Welcome to the 36th edition of the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival! Evan Esar defined family as “a social unit where the father is concerned with parking space, the children with outer space, and the mother with closet space,”  and we’ve got lots of great tips this month to help families be organized not only in their spaces, but in their activities.

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Congratulations to Tracy Hoth on achieving Professional Organizers Blog Carnival Star Blogger status, with her post Got Kids? Got Memorabilia!

We have two new participants this month, Stacey Agin Murray with her post Best Products for Organizing Your Car, and Pam Wedig-Kirsch with Beginning of Summer “To Do” List. Please join me in welcoming Stacey and Pam to the Blog Carnival!

Returning this month, we have:

Marlene Devine – Organizing is a Family Affair

Ramona Creel – Frugal Living 101: Raising Children

Sue West – Kids & Organizing: Teach Them What You Know

Audrey Cupo – Blended Organization

Margaret Lukens – Making a Family Communications Plan – Four Steps For Faster Reuniting

Linda Samuels – Share the Load

Janice Russell – Cluttered or Clutterless Legacy

Hazel Thornton – Six Organizing Sytems Everyone Needs

Leslie Josel – Have You Hatched It?

Deanne Kelleher – Kitchens, Kids and Keepsakes

Nancy Borg – Do Your Kids Have Too Many Toys?

Cena Block – Productivity Tip – Simplify Your Meals

Natalie Conrad – Packing Kids for Summer Camp

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to share your expertise. As always, I encourage you to take time to read your colleagues’ posts, leave comments, and follow each other on Twitter.

Next month’s Professional Organizers Blog Carnival will be dedicated to Product Reviews, and you’re welcome to submit your post any time from now up until 10 EDT on Monday, June 11.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for May 2012: Organizing for Families.

These days everyone is overwhelmed with information, and it’s coming at us from every direction! This month I’ve invited organizing experts to share their advice for managing the deluge of communication we send and receive via email, snail mail, the telephone, and other media. Read on for some great tips, and please feel free to share your own ideas in the comments section.

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We have three people joining the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for the first time this month! Please welcome them by checking out their posts, leaving a comment, and following them on Twitter!

Cena Block – Doing Email Doesn’t Mean You’re Productive

Sue Becker – Digging Out from an Email Avalanche

Marlene Devine – How to Organize Your Electronic Data

Returning this month, we have:

Janice Russell – Email Jail

Janine Adams – Inbox Zero – how I do it

Ellen Delap – Email and other Technology

Leslie Josel – Small Steps to Being Productive

Sheri Bruneau – Our 3 Favorite Productivity Apps

Jonda Beattie – Toxic Inbox

Ramona Creel – Getting Off The Telemarketing Lists

Paul Burton – Three Ways to Direct Conversations in Multiple Recipient E-mails

Lisa Montanaro – How to Survive the Daily E-Mail Attack

Natalie Conrad – Taming the Paper Bill Monster

Audrey Cupo – Weeding Out Your Computer

Deb Lee – Monogamy and The Modern Gadget: 3 Ways to Improve Your Relationship With E-Mail

Julie Bestry – From Desktop to Mailbox (Part 1): Send Real Mail Without Paper or Stamps

Clare Kumar – Organizing Your Office – Mastering email efficiency

Hazel Thornton – Email Inbox Zero – Really?

Margarita Ibbott – 4M – Margarita’s Manic Monday Minutes – Email

I’d like to thank everyone for their wonderful submissions. I picked up quite a few tips I can use, and I’m sure you will too!

We are now accepting submissions for next month’s Professional Organizers Blog Carnival, when our topic will be Organizing for Families. The submission deadline is 10 AM Eastern Daylight Time on Monday, May 7.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for April 2012: Organizing Email and Other Communications.

Since this is National Procrastination Week, and I knew many organizers would have blogged about the subject, I invited my readers to share their posts in this month’s issue of the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival. As you’ll see, the response was amazing.

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Joining the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for the first time this month is Andi Willis with her post, Stop Procrastinating and Just Do It. Please join me in welcoming Andi!

Please join me as well in congratulating Janine Adams whose post Facing down the fears lurking in the clutter marks her 10^th time in the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival, making her our newest Professional Organizers Blog Carnival Star Blogger.

Don’t go away yet, because there’s lots more to come! As you read the various posts, don’t forget to network with your organizing colleagues by leaving comments, following them on Twitter, or sharing their posts with your own contacts.

Linda Samuels – The List, Pansies, and Ice Cream

Sue West – 9 Solutions to Procrastination

Jonda Beattie – Procrastination = Clutter

Ellen Delap – Procrastination

Hellen Buttigieg – What’s getting in your way of getting things done?

Natalie Conrad – Overwhelmed with It All

Nancy Borg – How Uncertainty Can Clutter Your Home

Angela Esnouf – Myth-Busting

Lisa Montanaro – Procrastination: Time Management’s Enemy

Jeri Dansky – Cleaning up the To-Do List: A Tale of Two Light Fixtures

Tracy Hoth – The Absolute Cure for Procrastination

Ramona Creel – Getting The Monkey Off Your Back

Geralin Thomas – Packrats and Procrastinators, “I’ll Deal with that Later”

Janice Russell – Do You Efficently Procrastinate?

Audrey Cupo – Do You Suffer From Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda Syndrome?

Moreen Torpy – Get Organized: Overcome Procrastination

Hazel Thornton – Don’t Procrastinate – Read This Now!

Lurlene Anderson – What’s Your Sign?

Deb Lee – Can Procrastination be Good for You?

Clare Kumar – Five ways to overpower procrastination

Margarita Ibbott – Procrastination by any other name or How do you eat an elephant

Elaine Shannon – Perfection Paralysis and Procrastination

Heather Burke – It’s National Procrastination Week March 12 – 16, 2012

Jacquie Ross – Fight Procrastination and Reach Your Organizing Goals!

Shelley Molitor – Why Do I Procrastinate Anyway?

The next Professional Organizers Blog Carnival will be held on Tuesday, April 10, and will be all about Organizing Email and other Communications. You have until 10 AM Eastern Daylight Time on Monday, April 9 to submit your post, but why procrastinate?

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for March 2012: Procrastination.

According to various studies conducted around the world, more than 60% of households have one or more pets. Since there’s a pretty good chance that you’ll be working in such a home during your organizing career, this month’s Blog Carnival is dedicated to Organizing for Pets.

Having lived with dogs and/or cats for most of my life, and currently adapting to living with one of each, I am truly delighted with the wealth of information submitted by this month’s participants, and I’m sure you will be too.

Let’s start by welcoming our newest participant, Jill Hively with her fabulous post, Kitchen Zones: Don’t Forget Your Pets.

And, our returning bloggers:

Ellen Delap – Fido and Fifi need organizing

Jane Woolsey – Cool Pet Toy Organizer

Alys Milner – Organizing Fido and Fluffy

Jeri Dansky – A Special Kind of Hook: Leash Holders

Jacki Hollywood Brown – Organizing Horse Health Records

Margaret Lukens – When It’s Raining Cats & Dogs – Caring For Pets in an Evacuation

Linda Vanderkolk – Doggie Treats – Containment is the Key

Linda Samuels – Creating Expectation

Audrey Cupo – Are You an Organized Pet Owner?

Janine Adams – Store things near where you use them

Tracy Hoth – Spot’s Special Spaces

Clare Kumar – Pet Ownership Checklist – How to be sure a pet really fits into your life

Please read as many of the posts as you can, and be sure to grow your network by leaving comments and following your colleagues on Twitter.

We’re now accepting submissions for next month’s Professional Organizers Blog Carnival, when our topic will be Procrastination. The submission deadline is Monday, March 12 at 10:00 AM EST.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for February 2012: Organizing for Pets.

At the start of the new year, many people focus on developing a healthier lifestyle. Like most goals, staying healthy is much easier when you are organized, so our first Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for 2012 is all about Organizing and Health. You’ll find lots of practical tips here to use in your own life or when working with clients.

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As usual, I’d like to start things off by introducing our latest Professional Organizers Blog Carnival Star Blogger. With her post, Family, Friends, Nature & Clutter, Linda Samuels has now participated in 10 Blog Carnivals.

I’d also like to recognize Ellen Delap as the first person to have participated in 25 Blog Carnivals! With her post, Organizing and Exercise, Ellen is our very first Professional Organizers Blog Carnival Superstar Blogger!

Congratulations, Linda and Ellen!

Joining us for the first time this month is Moreen Torpy with Organizing for Your Health. Welcome, Moreen!

And there’s lots more great information for you here:

Hazel Thornton – Organizing to De-Stress a Major Illness

Lelah Baker-Rabe – Keeping ahead of your health

Natalie Conrad – Gather Your Medical Information

Leslie Josel – Students and Stress: Organized is the Way

Julie Bestry – Vital Signs: Organizing For A Medical Emergency, Part 1

Jeri Dansky – Pillboxes with a Dose of Cute

Sue West – Organize for Dr.’s Appointments: 6 Tips

Linda Vanderkolk – Organized for Healthy Living – 3 Tricks

Clare Kumar – How to be healthy, happy and productive at work

Tracy Hoth – Is Your Closet Affecting Your Health?

Janine Adams – Just do something

Heather Burke – Tuesday Tip – Organizing Your Medications and Supplements

Lauren Giammarco Silveira – Your Health and Your Home Connected

I hope you’ll take some time to read the posts, leave some comments, and get to know the bloggers! It’s a great way to grow your network and pick up some great advice at the same time.

Be sure to join us next month when our topic is Organizing for Pets. The deadline for submissions is Monday, February 13.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for January 2012: Organizing and Health.

In December, many of us take time to reflect on our activities over the past year. Since professional conferences often stand out as some of the best parts of the year, this month I invited my readers to share the highlights of the events which they attended.

We’ll kick off this month’s Blog Carnival with posts about the Professional Organizers in Canada Conference, not because I attended myself, but because I want to welcome our newest participant, Linda Vanderkolk who blogged about Organizing For A Conference, and to congratulate our newest Star Blogger, Jane Veldhoven, who blogged about Key Areas of Your Business.

The most blogged about conference was that put on by the Institute for Challenging Disorganization. Submissions included:

Linda Samuels – Vibrancy & Success

Ellen Delap – Institute for Challenging Disorganization and Motivational Interviewing

Angela Esnouf – Why I flew half way around the world

as well as Leslie Josel – The Power of Connection at Conference, whose post encompassed both the ICD and NAPO Conferences.

Also blogging about the NAPO Conference were:

Lelah Baker-Rabe – NAPO Conference Recap 2011

Julie Bestry – Rock Stars, Heartthrobs, Brainiacs and Organizing Innovators: NAPO 2011 In a Nutshell

One participant chose to blog about another conference, not specific to the organizing industry:

Tracy Hoth – SuccessPlus 2011 Event

As always, I encourage you to read the above posts as you reminisce about the conference(s) you attended and learn what you missed at those you did not.

Please leave a note to let us know what conferences you attended this year!

This is the last Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for 2011, but we’ve got a full slate of new topics lined up for next year. Be sure to mark your calendar so you don’t miss a single one!

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for December 2011: 2011 Conference Highlights.

Welcome to the Clutter issue of the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival! Nearly all organizers are experts in some aspect of clutter, so it’s no surprise that this is our biggest Carnival to date. Make yourself comfortable because there are a lot of new colleagues for you to meet!

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Clare Kumar became a Professional Organizers Blog Carnival Star Blogger this month with her post, Clear Clothing Clutter and Help Charities. Please join me in congratulating Clare, and remember that you too can become a Star Blogger by participating in 10 or more editions of the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival.

Participating for the first time this month are MaryJo Monroe with It’s party time! 8 ways to get rid of clutter by hosting a party, Lurlene Anderson with Organizing Just For YOU!,  Sheri Bruneau with What Type of Clutter Do You Have? and Deanne Kelleher with An Exit Strategy for Clutter. It’s great to have you on board!

Don’t go away just yet, because there are lots more great blog posts for you to read! Always remember that engaging with other bloggers by following them on Twitter and commenting on their blogs is a good way to grow your network and drive traffic to your own blog.

Nancy Borg – The Origin of Clutter and the Simple Steps to Conquer it

Hazel Thornton – Is it Clutter?

Jacquie Ross – 10 Tips for Busy Moms on How to Keep a Clutter-Free Home

Deb Lee – Armadillos Are Dangerous and Ugly, Just Like Clutter

Jonda Beattie – Homeless Items In Your Home

Ellen Delap – Clutter: A Hoarder’s Success Story

Lelah Baker-Rabe – Common clutter areas and what to do about them

Janice Russell – What Does Your Clutter Weigh?

Janine Adams – Standards of Clutter

Leslie Josel – Clutter: Clean and Clear

Elaine Shannon – Clutter = Stuck Energy

Ramona Creel – Is Your Life Too Cluttered?

Linda Samuels – Releasing Mind Clutter

Natalie Conrad – Do You Have Time Clutter?

Lisa Montanaro – What is Clutter?

Julie Bestry – Paper Manners Matter: Cut Card Clutter & Store Social Stationery

Shelley Molitor – Find New Meaning in the Clutter

Sue West – Do Your Surroundings Become You?

Audrey Cupo – Five Rules to Follow to Eliminate the Clutter

Rivka Caroline – Clutter is just a pile of delayed decision making

Lauren Giammarco – Control that Clutter!

Tracy Hoth – What to Keep? What to Purge?

I don’t know about you, but I’m having this incredible urge to declutter all of a sudden!

The December Professional Organizers Blog Carnival will be about 2011 Conference Highlights.  Whether you were at the POC Conference this past weekend, NAPO, ICD, MARCPO, Orvention, or any other conference this year, we’d love to read about it! You have until noon EST on December 12 to submit your post.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for November 2011: Clutter.

Welcome to this month’s issue of the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival! You’ll find some great ideas here to try if you’re a right-brained, creative individual, or you work with clients who are.

Debbie Stanley is a new participant this month, so please welcome her by reading her post, Gorgeous Disorder.

Returning this month, we have:

Nancy Borg – Getting To Know The Master Organizer: Your Two-sided Brain

Ellen Delap – Organizing and Creativity

Linda Samuels – The 25-Hour Day

Julie Bestry – Organizing With Post-it® Notes: Revenge of the Floozies

Janice Russell – Get Unpuzzled about Organizing

Rivka Caroline – Organizing Tips For Creative Types

Audrey Cupo – Organize Those Crafts!

Geralin Thomas – Organizing a Creative Caricature Artist

As always, I encourage you to take time to read all of the posts, leave comments, and get to know your colleagues.

Next month’s Professional Organizers Blog Carnival will be all about Clutter, and you’re welcome to submit your post any time from now up until noon EST on Monday, November 7.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for October 2011: Organizing Tips for Creative Types.

I think you can learn a lot about a person from seeing what books they read, which ones they choose to keep, and how they organize their personal library. This month, I’ve asked professional organizers to share their own strategies for organizing home libraries. Visit their blogs to find out what they said, leave a comment or two, and share your favorite posts with your social networks. Then, be sure to read through to the end of this post for a special invitation!

For the first time in many months, we have no new participants or new Professional Organizers Blog Carnival Star Bloggers to introduce, so without further ado, here are this month’s submissions!

Audrey Cupo – Take A Look At Your Books – Are They Organized?

Barbara Tako – Organize your books! A home library? Yes!

Jeri Dansky – Books: Weeding the Collection

Janice Russell – So Many Books, So Little Time!

Julie Bestry – Book ‘em, Danno! Organizing Your Beloved Books

Ellen Delap – Organizing Your Library

Tracy Hoth – Tracy’s Tip ~ When Organizing Books…Think Outside the Book

Rivka Caroline – It’s What You Do After You Buy The Book That Counts

Jane Veldhoven – Are Your Books Excess Clutter or Beautiful Possessions?

Natalie Conrad – Books – Organizing Our Personal Libraries

I’m a book lover myself (you can connect with me on Goodreads if you like) so I thoroughly enjoyed reading all the different ideas. I was surprised and maybe even a little disappointed that hardly anyone included a photo in their post, so I created a photo album on Facebook called Organizing Home Libraries, and I’m inviting you to upload your pictures there – whether or not you participated in the Blog Carnival.

Once you’ve done that, you can start thinking about next month’s Professional Organizers Blog Carnival, when our topic will be Organizing Tips for Creative Types. Submissions will be accepted from now until midnight Eastern time on Monday, October 10^th.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for September 2011: Organizing Home Libraries.

Welcome to the Life Balance edition of the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival! I enjoy reading all the submissions I receive every month, but this time I personally gained something from every single post, and I’m truly thankful to be connected to so many insightful organizers. Grab your favorite beverage, sit back, and find out what they have to say about this key subject.

I’m delighted to begin by introducing two new participants this month:

Rivka Caroline – Life-Balance. What Fruity Sugar Stars taught me

Hazel Thornton – Life is Like a Bicycle

And welcome back to our returning bloggers:

Lisa Montanaro – Passion Management: A New Way of Getting Things Done

Barbara Tako – Life Balance: It isn’t all about the clutter either

Lauren Giammarco – Finding Your Balance and Why Rainy Days Never Get Me Down

Natalie Conrad – Staying Organized is a Balancing Act

Elaine Shannon – Organization is the Foundation of all Growth

Ramona Creel – A Lesson From Erma Bombeck

Audrey Cupo – The Balancing Act

Jane Veldhoven – What Does Your Balanced Life Look Like?

Angela Esnouf – One grey elephant balancing

Tracy Hoth – Life Balance – It Is All About Playground Equipment

Deb Lee – Put “Me” Time on Your Calendar

Jeri Dansky – Meditations for Parents Who Do Too Much

Stephanie LH Calahan – Do You Want a Balanced Life? He Was Not So Sure… What do you think?

Linda Samuels – Words of Our Lives

Ellen Delap – Work Life Balance

Nancy Borg – 2 Power Tools You Need to Help Manage the Stress of a Busy Day

Clare Kumar – Choices, choices, choices – Blessing or burden?

Jonda Beattie – Priorities

Michelle Panzlaff – To do or not to do, that is the question

As you visit the various blogs, don’t forget to grow your professional network by leaving comments and/or following the other bloggers on Twitter.

We are now accepting submissions for next month’s Professional Organizers Blog Carnival, when our topic will be Organizing Home Libraries. The submission deadline is Monday, September 13.

In the meantime, please tell us YOUR definition of Life Balance in the Comments section below.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for August 2011: Life Balance.