Top Organizing Websites

Here are a few of my favorite organizing websites:

1. Get Organized Now

This has to be my favorite. I believe it is really the best and most comprehensive organizing web resource I have come across. You can subscribe to a very useful weekly newsletter and get free organizing content just for subscribing. There is also a great discussion forum community.

Get Organized Now

Bonus! Monica Ricci: She's a professional organizer out of the Atlanta area who has appeared on HGTV's Mission Organization several times. I believe I came across her at the Get Organized Now website, and I just like her!

Monica's blog

Her business website: Catalyst Organizing

2.  FlyLady

The FlyLady is Marla Cilley of North Carolina. In 1999, Cilley created a Yahoo support group based on the home management principles of a book called Sidetracked Home Executives: From Pigpen to Paradise by Pam Young and Peggy Jones (1977). The group was a mentoring system geared toward housewives and Flylady sends several emails daily at intervals reminding subscribers, called FlyBabies, to get up from the computer and do various tasks around the house. The Yahoo group grew into a website in February 2001, and the email reminder service was recently moved to a separate company.

The Flylady is a bonafide phenomenon. I joined the group around 2000, right after I had my first son, when there only a few hundred members. Now there are MILLIONS of members, books, products, and several spin off industries. I still receive the emails but only read them occasionally (they repeat, and the goal is for you to eventually become FlyWashed - she even created her own language! - so that you know what to do without reading the email) and I will never unsubscribe.

FlyLady

3.  Messies Anonymous

Founded by The Organizer Lady, Sandra Felton, this site offers "support for Messies who struggle to control clutter and organize for order at home and work...(and)organizing help and tips to eliminate clutter and junk, organize your house, and simplify your life.  Like FlyLady, she offers support groups through Yahoo with daily coaching emails, and has written numerous books.  For some reason I get the feeling that this site is geared more toward compulsives or hoarders, but maybe that's just me.
Messies Anonymous

4.  OrganizedHome.com

An oldie but a goodie.  One of the first ones I found when I started searching for organizing resources.  Includes the concept of a Household Notebook as a resource to keep all household schedules and information, complete with a wide range of printable worksheets to help get you started.  Also the home of the Houseworks Holiday Plan, a week by week preparation countdown to the end of year holidays, which has now also grown into a book, HouseWorks.

http://organizedhome.com/

Top 5 Organizing Books

As a working mother, there is no way that I could even begin to get out of the house in the morning without systems. When I had my first son, my control of my time spiraled out of control and my household organization followed suit. I began to voraciously read and research ways to simplify and systematize my life so that I could spend time with my family and still manage my household. Some of the top books that made such an impression on me that I keep them as part of my personal collection are:

1.  Totally Organized by Bonnie McCullough


This is the best book for beginning to design household systems. McCullough gives practical advice for how to organize your housework, home spaces, and your kids.


Bonus! Confessions of An Organized Homemaker - The Secrets of Uncluttering Your Home and Taking Care of Your Life  by Deniece Schofield

Organizing your home systems and busting clutter.


2. The Procrastinator's Handbook by Rita Emmett

Why? Because your systems won't work if you procrastinate in designing and implementing them! Emmett explains why we put off the decisions we need to make to get rid of clutter and start getting organized.

3. How to Get Organized When You Don't Have the Time - by Stephanie Culp


An excellent resource on time and schedule management.

4. Organized to Be Your Best by Susan Silver

Actually geared more toward workplace organization. Good organization in the workplace will transfer to the home, and vice versa. Silver teaches time management and goal setting, and paper and electronic file management, among other things.

5. Ready, Set, Organize! A Workbook for the Organizationally Challenged by Pipi Campbell Peterson

A comprehensive resource concentrating on time management, storage, and home office and records organization.