Jan Hayner  

Creator of Easy Home Organizing and a Professional Organizer for 6 years.

Everyone needs help with organizing at some point in their lives...some of us more than others....

10 Organizing Tips
When You Have Arthritis

Those darn achy bones just don't seem to want to co-operate and keep getting stiff when you want them to work; so how do we work around those problems when we organize our homes?

I guess in that way I am like most of you; I don't want to sit around and complain about it I want to know how to 'fix it' or shortcuts that I can use to 'work around it'. There is a ton of ways of making life workable when you have arthritis and I will give you a few of those in this article.

As we age, we find more and more aches and pains that were never there before.
The legs hurt; for some reason
The arms lose strength
The fingers don't hang on to things any more,
Our food doesn't digest the right way
We take 'naps' because our body is tired
And just what is it that causes all of this 'OLD AGE'!!!

However, I call this 'maturity'. It not only sounds better, but I don't feel like such a basket case. Oh sure, they have fancy names for it: the elderly, senior citizens, baby boomers and many more, But it all means the same-OLD AGE!

Well, I have some news for these people. I am not old, I am in the prime of life, my body just chose not to go along for the ride.

I hear so often from people how getting older is boring. There is nothing to do because they can't manipulate the way they used to.

I hear from kids and grandkids about there parents or grandparents-just seem to vegetate!

I hear from the elderly that there isn't anything to do that they can afford to do.

To some degree, all of these things are probably true for most people, no matter what their age is.

Here are a few ideas on how you can bring 'life' back into living!!

Focus on One Task at a Time
Gets the Job Done Right

So many times, we are so overwhelmed by the amount of things that need to be accomplished that we do not know where to start and we find ourselves running around in circles. It is hard enough to 'just keep up', without the thought of actually getting ahead, so we tend to take on too many tasks at one time. We try so hard to become super human by having the perfect lifestyle that we are never really accomplishing things to the best of our ability or getting the task done one hundred percent of the way.

This is the time to step back and take a look at what it is that we are trying to do and to stop trying to beat the clock. Pick out your number one priority task and stick with it until it is totally accomplished. For some unknown reason, we seem to think that if we are doing three things at one time that we are really accomplishing things in record time. Step back and take a look at what you have done and you will see a multitude of mistakes and ways that you can tweak every job that you did.

8 Skills of an Organized Person

Do you qualify to be added to the list of Organized People in the world? There are some of people that are just born with the good luck, to be organized, in every facet of their lives. Boy, I am envious of those people. I had to learn the hard way, by making tons of mistakes, living with clutter and junk that ran my life and no system to undo my mistakes.

I suppose I should be glad it all happened that way because now I can truly say that I am a Professional Organizer. I learned through mistakes, the same as the majority of the world. What I write is 100% fact, I know, I did it the hard way.

What are some of the skills of a truly organized person?

How to Motivate Yourself to Clean

I don't know about you, but just the thought of cleaning always made me tired. I didn't even have to get all of the chemicals out, think about what I would clean first or how much I was going to clean in a day. It seems like life was always a never ending cycle of cleaning.

Clean the kitchen, clean the bathroom, clean the living room, make supper, wash the dishes and clean the kitchen again. For those of you that have kids, you will understand why I had to clean the kitchen the second time.

Then, I decided that my house would have to wait, the kids came first; heck, my life came first. I was always missing out on something because if a certain thing wasn't clean I would feel guilty and wouldn't want anyone to see my house looking like a mess.

Finding Hidden Storage Areas in Your Home

We all run out of storage areas in our home, it doesn't make any difference if you have a small efficiency apartment or a large 2500 square foot home. Do you know that you have a lot more room than you thought you did to store things and still be able to keep things organized?

The first thing that you should look at is the way your lifestyle is. What rooms do you use specific items in and where can you increase the storage in that area. Such as in the living room, you may want to have a comforter handy for cold winter nights or when the grandkids sleep over, hide magazines that you want to keep or have a hidden area for the grandkids toys. Unfortunately, there isn't any more room to put a storage shelf or cabinet. These ideas may benefit you; Use an ottoman that the top comes off and has storage inside, Use a trunk, cedar chest or two ottomans side by side as a coffee table.

Why not enjoy added filing space, by using a filing cabinet as an end table and covering it up with a round tablecloth?

You Can Have an Organized Day in 4 Easy Steps

Sometimes don't you feel like you are running around in circles and have lost control?

You will get a lot more accomplished and have less stress in your life if you follow four steps to organizing your time. Most of the stress and 'running out of time' that we experience, is due to a time management problem. Don't feel bad, most of us have it, even some of our family and friends.

This is one of those articles that after you have read it, you will wonder why you haven't thought of how to do it, all by yourself. Organizing your life can be easy if we learn to take back control in our lives. Try these easy little steps and it will help you get back in control.