In my organizing business, I have recently noticed a lack of motivation to put things away, even after everything is organized and put away correctly. I believe that it is one thing to get uber-organized and another to keep it up. The best of systems will not last unless clutter remedy strategies are in place and utilized.

The decreased motivation is for many reasons: lack of clear vision about goals and dreams, moving forward with life challenges, mood challenges, mainly anxiety and depression, an overly busy schedule, not enough help or support, and a misunderstanding about keeping a house or workspace up. Another thing I've noticed is a trend in time-saving tips that do not save time. For some time now, one of the tips I've seen turning up is about not Turning clothes inside out before hanging them. One of my clients shared a tip going around that you can save time by taking things out of the washer or dryer and hanging them up as they come out, even if they are inside out. The biggest problem is that it does not save time at all. Eventually, you will want to wear an article of clothing from your closet, and guess what you will put in the time you think you saved by turning it right side out. Also, the bigger problem is you will not see if there are stains or tears on the right side of the clothing until you've put it on and are admiring yourself in the mirror. Now you will be late for work or your morning meeting. Another client shared that instead of having somewhere to hang her delicate clothes, a tip was to hang the wet clothes all over her apartment, without hangers, over furniture, countertops, shower doors, and anywhere they could be placed. While this works to get the clothing dry, running around scattering wet clothing is comical and time-consuming. There are so many over-the-door hanging apparatuses and easy-to-use drying racks that fold up when you're finished. Why wouldn't you employ some tools that will save you time, steps and protect you from walking into a home full of strewn clothes? The fewer steps and processes to laundry, the better.

Daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly manual labor is always involved in maintaining a well-organized and clutter-free space. We all make daily messes, yet putting things back where they belong regularly consists of willing yourself to pick up and put away things that have been scattered about. There is no mystery why beautiful, valuable shoes, clothes, toys, papers, receipts, and stuff pile up and turn into a cluttered mess. You're not keeping up with the putting away part.

Here are 8 simple tips to remain perpetually organized:

1. Categorize every single thing you own into broad categories.
2. Fine-tune all categories into sub-categories to help you find things more accessible.
3. Contain every sub-category separately. Do not lump things together in drawers or shelves, cabinets, or closets. 
4. Have a home for every sub-category based on how often you use items and where you use them.
5. Will yourself put things away when you take them out of their home.
6. When new items come into your space, figure out immediately where they will be placed. 
7. For new items coming into your space, such as purchases, mail, gifts, or packages, open them immediately, discard the boxes, envelopes, and bags they come in, and figure out where they will go. 
8. Always put things back where they belong, and when you don't have time, have empty space or baskets to put them into in the meantime until you have time to distribute out-of-place items.

Also, read or listen to The Clutter Remedy: A Guide To Getting Organized For Those Who Love Their Stuff by Marla Stone. Stone, a former social worker, and psychotherapist will help you declutter your emotional self first and has revolutionized organizing any space possible with clear and concise criteria for keeping what you value most in your life and rooms.
​www.i-deal-lifestyle.com

​Jealousy, the wild riptide emotion that tears you up inside and snarls apart once fun and loving relationships, is one of the most devastating and harmful of all emotional tirades one can experience. Jealousy causes irrational and wobbly impulse schemes, blaming shenanigans, and histrionic waves of distrust, disregard, and damage control. These often delusional and unruly behaviors will shut doors in faces, click-off phones, and block social activity similarly to all socially unacceptable life responses, such as intrusion, racism, antisocial and violent acts. Yet, unlike the latter, jealousy with a scoop of intellect and pound of understanding will ideally be met with a more caring and accepting approach. If you cannot see past someone's blind bashed feelings, are you also part of the problem?

Jealousy is a deep pocket sewn into the most fragile part of the emotional body. It triggers tail-chasing instability laced with threads of desertion, neglect, and betrayal. The button sign that says unwelcome or sayonara is often met with reels of rejection, flames of furry, and a backlash flight or fight tizzy going out of control. Then coming in like a tidal wave is unwanted rage and devastating longing for what once was inclusion. 
It's like a kick to the jaw and a boot to the heart 
all at the same time. 

Whether the stranding or jilting is done with fair or unfair treatment, the tsunami swells, bubbling up torrid resentment strewn towards all involved, and toppling and swirling everyone everywhere. 

So, what creates zealous jealously in some and not others. The key is, the jealous person feels massively unloved and then sordid, stubborn, and angry about it. Feeling unloveable is the primary, more profound, and darker feeling of jealousy. The scathed and abandoned part of someone stems from unresolved childhood issues, having nothing to do with the victim of the possessive, grasping, glomming hands from the distraught loser of victory, friendship, love, or award.

A jealous person is the ultimate loser of everything from relationships to careers to life experiences. Jealousy is a sheath for disappointment, loss, grief, and painstaking confusion. It twinges with psychotic pain like that from losing a loved one when you're not ready to lose, and it sneaks up beside you, shaming you down.

Unlike envy which is light and green with admiration, devotion, and revere, jealousy seethes into the sleeves of despair, despondency and turns up a downtrodden disappointment in the coating of one's life.

So, how do you want to handle someone who has come off the handle, so off-keel, that they would kneel before you with regret one minute and spit you away from the next? 

Remember whether the outright dismissal is for good or bad reasons. Do you want to make the person disappear, or in a sense, die from your life altogether? Do you want to kick them further to the edge when they walk the narrow path on the wrong side of the road? Do we up our arms and walk away without a care? Well, I guess that depends on whether that person was worthy of your friendship from the beginning!

My suggestion is to bring people into your life with the art of discrimination. That way, when people in your life misbehave, you will make good decisions about who to keep around and who to eliminate. People, unlike objects, can't be tossed, thrown, or donated. That is why you want to be discriminating in choosing friends. Like friends, shells on a beach are not all going to be picked up and brought home with you. Figure out 30 things you want in ideal friends and partners. Write a list and go big, fairy God-Mother big. That way, when someone acts out and gets ugly, it is so much easier to lend a hand or lock the door. Whatever you choose, please do it with cups of love and tinctures of compassion!

Marla Stone is the author of The Clutter Remedy: A Guide To Getting Organized For Those Who Love Their Stuff and owner of www.i-deal-lifestyle.com

Whether it is a glam room, a board room, or any space in your office or home, www.i-deal-lifestyle.com organizes anything that can be organized. Marla Stone, MSW, Professional Organizer and Author of The Clutter Remedy: A Guide To Getting Organized For Those Who Love Their Stuff, is a world-renowned, consummate organizer/designer who has traveled the world helping people not only get organized but stay organized, permanently. ​

Marla started as a social worker/psychotherapist and then reinvented herself in 2010 into a home and business organizer. Her team of organizers loves organizing businesses, residential properties, and lives. "Coaching people to overall wellness, inside and out is the goal," Stone exclaims enthusiastically. 
Bringing Stone's mental health background has bridged perpetual internal disorganization to outer chaos. It is no mystery why people get disorganized and drown in clutter when there are unresolved disappointments and grief issues buried in the unconscious process of people's lives.

Stone's favorite jobs are corporate settings and creating space that is not only safe with covid restrictions but also aesthetically pleasing. Setting up cubicles or having people out on the open floor exposed with no privacy is not the solution for increased productivity. It takes a Feng Shui perspective to set up corporate space, with space planning finesse. 

The newest product Stone is selling is an alive and online education program based on her book The Clutter Remedy. The corporate training program "Declutter Your Strategy." The training program not only helps with a cluttered work environment. The goal of Declutter Your Strategy is to educate and elevate productivity, sales, and relationships. The program supports C-Suite Executives, Realtors, and Brokers in understanding their inner emotional clutter and how to help their customers by understanding them better. It is a quick and easy seven-module program that teaches primary mental health diagnoses, coping strategies, and improved communication skills, all geared towards improved productivity. Stone says, "There is not enough education about mental health, and it's keeping people blocked up from reaching their loftiest goals."

To find out more about I-Deal-Lifestyle Inc. services, email info@i-deal-lifestyle.com.​

We serve all of Orange County and anywhere outside of Orange County. We are an Irvine-based business. We offer Re-designed office space, decluttering any room in your home, even your garage or storage unit. We organize the house and act as a personal organizer. We are the best professional organizer in Orange County and make getting decluttered straightforward with no drama. To get organized, procure help, hoard help, or organize services in Orange County, don't hesitate to contact us through our website at www.i-deal-lifestyle.com. For training and development, public speaking, or a successful event, don't hesitate to contact Marla Stone directly at marla@i-deal-lifestyle.com. For a house organizer, desk organization, clearing space, or designer services in orange county, contact us at info@i-deal-lifestyle.com

If you are finding holiday gift boxes scattered around your house and the entryway is frustratingly blocked by a giant pile of snow boots, it may be time for the annual spring clean. However, the seemingly insurmountable task of getting the home ready for brighter weather can leave some homeowners paralyzed with indecision. If you are wanting some inspiration on how to start your spring clean, consider any of the advice listed in this helpful checklist.


​1. Declutter the Home Office
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, many people were forced into remote working situations without any kind of infrastructure in place as to how to make this work. This leaves many professionals working in makeshift areas indefinitely as they wait, not-so-patiently, for in-person work to resume.

However, even when life eventually does “return to normal,” the remote work environment wrought by the pandemic will undoubtedly retain a presence in the years to come.

As a result, it is important to have a clean, tidy, and functional home office space in which you can compartmentalize your professional responsibilities from everyday home life. Clutter causes increased stress, as it is a visual reminder of work left undone, which can undermine work performance. The Clutter Remedy: A Guide To Getting Organized For Those Who Love Their Stuff by Marla Stone helps tremendously to get started on your Decluttering project. The Clutter Remedy Book

Therefore, the office is a great place to start your spring cleaning efforts in 2021. Find a different place for that spare dresser with stray socks poking out of the drawers and those board games piled on top. Keep your desk clear of any personal items, such as dishes, cups, none-office stuff, or personal electronic devices not used for work. Make sure the floor is not littered with extra pairs of shoes or children’s toys, ensuring the same professional atmosphere of a regular commercial office space.

2. Sanitize Like Never Before
​
Speaking of the pandemic, people have become well-versed at sanitizing frequently over the past year. And since spring cleaning is the one time of year that most people thoroughly sanitize, anyway, everything should fall right into place, right?

Well, yes and no. While scrubbing the bathtub, wiping down the refrigerator shelves, and deep cleaning the oven should still be at the forefront of your sanitation efforts, spend some extra time on areas that may have been overlooked prior to the pandemic, such as doorknobs, sink faucets, and interior handrails. It may also be a good idea to replace these items to give your home some new accents this spring and get a fresh start going forward.

3. Don’t Ignore the Exterior
Most spring cleaning efforts focus on making the interior of the home more pleasant and livable. However, it can be difficult to get into the mood to get the inside of the home looking pristine when the curb appeal is a wreck. As such, make sure that exterior projects are a part of your spring cleaning routine in 2021.

Basic landscaping projects such as thatching the yard, planting flowers, and trimming tree branches that died over winter are a great place to start. For more ambitious homeowners, replacing a cracked concrete driveway or swapping a dinged and dented garage door with one of the sleek custom garage doors popular today can really take your exterior makeover to the next level and set the tone for a spring clean.

4. Spend Time on Windows and Walls
The vacuum and broom are often the first items brandished when spring cleaning begins. While the floors and carpets undoubtedly need to be cleaned, a surprising amount of dust accumulates on the walls and windows.

Rather than start with the vacuum, a better approach is to start at the top of the wall and work your way down so that you do not have to re-vacuum. Use a damp cloth and gently wipe the walls in a downward motion. For the windows, it is best to use a steam cleaner and squeegee as opposed to a cloth. Be sure to pop out any window screens or magnetic storm windows to get any hard-to-reach areas, and try to avoid using any toxic cleaning products.
Get Started Spring Cleaning Today

The spring clean is an important annual event to get the home ready for nicer weather. However, the tall task of paring down a month’s worth of winter accumulation can make homeowners indecisive. Therefore, consider any of the helpful ideas listed above to make your spring clean a success.

For more on decluttering your home make sure to check out i DEAL LiFESTYLE  for more helpful strategies and advice.

Max Shafer is a contributor to the Innovative Building Materials blog. He is a content writer for the construction and home improvement industries with an interest in landscaping, outdoor remodeling, and interior design. Max is focused on educating homeowners, contractors, and architects on innovative materials and methods of construction that increase property value, improve sustainability, and create a warm and welcoming ambiance.

The best strategies I use as a declutter and staging expert are to depersonalize the home, declutter cabinets, closets, and drawers and use good energy and flow principles for opening up each room for a more inviting and inspiring walkthrough.
Taking out some dated, bulky and shabby furniture and furniture placement is essential for the ease and comfort of the buyer. The home should look like a model home, with pops of bright colors like turquoise, orange, yellow, and lime green throughout the property. These colors will uplift the mood, especially against a neutral background, and they are current and ideal for selling to a contemporary buyer. If the client still has maroon and forest green colors in drapery and fabric, I do my best to get those colors out or hide them under furniture coverings.

Hiding offensive artwork or decor, family photos, or costly artwork, clothing, accessories, or personal hygiene products is recommended. Eliminating ANY clutter from surfaces, floor, furniture, and drawers, cabinets, and closets (because buyers will open them) is mandatory. I like to neatly pack the clutter and personal belongings in clear bins and place them in the garage or guest closets. Some of my biggest pet peeves are shabby or stained rugs, furniture, bedding, knick-knacks galore, dated colors and old-style furniture, and most of all, fake plants.
Getting the garage spic and span is also extremely important. There should be no mess at all, anywhere.
I create space in cabinets and drawers for things the owner regularly uses during showings to put things away easily and quickly before potential buyers come knocking.
Whether virtual or live, the rules are Declutter, Eliminate Bulk of Personal Belongings, and Design the Space, so it mimics a model home.
Also if you can't walk the property when considering a purchase ask about the condition and location of the home. These two questions are the most important factor to know for a buyer. Ask about overhead plane noise, noisy neighbors, street noise, power lines, mold and structural issues and get a floor plan and see if its conducive to your lifestyle. For example is the master bedroom privately located away from the kid’s and guest rooms? Is the kitchen Off the garage? And is there a quiet grassy yard for a pet?

Marla Stone, Lifestyle Organizer, Keynote Speaker & Author of The Clutter Remedy: A Guide To Getting Organized For Those Who Love Their Stuff Read Marla’s book now https://www.amazon.com/Clutter-Remedy-Guide-Getting-Organized/dp/1608686299Cell only: 949-709-7000
Skype ID: ideallifestylenow
The author is Zoom conversant info@i-deal-lifestyle.
www.i-deal-lifestyle.com
I-Deal-Lifestyle Inc. Declutter Your Strategy™
Corporate Office - 11 Morningside, Irvine, CA 92603 -
949-709-7000 - info@i-deal-lifestyle.com


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Flat, neutral decor is excellent for slumber, relaxation, and chilling, yet it will not stimulate, excite, nor keep your brain happy.

Whatever neutrals you choose to keep peace and serenity close to your heart, you will also want pops of color, eclectic artwork, mixed with some hand-carved, vintage, and painted furniture.

Splashes of colors in fabric, design and decorative items keeps your space alive and vibrant and it also helps your brain take notice. The more magic and whimsy versus mundane accents, and decor
will keep you uplifted versus downtrodden.

So here's some ideas to keep the fusirform gyrus (the part of your brain that recognizes beauty,) happy.

For bathrooms, include sparkly soap dishes and trash containers, tile floors with patterns, and swirls with a border of sparkly penny tile. Find gorgeous, thick, and sultry towels and mats. Bestow your bathroom with fanciful wallpapers and paintings. Update your faucets and hardware with gold or polished silver.

For bedrooms, take out the mirrors (bad for restful sleep) and add gorgeous and soothing pastel artwork. Hang a crystal chandelier light or fan to make an ordinary room into a Glamorous suite. When space is ample create a sitting area with some cheetah or tiger print pillows for some pizzazz and you'll have somewhere to sit in your new boudoir and sip champagne.

Kitchens are always better with clean countertops whether granite, marble or sparkly quartz, For the countertop to keep whatever you use regularly place some glam mirror, rustic wood, or seashell Trays for everyday kitchen gadgets, oils, or vinegar. It's always a great idea to have a tray, beautiful bowls or specially designed baskets for anything on top of counters. Getting a glitzy backsplash instead of plain white tile or boring painted walls creates a heavenly haven instead of a solemnly wrong and Dull kitchen space.

Creating an entryway that says you have entered a place, you will never want to leave is greatly the most important and essential signature for a home. A statement you'll want to make happen. An entryway that takes one's breath away, as well as a pause, occurs when your met with bold artwork, a fully stocked bar within the entrance area or within view, a place to sit immediately (a distinguished bench, stools or chairs) with velvet or silk texture and cloth and a riveting pattern and color.
Some fun metal art statue pieces of art on the floor, so the visiting eye moves all over exciting the brains of all who enter always makes the beginning journey into your home an adventure that marks the rest of your home’s grand tour.

Living room, great rooms, and dining rooms are always better with bling. So crystal bowls, some colored glass, art sculptures, and local artisan fair finds will create a museum type observancee. Establishing a relaxing neutral, and comfy down-filled furniture setting for the splendor of the room is essential. The fabric on couches, settees, poofs, stools and chairs is better with chenille, satins, silk, and velvet in neutral colors. With neutral furniture you will always have a background that will be easily able to be changed and charged with various splashes of pillows, decor and artwork throughout seasons and all the years spent in your sacred space.

For more information about changing and charging up your space, call 949-709-7000 and ask for Marla. She will give you a free 30-minute in-home consulting session about lightening and brightening your rooms and your mind.

Save your sanity by improving your environment. www.i-deal-lifestyle.com

Is your child a target of bullying?

Many celebrities, Rhianna, Eva Mendes, Justin Timberlake, and Elon Musk, were bully children’s targets. I was also a bullied child. After all, in the years of being a child therapist, I learned Bully's psychology. I realize that bullies are children of neglectful parenting.

Latch-Key kids are not cared for properly, without unconditional love and regard, and so they seek comfort in other neglected children and often “run in packs.” The Latch-Key kids stick together and quickly snuff out the well-cared-for kids. The neglected kids' pick on the well-groomed kids, who have their lunches and go home to parents that teach them about right from wrong.

The downtrodden, unloved bunch of kids or a single bully are filled with apathy which is a combination of feeling unloved and seething with jealousy. Bully kids hide their bullying ways at home and are usually picked on either by the parents and or siblings.

Many adults who report bully victimization as children end up with low self-esteem, yet over time can become hugely successful, confident, and very humanitarian types of people, while bullies generally fall short in life and self-defeated.

Marla Stone, MSW, Life and Space Organizer www.i-deal-lifestyle.com