GREAT READS: Looking for a good organizing book?

I love books and I love the fact that over the last few years, there have been many fabulous organizing books hit the shelves at libraries and book stores. Like every topic, each organizing book is catered to a different need. These are three of my favourites. For the busy Mom - House Works by Cynthia Townley Ewer. This book focuses on the key areas that every Mom must manage and keep organized in her family's home. For any one who wants simple, proven ways to stay organized - The Organized Life by Stephanie Denton. For the person who is wanting a simpler, calmer life - The Personal Organizing Workbook by Meryl Star is perfect. It starts with key questions in each area and then takes the reader through tips and strategies to accomplish their true goals. Winter is the perfect time to curl up with a book... and get organized.

MOMENT IN TIME: My son just made me proud...

It's the day after Halloween and I just walked into my son's bedroom to find that he has organized - yes, organized - all his Halloween candies into categories (smarties with smarties, kit kats with kit kats, gum with gum) and then put them into different containers! It's true... the apple or should I say the candy, doesn't fall far from the cart.

LESSON LEARNED: Tell the story, the pictures don’t always.

My Dad recently passed away at the age of 85. On my quest to write his obituary I spent two days going through carefully stored pictures and documents from his life. I found his army medals, his medical degree, letters my Mom wrote him when they were dating... a wonderful collection of the places he’d been and seen. The pictures were beautiful – there’s nothing like a black and white photo telling a story while the white border around it holds it in. My Dad was a great man. The pictures I found only reinforced that fact but at the same time proved to me there was a lot I didn’t know. I wish I had asked more questions and I wish he had told more stories. As an organizer and mother of an eight-year-old son, I learned one more of life’s lessons. Take the pictures, but even more important – tell the story. In a world dialed in to digital photography, this is even more important. First, develop the photos. Second, make sure you tell the story on the back of each - name, dates, locations. So one day, when your daughter or son is searching to know even more about their great mother or father, it will be as easy as turning over a picture.