Going Green by being organized…and the Living Green Expo

Yesterday I spent the day at The Factory in Franklin (an awesome collection of shops, restaurants & event space in an old factory – they also hold the Farmer’s Market there on Saturday mornings & Tuesday afternoons) at the Living Green Expo.

At the Living Green Expo

Excellent event – and got to meet all sorts of businesses that help people and other businesses go green.  Spray on foams, energy efficient windows, natural products (trying out some all natural bug spray this week – we’ll see how it works), and our family favorite, the electric scooters.  They were super cute retro looking bikes that run on electricity. My point of being there was how being organizing can help you go green.  It’s hard to be conscious of green options when it isn’t convenient or easily accessible.  One of the things I work on with my clients who want to be green is to make it easy. Some tips on being organized and green:

• Plan your routes when heading out for the day.  Map out your farthest point and make your stops accordingly.  Determine what tasks need to be done, and which stops are near each other.  I even go so far as to plot which stops are the same side of the road so I don’t have make left turns (my friends do give me a bit of grief about this but, hey, it works!).  Combine errands with trips you are already making, saving gas and time.
• Set up a cabinet or drawer in your kitchen for re-usable containers for lunchboxes, storage and more.  Get away from plastic bags and disposable items.
• Have a designated location for re-usable grocery bags, like my favorite ChicoBags, in a drawer or hanging on a hook.  Keep some in your car for unplanned stops at the store.  If you know right where they are and they are easily accessible, you will be much more likely to use them.
• Use Re-usable Water Bottles, and keep them near the water you drink (mine are in a cabinet right next to the fridge where the filtered water is).  Every plastic bottle you don’t buy is helping the earth – and saving you money.
• Go paperless in your kitchen with rags for cleaning, dish towels for drying hands and cloth napkins.  We haven’t gone as far as going toilet paper-less as in No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal.  Actually don’t think we’ll ever go quite this green!
• Reduce paper from coming into the house by unsubscribing from unread magazines, and removing yourself from junk mail lists and catalogs.
• Set up your recycling center to not only be easy to use but in a convenient location.  No one is going to regularly walk out to the garage for every plastic container.  Trust me on this.

Be mindful of how you want to go green.  What are your goals?  Then look at how you actually live and the setup of your home.  Creating a system that works for you and your family will help you be as green as you want to be.  I can help if you need it.  As your green organizing questions in the comments – and I’ll post an answer – it’s as easy as that!

Embrace Your Clutter. . .Release The Guilt

A lot of my clients have a lot of stuff. Some are really motivated to let things go and lighten up their life. They see the benefits in having fewer possessions weighing them down – less to maintain – less to clean. But some of my clients really do love their stuff.

And frequently what they feel is shame. This shame comes from those around them criticizing their decision to hang on to their stuff or picking on them for not having surfaces free of perceived clutter or harping on them that their garage is full of “junk”.

Sometimes I find fear from my clients. Fear that I’m going to “make” them get rid of things. Fear that they will have to change everything about their space. Fear of “forgetting” things because the memory triggers of the possessions aren’t there in their sight anymore.  Fear that others won’t like them if they don’t change.

This fear and shame often results in guilt.  Guilt about not making the right decisions.  Guilt about not living up to expectations.  Guilt about not being perfect.
So I tell them . . . these are YOUR things. It’s your decision whether to keep them or not.

But here are the questions I ask:

• Does all of this stuff around you make you truly happy?
• Is everything here important or are there some things that are more important than others?
• Can you find what you need when you need it or do you spin your wheels trying to get things done?
• Does your space reflect who you are now, at this time in your life?
• Are your possessions holding you back or guiding you forward in your life?
• Are these things around you causing you problems in your life – with your family, work or relaxation?

Depending on the answers, it may not be a case of getting rid of a lot of stuff.  It may simply be a case of creating a system of storage for those important items so that they are accessible or visible depending on the client’s needs.

In that case, please release the shame.  Release the fear.  Release the guilt.  Keep your stuff.  I know this sounds counter-intuitive to my profession but once you let that go, you can look at things more objectively.  When people are pushed, the natural inclination is to push back.

By setting free the fear and shame, it often becomes easier to acknowledge the real reasons for hanging on to things from the past or continual purchasing of new items.  I encourage my clients to look within themselves and determine what THEY want to do.  Not what others tell them they should.  When they can do some internal examination of their feelings, thoughts and beliefs – it’s amazing what progress can be made.  I’m not trying to be a therapist but to help them figure out what is really important to them so we can make progress towards whatever the end result may be.

My goal when organizing is to create a space that my client is happy, content and productive within.  If that means storing & displaying 400 Russian Nesting dolls, well, so be it.  But what I find is that when some inner peace is found, those Russian Nesting dolls don’t have quite a strong of a hold as they may have once had.

Priority Setting: FREE Special Report!

Having trouble setting your priorities and getting things done?

Get this FREE special report and use the 40+ tips from experts around the country (including me!). I was asked recently to participate in a “round up” of Professional Organizing experts to come up with one favorite tip for setting priorities. Stephanie Calahan of Calahan Solutions put together this incredible report, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.

“Priority Setting – Working On The Right Things” is now available for download. Take charge of your life – and learn from the pros!

P.S. Look for my tip on page 13!

What’s important to YOU is what you should do . . .

I don’t send holiday cards. I don’t send birthday cards. Nor do I send cards for any occasion other than when I want to communicate via a personal note. This is because I don’t really care if I receive cards, and because I suck at remembering dates like birthdays (forgot my husband’s birthday last year – that was a bit embarrassing). I’d rather send a card when I want and when I think the recipient will really appreciate the gesture. Not because the greeting card industry wants me to send one on a manufactured holiday like Mother’s Day or that ‘everyone’ sends Christmas cards. Now, I do know there are services to help you remember and even send out the cards. But how much thought is really there? I had to decide that unless it was truly important to me and to the card recipient, it wasn’t worth stressing over it.

As I’ve gotten older, I’m starting to really listen to my gut more. And my gut tells me, besides that I should start exercising more, that life is too short to do things that I really don’t want to do if they are not critical to my survival. I found trying to remember the dates, get the cards, make them nice, sign them all was just stressful. They didn’t have any personal meaning to me and I was doing them ‘just because’. This isn’t good enough any more.

Here’s some of what I’ve heard from my clients that fit in this category of “I should’s”:

• volunteering to chair an event for your child’s school
• making Thanksgiving dinner every year for the significant other and their whole family
• signing up for “Music, Mommy & Me” every Thursday morning
• networking at the Chamber of Commerce and every business group in town
• blogging and twittering and Linking In
• scrubbing the floors every Tuesday and doing laundry every Saturday

So, this post is about looking at the commitments in your life and examining them. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I really enjoy it?
• Does it really need to be done, and are you the only one who could do it?
• Am I doing it because I want to or because I feel that I should?
• Is what I’m doing the best use of my time for my business or personal life?
• Does it fit in my budget?
• Will it truly matter to anyone else if it gets done?
• Is it part of a routine that doesn’t fit your lifestyle but you’ve always done it that way?

If it is something that helps your business grow, gives you personal satisfaction, or enhances your life – go for it. It may not be what your friends do, or what you think other people perceive as being ‘correct’, but if it is what works for you – then it’s the right thing.

Some of my choices get me good natured teasing from friends who don’t share my enthusiasm for making homemade gravies and stews, for reading voraciously, for putting all my stuff in bins and labeling them, for picking up garbage on the banks of the Harpeth River, for twittering constantly, for hanging out at the dog park for hours on end. That’s ok. I respect my friends and business acquaintances’ choices, and expect them to do the same. And you know what? They do. In fact, the level of respect is fairly high because I enjoy what I am doing and am confident in my choices.

So what things are you doing that are “I should” instead of “I want to?” Those things that are done out of obligation or fear of not fitting in or because you’ve always done them are time wasters, time suckers and a significant cause of stress for most people. Really look at what you do with your time, and make changes that suit you. If you always do laundry on Saturdays but never enjoy a weekend, make the change to do it one evening during the week (and make the kids help!). If you think that you need to twitter because it’s the new ‘in’ thing but it won’t benefit your business or personal life (or give you a migraine every time you tweet), why bother? Do what works for YOU.

Some key signs that a task or commitment is not for you:

• sinking of the stomach
• headaches and back tension
• a nagging feeling in the back of your mind
• procrastination and avoidance
• complaining about it to a friend
• obsessing about perfection
• regret after you say “yes”

Make the decision, and make the choice, to say “no” and take obligations off of your plate that don’t serve your best interest. Some things can’t be avoided, and many shouldn’t. But there are things in everyone’s life that just take up space and could free up time you could spend doing something you really love. Your time is valuable – and focusing on the important things: family, friends, business, and things that give you joy makes the difference between having a life and living it.

Sweet Gravy Studio… my new piece of art… love it!

A few weekends ago we went to the Franklin Main Street Festival in historic downtown Franklin, Tennessee. It was a lovely time and most of the art & fine craft entries were a joy, although there were definitely a few cheesy entries (painted gourds?).

I need more art like I need a hole in the head. I used to own an art gallery and have been collecting art for a long time, plus have inherited pieces. I don’t have a huge collection but what I have, I love. Our house is really small, too, so there’s not a lot of wall space. But when I saw this piece, I had to have it. The gal who creates these is a hoot and signed mine for me on the back as well which was awfully sweet of her.

She lives in Georgia and has a website: http://www.sweetgravystudio.com/. Go visit it and tell her I sent you. Her piece (now mine) is the one with all the little birds (they look kind of like the twitter birds – maybe I was having twitter withdrawal at the time). It’s kind of hard to tell from the photo but there are little bits of vintage fabric embedded in the piece and a saying written around the side. You have to get your own piece to get your own saying…I’m just saying.