Have you ever looked at your house and seen it as others would if they walked in unannounced?
Don’t cringe. Get up and do something about it.
Here’s my advice for the day. Grab a garbage bag and take a tour. Anything that your eyes fall upon that you don’t love, haven’t used and don’t have a place for, put it in the bag. Free your space of the things without meaning, so the things that actually mean something can take center stage.
It’s a freeing experience, to toss what doesn’t have meaning. You streamline your space and clear your head. Don’t take time to hem and haw over whether to toss or not. The whole point of the exercise is to be ruthless, to learn how to overcome the indecision that at times paralyzes us all. That’s when we fall into a rut and lose sight of our goals, blinded by all the needless stuff that really surrounds us.
Your challenge is this: How many items can you toss? Ten? Thirty? Fifty? The reader who gets rid of the most and sends a photo of their magnificent out pile to linearthoughts@comcast.net will win four free hours of in-home organizing. Get motivated! Worst-case scenario? You wish you had back what you tossed, and you go on eBay and find it again.
Get started and see how far it takes you.
Good luck!
LT
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Change You Can Accomplish
Since today is all about hope and fresh starts, I thought I'd talk a bit about change. January is a great time for assessing what you want for yourself, where you are and where you want to go, and for setting goals and making resolutions -- I mean, what else is there to do when there's more snow every day? But here it is, the end of the month. How many people have already fallen off the wagon, so to speak?
According to a resolution specialist, here are some scary stats:
Forty to 45 percent of American adults make one or more resolutions each year. Only 75 percent make it past the first week. Seventy-one percent make it to week two. Past one month, the numbers drop fairly significantly to 64 percent. More than half, 46 percent, give up before they reach the six-month mark.
Are you going to get there? Or are you going to be a New Year's casualty? The difference between the two is in the process. Making positive change is part of a course of action in which we need more than resolve -- we need a real departure from the old behaviors that acted as roadblocks to change.
Getting organized (in the top 5 resolutions every year) isn't all about the type-A obsessive compulsive. It actually frees up more time for fun, since we spend less time searching for what we need and railing at our lack of control. A lot of organizing goals stem from a need to have more time and less stress and also from the knowledge that we are our own worst enemies. We throw our keys into the bottom of our purses, knowing that later when we need them, we will dig and curse and waste time. We wait till the last minute to prepare for a big meeting, then judge our performance harshly, filling ourselves with doubt and insecurity.
The question is: How do we break the cycle of missed opportunity and self-criticism?
Seeing the new life you envision set down in black and white can be empowering, but there is a vast gap between setting new objectives and bringing them to life. Goals can be a friend or foe, depending on how you approach them. If you set goals that are too vague, you won't know where to start. Make your goals specific as you can, and give yourself short-term and long-term deadlines to force the hand of progress.
First, right now, revisit your resolutions and take stock. Did you shoot too high? Hope for too much change without realizing how challenging it would be? Don't veer off course just yet. Revise your list, now that you're being more realistic. If your goals aren't reasonable or specific, you're not going to be successful no matter how hard you try. Do you want to have your whole house under control by spring break? Not going to happen, my friends. Unrealistic. But if you work consistently, focusing on short-term projects, you'll get there by this time next year. And in that time, you will have learned new behaviors that will keep you on track for the rest of your life. Organizing -- whether it's space, stuff or time -- is a series of learned behaviors that can be adopted and modified at any point. To get to your goal, try working in 10-minute to hourlong increments and feel good about what you accomplish in that time.
Second, consider your mind-set. Are you passively approaching the change you want to make or are you really going for it? Motivation is a huge piece of success. Part of instituting new behaviors is finding ways to keep from getting bored and frustrated. How bad do you want it? If you work to accomplish smaller goals, each milestone you reach will keep you reaching for more.
Third, perfect your strategy. Are you using processes that make sense for you? Getting organized is a lot like learning study habits when you're younger. If you try to use a system that isn't a good fit for you, success will be that much more out of your reach. Frustration usually ends badly, in giving up. A huge part of realizing success in organizing is seizing the right opportunity as it applies to your life. Once you find a particular process that works easily for you, apply it as often as you can and use those results to learn and modify as you go. The success will solidify your commitment. Focus on increasing your strengths rather than eliminating your weaknesses.
And the last part, and probably most important, is to track your progress. Keep a short record of what you've changed, when, how, and what process you've used to reach your goals. Keep it simple and create a schedule for recording what you've done. If you haven't made it as far as you'd like, be honest about that, too. If you're being lazy, no one will know but you. But you're also the only one who suffers for it.
So don't give up if you're on the cusp. Keep trying. The world is changing -- today, right now. How about you?
Love, LT
According to a resolution specialist, here are some scary stats:
Forty to 45 percent of American adults make one or more resolutions each year. Only 75 percent make it past the first week. Seventy-one percent make it to week two. Past one month, the numbers drop fairly significantly to 64 percent. More than half, 46 percent, give up before they reach the six-month mark.
Are you going to get there? Or are you going to be a New Year's casualty? The difference between the two is in the process. Making positive change is part of a course of action in which we need more than resolve -- we need a real departure from the old behaviors that acted as roadblocks to change.
Getting organized (in the top 5 resolutions every year) isn't all about the type-A obsessive compulsive. It actually frees up more time for fun, since we spend less time searching for what we need and railing at our lack of control. A lot of organizing goals stem from a need to have more time and less stress and also from the knowledge that we are our own worst enemies. We throw our keys into the bottom of our purses, knowing that later when we need them, we will dig and curse and waste time. We wait till the last minute to prepare for a big meeting, then judge our performance harshly, filling ourselves with doubt and insecurity.
The question is: How do we break the cycle of missed opportunity and self-criticism?
Seeing the new life you envision set down in black and white can be empowering, but there is a vast gap between setting new objectives and bringing them to life. Goals can be a friend or foe, depending on how you approach them. If you set goals that are too vague, you won't know where to start. Make your goals specific as you can, and give yourself short-term and long-term deadlines to force the hand of progress.
First, right now, revisit your resolutions and take stock. Did you shoot too high? Hope for too much change without realizing how challenging it would be? Don't veer off course just yet. Revise your list, now that you're being more realistic. If your goals aren't reasonable or specific, you're not going to be successful no matter how hard you try. Do you want to have your whole house under control by spring break? Not going to happen, my friends. Unrealistic. But if you work consistently, focusing on short-term projects, you'll get there by this time next year. And in that time, you will have learned new behaviors that will keep you on track for the rest of your life. Organizing -- whether it's space, stuff or time -- is a series of learned behaviors that can be adopted and modified at any point. To get to your goal, try working in 10-minute to hourlong increments and feel good about what you accomplish in that time.
Second, consider your mind-set. Are you passively approaching the change you want to make or are you really going for it? Motivation is a huge piece of success. Part of instituting new behaviors is finding ways to keep from getting bored and frustrated. How bad do you want it? If you work to accomplish smaller goals, each milestone you reach will keep you reaching for more.
Third, perfect your strategy. Are you using processes that make sense for you? Getting organized is a lot like learning study habits when you're younger. If you try to use a system that isn't a good fit for you, success will be that much more out of your reach. Frustration usually ends badly, in giving up. A huge part of realizing success in organizing is seizing the right opportunity as it applies to your life. Once you find a particular process that works easily for you, apply it as often as you can and use those results to learn and modify as you go. The success will solidify your commitment. Focus on increasing your strengths rather than eliminating your weaknesses.
And the last part, and probably most important, is to track your progress. Keep a short record of what you've changed, when, how, and what process you've used to reach your goals. Keep it simple and create a schedule for recording what you've done. If you haven't made it as far as you'd like, be honest about that, too. If you're being lazy, no one will know but you. But you're also the only one who suffers for it.
So don't give up if you're on the cusp. Keep trying. The world is changing -- today, right now. How about you?
Love, LT
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Snow more messy entryway!
Now that we've been walloped with more snow than we know what to do with, what say we talk about keeping your entryway looking less like something FEMA needs to come rescue, and more like the peaceful retreat you need at the end of a long day?
I know what it looks like: Sloshy boots, wet mittens, hats, earmuffs all discarded at the doorway amid puddles and sand. Perhaps they're all collected on wet newspaper or maybe a dirty rug of some kind. It's nasty, let's be honest.
Time to harness the chaos!
If you're lucky enough to have a foyer, use it. Send out an edict that nothing that can be left at the door come any farther into the house than necessary. This keeps the floors dry and saves your socks while you're padding around.
If you have a coat closet, make sure you're using it for good. Take out all the miscellany and dedicate it as the one and only home for coats and winter weather gear that you need right now. Also be sure that you have enough hangers (strong ones that will withstand the weight of your good winter coats) to accommodate what needs to be hung.
For the wet stuff: No more pooling on the floor. If you don't already have one to annex from your laundry room, invest in a reasonable standing clothes rack (accordion style is best for folding away when not in use) and put it in your bathroom tub. Or you can opt for a lingerie drying rack with clips that hangs from the shower bar, too (containerstore.com, 19.99).
When wet clothes come in from sledding and shoveling, hang coats to dry on the shower bar and dry the accessories on the rack. They'll be dry by the next time you need them and your entryway won't look like the plows ran through it.
Hope that helps! Happy Tuesday.
LT
I know what it looks like: Sloshy boots, wet mittens, hats, earmuffs all discarded at the doorway amid puddles and sand. Perhaps they're all collected on wet newspaper or maybe a dirty rug of some kind. It's nasty, let's be honest.
Time to harness the chaos!
If you're lucky enough to have a foyer, use it. Send out an edict that nothing that can be left at the door come any farther into the house than necessary. This keeps the floors dry and saves your socks while you're padding around.
If you have a coat closet, make sure you're using it for good. Take out all the miscellany and dedicate it as the one and only home for coats and winter weather gear that you need right now. Also be sure that you have enough hangers (strong ones that will withstand the weight of your good winter coats) to accommodate what needs to be hung.
For the wet stuff: No more pooling on the floor. If you don't already have one to annex from your laundry room, invest in a reasonable standing clothes rack (accordion style is best for folding away when not in use) and put it in your bathroom tub. Or you can opt for a lingerie drying rack with clips that hangs from the shower bar, too (containerstore.com, 19.99).
When wet clothes come in from sledding and shoveling, hang coats to dry on the shower bar and dry the accessories on the rack. They'll be dry by the next time you need them and your entryway won't look like the plows ran through it.
Hope that helps! Happy Tuesday.
LT
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Putting it all away
Now that everyone's just about back to their daily routine, it's definitely time to think about long-term storage for all the holiday decorations you pulled out a month ago. Your New Year's goal of organization will come to fruition with a little extra effort now.
Untangling lights and getting them on and off the tree used to inspire less fa-la-la, and result in far more creative f-words in my house -- who's with me? Make the project go quicker by wrapping and storing them with the best tool for the job.
So here's LT's outstanding organizing product of the day:
The Christmas Light Storage Reel and Bag. I have found them at the Christmas Tree Shops in Massachusetts, but for those of you outside 128, they can be bought online through amazon.com for $9.98.
Wrap up that last holiday project and get your space back under control. Don't you love when your whole house looks bigger, just by subtraction?
Happy Packing!
LT
Untangling lights and getting them on and off the tree used to inspire less fa-la-la, and result in far more creative f-words in my house -- who's with me? Make the project go quicker by wrapping and storing them with the best tool for the job.So here's LT's outstanding organizing product of the day:
The Christmas Light Storage Reel and Bag. I have found them at the Christmas Tree Shops in Massachusetts, but for those of you outside 128, they can be bought online through amazon.com for $9.98.
Wrap up that last holiday project and get your space back under control. Don't you love when your whole house looks bigger, just by subtraction?
Happy Packing!
LT
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