I recently had the pleasure of giving a presentation on the topic of Eco-Friendly Office Organizing at the DC Ecowomen’s first all day conference in Silver Spring, MD.  It was so popular that I thought it would make a great topic for a blog post, as it is something that comes up more and more often in our society today.

Whether organizing your work or home office, the three main areas that most affect the environment are paper, plastic and electronics.  In the first part of this two-part post, I will be focusing on paper, the area that has the biggest impact both environmentally and organizationally. Keep Reading >>

Are you one of those people who has thousands of unopened email messages in your inbox? Do you receive emails you intend to act upon but then lose them in the pile of emails already sitting there? You are not alone. Email, whether we like it or not, is the main mode of communication used today, both for personal and business correspondence.  Yet many of us have so much email, the important information tends to get lost in the junk.

Here are a few important steps to take to help you regain control of your email.

Keep Reading >>

How do I love thee Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100? Let me count the ways… Keep Reading >>

Most of us women carry our lives in our purses or handbags, so it is essential that we be able to find the things in it quickly, but this is often not the case! Here are some simple steps to organizing that extra limb of your body, otherwise known as your purse: Keep Reading >>

It seems to me that in my organizing business, I see clients on either end of the shredding spectrum.  On the one hand, some feel that every piece of paper that has their name, address or any other bit of personal information on it should be shredded.  Keep Reading >>

Here’s another reason to love CatalogChoice.org! For those of you who are not already familiar with this awesome company, you need to check it out.  They have several ways to make stopping that inflow of junk mail as easy as possible, including an app for iPhone called MailStop Mobile.  Keep Reading >>

Is your kitchen pantry a mess of jumbled bags of chips and boxes of snacks?  The best way to organize a pantry is to divide your food up by category like baking, pasta, snacks, etc. and assign them a specific place on a shelf. If possible, use simple bins like these from the Container Store to store your food items so they stay together, especially great for small and unruly items like baking sprinkles, chocolate chips, and energy bars. Then make sure to label your shelves and bins so everyone know where things go when you are done with them!

One issue I tend to see with many of my clients is pages and pages of unnecessary printed paper cluttering up their home office.  As far as I see it, extra printed paper has three main drawbacks.  First, it is harmful to the environment (unless you make the effort to print with recycled paper); second, it is expensive, as printer ink does not come cheaply under any circumstances; and  third and probably most importantly, it creates unnecessary clutter and covers up the important papers and bills on your desk and in your home office.

Before printing out anything, ask yourself if you really need to print in the first place.  Could you save a document as a PDF in an electronic file folder instead?  Or could you save an email in a specially designated folder in your inbox? If you still feel you need to print, take these steps to reduce paper and ink usage:

1) Preview the document before you print if possible and only print the pages that you really need
2) Set your printer settings to their lowest quality or draft printing if it is just for home use
3) Set your printer to print double sided if possible
4) Most importantly, have a recycling bin nearby to get rid of the paper when you are done with it!

Set up and maintain one specific area of your home where you can regularly put items designated for donation.  Every time you find something that you are ready to part with, place it there.  Keep either sturdy shopping bags or grocery store bags close by so that when you get that call from your local charity pick-up, you’ll be ready with donation items to get out of your home and go to places where they will be needed and used!

As you get ready to go on your summer vacation, take an hour or so before you pack  to weed through your accumulated luggage.  It’s likely that you have way more than you use or need, especially given airline fees and restrictions on checked baggage.  Consider letting go of oversized luggage, extra tote bags, hanging suit bags, old backpacks, etc.  Think about the pieces that you tend to use over and over again, make sure there are enough for each member of the family, and donate the rest.  You’ll feel a lot lighter!