How to Organize Makeup and Beauty Products

If you have makeup and beauty products in lots of different nooks and crannies chances are you don’t use everything you have because you simply can’t find it all. It can also be frustrating to rummage through piles of makeup just to find a particular shade of lipstick. The good news is it doesn’t have to be that way. You can organize your makeup and beauty products without spending a fortune on a fancy shelving system and it doesn’t have to take your entire weekend. Take a look at the tips below.

Evaluate Your Stock

The first step is to assess your stock. You may be holding on to expired products or shades that don’t work just because you don’t take the time to look at the labels or figure out when was the last time you used the item. Toss out anything that is old or that you no longer love and you’ll see that you don’t have as much to store as you may think.

Repurpose Glass Bottles and Containers

Empty jars and bottles can make great storage for makeup sponges and cotton balls that you want to keep clean but accessible. Wash a couple of jars and remove the label and you have instant chic storage for your basic tools.

Use a Toolkit for Make-Up and Beauty Products

A regular handyman toolkit is a great way to keep the bulk of your makeup supplies. If you have a number of eye-shadow colors and lipsticks you can keep them separate using the compartments in the kit but they are all in the same place. Simply slide the entire toolkit in a bathroom cupboard for storage.

Store Everyday Make-Up in Accessible Bag

Your everyday makeup should be easily accessible. You can keep the things you use on your face all the time in a neat bag on your countertop.

Purge Regularly

Finally, the key to keeping things under control is regular purging. Don’t allow your stock to spiral out of control. Whenever your makeup and beauty container starts to overflow it is your queue to start sifting through your products to find the things you really don’t need or won’t use.

Becky Esker is a certified professional organizer, national speaker, owner of Get Organized! L.L.C., and the forthcoming author of a new organizing book. Becky and her team provide hands-on services to those in the greater eastern Iowa area and also provide a wide array of products and service to businesses and individuals nationwide through their website. For more information access http://www.theorganizingchoice.com/, http://www.secondgoaroundauctions.com/; http://www.itssimplyserendipity.com/; and http://www.outstandingseminars.com/

How To Organize Your Child's School Papers

If your child’s school papers have managed to find their way onto every surface of your house it is time to take control and bring some order to the chaos. Organizing your child’s school papers will not only neaten your home but it will improve productivity as well.



Use the Keep/Toss Method
It might be heart-breaking to decide which of your child’s precious school papers you should keep and which you should toss, but it is simply not practical to hold on to everything. As your child progresses through the school system you will realize that the paper load is just too much and you will start to prune them out of pure necessity. A simple way to help cut back on what you keep is to hold on to all test papers and other graded school work for the length of the term in case any discrepancies arise after which time you can toss them away. If something is really sentimental you can take a picture of your child holding it up before you throw it away that way you can still hold on to the memory.



Set Aside Time to Organize
If you don’t make organizing school papers a part of your routine you will always have a build up. Instead of waiting for it to get overwhelming, you can sort your child’s school bag at the end of every day. Use the opportunity to check for homework, fill out consent forms and pull out things that can be tossed immediately.



Review Your Storage Bin After Every Term
At the end of the school term you can take a second look at your keep pile of papers. You should only keep those things that are really special to you or your child and get rid of the rest.


Becky Esker is a certified professional organizer, national speaker, owner of Get Organized! L.L.C., and the forthcoming author of a new organizing book. Becky and her team provide hands-on services to those in the greater eastern Iowa area and also provide a wide array of products and service to businesses and individuals nationwide through their website. For more information access http://www.theorganizingchoice.com/, http://www.secondgoaroundauctions.com/; http://www.itssimplyserendipity.com/; and http://www.outstandingseminars.com/

How to Organize Computer Files

When your computer files are disorganized you lose precious time and this can have a huge negative impact on your productivity. Instead of getting frustrated every time you sit down at your computer you can take steps to organize your files and folders so you can find the things you need in an instant.

Use the “Documents” Feature
If you use Windows XP you would recognize the “My Documents” feature, but if you have upgraded to Windows 7 you know that it is simply known as “Documents”. This is a powerful tool for organizing your computer because it is essentially home-base for all your files and folders. If you use it as the root folder for all your work then you simply have to figure out a cascading structure of folders that makes sense for your usage.

Store Like Things Together
Another tip is to store like things together. You might start out with the best intentions but somewhere along the line you may start saving documents in the wrong place. Giving in to this lazy approach to computer organization is a recipe for disaster. You will never be able to find your documents if you don’t consistently put things in the right place.

Choose Intuitive Names
It is important to come up with a standard naming convention for both your computer folders and files and of course to stick to it. This helps greatly when you have to remember where to look for a particular type of document.

Backup Your Data
Finally, you should backup data on some external device or on an online database. While it is perfectly acceptable to use an external hard drive for instance, it is much better to use Dropbox to store your data because then it can be accessed remotely and you don’t need to worry about it ever being contaminated.

Becky Esker is a certified professional organizer, national speaker, owner of Get Organized! L.L.C., and the forthcoming author of a new organizing book. Becky and her team provide hands-on services to those in the greater eastern Iowa area and also provide a wide array of products and service to businesses and individuals nationwide through their website. For more information access www.TheOrganizingChoice.com, www.SecondGOAroundAuctions.com; www.ItsSimplySerendipity.com; and www.OutstandingSeminars.com

Does clutter cause you to be overweight?

According to Venice Kichura, “De-cluttering your house could be the first step to shedding unwanted body fat.”

If your house is full of clutter, chances are you have not seen the top of your kitchen table in some time. If that is the case, well-thought out structured meals probably is not a part of your daily routine. This chaotic system leads to choosing fast and easy meals over healthy meals. Unfortunately, many fast and easy meals are full of fat, sodium, sugar and syrups. This combination often leads to obesity.

If your home is cluttered...

READ MORE HERE

Becky Esker is a certified professional organizer, national speaker, owner of Get Organized! L.L.C., and the forthcoming author of a new organizing book. Becky and her team provide hands-on services to those in the greater eastern Iowa area and also provide a wide array of products and service to businesses and individuals nationwide through their website. For more information access www.TheOrganizingChoice.com.

How to organize healthy summer snacks for on the go

Hunger pangs can come on suddenly and when you are busy rushing around during the summer with children in-tow, you may not have the time to think about what’s healthy. That’s why you need to think ahead! Planning to take a few easy to prepare snacks with you if you are going on the road, or even if you work from home but you can’t afford to break your momentum to prepare something that is good for you, can save you from popping unhealthy snacks into your mouth.


Take a look at a few of these ideas.


READ ON...


Becky Esker is a certified professional organizer, national speaker, owner of Get Organized! L.L.C., and the forthcoming author of a new organizing book. Becky and her team provide hands-on services to those in the greater eastern Iowa area and also provide a wide array of products and service to businesses and individuals nationwide through their website. For more information access www.TheOrganizingChoice.com.

Spring organizing and cleaning tricks

I have started some of my spring cleaning and organizing. It always feel good to get some of that done. We are having new tile installed in our master bathroom and new tile in our shower. It has been a long process, but it is almost complete!

The newness of the project spurs motivation to clean up other areas of my home. I haven't mentioned it to my husband, but I think our master bedroom could use some updating too...maybe that will be our next project??

For some great tips on Spring Organizing and Cleaning, check out my article here at
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-33192-Cedar-Rapids-Personal-Organizer-Examiner~y2010m5d11-Spring-organizing-and-cleaning-tricks

Becky Esker is a certified professional organizer, national speaker, owner of Get Organized! L.L.C., and the forthcoming author of a new organizing book. Becky and her team provide hands-on services to those in the greater eastern Iowa area and also provide a wide array of products and service to businesses and individuals nationwide through their website. For more information access www.TheOrganizingChoice.com.

A Mountain of Stuff - My teenager's bedroom

LOL, yes I had to laugh today!

Life has been a little crazy at our house the last few weeks. My high school sophomore has a huge school workload (two AP classes and an advanced math course) plus she has an off-season weight lifting program (she is a cross-country and track runner). My 10 year old son has started basketball and our family is going in all different directions.

So, needless to say we have found ourselves behind on household chores!

Today we actually found some time in our schedule to do some cleaning. Actually, I am paying my 15 year old daughter to clean the bathrooms and dust, but my husband has volunteered to vacuum our house free-of-charge. Delegation at its best!

But isn’t this picture a riot?

My daughter scooped up everything off her bedroom floor so my husband could vacuum! Clothes, baskets, bags, boxes, shoes, chairs and all.

When I do seminars on basic home organizing I always get a question about ‘how do I get my teenager to clean and organize his/her room?

Obviously, I can totally relate to that question!

My response is very simple. Getting your teenager to organize his/her bedroom is a challenge. Maybe the better question is ‘does my teenager KNOW how to organize his/her bedroom?

As easily identified from these photos, my teenage daughter’s room is usually a visual disaster. The floor is completely covered with little to no carpet showing. There is no clear cut rhyme or reason to conclude what clothes are dirty or clean and her drawers and hangers are usually void of clothing.

BUT, I know my daughter knows how to clean up and organize her room. As the daughter of a professional organizer, she has grown up in an environment where organizing skills have been taught and reinforced on a daily basis. Plus I HAVE seen her organize and clean up her room. When she wants to do it, she can do a spectacular job! But she doesn’t want to do it every day, no teenager does.

So, as a parent, the better question to ask is ‘have I taught my child the skill of organizing’ rather than ‘how can I get my child to keep his/her bedroom cleaned up and organized.

For more tips and ideas on the skills of organizing, you might want click here.




Becky Esker is a certified professional organizer, national speaker, owner of Get Organized! L.L.C., and the forthcoming author of 2 Minutes to Organization: The simple way to get organized! Becky and her team provide hands-on services to those in the greater eastern Iowa area and also provide a wide array of products and service to businesses and individuals nationwide through their website. For more information access www.TheOrganizingChoice.com.

Get Organized: Use a calendar!

If you have responsibilities and you have more than a couple things going on each day, you must have a calendar!

Having a calendar is not enough. You also need to use it! Input your appointments and reference your calendar each and every day. The two critical times for reviewing your calendar are right before you go to bed and once again first thing in the morning.

What type of calendar is best? That answer depends on you, how your brain works and what systems works best for you. For some a small pocket book calendar is the answer. For others, an electronic calendar such as Outlook or Google calendar works best. You can not overlook the extra large family calendar either. The type of calendar is not important as long as it works for you.

Make sure you access it regularly throughout the day so you do not miss an appointment. If you need an extra reminder, an electronic system might be the best choice for you as these systems can be programmed to send you reminders. For instance, if you use your calendar on your cell phone, you can also set the timer to go off to remind you of an appointment. Likewise, with Google Calendar, you can have a text message or email message sent as a reminder.

If your calendar systems is not working or you need a system, please set up a system that works. Overlooking a commitment is not good for you or the folks who depend on you.

Becky Esker is a certified professional organizer, national speaker, owner of Get Organized! L.L.C., and the forthcoming author of 2 Minutes Organization: The simple way to get organized! Becky and her team provide hands-on services to those in the greater eastern Iowa area and also provide a wide array of products and service to businesses and individuals nationwide through their website. For more information access www.TheOrganizingChoice.com.

Getting Organized: A New Christmas Tradition?

One of the many seminars I lead is called Balancing the Holiday Hustle and Bustle. The primary focus of the workshop is uncovering the true meaning of the holidays. The true meaning of the holidays in my life is not the crazy hustle and bustle, but rather enjoying time with my family.

So, this year when my son wanted to do something different with our Christmas tree, we did just that!!


Yes, take a look at the picture. Do you notice anything strange about it?







I know you might be thinking "Becky you uploaded the picture wrong way!"


Well, look again! The picture is the right way.

When my son and husband were getting the tree out and ready to assemble, my son came and asked me if we could put up our tree UPSIDE DOWN. My first instinct was 'no.' In fact, I first told him 'no.' But then remembering the true meaning of Christmas...who cares what our tree looks like as long as we enjoy it!


So, just because something has always been done one way doesn't mean we have to continue especially if there is an easier or more enjoyable way of doing it.

Prime example here! The kids had a really good time assembling the tree upside down and we all enjoyed putting on the ornaments. My 15 year old daughter was excited to put on the tree skirt. As with most teenagers, it is difficult to get them to participate in family stuff but this was an activity she not only participated in, but enjoyed. It was good to see her laugh and have a great time!


So to you and yours, do something different this season!






Enjoy the season!


-Becky Esker


Becky Esker is a Certified Professional Organizer, national speaker, owner of Get Organized! LLC and the forthcoming author of "2 Minutes to Organization: The Simplest Way to Get Organized." For free organizing tips, go to www.TotallyFreeOrganizingTips.com.

Get Organized: Create systems and lists

Yes, I got organized today! I just spent 3 hours this morning expanding our companies reach on the internet. I updated, created, published and blogged in numerous places. All are places we should be visible on a regular basis but have been doing only sporadically.

The reason it has been sporadic is because I don't have a system in place. So, I created one today. I now have a list of all the websites where I need to be submitting articles, blogs and press releases. I also created a table that has the date and description of what was submitted.

And the final step in my system is to schedule time on my calendar (on a repeating basis) for me to submit information to the various websites.

The moral of the story... creating systems and setting up lists make implementation of getting organized much easier!

-Becky Esker is the president of Get Organized! LLC, a professional organizing service, serving the greater Cedar Rapids area. Do you want to get organized? Get your FREE “28 Tips for Organizing Your Home & Business” brochure. Request your brochure from 319-395-7477 or access www.GoGetOrganizedNow.com.

How to Organize Receipts

Check out a video tip of how to organize your receipts!

http://www.getorganizedcr.com/eblast/Receiptsvideoeblast.html