out,” says Chu. “If you can’t find it or don’t use it regularly, what’s the point?”

Be sure you have separate laundry hampers for dirty clothes, dry cleaning and mending. Buy good hangers that function well and keep your clothes in good shape so you are more inclined to hang things up when you are done with them. If you aren’t wearing it and haven’t worn it for a year, get rid of it.

The ability to block out light and noise can also translate into a better night’s sleep. Experts say people can be broken down into those who want a “cave” or a “cloud” type bedroom environment. A “cave” type of person wants their room pitch black in the morning, while a “cloud” person wants natural light to seep in gradually in the morning but not in a harsh way.

“We are told that the darkness enhances our natural production of melatonin, which restores the body,” says Dayle Laing, a Toronto-based designer. “Therefore, window treatments should be room darkening, especially if the window faces a street light or other artificial light.”

You can achieve this with blinds that have a blackout layer or heavy draperies. Products such as honeycomb shades from Hunter Douglas feature a honeycomb-within-a-honeycomb design that serves as a light-blocking tool, especially in opaque fabric to ensure a restful night’s sleep and significantly reduces heat transfer at the window.

“They are also energy-efficient. The honeycomb construction traps air in the pockets so the cold air doesn’t get in during winter and hot air is trapped in summer,” says Sue Rainville, marketing manager with Hunter Douglas in Brampton.

Custom window treatments can be highly effective, but also expensive. The most inexpensive option is a simple coated roller shade. For best results, mount the shade outside the window frame, just above the window moulding, says Laing.

Measure the width so that the blind will extend beyond the window on both sides by 7.6 centimetres. This will allow less exterior light to escape into the room.

Another option is to have draperies that are pulled each night. They should be lined with blackout or at least dim-out lining or by adding another layer of flannelette fabric between the outer fabric and the lining which also cuts the light and makes the drapery treatment more luxurious.

“If budget is no object, the drapery could be motorized and timed to open at dawn when natural wakening occurs,” says Laing.

Opting for draperies also has the additional advantage of dampening sound, which creates a better environment for sleeping.

For wall colours, be sure to keep paint tones subtle to make the bedroom an oasis of calm for going to sleep and for waking refreshed.

“A dark paint may delay the natural light for waking,” says Laing.

Enzo Calamo is a stacker. Or he was.

The Vancouver-based marketing director for AEGON Canada says so much paper came across his desk in a single day that by week’s end he was surrounded by a fortress of teetering piles.

It was overwhelming, and ate into his productivity and that of his employees, he says.

So he made a business decision and a career investment: He hired a professional organizer.

“She came in and helped me create a filing system, and she made different piles that were more manageable. It just became much more efficient,” Mr. Calamo says.

“It’s allowed me to handle more projects in a more effective manner rather than get bogged down on one or two projects and hoping to get to others.”

We’ve seen the professional organizer on shows such as Oprah, heroically digging housewives out of their closet clutter or bedroom full of junk.

But this brand of organization is now commonly tackling the cubicle as companies realize that an organized employee is less stressed and more productive, says Clare Kumar, director of marketing for Professional Organizers in Canada.

“Companies are getting it; they’re getting that equation between, ‘If I help somebody be successful and be well at their work, it will pay off,’ ” she says.

This year’s gloomy outlook will spur many workplaces to get their downsized staff organized, she adds, since administrative assistants can often be first in the layoff lineup and are some of the only ones trained to keep files in check.

Getting organized often makes the list of New Year’s resolutions, and more office employees are adding it now that job security is top of mind. A cluttered desk or a lost report is one of the last reasons you would want to be shown the door, she says, but it does happen.

“Clearly the downsizing is going to leave the people that are left behind managing everything even more stressed,” she says. “There is that background mental chatter of, ‘Oh my God, what about my job?’ ”

Debra Milne, an organizer who works solely with the corporate set, remembers one woman who was fired because she couldn’t navigate the piles of stale reports and unnecessary papers.

“If the manager hands off work to someone who is very disorganized, work will just go missing,” she says. Not good in the boss’s eyes.

There’s an investment in getting organized that goes well beyond stocking up on file folders, says Jane Woolsey, a Toronto organizer who focuses on helping people in their home offices. It’s teaching a skill managers often assume people already have, she says. “It’s like physical fitness – you don’t just get organized once,” she says.

Grace Walker realized how little she knew about staying organized after laying off 13 people from the physiotherapy clinic she runs in Orange, Calif., since the economic crunch started in September – her office manager being one of the casualties. After that, she had been playing catch-up, buried in papers and files she couldn’t keep track of.

“I was coming in on weekends to get through all the paper,” Ms. Walker says. “I was just feeling overwhelmed by responsibilities. Not having a manager any more, a lot of stuff was being dumped on my desk.”

Organizer Regina Leeds, author of One Year to an Organized Work Life, taught Ms. Walker to be ruthless about tossing things she won’t realistically need.

Ms. Leeds, who takes a Zen approach to her professional organizing, says the key is sorting out your thoughts before organizing your desk.

“The office is like your body, it’s what you present to the world. You don’t want to be made to feel overwhelmed, tired and exhausted the minute you enter,” she says.

She recommends writing to-do lists at the end of the day instead of first thing, when e-mails tend to have piled up. Storing items you often use within arm’s reach will keep you from misplacing them.

Often a person is extremely organized at home and a mess in the office, or vice-versa – rarely does it go both ways, she says.

Vancouver organizer Linda Chu, who set up the filing system for Mr. Calamo, says home organizing is virtually the same as that at work.

“I always say ‘stuff is stuff’ whether it’s your home and whatever nook or cranny you put things into,” she says. “There’s always that anxiety around the search, whether it’s for your keys or the report for that board meeting.”

Despite having gone through the organization process with Ms. Chu, Mr. Calamo admits he still falls into the rhythm of stacking items he plans to read later, or reports he needs to follow up on. But now a switch goes off before things get out of control.

“If my desk starts getting messy, I know it’s time,” he says.

Five tidy tips

1. Drink water and take breaks. When you’re dehydrated and antsy, you can’t think. And when you can’t think, you forget where you put things. When you forget where you put things you get stressed out and when you get stressed out it will be harder to get organized.
2. Unstack that pile of papers on your desk. Get rid of the piles and be ruthless about what you should keep and what you should throw away (i.e. “Have I needed this in the past six months or do I know for sure I will need it in the next six ?”)
3. Buy file folders and tag them in any way that works for you – alphabetically, colour-coded, numerical. Filing style is personal – everyone has a different process of remembering. Keep the same or similar filing systems for computer files and e-mail.
4. Learn to put it away. If you take a bottle of headache pills out of your drawer, put it back. One of the major reasons people suffer from desk clutter is because they don’t return items to their rightful place.
5. Ask your manager what he really means by ASAP. Often we fall behind and get disorganized because upper management usually wants its projects done now, without regard for longer project deadlines. Or so we think. Asking the boss when he will really need it, acknowledging all the other things you have to do, will help you prioritize and stay organized. When he says “Now,” he may actually mean by end of the day.

A well-organized closet can mean not only more space but also more time. If every item has a place, then we’re not wasting time hunting down wayward shoes or blouses crushed somewhere in the recesses of the inadequate storage spaces, often featuring a single pole and shelf, that many of us call our closets. Something to consider.

A workable storage system can be designed for any budget, says Montreal professional organizer Susan Portnoy.

But the first step in organizing any closet, says Portnoy, of Organized Success, is to go through every piece of clothing you own – every scarf and every pair of shoes, and get rid of every single thing you won’t wear.

The fact is, says Portnoy, that we wear 20 per cent of our clothing 80 per cent of the time. We wear what we like best. And yet, we hang on to so much more than what we wear – clothes that no longer fit or suit us. We do it out of an emotional attachment to that skirt or jacket or because we simply can’t bring ourselves to part with items we believe we might one day want to wear again. Bad idea, say experts.

“I tell people, ‘If you haven’t worn it for two years, there is little chance you will wear it again,” said Viviane Djandji of Au Printemps, designer of custom storage systems and closets. “Give it to someone who will.”

Linda Chu, a Vancouver-based organizer and a board member of the Professional Organizers in Canada, suggests asking these three questions: Do you remember you had it? When was the last time you wore it? Would you miss it?

Part with clothes that have stains that won’t come out and holes and tears that can’t be mended.

Set aside a bag for clothes that need repair or alterations – and see to it that they get done.

And each time you add something to your wardrobe, try to get rid of something old or rarely worn.

Realize that pruning your closet can be a tough job. You have to be resolute.

If you think you need help, consider hiring a professional organizer.

Heather Knittel and Susan Borax of Good Riddance Professional Organizing Solutions has ideas to cut the crazy-making clutter:

• Limit the amount of art and homework you save for each child. Hold onto the best throughout the year, and at the end of June save the top five pictures or projects in memory boxes. (Remember, you can also immortalize art by turning it into greeting cards by Cards by Kids.)
• Establish a daily backpack routine with your children. Pick a time when you can sit down together to empty its contents so you can review any teacher notices or schoolwork, and weed out the snack remains or the smelly runners. Make sure there is a designated backpack storage spot near the door.

Linda Chu from Out of Chaos suggests that parents:

• Use a whiteboard with grid lines to keep track of what homework is due, and when—we know this would also help us to remember younger children’s play dates and preschool outings!
• Create a ‘command centre’ for incoming notices and school information and to ensure all the team/school contact information is in once central location as well. This could take the form of a large binder with dividers for each child and activity.
• Use a rolling under-the-bed clothes drawer as a place to store outfits or uniforms that will be required for the week ahead. For example, a Tuesday birthday party ensemble, Friday’s dance leotard and this season’s soccer jersey so you’re not rushing in advance of the event.

And from Solutions Organizing & Staging (SOS), Ranka Burzan suggests, to help our kids keep themselves organized, we:

• Go through their wardrobe and give away anything that doesn’t fit or just doesn’t get used.
• Provide each child’s bedroom with a laundry hamper and garbage can (we find sprinkling our home with several blue recycling bins helps us keep the paper from piling up!)
• Encourage good habits by having preschoolers pull up their bed covers every day and make sure their dirty laundry is in the hamper. Write down simple tasks on a laminated chore chart (Savvymoms know that including children in family responsibilities at an early age is the biggest predictor of success in life!)

Tired of kids underfoot or over-involved – say, reaching for a knife – while you make dinner? We’ve got tips and tools to keep little hands safe and busy

Kitchen design tips

1. Watch where you work. Then reorganize the kitchen accordingly, says Linda Chu, owner of Out of Chaos, a professional organizing firm in Vancouver. Store baking ingredients in a cupboard near where you roll out dough and locate knives where you chop, for instance.

2. Designate appliances as adult-only. It’s scary to see little ones (given their limited motor skills) with an electric mixer whirring away, says Jennifer Low, author of Kitchens for Kids: 100 Amazing Recipes Your Kid Can Really Make. Keep appliances out of reach.

3. Bring it down to size. “Most kitchens have high counters and sharp or heavy equipment,” adds Low. Consider covering a low play table with plastic wrap for kids to use as a food prep surface.

4. Think “island time.” Outfit your island, or an inexpensive wooden cart on wheels, with plastic cookie cutters and measuring cups so the children can work with you when invited, says Theresa Casey, a Toronto interior designer. Or fill it with craft supplies or pretend foods for wee ones.

5. Make it easy to be green. Everyone can help keep things tidy when you tuck garbage and recycling materials in pullout drawers, using divided, heavy-duty plastic garbage bins. “Richelieu has a wonderful, 24-inch-wide, four-way recycling bin for drawers,” says Casey. Also, drawer inserts make it easier to put plates and cutlery away.

6. Clear the deck. The area beneath upper cabinets is prime kitchen real estate, says Chu. Today’s under-cabinet cookbook stands, toaster ovens and microwaves help keep counters spotless.

7. Call the pros to contain chaos. Pretty baskets aren’t a good solution if you can’t get your stuff organized. Find a local expert at organizersincanada.com.

Kid-friendly cooking tips

1. Look for simple recipes. When kids can make things mostly on their own, it builds confidence and pride in cooking, says Low. Chilled, baked and microwaved dishes avoid stovetop hazards too. (Adults should remove food from ovens or microwaves, however.)

2. Think small. “Put vegetable oil in a small bottle with a spigot so kids can pour out limited quantities,” suggests Low. “On extract bottles, don’t remove the foil seal – pierce a hole so children can dribble them out.”

3. Consider ages and stages. Young ‘uns can wash or mix ingredients, school-agers can open cans, and preteens can stir sauces. Avoid burns by keeping wee ones away from stovetops and microwave ovens.

4. Put ‘em to work. Let kids read and assemble ingredients and put dirty bowls and utensils into the sink or dishwasher. Kitchen activities help kids feel involved and develop their independence, says Casey.

You know something is wrong when the volume of your information is inhibiting your ability to access what you need in a timely manner. Critical also, is recognizing that the emotional stress and anxiety around your clutter may be affecting your performance and bottom-line.

2. I want to de-clutter my email, my desk, my mind and I don’t have the faintest clue where to start. Any tips?
You are not alone. According to an organizational study by Office Depot, a global supplier of office products and services, 61% of those surveyed claim the biggest frustration with their disorganized environment is that they can’t find what they need quickly. Even a bigger frustration is that 67% are not sure how to start or maintain their efforts.

What I suggest is an inventory-taking process. We often have so much information and tasks to do that we don’t really know what we have or what we are dealing with.

Start by committing a consistent amount of time each day, if you can not afford the marathon organizing session. Just remember that 15 minutes a day, quickly adds to one hour and 15 minutes in a week, and by the end of the month to five hours. This may be five hours more than you have committed to over the last six months.

The key here is to just dive in. I would recommend your immediate work space, since this is your home plate, your foundation. Pick up that first piece of information or note scribbled on scrap paper. Ask yourself what you need to do with this. As you go through your piles, you will find similar action items like phone calls to make, information for an upcoming project, references to file away, etc.

Often, our piles are signs of unfinished business. Once you have grouped your actions together, you are better able to plan your days by committing time to complete your tasks.

Email is just the electronic equivalent of our physical clutter. Organizing your electronic documents is the same as for your physical documents. Manage your email by maximizing the techniques available in your email program. For example create folders, set up rules, and manage your outstanding emails using the follow-up function.

The mind dump can simply be done by writing down all the tasks you think you need to do. In doing so, you are de-cluttering your mind so that you can concentrate on committing time to your daily calendar to complete your tasks. You know from experience that the list of 100 items on your to-do list never gets completed in one day, so why set yourself up to fail. Instead, break down your tasks by spreading them out throughout your week or month.

3. You have talked a bit about getting your stuff together at the workplace. And let’s face it – email is a huge force to reckon with. For all the good associated with email, it has created a whole different approach to the way we work. It’s so easy to send an email off, there’s too much to get through and for some of us out there, there’s this almost psychotic need to check and reply to email as soon as it comes in. How do you recommend dealing with this?
Email has become that phantom work that steals our time and is one of the growing reasons to why our average work week hours are increasing. Email has enhanced our ability to communicate with the world, but how use our email has created the monster that has swallowed our time.

Taking back your time lost to email starts with getting back in control on yourself.

Turn off the ‘you’ve got mail’ signal on your computer. Who can resist the ‘someone loves you’ urge to look at a new email the moment it is received in your mail box? Consider turning the auto send and receive function off and manually click on the send and receive command at strategic times in your work day.

In addition to personal shifts in how you manage your email, corporate protocol changes need to be considered. Companies may want to consider developing an email policy. What is the direction around using the ‘reply all’ command? Is there a network drive that is used for the central storage of meeting minutes, instead of sending minutes to all attendees to take up storage space in each person’s computer?

4. In your experience working with various corporate clients, where do you see the most amount of clutter and how have you advised clients to deal with it?
The most common area that I have experienced with business clients, who are working in a cluttered environment, is their inability to focus. The anxiety of wading through the piles of papers, the overload in email, the multiple priorities, not to mention balancing these and the need to get out from behind your desk and in be more in front of your clients and staff.

Keeping your desk clear gives you the ability to focus on the unexpected and to plan ahead. Identifying the decision you need to make throughout the day ensures that you are not immobilized by inaction. Creating territories in your office will give you the direction to keep on top of your daily demands. Active files, reference information, archival materials, are areas you need to set up to maintain order in your workplace. Depending on your workspace and your daily responsibilities a tickler file system (aka a BF / bring forward system) might be necessary.

5. You once said, “When things pile up we feel mentally defeated and exhausted, and the task of organizing seems impossible”. Can you elaborate on this? How would you suggest dealing with things to avoid this pile up?
Being in a disorganized environment is like a kid in a candy store. There is so much beckoning for your attention, that one does not know where to start. The exhaustion comes from your mind bouncing from one task to another as you try to keep up with all that you have to do whirling around you, physically and electronically.

As a result of this state of overwhelm we can often procrastinate for fear of being defeated.

For some, asking for assistance is like admitting to failure. The task of delegation and learning to leverage the services of others can give you the kick-start that is missing.

Organizing your outstanding projects into work piles is essential to breaking through the mountainous piles. Once this is done, your work can be divided according to time sensitivity.

One piece of paper, one email, one project at a time. Getting started is the first hurdle. Once you dive in, momentum will carry you through.

6. Do you have a particularly memorable story about getting order out of chaos that you could share with us?
I was working with a public official in a government office. Although he had the support of an administrative assistant, there was the task of assisting him to organize his desk, including his desk drawer.

As I reached inside his desk drawer to pull everything out to start taking inventory, I pulled out a handful of condoms.

To his horror, he exclaimed, “Oh…I can explain those…”.

As an organizer, I uncover many things through the process of developing order out of chaos. Nothing surprises me. To that end, I put on my organizing hat and proceeded with a series of questions and processes, not unlike the ones that would be asked of all my clients.

1. When was the last time you used one of these?
2. Did you even remember you had them in your drawer?
3. If you were intending on using this item again, let’s put it aside in its own category, where another item of the same kind could be grouped.
4. Once you have grouped all like items, you have a better sense of the volume you have to contain.
5. Depending on the volume (in this case of condoms), one can then decide on the size of container to use.
6. Depending on the frequency of access to this item, we would find the appropriate place on your desk for ease of access.
7. However, if you prefer to file your resources into a drawer, selecting a file name that is logical to you is very important.

In this case, ‘Should we file this under C for condom or P for prophylactic?”

On a side note, the reason this client had condoms in his drawer was a result of samples that were being collected for a sex education program in the local school district.