Greetings from Elizabeth

I had someone ask me yesterday how my summer was going and I had to answer - what summer?!! June has just flown by. I worked with a lot of clients in June getting their homes and offices organized so they can leave for vacation and know they'll return to a peaceful environment. What a wonderful feeling!

If you've been saying to yourself week after week, month after month, or maybe even year after year - I've got to take back control of my kitchen counter or my closet or the storage room or... - how about now? Summer is a wonderful time to take time for yourself and get caught up. Need encouragement or help? This is what I love to do!

Our 4th child just graduated from high school and decided to start college early. We are leaving for Texas to bring him to Baylor University this weekend. I am very excited for him and he is very ready to go - but, having a lot of mixed feelings. I know he's going to love college so that helps!

Great ideas to do in July:

• Review water-safety rules with your children
• Use this less hectic time to comparison shop for best rates on:
     - long-distance carriers
     - car insurance
     - home or renter's insurance
     - life insurance
• Have your car's oil changed, rotate tires, and inspect spare tire
• Get your carpets professionally cleaned

If you have a friend who would like getting monthly tips, please forward this newsletter. If you'd like to unsubscribe, follow the instructions at the end of the newsletter.

Have a safe 4th!!

After sending out the June issue some of you responded with some great hints of your own and I've decided to make this a regular feature in my newsletter. So, if you have some great ideas/systems/tools that you use please let me know and I'll post them here.

• While reading your current newsletter, I thought I might make a suggestion. We own a Steamway Cleaning business and with the recent rains in the area, we have been inundated with calls for extracting water in basements. My suggestion is to store your basement belongings in plastic storage bins with lids. You cannot believe the number of people who end up losing precious items that have become saturated in cardboard boxes. I make every attempt to store my treasures in plastic tubs that I keep in my basement office. Thank goodness for that as we also had water this past week! Please keep up the good job with your newsletter.
  
  
• Basically are you frustrated for not keeping the New Year's resolutions you made? If so, you are not alone, but how about making a half-year resolution to get back on track. This is the 6th month of the year and there are still six left. Give yourself a new start, and forgiveness to do so. The glass isn't half empty, but half full.
  
  
• As a working single parent of a toddler time is scarce so I use these kitchen tricks:
  • When ground beef is on sale, I buy a lot, fry most of it up, drain the grease, put it in Ziploc bags, and freeze it. It is then ready for tacos, sloppy joes, casseroles, etc.
  • If I have zucchini in the fall I wash it, cut off the ends, and whirl it up in my blender or food processor. Then I measure 2 cups per Ziploc bag and freeze the bags. All my recipes call for 2 cups and it is also great in soups.
  • When I bake from scratch, sometimes I mix extra 'sets' of the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, etc.), label with masking tape and the next time I want to make those cookies or bars, I have less work and mess.

Thank you for sending in these hints. E-mail me at elizabeth@elizabethhagen.com with your great ideas! For many more wonderful ideas get "Finally Organized, Finally Free!"
 

Would you like to spend more time outdoors this summer and not in your kitchen? The Freezer Cooking Manual will help you do just that. You do need to spend a day cooking but will end up with anywhere from 2-4 weeks of meals in your freezer. This book takes you step-by-step through the process with lots of forms and checklists to help make your cooking day go smoothly.

More information

Purchase: The 30 Day Gourmet Freezer Cooking Manual

Quick Organizing Tip

Ever started off for a vacation and drove back home twice to get things you've forgotten?! Or had to pay a fortune for film at the tourist trap because you forgot yours at home? Use a travel checklist every time you leave home and you won't need to worry that you've forgotten anything again.

Go to www.siouxfallsorganizer.com/forms.asp and receive my FREE Travel Checklist with ideas for traveling with children.

Have a GREAT vacation!

Testimonials

Attention Event Planners, Human Resource Directors and leaders of Christian Women's Groups:

If your group can benefit from learning easy and practical organizing skills in a creative setting, please contact me today. I'll customize one of my presentations just for you so that your members will have more time, less stress, and a better quality of life! Email me at elizabeth@elizabethhagen.com or call 605.357.8767.

* July 20
Discover the Quiet Beauty of Confidence
Presentation Sisters Leadership Camp for Jr. High Girls
Storm Mountain Camp in the Black Hills

* Juy 22
Personality Puzzle and the Go System: Get Organized for Life
American Society of Interior Designers July Design Expo
Downtown Holiday Inn, Sioux Falls, SD

* August 5
Personality Puzzle and Conquer the Chaos of Clutter
South Dakota School Food Service Association Conference
Ramkota Hotel, Aberdeen, SD

Workshops

If you're having trouble managing your desk, you're not alone! Research shows the average person:
*Wastes 150 hours/year looking for misplaced information
*Has 37 hours of unfinished work on his/her desk at any one time
*Uses less than 20% of what they keep

With the Paper Tiger software you can find anything you file or store in 5 seconds or less. This software is a great tool to finally give you a filing system that works for you. Also works well for organizing videos, books, collections, etc. It is designed to help you be more effective.

The software is easy to learn and easy to use. The product can be learned in less than one hour. The Paper Tiger is a complete kit including the software, multimedia tutorial, pre-printed labels and Online User's Guide - everything you need to solve your paper problems once and for all!

Call or email me today and start fresh this summer with a clean desk and more importantly - an uncluttered mind! You really can know where everything is!

Introduction to the Paper Tiger