If you, like many other Naples residents, have tried to get organized on your own, but just can’t seem to get it all done, you may benefit from getting help from a professional organizer. Some find that they are able to get organized to a point, but within months things seem to get cluttered again. A professional organizer can help you not only get organized, but stay organized.

So how can you choose the best organizer for you?Consider the tips below:

What to look for:

– Make sure they are a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO). Members of this organization are trained professionals, and can show you the best way to get organized, based on your specific lifestyle and needs.

– Another important factor that may people miss is to make sure that their organizer carries liability insurance. This protects you and the organizer should any injuries or damage occur on your property.

Mission Organizing is insured by Insurance Partners.

– Take some time to get to know your professional organizer before committing. A hallmark of good business is to have a trial offer. Some organizers offer free phone consultations to assess your needs and make sure that they are good fit for you. Take advantage of these offers so you can choose an organizer whose personality is a good match for you.

Hiring a Professional Organizer is completely normal:

We hire professionals to help us in other areas of our lives, such as house cleaners, gardeners, handyman/woman, and getting organized is no different. Smart people know they should seek assistance when needed, and there is no shame in doing so.

Your professional organizer should not be judgmental, but should be a good listener, encouraging and supportive. You organizer will take the time get to know you and your circumstances, and will put together a plan to get you organized and provide you with tips to help you stay organized.

So if you’re overwhelmed and you just don’t know where to start, consider getting help from a professional organizer and get your life back on track.

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Employees spend a great amount of time searching for files and emails on a computer. According to a survey conducted by Brother International, an “estimated 76 working hours per person each year are lost as a result of disorganization in the workplace,” such as looking for files and items around the office. Putting a price tag on those hours reveals that almost 2 billion dollars are “wasted annually looking for misplaced items in the office and on the computer.” As you can imagine, this can “drastically impact the bottom-line for large companies and small businesses alike.”

So how can companies decrease this wasted money and effort? By getting organized, of course!

Here are a few ways to get started:

Start an Organized Desk Challenge

Challenge your employees to try to keep their desks organized for a week. Encourage them to have a place for everything and keep everything in it’s place. Have managers look for one area that each employee improves in during that week, such as closing more work orders, ability to give status reports faster, etc. Each manager should report his or her findings to the group, stating how each employee was more productive. This will encourage employees to continue to stay organized.

Offer an Organizing and Time Management Brown Bag Class

It’s amazing how much people can learn in an hour. By training employees on how to get organized and stay organized, they will become more efficient. Improving their time management skills will help them to learn the importance of making a list and prioritizing tasks. This will in turn teach them how to manage their resources more efficiently within the company structure.

It Takes More Than Just Going Paperless

Many companies have already gone paperless. But what good is that if the information can’t be found? Help employees learn how to create and manage the file system on their computer. They should also know which documents should go on the company’s file system or intranet in order to be shared with other staff. With so many employees working from home or out in the field, information should be stored so everyone can find it regardless of where they are.

With so much competition among businesses today, employees need to be as productive as possible in order for the company to stay competitive and profitable. By examining and rectifying the amount of time wasted, your company can eliminate this financial drain.

Would your company benefit from having a professional organizer and productivity consultant help save money wasted through inefficiency?

We can work one on one or with entire departments. Transfer skills by active learning or through “brown bag “workshops.

Let’s make things happen, let’s get things done!

Contact Mission Organizing today to get started: 813-514-5696 or nancy@missionorganizing.com.

The post How to Save Your Company 2 Billion Dollars By Getting Organized appeared first on Professional Organizer Naples - Mission Organizing.

According to Naples Florida Weekly, around 200,000 people will move in and around the Naples, Florida area over the next seven years. Will your family be one of them?

Without a doubt, moving can present one of the most organizational challenges of a lifetime. Most of us can admit that we never know just how much stuff we have until we have to move it.  Getting organized before the move will help avoid taking old clutter into our new place.

Here are four ways to ensure that your next move will be smooth:

1) Purge before packing

Before you put those dishes/clothes/books in a box, ask yourself, “When is the last time I used this?”  If you can’t remember, chances are you don’t need it.  Consider setting it aside to offer to your friends who are helping you move first, before selling or donating it.

2) Put all of your essentials in one bag

When moving, our minds are pulled in a thousand different directions.  It so easy to forget where we put our medicine, soap, and toothbrush.  It’s no fun trying to look for these things after a long day of moving.  Pack a bag containing all of your essentials, and you’ll have no problem finding them when you’re exhausted and just want to crawl into bed.

3) Clear plastic bins are life saver

Which is easier, looking at 10 boxes that say ‘kitchen,’ or being able to see the box that contains the plates?  Save time by using clear plastic bins for items that you’ll need right away.  You’ll to be able to find them quickly and get the new room set up quicker.

4) Clean your old home after the move and your new home before the move

This is important especially if you’re renting your old home.  You don’t want to be charged for leaving the place messy.  You’ll really appreciate having a clean new home, especially the bathrooms and kitchen,  when you’re tired out from a day of moving and just want to eat something, take a shower, and go to bed.

Moving can be difficult and a stressful experience, especially if you’re doing it by yourself. Considering hiring a professional organizer who specializes in move management to help you reduce stress and organize all of key players.

Move managers can recommend moving companies and house cleaners, eliminating the need for you to worry about every little detail.  They can also help with organizing, packing, and purging, so that your new place will be relaxing and inviting. All you’ll need to worry about is getting the key to your new home!

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We’ve all heard that it’s never too early to start thinking about retirement. For many, that means years of stocking away little bits of money, relying on compound interest and a diverse investment portfolio.

However, in comparison to the many years we save for retirement, we usually only wait until the last moments to think about where we’re going to spend our retirement. With so many active adults considering Naples, FL as a top retirement destination, many find that they’ve come down with more things the need.

Downsizing is great way to enter a new phase of your life, one that’s less stressful and more relaxing.

Here are 7 Ways to organize and downsize your Naples home:

1) Start small

It’s tempting to want to tackle the whole house right away. However, this will not only cause stress emotionally, but also physically. Organizing is hard work. First there is the mental stress of deciding what you still need and what you should part ways with, and then there is the physical stress of packing items, deciding who who they should go to, and arranging for their delivery or going through the process of selling them.

The solution: Tackle one room or area at a time. Plan for a two hour stretch and don’t forget to take breaks to clear your mind.

2) Focus on the most used items, and let go of the rest

When going through your items, ask yourself, “When was this last used?” If you can answer, “Yesterday,” then chances are, the item is a keeper. However, things that are used most often get the most wear and tear.So if you use the item everyday and it’s worn out, it may be a good idea to replace it with a newer, less-used item that you already own.

Don’t be afraid to let go of items that are rarely used, thinking, “What if I need it next week?” Remember, you are not the only person who has that item. It may be better to borrow someone else’s if the need arises. However, chances are, if you haven’t used it in a year, you won’t need it next week.

3) If it’s going to be an inheritance or legacy, consider giving it now

Why wait for a tragedy to pass on an inheritance or legacy? If you’re not using the item, consider giving it as a gift now and enjoy the feeling of giving. Your dear one will get to treasure it now and will be reminded of you every time they see it.

4) Have a collection? Keep your favorite piece, but remember the rest

For collectors, there is no harm in keeping one or two items in your collection. These items can be displayed nicely and will serve as a remembrance of times past when you had the full collection set. To make it easier to give up the rest of the set, consider taking a picture of the complete set and displaying it next to the treasured pieces you decide to keep.

5) Get valuable items appraised and sold at the best price

Rare and antique items can be very valuable. If the item will not be kept in the family, consider getting it appraised and sold either at auction, or on consignment.

6) If it’s damaged, discard it

If it’s broken, stained, chipped – get rid of it! Even charities can’t sell these items. That goes for plastic containers without lids too.

7) Consider getting help from a professional organizer

Retirement is meant to be less stressful and more relaxing. However, it’s a daunting task navigating through 20, 30, or even 50 years of collectibles, mementos, and just plain stuff. But you don’t have to do it alone. Getting help from a professional organizer can make the process easier, faster, even fun. And remember, just like it’s never too early or late to save for retirement, it’s never too early or late to start downsizing and getting organized.

The post Prepare for Retirement in Naples – 7 Ways to Organize and Downsize appeared first on Professional Organizer Naples - Mission Organizing.

Naples was recently listed as one of the “top 20 cities for top-end listings and sales,” according to the Naples Daily News. How can you get a quick sale in such a competitive market? Organization is the key.

When a potential buyer looks at a house, they are looking to buy space. The more space you are able to show, whether it be for living or storage, the more attractive your home will appear to the buyer.

Here are 5 home organizing tricks sure to yield a quick sale:

1) Half-empty closets

Give the illusion that your closet is so big, you have space for additional stuff. Take half of the things out of your closet and make sure what’s left is neatly organized. Having some things in the closet will help buyers to visualize how their stuff will fit. We all could use more storage space right? Your buyer is no different.

2) Restore rooms to their core functions

Dining room pulling double duty as an office? The trouble is, this gives your buyer the impression that your home is not big enough to suit a typical family’s needs. One sign that a buyer is really interested is when they start visualizing their furniture in your home. A room that pulls double duty will only distract buyers. A room that has a clear, defined purpose will get buyers’ attention in no time.

3) Declutter

Just like a room that doesn’t have a clear, defined purpose, clutter will also quickly distract buyers. Their focus should be on the space, not a pile of paperwork, clothes, or toys. Now is the time to clear out the clutter and find a place for all the non-essential things.

4) De-personalize

In order for buyers to visualize your home as their home, remove any personal artifacts such as photographs, religious items, collectibles, and paperwork. Don’t forget the refrigerator; remove magnets, memos, photos, etc.

5) First Impressions Count

The entryway is the buyers first introduction to your home. Encourage them to continue on with the tour by not using it as a dumping ground for jackets, mail, and keys. Adding a small table with fresh cut flowers is much more welcoming.

The post Five Amazing Tricks to Quickly Sell Your Naples Area Home appeared first on Professional Organizer Naples - Mission Organizing.

Everyone has unique needs and often our clothing represents this. For example, someone, such as a Naples realtor, who wears a business suit to work everyday will have different wardrobe needs than say a receptionist in a Naples office that has a business casual dress code. The Naples realtor must also have business casual clothes for evenings and weekends, whereas the receptionist can wear their work clothes during non-working hours.

Clothing, like many other things in life, often follows the 80-20 rule, which states, 80% of the effect comes from 20% of the cause. Most of us find that 80 percent of the time we only wear 20 percent of our clothes. So, do you have too many clothes? Here’s a quick quiz to find out:

1) I misplace my favorite jeans/top/shoes more than once a month.

The fact that you have a favorite article of clothing proves that given the choice, you will choose this item over all others, even changing other pieces of your outfit to accommodate it. This item is definitely a keeper.

Tip: What do you like about this item? Is the the color, material, comfort level, style, or do you like the way you look in it? Donate or give away items in your wardrobe that don’t fit this description.

2) If I place one more item in the drawer or closet it won’t close!

Since we’ve already established the 80-20 rule above, don’t delude yourself into thinking that you’re wearing all of those shirts in the drawer 80% of the time. There are only 7 days in a week. If there are 14 shirts and you do laundry once a week, 7 of them are not getting worn. Rid yourself of a couple of shirts that you wear least often and you’ll be able to find the shirts you actually wear quicker.

Fringe benefit: Applying this suggestion will allow you to put together an outfit faster!

3) I know I bought this a year ago, but I’m going to wear it soon!

Do you have clothes in your closet with tags still on them? If you don’t have an event in the upcoming 3 months that you will wear this item to, consider selling or donating it. Items that are new with tags will usually sell for a higher price than a used item.

Tip: If donating clothes, don’t forget to ask for a receipt from the organization you’re donating to. At the end of the year, you can claim a tax deduction for clothing that are in good condition.

If you find that two out of three of these statements apply to you, you may benefit from having a professional organizer help you through this process. Often, overbuying and underusing become habits that are hard to break. Even if you take steps on your own to get organized, you may find yourself back in the same situation a few months later.

The post Do Naples’ Residents Have Too Many Clothes? Take the 3 Question Quiz to Find Out! appeared first on Professional Organizer Naples - Mission Organizing.

If your family is like most families in Naples, I’m sure you’ll agree that quite a bit of the time you’ve allocated for cleaning is actually spent straightening up. Just to clarify, cleaning is the act of removing the dirt and dust, and straightening up is putting things back in their proper place (having a place for everything is having it organized. An example of the difference would be, vacuuming the living room floor (cleaning), versus removing all of the children’s toys from the floor (straightening up) so that it can be vacuumed.

But did you know that by changing five simple habits you can almost eliminate the time spent straightening up from your cleaning time? Here’s how:

1) Have a place for everything and keep everything in its place

Assign a place for the things that are carried in when arriving at home. Use these areas to include keys, purses, jackets, mail, school and work bags, shoes, and such. Go as far as labeling an area or section for each member in the home (like modular cubby storage as they walk in) . Having a chosen place that is labeled, and getting into the habit of putting everything in its dedicated spot will speed up the process of putting away items when it comes time to clean the home.

Bonus: No time will be wasted looking for keys, school bags, and shoes when it’s time to go.

2) Enlist the help of all family members

Since all family members contribute to disorder in the home, it is only logical that all members should have a share in returning the home to an organized state. If a child is capable of taking a toy or book out to play with, the child is capable of putting it back. Make a game of it; see who can do it the fastest. Use a timer or a clock like the Time Timer where they can actually see the time passing. Then both you and they will know how much time is required to pick up and put things back to their proper homes.

Tip: For young children, this can be used as a teaching opportunity. Count the number of items as they are put back into their assigned homes.

3. Spend 5 minutes each day returning the house to order

When a home is organized, and when everyone pitches in, just five minutes a day is usually all it takes to get the home back to a presentable condition. Not to mention cleaning becomes easier and a thorough job can be accomplished. Before going to bed, take 5 minutes to straighten up the home. The next day, you’ll wake up to a neat and orderly home and this will give you a great start to your day.

Tip: Play a favorite song and the 5 minutes will fly by.

4. Remove dry dishes from the dishwasher as soon as possible

It actually creates double work if dirty dishes are placed in the sink, and then moved to the dishwasher. If the dishwasher is empty, dirty dishes can be placed directly in the dishwasher. Soap can be added at any time, reducing the task of doing the dishes to just the second it takes to press the start button.

5. Keep toiletries on a tray or in a container that can be easily moved

Many people find that it takes twice as long to remove all the items from the sink counter as it does to clean it. Save time by placing these items on a tray or in a container that can be moved in a matter of seconds. Some families in Naples even store these containers under the sink, creating a completely uncluttered counter that can be wiped off in seconds.

One of the pre-requisites for having an uncluttered home that is easy to clean, is having an organized home. The task of defining a space for every item, especially when space is limited, an creating it to the way the family functions, can be a challenge and feel overwhelming. But together, you can do it!

The post Five Simple Ways To Clean Your Naples Home Faster appeared first on Professional Organizer Naples - Mission Organizing.

Most moms admit that their children have way more toys than they ever had. From books, to Legos, to dress up costumes, to stuffed animals, it’s hard to know where to begin when trying to organize kids’ toys. Since children are small and need to be able to reach their toys, we can easily run our of storage space before we run out of toys.

Here are five steps to get the toy situation under control.

1) Observe your child at play

Remember the 80/20 rule from the too many clothes article. What does your child play with most? This may not be limited to a single toy, but may be a certain type of toy, such as action figures, dolls, or drawing/coloring materials. Allow these toys to become the center piece by placing them where it is easiest for your child to get to them.

2) Remove unused toys slowly
Does your child have toys they never or seldom play with? Don’t start a war by removing them all at once! Remove one or two toys to a place that is off limits to your child. Keep the toys for a few weeks and if your child never asks about them, it is probably safe to donate the toys.

If your child is mature enough to understand the concept of donating toys as a means to share with other children, feel free to get him or her involved in the process by letting him or her choose the toys they’d like to donate.

3) Display sentimental toys
Some toys are simply sentimental. Perhaps your child has several stuffed animals that they no longer play with, but were given by grandma or a favorite aunt. Or perhaps it’s a hot wheels or action figure collection. Displaying these toys on a shelf or in a display case is a nice way of turning these toys into decorative showpieces.

Bonus: A display case with a plexiglass cover eliminates the need to dust the toys!

4) Make use of clear plastic storage bins

Use clear plastic storage bins to organize toys by type. One storage bin could be used for dolls, another for drawing/coloring materials, you get the picture. If you use clear bins your child doesn’t have to open the bin to see what’s inside. Make sure the bins are small enough to be easily handled by your child. Also, don’t allow your child to stack the bins too high.

5) Keep outside toys in a separate place
Let’s face it, children often get very excited when playing with toys and always seem to forget not to bounce the basketball in the house. Eliminate the problem entirely by not storing the basketball in the house. Outside toys can be placed on a shelf or in a bin in the garage or on the patio. If the children are trained to keep everything in its place, a tip covered in the clean your home faster article, they will get used to putting this toy in its place before entering the home.

Bonus: Keeping outside toys in a separate place provides more room for toys that are played with inside the house.

The post Naples’ Moms Ask: How Do I Organize All These Toys? appeared first on Professional Organizer Naples - Mission Organizing.

Usually the laundry room is a small room, I always recommend that you pick a fun color and either put it on the wall, inside cabinets or if you have open shelves then use color in the accessories like colorful baskets/bins. In your folding area, put some of your favorite color paintings, or decorative plates, a chalkboard to write things to do.

Where do you begin? Start off by removing the APE in your laundry room (Analyze, Plan & Execute) When analyzing the room ask yourself: what works and what does not, how do you want to use the room, identify the zones in the room (Washing Station, Drying Station, Ironing Station, Soaking station, Mending…) By the way, if you have pets, setup a Pet Station near the sink.

Now let’s execute: Use the Acronym SPACE, (SPACE: Sort, Purge, Assign, Containerize, Equalize) Remove everything from the room to Sort and Purge.  This process helps de-clutter the space before setting up your new zones.

Zones are now selected and labeled.  You can begin to return all items to their new assigned home. Be sure that they are also accessible to you and not difficult to reach–especially frequently used items. Once items have a new home than you can containerize. Get color bins that go with the color blocking.

In your folding and ironing zone, be sure to  set up a hanging rod (a tension rod can also be used) for items to drip dry or when ironing to place them temporarily or a retractable clothes line.

• Tip: If space is limited for folding, install a wall mounted folding table that can be folded down when not in use.

This is also a great place to have a sewing machine near, how often do you iron something that has become un-stitched and you have to wait to find your machine and then set-it up and begin fixing. For some taking several steps deters them from getting it done.

• Tip: Make it fun by using color labels for the zoned areas. Yellow Labels for Ironing zone, Red for Washing/Wet zones, Blue for …..Same could be done with color bins.

Color coding is a fun and an easy way for the kids to identify where things go when you ask them to put things away.

Finally, maintaining any room is easy when everything has a home.  On a weekly basis take inventory of what supplies are low or need replacing.  Then once a week, take 10 minutes and see if anything was left in the soaking tub, orphan socks or clothing that need to be returned and a quick wipe down of appliances.

That’s it!  Enjoy our new organized laundry room.

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Let 2015 be the year of simplification.  Life in general can be overwhelming with everything coming at us.  Let’s make this new year one of simplifying by taking immediate action and start the new year different.

Stay tune for a new article on:  “Live with less, de-clutter, de-stress.”

The post January 2015-Go Month! appeared first on Professional Organizer Naples - Mission Organizing.