Year-End Organizing
Author: Tracy Colleran, professional organizer
The end of a year can be stressful. People pack in more family gatherings, parties, traveling, shopping, cooking, cleaning, baking, decorating…whew, that’s quite a list! Add all that to
needing to gather paperwork for income tax preparation and clearing out files to make room for next year’s bills and it’s understandable that one can feel overwhelmed.
Good news! There are some small steps you can take to get you going:
Identify what you want to get organized – whether it be receipts for deductions so you can avoid a late tax filing, your photos and keepsakes, your medical bills so you can follow up on timely Medicare claims, your piles of recipe clippings, or your travel magazines collected for that hopeful trip to Italy one day.
Write it down – a dream does not become a goal until you write it down! Keep it posted in a place where you can read it every day. It is said it takes 21 days to create or change a habit. You need to visualize reaching your goal for those 21 days so that it really sinks in.
Make a plan – decide what you want to do, how you want to do it, when you are going to work on it, and who is going to help. Read books, blogs, and articles on how to go about creating an organizing plan. Carve out time in your schedule and make a date on your calendar. It took time to get disorganized, so you will have to make time to get organized again! And don’t be afraid to ask for help; whether it be from a friend, family member, or professional organizer. We are all gifted in different ways!
Reward yourself – as you move through the process of getting organized for the new year, remember to take one step at a time and reward yourself. You’ll make that trip to Italy after all!
About Tracy Colleran:
Professional organizer Tracy Colleran provides quality and efficient organizing services for homes 
and home offices in the Naples area. Tracy graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Advertising. Her real passion in life, however, is organizing. This was made manifest during her years of employment in home offices and small companies.
These organizing methods from the professional world carried over into her personal life. Tracy always got excited to help her family and friends straighten up their closets, garages, kitchens, and photo albums and memorabilia. Most people think she’s crazy for finding joy in the very things that less organized people find overwhelming! This is how Straighten Up, Inc. was born and Tracy turned her obsession into a profession.
Website: http://www.straightenupinc.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/straighten.up
Twitter: #straightenupinc
