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Peace of Mind Organizing

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Articles tagged with travel

Organizing my charging cables

22 February 2024 | Comments [0] »

Earlier this year I did a cable clean out, letting go of cables that I no longer need. It was a huge improvement, but it didn’t feel easy enough for me to access what I needed.

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Australia packing update

24 July 2023 | Comments [0] »

Before I left on my trip to Australia, I blogged about how I was able to pack everything in just a carry-on. I’m back from my trip and thought I’d give you an update on how that worked out.

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Traveling to Australia with just a carry on

10 July 2023 | Comments [0] »

I wanted to make sure I could navigate the trip as easily as possible, so I worked hard to pack light. The last time I bought a suitcase was about 2011, so I treated myself to a new, lighter carry-on roller bag with spinny wheels that roll smoothly.

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December 2022 tiny projects challenge: Day 5

20 December 2022 | Comments [0] »

Like many people, I keep a bunch of travel-sized toiletries assembled so I don’t have to pack a lot of them when I travel. On travel day, I add a few things I use daily. Everything fits in my toiletries bag. But it’s all pretty much a jumbled mess.

So while I was unpacking last night, I decided to declutter my toiletries bag.

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Packing mindfully for a trip

15 August 2022 | Comments [0] »

I’m packing for a nine-day trip to Walla Walla. This time, I’m determined not to overpack. The last two trips I took, I ended up packing way more than I wore.

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Keeping you organized at Disney World

25 February 2022 | Comments [0] »

If you’ve ever planned a trip to Disney World, you know there are a lot of moving pieces. My role as a Disney Travel Planner is to take the bulk of the stress off your shoulders and organize the details (big and small) so that you can have FUN.

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Create a checklist of travel cords

25 October 2021 | Comments [0] »

Keeping your devices fully charged while traveling can be a challenge. I’m on a trip to visit family in Walla Walla, Washington, and I find that I did not pack all the right charging cables. I’ve had a good system for some years, involving a packing cube that I keep stocked with my travel cords, which are separated using labeled binder clips

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Planning a long road trip

26 July 2021 | Comments [0] »

When I took my epic drive from St. Louis to Walla Walla, Washington, last September to help my dad celebrate his 90th birthday, I planned the heck out of it as you might imagine. I recently wrote a blog post for Meori’s blog about how I planned it.

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Worth repeating: Traveling on an airplane with a puppy

6 May 2021 | Comments [0] »

I came across this post today and decided to repeat it. It’s got some solid information about flying with a puppy that some might find helpful now that we’re starting to fly more again.

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Check your credit card benefits!

15 October 2020 | Comments [0] »

When I turned in the rental car, Enterprise charged my credit card for my car insurance’s $500 deductible. I contacted my insurance company to start the claim process and the claims agent advised me to check the benefits for the card I used to pay for the rental car because some credit cards will reimburse the deductible in situations like this.

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Worth repeating: To work or not to work on airplanes?

20 May 2019 | Comments [1] »

I’m flying to the Pacific Northwest on Saturday, so this is a timely article for me. I originally wrote it five years ago (almost to the day!) and I still have the same quandary. Re-reading this post makes me want to take enjoy leisure while I fly this trip.

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Packing light: Fewer choices = more fun (for me)

24 September 2018 | Comments [1] »

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Worth repeating: Avoiding overpacking

7 June 2018 | Comments [0] »

I’m leaving for a weekend trip to attend a family wedding. As I think about packing, I thought I’d share my method for ensuring I don’t overpack. I’ve been doing this for years — decades, really. I think I invented this system. And I’m happy to share it.

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Another advantage to a minimalist wardrobe: easy packing in a crisis

29 March 2018 | Comments [1] »

I had to leave town suddenly over the weekend because my 87-year-old father had an acute health crisis that caused him to be flown to a hospital in Spokane, three hours from his home in Walla Walla, Washington. It resolved quickly, I’m glad to say, and I was able to arrive just in time to drive him home from the hospital and stay with him for a week to take him to his follow up appointments.

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Saving money on Disney travel

11 January 2018 | Comments [1] »

Disney Vacation Planner Julie Hough was our local Fox affiliate last week talking about five ways to save money on a Disney trip. These simple ideas add up to an amazing $1400 savings for a family of four on a week-long Disney trip.

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Repurpose a contact lens holder

26 September 2017 | Comments [0] »

I had lunch with my friend and former team member, Julie Hough of Enjoy Mouse Travel, the other day and she pulled a plastic contact lens holder out of her purse. She casually opened it, dipped her finger in and rubbed it on her lips. I immediately stopped the conversation to ask her more about what was in that contact lens case, since it obviously wasn’t holding contact lenses! Julie uses a special lip ointment and she makes it very portable (and non-messy) by filling the little compartment with ointment.

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Shifting priorities

25 July 2017 | Comments [2] »

I recently scheduled a one-week trip that had me in Portland, Oregon, for the wedding of dear friends, followed by five days in Walla Walla, Washington (a 4.5-hour drive from Portland) visiting my father.

Things didn’t go quite as planned. I had a marvelous time at the wedding and headed to Walla Walla on Sunday as scheduled. But I discovered on the way that my father had fallen in his condo, where he lives alone, and was unable to get up for 16 hours. That’s scary business for an 86-year-old. Fortunately, he was able to get up and get help and he was driven to the emergency room. I arrived at the ER about 30 minutes after he did.

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Help for an organized and stress-free Disney vacation

8 June 2017 | Comments [0] »

If you’re thinking about going to Disney World, there are two words that have the power to make or break your vacation. Plan ahead. Even the most carefree and spontaneous people I know have agreed: you have to exercise those organizing and planning muscles if you wish to keep The Happiest Place on Earth from becoming The Most Stressful Place on Earth.

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My strategies for packing light

1 May 2017 | Comments [6] »

I’m in the middle of a fun ten-day trip. It’s bookended by a professional conference at the beginning, a wedding at the end and five days in New York City in the middle. I flew to Pittsburgh, took a train to New York, and will drive from there to Central Pennsylvania (for the wedding) and back before flying home from New York to St. Louis.

That’s a lot of back and forth and I didn’t want to be weighed down by luggage, particularly in the train portion of the trip (you could not check bags on the train I was on).I wanted to pack everything into a carry-on sized suitcase.

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Worth repeating: Five ways to make packing easy

9 February 2017 | Comments [0] »

I travel every month or two and over the years I’ve managed to make packing fairly stress free. There are five practices that I’ve adopted that have helped make packing a piece of cake.

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Worth repeating: Packing light is worth the effort

8 December 2016 | Comments [0] »

I’m in the midst of my annual December trip to visit family in Washington state. I wrote this post in January 2016, after circumstances required me to travel light on this trip two years ago. I realized in looking at it this morning that I didn’t think twice about packing just a carry-on-sized bag for my nine-day trip. Since I’m in the midst of Project 333 and have only about 33 items of clothing from which to choose, it was a no brainer. Traveling is a great time to experiment with getting by with fewer clothes.

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Worth repeating: Making travel mornings smoother

19 May 2016 | Comments [0] »

Tomorrow morning I fly to Atlanta for the annual meeting of the National Association of Professional Organizers. (Woo hoo!) So it seemed like an appropriate time to repeat this post, written a couple of years ago, about using a checklist to make packing easier. I still use that checklist each time I travel and it’s worked out well for me.

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Traveling on an airplane with a puppy

17 December 2015 | Comments [0] »

If you’ve wondered why I haven’t blogged in a week or so, I have an excellent excuse.

Allow me to introduce Bix.

He’s an eight-week-old standard poodle puppy who joined our family on December 13. Tomorrow he’ll be nine weeks old. He’s absolutely adorable, smart as a whip and well behaved (for a puppy). He’s endlessly amusing.

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Why do we overpack?

6 August 2015 | Comments [5] »

I just returned from an eight-day trip to visit family in Walla Walla, Washington and attend my high school reunion. I had a great time, but I’m glad to be home.
As usual, I packed too many clothes. (That’s a photo of my suitcase on this trip as I was facing down repacking it.) I was getting frustrated, so I started to ponder why I (and I assume others) do this. It’s an irritating practice because it actually makes life on the road harder. As I’ve written about it before, there are benefits to packing light:

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Worth repeating: Five ways to make packing easy

2 April 2015 | Comments [1] »

I’m leaving early tomorrow morning for a week-long trip and need to plan and execute my packing today. Happily, I have a system that makes it easy for me. This post, which I originally wrote last year, is a handy reminder, so I thought I’d share it again.

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Packing light is worth the effort

29 January 2015 | Comments [0] »

In early December I traveled to Washington state to visit my parents just days after I broke my wrist. I blogged then that I would have to simplify my travel taking the bare minimum number of items so that I could lift my suitcase with one hand. Since I also couldn’t fasten pants with a zipper, the number of clothing items I could take was limited anyway.

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Super simplifying travel

5 December 2014 | Comments [2] »

I’m traveling to visit my parents next week and, unfortunately, I fell and injured my wrist a couple of days ago. It’s a suspected fracture, possibly just a sprain, but I’m in a splint and a sling. Luckily it’s my left arm, so I’m getting by.

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Building in re-entry time after a trip

29 September 2014 | Comments [0] »

I was out of town for five days in mid-September. I’ve been back a week and I still don’t have my mojo back.

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Making travel mornings smoother

23 May 2014 | Comments [0] »

This morning, I had a flight that departed at 5:50, which meant I needed to leave for the airport at 4:15. That meant I needed to get up at 3:15. In the morning. Actually, I probably should have either (a) arisen earlier or (b) packed absolutely everything but morning essentials the night before.

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The power of planning

7 April 2014 | Comments [2] »

I’m leaving today for Independence, Missouri, to do research at the Midwest Genealogy Center, part of the Mid-Continent Public Library. I’ve been doing almost all of my genealogy research at home on my computer and I’ve decided it’s time to branch out and look for documents not available on the internet.

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Five ways to make packing easy

14 February 2014 | Comments [4] »

I travel every month or two and over the years I’ve managed to make packing fairly stress free. There are five practices that I’ve adopted that have helped make packing a piece of cake.

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Traveling light, thanks to my iPad

22 January 2014 | Comments [0] »

I bought an iPad Air on December 26. If you’ve been reading this blog a long time, you might remember that I was an early adopter of the iPad. I bought the original version in 2010 and fell head over heels in love with it.

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Worth repeating: Southwest Airlines: A great model for customer service

11 December 2013 | Comments [2] »

I flew home from visiting to my parents on Southwest Airlines on Saturday and had a great experience, as usual. It brought to mind this post I wrote a year ago, when I was also flying from Spokane to St. Louis. I still think there’s a lot to be learned from this great airline.

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Worth repeating: Letting routines help me get my mojo back

5 December 2013 | Comments [1] »

I’ve been away from home about a week visiting family in Washington state. After a couple of half-days of travel, I’ll be home on Saturday. This blog post, which I wrote a couple of years ago at the end of the trip, reflects how I still feel about getting back into the swing of things. I’m happy to say that I didn’t leave my office in such disarray this time, but I am coming to a full week of client appointments. My routines will keep me sane!

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Southwest Airlines: A great model for customer service

10 December 2012 | Comments [0] »

I’m flying home now from my trip to visit my parents in Washington state. I’m flying Southwest, which is always my first-choice airline. Getting to Walla Walla can be a bit challenging and this time I flew Southwest to Spokane, rented a car and drove the three hours to Walla Walla. This morning, I was set to drive back for my return flight, which was to be at 2:40 p.m., flying via Las Vegas.

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Worth repeating: Organized travel documents

3 December 2012 | Comments [0] »

I’m leaving tomorrow for another trip to see my parents in Walla Walla. On July 25, 2011, just after I’d returned from a trip to Walla Walla, I blogged about the swell travel organizer I use to keep track of my paperwork while I travel. I’ve used it for every trip I’ve taken since (which must be at least a dozen) and the durable organizer continues to work well. I so I figured it was worth re-running my review, originally published July 25, 2011.

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Traveling light

12 October 2012 | Comments [0] »

A few weeks ago, I blogged about how iPhone simplifies my life. Today I leave for Chicago for the weekend to help my friend, Sally, of Roll Over Rover Threads at a pet-industry trade show. (Check out Sally’s website for fun and sophisticated pet-related apparel and home goods!)

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Building ease into a trip

1 August 2012 | Comments [5] »

I’m writing this from the Denver airport, on my way from St. Louis to Portland. When I booked this trip, I had a choice of a Denver-to-Portland flight that would mean a 2.75-hour layover or with a one-hour layover. I purposely chose the longer layover so I wouldn’t stress about missing my flight if my outbound flight was delayed.

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Staying calm before a trip

31 July 2012 | Comments [0] »

I’m leaving town tomorrow for more than a week and I’m trying not to let myself get caught up in pre-trip hysteria. Today was back-to-back appointments and I still have a number of things I have to do, like pack (and, before that, figure out what I’m going to pack).

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Clos-ette Too Travel Jewelry Case: Review & Giveaway!

23 May 2012 | Comments [26] »

Up until a few years ago, traveling with jewelry wasn’t much of an issue for me. I had a few pairs of earrings and a tiny (2” by 3”) little oriental cloth zipper case I put them in when I traveled. Then I met Geralin Thomas who, among her many talents, is a wardrobe consultant. She’s helped me up my game in terms of clothing and especially in terms of accessories.

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Letting routines help me get my mojo back

26 September 2011 | Comments [2] »

I’m a huge believer in the value of routines. They keep my life running smoothly. But right now, my routines are all messed up. I was away for a week, attending the ICD conference. Then I was home for four days and too busy to focus on my surroundings. Then I left home for a lovely, relaxing weekend in Nashville with friends.

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Organized travel documents

25 July 2011 | Comments [1] »

I went on a week-long trip to visit my parents in mid-July. It involved air travel, car rental, and hotel stay (my parents live in a small condo, so I don’t stay with them).

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MileBug: My tax-time time saver

4 March 2011 | Comments [3] »

I’ve been doing my family’s taxes on TurboTax now for four years. I worked on them almost to the point of completion last weekend (let’s hear it for refunds!) and it went remarkably smoothly.

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Cheaper isn't always better

6 August 2010 | Comments [3] »

I’m all for saving money. But last week I learned a valuable lesson about how saving money at the expense of time isn’t always such a great idea.

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Avoiding overpacking

10 June 2010 | Comments [4] »

I’m leaving for a weekend trip to attend a family wedding. As I think about packing, I thought I’d share my method for ensuring I don’t overpack.

I’ve been doing this for years — decades, really. I think I invented this system. And I’m happy to share it.

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Off to Los Angeles

30 September 2009 | Comments [2] »

I leave in an hour or so to fly to Los Angeles to attend the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization’s annual conference I love this conference and have gone every year since I became an organizer.

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The down side to international travel

15 September 2009 | Comments [0] »

I’ve been home from Australia for six days now. Apart from the very first night home, when I slept long and hard after 24 consecutive hours of travel, I haven’t been sleeping properly. I’m a good sleeper (my mom’s narcoleptic…it’s in my genes) but I’ve experienced what it must be like to be an insomniac. Most nights, I’ve just not been getting sleepy at bedtime.

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A little photo essay

4 September 2009 | Comments [1] »

I’m going to write a blog post about the wonderful AAPO conference, but I’m tired today, so I’ll just share some photos. I’m still loving Australia!

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Whales, koalas, kangaroos and more!

2 September 2009 | Comments [6] »

My brother, Larry, his daughter, Miranda and I took a trip a couple hours up the coast to the Sunshine Coast where we paid a visit to Larry’s sister- and brother-in-law in Caloundra. We had such a lovely time.

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Checking in from Down Under

30 August 2009 | Comments [5] »

I’m here to tell you that Qantas rocks. My flight across the ocean was really quite easy. It was an overnight flight that lasted 14 hours (we left LA at 10:30 p.m. Thursday and arrived in Sydney at 6:30 a.m. Saturday, crossing the international date line). The captain cheerfully told us that the duration of our flight was “just over half a day.”

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A very long (but exciting!) trip

27 August 2009 | Comments [1] »

I’m kind of nerdily excited because I’m writing (and will be posting) this blog post while on an airplane. In the air. My American Airlines flight to Los Angeles has WiFi. I wish I could say it was free, but they did give us a coupon for 25 percent off, so it’s only $6 to use WiFi for the duration of the flight.

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Organizing to go Down Under

6 August 2009 | Comments [2] »

I am so excited. Three weeks from today I fly to Brisbane, Australia. While I’m there, I’ll be attending the Australasian Association of Professional Organisers annual conference. I’m one of the presenters at the two-day conference. I’ll be speaking about using the internet to work with clients all over the world.

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Home from vacation

23 July 2009 | Comments [0] »

I’ve been in the Pacific Northwest visiting my parents for the last week or so. I took along my computer, fully expecting to do a little blogging, but got caught up in the combination of family activities and not really thinking about work, so there’s been pretty much radio silence from me.

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Travel tips from a real road warrior

11 May 2009 | Comments [0] »

Peter Shankman, the innovator of the service Help a Reporter Out which matches reporters who need sources with sources who need publicity, logs something like 400,000 miles a year. He recently wrote a blog post with wonderfully detailed tips on the tricks and gadgets he uses to make business travel a little easier.

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The R word

21 October 2008 | Comments [0] »

Sometimes I feel like a broken record when I write here (or in my newsletter) about the importance of routines. It’s just that I’m reminded very frequently about how much of an impact they can have on order, productivity and overall peace of mind.

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Easing back into real life

14 October 2008 | Comments [0] »

I’m home from my latest trip. And I’m here to stay for awhile! It’s nice to be back sleeping in my own bed, though I’m feeling a little foggy. I blame Pip, my standard poodle, who had me up in the night several times last night needing to go out.

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Hello from Walla Walla

10 October 2008 | Comments [2] »

Yesterday, I wrote a long (and trust me, really well written) blog post about my hometown of Walla Walla, Washington, where I am right now visiting family. It went on about the Norman Rockwellian nature of this town, which often seems like the land that time forgot.

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It's t-shirt time again

3 October 2008 | Comments [0] »

I leave this morning for Chicago, where I’m going to staff my friend Sally’s booth at the H.H. Backer Christmas Trade Show. Sally is the creative and business genius behind Roll Over Rover, a company that sells design-conscious apparel for dog lovers. Sally’s illustrations are whimsical and sophisticated. I’m a proud booster.

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Watch that laptop!

23 September 2008 | Comments [2] »

I’m typing this from the Las Vegas airport en route home to St. Louis. (Man, do I hate the Las Vegas airport…it’s hard to find any peace with all the slot machines and so forth. Plus it doesn’t appear you can even purchase a wifi connection.) Anyway, I just heard this announcement, “Attention, Marge Simpson [I changed the name], please return to security. You picked up the wrong computer.” Gulp. They made that announcement twice, then made another one asking her to pick up a white courtesy phone and call the operator.

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Off to Portland!

18 September 2008 | Comments [0] »

I’m leaving today on a 7:30 a.m. flight to Portland, Oregon, where I’ll attend the annual educational symposium of the Garden Writers Association. I’ve been going to these conferences every year since 1989 (I think I’ve missed three in 20 years) and even though I no longer make my living by writing and have never been a gardener, I continue to go. (I started attending when I worked in PR at the Missouri Botanical Garden.)

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Who needs to check a bag?

4 August 2008 | Comments [0] »

Over at Unclutterer today, professional organizer Monica Ricci has written a guest column about travelling light. She offers some great tips on packing so that you don’t have to check a bag and incur extra charges.

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Have a happy holiday weekend!

23 May 2008 | Comments [0] »

Whether you’re staying at home or traveling on this very busy weekend for travel, I hope you have fun and stay safe.

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Traveling light can save money

21 May 2008 | Comments [1] »

American Airlines has announced it will start charging $15 for the first bag a passenger checks. I remember being shocked when airlines starting charging for bag number two. Now you can’t check any bags free of charge (on American, at least). Passengers will start bringing even more carry-on luggage on board. That’s going to make flying an even bigger hassle. Sigh.

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Off to Baltimore!

16 May 2008 | Comments [1] »

I’m catching a 6:25 a.m. flight to Baltimore this morning to attend the HH Backer 20th Annual Pet Industry Spring Trade Show and Educational Conference . It’s funny: for ten years I was a pet writer and always wanted to attend this show. But I never found a magazine to send me and didn’t have an excuse to go.

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Packing for the plane

1 May 2008 | Comments [5] »

I’m flying home from Hawaii late this afternoon. It’s an overnight flight and I arrive in St. Louis at 8 in the morning. That’s an eleven hour journey, not counting the time I spend waiting for my flight at the Honolulu airport.

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Aloha!

22 April 2008 | Comments [1] »

I’m the luckiest organizer. I worked with a wonderful client here in St. Louis for eighteen months. Last month she moved to Hawaii. Last week, her family’s stuff, which was shipped by boat, arrived. This week, I’m going there to help her set up household. I leave early (and I mean early) tomorrow morning.

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I'm off to learn something

8 April 2008 | Comments [2] »

I leave today for Reno, Nevada, to attend the national conference of my professional organization, the National Association of Professional Organizers. This is my third national NAPO conference in as many years and I’m very excited.

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Home away from home

18 August 2007 | Comments [1] »

One of the wonderful things about being a knitter is that when you’re away from home you can almost always find a comfortable place to hang out.

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