Best Results Organizing

As a professional organizer, I work with clients in all areas of their homes and offices. While any given day might find me organizing kitchens or supply closets, my heart belongs to paper. Indeed, after a first session, I often email clients links to the Family Files blog posts so they can get (almost) as excited I am about organizing their papers:

Family Filing—As easy as (eating) pie
Financial Filing—Scrapbooking snapshots of your money’s life
Mom, why is there a receipt stuffed in the turkey?
I Fought the Law…and the Paperwork Won!
Patient: “Doctor, it hurts when I do this.” Doctor: “Then don’t do that!”
Paper Dolls Live In Paper Households
I Hope Nobody Ever Writes a Nasty Tell-All Called “Paper Doll Dearest”!

Surprisingly, until very recently, nobody ever asked for blog posts on how to organize paper in the work environment. Then, a few weeks ago, one of my clients requested a primer on basic office filing categories, a system to parallel the categories of the Family Files system.

This gave me pause. It’s not that I don’t organize office filing systems (and even create them from scratch), but business files lack the kind of uniformity that make family and personal files fall so easily under the Financial/Legal/Medical/Household/Personal filing rubric.

WHAT MAKES BUSINESS FILING DIFFERENT

With families and individuals, personal files are maintained either 1) according to generally-accepted document retention guidelines for legal or financial purposes or 2) according to the personal needs and desires of the individuals. Further, personal files are maintained for the convenience of the user(s) who are also generally the owners of the paperwork. Businesses are very different.

First, business filing systems may exist for the satisfaction of a hierarchical system of personnel. If you are not the sole proprietor of a one-person company, then the filing system available to you might include items personal to you (like copies of your vacation requests) as well as items specific to projects in which you are involved, documents related to your department, copies of company-wide documentation, etc. Depending on your business situation, your files may not be your files, per se.

Second, different professions and industries have different regulations regarding what must be documented and for how long. Physicians, attorneys, and CPAs, for example, have stringent professional requirements for the type and manner of documentation they must maintain, as well as very specific requirements regarding file maintenance and destruction schedules. The American Medical Association, for example, periodically updates its guidelines for retention of medical records, as does the American Bar Association for client paperwork.

Third, all businesses (like individuals) are required to maintain records in support of their obligations for legal and tax purposes. Small businesses are not burdened by the federal corporate requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, but do not have a Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card when it comes to record-keeping.

Business are far more likely than individuals to have to track and maintain information according to rules set by different states or municipalities. All dentists may have to maintain similar types of patient or staff records, but a dentist in Iowa may have to maintain employee medical records for a different period of time than one in Maine.

GETTING STARTED

Given the above differences, it’s harder to create specific rules for the types of files needed for business. However, we can outline specific filing needs for the simplest situation: the one-person business owner. From there, each individual can modify and extrapolate to fit his or her own filling needs.

DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN ACTION AND REFERENCE

One of the biggest problems I see in business settings, whether in small home-based offices, cubical farms or executive offices, is a wacky mixture of action and reference files. The paperwork in your business life can actually be divided into four categories:

1. Action
2. Red-Hot Reference
3. General Reference
4. Archival Reference

Action paperwork is relatively straightforward — it’s the paperwork related to “the stuff you gotta do”. Any piece of paper representing a task that requires activity on your part falls into this category.

Store action paperwork separately from all the different types of reference paperwork. Your action-oriented papers and files will be best maintained in a tickler file or a file riser.

If you tend to have loose, unrelated pieces of paper or more “orphaned” tasks than projects, a tickler file will probably be your best bet.

However, if your work mainly requires a small set of follow-up activities — filling out forms, making phone calls, entering data, etc. — using a file riser with a file for each task type may suffice.

Time may also be a deciding factor. If your work is time sensitive, such that you need to meet outside deadlines for completing your tasks, a tickler file is a superior action paper management system. Conversely, if your tasks are not at all deadline-driven, a file riser provides a more relaxed approached to task-oriented paperwork.

Lastly, Smead’s tiered Stadium File, which we reviewed previously, can provide a hybrid system for dealing with action papers.

‘FILE’ DOESN’T HAVE TO MEAN A FILE FOLDER

In general, when Paper Doll talks about files, you’re probably thinking of 1/3-cut manila folders for individual accounts, persons, vendors, etc., grouped with like items and housed in hanging folders. And that’s usually what I mean. However, not all papers have to be placed in file folders.

One particular category of business papers is well-suited to storage in three-ring binders or notebooks instead of file folders:

Red-Hot Reference — Red Hot Reference is the term I use with clients to differentiate between super-important reference materials and run-of-the-mill general reference information. These are the documents that need to have prime real estate on or near your desk so that data can be gleaned with minimal effort and maximum speed.

Red Hot Reference includes:

• Vital Contacts — Even if you have a computer database or a pre-programmed phone, there are going to be phone numbers, extensions, hot lines, email addresses and shipping information for customers, vendors, and support team members that you’ll need to grab quickly. As I referenced in last week’s post on creating a Business Bible, there are situations when the internet, your company’s intranet system or even plain old electricity may fail you. In those moments, having vital contacts at your fingertips will save time, effort and sanity.

Many of my clients formulate their Red Hot Reference contact lists by regularly inputting or updating information in their contact management systems and then using the built-in “print” functions to create booklets. Although not all digital systems have this function, it’s a good place to start.

However, there’s a difference between having information somewhere and having it at your fingertips. After all, telephone books (remember them?) have practically every number one might need, but nobody leaves the telephone book for the baby sitter. Instead, wise parents create an essential list of emergency numbers — parents’ cells, grandparents, pediatrician, Poison Control, etc. For your business, only you know which numbers (major vendors, labs, clients/customers, etc.) that you need to reach on a frequent or emergency basis. Those are the numbers that should go on your Red Hot Reference emergency contact list.

If your vital contacts fit on just a few pages, skip the three-ring binder and slot two sheets back-to-back in a plastic sheet protector. Slide it under your keyboard or post it on the bulletin board or the side of your filing cabinet. Ease of access is the key!

• Deal Points — When I worked as a television program director, it was necessary to know each programming contract’s basic “deal points” — the essential terms of each contract. Whatever your business, having a cheat sheet of contractual obligations — of your rights and responsibilities — can save you time and money, not only during telephone and in-person negotiations, but during daily operations.

Create a spreadsheet with all of the common terms of your contracts (start and end dates, payments due, extra fees, etc.). Once you’ve created a column for each deal point, enter the contract name in the first column and then fill in the appropriate information. Being able to check this information at a glance will help you keep everyone on their toes!

• Emergency Procedures –Depending on your business operations, putting emergency procedures into place may be as simple as changing the outgoing message on the voicemail or as complicated as involving HAZMAT, SWAT and the FBI. The important thing is that in a time of emergency, whether large or small, you don’t have to depend on your memory to know what to do.

Think about the stresses you’ve had in your business, or the emergencies you’ve heard your colleagues report, and start brainstorming instructions for the Emergency Procedures notebook. Think in terms of:

Financial Operations — If your bank’s main website login page is down, is there an alternate method for you to access your funds and make transfers?

Legal Operations — Depending on the type of business you operate, your legal emergency procedures might include step-by-step instructions for what to do if your business vehicle is involved in an accident or how to act if you find you’ve been a victim of online plagiarism. Having written “first response” procedures in place protects you (and those acting on your behalf) from going off half-cocked.

Physical Operations — Do you know how to flip the breakers or turn off the plumbing/water flow for your office in case of electrical or weather emergencies?

Marketing — Would you know who to contact if an emergency required you to pull your radio, TV or print advertising? If your Facebook account were hacked, do you have alternative administrators in place to oversee your Facebook business page?

Technical — Have you written down the procedures regarding what to do when common (and not so common) technical problems arise? Do you know the steps for resetting your wireless router?

Action and Red Hot Reference files are just the first two aspects of assuring your business files are at the ready. Next week, we’ll examine the different categories of reference files to keep your records (and your operations) kosher. Just as personal and family files have five main categories: financial, legal, medical, household and personal, all business files can fall under a five-part rubric:

–Financial
–Legal
–Marketing
–Operational
–Personal

Until next week, Paper Doll urges you to start separating your action files from your reference files and to start identifying and/or creating your Red Hot Reference paperwork.

Here at Paper Doll Central, we tend to fixate on personal paperwork — the documents that keep us financially and legally on the straight and narrow, medically protected and personally safe and fulfilled. We also focus on the papers keeping our homes and possessions well-tended. Sometimes, the business side of things gets short shrift.

Over the next few posts, we’re going to delve into some topics to help professionals cover their paper bases. Today, we start with emergency preparedness.

Years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, Paper Doll was a television program director. TV can be a loud, wacky, disorganized place to work, but my office was a sea of calm. Shining like a beacon on one dedicated shelf, there was a three-ring notebook emblazoned with the title: If I Get Hit By a Bus.

This magic wand of a notebook detailed locations of vital items (blank satellite schedules, contract templates, updated film fault inventories, etc.) and whom to contact (and how) in case of certain types of emergencies. Most importantly, the book contained a painstakingly comprehensive series of bulleted procedures for daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual tasks, from filing quarterly FCC reports to manipulating satellite schedules.

Thankfully, I never got hit by a bus, but I was once grounded on a tarmac at a large mid-western airport, in the days before cell phones. Using the notebook, my assistant was able to switch out the week’s satellite feeds, reschedule appointments, and generally, keep things moving forward until I could take flight.

It’s scary to think about what kinds of unexpected situations may face us as professionals or small business owners. Rented buildings may be unexpectedly closed for extermination or repairs of structural, plumbing or electrical damage. Floods, forest fires and severe, inclement weather can keep us from getting to our offices and power outages may render that inaccessibility a moot point. And, as much as we hope and pray otherwise, we are not immune to illnesses and accidents ranging from the merely annoying to the life-threatening.

EMERGENCY VERSIONS OF YOURSELF

For years, I talked about the use of a Business Bible in the abstract and helped clients create their own. But in recent years, I’ve been able to refine my suggestions based on personal experience.

In 2009, I was hospitalized several times, mostly unexpectedly. And earlier this year, in the aftermath of a series of tornadoes, I had no electricity, telephone or internet service for the better part of a week. In the first case, my business was there, but I was unavailable. In the second, I was available, but all business operations, including communications, had ceased. In both situations, I needed someone to be me and represent my business when I was unable to do so.

In a corporate structure, there are supervisory, supporting and lateral positions delineated to cover when an individual is unavailable. The solopreneur has no such luck. If you have an employee, a spouse or an adult child, you have built-in solutions; if you’re on your own, make time now, before an emergency, to think through your alternatives. For example, you could authorize:

— A trusted friend or relative (outside your immediate geographic area) to pick up the pieces. You would need to brief this individual, in advance of any emergency, on your general procedures and he or she would need adequate business savvy and strong communication skills to act on your behalf.

Can the person you select handle complex tasks for extended periods? How would you cope with an error made by a loved one volunteering to help? Are you comfortable giving someone access to all your passwords and trusting that bills will be paid and funds transferred properly?

— A virtual assistant whom you would pay to accomplish essential tasks. This is a relationship you would want to put in place prior to any emergency so that you could trigger assistance quickly and easily.

Depending on the nature of a crisis, Emergency You may need to take hours, days or weeks to accomplish what must be done. No matter how loved or trusted, can your best-friend-since-college or sibling-in-law carry this load without struggling to tend to his or her own obligations? Does a fiduciary relationship, where you’d be paying a VA, absolve you of any stress or guilt you might feel in foisting the load onto a loved one?

The question may be, “Can I afford a virtual assistant?” or it may be “Can I afford not to involve a virtual assistant?” Avoiding the decision is no solution.

Creating a Business Bible is a way of securing all the information that is absolutely essential for you to keep your business afloat in the face of disaster. Let’s look at the essential elements.

In the event of a crisis, identify multiple methods (office numbers, cell numbers, email addresses, mailing addresses, etc.) for contacting:

–Employees
–Independent contractors/Outside sales personnel
–Clients/Customers/Patients
–Hot or warm prospects
–Vendors
–Support team:

• Corporate banker and/or branch manager
• Attorney
• CPA
• Bookkeeper
• Web designer
• Professional organizer
• Delivery service
• Off-site storage service
• Payroll processing company

2) Financial Essentials:
In an emergency where you are unable to get to your office, would you be able to access all of the following data?

• Bank account numbers and bank contact information
• Insurance account numbers, agent contacts and the toll-free claims number
• Payroll records (if processed on-site)
• Past three months of balance sheets
  Current aging on accounts receivable
• Current status of accounts payable
• An inventory of all assets, including location(s) — Itemize assets kept off-site, such as in storage, at a warehouse, in a safe deposit box or at an attorney’s or CPA’s office.
• IDs and passwords

These days, all but the most Luddite among us keep many of these records digitally. However, if all records are kept solely in one location (on one computer or on a server without outside access) rather than being backed up on flash drives, external hard drives or in highly secure cloud storage, physical destruction of the workplace or inability to reach the workplace yield the same problem: no access to vital data.

Also, I wouldn’t be Paper Doll if I didn’t mention that, in addition to automated or diligently-scheduled digital backups, I still believe in a carefully curated emergency 3-ring binder. Update it weekly or monthly with major changes and make sure it travels home with you nightly. (Eliminate passwords from the printed Business Bible to decrease exposure between your home and office. Just keep an updated copy in your home safe.)

3) Planning Documents:
Calendar with appointment schedule or bookings, including locations for sessions not on-site — Site-based locations like beauty salons or dental offices need contact information to cancel appointments when the office shuts down. Conversely, professional organizers or real estate agents may be able to get to clients, but not know how to get there if internet service or cell phones satellite positioning is out.

Chart of major customer, financial or legal deadlines — These documents need to be updated either weekly, or upon scheduling of deadlines.

List of big upcoming projects and goals — In the aftermath of a crisis, this will allow you to think about important issues rather than just trying to think of them.If your office solely tracks this kind of information on paper calendars or white boards, take clear digital photos or scan calendars and upload the information throughout the week to a cloud-based system that can be accessed from anywhere.

4) Templates and Checklists:

If an emergency causes a business interruption, you’ll want to get up and running as quickly as possible. However, physical and emotional stress can have a powerful and negative impact on cognitive abilities. You might have asked the same questions the same ways, day-in and day-out for decades, but surviving a crisis (or struggling while in the middle of one) may turn your memory into Swiss cheese. Combat cognitive cheesiness with documents (in digital or paper form) that remember the important issues for you. For example:

Procedural/Task Checklists — Identify your daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual tasks as they relate to marketing, finances and administrative work. You may think you’ll remember to enter information into your CRM program on a daily basis or transfer money to cover payroll every Thursday, but sometimes you won’t remember that today is Thursday. These kinds of checklists will ensure that you can delegate tasks, not only in emergency situations, but when you decide that life is enough back to normal that you can even take a vacation.

Client consultation questions — If you don’t already have a customer questionnaire you use, but generally ask the same series of questions, committing these to writing has two advantages. Not only does it provide you with the equivalent of a memory bank during or after an emergency, but it’s a solid beginning in case you ever want to create training documents for growing your company.

Reply Templates — Do you get new prospect inquiries, invitations for media interviews, employment applications or requests for donations of services/products?

Every inquiry you get today can probably be answered with an almost identical reply to one you gave yesterday. Look at one of your typical reply emails, then treat each paragraph as a module (greeting, questions answered, information about your philosophy and company, links to further information and a closing). From this, create a standard reply document.

Next, review some responses you’ve given multiple times in less common situations and create templates for those occasions. For example, I tend to get inquiries regarding general organizing services, requests to buy gift certificates, questions about hoarding and inquiries about how to become a professional organizer. By having general language written in advance, I’m able to customize responses when situations have small variances from the norm, but can still reply quickly. During and after emergencies, having access to these templates will save time, effort and money.

Documents — Develop templates for anything that requires providing information to others or for them to return information to you, including:

• Information Requests (e.g., biographical data, insurance information, tastes and preferences, etc.)
• Invoices and financial statements
• Client session recaps/reviews
• Performance surveys
• Testimonial

LAST THOUGHTS

Obviously, having a Business Bible is only one step in organizing your company to protect it from disasters. To familiarize yourself with the U.S. Government’s advice for businesses, please check out the business division of Ready.gov.

Finally, Paper Doll wants you to consider your answers to the following questions:

Who have you designated to act on your behalf in case of emergency? Have you actually put your delegation plan in place?

When was the last time you backed up your entire computer (including operating system and preferences and not just individual documents)?

When was the last time you tested your backup to make sure it was complete?

Dear Paper Doll:

I admit, I’m a fashionista. My mobile phone has pretty skins so I can make it match my outfits. I try to be digital, but some of my life (OK, a lot of my life), including my family stuff and work stuff, exists on paper and I spend a lot of my time going to meetings in other locations. I need something stronger than a file folder, prettier that those brown accordion files that lawyers use and neater than tossing it all into my bag. Help me be mobile without being a mess!

As a professional organizer, I work with many clients who need their papers organized for maximum mobility.

Work — Do you travel by plane, train or automobile for your career? Even if you’re all about digital documentation and living in the cloud, you’ll still have trouble going entirely paperless. And, unless you’re selling software (or the concept of software-as-a-service), you’re going to need some kind of paperwork (brochures, contracts, specifications, etc.) to share with prospective and actual clients.

Search and Research — Imagine yourself visiting schools with your college-bound teen. Universities are all super high tech, and application forms whiz through cyberspace, but there are still mountains of brochures, lists, instructions and forms to collect, review, and return. Similarly, if you’re thinking of relocating for a new job, as you tour a possible community, you’ll be collecting everything from housing applications to fliers telling you which restaurants deliver.

Medical paperwork — As I’ve discussed at length in my Vital Signs series (here and here, especially) on medical paperwork, there’s so much information and documentation you need to carry with you to appointments, tests and consultations. Although a three-ring binder works wonders, it’s not the only option.

Personal projects — Whether you’re a PTA parent or a genealogy guru, when you amble far from home or your office, you’re going to need to corral the papers related to committees, projects and tasks.

We’ve talked at length about all the different ways to keep your paperwork organized when you have to be mobile:

Trapper Keepers & Diaper Bags–Keys to Organizing Mobile Paperwork (Intro)

Mobile Mavens: Keeping the Personal Paper Portable When You’re Out and About

A Culinary Model for Successful Mobile Offices

All of those solutions for carrying papers are valid, but they tend to lean heavily on options for schlepping a whole lot of papers at one time. Beyond that, today’s reader wrote in because she wanted something that’s not only utilitarian, but fashion-forward as well. Thus, we’re looking for some lightweight totes that aren’t exactly lightweights in their file toting categories. Well, I’ve got some doozies for her (and you)!

Die Cuts With A View (DCWV), a standout in the scrapbooking and crafting market, has a sideline in pretty little file totes. While form is given priority over function, the latter hasn’t been given short shift. Each 10 1/4″ high x 11 3/4″ wide tote has seven divided file compartments and a tiny elastic closure at the top that leaves no impediment for one-finger carrying. The DCWV totes are designed to match the rest of their style lines with file folders, clipboards, three-ring binders, note cards and photo albums.

In addition to the Loft style, above, DCWV’s design lines include

   

MiCasa and Safari (above), and each retails for about $13.49.

My favorite tote line is from Galison, based on the stylings of designers and artists as varied as Paula Smail and Andy Warhol, and works from various museum exhibits. Below is Smail’s Henry Road tote in all its pretty-in-pink glory.

The durable reinforced paper tote measures 11 1/2″ high x 12 1/2″ wide x 3 1/2″ deep, has eight interior dividers and a fashion-coordinated elastic closure. The Galison file tote retails for about $20.

Although the current Galison File Tote line is lovely, it’s worth searching Amazon for their Pretty File Tote line extensions, which includes the William Morris (he of the belief that one ought “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”) Morning Garden design:

Perhaps you like the lines of the above totes but are looking for something a little less sedate? College students and others on the cutting edge might particularly like the very similar file tote at Room It Up.

RIU’s slightly more squarish accordion-style File Folder Totes measure 11 5/8″ high x 12 7/8″ high x 3 1/2″ deep and have eight divider slots. Reinforced paper gussets strengthen the totes and increase paper capacity. They come in bold, psychedelic patterns like Bright Bloom, SoHo Swirl and Dream Dot (pictured below):

and are priced at a student-friendly $12/tote.

If all of this color isn’t quite your thing, or you prefer to create and show off your own pretty folders and designs, The Container Store’s Our Translucent File Tote may suit the minimalist in you.

A bit wider than the other totes, Our Translucent Tote is 15″ wide x 13″ high x 4″ deep and is made of translucent polypropylene side panels bound with reinforced black polypropylene/canvas. Reviewers give this tote high marks, both for its durability and low price of about $6.

If the translucent approach seems vaguely familiar, it may be because Paper Doll previously reviewed the Peter Walsh [In] Place System. Sold separately from the introductory kit, the [In] Place Tote is available at Office Max.

 

The translucent, water-resistant polypropylene material is durable, and the handles are expandable/collapsible for convenience. This tote can be used with regular files, but is designed to work particularly well with the whole [In] Place System of translucent (and slippery) document envelopes, sleeves and file folders. The tote retails for $10.49.

Designer school and office accessory store Carolina Pad‘s Hot Chocolate line includes totes that are a little boxier, with reinforced edges and shaping more in line with a traditional portfolio case or oversized lunch box.

The polypropylene Hot Chocolate totes, including the Pixie Sticks pattern displayed above, measure 13″ wide x 10″ high x 3″ deep and have 26 divider pockets. The totes are water-resistant and have flip-over tops with attached briefcase-style handles and plastic twist closures.

Are you seeking refined elegance? We’ve previously-reviewed the gorgeous and durable JamieRaquel LIFEStyle Totes:

which certainly do make a bold, beautiful statement. However, they are designed for carrying a weighty bulk of paperwork and accessories.

But what if you want Big Time Glamour without big guns (you know, bulky biceps)?

I’d originally planned to share the Audrey five-file and eight-file totes from Russell + Hazel, which came in gloriously chic black and white designs, and which had been patterned after vintage Hollywood pieces.

The Audrey measured 11 1/4″ high x 12 3/4″ wide x 2 1/2″ deep, and came with detachable leather straps, a glossy coated exterior, a stylish interior pattern and tabbed pockets. The luxuriously sleek design was suitable for active use by Audrey Hepburn or Grace Kelly. It didn’t even tip over from a standing position.

Sadly, between the time Paper Doll discovered the Audrey and when there was an opening in the editorial calendar, Russell + Hazel discontinued the line. However, while I am a bit crestfallen, I’m happy to note that upscale style isn’t completely absent from the fashion landscape.

The Bella Leather Expandable Totes from See Jane Work are handcrafted from fine Italian leather.

The totes are available in four rich colors (Black, British Tan, a soft Pink and a rich Purple that deserves to be called “aubergine”) and have nine sturdily-gusseted pockets:

The Bella totes have detachable leather handles with elegant contrasting stitching detail, making them not only easier to carry than typical expanding file totes, but decidedly more fashionable. Retailing at $96, the Bella line carries a heftier price tag, but you’re likely to own it for much longer and be even more inspired to carry it and make a splashy, yet classy, entrance.

Finally, if you live your life such that the aesthetics of class and elegance take a backseat to packing a wallop of a message, To and Fro Totables from Perpetual Kid will help you get that message across loud and clear:

Measuring 11 1/2″ high x 13″ wide x 3.5″ deep, these reinforced accordion sided totes have messages on both sides, which are sometimes contradictory:

The To and Fro tote line offers the take-work-home gal (or guy) an opportunity to show some spunk. (Just remember what Mr. Grant told Mary Richards about employees having spunk!) The To And Fro Totables run about $13 to $16.

Wherever you go, whatever you do, just remember that your own personal style, and not that of a file tote, is what will carry the day. And if anyone disagrees, send ’em to Paper Doll. I’ll set them straight for you!

Recently, a loyal reader wrote in to inquire if I ever get tired of organizing paper, and wanted to know what other things are going on at Paper Doll Central when I’m not writing this blog.

As to the first question, I have to admit, I’m a geek. I really do love organizing all kinds of paper, and probably wouldn’t get bored even if I were setting up family filing systems every day of the week.

As for what else I’m doing during this wacky heat wave, you might expect that I’d be tempted to say “as little as possible” — but the truth is, Paper Doll has been wildly busy this summer. Consider today’s post an old-fashioned postcard for filling you in on my activities.

BIG ORGANIZING IDEAS FOR SMALL PEOPLE

July is Purposeful Parenting Month, and in support of that, I’ve been exceeding the boundaries of paper organizing in quite a few ways. For example, last week, I wrote about helping children get organized for Tiffany Merritt’s fabulous

Stuff Parents Need blog. The first part, Teaching Your Kids to be Organized (Hallelujah!!!), ran last Monday, July 18, and the second part, Getting Your Kids Organized, ran on Thursday, July 21.

For those of you unfamiliar with Stuff Parents Need, be assured it’s not the kind of product review site that encourages conspicuous consumption of things that turn into clutter. Fellow Chattanooga-based blogger Tiffany, the mother of an active and adorable two-year-old little girl, tests and evaluates products and isn’t afraid to speak her mind. She focuses on resources that she feels provide value to growing families and eschews those that just fill up space. No wonder we get along so well!

Stuff Parents Need also runs giveaways (like this one) fairly frequently. Paper Doll readers know that just because something is free, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s worth bringing into your space, but a detailed review offers insight into a product’s relative merits. Even if you’re not a parent or even a Savvy Auntie, you’ll likely be entertained by Tiffany’s charming narratives and frankly adorable pictures.

As for Purposeful Parenting Month, guest posting was only part of how I celebrated. I also worked with an organizing client to create systems in a truly progressive homeschool classroom (which actually inspired the post Paper Doll Adjusts the Vertical Hold: Space-Saving Solutions from a few weeks ago).

And by the time you read this, I will have just finished a presentation on organizing families of multiples for the Chattanooga Area Mothers of Multiples Club, a local chapter of a national organization providing resources and camaraderie for parents of multiples. (If you or someone you know has twins, triplets or a “higher order of multiples”, you might want to check out the National Organization of Mothers of Twins Clubs (NOMOTC) for support.)

SMALL ORGANIZING TIPS FOR BIG PEOPLE

Although much of July has been focused on organizing tiny humans, Paper Doll isn’t always thinking small. Sometimes, I’m thinking about small ways to make big changes, and in that way, I’ve enjoyed the opportunities I’ve had recently to participate with other professional organizers and similarly-minded souls as part of an ongoing project put together by Stephanie Calahan.

Stephanie has come up with a great way to crowdsource productivity tips and solutions. Just last week, Paper Doll contributed to Creative Uses for 3M Post-It Notes (you can see my response at #17), a collection of responses that serves as a great companion piece to Paper Doll‘s own post from last July, Organizing With Post-It Notes: Revenge of the Floozies! I really enjoyed sharing the spotlight with colleagues such as Ellen Delap, Lisa Mark, Janet Barclay (of whom, more later), and Cena Block.

Of course, this hasn’t been my only foray into playing in this cozy productivity sandbox. Please also peruse some other recent contributory/participatory organizing, time management and productivity tip-a-paloozas, including:

• Staying Focused and Avoiding BSOs – 31 Tips to Take You to Focused Success

• Mastering the Art of Re-Purposing Your Work and You’ll Save Multiple Hours — 50 Ideas To Get You Started

• Best Business Technology for Small Businesses & Their Owners

JOINING THE CAUSE, SPREADING THE WORD

This summer also included the fun opportunity of participating in the inaugural post of Krista Colvin’s new series as part of The SHEbang. In The Organizer’s House, Krista gives readers the opportunity to peek behind the curtain into the homes of other professional organizers. So, breaking from the expected, I posted not about paper, but about my junk drawer!

And if that weren’t enough to keep me busy, I wrote a (not-so) little testimonial for our friends at Rubbermaid. And no, it’s not about the fabulously Top Secret product I hinted about here (the launch for which my sources say will now be in October), but about Rubbermaid’s new Glass with Easy Find Lids. Click on the Reviews section to find my Fridge to Oven to Table contribution at the Rubbermaid site (which, although I submitted my name, lists me as an anonymous professional organizer) or you can see the review on Amazon.

I’D LIKE TO THANK THE ACADEMY

My favorite part of being a professional organizer involves helping others — whether that’s through the Paper Doll blog, hands-on organizing, my new foray into virtual organizing and time management services, public speaking (whether for specialized audiences like the Moms of Multiples or last Saturday’s presentation as part of Chattanooga’s Stress Away Day), or media appearances. But it would be disingenuous for me to say it’s not a little heady to have one’s work appreciated by others.

In that respect,  I’m proud to say that Paper Doll has been included in Tracy Myers’ Best 50 Blogs About Reducing Clutter, where I am in excellent company with many of my professional organizing colleagues.

Speaking of fine company, I am honored that Paper Doll was recently named a

Star Blogger as part of the monthly Professional Organizers Blog Carnival run by Janet Barclay of Organized Assistant. Star Blogger status is conferred once an organizing blogger’s posts have appeared ten times in the carnival series. Right now, I’m tickled to stand among the (currently) one dozen Star Bloggers. I’ve lost count as to how many Paper Doll posts have been part of the carnival, but I can tell you that the most recent was in July’s The Fun Side of Organizing.

So, although almost all of us are melting from the heat, be assured that Paper Doll Central remains active and engaged in the fight against disorganization. I’m gratified that you’re reading the blog, and there’s so much more to be found at Best Results Organizing, including the monthly newsletter, Best Results for Busy People.

Until next we meet, let me just say:

Having an organized time! Wish you were here!