Get Organized Now! Newsletter by Maria Gracia http://www.getorganizednow.com Issue: February 27-March 5, 2010 Number of Subscribers: 181,999 ====================================================== Hello {!firstname_fix} ====================================================== ====================================================== Banish Clutter Once and For All ====================================================== It's not every day that I recommend organizing books from authors other than myself. But, when something really good comes along--something that I feel supplements my books and products beautifully, I'd feel I was doing you a disservice not to tell you about it. Mimi Tanner, the author of 'Declutter Fast' is actually a reformed pack rat. That's right...she has struggled with mountains of clutter for years. But today, she is free. She has discovered the joys of order and organization. She focuses on getting rid of clutter, and she does a wonderful job at it. Mimi makes decluttering your house both quick and pain free. I'm inspired by her excellent methods. I'm sure you will be too. Visit: http://fb1e43irtfrc0vb5vdtzkk0s9i.hop.clickbank.net/ ====================================================== Organizing Your Fun Paperwork ====================================================== All of us have fun paperwork that we like to keep, but it can easily morph into piles of clutter. Here are a few suggestions for how to organize that paperwork, your time and even your money! 1) Greeting Cards Received Greeting cards that are kept should be given a place of honor in order to make it worth your while to keep them on hand. Create a scrapbook just for cards or include cards with photos in other scrapbooks. Particularly special or beautiful cards might even be framed individually or in a shadow box with other memorabilia from the event. Cards with no significant event, but great images can be snipped into artistic shapes and used as tags for gifts. 2) Greeting Cards to Give Keeping greeting cards on hand for upcoming or unexpected occasions is a great way to be prepared. Use an accordion file with labels for each type of card, so you can find all like-themes in the same space and choose exactly the right one for the occasion. If you find that you have a tendency to forget to send cards on time for birthdays and other special occasions, organize your time by choosing all your cards at the beginning of the year and then clip them inside the appropriate calendar month. If a birthday falls within the first week of a month, be sure to clip the card inside the month prior so you get it in the mail on time. Organize your money by taking advantage of bulk card purchase deals during greeting card sales events. Watch for the ads and get all your cards for a fraction of the cost. On occasion it can also be fun to keep a copy of cards or letters that you sent out. Creating a special binder for these items and choosing an annual time to read from it can help ensure the cards or letters don’t just stack up in various files around the house. If you celebrate Christmas, you can put your annual Christmas newsletter into a binder year after year. Reading the newsletters before bed on Christmas Eve can be even more exciting that Clement C. Moore’s ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. 3) Recipes Magazines, printouts from the holiday cookie exchange, or the odd, old index card stained with coffee or vanilla-- recipes come at us from all sides and are inevitably discovered three days after the special dinner when we thought they might come in handy. Grab a few inexpensive photo album books and make themed books of recipes you know you will use only on various occasions, i.e. Thanksgiving Sides and Dressings, or Entertaining Dips and Sauces, or even Favorite Family Dinners. Then slip in the appropriate index cards. Organize your time by creating grocery lists for special occasions by looking through only one cookbook. By starting family favorite recipe books, you will realize how many recipes you have and love. You may even discover you don’t need that $30 cookbook you’ve been eyeing. If you haven’t decided if you want to keep a recipe, give yourself a deadline. Try your recipes within two weeks of getting the recipe. Giving it priority will ensure you try it before it collects dust. If it doesn’t make it into the dinner rotation by then, get rid of it! 4) Kids’ Artwork Just like greeting cards, children’s artwork you wish to keep should be given a place of honor. And again, scrapbooking and frames are both great options. Because of the high production rate of artwork, the refrigerator is not always the best option. Set limits by purchasing three or four jawbreaker types of pants hangers and use them to hang the artwork on the wall. New artwork can only be added to the wall by removing a previous piece. At that time make the decision if you will be framing or scrapbooking the piece. If not it can go, either in the mail to a relative, into a special storage box designated for this purpose, or in the trash if you feel it's not going to have extra special meaning to you later on. I keep one medium-sized box for this purpose. When my daughter brings home something special from school or art class, I put it in this box. At the end of the year, I weed out the box and only keep the 4 to 5 extra special projects that I feel will be representative of what she was working on in any particular year. You can also take a photo of your child surrounded by his or her projects. Then you can save the memory, but discard all the extra paper. ====================================================== Finally Organized, Finally Free -- for the HOME by Maria Gracia * HOT PRODUCT! Huge (405 Pages) HOME Edition! * Finally, a comprehensive resource to help you get organized once and for all! * Get 2,175 organizing tips, ideas and techniques to help you organize your home, your time and your life! Are you absolutely sick of all the clutter that seems to seep into every single room in your home? What about your overflowing email inbox? Do you wish the mountains of paper would magically vanish into thin air? Do you always feel like you can never catch up with your endless to do list? Is your family sabotaging your organizing efforts? In short, do you wish you can live a more organized, happy, less chaotic life? Visit: http://www.getorganizednow.com/foffhome.html P.S. Make 2010 your year to get organized! ====================================================== 5) Comic Strips from the Newspaper Comic strips that make you smile require storage limits. Decide how many you can keep on the fridge and stick to your limit. Scan your favorites or find them online. 6) Journaling When buying journals, do your best to buy them in similar sizes so they can easily be stored together. Then, don’t kid yourself. If you discover that you’ve been absent from your journal for a few weeks, months or even years, don’t buy a new one--just skip a page and get back into it. 7) Articles Increasing your education may require literature reviews, which may or may not qualify as fun paperwork, but it is paperwork that doesn’t usually get covered in other paperwork organization articles. Organize your articles by topic in hanging folders. Within each hanging folder create manila subfolder to divide items into 'read' and 'unread' or any other divisions that you would find useful. 8) Coupons Snipping coupons from the paper is a great way to save money, but not the easiest thing to keep organized. Designate one zippered pouch in your purse to carry all coupons. Once every two weeks take a moment to toss any expired ones and remind yourself of others that you have on hand. If you prefer a more diligent method use a purse size accordion file to sort coupons by either expiration date or type.

====================================================== Finally Organized, Finally Free -- for the OFFICE * HOT PRODUCT! Huge (395 Pages) OFFICE Edition! * Finally, a comprehensive resource to help you get organized once and for all! * Get 1,875 organizing tips, ideas and techniques to help you organize your office, your files, your schedule and so much more! Your phone is ringing, your email inbox is bursting, your To File tray is spilling onto the floor. You can't find the paper you're looking for. Your To Do list is already so long, and growing by the second. You can never leave work on time, you're missing deadlines and you're up to your eyeballs in work. As they say, somethings gotta give! Are you ready to get organized at the office? Visit: http://www.getorganizednow.com/foffoffice.html ====================================================== New Stuff and Site Updates ====================================================== Everything below is accessible by visiting: http://www.getorganizednow.com Please note that we update our site on a weekly basis, so the new stuff and site updates below may only be available for one week. ** Get Organized Now! Blog: Department 2 Read my personal comments, stories tips and observations about getting and staying organized in today's hectic world. You don't want to miss it. Newest entries: 1) 02/23 Stop Waiting--Start Progressing 2) 02/17 Make a Task Basket 3) 02/11 Increase Your Kitchen Storage Space 4) 02/04 Creating Time Pockets in Your Life 5) 01/26 The Memory Box Visit: http://getorganizednow.typepad.com/get_organized_now_weblog/ ** March Monthly Checklist: Department 1 Spring is in the air. Begin this season of renewal with a fresh, clutter-free, organized life! Start today with our new March monthly organizing checklist. Go to the link below and look for the shamrocks. http://www.getorganizednow.com/#checklist ** NEW Weekly Organizing Challenge: Department 1 Each week, you'll get a new challenge. How fun knowing that lots of people are working on the same goal! Check out what this week's challenge is. We've just posted our Week of February 28th challenge. Go to the link below and look for the kitty in the drawer. http://getorganizednow.com/#challenge ** Web Poll: Department 14 Our featured multiple choice question is, 'When it comes to most meals at dinner time, do you eat home-cooked meals, use a personal chef, order in or eat out?' Go to the following link and cast your vote. It only takes a second, and your opinion can be heard. Visit: http://www.getorganizednow.com/#webpoll ====================================================== Organize Those Mountains of Paper Once and For All ====================================================== So many people have spoken of the so-called paperless society. There's no doubt that the world hasn't caught on to this concept yet. There's more paper than ever... bank statements, insurance paperwork, schedules, school-related reports, medical records, warranties-- and of course all the fun paper too, like memorabilia, articles, hobby-related stuff and more. This is not to mention all the email messages and computer documents that get printed and copied each day--even more paper! These papers start small, quickly turn into piles, and then grow into mountains. Sometimes, these mountains of paper get so high, that the thought of tackling them is just too overwhelming-- especially when you don't have a good filing system in place or much time to put one together. If you're sick and tired of the piles of paper taking over your home and your life and you just don't know where to start, I have a solution for you. The good news is, this solution will take no time at all, and the result will be stunning--a filing system that will allow you to dismantle those mountains and find whatever you're looking for in seconds. Visit: http://www.getorganizednow.com/filing.html P.S. I guarantee you'll be able to get all your paper organized, in an efficient, easy-as-pie to set up filing system that will be the envy of all your friends. ====================================================== An Organizing Tip From One of Our Readers ====================================================== While living in a small apartment, I stored the extra set of sheets in a vacuum-type bag and put them between the mattress of the bed they went to. This system saved us a lot of room in our linen closet. Barbara Hardy Jamestown, OH Barbara has 2 boys--Josh 26 and Brock 16. * * * * * Submit your favorite organizing tip! Visit: http://www.getorganizednow.com/readertip.html ====================================================== Say Goodbye to Your Money Worries-- Pay Off Your Bills Without Pinching Pennies or Cutting Your Spending in Any Way ====================================================== Would you like to begin controlling your finances, once and for all? Did you know that you can pay off all your bills, including your mortgage, without having to pinch pennies, get a second job or cut back your spending in any way? It's easier than you think and you can do it. I highly encourage you to visit my friend Leo's web site to find out how. I've plowed through his product inside out. He, by far, offers the best program I've seen to help you say goodbye to your money worries--forever. When you are debt-free, you can ... * Enjoy happiness and peace of mind knowing you don't owe anybody one dime * INVEST your hard-earned money and get it working for YOU so you can retire early and comfortably * Worry less about losing your job. You NEED a lot less money when you are debt-free * Spend less time working and more time doing the things you want to do with those you love http://www.leoquinn.com/cmd.php?af=250440 P.S. I fully endorse Leo's program (it really does work) and I highly encourage you to learn more. -- Maria Gracia ====================================================== An Organizing Tip From One of Our Readers ====================================================== I recently discovered that the office where I work purchases plastic bags for each desk trash basket. I have accumulated a lot of plastic bags, despite using tote bags most of the time. I've been keeping a lot of plastic bags at home which have been causing clutter, so I decided to take them to the office. This has cleared up a lot of space at home! Name Withheld * * * * * Submit your favorite organizing tip! Visit: http://www.getorganizednow.com/readertip.html ====================================================== Organizing Challenge Notes ====================================================== Week of February 20th Get rid of old magazines/newspapers. Ok, so what would you say if I told you I have a particular weekly news magazines dating back to 2004? Yes, every issue--most of them unread. I guess it made me feel like I knew what was going on in the world. I recycled all of them this weekend! --Jenna, Clearwater, FL I've been keeping daily newspapers for years. I figure I can use them for packing paper if I need to ship something. Funny thing though, I only ship about 10 packages a year, but definitely have enough newspapers to ship a few hundred. I took your advice and recycled most of my old newspapers. Actually, I think your advice couldn't have come a moment too soon. My husband told me a month ago that all this accumulated paper could be a fire hazard. Although I hate to admit it, he was probably right. --Erma, Minneapoliz, MN ---------- Week of February 13th: Clean out your email inbox The email inbox challenge couldn't of come at a better time. This was one of those things that kept getting put off. I use a couple of different email addresses. The first one, I got down to 99 read emails in my inbox and more than 500 deleted. The second one, I got it completely cleared (and my goal is to clear it everytime I go into it) and even went through my saved emails inside the folders and cleared out over 3000 emails total. --Tina ====================================================== How to Have the Wedding of Your Dreams and Save Thousands at the Exact Same Time! ====================================================== Your wedding day is one of the most important days of your life, BUT it shouldn't be an event that leaves you in debt up to your eyeballs. Planning the wedding of your dreams requires a very organized approach. Being disorganized when planning your big day can cost you hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars. The Wedding Industry is notorious for preying on vulnerable ‘brides to be’ with overly inflated prices. Don't get caught up in this trap! Melinda Barton, International Wedding Planner, knows the ins and outs of the wedding business like the back of her hand. Her secrets will help you get organized for the wedding of your dreams, while slashing your wedding expenses in half! Discover: * The easy way for anyone to negotiate with wedding vendors * 5 easy steps to getting organized for the wedding. Disorganization is where all stress, tension, and uncertainty comes from * How to dramatically save on your catering costs. Her book shows you nine different ways. Just using one of them can save you hundreds of dollars--and at the exact same time, you are serving your guests better tasting food. * Ten budget-slashing tips for your wedding dress * The one gigantic mistake couples make when selecting a photographer * All the questions you must ask before booking the reception venue * and so much more! You deserve a dream wedding that doesn't break the bank. Visit: http://839060ifxesh0nbpgb23fnhgwr.hop.clickbank.net/ ====================================================== Become Our Fan on Facebook ====================================================== http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Get-Organized-Now/50467098715?ref=ts * * * * * Follow Us on Twitter http://twitter.com/getorgnow ====================================================== In Closing ====================================================== Always do right. That will gratify some of the people, and astonish the rest. -- Mark Twain And remember . . . there's no better time to get organized, than to Get Organized Now! Warmly, Maria Gracia Get Organized Now! http://www.getorganizednow.com ====================================================== (c) Copyright 2010 by Maria Gracia, Get Organized Now! ====================================================== * Copyright, contact and reprint information: http://www.getorganizednow.com/contact.html * You signed up to receive our Idea-Kit and/or our Newsletter at our Get Organized Now! Web site. We never add names unless you have voluntarily opted in. * We never rent, trade or sell our email list to anyone. You'll never get an unsolicited email from a stranger as a result of joining this list. * To subscribe, visit: http://www.getorganizednow.com/free-ezine.html * To unsubscribe, click the link at the bottom of this email. You are subscribed to our list as: {!name} {!email} ============================================