This weekend the clocks go ahead already! Twice a year, the time change is a good instigation for editing our homes for the spring clean. Here in Ontario, we are not ready to think about spring cleaning our homes. We can hold off on that till April or May. One thing we can do is edit some things to ready ourselves for the onslaught of inspiration that comes with those months. In the same way that we ‘pre-pack’ before we show our homes to sell, we can ‘pre-purge’ before we freshen our homes up for summer. We are aware clutter diminishes our clarity and occupies space, physical and mental. It interferes and distracts, and diminishes efficiency and effectiveness. It keeps us from moving ahead in our lives. We will be mentally, physically, and spiritually ready for the change of seasons when we see our home environment represented as the fresh fun free feeling of summer!

Here are a few tips to help you make your month of March your preparation month. Believe it or not, summer is indeed coming!

1. Closets: You’re looking at your winter wardrobe still, and asking yourself if you have worn everything in it. If not, then you probably won’t next year either. Pack them up in the Salvation Army bag that you always have handy at the back of your closet. What about those shoes you haven’t worn this winter?

2. Kid’s It is time to take stock of your children’s clothing, switching out seasonal items and assessing whether things fit them anymore. Go through each child’s clothing and decide whether to donate, discard, or save outgrown items for another child in your family. You can sort items to keep into clear containers by size and gender, such as “Boys Sizes 6-8.” If they have games they haven’t played in the cold winter months, try to coax them into donating to a needy child in the community, or even a friend of theirs.

3. Pantry: Go through your pantry and donate to the food bank all of the still jarred and packaged gift basket remnants from the holidays, throw out the old valentine chocolate, the stale croutons, and the mixes you’ll never bake. Organize your refrigerator to make more room for the wonderful fresh spring and summer produce. On your shelves you can also use plastic salad mix bins to contain packages of crackers, nuts, spices, etc.

4. Home Office: Since you’re finishing up your income taxes, it’s an excellent time to archive and purge old files. A rule of thumb we use is to keep things from the current year and previous year in your active filing cabinet and archive anything older to a different location, such as a file box stored in the basement or garage. Thumb through old magazines and cut out special articles or inspirational pictures. File them in page protectors in a binder.

5. Laundry and Storage: Take all your own grocery bags back to the store. Leave your recycled cloth bags in your car and you won’t have to hit yourself in the forehead the next time you walk out of your car into the parking lot. How many extra cleaning liquids do you store that you don’t need?

Unloading clutter from your home becomes synonymous with cleansing the clutter from your mind. You will know what is important to you and your family when you cleanse what is unnecessary. Living simply can open doors that you don’t even know exist!

How do you know what is important and what you can live without? Think of these questions. You get to move to Hawaii. It costs $100s of dollars per pound to move and you are limited to X number of pounds. What will you take? Your home is in an emergency situation. You have been given two hours to pack and evacuate. What will you take?You can retire/quit your job NOW if you are willing to downsize and live in a friend’s small guest house. What will you take?Good luck with your editing!

Patti Smith
Show Offs Home Staging and Organizing

 February makes me think of cozying up in the winter with your spouse. Likely it’s Valentines Day that inspires me to think about how we manage our relationships with others and how effective those relationships are. Clutter in your environment can put a strain on everyone in the household. The master bedroom is especially vulnerable to the well being of your relationship with your spouse. This month, let’s concentrate on clearing the bedroom space and watching what that can do to our love life. Seriously, the feng shui experts will verify this. We spend about one-third of our life in our bedrooms, but it’s usually the space we put the least effort into furnishing, decorating, and keeping neat – because it’s tucked away from visitors. Here are some hints to help you elevate your relationship with your lover, AND yourself, by unveiling the serenity, romance, and peace that your bedroom inherently holds.

1. Edit everything from sightexcept for a picture of the two of you, a candle, a bud vase of silk flowers or pussy willows. On your bedside table, just your lamp and clock radios are necessary. Bedside tables with drawers are a necessity. The principal bedroom is the most important room in the house for allowing the ambiance of intimacy in your life. Remember, clutter represents postponed decisions. You don’t want to look around, just to get your brain and your sensual limbic system busy with that!
2. Be a good example Once you have cleared away a hot spot or two, it’s bound to be noticed. But there has to be a system in place to prevent that area from getting cluttered up as fast as your Quaker oats boils. When you have the spouses’ attention, try a teamwork approach to maintaining the momentum. Gather together and brainstorm some ideas!
3.  Make your bed as soon as you get up. An unmade bed looks sloppy, and will drag the rest of the room down with it.
4. Put away clean clothes as soon as you come across them, and buy an attractive hamper for storing dirty clothes – no one wants to look at a cracked plastic laundry basket.
5. The one out of five rule: If your spouse has a collection of things, like books, tools, baseball caps, etc that take up valuable real estate, try editing with the one out of five rule. Pull out 5 items and ask them to donate one to a lucky recipient. If you do this once a week or so, you will notice a difference in a few years! Aren’t we sly?
6. The most common bedroom clutter is furniture. Is everything in your bedroom there because it has to do with the two of you, or are you storing other family belongings? Edit your clothes and stuff so that you can get rid of a piece of furniture. Ideally, the closets will be organized enough to accommodate all the clothes, anyway. Closet organizing is another topic.
7. Simplify with colour: Keep your colour choices for the master down to one soft neutral and one other colour. A classic black accents and sophisticates a room in the right place. Soft green is serene and can blend well with most artwork. A muted light blue can soothe the soul like a clear blue ocean. Try not to allow too much masculinity in the bedroom, as it’s always a little subliminal fun for the ‘fellow’ to be entering the feminine ‘boudoir’.

Just a quick note to let everybody know that you can now sign-up for the Show Off’s Monthly newsletter with the subscription box on the sidebar.

Simply add your email address and then look for a subscription confirmation link in your email. More details are included during the sign-up process.

I came across an interesting comparison of the word resolution and the word committment. Are you using the right word in your language to yourself this new year? Studies have shown that resolutions last approximately 3 days. Maybe this is why:

To resolve means – to loosen, release; to break up; to reduce by analysis; to clear up. To commit means – to promise devotion; to promise resources; to entrust something to somebody; to record something for the future.

Think about which one you want to include in your life this month.

Simplifying with style,

Patti

Organize “In”  The New Year

Although Jan. 1 is the customary date for making New Year’s resolutions, this maligned tradition makes sense. After weeks of stress getting ready for all the events between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, you may be feeling bloated and burned out. I’m seeing a definite increase in the population at my local gym. Many of us leap gung-ho into a life of fitness and often run screaming from it sometime before Valentine’s Day.Don’t stop at your body when it comes to your wellness level. This year, make your home environment a priority in your new years resolutions. Your home is very important to your emotional well being. How you take care of your space around you can affect your daily life in many ways. Do you spend time looking for things? Does everything in your house have it’s own home?

Do you have piles of items or papers that you mean to ‘get to ’some day soon?

Then you’re not alone. Most of us have some kind of issue around our stuff.

Clutter is anything that is unused, unloved, in disrepair, or not in it’s own home. Don’t live in CHAOS (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome). Make a goal this year to create a healthy, organized home for you and your family.Let’s face it: Goals have to be made sometime, because as Yogi Berra said:  “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” Creating the home you want doesn’t require large amounts of money or space. It requires inspiration, connection to resources and motivation to do something about it.

Remember — Don’t agonize, organize! And have a very Happy 2008 Year.Patti Smith   

 I found this interesting take on new years resolutions. You decide for yourself, but now is a great time to take a short look back and a big look forward. Patti

Plan for a Successful New Year by Looking BackPat Heydlauff With 2008 fast approaching have you started thinking about what’s ahead? Will your new year be better than 2007 or at least as good? Will your relationships, health and income improve or at minimum, not get worse? And, can you do anything to make it better? Or, do you find one year melting into the other and nothing changes?If nothing changes in your life for the better year after year, this article is for you. Positive change comes not only from using Feng Shui in your surroundings but also with your thinking. This year, rather than looking forward to the new year and wondering just what you should do about resolutions and changes in your life, take a look back first.Have you resolved the issues you wanted to resolve in the past twelve months such as relationships that are not working or a job that is not fulfilling or paying you what you deserve? Have you made decisions or completed things you’ve been working on that should have been done several years ago, or at least completed by the end of this year? Do you have a pattern of holding over one decision or another year after year?Resolve Unfinished Things FirstBefore you look forward to the new year, look back over the past year to see what has been left unfinished. When there are many unfinished projects, issues or decisions left at the end of the year, you will take their energy into the new year as clutter. And, that clutter will prevent you from having a new year that begins with new energy, new thinking, new ideas and new results.The first step to creating positive new energy in the new year is to eliminate as much old stagnant energy as possible. Review and evaluate the past twelve months to see what needs to be resolved – then try some of the following positive energy solutions.Positive Energy Solutions to Resolve Unfinished Issues• If you are agonizing over making a long term investment, come to a decision and get on with your life. If you don’t, you will transfer that same agonizing energy into the new year and it will reside there as clutter until you finally make your decision.• If you are in a relationship that simply is not working, make a decision today to move on and then do it. It does not serve you or the other person well to continue a relationship that is not what you want or is not going anywhere. This type of negative energy can be very suffocating and even result in poor health over a long period of time.• If you are looking for a new long-term relationship then quit talking about it but rather do something about it. If you have been unsuccessful in finding the right person to share your life with in the places you’ve been looking – find other activities to participate in that would provide you new opportunities to meet people. You will find the relationship you are looking for only when you completely focus positive energy on finding an appropriate relationship for you. • If your health is an issue and you used to feel better when you worked out or did Yoga on a weekly basis but quit because of a time crunch or an emotional setback – make a decision to get back into the habit of participating in weekly physical activity. Don’t just think about it, if physical activity makes you feel better, do it – your spirits and health will both improve.• If you hate going to work because you are underappreciated and underpaid, research what your options are. Find all the possible opportunities available that will pay you or can lead you to the income you want and will also provide you a sense of accomplishment and recognition. If you do not find many options in your field, look into other fields of work that can use your talents. Staying indefinitely at a job you hate is very stressful. Once you find all of your options take action so you can be in-control of your life, not your current employer.Plan now for a successful 2008. Eliminate as much unfinished business clutter as possible before the end of this year so new energy will be your only companion as you transition into the new year. The most successful new beginnings are ones where the old energy has been shifted out of your life making room for positive new energy that is supportive of the new future you are creating. If you plan for a better new year, you will have a better new year. © Pat Heydlauff, all rights reserved 2007 

Quick and Dirty Decorating for the Holidays

1.       If you have a real tree, use some stray branches and gather in a big bucket, or even a round wastepaper bin decorated with stripes of last years’ holiday ribbon, or duct tape… it’s silver.

2.       Place a few candles on a Christmas plate or a ‘silver’ tray from the dollar store. When lit, you can’t beat the glow! Sprinkle sugar around the bottom on the plate… looks like snow!

3.       Place a bowl of oranges pegged with cloves in a clear glass or wooden bowl. Form the cloves as a Christmas bow, or bell, or with initials.

4.       I have 3 little red votive holders from the dollar store on display them on my white kitchen shelf, and that’s it on the shelf. It looks bright and homey. Of course the wine rack is just above it.

5.       Fill a clear glass vase, bowl, or jar with shiny Christmas tree ornaments in the same colour, or different colours. Looks good in the bathroom and kitchen too.

6.       As a place- card, string a small tag made out of old Christmas card to a Christmas ball, and let the guest take it home.

7.       Pour about ½ lb of sugar into two bowls.  Add enough red food colouring to one of the bowls and pour into vase in candy cane stripe fashion, alternating colours. Cute! And a great way to use the sugar that you thought you’d be baking with but don’t have time to bother.

8.       Replace a few light bulbs in your lamps with coloured bulbs. Red lends a cheery glow, while blue or green is very mellow.

9.       Have the youngest child tell the Christmas story.

Subject: Humorous Home Remedies

10. The holidays are about drinking: If you’re choking on an ice cube simply pour a cup of boiling water down your throat. Presto! The blockage will instantly remove itself.
11. The holidays are about food: Avoid cutting yourself when slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold while you chop.
12. The holidays are about love and relationships: Avoid arguments with the Mrs. about lifting the toilet seat by using the sink.
13. The holidays are about peace: For high blood pressure sufferers: simply cut yourself and bleed for a few minutes, thus reducing the pressure in your veins. Remember to use a timer.
14. The holidays are about partying: A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.
15. The holidays are about health: If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives; then you’ll be afraid to cough.
16. The holidays are about simplicity: You only need two tools in life – WD-40 and Duct Tape. If it doesn’t move and should, use the WD-40. If it shouldn’t move and does, use the duct tape.
17. The holidays are about friends: Remember: Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.

Here are 7 Tips for Trimming Down at Christmas 1. Change your gifting strategy. The most fun I have at Christmas is when we play the gift stealing game. We each bring a $10 wrapped gift suitable for an adult. We use dice and go around the room, each rolling for doubles. If you get doubles, you can pick a gift or swap. It goes on until all the gifts are gone from the pile. Lots of fun, and it’s interesting to see which gifts are the most popular and with whom.2. Send cards on another day. We all get lots of cards at Christmas time, so your card is lost in the melee. Why not send people birthday cards. It’s more of an individual thought. This goes for clients also. They’ll stand out from the crowd and be more memorable then. 3. Make your own cards. I stick my photos to card. People love them. You can also use old cards to make your own. Anything you’ve put your creativity into will be more fun for you, and more appreciated by others.4. Create a budget for gifts and stick to it – I know you’ve probably heard this one before, but I keep meeting people who think they ’should’ wrack up their credit cards. That doesn’t prove you love someone. All it proves is that you’re spending money you don’t have and you’re willing to pay high interest rates to the Credit Card companies. It’s not worth it folks! 5. Trim the waistline – Christmas is a great time for parties and get togethers and they all seem to involve chocolates and all kinds of things that don’t automatically appear at other times of the year. If you start watching your diet now, you won’t have that extra 5-10 lbs to worry about in January. Even just tracking what you eat, makes you aware and cuts you down on the temptation. That’s why Weight Watchers works so well. You are tracking all your calories in the form of points.6. Simplify the season and distill it down to what’s really important to you - and then create some simple ways to express that. Is it really the ‘things’ you buy that are important or would giving someone an experience they’ll remember be more heartfelt? For example a glass blowing class for a loved one who’s always wanted to try that. And maybe for next year when you can start earlier, how about a book of memories for a loved one. I know what I wouldn’t give to the local charity shop after Christmas! 7. Take this opportunity to express gratitude for your abundance. The very fact that you’re reading about trimming down Christmas on your computer means you’re abundant and prosperous. How can you create joy for others by donating time or gifts to charities and families in need? You could even do that in the name of a loved one. Most of us have grown up with the commercialism of Christmas and often just carry on without thinking. But, while all around us are losing their heads, Christmas is a great opportunity to be intentional about how you’re living and align your values with who you are. Be the change you wish to see!  

Well, I think that we can say winter is truly here. It’s a snowstorm outside and I couldn’t get up the 10^th St hill or the 9^th St. Hill this morning before they sanded!The way I look at it, it’s a great time to do those little 20 min jobs indoors that we’ve been putting off for too long. Also, let’s get the house ready for Christmas this weekend!Some of us need a little spirit lift on these dull days. Here are some tips from my favourite Feng Shui teacher, Vicky White, for just that lift that we need.Do you want to know what you could (note I didn’t say should) on these days that we are inclined to stay in?——-Patti1. Replace your light bulbs with full spectrum bulbs. These mimic sunlight and trigger the production of serotonin. They are a white light that has all the colors of the spectrum. They are widely available. You can also purchase a light box emitting light at least ten times the normal amount of light. You sit 2-3 feet from it for 20-30 minutes each day. 2. Keep your front entrance clear and welcoming. Clear snow and leaves to ensure the energy can find its way into your home.3. Include salads in your diet. They will give you yang energy and balance the heavy foods often eaten at this time of year.4. Declutter. There is a link between depression / low energy and clutter. Decluttering those things that are unfinished, unused, unresolved, tolerated or disorganized will raise your energy. Spend 20 minutes a day and give your energy a boost. Remember, 20 minutes is your friend. Set a clock, go for it and feel your energy rise.5. Clean your windows and have a clear perspective. Not only will that let more light in but when you look at the world through a murky lens it changes what you see.6. Add the color orange. Orange brings joy. Maybe a bowl of oranges in the kitchen or on the dining room table? A little goes a long way.7. Take time to be outside as much as possible. When the sun does come out take advantage of it but, even on a gray day there is sunlight getting through and you’ll absorb some Vitamin D. With a good raincoat and shoes you can go walking or hiking. Being in nature taking deep breaths will do wonders for you.8. Highly sensitive people are even more prone to being affected by SAD and seasonal changes. Take this questionnaire to see if you fit the definition of a HSP. It explained a lot when I discovered I was a HSP and gave me the support to be extra kind to myself.9. Ask for and be open to support. Sometimes we need our friends to remind us of what we know. And, sometimes we need them to jolt us out of a limited view of our options and ourselves.With these tips you’ll nourish yourself and thrive on these short, cold days. (Please note that if you are suffering from SAD, or from depression that doesn’t seem to be seasonally related, please consult your health care practitioner.)

Well, I just got home from Vancouver where I attended the Professional Organizers in Canada conerence. It was informative, fun, and confirmed to me that this is a part of my business that can help people change their lives! There are 0ver 500 of us in Canada, and those in business for several years are thriving business owners. They can pick and choose their clients. I will still accept anyone who needs my services and do the best I can for their issues of clutter, disorganization, time management, and flow in their homes and offices. I’m pumped!

I went straight from the airport to Midland where I spoke to 45 women on time management and space management for 2.5 hours! I have a power point slide presentation with a bit of wit and wisdom. It was my first real paying speaking gig!

So now I will get back to my writing and recommending of good articles and web sites.

My favourite site these days is called www.zenhabits.net. Sign up to receive their articles every day or so. Highly recommended!