Peace of Mind Organizing

Day 75 of the 100-day dress challenge

16 February 2021

I’m three-quarters through with the 100-day dress challenge! I’ve worn the same black wool-blend dress every day since December 4, 2020. I’m still thoroughly enjoying the challenge and I absolutely love the ease of dressing that it’s provided. (I’m wearing the Rowena Swing Dress, regular length, in size XS.)

Right now it’s really cold in St. Louis. When I got up this morning at 7 am the temperature was -2F with a wind chill of -17F. Crazy cold. So my dress is just another layer to keep me warm. I appreciate extra layers that are warm and lightweight!

Here’s what I love about the challenge:

• My choices of what to wear are limited to things that I can wear with my dress
• The options to change up the dress are surprisingly large, so I get to exercise a little creativity
• It’s easy to put on some booties, tights and a belt and feel a little spruced up
• I don’t have to wash it often so the amount of laundry I’m doing each week has been reduced
• It’s something fun to talk with people about

If I were going to an office every day or working in clients’ homes it might be more challenging. But this is the perfect time to do a challenge like this.

You can read about the challenge at the website of Wool&, the company that makes the dress I’m wearing and that issued the challenge. And you can read my first post about the 100 day challenge for more information about why I’m doing the challenge.

When the 100 days are over, I am confident that I will keep wearing this dress. I really love it. It’s outrageously comfortable, odor-resistant, wrinkle-resistant and easy to wear. The prize for completing the challenge is a $100 store credit toward a new Wool& dress. I’m looking forward to trying a different dress and am confident it will become a staple of my wardrobe.

In order to qualify for the $100 credit, I have to wear the dress at least eight hours a day and take a picture every day. (They give a little grace and will accept 95 pictures.) A lot of people are showing off their pictures each day on Instagram, but that’s way too much pressure for me. So I’m uploading mine into Dropbox and will share the folder with Wool& next month when I finish the challenge. To be honest, the hardest part is to remember to take the picture!

Here are some shots that show some of the looks I’ve created with the dress. (I’m not going to show you the days where all I did was throw the dress over long underwear and sweatpants.)

Day 30

Day 41

Day 56

Day 64

I look forward to seeing what the next 25 days bring!

Must-see videos for new organizers

11 February 2021

My friend, Geralin Thomas of Metropolitan Organizing in Cary, N.C., is a professional organizer who specializes in coaching other professional organizers. If you’re not aware of all the amazing content she has put together to help organizers, you’re missing out. Let me help you remedy that.

Geralin has launched a series of short videos, which have come out weekly, that answer questions she gets about starting an organizing business. I think they’re terrific. They’re both informative and fun, much like Geralin. Her casual, approachable style in the videos is so authentic. It’s one of the reasons I’m so fond of her. Believe me when I tell you that over the dozen+ years of our friendship, I have benefited repeatedly from her answering my many questions. She is not only smart but wise.

Here are the new Ask Me Anything videos, all on her YouTube channel:

• Episode 1 – How Do ProOrganizers Find Clients?
• Episode 2 – I’ve Been Hired. Now what?
• Episode 3 – ProOrganizers FAQs: Rates, To-Dos, Target Market
• Episode 4 – Prerequisites for Becoming a ProOrganizer
• Episode 5 – Why Do People Hire Professional Organizers?
• Episode 6 – Tools of the Trade for ProfOrganizers

There will be more videos in the coming weeks, so I suggest subscribing to her YouTube Channel so you don’t miss them when they come out.

Geralin’s contributions aren’t limited to videos. She also has an information-rich blog. Here are two of her latest posts, which detail tools of the trade, physical and digital:

• Digital Tools of the Trade (a list of resources anyone can use)
• Professional Organizers’ Favorite Tools of the Trade (a-round up of the favorite organizing tools of organizers around North America, including yours truly)

And, finally, an easy way to tap into Geralin’s wisdom is to check out her FAQ, each of which is answered with a link to one of her blog posts. (I should also mention that she sells a robust set of forms that organizers can use for their own businesses and offers one-on-one coaching as well. You can check out those paid resources on her Products + Services page.)

Even if Geralin weren’t a dear friend, I would recommend her free resources and paid coaching and forms for anyone who is, or aspires to be, a professional organizer. I can attribute much of my success to the help she’s given me over the years!

Organizing my jewelry box in 15 minutes

9 February 2021

Back in 2014, I wrote a blog post about how I revamped the way I organize my small collection of jewelry. You can read all about it in my post Improving my jewelry storage but essentially for the last seven years I’ve been using jewelry stacker cases from The Container Store to store my jewelry in three layers. The jewelry box is on my bureau. My necklaces hang on a tie rack on an adjacent wall.

The top layer, which has a lid, is supposed to contain my more often used jewelry (earrings, rings and brooches). The second layer is to contain my less-used earrings. And the bottom, deeper, layer is for bracelets, along with one or two seldom-worn necklaces that I’m not ready to let go of.

Since the pandemic started, I’ve seldom worn jewelry at all. But the jewelry box, whose lid is typically open, was starting to attract non-jewelry clutter. And the earrings had become a bit scattered, so even if I did want to wear earrings it took a little time to find a pair. To be honest, it was unsightly and annoying.

Here’s a before photo:

I saw that messy box every day and most days I vowed to do something about it. But it felt like it would take at least an hour, and I never set aside the time. But about ten days ago, my Declutter Happy Hour partner, Shannon Wilkinson, asked me to do a 15-minute project and take before and after pictures to promote the class. I thought I’d see how far I could get with my jewelry box in 15 minutes. To my astonishment and delight, I actually finished it!

Here’s the after picture:

I went through the jewelry, separating out earrings without mates and some jewelry that either was broken or I no longer like. I paired up my earrings and stored them in the top layer in little categories that make sense to me. I moved the special-occasion earrings to the middle layer, since I’m not going out to special-occasion events these days. The bottom layer was under control, since I never wear bracelets. I wasn’t ready to let bracelets go, though, because I could see myself wearing them again after life gets back to normal.

I kept the brooches on the top layer, despite the fact I haven’t worn one in ages, because I like looking at my little collection. Most were inherited from my grandmother and they make me happy. I also have some little lapel pins and buttons that I enjoy. So I stored them together in plain sight.

The reason I’m bothering to write this long post is really this message: It’s amazing what you can declutter and organize in 15 minutes! These tiny projects really can make a big difference and are so easy to accomplish. As I’ve done before, I urge you to take a look around and see what tiny organizing project you might tackle. I bet it will make you feel great!

Elfa sale going on until February 23

4 February 2021

I think one of the things I missed most during the pandemic is browsing at The Container Store. It’s open to the public, but I’m trying minimize my exposure to the virus and have been there perhaps twice in the last nine months. So most of my purchases have been done online.

One of my favorite things at The Container Store is their Elfa product line. It’s a shelving and drawer system that’s very flexible and modifiable. I love recommending it to clients for their kids’ rooms, for example, because the shelves, rods or drawers can all be switched around as the kids grow and their clothes and storage needs change. There are Elfa storage solutions for every room in the house.

I use Elfa in my own home, in a closet in my office and to store my yarn stash. I also use three different Elfa file carts in my office, one for my business archives, one for my genealogy papers and one for the files that I want close at hand. That one lives under my desk.

We’re about three weeks away from the end of the annual Elfa sale, where you can get 30 percent off on Elfa products and installation. (That brings the file cart down to $77.) I find myself yearning for an Elfa system for my guest-room closet, but I’m trying to resist because it’s definitely a want, not a need. But if you have a need, now’s the time to check out Elfa!

You can design your closet system on the Container Store website or go to a store, if you have one nearby, with your measurements and allow their designers to create a free design for you. This year, you can have a virtual design consult to get help your design without going into the store.

Don’t snooze! Sale ends February 23.

Building ease with daily habits

1 February 2021

My word of the year for 2021 is ease. I don’t think I’ve ever had a more appropriate word. I’ve set the intention of trying to build more ease into my life and also use ease as a parameter around which I make decisions. It feels great.

This morning, while I was doing a gentle yoga practice, it hit me that the daily habits I’ve cultivated over the last year or more have really helped introduce a lot of ease into my life. Specifically, doing yoga every day has meant that yoga is so much easier than it was when I tried it for the first time two years ago. Not only do I know many of the poses (and I sometimes even anticipate them), they are much easier for me to do. That’s because daily practice has made me stronger and more flexible. And what 58-year-old person doesn’t love that?

Another area where daily practice has made a huge (life-changing!) difference is in my financial life. I’ve been working for myself for 25 years and it’s only been in the past six months or so that I’ve built a daily practice around tending to my finances. That has had the happy result that I’m always caught up with my bookkeeping in Quickbooks! This has been an elusive goal for many years.

The secret weapon of my financial life has been the software You Need a Budget (YNAB). (That’s a referral link…if you use it and end up subscribing, we each get a free month.) With YNAB I budget every dollar as it comes in and it’s actually fun. So every morning I actually enjoy logging in and categorizing any expenditures as well as budgeting any income from the past 24 hours. I’ve been using it since November 2018 for my business. (On January 1 of this year I took over our family’s finances in YNAB.) It took me awhile, but I’ve created the habit of entering anything that comes through YNAB into my business’s Quickbooks and double-checking periodically that everything is in sync. So I am blissfully caught up.

Thanks to daily habits (and wonderful Yoga with Adriene and YNAB), two big things that used to be real burdens for me (exercise and keeping track of finances) are now both easy and full of ease. That feels like a miracle.

Of course this can apply to so many things, including maintaining order, taking vitamins and supplements, and keeping up with email or filing. When we make something as easy as possible to do and we practice it daily, we allow ease to flourish.

I’m going to keep looking for other ways I can build ease into my life with daily practice!

Look for me in the early spring 2021 issue of Secrets of Getting Organized magazine!

28 January 2021

Once again, I am thrilled to be a part of the new (early spring 2021) issue of Secrets of Getting Organized magazine from Better Homes & Gardens! I am fortunate to have been interviewed for this magazine at least once a year for the past few years. (And I was also quoted back in 2011.)

I used to be a magazine writer (I wrote about pets from 1995 to 2005) and purchased and read tons of magazines. Nowadays, I get most of my information online, but I really love reading Secrets of Getting Organized. It’s advertising-free, beautifully photographed, and full of great advice from professional organizers. In this issue, I’m quoted in an article called “Instant Entries,” about making the most of the area near your front door, which started on page 26, as well as an article called “What to Buy: Bedside Storage” that starts on page 66.

The magazine is on sale now at newsstands, grocery stores, big box stores, etc. It will remain available until March 19, 2021.

Here’s the cover so you can easily spot it on the newsstand.

Everyday Mindfulness review + giveaway

25 January 2021

A couple of months ago, my husband, Barry, surprised me by suggesting I take a course on mindfulness. At the time, we were discussing my propensity to stumble and sometimes fall when I was walking our dog, Bix. (We have loads of uneven sidewalks in our historic neighborhood.) He said that when I’m out on a walk I’m too much in my head and not watching where I put my feet. He wasn’t wrong.

That very day, I received an email offering me a review copy of the book, Everyday Mindfulness. I took it as a sign and eagerly accepted the review copy. The publisher also offered up a copy for a giveaway to a reader of this blog (see below). This book, by Melissa Steginus, offers “108 simple practices to empower yourself and transform your life.” It’s meant to be read over 108 days with an essay and exercises for each day. Each exercise takes only five minutes or so.

The book is divided into six chapters: (1) Physical; (2) Emotional; (3) Rational; (4) Spiritual; (5) Occupation; and (6) Network.

I went through the first 48 days before I felt like I’d read enough to write this review. I found the book patient and gentle, which of course I love. In some cases, it made me realize that I have some solid practices in place already. In other cases, it introduced me to some ideas that were insightful and helpful. While the108 days fall under an umbrella of mindfulness, I think, the book has an emphasis self care, one of my favorite topics. Though I haven’t yet finished all 108 days (60 to go!) the book has been beneficial and a little eye opening for me.

Giveaway!

I’d love to provide you a free copy! The publisher, TCKPublishing.com is offering one print version to a US reader and one electronic version to an international reader. While I ordinarily read books on my Kindle, I was glad to have a hard copy of this book, because I wrote my responses to the exercises right in the book. (But I could have almost as easily used a journal.)

To enter, just leave a comment to this post by midnight central time on Friday, February 19. In your comment, please indicate where you live so I know which giveaway to enter you in.

ETA: The giveaway has closed. Congratulations to the winners, Dee and Jody!