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And why it isn't necessarily something you need to do Sometime in August an empty email arrived. It was the weirdest thing. I couldn't open it. It seemingly had no content. When I clicked on it, it just jiggled. I tried everything to get rid of it but it was stuck. It was a little worrying (what if someone needed something?!) and more than a little annoying. When submitting a ticket to the Help Desk at Fastmail (the service I use to host my business account) I had to include a screenshot. But I didn't want my Inbox entries to be public knowledge - not even in a bland screenshot to my email provider. And I didn't want to "cheat" and just stuff my Inbox into a holding folder for the screenshot. So I took on the challenge. Could I empty my Inbox? It turns out I could. It took me a while, but I got it done. How to empty your Inbox The screenshot above is my actual Inbox right now. Well, except for the RETHINK logo. Fastmail give you a little cheer emoji when you reach Inbox Zero. It is a little reward for hard work! I have maintained Inbox Zero for about two weeks now. How did I do it? Even I cannot believe I got it done! More than anything else, I made decisions. I simply set out to do it and would not let myself skip any. I made phone calls to address long-standing questions. I created folders and deleted junk and filed attachments and answered questions. I started with about 70 total. Here are 4 things you can do to empty your Inbox. Answer the emails that you can. This feels self-evident but it might not be a surprise that people procrastinate even simple tasks. Just go ahead and answer simple emails. A co-worker told me years ago that all of business is simply an enormous game of tennis: our job is to lob the ball back over the net so the other person now has something to do. That's a bit cynical, but not altogether inaccurate! Answer the emails you can right away or set aside defined time to do so. File emails into intelligently-named folders. In the screenshot to the left, you'll see I have 5 main buckets: Business, Marketing, Learning, Clients, and Personal. They are named with 01, 02, etc. in front of them to ensure my preferred sorting. They are also color-coded. Inside are nested folders of topics and subjects that fall into these buckets. I keep all like things together and everything I need is easy to locate. I also have one folder called "@Actions & Meetings" which are the links to upcoming or recurring meetings, and any urgent matters that require an email. The other folders are defaults. Delete emails you do not need. This is another one that feels self-evident. But many people hold on to every email in a "CYA" (cover your "you-know-what") move in the corporate world. Maybe that is true for you, so do be careful. But truly, keeping every email that comes in just clutters your desktop, your folders, your disk space, and your servers. Delete emails you don't won't need again. Transfer To Do's to a task list. This is by far the most powerful change I made. For years I have told people not to use their Inbox as a To Do list, and all this time I was doing it myself! 🙃 Keeping an email in your Inbox to remind you to do something literally keeps clutter in your face at all times. Since my digital task manager (Microsoft To Do) is set up with priorities and such, I just zip over there to pick the next thing to do. No more getting distracted by the latest email. And all of my To Do's are in the same place. Go figure! Keeping same-things in only one place works! 😁 But is Inbox Zero necessary? The answer is no. This is not a goal that should be on your list for 2025. I will never advocate getting to Inbox Zero just to get to Inbox Zero. If you want to, sure. But this isn't a race and there is no one who is going to send you a Gold Star when you reach it. But that said, wow, has it reduced my mental load in what to do next. The biggest change this created for me is removing the questions and the overwhelm related to incoming digital information. Microsoft To Do is my only task list now. I choose when I want to check emails. I have also turned off all notifications so when new emails come in, I am not pinged, rattled, jostled, or shook when something arrives. There is nothing waiting for me in my Inbox that someone didn't send to me recently enough that I can gracefully not reply for at least a short bit. I realized - this is exactly what my clients feel when we find homes for all the things. I RETHINK'd myself! Let your Inbox serve you In the end, Fastmail IT support ran a script on my account that fixed the problem without incident. But the whole experiment changed the way I interact with my email. Despite all my best intentions it turns out I had been "letting the tail wag the dog" as the saying goes. My email Inbox is there to serve me, not the other way around. And so relegating it to it's proper place has been liberating. I am here if you need me, friends. I am happy to talk through strategies that help you lead a better and more fulfilling life at home and work. When you're ready to tackle your tough organization project, I am here to help you learn how. Let's RETHINK organization together. For more information, visit the RETHINK website today . Mandy Thomas is a professional organizer fulfilling her lifelong passion for creating order out of chaos. She finds joy in helping people tackle their most overwhelming spaces and collections to create the optimal living space and enjoy their homes. RETHINK organization is on a mission to help you develop long-term patterns of organization that you can maintain and feel good about long after our work together is done.

Your Inbox can feel overwhelming. Don't let it. Is your email Inbox serving you? Or is it the other way around? Unless you purposely avoid it, you communicate digitally with other people daily in 2023. Email is one digital medium. There are also text messages, social media platforms, passwords, electronic documents, cloud servers, contact numbers, mailing addresses, and data security in our digital world. It is enough to frustrate the most tech savvy person. Today, let's tackle email. 5 ways to make your email Inbox work 1. Do not check email continuously and turn off notifications. I know. We are addicted. But checking your email interrupts your workflow and thus your productivity. Turn off all notifications. Email software clients have too many ways to interrupt you. Microsoft Outlook can, for example, audibly ping, change the cursor, place an envelope on the Task Bar, and jiggle a moving alert on the bottom right. All those together will interrupt your train of thought. Turn them off. Instead, check email at defined times and process them then. By process I mean respond, file, or calendarize. For exa mple, in the morning, at lunch, and 30 minutes before closing, check email, sort and file them, and block time on your calendar to complete needed Tasks. This is a huge adjustment for corporate culture. I understand. But what you lose in immediacy you gain in productivity. You decide when to check your email. Do not let it decide for you. 2. Build folders and Archive regularly. When you check your email, deal with the content you can right away, add required activities to your To Do/Action list or calendar, and then file those emails out of your Inbox or delete them. Build folders and nest subfolders. Keep the structure simple. File emails (consider using rules or filters) into relevant folders to keep emails of a specific topic or subject together. For example, my work email account has 5 folders: 01 Clients, 02 Business, 03 Marketing, 04 Learning, and 05 Personal. The numbers sort the folders in priority order. Then, there are subfolders under each. 02 Business contains Accounting, Insurance, IT, and Legal. Further, at the end of each day or week, empty your Sent folder emails into those same folders. In this way, conversations are preserved in their entirety. Finally, utilize the Archive function to control the size of your mailbox. Consider Archiving annually and start the year with a clean, rebuilt file structure. That way it continues to be relevant for you. I spent a lifetime in corporate and so am accustomed to keeping all emails to, frankly, CYA. However, that makes for enormous Archive folders that rarely if ever get referenced. You know your business. Only keep the emails you need and let the rest go. 3. Don’t use your Inbox as your To Do list. Do not keep emails in your Inbox to remind you what to do. Emails multiply and it is hard to manage priority. There are colored flags and such, but that is a layer of complexity you don’t need. Keep your To Do/Action list elsewhere. There are myriad ways to record this: My Tasks in Outlook, Reminders in Apple, Tasks in Google. I personally use Microsoft To Do. Analysis of these is outside the scope of this article, but your Inbox is not the place to do it. 4. Keep your Work account separate from your Personal account. Whether you work in a large corporate firm or run your own business, keep your personal and business correspondence separate. There are many paperless billing options for utilities and banking and online shopping is ubiquitous. It may be tempting to register with your business account to keep things “simple”. On the contrary, it just blurs the lines between business and home. For one thing, you should never assume that your work emails are private if you work for anyone else. Should your employment situation change, this is something else to unravel. You may consider maintaining 2 accounts at home: 1 for finances, and 1 for online shopping. In this way you can track coupons and bargain codes without getting in the way of your mortgage payment. This last suggestion may be a step toward complexity, though, so proceed with caution. 5. Unsubscribe from mailing lists you do not need. At the bottom of every marketing email there is a link where you can Unsubscribe. Take the time to unsubscribe from emails you no longer need, read, or want. Some of them are easier to do than others. Oftentimes they want more information about why, or they want you to change frequency rather than cancel. Be ruthless. If you’re overwhelmed at the sheer number of marketing emails, set a goal. Unsubscribe from 3 a day. After a week you will have done 21, and that will make a difference in your Inbox. Bonus: Aim for progress, not perfection. An important thing to remember when changing how you manage email is that it does not have to change immediately. You also can’t really mess it up. Try things and see how it works. Rethink how you handle your email and stop doing what isn’t working. When you're ready to tackle your tough organization project, I am here to help you learn how. Let's RETHINK organization together. For more information, visit the RETHINK website today . Mandy Thomas is a professional organizer fulfilling her lifelong passion for creating order out of chaos. She finds joy in helping people tackle their most overwhelming spaces and collections to create the optimal living space and enjoy their homes. RETHINK organization is on a mission to help you develop long-term patterns of organization that you can maintain and feel good about long after our work together is done.

Be kind to yourself now and to those you'll leave behind Are your most precious things gathered into one place? Are they lost in a sea of other stuff? Will you leave your things behind or take them with you when you go? Let's discuss the potentially sobering but ultimately inspiring subject of planning what you leave behind for your loved ones when you’re gone. I just finished reading the book The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter. The Swedish word döstädning is the compound of two Swedish words; dö is “death” and städning is “cleaning”. In English, the two words just got pushed together but there is no true English equivalent. Döstädning is not about cleaning up after a death, or even cleaning things to prepare to die. It is about crafting your life and legacy now so that what you leave behind is a reflection of who you really are. It is about making your life easier and less stressful now. And it is about being kind to those you leave behind by not burdening them with all of your things. Death cleaning is a joyful process Magnusson says this is not sad. In fact, it is quite the opposite. It can be fun to find old treasures and laugh over things you held on to and don't need now. Whether sorting heirlooms from junk, downsizing to smaller living, or making your daily life easier, döstädning is the opportunity to make your later years comfortable and stress-free. We are living longer lives, which of course means more time to collect more stuff. But it also means we have more time to get rid of things. We can plan ahead by slimming down what we leave behind – shedding unnecessary objects in favor of what we really need. My role model for Swedish death cleaning I was first introduced to the concept by my maternal grandmother, Barbara, though she never would have called it döstädning as she wasn't Swedish. Barbara lived in New Jersey and chose - on her own - to move to Ohio later in life to be near my mother. She wanted a simple move without a lot of fuss and cost. So she pared down her belongings. She donated things to Vietnam Vets and Salvation Army. She carted things to the recycling center and offered many items to friends and family. She kept useful and valuable items and she did not dally over her cheese servers and extra bedding. Barbara simplified and minimized. I also believe that she preferred the privacy of not having other people – even her most beloveds – go through her most precious things when she was gone. Döstädning And that brings me back to döstädning. Magnusson is radical and cheerful and, in her own words, somewhere between 80 and 100 years old. She is living through the process as she writes. Döstädning encourages proactive and mindful clearing of possessions to save relatives from making decisions about what to keep and what to get rid of when you're gone. There is heaviness in going through your things for those left behind. Questions arise. How can they know why you held on to this or that? Should it be kept? Or not? Would it hurt you to throw it away? In the book, there are items Magnusson wants to keep only for herself. Things that help her remember events that she may otherwise forget. Ticket stubs. Programs. Letters. So she creates a “Throw Away Box". A Throw Away Box contains items of value only to the owner. Magnusson's wish is for her children to simply throw the box away unopened when she dies. I am sitting with this idea. Honestly, I would be tempted to check the contents of the box when my loved one passes away. But I would also want to honor their wishes. You can't take it with you In reading this book, my takeaway is to reflect on what is really important to me. In the end, the adage “you can’t take it with you” is literally true. You can't take it with you. That said, just because you are growing older does not mean you have to get rid of your most precious things. None of us like to think about death. But you do not have to go very far to find someone today who is worried about clearing out their parents’ garage, or who is worrying about whether their kids or grandkids will want the antique sideboard. Döstädning is being kind to those you leave behind by leaving less for them to sort, less guesswork on what you meant, and less pain of sorting and sorting out. This is not a new topic and (ironically) it will never get old. Magnusson gives us a better way to approach our death, lighter and more free, without the baggage of things we just don't need. When you're ready to tackle your tough organization project, I am here to help you learn how. Let's RETHINK organization together. For more information, visit the RETHINK website today. Mandy Thomas is a professional organizer fulfilling her lifelong passion for creating order out of chaos. She finds joy in helping people tackle their most overwhelming spaces and collections to create their optimal living space and enjoy their homes. RETHINK organization is on a mission to help you develop long-term patterns of organization that you can maintain and feel good about long after our work together is done.

How unplugging and disconnecting clears your mind A lesson on why to unplug Here is a lesson I learned this morning. I planned to write a blog this morning at a local coffee shop. Near their parking lot is a soccer field. Empty now during late winter, the field has a track running around it, perfect for my daily 20-minute walk. So I popped in my earbuds to listen to a podcast (Dan Harris's Ten Percent Happier where he explores the power of meditation) and started walking before heading into start writing. I thought I was doing well. Out for a walk in the sunshine, thinking about mindfulness. Aren't I healthy and good? As I walked, Dan chatted with his guest about quieting our thoughts, and I remembered Dr. Angela Gorrell’s lecture from the night before. The previous evening our family had attended a Teen Mental Health series talk on the topic of social media. Social media, according to Dr. Gorrell, is anything that connects us to others electronically. TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, email, texting, Fortnite, Roblox, podcasts. She discussed the good, the bad, and the actionable things we can do to monitor our use of social media. As I walked, it dawned on me that despite good intentions on a sunny, clear morning, I was still on social media. I was still in learning mode. I was working. My mind was busy. I was – dare I say – plugged in. So I took out my earbuds. Folks, the change was remarkable. Suddenly I noticed that 3 of the 4 soccer goal posts had nets, but the 4th was bare. What happened to the 4th net? There was a flock of fat robins gathered on a hillside, picking at the ground and visiting with each other quietly. I wondered if they were nesting. There was a path that led up to the nearby community center I hadn't noticed. There were patches of straw strewn on the ground, encouraging the grass seed beneath to stretch and grow in the spring sun. Folks, the lesson here was clear. In one lap, I was more present and more aware than any amount of listening to a podcast about meditation would ever provide. No shade to Dan Harris (and he’d very likely agree with me) but you cannot get the benefits of meditation without unplugging. We must unplug and disconnect to give our brains time to become aware of what is around us. Unplugging can clear your mind This is a blog about organizing. The thing is, the real key to being more organized is not a product you can buy or a technique you can learn. I wish that were the case. It would be so much easier. Being organized is a mindset. Clear your mind of clutter, wipe away the noise, and what you need to do becomes much more clear. Of course there are many positives of connecting online. There are things to learn, distant family to connect with, fashion and design and humor and music and joy to be had in online communities. And there are plenty of tips and techniques and tricks to learn from others that make your life more manageable and organized. It's what I do for a living. But there is also a WORLD out there, friends, waiting for us to wake up and pay attention. Every time we plug in – whether it's Facebook, listening to a podcast on a walk, or reading this blog – we are choosing to remain plugged in to the noise. And missing out on everything online is not bad. Don't give in to FOMO. It will still be there when you’re ready to plug back in. Unplug and enjoy the view Take a break and enjoy the space you’re in right now. When I unplugged, I saw what I had missed. And you can, too. I am here if you need me, friends. I am happy to talk through strategies that help you lead a better and more fulfilling life at home and work. In the meantime, go ahead. Unplug to clear your mind. When you're ready to tackle your tough organization project, I am here to help you learn how. Let's RETHINK organization together. For more information, visit the RETHINK website today. Mandy Thomas is a professional organizer fulfilling her lifelong passion for creating order out of chaos. She finds joy in helping people tackle their most overwhelming spaces and collections to create the optimal living space and enjoy their homes. RETHINK organization is on a mission to help you develop long-term patterns of organization that you can maintain and feel good about long after our work together is done.

Maybe it's not what we need Time management is a myth. Energy management is a better approach to getting things done. Getting to know yourself and freeing yourself from old tropes that don’t work might be what you need to get more done and feel more rested, relaxed, and joyful. Read on for more. Why energy and not time management? The quest for productivity and time management – or "personal productivity" – is everywhere in the 21st century. I myself have written articles on managing routines and choosing a date planner with a goal to help people manage their time more effectively. We all only have so many hours, and we all have long lists of things to do. But when it comes to time management, the same advice we’ve gotten for ages doesn’t always work. One-size-fits-all strategies are not necessarily effective, which can cause stress and – paradoxically enough – decrease productivity. I recently worked with a client who was in the final trimester of her pregnancy. She was radiant, enthusiastic, and apt to tire very easily. We'd start sessions all fired up, and after only an hour or two, she'd be worn down. If we didn’t manage her energy, she literally would not be ready – and that baby was going to come whether she was ready or not. So how can managing energy instead of time work for you? I suggest getting to know yourself and your own limits. Define your work style. What do I mean by "work style"? Whether you work in an office, a classroom, or a nursery, you have a work style that reflects how much energy you generally expend on a task, and in what way. By recognizing your preferred work style and finding tools that work for you, you will ultimately better manage your time and energy. Some people plan and prioritize. Planners write it down, keep it in an electronic calendar, or log it on a chart. Studying and facts and rules help determine priorities. These people generally respond well to traditional time management strategies. The caveat to this is that plans do not always pan out. Hold plans with a loose grip. Allow yourself to shift, adapt, and rethink your plans to fit reality. Useful tools: notebooks, date planners, calendars, and books Some people are external processors. They need to discuss questions, bounce ideas, and brainstorm. They often also require appreciation for the things they do. We’re all human and want to be appreciated, but if receiving affirmation is key to your happiness, then it is bound to affect your productivity if you don’t get it. The caveat to this is that sometimes it isn’t available from the people around you. Seek out the support you need from others. If this is an unmet need, it can prevent getting anything done. Useful tools: people willing to discuss, like family or friends, masterminds, or a therapist. Some people are big-picture people. They aren't necessarily into details. They value innovation and being open-minded. They can solve problems quickly and want open schedules, spontaneity, and creativity. They move fast and can be impulsive. The caveat to this is that being impulsive requires energy. Steering that energy into productive projects is powerful. If this is something you need, be sure to have outlets for all that energy. Useful tools: collaborative approaches help capture and implement big ideas. Work in teams when you can. We are all of these at various times, and you might act differently in different settings. But generally one will resonate. Recognizing what mode you're in can help you manage your schedule and energy. Manage your energy, not your time. So what are some strategies to actually manage the energy you have? 1. Work at the time of day that works for you. Some people have more energy in the morning, and some are night owls. Schedule your creative, deep work during the time periods when your natural energy level is highest. 2. Make fewer decisions. Lighten your cognitive load by making decisions ahead of time so that then you don’t have to think about them again. Meal plan. Reduce the number of cosmetics/clothes/jewelry to reduce choice. Batch like tasks together. Automate tedious tasks and delegate things you can. Like Steve Jobs wearing the same outfit every day, free your mind from things of less value to you. Save your decision energy for things that matter the most. 3. Set realistic goals for the season you’re in. I once had a friend who wanted to run a marathon. At the same time she had a full-time job, small children at home, a husband, and a household. Running a marathon requires a huge time commitment on weekends and multiple weekdays to log miles. She was very disappointed, but it wasn’t realistic to train for a marathon during that season of life. Don’t try to achieve the impossible. It doesn't mean forever; it just means for now. For my friend, that meant continuing to run on her own as it fit her schedule, and chose to delay the marathon for a few more years. 4. Disconnect and unplug. Allow yourself to rest and recharge. Take a hike in nature without headphones on. Set a household rule of no cell phones at the dinner table. Set a timer to turn off the TV at a specific hour. The old-fashioned bedside alarm clock has been replaced by the cell phone – and they’re dangerous and disruptive to sleep. I have started keeping my cell phone (ringer on and alarm set) plugged in across the room. If it sits on my bedside table, it is too easy to pick it up when I wake in the night. 5. Practice regular self-care. We don’t glorify this enough as a society. If you aren’t taking care of yourself, you don't have the energy to be as effective an employee, parent, partner, or friend. Protect your sleep; eat healthy foods; drink plenty of water; move a bit every day. Allow yourself to rest. Spend time with the people you love; connection brings energy. Like the safety briefing on an aircraft, put on your own oxygen mask before helping others. Make sure your own energy cup is filled. Try these out and see if managing your energy helps you “manage your time” and “be more productive”. And give yourself lots of grace. There is nothing I want more for you than to achieve all you desire – but not at the cost of your health, your family, or your joy. I am here if you need me, friends. I am happy to talk through strategies to help you lead a better and more fulfilling life at home and work. Be well. When you're ready to tackle your tough organization project, I am here to help you learn how. Let's RETHINK organization together. For more information, visit the RETHINK website today. Mandy Thomas is a professional organizer fulfilling her lifelong passion for creating order out of chaos. She finds joy in helping people tackle their most overwhelming spaces and collections to create the optimal living space and enjoy their homes. RETHINK organization is on a mission to help you develop long-term patterns of organization that you can maintain and feel good about long after our work together is done.

Are routines just monotonous? Or are they valuable? Setting useful routines ensures important things get done every day. Call them rituals, behaviors, or habits, good routines support good physical and mental health, strengthen an organized household, and ensure that important things do not get missed. But they can also drift into rote behaviors, or mechanical, unthinking actions. If you do the same things again and again in the same order, is that valuable? Or could you be in a rut? Like learning a new language by memorizing vocabulary lists, rigidly following a routine without pausing to consider effectiveness is not useful. You'll never achieve goals if you keep doing the same unproductive things again and again. So how do you know when a routine has become a rut? And when does clinging to a routine provide stability – or become a crutch? Check out the full video here. What is a Routine? A routine is a series of habits you do to achieve some goal or set of goals. A healthy routine frees up the mental energy required to make a lot of small decisions. Once a routine truly becomes a habit, you can go on autopilot and achieve goals without constant decision-making about what to do next. Paradoxically, a good routine gives you freedom. But an unhealthy routine can slow you down. Relaxing by watching television every night for hours can leave you tired the next day. In a community group, doing things the same way you did them 5 years ago leads ineffective programming. Routines that are no longer refreshing, encouraging, and ultimately aligned with goals are not helpful. Is this routine good or bad? So how can you tell if a routine is worth it? Answer Yes or No to the following questions: Does it provide stability and predictability in a season of your life when that is missing? Does it promote your overall health and wellness? Does it protect you from other self-destructive habits? Does it provide space for creativity and fresh ideas while helping meet your ultimate goals? Does it support balance between work, home, play, and self-care? If you answered no to any of these, consider changing it up. Even good and healthy routines can and should be refreshed periodically. Consider disrupting bad routines - or ditching them altogether for something new. It's your routine. Change it up however you like. You don’t need to wait until a new quarter or a new year to consciously make changes that will support your overall well-being. Examine what you're doing and see if you can make improvements. When you're ready to tackle your tough organization project, I am here to help you learn how. Let's RETHINK organization together. For more information, visit the RETHINK website today. Mandy Thomas is a professional organizer fulfilling her lifelong passion for creating order out of chaos. She finds joy in helping people tackle their most overwhelming spaces and collections to create the optimal living space and enjoy their homes. RETHINK organization is on a mission to help you develop long-term patterns of organization that you can maintain and feel good about long after our work together is done.

Maybe it's the situation that's the problem, not you. People sometimes think they are hopelessly disorganized and are embarrassed and discouraged by their spaces. They are ashamed to open closets and sometimes don't invite people over because they dislike their spaces so much. If you see yourself in this, read on for some encouragement. I'd like to offer a different perspective. People can feel discouraged without perspective. Help and understanding are available along with plenty of antidotes for all of it. So to start, there are 3 broad categories of disorganization: Situational disorganization Chronic disorganization Hoarding disorder This article discusses the first; the other two are discussed here. So what kind of disorganization are you experiencing? People - and situations - are unique The first thing to remember is that people are all different. We tend to assume that everyone is like us, and that's simply not true. As Dr. Phil taught us back in the 90s, we create our own experience. And we are the sum of those experiences. No one else in the world has the same set of experiences you do, not even the people in your own household. Setting aside the more existential elements of that, the idea is relevant here because people worry that they “should” be doing what everyone else is doing in terms of organizing. But organizing projects are also all unique. No two organizing projects are the same. As much as we’d all love The One Answer to organize all the things, the way you organize those things will be as individual as you are. Organization can be learned Just like any other life skill – like housekeeping, or personal finance, or how to change a flat tire – organizing is something that can be taught and absorbed. Therefore, just like any other life skill, if you were not taught how or don't have a natural penchant or desire to do it, you should not expect yourself to already know. People seem to think they ought to just know how to organize things. But if you haven’t learned, why would you expect to know? Further, we can also feel shame around the “messes” we have. What does shame look like in organization? Things shoved out of sight in drawers, or in the backs of closets, or into attics, garages, or sheds, until something or someone comes along who makes you face it. Situational Disorganization A lot of people I know are situationally disorganized – including me sometimes! Situational disorganization is an event, series of events, or change in your life leading you to be disorganized in some area of your life for some period. As an example, in my blog post here, I literally was experiencing situational disorganization. My office had accumulated a pile of stuff in the corner. It was cluttered and stressful. (If you'd like the follow-up, click here.) This did not mean I had lost my organizational powers. It was just a pile of stuff. How might this look for you? The examples are endless. Co-parenting during divorce while working full-time. Household renovations. Death of a loved one. An illness or injury leaves you unable to do things the way you want to. The busyness of life leads to clutter in the garage/entryway/kitchen counter as things pile up from rushing from place to place. Your overall wellness can suffer during these seasons. And it can happen over days. Or months. Or years. But remember that it is only a season. It will pass. Things feel undone and it can be overwhelming right now. But it will end. Remember that it is the situation that is causing the problem, not your ability to organize. Ask for help if you need to. Reach out to a friend, family member, or professional. It is okay to not be okay. Ask for help Friends, this is where many, many of you find yourselves. You’re really not as bad off as you think you are. With some focus, skill, and time, all your organizational problems can be solved. Sometimes calling in outside help speeds the process or solves problems you simply cannot solve. A large part of my job is working directly with clients as they direct the solutions of their organizational problems themselves. You’re probably not as disorganized as you think you are, and there are no Organizing Police coming to tell you you’re wrong. Whatever your situation, you can do this! When you're ready to tackle your tough organization project, I am here to help you learn how. Let's RETHINK organization together. For more information, visit the RETHINK website today. Mandy Thomas is a professional organizer fulfilling her lifelong passion for creating order out of chaos. She finds joy in helping people tackle their most overwhelming spaces and collections to create the optimal living space and enjoy their homes. RETHINK organization is on a mission to help you develop long-term patterns of organization that you can maintain and feel good about long after our work together is done.

Are you a hoarder? Probably not. People say anyone who has a cluttered home or keeps too much of something a “hoarder”. “Try not to look at all my junk. I’m such a hoarder." or “My mother hoards food. She keeps too much.” or “Everyone hoarded toilet paper during the pandemic.” But that isn't hoarding. Hoarding disorder is not having clutter or keeping too many of something. Hoarding disorder is defined by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as “persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of their actual value” according to their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) 5. There is a diagnostic set of criteria that must be met and individuals diagnosed with it are suffering. Three types of disorganization There are three main types of disorganization. First, as I discussed here, situational disorganization is an event, series of events, or change in your life leading you to be disorganized in some area of your life for some period. We all face situational disorganization sometimes, including me. Moving into a new home, hosting holiday events, and adjusting to new routines at the beginning of a new school year are all examples of times when you may experience temporary chaos in your space. This is normal and can be fairly easily overcome. Second, there is chronic disorganization. Judith Kolberg in her book What Every Professional Organizer Needs to Know About Chronic Disorganization describes three key features of chronic disorganization: Chronic, severe disorganization that has persisted over a long period of time, often the majority of one’s adult life, and is prone to continuing into the future. Disorganization that undermines one’s quality of life on a daily basis. A history of failed self-help efforts. A lot of people experience chronic disorganization for a variety of reasons including ADHD diagnoses or never learning how to organize things. There are defined strategies and techniques that can be used to help someone overcome this type of disorganization. Finally, there is hoarding. What is hoarding? There is a professional society dedicated to the study of chronic disorganization: The Institute for Challenging Disorganization, or ICD®. ICD® provides education, research, and strategies to benefit people challenged by chronic disorganization. ICD® developed the Clutter-Hoarding Scale®. This is what you hear referenced on television shows like Hoarders on A&E when they say “This is a Level 5 hoard!” That means it is the worst of the worst. That makes for good television ratings. But what you are watching is someone suffering from a mental disorder. This is why a psychologist is always included in the work on the show. Remember, hoarding disorder is listed in the DSM-5. Without specialist training an individual can do real harm to a person suffering from hoarding disorder by just throwing away their things. Hoarding is terribly hard, and highly defined, and not your garden-variety disorganization. If you suspect that you or someone you know suffers from hoarding disorder, reach out for help. But truth be told, oftentimes it is not someone asking for help but rather circumstances that determine when hoarding gets addressed. Organization is a skill that can be learned The good news is that for most people under normal circumstances organization is a skill that can be learned. Just like housekeeping, or driving a car, or changing a tire, people are not born knowing how to organize. If you have not learned, why should you expect yourself to know? This is a lot of the work that I do - teaching people how to store and keep their belongings. I am not a specialist in chronic disorganization or hoarding disorder, and have trusted colleagues to whom I will refer cases. Bottom line, if you or a loved one suffer from situational disorganization, chronic disorganization, or hoarding disorder, reach out. There is help available. You are not alone. There are skilled experts available to help improve your life. When you're ready to tackle your tough organization project, I am here to help you learn how. Let's RETHINK organization together. For more information, visit the RETHINK website today. Mandy Thomas is a professional organizer fulfilling her lifelong passion for creating order out of chaos. She finds joy in helping people tackle their most overwhelming spaces and collections to create the optimal living space and enjoy their homes. RETHINK organization is on a mission to help you develop long-term patterns of organization that you can maintain and feel good about long after our work together is done.

Television is not real life. The first organizing show I remember was Clean Sweep on TLC. Organizer Peter Walsh made an impression and introduced professional organizing to me as a career. I liked the “Keep”, “Sell”, or “Toss” decisiveness of their decluttering process. Then there is Hoarders on A&E which features people with hoarding disorder. Hoarding disorder causes sufferers to excessively and obsessively save things that other people generally see as trash. Hoarders have difficulty parting with or throwing anything away, which leads to overwhelming clutter that disrupts their lives. You can do real harm if you try to help people suffering from hoarding disorder by throwing things away. You need proper training and assistance from medical professionals. Another offering is the Netflix original series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. I read Kondo's book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up before watching. She works directly with clients, implementing her signature “keep it only if it sparks joy” methodology, and it is enormously satisfying to observe. She is exceedingly kind to her clients and has a very deliberate, structured, and effective process. Netflix also has Getting Organized with The Home Edit. Hosts Joanna Teplin and Clea Shearer own a home organizing company based in Nashville, TN. They simply buzz with energy. Their signature organization technique is placing things in rainbow color order in clear acrylic bins. Their team works without the clients. They move quickly, transforming cluttered disorder into beautiful, colorful displays in 30 minutes. Does RETHINK work like television? The short answer is no. I am an organizer and I do not play one on TV. Organizing shows can be enormously satisfying to watch. Generally, a homeowner is struggling with some seemingly insurmountable pile of clutter. In 30 to 60 minutes you uncover the situation, an expert weighs in, work is done, and the problem is solved. These shows have a tremendous following. I am in a Facebook group called The Home Edit Life Book and Netflix Show with 42,000+ members all devoted to arranging their homes into rainbow color order in clear plastic containers with special labels. I have my own preferences on how to help you. Put simply, I believe there is no one right way to organize anything. I meet you where you are. You are not a mess, you can get organized, you already have within you what you need, and I am here to come alongside and help. The best organizing method is the one that works and that you'll use. How will RETHINK work with you? I will not send you away while I magically organize your space. There are organizers that do this in real life and this is a key element of The Home Edit. I on the other hand believe clients feel better about what they themselves have created and working together leads to better ongoing results. Working with an organizer transfers skills and knowledge, provides encouragement, and leads to pride of ownership in what you did for yourself. My advice is to work with someone who will teach you how to maintain your space. I will not encourage you to purchase containers to put things in. I will not start by telling you what you need to buy. We'll start by using the things you already have in your home. I actually tell you not to buy anything at all - at least not until we have really dug into what you have and determined that you actually need it. Again, there are organizers that do this, but I think “shopping” what you already have is more satisfying and cost effective and better for the earth. (Reduce, reuse, recycle!) I will never tell you to throw anything away. On Clean Sweep, the setup was two competing household members (generally spouses) have to outsell each other at a yard sale. The loser of the competition has to give up an item from their “Keep” category. This makes for terrific drama and tension onscreen but makes for horrible interpersonal relations at home. Your belongings are your belongings and you are entitled to keep them. Consider parting with duplicates, broken items, or pare down what you have so you can have more space. But you should never feel forced, cajoled, or shamed into parting with anything. Sensible storage is important. One of the key – and visually appealing – elements of The Home Edit strategy is to store everything in rainbow color order. Books, clothes, art supplies, home cleaning products. It is one of their signature strategies. This is just not practical. Take books, for example. If you want to read a certain book, in their system you have to know what color it is. How would you ever know? A more practical way to store books is in alphabetical order by author’s last name. Same with housecleaning products. Store home supplies by use: floor cleaners, bathroom supplies, dishwashing materials, dusting cloths. Do not store by the color of their labels. Storing items by color means you have to mentally process what each item is before retrieving it, and that ultimately lessens productivity and ease of use. You do not live in a magazine and you need to be able to find your belongings. Reality organizing television shows are not realistic. In real life, sadly, there is no magic wand. In all of these organizing shows, we only see a tiny fraction of the work. The time lapse from beginning to end is significant. In real life, it can take hours or days to complete a project depending on what you need to do. On television, there are unseen teams of people scurrying to complete the work off camera. Unless you want to spend a fortune, this is unrealistic and unfair to expect of yourself - or your organizer! Just like fashion and beauty magazines that mess with your self-esteem by using airbrushing and Photoshop, these shows – while satisfying and lovely – can lead to unrealistic expectations. So my advice is to enjoy them. Watch to learn your preferences and get ideas. Feel free to discuss these with your organizer, and ask questions. But leave the judgment and unrealistic expectations at the curb. You've already got what you need in your own space. When you're ready to tackle your tough organization project, I am here to help you learn how. Let's RETHINK organization together. For more information, visit the RETHINK website today. Mandy Thomas is a professional organizer fulfilling her lifelong passion for creating order out of chaos. She finds joy in helping people tackle their most overwhelming spaces and collections to create the optimal living space and enjoy their homes. RETHINK organization is on a mission to help you develop long-term patterns of organization that you can maintain and feel good about long after our work together is done.

How can someone help you get organized from far away? Professional organizing has traditionally been a hands-on, in-person business. But RETHINK opened in 2020 at a time when businesses were pivoting to a new way of working. Virtual organizing is working with a professional organizer during agreed upon meeting times for a video or phone call, and discussing your organizing issue. I talk with you to solve your problems and take a lot of notes. After the call ends, I'll email those notes to you for your reference, and you'll keep working on your project in your own home or office. We'll meet again usually for a series of meetings until your project is concluded. Virtual organizing came naturally to me because I learned to work remotely a decade earlier when I relocated from Texas to Pennsylvania for my job. I managed remote teams and worked for remote managers. Communication skills and related technology (like teleconferencing, email, and video) became second nature to me in 2010. But just because I am used to it doesn't mean everyone is. Not every job – nor every client – will work well remotely. What are the benefits? And will it work for you? 4 Benefits of Virtual Organizing 1. Written resources are particularly useful for reference. When you're working in-person, side-by-side, learning happens organically. People learn by doing. Working virtually means more written documentation for you to reference between sessions. By necessity, the written word becomes more vital as the verbal word is limited. Reports and lists work well during the project and remain helpful for future reference or as a refresher. 2. Shorter sessions can be less overwhelming. In-person sessions are minimum 3 hours. A Zoom call can rarely be longer than 60 minutes. The attention span for video work cannot be sustained for long periods. So virtual sessions literally take less time. That said, it is recommended that you block the same 3-4 hours of your time overall for each session you spend online. Spend the first hour in the session while the organizer shares information and you both take notes. And then continue working on your own after you hang up. 3. You can work with any virtual organizer. If you are working with a virtual organizer, they can be anywhere in the world and you are not limited to local options. 4. Privacy. Not having someone in your home is not always about health and safety. Sometimes there are spaces you really would rather other people never see. While I will always offer full confidentiality and zero judgment, it can be nice to keep some things to yourself. What makes a good virtual organizing client? 1. Be comfortable with technology. Telephone, photo and video, and emailing comfort is important. You don’t need to be a tech-wizard or work in IT, but you do have to be comfortable working a computer, sending emails, and using online video communication. You also need to be comfortable making payments online, have a credit card, or mail timely check payments via snail mail. 2. Be a Do-It-Yourself personality and physically capable. Your organizer will not be with you to do the work with and for you, so you must do it yourself. While I would be there to lift down heavy boxes in person, you must do it yourself or have someone available to do it for you. Also, time during sessions will be limited. I will document work plans and between sessions you'll have homework assignments that must be completed to see progress. 3. Be someone who wants to make a change. The single most important characteristic is to want to make a change. This is true for in-person organizing as well, but in a virtual project it is absolutely crucial. If you are not committed to changing you will not do it, and there will be no one there with you to cajole or do it for you. When you're ready to tackle your tough organization project, I am here to help you learn how. Let's RETHINK organization together. For more information, visit the RETHINK website today. Mandy Thomas is a professional organizer fulfilling her lifelong passion for creating order out of chaos. She finds joy in helping people tackle their most overwhelming spaces and collections to create the optimal living space and enjoy their homes. RETHINK organization is on a mission to help you develop long-term patterns of organization that you can maintain and feel good about long after our work together is done.

Organizing isn’t only about clutter and bins. It can also help you be calmly confident in your finances. February is the shortest month but it’s also a good month to get organized in your finances because of tax season. I wrote about records retention and getting your paperwork ready for tax filing here but there are other things you can simultaneously do to both stay organized and to build your wealth for the future. Here are 5 financial organizing tasks to do in February as you prepare for tax filing. 1. Gather your tax documents and file early if it makes sense Create a spreadsheet of all your accounts and check off each supporting document as it comes in. This will help you prepare for filling out forms. For some, this means logging in to each financial account, finding the right tab on the website, and downloading relevant tax forms. Some people may receive paper statements. However you gather them, be orderly about it and focus on one at a time. Tax season officially started on January 23 so early filers can see a refund as early as mid-February. But employers are not required to submit their copies of Form W-2, Wage and Tax statements until January 31. And if you have investment accounts, Form 1099s often come later. So many filers simply cannot file until February or later. There are some benefits in filing as early as possible. If you are owed a refund, you’ll get it sooner. And if you owe, you have more time to save the payment due since it does not have to be paid until Tax Day (which in 2023 is Tuesday, April 18). 2. Review your withholding strategy On the subject of refunds, many people want to get a large refund each year from the IRS. I'd like to invite you to rethink that strategy. A tax refund in practice is an interest-free loan to the federal government. While I am certain they appreciate it, that is money you could have been using yourself through the year. On the other hand, withholding too little can mean a significant payment due in April. The goal should be to reach the "Goldilocks" of tax withholding: not too much and not too little. Set up your paychecks so that enough money is being withheld each pay period that you won't owe at tax time and not so much that you give the IRS an interest free loan. Consult a tax professional for advice. 3. Pull a copy of your credit report to check for fraud This is a perfect time to check your credit score and to see if any work needs to be done to clear things up. You are entitled to a free credit report once a year. Now is a good time to exercise that. Once you receive yours, review it for any errors and contact the respective credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) to start the process to fix any errors that you find. In doing this, I have personally found credit cards I did not open attached to my Social Security number, so I am militant about doing this annually. You absolutely should do this once a year whether you use credit cards or not because it is the only sure way to know if someone has opened lines of credit or accounts in your name. Work with the credit bureaus to clear your account if necessary. It is a process to clear up but it is worth it. Consider whether immediate family members need this as well. For example, I pull reports for my two children and my husband pulls his as well. 4. Automate your savings Financial issues weigh heavily on a lot of us and this lack of financial security also makes a lot of us vulnerable. As of January 2022, 56% of Americans cannot cover a $1000 emergency with savings according to a survey completed by Bankrate. And that vulnerability can spell disaster should trouble strike. A great way to start building wealth is to simply start saving. And a great way to start saving is to just put it on autopilot. Automating your savings is a smart way to increase your savings. It easily separates savings from spending funds and helps you avoid spending money as soon as it arrives in your bank account. Frankly it is surprising how fast it can grow if you simply leave it alone and add even small amounts regularly. Either split your direct deposit to put some in savings or set up a recurring transfer from checking into savings. Either way your online banking system should have this option easily available. 5. Set up a budget An American Psychological Association (APA) report showed that 57% of respondents said that having enough money to pay for things in the present, like rent and groceries, is their main source of financial stress. The only way to alleviate that stress is to figure out how to pay for the things you need with the income you have coming in the door. And the only way to do that in an organized way is to budget. "Budget" is kind of a bad word but I think it gets a bad rap. It really is a form of self-care. Someone told me once that budgeting is not about stopping spending but rather about freedom to spend. In some ways I agree. Once you assign jobs to your dollars, you have that money to spend. Then again, if you don't have enough dollars to cover expenses it causes stress. The only way to alleviate that stress is to reduce spending - or increase income. Either way, it becomes clear only when you have a budget. I'll share with you that we did not always budget. It took a massive household system failure to scare us into it. We refer to that failure as "SewageGate 2019". Suffice it to say it was very expensive, really disgusting, and a painful wake-up call to our vulnerability from debt. We have since completely gotten out of debt (except our mortgage) and have changed our mindset. Using a budget made the difference. I want to spare you a SewageGate experience, dear readers! Spending some time on these five tasks once per year can help reduce stress in your life and longer-term, set you up for financial success. They are just good practices. Whether it’s anxiety over an emergency fund (or the lack thereof), shame about spending habits, or the burden of having to do mental math every time you pull out your debit card, the lack of control around personal finances is a significant stressor. The goal of my company and this blog is to help you add peace to your life. So let me know questions you have around getting organized around your finances. I am here to help. When you're ready to tackle your tough organization project, I am here to help you learn how. Let's RETHINK organization together. For more information, visit the RETHINK website today. Mandy Thomas is a professional organizer fulfilling her lifelong passion for creating order out of chaos. She finds joy in helping people tackle their most overwhelming spaces and collections to create the optimal living space and enjoy their homes. RETHINK organization is on a mission to help you develop long-term patterns of organization that you can maintain and feel good about long after our work together is done.

How to charge your phone without electricity It is arguably the hottest time of year here in Pittsburgh and summer weather can be unpredictable. As I write this, the RETHINK Home Office is experiencing a power outage from downed trees during a summer storm. Everyone is fine but it reminds me that we need to plan ahead. Have you ever been startled by an unexpected power outage? Are you the type of person that only charges your phone when it's below 10%? Plan ahead and don't panic. 3 Ways to Charge Your Phone during a Power Outage 1. Get a portable backup battery charger. This is the easiest way to get power to your phone during an outage. There are several models available. Just do a web search on “portable battery charger”. Keep it charged up at a household charging station. 2. Take power from your laptop. Use a USB cord to pull power from your laptop battery. This is enough to get you through most short-term outages. 3.Remember your car USB ports (or cigarette lighters in older models). Pull power from your car battery. Your car battery recharges as the engine runs so as long as you have gasoline, you’re good. Plus, in a house without power, it is nice to go drive around in the A/C sometimes. There are fancier and more expensive ideas, like securing solar power generators or hand crank chargers. If you live in a disaster-prone area (looking at you, Gulf Coast) you might consider investing in a gas-powered generator to power your whole house for several days, or install a second electrical panel to power a whole-house generator. But for the purposes of a “standard” summer storm the three options listed here should help your phone. 3 things to remember Disasters generally happen fast. You don't always get prior notice. So 3 things to remember: Plan ahead. It always helps to give these things some thought BEFORE they happen. We learned this as residents of the City of Houston during Hurricane Ike in 2008. We planned ahead, had supplies, and literally weathered the storm. Ask questions. The locals in an area have probably lived through these sorts of things before. Talk with your neighbors before a storm hits. Storms bring out our vulnerability and it is good to establish rapport with neighbors before that happens. Above all don't panic. There are solutions to pretty much any problem. Talking it over with others and asking for help are great ways to recover from the unexpected. We are so reliant on our phones these days. Being disconnected for a bit is good for us. It's all in the mindset. I am here if you need me, folks. Keep cool. When you're ready to tackle your tough organization project, I am here to help you learn how. Let's RETHINK organization together. For more information, visit the RETHINK website today. Mandy Thomas is a professional organizer fulfilling her lifelong passion for creating order out of chaos. She finds joy in helping people tackle their most overwhelming spaces and collections to create the optimal living space and enjoy their homes. RETHINK organization is on a mission to help you develop long-term patterns of organization that you can maintain and feel good about long after our work together is done.