Preparing to Get Organized! (a.k.a., What To Do Before Your First Organizing Appointment)

I often hear from new or potential organizing clients, “What should I do to get ready for our first appointment?”

I am happy to answer and I’m even happier to say that these steps are for EVERYONE to take, these first steps to getting organized, and not just my new and potential clients!

So, whether you are organizing with a professional or tackling the projects solo, here are some simple steps to get you started!

Stop Shopping.  Working with a client recently, we discovered a healthy stash of toothpaste and deodorant. In this case, “healthy” means a dozen of each or so, unopened. Another client has dozens – yes, DOZENS – of paper towel rolls, taking up a LOT of space. If you want to get organized and clear clutter, start with NOT acquiring more stuff! For example, if we have an appointment set to organize your kitchen and pantry, Do NOT go out and stock up on groceries. Use up what you have on hand! Same goes for clothes or towels or office supplies.

Along that same line, assemble your supplies from your home inventory (please read that as DO NOT GO SHOPPING!). And do not purchase containers, unless we’ve talked about them!  Supplies might include garbage bags, sharpie markers and empty cardboard boxes.

Imagine the end result.   Why are you tackling this (these) project(s)? What do you imagine your spaces looking like when the projects are complete? How do you expect to feel? What do you expect to gain from the organizing process?


Purge the Easy.
Take out the trash and recycling;
move the dirty laundry to the laundry room;
break down cardboard boxes flat;
toss the expired food in your pantry and clean the fridge..

Check out my resources page, if you need destinations for your stuff. Send stuff on it’s way! That ugly couch in the basement, the extra dining room table in the garage to a recent grad with their first appt?  Yep, arrange that pick-up!

Run the errands:
drop off other donations to their destination;
return completed books to the library;
take your dry cleaning in;
return unwanted items to their retailers;
return borrowed items that you are done using to their original owners.

Wow, your space is looking better already! Way to go!

Hiking Wisdom, For Organizing and For Life

Earlier this month, I went on an adventure. It was amazing. I learned a lot about new and interesting topics, and also about myself.

If given the choice, I’ll choose hiking above other activities, and there was great hiking on this trip. Hiking provides time to think, and I realized that many lessons learned from hiking can be applied to life and to organizing, as well. Here are a few things I learned:

Many small steps often work better than fewer larger steps (especially for short people like me). My hiking guide was much taller than me (most folks are!) but still took the trail in small steps sometimes. Smaller steps help control your exertion, keep your muscles from over-stretching and allow for more certain foot placement. My habit is to take long strides. That works on flat Illinois and Michigan paths but not so well on rocky and uneven steep climbs. Expect to change up your stride, and you will go far.

The Right Pace makes all the difference. Recognize that in hiking and in life.

Don’t jump down onto loose gravel. I might even state, don’t Jump Down ever, since you don’t know if the trail is loose or not. Strategic foot placement keeps you from slipping (much!).

Even cloudy days hold their own beauty. (see right!)


Save enough energy for the hike back. Some of us start out moving really fast but then burn out our energy early. Better to keep moving, even slowly, than to have to stop or turn back. Slow and steady really does win the race.

Conversely, we are only hiking out for half the trip. The other half is hiking home. This was a very good reminder when UP the hills was getting tough. For every tough UP climb, there is a corresponding gentler DOWN climb.

Our own breathing sounds very loud to us. But our fellow hikers are only hearing their own breathing, as well. I felt very self conscious about how hard I was breathing, then I realized my fellow hikers couldn’t hear me over their own breathing. The point is for us to focus on improving ourselves, and let others focus on working on themselves.

Wear layers. Pack Enough but Pack Light.
My biggest hiking adventure was a half-day canyon hike. We started out at 9 am at an altitude of 3,000 feet. The sun warmed the canyon, we climbed above 4,000 feet and then a cold front rolled through. There were many layers shed and then put back on. Hiking wisdom says “Plan for Cold” if you want to Pack Enough, because you can always take off layers as you heat up. But no matter what you bring, you are stuck carrying it, either on your body or in your backpack, so pack light.

Pack Enough but Pack Light can be good advice for life, too. Carry and have what you need but not too much more.

Hydrate. Hydrate. Hydrate. And always bring a snack.

The really great views require effort.
My hiking guide Kevin reminded me of this as we gazed out over the valley. If you want the really good views (aka, the tough and amazing outcomes), you have to be ready to work hard.

Recovery time is essential. Very often, in hiking and in life, I forget to factor in recovery time. Hard work, either physical or mental, is good work but it also uses our body’s resources, and those resources need replenished. I hiked A LOT on my trip, and by the third day, my legs reminded me they needed to slow down a little and take a break if I wanted them to continue to operate in good form. So day 4 was a slower day, a recovery day. And then I got back to it on day 5. The point? If you want you and your body to operate well, factor down-time and rest into your busy schedule.

Thanks for the opportunity to share my adventure and photos with you. I hope you learned a few things from my hikes, too!

Make Healthier Habits Stick

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure to meet a great group of women and talk to them about how to make their healthier habits really stick in this New Year! Regardless of what your goals are, progress has to start with small, convenient and simple steps in the right direction, instead of big and sometimes not sustainable changes!

SIMPLE CHANGES! 

What will simple change look like? (And please take these ideas as merely suggestions!  There are lots of ways to make your Goals work for you!)

  • “Get to”, not “have to” – changing our mindset.  Talking to a friend who runs marathons (I know, right?!), he plans when he “Gets to” go for a run every day.  He may have to creative or cut the run short, but he was always looking for the opportunity to run. I often think of exercise as “Have to”, but “Get To” motivates me more!
  • Find Your Tribe, and Spread the Word.  What are your goals?  Make your success a group effort by finding like-minded folks with similar goals or people who are already doing what you are doing, or by sharing your goals with friends who will support your efforts! 
  • Plan your Day.  Set timers, if those help you.  Set timers to take vitamins or supplements and to drink water.  We have our phones with us all the time anyway, use them!  You can customize your timer, too, so your wellness timers sound unique and help you remember!
  • Make Room in Your Home For Your Better Habits.  In my recent presentation, I challenged the participants to pare down easy clutter – coffee mugs or extra water bottles, holiday decor or storage containers – and find some space for whatever is needed for those healthier habits!
  • If wellness is your goal, Meal Planning ensures healthier eating and saves $$ and time!
    • Make your meal plan for the week, or just start with a few days.
      • Plan your meals and snacks;
      • Check your grocery inventory on hand, and plan to use first what you have on hand;
      • Hit the grocery (or place an order on-line to limit impulse buying) to fill in the gaps between your plan and your inventory.
    • Daily, take your supplements, eat your healthy breakfast and plan for or pack your healthy snacks and lunch. (Remember, make healthy choices more convenient and you will be more likely to make them!)  
    • For example, snacks can be healthy AND something I look forward to!  If I prep my snacks in advance, in the morning or perhaps all my snacks for the week on one day, I am more likely to stay on track!   always think “protein and produce” when it comes to snacks, so servings of nuts in small re-usable bowls or snack bags plus cleaned and prepped fruits, veggies and hummus in reusable bowls, hard boiled eggs, etc..

So, we have set up our days, routines, habits and spaces to nourish ourselves and our new habits.   Yeah Us! Let’s Do This!

How To Stack & Store Stuff!

January is Get Organized Month! How To Stack and Store Stuff!

Getting organized is a process, and choosing and using the right containers for storage is a really important step in the process!

During my presentations, I talk a lot about Containerizing and how to do it the right way! (BTW, “Containerize” is a word introduced by Julie Morgenstern in her book Organizing From The Inside Out). And for ease of writing (and reading, I expect!), I am talking about large storage containers during this article, and not the little ones in your kitchen cabinets.

Why Containerize?

-To protect your items.

-To maximize your vertical space.

-To keep your items conveniently portable.

-To provide boundaries and limits for collecting.

-To enable retrieval of similar or related items when needed.

To Protect Your Item, choose the right containers that will offer physical protection and structure for your stuff. Consider heat and cold variations when you are storing your stuff (as in, snow globes will FREEZE and SHATTER if they’re kept outside), protection against bugs and moisture and dust. Cardboard is almost NEVER the right choice for long term storage of your belongings because it is susceptible to moisture, dust and bugs plus it degrades over time and usage.

Containerize your really heavy or fragile items to protect them from falling or from harm. And store both heavy and fragile items in small containers with only a few other things (but not together, of course!).

Maximize your vertical space. Containers are great for utilizing your vertical space well, since you can stack containers into tall stacks. When you are storing filled containers, store the heaviest and widest containers at the bottom of the pile, and don’t just keep piling. For safety sake, most stacks shouldn’t be over 3 or 4 containers tall.

Keep your items conveniently portable. I have no intention of moving from my home any time soon. BUT, if I did, it would be super easy to move the contents of my crawl space. Most of the contents are seasonal items and decor, and all are pared down, categorized, containerized and well labeled, so moving would be a piece of cake.

When containerizing, don’t pack really big containers full of really heavy items. Those 18 gallon Rubbermaid containers are great for storing holiday decor, bedding or clothes or toys, but not books and photos and papers – those heavy dense items would make the big containers too heavy to conveniently move and stack.

Containers provide boundaries and limits for collecting. Containers provide reminders of what is the reasonable amount of stuff to keep. Think about your dresser. It seems reasonable to keep one or two drawers of t-shirts (or socks or underwear), right? But if we don’t containerize our stuff in a drawer, it is difficult to determine how much for something we actually own. Containers provide a gauge for quick estimates of content.

When you’re explaining to your kids (or others) how much of something to keep, you can say ‘one container’ or 2 or whatever of memorabilia or stuffed animals, etc.

Containers enable retrieval of similar or related items when needed. Label your containers, so you can find things again. Affix a label to two sides of the container, one end and one side. DO NOT label the top, for as soon as you stack your containers, you will not longer see the top.

Label your container (and DO NOT write the containers’ contents on the container!), and be willing to change them if the contents change. I have spent 17 years now searching for good labels. So far, the best combo is a Post-It note and a Sharpie marker covered over with clear packing tape.

Decide if you want to see the contents of the container or not. Clear containers provide a clearer view, but are often more expensive and less sturdy. In addition, we may want an opaque container for a more uncluttered look in your storage area.

If you are packing away seasonal decor this week, or looking to get organized for 2020, give some thought to the right containers for the job!

Pecan Balls Should Not Be a Breakfast Food

It is that time of year again.

No, not THAT time of year! To be specific, this is the time of year, after all the other fun and festive and fabulous times of the year, when I really need to clean my fridge. And I am going to put that in quotes, “Clean My Fridge”, as there is a lot more to this process than just a little cleaning.

You see, for the past week or two, there has been containers of freshly baked and delicious cookies on my counter and in my fridge. Next to the holiday staple of the hot chocolate tray, complete with candy canes for stirring. And the bags of chips, Mikesell’s brand from Ohio, to be specific, that my wise and awesome cousin shipped to us all as gifts. (They really are THE BEST!).

These are all wonderful things. But there is still a problem, and that problem is that any other time of the year, I would not dream of having candy in jars on the counter, easy access to dozens of cookies, multiple bags of chips on hand, three different types of desserts in my fridge… well, you get the picture, I am sure.

Any other time of the year, I would head to my breakfast counter and make my healthy breakfast shake and take my supplements, but lately I’ve found myself making a detour at those baked goods, despite the fact that I know that Pecan Balls are not an appropriate breakfast food for adults.

So, join me in “Cleaning the Fridge” or whatever you want to call it. How to? Read on.

Take a deep breath. Empty the trash, and reline the can with a new bag. Clean off a counter. Take another deep breath.

First, take stock of what you have in the fridge, freezer, on the counters, etc.

DO NOT OPEN anything else. Got boxes of crackers, bags of chips, cookie ingredients? HOLD ON TO THEM. New Years Eve get-together, Super Bowl Party? Yes, those snacks will keep. Don’t open anything else.

Plan your menu for the next few days to wrap up what you have. For example, we had left-over side dishes from Christmas dinner, so I made a pork roast on Friday, and we ate it with some of those side dishes. De-lish.

Consider your health and wellness goals that may have been ignored for the last few weeks, and recommit to making those good habits your regular habits again.

Dig a little deeper in the fridge and freezer, and purge the left overs from before your Christmas Dinner. Review the produce bin, toss out anything that has gotten slimy during your week of vegetable neglect.

Plan, too, your menu for the next few weeks with those healthier habits in mind, and re-stock your fridge with healthier options.

My “Clean the Fridge” today walks hand-in-hand with a trip to the grocery for that healthier option restock.

As my final step, I also put away some of our holiday themed serving dishes to reclaim some cleared counter space. (Insert a big sigh of relief here!)

Make some time today or tomorrow to “Clean the Fridge” or reclaim your counter for good habits, and you will thank yourself later!

Quick Fixes for a Better Closet

I received photos of a stranger’s closet via text last week.  (It sounded funny to me as I typed it, but it is not an uncommon occurrence, and the stranger isn’t strange at all!)

A participant from a recent presentation asked questions  about her oddly shaped and slightly frustrating closet.   I love these questions!  And regardless of the size or status of your closet, there are steps I suggest to EVERYONE, including this class participant, to give you more breathing room and make your closet work better for you!

Try one of these suggestions this week, or all of them!

      • Pull all unused hangers off your closet rods.  Toss or recycle the old or decrepit ones, and set aside the ones you may use as you hang clothes up today.   When you’re done clearing space today, put all the extras in the laundry room.

      • Collect and recycle the empty shoe and shipping boxes, then toss out the shopping bags, dry cleaner bags, tags, pocket lint, tissues, etc. from the floor.
      • Collect all those Errands-To-Be-Run items – for return, repair, donate or share?  Yep – send them all on their way.  Pack them into the car, and add the errands to this week’s to-do list.
      • If space is tight, consider moving move all non-clothing items elsewhere.  (For example, more-than-one-piece-of-luggage, keepsakes, excessive bedding, gifts to be given, bags of clothing donations, fans, furniture?)  Send these under the bed or into storage elsewhere in your home.
      • Swap your clothes for the season.  Yes, I know it may seem like a hassle, and I also know some items can be worn all 12 months but some… can’t or shouldn’t be worn all 12 months.  Store these in storage bins or totes under the bed or on the top shelf of the closet.  Your clothes will last longer safely folded away instead of hanging and collecting dust, and you will reap major space benefits by clearing away items you won’t wear for a while.
      • Swap out your shoes for the season, too.
      • Move that safe on the floor. (Yes, everyone keeps their safe on the floor of their closet and thieves know it.) Hide it somewhere clever while freeing up some closet space.
      • Now that you have more breathing room, use your vertical space better: install over the door shoe racks on the back of the doors, or jewelry storage on a blank wall.

Try one, try all!  And enjoy some breathing room in your closet this week!

Maintain Your Home Today to Avoid Emergencies Tomorrow

Earlier this year, I crafted this list of monthly, seasonal and annual household tasks for a client new to home ownership.   She wanted to keep up on regular maintenance tasks because she is smart, and realizes that regular maintenance is the best way to avoid emergencies down the road.

For example, every Fall:

  • Have your furnace and air conditioner looked at now, to avoid an emergency and costly repair or replacement in the dead of winter.
  • Turn off outdoor water faucets completely, to keep pipes from freezing (and bursting).
  • Take care of your lawnmower and snowblower at the change of seasons to keep them running well for many years to come.
  • And the list goes on and on…

Of course we can’t avoid emergencies or accidents completely, but we can invest some time and resources in keeping them away as much as possible!

This list is a start, a jumping-off point.  Feel free to copy and paste it to your own document and edit it to make it more personal and specific to your situation, such as if you have pets or a swimming pool,  or more than one home or just a condo or apartment, obviously tasks can be added or subtracted to fit your needs.

Annual Tasks:

  • HVAC system check
  • Clean rugs
  • License and license plate sticker renewal

Fall / Winter:

  • Winterize your lawnmower
  • Get your snowblower ready, turn it on and let it run a few minutes  (Get some gas, too)
  • Flush hot water heater and remove sediment
  • Turn off and flush outdoor water faucets
  • Test sump pump /  sump pump valve replacement
  • Outdoor greastrap
  • Rout the shower drain
  • Winterize air conditioning system
  • Clean duct work
  • Get heating system ready for winter
  • Clean / check fire place, get chimney cleaned
  • Check driveway/pavement for cracks
  • Buy winter gear and sidewalk salt
  • Bring deck furniture in
  • Check window screens
  • Wash mini blinds
  • Wash out and de-clutter cabinets and closets
  • De-grease top of cabinets if no soffit

Spring / Summer:

  • Check and repair screens
  • check and repair deck
  • move deck furniture to deck
  • clean and summer-ize snow blower

Twice a Year:

  • Windows inside and out
  • Clean curtains / draperies
  • Wash or dry clean comforters
  • Vacuum your fridge coils, pull fridge out and vacuum behind
  • Swap out reverse osmosis unit water filter
  • Check and clear dryer vents
  • Reverse ceiling Fans
  • Test smoke alarms, carbon monoxide detectors, fire extinguishers, and all ground-fault circuit interrupters.
  • Clean gutters and downspouts

Monthly:

  • Inspect and possibly change furnace filter
  • Vacuum heat registers and heat vents
  • Clean range hood filters and garbage disposal (grind ice cubes, then flush with hot water and baking soda)
  • Pour a tea pot full of boiling water down bathroom sink drains
  • Clean coffee maker

Weekly / Daily:

  • Clean dishwasher trap (weekly)
  • Errands and grocery shopping
  • Pet waste clean-up
  • Restock pet supplies
  • Rugs, towels and bedding
  • Daily laundry
  • Go through mail / shred stuff / pay bills

So, use a little time this week to take care of your home maintenance tasks, and get your home prepped for the next season!

A Place To Put My Hiking Gear

These last few weeks, I’ve written or shared articles about Being Prepared for National Preparedness Month.

Being Prepared isn’t just about preparing for crises and emergencies, though.
Being Prepared can be about being ready for anything that life throws your way, the Good in addition to the emergencies!

I’m going to re-cap this article before you read the rest, with these tips for Preparing For The Good Stuff:

  1. Recognize what is important to you.
  2. Proactively clear obstacles that stand in the way of being able to do what is important to you.
  3. Dedicate resources to what is important to you.
  4. Maintain your Prepared for the Good Stuff status with regular attention.

For example:  I recently purchased a hiking back pack.

Did you know?  I love to hike.  Nature nurtures and delights me. From big vacations to stolen moments as I travel through my day-to-day, I find reasons to stop and be out in nature.

I like to be prepared, so I have a small pile of hiking stuff I take with me when I hike, and I keep it at the ready in a small pouch.  What is my “hiking stuff”?  Bug spray, signal whistle and compass, small portable first aid kit, hat, bandanas (for keeping mosquitoes out of my ears, I hate that!), etc.  And I would toss that small pouch, a water bottle and a protein bar in my big backpack when I was going for a hike.

Or, I would do that if I wasn’t already using the big pack pack for something else, like when we were already traveling and the big back pack was my luggage. Or, sometimes the big back pack was just, well, too big for a day hike, and if you hike, you know you want to travel light. And where do I keep my pouch of hiking stuff between hikes?

I recently decided that to truly honor my love of hiking, I needed to dedicate some resources to making my hiking hobby work better for me.   Life is never about the stuff, but I can still be really happy with a new purchase that will make my life better.  (Shown here is the Kavu Paxton Pack I purchased, after a little bit of research.)

The new hiking pack solved the challenges I had with my hiking stuff before now.  Most importantly, I find the already packed hiking backpack motivating and it makes me happy, so Win-Win.  When there is absolutely no obstacle to an early morning hike other than filling my reusable water bottle and heading out the door, I am much more likely to actually head out that door!

I haven’t always considered myself an athlete, but knowing I’m prepared to hit the trails makes me feel like an athlete in this game called life, and I find that motivating, as well.

So, to Be Prepared for the Good in life:

  1. Recognize what is important to you.
  2. Proactively clear obstacles that stand in the way of being able to do what is important to you.
  3. Dedicate resources to what is important to you.
  4. Maintain your Prepared for the Good Stuff status with regular attention.

Happy Hiking! (Or whatever you choose!)

So, What’s In Your Wallet?

My husband has been on a mission lately, reviewing all his Little Spaces around the house.  You know, those Little Spaces?  His launch pad (basket) by the back door, his briefcase, different drawers of his desk, his wallet, etc.  Last week he shred a couple dozen files from his file cabinet, and this week he reviewed and pared down the contents of his wallet.

As he spread his wallet’s contents on the kitchen counter, I told him that he is the inspiration for this week’s article!

So, what’s in your wallet?  From an organized and prepared point of view, we should carry exactly what we need and not much else.


How to:  First, take everything out of your wallet, and lay it out on a flat space!

Sort what you have:

  • ID, credit cards, insurance cards, of course.  But also…
  • gift cards, rewards cards;
  • appointment reminders, business cards; and
  • receipts and random minutiae.

Purge what can go:

  • Review expiration dates, and shred any old ID or credit cards.  (Auto insurance cards from  12 or 18 months ago?  Yes, those can go.)  And if you purge an old card, make sure you have the most up-to-date version if it is something you need to carry.
  • Add appointments into your calendar and toss / recycle the card (Dentist appointment reminder card from last summer?  Yep, that can go, too!).
  • Take a little time and enter business card contact info into your phone, and toss / recycle those, too.
  • File or shred old receipts.
  • Are you trying to track or curb spending?  Consider leaving a credit card or two at home

Once you know what you’re keeping:

  • Check the balances on any mystery gift cards in your wallet, or call or go on-line and combine your balances if you have duplicates.  I carry a tiny sharpie in my wallet to make note of gift card balances on the card as I use them up.
  • Any account cards, gift cards or loyalty reward cards you can move to your smart phone and stop carrying around with you entirely?  Go for it!
  • Take the cards that you are going to carry in your wallet and lay them flat on your printer glass and make a copy.  Then, flip all the cards over, and make a copy of those sides, too.  Keep these 2 sheets in a safe but convenient place in case you lose your wallet and need to file a report or make phone calls / go on-line to cancel your cards.
  • Pare down what you carry!  Make sure that your wallet is streamlined and that you can easily find what you need when you’re looking for it.

Looking Ahead:

  • Live lighter and more organized with a cleaned-out wallet!
  • Make a habit of snapping a picture of a business card instead of accepting it, or entering  an appointment in your calendar right as you make it and eliminate the need for those extra bits of papers floating around.
  • Make a habit of reviewing your wallet every few months, to keep it pared down and efficient!

Help Yourself Help Yourself! (Did you follow that?)

These last few weeks, a couple of readers have commented “Wow, you’re so organized!” Thanks for that, but I write these articles for inspiration, motivation and education (and never to show off!)  To shake things up and remind me why I write, lets start out with this week’s conclusions and suggestions:

“This week, look around and notice what tasks at home or work waste your time or make you tense, anxious or frustrated. Then ask yourself, ‘Is there something I can do about this task? Reschedule, outsource, do it less often, delegate it to someone else, automate it?’  If it is a challenge you are willing to talk about, ask others in your tribe (your people) how they have handled a similar challenge.  Then commit to change!”

We have a new schedule this Fall.  The sophomore has a 6:45 am zero hour class.  He likes it, I like it, it works.  Of course, we’ve only been at this for 2 weeks and I may change my mind when it’s -10 degrees and black as night at 6:45 am.

This earlier start makes me re-think some of my usual habits.

I have found the earlier start a challenge as I am not creative at 7 am even when that is the only  time I have to write my blog article for the week… ummmm… well… I got a lot of other things done, but not that…

I can’t text or call to check in with my clients at 6:45 as that’s just plain rude.  I could run errands with that extra early time, however:  I despise running errands any time and few things are open at 6:45 am.

I realized, however, as I’ve pondered how to run my errands at 7 am, that I have eliminated a number of weekly recurring tasks for home and business in the last few months.  For example:

  • Target Restock is magical.  OK, not magical, but really useful.  In the past, I would take a couple of days to create my Target list and then I still had to go and shop and put away.  Now, I add items to my list (my “Box”), hit send every couple of weeks, and our paper goods, toiletries and pantry items just show up on the door step.
  • Target Restock or Amazon.com is also helpful for stocking my work supplies – garbage bags, packing tape, etc. – so every other week, I check my supplies, place my order and poof! – stuff shows up a day later.
  • I eliminated the need to stop at Office Max / Office Depot once a week for myself and for clients – OfficeDepot.com.  I set up my customer and account information on-line and now enjoy their rewards program and free next day arrival.
  • I long ago automated our cleaning supplies with a once a month shipment from Melaleuca, and the same for my nutritional supplements from Isagenix.  (If you want more info about either, let me know.)
  • Around the house, laundry is more efficient by enlisting Alexa’s aid to tell me when to switch loads.  The Roomba runs every weekday morning, and while he doesn’t do a perfect job (yes my Roomba is a “He” and his name is Sonny, per the IRobot movie), he have been helpful in stretching time between cleanings.
  • I sampled a grocery delivery service this summer with mixed results.  I need to work on that!

“This week, look around and notice what tasks at home or work waste your time or make you tense, anxious or frustrated. Then ask yourself, ‘Is there something I can do about this task? Reschedule, outsource, do it less often, delegate it to someone else, automate it?’  If it is a challenge you are willing to talk about, ask others in your tribe how they have handled a similar challenge.  Then commit to change!”