Peace of Mind Organizing

An approaching milestone

19 September 2012

On Saturday, I turn 50 years old. I’m a birthday person and I love celebrating my birthday. I’ve never had angst over turning a year older. I’m helped by the fact that my husband, Barry, is nine years older than me, so now matter how old I am, I’m still young by comparison.

But turning 50 gives one pause. Partly, I think, because that pretty indisputably, half my life is behind me. Partly because my body’s starting to behave like it’s not 20 (or 30 or 40) any more. But I’m in good shape and my good genes have helped me stay fairly young looking. (I didn’t appreciate my youthful appearance when I was a teenager, but I sure do now.)

Turning 50, I think, is naturally a time to take stock. I’m a glass-half-full kind of person, so when I take stock, I tend to dwell on the positive. And I realize that I have a load of things to be grateful for:

• My wonderful husband of 22 years
• My family—my parents are still alive and living in their own home and my brothers are in my life
• My wonderful, devoted friends, many of whom I’ve known for decades
• I have really fulfilling work and I can make my own schedule
• I’ve been able to shift gears several times in my career to pursue new and exciting things
• I’ve traveled around the world (literally), seen some interesting countries and met fascinating people
• I get to help people bring joy back into their lives

I think it’s really true that age is just a state of mind. I’ve always enjoyed getting older, because my past experiences enrich the present. So the way I see it, the more experiences I have, the richer life becomes. I look forward to the coming years!

A great time management class for organizers

17 September 2012

Julie Morgenstern is somewhat of a rock star among professional organizers. She wrote the books, Organizing from the Inside Out and Time Management from the Inside Out more than ten years ago. Those books helped many, many people (including me). Since then she’s gone on to build a high-profile, successful organizing company. She develops products, like the new Circa Balanced Life Planner from Levenger. And she trains professional organizers through the Julie Morgenstern Organizing Institute.

Now she’s offering a two-part class called Time Management from the Inside Out for Professional Organizers through the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO). I’ve been fortunate to be on the task team developing the class and last week audited the first half of the class. It was terrific! I am so excited at how this class is going to help me help my clients. It’s well organized, in-depth, and very clear.

If you’re a professional organizer, I urge you to take this webinar. The first session is September 25 and September 27 from 2 to 4 pm central time. The size of the class is limited and is already half full, so if you’re considering it, sign up now. The fee for NAPO members is $149 and for non-NAPO members $249.

It’s really a terrific opportunity to learn from one of the best!

A special (for me) episode of Hoarders this Monday

12 September 2012

This past spring I was invited to help during the shooting of an episode of A&E TV’s emmy-nominated Hoarders program. The client, Ruth, lives in St. Louis and extreme cleaner and show regular Matt Paxton, with whom I’d worked on a previous episode, asked me to recruit a couple of other organizers and help during the shoot.

I was joined by Karel Worley and Julie Hough, who are terrific, upbeat organizers. We had a tremendous time assisting behind the scenes as Ruth’s home was cleaned out. The wonderful guys from the St. Louis franchise of 1-800-GOT-JUNK were also there, working their hearts out.

Julie Hough, Karel Worley, Matt Paxton and me at the end of the shoot

Since then, Karel, Julie and I have been working with Ruth as part of the show’s aftercare program. Ruth is truly a special person, with a wonderful, caring family. Getting to know Ruth and her daughters has been really enriching for me personally and I am so grateful to the show for involving me.

Ruth is grateful, too. She told me that the her involvement with the show has truly been life changing for her. That makes me so happy.

I know that these programs are sometimes criticized for being exploitive or for involving clients who cannot handle the stress of the clean out. In this case (and in the case of Brad, a client I worked with for TLC’s Hoarding: Buried Alive), Ruth was able to make some shifts that allowed her to let go of possessions that were truly holding her back. She’s maintained the order that we’ve created. Being involved with the show has truly given her a new lease on life.

The episode airs Monday, September 17, at 9 pm/8 pm central on A&E. If you miss the airing, you can also catch it online on A&E’s website. I doubt you’ll even catch a glimpse of Karel, Julie or me. I haven’t seen the episode, but I can tell you that Ruth’s story is tragic, but hopeful. I’m looking forward to seeing it.

First steps in getting started with family history research

10 September 2012

As I’ve mentioned here before, I’ve been lucky enough to finally have the time to pursue one of my interests, family history research.

I’m jumping in with both feet and have started a blog, Organize Your Family History to share my journey and help other beginning genealogists have fun and keep from being overwhelmed (it’s so easy to feel overwhelmed!) as they do their research.

Last week, I had a guest blog post on Geralin Thomas’s Managing Modern Life® blog at MetropolitanOrganizing.com, called Five Tips to Organizing Your Genealogy Research, about the first steps to take in getting started. If you’ve thought about doing genealogy research but didn’t know where to start, click on the link you’ll see it’s quite simple. And you’ll also benefit from learning from the mistakes I made when I started this journey about ten years ago. (It stalled due to overwhelm and lack of time.)

I’m really enjoying the discoveries I’ve made. (Yesterday’s discovery: my great great great great grandfather was taken prisoner during the Battle of Shiloh in the Civil War.) I think this is a fascinating hobby.

As I posted before, I’ll be posting on my organizing blog on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and on my family-history blog on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I hope you’ll join me there on occasion!

Turning temptations into rewards

7 September 2012

It’s 4:46 pm and I’m just now writing today’s blog post. I meant to do it earlier in the day, but other things (like lunch with a friend and a haircut) took precedence. I also had promised to get answer reader questions for Rubbermaid by the end of the week and all of a sudden I was staring down that deadline.

The trouble is, I don’t really feel like writing a blog post after just finishing two longish articles for Rubbermaid. What I really feel like doing is watching the latest episode of The Glee Project. (Do you watch that? If you’re a fan of Glee and a fan of American Idol, like I am, it is the perfect combination of those two shows. I love it!)

I was tempted by The Glee Project. I’d queued it up on my screen. But I did not click Play. Instead, I told myself I could watch it AFTER I write a blog post.

And then, of course, I made it easy on myself by making the blog post about that decision. And by keeping it short.

The truth is that lots of people lament wasting time on the internet looking at things they enjoy that may not help them achieve their goals. I say that there’s nothing wrong with watching things you enjoy, if you try to make them a reward, rather than a temptation. If they help motivate you to do the items on your to-do list that further your goals, then they are actually contributing!

Now off to watch The Glee Project, guilt-free!

Saying yes can be a very good thing

4 September 2012

About a month ago, I wrote a blog post about the value of saying no. In it, I talked about the freedom and relief I’m feeling now that a variety of volunteer professional commitments are behind me.

I stand by that post. But it doesn’t touch much on the fact that saying yes to those volunteer positions was really valuable for my career and standing in my industry. I’m awfully glad I did. (I’m just ready for a major break.)

Today, I read a post on Daily Worth (a money-related website for women) called Saying ‘Yes’ Pays Off. I found myself nodding my head when I read it.

I think the lesson here is to follow your gut when presented with an opportunity. If your heart says yes (even if your brain says no), go for it. Conversely, if your head says it’s a great opportunity, but it feels like a major drag or inconvenience, just say no.

Trying out a standing desk

31 August 2012

We’ve all been reading recently about the health dangers of sitting all day. This is really bad news for people like computer programmers and writers who sit for hours at a stretch, in flow, while time zips by.

My clever friend, Margaret Lukens, of New Leaf and Company wrote a blog post about this entitled, Sitting is the new smoking .

When I work with clients, I’m usually on my feet. But I spend at least half (usually much less than half) of my work week with clients. The rest of the time, I’m at my desk, doing that desk work that’s so essential for running a business.

Not only that, but my hobbies are knitting and genealogy research, both of which are primarily sitting activities.

This news that sitting on my butt—something I do with somewhat alarming frequency—is dangerous is disturbing indeed. As I’ve read about it, I’ve become attracted to the notion of using a standing desk.

I saw this video about the working area of successful writer Christie Aschwanden who has a convertible standing/sitting desk. Unfortunately, it costs something like $3000, which is out of my price range (until I become convinced of the benefits).

I’ve seen multiple blog posts, starting here at Ikea Hackers and here at Apartment Therapy about creating a standing desk from a regular one.

I’m not the only one in my house thinking about it. One day I saw my husband standing at his desk, with his keyboard, monitor and mouse all resting on top of cardboard boxes. That didn’t turn out to be a sustainable solution.

I spent a little time thinking about how I might create a standing desk of my own. I know I don’t want to use one full time, because I’m on my feet plenty. But it would be nice to have one when I want to change things up during the day.

And then it hit me. I have two Expedit shelves on their sides, on legs, in one of my two home offices. I selected the legs so that the height would be right for working. Here’s a photo I took back when I was setting up this office.

These cases hold supplies for clients

I also use a MacBook laptop, though it’s usually tethered to an external monitor (and I use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse when I’m at my desk).

Today, I decided to untether my computer from my desk and take it the few steps to the Expedit shelf. And here I am, writing this blog post while standing up.

I have to say, it’s kind of cool! The change of scenery is good. Standing feels good, since I’ve been sitting all day. I don’t think the ergonomics are the best, since I have to look down to see my laptop’s monitor. And I think my elbows are a little high. But it’s nice for short stretches. I think what I’ll do is set a reminder on desk days to work standing up for awhile.

If you’re intrigued by the notion of a standing desk, maybe take a look around your house and see if you already have something you can use. I’m glad I finally realized I did!

ETA: It’s now January 2017 and the popularity of standing desks has not waned (though I find I seldom stand at my computer). I’ve become aware of this great review of standing desks. If you’re interested in buying one, you might find it helpful.

And while I’m adding things, I’ll mention that my husband purchased a sit/stand desk a few years back. As I thought it might, it stays in the sitting position most of the time. But it’s awfully nice for him to have the option to raise his desk and stand.