Peace of Mind Organizing

Worth repeating: What have you been putting off?

21 June 2022

I wrote this post in 2016. It’s an important reminder for me because I’ll be due for another colonoscopy in the coming year. It’s so easy to let fear get in the way of doing things we know will benefit us, like going to the dentist or planning for retirement. I hope this post might help you take action on something you’ve been putting off.

I had a colonoscopy this week. I’m 53 (and a half) years old and for the past 3.5 years I’ve been putting off getting the screening colonoscopy—a procedure that can catch deadly colon cancer while it’s still treatable—that’s recommended for everyone at 50 years old.

I’m a smart woman. I know it’s a good idea to get a colonoscopy and that sooner is better than later. But I couldn’t get myself to do it. My college buddies encouraged me to schedule it (they’d done theirs). But I resisted. Finally, I got a new primary care physician and she basically made the appointment for me.

Why was I dragging my feet? Partly because of the horrible things you hear about the prep (the bowel has to be cleaned prior to the scope). But, in truth, there was also a certain amount of fear that there would be bad news. Irrational, but true. Because of course, if I did have colon cancer, it was better to know than not know. But not knowing bad news can feel safer than knowing it.

Well, it turned out that the prep wasn’t all that bad. Not fun, but not tortuous. And the procedure itself was nothing, because I slept through the whole thing. When it was over the news was good—and immediate. Everything normal. Come back in ten years.

I can’t tell you how good it feels to have that behind me. I didn’t realize the psychic energy I was expending avoiding it. It makes me want to find something else I’m afraid of and just do it.

How about you? Is there something you’ve been putting off? Could you take a tiny step today toward doing it? Trust me, you’ll feel better when it’s done!

Sell (some of) your unwanted stuff on Decluttr.com

17 June 2022

I bought a new 14” MacBook Pro this year. It replaced a 2018 13” MacBook Pro that had started slowing down. I was thrilled to see that Apple was willing let me trade it in for over $500. I ended up not doing a trade-in at the time of purchase because I’d decided to more mindfully transfer files from the old computer to the new one (rather than transferring everything in one fell swoop). I paid in full for the new computer and didn’t really have a use for a $545 gift card from Apple. So I started looking for someone else to sell it to.

I identified four different places and requested offers. Here are the offers I received:

Phobio: $470 (Apple’s business group referred me there)
SellYourMac: $500
Gazelle: $530 (I’d sold a computer to them before)
Decluttr: $568

Guess who I sold it to? The highest bidder, Decluttr.com!

It was a simple transaction. I accepted their offer, followed the instructions to wipe my hard drive, packed the computer in the box I got when I purchased it and put the whole thing in another box to send it in. They paid the shipping. I took it to the UPS store and was notified it was received two days later. Just five days after that the money was in my bank account.

Decluttr also buys smaller tech, CDs, DVDs, textbooks, children’s books, and games and consoles. Based on my (albeit limited) experience, I recommend giving them a look next time you have something you’d like to sell.

Subscribe to my newsletter!

13 June 2022

This year, I’ll mark the 15th anniversary of my monthly newsletter. Every month on the 15th (for 15 years!) I’ve published a short newsletter that lands in your email box free of charge. That’s in addition to blogging here twice a week (most weeks.)

Each newsletter offers a (slightly) longer feature, a trip, a photo and perhaps a bit of news about Peace of Mind Organizing. And it always contains links to the blog posts from the previous month. There’s not a whole lot of overlap between the content of the newsletter and the blog, though occasionally I like a newsletter article so much I run it in the blog (or vice versa).

Some months, I have special offers for newsletter readers only.

You can read the newsletter archive on the website and/or subscribe so that it lands in your email inbox on the 15th of every month. If you subscribe, you’ll receive my free pdf, The 12 Most Common Organizing Mistakes.

Meet my latest employee!

10 June 2022

I had to say goodbye to Adrienne Pittson, who was a terrific employee, last month. She and her family are moving west. Happily for me, I was approached by an aspiring organizer, Lydia Boda, shortly after Adrienne gave notice.

After a series of interviews, I decided to hire Lydia. She started on May 27 and is already busy working in clients’ homes. The photo with this post was taken at my house on her hiring day. You can tell that Lydia doesn’t have a problem with friendly dogs! (Bix loves her.)

Lydia is a sculptor with a great spatial sense and great design sense (two things I lack!). She loves the visual peace that comes with an organized space. She’s compassionate and empathetic. I think she’ll be a great addition to the Peace of Mind Organizing team. She’ll work with Beth and with me and other team members (who are independent contractors), as well as on her own.

You can learn more about Lydia (and Beth) on the Meet the Team page!

Join me at The Omega Institute in July

2 June 2022

I am absolutely thrilled to be teaching a weekend workshop about decluttering at The Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck, New York, at the end of July.

The workshop called Decluttering for Good will be held July 29 to 31. It will be 10.5 hours of learning over three days and I think it’s going to be such a great opportunity for students to get in touch with what’s important to them and gain motivation and skills to go home and declutter. I’m planning to create an experience that will benefit students for many years. I feel so fortunate to have this much time to explore the nature of clutter, the limitations it puts on us and the benefits of decluttering.

The Omega Institute was founded in 1977 on a profound ideal: to awaken the best in the human spirit. I’ve admired its work (and aspired to taking a class there) for decades. I was honored and delighted to be invited out of blue to teach there. In an amazing moment of kismet, the invitation was for the weekend that ends a week I was already planning to spend in Rhinebeck with my college buddies. Mind blown.

Rhinebeck is a lovely small town 90 miles north of New York City in Dutchess County. My college roommate grew up there and I had my first legal drink there! The Omega Institute campus is a former summer camp (think Dirty Dancing) surrounded by nature. What an amazing getaway.

If your time and budget allow, I hope you’ll consider joining me for the workshop. I think the workshop itself will be a beneficial experience for all involved (including me!). And spending time on the Omega Institute campus is guaranteed to be memorable.

The power of knowing what's important to you

26 May 2022

My dad and me in his new apartment

In our podcast, Getting to Good Enough, my co-host Shannon Wilkinson and I talk a lot about the importance of knowing what’s important to you in order to figure out when something is good enough.

I find the question of what’s important carries through to every aspect of my life. It’s become a touchstone of sorts for me.

Case in point: I was in Walla Walla, Washington, earlier this month helping my 91-year-old father move into assisted living. It was a happy move: he’d agreed to it (after encouragement from me) and he’s a very amiable guy. So compared to many, it was relatively stress-free. And I’m happy to report that he really likes it!

I was there for only nine days and during that time I also needed to get his condo ready to put on the market. Thankfully, he didn’t want to move too much stuff, which made the move much easier. But that meant I was faced with a whole lot of stuff that needed to be given or thrown away in a very short period of time.

I started to stress about not being able to get everything done. And then I got in touch with what was important to me: Spending time with my father and making sure he’s comfortable in his new digs. Once I acknowledged that, it helped me figure out ways to delegate some of the things that needed to happen at his condo. And I even allowed myself the possibility that I might not get everything done before I left town and so it might take longer than I’d like to get the condo on the market.

As it turned out, I got to have my cake and eat it too. I was able to get my completely settled in AND I was able to get the condo emptied out. It went on the market just four days after I left town. (Bonus! I got him to agree to stop driving and I sold his car.)

The moral of this story: When you are torn between priorities or you’re having trouble making a decision, think about what’s important to you and use that information to guide your decision. Sometimes it’s surprising how clear things become when you know your why!

Weed out your files!

23 May 2022

I’ve just been through the journey of moving my dear 91-year-old father into assisted living. It went well and he’s happy. I am so grateful. (Prepare yourself for multiple blog posts based on this journey!)

As part of the process, I went through everything in his condo that he didn’t take with him into assisted living. I also went through everything that we brought over from my aunt’s home when she moved into a care facility in February. I thought I’d be able to go through her stuff at my leisure, but instead I had to go through it in a compressed amount of time as I tried to empty the condo in just a few days.

My big takeaway? Weed out your files! I had years’ worth of bank statements and paid bills and EOBs to go through and ultimately. There were many boxes of shredding. Luckily one of our wonderful real estate agents, Megan Watts of Team Watts helped me by schlepping the bulk of it to Staples. But going through, and properly destroying, all those papers definitely added to the burden of an already overwhelming task.

My own file cabinet could use some weeding and I vow that by the end of the month I will do it. And I’m going to keep it lean because (a) I don’t need those papers and (b) no one wants to deal with them when I’m no longer able.

Do yourself (and your loved ones a favor). Weed out your files!