Tag: projects

Truth Bombs About Socks

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I worked with a new client this morning.  She is awesome.  All my clients are awesome. 

This client, whom I will refer to as Client (all names are changed to protect the innocent), and I worked on her tween daughter’s room.  Client sorted her daughter’s  clothes into “keep” and “donate” piles while I worked on the physical space in the room.

As is often the case, the topic of Socks came up. And I capitalized “Socks” because Socks are a big issue.  More specifically, the topic of the big pile / basket / bag of unmatched, unloved and slightly scary Socks came up.

Come on, you know the basket.  The one that lurks in shadows, ready to take on more cast offs, silently judging you and draining your mental energy day in and day out?  Yes, that one.

Let me share with you some truths that I shared with Client this morning:

  • Some of us judge ourselves far more harshly than we deserve.
  • Just because friends don’t talk about this on Facebook doesn’t mean that others aren’t fighting the same struggle. You are not alone. Lots of people have too many Socks (and other things).
  • MORE IMPORTANTLY,
    • Possession of all these Socks does not make you a bad, lazy or crazy person.
    • Possession of all these Socks causes negative self-talk as we choose yet again to go about our day of Family and Work and Volunteering and finally Bed (all very important things!!) instead of dealing with those cursed Socks (not nearly as important).
    • You are awesome, and the quality of your character is not determined by a basket of Socks.

And, for your peace of mind, if you want to conquer Sock Mountain, try these:

  • Wash the Socks.  Check under beds and couches, and wash them all.  One nasty soccer sock really can ruin the whole basket.
  • Once clean, collect them all.  Yes, All.  Check the sock drawers for rogue lone rangers.
  • Enlist Aid.  All of these Socks are not yours (probably). This project will go more quickly with more hands.
  • At least try.  Some clients have suggested chucking all the Socks and starting over, but this is terribly wasteful and we won’t learn anything from that strategy.
  • Change your location.  If the laundry room is not well lit or cheerful, move the basket to your bedroom or the kitchen counter, or somewhere else that will inspire and motivate you.
  • Line the unmatched Socks up by size and dominant color, to make matching them up easier.
  • Luckily, these days, especially in the world of tween girls, unmatched Socks are cool and fun!
  • Set a lower limit and an upper limit.  Many times a session with my clients, I will ask “How much is enough?” and “How many is too many?”  For example, set your Enough for 30 (or some other number) pairs. Pick your favorite 30 and pair them up.  Now you can look at little more critically at the leftovers.
  • Recognize that those Socks, at least some of them, ended up in the basket for a reason, and may no longer be needed and useful.
  • Set a timer.  We can do anything, even if we don’t like to, for a short period of time.  Watching a show? Great.  Grab the basket, dump it out, and get to it until the buzzer rings.  Then put away the matched Socks, and donate the rest.

So, be nice to yourself this week about your Socks and anything else, be honest with others, and spend a little time and tackle this common problem!

The Gift Of “Completion”

The Gift Of “Completion”.  Done.  Good enough.  Followed-through. Tied up the loose ends.

christmas-present-lg

Give yourself and others the gift of “Completion” this week.  The gift of “Done”.

We all know what we are supposed to do, but we don’t always do it.  Go ahead and do it this week.

A client and her spouse challenged each other to complete the homework I assigned a month ago, before taking on more projects.  Completion.  Done.

“Completed” is powerful.  “Done” feels great.

I worked in a client’s home recently, and we discussed “Done” in terms of the items in her dining room awaiting delivery to other destinations (like donated books and a table destined for a co-worker’s art room).  She planned to have her teenagers drop off the items that day, to complete those final steps to clearing out their home space.

I ordered and picked up 20 more photo Christmas cards yesterday, went home, assembled them and sent them out.  Done. I balanced my business check book, updated my bookkeeping and paid my bills today instead of next week, to financially finish (almost) 2014.  I encouraged (nagged) my sons to finish wrapping their gifts so we could be done with the gift wrap.  I dropped off bags of donations, just to get them out of my house.  I went to my annual physical today. Done, done, done.   Whew.

Some days it seems that the last few steps of a project are the hardest to get motivated to complete (and therefore never seem to get done).  But please, push through those last steps, and then revel in Completion and Done.

“Completion” helps us breathe deeply, un-clutter our brain, feel lighter, look up and around, and think about something new for a change.

2014 is quickly wrapping up, and 2015 is almost here!  In what areas can you tie up the loose ends this week and next? Work? Personal?  Correspondence?  Small home projects?  What requires Follow-through?   Take time to wrap up those last steps and complete your projects!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

“Cleanse Your Power Center”: I organized my office, not my chakras.

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work shelf photoI received an email last week entitled “Cleanse Your Power Center”.

I thought “Great idea!  My ‘power center’ sounds like my office, and it does need cleansing.”  Upon actually reading the article, I realized the writer had a more spiritual intention, and I was supposed to be cleansing my chakras.  I organized my office instead. My chakras will have to wait.  And for the record, I did the deep breathing recommended while reviewing papers!

A few years ago, I had a work space custom-built, including a flat work space, a shelf above my work space and closed cabinets above the shelf, and 3 drawers for supplies and things.  I also have a file cabinet, though after this weekend only ¾ of one drawer contains files.

So how to get started?  Set aside a few hours and focus on your space.  As with any project, focus your efforts on small spaces to start.  Attacking the office all at once can feel overwhelming!  And imagine if I tear apart my office and then have to stop organizing to go somewhere or do Work – I’m left with a torn-up mess and no place to work.

1.  Start with the Easy Stuff.  I removed a small table because it just collects stuff.  I took out the trash and recycling, emptied the shredder and took some old electronics to the car to be recycled this week.  Whew, better already!

2.  Organize Your Horizontal Work Space.  Your office will look better immediately!  I intentionally built a not-too-big work space.  I don’t store papers on it, and I am dedicated to putting stuff away at the end of every day.  The work space is  comfortable, well-lit, welcoming (to me), and typically clear.  This is actually the easiest place for me to start, requiring 5 minutes to clean out pens, clear off my bulletin board, and wipe everything down.  My Power Center is looking cleansed!

3.  Tackle Valuable and Visible Storage Space.  This is where you should store really important, active papers.  Perhaps this is on your desk top.  In my office, it’s the shelf above my desk.  The items on it are physical reminders of projects and responsibilities I need to tend to.  It is literally and figuratively Work hanging over my work space and head.  If it starts to look overcrowded, I start to feel stress!  So maintaining a clean and streamlined appearance on the shelf helps me feel positive and motivated about work!  In addition, this shelf is visible to everyone walking by, so it’s important that it looks nice.  This shelf, too, needed just a little work.  I cleared out my reading pile, re-labeled some items, and set aside a few binders that hold in-active materials.

4.  Tackle Valuable but Closed Storage Space next, like the cabinets above my desk. I cleared out old books (donate pile), obsolete organizing and tech products and manuals (recycle!), and Cub Scout resources that I can store in our scout storage room at our program location.  Clearing out just these three types of materials opened up space for the binders of in-active materials from the open shelf.

5. Drawers:  I took a quick glance through my drawers next, but they, too, are pretty tidy.  Mostly, I dumped some old marketing materials and more dead electronics, and cleared some space.   It’s easy to waste lots of energy organizing these little spaces, so don’t fall into that trap.  Spend just a little time on the desk drawers and supplies, then move on.

6. Files:  My last stop was my File Cabinet.  I am slowly moving towards a paperless      office, but I am not there yet!  And my challenge, just like everyone else, is finding the time for maintenance.  I file papers in my files, expecting to refer back to them some day.  But I rarely do go back to them, and there they sit.  I cleared out almost every paper that was more than 2 years old, and re-titled files to find important stuff more quickly.  I even went the extra step, grabbed my label maker and made all the tabs consistent and snazzy.

For a couple of hours of work, my “Power Center” is “cleansed”, my office runs more smoothly and feels better, and the ideas are flowing freely.  I feel better, and I’m pretty sure the “power center” article writer would approve.  What one or two ideas can you take from this article to work on your office this week? Let me know!

A Tuesday Morning Bedtime Story

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Today’s blog was named by Leslie and inspired by Bridget.  Thanks ladies!

I was pondering today’s “productivity” blog while I organized our bedding… then Ping!  Light Bulb!  How about I share the bedding ideas with you instead?

Last week, I realized the bedding drawer in the guest space was a lot fuller than our bedding chest on the main floor.  Today’s project was to review what we have, purge unnecessary sheets and pillow cases, and re-allocate the ones we’re keeping.

Also, while working with a client recently, she asked “Don’t you have dozens of mystery sheets that are never used and match nothing?” Um, No, I don’t, but I was motivated to complete this project!

Here’s how it went:

  1. I finished all the laundry and then collected all our sheets together in one place.  We have 5 people living here, with 3 twin beds and one queen bed.  In our basement we have guest lodgings of two more twin beds and a queen size Aerobed.
  2. I sorted the sheets into piles for twin and queen size, then matched up the flats and fitted with the cases.
  3. I folded the sets together, with the folded flat sheets wrapped around the folded fitted sheets and cases.  I put one set of queen sheets and 2 sets of twin back in the basement guest space and stored the rest in the bedding chest in my room.
  4. The “donate”  pile held three random sheets that match nothing, an old set of queen sheets and some Buzz Lightyear twin sheets that have been through 3 boys and are ready for retirement.   I answered a Facebook request from a mom looking for twin size bed sheets for her little boy’s bed, and offered her our Buzz Lightyear sheets.  I am glad they will be loved anew by another little boy! I bundled the rest of the “donate” pile together and will drop it off at the animal shelter this week with some old t-shirts.

A few tips I have picked up along the way:

  1. For years, I purchased only white sheets so that I could bleach them all and keep them cleaner.  Since it is difficult to determine sheet size at a glance, I noted a T or a Q on a discreet corner.  If you use all the same color, you could also separate the sizes of sheets by storing them on a different shelf or in each room.
  2. I grew tired of white bedding, though it did have its advantages.  I am slowly making the switch to color and patterns in our bedding:  any new twin size sheets I purchase are striped, and any queen size sheets  will be a solid color.
  3. I have also heard the suggestion of storing the two sheets and the extra pillow      case if there is one folded together in the matching pillow case.  That works for some, but not for me.
  4. We store our guest bedding in a dresser drawer in our guest space, and everyone else’s bedding in the chest at the foot of our bed, so extremely tidy edges are not necessary.
  5. We don’t keep a lot of extras.  Two sheet sets for each of our beds (and one is on the bed), and one set each for the guest beds.  Fewer items mean less clutter.
  6. Once and for all, Here is how one person can fold a fitted sheet to lay flat while keeping it off the ground (I learned from a pro – Literally!  I used to help out at my dad’s Laundromat in high school, and the tiny and efficient Shirley showed me the trick):
    1. Grab two adjacent corners and bring them together, and do the same for the other end.
    2. Fold the flat size in half, so all the fitted corners fit together.
    3. Grasp one end of the flat side in each hand and pull flat across your chest,       then fold into thirds down your front, rounded elastic side in first, and the flat side in last.
    4. Starting at the bottom (the lumpiest part), fold up in thirds so that you are left with straight sides and edges.

So, collect the bedding that you have; sort it into sizes and sets; determine what needs to go away either because it is old or ill fitting or scratchy; and choose a storage place close at hand for the items you intend to keep.  Another quick project that will make your life easier!