Kristl Story, author of The Budget Diet blog about living on a budget, invited me to do a guest post on her blog. Stop by and check out my 5 Easy Steps to an Organized Closet…

While you’re there, take a peek at Kristl’s Top 5 Shape Up Tips and Tricks and her Budget Diet Boot Camp program. Enjoy!

Having a baby is a far more complicated endeavor than you could ever imagine when you first get pregnant. To help you manage the influx of baby’s clothes (and all the size changes as baby grows), here are a few tips…

Supplies Needed:

• clothes dresser
• drawer dividers
• children’s hangers
• closet dividers
• paper bags
• plastic storage bins

Organization Tips:

1. Store socks, mittens, hats, and other accessories in separate sections of the top dresser drawer.
2. Fold all onesies and store in two separate piles in the second dresser drawer: whites and colors.
3. Fold all gowns and sleepers. Store in two separate piles in the third dresser drawer.
4. Hang up baby’s outfits in the closet. Separate them by size and/or season using closet dividers.
5. As baby gets bigger, toss any outgrown clothes into the corresponding paper bag at the bottom of baby’s closet (labeled “sell,” “donate,” and “keep”).
6. Once the “donate” bag is full, take its contents to your favorite local charity.
7. When the “sell” bag is full, take its contents to your favorite consignment store.
8. When the “keep” bag is full, place its contents into the corresponding plastic bin (labeled by size and season, plus gender as necessary).

Earlier this month, I was honored to be interviewed by Matt Brezina, co-founder of Xobni :

I had a great call with Xobni user Michelle Deo today. Michelle is a professional organizer from Georgetown, Kentucky. As you can expect, a professional organizer would be pretty excited about Xobni.

As a professional organizer, Michelle helps families and companies organize the processes by which they run their lives and their businesses. This ranges from new organizing systems for their closets at home to filing systems and work-flow management systems for the office.

While Michelle focuses on organizing people’s physical information, she uses Xobni to organize her digital information.

Michelle gets a lot of personal and business email and loves that Xobni organizes her inbox around people. She enjoys the automatic contact information extraction, the photos of her contacts, and having all of the conversations and attachments from a contact in one place. Michelle has been using Xobni for 6 months, and regrets not finding it earlier!

Read the full article »

Well, it’s official… I am now working part-time at Lowe’s. So, if you happen to find yourself in the market for new cabinets or countertops, I’m your gal! Stop by the Georgetown store, and I’ll “hook you up.”

I tell you… It’s really strange to be sitting in the doctor’s office, waiting for the nurse to come in and give Amanda her immunizations (in preparation for Kindergarten), and thinking, “Cool… I actually know the name of that countertop edging!”

This doesn’t make me a terrible mother, does it? 😉

Woohoo! The Lilybugs Children’s Consignment Sale was a great success! I’m looking forward to picking up my cheque on Wednesday. I made a net profit of $128.80… enough to cover what I spent on Amanda’s summer wardrobe, birthday presents, and advertising (i.e., my [ real neat ] business cards and checklists for the goody bags that were handed out to shoppers)!

My little 2-bedroom apartment is breathing a sigh of relief now that I have eliminated several bins of outgrown clothing and toys. Now, I should be able to find adequate storage space for the belongings that Amanda and I actually use (i.e., camping equipment, art supplies, bicycles).

So, if you haven’t done so already, set aside an hour or two to sort and purge your excess clothing as the seasons change and the weather gets warmer.

THE RULES:

• Grab your calendar now, and schedule an appointment with your wardrobe within the next 2 weeks.
• Invite a trusted friend to join you in weeding out your ‘old’ clothes. She’ll help you remain objective.
• Hold a private fashion show, and
  • TOSS any clothing items that have holes (or if, like me, you’ll never realistically repair or pay someone to repair these items).
  • KEEP only items that actually FLATTER your body type. Get picky and brutal. Rid yourself of all ‘skinny’ clothes; at the moment, they are simply taunting you every time you see them, reminding you that you’re fat, you’re lazy, and you’re not good enough. Nothing is ever worth all that negative self-talk. Besides, when you finally do lose the weight, you can reward yourself with a new wardrobe!
  • DONATE anything that is still in decent shape but that doesn’t make the cut (or you never really wear). I hate to burst your bubble, but honestly… if you haven’t worn an item in the last year, you’re never going to end up wearing it. Schedule an appointment on your calendar to take these items to friends or local charities.
• Put away whatever items you keep (in an organized manner, of course). Need ideas? Sort by color, by length, by clothing type, or even by complete outfits.
• Take inventory of the clothing that you kept.
• Make a shopping list of items that you need to replace in order to fill out your wardrobe for the upcoming season.
• Block off some time on your calendar for a shopping date; and, when the time comes, shop with confidence and a discerning eye.

So, what about you? How do you sort and purge your wardrobe? Please share your tips in the comments below.