Peace of Mind Organizing

Tackling the full inbox

2 December 2013

I have an Inbox Zero policy that I dearly love. It’s typically easy for me to maintain and keeps me feeling under control.

But stuff happens. My brother came to visit and then he and I traveled to Walla Walla, Washington, to visit our parents. I’ve been doing little more than glancing at email for the last ten days.

This morning, despite still being away, I decided to put my work hat back on. When I focused on my inbox, I found 183 messages. Seeing those 183 messages made me feel stressed and overwhelmed. And it made me want to walk away from my computer.

This served as an important reminder of how easy it is to get overwhelmed by email overload. And it’s also an important reminder of the value of dealing with my email every day.

Instead of walking away, though, I decided to set a timer and tackle the inbox. The first go around, I set it for 15 minutes. In that time, I went from 183 to 72 messages. I answered a few, but deleted or filed most. That felt a little better, but I knew I had to get it down to 15 or under if I was going to have some peace of mind. Only nine minutes later, I was down to 10 messages.

Of course, those 10 messages are the ones that will require a little effort to handle. But stripping away the others has clarified what I need to do and eliminated that overwhelming feeling. What a relief.

I now know that I can answer those 10 messages today and reinstate my empty inbox policy. It literally took 24 minutes of focused effort.

If your inbox is full, maybe you can set your timer for 15 (or 24) minutes and see how many emails you can file or delete. I hope you’re pleasantly surprised.

Thanksgiving gratitude

28 November 2013

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. What’s not to love about a holiday that asks us to express our gratitude for our good fortune? I also love that it’s about good food, family, and community.

As I have in some Thanksgivings past I’d like to express here my gratitude for some of the many fortunate things in my life.

This year, I’m grateful for:

• My family and friends. My brother is visiting from Australia as I write this and we’re enjoying a rare 2+ weeks long visit together. I’ve loved watching him interact with my husband (they are so different from one another but having fun together). I’m also grateful for the wonderful friends with whom we’ll share Thanksgiving dinner today.

• My clients. I am so fortunate to have amazing clients who appreciate the help I give and also teach me so much.

• My team members. I’ve been leading organizing teams more than ever this year and I’m continually amazed at what a group of talented organizers can accomplish. We have so much fun while making a great impact.

• My good health. I’m 51 now and am trying harder to exercise and eat right and I’m so grateful that I have managed to avoid any kind of serious illness.

• My iPhone 4S and Kindle Paperwhite. I use these two devices daily and have a hard time imagining life without them.

• The marvelous genealogy community. My blog, Organize Your Family History,, has been around almost a year and a half and I’m gratified that people are reading it. And some of them comment. I can’t wait to attend my first big genealogy conference in February!

• Heated seats. My new-to-me 2008 Honda CR-V has heated seats. Honestly, I don’t know how (or why) I got along without them before! I love my heated seats with a fiery passion.

I hope you take the opportunity today to take stock of the things in your life you’re grateful for (and that it’s easy to come up with the list!). Happy Thanksgiving!

Amazon Prime now available as a gift

26 November 2013

I love giving gifts that leave no clutter footprint. If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you know that every year this time of year I blog about giving gifts that don’t create clutter.

A couple of years ago, in my clutter-free gift giving blog post, I mentioned that Amazon Prime, the service that provides free two-day shipping, free streaming of select movies and TV shows and the Kindle lending library, was not available as a gift. That was disappointing, because I thought it would make a great clutter-free present. (It costs $79 a year.)

Today I noticed that Amazon Prime is indeed available as a gift! I love it as a gift idea. I realize that it will allow your gift recipients easier access to clutter, due to the free shipping, but at least you’re not giving them items they’ll have difficulty letting go of.

Following your gut

22 November 2013

This week I was faced with a tough decision. I’d been contacted by very nice prospective client who is truly ready for (and needs) help. But there was circumstance about her environment that made me uncomfortable.

I was torn between wanting to help her (and be paid for it) and not wanting to expose myself to a certain aspect of the job. I told her I’d think about it and let her know.

Today was the day I needed to reply. When I sat with it and envisioned the anxiety I’d feel prior and during the work, I realized that my comfort and safety had to outweigh the pain of disappointing her.

In other words, I did a gut check. And I’ve learned through the years to listen to my gut.

How about you? Do you follow your gut? And have you, like me, learned to regret ignoring it?

Got a clutter emergency?

18 November 2013

It can be overwhelming when you know guests are coming and your home doesn’t feel quite up to snuff. (My brother’s visit has me scurrying around taking care of small decluttering projects.)

I feel really fortunate to have the tools available to me to declutter and organize my home when I’ve let things get out of hand. But I know from my clients that it’s really easy to look around a room and have no idea where to begin. And I also see the stress brought on by just shoving stuff in bags and boxes and stashing them away. (I can’t tell you how many of those bags and boxes I’ve helped clients go through, sometimes years later.)

Here’s somethings that can help. It’s Quick Clutter Fix, a seven-step process that helps you get your home ready for guests without creating more stuff to deal with down the road. It comes in the form of a 8.5-minute audio and pdf outline that I created with my Declutter Happy Hour partner, Shannon Wilkinson. It tells you how to whip your house into shape in short sessions, giving you a clear idea of exactly where to start and what to do.

And here’s the best part: Quick Clutter Fix is free! Just sign up and you’ll receive a download link. Soon you’ll be able to shed that overwhelmed feeling and happily welcome your guests.

Worth repeating: What is Organized?

14 November 2013

This week marks the 7th anniversary of my blog. I posted my very first post on November 10, 2006. Since then, I’ve posted 906 more. I thought it would be fun to re-post that first post. I’m happy to note that the first post isn’t an embarrassment and that I would write the same thing (perhaps phrased differently) today. Enjoy!

How many times have you heard people say, “I need to get organized”? But what do they mean by that? How do they measure, “organized?” As a professional organizer, I think about this a lot. To me, organized means being able to put my hands on what I need when I need it. As long as I know where things are and can find them easily (and that includes finding appointments in my calendar), I feel organized and in control. Even if something’s in a stack, as long as I can grab it swiftly, that’s organized. So for me, organized doesn’t mean that everything is put away and that all surfaces are clear. And in fact, neat spaces aren’t necessarily organized.

You might not agree. I’ve had clients who feel out of control if they have a stack or two on their desk they can’t seem to get rid of. That’s okay—I’m happy to help them figure out how to get rid of those stacks.

I’ve come to the conclusion that “organized” is a state of mind. It’s great to feel organized. I think people who feel organized are happier, with less stress and higher self esteem. Is there such a thing as too organized? No, as long as the level of organization of the individual feels right to them. I’m pretty casual, so sometimes I feel uncomfortable around or overly controlled by a Type A super-organized person. But as long as they’re happy (and they’re not making the people they live with crazy), that’s okay.

The bottom line is that “being organized” is an individual thing. I shouldn’t impose my standards of organization on anyone (which can be a challenge in my line of work). Likewise, you shouldn’t judge me because an occasional stack of paper languishes on my desk and it doesn’t bother me. Perfectionism can be the enemy of the organized person. I encourage my clients to be “organized enough.” If it’s desirable and achievable for you to have a house that would make Martha Stewart proud, go for it. But if not, don’t beat yourself up. Strive to find the level of organization that makes you feel comfortable and in control, then work to maintain it.

What’s your definition of organized?

The value of house guests

11 November 2013

My brother, Larry, is coming to visit later this month. It’ll be the first time he’s ever visited me. He lives in Australia, and his visits to the U.S. are fairly few and far between and usually restricted to Washington state, where we grew up and where our parents live. (When he visits Walla Walla, I go there too.) But this year I persuaded him to come to St. Louis before going to visit our parents.

I visited him in Australia in 2009. It was wonderful to see Larry and his family in their natural habitat and I look forward to his seeing me in mine.

My brother and me on the Sunshine Coast in Australia in 2009

I’m excited to have him come. I’m looking forward to hanging out with him and showing off my 100-year-old home. But that’s caused me to look at my house with new eyes.

It’s been 12 years since we moved back here from New York and despite the fact we have plenty of room, and that I’m a professional organizer, lots of little pockets of disorder have cropped up over the years.

As I look around, knowing that we’ll be having a guest who’s staying longer than any guest ever has, I see loads of little projects. Here’s the list:

• Put everything away after the bathroom is through being painted (by a pro)
• Declutter and organize the guest room closet
• Declutter the guest room bookshelf (there are lots of cat toys there and our cat passed away earlier this year)
• Declutter and organize the extra closet
• Organize winter accessories (need to do that anyway)
• Declutter the front hall closet
• Organize CDs
• Declutter the downstairs kitchen (we have two kitchens and the downstairs is used primarily for storage)
• Take old electronics in for recycling (or arrange a pick up)

The nice thing is that the projects are small, for the most part. I have 10 days until Larry gets here, so I need to do about one project a day.

The other nice thing is that we’ve done a lot of little projects throughout the year (like organizing the bathroom closet, the dresser, the keys and the junk drawer), so this doesn’t feel like a big crunch.

Having house guests can be so valuable for looking at your house through new eyes. (Heck, having dinner guests sometimes accomplishes that!) It be nice to have my brother around (and another guest, a mutual friend of Larry’s and ours, who is visiting for part of Larry’s visit). And it will be really nice to have accomplished these projects.

Thanks, Larry!