In Praise of FreeMind

Someone told me today they were having issues keeping all the “stuff” in their head neat. I recommended one of my favorite tools: FreeMind. It really does free your mind, and it is also free of charge!

Download FreeMind onto your computer, and use it to make a “mind map” of your various projects, concerns, and to-do’s. By clicking, adding, and filling in the map, FreeMind will gradually build a diagram that looks like a talkative octopus.

I personally use FreeMind to organize the 8 or 9 projects floating in my head at any given time. Each project gets tethered to its own node (i.e. line on the mind map), with its own tentacles of ideas and planning points floating behind. This lets me determine whether there is any overlap, if a project should be dropped, or even if I’m overlooking my priorities.

Mind-Mapping can be used for the fine details of one project or a “big picture” of many projects. It’s versatile and forgiving. Download it, play with it, and see how it can best help you get neater.

Casa Clean-Up Job: Keepin’ It Real

(First off, I’d like to acknowledge my first commenter, Mimi. Thanks for your feedback, Mimi! You’ve given me a lot of ideas, and I am looking forward to helping you out. And again, if anyone has any requests for ideas on Bringing The Neat, don’t hesitate to ask.)

Casa Clean-Up Job is on a diet.

The house is not eating Cheetos at 3:00 AM that I know of. I mean, it’s 3:00 AM as I write this, so I’d know about it. No, it’s time to declutter this house.

That’s right. Your maven has big Neat plans…and lives in a cluttered house. 

You see, when a man and a woman love each other very much, sometimes they come together and bring all their stuff and pile it and then don’t do much with it. And then plumbing problems come and wreck whatever progress the man and woman had made in showing their love through decluttering.

In two weeks, we are getting our ceiling patched up (long story), and then the decluttering begins anew! The hubby has been most responsive to my sonorous pleas of “help gah this cluttered house is eating me OMG,” which goes to show, people, if you need help Bringing the Neat, ASK for it.

As we uncover interesting archaeology, we’ll post results! Take the opportunity and post Neat results in your own life. It’s a new year, baby – lose the baggage and get sleek and healthy…floors and shelves.

How Can I Help “Neat” You in 2010?

The year’s started, and I want to make it organized! And more importantly, I want to help YOU make it organized.

Give me challenges and let me give you my ideas on how to make the messes legally go away. What can I do to help you this year? What do you want to see as far as articles on organization? Ideas on keeping papers neat? How to eliminate the clutter from your kid’s floor? Tools to corral all the ideas rolling around in your head?

Leave me a comment and let me know. Happy new year!

Enterprise Resource Planning, the home game!

I’ve been living an educational exercise over the last month.

Spontaneously, my husband and I decided to take my business White Peacock Designs to Vendor Village at the LA Derby Dolls’ championship on Saturday December 5. We are getting a crash-course in balancing a creative business with a full-time day job.

On the eve of our joint-debut, here are my thoughts on making this balance smmmmooooth the next time around:

• Do you have a free moment? Is there something you could be doing toward your business instead of surfing the internet? Even something as small as filing a few receipts will make paperwork easier down the line.
• Can you delegate or barter? For example, I am wire-wrapping a few pendants for Eric, in exchange for which he is redoing my business card.
• Is there a project you can take with you? Can something be put in a plastic shoebox with snaps and brought along while you sit in the doctor’s waiting room? Do you have a notepad onto which you can jot down ideas?
• Are you keeping the materials for your endeavors organized? Can labels or hooks help? Is it worth it to buy the one neat tool that takes the place of three old, broken tools?
• On the other hand, must you spend the money? Look around your home and see if there is anything already there that you may use. For example, at the Derby show I will be displaying necklaces in resin Christmas plates.
• Do you know about upcoming events in your industry? Are you reading publications, joining online groups, and participating in forums? Not only do these things give you street cred, they also alert you to future events in which you may have to participate. And then, you can plan around them! This one is going to be huge for me in 2010.

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have more insights on “organizing the loads of money you get after selling your jewelry.”

People Are Going to Come into Your House!

Halloween is over, mushy pumpkins have been tossed, and you’re sick from eating all the leftover candy. And it’s time to start thinking about the next holiday.

No, not that one. Despite the best attempts of retailers everywhere to distract you, there’s another holiday ahead.

Right-o! And if you are the lucky designated stickee, the bird will be roasting at your house this year. It’s going to be a beautiful bird, and you don’t want to waste one of its perfectly good drumsticks by using it to beat someone who talked smack about the stains on the tablecloth.

You have 21 days between now and Thanksgiving. Make it easy on yourself and begin evaluating your needs now. Grab a pen and notepad and jot down ideas.

• Clean tablecloths (again, spare the turkey drumstick!).
• Look into a cleaning service if that’s an option. If not, look at your calendar and figure out a cleaning plan.
• Neatly file personal papers to hide from prying eyes.
• Keep eyes open for deals on green beans for the casserole.
• Order your pie NOW.
• Plastic or real cutlery?
• Stock the liquor cabinet – who knows who’ll need it?
• Figure out what size bird you’ll need.
• Can the vegan cousin safely eat your bourbon-spiked yams?

Plan early, and keep your sense of humor. Or test the liquor cabinet for quality.

Happy November!

Holiday Clean-Up: The Moldy Jack-o-Lantern

At my ripe old age, I carved my first jack-o-lantern ever this weekend.

That's him on the left. Grrr.

Boy did I love my jack-o-lantern. I gave him a menacing monocle and a mouth snarling a la Jon Stewart’s impersonation of Dick Cheney. Loved him.

Apparently I was not the only one of ripe old age.

THAT can't be good.

As I texted the husband the news about Monocle Jack, seconds after this picture was taken, Monocle Jack collapsed in front of my eyes and hung over the side of the table.

I quickly learned some lessons about cleaning up a dead jack-o-lantern solo.

1. Use rubber gloves. Trust that you do not want to get this on your skin. “All-Natural” is not always best.
2.  Be prepared for unspeakable horrors inside the jack-o-lantern carcass. You thought the scary stuff on Halloween was fake blood and zombies and your kids’ sugar rushes, right? Try picking up a damp, mushy jack-o-lantern, having it shred apart in your hands, and witnessing a fleet of fruit flies and the complete color spectrum of mold.
3. Bring an old bath towel. You’re going to get a flood of dead pumpkin juice which can range from clear to green. Wrap it around the pumpkin carcass like a moat.
4. Work fast. The pumpkin is not going to want to participate nicely.
5.  Bring a large plastic garbage bag and tuck it over the pumpkin carcass. Use the bag to scoop up as much of the carcass as possible, then carefully roll over the bag. Have that bath towel handy!
6. Once you’ve bagged up all scraps of the pumpkin carcass, including whatever scraps you can remove from the towel, get a second trash bag and double-bag it. Lifting the trash bag is not the time to find out it has a leak.
7. Off to the dumpster! And be sure to immediately wash the towel and disinfect all involved surfaces.

For my compost-workin’ friends, sorry that I can’t advise you, but I welcome your tips in the comments.

 And one final note – I’ll show pics of Monocle Jack 2.0 this weekend as soon as he’s carved. Halloween will not be denied!

Hey, Get It Started: Three Tips to Begin Neatening.

“Organization” is a term that strikes fear into our hearts and makes people cringe. Who knows if you’re going to throw out the precious tax file from 1974? What if I don’t have money to buy all those files I saw at the Container Store? And how am I going to get to the cabinets if they are buried behind catalogs? *dig out couch, flop down, eat ice cream with unearthed spoon*

Here’s the deal – you can do it your way. Just so long as you do it!

I’m presenting three tips that work for me. See if any of these light up your neatness-seeking heart:

1. Work in inches. Whether it’s an inch of stinky fridge, or an inch of table, or an inch of post-its, designate one small area of clutter and get rid of it. No one wants you to make the living room look like an Ikea shorwoom right this second. Just empty the top of the side table.The key thing is, you have to come back the next day and select another few inches and clean those too. You want the inches to turn into feet, then yards, then….
2. Make it easy on yourself. Drag over to the messy area your trash can, a recycling bag, Sharpies, files, labels, whatever is needed. Don’t trot up and down the stairs to the garage. Three runs up and down the stairs and you might suddenly want to unearth the couch again.
3. Work with what ya got. So you don’t have miles of clear bins and your wallet has fruit flies in it. That’s ok! You don’t want to start out with all the accoutrements of neatness. What’s the good of neatly-categorized clothes that need to go to Goodwill?Open you eyes to the possibilities in your home and beyond. If your workplace is about to dump several binders into the trash, get permission to take them home. A manager at your local home stores should be able to give you free cardboard delivery boxes if you ask. Or can that random bookshelf in the hallway be moved into the pantry?

At the Casa, the hubby and I did just that.

On the left is an old bookcase that, out of necessity, we had to repurpose into our pantry. Some fabric and velcro we already had became curtains. It neatly stores all the kitchen needs not in the baker’s rack to the right.

Do you have any tips that have helped you tackle a big  mess? Leave a comment and let me know!

Neatening the world, one post at a time.

My name is Monica, and I’m an unashamed lover of organizing.

This blog is going to be a love letter to making things more streamlined and easier to find, whether it’s ideas or yarn or or your left shoe or your right goal. Maybe you’ll even learn it’s OK to donate those things you don’t need.

Ideally, it’s also going to be about doing these things on the cheap, because cheap – or free – is a good idea these days.

I have deep respect for my bretheren who genuinely feel better with cluttered tables and piles of unused clothes. I’m not going to try to change anyone who’s happy that way.

However, for the people who would once and for all like to know what happened to their refrigerator manual or that forgotten luncheon, please come along on this journey!

I welcome your comments and ideas – please feel free to share your stories about getting organized with me. This is a group effort toward inspiration to get neat.

Happy neatening!