NEAT & SIMPLE LIVING with Ariane Benefit, Organizing Coach

Spring Cleaning Tips from me & The Fly Lady!

I was on NPR's Radio Show on Spring Cleaning today with the Fly Lady!  www.flylady.net

Here's the link to listen to the recording of the show!

http://www.wcpn.org/index.php/WCPN/soi/11815/

To make Spring Cleaning even easier - get my e-book with FREE organizing and clutter clearing tips

It also includes lots of clutter clearing & organizing tips from my brilliant fellow organizing and coaching professionals Marcia Francois, Beth Dargis and Suzanne Babb! 

Enjoy your spring!  : )

 

Cluttered house ignites, makes firefighting difficult

This article about a fire in Portland, Oregon really makes the point about how severe clutter is actually a life threatening safety hazard.    Here is a clip from the article

When fire crews arrived, they tried to get inside the home to see if anyone was there, but they had some trouble in their search because they found the house full of clutter.

"There were pathways through each of the rooms that was about waist-high - newspapers, t-shirts, magazines," said Lt. Allen Oswalt with the Portland Fire Bureau.  "And you just had these pathways to get through the rooms.  The doors that would open off the rooms were blocked with waist-high storage of things, so it made it really difficult.  Plus all that adds to the fire load - it's all paper and it burns really easily.  We didn't even get a primary search done for about 45 minutes, which is not the way we like to do it."

See photos and read the rest of the story here:

http://www.katu.com/news/17678414.html

If you are struggling with clutter, here are some help for hoarding resources.

Also, consider signing up for my 3 session Teleclass series:  GETTING UNSTUCK! Releasing the Emotional, Physical, and Belief Clutter Keeping You Stuck in a Pattern of Stress, Overwhelm and Frustration! 

HOARDERS ARE WELCOME

If you have ever wondered if you are a hoarder, or if you know you suffer from compulsive hoarding, you are welcome in this class.  One of the common traits of all hoarding behavior is that the idividual is very creative and can think of millions of reasons why any item is valuable.  If this describes you, we invite you to join us!  We will be focusing on addressing the underlying beliefs thoughts that cause people to experience anxiety in letting go of things. Learn More Here

GETTING UNSTUCK! Releasing the Emotional, Physical, and Belief Clutter Keeping You Stuck in a Pattern of Stress, Overwhelm and Frustration! 

 

Clutter Clearing - Losing 50 Pounds over night?

I just read such a neat post!  Amanda at the Stumbling Christian Blog got inspired by one of my posts about How Clutter Affects You and decided to spend a day getting UNSTUCK.

Amanda says

"Have you ever dreamed of waking up one morning and having 50 lbs suddenly gone? That's what this felt like. Though, sadly, I didn't lose any body weight (that might have something to do with the chocolate, however) I did lose a lot of stuff that was weighing me down."

Check out her before and after pictures! 

p.s. She has some good but loud music that plays when you go to her site...so check your speakers! Mine were way up loud and I nearly jumped out of my skin! 

p.s. I've posted some new free gifts as a thank you to my loyal readers! 
With just one sign-up you'll get my new 40 page e-book with my articles on Clearing Clutter and The Art of the To Do List!  plus articles by my friends, Suzanne Babb, Beth Dargis and Marcia Francois - Combined you over 100 surefire tips to Organize Your Busy Life!

PLUS, you'll get my newest e-booklet:  Feng Shui Tips For Creating a Space You Love!

PLUS - You can download my Clutter Quiz that helps you determine where you are the Clutter scale!

I hope you like them and find them helpful.  Let me know what's inspiring you to clear clutter this month!

NAPO-LA is hosting an Awards Extravaganza - Feb 1

I just got a note from my friend John Trosko of www.OrganizingLa.com  who is president of the NAPO LA Chapter that their 2008 Los Angeles Organizing Awards Show is a go on Feb 1 2008 - in spite of the writer's strike.  Sherri Shepherd is hosting and lot's of celebrity organizers will be there including:

• Julie Morgenstern, best selling author and winner of the 2006 Award for Best Organizing Book
• Peter Walsh, organizing star of Clean Sweep and author
• Monica Ricci, the new Office Depot Spokesperson and star of Mission Organization
• Lorie Marrero, Creator, The Clutter Diet
• Joyce Dorny, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Organize Magazine
• Standolyn Robertson, President,NAPO

They will be taping the show...can't wait to see it!  Congratulations, John and to all the nominees and finalists:  You are already winners!

Read more here: 2008 Los Angeles Organizing Awards Show  and get registration info and details  here

p.s.  I've decluttered my right column,and created a new A-Store of my favorite books on a wide variety of topics. 

(Actually my new virtual assistant, Janet Barclay, did it for me!  YAY!  I'm so excited about my new partnership with her as my VA.  She's wonderful!  Check her out!)

Free Declutter Calendar From Beth Dargis!

Beth Dargis is a simplicity coach who helps people create a saner, simpler life.
She is currently offering a free 2008 Declutter calendar which features one simple action you can take to simplify your life every day.

http://www.MySimplerLife.com/decluttercalendar.htm

I'm not sure you more creative types (like me) will actually follow it, since it is more difficult for us to do things consistently like that, but it is an interesting list.  Those who prefer to hyperfocus will probably want to take a week and plow through weeks of ideas per day!  : ) 

ON the other hand, If you want a system that "tells you exactly what to do" and you will check it every day or week, this calendar is for you!  It's been very helpful for people that get overwhelmed and don't know where to start. 

Suggestion for using: Print it out monthly and post it on a whiteboard. Once a week look at what's on the calendar and see if any of the areas listed need decluttering. 

For more ways to create a saner, simpler life visit Beth's neat blog: http://www.MySimplerLife.com/blog/

Also check out this post on a neat blog called Think Pink by a mom and breast cancer survivor who uses the calendar.

http://think_pink.typepad.com/think_pink/2008/01/simplicity-now.html

Our Las Vegas Vacation - Worth the Vacation "Hangover" : )

I love taking vacations, but the older I get the harder it is to recover from them!  It seems the longer the time I go away and more deeply I "disconnect" from everything, the longer it takes to get reconnected with all the elements of my life. And now, I'm finally reconnecting with you! : ) 

Having a 3 hour time change and getting sick after coming back made this vacation hangover particularly grueling and lengthy.  I think I got so sick partly because of the insane amount of smoking I got exposed to there.  Everywhere we went there cigars and cigarettes being smoked.  It was unbelievable how much smoking was going on there.  I suppose there is a connection between gambling and smoking. But it was really bad. We couldn't even walk down the street, or wait for a shuttle bus, or even go to the spa or pool at our hotel without suddenly taking in a deep breaths of CIGAR smoke - never mind the cigarettes.  It was like they were having some kind of cigar convention there (but they weren't) : )

We were so constantly bombarded with smoke that my lungs were killing me most of the time there.  (I am forever grateful to be living in NJ where we finally got a statewide smoking ban passed.  There is NO smoking allowed, at ALL, in any indoor facilities, and many outdoor areas as well.  As a former smoker, I know how hard it is to quit, but it's a lot easier to quit when you don't have to breathe it in everywhere you go.) 

We don't gamble, so I can't review the casinos except to say that they were EXTREMELY smoky, I actually had to cover my mouth to breathe a few times or hold my breath to walk through - because you HAVE to walk through them to get to the shows and the restaurants in most of the hotels on the strip.

OUR PHOTOS

Here are a couple Photo Albums we put up on Google's Picasa web.  I don't spend a lot of time doing photo albums, but I wanted to learn this tool so that I could hopefully start sharing more photos (and videos) of my work.  I just wish it didn't take up so much time. This is the EASIEST way to do it I've tried so far.  I uploaded over 50 photos all at once with no problem.  Added Captions in about 10 minutes. The MOST time consuming part was choosing the best photos and renaming the files.   

Here is our Las Vegas album - over 50 views taken with my new Olympus Stylus FE-290 7MP Digital Camera with 4x Wide Angle Optical Zoom 

You might especially like my strategy for not bringing home a lot of clutter...I took photos in the stores of most of the souvenirs I was tempted by!  tee hee.  I love just being able to see them and not having to find homes for them somewhere in the house. 

p.s. Photos were resized and some were auto corrected with Microsoft Office 2003's Photo Manager.  Love that for quick and dirty edits. 

Here is our Leaving Las Vegas album showing some amazing aerial views from the plane.

TRIP HIGHLIGHTS

More nice things about Las Vegas: The weather was gorgeous!  Sunny and in the low 70s every day.  : )

RESTAURANTS

The food was amazing, I now understand why Top Chef did one of their seasons from Las Vegas.  We had a beautiful traditional Thanksgiving dinner at Lawry's Prime Rib.  FABULOUS.  I wish there was a Lawry's in New York City.

We had a delicious but very expensive meal at the The Mix restaurant which is in the THE hotel at Mandalay Bay. We were seated on the outdoor balcony of the 64th Floor and the view of the city was stunning. Good thing we don't drink or the meal would have been really outrageous! It was fun, but the whole environment seemed rather pretentious to me.

Our overall favorite though was Wolfgang Puck's Postrio Cafe at St. Mark's Square in the Venetian Hotel.  The food was 5 star, the service was just as fabulous and the atmosphere was far more relaxed and inviting.

Another favorite was the Harley Davidson Cafe.  They have a bunch of REAL motorcycles on a track suspended from the ceiling that actually move all through the restaurant.  It's like being in Disneyland.  Check out their virtual ride through the restaurant and their photo gallery...way cool.

SHOWS

We enjoyed the shows, especially:

Mama Mia at the Mandalay - My FAVORITE!!  Loved it.  The ABBA music made be feel 17 again!  I was actually 17 when Dancing Queen came out and I danced to it on my 17th birthday.

LOVE by Cirque de Soleil at the Mirage - It was a gorgeous show and the music was amazing.  I've Cirque before and was expeciting more acrobatics, it has a little, but this show is NOT about the acrobatics...be forewarned : )

Blue Man Group at the Venetian - My husband LOVED this one best.  I liked it, but it's really a guy's show.  They spray the audience with colored paint and stuff like that.  It got very gross at times - like when they squirt what looks like vomit out of their outfits and then eat it.  eeewww.  not my thing.  But at times it was very insightful too.  Overall, it's a fun show, glad I went, glad we didn't pay half price.  : )

ICE at the Riviera by a skating acrobatics ensemble from Russia.  It was nice, but DON'T pay full price.  The stage is too small and is not in the round so they don't have room to do anything too spectacular, though from what they did do, it was clear they are very talented. One cool thing about the show was that they have a thin ice track that weaved through the audience so that they could skate through now and then.

The Fountains of Bellagio were my favorite. We saw several different shows set to various kinds of music. Check out my video clip of - the entire Singing in the Rain show below. I took this clip with my new Olympus Stylus FE-290 7MP Digital Camera with 4x Wide Angle Optical Zoom  After using it for the past month, I LOVE this camera. It was so easy to take the video, the audio is amazing, and it was so easy to transfer to my computer, (See my post comparing the Olympus FE 290 Wide Angle Digital Camera to the Samsung L74 Wide Angle.)  and upload it to my new favorite service...Google Video!  It's my new favorite because they don't have a 10 MB restriction like YouTube does.  You have UNLIMITED file size!!  How do they do it??!!   I don't know, but here it is.  Hope you like it!

BOTTOM LINE

I'm glad we went, but I would not go back. There are many more places I'd rather go, but I'm glad to have been there once in my life.

Well that's all for now. This post and getting all the photos and video clip together has taken nearly all day!

But meanwhile I was also playing with my early Christmas Gift, an HP iPaq PDA  - it's basically a handheld mobile computer with enough features to compel me to try using an electronic calendar again!  For one I can handwrite entries!!!  It also allows me to connect to the internet and email via WI-FI and cell phone. Plus it's an MP3 Player, a note recorder and much more. I'll wrote more about that eventually : )  For now check it out on Amazon here - It has great reviews! HP iPAQ 111 Classic Handheld

Till the next time,

Help! I'm a hoarder - Verdict: Helpful - but could have been much more helpful.

Thanks to Dr. Amie Ragan's latest post, I learned that there is a new TV show coming up on Wednesday, September 19th, at 7:00 p.m. CST. called Help! I'm a Hoarder.

I watched the show and was glad to see it was educational vs exploitative and did help to enlighten the general public about the causes and treatment options available. I hope it will foster great compassion and better treatment of hoarders in the legal system.

I think they missed out on a great opportunity, however, to make hoarders and their families as well as professionals who work with hoarders aware of the recent and few self-help books on the subject such as:

Buried in Treasures: Help for Compulsive Acquiring, Saving, and Hoarding

Overcoming Complusive Hoarding

They could also have easily promoted organizations like www.NSGCD.org and websites such as:

• OCD Foundation's Hoarding Website
• Children of Hoarders group
• Squalor Survivors 
• www.messies.com
• Hoarding Fact Sheet - Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health
• New York City Hoarding Website 
• Shopaholics Anonymous
• Stopping Overshopping

See more resources for hoarders

HYPNOTHERAPY
I do feel hypnotherapy is a promising approach to dealing with the underlying subconscious & emotional elements of the condition.  But I was concerned that they made it seem somewhat like a "magic cure". Some hoarding behavior has a genetic component and therefore may not be treatable with hypnotherapy. 

REPATTERNING
Holographic or Resonance Repatterning is an unfortunately complicated sounding name for an alternative treatment modality that actually may have great promise in helping clutterers and hoarders who are resistant to change due to underlying or subconscious belief systems.  I recently attended a group session that remarkably helped a group of addicts overcome some very self-limiting beliefs.  Because I believe many types of hoarding are actually addictive behaviors (in that they are attempts to self-soothe, manage stress, affect mood, and avoid "withdrawal" pain), I'm meeting with Ellen Shapiro a Certified Repatterning Practioner here in Montclair, NJ to discuss creating a resource / service / workshop for clutterers that integrates learning organizing skills with exploration of beliefs & using repatterning techniques to help people release their clutter more easily.   If you are interested in learning more, repatterning sessions can also be done by phone.

VALUE
The greatest value of the show in my opinion is that it will hopefully help reduce the shame hoarders feel so that they are more willing to seek help for their problem. 

FINDING THE RIGHT PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZER / PROFESSIONAL TO WORK WITH HOARDERS
Working with hoarders is such a specialty in the organizing industry that I almost think the professional organizers who do that ought to have a different title.  Not sure what it would be, but really the skill set difference is ENORMOUS.   I was concerned that the show did not mention the NSGCD Referral Site for around 1000 organizing professionals specializing in chronic disorganization. NSGCD members are a subset of the over 6000 professional organizers out there. Among the NSGCD members there are even fewer that specialize in extreme Levels 3-5 hoarding.  Personally, I don't feel that I'm yet qualified to work with that group. I work with Levels 1 and 2 on the Clutter Hoarding Scale.

I have started a Compulsive Hoarding Service Provider & Professional Organizer Referral Directory on this blog for practioners who specialize in helping level 3 - 5 extreme hoarders.  If you are a professional who works with hoarders or have worked with a professional(s) who helped you, please submit their names and contact info here.

Thanks!

Help! I'm a hoarder. New TV show

Thanks to Dr. Amie Ragan's latest post, I learned that there is a new TV show coming up on Wednesday, September 19th, at 7:00 p.m. CST. called Help! I'm a Hoarder.  I'm programming it into my DVR  and TIVO.  I also hope they treat the show's participants with dignity and really getting into the complexities of the problem and discuss the latest treatments.

Related Posts on this Blog

Help for Hoarders, Clutterers & Compulsive Shoppers

Overcoming Hoarding Tendencies with Dr. Randy Frost & Sandra Felton

Supporting Someone Who Lives in Squalor - Squalor Survivors & Children & Family of Hoarders

Surviving & Overcoming Living in Squalor

True Story: One Family's Experience With the Devasting Effects of Prolonged Clutter

How Compulsive Hoarding Affects Families

Are you an Article Clipping Addict?

If you clip lots of articles from newspapers and magazines, this guest post by Professional Organizer, Lorie Morrero is for you.  It provides alternatives to clipping that save you time and space in your home. It may even cause you to rethink how much you clip in the first place.

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Do you need Clippers Anonymous?

GUEST POST By Lorie Marrero, Author of the Clutter Diet

Are you compelled to clip articles from magazines and other reading material and save them for later, or share them with your friends and family?  Is it becoming a problem?

Clipping for yourself:  The main question is, do you have an organized system for FINDING the clippings later?  If you do not have a reliable way of organizing and filing these items, you might as well not have them. I would like to suggest to you that almost everything is indexed online now.  Virtually all major magazines have indexed their articles, and if you'll allow the possibility, they can be responsible for holding this information for you.  I would recommend taking a few of your clippings and "testing" trying to find that information on Google, or directly on the magazine's website.  My guess is that you will be successful almost 100% of the time.  This may give you the confidence to drastically reduce your clipping habits.  It's very time-consuming to handle this paper and file it and keep it, and it takes up a lot of space.  Remember, you do not need to create your own personal library when there are literally libraries and search engines and others that do nothing but index information for you.

A helpful tool:  A PDF maker.  PDFs are a universal type of document that almost anyone can read on any computer.  You can "print" a web page to save as a PDF document, using Adobe Acrobat Professional software or a less expensive "knock-off" product like Cute PDF.  Saving a PDF of something you like online can allow you to organize it into your personal files on your hard drive, rather than printing something out and keeping it in your paper files.

Clipping for others:  The good news is that you are probably a very caring "people person" who really values your relationships.  That is great!  Let's make sure you're doing the best thing for the people you care about helping.

First, ask yourself honestly if this person truly wants the information.  In my work as a Professional Organizer, I have a client who is a very well-intentioned "big sister." She is always wanting to send articles about health and wellness to her parents and siblings, along with parenting advice and similar items.  We were able to broach the subject that perhaps these types of articles could be perceived badly as unsolicited advice, and that you have to be careful about the unspoken messages you're sending along with the material. 

Secondly, always ask yourself (again) if this information is available online.  People nowadays would greatly prefer a link they can click on, read, and move on--rather than adding to their pile of paper they feel they must read and respond to.  E-mail makes it much easier to share this information conveniently.  It's also much less time-consuming for you.  The client I have mentioned above often makes 5-6 copies of an article to send out to various family members, so imagine the time savings of doing that vs. just addressing an e-mail to 5-6 people.

Hopefully this information gives you a different perspective to help relieve your clipping burden.

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Lorie Marrero is a Professional Organizer and creator of The Clutter Diet, an innovative, affordable online program for home organization. Lorie’s site helps members lose “Clutter-Pounds” from their homes by providing online access to her team of organizers. Lorie writes something insanely practical every few days or so in the Clutter Diet Blog. She lives in Austin, TX, where her company has provided hands-on organizing services to clients since 2000.

Sentimental Treasures or Clutter? 8 Ways to Sort Through Your Sentimental Things

Sentimental things are probably the most difficult kinds of things to let go.  It's the stuff that was part of our history, part of who we used to be and what made us who we are today.

For me, pretty much everything my husband and I keep squirreled away in our attic is sentimental. Some people would call the stuff in our attic clutter, but is it really clutter?  I think the first step in choosing what to let go of is to be really clear about what clutter means to you. To me, it's NOT clutter simply because you don't use it.

I determine what clutter is by looking at through a cost-benefit lens.  A kind of pain vs. pleasure scale.  How much is it costing me or how much pain is it causing me to keep it, versus how much benefit or pleasure I get from it. It's a personal decision for everyone. 

So, for example if I really need more space in my garage to hold things I use, then I have to be consider letting go of things that I love but I haven't been using like my motorcycle.  It has been sold to someone who really uses and enjoys it.  It was a really hard decision to make - I hugged it and then cried watching it drive off.  Letting it go - felt like I was having an out of body experience - like a part of me was torn away forever - and I still feel a pang every time I go in my garage and don't see it there. But I lived through it, and the extra space in our garage feels awesome and has made our lives easier and simpler. I don't regret it at all,  In fact I'm very proud of myself for letting go and letting someone else experience the joy I once got from it.   

This guest post by Jeri Dansky provides some excellent tips to help you sort through your sentimental treasures and decide what to keep and what to pass on.

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8 Ways to Sort Through the Sentimental Clutter

GUEST POST By Jeri Dansky, Author of Jeri's Organizing and Decluttering News blog.

The souvenirs from your last 10 trips. The Christmas cards from 1998. The prize-winning science project your son or daughter did. Your grandmother's china. How do you sort through all of this, and decide what to keep? Here are some guidelines to help.

1. Decide to honor the past, but not be chained down by it. And realize that disposing of an object does not in any way reflect on your respect and love for the person who gave it to you, or who owned it before. If we don't ever dispose of things from our past, we leave no room in our spaces for the present and the future.

2. Be selective; consider employing some rules of thumb. For example, you may decide you don't need to keep any Christmas cards that don't have a personal note or a photo. (And please don't save cards from your newspaper carrier, your dentist, and people you don't particularly like - or even remember!) Watching and listening to my clients, it's usually easy to tell which items are the keepers - they are the ones that bring on the big smiles or the laughter.

3. Consider setting limits. Limits can be numeric (I will only save x number of my child's drawings from this year) or space-related (I will only save what fits in this box). And if you are deciding about your children's artwork or schoolwork, it's often wise to involve them in making the choices.

4. Consider space-saving alternatives. Sometimes taking a picture of a bulky item will preserve the memory just fine, and you can let the item itself move on. I horrified a friend by ripping up my high school yearbook - but I really only wanted about 10 pages, not the whole heavy thing.