Best Results Organizing

The issue of expired coupons in last week’s post prompted a flurry of reader email. It’s time to admit why Paper Doll has generally avoided blogging about coupons. It’s certainly not because I fail to appreciate bargains. My reticence has more to do with what I see as the Coupon-Industrial Complex.

GOING TO EXTREMES

Whole web sites are devoted to an increasingly complex series of coupon-related grocery store challenges, and TLC has elevated Extreme Couponing to a national sport. I applaud those who navigate the systems to save money and inexpensively acquire bulk items they then donate to charity. However, in many households, frenzied couponing yields large quantities of unneeded items and those that expire or perish before they can reasonably be used. Extremely organized participants can warehouse mass purchases, but too often, mass couponing results in massive, unmanageable clutter.

In a recent issue of her newsletter, The Dotted Line, Amy Bergin, founder of The Couponizer (of which, more later) examined her plight as a more temperate, moderate couponer and noted with insight,

Sure, devoting more time (that I could be doing other things) and increasing the volume of coupons (that require more time to manage) used will increase my overall savings, but I also factor in the quality of my purchases and the quality of the life I have created for myself and my family as a result of my spending to decide if all this is worth the effort.

Extreme couponing requires diligence, a particular kind of lifestyle and flexible family food preferences. It may very well be worth it financially, but it isn’t easy. And in an age where people feel overwhelmed by so many demands of modern life, disorganization often goes hand-in-hand with self-recriminations over unmaintained systems.

Thus, today’s post isn’t for extreme couponers. If that’s your area of interest, I suggest:

The Grocery Game — Terri Gault provides a system and database for accessing coupons, comparing prices and identifying when to make purchases for maximum benefit. There’s a one-month free trial, after which membership is subscription-based.

The Drugstore Game seems even more complex. As I read the arcane rules and combinations, my grip on comprehension echoes long-forgotten calculus lessons. For a primer, I direct you to blog posts from Money Saving Mom, Chief Family Officer, and Family Friendly Frugality.

Be CentsAble, created by Chrissy Pate, is a testament to the variety of ways one can use coupons, coupon databases and shopping systems to save money. Chrissy and co-author Kristin McKee wrote Be CentsAble: How to Cut Your Household Budget In Half, which is chock-full of superior non-nonsense consumer advice.

For the rest of you who hope to save some money on your everyday purchases without becoming Edward or Edwina Scissorhands, let’s explore basic couponing tips.

CLIP CLIPPING BEFORE IT GETS OUT OF HAND

As you approach clipping coupons, be realistic, and be honest with yourself.

Only clip coupons for products you:

• Already actually use, or
• Are willing to try and
• Are likely to try

Many coupon and shopping bloggers advise: “Don’t be brand-specific” or “Don’t just clip the coupons you think you might use.” That may work for the extreme shoppers, the ones willing to collect and hold onto ten weeks’ of newspaper inserts, check databases to identify the timing of specials, and create shopping lists based on an algorithm of sales, coupons and warehousing/shopping cycles.

Paper Doll has no doubt that these kinds of systems work for people who have the time and the inclination to invest in these efforts. However, as most consumers find, this isn’t a process to which the typical consumer can commit.

First of all, many of us have brand-specific tastes. The only orange juice I find palatable is Minute Maid Pulp-Free from concentrate. Choosy mothers choose Jif, but Paper Doll picks Peter Pan. Many you probably find that your family members have the same picky, child-like palate as I have, and you’ve come to be realistic about how much food flexibility your family will embrace.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t experiment with groceries or household items. After all, you might find that a generic detergent cleans just as well as a name-brand and is less expensive than the brand product, even with a coupon and an advertised sale. But again, be realistic.

If your culinary repertoire includes only seven recipes, all pasta-based, it’s unlikely that you’ll take advantage of coupons for exotic foodstuffs you’ve never eaten, let alone prepared. If a coupon entices you to try something new, that’s fabulous. But don’t clip coupons with the expectation that you’ll make wholesale life changes based on retail behavior.

What about buying in bulk? The grocery bloggers are, in the abstract, correct. Stock up on items purchased on sale and via coupons, but know your limits. If you live in an apartment, you probably can’t store 96 rolls of toilet paper. There’s a square inch limit to how much of even the most delicious deeply-discounted ice cream you can accommodate in a fridge-top freezer.

STORING COUPONS & COUPONING AT THE STORE

One of the rubrics of organizing is that if a system is too complicated, or a storage area too hard to access, you’ll find excuses not to use it. Keep It Simple, Silly!

Centralize coupons within one accessible, portable solution.

Casual Couponers

If you’re generally going to use fewer than a dozen coupons over the course of a few weeks, neatly arrange them with the soonest-to-expire on top, paper clip them together, and tuck them in your wallet, directly behind the currency. Don’t worry about sorting. It will take only a matter of seconds, while at the store, to flip through your coupons so that you can make sure you buy something for which you have a coupon.

Cent-sational Couponers

If your coupon use is light-to-moderate, you don’t need luxury level coupon storage. A simple checkbook-sized accordion folder like the five-pocket Smead Tag Along will suffice.

The purse-size Deluxe Coupon Organizer Wallet, available in a variety of patterns, works well for those who prefer a little style along with their substance.

When open, it straps directly to the grocery cart for easy access while shopping.

Consider simple categories like groceries, toiletries, cleaning supplies, pet/specialty items, etc. and sort coupons into general chronological order by expiration date. Don’t get too caught up — “this week”, “soon”, and “not for a while” will suffice, or you can charge your kids with the job of organizing by strict expiration chronology, if you need to keep them busy and quiet.

Before you head for the store, flip through each category to see what you might want to add to your grocery list based on soon-to-expire coupons.

Carload Couponers

If you’ve got a family or are otherwise shopping for multiple people, you’ll obviously have need for a more expansive (and expandable) system for keeping your coupons organized into myriad essential categories. The more coupons you corral, the harder it can be to maintain them neatly and still be safely mobile.

The standard-bearer in this arena is a professional organizer favorite, Amy Bergin’s The Couponizer, a system for gathering coupons, sorting them, and housing them safely within the Couponizer book.

A full Couponizer system includes a variety of tools, including 18 category pockets for various food and merchandise types, loyalty sleeves (for safeguarding store loyalty cards, “punch” cards and gift cards), the CoupStacker expandable coupon sorting mat, the CoupTracker for tracking progressive savings, a shopping list, scissors and a carrying case.

DIGITIZING COUPONS

Newspaper inserts and magazine coupons are fine if you already take the paper or subscribe to coupon-filled magazines, but consider how technology can advance your couponing strategies without increasing paper clutter.

First, there are a variety of sites from which you can select and print manufacturers’ coupons. Check the sites and Facebook pages of your favorite products, and review the following sites from which you can print just the coupons you want:

Be CentsAble
Cool Savings
Coupons.com
Mambo Sprouts (for organic groceries)
RedPlum
Smart Source

Paper Doll is also a huge fan of Lori Felix’s blog More With Less Today, which links to a wide variety of printable coupons, discounts, retail and travel deals, and freebies.

In addition, there are options for bypassing paper coupons altogether.

SavingStar is a free web site that provides no-clip coupons. Search by zip code to locate grocery stores and drugstores convenient to you and then register your loyalty card numbers with SavingStar. At your leisure, log into the site, select the coupons you wish to redeem, and they are digitally loaded onto your card. When you make a purchase using your loyalty card, instead of the coupon being redeemed in cash as cents-off, the amount accumulates in your SavingStar account until you decide to cash out via check, deposit the money in your Paypal account or donate your savings to charity.

Cellfire is a free service that helps you locate, select and store digital grocery coupons on your store loyalty card and non-grocery discounts on your smart phone. Discounts stored on your loyalty card are automatically deducted when you use your card while shopping; to get the discounts from your phone, just show the mobile coupon to the cashier. Cellfire also offers printable coupons, which you can have sent to your computer to store for later printing.

ShortCuts provides free access to digital coupons. Sign up for an account, register your loyalty cards, and at your convenience, click on the coupons you want loaded onto your card. Coupon discounts will be automatically deducted when you swipe your card at the store. As with Cellfire, you can also select and send printable coupons to your computer.

Whether you’re old school or high tech, single-serving or family pack, there’s a way to keep your coupons organized and under control…without going to extremes.

Happy New Year, Paper Doll readers!

January is designated National Get Organized Month. To help you get started on the road to organization without causing the old January Gym Membership Effect, today’s post gives you tiny, easily-digestible tips for achieving organization without pulling any muscles or becoming overwhelmed.

SHOW 2011 PAPERS TO THE EXIT

Holding on to paper you don’t need builds clutter. Go from room-to-room, zone-to-zone, purse-to-bookbag and isolate the paper that’s just weighing you down:

Expired Coupons — You receive no financial benefit from expired coupons. If you’re keeping them to remind you to purchase something, start a real shopping list, instead.

If you want to release yourself from the mildly anxious feeling that you shouldn’t have been schlepping the coupons around all this time, unused, do a good deed with them. Military families living on-base can use manufacturer’s coupons (i.e., not store-specific ones) at their commissaries/PXs for up to six months after the expiration date. So pop them in an envelope and send them off via guidance from:

Coupons to Troops
Troupons
Overseas Coupon Program
GrocerySavingTips.com

or check with your local American Legion Auxiliary chapter to see if they collect, package and ship coupons to military bases. [Canadian readers: I’ve had trouble finding a similar program up north. Please share any information in the comments section, and I’ll add it to this post.]

Greeting Cards — The classic Paper Doll post, Hallmark Holidays and American Greetings: Card Clutter should give you the confidence to make the necessary decisions regarding which cards to recycle and which (few) to preserve. Cards lacking deep personalization or extreme entertainment value should go, but Card Memories’ Greeting Card Keeper Albums that we reviewed in 2010, offers a storage solution for those truly special sentiments.

Magazines and Newspapers — If they say 2011, they’re not news, they’re history. Knowledge is power, but information clutter is Kryptonite. It leaves you mired in piles, paralyzed and unable to act on the information because you can’t make dependable use of it.

If you didn’t get around to reading those holiday decorating tips or recipes, it’s OK. They’ll be back again in about ten months with only slightly altered graphics. Deliver magazine donations to shelters, clinics or hospice venues and toss the newspapers into your recycling bin. Make room for the future in your home and office by letting go of the past.

Floozies — Longtime Paper Doll readers know how I feel about floozies (loose, homeless paper scraps). All those bits and pieces represent potential utility, but as they are, it’s too hard to find the information you need when you need it. Floozies tend to congregate in certain areas — stuck to your computer, on or near your desk, in the kitchen and by the phone chargers. Be relentless in policing this vice, gather those floozies and take them off to the hoosegow (or, y’know, a clear surface, like the dining table).

Start separating your sticky notes and scraps into categories, and once grouped, find alternative ways to keep the information but toss the paper:

• Passwords — Transfer them to a password notebook like the Internet Password Organizer (now in paperback) or use a password management program, like LastPass, KeePass or Mitto. 

• Phone numbers and addresses — Don’t depend on your memory of where you stuck someone’s number or address. Add the contact information to your phone, computer or Snoopy address book. As with calendars, the key is to commit to a system, any system, and stick with it.

 

• Things you want to buy — If you’re old school like me and prefer paper, get yourself a cute little assignment notebook or Moleskine. Otherwise, pick your favorite app (Remember the Milk, Grocery Gadget, etc.) to ensure that you’ll know what you need to acquire when you’re in a position (and location) to acquire it.

• Books or movies you want to check out — Your Amazon wish list or Netflix queue is perfect for reminding you of media that’s worth another look, even if you eventually borrow the items from your public library.

• Web sites you want to explore — Use Bookmarks or Favorites, so they’re available when you are. Afraid you’ll forget about them (as if a half-destroyed Post-It sitting under a coffee cup from last Friday is going to remind you)? Set an alarm on your computer for a particular time each week to remind you to peruse your recently-collected sites; purge the ones that fail to live up to the hype, and organize the worthy ones in bookmark folders.

• Creative ideas — When the muse is active but you’re busy doing other things, it’s natural to grab for the nearest piece of paper to capture your brilliance. But deal with the backlog by sorting your brilliance into categories and then make up a plan for how you’ll incorporate the ideas into your endeavors. For my purposes, different notes might be suitable ideas for Paper Doll blog posts, references for Best Results for Busy People newsletter articles, notions for ebooks, and so on. Just keeping a separate folder for each major creative area of your life will corral the papers while preventing the loss of (potentially) staggering genius.

Have you got too many floozies, and not enough time to do more than group them? Or maybe you wish you could make them portable? Grab your camera, get shots of each category in a gridded, Pinterest fashion, and upload them to your computer for easy zoom-in access.

BECOME A (TAX) COLLECTOR

April 15th may seem far away now, but think how quickly the last three months have sped by. Take just a few minutes a day over the next week or so to make the road to tax season free of paper blizzards.

Call your pharmacy and request a printout of your prescription purchases for the previous year. This will give you a jump start on calculating whether you can deduct medical expenses when you do your taxes. You should be able to get your own printout and that of your children, but your spouse may have to request his/her own.

When you pick up the prescription purchase forms, just drop them in your tax prep folder. No tax prep folder, you say? That’s easily fixed.

Create tax prep folder(s) for 2011 items so that as soon as 1099s, W-2s and other tax forms start arriving in mid-to-late January, you’ll have someplace to put them. (Go ahead and make a folder for 2012, so there will  be a place to put the tax-related receipts you collect throughout the coming year.)

If your financial life is simple, one folder may suffice, but if you’ve got complexity, consider separate folders for charitable donations, investment information, financial or real estate transactions, medical expenses and “miscellaneous taxable event” notes. Alternatively, use one of the Smead Tax Organizers we’ve reviewed previously.

Take a peek at last year’s tax return (you know where it is, don’t you?) to make a list of the forms and notifications you should be expecting, and check them off as they arrive. If you’ve got newly acquired taxable assets, like stocks, add those to the list. These notes will help you figure out if any W-2s, 1099s or 1098s are missing. For more on what these forms represent, review the classic Paper Doll post on what goes into A Taxing Treasure Hunt.

TRAVEL THROUGH TIME

Visit the past — In One Last Flip Through The Calendar, we once examined how reviewing the lessons of the past could help make for a stellar future. Pop back in time to that post so you can revisit the lessons of the year gone by — the successes, surprises, opportunities, recurring events and missed connections — and put them to good use in building 2012.

Journey to the future — It’s impossible to organize your time without having a system for planning all of your obligations (and desired activities) and figuring out when you’re going to get around to them. “Someday” is simply not a day on the calendar.

If you haven’t figured out what kind of planner would rock your world (eliminating chaos and giving you back control), and if your visions were still full of sugar plums last week, be sure to catch up with Paper Doll Marks the Calendar for a Successful 2012.

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

~Sren Kierkegaard

After six weeks of frenzied counting down the days, we’re in that fuzzy stage when the Advent calendars have been put a way, NORAD’s Santa Tracker has been reset, and we’re running out the clock on the final days of the year. The end of the calendar can make us feel like we’re peering over the precipice into the great unknown.

 

WHAT DOES YOUR CALENDAR MEAN TO YOU?

For those of us who believe surprises are rarely of the diamond bracelet and lottery winning variety and tend to manifest as flooded basements and influenza, calendars provide comfort. Knowing as much as possible about what will happen when gives us a sense of control. Novelist Lucinda Rosenfeld says, of men,

We order our salad dressing on the side because we are control freaks. We’d like to control you. Because we can’t, we control lettuce.

For those of us who fiercely (if self-deludedly) seek to be captains of our destinies, calendars are our life preservers. We act as thought capturing every vacation or task, birthday or dental appointment, in writing, will act as a talisman against the vagaries and whims of fate. We know, deep down, that organizing (our time or space) can’t prevent catastrophes, but we gain confidence from the idea that it can, at least, make them less catastrophic.

Others fall at the opposite end of the continuum, feeling that life is an adventure, and hewing an existence inside boxes on the calendar is too much like being boxed in… regimented… trapped.

But most people fall somewhere in the middle. They want organization as well as freedom, structure along with spontaneity. They like the idea of keeping a planner or calendar, but may not be faithful to the process. What about you?

• Do you carefully maintain one (paper or digital) calendar to keep you from missing all the important dates in your life?
• Are you juggling one calendar at work, another for personal activities and a life-sized calendar for your family in the kitchen…one where nobody seems to remember to write “Bring cupcakes for the PTA bake sale”?
• Do you often use the prior year’s calendar well into the new year, augmenting it with scribbled sticky notes?
• Do you have salon and dental appointment cards taped to your fridge, blocked by birthday party invitations and months-old reminders?
• Is there any room in your calendar system for your plans and dreams?

OLD SCHOOL OR NEWFANGLED?

Gone are the days when a free calendar from the bank or the butcher sufficed. Now, the varieties and types of calendars are endless — digital or paper, ring-bound or spiral, sizes from compact to legal, hourly or by daypart, daily or weekly. It’s no wonder people tend to change systems each year, or abandon systems altogether before the winter is through. The options are dizzying.

There are two big questions people always ask about calendars. The first: paper or digital? More and more, people disclose embarrassment they’re not using digital calendaring systems, and those who are often doubt they’re using them well. The truth is, high tech isn’t for everyone. Even those of us who practically live at the keyboard aren’t always satisfied by digital calendars.

If you don’t currently have a system that works for you, give some thought to how you tend to keep track of things.

• Are you a linear thinker?
• Do you know the shortcuts for DVR-ing your favorite shows?
• Do you enjoy reading gadget manuals? (Are you at least willing to do so?)
• Are you far more likely to pull up an app like Remember the Milk or Workflowy than scribble notes on paper?
• Do you need to share your calendar with colleagues located far away?
• Do you remember to sync and back-up diligently, and keep your gadget charged and close at hand? (Be honest!)

If this sounds like you, a digital calendar may be your personal scheduling GPS! Explore Google Calendar, Apple’s iCal, or Microsoft Outlook’s calendar. Then, research reviews of the best productivity apps for your smart phone and verify how well they sync with your favorite calendar. However, if you’re more likely to answer the following questions affirmatively, then paper calendaring may be your best bet.

• Do you tend to remember landmarks rather than directions?
• Do you consider yourself a tactile person, remembering clothing, books, etc. at least in part by the way they feel to the touch?
• Do you color-code appointments and obligations by life category or family member?
• Do your creative juices flow more easily when you hand-write, rather than type?
• Are you constantly frustrated by your electronic devices?

Either way, the type of calendar system you use is far less important than your level of commitment to whatever system you pick.

PENCILING IN THE ESSENTIALS

Pick a calendar that lets you see a month at a glance with ample space for writing notes for each individual day. When we compartmentalize and consider only tasks set for Tuesday, we might not take into account a late meeting the Monday night prior or an early flight on Wednesday morning. Context matters when judging the ebb and flow of time.

Select a planner that has enough space. If you have sprawling and not-so-neat penmanship (like Paper Doll), a pocket-sized planner may cramp your style, literally and figuratively. If your digital screen limits characters, will you be able to track all the information you need?

Take your planner everywhere. This isn’t usually a problem with digital divas, but if you’re only in the habit of carrying your paper planner to work functions, rethink the style and size of what you use so that you’re comfortable taking it everywhere (and remembering to bring it home with you).

Schedule everything that’s fixed or obligatory before taking on any new responsibilities.

1) Review this past year’s calendar, month by month, and copy all the recurring events — birthdays, monthly meetings, conference calls, convention dates, etc.

2) Plan ahead for special events associated with your children’s school, parenting groups, community associations and your house of worship. For your professional life, find out when the local business expos, trade shows and networking events will be scheduled. Block time on your calendar to attend.

3) Schedule time for health. Call to make medical appointments for yourself and for your family. Remember doctors (including specialists), dentists, orthodontists, and eye doctors, and plan out the most convenient times to have inconvenient tests like mammograms and colonoscopies. Your life is an open book at this point in the year: schedule fitness training sessions and exercise classes, massages and pampering.

4) Get your (financial) house in order. Schedule appointments with your CPA for early-to-mid February, by which time you should already have all your 1099s, W-2s, and whatever other paperwork you need. It’s also a great time to plan appointments with people who can help you make your life, finances and time more orderly — financial and estate planners, insurance representatives, and professional organizers.

5) Brainstorm for your future. Your calendar can be a vital asset for reaching your big dreams and goals. Want a new job? Block time to set up informational interviews or take continuing education. Dreaming of getting fit? Pair up with a friend to take evening yoga or cardio classes instead of going out for fattening dinners.

SINGLES OR DOUBLES

Remember I said there are two big questions? People ask whether they should have separate calendars for work and family. An abundance of experts advise using only one planner. As they say,

The man with one watch always knows what time it is.
The man with two watches is never sure.

If you keep one calendar for family activities and another for work, you’ll never know if your child’s recital conflicts with a major client presentation, or if you’ve scheduled yourself to attend a work conference the week of school vacations. Concurrent, overlapping but non-inclusive calendars are a recipe for disaster.

However, while it might be ideal, it’s not always feasible to have only one calendar. To keep all your bases covered, I suggest the following:

• Have a PORTABLE calendar or planner for everything in your own life. You have to be able to verify your prior obligations before you can confer with the orthodontist, the PTA bake sale planning committee or the Vice President of Mid-Western distribution. That means you have to have your calendar with you at all times, whether it’s paper or digital. If your system allows it, differentiate professional from personal obligations via color-coding.
• Have an ALL-FAMILY calendar at home in a high-traffic area or use something like Cozi if your family is wholly high-tech. Make it clear that it’s everyone’s obligation to post the dates for soccer games and band concerts, corporate retreats and slumber parties.
• Schedule SYNC TIME. No, this isn’t just a reminder to sync your smart phone with various computers (manually or via the cloud). Busy families need face-to-face time each week to confer, make updates, and confirm that nothing has changed or moved. Implement a family meeting to keep it all together.

MAKE A COMMITMENT!

Engage with your engagement calendar.

Even the best system won’t work if you don’t mark every appointment down and then check frequently to see what’s scheduled. If you’re the type who forgets to check your calendar, use a few technology and accountability techniques:

1) Set an alarm on your cell phone to ring at the end of every workday to remind you to check your calendar for the next day and/or the coming week.

2) Develop a family dinner tradition and ask, “What’s on your schedule tomorrow?” Listen to the answers.

3) Schedule daily time with your work assistant or virtual assistant to review newly-added obligations and the next day’s agenda.

4) Keep motivated with appealing colors, auditory alerts or even calendar stickers.

5) Schedule your next appointment (with your client, doctor, salon, etc.) before leaving. If you aren’t traveling with your calendar (tsk, tsk) ask them to call you the next day to set up your next appointment.

6) Build administrative time into your schedule. Whether you’re a stay-at-home parent or a business executive (or a tearing-your-hair-out hyphenate), your schedule has to reflect time to plan what you do as much as it reflects the actual things to accomplish. Paper Doll schedules Admin Mondays to tackle planning, marketing, and finances. Figure out what works for you and set that time in stone.

Having a system but not using it can make you crazy. Get committed…so you won’t have to be committed.

Happy New Year! Paper Doll hopes your 2012 will be happy, healthy and clutter-free!

By popular request, Paper Doll is revisiting (and updating) a favorite topic: dealing with the clutter of incoming charitable giving requests.

Have you noticed that in the weeks since Thanksgiving, your mailbox is as fully and robustly overstuffed as you were in the late-night hours preceding Black Friday? Your postal carrier is struggling and your daily mail piles are exhibiting a growth spurt.

It’s not just ads and coupons, inveigling you to spend your precious little green bits of paper, and unless you’re the most popular kid in class, it’s not all holiday greetings. A huge contribution to all that Mail Call Clutter comes from requests for charitable giving!

It’s easy to become overwhelmed. Certainly, you want to help support causes about which you’re concerned (children, healthcare, the environment, animals, education, poverty…and the list goes on), but you may be troubled by some challenging obstacles to philanthropy:

Limited Funds — No one person (not even Bill Gates, Warren Buffett or Oprah), possesses the funds to solve all of the world’s troubles. Even the folks on Forbes Magazine’s 2011 list of the 400 Richest Americans can’t do it all. Do you wonder if your contribution, even if it’s more than you can comfortably provide, has the power to make a difference?

Competing Interests — Weighing charitable giving options against one another can paralyze you into doing nothing, letting the piles of requests (the letters and the envelopes and the “gifts” of greeting cards and address labels) creep across the kitchen table and overtake your office desk.

Just as you couldn’t take as much as you wanted from the Thanksgiving buffet because your elastic waistband might snap, your finances are finite and the number of charitable giving options, even just the non-profits actively seeking your help, are practically infinite. Responding to each request is no more suitable than ignoring them all but still letting the papers clutter your surroundings. The guilt of non-responsiveness will clutter your heart and mind.

Confusion Over Repeated Requests — Non-profits aren’t trying to grab your money dishonorably (as magazine subscription services do); nonetheless, they serve up an onslaught of requests, leaving you confused as to whether you’ve actually donated or not. If you give to Charity A in December, not only will you receive repeated requests over the ensuing months for “Special Giving Opportunities” to Charity A, but in many cases, you will receive requests from similarly-themed Charities B, C, D to double-Z because many non-profits earn revenue by selling their lists.

Bah. Humbug.

So, how can you resolve these frustrations?

First, give up the guilt. Receiving address labels doesn’t obligate you to make a donation any more than receiving a holiday card from a stranger obligates you to send him one. Pleading advertising copy isn’t a free ticket on the Guilt Trip Express. Use your brain so you can give from the heart.

Next, instead of choosing between the weight of guilt or the fear of exceeding your holiday or monthly budgets, remember that there are alternatives to feeling pressured into writing a check to every cause that owns a bulk mail stamp. And none involve getting a sub-prime loan, robbing street-corner Santas or letting charitable clutter creep through your home. Instead:

1) Plan your charitable giving budget. The only way to give with your heart, without resentment, is to budget your donations as you would budget for all other expenditures.

It may shock those of you conditioned by “This offer is available for a limited time only. Operators are standing by!” but non-profits are always in need of money. You may get dozens of requests for donations in December, but your contributions will be no less valuable, life-saving or appreciated if sent three or six months down the line. Pace yourself.

Create and label a manila folder to collect all of the requests you receive for holiday donations, and during a quiet moment on New Year’s Day or after, sip some hot cocoa and review them. Make a note on your calendar and treat this as if it were a formal appointment with the director of each of the non-profit organizations.

Select the charities that mean the most to you. Ask yourself, “If I could donate to only one charity, which would give me the greatest joy to help? Which would make me feel the most satisfied in my choice?”

There’s no wrong answer. While one person might donate to help political prisoners in an impoverished nation, another might choose to support an animal shelter two blocks away. Medical research to find a cure for a disease that afflicts millions is no more or less “right” than giving to one neighborhood family whose home burned down in a fire. The weight of the whole world is not on your shoulders. Give with confidence that while you handle your share, millions of other similarly good-hearted people are doing the same.

Remember: you can’t give to everyone, but you can feel good about everyone (and everything) to whom you choose to give.

As you sort through the requests, determine:

How much can you comfortably afford to give each month? Recall other pledged obligations, like to your house of worship, alma mater or public broadcasting stations.

How often do you want to donate?

How many charities will you select?

Do you want to give to 12 charities, and assign one to each month of the year (or perhaps four, with one per quarter)? Tuck the envelopes away in your tickler file or bill-paying center.

Keep the spirit of giving alive throughout the year without being overwhelmed or over budget.

Prefer to give to a few particular charities all year long? Set up a recurring donation on the same day of the month through your online bill-paying system. (You could schedule payments via credit card, but that costs non-profits extra merchant account fees.)

2) Budget cash for ad hoc giving, such as when you encounter a bell-ringer or want to purchase a meal for a homeless person.

Set aside $5 or $10 in singles in a separate section of your wallet so you can make unplanned donations without breaking your budget. After all, it’s hard to give with an open heart if you’re feeling resentful about a pinch in your pocketbook.

3) Partner with others to achieve a charitable giving goal. For example, propose that you and your networking colleagues or your Zumba buddies donate the monetary equivalent of one networking lunch or one post-class smoothie toward a specific charitable goal.

To keep the spirit going all year, create a charitable giving club the same way you’d start an investment club. Instead of collecting articles about stocks and mutual funds, collect the brochures and request letters from non-profits and bring them to your group meetings. (You’ll be less inclined to let a charitable request languish atop your microwave if you know a group member feels passionately about that cause.)

4) Educate yourself about charities. Learn about the charities to which you are considering giving financial support. Find out what percentage of donations will be used for funding programs, research, etc., and what percentage goes towards advertising, administration, etc.

The Better Business Bureau’s web site for charities offers Wise Giving Reports, explains charity accountability standards and provides background information on all the non-profits in the accredited charity directory.
CharityNavigator‘s newly expanded 2.0 ratings system evaluates the financial health of thousands of America’s largest charities. Browse by charity name or category, and check out the blog, articles and charity ratings.

The American Institute of Philanthropy operates CharityWatch.org. Review the A-Z (well, A-Y, from the AARP Foundation to the Youth Development Fund) listings of hundreds of charities to learn more about their operations.
GuideStar.org lets you verify a charity’s legitimacy, learn whether your prospective contribution will be tax deductible, view a non-profit’s IRS Form 990, or find out more about its programs, mission statement and financial activities as rated by volunteers, donors and clients.

5) Give donations that keep on giving.

Consider gifts that will live on, long after you’ve made your donation.

Microlending organizations like Kiva allow people to lend small amounts of money, via the internet, to micro-financing institutions in developing countries. Your money partners with other donations to meet a recipient’s financial needs for starting a small business abroad. Select by business type, read the profiles and pick the recipients of your loan/donation. When that loan is repaid, your money goes back into a kitty to help others. Give a Kiva gift certificate and combine gift giving and charitable giving.


Heifer International lets you donate a flock of ducks, a trio of bunnies or a share of a water buffalo to help families and communities around the world become self-reliant. Again, a gift certificate lets you combine two types of giving, heaping the gleeful honor of “ownership” on your recipients near and far.

“Give” your knitting sister a Knitter’s Gift Basket (or a 10% share), and a farming family will get a llama, an alpaca, a sheep and an angora rabbit.

GlobalGiving connects donors with over 1000 charitable projects searchable by region, campaign or beneficiary. For example, Creating Hope International and the Afghan Institute for Learning combine to provide cloth, tools and a tailoring course so Afghan women can become self-sufficient.

Some people have everything, need nothing, and want only world peace and tranquility. But even the most high-minded of us like unwrapping something shiny. Revel in special opportunities to provide gifts that, while not tangible for the giftee except in the form of a certificate, provide ineffable meaning for them and something essential and tangible to the third-party recipients — the hungry, the impoverished, the innocent, and the needy.

Finally, no matter how you give, make a notation on the request letter to show how much you donated, on what date, using what method (check, credit card, etc.). File the letter in the tax prep section of your family files until you receive an official confirmation of your donation.

Of course, you need not always give money. Donating gently-used possessions, time and service to non-profits can be even more valuable than the amount of money you could afford to donate.

Keep the spirit of giving…just let go of the piles of requests.

What are the best gifts to give to prevent clutter?

As a professional organizer, I think that the best gifts aren’t things at all. They’re experiences. There’s even academic research from various studies to back this up, including those funded by the National Science Foundation and one conducted by professors from Cornell University (my alma mater!) and the University of Colorado. The findings? That experiences (like vacations and concerts) are more likely to bring a sense of happiness, or at least satisfaction, than material possessions (like clothing and electronic gadgets).

Part of this stems from the fact that we can visually compare our possessions with those belonging to our friends, and feel that what we have is lacking. It’s much harder, however, to compare experiences, which are so much more personal, and the memories of our experiences gain value over time because they are all the more “ours” for that personalization.

Don’t buy it? Close your eyes and try to remember three tangible gifts you got last year. Or even one from the year before that. With few exceptions, the joy of receiving material goods fades from our memories…but each time we recall pleasant experiences, we tend to relive the action as if we had tiny TIVOs in our heads.

This year, give yourself and your loved ones the gift of a clutter-free holiday season. Instead of scavenging stores and wrapping oddly shaped boxes, give experiences that will never have to be stored, exchanged, dry-cleaned or dusted. Consider these clutter-free gift categories, excerpted from my ebook, Simplify the Season and Save Your Sanity.

Gifts of Entertainment — Buy your loved ones tickets to professional or college sporting events, concerts, or comedy clubs. Take them to the symphony or present them with tickets for a lecture series, winery tour or theater event. A booklet of movie vouchers, season’s tickets for the theater or even a weekend trip to see a Broadway or Vegas show will yield fond memories long after the big event.

Gifts of Pampering — For friends with too much stress or not enough money, give certificates for haircuts and styling, spa facials, or relaxing massages. (Yes, even macho men like “sportsmen” spa packages.)

Gifts of Adventure — For the thrill-lovers on your list, consider certificates for hot-air balloon rides, rock climbing or zip lines. Race fans might love the NASCAR Racing Experience or the Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure. Athletes will appreciate a week of baseball fantasy camp, pre-paid rounds of golf, or time in the batting cages. For the more casual (and loosely-defined) adventurer, bowling, miniature golf, or paintball work equally well.

Gifts of Practicality — Any driver would benefit from gift certificates for oil changes, car washes and detailing…even memberships in AAA or a similar auto club. Multiple months or even an annual subscription for internet service, Netflix, cable or satellite TV, or cellular service are practical but charmingly unexpected. For college students or those on a fixed income, comping these expenses can really lighten the load.

Gifts of Education — Knowledge is power, and skills, once learned, can last a lifetime. Consider cooking, music, or self-defense lessons. Pre-pay for a series of classes in ballroom dance, quilting, horseback riding, driver’s education, scrapbooking…whatever delights the people on your list who thirst for knowledge.

Gifts Of Whole New Year — Secure a fishing license, a U.S. National Parks pass, or a year of alumni or professional association dues. Memberships at local attractions like zoos, art galleries, science museums, and historical societies may even be reciprocated by sister organizations when your recipient is traveling nationwide.

Gifts of Organization — Such gifts aren’t just practical; they can be sanity-saving!

For a friend or colleague who is drowning in disorganization, paper shredders, fire safes, and label-makers are great clutter-reducing gifts. (Colleague Liz Jenkins reports that Staples has some super-low prices on label-makers this week, including a Brother PT-90 for $9.99 and a PT-2030 for $29.99!)

A year of off-site cloud-computing backups via Mozy, Carbonite or CrashPlan will keep someone’s digital files streamlined and the data safe and accessible, letting your recipient sleep better at night.

And, of course, you can give (or request) a personalized clutter-reducing option — a gift certificate for time with a professional organizer.

There are a variety of other great organizing-themed gifts. Paper Doll is no Oprah, but I’ve made a list of a few of my favorite things for the favorite people on your list.

1) The (Hardworking but Overwhelmed) Teacher — My colleague Helene Segura‘s new book, Less Stress For Teachers: More Time and an Organized Classroom, will help teachers tame the chaos so they can focus on what they do (and love) best.

2) The Traveling Tech Guru — Does someone in your life have a commute or a schlep with pockets and bags full of chargers and gadgets? Grid-It! from Cocoon Innovations was one the most popular of all of the items I reviewed from this year’s NAPO Conference and Expo. (I’m still moping that I got to the Grit-It table too late to get one of the giveaways, so I’ve put it on my own wish list!)

3) Your Favorite Iron Chef — Would your chance of getting your favorite dinner increase if the chef in your house could find the counter under all of those recipes? Consider a one-year gift subscription to Eat Your Books, as reviewed here just a few weeks ago.

4) The Super-Shoppers — You know those moms (and dads) who make sure that the household never runs out of toilet paper or graph paper or construction paper (yet always manage to stay under budget)? Those shoppers have special needs. For them, I have a few favorites:

• I never get over the simple utility and stylish presentation of the Card Cubby, suitable for gift cards, loyalty cards, and all forms of ID. (For background on this nifty item, see one of Paper Doll‘s 2010 NAPO expo reviews.)

• For all those treks to the grocery store, the pharmacy, the toy store, and the public library, your Super-Shopper has amassed a fine collection of re-usable tote bags which are threatening to take over the mud room, the kitchen, and the trunk of the car. The Tote Buddy, which I reviewed back in May, brings order to that chaos.

• Whether your Super-Shopper is set for a debut on Extreme Coupons or just likes to save a few shekels here and there, The Couponizer ensures that cents-off makes good sense.

5) Loved Ones At a Distance — Do you have a special someone who won’t make it back home for the holidays? Consider this eminently more practical version of a post card, the Postcup! Long after post cards yellow and fade, your message will live on in this customizable mug from Design Milk.

6) The Keepers of the Home (and Office) — Readers, you know how crazy it made Paper Doll to have to keep the Rubbermaid Bento Boxes a secret between April’s NAPO Expo sneak peak and October’s official launch. Now, this sublime line of gorgeous, practical storage can make any home or office more efficient and delightful. (Buy extras — you know you’ll want to keep a set for yourself.)

7) The Hostess With the Mostest — Do you know (or are you) a host or hostess with great party mojo but not the best culinary time management? If a little more kitchen time is necessary, the guests can be kept busy with Origami Napkins from Spinning Hat.

8) Fishy Friends — Truth be told, Paper Doll isn’t much of a pet person, but I imagine I might get along swimmingly (hee! swimmingly!) with the inhabitants of this not-remotely-paper-related gift. But there’s something terrifically nifty and organized about this Umbra Fish Hotel. The individual “suites” are stackable, in case you want to go condo!

Happy gifting, and when loved ones ask what you want for the holidays, tell them you’d like a clutter-free gift — either an experience you can remember always or a something that can add a little organization to your life.