I can help you get organized in areas where you need help!

Almost everyone needs help with organizing some part of their life. I have a gift for helping people create order in their space, thinking,  projects,  diet, time and much more.

The more I help people get organized, the more I yearn to support myself and others to develop skills that help them to live a fuller, more creative, more productive and service-filled life.  With all the challenges we fact, it is imperative that people rise to the occasion and use their gifts to help create a better world.

Being organized does not mean being so rigid that life is no fun.  Rather, it is about creating strong banks so that a beautiful and vibrant river may flow freely. Spontaneity,  freedom, joy, laughter, creativity, and love spring forth when those banks of organization are stable.

This blog will include information that will support you in getting organized whether it be clutter clearing, gardening, communication, family life, involvement in community and much more.

I fervently hope that this information is useful to you, and I welcome your feedback and comments.

Free workshop: Get organized for tax season

 I have confidence that these presenters are going to do a good job, so  I am planning on attending.  I  want to be of better service to my clients. Maybe I will see you there!

Info in a nutshell:
Organized Taxes
Saturday 2/25/12
3:30-4:15 pm

Have you done your taxes yet?  Are you procrastinating because it takes you so long to get everything together?  Not even sure what you should be saving, for how long, and how?

Come to the Organized For Taxes workshop on Saturday, February 25 and we’ll help you plan for next year!  Diane Hagerty, a local certified Tax Accountant, will share her expertise with us.  Her tips will be beneficial for all but if you or someone you know also runs a small business this workshop is not to be missed!  While Diane helps us with the nuts and bolts of taxes (she has been doing small business bookkeeping, management, and tax work in NWA independently for about 10 years now, Simply Organized will show you a few types of systems that will help tax season be more bearable.

Janet Filbeck of Simply Organized has been self-employed for over 10 years.  Her system is simple and efficient.  Since not everyone is wired the same, we’ll share more than one type of organizing system.  Holly of Simply Organized and Clever Container will also offer a tax organization kit of Clever Container products that you can buy at 10% off.

Already an Organized Freelancer?  Pass on this workshop information to everyone you know who isn’t.  Do you know someone in Direct Sales (31 Bags, Tupperware, Pampered Chef, Premier Jewelry…etc.), share this invitation for them to join us!  It will be worth the 45 minutes on your Saturday afternoon!

Location: 

Vintage Fellowship

3416 N. College Ave. Suite 2, Fayetteville, AR 72702

Please register by emailing: SimplyOrganizedNWA@gmail.com. Just email that you plan to come. Please share and spread the word!

Organizing in my sleep

I do a regular organizing job for a client who is constantly tweaking her home business. She needs help in all areas–computer, papers, space and more. I always find working for her a delightful challenge because I never know what she is going to need next. Yet I always seem to come up with an idea that really works for her. 

One day I was listening to her as she was telling me the current problem. I had not gotten much sleep the night before, and I was a bit sleepy. I actually felt myself dozing off, but caught myself just in time. Fortunately, she did not seem to notice. 

After she explained the challenge, I wondered, “How am I possibly going to figure this one out–I am barely awake.”  But then I just started writing some things down for her and the ideas just flowed. I was rather surprised at this because I was sure I needed to be more alert to find solutions. 

Normally I am wide awake and energized during my consultations, but I am happy to say that even though I was tired, I still offered her a solution that she loved! Now that is satisfying. 

Organizing so the grandfather can keep his grand kids

I am recalling a very difficult situation where a grandfather who had custody of his grand kids was about to lose them because of the terribly dirty condition of his home. Since his wife had died eleven years previously, he had not cleaned the house. Some members of our church decided that instead of having a Sunday morning service, we would go and help this needy individual.

Since this was about nine years ago, I had much less organizing experience under my belt. But people still tell me what a great job I did in helping people get focused on the jobs at hand. I suppose I do have a knack for delegating jobs and seeing that everything gets done in an orderly manner. I was very grateful that people were so willing to take orders as well. 

I still remember how there was a crew outside which filled many dumpsters full of trash. This place was a mess! Inside, I was told that some people had already worked for hours in the bathroom which was in a very sad state. 

I still remember how I kept up a cheerful countenance even though the place was thoroughly disgusting. I did not want to hurt the client’s feelings at all. I encouraged others to do the same. It was smelly, dirty, and seemed to be impossible to get clean enough. But with many hands scrubbing, carrying out trash and sorting through stuff, the place was transformed. 

I was very glad to be part of this effort which was more cleaning than organizing–yet it was the same kind of end finish–a transformed environment. 

Organizing for service

After church about thirty people descended upon a family’s home to help clean and organize because they had come to a place that they really needed outside help. What I loved about this experience was that about half of the volunteers were cheerful young people, including my fifteen year old daughter and twenty two year old son. 

I was really glad to have both organizing skills and ability to help the volunteers get focused. I started helping with organizing a shed with my daughter and one friend. Soon a few more of her friends came along and I was no longer needed. I was delightfully surprised at the suggestions that they all made which helped consolidate the stuff so that more stuff could be put inside the shed. I left them to their own devices and they did a great job. 

I got to help organize the home school materials, putting the various items into categories into the nice shelves that were available. Then I looked around and did my best to keep asking the client what I could do to help. I would enlist others help as much as possible because people were standing around looking for something to do. Maximizing on the time that volunteers were present was important to me for two reasons. One, they would not be here indefinitely so I wanted to get as much work done as possible. Two, they would feel more useful and fulfilled if they had a sense of accomplishment. 

After about three hours the job was done for the most part. It was an amazing amount of fun and the time flew by since we all worked together. The client and her family were very happy and so was the whole crew. Huray for synergy!

 

How I would change hoarder’s shows

I took some time to watch some current hoarder’s shows and I could not believe how bad the situations were.

The sad thing about watching these people is that the hoarding is so extreme that it does not educate those who have a minor problem as to what to do. Just about all they can do is hall most of the junk away in big trash containers. I rarely see them putting things in categories like trash, give away, high priority, papers to sort and so forth. All I saw was a lot of high emotion and therapy going on. Teaching people how to sort through their stuff would be such a great service. But watching these people who had such a deep rooted problem felt somewhat akin to voyeurism to me.

I know they were willing to be on the show and got paid to do so as well as got the organizing service. But so often the jobs were not really finished, and the client was not shown in a victorious state. Now that is depressing.

You know what I would do to change the shows? I would find people who were really service minded in their communities–but they had a problem getting organized. I love the programs where people who have given a lot get their houses completely changed over. How inspiring can that be! They take people who have a ton of community support, get all those people involved and then transform the home into something beautiful, useful and livable. The joy is infectious.

Wouldn’t it be great to see the whole community get involved, and the person who has the problem being totally loved and accepted by everyone? If I were the counselor, I would encourage the person to realize how much God loved him or her in spite of their problem. I would help the person to envision how much more service they could give if they could get their home in order.

If I were the organizer, I would train the volunteers to be cheerful and completely non-judgemental. Even if they were disgusted, I would demand that they keep their feelings to themselves in both facial expressions and comments–but rather focus on how much they are helping. I have always been able to do this with my clients and that is one reason why I am so good at what I do.

I would love to train the volunteers to sort through the stuff. First we would get a clear agreement from the client as to what could be thrown away. I would work hard with him or her to let go of most of stuff–but be reassured that anything valuable would be set out in flat boxes and in a special area so that the client could easily view the items.

Flat boxes would be the key. Volunteers would set out anything they thought might be worth keeping in flat boxes where the items are easily visible. A screener would come through and decide what things the client would look through. Lots of trash would be collected to clear space quickly. Anything that could be given away would immediately go into a truck.

I could put 40-50 volunteers to work giving everyone a very useful and defined task with about ten supervisors. Everyone would use their special gifts and enjoy what they were doing. Interviews with the volunteers as to why they were glad to help would be helped. The client would be shown sorting out the possibly valuable items and viewers would see how easy it is to make decisions when things are set out clearly to sort.

Papers would be put into separate boxes to be sorted separately by another crew of paper sorters. They would take things like photos and important documents and set aside. Paper sorters would know what kind of papers needed to be saved for taxes and stuff. Much would be shredded.

People would be cleaning as the sorting was going on so that immediate gratifying results could be experienced. The client could go into the house about every hour to see results and share the happy feelings.

I wish that I could participate in this new kind of hoarder’s show–boy, would I have fun. Maybe some day it will happen, and this article can serve as a seed that is planted in someone’s mind.

I know that it is somewhat inspiring to see the changes that can be made in those really yukky homes filled with trash. But I want more inspiration–so that is why I wrote down these ideas.

My daughter has caught the organizing skill

Today my daughter proudly told me that she had organized some shelves and her clothes. I was very impressed with what she had done all by herself. Mahriyanna has helped me organize our space and even other people’s stuff for about three years now. I remember one huge job–about eleven rooms in an entire house full of stuff where I had to sort through almost everything in the home. The woman who hired my whole family had left suddenly a year before when she discovered her husband was sexually molesting her three kids. She had no desire to be in this house where there were so many bad memories, and it was my job to try to make it easy for her to look through stuff quickly. Mahriyanna did a great job of sorting hundreds of small items into categories.

But now she had an opportunity to organize her own space, and she felt a deep sense of satisfaction I’m sure. I saw a beautifully ordered shelf unit where she showed me how she had put her home school text books into categories. Everything looked neat and tidy.

I have not yet seen how she organized her clothes, but the floor in the bedroom was so much clearer and uncluttered.

I feel grateful that my daughter has learned this good skill of organizing. After all, it is a skill that anyone can learn.  And I feel honored to be able to mentor her in this area.

I’m still organizing! And loving it…

I have been pouring my energy into work and my kids during the past six months or so, and have not prioritized writing about organizing. But I feel inspired tonight. It is time to share again. 

It was so much fun to help a couple organize their closet just a week ago. I got the job in a similar way as I get so many–through networking. Someone posted on the NWA Professional Women’s Network that a friend needed help cleaning. That friend just happened to be someone I had known for many years but had not connect with for a long time. I called her, and she was happy to hire me to mainly clean for a holiday party she and her husband were hosting. After experiencing my good cleaning, she wanted to hire me to organize some spaces. So when I needed some work a few weeks ago, I facebooked her–and sure enough, she was ready for my help. 

She was reluctant to tackle the upstairs closet which was the highest priority but the most overwhelming to her. I peeked in and said, “This is going to be a piece of cake. It’s not that bad.” Her husband laughed and said, “I like your bed side manner.”

I was glad that my client trusted me to just dive in. I proceeded to take everything out of the closet and get them into categories using the boxes that I had brought with me. I have learned to bring boxes with me because they are essential in facilitating order in the organizing process. 

Client was highly motivated and ready to give away a lot of stuff. She had no problem making quick decisions and within about twoand a half hours we had most of the job done, amazingly enough. The next two hours we got to spend tying up loose ends, cleaning out a dresser, re-arranging space in the garage, and cleaning out a game cabinet. 

Tired but very happy and satisfied, my client thanked me profusely for the transformed closet. Later she wrote me a note telling me that every time she looked in the closet, she felt inspired. 

This week I will help with some other spaces, and I look forward to having fun working with her and giving her more space to be inspired about. 

Organizing is so satisfying–for me and the client. 

 

Life style opportunity: A beautiful rental in the country with a wonderful neighbor

Hi friends,

My friend Lillian sent me this notice and I thought that my organizing clients might be interested in passing this on to their friends. This looks like a great situation for someone who wants to live cooperatively.

Available for rent middle of January:

 New little house in the woods near Hobbs Park, Rogers, AR.

2 bm, bath, kitchen, liv-din combination, huge deck overlooking

 Beaver Lake

Perfect for Individual or Couple who love nature and animals, quiet and peaceful lifestyle, stable, friendly, orderly, good communication skills.

           Rent is $535 per month including water, plus electric bill.

    The right persons will be my neighbors, tenants and friends, we

 will share land use and lake access, plus some maintenance chores.

Call to make and appointment to see the place and get acquainted.

Lilianbern@aol.com

Love and Peace,
Lilian Bern, (479)387-2108
Holistic Psychotherapist

I used to help produce Jack Canfield’s seminars: a recommendation

Sometimes I forget that I have been organizing for much longer than the decade that I have spent in helping people organizing their space. It was about thirty years ago that I helped produce Jack Canfield’s seminars when he was really starting to take off.

“Patricia Mikkelson worked for me in the company called Live Love Laugh. She was always a dynamic and energetic presence in making things happen, coming up with creative new ideas, coordinating many volunteers, organizing events, workshops and publicity– just to name a few of her many contributions to the success of Live Love Laugh. During that time she also helped organize and produce various Self Esteem workshops led by the now famous Jack Canfield, co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series. Patricia is a forward thinker and seems to always press for things that make it a better world for everyone.” Cliff Durfee

Organizing a garage in two hours with phenomenal results

In just two hours two people cleaned out the chaos in a garage with phenomenal results. here is how we did it.

For various reasons we had only two hours to work for I had a deadline. In some ways, having a deadline is a good thing. It really motivates you to get the job done in a shorter amount of time.

We started by getting the big stuff out that was obvious. Fortunately it was a nice day so it was easy to use the space in the driveway.

Because of lack of time, and because the categories were pretty obvious, we did not make labels.

Instead, I had about 20 shallow boxes which we laid out in the driveway. because the boxes were shallow we could see the items easily so therefore did not need a label.

We started by clearing off one table which was going to be the tool table. we sorted all items on the table quickly into boxes and kept the tools there.

Then we started clearing off another table which we envisioned would be the hardware table.  all things sorted into boxes except hardware.

Now we proceeded to sort the rest of garage. with the tool table and hardware table being the largest categories, we knew that at very least getting these items in one place would make it easier to find things and clear the rest of garage.

Another big category was metal. All that went into a corner. I discovered that he wanted to get rid of a large amount of plastic bags which immediate went out.

As the boxes of categories were filled, the gargae became less cluttered of course. Within 1 1/2 hour  most things were in categories. We did not open new boxes of stuff that were easily stacked.This we saved for a later date.

We took the last 1/2 hour to find places for things. the gardening tools and materials went one place. the larger tools went to antoher. the lawn mower was rearranged. Within the 1/2 hour we had everything in its place.

Now my client says that he can find things and in his own time he can fine tune the sorting. He can now walk around, put his vehicle in the garage, and feel safer as well.

This was the fasted job I have ever done with the most amount of progress. Two people really do make the work go faster. If you use a technique such as mine, then it is easier to make the most out of the helper’s help.

I really hope you try this and it helps you to find a peace of mind so that you can realize your worthwhile goals and make a better world.