V-Day Organizing Giveaway
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 12:04AM 
@2012 Photo by Linda SamuelsValentine’s Day includes some of my favorite things including hearts, cards, sparkles, chocolate, flowers, and most importantly, love. It’s a day for gratitude and reminding the special people in your life how much they mean to you.
I’ve been writing The Other Side of Organized blog for over two years. The blog has gathered a community of people that enjoy conversing and sharing ideas about organizing and life balance. It’s a gift to all of us when you stop by to join the conversation, leave comments, reflect or ask questions. I am thankful for you and all that you continue to share.
To celebrate my favorite holiday and appreciation of you, I’m having a V-Day Organizing Giveaway beginning today, February 14th. One winner will be selected on February 20th. For the giveaway description and contest rules, continue reading.
The V-Day Organizing Giveaway includes goodies that will organize, inspire, relax and delight you. The winner will receive everything described below:
- The Container Store $25 gift card
- Semicolon Document Box from See Jane Work
- Task Clips by Knock Knock
- One Word A Day Journal by Knock Knock
- Dove Chocolate Hearts
- Autographed copy of The Other Side of Organized by Linda Samuels
Contest Rules:
- Comment on this blog post below with your favorite Valentine’s Day thought, memory, tradition, organizing tip or challenge
- Comment about the giveaway on the Oh, So Organized! Facebook page
- Re-tweet this giveaway on Twitter and include @LindaSamuels when you do
- Subscribe to The Other Side of Organized free monthly e-newsletter for continued inspiration and motivation
- Follow Oh, So Organized! on Pinterest and let me know which of my boards is your favorite
- Do one or all of the above to enter. The more you do, the more times your name will be entered to win (up to 5 total entries!)
What are your thoughts on this love-filled day? I look forward to our conversation about love, chocolate, organizing and more. Happy Valentine’s Day! Wishing you all good luck!
Linda Samuels, CPO-CD
® is a compassionate, enthusiastic professional organizer, coach, author & blogger who facilitates change in others' lives. A revolving door empty-nester, she lives with her husband in a small, colorful home with a purple front door.
Reader Comments (31)
Linda, this is a fabulous idea! Here is my Valentine: I grew up in Brazil where the tradition is quite different, however my in-laws have had a tradition that is so sweet I would love to share.
Every Valentine day, my father-in-law would buy his wife the biggest Russel Stover chocolate box he could find, until one nice year, RS decided to not make that biggest box again and he went crazy looking for it. He finally called the company and got the bad news. Since then he started buying her TWO of the biggest boxes he could find. Every year she'd call to share the news! :-)
Helena,
What an awesome Valentine's Day story. I love the "big box" tradition. But in addition, I love how change caused that tradition to shift to something else, just as wonderful. There's a lot of love in that story and I thank you for sharing it with us.
My kids (5 & 7) come home with hoards of papers. I don't know what to keep and feel bad throwing anything out. Two years ago I started the yearly tradition of getting a 2 pack of IKEA's magazine boxes with lids. I label my children's name on each. When they come home from school and I go through their folders I take their work and drop it in their box (or have them do it). It is big enough to hold all their work for the school year and then I stick it in the attic at the end of they year with the date on it. This saves me time and I have no guilt about throwing anything away! Below is a link to the magazine boxes I use. ~ Meredith
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90153239/
My favorite Valentine's Day thought is that love begets love. So everyone should put more out there; it will grow.
My best organizing tip is to label everything! If you label everything there is more of a chance you will put things where belong. And if you put things where they belong you will know where everything is!
You are so generous, Linda. Not only in your give-a-ways .. but in your heartfelt posts & sharing a potpourri of personal insights & infomation to get our juices flowing.
I've chosen a 'Theme' for 2012 ... to be open & curious. Covers professional & personal aspects of my life, & the possibilities are there to explore.
Disposing with the 'old' & making room for the 'new.' Lightening up in all areas, & breathing in the freshness of every new day.
Calling up friends to tell them that I love them , & letting them know what I find so special about their presence in my life.
A lovely Valentine's day to you & your honey!
My best organization tip when cleaning your room or packing - always start with making the bed! It provides a huge platform for getting everything else organized =)
You are amazing and wisdom-filled sharers!
Meredith- Awesome that you've figured out what works for you. That's it right there. Love the "no guilt" part.
Wehaf- Lovely thoughts about love bringing about more love. Just beautiful.
Donna C- Great thinking about building in expectation to the organizing process. Make things clear, be consistent, and life gets just a bit easier.
Toni K- Thank you for your kind words. You made my day. What an incredible theme you've picked for this year "to be open and curious." I know that wonderful things will come your way as you clear the way for the next phase.
Carrie- Love the bed-making FIRST tip. My mom always told me that if you make your bed, it makes the whole room looks good. As you said, a made bed is also great for packing prep.
Thank you wonderful people for taking the time to share all your great thoughts.
My organizing tip is to schedule time each week to get ahead of the curve and do a little planning (whether that's menu planning for the next week, sorting through emails to convert them into action items, or sorting through the mail). I make sure it's a calendared time and stick to it as religiously as I can. That way, I don't feel like things are slipping quite so out of control!
Genie-
Great strategies you share for managing time. I especially admire your ability to menu plan. That is not a strength of mine. I remember when our daughters were younger and around that time in the evening would ask, "What's for dinner?" I'd make it up as I went. As long as I had enough ingredients on hand I could whip something up. But I always had dreams of actually sitting down and planning weeks of meals. I'm a planner in other ways, but not with the food. Fabulous how you are able to do it!
My favorite Vday tradition is a poem written by my husband for me. He usually writes them in calligraphy - so talented and written with love!
Theresa- That is such a beautiful and romantic Vday tradition. Love it! Thank you so much for sharing it. Sounds like you have a wonderful guy!
I'm all about asking for what you need, and so comunicating with your loved ones is key, Expressing and sharing one's feelings helps to cultivate healthy relationships. Be open, be honest, be humble, when wrong. Give love...get love.
What a great list, Nancy for creating open, loving relationships. Thank you for sharing with us and joining in the conversation.
Love that you are connecting all of us!
My favorite organizing tip is that any task, no matter how big or small, will only REALLY happen when it is on your calendar. It gives you a date to do it, accountability to accomplish it. and a way to see it!
Favorite Valentine's Day memory: third grade, we each colored on a simple brown paper lunch bag (remember those?). The bags were taped to the chalk holder on the chalkboard in class. Then we all made a parade walking by the bags, dropping our valentine's day cards into the bags of our friends. Lovely idea, Linda! Off to tweet about it!
Ellen- What a wonderful tip to share about making sure that action/task items aren't just theoretical, but tied to concrete actionable, calendared commitments. There are lists and then there are LISTS! Thank you for sharing that with us. But more importantly, thank you for being part of our community of sharers. You are a regular participant in so many ways and I appreciate you and your generosity.
Oh Sue! With the beautiful memory you shared, you've taken me back to Elementary school. I most definitely remember exactly what you describe with the decorated paper bags acting like mailboxes. That was one of my favorite days to give and receive valentines. Lovely to think about again. I seem to recall that sometimes candy would be attached to some of the valentines - a lollipop, chocolate or those candy hearts. So great that you took the time to participate and share. Thank you.
My favorite Valentines memory was my first Valentines with my husband. He surprised me with a trail of fake rose petals, leading to a candle lit bath and cheap wine. It was so corny, but perfect!
I commented on your facebook page.
I tweeted this: https://twitter.com/#!/LizzyAllen123/status/170685413541945344
I subscribe to your newsletter.
I follow you on pinterest as Rachel Allen. I love the organizing inspiration board.
Lizzy- You're awesome! You've participated fully in the giveaway by doing all 5 of the possible entry options. Fab-u-lous! So wonderful to have you be part of the community. Thank you for letting me know that you're enjoying my "Organizing Inspiration" @Pinterest board. I love collecting images of creative, beautiful & fun ways to organize. You never know what a client might like or need. Pinterest is a great way to keep my creativity juices flowing.
Also, I love the story you shared about your favorite Valentine's Day memory. What a romantic husband you have. He sounds like a great guy and how beautiful that he did something so special to celebrate you and show his love.
One of my most memorable Valentine's was when my husband surprised me with a night in downtown Chicago. He booked a room with a view of the lake, had roses and wine in the room, dinner at the Signature Room and we had a wonderful time.
Subscribed to your newsletter
Commented on the Facebook page
Tweeted about the giveaway
I follow you on Pinterest and I love your cupcakes and Makes me laugh boards.
Hi Kristin- Now THAT'S what I call engaging fully! Thanks for joining in and sharing your great V-Day memory with us. Sounds like you had a wonderful time in Chicago with your hubby. He sounds like a great guy. I'm new to Pinterest and it's so nice to meet you through that site. As you may have guessed, I'm a big cupcake fan and also appreciate lots of laughing. Good pick on your two favorite Pinterest boards!