Isn’t voice mail supposed to make things easier? (Yes, I can feel you rolling your eyes, right now.) In business, it’s supposed to save us time and give callers the calming knowledge that someone is physically retrieving their messages every day. Whether you’re creating a greeting for incoming callers or leaving a voice mail for someone else, be aware that what you say– and how you say it– is important.

Here are some strategies to make your outgoing voice mail message more effective:

Read more

Five days a week, it comes to your mailbox. Your letter carrier does not distinguish what is relavant and what is important. That’s your job, but you are failing at it…

The worse case scenario I’ve come across is someone who had not opened his mail (including the flyers) in over six months. When we finally opened and sorted through the piles, we had discovered that there were over $2000.00 in uncashed cheques.

How much are your piles costing you?

Read more

Possessions or clutter – whatever you choose to call it, everyone has stuff – I have stuff.

Clutter is the one thing that crosses all social and economic boundaries. It does not discriminate. Whether you are the CEO of a company or a mom with triplets, your stuff can still clutter the spaces you work or live in.

While working with individual clients and helping them to reduce their piles, one of the most common barriers that I find people face is something I call the ‘IF’ Syndrome. When was the last time you If’d?
Read more

I was at the Home Show last month amongst the throngs of do-it-yourselfers and the ideas-starved renovators. It occurred to me that these shoppers, similar to many of my clients are out on the hunt for the ideal solution to their problems. It could be a messy garage, a cluttered office, or lack of storage space for files and archival information.

Stop! — I say, and think about what you are doing, before you waste your time and money on another organizing solution.
Read more

Growth is a good thing. However, on the topic of clutter, growth might seem a natural phenomenon and can cause a lot of stress and anxiety.

Often we walk into a room or open a closet door, only to quickly turn around and close the door, so to avoid the overwhelming sensation of dread. You ask yourself how you are ever going to get through those piles and realize that you do not have hours of uninterrupted time.

Read more

The most common question I am asked by my clients is whether they are the most disorganized person I have worked with. You are not alone in your piles. As a Professional Organizer, I belong to a national association of Professional Organizers (yes, there is actually an association…). As Chair of the BC Chapter, I have seen our membership grow eight times in just over three years.

The popularity of using a Professional Organizer has increased, as awareness of this industry is fueled by television shows like Clean Sweep, Mission Organization, and Neat. Add to this our dear Oprah, featuring a Professional Organizer on her show.
Read more

Think about organizing and words that come to mind are:

• Sort out
• Arrange
• Classify
• Put in order

To streamline, on the other hand:

• Make more efficient
• Restructure
• Simplify
• Un-clutter

Read more

When do your piles of information and possessions cease to inform and be useful, and instead become an anxious burden?

Some like to call them piles of organized chaos. Stuff is stuff, I say, whether we accumulate it at home or at work. Funny how it multiplies like bunnies, and funnier how all this stuff attracts dust – hmmm…dust bunnies.

Excess versus access. Yes, information is power, but I’d like to think that “access” to your information/possessions is much more powerful.
Read more

Growth is a good thing. However, on the topic of clutter, growth might seem a natural phenomenon and can cause a lot of stress and anxiety.

Often we walk into a room or open a closet door, only to quickly turn around and close the door, so to avoid the overwhelming sensation of dread. You ask yourself how you are ever going to get through those piles and realize that you do not have hours of uninterrupted time.
Read more