Organizing Ideas For The Weekend #18

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Happy Friday!  Time for another organizing idea for your weekend :)

Wow, I just realized it's been a month since my last Organizing Ideas For The Weekend post.  Spring is a busy time of year for many families, and May has been no exception for our family (including a vacation last week where I spent less time "plugged in" so I could enjoy more time with family!).  So blogging has taken a back seat lately.  

OK, on to this week's post!

Spring is a popular time for garage sales.  Our townhouse complex is having a community garage sale in 2 weeks and I've started setting aside things to sell.

Garage sales can be very overwhelming!  Between finding items to sell, pricing items, setting everything up, advertising, haggling over prices, cleaning up, and dealing with anything that didn't sell, the whole process can get a little crazy.

But, I've seen several great posts lately with tips for successful and organized garage sales so I thought I'd share them with you today!

If you're planning a garage sale, hopefully these tips will help make it a less overwhelming process so you can make a little money, get rid of some clutter, and not lose your mind doing it!

If you're not planning a garage sale, you can pass these tips on to someone who is, and then just spend the weekend purging some items in your home, donating them, and then enjoying the freedom of a less cluttered living space :)

Each of these posts contains tips for planning a garage sale or yard sale.  Click the links below the pictures to be taken to the posts since the pictures don't really give you the content in most cases.


Samantha at Simply Organized shares lots of tips for an organized garage sale.

Simply Organized

Here's a garage sale checklist from Michelle Lea Designs!

Michelle Lea Designs

This site is all about garage sale tips!  Here's one of their pages with tips for the layout of your garage sale, but there are a ton of other tips on other pages too.

Best Garage Sale Tips

Susan at Achieving Creative Order recently did a series on organizing garage sales.  My favourite post is this one about creating a garage sale tool kit.

Achieving Creative Order

This post from Belly Feathers has some really pretty free printable signs and labels, plus more great tips for an organized yard sale.

Belly Feathers

There are lots of other great printable signs, advertising ideas, and organizing tips to help you have an organized garage sale.  Check out my Yard Sales / Thrift Stores / Freecycle board on Pinterest for more!

Do you find it overwhelming to have a garage sale?  If so, which of these tips do you think will help you the most?  If you've had successful yard sales, what tips can you share with the rest of us?  And do any of you have a funny story about a garage sale? {I know they're out there!}

Happy organizing and have a great weekend!

   

I link up at these great parties - Check them out!

You've Got {Too Much} Email! - Challenge Update 4

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How did you do this week with the "You've Got {Too Much} Email" challenge?  I'm not seeing many comments, but I've heard from people who have stepped up to tame their inbox clutter and I'm so happy this challenge has inspired you!

If you're just joining in and you're not sure what this challenge is all about, you can click here to read all about it.

Every Monday evening I post my update on how many emails I deleted during that week.  So here is this week's update!

I deleted 272 emails this week.  I surpassed my minimum goal of 250 each week so I'm happy with that.

I was on vacation this week, so deleting emails was not a huge priority :)  But again, I'm really happy to have the accountability of this challenge.  I would not likely have spent any time deleting emails this week if I didn't have to update you tonight!

This week the emails I deleted were all from the "Job Stuff" folder which was were I kept confirmation emails when I applied to jobs over the last few years.  Those confirmations are old and unnecessary so away they go!

I still have a long way to go...over 10,000 remaining!  But I'm making progress, one week at a time, and I'm really happy with it.  My inbox is gradually becoming less cluttered and overwhelming.  How about yours?

If you're feeling overwhelmed, remember if you just do a few minutes a day it will add up!  Break your overwhelming project into little bite-sized pieces.  Good advice for any decluttering or organizing project :)

During this challenge, I've been coming across other bloggers who have shared motivation and tips for managing your inbox and I thought it would be great to share them with you each week.

This week's tips come from Kristi at The House that Clutter Built.  She shares tips for how to keep your emails organized as they're coming in, so you can always keep the email clutter under control.  That way you won't have to do this big of a purge again :)

The House That Clutter Built:  Organizing All of That Email

I've included tips in the other update posts in this series, so if you've missed any of them, here's a list of all of them.

Introduction to the Challenge

Why delete emails, how the challenge works & free tracking sheet

Challenge Update Week 1 

More on how the challenge works & "Done is better than perfect"

Challenge Update Week 2 

Tips for deleting "Easy" emails

Challenge Update Week 3

Tips for both the "project" phase of cleaning up your inbox and the "maintaining" phase

Don't forget, you can join this challenge at any time!  You can choose to do a little bit each day or week or just jump in and do a bunch all at once.  

If you haven't downloaded your free spreadsheet or free printable tracking chart, click the appropriate link to get yours and then jump in and start deleting!

So have you been deleting emails?  What's your motivation?  What kind of emails have you been deleting?

Share your tips and progress in the comments so we can all encourage each other!

I'm enjoying sharing this journey with you.  We're all in this together :)   Here's to a less overwhelming inbox!

I link up at these great parties - Check them out!

You've Got {Too Much} Email! - Challenge Update 3

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So how are you doing with the "You've Got {Too Much} Email" challenge?  I know some of you have been deleting emails in large chunks and that's fantastic!

Just a reminder for those who feel overwhelmed by the number of emails you have, you can just spend a few minutes a day and you'll be surprised how much those minutes add up.

If you're just joining in and you missed the introductory post, you can click here to read all about the challenge.

Every Monday evening I post my update on how many emails I deleted during that week.  So here is this week's update!

I deleted 250 emails this week.  Nothing like my 3000+ emails last week, but my minimum goal each week is 250 and I'm happy to have achieved that.

Why so few this week?  We decided a week ago to go on vacation so this past week was busy with preparations.

I'm so happy for the accountability of this challenge though.  I doubt I would have deleted any this week if I didn't have to report back with my numbers!

This week most of the emails I deleted were old blog posts on leadership, social media, time management, and blogging.  These were blogs I subscribed to a couple of years ago, when I was developing my skills in these areas.

Before deleting the emails, I pinned some of them on these Pinterest boards:

Time Management / To Do Lists / Goal Setting board

Social Media Tips and Ideas

Office Organizing 

Blogging Tips Community Board

How neat is that?  You can read some of the emails I deleted!

Now you may be saying, "Isn't the point of this challenge to actually DELETE emails?  Why are you pinning them?  Isn't that defeating the purpose?"   You were thinking that, weren't you? :)

I'm glad you asked!  Here's the thing:  when these blog posts were in email folders, I NEVER looked back at them, and the number of emails in my folders just kept growing, which was overwhelming to me.

In Pinterest form, I can group the content into the appropriate categories, and when I'm searching for information or tips on a particular topic, I can find them easily.

To me, it's a win-win solution!  I love when that happens :)

And, to clarify, I deleted most of those emails.  Out of 250 blog posts, I only pinned 24.  So 90% went straight into the Trash folder.

During this challenge, I've been coming across other bloggers who have shared motivation and tips for managing your inbox and I thought it would be great to share them with you each week.

Here's a blog post from Simplify 101 (one of my favourite organizing blogs!).  It has suggestions for the project phase (what we're currently doing in this challenge) and the maintenance phase (changing your habits so you don't get an overwhelming inbox again).  Click the link below the picture to check it out!

Simplify 101:  Organizing Your Email In-Box

I've included tips in the other update posts in this series, so if you've missed any of them, here's a list of all of them.

Introduction to the Challenge

Why delete emails, how the challenge works & free tracking sheet

Challenge Update Week 1 

More on how the challenge works & "Done is better than perfect"

Challenge Update Week 2 

Tips for deleting "Easy" emails

Don't forget, you can join this challenge at any time!  You can choose to do a little bit each day or week or just jump in and do a bunch all at once.  

If you haven't downloaded your free spreadsheet or free printable tracking chart, click the appropriate link to get yours and then jump in and start deleting!


So have you been deleting emails?  What's your motivation?  What kind of emails have you been deleting?

Share your tips and progress in the comments so we can all encourage each other!

I'm enjoying sharing this journey with you.  We're all in this together :)   Here's to a less overwhelming inbox!

I link up at these great parties - Check them out!

You've Got {Too Much} Email! - Challenge Update 2

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Last week I launched the "You've Got {Too Much} Email" challenge.  I've heard several great stories from people who have taken up the challenge and have been deleting emails in their inbox.  If you missed the introductory post, you can click here to read all about it.

Every Monday evening I post my update on how many emails I deleted during that week.  So here is this week's update!

I deleted 3079 emails this week!  So many more than previous weeks and I smashed my weekly goal of 250 emails.

A lot of these were "easy" emails to delete.  But they were still emails :)

What do I mean by "easy" emails?

• Emails that I've saved but that I really didn't need to be saving.  For example I kept confirmation emails for Kindle books I've ordered but I have the books so I don't need the emails anymore.  And I saved emails from LinkedIn that are also in my LinkedIn inbox so I don't need these duplicates.
• Newsletters that I subscribed to, read, and then saved in case I wanted to refer to them again later.  It's later and I never look back to them, so away they go.  This week I deleted over 1000 leadership, education, and job-related newsletters.  If/when I ever need this information I'm sure I can find it again online.
• Emails that used to be important but aren't any more.  In my case I deleted over 1000 job-related emails that I saved when I was job searching last year.  
• Drafts.  Some of these were 10 years old!  Definitely don't need them anymore.
• Conversations.  I flipped through these quickly, but I don't use Yahoo for chatting very often and none of these conversations were about anything important.

So there you go!  Feels good to get rid of all that dead weight :)

Do you have a bunch of easy emails you can delete?  If you're feeling overwhelmed when you open your inbox, this is a great place to start de-cluttering it!

You can join this challenge at any time!  You can choose to do a little bit each day or week or just jump in and do a bunch all at once.  I've been deleting mine while watching T.V.  It's multitasking at it's best :)

If you haven't downloaded your free spreadsheet or free printable tracking chart, or you need more information on how the challenge works, click here!

Don't forget to leave a comment below with your update!  If you're just joining in, tell us your starting numbers and weekly goal too!  

I'm enjoying sharing this journey with you.  We're all in this together :)   Here's to a less overwhelming inbox!

I link up at these great parties - Check them out!