Organization

All good things come to an end, and there will come a time when you will have to break up with your smartphone. You will hear a lot about numerous sites to sell your beloved iPhone on, but which one will actually pass the test?

Why I Went With NextWorth

I decided against Craigslist and eBay (although they tend to give you the best prices) because I wanted a hassle-free and quick trade-in, in which I didn't have to deal with buyers or wait around for them.

I've had experience selling items on Amazon, but the process isn't as easy as I would like, and it's a little time-consuming. That's why I went with a third-party seller that specialized in gadgets, so all I had to do was plug in some information online, get a price estimate, and mail it in. There are a couple of sites that let you do that — Gazelle, Buy My Tronics, and Best Buy Trade In, to name a few — but I decided to go with NextWorth since it had relatively good reviews in the forums I scoured online. Before using a service, try googling "[Insert name of company] review" to see what other customers' experiences were like. I also received the highest price quote with NextWorth.

Read on to find out how to start selling on the site.

Editor's note: The following is a guest post written by Journalist Lisa Ling, host of Our America on OWN and program ambassador for the IKEA Life Improvement Project — a program designed to inspire people to make a positive impact on their homes and the lives within. Below, Lisa shares tips for creative ways to cut the clutter at home.  

Your home should be a peaceful retreat, a place to relax and unwind. Since clutter can be a big cause of stress, my husband and I built in solutions for staying organized when we built our new home. With a new baby and a hectic travel schedule, knowing I will come home to a clean and clutter-free home makes all the difference in staying focused while I’m away. Below are a few tips for you to make sure that everything in your home has a place:

Pictured: Ling's master bedroom.

Make A Plan: If you’re not starting from scratch with a new home, you’ll need a plan to whip your current place into shape. Create a three or six-month plan and think through which areas of your home you’d like to tackle first. Focusing on one room at a time will keep you from getting overwhelmed and abandoning the project. Breaking it into accomplishable chunks will help you get everything done.

Assign Categories: Sort all of your belongings into three categories — display, store and donate/toss. Donate clothes you haven’t worn in the last six months (excluding seasonal items) and things you no longer have a use for. Store seasonal items — like heavy textiles and winter coats — out of reach. Lastly, keep things you use constantly handy. For instance, if you’re a big smoothie maker, keep your blender on the countertop in your kitchen. If you eat granola bars each morning, store the blender away.

Read on for more.

Even if you've gone bridezilla and planned everything in your wedding down to the last detail, accidents can still happen. When unexpected mishaps occur, take a deep breath and try not to blow your top. Meanwhile, to diminish the chances of these awful incidents happening, here's how to prep ahead of time:

Detailed contracts: Try to prep for the worst-case scenarios with vendors and other people you hire for the wedding by being diligent when it comes to contracts. For example, if there are food allergies or specific requirements the caterer needs to be aware of, add those requests in the contract.

Have a dress rehearsal: Holding a dress rehearsal can help you spot any problems that may come up during the actual wedding — unruly dresses, the clueless bridesmaid missing cues, and more.

Create a contact list: Put together important contact information of people involved in the wedding and pass it around so your bridal party can help out if needed.

Find a mediator and assign a CEO: If you don't have a day-of coordinator, ask someone in the bridal part to stand in as your CEO, making sure everything goes off without a hitch and preparing for when mishaps happen. You can also ask the same person or another bridesmaid to be a mediator — someone who can smooth things over and tackle drama among people as it happens.

Read on for more.

One of the biggest causes of burnout is being overworked, so if you can manage to be more productive, that may give you more time to blow off steam. We've heard plenty of advice on how to do more in less time, but here are some tips to improve your productivity, backed by scientific research:

• Take a web break: Don't think of catching up on celebrity news or watching kitty videos at work as slacking. In small doses, it can be good for your productivity. In fact, Japanese researchers found that looking at cute animals can lend workers more focus for their tasks.
• Sleep well: Sleeping too little can cause job burnout and lower productivity. Get enough sleep to refresh yourself for the next day. But make sure you're getting quality sleep.
• Work in 90-minute intervals: In a study, it was found that the best violinists practiced in 90-minute intervals with a break between each one. Start doing work in chunks of 90 minutes, and try to take a 15- to 20-minute break after each interval, preferably spending the time looking at cute animals.
• Take a vacation: Going on vacation is good for your brain. In fact, the Families and Work Institute says vacation deprivation causes workers to make more mistakes and build anger and resentment against co-workers. Most vacationers see a boost in job performance after their trip, according to multiple studies.
• Don't power through: Your willpower is an exhaustible supply, so don't force yourself to finish tasks if you don't have to. Take a break and do something else, then go back to it when you feel refreshed.
• Turn off notifications: Don't let blinking icons and pop-ups disrupt your work flow. Turn off notifications and alerts for incoming emails, IMs, and more. Instead, schedule times throughout the day to check them.
• Listen to music: Your favorite tunes can increase your productivity because listening to music helps release dopamine in the part of your brain that's related to rewards. Basically, it improves your mood, thereby putting you in a more positive mind-set when doing work. Research by Teresa Lesiuk, assistant professor at the University of Miami, found that workers who listened to music were more creative and finished their tasks in a shorter time compared to those who worked in silence.

Although everyone is always focused on renewal in the Spring, June is a perfectly good time for reassessment. After all, it marks the start of the second half of the year, which means there is still plenty of time to make changes that will affect how the rest of your year may play out. Here are some things you should get started on ASAP:

Check to see if you're on track for retirement: Log into your retirement accounts to check how you're doing and if it's possible to increase the amount you're socking away to your nest egg. Are you on track to max out your contribution limits? If you're far from it, try to automate more money to your retirement accounts monthly if you can afford to do so.

Budget your FSA: If you have flex dollars to spend, don't wait until the end of the year when you're in a mad rush to meet the deadline. Here are some ideas for using up the allotted money.

Plan your PTO: It's time to start planning how you are going to use your leftover PTO for a better-organized rest of the year. Ask yourself if you have any major events coming up — weddings of friends, your birthday, and more — that you'd like to take time off for. Or perhaps there's a major bucket-list trip that you'd finally like to take by the end of the year. Make sure you have enough PTO for all your travel plans.

Track your work achievements: Start looking back on what you accomplished in the early half of the year, and write them down if you haven't already. Is it enough to get that raise or promotion you're looking forward to at the end of the year? Check in with your manager to see where you stand, and up the ante to advance your career. And if you haven't gotten the promotion you wanted, it's time for some introspection to figure out why you haven't received one.

Assess your living situation: Is your lease up at the end of the year? Figure out what your plans are for your next place. Perhaps you want to buy a place or room with someone in a rental; start asking around and researching for your future pad so you're prepared well before the move-out date.

Check your budget: Are you meeting your saving goals, and is it time to change them? Check out your budget and how you are spending your money. Address any spending red flags you see, and try to figure out any areas where you can save even more.

No one needs to tell you that being a mom is a full-time job. So if you also work outside the home, how in the world do you keep your house clean? The easiest answer is to hire someone to do the dirty work. But for most of us, that's not possible, at least not on a regular basis. Here are some tricks of the trade from seasoned Circle of Moms members who like to run a tight ship.

Everyone has a bad financial habit. We live in a country that spends billions on advertising to make us want to make purchases; However, if you are looking to make change and break your bad financial habits use these tips. Remember: even though the habits are hard to break and require conscientious effort, there is payoff. Note the emphasis on the word payoff.

1. Pay bills when you receive them. Think of all the stress and anxiety (not to mention late fees) that you experience when you put off paying your bills. When you receive the email notification or open the bill in the mail, take care of it. It will only take five minutes, and you won't be swamped with bills at the last minute.
2. Use cash and not your card. You need to save up for a trip or need to pay off a credit card, but you have a hard time controlling the amount of swipe purchases you are making. Minimize this urge by using your ATM card once a week to withdraw the amount of money you have allotted yourself for the week. Keep your cards at home, and even stow your credit cards in a hard to reach place in your closet to keep you from using them.

See more ways to break your bad financial habits.

There's nothing more frustrating than an mailbox full of junk mail, so make dealing with junk mail one of your Spring resolutions. To start with, here are a couple of sites you should visit:

• Catalog Choice: With over a million users and counting, this is a free and easy way of cutting down your catalog junk.
• Direct Marketer's Association: You can request one of the over 3,600 companies under the DMA's umbrella to stop sending mail to you. This includes credit offers, catalogs, mail offers, and magazine offers.
• OptOutPrescreen.com: A bunch of credit reporting companies started this website to soothe the frustrations of consumers. This is a good site for opting out of those endless credit card offers.

If you're done checking out the above sites and the flow of junk mail from certain retailers still hasn't stopped, you can also try manually contact the culprits. If you have the time, you can phone the companies to opt out of their mailing lists. Or if you prefer, you can dig around on their websites to see if you can be removed from their list online.

Remember to note on an Excel sheet or Google doc details of the companies you have contacted and the dates you spoke with them so you'll know when to follow up.

If you've moved to a new place, you might find yourself inundated with the previous tenant's mail. First, you should communicate to the mail carrier that you're receiving a previous tenant's letters, says Sue Brennan, a spokesperson for the US Postal Service. You can do this by telling the carrier in person, leaving a note in the mailbox, or writing the word "moved" on the ex-tenant's mail.

Source: Etsy User TerraViam