Remodel in progress. Photo credit: DMS Interiors

Remodel after. Photo credit: DMS Interiors

So you’ve finally decided to take the plunge. You’re going to do a remodel.

Before you pick up the phone to call your designer/contractor/architect, take a look around. What do you see?

Chances are you’re not seeing what your contractors will want to see the day they get started – an empty space.

More likely you’re looking at stuff – the good, the bad and the ugly: Furniture, household goods, artwork, paper, personal items and in all likelihood some amount of indistinguishable clutter on your floor and other surfaces.

It doesn’t matter if you are remodeling your whole house or just one room, before the first nail is in, you’ll need to think about how to organize and empty the room of all its contents. This is especially true if your remodel includes a new floor.

Before you pull the plug on the whole idea, consider this the first phase of your remodel. I call it the Pre-model – as in plan and prepare for the remodel.

Essentially, the Pre-model involves organizing, de-cluttering and emptying the project space before the remodel begins. It’s as necessary to the process as getting the right permits. Build this into your timeline and your project will start on time.

Delay or avoid the Pre-model and your project will come to a screeching halt before it has even started.

There are two ways to approach the Pre-model: The smart way and the hard way.

Here’s what the hard way looks like:

Your contractors are due to begin demolition tomorrow. You wake up at the crack of dawn and dump everything you own, wanted and unwanted, into boxes before stuffing them haphazardly into another area of your home – that is, if you’re lucky enough to have room. Otherwise you take it to an expensive self storage unit that is twice the size of what you need because that’s all they had available – and promise yourself you will deal with it later.

If you choose this method, don’t be surprised when you finally go to move all the stuff out of storage and you hear yourself say more than once, “I can’t believe I actually kept this!” (And paid all that money to store it!).

The smart way, on the other hand, looks more like this:

You are comfortably moved into a new, temporary home or area of your house and getting back to your routine. Your contractors congratulate you for making it possible for them to start on time and everyone is eager and excited to get started.

The smart way involves taking time to plan and prepare for your Pre-model.  If you do it yourself, this is what the Pre-model requires:

1. PLAN
   Determine if there are any items you will need access to during the remodel. This is particularly important in a kitchen remodel where you may be without a functioning kitchen for several months. Consider setting up a “temporary kitchen” in a less used area or room of your home with basic kitchen appliances such as a microwave, mini fridge, electric water kettle, plates, utensils, etc.
2. DECIDE
   Determine what household items you want to keep. Skipping this step will cost you in the long run so make it a priority to sort and organize these items by category.
3. PREPARE
   Just as your contractor would, make sure you have the right “tools” for your Pre-model. Use large plastic bags for trash and for items you want to donate; paper bags for recycling; packing boxes or bins and other moving supplies for things you want to keep; and, a 4’-6’ table or surface for working.
4. PURGE
   Make arrangements to sell or donate furniture items you no longer want. Take pictures of these items and email them to your preferred consignment store or charity. These services will review the items and decide whether or not they are interested in them.
5. PACK
   Pack what you’ve decided to keep in boxes, labeled by category. This will make the process of unpacking that much easier when your remodel is done. Pack heavy items like books in small boxes; fragile items like dish-ware, lamps and crystal in double weight “dish-packs” and small appliances and lighter items like linens and lamp shades in larger boxes.
6. STORE
   If you are lucky to have extra space in a garage or spare room to store the household items you retain, consider hiring a moving company that specializes in small moves to help you move those items for you.
7. MOVE
   If you are planning to remodel your entire home, it’s likely you will need to relocate for a period of months. Consider consulting with a professional organizer/move manager to help you plan for this type of temporary move. They can also recommend reputable moving and storage companies in your area as well as execute your Pre-model and get you unpacked and organized when it’s done.

Doing the Pre-model is what allows your remodel to happen. By following these simple steps, you’ll experience far less stress during your remodel and discover how quickly you can live in and enjoy your new kitchen, bath, bedroom or newly remodeled home, when it’s done.

Editor’s Note: In almost every home we organize. we come across literally hundreds of printed photographs, both old and new, and our clients always tell us how important they are and that “some day” they will get them organized. We are delighted to feature a guest blog from Nikki McKenna, the founder of Storytag who offers some fabulous tips on how to finally get your photos organized once and for all. Read on…

If you are like millions of Americans, you have boxes and boxes and boxes of pictures in a closet somewhere. You know they contain thousands of precious memories of your family through the years but you may also know that as time goes on so does the risk that pictures are lost, memories fade or disaster strikes to damage them. Digitizing these images is a must if you want to pass these memories on to generations, but where to begin? The cost of digitizing 1,000 images is around $500 and many families have more like 10,000 or even 20k. That can be a bit prohibitive. So, then, let’s start by recognizing that you will get just about ALL of the value of your pictures if you pare it down by a factor of 10. If you need some helping being convinced of that, please reach out! But then, how do you decide to pass on 90% of those precious pictures? Here are a few tried and true tips:

1. Start with some focus on what you really want from that “pile” before jumping in. It makes a difference in how you organize! Do you see these images as a way for your story to live on? Are they precious memories for your family to share? Are they pictures that you know you will want for future projects (e.g. scrapbooks, slideshows or wall space)?
2. It will help to think about three (3) categories: Album, Box and Can (e.g. trash can). We call these the ABC’s of photo organizing. I borrow from a William Morris statement often used by many traditional organizers that encourages us to keep only that which is beautiful or useful. Beauty, as it pertains to our images, refers to those that strongly evoke the feelings of a memory we want to remember. Useful, as it pertains to our images generally means they document facts of our past we want to remember. Roughly speaking, the beautiful falls into A and the useful usually falls into B. Otherwise, it’s the trash can.
3. We take pictures to remember, so as you cull them down, think about what the image actually helps you to remember that other pictures don’t. Is it the one picture that has all of the people at your wedding? Keep it. It’s useful. Is it your favorite picture of your grandpa and you when you were on the boat together on that camping trip? Keep it. It’s beautiful. Are there 20 other pictures of your grandpa and you on that same boat on that same camping trip? Consider tossing those.
4. When deciding to keep an image or not, think about whether you could have remembered the image before you saw it. Pictures that stood out in your mind even while being in a box very likely captured something important in your life. They very likely have beauty for you. If you didn’t remember it, and it doesn’t document something specific, consider tossing it.
5. Notice that you can’t capture everything with any number of pictures and decide to write your memories down! Just ten pictures that have the story are worth more than 10,000 with no description or names. As you are sorting, quickly write down those stories. Then, keep the momentum by keeping a journal for your present.
6. Take your time. You can only eat an elephant a bite at a time; so set aside a manageable chunk of time every week to do a bit. I assure you, you will get there.
7. Have fun! You are reliving old times. And, rest assured that it’s a project your whole family will love you for.

Storytag is a full service solution to help our clients get their stories booked. We employ a unique interview process, image selection, custom design and book printing using only the most qualified suppliers to combine story with images into a memoir that will be enjoyed for generations. Our mission is to help families all across the country preserve their stories with respect and artful aesthetics so that they can all experience more often their own legacies of joy and love and loss and each and every one’s unique meaning of life.

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Organization in a house torn apart is not an easy task – but it is a necessary one.

If you plan to remain in your home during a remodel, you’ll save on relocation costs but you’ll also have to put up with the noise, dust and constant interruptions. Should you decide to stay-in-place, here’s a tip from the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) on how to keep the project organized and minimize the stress on you and your family.

Before you start, set aside one corner in a room unaffected by the turbulence of the remodeling process to store all of your files.  While you have already created your Dream Book or Idea Book for design ideas, this is only one aspect of the project you need to keep organized. You will be receiving various documents and pieces of information during the project. Keep all these documents together in a project file.

Here are examples of items you will want to hold on to during your remodel:

• Construction specifications
• Your contract
• Construction schedule
• Pre-construction agreement
• Change orders
• Cost estimates
• Your budget
• Lien releases
• Construction documents, drawings and plans
• A reduced copy of your plans to take with you when shopping for materials, products or appliances
• Correspondence between you and your contractor
• Other correspondence or agreements with third party participants
• Construction journal – a log detailing how the project is progressing
• Your idea book
• Paint chips, manufacturer samples, etc.
• A list of questions to ask your contractor
• Notes and reminders to yourself

Whether you choose to remain in your home during a remodel or decide to temporarily relocate, advance planning, organization and budgeting are critical to the success of your project and will make it easier for you to cope during the remodel.

Have something to share about your moving, remodeling or organizing experience? Post it to our Facebook page and while you’re there, don’t forget to “Like” us.

• You spent a lot of money on that sofa 5 years ago but it doesn’t work in your new home.
• You loved it when you bought that suit but it doesn’t fit your personality anymore.
• Your best friend talked you into buying that clock last year but it’s just not you.
• Your husband gave you a gift because he thought it was meaningful but it’s simply not your taste.

Sound familiar? What do you do?

First, forget how much you spent on it or how much it may have cost. That money is gone.

Second, it won’t serve you tucked away in some back cabinet or closet especially when you need that space for other items.

Once you’ve realized the cost of holding on to it exceeds the cost of letting it go, you have two options.

1. Donate it
2. Sell it

Keeping it is an option if you want to delay your decision even longer but that’s the very definition of clutter.

“Gifting” it to someone else is also an option but be careful that you are not simply transferring your clutter to someone else. In this case I consider “gifting” the same as donating.

The next thing you should do is decide on a dollar amount that would make it worth your time to sell it because selling an item takes a lot longer than donating. And donating takes time too.

Would you take the time to sell it if you made $10? $50? $100? More?

Let’s say for example you have an artsy, hand-painted table you bought fifteen years ago when you were living as a single person somewhere else.  Now you are married and working full-time.  It’s still in good shape but it no longer fits your more streamlined, contemporary style (or your spouse hates it).  Now there’s no place to put it so it’s just taking up space in your garage.

You paid almost a thousand dollars for it so you can’t imagine donating it.  Your kids don’t want it and you don’t have the time to refinish it.

You’ve already taken the time to find out similar used tables sell for about $200-$300.

If you decide to sell it you will need to be prepared to spend at least a couple more hours selling it. You can do this on sites like Craigslist, Amazon or Ebay, including the time to reply to emails,  be available to meet with prospective buyers and sell it in person, assuming you don’t plan on shipping it.

If you’re lucky it will sell for the price you want. If not, it’s still taking up valuable real-estate in your garage, not to mention space in your brain.

You can also donate it to a charitable organization such as Goodwill. Alternately you can donate it to a specific local charity or non-profit organization you are connected with for a fund-raising auction. Again, this will take time, more time depending upon which type of donation you choose. You can also consign but keep in mind consignment shops have the last word on whether or not they will take an item. You could end up going from store to store and still not get anyone to take it. Be sure you know and understand a consignment store’s policy before you go there.

Most people tend to overvalue the worth of their possessions. Not everyone will have a seemingly worthless vase that really is a priceless collector’s item like the ones on TV’s Antiques Roadshow.

When deciding whether or not to donate or sell, you’ll want to obtain the true estimate value of an item or items to help you decide.

Donation is not the same as disposing. When you donate an item it does continue to have worth, both tangible (the tax benefit, re-sale value) and intangible (the ‘feel good’ effect).  Incidentally,  the IRS allows for up to $500 of non-cash donations to be claimed on your taxes without having to provide proof of value for each individual item.

Does this mean you should donate the table? Not necessarily but it does depend on other factors:

• Do you have the time and willingness to sell it?
• Do you need the income right now?
• Is the item worth your time to sell given it’s actual estimated market value?
• Will donating now versus waiting to sell it help with other goals you have such as gaining more storage or more room for another hobby or interest?

If you consider all of these factors together, chances are you will know what to do. If you’re still stuck, consider asking the advice of a professional organizer or call LET’S MAKE ROOM.

We can help you make a decision you can live with.

My friend and Yogini extraordinaire, Deborah Saliby, called me on Sunday asking for my advice.

Deborah Saliby, Yoga for Health

Deborah has been teaching Yoga for more than thirty years.  There are a lot of Yoga teachers out there but relatively few hold the special certification that she does in Iyengar training. The certification signifies that she has undergone extensive training as an instructor in a particular method of Hatha Yoga called Iyengar, named for B.K.S. Iyengar, one of the foremost Yoga teachers in the world.

Whenever I have a question about Yoga, I call Deborah.  The moment I feel like my body, mind and spirit are crying out for a little restoration, Deborah is the first person I think of.  On Sunday, however, after her class, Deborah’s mind and spirit were crying out for a different kind of restoration, in her home.  I am grateful she called me.

“I want to organize three closets in my house,” she told me,
“but I’m not sure where to start.” She asked if I would mind sharing some of my professional organizing tips.  “Of course,” I told her. I enjoy it when anyone calls me with a specific organizing question. To me if you are willing to ask the question, you are definitely in the mindset to get organized.

As a professional organizer,  the most common questions I get involve the how and where of organizing, as in “how do I do this?” or “where do I start?”  Typically this follows an extended period of gradual awareness which eventually transforms into “I really wish my (fill in the blank) was more organized. But it’s not until the defining moment when the thought, “today is the day I’m going to do something about it,” that change can occur.

For my friend Deborah that moment came after she got home from teaching one of the many Yoga classes she leads in Berkeley, California.

“So where do you want to start?” I asked. “I don’t know, she said. So I probed a little more. “Which of your closets bugs you the most, that is, which has the most impact on your daily life? “My bedroom closet where I keep all my clothes,” she said, with a little giggle, “you know how much I love to shop?”

“Okay,” I said. “So why do you want to do this at all?” She explained to me that she wanted to hold a sidewalk sale. “Yes,” I said, “that’s good, but why do you want to get organized?” I asked again. “Because I can’t stand looking at the mess in my closet anymore. I know I have a lot of nice things in there that I don’t want anymore and half the time I can’t find what I’m looking for. I’m wasting time and I want to be able to wear what I love.”

Deborah understood what was bothering her about her closet but even more she knew what organizing it would mean to her (not to anyone else) and she was motivated. Plus she had the added incentive of making a little extra money. I told her, “Yeah, you could sell all the clothes you don’t want anymore and with the money you make go out and buy new ones.”  We both laughed.

I offered Deborah a step-by-step plan to get all three of her closets organized.  I shared some strategies for how to overcome some predictable obstacles such as what to do with items that had more “emotional value” than “wear-value.”  I took her through exactly what I would do with her if I were physically doing the work with her and then I asked her if she had any questions. “Nope, I’ve got it.”

Before we hung up I told her to feel free to call me when she was done with the first closet.  Even though Deborah was doing this for herself, I wanted her to know that I was interested in hearing about her progress.

The next day, Deborah did call. She sounded really happy.  She told me how she had followed my plan including emptying the entire closet first, sorting items by category, parting with what she no longer used, wore, or loved and got rid of things that brought in bad “mojo.”  She reorganized the items she kept by type and color and put aside those things she plans to include in her sidewalk sale.  In total it took her two hours. I was impressed.

“How do you feel now?” I asked her, “Great! Just walking past my closet makes me happy.”

I offered Deborah some final tips about items she was still undecided about and suggested some ways to contain items on the shelves using what she already had around her house, before saying goodbye.

After we hung up I went in to my living room and took a big breath and stretched.  Thank you for that, Deborah.

Have a question about organizing? Getting ready to move or start a home renovation project and need to get things packed, donated and organized? Call or email me. I promise you’ll come away with something you can use.

As I told Deborah, I love to be a catalyst for change.

At 8:00 this morning, I had my own private celebration. It took place in my head.

An hour earlier I was driving and thinking about how terrifying it must be for some of my clients to do the one thing that scares them the most; To finally confront what’s kept them from moving forward in their lives because they feel overwhelmed and stuck and it’s showing up as piles of papers, boxes and who knows what else, on their desks, on the floor, in their drawers, everywhere.

I was thinking about what it means to do the one thing that scares you the most and to have the courage to do it anyway because you know you have to. Because you know not doing so will have far greater consequences.

For people who are chronically disorganized, the consequence of not facing their fears can be enormous.  For some it’s a loss of control over their lives. For others, it’s isolation. I know people who have lost their children, their spouses and their very security because of their inability to face their fears head on.  I also know people who have shown great courage and have discovered the meaning of making room in their lives.

My fears are about public speaking. And yet, as a small business person I know the value it brings to others in the form of information and sometimes even inspiration. But I do it quite frankly because I have to. Working with people in their homes and in their offices or helping them move is tactical but it’s also very personal. I know that if people see me and feel I am someone they can trust, and recognize I  have the expertise to help them, then they often will remember me when it comes time to organize their offices, or their bedrooms or help them plan and oversee their move to a new home.

This is what I was thinking at seven o’clock this morning, on my way to speak to a group of fifty small business owners and entrepreneurs about how to face their fears, specifically about how to confront their own Paper Monsters.  I did this presentation a few weeks earlier and it had not lived up to my expectations  – perfectionism, my monster, rearing it’s ugly head, yet again –  and now I was getting ready to face him again.  Was I scared? Petrified, which is why at that moment I started thinking about my clients.

“If  they can have the courage to hire me, then I can damn well find the courage to face my fears as well, ” I thought.  And so I did. And it went fine. It wasn’t perfect but it was good enough. And that’s good enough. But to be honest, I’m glad it’s over. At least for today I can celebrate.

Tomorrow, I do it again.

Laurie (not her real name), hired me recently to help her organize her overstuffed, clothes closet. It took two days. One day to sort and then edit what she no longer wanted and one day to contain, label and return what was left to her closet, organized, folded, hung right side in, and accessible.

Laurie is an active, super-mom of two school-aged kids, with a full time sales job. She told me she wanted to feel less stressed in the morning which often meant time spent looking for a matched pair of shoes or a clean outfit so she could get herself dressed in time to feed her kids and get them to  school before heading to work herself. She confessed her husband was neater than she was and her disorganization was creating friction between them.

This is the type of organizing job that most people think of when I tell them I do residential organizing.  In fact, organizing a closet is one of those “dream” assignments that most professional organizers knows comes once in a blue moon.

In general, the people who hire organizing professionals to work in their homes are those who have much bigger challenges.

This is why I silently cringe when I come across people who refer to themselves  as a “professional organizer” but have no significant experience working with clients, let alone credentials or training.

In May of next year,  the official manual of mental health diagnosis and criteria, otherwise known as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (5th edition) or more commonly known in the mental health world as the DSM-V, will be published by the American Psychiatric Association.

The DSM-V contains a listing of diagnostic criteria for every psychiatric disorder recognized by the U.S. healthcare system.  Among those conditions expected to be included is “Compulsive Hoarding Disorder” which up till now has been listed as a sub-set of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), a serious anxiety disorder involving intrusive thoughts and ritualized behaviors aimed at reducing an individual’s anxiety.

Including Compulsive Hoarding as it’s own condition came out of research that found that people who suffer from this condition, which basically involves the excessive acquisition of items that  frequently are perceived by others as having little or no value but lack the ability to discard them, have not responded to treatments used for OCD. In addition, other studies have found that people who compulsively hoard don’t always show other symptoms of OCD.

Even if someone is not disorganized at the level of a “Hoarder” but may be what is termed “Chronically Disorganized,” this doesn’t mean their disorganization can be easily understood or fixed by just having the right containers.     There are many factors —  situational, emotional or physical– that impact a person’s ability to manage their lives in a reasonably organized way.  Disorganization is a symptom but it is also a behavior disorder that can impact a person’s well being, health and safety in very real ways.

For example, I recently worked with a middle-aged woman who was suffering from depression brought on by the death of her father with whom she was very close. Her depression lead her to neglect her home for so long that when I met her she couldn’t access her sink to get fresh water.  Her floor was covered with so much clutter that she would have difficulty leaving her home in an emergency.  Her bed was piled so high with clothing she slept on her couch.

The Institute for Challenging Disorganization, known in the industry as ICD,  is a subscriber organization that provides education and resources to those challenged by disorganization as well professionals working with this population. People with Chronic Disorganization, according to ICD, have a history of disorganization in which “self-help efforts to change have failed, undermining their current quality of life and the expectation of future disorganization.”

People with Chronic Disorganization are often great at keeping their conditions a secret. Such was the case with a client I had who was the picture of professionalism – a 45 year-old sales manager who was the top sales producer at her office but had not invited anyone to her condo in five years because she told me she was “too exhausted to clean up” and hadn’t unpacked since she moved in.

At a time when we have twice as much information coming at us, both digitally and in print, even the most competent person can find themselves challenged to stay on top of it all. Such was the case of an entrepreneur I worked with who could do anything involving technology but when it came to organizing his bills,  documents and other paper, he felt like a “lost cause.”

Even people whose lives are relatively stable can be challenged by the enormity of organizing challenges such as the retired widow who hired me to help her fit the contents of her 2,400 square-foot family home she just sold into a 1,600 square-foot city apartment she had rented.

Unfortunately, anyone can call themselves a  “professional organizer.” Doing so does not require any type of specialized training, certification or license.

The National Association of Professional Organizers otherwise known as NAPO is the leading professional association for the industry.  While their role is not to regulate,  they do require that members adhere to an ethical code, and are in the process of developing a basic curriculum that will be required of all members in the coming years.

Professional organizing is a relatively new industry, and NAPO, formed in 1985 and which now includes more than 4,200 members in 12 countries, including the U.S., was formed when people were discovering there was a growing need for help on ways to be more organized and productive at a time when consumerism was at its highest and the information age was just starting to explode.

Fortunately, there is a certification track available through an organization called the Board of Certified Professional Organizers® or BCPO®  The BCPO® requires certain experiential standards be met and applicants must pass an exam before they can receive their BCPO® certification. (I am getting ready to sit for my exam in February.)

Although NAPO and the BCPO® are working hard to establish standards for the profession, most consumers are not aware of these standards, nor does the general public necessarily understand the differences between someone who calls themselves a “professional organizer” and one who actually has the credentials, training, experience and education to perform the work at the highest level.

Consumers, whether they be businesses or individuals must rely on the recommendations of others, and their ability to size up the skills and qualifications of the organizer. This means they often have to make an important decision about the kind of help they need from their gut feelings.  This wouldn’t be a big problem if what you are looking for is someone to organize your clothes closet but what if, like many people, your disorganization is impacting your well being,  health or safety in bigger ways?

As a consumer, I would implore you to consider an organizing specialist the same way you would consider any other professional such as an attorney, dentist, doctor or accountant. Would you feel comfortable hiring a dentist who advertised on a free bulletin board?  Would you work with an accountant who you discovered on a flyer tacked to a phone pole? Would you send your parents to seek medical care from someone who had four other jobs?

All I’m saying is, you get what you pay for. In other words, Buyer beware.

I came across these 10 Simple Steps to Staying Organized in Getting Organized Magazine.

Try to commit one or two to memory and start implementing them in your own life.

You can receive a digital version of Getting Organized Magazine, including these great tips by going to this link or copy and paste this URL into your browser:

http://www.gettingorganizedmagazine.com/2012/07/13/2012-summer/

1. If you get it out, put it back.

2.  If you open it, shut it.  

3.  If you try it on, hang it up.

4.  If you get it dirty, wash it. 

5.  If you don’t use it, get rid of it.

6.  If it doesn’t fit, donate it.  (my add in….or consign it or sell on ebay if it is a great piece)

7.  If it’s expired, dump it. 

8.  If it’s junk, throw it out.

9.  If it’s a bill, pay it.

10.  If you schedule it, write it down.

While I have lived in California for 25 years  I grew up in New York City and still consider myself a “New Yaw-ker.”

Like a lot of people, when I see the images of destruction in the wake of Hurricane Sandy that hit the coastal communities of New York and New Jersey and hear the cries from people who have lost everything, absolutely everything, I still can’t believe it.

As a child, my family lived in an apartment that faced the Hudson River separating Manhattan from New Jersey.  In the 60s and 70s we went through two blackouts and at least three blizzards but this storm was altogether something different.

Yet what strikes me most is the gratitude people express for just having survived, for having their loved ones near by, for having the fortitude to know they will start over.

As an organizing professional I am deeply aware of the nature of people’s attachments to their possessions. I see almost daily how people instill their possessions with meaning.  Yet when they no longer possess it or they leave it behind either by choice or by circumstance, I am always struck by the notion that those things, in and of themselves, have no meaning. They become merely objects that in most cases, have no value other than what they can fetch on an open market. Their meaning along with the memories they evoke are tied to the people who possessed them.

The other day I was emptying a storage closet that belonged to someone I never knew and who had long since abandoned it.  It seemed strange and sad that no one had taken responsibility for the items I found: photographs of family events and babies long since grown;  awards and commemorative plaques honoring the life and work of this person; books and files and several religious figurines.

I took most of the items to Goodwill. What couldn’t be donated was recycled.  Doing so made me think of the thousands upon thousands of items that end up unclaimed every year in rented storage spaces, abandoned homes, even people’s current homes and forgotten storage areas. They become the remnants of their lives.  Items that meant so much one day, and nothing the next.

If tragedy teaches us anything, it teaches us who we really are. When I organize someone’s home or office or help them get organized to move,  I often stress that in the scheme of things they come first, not their stuff.  I am not saying this to judge them or to minimize the value they place in their possessions, rather, I am encouraging them to be as conscious and thoughtful as possible about what they own.

Not everything has to have “meaning” but ideally if it takes up space it should have usefulness or add value to our lives in some way. It should give us joy or be pleasing or practical or purposeful. Just like our homes, that offer us a place of refuge or peace, the items we surround ourselves with offer us something real and tangible.  At the very least they should be a positive reflection of ourselves and something familiar to come home to.

To me that is the true lesson of Hurricane Sandy. That, in a matter of hours, all that was familiar to so many was lost.  They didn’t expect it. They couldn’t plan for it and yet they remain hopeful that their lives as they once knew them to be will one day return.  The rain and the winds and the water may have washed away their homes but it didn’t wash away their spirit.

Would you like to help people impacted by Hurricane Sandy?  Donate now

“It’s time to fix up the basement. My goal: Turn it into a more usable home-gym and place to focus on my physical, mental and spiritual fitness.”

It’s been about a month since I posted that statement and happy to report that I have been using the basement for a home gym.  Before I could, however, I made it my goal to empty out most of the cabinets which were filled with old toys, games and crafts belonging to my now 17-year old step-daughter who gave me the okay.

Many of the toys got donated to a local Alameda County organization called Bananas which helps low income mothers to find childcare and early childhood education.  A few were consigned to a store called, Toy Go Round  – a decision I might re-think because it required two trips to the consignment store (plus another for each time I want to check on the sales of my items).  It also took a good deal of effort, time and paper towel to clean the old toys so they would be sale-able.

Alex, the cat, inspects the toys being ready for sale and donation

I have to confess though it did give me the opportunity to indulge the 9 year-old in me that wanted to hear the sounds of the Barbie train whistle again and open and close all the cabinets in the Barbie Town House.  That train, now featured in the window of the consignment store, is going to make some other little girl’s day.

Next time I’ll let you know about how I set up the gym and what’s left to do.