The Pile High Club--how NOT to become a member by Heather Lambie
Managing Household Paperwork
Initially, when asked to write about organizing paper at home, I wasn't sure how to attack it. Yes, I'm an organizer, but (gasp!) filing doesn't float my boat. But then I actually thought beyond filing, about all the ways that paper enters and impacts our homes and our lives, leaving miles of piles in its wake. Every day we are faced with sorting and filing mail, magazines, books, catalogs, student projects, medical records, bills, photographs, invitations, money, recipes, and of course, origami! OK, so maybe I won't cover origami in this blog, but I do promise to keep it light, laughable and true to life. Hope you check me out, and often!
I'm
posting pictures of my daughter's Pre-Kindergarten classroom because it is a
case study in organization. I am in LOVE with and in awe of her teacher, who
manages to wrangle 16 very noisy and often whiny four-year-olds for seven
hours each day... and still run a tight ship. It really gives you no excuse to not be able to keep things in control in your own home where you may only have two kids (not 16) and really, you only deal with them for an hour in the morning before school and a couple hours in the evening before bedtime. (I am talking about myself here) ...
I
spent this past weekend on vacation in Savannah, Georgia, with my mother (we
have annual mother/daughter trips).
One of the main reasons we went to Savannah was to take a southern
cooking class, which we did at 700 Kitchen in the magnificent hotel where we stayed, Mansion on Forsyth Park.
The
following is an excerpt from by favorite blog www.unclutterer.com. The blogger, Erin Doland, has a new book coming out this week on November 3 called Unclutter Your Life in One Week. I'm sure the book is going to be very useful (and clever!) so be sure to pick up a copy if you want to unclutter your life in one week (and really, who doesn't?). :)
This past Friday I gave a workshop to a group of women and one of the recurring questions/comments was about how, as moms, they all felt like they were doing an inadequate job with keeping their homes organized.
I spoke to the evils of "org porn" (Mentioned in my May 11th post: http://www.onlineorganizing.com/BlogEntry.asp?id=2313&prevthispost=yes), and then spoke from the heart. I really do believe that as women and mothers, we put so much pressure on ourselves to live in the perfect house and be the perfect parent and we're all struggling.
I advised one mom of a 6-month-old who was concerned about the array of baby things (swing, exersaucer, bouncy seat etc.) around the house to lower her standards. It's not that your house will have those things in it forever. It is temporary. Maybe just for a year (or a couple years if you plan to have more than one kid). But then it will go away. It's unrealistic to expect your house to look like a Pottery Barn or IKEA catalog all the time. You don't live in a photo shoot with stylists, designers and NO KIDS. You live in a home. With a family, dogs, drool, legos, husbands, goldfish crumbs and crayons. And those things are the things of a life well lived. I'm not advocating mass chaos and clutter. No. I do believe that everything should have a home. But to expect everything to be IN that home ALL the time (especially when kids are in the picture) is just... unfair.
I also advised the moms to let go of the things that they had around the house that taunted them and reminded them of things they "should" be doing. I mentioned cookbooks and fad diet books (Weight Watchers, Sugar Busters, South Beach Diet, Atkins, etc.). Those books are a slap in your face and a reminder of your lack of discipline (or however you choose to beat yourself up when you see them). Get rid of them! The mounds of expensive scrapbooking supplies you've bought but (surprise!) never found time to put together get rid of them.
One of the women emailed me after the workshop and said, ...
Last week I presented at a workshop with two of my colleagues, one of whom, Juli, is a licensed mental health counselor and owner of a business called www.MindBodyLab.com. If I do say so myself, it was a fantastic presentation. The presentation was titled, "It's Never About the Stuff: Managing the Emotions Buried Under Disorganization."
The presentation started with Juli talking about how to battle and reverse the negative self talk and "mental clutter" that can stop us from reaching our goals - even when our goals are ridding our home (or even just our desk at work) of physical clutter.
I often say that as a professional organizer, I am like a personal trainer for your home. Just like you go to a personal trainer at the gym to make you do your sit ups, you might hire a professional organizer to come to your home and make you clean out your closet. Sure, you probably could clean our your closet on your own and you probably know how (just as you know how to do your own sit ups) but unless someone is there, counting out those sit ups for you, and making you do them they just never get done. The same goes for organizing.
Somehow, simply making the appointment and knowing someone is coming there to hold you accountable for what you said you were going to do (whether it's organize the garage, clean...
There is a realtor in my community who organizes a
neighborhood-wide garage sale twice a year to promote her business and probably
for a little community service.
She puts fliers on everyone's home and asks them to sign up if they'd
like to be a part of it. She puts
the ad in the newspaper and puts all the signs around the neighborhood pointing
to your block (if you signed up) and she prints out a map denoting all streets
with participating homes, as well as a one-line listing of what kinds of items
that home is selling. It's very
well organized!
This past weekend was the Fall garage sale for my
neighborhood and I LOVED seeing everyone getting rid of all their old junk, and
all the buyers on their scavenger hunt for their perfect item. My purge-high did wane, however, when I
realized that most of the homes would not have a charity truck coming to their
house after the sale to take all the items that didn't sell (like they do on Style
Network's Clean House). No, most of the homes would pull all
that dusty old crap back into their home, where it would likely sit, un-adored
and taking up much-needed space in a spare bedroom, closet, or garage.
My mom (who has a home a couple miles from me)
participated in the garage sale and she asked me to help her (because of my
expertise in this area) sort, set up and sell. The night before the sale I thought, "well, let me just take
a look around my house and see if there is anything I don't want or use anymore
that I can sell at her table." I
was so proud to find that, as I walked around my home and opened cabinets and
drawers, there was little I found that I don't use often or love. I did end up parting with one salsa
dish, one set of margarita glasses I have used once in eight years, and one
wicker chair that doesn't really fit in my daughter's small bedroom. That was it! Pretty impressive!
My mom ended up making $200 at her sale (once I schooled
her on how to price to sell), and I made a whopping $22.75 for my
contributions. And I did make my
mom load up her Jeep with the rest of her items that didn't sell and take them
to Salvation Army that day. She
complied.
You know, everyone always touts "spring cleaning", but
there's nothing like a brisk, Fall garage sale to clear out the clutter… before
all those holiday gifts start rolling in to fill the space again. Consider recruiting even just the
neighbors on your block to do a group yard sale. You will generate a LOT of traffic with multiple homes, and
you can call out a charity truck to take everything after it's over (since
there are multiple homes). Have
the kids sell lemonade and have someone grill and sell hotdogs for $2 each. Make it a fun, family event and price
your items to sell! Make a little
holiday shopping dough!
I had a topic I was going to write about today, but felt
swayed to write about something else that cracked me up this weekend. One of the many things I love about
Fall (in addition to Saturday College Football and the guacamole that comes
with it) is the new Fall TV line-ups.
There are so many good new shows out this year (from all that pent up
creativity from the writer's strike a few years ago, I think) and one in
particular had me in stitches.
In the premier episode of ABC's new sit com Modern Family (http://abc.go.com/shows/modern-family/abc-comedy-wednesday/ThemeGallery/290368#), a
9-year-old boy accidentally shoots his sister with a BB gun. The parents, in response, agree that to
be fair and show him how it feels, he
will have to be shot (by the father) with the BB gun.
The really funny part of this scene is that the family
(mother, father, sister, brother) are trying to find the perfect time to shoot
the boy. The conversation goes something
like this:
MOM: "You can shoot him after the party."
DAD: "No, I can't shoot him after the party, I have a
meeting."
MOM: "OK, then…" [they all walk over to the family
calendar in the kitchen] "… well how about Tuesday?"
DAD: "Nope, Tuesday doesn't work I have that thing. But Thursday at 3:30 would work."...
I don't remember who said it first, but it's so true: The more I know, the more I know I don't know. When I was a high school teacher, it always amazed me how much I always learned from my students, when I was the one teaching them.
One of the things I love about my Pile High Club ...
My Husband - "Honey, how thin can you spread yourself before you're no longer there?"
Me - "I don't know. But I'm in it to win it, so we may have to find out."
Not From A Box THE best custom invitations for weddings or any party/event, as well as some kickin' stationery.
The Sartorialist This site appeases my hunger for all things New York, reminds me of my time there, and gives me great ideas for unconventional looks.
Toffee To Go They are located in Tampa, very near me, but they deliver/ship nationally. They have THE BEST toffee EVER. It's buttery, salty, sweet--all my favorite things in one bite.
The Container Store I know this is a no-brainer for an organizer...but this place really turns me on!
We Dream in Color The jewelry designer is from Trinidad (big ups!). I have 2 necklaces and always get compliments when I wear them because they are SO unique.
Michael Buble If I wasn't happily married, I might be stalking him. Bar none, the best voice and best sense of humor!
Quotes That Move Me
General H. Norman Schwarzkopf "The truth of the matter is, you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it."
Ivern Ball "Most of us ask for advice when we know the answer but we want a different one."
Ralph Waldo Emerson "The secret of education is respecting the pupil."
Ralph Waldo Emerson "Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen."
Abigail Van Buren "The best index to a person's character is how he treats another person who can't do him good, and how he treats people who can't fight back."
Dorothy Galyean "Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere."
Aristotle "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
Mark Twain "To be satisfied with what one has; that is wealth. As long as one sorely needs a certain additional amount, that man isn't rich."
Jackie Kennedy "If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do matters very much."
Paris Spent only one day here (took the Chunnel from London when I was there) but it was one amazing, beautiful day where I walked the flea markets, visited the Louvre, people-watched and used all 6 senses to experience it.
Trinidad & Tobago My husband is from here, so we go several times a year to visit family.
Italy (Milan, Vicenza)
Jamaica
Things I'd Like To Do Before I Die
Run a leg with the Olympic torch before the games begin
See the monarch butterflies migrate to Mexico
Ride a horse on the beach (in the water)
See a prize fight (boxing) in Las Vegas
Run the NYC Marathon I ran the Disney Marathon in 2000 (pre-kids). Would love to run another post-kids, to prove I can.
Have washboard abs.
Eliminate self doubt.
Own an apartment in Manhattan.
Watch the ball drop in Times Square on New Year's Eve.
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