Ack, I am lagging on posting updates, I am going to try to be better! Been a busy couple weeks. I am helping a client downsize his garage, which has turned out to be a huge task! And last weekend, I helped out the same client whose kitchen we tackled. This time it was the living room area where you first walk into from the front door entrance. It was a big job, and we completed about 65% of it. We had 2 garbage bags this time around, and then a keep and an "out the door" box. We invited her son to join us so he could help make decisions about his toys. Then we moved the TV from one side of the living room to the other, and re-situated all of the furniture to create a new room - very much like HGTV's Design on A Dime. We skipped meeting this weekend because of the Superbowl, and hopefully we will pick up where we left off next Saturday.

On another note, here is another "Look for Less" outfit I wore out about 2 weeks ago to a birthday dinner.

The houndstooth dress/tunic was a thrift shop find - brand is Exhilaration from Target - the girl sitting next to me at dinner thought it was vintage:-) Anyways, it was $3 from a local thrift shop because it was "half off" day, and then my $6 Charlotte Russe leggings, and my $5 boots from Charlotte Russe, for a grand total of $14!:-)

This weekend, I am not working, and am taking the time to go through my closet and "process" more clothing that is waiting to go into it:-) What this means is that I pulled a box of clothes from downstairs and am going to try everything on to decide what I want to keep. Last week, after doing some laundry, I went to put away 3 items in my closet, and was disgusted by how full it was. I quickly glanced around, and within 30 seconds, I grabbed 6 tops that I had either never worn, or hadn't worn in more than 6 months. I tried each one on to see if I could let any of them go, and I can't believe it - 5 of the 6 I decided to purge! I think it's because I know there are much better items waiting to get a coveted spot in my closet!:-)

Another New Client Happy!

What a great weekend I had! I met with two clients on Sunday - one for clothing help, and then I met with a new client Sunday afternoon who is having me help her tackle her whole apartment, room by room. She was so nervous about me helping her get organized. It was funny, because the first thing she said to me when I walked into her apartment was, "I am so sorry, it's very messy in here." I laughed and told her not to worry - "That's what I am here for," I told her:-)

I asked her where she wanted to get started, and she said the kitchen, so we could start "small." We started with her pantry which contained 7 shelves. Open, there was just food and stuff piled everywhere. Before we started, I had her grab a garbage bag for items we were going to toss, a large container for items being kept, and a garbage bag for items that didn't need to be tossed, but that she was not going to keep. As clutter expert Peter Walsh would say, "an out the door pile." Once the areas were established, we emptied every single item out of her pantry, and I suggested we start with the "one touch rule" which means try to make a decision as to which pile the item goes into right away. If my client can't decide right away, it goes into the keep pile, until we re-organize those items, and then examine it again to see if she can make a more affirmative decision.

In about an hour, we had put together 3 large garbage bags of tossed items (mostly expired food items), a large bin of keep, and a small bag of "out the door." From the pantry, we moved to the next cabinet over, which was the location she and her husband kept all of the medications, allergy prescriptions, etc. In about half an hour, not only had we completely cleaned it out and re-organized it, but there was one full shelf left over! We then moved to the next cabinet, and in three hours, had organized all but 2 of her kitchen cabinets. Her homework was to sort through all of her silverware and decide what she could keep, and what she wanted to get rid of, and for her to organize 2 drawers we emptied with the silverware she would be keeping.

But alas, before I left, we also moved a small beverage fridge she had off the kitchen counter onto a new cubbyhole cabinet, and then we boxed up all the paperwork she had on a breakfast nook so we could get rid of the breakfast nook and the two benches that accompanied it. On top of the beverage fridge, we took a large empty bowl that had been wasting space on the nook, put it on top of the fridge, and then decorated it with the bananas, apples and oranges that had been sprawled out all over the nook, making a beautiful centerpiece. I then took pictures of the nook and benches, so I could help her Freecycle them since she had already made the decision that she wanted them to go, so she could just get a small round table with 3 chairs for her, her husband and child.

Here is a picture I took of the cleared nook, and we grabbed a random vase of flowers that was sitting in the middle of a pile of videogames in the living room:-) Although I had meant to post the nook and benches on Freecycle, it was also the day of a big football playoff between the NY Giants and SF 49ers, so I got caught up at a bar afterwards watching the game. So from my phone, I posted on Facebook that I had a client who had some items to get rid of (she also had a chair and a boys' bike she no longer needed. Within an hour, I had different friends respond to my Facebook status, saying they were interested, so today, less than 48 hours after posting these items, all have been claimed!

My client was so happy, she already booked me for another three hours for next Sunday so we could start working on her living room/front room!

On a totally different note, I also want to make sure I update this blog with one of my many other favorite passions - dressing for less. So, I went through my photos, and pulled this picture taken on a leisure trip last year - the sweater cardigan was a gift so it was free, the black and white top was from one of my clothing swaps, and the jeans were also from a swap. Can't see my shoes, and don't remember which ones I was wearing at the time this photo was taken, but from these three main items, this outfit was...FREE!:-)

I am going out to a birthday dinner tonight, and will try to make sure I somehow get a picture of me taken so I can post it in a future blog this week.

Yikes! I meant to post sooner, but things have been pretty busy around here! I hit the networking event Tuesday evening in SF and met some great new people, exchanged some business cards, and already have a couple new leads! And I have a new project that I start Monday, helping an old co-worker with some PR for her fairly new beauty business.

I also am meeting a new client this weekend who contacted me online for an organizing project inside her apartment. We are going to start in her kitchen and living room, as she wanted to start in those two areas as she felt they would be the easiest for us to tackle first. We will be targeting her closet the following weekend.

Even with being busier with these exciting new projects, I am going to try to work on the visual part of this blog coming up, and I am going to aim to post new blog entries every day or two. Eventually, these blogs will be accompanied with more pictures, especially as I begin pulling together my day-to-day outfits, to outline how I can basically pull together cost-effective looks that cost less than $35-$50 a day from head to toe. I did go through my recent batch of photos, and posted one here. This outfit from head to toe cost me $32 plus tax. And yes, that includes the jacket! Here's how I did it - the jacket was $29 from Marshalls on clearance, brand is Grass Collection. Originally, it was over $150! The top underneath, as well as the tank top underneath that, came from my clothing swap - http://www.meetup.com/South-Bay-Womens-Swap. The jeans also came from my clothing swap. Oh, and when I say it came from my swap, it means the item was free:-) Its the best way to shop without spending money I tell you! Lastly, the shoes are Tahari, a fairly expensive brand, and those were brand new at a local thrift shop for $2.99. To this day, those shoes are one of my favorite thrifting finds!

Speaking of my wardrobe, since I didn't have a chance over the holidays, and before I get really busy again, I am treating myself as a client and planning from now through the end of February to once again clean out my entire closet, and then get my garage totally organized! I hope to inspire others who also hope to get organized, and I figure with me planning to take on more clients who I can help get organized, I might as well tackle myself while I have the free time!:-) The first goal at hand is to go through my closet item by item, and purge it by 1/3. I have tons of clothes that I have been waiting for the time to go through to add them to my closet, but I want to basically go through my stuff and for every 2 items I keep, I will take one out of the closet.

At the same time, I will go through all the items I have waiting to get a coveted spot in the closet, but only plan to keep about half of those items, so for every item I like, one I will have to turn away:-( Part of the reason I have to be so strict on this is because this is the tactic I take with the clients I work with. Also, from last year's closet cleanout, I added one full extra shelf of hanging space, and to this day it remains empty. Now, while I could just keep everything in my closet as-is, and then add everything in that is waiting for a spot,that is like inviting an entire homeless camp to come home with you, rather than a few select individuals!

A tip about organizing - it's about making choices. As clutter expert Peter Walsh says - if everything is important, then nothing really is. You have to be able to differentiate between what you like and what you love!

First, there was the beginning...

2012. A new year. How exciting! What a great year it's going to be.

That's what I was thinking the last few days of 2011. At the end of every year, I make lists of New Year's resolutions I have every intent of keeping. The end of 2011 was no different. I'm going to get more clients, make more money, clear excess stuff out of my house, finally get married, etc.

I also decided that 2012 iss the time for me to get to some of those things that seemed to forever be on my to do list - including committing to a blog, expand on professional organizing  as well as my already successful PR and writing/editing career, and enjoy life a little bit more! So here I am:-)

I commit to this blog, and to begin some advertising to pick up more clients that I can organize for. And I am going to enjoy life even more!:-)

I hope my blog helps my followers in any number of ways - get organized themselves, learn to shop on a budget, put together fashionable and trendy outfits for very little money, and I hope I can inspire everyone to pursue their dreams:-)

Some pretty goals for my blog, if I do say so myself!:-)