Like the commercial says, “Wait, there are . . .” more benefits to being organized. Those
benefits won’t be found when curled up on a couch reading a book even though it feels,
that’s just one way to avoid clearing or cleaning up. Having a minimal amount of a
routine and system for keeping our home and life in order produces benefits beyond
helping our health. It is hard to imagine but picking up a pile of dirty clothes or clearing
countertop produce boosts in our energy. Being organized can relieve stress, boost energy.
And who does not want more energy? And nothing must be purchased!

Nearly every time I leave a client after working side-by-side, they later report to me they
kept working to clear after I left, their home felt so good to them. In anticipation of an
appointment it is also reported to me that energy kicks in to do some clearing. My
clients learn a system of arranging their things that makes sense to them and they want
to continue to work with the new system. The benefits of having order in their home
boosts better choices and gives them energy that translates to a more productive life.
Why would we want to deny ourselves the benefits of having order in our home in in our
daily life that amplifies productivity?

It is true it takes some effort and energy to get to the place of having order, but the
dividends are huge. Studies have shown families with more order in the home has less
stress, make better dietary choices and are more productive. Just think how cluttered
bedrooms interfere with restful restorative sleep which equates to more stress. Projects
left unfinished contribute to the induced stress. Would it be too much of a stretch to say
having order saves our
lives?

If you are convinced having more order in your home would be beneficial, would you
want to know how or where to start? Experts suggest starting with one room and have
a goal for that room. Maybe the kitchen is where you want to start. There is one helpful
resource ready for you with that at: How to Right-Size. By using the same principles for
the kitchen, the bathroom may be the place to begin. The goal is to have cleared off
countertops as much as possible for the space. Next, go through each drawer and limit
what is kept to what is used and needed every day.

Then go to the cabinet below the countertop and do the same; only keep what is used
and regularly needed. Once diapers were found in the cabinet under the sink that were
intended to be given away years ago. Time had passed and the children that used the
diapers were in junior high school! It is too easy to let the contents in drawers and
cabinets take up permanent residency. We created our own squatters living in our
homes without realizing it. Have a good laugh and remove the no longer needed items
and give them away if possible.

Let’s review the benefits of having order in our life and home: better dietary choices,
greater generosity, less stress, greater productivity, better sleep. The goal today is to
give you a boost to think about the benefits of being organized and give you some
direction to get started. The health of your entire family rests on the home having order
and having a system for maintaining it that everyone can contribute to and participate in
the regular habit of having order. Perfectionism is not the goal, that in itself induces stress, the goal if a sense of order that generates feelings of calm.

about

Elisa (Lisa) Hawkinson

Since 2000 Elisa (Lisa) Hawkinson, author of Calming Your Chaos, has been teaching and training businesses and individuals to support anyone who is not naturally organized on a consistent basis to be just that. Her HOW2GetOrganized seminars, workshops, and speaking along with hands-on coaching and coaching by phone has evolved from her natural genetic bent for order. Efficiency, calm, productivity and profitability are increased with the help of HOW2 and Elisa.

Would a boost to make better choices around eating and being more generous
be of interest to you? Ok, you asked for it; there are wonderful benefits of being
organized! So, mom was helping us make better choices in what we ate by telling
us to clean our room. Who knew?

There are still more benefits to being organized. They won’t be found when
curled up on a couch reading a book even though it feels, it is one way to avoid
clearing or cleaning up. Having a minimal amount of a routine and system for
keeping our home and life in order produces benefits beyond helping our health.
It is hard to imagine but picking up a pile of dirty clothes or clearing a countertop
produce boosts in our energy.
Being organized can relieve stress, boost energy.

Nearly every time I leave a client after working side-by-side, they later report to
me they kept working to clear after I left, their home felt so good to them. In
the anticipation of an appointment it is also reported to me that energy kicks in to do
some clearing. As I work with clients, they learn a system of arranging their things
that makes sense to them and they want to continue to work with the new
system. The benefits of having order in their home boosts better choices and
gives them energy that translates to a more productive life. Why would we want
to deny ourselves the benefits of having order in our home in in our daily life that
amplifies productivity?

It is true it takes some effort and energy to get to the place of having order, but
the dividends are huge. Studies have shown families with more order in the home
has less stress, make better dietary choices and are more productive. Just think
how cluttered bedrooms interfere with restful restorative sleep which equates
to more stress. Projects left unfinished contribute to the induced stress.
Would it be too much of a stretch to say having order saves our lives?

If you are convinced having more order in your home would be beneficial, would
you want to know how or where to start? It is suggested by experts to start with
one room and have a goal for that room. Maybe the kitchen is where you want to
start. There is one helpful resource ready for you at How to Right-Size. Or using
the same principles for the kitchen, the bathroom may be the place to begin. The
goal is to have cleared off countertops as much as possible for the space. Next,
go through each drawer and limit what is kept to what is used and needed every day.

Then go to the cabinet below the countertop and do the same; only keep what is
used and regularly needed. Once diapers were found in the cabinet under the
sink that were intended to be given away years ago. Time had passed and the
children that used the diapers were in junior high school! It is too easy to let the
contents in drawers and cabinets take up permanent residency. We created our
own squatters living in our homes without realizing it. Have a good laugh and
remove the no longer needed items and give them away if possible.

Let’s review the benefits of having order in our life and home: better dietary
choices, greater generosity, less stress, greater productivity, better sleep. The goal today
is to give you a boost to think about the benefits of being organized and give you
some direction to get started. The health of your entire family rests on the home
having order and a system for maintaining for everyone to contribute and
participate in the regular habit of having order. Perfectionism is not the goal, that
in itself induces stress, the goal if a sense of order that generates feelings of calm.

Today would be a good day to take 20 minutes to clear and let go of a few things
with no sentimental value to you as a starter exercise. You are welcome to text
me and report how that felt to you.

about

Elisa (Lisa) Hawkinson

Since 2000 Elisa (Lisa) Hawkinson, author of Calming Your Chaos, has been teaching and training businesses and individuals to support anyone who is not naturally organized on a consistent basis to be just that. Her HOW2GetOrganized seminars, workshops, and speaking along with hands-on coaching and coaching by phone has evolved from her natural genetic bent for order. Efficiency, calm, productivity and profitability are increased with the help of HOW2 and Elisa.

I’m Stuck with My Files, HELP!

A great example from yesterday for getting unstuck with too much paperwork can help all of us
to get unstuck. A senior woman I met a year ago called me, and said she needed help with her
filing. She was feeling stuck even though her life’s work was one of being organized, she just
could not get out of the mess of papers everywhere. That is not uncommon. She had tub and
boxes full of papers that needed filing. She moved six months ago into a new apartment and
that was part of the procrastinating and chaos with paper. Any number of things can cause
being ‘stuck’: 7 ways get yourself unstuck.

FILES

With her new housing arrangement and widowhood. she needed to review what papers she
needed to keep and what file categories best suited her. With a guide sheet we selected the
categories for her files then we worked together to edit her current single file drawer and an
extra file box. With a list of five file categories and the system used in the webinar at
elisahawkinson.com/calming-office-chaos we tackled the project and made great
progress in an hour. We had five categories in the drawer; using tri-cut file folders we had used
the left file cut and made a front to back row for PERSONAL files, a center cut file folder
category (front to back row) for FINANCIAL, then a right cut file folders for a row of
LIFESTYLE files. Then one more center cut file folder row for the category of
TAXES/INSURANCE files.

At the very front of the drawer was a center cut file labeled NOW, CURRENT where she
could have easy access to files like the retirement community’s activity calendar for the month,
and the menu for the dining hall. She could also have any other file she would need to have
quick and frequent access to like an upcoming reunion or birthday celebration with details for
driving or gift ideas.

MEDICAL RECORDS

The file box she had became her collection of current Medical files; one file for each health
category she had records, labs or x-rays for: orthopedic, heart, optical, dental, and wellness
records. That gave her a way she could have easy access to and not have to go through the
stack of papers she had to find a specific lab report for a heart issue. Those files could be in the
single drawer if it had been larger or a second file drawer in the desk.

WEEKLY CALENDAR

The woman said she had a habit of doing her dishes each day and she was willing to add the
habit of filing each day using a calendar for each week that would help her lay out her
commitments and appointments. She felt the weekly calendar* would help her stay on track
and she would use a timer for each of the segments she chose whether it as 15 minutes or 60
minutes or 90 minutes. A color pencil would be used for each segment of time.

PERSONAL PLANNING GUIDE

A 3-ring binder for her son, the executor of her will, had already been assembled with all the
final instructions and information of sources for retirement income and social security, service
preferences and a list of people to contact, financial information. estate information and a few
other personal details. She is intentionally making it as easy as possible on her son for her end
of life details. That is another beautiful example of adulting to the last breath.

* email to request a copy of the weekly calendar and it will be sent upon request.

about

Elisa (Lisa) Hawkinson

Since 2000 Elisa (Lisa) Hawkinson, author of Calming Your Chaos, has been teaching and training businesses and individuals to support anyone who is not naturally organized on a consistent basis to be just that. Her HOW2GetOrganized seminars, workshops, and speaking along with hands-on coaching and coaching by phone has evolved from her natural genetic bent for order. Efficiency, calm, productivity and profitability are increased with the help of HOW2 and Elisa.

Is it possible that laughter helps when downsizing? My own personal experience tells me yes,
at times, but when I’m not grieving the loss of a loved one. I’ve been on that side of downsizing.
The other side of life when it’s time to edit the contents of my home and or in helping others,
laughter has played an important part

You might have heard lots of health benefits of laughter but here’s a small memory that reveals
the benefits of laughter in downsizing. It’s a silly memory from long ago of a garage sale with a
friend sitting beside me makes me a smile right now. She saw a pair of culottes (think long shorts
in the 70’s hitting below the knee) on the table for sale. She laughed at me for having held on to
them for over ten years, long after anyone was wearing them. They were in great condition, had
cost plenty and the fabric was a lovely wool. I don’t think at that point in my life, and twenty years
into my marriage that I had ever consciously downsized or decluttered. I just hung on to stuff until
it was useless. I was still in the accumulating phase of life.

After getting over my embarrassment with my friend I laughed too. I quickly evaluated why I
still had those culottes. I realized I had not put boundaries around what I would keep or for
how long and, since I once loved them, I thought I should keep them until the pregnancy weight
was off. Being on a budget was also a factor. I grew up hearing the motto, ‘Good clothes must
be worn until they were worn out. After the laugh, reality set in and I could not wait for
someone to buy them. No one did but I did donate them since someone somewhere might
need them.

Although there are dozens of laughter benefits related to health, that laugh was refreshing and
urged me to keep sorting through my home to edit down what was no longer needed or used.
There were plenty and things in every household category that showed up that could be donated
that were not used or needed. I reflecting on how laughter is
so good for our health, and decided to look for what else I could laugh at for keeping so long.

There have been countless times that a client and I laughed at something found deep within a
cabinet that had not been used for over a decade. One of the best laughs came from finding
parts of a blender in four different places in the kitchen. We howled imaging the scavenger
hunt that would have happened should a smoothie for the children been on the ‘need now’
agenda. But it is the older appliances pushed far to the backside of a deep cabinet that has
brought the most giggles and shock at the find of forgotten items not-used-in-years category.

Research shows how clutter causes us stress.

Clutter causes stress anxiety. Many of us may not have realized how
healthy it is to have our homes and offices better organized. That alone may be incentive
enough to decide to do something about the accumulated amount of stuff covering our kitchen
countertops and furniture. If support is helpful to tackle the project, there is no shame in
asking for that. A friend or relative might be able to help or a professional might be better for
you. You will know best. Decide what would work best for you to have a plan to move
throughout the home or a room to put it in order. It helps to have everyone living in the home
be part of the solution to keep things in better order.

Being perfect is not the solution. We all have lapses and real-life conflicts to that conflict with
order. Relax, enjoy life and know you can get right back to having things better organized as
soon as you are rested and have the energy to put things back where they belong. Looking at
life like it is a mobile that moves with the breezes helps us see that our lives are not stationary,
nor can they be absolutely organized all the time. After an event breezes through your life,
things settle back down, and you can put things back in order.

One thing that I like to stress is a purpose and place for every item. If an item is kept that is
because it is needed, and it has a purpose. Placing that item back in the same location each
time makes retrieving it simpler, rather than a hunt and search mission that wastes your time. If
for some reason you cannot find an item quickly, relax and look later but rethink if where it
was placed made good sense. Finding a new place may be required if you searched too much
or too long.

We each need to be mindful of our health and that includes our mental health. Now we realize
how that accumulated clutter causes us stress and there is a solution to get rid of that stress.
Put on an attitude of being ready to laugh and set your intention to have less stuff and have
more order. Be sure to laugh your way through the process and celebrate along the way or
certainly by the end with something that brings you joy.

about

Elisa (Lisa) Hawkinson

Since 2000 Elisa (Lisa) Hawkinson, author of Calming Your Chaos, has been teaching and training businesses and individuals to support anyone who is not naturally organized on a consistent basis to be just that. Her HOW2GetOrganized seminars, workshops, and speaking along with hands-on coaching and coaching by phone has evolved from her natural genetic bent for order. Efficiency, calm, productivity and profitability are increased with the help of HOW2 and Elisa.

Ruthless * Generous * Audacious * Intentional *

How to “Right-Size” to Calm Your Chaos

In a recent interview with a new client, I was asked what could decluttering be done instead of hiring a 
professional organizer. The words on my bookmark spell it out exactly from my perspective; may
sound tough but let’s get serious and get the work done. This may sound tough but it takes toughness
to tackle the piles.

Think of putting on a white painter’s outfit and put these four words on the two arms and two legs,
then take serious action!! You will need to use these words to motivate and inspire yourself to be
steadfast in your effort to have less chaos in your home and possibly your car.

BE . . .

Ruthless

Without pity or compassion along with being almost merciless tackle and tame the chaos that has over
time accumulated. Be unrelentless and unforgiving in letting go of all the stuff. You could almost say, be
vicious or brutal or cold-blooded with the piles of junk or stuff if that suits your sensitivities better. You
could even be merciless with the cr*p that has piled up that stresses you out by just being in the room.

Generous

Being generous is showing a readiness to give more of the stuff, junk or items than is expected. Could
say “She was generous with her unused Christmas decorations or the dishes or clothes (that no longer
fit)”.

Allow yourself to be lavish in your giving away or letting go of stuff. Do so in free-handedly and
unselfishly or in a magnanimous way. Be openhanded, and bounteous in letting go.

To not be generous is to be mean and unselfish according to the Google dictionary.

Audacious

Think of you showing a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks in reducing chaos. In this case, taking
the bold risk of letting go of items not needed or used to make room for space and calm to enter your
life, including your home, family and business.

Show an impudent lack of respect for so much stuff not being used or needed. Be courageous in tackling
the piles that have accumulated in a room, on the bed, in the garage or the bathroom.

Intentional

Think of being deliberate and fully conscious or mindful of what is being kept in your home. Is each item
needed often and used? Be full of purpose in what is being kept and stored in the home. Versus what
could be let go of to sell or donate. Keeping something that you might one day need that leads to an
overabundance of stuff accumulating. Then you get to the point where the item cannot be found, or it is
outdated by the time it is being searched for.

To sum it up, to right-size is to edit or reduce the contents of every drawer, closet, and cabinet down
and every surface area to the items used regularly along with those needed items. Think Need~Use all
the time and collect the items to be donated in a container (bag or box) to be delivered frequently to a
thrift store with a mission that aligns with your heart. That makes giving even more meaningful by
supporting the mission of the thrift store. When sold the item(s) that you gave provides financial
resources to support thrift store’s mission.

Finally, arrange kept needed and used items with ‘likes’ going together; all the cereals
together, all the snacks together, all the mugs together, all the dressy clothes together, all the athletic
clothes together, all the casual blouses together. The same goes for keeping the cleaning products
together, all the pots and pans, all the small appliances.

about

Elisa (Lisa) Hawkinson

Since 2000 Elisa (Lisa) Hawkinson, author of Calming Your Chaos, has been teaching and training businesses and individuals to support anyone who is not naturally organized on a consistent basis to be just that. Her HOW2GetOrganized seminars, workshops, and speaking along with hands-on coaching and coaching by phone has evolved from her natural genetic bent for order. Efficiency, calm, productivity and profitability are increased with the help of HOW2 and Elisa.

Just like finding the ‘right’ doctor isn’t easy, neither is finding the right professional organizer,
so let’s review some key things to consider in making the right selection:

Referral
If someone you know well has worked on a project with a professional organizer and found the
experience helpful, then it would be worth talking with that organizer first.

Know why . . .
Why do you think you need and organizer? What specifically do you want help with? That is
your starting place to find a professional organizer. What are you expecting the organizer to
do for you? Do you want to be taught a system for organizing your personal chaos or do you
want pressure exerted on you to buy expensive furniture? 7 Reasons you might need to hire a professional organizer

Ask the organizer . . .
It is important to know how long the organizer has been working in her/his profession and why
that profession was chosen. Hear his/her stories of working with other clients like the most
challenging or funniest situation. Does that professional have a heart for truly helping other?

Your Story
Share your goal and intention for what you expect to accomplish along with the time frame.
Then ask the organizer if that sounds reasonable and how could she or he help. The organizer
can then let you know what the time frame means in terms of the time commitment for each of
you. That is assuming you will be working on ‘homework’ between visits that will need to be
factored in. Having a clear objective and schedule is most helpful for a successful and timely
outcome.

Assignments
You will need to know what part each of you will play in the project, or what each of you will
do. Will you be expected to do some homework between visits? Will you work side-by-side
or will the organizer, having been given direction by you, do her/his magic to bring order to
your chaos?

Trust
Do you get a ‘gut’ sense you can trust the organizer to hear your concerns about your
sensitivity toward your items being touched. Get a sense of how carefully your personal items
will handled. Organizers are limited in helping clients when the client is distraught over any
and every item being touched. The fear of dust being agitated in the air when papers are
touched can be so extreme that working in that environment is almost impossible for an
organizer. Some clients have anxiety over an old empty envelope being thrown out and that
leaves the organizer at a loss to be helpful.

An initial trial session may be of help to test that the chemistry is right to accomplish the task.

Watch
Be aware of being judged for the state of your home or room being worked in. Talk about how
you are feeling. Does the organizer cause anxiety to surface? That is not uncommon. The
process of organizing can stir up some anxiety. But it will settle down as order takes shapes. If
you feel anxious, tell the organizer and listen to the response you get. Hopefully, the organizer
can slow down or back off working in a specific area that can be tackled later. Make that
suggestion if the organizer does not. Postponing a specific area is perfectly acceptable.

Does the organizer have a sense of humor? Can you both laugh about odd things found in even
odder places or are insensitive comments made? Chunks of dried paint in an old paint can have
been the cause of many mutual chuckles. No one needs to feel blamed for that, but it feels
good to laugh at that oddity. It has only happened a couple times in the last two decades of
helping clients.

Whatever your personal concerns are, honor them, use your voice and see if you and the
organizer are in alignment. Asking for help and finding the right person to help calm your
chaos is the important first step for more peace in your life.

about

Elisa (Lisa) Hawkinson

Since 2000 Elisa (Lisa) Hawkinson, author of Calming Your Chaos, has been teaching and training businesses and individuals to support anyone who is not naturally organized on a consistent basis to be just that. Her HOW2GetOrganized seminars, workshops, and speaking along with hands-on coaching and coaching by phone has evolved from her natural genetic bent for order. Efficiency, calm, productivity and profitability are increased with the help of HOW2 and Elisa.