Spreading yourself too thin. I see it all the time from the busy, successful people that I work with. You’re smart, talented people with big hearts and you try to do too much! When you do too much, you don’t leave any time for yourself which results in not weeding out your own garden of stuff!
I recently started working with a client who is retired but volunteers for so many activities that she hasn’t had time for herself. She has the potential to be an organized, clutter free person but she’s so involved with helping others, that her personal life has suffered. She has a very active social life, volunteer activities, grandchildren, husband, the whole nine yards but no time for tune ups of her office, den, or other places that she spends her time. Once I identified this for her, she realized it was time to step down from one or two of her major responsibilities, let someone else take it on, and spend more time on herself.
I saw her today for our second appointment and I was pleased and impressed to learn that she had given her “notice” to one volunteer activity and was considering a second. She was relieved and excited at the possibilities that will bring and her new found time. She even wants to pursue a new interest that will involve less time but be more personally fulfilling. She had already cleaned out years of recipe accumulation, books, articles, and things she just didn’t need anymore just since our first appointment and she was energized! Just knowing that she could pass on the accumulation of years on one committee was liberating in itself!
So, before you say yes to that next committee, consider what else you have going on in your life and allow time for some weeding of your own.
Jan Davis
ClutterBye
www.ClutterBye.com
Friday, May 22, 2009
The Drawers of My Dreams
It’s Memorial Day weekend and I’m taking a whole three days off (WhooHoo) but one of the things on my To Do List is to clean out the drawers in my bedroom. That might take me about an hour so I certainly can take an hour to create the drawers of my dreams! One of the cool things about clearing clutter and getting more organized is that the more you do it, the more you can do! It’s not a one time event but an ongoing process that you get better and better at once you develop the good habits. It’s like cleaning. You can clean but eventually you’ll have to clean again, right?
I love poking through my old stuff every so often and deciding that I don’t need this “thing” anymore. It’s almost like a measuring stick of my life’s progress. I look at it with a fresh eye and suddenly realize that I don’t “need” this thing anymore and I can let go of it. For example, I bought a box of those funny little “40” confetti that you throw in cards or on a table for someone’s 40th birthday. No matter how many 40th birthdays have passed since then, I never remember to use them so this weekend, out they go. It’s a small box but I don’t need it anymore so I can let it go so that something I DO use can take its place.
I’m excited about cleaning out my drawers but then I’m an organizer so that’s what floats my boat!
Jan Davis
ClutterBye
www.ClutterBye.com
I love poking through my old stuff every so often and deciding that I don’t need this “thing” anymore. It’s almost like a measuring stick of my life’s progress. I look at it with a fresh eye and suddenly realize that I don’t “need” this thing anymore and I can let go of it. For example, I bought a box of those funny little “40” confetti that you throw in cards or on a table for someone’s 40th birthday. No matter how many 40th birthdays have passed since then, I never remember to use them so this weekend, out they go. It’s a small box but I don’t need it anymore so I can let it go so that something I DO use can take its place.
I’m excited about cleaning out my drawers but then I’m an organizer so that’s what floats my boat!
Jan Davis
ClutterBye
www.ClutterBye.com
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Business Cards - They Mate
I've been suspicious of it for a while now, but I think that business cards mate when you're not keeping up on them. They get bored just laying in a drawer, in a pile, not being used, never referenced. You have to clean them out once in a while or they will overrun your desk!
You have good intentions when you collect them. "Oh, she seems so nice, I love this bakery, he was helpful, I want to try this handyman sometime", you know the reasons. It really gets out of control if you are a networker and go to lots of functions. You honestly believe at the time that you'll get back in touch with the financial advisor you met and liked or that you may want to recommend the closet designer that was there. Like all of us, you have good intentions but they're just pieces of paper unless you actually do something with them.
There are a few ways you can go. Buy a binder and a pack of dividers. Label your dividers with the major categories of cards such as Health, Home Resources, Restaurants, Friends or whatever pertains to your life. Behind each divider, put a few plastic pages of business card holders. You can also get the slim brochure size holders but then there is no categorizing them so I use different holders for different reasons. I have one that is just people that are in my business networking group or people that I have met through it. I have another that is just resources that I use such as handymen, painters, accountants, and other kinds of people that I recommend to my clients. I keep both of those in my car.
Then in my office, I have one that's full of industry specific cards that are only meaningful to me and another of duplicate cards of what I keep in the car. And YES, I clean them all out every few months. It only takes about 30 minutes to clean out all four and it's worth the time. I still have cards from 4 to 5 years also that I've never used but still want. Others I can't remember or don't care so I toss them.
The secret is to write on the front of the card when and how you met this person. "Antique show 2004" is good enough, that way when you're cleaning them out, you'll know why you even have the card.
I see people with hundreds and hundreds of cards in piles with no rhyme or reason to them. Do you think they would ever go through all those looking for someone in particular? What's the point in keeping them if they aren't even useful? Make them useful by tending to them and using them. That's what they're for!
Jan Davis
www.ClutterBye.com
You have good intentions when you collect them. "Oh, she seems so nice, I love this bakery, he was helpful, I want to try this handyman sometime", you know the reasons. It really gets out of control if you are a networker and go to lots of functions. You honestly believe at the time that you'll get back in touch with the financial advisor you met and liked or that you may want to recommend the closet designer that was there. Like all of us, you have good intentions but they're just pieces of paper unless you actually do something with them.
There are a few ways you can go. Buy a binder and a pack of dividers. Label your dividers with the major categories of cards such as Health, Home Resources, Restaurants, Friends or whatever pertains to your life. Behind each divider, put a few plastic pages of business card holders. You can also get the slim brochure size holders but then there is no categorizing them so I use different holders for different reasons. I have one that is just people that are in my business networking group or people that I have met through it. I have another that is just resources that I use such as handymen, painters, accountants, and other kinds of people that I recommend to my clients. I keep both of those in my car.
Then in my office, I have one that's full of industry specific cards that are only meaningful to me and another of duplicate cards of what I keep in the car. And YES, I clean them all out every few months. It only takes about 30 minutes to clean out all four and it's worth the time. I still have cards from 4 to 5 years also that I've never used but still want. Others I can't remember or don't care so I toss them.
The secret is to write on the front of the card when and how you met this person. "Antique show 2004" is good enough, that way when you're cleaning them out, you'll know why you even have the card.
I see people with hundreds and hundreds of cards in piles with no rhyme or reason to them. Do you think they would ever go through all those looking for someone in particular? What's the point in keeping them if they aren't even useful? Make them useful by tending to them and using them. That's what they're for!
Jan Davis
www.ClutterBye.com
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Let’s Lighten Up a Bit
Whew, all this serious talk about hoarders. Let’s talk about lightening up. If your telephone breaks, do you take it to the telephone repair place? No? Do you buy a new one? Please tell me that you dispose of your broken telephone.
We shall use the telephone as a metaphor for all the things you buy. I can’t tell you how many times I see boxes of old telephones that don’t work any more. Picture this. Your telephone breaks so you go to the box of old telephones to find a replacement. That’s not what you do? What, you go to the store or online and buy a new phone? Why do you do that when you have a whole box of phones in the fill in the blank area? Storage, garage, under your bed, wherever. So, if you’re not using those telephones and wouldn’t consider resurrecting one, why are you keeping them?
Ooooohhh, EBay has taught you to keep everything because it might be worth something someday. Your next door neighbor sold a couple of phones from the 60s for $25 each! Wow, that’s pretty cool. I wonder what it cost him to store those phones and then advertise them just to make $50. He probably paid $25 for them back in the 60s anyway.
Like I said, the telephone is just an example of tons of things that you could be holding on to that just aren’t worth the space. Lighten up and let in things that are truly meaningful and valuable to you at this time unless you have unlimited, free storage space.
Jan Davis
www.Clutterbye.com
We shall use the telephone as a metaphor for all the things you buy. I can’t tell you how many times I see boxes of old telephones that don’t work any more. Picture this. Your telephone breaks so you go to the box of old telephones to find a replacement. That’s not what you do? What, you go to the store or online and buy a new phone? Why do you do that when you have a whole box of phones in the fill in the blank area? Storage, garage, under your bed, wherever. So, if you’re not using those telephones and wouldn’t consider resurrecting one, why are you keeping them?
Ooooohhh, EBay has taught you to keep everything because it might be worth something someday. Your next door neighbor sold a couple of phones from the 60s for $25 each! Wow, that’s pretty cool. I wonder what it cost him to store those phones and then advertise them just to make $50. He probably paid $25 for them back in the 60s anyway.
Like I said, the telephone is just an example of tons of things that you could be holding on to that just aren’t worth the space. Lighten up and let in things that are truly meaningful and valuable to you at this time unless you have unlimited, free storage space.
Jan Davis
www.Clutterbye.com
Monday, December 22, 2008
Do You Know a Hoarder?
Most people do. Could be a family member or a friend. Just like an alcoholic, you can’t help them until they’re ready for help. They have to be the one asking for help and it may even be an eviction situation.
Hoarding can be debilitating to the person with the problem but especially to their loved ones. It’s frustrating enough to know a hoarder but to live with one can be devastating. I’ve seen couples break up over it and I’ve seen hoarders that can’t have relationships and friendships due to the insurmountable piles that they can’t control. To put it in a nutshell, a hoarder can’t distinguish trash from treasures. Everything is usable, collectable, and might be used someday. Some people pull things out of the trash, others buy too much without a clue as to how they will use it.
A collection is usually nicely displayed, taken care of, added to thoughtfully, and in an honored place for friends to admire and enjoy. A hoarder’s collection will be so huge and overwhelming that it can’t be displayed, they really don’t even know what they have, and there’s not much joy in it. There’s a difference between collecting and amassing.
We’ll talk more about hoarding later.
For more information on hoarding visit: http://www.ocfoundation.org/1005/index.html
Jan Davis
www.Clutterbye.com
Hoarding can be debilitating to the person with the problem but especially to their loved ones. It’s frustrating enough to know a hoarder but to live with one can be devastating. I’ve seen couples break up over it and I’ve seen hoarders that can’t have relationships and friendships due to the insurmountable piles that they can’t control. To put it in a nutshell, a hoarder can’t distinguish trash from treasures. Everything is usable, collectable, and might be used someday. Some people pull things out of the trash, others buy too much without a clue as to how they will use it.
A collection is usually nicely displayed, taken care of, added to thoughtfully, and in an honored place for friends to admire and enjoy. A hoarder’s collection will be so huge and overwhelming that it can’t be displayed, they really don’t even know what they have, and there’s not much joy in it. There’s a difference between collecting and amassing.
We’ll talk more about hoarding later.
For more information on hoarding visit: http://www.ocfoundation.org/1005/index.html
Jan Davis
www.Clutterbye.com
Hoarders
Most people think of hoarders as people that just collect junk, but that’s not always the case. There are animal hoarders, information hoarders, article hoarders, newspaper, magazine, T-shirt, shoe, and even wrapping paper hoarders.
Sometimes they’re just as frustrated with it as their loved ones are but they don’t want to do anything about it because it’s a part of them. How would you feel if someone came in and just took your computer away? You’d feel cut off and like you’d lost a friend. That’s why others can’t just come in and remove all their stuff. Every little thing is extremely important and valuable to them. They can’t lose that contact with their stuff without therapy and an accompanying drug regimen. If you clean out a hoarder’s stuff and they’re not getting help for it, it will all come back again.
When I work with hoarders, I help them figure out a system for finding all their stuff. It’s too much stuff to just tuck into closets and cabinets so we contain, label, and inventory everything so they know where it is. I haven’t met one yet that wanted to “just get rid of it all” since it’s all so important to them.
You can’t take a hoarder lightly and just take it all away because for them, it’s like ripping off their skin. Tread carefully and have some respect.
Jan Davis
www.Clutterbye.com
Sometimes they’re just as frustrated with it as their loved ones are but they don’t want to do anything about it because it’s a part of them. How would you feel if someone came in and just took your computer away? You’d feel cut off and like you’d lost a friend. That’s why others can’t just come in and remove all their stuff. Every little thing is extremely important and valuable to them. They can’t lose that contact with their stuff without therapy and an accompanying drug regimen. If you clean out a hoarder’s stuff and they’re not getting help for it, it will all come back again.
When I work with hoarders, I help them figure out a system for finding all their stuff. It’s too much stuff to just tuck into closets and cabinets so we contain, label, and inventory everything so they know where it is. I haven’t met one yet that wanted to “just get rid of it all” since it’s all so important to them.
You can’t take a hoarder lightly and just take it all away because for them, it’s like ripping off their skin. Tread carefully and have some respect.
Jan Davis
www.Clutterbye.com
When You Get a Little Behind
I feel a little naughty writing that title! We all get behind. Life happens. Death and illness happen. Divorce, marriage, whatever happens, it can put you off track. You can spend your whole life being an organized person, then BAM. Your father falls ill, you’re going through a divorce, and your employer has downsized so much that you’re doing the job of 3 people.
Opening mail, filing, processing the mundane things of everyday life have to take a back seat to your sanity! Most of it can pile up as long as you’re paying your bills on time. Late charges can eat into your budget and your credit rating.
I recommend that you set up as many online automatic payments as possible. It’s liberating, allows you to be gone for long periods of time, and takes that weight off your mind. Check with your bank to see just how simple it is. If you need some handholding, I can help with that as we get you set up. I’m happy to provide some referrals from other people I have helped with that. Besides, I’m not smart enough to figure out how to siphon off your money!
Jan Davis
www.Clutterbye.com
Opening mail, filing, processing the mundane things of everyday life have to take a back seat to your sanity! Most of it can pile up as long as you’re paying your bills on time. Late charges can eat into your budget and your credit rating.
I recommend that you set up as many online automatic payments as possible. It’s liberating, allows you to be gone for long periods of time, and takes that weight off your mind. Check with your bank to see just how simple it is. If you need some handholding, I can help with that as we get you set up. I’m happy to provide some referrals from other people I have helped with that. Besides, I’m not smart enough to figure out how to siphon off your money!
Jan Davis
www.Clutterbye.com
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