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 |  The world from a short person's POV - not Australia or New Zealand. |
Random thoughts, pointed comments, and whatever else crosses my mind 
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| "Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence." Helen Kelleryzed and You've analyzed and strategized, and now you're ready to put on some comfortable clothes, roll up your sleeves, and begin transforming your space. Here is a logical method of approach that can work for any area: SPACE It breaks down as follows - Sort, Purge, Assign a home, Containerize, Equalize. The key is to do every one of the steps, and most importantly, do them in order. Don't let your new found enthusiasm for organizing get ahead of you. SORT. If your space is disorganized, you may have items scattered in different areas of the house, making it difficult to find what you need when you need it. It is also difficult to determine what you really have. Remember when we talked about organizing the pantry. If you don't group like things together, you probably will buy items you already have. So here is where you go through each item and create a sense of order. It is critical to handle everything. Don't ignore those large piles of stuff in corners or scattered throughout the house or office because it may seem intimidating or you think it will take too long to process. As you sort, focus on the following: What is important to you - focus on the items you currently use, love, and that are important to you, not those that used to be important or might be important in the future (unless you know when and how you are going to use them). Group similar items together in related categories that reflect your associations, not someone else's. Rember, this only has to make sense to you; it should be intuitive and natural to you so that you can find things and put them away again without too much thought. Especially, if others will be expected to occasionally use or work with the items, you will need to keep the categories as broad as possible so you or they will have fewer places to look. To achieve the best results in the shortest amount of time, attack the visible first. What's most visible probably is the most relevant and used by you on a daily basis, so sort and categorize it first. Then you can see how much space you will need and where. Next, you can work on drawers and cabinets knowing you only need to keep what is most important to you now allowing the right space for the right item. Don't belabor your decisions; keep moving through your stuff quickly. Focus on identifying items and categorizing them. All those unanswered phone messages, articles you want to read or other started projects, now is not the time to work on them. Put these aside and schedule an appointment with yourself to look at them again later. Don't work back and forth from one room to the other. This is called zigzag organizing and does not produce the results you are looking for. Rather, work on one area or section at a time. Complete one room before going on to the rest or work on organizing your closet with items needed for the current season before dealing with out-of-season items or work on organizing your desk before tackling the file cabinet. If you find something that belongs elsewhere just set it near the doorway. That way you will be forced to deal with it once you have finished the room you are working on. PURGE: Here is where you decide what stuff to get rid of, and how. You have several choices. You can give it away, sell it, store, or repurpose it. Ideally, you would set out bins labeled with these options and start. If you are working on a child's room, I encourage you to include them in the process. You may have to do some negotiating, but this is also helping them learn what is important and what is just "stuff." (Doing this with my granddaughter over the last few years has created the most organized eleven-year-old you will ever meet.) It can also help to involve a friend or family member who is not invested in the items you are considering purging. Hopefully, they can remind you of what you will gain by following through on this step - making space for the things you really use and love, save searching through drawers, bins, closets to find a needed item, feeling good about sharing items you no longer use with others. For good items of clothing or toys, why not drop them off at the local woman's shelter. If you are removing items from the house, plan to do it within a day or two. Don't think about the items once you have made a decision, JUST DO IT! ASSIGN A HOME: Next take all the items you're keeping and decide precisely where you are going to store them - wich shelf, which drawer, which side of the bed, which closet. Avoid being vague and indecisive about where to put items by giving each item a single, consistent home. This is the key to maintaining your system. You can use the following guidelines in assigning homes: Match the size and number of items to the size of storage space. For example, socks or scarves in a shallow drawer, sweaters in a deep drawer. Don't mix categories within a storage space; it makes it too complicated to remember where a certain item is, much less, ask someone else to get it for you. For example, put t-shirts in one drawer and jeans in another. Be logical when grouping items near each other. For example, scarfs and hats near outerwear, measuring cups and spoons near the mixer, hot pads near the stove. Make items you use all the time easy to retrieve. Don't stack them on shelves that you can't reach without a ladder. If the items are heavy, make sure they are on a sturdy shelf that is easy to reach. For example, if you are short like me you will want to put plates, glasses, and cups on lower shelves, as well as, every day serving bowls. As you put items away, you may discover that you don't have enough space for everything. Your options are either to reevaluate and purge those "maybes" or increase the storage area. If you visit a home store or do-it-yourself center, you will find ideas for expanding storage. Look at what you want to keep and where you need to store it and BE CREATIVE! That is part of the fun of organizing. Containerize: Containers make it easy to keep your items grouped and separated within their assigned homes so that retrieval, cleanup, maintenance are a breeze. This also helps to limit how much you accumulate in any given category. You can only save as much as the container will hold. This is where you can get creative and have fun infusing your system with your style. You may already have containers that will work for certain items in specific areas. If not, make an inventory of what you need to containerize and go shopping (and who doesn't like a reason to shop). You can find different types of containers at the dollar stores or flea markets; they don't have to be expensive. I have used baskets that came as part of a gift to house magazines, doggy toys, and bath accessories. EQUALIZE: About two weeks after you've finished, make an appointment with yourself to evaluate how well your system has been working. Are there any rough spots that a quick review of your needs assessment might help to iron out. Once you have a system that works for you, then integrate a daily, weekly, monthly maintenance program into your routine. "Tune-ups" are essential to keep your system working as your needs, goals, possessions, and priorities change. Since handling all the paper that accumulates in your home/office is a major cause for disorganization and clutter, we will tackle this next. |
A clutter-free workspace can bring a little sanity to your busy day. If you have been following along, you are probably ready for this next step: Creating a Plan of Action. Taking this next step takes very little time, but if you skip it you are setting yourself up for disaster. There are any number of methods and techniques for creating plans, and all projects, no matter how small should have one. Of course, the most popular one now is the Marie Kondo Method that suggests organizing by category rather than room by room. You have probably heard the phrase, "If it gives you joy, keep it, if not say thank you and put it aside." But here is another method that might work for you. It's called The Kindergarten Model by Julie Morgenstern. Organizing is about creating a space so that it reflects who you are and how you want to function in the area. You need to arrange things logically and efficiently so that staying organized will be a snap. Take a look at Kindergarten rooms for example. They are divided into activity zones. This makes it easy to focus on one activity at a time and, everything needed for that activity is right there in that space. With this in mind, you can walk into any room and decide what to do and where to do it. The beauty of this model is that it can be applied to anything: office, home, room, drawer, car. And since one of the major rooms in any home that works best when organized is the kitchen I'll give you an example of how this works. Activity Zones: Food preparation, cooking, dishwashing and dish storage, food storage, and possibly, utility and home info/paperwork hub. As you identify each zone, consider what supplies are needed and what storage units you will need. Unless you are creating a kitchen from scratch, you will have to make your plan work with the existing floor/cabinet design. Look at how your kitchen is working for you now. If an area works efficiently, you can look at other areas that need improvement. Identifying the zone that is most practical for a certain activity will go a long way to getting the kitchen organized in a way that works for you. The food preparation zone is where you do most cutting, chopping, mixing and seasoning. So, the best location for this activity would be along the counter between the sink and stove or between the stove and frig., depending on how your kitchen is laid out. The cabinets above and below should hold the supplies and equipment needed. I have found it most efficient to use the space between the sink and stove for this zone. It is easy to clean the cutting board when using it next to the sink. I keep all my spices in an upper cabinet. In the cooking zone which is around the stove, I keep my pots and pans, etc. in a lower cabinet. I also keep most of the serving bowls in an upper cabinet. Knives, spatulas, slicers are in an adjoining drawer. Bakeware is in an upper cabinet including measuring cups and mixing bowls. Wisk and other small items needed for baking are in a lower drawer. My kitchen aid mixer is on the counter between the stove and frig. since this is my designated baking area. In the Dishwashing/storage zone, I have stored my everyday dishes, glasses, and cups in the upper cabinets next to the sink. Flatware including steak knives and specialty pieces are in drawers below the cabinets. This area is close to the dining room so it is convenient to use for meals and then put used pieces in the dishwasher. Dishwashing products and cleaning products are stored under the sink on a special mat that can be cleaned if anything spills. The counter in this area is used as a serving buffet next to the dining room. I also have a coffee zone next to the pantry. The counter contains two coffee makers, one for my mother and one for us. Coffee supplies are stored in the cabinet below. I am fortunate to have a walk-in pantry where all my food supplies are housed. The pantry is a special area that requires as much attention as the rest of the kitchen. You don't want to open the door and wonder if you have an item or not, only to find that you have duplicates because you forgot where you put the product or it got lost behind other items. My suggestion is to put like items together, utilizing storage containers (make sure they fit on the shelves unless you can adjust the levels.) and that they are labeled or you can see through them. For example, in my pantry, different kinds of pasta are in clear containers next to bottled sauces; can goods are stacked together by type. Flour, sugar, salt, etc. are in clear containers on another shelf. Oils are grouped together on the same shelf. Crackers and chips are in a basket on another shelf. Cereals are stored on the top shelf in clear containers. I periodically review the contents of the pantry making sure like or complementary items are together, removing any items that are past their shelf life. I used chalkboard paint on the inside of the door to the pantry. I keep a list of items that need to be replaced or specialty items for menus there. If you are not fortunate enough to have a pantry in close proximity to the kitchen, consider storing items near where you are most likely to use them. Lazy susans are great for this if you have them. Though I highly recommend finding a space to incorporate a pantry if at all possible. Take a good look at how you want the room to function for you and your family. Give close attention to the counters and storage space you have available. It is worth the time to take a trip to a local home goods store to get ideas of storage containers, racks, and liners that are available now. Most are not very expensive and can add to your overall design. I used tiered shelves to increase the space for seasonings, baskets for snacks, clear containers for sugar, etc., mats and cabinet liners to help keep the area clean, and a divider system for trays and pot lids. While this is a plan for kitchens, you can approach any room or area in the same way. Laundry rooms can be planned out the same, closets as well. Remember, an excess of supplies like condiments in the kitchen or shampoos, lotions in the bath can easily cause clutter. Make sure you are storing like items together and take an inventory before you go shopping. If children or other members have their own items, teach them to do the same. In the next post, I'll write more on organizing closets, bathrooms and a real problem area for most of us: the office. Do you have a particular area that you are having trouble getting organized the way you want it? What seems to be the culprit? Let me know, and I will try to give you suggestions and support. |
| "A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It is a catalyst and it sparks extraordinary results." Wade Boggs It probably goes without saying but I'll make the statement again anyway: In order to reach any goal, you have to begin by clearly defining it in realistic terms. Every person's situation is different; it's unique for each individual and situation at the time. Goals can change over time as we grow and situations change. Nothing wrong with that. But you will find that progress is accomplished when you start clearly defining your goals, even for one project or event in your life. So before you jump in and start decluttering or rearranging try this simple personal needs assessment. Use this tool for each organizing project you take on - whether it is your office, closet, kitchen or the way you live your life. According to Julie Morgenstern, there are five basic needs-assessment questions. What's Working: Believe it or not, the best way to design a custom organizing system is to start by identifying what works. No matter how disorganized and out of control the area you want to change is, there is something that is working for you (maybe not for others). But remember this is just for you. This step can save you time and energy. As the saying goes, "Don't fix it if it ain't broke." Too often when people decide to go on a reorganizing binge, they try to completely redo everything, wasting much of their effort in the wrong area. Rember, success breeds success. If you identify one thing that is working you gain confidence that will drive you to tackle another area. What you will see is what works for you, what you like and what you want to replicate. Your answer here becomes the organizing criteria for each new system you create. Identify natural habits and tendencies. See if you can work with rather than against them. A system built in this way will be easier to maintain. What's Not Working: Answers to this question can identify what needs fixing. List absolutely everything that frustrates you. Be precise and thorough; don't edit yourself. Be sure you have identified all the problems. If only some areas are fixed while others remain disorganized your attempt to organize will in time fail. Here is a list of statements to fill in when trying to identify what's not working: I can never find_________________________________________________________________ I have no place to put___________________________________________________________ There's no room for_____________________________________________________________ I am tired of____________________________________________________________________ I can't____________________________________________________because of the clutter The disorganization makes me feel________________________________________________ When people visit, I_____________________________________________________________ This will keep you focused throughout the process and give you a great tool that can be used to measure your success. What Items are Most Essential to You:It is not so much about getting rid of things as it is identifying what is important to you and finding homes for those items. By thinking about what items are most important to your job or life, you give direction to the sorting and purging phase. It's not always simple to identify what is important to us. We live in a complicated world with so many options and opportunities. We can feel pulled in a million different directions making it hard to set priorities or identify what is most essential with regard to a specific project. When all is said and done, what really matters to you, what brings you the most joy, the greatest feeling of satisfaction and the biggest sense of accomplishment? When you go through your stuff, ask yourself will this item, activity help me further my goals? If "yes", keep it; if "no" let it go. Why do You Want to Get Organized: Your goals should tell you the answer to this question. Because no matter how you look at it, organizing takes time, effort and concentration. As motivated as you may feel at the beginning, somewhere in the middle of the process you're bound to get tired of making decisions. Before you know it, you'll walk away and involve yourself in another activity, especially if it would give you a quicker sense of pleasure. Keep in mind that you must be driven by your own compelling reasons for getting organized. Put your answers on a list that you can keep with you as you go from room to room or project to project and use it to motivate you. If you need more help getting and staying motivated why not enlist a friend or family member to go on this journey with you. Just make sure they "have your back." What is Causing the Problems: Look back at the discussion of psychological obstacles, technical errors and/or external realities so that you identify the right problem. Remember that the issues may vary from room to room, project to project, so you need to ask this question of each space you tackle. Next Blog: Creating a Plan of Action |
| Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me. Carol Burnett We live in a fast-paced, changing world that often presents challenges to all of us who try to live an organized life. While we try to keep control of the externals, there are times when no matter how hard we try, we can only get so far. Some external obstacle is blocking our attempts to accomplish our goals and live a satisfying life. A major obstacle can be an unrealistic workload . If you have gone back to work from being a stay-at-home parent or started a new business or experienced downsizing at your place of work, you are probably experiencing this phenomenon. To get an accurate picture of how realistic or unrealistic your workload could be, track how you spend your time for a week or two. Try using a notebook to list all the task you do and how long it takes to do them in one column. Then in another column lists the task you needed to do, but couldn't get to. This log can reveal where you didn't make the best use of your time or maybe there is too much work and not enough hours in the week to accomplish all that is expected of you. What to do about this depends on the situation. Are you a "time waster"? Do you tell yourself that you can't get started on a task until you are in the mood or the creative spirit strikes you or you know you will have an hour or more uninterrupted time to work on the project? Do you get easily distracted from one important task and find yourself wandering off to do something else? Here are some helpful suggestions: Make sure you have clearly defined goals related to the task at hand. Include a time frame for completing the task. Now, in the mood or not, do one thing involved in completing this task. It can be as simple as making sure you have all the supplies needed or that you have gathered the necessary resource materials. If you are not in the mood to write, read a poem or short story or review someone's writing. Identify what easily distracts you. Do other people coming in and out of your area distract you? Why not ask them to find another area or find a quiet space of your own. Don't turn on the TV or radio if it causes your mind to wander. Use headphones to cancel out noise. Tell others that you are working on a deadline and need time to finish your project. You can break tasks down into small bites if you don't have all the time you need to finish something. It is amazing how much cleaning or organizing you can do in 15 min. increments. A routine can really help here. If your house gets cluttered during the day, take a 10 min. walk through at the end of the day. Use baskets to sort items that do not belong in each room. Enlist family members to return items to their proper home. Make it a game or a challenge with rewards. But make sure that first everything does have a place to call home. Make it a habit to empty dishwasher every morning and fill it every night (don't forget to push start). Keep sweeper handy for quick pick-ups. Make a list of weekly chores and assign a time for them to be done. Enlist family members to help. Even small children can contribute and everyone reaps the benefit of more time with mom/dad. Another challenge can be a time of transition.Every time we go through a major change, we experience a breakdown in our organizational system. It is inevitable because we are dealing with a new set of realities. I took a stress test a number of years ago and discovered that even positive life changes are considered stressful. How many of these transitions have you experienced in the last year or so? Common transitions include moving, marriage, children in or out of house, retirement, illness, loss of a loved one, job search/career change, entering or leaving school. When going through a transition, it may be best to wait until you have a clearer picture of your new priorities and needs before starting to organize. If you can't tolerate chaos well, set up temporary routines and systems that can help you feel in control while establishing new goals and priorities. Then, what do you do if your partner is uncooperative or just has a different approach to life? It is so frustrating to live or work with someone who prefers a more disorganized way of keeping their space or living their life. It could be that you haven't explained why and how you need certain areas in your life to function. Encourage the other person to experience the benefits of a more organized schedule, desk, closet or garage. Show them how they can find what they need quicker and with less hassle. Help them see that they can actually get more done in less time if they keep up with projects and activities that are important to them. Help them create systems that work for them. It is just more efficient and less time consuming to handle paper coming into the house in an organized way. (More on this later.) Sometimes family situations can put stumbling blocks in your way. Life is unpredictable; you don't always have control of events, especially those connected to others around you. For example, my life is relatively predictable, organized but when events compound issues for others, I find myself scrambling to regain equilibrium. I am having to segregate emotions from logic to be supportive of others without becoming drained. I am re-focusing on what is important to me and establishing a time to work on writing and remodeling the house/yard. I have determined where I am most helpful to others and then leaving the rest up to others. We'll get into more detail on organizing strategies as we go along. |
| We should not give up and we should not allow the problem to defeat us. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Julie Morgenstern identified some of the most common Technical Errors. When your space/life is getting out of control you have probably fallen prey to one or more of them. Items have no home: If you don't designate a space for items before you bring them into your home, you will tend to put them anywhere, usually the first surface you come to. Look and what is stacked up around your front door entrance or mud/laundry room. Is this where everything gets dropped? Without a designated location that is probably where it will stay. Or do you move items from one location to another to get them out of the way and then have trouble remembering where they are? Have you ever bought an item twice because you couldn't find the one you thought you bought some time ago? Solution: Take the time to look at what you have and assign a single, consistent home for each item. (More on this subject in my next post). Make sure all family members know where items are to be stored so they can help put them away and retrieve them when necessary. If you make changes, be sure to let everyone know. Inconvenient Storage: If it is too hard to put something away, you probably won't do it. It could be that you are storing things too far away from where you use them. So when you are finished with them you let them set and pile up rather than returning them to where you want to store them. Perhaps the storage unit you are using isn't working for what you want to store. If your closet is stuffed with boxes of out of season clothing and bags of "give away" items, you are not likely to put the clothes that should be stored in your closet away. If drawers are not easy to open and close, you will set things on top or keep moving them around until you find another drawer, (usually nowhere near where you plan on using the item). If the only shelving you have available is too high or the closet too dark, you will have trouble using them to store what you need to store there. Solution: Design your space based on convenience, storing items at their point of use. Consider moving items that don't belong in that area to another area or out of the house completely. Lower the shelving if you can or make sure a step stool is always handy, (something I have to do being a "down under," don't you know.)  Add small battery powered lights to closets or pantries.Complex, Confusing System: Many people in an attempt to become organized, set up complicated systems, overcategorizing items and ending up with too many places to look. Your system may have made sense to you when you first sorted all those papers, creating files for every little category, but later you forget the logic behind it. When you go to find something, you feel baffled and frustrated. You know you put things in a safe sensible place, but you can't remember where. Or, you ask a family member to get some needed paperwork for you and they tell you they can't find it in your storage system. Solution: Keep it simple. Try to be logical and use clues that will help you trust your system. Later we will look at suggestions on how to use location, containers, and labels to design a system that works for you. Label makers, markers and chalkboard paint will help. Here are just a few random thoughts as we move on to the next step: If you like to leave things out in an attempt to remember that you need to do something with them, you may find that bills get slipped between books and homework assignments, items that need mending get mixed in with clothes that need ironing. Remember like items need to stay together. Bills can go in an open folder on the desk (not on the kitchen counter or dining room table). Set books for the library next to the door you use to get to the car. Mending goes in one basket close to the sewing kit and ironing goes in a basket near the ironing board and iron (keep them together). Try to set up a routine and mark tasks on a calendar that you look at on a regular basis. If you think organizing is a boring, unpleasant waste of your time, try getting creative with your storage containers and enlist a family member or friend to help you when you get bogged down. Here's a novel thought: have a "girls day in party". Offer lunch and enlist friends to help sort clutter and put items in appropriate containers you have labeled. Offer to let them search items you no longer want and let them take them with them. Maybe you could all try a hand at making attractive containers or have a contest to see who can sort and organize the quickest. If you lived close to me, I would gladly come to your party. |
| Wat you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. Zig Ziglar So now we have an idea of what psychological obstacles may be holding us back, but what do we do about them? Identifying a problem is necessarily the first step but then comes the need to find an appropriate solution, one that works for us. Otherwise, the problem just sits there causing us stress or giving us an excuse not to move to the next step in our search for an organized life. For example, if you think you can only function in crisis mode, try re-directing some of your energy outside yourself. Once you have overcome the challenge of creating an organized home and/or work life move on to learning a new skill, helping others create solutions to community needs, develop ways to help others in immediate crisis. Take what you have learned about organizing and use it to help others. You can always tweak your system from time to time if needed. For those of you who tend to be collectors, start by focusing on consolidating and organizing what you have, rather than beat yourself up over all your stuff. In the process, you may discover you really don't need all those shoes or handbags or seasonal decorations to be happy. This will help you determine what is really important to you; how you want to see yourself. If you often feel like you are a ship without a rudder consider taking a good look at what you are doing on a daily basis. and what activities make you feel fulfilled and happy, what gives you energy. Hopefully, you will see a pattern emerge. Put your thoughts down on paper, make connections, give definition to the general categories that develop. You can use this information to start to define your priorities and then you can start to set some goals. You can start small and build on your successes. It is best to develop short, medium and long-range goals whether it is redecorating you house, designing a garden or changing your life style. Sometimes we project so much personality and emotion on our things based on where we got them or who give them to us that we think letting them go will be letting a part of who we are go or who the person was to us. You need to remember your identity comes from inside, not outside. I have been quilty of holding on to research materials, books and worksheets from when I lead workshops. I told myself that maybe someday I would need them to do more workshops. I carried them around from house to house trying to find a place to keep them. Then I did some soul searching and determined that the knowledge I had gained was still a part of me and that shuold I ever want to do similar work again, I could take what I knew and add to it, make it a new project. I kept an outline and summary of resources and let go of everything else. Now that I have only this one folder, I no longer think about where to find extra storage for those materials or feel guilty for keeping all of it and not doing workshops. I am free to move on to other interest, other opportunities. By identifying the actual causes of you cluttered or disorganized life you can start to look for effective solutions that will free up time to be more creative or get involved in an activity or hobby you've been wanting to try. Every psychological obstacle should be handled in order to sustain any organizing system. |
| "You can't fix it till you know what's broken." Julie Morgenstern The system you design needs to fit YOU; it is very personal. We aren't talking about a quick tidying up of your linen closet; we are talking about changes that will create the time and space you crave to live a productive life. To start, let's look at some of the obstacles that could be holding you back from even starting the process. There are many reasons people become disorganized. Until you determine how and why you got to the place you are now, you will just be spinning your wheels addressing the wrong issue. Many people assume that they don't have enough time to keep on top of things or enough space to keep everything they think they need or that they are just sloppy. And they are sure that their friends and family think the same way about them. This is not the best mindset for achieving success. If you see your current environment as a criticism of who you really are, you will probably dread the tasks necessary to make any real change. According to Julie Morgenstern, causes of clutter occur on three levels. Most will see one, two or three operating in their life. It is worth identifying and understanding how they function in your life. They are Psychological Obstacles, Technical Errors, and External Realities. Psychological Obstacles: Some people thrive on chaos. If it doesn't present itself, they will create it. They may keep making efforts to become organized but never finish or if they finish they will find a way to sabotage themselves. These people love the thrill of coming to the rescue and creating order out of chaos. They thrive on solving complex problems. If you have an emergency, this is the type of person you want around since they are hands-on doers. But then something catches their attention and they are off to some new activity, organization, meeting, hobby. They can set up good organizational systems but have trouble staying with it. Is this you or do you have someone in your life who lives in chaos? There are others that some would call collectors, to be polite or hoarders to be direct. Once they identify something or activity that excites them or creates a sense of security they start collecting. They spend their time, money and energy on amassing things or participating in one activity to excess. You have probably seen shows on TV that show people who are hoarders and the destruction it can cause for them and their family. These programs show the extreme but many other people come close. Look in your closet. How many pairs of shoes or handbags or t-shirts do you own? Do you have every kitchen gadget available or more than two or three sets of dishes? Would your Christmas and other seasonal decorations fill a basement or storage unit? Here is something to think about: the more stuff you have, the more time you spend organizing, cleaning, storing and worrying about all of it. Did you ever think you might outgrow it, lose interest, have difficulty finding replacement parts or just not really have the time to enjoy whatever you have collected? If you collected the items as an investment, did you think they might lose their value? I have known people who would fit all these categories. (A friend collected every Beanie Baby she could find as an investment for her granddaughter's college fund, only to have the monetary value disappear over time. She finally gave most of them away to several family shelters.) If you have ever helped a family member clear out a parent's home of 40 or 50 years, maybe you experienced what I am talking about. It is very difficult to set up a system that works for you if your goals and priorities aren't clear. People without clear goals can often feel scattered in a hundred directions. Almost everyone goes through a lack of clarity at some point. Without determining what is important to us, we get distracted by what others tell us we should have or do. You have to know and own your priorities, your goals. Many of us have difficulty letting go of things because we have given them a personality or life of their own. They can hold a tremendous amount of meaning for us. They might represent a happy time in our life, or remind us of an accomplishment we are proud of or provide memories of the person who gave them to us or the place where we bought them. Objects can come to define who we are. At times we can accumulate things that no longer "bring us joy." For now think about how you define yourself, your goals and priorities and what might be holding you back. Are you afraid to let go of the chaos in your life; have you been collecting items that no longer give you a sense of security or pleasure; are your goals and priorities undefined; do you give too much meaning to things in your life? Knowing who you are, what drives you, how you cope with routine or unexpected situations is crucial to developing a plan of organization that works for you. Any system only works when you give yourself permission to be who you are. Your system needs to be set up according to the way you think and relate to your world. If you want to make changes in your life, you need to give yourself permission to take the time and effort required. Remember it is all about you and how you want to live. Others can advise, suggest techniques and lift the boxes, but you will have to do the heavy lifting. I welcome your questions, comments, and feedback. Next, we'll try to look at ways to overcome these obstacles and then move on to Technical Errors. |
| Organizing – What's your style? “Whatever you can do, or dream, you can begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” ~ Goethe My guess is that if you are looking at this blog, you are familiar with searching topics on the internet and there are a number of sites full of information about organizing. The most popular organizing method, right now, is the KonMari Method from the book: Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up. You have probably heard the phrase, "does it give you joy" used as a decision tool when decluttering and re-organizing your space. I have even seen it used on current TV shows. This method might work for you but there are many other ways of approaching the subject of organizing. If you are interested in this topic you can find books and sites, probably way too many, to get you started. I am not a professional organizer but it has always been a topic of interest to me and I wanted to share my thoughts and insights with others. We are well into Spring and Summer is just around the corner so now might be a good time to talk about making your space and schedule work for you, not against you. For many of us, our schedule changes from season to season. Do you find that your space, especially at home, doesn't work as efficiently as the seasons change? What do you find most frustrating regarding your schedule and space? Let me know and maybe together we can come up with solutions that work for you. Before we even start talking about tips and techniques there are other important questions to ask oneself. Organizing is about identifying what's important to you and giving yourself access to it. But how do you decide what's important? Can you let go of things and habits that no longer make your life enjoyable and meaningful? Some people find the idea of letting go (of anyone or anything) very threating. So while they long for a more organized schedule and space, they become overwhelmed and too stressed to move on. Some people have no problem getting rid of things and changing their schedule from time to time but they lack the motivation to change or they attempt to begin and then they don't follow through. Are you one of these people? One author, Julie Morgenstern says in her book, Organizing from the Inside Out, that we tend to take the "leap-before-you-look approach." We look for the latest gadget, tool, technique without considering whether or not it fits our needs or our lifestyle. For example, a perfectly organized closet filled with clothes that no longer fit us or our lifestyle doesn't add to our sense of satisfaction. For some, spending a good amount of money for a state-of-the-art closet design is easier than working through what is important and functional for their life. You get the idea; it is important to do the work: defining your goals, identifying your needs, mastering appropriate strategies in order to create and use a system that works for you. I welcome your questions, thoughts, systems that will make this a worthwhile endeavor for all of us. |
| Day 8 Jamaica home of Bob Marley You're going to love this luxury hotel. We're going to be here for the weekend so don't stress about sightseeing. We've got time. Enjoy the 83 degrees temperature. Curl up with a book under the cabana. [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] This is the right time of the year to head to warmer climates. I don't mind the 83 degrees as long as there is some shade and a breeze. I am so sensitive to the sun that I have to wear 80+ sunscreen, but it works. I love hanging out at the beach or the pool with a swim-up bar. I am setting my sights on the Rose Hall Great House because I would love to check out the view of the sea and do the house and garden tour. Then, of course, I couldn't pass up Bob Marley's Birthplace at Nine Mile St. Ann. I am a fan of Reggae, especially that of Bob Marley. Now for eating experiences, I would check out Scotchies' Restaurant in Montego Bay, best-known jerk center in Jamaica where you can watch the chefs cook right in front of you on a wooden grill. And/or Pelican Grill for authentic, home-style Jamaican dishes. I'll meet you at the beach for some r and r in the late afternoon or early evening. Rosemary |
| Day 7 Boston in winter We're here because tomorrow we're heading out to sea on our next stage of planes, trains, sails and automobiles. If you need some me time I get it because after today we''ll be in close confines so take advantage of the opportunity. [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] I am not so sure this is the right time of year to be here but apparently, there will be plenty to do despite the weather, I understand that you don't want to drive while there so I will look for other ways to get around. I am looking forward to checking out some of the breweries, especially Samuel Adams. Tours and tastings sound like fun. I would also check out Boston's Public Market and North End (Little Italy). Sounds like a foodie paradise. And of course, I would visit the New England Aquarium. I always try to visit aquariums when I find them. The one in Baltimore Harbor is fantastic. I would like to take the Whale Watching Tour to see humpbacks and fin whales as well as harbor porpoises and the Atlantic white-sided dolphins. But then, I would also want to do the Lunch Cruise in Boston Harbor with Boston Tea Party-inspired cocktails and a gourmet picnic lunch. My guess is I need someone to plan my itinerary for me. Do I have any takers? Rosemary |
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Fire dancers!!! Wow! What fun! You really are in Paradise! So happy you for you! 
But I wish I loved it. That would be SO HANDY! So, I've been working on positive self-talk regarding cleaning. I smile when I say these things and I say them out loud if I'm alone or in my head if I'm not. I say things like, "I love to clean. Cleaning is fun. Cleaning makes me happy. I enjoy a tidy space." Blah, blah, blah...
Sure, it's dumb, but if it works, it doesn't matter. 
). 
I'm the prime example of someone who needed her own advice over 40 years ago.