Go! The Essential Guide To Organizing and Moving + giveaway!

January 14, 2009 | Filed Under Giveaway, Moving, Planners | 63 Comments

Updated to add: This giveaway is now over. The winner is Jerri from Simply Sweet Home!

When I attended the Professional Organizer’s Conference last November I had the privilege of meeting two spunky and fun ladies, Gail Shields and Karen Shinn, of Stress-Free Moving. Gail and Karen have recently written an excellent resource book, called Go! The Essential Guide To Organizing and Moving, that will help anyone even thinking about moving come to grips with it.

Let’s face it, moving is daunting. I moved within town about five years ago and I still shudder just remembering the stress involved. This book would have been a tremendous help to me way back then.

Go! is designed as a complete moving resource. The first part of the book provides tips, tricks and techniques used to ensure successful moves and the second part is your personal moving workbook. It contains checklists, countdown calendars and note pages to help you keep track of all of the details of your move.

This comprehensive book takes you through each step of the moving process and, with so many things to keep track of, it’s comforting to know that someone else has already compiled and provided the critical information and checklists needed for a smooth move. Talk about taking the pressure off.

It’s written in easy to read format with pictures scattered throughout for visual interest. It is also wire spiral bound which is essential in a resource and planning guide so that it lies flat for taking notes.

Gail and Karen’s Top Ten Tips for an organized move are:

Plan ahead
Measure carefully to ensure good space planning
Ask questions
Edit your “stuff” before you move
Keep all notes and numbers in the same place
Check community resources and recycle
Ask for help. It’s not always cheaper or easier to do it yourself
Select the right equipment to get the job done
Always have a Plan B
Enjoy the process

Excellent advice ladies, thank you!

Currently the Go! book is only available for purchase from their website, Stress-Free Moving. Price $24.95 Cdn.

Today Karen and Gail are giving away a copy of their book though to one lucky reader! So if you are thinking about moving anytime soon then you’ll want to put your name in for sure. All you have to do is just leave a comment below before Monday, January 19th at 6:00 pm PST. Open to everyone.

Good luck!

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Busy Body Book

February 25, 2008 | Filed Under Planners | 3 Comments

I’ve just recently had the opportunity to review the 2008 Busy Body Book, a personal and family grid organizer. Back in January, on my other blog, I posted the favorite calendars and planners of some of my readers and this particular planner was my friend Jennifer’s favorite.

As you can see this planner offers you the opportunity to schedule up to 5 family members in their own separate columns each week all on the same page. This could be extremely useful for families with kids constantly on the go with various activities. Another nice feature is the perforated “to do” sheets in the back.

The only downfall with this calendar for me is that they don’t include a “month at a glance” calendar at the beginning of each month. They do however give you a condensed 6 months at a glance at the beginning of the book.

If you have been wanting to try this calendar out for yourself, now might be the right time because not only is Busy Body Book offering their 2008 Stripes and Zigzag planners for 50% off but also their Fridge Grid Pads as well.

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Whomi ~ Planners that are fun AND functional!

October 14, 2007 | Filed Under Office, Planners | 4 Comments

When Whomi asked me to review their calendars/planners for busy woman I was more than happy to do so. You see I use a central calendar in my kitchen but what I can never figure out is why most calendars have all that wasted space on the top. I mean I guess it’s nice to have a picture there but what the Whomi Color-Coded Family Calendar does is use both the top and bottom of the calendar to provide more space for monthly activities. Who couldn’t use more space? Especially space that is color-coded at that. The monthly planner has one big white space per day PLUS there are three different color-coded smaller spaces per day as well which means you can designate a different color per kid for instance. Now that’s smart! The price is reasonable too at $13.99 each.

Two other products I had the privledge of checking out was their Color-Coded Agenda and their What To Do Pad.

The Color-Coded Agenda is similar to the bigger family planner just smaller, suitable for those who might appreciate a more portable calendar. This one comes in TWO sizes to meet the needs of busy mom’s, original and compact. If you want something for your purse though I recommend the compact size as the original seems at bit heavy to me to carry around in your purse. These agendas are just so pretty too and that my friends is important, who wants to pull out an agenda that’s ugly or boring. Being organized doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom. Take a look at these pretty designs:

These agendas also come with a heavy duty plastic cover that all moms will appreciate especially if we keep one tucked in our purses where they tend to take a bit of a beating.

Finally the What To Do Pad just makes list making FUN! That’s it in the above picture on the left. It’s a portable spiral-bound notebook with three separate color-coded pads designed to make maintaining lists simpler because it’s divided by task and each sheet is perferated so you can tear off a sheet as you need to. I love stuff like this I really do. I’d especially like to try out the What To Do When Pad as well.