“SO YOU THINK YOU’RE READY TO BUY A HOME?”

OUTTASPACE NEWSLETTER

ISSUE 37

Article written by Elaine Sisman, Realtor, The Keyes Company

The services of a professional Real Estate Agent can help you stay organized –saving you time, money, & stress. Especially helpful if you are a first-time home buyer! There is so much free information on-line, and it is fun to ‘window-shop’. However, when you hear “if you can click a mouse, you can buy a house”. I say, “please don’t”. Realtor services are generally free to buyers. I help you organize and focus on what’s important to you & your family. First, organize your “needs & wants”. What are the top 5-7 things you must have in your new home?

• Is it price, location, size, school district, square footage, pet-friendly, short commutes, parking,…?

• Do you know what you can afford? Clear up credit issues, get those finances organized.

• I refer you to a mortgage professional to get a “pre-qualification” letter. That helps clarify your ability to purchase and your price range.

• Meanwhile I do research based on your criteria. I email you pictures of properties in your price range. By a process of elimination we figure out what properties to view.

• I make those appointments and the Fun begins. When we find the right property I present & negotiate your offer based on price & terms .

• Once the offer is accepted I provide all parties with a time-line of contractual obligations.

• Behind the scenes I choreograph inspections, workmen, title, & mortgage professionals. I keep my clients organized for less stress during the purchase! I’m nicknamed “The Closer” because I work to close on time! After closing I maintain your files, and you become “clients for life”.

Buying property is fun! With proper organization, my clients can relax & enjoy their new home! Until they call me again to get organized for their next home move. Elaine Sisman, Realtor, The Keyes Company 305 975 7781 http://www.ElaineSisman.com ESismanRealtor@aol.com

TIP OF THE WEEK…

Lighting. Change the light bulbs to be energy efficient and daylight bulbs so that you can see the true colors of the clothes as you select them.

Space and Peace,

“The OuttaSpace Team”

Visit our website at http://www.OuttaSpaceOnline.com

THE 12 MINUTE GAME

OuttaSpace Newsletter        ISSUE 35

Make a list of tasks you can complete in 12 minutes or less.

Examples are: Pay bills, go through mail, review catalogs you do not intend ordering anything from,

collect trash around the office, car or home, throw away expired food from your office or home fridge.

Write them on a post it note and place them in a bowl. Next time you have 12 minutes, pick one and complete it.

TIP OF THE WEEK

Have a time table. Spend your time wisely, Make a time schedule and follow it. You will see the healthy effect on your part. I know you can do it.

Visit our website at http://www.OuttaSpaceOnline.com

CREATE YOUR ENERGY BUILDER

OuttaSpace Newsletter ~ ISSUE 34

We often put off our projects, professional or personal- because we don’t have the motivation or time.  Even simple projects drain your energy if left incomplete.  A messy drawer or an unreturned phone call is enough to irritate you.
Make a list of energy drainers and choose at least one to mend, throw away, donate or organize this week.  You will be astounded how good you feel by removing these energy drainers one by one from your life!

TIP OF THE WEEK…

You are focused on the urgent and reacting. Stop. Evaluate. Do one important item before the urgent. Remember, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.

FIND WHAT YOU NEED TO GET ORGANIZED

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“A Home For Everything You Own” ™
The OuttaSpace Team

Visit our website at http://www.OuttaSpaceOnline.com

RECLAIM MY SPACE: A Journey to Clarity #3

A Written Journey from one of OuttaSpace Clients:  Entry #3

After a few rounds of working with Cristina on recharging my home’s energy and reclaiming my living space (post breakup), I can happily say: SUCCESS!

Before: I put no love into my space and surroundings. The decor was nonexistent and drab. I’d feel uneasy being at my flat for prolonged periods of time. I’d avoid hosting get-togethers at my place out of a subtle sense of embarrassment. I was going through a rough and trying time – getting over my breakup and learning how to be on my own and “single” was a challenge for me. It’s definitely true that our outer environment is nothing more than a reflection of what’s going on within us. My mind and energy was in total chaos, and my home mirrored it. I’d spend hours tidying up only for it to return to the same messy state is had been in a week earlier.

After: As I started to really shift my thoughts and mindset regarding myself and my life, it “mysteriously” became easier and automatic to take proactive steps towards making my home my sanctuary. Little by little I worked with Cristina to strategically revamp and make the most out of each room. Before I knew it my apartment exuded peace, tranquility and sensuality. It felt delicious to spend alone time. I thoroughly enjoyed having friends over on a regular basis…

Another big part of my work with Cristina entailed separating my workspace. This was one of the hugest perks! The energy in that space is now open and conducive to actually getting work done! It’s fun to work from home and I look forward to it. Thank you a thousand times Cristina for helping me reclaim my space… Both within and without!

Osmara Vindel
The Solopreneur Strategist
http://www.osmaravindel.com

Here are the photos of the third consultation after making her second trip to Ikea.

 

“A Home For Everything You Own” ®
The OuttaSpace Team

Visit our website at http://www.OuttaSpaceOnline.com

ORGANIZING YOUR HOLIDAY DINNERS

ISSUE 33

Now it is Christmas day, Hanukkah, Kwanza or New Years Eve.
Your holiday dinner is a great time for friends and family. It is a time we celebrate what we have in our lives. Thus it is a great time, it can also be very frustrating. Getting prepared can be hectic, but there are ways to avoid it. You can also save money in the process. That will make your winter holiday relaxing, memorable and you will not stress about money.

• Plan Your event ahead of time.
• Complete your guests list.
• Have a budget for your Holiday party (Decorations, food, drinks, etc.)
• Use coupons
• Complete your Menu.
• Make a list of all the ingredients to every dish.
• Give yourself a day or two to devote to cleaning, decorating and preparations for your guests.
• Save money and look fabulous by using your dishes instead of purchasing dispensable ware.

Remember, Dinner is not the only thing your guests will notice!
Enjoy your Holidays and have a very Happy New Year!

TRY THIS PRODUCT

“A Home For Everything You Own” ™
The OuttaSpace Team

Visit our website at http://www.OuttaSpaceOnline.com

STORE YOUR DECOR

OuttaSpace Newsletter ~ ISSUE 32

Designate color-coded bins for each holiday. Red with a green lid can be for Christmas items, white with blue lids can be for Hanukkah, red with red lids can be for Valentine’s Day, green with a green lid can be for St. Patrick’s Day and orange can be for Halloween or Thanksgiving. Make sure bins are labeled on three sides. Include items such as platters, placemats etc. This makes it so seasonal items are not stored in your kitchen or office drawers all year.

TRY THESE PRODUCTS

“A Home For Everything You Own” ®
The OuttaSpace Team

Visit our website at http://www.OuttaSpaceOnline.com

The One In, One Out Rule

OuttaSpace Newsletter~ ISSUE 31

During the Holidays, starting with your next purchase, donate or recycle an item you no longer use or like.  This works great with office gadgets and clothing! You will have to find one thing to let go of for every new item brought in.  You will then begin to evaluate the necessity of each purchase.  Practicing this rule will help you declutter your office and home and reduce the amount of stuff in your life!

Product of the Week

The Bin Warehouse 18 File Box Storage System is the perfect way to store and organize your file boxes or our 9 Gallon Fold-A-Totes

“A Home For Everything You Own” ®
The OuttaSpace Team

Visit our website at http://www.OuttaSpaceOnline.com

THREE STEPS TO ORGANIZING YOUR MUSIC LIBRARY

“THREE STEPS TO ORGANIZING YOUR MUSIC LIBRARY”
Article written by DJ Cab (John Cabarga)

Like most DJ’s today, I manage my entire music library from my laptop. Rather than bring a few hundred records with me to a party, I can choose from 30,000 songs at any given moment.  The key for me is to stay organized and keep my library in tact. But you don’t have to be a DJ to keep your music organized. Here are some tips to help you get your digital music library in tiptop shape.

1. Tag Tracks. This is the first and most important step to organizing your digital library. The four must have areas to tag are: Name, Artist, Album, and Genre. If you want to get crazy, there are all sorts of other information you can edit such as the year the track was released, composer, comments, etc. The more in-depth you want to go the better, but be careful not to over-extend yourself. The key to this, as with all organization, is consistency. If you’re comfortable with adding years to your tracks, do it. But remember, you will be doing it for every track.

2. Use Ratings. Ratings provide you with a way to prioritize your tracks.  It’s simple, the more stars you give a track, the more you like it. The Spaghetti Incident is probably the worst Guns N’ Roses album ever released, but there is at least one song in there I like. Rating tracks individually will help me differentiate between the tracks I like from the ones I don’t. It’s also important for the next step.

4. Create Playlists. Here’s where all your efforts get put to real use. iTunes provides you with the ability to drag and drop tracks to a list and separate them so you can play these tracks later on (hence, a Playlist). Great feature, but the real meat and potatoes is in the Smart Playlist feature. Here, songs can be automatically added to a list based on certain criteria you set. For example, let’s say you want to create a smart playlist that contains all your favorite tracks in your library. Simply create a Smart Playlist with the criteria of “Rating Equals 5 Stars.” Now, every track rated with 5 stars is added to this list. What’s more, is that every new track you assign a 5 star rating to in the future will be automatically added to the list as well. You can create as many playlists as you like. The key of course is having your tracks properly tagged.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It might take you some time and a little patience to set things up properly, but in the end, you’ll have an organized library and a better way to find the songs you love.     DJ Cab ~~  http://www.djcab.com/blog

“A Home For Everything You Own”®
“The OuttaSpace Team”

Visit our website at http://www.OuttaSpaceOnline.com

RECLAIM MY SPACE: A journey to clarity #2

A Written Journey from one of OuttaSpace Clients:  Entry #2

In my second visit with Cristina Maria we tackled space maximization issues.  I took my first trip to Ikea and on a very strict budget and purchased many strategic items that completely TRANSFORMED the look and most important THE FEEL of my home. I could really feel the energy start to shift. Cristina helped me realize that I needed to separate my work area from my relax area and she suggested we do this by diving the living room from my office area using my shelves as “walls” or “dividers”, ingenious yet simple – it ended up looking AMAZING and really creating that separation that now allows me to be more focused and productive while I work, and then shut off completely when I’m done for the day and relaxing. Thank you Cristina for helping me make my apartment a HOME and my SANCTUARY! Stay tuned for the next visit – I’ll be reporting directly from Ikea!

Osmara Vindel
The Solopreneur Strategist
http://www.osmaravindel.com

Here are the photos of the second consultation after making her first trip to Ikea.

Stay Tuned for the next Journey Entry #3

“A Home For Everything You Own”®

The OuttaSpace Team

Visit our website at http://www.OuttaSpaceOnline.com

Shoeboxed.com~ Transforms receipts, business cards and documents into searchable data

If you work in the business world, you surely have receipts, business cards, bills, and other paper documents floating around your office and car, or tucked inside your wallet. All these pesky pieces of paper are critical for tax preparation, surviving IRS audits, and sales or networking, but they are a huge pain to organize and are always easy to lose. Pushing these receipts or contracts through an expensive scanner or manually entering information into spreadsheets is tedious and time-consuming, as is hiring an assistant. And according to PriceWaterhouseCoopers, businesses spend $20 in labor to file a paper document and $120 to find a misfiled document.
Enter Shoeboxed.com, a company that transforms receipts, business cards and other paper documents into searchable, organized and useful data. With Shoeboxed, you’ll never waste another minute on scanning and data entry, or lose an important paper document again.
Shoeboxed is a robust paper clutter solution that comes with mobile, email and mail-in options to submit documents for processing. After users send documents to Shoeboxed, everything is scanned, data entered and human-verified. The extracted information is then organized and uploaded to the Shoeboxed web application, a secure site  where users can access their individual accounts online from any computer. In the account, users can print copies of documents, generate expense reports and export data to QuickBooks, Quicken, Excel, PDF, Outright.com, FreshBooks, Outlook, Address Book, Salesforce and more. Since Shoeboxed is an IRS-accepted electronic storage system, receipts are always tax and audit-ready, and the hard copies can be discarded after processing.
Shoeboxed Mobile is great for travelers or any smartphone user. You simply snap a photo of a receipt or a business card on the spot, and forward the image to your unique Mobile email address. The image will be data entered, organized and categorized in your account. For iPhone users an application is available in the iTune store for submitting receipts.
Shoeboxed offers a 30 day free trial, so click here to check it out!

Shoeboxed.com

“A Home For Everything You Own”®

The OuttaSpace Team

Visit our website at http://www.OuttaSpaceOnline.com