Peace of Mind Organizing

50 days in, I'm still loving my Rowena dress

22 January 2021

Day 49

Fifty days ago today, I put on my Rowena swing dress from Wool& and took on their challenge of wearing the same dress for 100 days in a row. I love challenges and I love simplifying getting dressed so I jumped at it. There’s even a prize: $100 Wool& credit toward a new dress if I photo document that I wore it for all 100 days.

You’d think that after 50 days I’d be sick of this dress. But, weirdly, I’m not. It is so comfortable and so easy to wear. I typically wear it with leggings or tights. And if I’m taking my dog Bix for a walk on a cold day, I just pull fleecy pants on over my leggings or tights and take them off when I get home.

I like adding ponchos or shawls and sometimes wear a belt with it. I have even worn it under other dresses. The wool dress is thin enough to tuck into jeans, but I don’t find jeans comfortable, so I haven’t done that. I bought some tights from Snag Tights that are very comfortable and have been a great addition to my choices of what to wear with my dress. I bought some black wooly ones, as well as some opaque colored tights (grey and burgundy). I joined a Facebook group called 100 Day Challenge where I’m often inspired by how others they wear their dresses.

Basically, my dress is a neutral base layer over which I put more interesting clothing or accessories. I also always wear something under it, since I’m laundering it so seldom. So far, I have washed it three times and it remains clean-looking, unwrinkled, and unsmelly. (25 days ago, I wrote more about that.)

I used to spend way too much time thinking about what to wear, even during the pandemic when my husband is the only one seeing me. (We discussed this in Episode 134: Pandemic Clothing Quandaries on our podcast Getting to Good Enough.) Now I still think a little about the accessories, but dressing is so much easier and the result so much better. Thank you, Wool&!

Join us for Declutter Happy Hour!

19 January 2021

If you’re a long-time reader of this blog, you may remember Declutter Happy Hour. It was a teleclass that life coach Shannon Wilkinson and I created back in 2009. We did it a couple of times as a live teleclass and then morphed it into an ecourse before we retired it. We didn’t know it then, but it was a precursor to the podcast that Shanon and I now host, Getting to Good Enough.

Here’s a piece of exciting news: Our friends at Fly Paper have invited us to bring Declutter Happy Hour back! This time it will be via Zoom, rather than the telephone, which will make it even more fun.

Declutter Happy Hour is a live experience where you actually get some decluttering done. I think it’s really special because it infuses the decluttering process with a secret ingredient: mindset change courtesy of Shannon’s mad skills in hypnosis and neurolinguistic programming (NLP). And I guarantee that there will be plenty of fun and laughter.

Each of the four sessions starts with a discussion led by Shannon and me about an important aspect of the decluttering process and the mindset shift that goes with it.

Then, during the class, you get time to work on a decluttering project of your choice. Whatever you decide to work on, Shannon and I will stay in the Zoom room, ready and waiting to answer any questions and provide support and encouragement.

By the end of a month of Declutter Happy Hours you’ll have let go of more than just stuff and you’ll have the tools to take on decluttering projects on your own.

Declutter Happy Hour will be held each Wednesday in February from 6 to 7:30 pm central time. Register at eventbrite but don’t delay! Space is limited so we can make sure your questions get answered.

I’d love to see you there!

Enrollment is closed for the February 2021 Declutter Happy Hour, but we may offer it again this year. Drop me an email if you’re interested in hearing about new sessions!

Worth repeating (again): Getting a ring off a swollen finger

18 January 2021

In December 2014, I didn’t let a broken wrist stop me from supervising a move for a favorite client couple. I must live a charmed life, because the husband in this couple is a hand surgeon. My finger was swelling around my precious heirloom wedding band and he took took the time to use his acumen to remove it so that I didn’t have to have it cut off. Here’s how he did it.

On the evening of December 3, 2014, I fell and broke my wrist, though I didn’t know immediately that it was fractured. That night, I took my engagement ring off, but my wedding wasn’t moving and I (stupidly) left it on.

The next morning, I went to urgent care and had the wrist x-rayed. For whatever reason, the urgent care doctor and nurse were unconcerned about my ring.

The following day, I left to supervise a three-day move-in for a client in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. (A couple of hours from St. Louis.) Thankfully, my wonderful team made my injured wrist irrelevant to the success of our job. But it really hurt that first day. And part of the reason for the pain was that my finger was swelling around my ring.

I was really fortunate because the husband of the couple we were moving is Dr. Andrew Trueblood, a hand surgeon with Advanced Orthopedic Specialists in Cape Girardeau. When he came home from work at the end of that first day, he took one look at my hand and rewrapped the bandage around the splint, which provided some instant relief. Then he said, “We have to get that ring off.”

Here’s a photo of my rewrapped wrist, showing how the wedding band was squeezing the life out of my finger.

For a half hour, he worked on getting my ring off, telling me that if we weren’t successful it would have to be cut off. I really didn’t want to have my precious ring cut off. It’s a family heirloom: My great grandmother, Alice Jeffries, wore it for 70 years. And I’ve worn it for another 25.

Andrew’s efforts paid off, and I am so grateful for his skill and attention. I wanted to share here the technique he used, in case you ever find yourself in need of getting a ring off your finger

Step one: Wrap the finger in dental floss.

Over and over Andrew wrapped and rewrapped my finger with dental floss so it looked like a mummy. He said this would reduce the swelling. He did it for probably 25 minutes.

Step two: Get the dental floss under the ring

Since Andrew’s house was still packed (the movers had just brought their stuff to the new house), his access to tools was limited. After he unwrapped my finger for the last time, he patiently used the tines of a plastic fork to ease a strand of floss under the ring, going from of the top of my finger toward my wrist.

Step three: Make the finger slippery

We had some liquid soap on hand, and Andrew soaped up my finger.

Step four: Pull the dental floss

By pulling on the floss and allowing it to go round and round my finger, the ring was slowly eased off. As it was happening, I turned on my phone’s video camera so I could record the last 30 seconds of this miracle. Be sure and watch it to the end to get a glimpse of Andrew.

I am amazed by my good fortune in finding myself in the home of someone who could ease my pain so effectively after this accident. I am grateful to the patience of Andrew and his wife, Amy, and, of course, to my outstanding team that weekend. We got them moved into their gorgeous home without letting a fractured wrist get in the way.

Building ease into your task list

14 January 2021

It’s 5:30 pm on a Thursday and for the fourth day in a row, I’ve been disappointed by how few items on my task list I was able to accomplish. I thought to myself, “Why can’t I get anything done?” Then I thought about what I did actually do this week. For example, I attended three webinars, as well as a NAPO-St. Louis chapter meeting. I communicated with clients, prospective clients, and team members. I handled my company’s and family’s financials each day and I helped my husband put together an exercise bike. I talked on the phone with one friend and Zoomed with another (so important these days!). I did yoga every morning. And now (finally), I’ve blogged.

In fact, when I look at my Trello daily task management board, I see that in the four days so far this week, I completed 91 tasks. (That includes my daily tasks, like taking my nutritional supplements.)

My point is this. The problem isn’t my productivity. The problem is my task list. And it’s also my mindset.

My Word of the Year for 2021 is ease. My week thus far has not been filled with ease due in large part to the unrealistic expectations I set for myself every day this week.

So here’s what I’m going to do to build in some ease. I’m going to shift a number of my backlog tasks (the ones from which I choose my daily tasks) to a “Parking Lot” list and set a reminder to look at them in about three months, Until then, they’ll be off my mind.

Tomorrow, I’m going to identify my top three tasks (outside of my usual daily tasks) that I want to get done. As I select them, I’ll keep in mind what’s most important to me. And when I get them done, I will allow myself to be happy and satisfied.

It’s important for me to write down my tasks—and I’m still gaga about my Trello task management board—but sometimes that results in an unwieldy and overwhelming task list. So here’s what I’m going to try. For the rest of the month, I’m going to mindfully curate my task list with ease, not productivity, in mind. I’m not someone for whom ease translates to slacking off. In fact, I’ll probably get as much done after I focus on ease as I have during this week of struggle and disappointment.

It’ll be a fun experiment and it’s starting now! I’ll report back at the end of the month.

Need some pro moving tips?

7 January 2021

Moving can be overwhelming and confusing. Here’s some help: HireAHelper, a clearinghouse for moving-related services, asked a dozen professional organizers for their best moving tips. The result? A robust, helpful blog post for those planning a move. I was delighted to be one of the organizers consulted.

Check it out here:

We Asked 12 Professional Organizers How They Made Their Moves Easier

And if you’re moving to from or within in St. Louis, check out our moving services on the Operation: Relocation page.

2020 highlight reel

31 December 2020

I think we can all agree that 2020 had more than its share of challenges. It will go down in history as one of the worst years of most people’s lives, I think. But I do think it’s important to take note of the good things that happened on both a large and small scale. As I do every few years, I’ve put together a highlight reel post for the year. This year, I felt particularly compelled to write this post to illustrate that as bad as the year was, for many reasons, I had much to be grateful for, and I hope you do too. Taking a moment to contemplate the good things that have happened can be really valuable.

Here are some of the highlights of 2020 for me and for Peace of Mind Organizing:

Daily yoga. After dabbling on and off with at-home yoga (via the wonderful videos from Yoga with Adriene) for about a year, a daily habit was cemented this year. I have done yoga each and every day since April 1. I adore Yoga with Adriene (here are nine reasons why). And I look forward to keeping the daily habit going in the coming year. The pandemic helped: because I wasn’t leaving the house in the morning to work with clients, I was able to create the habit of doing yoga at the start of my day, which turns out to be a great time for me.

I embraced YNAB and got control of my business finances. It may be paradoxical that the year where my income took a dive because of the pandemic was the year I was able to get control of my finances and get out of debt. (Almost…I have one or perhaps two more payments and I’ll be debt free.) The reason I was able to do it is the software and app You Need A Budget. (By the way, that’s a referral link. If you click on it and sign up after your free trial, you and I each get a free month.) As a YNAB enthusiast, I am thrilled to share with anyone willing to listen. I’ve been using YNAB for a couple of years for my business finances, but it was only in the last nine months or so that I got fully on board and started using it the way it is meant to be used. Combining YNAB with Profit First means that I not only pay my bills with ease, I pay myself and my taxes with ease and I have reserves. It feels like a miracle. Starting tomorrow, I’m going to be using YNAB to handle our personal finances as well!

We published an episode of our podcast each and every week. My friend Shannon and Wilkinson and I started our Getting to Good Enough podcast in June 2018. Today, we published Episode 136. Every Thursday morning, without fail, we’ve published an episode. A few (like today’s) have been repeats of episodes that we consider particularly useful. I’m very proud of the fact that we keep producing content and we keep enjoying ourselves along the way. The big bonus is that people are listening! In the past year alone we’ve had about 60,000 downloads.

My daily task management Trello board has kept me on task. For years, I’ve jumped from task management system to task management system in my attempts to stay productive. 2020 was the year that ended. Since May, I’ve been using Trello in a particular way that allows me to stay on top of what I need to do and feel rewarded for accomplishing what I get done. It’s my north star that I consult multiple times per day. I’ve over the moon about it. I’ve blogged about it twice, first in May in a post called Trello + automation = productive bliss and then again in August in The nitty gritty of my Trello daily task management board. After seven and a half months of daily use, my enthusiasm has not waned in the slightest for this particular system, which uses Trello’s Butler automation to put in front of me the things I need to do every day. (It uses so much automation that I have to pay $10 a month for a Business Class membership, but it’s well worth it.)

I spoke at RootsTech. Family Search, the genealogy arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, puts on a gigantic genealogy conference called RootsTech each year for the last ten years. I’ve attended many times and co-presented in 2017. This year was special because I presented alone (a talk called The Imperfect Genealogist), my talk was attended by several hundred people, and it was my last trip on a plane. I returned home on March 2, just before the world turned upside down. I was especially delighted that RootsTech used a picture of me presenting on its Facebook page and in its call for presenters for the next year! I think it was because I was wearing my hand-knit striped skirt and because I was smiling (or perhaps laughing). Incidentally, RootsTech has gone virtual for 2021. If you’re interested in genealogy and haven’t yet signed up for RootsTech 2021, I urge you to consider it. It will be held February 25 to 27, 2021 and it’s free of charge!

I drove to Washington state. My father turned 90 on September 11, 2020, and I could not let him celebrate that milestone without me. But I wasn’t willing to fly and risk bringing the coronavirus to him. So I drove, 2,000 miles each way. I just realized I never wrote a blog post about planning that big trip, but here’s a post about the great gift I gave him. I’m very proud of myself for making that drive on my own, and for planning it well so that I felt safe. And I’m delighted to report that it was very enjoyable, despite the hovering danger of COVID. I traveled in September, just before the surge that hit the Great Plains states that I traveled through. I had a really good time driving by myself for about 30 hours in each direction. It was a very special opportunity and I’m glad I took advantage of it. (There are now only two states I haven’t been to: North Dakota and New Mexico.)

I helped get out the vote. Back in 2018, I started writing Postcards to Voters, urging registered Democrats to vote. I kept going with the writing and have now written 2868 cards. I also became a notary specifically so I could notarize absentee and mail-in ballots in Missouri. It felt really great to channel my political concerns this way. And of course a highlight of the year for me was that the candidates I supported for president and vice president won.

I implemented some changes in business practices. The pandemic gave the little shove I needed to make a few changes with Peace of Mind Organizing. I’ve decided I will working less with clients in person (sending team members for hands-on work) and doing more consults virtually. This shift away from hands-on work goes hand in hand with shifting priorities that make me want to be home more. I’m excited to continue serving my clients even if I don’t get as much face time with them. I’m fortunate to have great team members who work so well with our clients.

I read 50 books. For the past five years or so, I’ve set a goal of reading 50 books in the calendar year. This is the first year I’ve achieved it (probably another accomplishment assisted by the pandemic). I keep a spreadsheet that I add to after I finish a book. I note the number of pages, so I can tell you that those 50 books added up to 18,204 pages.

I’m wearing the same dress for 100 days! It’s crazy to be so excited about this, but am absolutely loving the 100 day dress challenge that I’m currently taking part in. I’ve worn my Rowena swing dress from Wool& each day since December 4 and look forward to wearing it all the way to March 13!

25 days (so far) of wearing the same dress

28 December 2020

As I mentioned here about three weeks ago, I am participating in a 100-day dress challenge from Wool&, the maker of wool-blend dresses that has challenged people to wear one of their dresses for 100 days straight. Those of us who do will receive a $100 gift card toward the purchase of another dress at the end of the 100 days.

I started the challenge the day after my Rowena Swing Dress arrived. Day 1 was Friday, December 4. So far, it has been such a fun challenge. I love that I don’t have to think hard about what to wear; the only decision involves if I want to dress it up or dress it down. The dress so comfortable. And it has pockets!

In the 25 days, I’ve worn it with fleecy pants underneath and I’ve worn it with tights and boots. I’ve recently embraced adding a belt; I love the way the belt makes the skirt flair and it dresses the whole thing up a bit.

You might be wondering about washing a dress I wear every day. This dress is a wool-nylon blend that is odor- and wrinkle-resistant. (It’s 78% merino wool and 22% nylon.) It’s machine washable and the care instructions call for line drying. I have washed it only once in the 25 days, back on Day 11 after I had an unfortunate encounter with some leftover rice I was trying to put into a storage container. I wear it over a long-underwear top or a t-shirt or turtleneck. And I now wear an apron when I cook or am doing dusty decluttering. (I haven’t done any hands-on organizing with clients in the last 25 days, but I’ve done a lot around my house.) That’s allowed the dress to stay quite clean and odor-free. I hang it over a hook in the bathroom each night while I sleep to air it out. Less laundry is part of the appeal of the challenge!

The first weekend, I cleaned out my closet of anything that I didn’t think would go with the dress, putting those items in bins in the basement. Over this past weekend, I went back through and selected a few more items (like the jacket I’m wearing today…see the photo above). I feel I have plenty to wear and I no longer feel disheveled and schlumpy like I’d been feeling before I got this dress. (If you’re curious, you can listen to Episode 134 of our podcast Getting to Good Enough, where Shannon and I talk about pandemic clothing quandaries and I express my dissatisfaction with how I was dressing. Shannon is the one who told me about the 100-day dress challenge.)

I joined a Facebook group for people doing the challenge where I see how other people are styling their dresses. It’s a lovely, positive group and I’m enjoying it so much.

When the 100 days are over, I can’t wait to pick out a new dress to use my $100 credit. This time, I’ll probably go for one that’s not black. But I don’t for a second regret my decision to go with nice, neutral black. In case you’re considering the challenge, I’ll mention that I went with the Rowena swing dress (short) in a size XS. I’m 5’3” and weigh 120 pounds. Right now it’s sold out, but you can pre-order one or select another style.

If you’re intrigued, I urge you to give it a try!