How to Organize Just About Everything: More Than 500 Step-by-Step Instructions for Everything from Organizing Your Closets to Planning a Wedding to Creating a Flawless Filing System

Foreword

Is your household a fine-tuned model of efficiency? Or do you simply close the door when the piles and heaps get out of control? If your home, your calendar and your inbox are bursting at the seams, rest assured, that you're not alone: We're all guilty of acquiring more and more stuff and have fewer places to put it. Schedules are overrun with commitments, checkbooks stagger under ever-increasing debt loads, and closets long for breathing room. Where does it end?

Being organized is the key to a simpler life, in which the things we own reflect who we are and everything has its place. How to Organize (Just About) Everything covers the typical organizing dilemmas — closets, garage, desk — but goes beyond mere cosmetic fixes to the root of the problem. You'll find tried-and-true strategies that will help everything from the hopelessly scattered to the chronically late — bringing relief to the most hard core pack rat.

This definitive guide will help you organize your life from cradle to grave whether you're planning your family or planning your estate. Tackle affairs of the heart and meet Mr. Or Ms. Right, arrange a wedding and orchestrate the perfect conception. Stay on top of your kids' schedules, homework and birthday parties. When you need to get away from it all, investigate a trove of travel tips to help plan your honeymoon, a fishing trip to Alaska or the perfect day at Disneyland. Discover a surprising range of topics in chapters devoted entirely to improving your community, planning celebrations and events and dealing with life's unexpected situations.

Your first tip: Start with chapter one (Get Organized) and get a handle on the basics. You'll learn how to Write an Effective To-Do List, Overcome Chronic Disorganization, Get Rid of What You Don't Want and Set Goals. Check the difficulty level for each topic — the more paper clips, the more challenging the task — and the Tips, Who Knew? and Warning sidebars for additional insight. You'll be primed to declutter your home, streamline your workday, plot your career, master your finances and much, much more.

Thanks to all of our authors and professional organizers for expertly distilling organizing principles into concise topics (read more about them on the Contributors page). A top of the hat to Julie Thomson and Ginny McLean for diving into the breach with flair and to managing editor Jennifer Block Martin for nailing it time and time again with style and grace. Special thanks to Brynn Breuner for deftly steering the project and without whom this book would never have seen the light of day, and to Ken, for making me brave.

So, conquer that clutter, find your keys and welcome deadlines with open arms. With How to Organize (Just About) Everything, you'll be ready for anything life throws at you.

Peter Walsh

Copyright © 2004 by Weldon Owen Inc.