My New Book is Free - Twelve Steps to Destressing Christmas!

      
I've just released my new book Twelve Tips for Destressing Christmas on Kindle! And it's free through November 7! Twelve Tips for Destressing Christmas helps you plan an intentional, meaningful, and peaceful Christmas. It's a small book for the organizationally overwhelmed, as are all my organizing books - each addressing only one topic at a time. 

So stop by Kindle and pick it up. I'd be delighted if you passed this on to your friends and family. :)

 

Best Practices for Organizing Gmail

Jill Duffy in PCMag's Get Organized offers the following advice for organizing your Gmail. 

Gmail is one of the most popular email services. Whether you use it for personal communication, work, or both, you'll get more out of it if you understand how a few core features work.

This edition of Get Organized, a weekly series, explains a couple of Gmail's signature features and explains how best to use them to keep your email account effectively organized so you can be more productive.

Message Threads
As all Gmail users know, a continuous email exchange gets stacked into a thread. The number of messages in a thread always appears in parentheses next to the summary of names on the exchange, a thread count, if you will. 

 
The message thread is one of my favorite features of Gmail because when six people reply to one single group email, all I see is one unread thread rather than six unread messages. What I internalize is that there is a discussion that requires me attention. If I see six unread messages, I instead get the feeling that six things require my attention.

When you open a thread, messages that you've already read remain collapsed, while unread messages expand.

Best practice: One of the best tricks in managing threads is to keep them intact as long as they don't deviate off topic. When they do change topic, start a new thread simply by changing the subject line when you reply. You don't have to start a whole new message. All the recipients will be included in the new thread, and the history of your communication will still be archived within the message itself, under the ellipsis that says "show trimmed content" when you hover over it (see below), so anyone can reference it.

Labels
If there were one single feature that signifies Gmail, it would be labels. The way to understand labels is to describe what they are not: folders. Labels in Gmail often look like folders, and to some extent they achieve the same end. But labels are fundamentally different than folders, and mistaking them for folders will really limit what you can do with Gmail.

Let me start by explaining a little bit about folders. Email folders, often designed in a tree structure with the ability to add sub-folders, work similar to how real-world folders do. You file things into them. If you have a message to file, you can only file it into one folder.

Labels in Gmail look an awful lot like folders at first glance. When you create a new label, it appears on the left rail, similar to where you'll see folders (with default settings anyway) in Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, and Outlook. These Gmail labels can have colors assigned to them, too, making them look even more like folders.

So what's the difference?

Any given message thread can have more than one label, such as "work," "October 2012," and "urgent." Gmail also gives you two labels automatically: stars and "important," designated by a yellow tag on the left side of messages that are sent directly to you, i.e., not listservs, advertisements, or other mass mailing.

Think of labels more like tags. And the visual labels that you see on the left rail—think of those as a quick button to sort all the messages that have a certain tag. Note that even your inbox is just a label. When you click on a label on the left rail, you'll see new text automatically appear in the search box at the top.

This text is helping to refine your search to only messages with the label in question. Remember, Google is the company behind Gmail, and Google that company was founded as a search tool.

Best practice: Use labels in Gmail liberally because they aren't a substitute for folders, but rather a way to categorize or tag items and make them more searchable.

Power users should explore the Settings area to configure more advanced labeling attributes. For example, you can set up rules or filters to divert certain kinds of mail to a label, and have that label show up in your left pane only when it contains unread messages.

More on organizing email:

A very simple filing system for email and paper

Declutter Your Inbox by Forwarding Responsibly

Five Tips on How Writers Can Organize Their Constant Stream of Information


 

Destressing Christmas - Freeze-Ahead Recipes

     
As it gets closer to Christmas, life gets more hectic. It becomes harder to put a healthy meal on the table with Christmas programs, shopping, and parties added to your already busy schedule.

If you have the opportunity, double up on some freezable meals or partial meals.  Some recipes that lend themselves to doubling and freezing are: taco meat, spaghetti sauce, lasagna, chili, soup, baked ziti, and meatloaf. 

If you're making breads, make two loaves and freeze one for your family later or for gifts.  

If you make Christmas cookies, make up the cookie dough now for the kinds of cookies your family likes. Freeze it in small batches - I like to flatten the dough in gallon zip-lock bags, so they stack nicely in the freezer. Then when it's time to have fresh Christmas cookies, take out what you need, form into cookies, and bake. Most of the work is already done!

By working ahead now, your freezer recipes may save the day when life gets more hectic!

More on cookies:

Cookies, Cookies, Cookies

Time-Saving Steps For Rolled/Cut Out Cookies

Getting a Jump on Christmas Cookies

Use the Chore Quotient Before You Buy to Prevent Clutter

    
Pat Jeffries of the Oregonian has come up with a formula to keep us from buying items that will just sit on the shelf. It's called a Chore Quotient. Read on ...

"We all know that the best way to fight clutter is to bring fewer things into the house, but that's easier said than done. Still, there's one category of stuff that's especially crucial to keep out -- those things that from the start are doomed to end up gathering dust. 

'From the start,' of course, is with the benefit of hindsight, when we look back and realize we never should have bought that breadmaker or chain saw.  But it can often be hard, when we're caught up in buying mode, to see that the thing will never pan out for us.

So, the Chore Quotient is one way to identify at least a subgroup of  things that are best left on the store shelves. It's a measure of the item's potential for creating chores. Here's my formula:

Chore Quotient = Time required to maintain the item multiplied by degree of displeasure or difficulty (on a scale where 1 is pleasant and 10 is unbearable). The higher the CQ, the less likely you are to keep up with using it. 

That might mean clothing or linens that require ironing or dry cleaning; dishware that must be hand-washed; bird feeders that need regular cleaning to protect avian health; and so on.

For me, high-CQ items tend to be power tools, which I buy in an effort to make tasks easier. But if a tool isn't intuitive to use -- if I have to review the manual when I haven't used the tool for a while -- then, usually quite soon, it will fade into the background and never be used again. Result: money lost, clutter gained. Then there are the books I buy to learn something that I think I should know but that bores me; those books linger reproachfully on the shelf, unread. 

Your own high-CQ items may be quite different, but the general idea applies.  When you're about to buy something, in addition to the usual questions about the item's cost-benefit ratio and ecological footprint, ask whether it will be a chore to use or maintain, and if so, how annoying a chore. This judgment is, necessarily, subjective. Take, for example, adopting a pet: This may add a lot of chores, but since most of them are pleasant (brushing a cat, walking a dog), the CQ for many of us seems low. (OK, disposing of that dead mouse on your doorstep isn't fun, but nothing's perfect.)

So, next time you're tempted to buy, especially some big-ticket item, pause and take a mental peek at the future. You just might change your mind." 

More on preventing clutter:

Zero Trash in a Year - Could You Do It?

An Easy Way to Change Your Address or Eliminate Unwanted Paper Mail

6 Ways to Prevent Yourself from Bringing Clutter Home

Martha Stewart's Clever Pan Storage

I saw this on Martha Stewart and thought it was a clever and outside-the-box idea for storing pans. I do hate having to pick up baking pans in order to get to the one I want. My only concern is whether you'd be able to store as many pans and baking dishes as when you nest them.

"Stacking pans as opposed to nesting them means you can remove one without having to remove them all. Turn a vertical bakeware organizer on its end and secure it to the cabinet wall with cable clips to prevent toppling."

More on kitchen storage:

Containerizing Your Kitchen

Get Organized Month - Organize Your Refrigerator Freezer

I'm Quoted in Kitchen Clean-Up Article!

Destressing Christmas - Tackle Toy and Other Clutter Now

          
Christmas can add clutter to your home, especially to your child's room. To head it off, declutter now!

This is a great time of year to encourage your child to declutter toys before being inundated with more! Before a birthday is another good time to declutter. Even three- and four-year olds can grasp the concepts of outgrown toys, generosity, and order.

How to encourage your child to get rid of excess:

- Help your child envision giving toys to a younger friend or sibling, a disadvantaged child, your church or a charity. One of our foster daughters kept picturing her clothes making a younger child happy, which motivated her to get rid of four bags of clothes!

- Be sensitive to your child's sentimental favorites, yet help him learn to discriminate between favorites and toys that have lost their appeal.

- If your child is having difficulty, make it a two-step process. One of our daughters agreed to putting a bag of stuffed animals in the attic. After several months, she was able to part with many of them.

- Determine beforehand how much toy storage your child's room will allow or how much storage you will allow. These may be two different things! Just because a room has space, doesn't mean it needs to be jam-packed! When you're out of storage space, toys must be discarded or put away. (We put a way two-thirds of our girls' toys and swapped out toys three times a year.)

- Create limits - so many of one type of toy. If a new one comes in, an old one goes out.

- Discard broken toys or those that have missing pieces.

If your child declutters a couple of times a year, excess will be controlled, and her room will be manageable and pleasant. 

Make sure your child has a system - a place for books, a place for larger toys (I recommend shelves), bins or boxes for toys with many parts, a place for collections or special items, and a place for papers, a trash can, and a laundry basket. In my opinion, large toy boxes create frustration - your child cannot easily find toys or tries to yank out tangled toys creating breakage. 

Don't stop decluttering until there is no clutter and the room is peaceful. When Christmas comes, there will be adequate space for your child's new toys!
 
Set aside time each day for your child to maintain the system - time to make the bed, put away toys, throw away trash, put clothes in the laundry basket, etc.

Now on to the rest of the house! Before you clutter your house with Christmas decorations, cards, extra food, etc., clear out unnecessary stuff. If you have four weeks before Thanksgiving, divide your home into four areas and tackle one area each week. If it's three weeks, divide your house into three areas, and so on.

As you comb through each area, ask yourself if you've used it recently, if it adds value to your life, if you love it, if it has a home. If not, consign it, toss it, or donate it.  

For those things you want to keep, find homes for them with similar items. Use double-duty furniture and accessories that provide storage as well as function - an ottoman with storage inside, end tables with drawers or shelves, or decorative bins or baskets that hold smaller items. Keep decluttering until your home gives you peace of mind.

What a nice way to start Christmas preparations with a lean house! 

If you need more extensive help decluttering, check out Three Steps to Decluttering or Decluttering Any Room in 3 Weeks.


More on decluttering:
Three Steps to Decluttering 

More Help - Teaching Your Kids to Declutter

Decluttering Any Room in 3 Weeks

Clever Event - Shredding, Tax Advice and Food Bank Donations

        
Someone in Oro Valley, Arizona had a great idea: combining shredding with tax advice and providing an opportunity to donate to the local food bank. Here's what they're doing:   

"Get rid of old documents safely at a free community shredding event Saturday, Nov. 10.  It will be held from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. at Oro Valley Marketplace, at Oracle Road and Tangerine.

Tax professionals from the Southern Arizona Chapter of Enrolled Agents (SACEA) will provide information on how long to keep tax records, as well as year-end tax planning tips and how to save money with Arizona tax credits.

Shredding will be done by Shred-It Arizona for free, but a suggested minimum donation of $5 per box and/or three cans of food to the Marana Community Food Bank is requested. The Food Bank will have representatives at the shedding event to receive donations of money and canned goods.  Cash donations may qualify for a “dollar-for-dollar” tax credit."

Why not organize such an event in your community?

More on shredding and taxes:

Some of My Favorite Organizing Products - My Heavy Duty Shredder

National Simplify Your Life Week - 5 Simple Tips

Color-Coded Taxes

Reducing Visual Clutter Might Help People with Early Alzheimer's

        
I found the following enlightening article which might be of interest to those who have family members or friends who have early stage Alzheimer's. An interesting correlation between Alzheimer's and clutter.

"For individuals with early stage Alzheimer’s disease, memory problems may be due, in part, to having trouble noticing the differences between similar objects, according to researchers from Georgia Tech and the University of Toronto.
 
The findings support growing research which suggests that a part of the brain once believed to support memory only — the medial temporal lobe — also plays a role in object perception.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is considered a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease. For the study, researchers asked MCI patients to look at two rotated, side-by-side pictures, and tell if they were different or identical.

In one episode, many photos of the same thing (a blob-like object) were shown. The photos varied only slightly when they weren’t a perfect match, either by shape, color or fill pattern. During these high-interference photos, MCI patients struggled greatly to pinpoint identical objects.

In another episode, the blob-like objects appeared with photos in which non-matches were more extreme and varied widely. For example, a picture of a butterfly was shown next to a photo of a microwave. Mixing the very similar blob-like objects with photos of dissimilar objects greatly reduced the amount of interference.

'Minimizing the degree of perceptual interference improved patients’ object perception by reducing the number of visually similar features,' said project leader Rachel Newsome, a University of Toronto Ph.D. student and Georgia Tech graduate.

The results indicate that, under certain circumstances, reducing 'visual clutter' might help MCI patients perform everyday activities.
For example, telephone buttons tend to be the same size and color. Only the numbers are different — a very slight visual difference for a person who struggles with object perception. Perhaps a phone with varying sized buttons and different colors would help.

'Not only does memory seem to be very closely linked to perception, but it’s also likely that one affects the other,' said Toronto’s Morgan Barense, Ph.D. 'Alzheimer’s patients may have trouble recognizing a loved one’s face not only because they can’t remember it, but also because they aren’t able to correctly perceive its distinct combination of features to begin with.'

MCI patients weren’t the only ones who struggled during the study. Individuals at-risk for MCI, people who had previously shown no signs of cognitive impairment, performed about the same as those with MCI.  

This suggests that the perception test could be used as an early indicator of cognitive decline.

'People often associate MCI and dementia solely with memory impairment,' said  Audrey Duarte, Ph.D., one of the study’s authors. 'Memory and perception appear to be intertwined in the same area of the human brain.'"

More on clutter and the brain: 

Keeping Your Memory Sharp

Clutter and the Brain - Dr. Peter Whybrow

Clutter in Your House or Office Means Clutter in Your Mind

Destressing Christmas - Christmas Card Tips

Sending out Christmas cards can seem like an overwhelming and costly task. But if you start early, it can remove some of the stress in December. Here are some ways to make sending out Christmas cards more doable.

- Send out digital Christmas cards or letters to as many people as possible. I know this offends some, but at least your message gets out. I like sending and receiving letters - catching up with our friends. When I receive a Christmas card with only a signature, I know my friends are alive, but that's about all!

You can email your letters or you can use an email service, like iContact.

If you have a blog, you can post your Christmas letter on your blog, too. If you want to get fancy, you could make a video Christmas greeting and put the link on your social networks. 

- If you write a Christmas letter, make it no longer than one side of a page. It's cheaper to print and most people won't read more than that. It forces you to be economical with your words! 

- Use your TV time or traveling time (if you're the passenger!) to address Christmas cards. You're doubling your time while enjoying yourself, too!

- Get the family involved. Your family members can help fold, stuff, seal, and stamp your cards and letters.

- In January, update your snail mail Christmas card list as you sort through your Christmas cards. Then you're set when it comes time to send out your cards next year.

However you do Christmas cards, your friends and family will love to hear from you! 

More on Destressing Christmas:

Destressing Christmas - Considering the Needs of Your Family and Friends

Destressing Christmas - Smart Gift Giving

Destressing Christmas - Planning an Intentional Christmas

Decluttering Your Office? Where to Donate Excess Office Supplies

    
Pens multiply like rabbits! If you're decluttering your office and find that you have excess office supplies, don't toss them. Donate them! 

We may not readily think of office supplies as something to donate, right? Who wants donated office supplies, anyway? Plenty of organizations:

- Libraries

- Animal Shelters

- Your child's school. If you don't have a child in school, go to AdoptAClassroom.org to find a classroom where your donation will be appreciated. 

- Your favorite charity. Your donation can reduce the amount they must spend on office supplies. 

 So before you toss, think about donating those office supplies. Your excess can be a blessing to organizations on strict budgets.

More on donating: 

Donate Your Bikes to Youth Bike-Refurbishing Programs

Donating Business Clothing for Job Interviews

Virtual Thrift Store Helps You Clear Clutter and Benefit Charities, Too 

Overwhelmed with Decluttering?

Do you find that you are overwhelmed with a decluttering task? Me, too! I know ... I'm a professional organizer. I'm not supposed to feel that way. But I do.

My husband and I started going through his parents mementos three or four weeks ago. We made great progress, but didn't finish the job. Our guest room has several categories piled around the room. It wouldn't take much to finish, but we have a mental block. Can you relate?

To overcome our mental block, we're going to attack it in 30-minute blasts. We can do anything for 30 minutes! And it will probably only take a couple of blasts for us to complete the job.

It's funny how we get close to the end of a project and lose steam. If you have the same problem, blast away with 30-minute attacks.

More on decluttering:

Three Steps to Decluttering on Kindle and in print

A Dozen Tips for Staying Clutter-Free in 2011

Announcing: Declutter Any Room in 3 Weeks!

Destressing Christmas - Considering the Needs of Your Family and Friends

     
I'm very excited about Christmas this year because our daughter who lives in Kazakhstan will be able to come home for Christmas, which is an unusual occurrence! And celebrating with our new granddaughter will be such fun! 

So I'll have a lot to think about in planning Christmas this year and I want to make sure that the needs of those we will include in our celebrations will be considered. By using this as a filter, we can reduce some holiday stress. 

Here are a few ideas:

- Choose with whom you want to spend time over the holidays - friends or family who refresh, encourage, and cheer you. Take the initiative to make that happen.

Do you have friends who might be alone whom you could include in your holiday plans? Have you included a healthy amount of giving to others who might otherwise be neglected? Your heart will overflow with joy as you reach out to others! It doesn't need to be expensive, just something that says you're thinking about them.

If getting together with your relatives is too painful or unhealthy, give yourself permission not to attend. If you, your spouse, or your children might be subjected to verbal, emotional or physical abuse, don't put yourselves in this unsafe place. Even if it hurts others' feelings, you cannot condone unhealthy or painful treatment by attending.

- Consider family problems when planning gatherings. Be proactive in order to minimize Uncle John's drinking problem by having a brunch rather than a dinner. If Cousin Sally's conversation is predominantly negative or a never-ending flow, plan some conversation starters or games to reduce her dominance.

- If it's just too difficult for you to travel during the holidays, don't let others guilt-trip you into traveling anyway. Be honest and stick to your guns for your own benefit and that of your family. Invite your relatives to visit you (if that is better for you) or suggest another time of year for a visit when life is less hectic.

- Consider the needs of your nuclear family. If you have small children who need naps and a consistent bedtime (who doesn’t qualify for that one?!!), don’t over-schedule. Make sure the events you plan to attend are age appropriate for your children. Don’t have an unrealistic idea of what they can grasp and endure.

- Study your family. Know what delights each one and what stresses each one, including yourself. Plan accordingly. When our girls were small, one of our daughters would respond to an over-planned schedule by vomiting - a pretty clear message! (Sorry to be graphic.) So I had to be careful not to pack our schedule too tightly.

One of our daughters loved to help my husband get the tree in the stand and put the lights on. The other one did not! So we did not include it as a family event, but chose other things they both liked, like the Christmas Eve service at our church.

By anticipating your needs and those of your family and friends, you can be intentional about your holidays. You’ll be able to weed out those items that don’t fit, plan around potential hazards, and create memorable experiences for those you love.

More on Christmas:

Destressing Christmas, Part 8, 2009 - An Online Tool to Consolidate Wishlists

Easy Decadent Fudge Recipe

Destressing Christmas, Part 10 - Efficient Shopping and Online Tips

 

Prioritizing According to Energy Level

    
As you may know, in addition to being a professional organizer, I work part-time as an administrative assistant for a small corporation here in Bozeman, MT. My hours are flexible, which allows me to set my own schedule most of the time.

For a while, I'd go in early so I would have the rest of the day free to pursue my organizing business. I found, however, as a morning person, that I had spent most of my energy and motivation, and had little left for writing or marketing.

So I decided to change my schedule to fit my peak energy times. I now spend early mornings writing and researching, which requires my peak energy. I go into the office around 10 am and do tasks that require less energy output comparitively. When I return home, I'm ready to relax and think about dinner.

I have also chosen to work four days a week. That gives me Friday and Saturday to do organizing projects. I'm still building my business here in Bozeman, so I'm not overly scheduled. So for now, this arrangement is working for me. And if I need to, I can organize during the afternoons and evenings during the week. Even though it's not my peak mental energy time, organizing comes so naturally to me, it's not hard for me to do it at that time. 

So what about you? When is your peak energy time? Which of your tasks require your best mental and/or physical energy? Even if you don't have a flexible schedule, endeavor to find ways match your peak energy level to tasks that require peak energy. Try not to use your peak energy on tasks that don't require it. Save those mundane tasks for times when your energy is waning.


More on peak energy:

Six Ways to Maintain Peak Energy at Work

Prioritizing Your Day

A Dozen Ways to Take the Stress out of Big Projects

Destressing Christmas - Smart Gift Giving

    

With the economy being so difficult, we all may need to get very creative in the gift-giving department this year. I hope the following re-post helps. 

My brother loves the crowds and the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping. I don’t know many others who do, though! I am stressed if I have to elbow my way through a store or not be able to find what I want because I waited too late. If you are smart, you can make holiday gift-giving less stressful. Here are a few ideas:

- Make a master list of gifts you need to buy or make, along with a budget for the amount you want to spend. Stick to your budget and don't buy impulsively. Don't compete with family and friends - spend what you can afford.

- Set a deadline for finishing your shopping in order to avoid crowds, the last-minute rush, and poor selection. Remember those gifts for teachers, religious teachers, extra-curricular instructors, and stocking stuffers. Buy the same gift for several people on your list, if appropriate. Take advantage of the sales after Christmas to shop for next year's list.

- Plan your shopping trips. What stores might have most of your gifts? What is the most efficient route to the stores on your list? A little planning avoids backtracking, saving time and gas.

- Consider gift certificates that can be sent to the recipients via email or U.S. mail. Or shop online and have your purchases sent directly to the recipients. You don’t have to wrap either of these gifts!

- If you're into making your own Christmas gifts, mass produce a gift and give it to as many people on your list as possible. To reduce stress, choose a gift that doesn't have to be made at the last minute. Create deadlines for each stage of production, if applicable, so you’re finished in plenty of time.

- As you buy or make gifts, wrap them so you don't have a massive pile to do at one time. Use TV time or other mindless time to wrap. How efficient - you're doubling your time!

- Your children will be bombarded with commercial after commercial during the holiday season, and they may want it all! Have a conversation with them about realistic expectations, so they won't be disappointed. Make gift suggestions to relatives who are shopping for your children.

If you want to get away from expensive or excessive gifts, consider alternative ideas:

- Instead of exchanging gifts, experience an event together: a day trip, a service project, a holiday event, etc.

- Take the money you would have spent on gifts for each other and donate it to a cause or your favorite charity or a needy family. My parents live in Oklahoma and the year of the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, they asked us to donate to The Salvation Army in their names, as that organization was so instrumental in helping during the aftermath.

- Consider drawing names or doing a "nice" white elephant game with a dollar limit on the gift.

- Give gift certificates of your time or service: babysitting, cleaning, meal preparation, handyman work, running errands, etc.

- Consider a “buy nothing” Christmas. This site gives scores of ideas from people who want to leave no footprint on the earth. Last year we gave home-grown herbs from our garden to some of our family and friends.

- With some friends or family, you may want to call a moratorium on gifts, especially when you get to the point of not needing anything. If it’s the thought that counts, try writing your thoughts down and giving them a note or letter expressing your gratitude for their friendship or love.

The holidays can be a stressful time. With a little planning, you can reduce the stress of holiday shopping and enjoy blessing your friends and family - without straining your budget or your temper!


More on Christmas giving:

Destressing Christmas, Part 11 - Meaningful Gifts with No Clutter

Destressing Christmas, Part 10 - Efficient Shopping and Online Tips

Destressing Christmas, Part 8, 2009 - An Online Tool to Consolidate Wishlists

 

Fall - A Great Time to Organize Your Finances

     
Here's an excerpt from an article by Erin Baehr, a financial planner on how to organize your finances. Be inspired!

"There's something energizing and motivating about this time of year.

The dog days of summer are coming to an end and there's a chill of fall in the air in the mornings. Even without any kids in school anymore, seeing all those school supplies on sale gets me in the mood to organize.

It feels good to clean out and get a fresh start for the fall. So in the spirit of 'back to school,' here are some tips to get financially organized.

Everything has a place

Brainstorm to come up with a system that will work for you and your life. It makes no sense to set aside a place in a corner of the house with a beautiful filing system if you know you really won't get up there to use it. I don't know how many times I've set up the 'perfect' system, only to find in the chaos of life that it was impractical.

If papers seem to always get dumped in one place in the kitchen, go with that, and set up your system there, at least as a temporary stop in the filing chain. It has to be workable for everyone or it won't happen. Use a dedicated color coded pocket folder for each child to deposit his school papers and keep track of papers that need to be returned, for instance, and others for family business, including mail to sort through, bills to pay, and things to be filed.

On a regular basis, set aside time to transfer to your 'real' files. I love the 'Everyday' file sorters that have tabs for each month, and also tabs for each day of the current month in the front. It's a great way to tuck away something you'll need in a few months and not forget about it. Workflowy.com is a nice (and free) online to-do list tracker, too.

Get the right stuff

School supplies aren't just for kids. Having the right tools for the right job makes a difference and now's the perfect time to shop the sales and scoop up the deals. Look for the bargains on folders, binders, pens, notebooks, and don't forget the box of crayons (coloring is a stress reliever) yo0u can buy discounted to a penny in some office stores.

Be sure to have a healthy supply of hanging file folders on hand. If you don't have a filing cabinet, look for a used one on Craigslist, garage sales, or the local Facebook yard sale pages. I've found several sturdy, locking file cabinets at bargain prices that way.

What to keep, what to purge

Again, you'll want to set up your files in a way that makes sense to you. Simple is better. I like to have a file for the current year, and then thin out and transfer to the permanent file at the end of the year. Some topics to have in your current files include: bank statements, credit card statements, medical bills and insurance statements, employment benefit information, pay stubs and income statements, investment statements, retirement account statements, auto receipts, home improvement receipts, insurance (home, auto, life), utilities, mortgage statements, tax documents (including the relevant credit card statements, canceled checks, tax bills, or receipts for things that you will need for your taxes).

At the end of the year transfer to permanent files those that will continue to be relevant, such as bank statements with canceled checks to prove a purchase or tax deduction, any non-retirement investment statements that show purchases, sale, or reinvestments (to prove your basis later), major home improvement or repair receipts, auto repair receipts for cars you still have, auto and home insurance declaration pages for one year prior, life insurance papers and medical bills relevant to a current illness, insurance claim, tax deduction or flexible spending reimbursement.

Pay stubs can be destroyed after comparing to your W2 at year end, and the same goes for mortgage statements — once they're matched up to your 1099 in January you can destroy them. You can destroy other records that you don't care to keep for tracking purposes, like utility bills to compare year to year or employment benefit booklets.

Your permanent files should include: product manuals, education and employment records, prior year tax returns, medical histories, warranties and related purchase receipts, safe deposit box inventory list, password list, loan documents, pension and retirement benefit estimates, Social Security statements (note: Social Security no longer mails statements; you can get yours online at www.ssa.gov).

Important documents such as password lists, car titles, birth certificates, and social security cards should be kept locked up in a fireproof, waterproof box or in your safety deposit box. Wills, advanced medical directives and powers of attorney should be kept in the fireproof safe also, with copies given to the appropriate, trusted parties.

A common question is how long to keep tax records. The IRS can audit your return for up to three years, so you'll want to keep them at least that long. However, if you grossly underreport your income (by at least 25 percent of what is on your tax return), they can go back six years; for fraud or not filing a return, they can go back indefinitely.

Records for worthless securities should be kept for seven years, and you should keep records for amended returns for three years from the date you originally filed or two years from the time you paid any additional tax, whichever is later. It's important to keep your documentation organized from year to year; it's easier to file carefully now then recreate records in the event you are questioned about a deduction.

Develop a master list of where each type of document is kept, and a snapshot of your assets and liabilities. Storing your files electronically is okay, too, as long as you have a secure place to keep them, where they are protected from data loss and theft. Communication with others on your financial team, like your spouse or executor, is important as well. The more organized you are the easier it will be to help you in the hopefully unlikely event of your incapacitation or death.

Shred it, don't forget it

To protect your identity, be sure to shred your old documents rather than tossing in the trash, either with a shredder or a shredding service. ...

Keep it up

Even with a system that works for you, you'll have times that things get sloppy. Life just happens that way. So take advantage of the energy that the crisp fall air brings and do some pruning. You'll be glad you did."

More on organizing finances:

How Quickly Could You Evacuate?

Managing Paper

Organizing Tax Receipts