A.J. Miller
Free
Organizing and Productivity Expert
A.J. Miller Quick Facts
- Main Areas
- Organizing at Home or Work, Simplifying Your Llife, Time Management, Space Design, Clutter Control, Storage Design, Paper/Information Management
- Career Focus
- Professional Organizer, Writer, Business Owner, Simplicity Advocate
- Affiliation
- MillerOrganizing.com, MillerOrganizing.com/blog/, National Association of Professional Organizers
A. J. Miller is an organizing expert, sought after motivational speak, author and the founder and Chief Executive Organizer of MILLER ORGANIZING, a residential and business organizing company based in NYC. Over the course of her career, she has helped hundreds of busy New Yorkers to get – and stay! – organized.
She is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), the premier authority in the field of organizing. She is a past member of the Board of Directors and past Newsletter Editor of the NAPO New York chapter and the proud recipient of the 2008 NAPO New York President's Award which is given for outstanding contributions to the chapter.
She writes a column on getting organized, clutter control, time management, living more simply, increasing productivity, how being organized reduces stress and other related topics called "Getting Organized" which is featured regularly in Town & Village, a community newspaper that has been serving the Stuyvesant Town, Peter Cooper Village, East Midtown Plaza, Gramercy Park, Kips Bay, Union Square and Waterside areas of Manhattan for over 60 years. She also writes a blog called Don't Agonize. Organize!, which is filled with lots of additional information, advice, tips and tid-bits.
She was fortunate to have been one of 500 woman chosen from a field of 20,000 for entry to Yale University the first year that its undergraduate school admitted female applicants and graduated with honors. She also feels fortunate to be part of a profession that allows her to make a difference and to do something meaningful every day. The most fulfilling part of what she does is seeing the joy and sense of relief clients experience from being organized.
You can follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/millerorganizin and connect with her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/MillerOrganizing. A.J. can be contacted by email at AJ@MillerOrganizing.com or by phone at (212) 228-8375. You can also visit her on the web at MillerOrganizing.com.
Free Articles & Book Excerpts
Articles by this expert
SelfGrowth articles and saved writing connected to this expert.
Article
The Good News About Clutter
Hard times provide an opportunity to ask hard questions and several times in the last year I have heard clients overwhelmed by their clutter wonder out loud, “Why did I buy all this stuff?” The answer is that our economy is driven by material consumption so it constantly needs and encourages us to spend money on “stuff”.
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Control What You Buy Or It Will Control You!
Recently, I returned to a client’s home to help her tune-up the clothes closet in her bedroom. When she opened the door, the first thing I noticed were the boxes of cereal and paper towels that had taken up residency on the shelf. Like many New Yorkers, my client has limited closet space for her clothes, none of which she could afford to share with food and paper goods. When I asked her why they were in her closet, she said she didn’t have anywhere else to put them.
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The 15-Minutes-A-Day Approach to Organizing
If you get distracted easily and/or don’t have a lot of time to devote to organizing your home or office, the 15-minutes-a-day approach may be a good solution for you. You may think that you don’t have an extra 15 minutes each day to devote purely to organizing, but you probably waste more time than that everyday searching for things! The fact is that you will never "find" time. If you want time, you have to make it. So make time now to save time later.
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Tips for Finding Time to Get Organized
Get up; go to work; shop; cook; clean, spend time with your family, go to sleep; wake up again the next day and do it all over again.
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The Dos and Don'ts of Regifting
As someone who helps people deal with too much "stuff" and not enough space for it all (FYI: it doesn't matter how much space you have, you never have enough!), I think that regifting is a great way to be green, get the right item to the right person and declutter at the same time. In case you don’t know what regifting is, it’s giving an unwanted gift to someone else. The comedia Jerry Seinfeld first coined the term in 1995 on an episode of his sitcom, Seinfeld.
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Organizing Tips for Headache-free Travel
TIP #1 - RECHARGE YOUR BATTERIES: Taking time off from work for a vacation is one of the best ways to recharge your batteries and improve your productivity. Warning: Make sure you don't spend too much time on any work you take with you or checking in with the office while you're away or you'll defeat the whole purpose of taking a vacation! TIP #2 - ADVANCE PLANNING: Some advance planning will go a long way to making your trip a pleasant one. Buy airline tickets well in advance so you don't have to pay top dollar for them.
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Article
Avoiding the "Maybe Someday" Clutter Trap
If any of the following sounds familiar, the odds are that you're a victim of the "maybe someday" clutter trap: * Do you have clothes in your closet you haven't worn in five years because they no longer fit?
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Chronic Disorganization
The National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization (NSGCD) defines Chronic Disorganization (CD) as “…having a past history of disorganization in which self-help efforts to change have failed, an undermining of current quality of life due to disorganization and the expectation of future disorganization.” Disorganization can be caused by many factors and may be situational or chronic. Situational Disorganization occurs as the result of an unusual or life event that temporarily causes clutter or chaos.
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Article
Dispelling One of The Big Myths About Being Organized
Recently, a woman called to ask whether I could help organize her husband's home office. My first question to her was whether or not her husband had requested help organizing his office. She sheepishly confessed that it was her idea because his messy office was driving her crazy. Next, I asked her if she knew whether or not her husband had trouble finding things in his office when he needed them. She said that he never complained about it and did not seem to have trouble finding what he needed when he needed it (though she couldn't understand how he did it!).
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Article
Creating The Life You Want
Getting organized isn't just about cleaning up the clutter or managing your time better. It's about creating the life you want. This is an important concept to understand because many people don't understand what being organized is truly about. And because they don't truly understand they have a closet full of clothes but nothing to wear; paper piled up on every available, horizontal surface in their home or office and file cabinets, a computer and desk drawers filled with information they no longer use.
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Why Clutter Happens
"You can't fix it if you don't know what's broken." That expression is particularly fitting if you're trying to get or stay organized.
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Article
The Hidden Costs of Owning Too Much "Stuff"
Every day we're relentlessly bombarded by advertising that tells us to buy this, that or the other thing. It's all too easy to succumb to the temptations and no surprise that many of us end up owning as much "stuff" as we do. Sometimes though, our "stuff" seems to end up owning us instead of the other way around. First of all, spending to get "stuff" is a major source of personal, financial trouble for many of us. And then there are the hidden costs. For example, having to move to a bigger space because your "stuff" doesn't fit into the space you currently occupy.
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Websites & resources
SelfGrowth-published websites, downloads, and contributor profile websites connected to this expert.
Favorite Quotes & Thoughts from A.J. Miller
Organizing is a lifelong, ongoing process, not a one-time event.
Organization is the key to really getting the most that you can out of your space, your time, your life.
Have a place for everything and return it there when you're done using it. If you do, you'll know just where to find it the next time you need it.
Organizing is not a talent; it's a skill that can learned. It comes more naturally to some people than others, but everyone can learn to do it. It just takes willingness and determination, the right tools and a little time and practice.
Getting organized is about living in a way that helps create your best possible life - happy, stress-free, creative, motivated and enriching.
Simple, intuitive, highly customized organizing systems and solutions reflecting your wants/needs, comfort/convenience and dovetailing with the way your mind works are key. These kinds of organizational systems and solutions work best and are the easiest to successfully maintain over the long run.
There is an element of pleasure in using an organizational system or solution that fits harmoniously with your personality and reflects your style.
You are not your "stuff".
It's not about the "stuff"; it's about what you want from your life and how you will make that dream a reality.
If your "stuff" isn't helping you to create the life you want, it shouldn't be in your life.
You should own your "stuff"; your "stuff" should not own you.
Happiness isn't found in the quantity of "stuff" we own, it's found in the quality of relationships that we form. What we own should support and enhance that life not be a barrier to it.
Establish the vision you want for your life/space. How do you want your life and living and working spaces to look, feel and function? Decide what will help you achieve your vision and get rid of anything and everything that doesn't help you reach that goal.
Keep only those things that are useful, beautiful or you treasure for reasons of your own. Let the rest of it go.
There is no one right way to get or be organized.
Store things as close to their point of use as possible. The more steps it takes to do something the less likely it is to get done.
When you take off an item, put it away. If it's dirty, clean it. If you open it, close it. If you start something, finish it.
Be "intentional". Look at one item at a time and make a deliberate decision about it. Do you really want to keep it? And, if so, where is it going to go and how is it going to be stored.
When contemplating whether or not to keep something, ask yourself if you would pay to move it all the way across the country or take it with you on your way out the door if your house were on fire. If the answer is, "No", let it go.
Respect the limits that your physical space places on you. Once those limits are reached, practice the "one in, one out" rule by removing one item from your space before adding another item.
Successful people know that to get ahead they must set priorities, plan and always follow through. They make certain their systems work well for them, minimizing the amount of time and energy they must spend on a given task. They are always looking for ways to do things smarter, faster and better.
Organize it right the first time so you don't have to organize it over.
Change is possible.
Contacting A.J. Miller
A.J. can be contacted by email at info@MillerOrganizing.com or by phone at (212) 228-8375. You can also visit her on the web at MillerOrganizing.com, follow her on Twitter and connect with her on Facebook.