Peace of Mind Organizing

Worth repeating: My secret for making car buying easy

25 February 2021

Back in 2017 I bought myself a new vehicle. (I’m still driving it!) For someone like me who is easily overwhelmed by choices, buying a car is never easy. But this time I feel I made it as easy as possible on myself and I wrote this post at the time to share how I did it. If you’re in the market for a car, I hope this will be helpful!

I bought a car on Friday, June 9! That doesn’t happen very often and it’s very exciting. I’m 54 and this is only my fifth car. There’s a picture of me with the new ride, taken at Carmax, the used-car dealership where I bought it.

I decided to get a new car because the car I was driving, a 2008 Honda CR-V with 105,000 miles on it, was getting a little long in the tooth and it didn’t have as much cargo space as I’d like. I carry around a lot of bins and storage solutions and it was sometimes a tight fit. This meant I had to schlep bins from my garage across my back yard and into my basement on a regular basis and I was getting tired of it. The lack of cargo space also meant I wasn’t able to help my team members take donations for clients when the client was letting go of a lot of stuff. So I was ready for a car with more cargo space.

The other reason I wanted a new car was that I sick and tired of walking around the open back doors of the car when I was loading up bins. I have a petite two-car garage. (This is a major factor in this story.) I decided I would benefit from driving a van with sliding back doors.

So what’s my secret for making car buying easy? Limit your options!

One of the hardest things for me about a big purchase (or sometimes even a small one) is dealing with all of the options. I’ve learned that I’m much happier making decisions when I have fewer options.

Going into this, I knew a few things:

• I want to park in my garage.
• My garage would accommodate a car no longer than a 2001 Honda Accord (which we used to have).
• I wanted a van (but as a non-mom I didn’t like the idea of a traditional mini-van).
• I needed to be able to carry at least three passengers, since my husband’s car is a two-seater.
• I needed a bench back seat because my big dog, Bix, likes to lie down when he rides in the car.
• I require heated front seats (I swear I turn the heat on 300 days a year).

Sifting the first four factors together, my research revealed there were about two cars that fit the bill. Hooray! My options were immediately limited.

Those two cars were the Ford Transit Connect Wagon and the Dodge Ran Promaster City Wagon. Both are city-oriented, smaller vans (I live in a city) and both are meant for passengers. My two-car garage was just big enough to accommodate the long wheelbase model of the Transit Connect. The other small van is the Nissan SV200 but it’s a cargo van only without a back seat.

I visited a Dodge dealership and test drove the cargo van version of the Promaster City. I quickly ruled it out—I was looking for more amenities than the Dodge offered. So I had it narrowed down to the Ford.

A little more research revealed two things:

• Heated seats come in the Titanium (top of the line) Ford Transit Connect Wagons only
• Ford stopped making Titanium wagons with bench back seats in 2014

That meant I had two choices: Get a custom-made 2018 car and wait five months (and pay $30,000). Or buy a used car that is at least three years old. I chose the second option.

So I knew what I wanted. I just had to find it. I looked at craigslist to no avail. But I had a better choice. Carmax. I was able to test drive a 2016 version of the car I wanted and then have a 2014 with 23,000 miles transferred from the Columbus, Ohio, Carmax. I paid $250 for the transfer, but wasn’t obligated to buy it. That car had literally everything I wanted on it and then a little more. It was just under $20,000. The only thing I’m not crazy about is the color—it’s a boring silver. But it could be worse. They make it in a bright red that I really don’t like.

Carmax made everything really easy. And it was a no-haggle, no-pressure situation. I sold my CR-V to a friend and brought home the new Transit Connect just a few days ago. I’m tickled pink.

I started my research on May 27 and brought home the car on June 9. For me anyway, that’s fast and painless.

So my secret to easy car buying is to figure out your wants and needs and limit the options to those things. Then find that car, buying used if necessary. Usually compromises need to be made, especially when you’re buying used, but in my case I made none, beyond the color.

I’m hoping for many good years with this van!

Two game-changing iPhone hacks

18 February 2021

I thought I’d share a couple of little iPhone hacks I’ve learned about that made a big difference for me. This first one works on the iPhone and iPad. You can use your iPhone’s space bar like a cursor. If you’re typing on your iPhone or iPad screen and you want to go back to edit what you’ve typed, simply press and hold the space bar and a little vertical pointer will appear. Then move your finger slightly on the space bar (while still pressing and holding) to move the pointer to the space that you want to edit. This has made correcting all my dictated messages so much easier! Try it. I bet you’ll love it.

The other is for people who use multiple Apple devices. I just learned about this one a week or two ago and it’s already been a huge help. It’s called Universal Clipboard and it’s useful to those of us who have more than one Apple device connected by iCloud.

With Universal Clipboard, you can copy something on one of your devices and paste it to the other. So if I see a website on my phone that I want to view on my MacBook, I can simply highlight the URL, touch Copy and then on my computer open a browser, click in the browser window and select Paste. (I use the keyboard shortcut Command-V to paste.) The URL shows up, I press enter and then I can easily the website it on the big screen.

Another example might be if I’m starting an email on my phone and find it annoying to use the little phone keyboard. I can select the text I’ve already written, touch Copy (or Cut), then paste it into an email on my computer. It works for photos, images and videos too! I found that it worked like a charm on the first try because my preferences were already set for it. If you try it and it doesn’t work, try clicking on the link above for instructions on adjusting your system preferences (you need to enable Handoff).

If these are new to you, I hope you find them as useful as I have!

Day 75 of the 100-day dress challenge

16 February 2021

I’m three-quarters through with the 100-day dress challenge! I’ve worn the same black wool-blend dress every day since December 4, 2020. I’m still thoroughly enjoying the challenge and I absolutely love the ease of dressing that it’s provided. (I’m wearing the Rowena Swing Dress, regular length, in size XS.)

Right now it’s really cold in St. Louis. When I got up this morning at 7 am the temperature was -2F with a wind chill of -17F. Crazy cold. So my dress is just another layer to keep me warm. I appreciate extra layers that are warm and lightweight!

Here’s what I love about the challenge:

• My choices of what to wear are limited to things that I can wear with my dress
• The options to change up the dress are surprisingly large, so I get to exercise a little creativity
• It’s easy to put on some booties, tights and a belt and feel a little spruced up
• I don’t have to wash it often so the amount of laundry I’m doing each week has been reduced
• It’s something fun to talk with people about

If I were going to an office every day or working in clients’ homes it might be more challenging. But this is the perfect time to do a challenge like this.

You can read about the challenge at the website of Wool&, the company that makes the dress I’m wearing and that issued the challenge. And you can read my first post about the 100 day challenge for more information about why I’m doing the challenge.

When the 100 days are over, I am confident that I will keep wearing this dress. I really love it. It’s outrageously comfortable, odor-resistant, wrinkle-resistant and easy to wear. The prize for completing the challenge is a $100 store credit toward a new Wool& dress. I’m looking forward to trying a different dress and am confident it will become a staple of my wardrobe.

In order to qualify for the $100 credit, I have to wear the dress at least eight hours a day and take a picture every day. (They give a little grace and will accept 95 pictures.) A lot of people are showing off their pictures each day on Instagram, but that’s way too much pressure for me. So I’m uploading mine into Dropbox and will share the folder with Wool& next month when I finish the challenge. To be honest, the hardest part is to remember to take the picture!

Here are some shots that show some of the looks I’ve created with the dress. (I’m not going to show you the days where all I did was throw the dress over long underwear and sweatpants.)

Day 30

Day 41

Day 56

Day 64

I look forward to seeing what the next 25 days bring!

Must-see videos for new organizers

11 February 2021

My friend, Geralin Thomas of Metropolitan Organizing in Cary, N.C., is a professional organizer who specializes in coaching other professional organizers. If you’re not aware of all the amazing content she has put together to help organizers, you’re missing out. Let me help you remedy that.

Geralin has launched a series of short videos, which have come out weekly, that answer questions she gets about starting an organizing business. I think they’re terrific. They’re both informative and fun, much like Geralin. Her casual, approachable style in the videos is so authentic. It’s one of the reasons I’m so fond of her. Believe me when I tell you that over the dozen+ years of our friendship, I have benefited repeatedly from her answering my many questions. She is not only smart but wise.

Here are the new Ask Me Anything videos, all on her YouTube channel:

• Episode 1 – How Do ProOrganizers Find Clients?
• Episode 2 – I’ve Been Hired. Now what?
• Episode 3 – ProOrganizers FAQs: Rates, To-Dos, Target Market
• Episode 4 – Prerequisites for Becoming a ProOrganizer
• Episode 5 – Why Do People Hire Professional Organizers?
• Episode 6 – Tools of the Trade for ProfOrganizers

There will be more videos in the coming weeks, so I suggest subscribing to her YouTube Channel so you don’t miss them when they come out.

Geralin’s contributions aren’t limited to videos. She also has an information-rich blog. Here are two of her latest posts, which detail tools of the trade, physical and digital:

• Digital Tools of the Trade (a list of resources anyone can use)
• Professional Organizers’ Favorite Tools of the Trade (a-round up of the favorite organizing tools of organizers around North America, including yours truly)

And, finally, an easy way to tap into Geralin’s wisdom is to check out her FAQ, each of which is answered with a link to one of her blog posts. (I should also mention that she sells a robust set of forms that organizers can use for their own businesses and offers one-on-one coaching as well. You can check out those paid resources on her Products + Services page.)

Even if Geralin weren’t a dear friend, I would recommend her free resources and paid coaching and forms for anyone who is, or aspires to be, a professional organizer. I can attribute much of my success to the help she’s given me over the years!

Organizing my jewelry box in 15 minutes

9 February 2021

Back in 2014, I wrote a blog post about how I revamped the way I organize my small collection of jewelry. You can read all about it in my post Improving my jewelry storage but essentially for the last seven years I’ve been using jewelry stacker cases from The Container Store to store my jewelry in three layers. The jewelry box is on my bureau. My necklaces hang on a tie rack on an adjacent wall.

The top layer, which has a lid, is supposed to contain my more often used jewelry (earrings, rings and brooches). The second layer is to contain my less-used earrings. And the bottom, deeper, layer is for bracelets, along with one or two seldom-worn necklaces that I’m not ready to let go of.

Since the pandemic started, I’ve seldom worn jewelry at all. But the jewelry box, whose lid is typically open, was starting to attract non-jewelry clutter. And the earrings had become a bit scattered, so even if I did want to wear earrings it took a little time to find a pair. To be honest, it was unsightly and annoying.

Here’s a before photo:

I saw that messy box every day and most days I vowed to do something about it. But it felt like it would take at least an hour, and I never set aside the time. But about ten days ago, my Declutter Happy Hour partner, Shannon Wilkinson, asked me to do a 15-minute project and take before and after pictures to promote the class. I thought I’d see how far I could get with my jewelry box in 15 minutes. To my astonishment and delight, I actually finished it!

Here’s the after picture:

I went through the jewelry, separating out earrings without mates and some jewelry that either was broken or I no longer like. I paired up my earrings and stored them in the top layer in little categories that make sense to me. I moved the special-occasion earrings to the middle layer, since I’m not going out to special-occasion events these days. The bottom layer was under control, since I never wear bracelets. I wasn’t ready to let bracelets go, though, because I could see myself wearing them again after life gets back to normal.

I kept the brooches on the top layer, despite the fact I haven’t worn one in ages, because I like looking at my little collection. Most were inherited from my grandmother and they make me happy. I also have some little lapel pins and buttons that I enjoy. So I stored them together in plain sight.

The reason I’m bothering to write this long post is really this message: It’s amazing what you can declutter and organize in 15 minutes! These tiny projects really can make a big difference and are so easy to accomplish. As I’ve done before, I urge you to take a look around and see what tiny organizing project you might tackle. I bet it will make you feel great!

Elfa sale going on until February 23

4 February 2021

I think one of the things I missed most during the pandemic is browsing at The Container Store. It’s open to the public, but I’m trying minimize my exposure to the virus and have been there perhaps twice in the last nine months. So most of my purchases have been done online.

One of my favorite things at The Container Store is their Elfa product line. It’s a shelving and drawer system that’s very flexible and modifiable. I love recommending it to clients for their kids’ rooms, for example, because the shelves, rods or drawers can all be switched around as the kids grow and their clothes and storage needs change. There are Elfa storage solutions for every room in the house.

I use Elfa in my own home, in a closet in my office and to store my yarn stash. I also use three different Elfa file carts in my office, one for my business archives, one for my genealogy papers and one for the files that I want close at hand. That one lives under my desk.

We’re about three weeks away from the end of the annual Elfa sale, where you can get 30 percent off on Elfa products and installation. (That brings the file cart down to $77.) I find myself yearning for an Elfa system for my guest-room closet, but I’m trying to resist because it’s definitely a want, not a need. But if you have a need, now’s the time to check out Elfa!

You can design your closet system on the Container Store website or go to a store, if you have one nearby, with your measurements and allow their designers to create a free design for you. This year, you can have a virtual design consult to get help your design without going into the store.

Don’t snooze! Sale ends February 23.

Building ease with daily habits

1 February 2021

My word of the year for 2021 is ease. I don’t think I’ve ever had a more appropriate word. I’ve set the intention of trying to build more ease into my life and also use ease as a parameter around which I make decisions. It feels great.

This morning, while I was doing a gentle yoga practice, it hit me that the daily habits I’ve cultivated over the last year or more have really helped introduce a lot of ease into my life. Specifically, doing yoga every day has meant that yoga is so much easier than it was when I tried it for the first time two years ago. Not only do I know many of the poses (and I sometimes even anticipate them), they are much easier for me to do. That’s because daily practice has made me stronger and more flexible. And what 58-year-old person doesn’t love that?

Another area where daily practice has made a huge (life-changing!) difference is in my financial life. I’ve been working for myself for 25 years and it’s only been in the past six months or so that I’ve built a daily practice around tending to my finances. That has had the happy result that I’m always caught up with my bookkeeping in Quickbooks! This has been an elusive goal for many years.

The secret weapon of my financial life has been the software You Need a Budget (YNAB). (That’s a referral link…if you use it and end up subscribing, we each get a free month.) With YNAB I budget every dollar as it comes in and it’s actually fun. So every morning I actually enjoy logging in and categorizing any expenditures as well as budgeting any income from the past 24 hours. I’ve been using it since November 2018 for my business. (On January 1 of this year I took over our family’s finances in YNAB.) It took me awhile, but I’ve created the habit of entering anything that comes through YNAB into my business’s Quickbooks and double-checking periodically that everything is in sync. So I am blissfully caught up.

Thanks to daily habits (and wonderful Yoga with Adriene and YNAB), two big things that used to be real burdens for me (exercise and keeping track of finances) are now both easy and full of ease. That feels like a miracle.

Of course this can apply to so many things, including maintaining order, taking vitamins and supplements, and keeping up with email or filing. When we make something as easy as possible to do and we practice it daily, we allow ease to flourish.

I’m going to keep looking for other ways I can build ease into my life with daily practice!