Let’s face it. For some of us, there is nothing joyful about sorting, editing or organizing. Even for those of us that love to organize (guilty as charged,) there can be certain types of projects that can be challenging. As shared in some recent posts, I’ve been organizing our family home of 56+ years and preparing it for sale. It’s been an emotional journey mixed with challenging and joy-filled moments. On the positive side, connecting with the human side of organizing has helped me to more easily navigate the waters. I’ve done this by honoring the treasures instead of focusing on loss or pain. Along the way I made some wonderful discoveries, which I’ll share with you.

Last week in the post, What Treasures Will Be Discovered When You Are Organizing?, I wrote about the rich history of love that was part of my family. Today I’ll share a few more things I found from my childhood. I’m grateful that my Mom chose to keep these because they provided me with insight into where I came from and what was present early on.

This week’s shares are about humor, art and love. Finding them supported me as I sorted, edited, and let go. Their discovery, gave me some much needed laughter, smiles and warm feelings. By pausing to reflect, the treasures allowed me to embrace the joy experienced from the wonderfully human side of organizing.

Empathy and Humor

I wrote this pink-papered note to my Mom when I was eight or nine years old. “Ludwick” short for Ludwig Von Beethoven was one of our cats. It must have been bedtime and my Mom wanted me to turn out my lights. However, I had a different plan, as expressed in this note. Reading it 50 years later made me laugh, especially that last sentence, which reads almost like a punch line.

”Tonight is one of those nights.”

I liked seeing how I advocated for the cat and myself at this young age using an interesting mix of empathy and clarity.

Creativity and Art

What a surprise to find this drawing I made when I was eight! While I don’t remember creating this exact image, I do remember making these types of crayon and India ink scratchboards. I loved making them. On white cardboard, I colored crayons over the surface. Then I brushed black India ink to cover up the crayons. With a pencil or end of paper clip, I scratched out designs in the ink, allowing the colored crayon and white cardboard to show through. There is nothing special about the drawing. However, it brings back that happy feeling and intense focus I had while creating something. My parents gave me ample opportunity to make art, both informally and formally. To this day I love creating whether it’s through writing, baking, taking photos, setting the table, or making something with my hands.

Family and Love

Sitting on the couch in our family’s living room, there I am on grandmother’s lap surrounded by all four grandparents and my Mom. I’m sure that at age five, I didn’t fully appreciate the importance of having the love and attention of my family. Several years after this photo was taken, both of my grandfathers passed away. I am so grateful that my two grandmothers, Nana Stell and Nana Roe, lived into my young adulthood and that I have strong memories of my grandfathers. Discovering this photo, which I had never before seen, brought back warm feelings of unconditional love that my grandparents gave to me.

When you’ve organized, have you encountered that human side of organizing? I’d love to hear your stories or thoughts. Come join the conversation!

Connecting with the human side of organizing brings the process to an entirely different place. One way we can do this is by focusing our efforts on the treasures instead of loss. As you organize, if you hunt for treasures, you can experience unexpected joy, laughter, and an array of other emotions. We can learn things about ourselves, understand connections we never realized, or find humor to lighten up our mood.

As some of you may know, I’ve been sorting through and organizing our family home of 56+ years. In recent blog posts, I’ve written more about this experience. If you want to read more, check out these posts including What Are The Possibilities When You Clear Your “Space?,” What Does Organizing Success Look Life For You?, and How to Be Successful With Your Projects and Purpose.

Now back to the wonderfully human aspect of organizing and discovering family treasures. The treasures I found were not gold or jewels, but instead photos, documents, and other things. Today and in the coming weeks, I’ll share some of these discoveries with you. I hope this will inspire you to embrace the human side of organizing and allow you to focus on positive discoveries, learning, and the aspects that are joyful.

There were many things that I found, especially among the photos. They were stored in various places in the house and in no particular order. So they presented me with a sort of treasure hunt on steroids. The treasures I’m sharing this week speak to the rich history of love that was part of my family. Finding them supported me as I sorted, edited, and let go.

My Grandmothers

One of the things that I had forgotten was that over time my grandmothers while from different family backgrounds and corners of the world became very good friends. As a matter of fact, I remember at one point one of my grandmothers went to live with the other for a while. They took care of each other and had a unique friendship. In this photo, which I’d never seen, it shows my Nana Stell and Nana Roe casually sitting together on what looks like a picnic table. It’s probably from the late 1940’s or early 1950's. I can see how comfortable they were together and how much they were enjoying each other’s company.

My Parents

My folks were married over 61 years before my Dad passed away. They were soul mates and deeply in love. They faced life’s challenges together, were strong individually, and an amazing team together. In this photo, their closeness and support of one another is obvious. They loved the sea. I can imagine them standing there together feeling grateful for each other, their family, and the view in front of them. While the waves can knock down even the strongest of us, their love endured all of life’s challenges with grace, generosity, and kindness. They were a positive force in the world.

My Daddy and Me

What can I say? Being the youngest of three, I definitely felt like Daddy’s little girl, or “Squirt,” as he sometimes called me. I can remember the feeling of comfort and love just sitting on my Dad’s lap. All felt right in the world. I loved spending time with him, especially on Saturday mornings when we’d run errands together. It didn’t matter where we went- to the cleaners, the hardware store, or the bakery. It was fun going around with him, just the two of us. He always made me laugh.

As you’ve organized, what treasures have you or your clients discovered? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation!

With the Thanksgiving season upon us, thoughts of gratitude, family, friends, food, and love are usually the focus. While there has been some “turkey talk,” more of the conversations are politics-filled, especially because of the recent election. We are passionate human beings with varying perspectives and values. Our emotions are running high. While we wouldn’t necessarily view organizing habits and politics together, I had a conversation during a client organizing session, which made me think about the connection.

My client was telling me how much she valued working with me and then mentioned an excerpt from a recent White House Press Conference, which related to her thoughts. At the press conference, President Obama was referring to the President-Elect and talking about the importance of recognizing aspects of your temperament that will or will not serve you well as President. He said that recognizing and correcting for deficits are essential to being successful in that role.

Obama used the following example to express this idea and said, 

“…I know myself well enough to know I can’t keep track of paper. I am not well organized in that way. And so pretty quickly, after I’m getting stacks of briefing books coming in every night, I say to myself, I’ve got to figure out a system because I have bad filing, sorting and organizing habits. And I’ve got to find some people who can help me keep track of this stuff. That seems trivial, but actually it ends up being a pretty big piece of business.”

We all have strengths and challenges. Even the President needs help staying organized. Positive outcomes happen when we’re able to work from our strengths and enlist the right support for our challenges.

Uncertainty exists, especially in this tumultuous political climate. However, you can choose to embrace change with the things you have within your control. Are their habits that no longer serve you? Do you see an opening for change? What support do you need to move forward? If it’s organizing help that you desire, I’m just a phone call away. Reach out. Let me help you change your corner of the world.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation.

One of the greatest joys in life is spending time with your loved ones. At least it is for me. There’s nothing quite like having shared experiences and some good old human, face-to-face interaction to strengthen our relationships and understanding of each other.  I had the chance to do just that on a recent a road trip with my husband, daughter and her friend. Car time is wonderful for conversing, sharing music, and enjoying each other’s company.

On this particular trip, aside from actively participating in the conversations, I was also the driver. While I was paying attention to the speed limit, traffic patterns, and road signs, I neglected to notice the gas gauge. I was so focused on dialoguing and driving, that I ignored a very important sign until it was too late…well, almost too late.

At one point my attention shifted when I noticed the yellow “out of gas” indicator light and the “zero miles remaining before the gas ran out” gauge. Fortunately, I saw the warnings right before an exit. Despite the fact that the highway exit sign didn’t indicate gas stations available, I opted to get off the highway. I thought, as did my passengers, that it would be better to run out of gas on the exit ramp than on the highway. As the story goes, there was a gas station located at the bottom of the exit. Phew! We pulled up just in time and filled the tank.

I felt stupid and embarrassed. This could have been inconvenient, not to mention dangerous. After berating myself, I had to let it go and move on. Mistakes happen. Focus shifts. No one got hurt. Our gas tank was now full. This experience left me thinking about distractions…as in in how many things can we effectively focus on at once? As it turns out, we can’t handle too many.

The moral of the story: If you have too many distractions and competing priorities, you may find yourself running on empty.

What distractions surprise you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation!