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!