Peace of Mind Organizing

Why I love Thanksgiving

28 November 2010

I love the food, of course, and the companionship and camaraderie of a wonderful dinner. And I love taking the day off (which I did, in spades).

But I what I really love about Thanksgiving is that it’s a national holiday dedicated to thinking about the things in our lives we feel grateful for.

It’s been a few years since I wrote a Thanksgiving post listing the things I’m grateful for, and I’m overdue. So here’s this year’s list. It’s by no means comprehensive.

• My health. I’ve been fortunate to have never had to contend with a major illness. With two close friends diagnosed with breast cancer very recently, that makes me very thankful.

• My wonderful husband, family, and friends. I just spent the weekend with friends I’ve known for 30 years. And I’ve had Thanksgiving dinner with the same friends for more than 20 years. How great is that?

• My freedom. I live in a country where I can start my own business and make a go of it. Where I can recognize my strengths and use them to help others (and make a living).

• My clients. They teach me so much and enrich my life nearly every day.

• My colleagues. My NSGCD, NAPO and NAPO St. Louis friends mean so much to me. They make our profession very special.

• Steve Jobs. Really, I just love my MacBook, iPod Touch and iPad. Thank you, Steve.

I hope it’s as easy for you as it was for me to come up with a half dozen reasons to be grateful!

Practicing what I preach

18 November 2010

I often tell my clients (and anyone else who will listen) how important it is to reward yourself. Most of us work so hard and we often don’t let ourselves take a break. Especially when it comes to big clutter projects, I think it’s really important to reward progress and not wait until everything’s finished before you let yourself have some fun.

This weekend, I’m practicing that principle. I’ve been working very hard for the last couple of months. Between work and volunteer commitments I haven’t had a lot of time to just kick back.

But tomorrow, I hop on a plane to Florida to spend the weekend with three of my dearest friends, my buddies from college. We’ve been friends since our freshman year at Mount Holyoke, 30 years ago. We try to see one another at least once a year, and we haven’t gotten together since our 25th reunion last May.

This weekend, we’ll talk, laugh, eat, lounge and get massages. Two of us (Dede and Ann) are running a half marathon. Two of us (Denise and me) are cheering them on. It’s going to be heaven. And the weather’s going to be good.

I’ve been trying to decide whether to take work with me and get some stuff done at the airport and on the airplane, but as I write this, I think I deserve a real break. I’ll take my iPad, but otherwise I think I’ll travel light.

I am eagerly anticipating this getaway. When’s the last time you did something for yourself? If it’s been awhile, I urge you to figure out something fun you’ve been wanting to do and put it on your calendar!

A little holiday shopping help

16 November 2010

My friend, the fabulous organizer Geralin Thomas, just shared on her Facebook fan page a link to a website that can save you some money on holiday shopping. It’s FreeShipping.org, where you can get coupon codes for free shipping from online vendors. Going there first might help you narrow down where you want to shop!

If you’re not already a fan of Geralin’s Facebook page, I encourage you to go over there and click Like so that her posts show up in your News Feed. She’s full of great tidbits, news and discussion about organizing and hoarding.

Twitter love

12 November 2010

Today’s the two-year anniversary of my joining Twitter. The novelty’s worn off and I still really like it as a source for information, camaraderie and amusement. It’s not a time suck for me, though I do seem to spend less time with it now than I did a year ago.

Last year, in honor of my one-year Twitter anniversary, I ran a long post about why I love Twitter. The reasons still ring true.

I’m wondering how Twitter will change in the next year (in the past year, they’ve enhanced ways for people to connect) and how my use of it might change. But for now, I’m still atwitter about Twitter.

Happy birthday, blog!

10 November 2010

Today is the 4th anniversary of this blog. My first entry, on November 10, 2006, titled What is organized? was about everyone having personal standards for what they consider organized.

In four years of blogging, I’ve created 486 entries. I really enjoy blogging, and occasionally surprise myself when I look back at old entries. I’m actually pretty good at it most days! In honor of the anniversary I decided to come up with a favorite post from each year of this blog and post the first paragraph and a link. I hope if you have a minute you’ll click on the links and take a trip back in time with me.

2006
Backsliding (November 16, 2006). In the organizing field, particularly for organizers who work with chronically disorganized people, backsliding is all too common. You leave a client with systems in place, skills transferred, attitudes and motivation high, and then you stop hearing from her. You try to contact the client and when you finally reach her she admits that she’s lost control again. She’s ashamed of this and rather than reaching out to get more help, she just doesn’t call. What she probably doesn’t realize is that this happens all the time and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Continue reading

2007
For me, this is what it is all about (July 16, 2007). I just got back from an intense five days working with a client in another state. I know from her feedback and from what we accomplished that I really made a difference in her life. That’s what I love about this work! Continue reading....

2008
Self care (July 15, 2008). I’m always struck how clutter gets in the way of life. I have many clients who constantly feel an obligation to deal with their clutter. They plan to devote a weekend to decluttering, then they start to feel overwhelmed, so they don’t actually deal with it. (Until they call me.) Continue reading....

2009
It’s a tie. I just have to include both posts I wrote about working with professional organizers. I love them both.

My adventure with a professional organizer (June 12, 2009). As I blogged about the other day, I hired professional organizer Karel Worley, of Clearing Your Path, to come to my house and help my husband, Barry, and me declutter our basement. Continue reading....

I’m officially hooked on working with POs (July 6, 2009). Last month I blogged about working with professional organizer Karel Worley in my basement. With my husband’s help, we tackled a dirty decluttering job in only four hours. It was one that I’d been dreading for months. It was amazing how much we got done and how painless it was. Well, I’m at it again. My friend, Aby Garvey, of simplify101, and I have been talking about swapping services for awhile. We thought it would be more fun (and a lot faster) to work together on some of our projects at home. Continue reading....

2010
Fear of the Unknown (July 12, 2010). I’ve had to learn a new skill set. And I didn’t make it easy on myself. Continue reading....

It’s interesting to me that all my favorite blog posts were written in June or July. (Except 2006, but the blog wasn’t begun until November.) I wonder what’s up with that?

It took me several hours to skim all my blog posts, but what a fun exercise. It’s really a great way to be reminded of the milestones of the last four years.

Just do it

9 November 2010

I had a Nike moment this weekend. My husband and I had a small dinner party on Saturday. He’s the cook (he’s even been to culinary school) and when he puts his mind to it, great things happen in the kitchen. My job when it comes to dinner parties (in addition to providing sparkling conversation) is to get the house in order and do the table.

I’ve been very busy lately and am a naturally messy person, so some clutter had accumulated in some hot spots. I was thrilled that we were having people over, because it gave me a reason to clean up. Naturally, I put off cleaning house until Saturday. With guests arriving that day, I was finally motivated to put my nose to the grindstone and put everything away (well, there was some stuff that needed to be thrown away). And then I actually cleaned the house.

I hate cleaning house, especially for the sake of cleaning. I’d much rather do it for a fun reason, like the impending arrival of dinner guests.

So what was my Nike, “just do it” moment? It was down to crunch time, guests were going to arrive that evening and the house needed some focused attention. And it got it. I was really struck by how piles that had lingered on a desk in a common room (not my work desk) for months disappeared when I put my focus on clearing it. A lot of that stuff ended up in my office—I put it all away the day after the party.

I see this in my clients all the time. They have clutter (or non-functioning system) that’s been bugging them for ages, but they haven’t done anything about it. They just put up with it. Then they bring me in, focus their energy on it, and in a short space of time, it’s dealt with.

I know I’m guilty of thinking about doing stuff, fussing at myself for not doing it, and just generally wasting time and energy over clutter or problems without actually taking action. That is so ineffective and, often, counterproductive.

Instead of worrying about how I’m going to do something, or where I’m going to find the time to do it, I should just do it. Focused energy is amazing.

I’m thoroughly enjoying my clean house. (And fabulous leftovers.) I’m happy to report that that desktop is still clear!

Linda Samuels' Ultimate Organizing Giveaway

3 November 2010

Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, author of The Other Side of Organized: Finding Balance Between Chaos and Perfection is a marketing genius. She’s my predecessor as marketing director of the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization and she left very large shoes to fill.

I featured a Q&A with Linda just two weeks ago here on my blog. I’m bringing her up again so soon because she’s created a great giveaway to help promote her book and I wanted to tell you about it.

All the details are here on her website. But let me show you the prize.

Doesn’t it look inviting?

Linda’s giving away a basket of her favorite organizing books and products, including a $50 gift card from The Container Store. There are many ways to enter the giveaway, all detailed very clearly on her website.

Now Linda knows and I know that organizing isn’t all about products. But a hand-selected basket of excellent organizing resources is a great thing. The contest runs through November 11. Go enter!