Checking in at Extreme Makeover show

I had the privilege of helping out with a house built by ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” on Friday, July 15. As a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers, our Georgia chapter was invited to help load-in the contents of the home located in Madison, Ga.

The construction crew had finished the house for the deserving family, which includes 9-year old Anaiah Rucker who saved her sister’s life. Our duties included unloading trucks, setting up the kitchen, picking up trash and anything else they needed! We won’t be on the show, but it was really fun to be a small part of a huge heart-warming project.  Read more...

Rainbow -- From a friend's window

I love learning from my clients. One client, an artist, already had a stellar system of daily to-do folders when I met her. She has 7 folders, one for each day of the week. What colors did she choose that would be easy to remember?

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. For all you color fans out there, it’s the old stand-by, ROY G. BIV! That’s the mnemonic to help remember the sequence of hues in the visible spectrum and in rainbows. (Thanks to Wikipedia for the definition.)

You’ve probably heard of the National Do Not Call Registry. If you have registered your phone numbers, you have greatly reduced the number of telemarketing calls you receive. Even one less call saves you time. If you never got around to it, the time is now.

I just heard cell phones were about to be subject to telemarketing calls. The Registry web site says otherwise (see Question 10): http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt107.shtm.

Now, you may be asking like I was this week, when does my registration expire? I do have the document in a file, but I found good news online. Your registrations now never expire! See for yourself:  http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/04/dncfyi.shtm

Laura with organizing guru Julie Morgenstern (on R) at San Diego conference

Now there’s a title that grabs your attention. What? Never check e-mail in the morning? Organizing guru and author of “Never Check E-mail in the Morning” Julie Morgenstern says devoting the first hour of the day to a critical task starts the day with you in charge and not the other way around. Makes sense!

I met Julie last week in San Diego at the annual conference of the National Association of Professional Organizers. More than 700 organizers attended, including some from the Netherlands, Brazil, Canada, Philippines, Australia and Japan!