Organize Now: One Year to Getting Your "Mess" In Order

While I was cleaning out my spam folder (this is a little tidbit to say you should always check your spam), I noticed an email from Jennifer Ford Berry of Organize This Life, asking if I had ever received the copy of her book, Organize Now. I was thinking to myself, well no it never came. However before I responded I wanted to double check and what should I find….Organize Now still in it’s envelope in a box. I wanted to cringe and hide but I had an epiphany of “This proves exactly why I need to read this book”. And when better to Organize my life than right after I turn 30 right!

A little about Jennifer taken from her book Organize Now:

Jennifer Ford Berry is a professional organizer, entrepreneur, speaker and author. In 2002 she founded her professional organizing business, Organize This!, while living in North Carolina, she moved to upstate New York in 2004. Jennifer has a bachelor of arts degree in marketing from Florida Atlantic University. She’s a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers and a consultant for California Closets in Buffalo, NY. She has been a member of onlineorganizing.com since 2003 and has served as moderator for Clubmom.com’s organizing board for several years.

Organize Now, is a year long venture to getting your house, your life, your events and much more in order. A 52 week long organizing adventure is sure to have your life in order so that things, such as, losing a packaged book don’t happen to you. I started just yesterday reading the basics of organization and Week 1: Organize Your Mind and I can tell this is going to be a God-send in my house. So my review will be based on the pre-chapter and introduction I have read as well as tell you about some of the chapters to come.

A few points made in the basics of organization are:

~ Make it work for you. The tips in this book are just suggestions. If you’re not a meticulous person, don’t try to set up a meticulous organizing system. Set up a system that works for you.
~ Don’t schedule tasks for every minute of every day. Leave room for projects that take longer than expected.
~ Play catch up. If you feel you are getting behind in something whether it be your cleaning, the To Do list, etc. plan a day to catch up
~ Complete things. Tasks and projects that are left incomplete linger in the back of your mind and leave you feeling depressed.

The next point made in this pre-chapter are what clutter can cost you. I will admit in my house we have clutter, sometimes it gets bad and then I do a trash everything spree. Not good! So the points in Organize Now about what clutter costs you I can totally relate to.

~ Clutter causes you to feel overwhelmed or depressed.
~ Clutter robs you of your energy.
~ Clutter costs you money. If you can’t find something you need, you will go out and buy another.
~ Clutter takes away the peace and beauty from a home.

The pre-chapter continues on to tell you reasons of

~ Why you can part with your clutter
~ Why less is more
~ Ways to get motivated
~ Why you should consider the function of a room when decluttering
~ If you are in doubt over something it probably means you can throw it out
~ Ways to donate your clutter
~ Ways to sell your clutter
~ Green organizing.

Before even getting into week 1 I was already feeling so motivated. Jennifer really spells out why you and how to unclutter your life. As I read week 1: Organize Yourself, I really understood that organization starts within. Sure you can organize your house and make it look nice but how quickly will it return to it’s unorganized state if you are not internally organized.

My week one goals are:

~ Get a minimum of seven hours of sleep per night. *I will admit this may be a problem for me, working late hours and having school kids but I am going to try my best*
~ Start each day with jotting down a short to do list.
~ Start a journal.
~ Limit television
~ Schedule a 2-3 minute break 2-3 times a day.
~ Schedule more time to exercise.
~ More me time
~ Eliminate energy drainers
~ Take control of my time

I am going to say right now, this is probably going to be one of the harder reviews I will do because I am going to try to post every month or at least every other to share my progress. Essentially this will be an ongoing review over the next year ( or a little longer if it takes me more than a week to complete that weeks tasks). I am determined to get organized for myself, my kids, my sanity.

Jennifer has made an amazing simple journey that is not to overwhelming since it is stretched out over a year and will help even those of us who seem to be organization misfits get our life in order. Future weeks in this book include:

~ Organize your schedule.
~ Organize your cleaning schedule.
~ Organize your bill paying system
~ Organize your e-mail
~ Organize your child’s toys
~ Organize your purse.
~ Organize your living room
~ Organize your medicine cabinet
~ Organize your master bedroom
~ Organize your yard and garden
~ Organize your back-to school time

Who knew there were so many ways to organize. Some of the chapters may not apply to you and if they don’t you can skip over them. If you have an area of your life that needs organizing now but it isn’t until week 35 in the book go ahead and do it. This book is about helping you get organized and meeting your needs so follow it in a way that you will get the best out of it. If it takes you 3 weeks to do one of the weeks who cares, in the end you will be organized and thanking yourself for picking up this book.

Thank you to Jennifer for sending me a copy of this book to review and I look forward to updating you all on my progress in the future. Head over now and grab a copy of Organize Now and get your life in order.