Labels for LifeLabels for Life will give tips for organizing your life, home and office.

There are neat ways to organize all the paraphernalia found strewed all over your dresser or bathroom counter. The organizers below can whip your dressing space into shape and make dressing up a pleasure once again.

Here’s a neat way to store all your earrings. It’s a pullout that displays and stores your earrings and can be tucked away out of sight when you’re done.

Another organizer can either sit on your dressing table or be mounted on the wall.

But by far the piece de resistance is the dresser armoire for your jewelry on the wall. You can organize your jewelry, get a place to dress and clear it all off your floor and move it to the wall.

Diamond organizers are available to organize any drawer. They can easily be cut to size to fit any drawer. They are ideal for socks, panties, knee highs etc.

Another must-have organizer can get all your hair do-dads off your dresser, off your bathroom counter and out of the way either on a wall or cabinet door. All the do-dads can be displayed handily and well arranged till the next time you need them.

I was trying to structure my thoughts for a blog piece. Many ideas came to me. My objective was to expand on one idea at a time per blog. However there were so many connections. It was like a glimpse into the brain itself with synapses and neurons and all connected together in a jangle of nerves. How do I sort this out? How could I chart it out before the whole exercise becomes moot?

Aha! Serendipitously, someone had already gone through this very process and encapsulated a highly intuitive and innovative way of putting it all on paper. After all half the world’s ideas were germinated over a plain cup of joe shared with a friend or colleague and scribbled on the nearest paper napkin at hand. Why there is also a mind map created for de-cluttering!

This could be a terrific tool for any organizing one chooses to do. For authors and writers there is software specially for them but if ideas should occur in the field, as it were, why not chart them out and save for future use in a file labeled ideas?

That mad, morning scramble out the door sound familiar to you. It doesn’t have to be. Monday was chosen for a reason. You have extra hours on the weekend to make sure the next morning does not have to be frenetic.

Place a tote bag Sunday night with everything that needs to go out the door the next morning.

Stock up on dresses (of course, some tips are only targeted to the female of the species) so there are fewer separates to coordinate.

Have the next day’s fully accessorized outfit complete with jewelry in Ziploc bags hanging where it’s ready to reach Monday morning.

While you’re about it why not accessorize a week’s worth of outfits as well?

Organize your closet by color as well as category so everything is easy to locate.

Keep neutral shoes, hose and bags at hand to coordinate with simply everything.

Use a charging valet available to suit every pocket and taste. Organize the PDAs and/or cell phones of the entire household. Label each spot so the respective chargers can be identified. When you come home, or your phone needs charging, that’s where it’ll go and when you need it as you leave the house, that’s where you’ll find it……charged and waiting!.

Have a hook or a coat-rack where you can hang up the clothes that need to go to the laundry; so you can grab it as you head out the door. Now that’s thinking ahead!

There are those who collect their photos in shoe boxes (time to start labeling) and albums and those who go totally digital. They use digital cameras, store and share their photos electronically. Of course, if you’ve been collecting for over 30 years or inherited some family collections, you might have a combination of photographs in albums, photo boxes and some photographs stored digitally.

Another excellent alternative to traditional albums is scrapbooks. Scrapbooking as a hobby has become the craze for women of all ages, in all walks of life, with varying levels of skills and abilities. For those not very artistically inclined, there are various how-to sites that have easy step-by-step instructions that can walk one through this seemingly monumental task and come up with very fancy scrapbooks to make for oneself or to give away as gifts. Whatever the final outcome one desires, organization of those photos is a must. Storage could be temporary or permanent, depending on the final objective in mind.

If your photographs are tucked away in envelopes and those in turn, stacked together in shoe boxes, you may want to sort them according to your preference, either by date or events. You may have, for instance, a large number of photographs of Cousin May’s wedding, or Grandma’s 80^th birthday which was in fact a family reunion of sorts and so on. These would be wonderful choices for an album or scrapbooking project.

Go through them, envelope by envelope. Weed through them, toss out photos out of focus or overexposed. Toss out those you don’t really care for and don’t serve any other purpose either. This will pare down the amount of organizing and labeling you will eventually need to do. Store these in suitable envelopes marked according to year or event.

Depending on your current level of organization you might need to get albums, photoboxes, scrapbooking material, acid-free and PVC free envelopes, acid-free photo-safe pencil or pen (available at photo processors and art-supply stores) etc.

Albums: Choose a style of album that goes with the kind of photos you would like to put in them and that go with your décor. Then get a number of them. Albums lined up six or seven of a color or style look much better than a bunch of assorted albums stashed together. Older photographs that you’ve collected or inherited should be safely stored in acid-free, archival quality environments. Albums should be stored preferably upright on shelves away from direct sunlight or humidity. The ideal temperature for albums is 65^o to 70^o F with a 50% relative humidity level.

Photo boxes: For temporary or permanent storage, choose good looking matched boxes that can be stacked on your shelves and add to your décor. Remove the photographs from their old envelopes, separate the negatives for separate storage. Put photographs in archival quality envelopes, label them according to year or event. Label the negatives appropriately and set aside. Once you have matched stacks of photographs and negatives, the photographs can go in photo boxes and the negatives can be stored in a fire-safe box. Even if you lose all your photographs, albums etc. your precious negatives will be safe.

Help turn home office hell into divine order.

First separate and categorize the paperwork. Half the chaos occurs from not physically separating personal from professional. Next categorize each pile and store in manila file folders. This helps you deal with the paperwork in small bites. It wrests the control from the paperwork mess to you. Now you decide what you’ll work on. You don’t get hijacked by the nearest sighted due bill or renewal notice.

To physically segregate use extra shelving, filing cabinets and bins.

If your desk is a virtual catchall, free it up as well for its intended purpose. Sort all papers that you need, toss out that expired notice that seemed so important at the time. Maybe it was important, you just couldn’t lay your hands on it. File all paperwork in the folders created and store in accordance with its purpose, in filing cabinet, on shelf or bin. For instance, you can house all home expenses and bills to one side and business materials and invoices on the other.

Next create a system for inflow and outflow. One option: Mount an inexpensive wire-mesh file to the left of the desk. Use it to keep track of paper flowing back and forth from the office. Use the upper slot as your Inbox. Store three manila folders labeled clearly: BILLS, Bank Statements and Filing. Toss bills, bank statements and papers to file in the appropriate file folder. The lower slot is your Outbox. Similarly tuck in outgoing mail, notes, any URGENT to do messages right there where it can be seen easily. Never leave behind anything you need to take with you to meetings, when you errands, anytime you leave your house any more! Stow right under it a portable filing box (shown in the picture next to the desk on the floor). Toss into it whatever you need to carry with you as you leave your house. Voila! no more running back to pick up things left behind or postponing chores just because all essentials are not with you to complete your errand.

Consolidate, consolidate, consolidate. Are there home office paraphernalia strewn all over your abode. Corral them all right at hand near your desk. Books can be stored right on the new shelves. How-to manuals for your computer can go right there next to the books. Office supplies can be a dull lot. Inject some oomph by coordinating magazine holders, file boxes and flat boxes.

Use bulletin boards to keep track of the various areas in your life.

Things rarely used can be archived. A future blog will give detailed instructions as to how you can do this safely and securely. Children’s report cards, artwork etc. can be stored in plain sight. Use labeled boxes for these and other things like stationery, waivers, and other business paperwork. Various boxes can be neatly stacked right on the shelves providing both organization and decoration.

Supplies used on an everyday basis can go into open trays where they can be readily accessed. Another box, basket or tray can be used (such as the pink basket in the picture) to store materials for a special project.

There you have it! Order out of chaos, and pretty to boot!

So we’d said we’d be organizing the kitchen later. Well, here’s later.

There are a few steps one must follow in order to organize anything.

First, everything needs to come out. At this point one can discard all inessentials that are not used in the normal course of things. Discard also any spices that are not fresh any more, any food or drugs beyond their expiry dates.

This is the time to clean or freshen up drawers and shelves. Go ahead and wash out cupboards and drawers with warm, soapy water. Rinse or wipe dry, dry out and replace cupboard and drawer liners.

If you have a collection of home-made jams, jellies, preserves, pickles etc. get them all together, label them with your own fancy labels proudly claiming them as your own and display them prominently in your kitchen. Here are some samples of labels you can easily customize:

As you’re organizing, you’re sanitizing and redecorating your kitchen as well. Childproof your kitchen while you’re about it especially if your infants have just turned into toddlers or you have any toddlers visiting you often.

Banish sharp tools, chemicals, and other toxic stuff well out of reach of children. On the other hand if there are certain things in your kitchen they are allowed to use, such as the kitchen towel, paper towel, plastic mugs, napkins etc. make sure they are well within their reach.

Pots and pans, frying pans etc. can be stored near the stove. Dishes, silverware, glasses, mugs etc. can either be placed near your dishwasher for your convenience or near the eating area. To keep silverware in order use drawer dividers or cutlery racks.

Spices are best stored away from light. Store them close to the stove for cooking convenience but not on the hackneyed place over the stove. They are exposed to too much heat near the stove. Keep them in a drawer or cupboard near the stove instead.

Foods that can get infested or bad are best stored in airtight containers or plastic containers, well sealed and labeled.

Now that your kitchen is well organized, happy cooking! Enjoy your kitchen!

Monica Ricci, professional organizer, categorizes people according to their work styles. Know your work style and you’ll know how to plan and organize your work life.

She categorizes people as:

• the planner
• the perfectionist
• the go-getter
• the procrastinator

The planner sees ahead and is very well organized, reliable and has a terrific work ethic. However, thinking ahead, s/he tend to horde lots of material in case of future necessity.

One modus operandi would be to create an accordion file, or two or three and loosely categorize and file away material with labels for each eventuality. Every now and then the planner then needs to briefly glance through the labels. Whatever is no longer useful, can then be purged.

The perfectionist, too, is very work oriented and motivated. They figure they must always do everything themselves so they can do it just so. However, this can become very overwhelming. The perfectionist needs to learn to check out others who can help them in their task, grow their trust in them and start gradually delegating first small portions of the work and then larger as time goes on. With big assignments they should be able to hire outside services who they have thus checked out over a period of time and start delegating, being able to supervise and monitor the entire project eventually.

The go-getter can attract projects and is invariably very involved with various people on a wide range of stuff. They often travel in the line of work. They may have a desktop, a laptop, many to-do lists. They need to develop a system through which they can always access all the scattered information. Technology comes rushing through for such individuals. There are many products on the market that helps go-getters access their computer from remote. The NomaDesk is one such which helps a go-getter access any number of computers once s/he is granted access to it by its owner. They can swoop in and use or share software and files on the accessed computer. They don’t need to travel with all the software they normally use on their notebook. For smaller workloads there are the handy flash-drives so readily available.

For the not-so techno-friendly there’s always the good old three-ring binder with all information appropriately labeled and easily accessed from anywhere.

Lastly, the procrastinator! The procrastinator always means to do everything. The question becomes when. It is as if Time is too abstract a concept for them. They never seem to fully grasp that, “Time and tide waits for no man……” They need to transform Time in a more concrete manner. Color coded planners can help them create a timeline in the here and now. It will help them create deadlines. Larger tasks can be broken up and have a series of smaller deadlines to meet.

Thus each work type can use their own means of organization that can serve them well and help them to not only achieve their goals but get less stressed out as well.

Do you shudder when tax-time comes? Do shoeboxes of bills and receipts confront you in April? Organize yourself for tax-time all year round.

Mom and Dad at Taxtime

All is not lost. There’s still time to get ready for April 2009 without getting flustered. You can do one better for 2009 records. At the very beginning of the year grab a file folder, duly label it Tax year 2009. In you pop those DMV bills that let you claim license fees on your 1040. If you have medical bills, prescription, flex or HSA claims, pop them in or better yet, have a separate sub-folder for them. An accordion file, subcategorized with appropriate labels, is another device for all your tax papers.

If you have a home office and who doesn’t these days, have a separate file for your mortgage bills. If you claim your home office on your personal income tax it’s a sound idea to have your mortgage bills readily available. Have you made charitable contributions? Those receipts should also be safely tucked away to claim your deductions. For small business home offices you might have other claims. Do you claim a percentage of your utility bills, landscaping and gardening and other such expenses? All this paperwork should also be ready at hand.

When February rolls around, the bank will send you your mortgage annual statements. 1099s will arrive daily in the mail. All your annual stock statements will be arriving. Immediately stock them away in your 1040 file. As soon as they are all there, you can easily start on your income tax return.

Once those returns are done, you can begin to relax. Maybe for once you can actually enjoy those April showers and flowers and Spring! There’s one more chore, however. If there are credit card statements and other expenses that you couldn’t take any deductions for, if you don’t need them for anything else, do shred and discard them. Returns from previous years and back-up paperwork for them can be archived and put away so they don’t clutter up your new filing system. If you follow these simple tips, when tax-time rolls around again, you will be less stressed. With no disorganization and chaos to deal with, come tax-time you will save time and tax-time will become less taxing!

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Before organizing the entire kitchen, lets zero in on a very important aspect of the cooking paraphernalia. Let’s focus today on herbs and spices. It is very handy to store spices atop the stove. Spices are readily available when cooking and its easy to add a pinch of oregano or a dash of cayenne. However, herbs and spices deteriorate very fast especially in the presence of heat, or light or steam. It makes more sense to store them in airtight containers or tucked away in a drawer or shelf out of the sunlight.

You might want to choose a drawer or shelf right next to the stove and add an organizer such as in the picture to store your herbs and spices. Prefilled spice bottles in designer racks may look great but the spices in them may be old and offer no punch to your cooking. The wise and organized chef or cooking novice may prefer to find empty spice bottles, fill them with fresh herbs and spices of their choice and cover them with gorgeous customized labels available these days. Or you might like labels which are meant to cover your jars to further protect them from light.

Imagine your spice drawers looking like Emeril’s! It would be incentive enough to create a rush that will see you through organizing countertop, shelves and your entire kitchen!

You might want to alphabetize them. Start from the top with “anise,” “allspice,” etc. and move slowly down the alphabet to the bottom or better yet, qwertize them so your hand will automatically go to the spice or herb of your choice just like it would on your keyboard!

Credit card companies, financial institutions and others are constantly pushing everyone to save some trees and request ebills. One reason why people are reluctant is probably their limited access to digital storage. But no more. These days all sorts of storage is available in the internet “cloud.”

Digital photographs, videos, all sorts of electronic files, your daily backups can all be stored in a safe, remote location right from your own desktop. There are many advantages to this not the least of which is being invariably forced to sort through all the digital data cluttering up your hard drive, categorize them in some way, choose and pick from them and in short, get organized!

Digital storage totally bypasses the need to buy and burn and make custom labels for CDs or DVDs and store them in boxes on shelves. However, if you do choose to use CDs or DVDs make sure to label and mark them as you go. With web storage, digital information is freed from one computer and /or location. It can be accessed from almost anywhere via any internet-connected device.

Earlier this month Microsoft launched its SkyDrive service that offers 5GB of free, safe storage accessed via one’s Live ID. SkyDrive offers personal, shared and public folders which facilitates safe file-sharing with friends and family and the public at large.

Free, unlimited storage is available from MediaFire. One doesn’t need to register for this site. The site is accessed via a cookie stored in the individual’s computer. However, it is recommended that one register for their free account. This way there is no chance of unwittingly deleting the cookie and losing all one’s stored files. MediaFire, at the moment, offers unlimited uploads but each file is limited to 100 MB. MediaFire also offers safe, personal file storage and the ability to safely share files with others.

Mozy

Xdrive offers 5GB of free storage for backups. However, for under $10 a month or an annual charge of $99.50, it is possible to get 50 GB for backup of one’s personal data. Carbonite offers only paid but unlimited storage for backups. Box.net offers 1 GB for free and 5GB for a charge of $7.95 a month. Mozy Online Backup Home offers 2GB for free and unlimited storage for $4.95 a month.