Best Results Organizing

As I write this post over Labor Day weekend, I’m reminded of summers gone by, and of the kinds of things people do during the summer (when they’re not joyously organizing their homes and offices), including going to fairs and carnivals. I’ll admit, while I think of myself as a fair person, I’m not exactly a FAIR person, if you know what I mean. Fairs just don’t get me excited. Indeed, PaperMommy used to note that, “There’s a reason they don’t call it the Erie County Wonderful. It’s fair. Eh.”

To me, a fair calls to mind contests for the largest pumpkin or most robust 4H displays or shiniest tractors painted in that inimitable John Deere green. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not me. Carnivals, however? That’s a different thing altogether. There’s something intriguing about gathering together wackiness and adventure and a variety of unusual displays. While one might become overwhelmed by the the sweet stickiness of cotton candy, the internet has given us our own opportunity for humidity-free carnival delights. Paper Doll particularly loves a blog carnival.

A blog carnival pulls together links to blog posts on a (narrowly or broadly) themed topic. Sometimes, within a particular blogging community, there will be rotating hosts of blog carnivals. For example, did you know there’s a monthly Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper hosted by bevy of fans of mighty pens, pushed pencils and the paper upon which one uses them?

On the first Tuesday of every month since August 2009, an enthusiast or pundit on pens, pencils or paper has curated the best posts on those topics from the prior month. For example, last month’s Pen, Pencil and Paper Carnival was hosted at Peaceable Writer and included posts from a pen aficionado at Does This Pen Make me Look Fat? and a review of Pac-Man themed Moleskine notebooks at Journaling Arts. September’s carnival, which should go live by the time you read this, will be at A Penchant for Paper.

Not all carnivals are handled in a round-robin fashion. In other blog communities, there might be just one beacon of light curating posts about one particular topic. In the professional organizing community, that beacon would be Organized Assistant’s Janet Barclay, who hosts the monthly Professional Organizers Blog Carnival as part of her blog, Your Organizing Business.

Open to submissions from throughout the world of organizing, time management and productivity, the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival has recently covered topics ranging from organizing memorabilia to disorganization and stress to life balance.

Organizers who have appeared in the carnival at least ten times even get the sash and tiara of Star Blogger status conferred upon them. (Disclaimer: To my own shock and delight, I’m a Star Blogger, too.) If you don’t have time to subscribe to and read all the organizing blogs out there, subscribing to Janet Barclay’s Professional Organizers Blog Carnival will keep you in the loop on all the best in organizing-related writing out there.

I’ve known Janet for the better part of a decade, from our early years in the burgeoning field of professional organizing. From her many years on the National Board of Directors of Professional Organizers of Canada through her current work as a virtual assistant, web designer and blogger specializing in supporting professional organizers, Janet is more than a cheerleader for the profession. She’s an educator, a leader, and one heck of a class act.

That said, and given my esteem for Janet, I have no desire to step on her organized toes. However, Paper Doll has decided to start a little organizing carnival, too. Nothing too formal, nothing scheduled in too regimented a fashion, but I’m looking forward to sharing the efforts of some of my colleagues, particularly those whose work is related, even tangentially, to organizing. I recently realized that retweeting links to my colleagues’ best posts wasn’t enough. Some of the material is too good not to be shared with the world, and whatever portion of the world I can cover by creating my own Paper Doll carnival fairgrounds should help.

And the carnival won’t just share what my colleagues have to say. There are great news stories, non-organizing blogs and media outlets that touch on issues, products and conversations that are important (or entertaining) and relate to organizing, paper, and the things that make us go “hmmmmm”. As we end the summer, we’re also starting a new school year, and Paper Doll is eager to branch out into an extra-credit independent study project.

For example, given that we’ve just entered National Emergency Preparedness Month, a Paper Doll Organizing Carnival might link to an article like Andy Ihnatko’s piece in The Chicago Sun-Times, “Post-Hurricane Irene Disaster Advice for Your Technology Preparedness”.

Also, although I’d never want to contribute to clutter in your lives, I might note some fun little products that can make organizing a little more aesthetically pleasing, such as the sparkly Swingline Color Bright staples, available in assorted colors

 

or in one-color packs of pink

and purple
(which, come to think of it, look kind of like carnival-themed colors).

But mainly, Paper Doll will be looking to share some of the neato-keen posts and notions you might have missed from my esteemed colleagues, such as this now-viral video, Undie Folder

from the fabulous Australian professional organizer Lissanne Oliver of Sorted!, a nifty blogger in her own right.

Next post, be ready to tune in for some colorful, wise, thought-provoking and otherwise organized posts in the very first Paper Doll Organizing Carnival.