Your Life. Organized.

Leaving Old Ways Behind

The year was 1996. Princess Diana was tragically killed in a car crash, the eyes of the world were on Atlanta for the  summer Olympics and I got my first computer. My 37-pound CRT monitor, Windows 3.1 and AOL RULED my world baby, and for the next fourteen years I would have a love-hate relationship with the Demon Box. Until a few weeks ago...

Quote of the Week: Success

"Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be."

George Sheehan
1918-1993, Physician and Author

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Tackle The Tiny Things!

Batteries! Light bulbs! Utensils! Printer ink! Office supplies! Cords! Cables! Coupons! And MORE! These are the tiny things you run out of at just the wrong moment -- or you know you have one but you can never find it when you need it. People! This is the stuff of life that'll make you crazy. So how do you fix it? Listen to Vicky, Jen and yours truly as we have a fun-tastic time in studio discussing all the tiny things and how to tackle them in this new episode of The Big O: Tiny Things! 

Plus, Vicky and Jen are running another fabulous contest (the way they do). Just go to VickyandJen.com and enter to win a Pouchee!

Featured in this week's Big O:

Silver Sharpies
The Container Store
Eagle Creek Pack-It Cubes
The Pouchee
The Couponizer
Clear Vinyl Shoe Organizer

If you have questions or comments for us for an upcoming episode of The Big O, just send them to Questions@VickyAndJen.com

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Wouldn't You Like A Magic Wand?

Wouldn't we all like a magic wand to handle the small annoying stuff that piles up every day? Well, I don't have a MAGIC wand, but when I was in Chicago for the housewares show recently, I did interview with Zaven Gunjian from BrushTech and he showed me two products I want to tell you about.

The first is the BrushTech Cooking Wand, which was pretty cool. It's a simple little tool that keeps a pot from boiling over on the stove. (Yeah, I could have used that a few months ago when I boiled over a pot of milk while making a batch of ricotta cheese...) It's made of stainless steel and I don't know HOW it works, I just know it works, but you do have to have one of those flat-top stoves to use it. Plus, at only SIX BUCKS, it's a total deal! 

He also showed the BrushTech Foam-Tipped Travel Mug Brush, which is a special brush for cleaning out travel coffee mugs. You know how most thermal coffee mugs get RUINED if you accidentally forget that they're not dishwasher safe and you run them through anyway? (Not that I know anything about that, ahem...)

The problem with thermal travel mugs is that they're typically deep and skinny, so it's tough to get the dried coffee muck out of the bottom. The Foam-Tipped Travel Mug Brush makes cleaning your travel mug easy because the part that contacts the bottom of your mug is FOAM and not bristle. It won't absorb water and it gets into the edges of the mug to get it clean. It's a pretty smart design, and for SEVEN BUCKS you can't beat it!

For more info, check out our video interview from the housewares show.

Thanks for watching!

 

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Quote of the Week: On Fathers

Having grown up without a father, I'm honoring fathers today because their role is so important. I'm also replacing the usual Quote of the Week speech bubble with a few pictures of one of the best fathers I know, and some meaningful quotes on fatherhood...

"My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, "You're tearing up the grass." Dad would reply, "We're not raising grass. We're raising boys ."
Harmon Killebrew

"I watched a small man with thick calluses on both hands work fifteen and sixteen hours a day. I saw him once literally bleed from the bottoms of his feet, a man who came here uneducated, alone, unable to speak the language, who taught me all I needed to know about faith and hard work by the simple eloquence of his example."
Mario Cuomo

 

 "My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it."
Clarence B. Kelland

 

 "One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters."
George Herbert

Thank your Dad today.

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Family Stuff

This post contributed by guest blogger and chronic disorganization specialist, Janice Russell, CPO-CD.

If you have family, you have stuff!

• Personal stuff (purchased, received, acquired)
• Immediate family stuff (spouse, children, parents)
• Extended family stuff (grandparents, great-grandparents)

Although we don’t like to think about it, when a family member is incapacitated or dies, the remaining relatives are left with lots of stuff! These articles often lead to arguments or avoidance. Now is the time to set a clutterless legacy example! Everyone should keep the items that have the most meaning to them and that don’t create clutter so that as they mature, they will be able to access the articles that bring back their fondest memories. On the other hand, if they keep everything that has “some meaning” then they won’t be able to find the pieces that have extra special significance. 

Another result of only keeping the most meaningful items is that someone else won’t have to wade through lots of clutter to get to the items that they want. For example, when my parents pass on, I want to remember the good times. I want to be able to grieve the loss but cling to my fondest memories. If I have to go through all stuff they refused to decide to delete (piles of obsolete papers, outgrown clothes, years of old magazines, gadgets that haven’t worked for decades, etc.) I will be upset. I will not be able to grieve properly, as I will be angry over having to take so much of my time to make the decisions they couldn’t.

By the way, I have had this discussion with my parents and I am happy to report they have taken steps to cull their collections. So, how about you? Do you want to leave a cluttered or a clutterless legacy behind?

~ Janice

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Quote of the Week: Solitude

"Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character."

James Russel Lowell
American poet

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How To Turn Losing Into Winning

Win or lose? Which is better? Winning of course! Winning feels great, while losing feels not-so-great. I happen to believe the same negative feelings associated with losing are often what keeps you from de-cluttering your life, because in your mind, you're LOSING. Losing things, money, memories, love, perceived future value, and even losing self-esteem because you may beat yourself up for being so cluttered and disorganized. With all this pesky losing going on, it's no wonder de-cluttering can be the last thing you want to tackle! It just doesn't feel good. But what if it did? It can, and here's the secret...

Quote of the Week: Grace

Several weeks ago I wandered into a bookstore in the Cincinnati airport and saw a fellow signing a stack of books. I figured either he was the author, or a bookstore vandal on his way out of town.

Turns out the stack of books was copies of The Shack (a NYT best-seller for over 100 weeks now) and the mystery signer was indeed the author, Wm Paul Young. We chatted, took a picture together (look how cute) and I got on the plane and read the book.

Since then, he has graciously given me permission to use some of his passages from the book as Quote of the Week entries. Here is today's...

"I suppose that since most of our hurts come through relationships, so will our healing, and I know that grace rarely makes sense for those looking in from the outside."

~ From the New York Time bestselling novel The Shack, by Wm Paul Young

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Top Tools Under Ten Bucks

Organization involves change and one of the most important things to change is behavior. The other is changing the tools you're using. Some of the most effective tools are also inexpensive, which is great! Here are five of my most versatile favorites for under ten dollars...