I have been sick for the last 3 weeks, some days I’ve been more functional than others.

The nasty sinus infection that just wouldn’t leave had really taken a toll on my body. Living with a  foggy head made it tough to be on my “A” game which is what I must be every single day as a wife, mom and business owner. Good thing I have systems in place so I don’t have to worry about it so much.

My family stepped up and proved themselves quite helpful. They followed the systems and life ran smoothly around the Illig house.

Do you have a system in your home? You probably do and really didn’t think about it in that sense.

I’ll share with you some of the systems in place in our home….

1.    A schedule-it’s an outline how the day could go if everything goes as planned. It starts with waking up and goes to bedtime. I make sure we build in time for the unexpected as best we can. Even if the unexpected happens just having a...

The 1st month of 2017 has gone by, what do you have to show for it?

It’s an honest question. Were you able to stick to your goal(s) for the New Year?

If you haven’t,  no worries! That’s right…I said, NO WORRIES! I am not here to make you feel bad about yourself.

Here’s what I want to tell you…it’s February and not too late for you to make changes, set goals, whatever you need to do to become the Best YOU!

All I want you to think about is WHY…

Why do you want to accomplish that goal?

Why do you need to make this change?

Why haven’t you thought about becoming the BEST you?

Addressing the “why” is the key to success. I learned this myself. I needed to figure out my “why” in my fitness/wellness plan for the New Year. I had already fallen short by the 2nd week of January. It wasn’t looking good. One morning I was reading my daily inspiration and came across something talking about the...

I was recently reflecting on why closets seem to be the most common space people would like organized.

For me, having been a closet clutterer I think the closet is where we hide everything about ourselves. Yep, by closing that door, we’ve hidden it or have we??????

Maybe, you’ve hidden purchases from your significant other? You don’t want them to know you are a “shopper”. “No, it’s not new…I’ve had this a long time.” Sound familiar?

Perhaps you just don’t want to face how much money you’ve spent on shoes or clothes? It’s easy to throw it in the closet and pretend you didn’t buy anything!

Has a weight gain caused you to buy another size to add to that closet? I see clients with a lot of sizes in their closet. This is in hopes of getting back to the smallest size. Now, chances are that if you are carrying more than a 4 size range in your closet you are not going to wear these clothes you’ve hung...

"Help! I'm drowning in here and very overwhelmed!", this is a common statement I hear from so many clients. For many of us a home office doesn't have to be a room all its own. It may be as simple as a space in the kitchen to a larger room devoted to being a home office. As an organizer, I generally see the dysfunctional home office. 

Why is the home office such a challenge????

-It's the perfect storm of paper...

So many categories of paper ending up in this one place creates the perfect storm!

-You may not be alone...

Your office space may be in a high traffic area allowing access to everyone in your house. That's alot of extra paper!

-May have more paper than space...

Sometimes these areas end up overwhelmed by the amount of paper and the limited amount of space! Is a purge in order???

-No system in place...

The method of piling paper on a desk is the only "organizing" there is! How do you find what you are looking for??

Creating a system that works for you is not as hard as...

The nice thing about an organizing retreat is that it creates in you a sense of urgency. I know many people like working with a deadline or shall I say working up to the deadline!

You can even share this with a friend and both of you work on this. It’s easier to have someone hold you accountable and celebrate with. Don’t you agree? 

An organizing retreat is a nice way to get 5 simpler projects done in a concentrated amount of time. For this retreat I recommend picking projects that would take you no longer than 15 minutes. If you’ve never organized your space before you definitely need to start here! For the more advanced, I still recommend 15 minute projects because we all need some maintenance from time to time.

Notify the people you live with so they don’t think you’ve lost your mind! One of the things my family liked was coming home to find what I had done that day. I never told them, I just let them figure it out.

How to pick the projects? Go...

Well, I am not a fitness expert I am an expert in helping people live more organized lives. One thing I’ve noticed is that most of my clients lack some sort of exercise program. When I started on my organizing journey one of things that sustained me was my workout.  I want to show you why there is a direct correlation between the two.

Benefits of working out:

1.    Clarity of thought

2.    Positive energy

3.    Improves physical ability

4.    Reverses the effects of stress

5.    Builds self esteem

These are some of the bigger benefits. Of course, there are many more but I want to make that connection between exercise and living organize for you.

1.    Clarity of thought

Studies have told us that even mild physical activity helps keep our brains fit. 

How does this lead to living an organized life?

Clear thinking leads to better decision making. This is everything from how we...

Each year when my children go back to school it takes me back too. Not only do I go back to where my children were the year before but I also take myself back to my days in school. Not college, goodness couldn’t do that to myself again! I like going back to the K-12 years.

For me, it was all about what new outfit was I going to wear and the squeaky shoes on the newly waxed floors of the school. There is always that buzz of excitement when you realize who your teachers are. It’s almost electric!!! I really like new school supplies. There is just something about the untouched points on the crayons along with the brand new erasers on the pencils. Then there’s all of the blank pages in my notebooks just waiting for me to write all of my answers and thoughts into. Just writing this takes me back!

Now, I have 2 boys left at home and they could care less about all of that! They do like me to help them organize their binders with the tab dividers. For me, back to school...

Patriotism and inspiration are in the air….

I was watching the Olympics with my family last night, which truly inspires me. I feel like I can achieve ANYTHING when I see the athletes push through to do their very best. Don’t you? Well, this got me thinking….what if we were to think of our homes as an Olympic venue? What if we could host at least 5-10 events in a 2 week period just like the Olympic

What would that look like?

For me, it would look something like this…

Sprinting through lots of 15 minute projects

This is a good place to start unless you are an expert.

By tackling one or more of these a day you’ll be in shape like an athlete!

-dresser drawers

-junk drawers

-spice cabinet

-medicine cabinet

-cupboards ( 1 at a time)

-bookcase 

What you want to look for is anything expired, no longer wanted, no longer useful or you just don’t want it. Then you want to make the space more functional for YOU. You may add organizing...

What is it with the junk drawer? Everyone has at least 1, but probably more! Why do we have them?  Is it because we just don’t know what to do with that little random thing? Is it because we don’t feel like putting things back where they belong so they end up in the junk drawer as temporary storage? Sometimes I wonder if there is any rhyme or reason to what we hang onto.

Mostly, I see the junk drawer as a place of miscellaneous storage… which by itself is not such a bad thing. However, once the junk drawer can no longer be contained and grows into more than one, it’s time to make a change. Have you noticed that you can’t find a darn thing in the junk drawer?  I wonder why…..you need some organizing of that space.

The first thing I did for mine was to ask what was the purpose of my junk drawer? Is it to catch the stuff that winds up on the kitchen counter? Is it to make life easier by putting items in there that you would...

As a new entrepreneur I have been fortunate enough to spend  my first summer home with the boys in 10 years.  I am home unless I am out working with an organizing client. Some weeks, I am gone more than others. Try to find the balance in that! Well, I realized after about 3 weeks of not getting anything work related done unless it was outside my house I needed to make a change. I was going crazy watching another day go by and work piling up. As an entrepreneur it’s all on ME to get my work done. Since I’m a professional organizer I did what comes natural….

I made a SCHEDULE!

Yep, it had to be done. There was one for me and one for the boys. Yes, I know you are probably one of the bleeding hearts out there that says summer should be for the children to have fun. Well, there was still PLENTY of time for fun in the schedule. My high schooler was given work to do from the school and not me so he had things to do. My middle schooler however,...