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What if I told you that you could save money by organizing your pantry? Inflation is here and everything we buy right now seems to cost more. Regardless of the cause we are all looking for ways to decrease our out-of-pocket expenses. And food can accumulate, particularly following the COVID pandemic. It was eerie when I first ventured to a grocery store in April 2020 and found empty shelves. We are a generation that has learned worldwide that when food is scarce, storing extra can be helpful. But that can also lead to simply having too much. Using up what you have can help save money and will also help eliminate food waste, which has become a significant issue in America. According to Recycle Track Systems (RTS), food takes up more space in U.S. landfills than anything else. Expired dairy products, produce bought with good intentions, and dry goods past their expiration dates tally up to 80 billion tons of food sent to landfills every year. That feels particularly wasteful as food prices continue to rise. According to the Consumer Price Index, 2022 food-at-home prices in the U.S. are now predicted to increase between 11.0 and 12.0 percent. Food prices are expected to grow more slowly in 2023 but still to increase on average between 2.5 and 3.5 percent. Pantry goods are by definition “shelf stable” meaning they can last a long time. In addition, those items are generally cheaper than perishables. So stocking up your pantry and knowing what you have literally helps save money. For some, a pantry is a big walk-in affair with many shelves and drawers and lots of space. Some people keep overflow storage in another space in the house if their kitchen storage is limited, like a basement or laundry room. Some people have dedicated shelving in their kitchen that holds it all. Whether you have a lot of space or a little, keeping it organized can help you save money and also provides an opportunity to help the environment and be sustainable too. Ready to give it a try? Read on. Keep the things you use the most where you can reach them easily This is what I call keeping things in your “high value real estate”, or the space you can most easily reach. This works for any type of storage (think clothing, laundry items, even garage and attic storage) but your go-to items in your pantry should always be easy to access. Keep the things you use all the time, like salt, pepper, and cooking oils, right near your food prep area. Store things you need less frequently, like canned goods, jars of sauces, and dry pasta, further away, higher up, or down low. This principle is also a good way to see how much remains in your supply, which of course also implies you should keep like things together. Don’t store cans of diced tomatoes in more than one area, for example. Do a "Pantry Challenge" for a week Every once in a while, see if you can cook and eat only what you already have in your pantry for a week. You get creative when you "aren't allowed" to buy anything else at the store. Choose a week where you only buy the necessary perishables (i.e. milk, bread, eggs) and then prepare a meal plan that will use up the things in your pantry. This also works for the freezer. If you have a deep freeze, or even just a lot of things in your fridge freezer you haven't seen in while, pick a week to clear it out. Keep a posted inventory If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it make noise? If you can’t see the food in your pantry, does it exist? Keeping an inventory list may feel tedious but I promise you it helps. And it doesn’t have to be exhaustive or extremely detailed. Depending on the size, some pantries can be enormous which can feel overwhelming. But even the smallest pantry has an area in the back where things get lost. Keeping an inventory list close by (for example, on a white board posted by your long-term storage, or taped to the inside of a cupboard door) can help you see quickly what you have “in stock” and can also help when building the grocery list. Hang a pen or dry erase marker narby so you never have to go searching for a writing utensil. Organize items by food expiration dates When you get new stock, pull the old items to the front and store the new underneath or behind. In this way your stock will rotate and nothing will end up sitting in the far back, never to be seen again. As an aside, I used to lose produce in the produce drawer at the bottom of the refrigerator because I would forget it was in there. I have instituted a "keep it out on the open shelf" policy for things that will spoil more quickly, like a head of lettuce. I only keep staples like carrots and celery in the produce drawer because if I cannot see it, I can forget it is there. Only buy things your family will eat This feels self-evident but is worth saying. There can be a lot of what I call "aspirational purchases" in life. These can be clothes in a size you don't wear, organizing bling to help you get organized, or foods you think you "should" be eating or that are popular. Forget that. I am not saying never buy something new (variety is the spice of life!) but don't fall for marketing hype. Buy things your family will eat. Also, because shelf-stable products have a longer shelf life, it can be tempting to stock up on items on sale or when you find coupons. But you can end up with things in your pantry that no one will eat and you don't know how to cook. Save yourself money and buy only things you actually need and use. Organizing Bling can be helpful If you're a regular reader of my blogs, you know I never recommend purchasing organizing products until you know exactly what you need. My theory is that you buy clear acrylic containers, etc. hoping they will make you organized and then when it doesn't work, you then believe you can't get organized. Nonsense. What you really need is a plan and targeted purchases. So I always tell my clients to hold off on buying anything until after we have worked together. But there is no denying pantry organizing accessories can be helpful. Lazy Susans for spices, roller shelves in cabinets to see what’s hiding in the back, shelf dividers to keep like things together, tiered shelves to see what is behind, etc. Measure your space and make a plan before you purchase, not after, and if it doesn't work don't get frustrated. Ask for help. Let me know how it goes as you work to save yourself some money by organizing your pantry. 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.

Clutter affects more than your physical space Your thoughts affect your ability to focus and be effective. This is a busy season. The end of the calendar year coincides both with the new year and some major holidays. 2022 goals are coming due (and next year’s need to be set) and holiday parties and gift wrapping and social gatherings and shopping and cleaning and goal setting and annual reviews and a million other things all need to be completed before that calendar ticks over to 2023. It can be stressful and overwhelming. But does it need to be? What can you do to help ease the stress and activity? How can you make the coming new year your best year ever? The answer is to declutter your mind. Clutter does more than just clog your closets and drawers. A cluttered mind can be as destructive – even more so – than a desktop where you can’t find anything, a basement you can't walk through, or a drawer full of jumbled clothes. Ruminating on things already past. Worrying about things you cannot change. Rehashing negative conversations. Endlessly scrolling your mental To Do list. All these things can interrupt your sleep, your productivity, and your peace. What better time than the end of the calendar year to try some new ways of using your mind? I promise that addressing this type of clutter will absolutely change your life. 1. Protect your sleep When I set out to be more productive, I start by setting an earlier wake-up time. I've found that the only time I can "add" to my day is on the front end. But it is easy to forget that an earlier alarm should correspond with an earlier bedtime. Do not burn the candle at both ends. If you are a night owl – most productive in the wee hours – you need to plan to have a later start-time in your day. Either way, you need sleep. According to the National Institutes of Health, most adults need 7-9 hours of sleep a night. "Sleep affects almost every type of tissue and system in the body – from the brain, heart, and lungs to metabolism, immune function, mood, and disease resistance. Research shows that a chronic lack of sleep, or getting poor quality sleep, increases the risk of disorders including high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, and obesity." Sleep is the number one thing you can do to calm your mind. Find ways to develop it, protect it, and nurture it. Sleep heals. 2. Write down your thoughts If the mental To Do list is unending, write it down. Physically getting it out on paper or captured in a Notes app lets your brain release it. You can literally tell yourself, “Self, you don’t need to worry about forgetting that now. You will find this later.” Then, when you’re back at your desk or with your calendar, transfer that To Do into your regular productivity system. Getting it out of your head lets your brain let go of the responsibility you have to remember it, thus removing one little piece of clutter. 3. Journal Capturing your To Do list and tasks onto a written tally does not always clear the mind of ruminating thoughts. When you find yourself rehashing a situation, a conversation, or a conflict, write about it. Old-fashioned journaling works great for this. If the blank page intimidates you, set a timer for 15 minutes (so your brain knows there’s a limit to this), write the date at the top of the page, and start writing whatever is in your head. It doesn’t matter if it is coherent – no one will ever see this but you – but the act of writing will start your brain moving and before you know it, your timer goes off and you’ve written all about your overwhelming deadlines or your frustration with your boss, and you feel better. Sometimes I come up with ideas on how to resolve things simply by writing about it – things I didn’t even know were bothering me. You may even keep going for a longer time. Choosing a time limit for when you are going to write relieves the pressure, but you can always choose to extend it. 4. Meditate and/or pray This does not have to be long, involved, or formal – though of course it can be. There are several fantastic apps available to do both. Test a few to see which you like. Over the past few years, I have used Insight, Calm, and have settled on Headspace for meditation. For prayer, I have tried Daily Prayer, You Version, and have settled on Pray As You Go. I am not an affiliate of any of these. Do what works. Set aside time to settle your mind for a few minutes and focus on something other than the chaos of your daily life. If there is one thing, I have done that has helped the most, this is it. Start by taking a few slow, deep, cleansing breaths. Bring awareness to where your body is sitting and how it is feeling. And let your mind rest. Training yourself to purposefully protect your thoughts is the single most important thing you can do to declutter your mind. 5. Schedule time to worry This makes me chuckle each time I think of it, but it works! It is entirely normal to worry – we all do it, no matter what we might say. But the thing about worry is that it can eat up all your mental bandwidth while simultaneously being pretty useless. Worry does nothing. Years ago, my then life coach Natalie Gahrmann taught me the mantra “Worry = Action”. If you find yourself worrying about something, figure out if there is anything you can do about it. If there is, add that thing to your To Do list. If there isn’t, worrying is a complete waste of your energy so stop it. Either way, blocking out time to specifically worry will allow your brain to offload, and you can rest assured that by concentrating this time, you are capturing the most important aspects of your worry, and you can tell your brain to quit worrying. You’ve got it. 6. Go outside It has been proven scientifically that being in nature has mental health benefits. If nothing else, force yourself to step away from your screen - your desk, your phone, your tablet - and go outside. Take a walk around your neighborhood; touch a tree; take some deep breaths. Let your mind literally step away from your racing thoughts and get some (even brief) perspective. According to the American Psychological Association, spending time in nature can act as a balm for our busy brains. It is linked to both cognitive benefits and improvements in mood, mental health and emotional well-being. And feeling connected to nature can produce similar benefits to well-being, regardless of how much time you spend outdoors. 7. Confide in a trusted person Call a friend. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Talk to someone you trust and tell them all about it. Meet up with a friend and ask them to listen. Be sure to tell the person that they are not responsible to develop solutions to solve your problem and that you just need them to listen. People who love you will be happy to help you talk it out and find some solutions. 8. Exercise Exercise is the answer to so many problems! We all know we need to do more of this but it is hard to find time and it is so easy to find excuses. But there really is nothing better for overall well-being. Exercise has been proven to decrease anxiety and depression and can help you concentrate and feel mentally prepared to deal with all the things you need to face. Do you need more benefits to make this a part of you life? According to the National Institutes of Health, health benefits from regular exercise that should be emphasized and reinforced by every mental health professional to their patients include the following: Improved sleep Increased interest in sex Better endurance Stress relief Improvement in mood Increased energy and stamina Reduced tiredness that can increase mental alertness Weight reduction Reduced cholesterol and improved cardiovascular fitness ... and that is a directly quoted list! I mean, I understand that exercise is not always fun and can be hard to do, but the data is clear. Get off the couch and start moving! 9. Reduce multi-tasking In 2022, it feels pretty normal to try to do several things at once. I have written about this before and I promise you, our brains are literally wired to do one thing at a time. Multitasking reduces productivity. I am as guilty of this as anyone, so this is not meant to shame. But truly, our brains cannot think about two things at the same time. We may be really nifty, well kitted-out humans with lots of apps, charts, technology, and tools to help us be productive. But at our core we are still animals and we do better when we honor how our brains were built. 10. Declutter your environment This is, of course, my favorite. My clients don’t reach out to me because they are feeling settled and unworried, free from distractions and distress. They contact me because their space feels overwhelming. If your environment, whether it is a home or an office, is cluttered that chaos constantly competes for your attention and restricts your ability to take in and process information. Having clutter around you, whether you realize it or not, is stealing your attention and focus. If you want to improve your mental state and effectiveness, organize and clear out physical clutter. And if you want some tips on how to do that, contact me. 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.

Is iCloud backing up your photos? The answer is that it might be. When iPhone users sync their phone to the Apple iCloud servers, they may assume that their photos are being backed up. But Apple iCloud is only a sync which means what exists on the cloud is a mirror of what exists on your phone. And that means without iCloud Backup enabled, when you delete a photo off your phone you're deleting it off iCloud, too. Unfortunately that means iPhone users can mistakenly delete photos and files off their phones believing them to be safely on the cloud when they're not. iCloud Backup does exist. Enable this option by going to Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud > iCloud Backup and turn on the toggle by Back Up This iPhone. In iOS version 10.2 or earlier, go to Settings > iCloud > Backup. According to Apple, "When you set up iCloud, you automatically get 5GB of storage. You can use that storage space for your iCloud backups, to keep your photos and videos stored in iCloud Photos, and your documents up to date in iCloud Drive." To get a full list of what is included in iCloud backup and how it works, click here. Even if you do enable a backup, you're paying a monthly fee for your storage (beyond the initial 5GB). If you stop paying that monthly fee, you lose all your data. Other Options (It's not good news) Backup solutions for your photos and videos are available, including creating a series of external hard drive backups or using other cloud services. There are many cloud services, including Google Photos, Amazon Photos, and photo services like Shutterfly and SmugMug. People upload photos to Shutterfly to create photo books and believe that is a backup as well. People also post photos to social media believing that will always be there, like Facebook or Instagram. Unfortunately, despite your payments to them the storage at most cloud services does not belong to you. You're renting space on Apple, Google, or Amazon servers, and if you read the fine print, they make no promises about preserving your memories. Just like iCloud Backup, if you stop making monthly payments, you lose it. Worse yet, if you create photo books in services like Shutterfly, you cannot export those projects. Those print projects belong to those services. And they also make no promises about preserving those photos for you. And even worse yet, the copies of the photos you upload to Facebook and Instagram are compressed. Facebook users upload more than 3 million photos a day. That’s a lot of data to store, and your feed needs to load quickly or users won’t stay engaged. To lighten that load, Facebook compresses your images. What does compressing an image mean? Your photos are made tiny. Pixels are eliminated. Facebook and Instagram were created for posting & sharing images. Facebook is not designed to store your most prized possessions. Finally, external hard drives can and do fail. In researching this article, I found some startling information. External hard drives, like other storage devices, have a limited lifespan. You need a better solution. Consider FOREVER® Permanent Storage Permanent storage solutions for your digital photos and videos are only available right now through FOREVER®. When you purchase FOREVER® Storage, about 70% of the payment is deposited into the FOREVER® Guarantee Fund. That money is invested so that it increases in value and pays for the recurring maintenance and preservation costs of your FOREVER® Storage, as well as the migration of your content to new digital formats over time. Similar to a university endowment, the money invested is carefully managed to fund the preservation of your content over a very long period of time. It is fully restricted, meaning that they can only withdraw a very small amount from the Fund each year, and the money withdrawn must be used to preserve and protect your digital content. Life insurance companies use carefully managed reserve funds to make sure they can always pay claims. Universities use carefully managed endowments to pay for their operations over hundreds of years. In the same way, FOREVER® uses their reserved fund to save, protect, and make your information available for generations into the future. I don't usually encourage my clients to purchase things. I am not an organizer that has products to sell and buying something doesn't automatically make your organizing more easy to do. But preserving your memories in a permanent, secure, and private space is so much safer than hoping that your phone backs up to the cloud correctly, or that your series of external hard drives don't fail, or that your online service doesn't decide to delete your photos or restrict access. These are the belongings that you cannot replace. If you want to learn more about FOREVER®, please reach out to me here. Your memories are too precious to lose. 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.

5 ways (plus a bonus thought) to keep an organized kitchen One of the most frequently used spaces in a home is the kitchen. Because it is used daily, it is also one of the easiest spaces to become cluttered. Following a few simple guidelines can help you prevent clutter from building up. 1. Keep Things Where You Use Them Whether your kitchen is enormous or has a tiny footprint, save yourself time and effort and store things close to where you use them. Some of this is obvious, like pots and pans being kept near the stove or oven, and silverware and plates near the eating area. Mixing bowls and food prep tools are great near open stretches of countertop, and knives near the cutting boards. Cups and glasses are best near the refrigerator. But I always like to ask clients how they use the space. Sometimes where I might prepare dishes is not where they do in practice. So, arrange your kitchen how you want it to be arranged – not how you think it should be arranged! 2. Group Like Items Together This is a simple rule that can be applied all over your home. But in the kitchen, it can really be a daily lifesaver. Store your wooden utensils in one ceramic container and store your metal ones in a drawer. Store your bakeware nested together in the one cupboard, all spices in the same drawer or shelf, and all canned goods together. Generally, the place you first think they should be is a good place to store it. You may rethink that later – and you’re allowed to! – but the first place you think of is generally a good place to start. But keep going to #3 to balance another aspect . . . 3. Store Your Most Frequently Used Items in the Most Accessible Places I just told you to choose your storage location based on where you’d expect to find it. But a balanced approach will also consider how often you use it. Keep things you use the most at eye level or in easy reach. Store heavy items down low and infrequently used items up above or even in a basement or storage closet. A good example of this is a slow cooker on a shelf in the basement if you don’t use it a lot, with your stand mixer if you bake only occasionally. Formal serving ware can be kept in a display cabinet, picnic ware can be kept in the garage, and the fondue pot you use only on New Year’s Eve can be kept in a cupboard in the basement. 4. Use Drawer Dividers and Smaller Containers for Storage Divide drawers into spaces that can usefully store and divide the contents. For example, most people use a silverware divider to keep your spoons/forks/knives separated. The same concept can be used for canned goods using expandable bamboo drawer dividers or shallow containers. You can also repurpose items for this. An unused shallow food storage container can be filled with sandwich bags from a box too tall to slide into the drawer. There are many shallow boxes available in various colors, types, and sizes that can be used to divide and store anything including seldom used serving utensils, hand towels, or measuring cups. 5. Declutter Once a Year Once you have gone through the work of sorting, reducing, and storing all your kitchen items, plan to maintain that hard work for the future. Move left to right, top to bottom around your kitchen space once a year. Take the time to rethink how you have been storing your items. Reduce unnecessary duplicates, remove items that are damaged beyond repair, and donate things no longer used. While you’re at it, wipe down those shelves. This will give your kitchen a refresh and help you feel organized and prepared. BONUS: Give Yourself Some Grace Something I tell my clients all the time is that they do not live in a magazine. If you’re reading this article, it is because you are interested in or hopeful to become an organized person with an organized kitchen. But you’re a real person. You have a life and activities that you love that do not include organizing your kitchen. You may even have people you live with that seemingly undo all the good organizing you just completed! So, remember that you do not live in a magazine. You’re allowed to try a storage solution that ends up not working. That does not mean you can’t be organized – it just means that solution did not work for you. Give yourself some grace! Organizing your kitchen – like so many other things – starts with the work of a major overhaul and continues with daily upkeep and annual checkups. You can do it! 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.

It's 2023! Are you ready? Do you realize we are now as far away from 1980 as 1980 is from 1937? This is your life! Let’s get on it, folks! Here are 5 things you can do to set yourself up for a satisfying and accomplished new year that goes by fast and goes by better. Tip #1 - Merge holiday gifts into what you already own Gather and sort all the gifts, toys, and stocking stuffers you received over the holidays. Friends, family, even employers can be generous, and that is a wonderful thing, but that generosity can have unintended consequences. Incorporating all those things into your existing belongings can be overwhelming and make you feel crowded. Start by ensuring that what you keep are things you really want. Not everything you receive serves a purpose in your life. Some of the things served their purpose by bringing joy to the giver. Do not feel obligated to hold on to everything people give you. That said, a landfill is not the best place to keep things either. Find some donation locations in your local area, or re-gift items that do not serve you or your household. If you need help locating donation centers, let me know. This is a passion of mine. Tip #2 - Purge some of what you already own Do not just add your new things to the pile. You may have received some newer versions of things you already have; reduce the pile while incorporating some of the new. Use this opportunity to eliminate some number of items you already have. If you have 25 shirts, see if you can get it down to 20. If you have 15 vases, see if you can get it down to 12. If your kids have countless toys, donate the ones they might have outgrown or that they simply don’t play with anymore. The 80/20 Rule applies to all things: your wardrobe, general belongings, toys. People use only routinely use about 20% of the things they own. This is a great step to do now but is also a great one to do throughout the year. Every time you get a new one of something, get rid of one. This is the One-In-One-Out Rule. Tip #3 - Reorganize your holiday decor when you put it away As you break down and put away your seasonal décor, take the time to sort through it holistically and get rid of things you might not love so much. There can be a lot of sentimentality to holiday decorations, but it is also a category that easily can expand beyond the number of totes and boxes you can reasonably store in your closet or attic. This can be a painful category to reduce because your home can become the repository of all the family keepsakes and you feel obligated to hold on to them all. But I would like to gently suggest that your departed loved ones might prefer you keep only those items you truly treasure and then treat those with respect and reverence rather than losing them in an ocean of artwork and broken ornaments from your childhood tree. But I understand. It can be painful. If you are struggling with that, reach out to me and we can talk it through. A bonus of this process is that it sets you up for easy decorating next year – and the endorphin rush of discovering that you were so very smart and effective this year! Tip #4 - Aim to complete 3 Big Tasks Per Day Michael Hyatt of Full Focus calls these your “Daily Big 3” and it works. Your Daily Big 3 are the top three outcomes you need to accomplish that day to make progress on your weekly or longer-term goals. If you lose sight of them, your day can get swamped by things that feel urgent to someone else (and even you at the time!) but are not necessarily important. You’ll never accomplish what really matters that way. Many of us start our days with a lengthy To Do list. It’s not uncommon for people to have 15 or 20 things they want to accomplish in a day, and when they don’t get them done those same things roll over to the next day, or week, or just languish on the list developing your feelings of guilt or failure. This is no way to live. Listing only three tasks for an entire workday may seem like a cop-out, but it requires more effort and discipline to look at the twelve things you could do and zero in on the three things you really need to do because they really matter. With this newfound clarity on what is and isn’t a real priority, your days will no longer be held captive by an unreasonably long list of tasks. So this year, try picking your 3 most important tasks each day and do those first. Let yourself focus on what really deserves priority. "A good system shortens the road to the goal." - Orison Swett Marden Tip #5 - Aim for progress, not perfection. Finally, remember that progress is always better than perfection. Being a recovering perfectionist myself, I can tell you that letting go of the pressure to keep things just the way I want them has led to so much more richness and color in my life and much better productivity! Perfect is the enemy of the good and it can lead to stopping you from doing anything at all – which is worse! Here's to a great new year! 2023 is going to go by quickly! It will happen fast. So give it a good start and keep up some good habits. So like I said before, this is your life. Get to it! 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.

Paper photos from grandparents, parents, or your own lifetime do no good sitting in boxes in your closet. Does this sound like you? Many of my customers have multiple boxes of photos and family memorabilia stashed in closets or attics or basements. They have a vague feeling of guilt when they think about them. They either collected them over a lifetime or they inherited them, and it is daunting to even start through them. If this is you, I want to encourage you to tackle this project. These precious family memories are so fun to find! Our family have been doing this and the joy it brings as we share with extended family is worth the work. That said, I understand the stress! So let’s keep it simple. Like everything I advise, take it slow, do not stress, and take it one item at a time. Breathe. Have some water to drink nearby. Also, be prepared for this to take some time. It likely took you (or someone you love) a lifetime to gather these photos; you won’t finish sorting them in one afternoon or even one weekend. Choose a flat surface where you can work, preferably one that won't need to be used for a while so you can walk away and not lose progress or place. Set out three containers and label them A, B, and C. Divide them into 3 groups: The A photos are your best ones, the ones you definitely want to keep, the ones you just love. These are worth digitizing and preserving. They bring you joy! I recommend you record details about them on a Post-it and attach them to the photos as you go, or write gently with a photo-safe pencil on the back. The B photos support the stories of the A photos. They can and should be kept but are not favorites. They will be archived but not necessarily digitized. The C photos are the ones you do not keep. Yes, it is okay to throw photos away! Examples are duplicates, triplicates, blurries, or simply bad photos. They can also be photos that cause you pain or memories you don’t want to keep. This is YOUR collection - make it what you want it to be. If it isn’t an A or a B, then it’s a C. Be ruthless. One rule of thumb is to eliminate 80% of your photos. Keep that in mind as you go through your collection. Above all, have fun with this! Try to keep moving but enjoy the process. 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.

Did you know we're collectively going to take 1.6 trillion digital photos in 2023? According to Rise Above Research this 7.5% increase over 2022 is expected to continue, driven by the popularity of smartphones. I encourage you to start photo organizing now so you have a system in place to add new memories to your collection. Maybe you also have boxes of memorabilia, along with boxes from your grandparents, and it all feels overwhelming. It is still worth doing. If you don't, you run the risk of it all going in a landfill someday. And it can be fun! Need some more encouragement to tackle this project? Ease of access When photos are organized in boxes or on phones, it's easier to find specific pictures quickly. You can quickly search for the image you need, and it's right there at your fingertips. I recently helped a client quickly organize a small portion of a lifetime of photos to display at her daughter's wedding. Unfortunately, time was short with a hard deadline. In the end there were a few she had in mind we simply could not find. Preservation When photos and other valuable hard copy memorabilia are organized in archival quality boxes, they are protected from dust, moisture, and other elements that could cause damage. Similarly, when photos are organized on phones or digital devices, they can be appropriately backed up, which ensures that they won't be lost due to damage to the physical storage device. Many people back up everything but that isn't sustainable with 1.6 trillion additional photos. And many photo sites like Shutterfly and Ponga are are discontinuing long-term storage. Make no mistake, unlimited long-term storage will not be free or easy from now on. Space-saving Organizing photos in boxes or on phones is an excellent way to save space, both digital and physical. Sorting and eliminating duplicates, blurries, poor shots, and photos of unknown people can free up valuable space. Instead of multiple photo albums or physical boxes of photos taking up space, you can keep everything in one place. And paying for ever-increasing server space (when companies are beginning to stop storing endless amounts for free - see Shutterfly, Ponga, Google, and Amazon) cannot last. There are solutions, but you have to take the time to stop and explore them to find what works for you. Sharing with Others It's easier to share photos with others when they are stored meaningfully on your phone or digital device. You can quickly send them via email, text message, or social media. Similarly, you can share physical photos with others by digitizing the very best ones. In this way, extended family members can enjoy legacy photo collections together Sharing the joy of the photos you've found is worth all the effort. Preserve the Memories Organizing photos in boxes or on phones is a great way to preserve memories. By keeping everything in one place, you can easily look back at your photos and remember special moments from your life. The memories are what makes the photos worth anything! Photo Organizing is worth it This may feel overwhelming but I encourage you to start. Don't delay until photos become moldy, are lost in a flood or fire, or get thrown away during a move. That said, take it slow, do not stress, and go one item at a time. Breathe. Have some water to drink nearby. Be prepared for this to take some time. It likely took you (or someone you love) a lifetime to gather these photos; you won’t finish sorting them in one afternoon or even one weekend. 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 Not To Lose Digital Photos Do you have a plan to protect your digital photos and videos? Where are your photos and videos stored and are they useable? Memories captured in photos and videos are irreplaceable. How can you be sure not to lose them? Use the 3-2-1s. Use the 3-2-1s of digital photos. What is that? The concept itself is pretty simple. · Have your photos and videos backed up in 3 separate locations, · Stored on 2 different types media, · With at least 1 copy off-site, away from the others. This is not something I invented; it has been around for years. (A huge proponent and photography industry expert worth exploring is Peter Krogh who wrote the quintessential manual on digital asset management, called The DAM book.) In short, if you have 3 separate copies and experience a catastrophic failure – a fried hard drive, a natural disaster, an online service that unexpectedly deletes your content (looking at you, Shutterfly) – then you don’t lose those memories. The 3-2-1s of digital photos can save a lot of heartache. And how do you actually do this? Do it in two steps. First step in the 3-2-1s Decide on what type of media you want to use. Older media types should not be options. VHS tapes, cassette tapes, film reels, DVDs, and floppy drives are obsolete and don't count. They're degrading as we speak. Upgrade your storage to modern technology. Also, to be clear, the idea is to make identical, separate copies so that you can retrieve your files when a device fails. Because they will. Remember, the typical lifespan of an external hard drive is 5 years. I went in to some detail on this here. Here are some examples setups: 1. Apple Photos backed up to iCloud 2. FOREVER (private, permanent, secure in one-time payment, forever) 3. External hard drive 1. Apple Photos backed up to iCloud 2. External hard drive 3. External hard drive 1. OneDrive 2. Amazon Photos 3. External hard drive Call me to discuss options. They all have pluses and minuses. Second step in the 3-2-1s Follow through on your plan. This may be the hardest part. Just do it! Make sure to account for maintenance. Once you make copies, set a schedule to review and update your copies with new photo additions as time continues. For some platforms this is automatic; for others, it is not. Call me if you need help. Understand the 3-2-1s fine print Please understand what is meant by “backup”. Backing up files means copying and archiving them to be used to restore the original if ever needed. This is very different from syncing files. I talked about that here. Don’t “backup” files to a cloud drive and choose syncing as your sole measure. Because syncing means creating two identical copies that update back and forth. Update drive A, drive B automatically updates. If you delete a file on drive A, it disappears from drive B. This is the single most devastating thing I have experienced yet with photo management. A client discovered that what they thought was a backup was really a sync, and their changes wiped out the only other copy. This is not the right choice for a family photo collection. Instead, make a copy, a literal second and third copy. For example, select all files in a directory and copy them to another drive. There should be no link between them. If you change something in drive A it will not be reflected in drive B. There are many available options for you to backup your photo collection. If you need advice on deciding how to proceed, I can 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 do you decide whether to keep something or throw it away? Simply ask yourself 3 questions: Do you need it? Do you use it? Do you love it? If the answer is “No” to these then it may be clutter. Donate it, sell it, recycle it, trash it if you must, or give it away. If not, keep it. There, that was easy! Do these 3 subjective questions leave you wishing for more? Read on for some more thoughts . . . and 5 better questions to consider. Marie Kondo, author of The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, famously says to get rid of anything that does not “spark joy”. I need to use my toothbrush twice a day but I would not say it sparks joy. So, there is a legitimate category of things you should keep because you use them and without which you could not accomplish basic tasks. Pens and pencils. Can openers. Kitty litter. Toothbrushes. These objects have jobs and can and should stay in your space. Then there is the category of things you may not use frequently, but when you need it, you need it. A great example of this is winter coats in the Gulf Coast of Texas. With a subtropical climate, you rarely need a heavy coat in South Texas – until it dips into the 30s in January or you travel to Scotland on business in February. Another example of this is holiday decorations. Even though you use special holiday table settings only once a year, you aren’t going to throw them away each year and buy all new. If you legitimately will need something, even infrequently, store these items in your space, and preferably with labels so you can locate them easily. There are also things you keep around for no other reason than you love them. This is where “spark joy” comes in handy. My mother gave me a carved, wooden manatee figurine that is mahogany, highly polished, and has two small wooden paddles that are very delicate. This object is materially useless. I rarely touch it for fear the paddles will crack so I cannot even use it as a paperweight. But that wooden manatee makes me smile every time I see it. I love it and it sparks joy, so I keep it. So, if these 3 questions are subjective and sometimes not foolproof, are there other questions to apply? Sometimes people say things like “If you have not used it in a year, get rid of it”. Well, maybe. But a better question might be “Is this something you will use again?” But even that can be tricky because you can fall into the trap of “Maybe I will use it someday!” You can end up keeping a lot of things you will never use again because, well, you might. Here are 5 better questions. 1. How realistic is it that I will ever use this object again? Be honest with yourself. Do you enjoy camping enough to take up all that space in the garage? Did you learn to snorkel long ago, but you do not plan to do it again? Did you read that book but not like the ending? 2. Is it taking up much space? Consider if the space could be better used for something else you love. Did you buy a piano but only ever dust it? Do you ever actually sit on the ottoman in your bedroom, or does it just accumulate junk? Do you have a dining table that seats 20 and you don't enjoy entertaining? 3. Does this object make you feel guilty? Sometimes we keep things with good intentions, but really just do not want to do it. Release those items to someone who really will use it properly. Will you ever learn how to can tomatoes with your mason jar collection? Do you always mean to do yoga, but you just really don’t want to? Did your grandmother give you those knitting needles but sewing of any kind gives you anxiety? 4. When you do decide to use it, will it even be nice enough to use? Sometimes we hold on to things for a long time, knowing we'll want to use it someday, only to discover when the time comes that the version you stored all that time isn't good enough to use anymore. Release these items to someone who will use it now. Is the duffel bag you used at summer camp as a kid going to be sturdy enough for your own children to use at camp? Are the favorite trousers that you’ll fit in when you lose 30 pounds still going to be in style once you lose those 30 pounds? If you kept those linens for a "special event", will they be threadbare and old-fashioned when you pull them out? 5. And how many do you really need? We can accidentally stockpile multiple versions of things we need, and end up using the mediocre version because our favorites are hidden in the mass. Do you need enough coffee mugs for everyone in your home and all your neighbors to have 4 cups of coffee a day? Do you need to have enough pens and pencils to fill 6 pen holders when only 2 people live in your home? Do you need to keep all of the Christmas tree ornaments when you never have space to use them all during Christmas? Thinking you can use something is not the same as using it. Thinking that you might use something is not the same as using it. And you don’t need to own something to address every possible situation. Don’t get caught up in the idea of your “fantasy self”, or the person you wish you could be, which ties you to an identity that you simply aren’t. Some things you use or need, so keep those. If you genuinely love it and it brings you joy, keep it. If it makes you feel bad, get rid of it. If you go through this process and you still feel cluttered, distill your belongings down to the ones that work best, that you like the best, and that you feel joy to use. 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.

What are the files you need to keep for your taxes? It was Ben Franklin that said there are only two things in life that are certain: death and taxes. He wasn’t wrong. One of my favorite song lyrics of all time is by Rush (the band, not the personality) in their song Freewill. “If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.” Inaction is as much a choice as action, but only one of them provides the option for you to impact the outcome. Sometimes doing nothing is the right choice, like perhaps when presented with a moral dilemma. But when it comes to taxes (or, in fact, anything related to finances) choosing to do nothing can be devastating and lead to some terrible results. When are taxes due? For my overseas readers, the annual filing deadline set by the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is normally April 15. Detailed discussion of actual tax filing is beyond the scope of this article so suffice it to say it comes once a year, if you have any income at all you need to file, and the consequences are severe if you are found to be dishonest or negligent. The infamous gangster Al Capone was guilty of a lot of terrible crimes but what eventually brought him down was tax evasion. If that’s the bar, you can meet it. Don’t be Al Capone. Don’t mess with the IRS. Tax season can be stressful but there are some things you can do to reduce that stress. Read on to see how a little bit of work through the year can save you hours and hours in the days leading up to April 15. What is records retention? A records retention schedule is a policy that defines how long a type of record should be kept and provides disposal guidelines for how and when those records should be discarded. In terms of riveting interest, records retention can be right up there with watching paint dry. But for me, one of the best Christmas gifts my husband ever bought me was a label maker. Our first New Years Eve I spent with a bottle of wine, a bunch of hanging files, a pile of new manila folders, and our brand new label maker. Not everyone is a nerdy professional organizer-type but I take comfort in knowing where our records are. Being able to put hands on the important items to reduce the stress of uncontrolled paperwork was worth missing out on a party that year. Businesses should always have a retention schedule but we may not commonly develop them for our homes. The sooner you have a system in place and get on a regular schedule, the sooner your tax season can be less stressful. A Disclaimer This article should not be taken as legal or financial advice. Always consult with your personal accountant, financial advisor, attorney, and/or partner or spouse before destroying any documents. As your organizer, I will never destroy your documents. That is solely your responsibility. But there are some recommendations you can follow to manage your household papers. I would rather you have too many files than destroy too many, but that does not mean you need to live in chaos. The IRS provides some good guidelines and so do many personal finance gurus like Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey. My personal suggestion is to do your research, consult with your attorney and accountant, decide on a schedule for your household, and get busy sorting, labeling, and filing. A key takeaway is that you don’t have to keep everything forever. Fear of destroying documents can lead to piles of paper no one will ever want or need. But wholesale destruction of paperwork can be detrimental. So be cautious and consult professionals. Suggested household document storage guidelines The following are some common household document storage guidelines. This list is not exhaustive but rather catches some major categories. Research and decide your own. Top Tip: If you are storing information for multiple people in a household keep each type of record in the same order by person so you can quickly see when one is missing, e.g. Husband; Wife; Child #1; Child #2 for medical records, insurance paperwork, etc. Suggested permanent locked storage documents The following is a list of some items that are best locked up safely either in your home (in a fire safe box) or at a local bank (in a safe deposit box). Again, this list is not exhaustive but catches some major categories. Research and decide your own. How to prepare for tax season To prepare for tax season, get a glass of water or a favorite beverage, gather your papers together on a table, grab a chair, and settle in. Sort all your papers into similar groupings and reduce the overall amount through judicious decision-making. Again, do not necessarily shred right away but set aside things that may not be needed and consult with your financial professionals. Place categories of papers into files. I like to use manila envelopes and hanging file folders, and preferably use some sort of color-coding by subject. Label them neatly so you can locate them easily. Then, store your needed documents in a place where you can easily access them for use. The initial sort of all your papers can be painful. But setting up systems can increase your confidence and decrease the time it takes to file your taxes each spring. If it feels overwhelming, ask for some help. Sometimes having a trusted partner in this process can help. Are your papers serving you? I still have my first ever pay stub from my first job at McDonald’s in 1991. There are beautiful stories of family members finding Food Ration cards from WWII in loved one’s belongings after they are gone. Sometimes holding on to sentimental papers can provide a tangible tie to the past. But paperwork, like everything else in your home, should serve you, not the other way around. Gain control of your papers to make room for what matters most. If you need some help sorting paperwork, contact me. 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.

I have spent my whole life preparing to launch RETHINK organization. I was born for this. While I wish I could claim it was truly planned, it wasn't really. But I have been doing this work since childhood. Now, in my 40s, armed with years of corporate and professional experience and a Masters degree in project management, I can handle large, complex projects. I have the empathy and compassion to handle small, personal projects as well. Above all, I want you to know that you can tackle tough organization projects and my goal is to help you learn how. In 2018, after 20 years in the energy industry working in technical jobs, information, database, general, and project management roles, and in sales, I was worn down. I was tired of being driven by quarterly earnings and I wanted to use all those business skills to really help someone else. Our family were in a safe place financially, so I resigned and took a part-time project management job at our church. I channeled energy and drive into a completely different kind of business. I loved that work and the people but even that was not enough. I remained restless. We all have stories of the 2020 springtime lockdown, and of how people retreated into their homes and were forced to slow down. It was scary and epic. But it provided an opportunity to pause, reflect, and refocus. I had a lot of time to think. And rethink. And I realized that the times in my life I have felt most alive and vital were when I was helping someone or something sort through or tackle challenges involving stuff. Some of those projects were fun. A childhood friend vividly remembers me coming to sleepovers at her house and cleaning out her dresser drawers. During COVID quarantine, I led the family through reorganizing our garage, laundry room, attic, and sunroom along with my home office. Some of those projects were hard. Some years ago I helped a family member go through a 4-drawer filing cabinet following their mother's death when they could not face sorting through the seemingly endless papers left behind. Some of those projects were business. I established systems and coordinated the movement of a large file room of hard copy oil and gas assets during a major office re-location. I sorted and categorized thousands of files left behind following a major office financial impropriety while maintaining legal obligations for state and federal court proceedings. Some of those projects were sad. A neighbor experienced significant health issues and their family could not travel to be with them. So, I was able to help sort mail, clear out their refrigerator, and sort myriad medications to keep them safe. All of these projects brought me deep feelings of joy and peace. It is an honor and a privilege to enter someone’s life for a time to help them through a tough season. If I can do this for a living for the rest if my life, I will consider myself lucky. It may be fun. It may be hard. It may be business. And it may be sad. It will all be fulfilling for me. 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.

The RETHINK logo was designed with intention. My dear and incredibly skilled graphic designer friend Nicole Wilson, owner of Inspired Indigo (www.inspiredindigoshop.com), designed the RETHINK logo. Nicole listened to me talk about my new business and latched on to my "sort, reduce, place, use" words and incorporated them into the logo itself. Let's unpack that phrase. Sort. Reduce. Place. Use. To get a handle on your stuff you need to give focus and time to each of these four words. Sort. Reduce. Place. Use. You must know what you have; it is frequently helpful to have less of it; you must decide where you want to keep it; then you must be able to find it when you need it. These four things come easily to me. I do them almost without thinking in my home and office. I have all my life. But not everyone can, or does, and not necessarily easily. The statistics are startling. There are 300,000 items in the average American home. The average American woman owns 30 outfits (up from 9 in 1930). Consumers in the U.S. (a country with roughly 3% of the world’s children) purchase 40% of the world’s toys. (Boston Globe). We really are a society of consumers. As of 2020, the U.S. population increased their rental storage by more than 10% since 2010, and the self-storage industry has grossed over $30 billion in revenue (InvestmentBank.com). This excess has even led to reality-TV shows like A&E Network's Storage Wars, which depicts what can happen when people don't pay their rental fees on those storage units. If I were a different person, I would buy a self-storage facility and help you keep all that stuff. But that is simply not what I want for you, dear reader. Having lots of stuff does not buy you peace or happiness. Having lots of stuff causes stress – if not for you, then for the people that must go through your stuff when you are gone. Read my blog post on that here. I believe life is more peaceful and more happy when you gain control of your stuff. Gretchen Rubin writes in her book Outer Order, Inner Calm, “In the context of a happy life, a messy desk or a crowded coat closet is a trivial problem – yet getting control of the stuff of life often makes it easier to feel more in control of our lives generally.” If you are a person with stuff, who seemingly cannot find bottom and are always searching for the thing you need, I want to help sort, reduce, and place your things, so that you can use them when you need them. Helping you know what you have and have what you want is what RETHINK is about. Rethink how you think about your stuff and consider if you really need it all. Are you controlling your stuff, or is it controlling 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.