Kate’s Balancing Act!

Kate Shillo is one of my executive assistants.  She works mostly at my Bedford property.  As you can imagine, it gets pretty complicated doing everything that I do every day and Kate works hard to make sure that things run very smoothly at my home.  When asked recently how she stays so organized, she replied, “It’s a balancing act that takes serious and aggressive planning.”

Her organizing skills were sharpened several years ago when her mother was planning the family’s new home.  Kate would help her pore through design and architecture magazines looking for inspiration.  If a page caught their eye, they tore it out for future reference.  At the same time, Kate was clipping her own pages for a future dream house of her own and soon ended up with a hefty stack.  But she was also doing the same thing for fashion, gift, and food ideas as well as for the wedding she hopes to have one day.  She saw that things were getting cluttered and out of hand, so she bought herself some binders and clear plastic sleeves.  Now Kate has a reference book for each subject that she can easily flip through to find those perfect ideas.

Kate showing her books, hoping to inspire others to do the same.  Vivaldi looks on with great interest.

A really simple way of clearing up clutter and organizing inspirational ideas.  I was happy to see that many of Kate’s pages were taken from my magazines!

Comments

[JOHN]

Curious what room that is? Guest house?

[Patia]

Thanks for sharing -- seeing these binders gave me an idea for my own.

[B. Danielle]

I already do the same as Kate-clip out great images and articles and store them in a binder. Not only is the inspiration at hand and easy to reference, you also have something tangible when trying to explain ideas to others.

[Pat]

What a great idea! I'm going to fill up some pages myself today. Thanks for sharing this.

[Kathy]

Thanks to Kate for inspirational organizing ideas!
Kathy

[PAULINE MUCCIACCIO]

Hi Kate,
I had this same idea a few days ago, after I saw my pile of papers growing, along with paint charts, & publications for redoing a kitchen & bathroom. The only differance is the plastic covers, which will make accessing my information more user friendly...thanks Kate.
Pauline Mucciaccio

[Diana]

Oh yes, I do the same thing! Sometimes I have to go back and de-clutter the outdated designs, but at least I can still re-use the binders and sheets. Thanks for the preview!

[Bridget Juister]

I love my book! I've been collecting home decor ideas for years. It's fun to look through it for inspiration and see bits and pieces come to fruition in my home and garden.

[Debi O']

I wished I would have purchased stock in clear sheet protectors as I have done this for over 15 years & have probably 40 or more binders on shelves in my garage. I wanted to preserve my vast collection of craft magazines, recipes, home decor, party planning from many magazines, archive my childrens' works & important events in our family. (I keep my Martha Stewart Living in-tact)

The only dilema that I ran into are my craft magazines are sorted by months. So if I wanted a particular craft, I'd have to dwindle it down to a "season" or "holiday". I wished I could organize them in a better fashion without having to sort through each magazine & archive it on my computer. So if you have any suggestions, I'm game!

My husband works for the local school district so that made it easy for us to attend the school districts' auctions held every spring. I have the rolling book shelves which are set up back to back in my garage. I also have about 4 rolling carts with which houses my craft supplies in their "cubbie" holes. Too bad they did not come with the tote trays.

If you have a solution to the craft magazine dilema, it would be nice for you to share with me & maybe others who have encountered the same situation.

as always,

Debi O'

[Andrew Ritchie]

I do the exact same thing with my clippings! I just posted about it on my blog last Friday!

Check out my nifty design books:

http://marthamoments.blogspot.com

-Andrew

[KellySchwark.com]

Upon seeing this post, I gave a sigh of relief. "Ah, I'm not the only one in the world that has a collection of 'inspiration binders!'" With every move, my husband ALWAYS asked me if I really need ALL of them? "Of course!" Now that we have finally settled, the collection seems to have multiplied, many of which are filled with pages of your magazine! Thank you for feeding my imagination and my binders!
Kelly
http://kellyschwark.com

[Margie]

I have always been a ripe, tear, stack for the future. I have one problem as I continue the ideas evolve or become outdated. I often have to uninspire the collection.
Thanks as it is always nice to see how others work toward their personal goals.

[Joseph Patz]

Hi Martha,
I love your dining room chairs.I saw them in you craft room article this past year.I also love that you have towels across the chair seats.It must be where your cats nap.

[Jan Erickson]

Hi Martha, Thanks for introducing us to another of your assistants. Where do you find such talented and organized people who have such outgoing personalities? Kate certainly has all of these qualities besides having a great sense of humor as well as a beautiful smile. Thanks again for sharing. Jan

[Bethie]

What inspiration! Of course lots of them are from your magazine! I should do that, it would be so much easier to look through than a cardboard box filled with clippings. Thnx!

[Claudine]

Thanks for sharing! Such a great idea, I also had to do that years ago when the piles of clippings began to grow like crazy. I agree with the above comment, that I should have stock in page protectors. It is so nice to go back and go through them and see how your taste turns over the years. But ripping a page out of MS Living, I shutter at the thought of it. That is when you buy a extra copy or two to take apart.
Claudine

[Benita]

I do just like Kate but can't bear to tear anything from any of your magazines. I keep those neatly stored ( I have them all since the very first issue, quite a feat living in Sweden I can tell you. Amy Schuler helped me out in the beginning the get the first ones back in 1990/91 :)

Other interior design magazines I keep intact for about a year and then start tearing out the interesting bits. Fashion magazines get the tear treatment as soon as I've finished reading them.

[Beth Longtine]

I have been doing the same for years. I have 7 red notebooks, each with a different title, that I am constantly adding to. The largest one has visions for my future dream house, all divided by rooms! On slow days I love to pick one up and review it; and whenever I need ideas, I always find something that inspires me.

[Noble Pig]

I have been doing this for years. Mostly with recipes and crafts. It is a great way to organize and now I don't feel so guilty about tossing old magazines because I've taken what interests me. I would have magazines to the ceiling if I didn't do this.

[Kathy]

I wish I could do this, I can't seem to let my magazines go. I do need a system. I caught my husband throwing out some of my magazines. I love nothing better than to sit down and pour over them...perhaps I will give this a try.

Thanks for the tip,
Kathy

[Trish]

It's nice to meet you Kate! I can only imagine the enormity of your job but I'm sure you are performing up to par. You look very happy to me and I see Vivaldi likes being in your company! Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing your organizing ideas. Trish

[Stevi]

I did this for planning my wedding! Instead of buying a book that wasn’t exactly what I wanted, I created my own. I sorted every thing by tabbed sections I felt were important; flowers, colors, dresses, invitations, music, cakes…ect. At the front of the binder I had my master checklist from the Martha Stewart Weddings magazine so I could check things off easily. This way I could take every idea to vendors and explain exactly what I was looking for. It’s nice to know that other people think the same way!!

[D.]

I love that idea. I will suggest it to my mom. She is always tearing things out of magazines, she has huge piles! Thanks for the great idea Kate!

[Frank]

Kate is very pretty. But I must say, I LOVE her "office"!

[Sues]

I just started doing this! I love keeping inspiration books...I have a really hard time throwing magazines away, so this allows me to save all my favorite pages and always gives me something entertaining to look at :)

Sues