Archive for the ‘organizing’ Category

Book: Bitter With Baggage Seeks the Same by Sloane Tanen

Burn the Baggage!

I’ve been helping people find the best way to keep their memorabilia for 11 years as a professional organizer.

No longer!

I truly believe that keeping certain kinds of memorabilia is tantamount to lugging around baggage. And it can make us bitter! Why? Because just like a plugged in appliance (whether turned on or not) sucks energy from the socket – our memorabilia sucks energy from our psyches.

Out of Sight is Not Out of Psyche

I’m not talking about a letter of congratulations from our doting grandmother or our 6th grade class photo – unless these things cause great sadness. It is those love letters and photos that tug at our hearts, make us think “what if”, or “wtf!!” As evolved as I like to think I am, and sometimes can even be (for 5 seconds!), I can easily be transported back to a time, space and negative emotional place the moment I look at an a photo or note from an ex-boyfriend. I’m the sensitive sort and even though I don’t want him back, even wish him well, and know that truly it all turned out for the best  - – I still get a moment of melancholia when looking at ghosts of relationships past if I am truly honest with myself.

This momentary looking back doesn’t feel like the healthy kind of review that is done in therapy or coaching in order to learn something. Been there and done that! These relationship “relic-cities” sitting in my closet are my Sodom and Gomorrah. They have been proven to have no positive benefit to the current domain, are marked to burn and I’m Lot’s wife looking back at the destruction. And we know what happened to her!

I’m not one to believe that in a loving universe I would literally be reduced to a pillar of salt for an error in judgement. Tears, however, are made of salt! Why would I want to keep these items around in order to keep turning myselfinto a puddle  (pillar?) of tears?

Am I a masochist?! Maybe I have been a bit of an emotional masochist and that is in part what this has been about. I don’t know all the answers but I don’t have to – I just know I’m going to let go of the energy sucking objects in my apartment. And to hold me to it, I have all my friends coming over with their baggage too!  Time to celebrate! Baggage Burning Party at my place!

Have you let go of once cherished objects from past relationships? How did you feel?

should i stay or should i go

If real estate is all about location, location, location then organizing is all about decisions. This weekend I worked with someone who had a big task on his hands. He has to move out of his apartment so that it can be renovated. But in that big decision there are a lot of little decisions about what to keep and buying property and especially the BEST way to do it all. That BEST way can really be our worst enemy when organizing. Why? Because it keeps us from finding the simple core of what needs to be done. And the simple core is the BEST. But when we get caught up in the BEST we don’t even start and we make it really COMPLICATED.

organizing fundamentals

Like with like is the most fundamental organizing principle but right along with that principle is the “Should it stay or should it go” principle. Sometimes that is all you need to ask. If you are stuck and can’t get moving then just ask that simple question. Forgo all the color coding and categorizing and simply ask yourself if you need to keep it or if you can let it go. Even to go further and ask where it should go (Goodwill, your mother, your best friend etc) is too much sometimes and keeps people stuck. I’ve seen it so many times…things get sorted into the “to go” pile but never get further because there is a BEST place for it to go but that best place is just never settled on.

Make one solid decision at a time and if you get stuck you can always ask for help. But you can make that decision if you need to…one at time!

What decisions have you had a hard time making lately?

Ask me anything about organizing or decision-making on Twitter at JenniferPalais or make suggestions of your own for my Facebook community! We all love sharing tips there!

independence

This couldn’t have been a better weekend for the “flyaway home” performance – an ephemeral event at the Van Nuys Flyaway sponsored by DCA and LAWA to bring interest to LA culture and LA alternative transportation. That is some mash-up! But it worked.  Everything about the setting, the dance, the projections and the music evoked themes of freedom, transformation and self expression –  everything transportation at its best is all about.

the flyaway

The Van Nuys Flyaway takes passengers from Van Nuys to the Los Angeles Airport in under 45 minutes for only $7.00 (one way). You can park your car for $4.00/day as well which is the big money saver!

To bring attention to this alternative community transportation, Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), in conjunction with the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) has participated in the Percent for Arts program. This program has put on a series of cultural events over the summer using ephemeral, site specific events to bring attention to alternative transportation. If the program continues to be as successful as Flyaway Home these free, community cultural events will continue to have sponsorship!

community

Local Venice Beach choreographer/director/writer Sarah Elgart conceived of this site specific event that brought together some of our city’s most talented performers and artists.

The performance truly transported me. Literally! The audience was moved throughout the Van Nuys Flyaway bus terminal and I was transported in time too – as the movement of the dances told a story as personal and poignant as it was universal. Stephen Glassman, another local Venice artist, was responsible for the beautiful large-scale projections on the side of the Flyaway parking structure that viewed from a distance took your breath away.

the performance

The performance started almost imperceptibly as dancers were placed discretely among those waiting for their bus at the Flyaway terminal. Dancers, swaying in unison until your eye caught the motion, then pointing, then walking around their suitcase… and you realized that – yes – I do believe the show has begun!

Then a dancer, Sarah Elgart herself, entered dressed entirely in ruby red with a canopied red umbrella slowly echoing the other dancers’ movements. The music score by Feltlike reflected environmentally produced sounds and it was uncertain what was part of the show and what was native to the terminal.

The themes of community and personal freedom were threaded together carefully throughout this ephemeral event. As independent as we are and as much freedom as we enjoy – we live in a community and need one another. “One of many” is not a state of being everyone is comfortable with and yet to realize that is the truth of our status is to be free. There is flight and freedom but we don’t achieve it alone.

The entire event was a spectacle movement and music. Haunting, ethereal, grounded, surreal, thought-provoking and above all flawless.

think small.

by donating 1% of what your computer setup’s worth, you can help these kids get access to new computers.

OnePercentProject from Marie Beetge on Vimeo.

This is a project to collect donations in order to help Simonsberg Primary School get a new computer lab. Your small donations are a big deal.

Visit the official website at www.onepercentproject.org

dream big. act small.

We are taught as children to think big. To believe in big dreams and to reach for the sky. This is not a bad thing altogether. Except that I believe an equal importance needs to be placed on the small things in order to balance out all those big dreams. Without small actions the reality of a big dream occurring will be slim to none.

Micheal Jordan didn’t jump headlong into a professional basketball career …he took a lot of small steps each day. There were a lot of seemingly insignificant practices…probably a lot of them were without his team. He showed up. Martha Graham didn’t become the dancer of the century without a lot of small steps the led up to the big curtain calls.

It is the same way with relationships. We think, “Well, I’ll just be a few minutes late. It isn’t a big deal.”

Your word? It is a big deal. Call if you are going to be late. Why? Because it is actually something you that you have control over! There is so little that we can control! That is why the little things are so big.

If you always do what you can do then your relationships will be stronger for it. That includes your relationship with yourself. You will have integrity and strength of character. Because integrity and strength of character show in the small things.

Consider for a moment, the little white lie. If it is little and white then why tell it at all? You want to seem a little bit better than you are? A little taller? Slimmer? Smarter? Or get a bit more sympathy? More attention? So you are trying to stack the odds in your favor (otherwise known as manipulate the situation). There’s no trust in that equation. And where there’s no trust there is control. Where there is control there is a lack of integrity. Integrity means faith in the way things are – trusting the fabric of oneself and the current structure and being one with it. Being in integrity with oneself means being in line with who we are, with our values. But it is equally important to be in integrity with the structures that surround us. That means not manipulating – being in trust that we’ll be given what we deserve (even if we don’t like it) and we’ll be ok no matter what. You’ll start to see that showing integrity in the “small” things takes a mighty big person.

The test:

How can you tell if someone is in integrity? How can you tell if someone cares about the “small stuff”? Before you commit to doing business with someone, to sharing your heart with someone as a friend or as a lover you can watch for these four things.

How do they behave when you are wrong?

How do they behave when they are wrong?

How do they behave when they don’t get what they want?

How do they behave when they don’t hear what they want to hear?

These three things will tell you pretty much everything you need to know about a person’s character.

Have you ever dealt with someone who would lie about “small” things all the time? Or steal little items? Have you known someone who would always bring you a little something when they’d visit? How did these different scenarios affect your relationships? Do you think the little things add up?

algorithms in charge

I laugh to myself when I hear people say they are in charge of what they do. We actually have so little control over what we do it is hilarious. Did you want to work out today? Why didn’t you? Or did you not want to eat that cookie but you did anyway…why?  But I thought we have so much control over what we do!

How did you decide what you wore today or what school you went to (the one you got in to and could afford… that narrowed it down!) or what cereal to buy? What man or woman to marry or car to drive? I asked someone the other day how they decided to use a certain material in their art – something that has become intrinsic to what they do as an artist. The answer was, “Because it was what I had.” How’s that for being in control!

When you start to unravel it all you’ll find so many influences and factors on our behaviors it will be difficult to parse out where one’s own ideas and desires and values start and that of the community, culture and family values begin. When we use a material that we have for our art because it is what is there we often call it “circumstances beyond our control.” That is assuming we had control! We don’t like to admit outright that we don’t have a hell of a lot of control to begin with!

What doesn’t help this condition is thinking we are getting all of the information we need to make our own informed decisions.

gatekeepers

We think that we are going on Google and gathering the same data that everyone else is getting in order to make their decisions. That we all are starting from the same point and then we can all make educated decisions from there. Is that true? Does that even sound like what Google’s job is to do? Listen to Eli Pariser’s Ted talk below on how Google’s current algorithms work to bring information to your fingertips. 

Maxed out on taxes?

The second worst part of taxes is all the paperwork. (I don’t have to mention the worst part do I?)

Make life simple and get rid of all but the essentials.

The magic number

You must hold on to documents related to your taxing issues for 7 years – the magic number. Then you can have a torching party!

Keep your tax returns but shred supporting documents going back to 2003. Any of these are fair game:

1099s
Bank statements
Cancelled checks
Charitable contribution records
Credit card statements
Mortgage interest statements
Receipts for expenses
Records of deductions taken
W-2s

If you own a small business you are free to purge as well but just check in with your accountant to see if you have any special circumstances.

Paystubs – You can shred your 2010 (and prior!!) paystubs one you get your 2011 W-2s, which summarize your yearly income. Make sure all the information is correct and then shred away.

Investment information – You can shred the 2010 (and prior!!) monthly statements one you receive your 2011 year-end statement.

Medical records – Once you’ve been reimbursed for minor expenses consider shredding some of your medical records. No need to keep each and every prescription and allergy test result.

If you really want to max out your potential for sanity during next tax season start scanning now. Get a scanner or send out to a great service like Shoeboxed.com who will scan all of your receipts and tax-related documents for you. I do a little of both!

What makes your tax season easier?

Organizing goes XXX?

Not exactly. Well, sortof. I feel a little racy because I was interviewed by Susie Bright for her world famous radio show, In Bed with Susie Bright. This is the link to the recording on Audible.com: In Bed With Susie Bright: Sex Crime Cleaners, A Professional Organizer Lets You Peek Into Her Drawers. It is not free, there is a subscription fee of $9.95 for the month or you can buy just the one recording for $6.95. Although I must say that Ms. Bright is worth every penny and I think one bitten you’ll be happy to listen to her silky voice for all eternity (or at least for a month!).

I think I’ve heard every one of her shows and she’s been on the air for seven years.  I started to think that I’d never heard her talk about some of the specific issues surrounding sexuality and relationships that I’ve confronted while organizing people in their homes.

Namely…where do I keep certain intimate objects if I have children, do I get rid of the exes photos and if I don’t then where do I keep them and more!

If the answer to these questions are of interest to you then I guess you’ll have to download the show!

It is spring isn’t it… indeed.

Serving it up

What’s on the menu?

When people ask what I “do” I say I’m a waitress. I think this is actually more accurate on a number of levels than “professional organizer.” For one, I’ve never felt 100% like an organizer. (I do marketing, business consulting, hiring, operations, managing staff, blogging, copy-editing, training, coaching and more… and  yes…sometimes some files get put in order too!)

Secondly, I feel like people try and sound so important and big time these days with guru this and big-time-hot-shot-honcho that. I am not important. Not in the least. But you know who is? You.

So…what will you be having today? How would you like it prepared? Oh…ordering off the menu I see. Yup – I’ll run to the store and have that ready for you in a jiffy. No trouble at all. It’s what I do.

Nite nite.

yup, no time like the present