5 Decluttering Questions!

Imagine this: You fill a big suitcase (the one that always weighs more than 50 pounds when you check it at the
 airport) and you cram it with all the fall and winter clothes you haven’t worn in the last year. Maybe many of the garments haven’t been worn in several years. If you haven’t worn a garment in the last year, what makes you think a year from now you will?  

If you did this, you'd lose 50 pounds of clothing that was otherwise clogging your closet and if the suitcase is an old one that's probably seen its last flight, you could drop the whole, loaded suitcase off at Goodwill, You'll feel 50 pounds lighter spiritually! Clutter is the biggest destroyer of peace and decluttering closets, cupboards and drawers brings a peace that money can’t buy!

The Flood of 2014 - Water ALWAYS wins

Because American Way (American Airline’s in-flight magazine) is featuring the House Fairy this month, I thought it’d be good to write about exercising while flying. So, Mom, want to shrink that belly fat while you’re on your way to Los Angeles? Here are 7 ways to get back into those pants that are too tight.

As an author of get-organized books, I’ve had to fly extensively, and over the years I’ve figured out some ways to get in a little fitness activity on a plane without getting kicked off it. We have to put our fellow passengers first before our exercise regimes. Having a passenger invade my space is on my list of top ten annoyances, so I’m very careful not to bother my seat partners.

Once while travelling, the woman next to me used an inflatable neck rest which obviously had a leak. While she slept, the air leaked out and her large body gradually listed into my space and finally rested on my arm and shoulder. The assertiveness-training classes I took, didn’t take and I allowed the invasion of my personal space. Soon after, she woke up from the awkward slant of her torso, blew the thing back up, and returned to dreamland, gradually tilting back over her armrest again and into my lap. This process repeated every 27 minutes (not that I was counting!) on our nonstop flight from Portland, Oregon, to New York City, New York.

We certainly don’t want to be invasive like that while we squeeze some exercise into our travels.

My goal when exercising on a flight is to keep my workout as discrete as I can. That’s part of the fun! One good way to do that is to get your moves in before takeoff. If you think how much time it takes for all those passengers to get on the plane and the chaos created as they get their stuff stowed and get seated, most of these exercises can be done after you board and before the plane taxis off to the runway, thereby sparing your flight mates any grief while you work out.   

Some of my exercises are isometric and make use of your imagination.

1. The Marching Soldier 

For lower-body strength: Sit in your seat and pretend that your feet weigh 20 pounds each. Discreetly lift one leg up and hold for five seconds, being careful not to disturb your fellow passenger with groans or heavy breathing (especially if you’re in a center seat). Then raise it up as high as you can without knocking into your tray table and continue holding for five more seconds. Repeat with each leg 15 times.

Get Organized! Go Early!! Save Time!!!

My husband Terry and I love to go to the Oregon Symphony Pops concerts. Last time we went, I talked him into going to the Heathman Hotel which is next door to the theater, for dinner afterward. 

I had appealed to his logic by explaining that we could enjoy a nice dinner and avoid the exhaust-filled
exodus from the six-story parking garage like we always have had to do in the past. (We seem to get to Portland within minutes before performance time and end up on the roof of the parking garage because those are the only spaces left. Then, after the show, we always have to crawl, bumper-to-bumper to get out, woozy from asphyxiation.)

After the concert, we hurried out to avoid the rush of fellow, hungry symphony goers that would ensue. Next door, we settled into our seats at a table for two. The Heathman Restaurant has great food and I was excited to be there. It’s swanky. The silverware is very heavy and the linen tablecloth was starched and as white as a baby’s first tooth.

I had to go to the bathroom (I’d vetoed going at intermission), so I told Terry, “I’m going to go powder my nose,” and hustled off to the Women’s Restroom. I don’t know why I said that. I wasn’t going to powder my nose and I didn’t have any powder in my purse; I don’t even use powder at home! I guess when I get in a fancy place I want to be ladylike. Oh well. Anyway, the restroom was as classy as the restaurant. The long door handle into the “powder” room was gold and silver and the door was heavy like the silverware. The restroom was empty, and there were just three stalls that had the kind of doors that go all the way to the floor so I couldn’t see feet, to know if there were women in any of them.

Being very careful, not to open the door on someone, I took hold of one of the beautiful door handles (identical to the silver and gold door handle on the door going into the restroom). I pulled ever so slightly and it opened. The stall was vacant. While I was in there I noticed the gorgeous marble flooring and the polished fixture that housed the toilet paper. It made me want to refurbish our bathroom.

When I came out of my stall, the restroom was full of women in various stages of “powdering their noses.” I squeezed through the crush of post-concert ladies to the elegant marble sink and washed my hands, while more crammed themselves in. I dried my hands, eager to get back to our table and headed out behind a tall woman who was obviously leading the way. As she opened the door and headed out, I was right behind her, but instead of continuing out into the lobby, she stopped abruptly and I gently bumped into her. Then without giving me any space at all, she turned around with a loud, “OH My God!” Now, we were face to face and if she’d not been so tall, we’d have touched noses!

It was only when I leaned a little to try to get around her that I saw it!

Do it NOW

With graduations and weddings soon upon us, it occurred to me to write about the dreaded “Thank You Note.” I know we’re all grateful people and so are our kids, but somehow writing thank you notes can loom over us. One survey revealed that writing thank you notes was number seven on the top ten things we tend to put off doing. For me, it’s number three on my list of put-offs.

My best advice is to keep a good supply of Thank You Notes on hand. It’d be a good idea to put a few in a Zip-Lock bag along with some stamps in your purse for those times you end up having to wait, like in the dentist’s office, on a flight or while you wait at the beauty salon. (Just think how thankful you could be when at a standstill in a traffic jam!) I found that The Dollar Store has a wonderful supply of Thank You Notes for; you guessed it, a dollar!

When I was a little girl, my mom was relentless about making me send my grandparents thank you notes after Christmas and birthdays. Grandma Dot and Grandpa Buddy’s checks came faithfully on those occasions and every day until I’d finally sit down and write the card, mom was on my case. I remember hating those nagging words, “Have you written your thank you note yet?”

I asked my friend Marci who is an exemplar mother with two adorable adult children, “Did you hound your kids to write thank you notes after Christmas, birthdays and graduations?”

“Nope.”

“Really? You mean they just did it without being badgered?”

“Well, not exactly. I just said, ‘You wanna play with that toy, read that new book spend that money? Write your thank you notes first and then you can.’”

“You mean they had to write thank you notes BEFORE they got to have the gift?”

“Yep.”

Spring Cleaning? Start at the Entryway

Usually when we think of spring cleaning we think of getting out the buckets, brushes, rags and cleaners and cleaning the inside of the house. If you want to learn more about that, Google it. My blog this week is about sprucing up the place just before you go inside, your home. You’ll have to go outside for this spring cleaning.

Your entryway is the gateway to your domestic life. It gives guests their first impression of your home life and quite frankly a little peek into who you are. After your guest rings the doorbell there’s what I call, “wait time,” and it’s a rather private period of scrutiny and judging.

Happy Monday!

It’s stunningly beautiful today as we stand at the grand entrance to summer! The promise of the April rains came through and Mother Nature has just proclaimed two of the sweetest words I know; “Ta Da!”

When I think about TD moments I think of Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. She was the queen of grand entrances, but I’m afraid Mama Nature just passed her today, at least here in the Pacific Northwest.

Your Snuggle Bunnies are hopefully enjoying some TD moments, showing off their clean rooms and while they are at it, you are hopefully in spring cleaning mode.

GO Moms!

Whenever I use the word GO with both letters capitalized, it usually stands for my acronym Get Organized. This time it just means GO Mom as in, you rock! Of course it helps your job if you’re organized to some degree.

I’m a mom and there’s something that’s always bugged me about Mother’s Day. I think every day should be Mother’s Day. After all, we moms work 365 days a year for no pay. I guess what really bugs me is I think Mother’s day is just a way for card, candy and flower companies to make money. I’ve also heard Mother’s Day is the biggest money-maker for the restaurant business. I’m all for private enterprise, I just want family and friends to appreciate moms every day. Don’t just think about her on May 11. Maybe you could buy 12 Mother’s Day cards and give your mom a card once a month! Or take her out to eat at least once a month in celebration of her sacrifice.

I happened to have been born the day before Mother’s Day, and the next day my mom got her breakfast delivered in the hospital with a little card that said, “Happy Mother’s Day.” Since I was her first child, it was the first time she’d been addressed as Mother. It’s a big deal!

Should we moms be grateful to have one day a year set aside for us? Of course we should, but really moms, the world will never be able to thank us for what we do. In Sidetracked Home Executives: from Pigpen to Paradise I wrote a poem for moms. I imagined what a column in the classified ads for “Help Wanted” would read.

There’s nothing better than starting the week off with such a HAPPY holiday! Happy Cinco De Mayo! I love the spirit of the Mexican people and May just wouldn’t be May without this celebration and to have it be on a Monday, well it doesn’t get any better than that.

On May Day, two of my grandchildren celebrated birthdays; one his 16^th birthday and the other her 15^th birthday. (A lot of hanky panky goin’ on in August.) My birthday is this week, May 8, so we know what my parents were doing when they celebrated their anniversary on August 8.

Posted April 30, 2014, 7 a.m by Pam Young

I hope you were offended by the title of my blog. I wanted your curiosity to get the best of you, and I hope that’s why you’re here. By the way, I don’t think you’re a ding dong, in fact it’s an acronym that I knew would get your attention and might help you with a very important subject: procrastination. (If you weren’t offended and you think of yourself as a ding dong, I’m afraid I can’t help you with that, but I can help with procrastination.)

If you are a master procrastinator, or know one, the acronym DING DONG might just help to be a wake-up call to realize what’s happening when stuff gets put off!

DING DONG stands for Do It Now Girl~ Don’t Over-Neglect Girl.

Procrastination really is over-neglect! Put something off once you’ve postponed it, put it off twice you’ve re-postponed it, three times, it’s just plain ol’ neglect. Neglect is such a harsh word (abandonment, desertion, carelessness and mistreatment) and over-neglect, well that’s even worse. I think some master procrastinator probably came up with the word procrastinate (delay, postpone, dawdle) to make himself feel better for over-neglecting. Whatever you choose to call it, the remedy is always to DING. Do It Now Girl.

Recently I over-neglected a project involving my chorus. I was supposed to have my costume altered with cuffs, sequins and a different neckline. I knew I had a month before a performance in our “new” costumes, so I kept putting it off because it just didn’t sound fun! Then, three weeks before the performance we were told to wear our costumes to rehearsal along with full stage make-up! My costume was still on the table in my bedroom, so I went to chorus rehearsal without make-up and wearing street clothes. I was the only one out of a hundred women! (The reason for a full dress rehearsal is for the costume and make-up committees to check off each singer as ready for the big performance.

I was embarrassed, so the next day I fixed my costume (it took one hour and it was rather fun) and at the next rehearsal I decided to go in full stage make-up and in my costume. I knew I’d be the only one, but wanted to do it on purpose to paint the fact red that I had procrastinated and wanted to make amends. It turned out, I had an extremely busy day and didn’t have time to put full make-up on, so I didn’t follow through.

Procrastination really is a silly thing to do! DING DONG.