Palais Professional Organizer

Archive for April, 2010

This is an extremely LA post but we drive so much here I am actually surprised there aren’t more accidents. Having said that it is so helpful to have a how-to reference for most emergencies. In fact, that is something I should organize for this blog! An emergency section. That is the time that organization flies out the window – when stress flies in. I get the phone call exactly then – during times of transition and duress.

Which brings me to my present issue. Why am I an expert on auto accident organization? I’ve done a lot of personal research. Unfortunately, I seem to get in an annual birthday car accident. I’m not sure what kind of message the universe is sending but I always choose to learn something from each one. I figure if I can handle this accident better than the last then perhaps I won’t have to get into another one. Whether or not this mind mythology is valid  it is still helpful to have a road map.  Here you go:

1. If you are injured at all then call 411 so they can get the police/ambulance involved. The police won’t come to the site of an accident if there are no bodily injuries.

….if you are not incapacitated…

2. Ask anyone nearby if they will stay to act as a witness if police are on the way. If police will not be called see if you can get their information so the insurance company can call them later on.

3. By all means be cordial and kind to the other driver and passengers but don’t discuss the accident or who was at fault. For example, avoid saying, “What the hell were you thinking??!!” or “I’m sorry I hit you” (even if you did and are).

4. Take note of exactly what time the accident occurred.

5. Use your camera phone to take pictures of the road signs nearby.

6. Use your camera phone to take pictures of the person’s insurance card, the damages to your car and to their car, their license plate.

7. Call your insurance company to report the accident. They will walk you through the rest of the process and help you get a rental car and/or get your car towed.

8. Check to see how many days of rental car coverage you have on your insurance. If you are able to drive your car then drive it until they have a date set up for the assessor from the insurance company to make an estimate on your car’s damage. Otherwise you are just burning through your rental days and you may need them. Often repairs take a week longer than they quote you.

9. Put all the phone numbers from the accident into a group in your contact/address book so you can easily access them. Take notes each time you speak to anyone from the insurance company or auto body shop. I put these notes in the notes section in my address book, most recent on top.

10. Keep a binder of all paperwork related to the accident. All medical paperwork, letters from the insurance company and if you have a lawyer that paperwork too.

11. This is just my opinion: I’ve been in so many accidents and I am much happier and it goes much smoother when I don’t use a lawyer. Just my experience and opinion.

Your insurance company will ask for all of this information and very often after an accident it is difficult to recall events, places and times. If you follow these simple notes you will have all of the information you need when you need it.

What you can do in advance of an accident:

1. Check to see you have the proper amount of coverage. Go over limits with your agent – they will know how to guide you.

2. Make sure you have gap coverage if you have any kind of lease or loan – this will cover you for what you owe if your car is totaled.

3.  Check your rental car coverage. It is worth it to get the highest coverage possible for car rental. Policies usually cover $25 a day but for a little bit more you can get a $50 a day coverage. It is completely worth it. I drive a Prius and when (not if, but when) I am in an accident I want to drive a Prius or the equivalent.

These are my hard won pieces of organizational road warrior wisdom. Be safe out there.

My clients always want to know what my apartment looks like. Prospective clients too. Most people I meet actually, once they find out what I do. A follow up question is, “Are you organized? What does your place look like?” I think people want to catch me with my junk drawers down. My place is a mess on occasion and I am completely fine with it. Mess being a different issue from dirty…which I’m not so fine with. (Mess = stuff everywhere,  dirty = um… dirty, dust, dirt, sticky, dust-bunny-madness-running-the-all-star-dirt-show… right?)

I have a small apartment in Venice and if I don’t put my jacket away the place is a mess.  In a small place if you are not on top of every one of your items it doesn’t take much for the place to look frumpy. Having said that about 50% of the time I just don’t care. I will walk in the door with bags on every arm. Drop them, head for the couch with the takeout, watch 6 hours of Mad Men and go straight to bed.  Nothing and I mean nothing, gets put away. (Shocking – I know, but I like to live on the edge.) But those last two words are the key to it all for me and for what I work with clients on. Put away. There is a place for it all to go when motivation strikes and I feel like putting it all away. That is the key to organization – having a place for everything…and trusting yourself to eventually put the thing in the place it lives in.  There is sanity in letting it live both in and out of its place.

and it is still not over. This post makes me feel very self-involved and unorganized although I’ve had friends (who will remain nameless) who have had very mess birthdays spilling all over the whole month. Dates typically are organized. April 18th. It is contained. It is a day consisting of 24 hours, each hour consisting of 60 minutes and then it is over. Your birthday. Done. Completed. In one day. I guess this is just the birthday hangover. I didn’t drink and I didn’t even really eat and yet I’m emotionally hung over. I’m 38 and I keep saying it – I’ve said it so many times in the hope that the saying of it will make it somehow lessen the sting.

I’m just letting you all know that this tactic is not working.

I got in my annual birthday car accident and that didn’t really do much for me. That was an accident…but still. Tradition is tradition. Being organized – although I recommend it over the alternative – not much help either. I went to yoga, wrote, talked on the phone, walked, watched movies, did errands,  and slept. None moved me from my funk.

I found being in acceptance that I’m thoroughly and profoundly unhappy about this birthday and most everything right now is the only thing helping me get over me. And I already volunteer so this funk has been beyond even helping others. The true solution I found is luxuriating in my unhappiness. Shocking I know. This is so unpopular in these days of the Secret. Everyone will tell you to focus on what you want and it is yours. They will tell you that what you focus on grows. They will tell you to think happy thoughts. Well, I am experiencing another kind of secret. That feeling your feelings allows them to pass. That letting yourself feel exactly what it is you are feeling in this moment – is the thing that allows it to pass. Even if it that feeling is ugly and unhappy the more fully you embrace it and feel it the more quickly it passes and the stronger you feel as a result. That, is the only secret you’ll ever need to know. And I just learned it – at the ripe, old age of 38. 38. 38.

I hear a lot about being present and I never ever get it. I always think that I do and then the idea slips out of my fingers … slippery, very slippery. Then I get so annoyed with the whole thing. I keep hearing about all of the Law of Attraction ideas – most relating to being in the moment (in order to get the Ferrari you want – oh and the mansion. Sorry to be snarky I’m just that way sometimes.). I’m supposed to be smart, I’m also supposed to understand productivity and time-management and still – these ideas remain a lot of ethereal, sublime bull to me so much of the time. Grrr!! What is it that I cannot seem to grasp? Oh – this is so, so me. Trying way to hard. Thinking that it is about being smart and about being a certain something that other people have and I don’t. That in ten thousand more hours at my job I’ll know it. This leads in (somehow) to this crazy and insane fight I’ve been having with myself about getting up in the morning to exercise. Now – I usually do get to it at some point in the day to some degree but I’ve decided that smart and successful people do this task in the morning. Also, I just am happier and more sane when I do it in the morning. The back and forth of  “well, I’ll go to the gym at noon, no … how about the 6pm class” and on and on and on is just moot if I exercise at 6am. So… the other kind of argument starts at 6am.

Me: Get. Up. Now.

The other me:  No.

Me: Yes.

The other me: No.

Both of me: Oy.

Today I got to this place of – what is so bad about just putting your feet on the floor? How does that really feel in this moment? How are you feeling right now with your feet walking into the kitchen? And that was that. Because the answer was…I feel really great right now. Exercise began and there was no argument because I wasn’t in the future of how I thought exercise would feel. I was in the exact moment of now. I think maybe I got it. Almost afraid to say. Ha!