I was hired last year by a Doctor who lives in the Provo / Orem area and needed professional organizer help with garage organization. He realized that clutter is a stress creator and the condition of his garage was affecting the quality of his life. At our first meeting I asked him what pushed him to call me and he said, “I feel real frustration when I drive into my garage every day.” He realized that letting go of the excess and organizing what was left would allow him to feel more positive about his daily return home.

Because the garage is one of a few home spaces where we place our “I might need this someday” stuff, garage organization is quite easy to achieve. When I work with clients I bring with me a list of all the possible garage organizing categories and we start sorting their items into categories purging and deleting as we go. You can organize your garage by looking at your gathered items and decide on these main categories.

Realize, that when I refer to your garage, anything that I share with you can be applied to any home storage area including your attic, basement or outdoor shed. To hear my podcast show dealing with garage organizing AND to learn my SPARK formula for organizing ANY home storage area, visit www.TheOrganizedWomanShow.com and look for show number 029 . In that show I promise you some photos of a few of my favorite garage organization products. I am always good on my promises. Here you go:

Schulte’s freedomrail line makes a complete garage storage solution which includes:  rail hardware, cabinetry, shelving, wire grids, hooks, metal and mesh baskets, activity organizers for sporting goods, garden items, tools, etc.

Ceiling Shelves for storage of Yard Furniture or Holiday Decor:   – Tuffrax, Totetrac, or Heavy Lift Garage Elevator (pulley driven baskets to raise and lower ceiling stored items)

Tool Rack – OR LOW BUDGET:  Heavy duty garbage cans to hold rakes, shovels, etc. AND Wall Pegboard and hooks.

Sporting Goods - Winter Ski’s & Tennis Rackets – Two 1” dowel pieces cut 12 to 24” long and then anchored to a 2 X 4 wood piece and attached to the garage wall.   You slide your skis in with the curved tips out and the tennis racket with the webbed net up.  For Bicycles:  2 bike gravity stand $70    Bike Hoist Pulley System    $25    LOW BUDET:  2 Large ceiling Cup Hooks per bike

Through garage organization you can turn that space into the garage of your dreams. Realize that even your home storage areas require monthly and yearly upkeep. I recommend to my clients that they get the whole family involved and plan to spend 3 hours yearly doing a purge and clean. Who knows, after YOUR garage organizing session, you may even be able to easily get your car inside. Now, wouldn’t that be delightful?

If you are tired of your garage disorder and would like some professional organizing help, contact us today. We offer a FREE 20 minute phone analysis.

Home Organizing Workshops

Join Vicki for any or all of the 3 classes she will be teaching during the month of January 2010 in conjunction with National Get Organized Month. The class information is listed below. If you have any questions about the Utah professional orgainzer, Vicki Winterton, and her organizing classes please contact us.

“I just wanted to say thank you for your time in teaching me about time management. As you promised, the “Action File” has changed my life. I’m able to stay on top of the paper mess that comes into my home. I knew the importance of daily maintenance prior to your class (I only learned this in the last year!), but you’ve taught me how to perform daily maintenance on the paper mess, not just tidying the house. Wow! What a great thing!” –Diane, 2009 UVUcommunity education class

Are you tired of making New Year’s Resolutions that, by the end of January, have become another failed attempt at improved self image or moral? Each resolution you set represents a longing of the heart, a personal stretch toward better health, more happiness, or increased wisdom. THIS YEAR  try a new approach. By working on one resolution or goal at a time and following my few simple steps below you will find success in making and keeping your New Years Resolutions.

To begin, make a list or a photo board of your successes this past year. Don’t be modest; make sure you note the learning and the progression that happened.

Next, begin the process of defining your new goals by setting up major goals broken into smaller goal steps:

1. Personalize your goals. Make them specific to you. Use the words “I” and “me” often. Realize you need to focus in on YOU in this step.
2. Write as if you had already accomplished the goal.  Use such terms as “I have”, “I see”, “I feel”, etc.
3. Adjectivize (my own word) the benefits of the Resolution. Use lots of descriptive words to explain the benefits of achieving your goals and resolutions. Words such as: calming, peaceful, energized, terrific, etc.
4. Calendar and schedule with (a) beginning, (b) progression, and (c) completion dates.

Reward yourself with prizes or recognitions of achievement not only when you complete your set goal, but also each day you actively work toward your desired resolution.

Complete THEN Repeat. When you have completed your first New Years Resolution, begin on goal #2. However grand the change we hope for, the vehicle for change is small, simple, daily steps that move us forward. It is the step by step changes each day and week that transport a new goal or resolution to completion. Change is ALWAYS hard for us to make. Be sure you  don’t overwhelm yourself by working on too many goals at once.

If you would like to receive my New Years Resolutions/New Goals Template, please leave a comment on this post and share with us what YOUR top three New Years Resolutions are this year. We love to hear from you!

For many years, I stored my own Christmas decorations in any one of  the 14 holiday boxes lining my garage shelves.  I often felt overwhelmed at the prospect of getting all those Christmas Storage boxes emptied before Christmas and restocked after the holidays. Then I developed a better system that now makes holiday decorating and take-down much simpler. My Christmas storage has become manageable.

I was an invited guest writer for my local newspaper, The Daily Herald, last year and wrote a full article containing my formula for boxing up ANY holiday.  Click here to read the full details of the article dated 12/2008 and titled, Packing up the Holidays OR listen to my online talk show number 024 titled Christmas Storage by clicking this link.

You can do this…It takes just a little longer as you pack up your holiday decor, but saves you lots of stress and time each year from here on in. Organizing your Christmas storage is worth your time and effort this year…YOU CAN DO THIS!

Please leave a comment sharing a tip on how you have simplified your holiday storage. We love to hear from you!

Blending a family of any variety is an obstacle course with many hardships already built-in to jump over & climb above. The holiday season is especially hard because of all the memories (bad AND good) that come attached to each blended family member.  This week I invited my friend and neighbor, Janet Peterson, mother of 11 children combined, to share some Blended Family Holiday Tips. Listen here to show #023. My friend Janet has maneuvered the course for many years and has been successful! She shares specifics on holiday activities and traditions that have worked for her blended family over the years. A few suggestions include these:

Just think of it, for ½ the cost of a new desk or ½ the cost of a new TV set, YOU OR SOMEONE YOU LOVE can receive the gift of peace! In fact, I guarantee greater peace of mind!

Imagine the opportunity to organize your home spaces or business office spaces so they are easily maintained for $500 or less at my special Christmas rates?

Suggest this gift option to those buying gifts for you OR give this gift to someone you love who has tried and just doesn’t have the know how to make it happen on their own.

Organizing Gift Certificates Available

Contact me now for organizing help once and for all at 801-623-8411

Winter Season Traditions

Building a stronger family unit is the goal of every mother I know! Holiday Family Traditions are a great way for families to come together to celebrate the fun and festivities of the winter season. I just produced show 021 titled Winter’s Fun Family Traditions hosted on The Organized Woman Show. My sister, Cindi Barton, was my invited guest. She has done such a great job of bringing her family together each time she sees an open opportunity. She shared three fun ideas for building family closeness with winter time family traditions. My show partner, Laura, and I each shared three ideas of our own for beginning new family traditions. Listen to the show by clicking on the bolded link a few lines up. Learn about Cindi’s family’s “Story around the Tree”, Laura’s family’s “Christmas Eve House” and my family’s “Camera, Lights, Cocoa” family traditions.

My friend, Kim Shields, who is SO GREAT at finding time not only for her own children, but even includes many of the neighborhood children in her fun times, emailed me a these great ideas:

• Make sugar cookies together, decorate them and deliver them to neighbors. Enjoy the tasting as you do the baking. Happy tummies make happy workers.
• Pull out the Christmas books, put them in a basket and read the stories together while snacking on pop corn and yummy hot coco each night around the tree.
• Reminisce together over the gifts you have received or have given to someone you value.
• Read the Christmas story from the Bible on Christmas eve. Dress the young children up in simple costumes to act out the nativity story.
• Try to do something nice for someone else who is in need each Christmas.  Deliver a meal and/or toys to a family who really needs some help.
• Buy a boxed gingerbread house at target (about $12) and decorate it with your family. Be sure to buy extra candy so the kids can eat up as you design and compile the house accents.
• Set out a “Countdown to Christmas Calendar” where each day the kids find a very small treat, (think a M&M or hershey’s kiss) to consume each morning before they take off for school. (This is another Winterton family tradition also.)
• Build a “Holiday Chain” for each child’s room to count down the days before Christmas
• Have a treasure hunt for a hidden gift the day before Christmas

For additional winter season family traditions that include non Christmas tradition ideas, click here to read what is being said on the WIN’s conversation board.

Creating space for house guests involves more than providing a comfy place for them to sleep, it’s an opportunity to make those house guests feel welcome and guarantee their time spent with you is memorable. Why have house guests if it is not a positive and memorable experience?

Each of the four seasons brings with it a different reason for out-of-town guests to come knocking on your door. Winter is loaded with holiday travelers. Having house guests can be much easier on you IF you organize and prepare well in advance. Listen to my online radio show, Preparing for House Guests, to learn:

1. the common concerns with hosting
2. the purpose of hosting your guests
3. easy preparations for guest’s arrival and stay

Are you interested in finally getting yourself organized but are unable to find just the right organizing products? I am happy to share with you a Container Store coupon that will allow you to find and buy organizing products that are a real help in setting up an organizing system that works for you today and for many years of tomorrows. This store is SO fun to walk through and almost as much fun to surf. 20% Container Store coupon for the purchase of organizing products The coupon is good from now through November 1, 2009.  Decide on the room that needs your attention most, go shopping online, and when your products arrive, shout “HOORAY!” and begin my steps to organize any space formula. If you can’t find what you need in the container store, I have compiled some additional links for unique and hard to find organizing products.  Who knows; one of these products may be just what you have searched for for years and never been able to find.

I was interviewed on the WIN Show (The Womens Information Network) this month because I am a show host with The Organized Woman Show. In the interview, we talked about how my FREE WIN online radio show, The Organized Woman Show, can benefit listeners in their lives. We touched on systems for organizing your shoes, systems for organizing your papers, systems for organizing your time, and how to organize any portion of your life.  To watch the interview, click the title here: The Organized Woman Show with Vicki Winterton.

My show co-host, Laura, and I record and upload 8 new shows a month. Our shows talk you through the steps to plan and organize your spaces, your papers, your office, your family, your personal time, etc.  If you would like to be notified by email each time a new organizing show is available to our listeners, subscribe to The Organized Woman Show through RSS or Itunes feeds by clicking on this link and then click on  the or logos on the right side of the web page to subscribe yourself through your email account. You can then pick and choose which shows interest you.

I’d love to have you join me to win online at The Organized Woman Show for ANY of the many 12 minute shows that meet your needs or may be the answer to an organizing question you need answered. If you have an organizing concern that a new show could answer for you, just email me at vicki.theorganizedwomanshow@gmail.com and recommend a show topic. Be sure to include your specific question or concern.

My goal and the goal of The Organized Woman Show is to allow you to live a better life by learning a new way to accomplish your life goals. I want to help you live your best life!