This is off the topic of organizing, but...In honor of Mothers' Day, I would like to share this great video performance by Anita Renfroe, which is all the things a mom says condensed into 2 minutes and 55 seconds, set to the William Tell Overture! It's hilarious! (Click here if you can't see the embedded video player)
We always say that being organized is about being prepared...so be ready for the US postal rate increase effective this Monday 5/12/08. A first class letter will be going up one penny from 41 cents to 42 cents.
You can still stock up tomorrow (Saturday) on the "Forever" stamps for 41 cents that will be good for first class no matter what future increases occur. The Dallas Morning News was saying these Forever stamps are really hot items this week. (image from www.usps.com)
The great news about the rate adjustments...if you are someone who uses Click-N-Ship for Priority and Express Mail packages, you will actually be saving money, an average of 3.5 percent! I am a HUGE fan of Click-N-Ship--see my previous post on Top Four Post Office Avoidance Tips to understand more about why! Even if you don't ship packages very often you should definitely know about how to buy postage with Click-N-Ship and have the mail carriers pick the packages up from your porch at no charge.
Just think, right before Mothers' Day, you can buy stamps in advance to save money on your Fathers' Day cards!
What if you didn't have so much "stuff" to organize? What does "enough" look like? One of my favorite books "ever" is Material World: A Global Family Portrait, by Peter Menzel. During this time of Earth Day when everyone has been examining their wasteful ways, this book really brings things into perspective. (book cover photo from Amazon.com)
This project was done in collaboration with the United Nations. From the book jacket:
"In an unprecedented effort, 16 of the world's foremost photographers traveled to 30 nations around the globe to live for a week with families that are statistically average for that nation. At the end of each visit, photographer and family collaborated on a remarkable portrait of the family outside of their home, surrounded by all of their possessions-- a few jars and jugs for some, an explosion of electronic gadgetry for others..."
One of my favorite features is the special two-page spread of "Toilets of the World"-- it will make you feel very grateful! The most wealthy country shown? Kuwait... featuring a 45-foot-long sectional sofa from their basement, 4 luxury cars, antiques, carpets, you name it. This one had to be photographed with an aerial view to fit everything in the photo. In case you were wondering, the United States family chosen was from Pearland, Texas.
They also had each family name what were their most prized possessions. The USA family said their family Bible. In Uzbekistan it was a bicycle... in Ethiopia, oxen... in Bhutan, books and a jump rope.
This book helps you see how your possessions represent you, your country, and your priorities. Stunning! What is your most valued possession? Please comment and let us know!
At the NAPO Conference, John Trosko, Monica Ricci and I organized a get-together for the organizer bloggers. I don't have a copy of the whole group photo, but you can see one here on Brandie Kajino's site. We had a great turnout of over 2 dozen of us from literally all over the world, and I am now inspired to re-do my "Blogs I Like" list! (See left sidebar of this page) Here's a photo of me, Monica, and John at the meeting:
Here is a sample of blog posts from a few of my new friends (Thanks for the inspiration, Brandie!):
Wendy Davie: Organising the Organisers (forgive her for the spelling, she is from New Zealand)
Megan Spears: Conference Update
Jeri Dansky: Roll-Out Shelves (Hey, I just wrote about that too! Great minds...)
Lissanne Oliver: More About NAPO conference
Emily Wilska: Every Possession is a Responsibility
Marilyn Bohn: Game Savers
Lauren Halagarda: Thoughts on the Reno shower curtains-- LOL!!
Aby Garvey: Earthquake!
Janine Adams: More earthquake reporting!
Julie Bestry: She says I am a fashion plate! <<blushing>> Great conference summary!
At long last! Now you can just wave your clutter away with ClutterMagic®! Simply brandish the wand in the room of your choice and at once, all items will find their homes and put themselves away.
Imagine all of the feelings of embarrassment and being overwhelmed by your home just vanishing into thin air!
You can now purchase the ClutterMagic for only $2997.00. It's a dream come true!
April Fool's. Gotcha.
If you are into the social networking site Facebook, you might know about the application called "Pieces of Flair," which are shiny buttons you can put on your profile page to show your personality. (Of course this is inspired by the movie Office Space where Jennifer Aniston's character is advised about how many pieces of flair are required on her restaurant uniform.)
As a member of Facebook, you can install the Pieces of Flair application here and then search their flair choices for "Clutter Diet" to find us.
Back to work for me... I've "got a case of the Mondays!!"
One of our Clutter Diet members in the UK was telling us in the member message boards that they have a book swap shelf at work. That is BRILLIANT!
Why not do this in your own workplace? Here are the benefits:
At agreed-upon intervals, someone could take all of the books that are not claimed or swapped to a used bookstore. The money received could go into the company coffee fund or something. (Or, the unclaimed books could be taken to a charity drop-off.) This is a really easy little workplace morale boost! Let us know if you give it a try.
Remember how Bambi and the other animals in the forest talked about being "twitterpated?" Well, I am kind of twitterpated over "Twitter." Some of you might have noticed my little "Twitter Updates" feed in the right sidebar of my blog page. It's kind of like a mini-blog. When I first heard about it, I thought, "I don't have time for this!" and "WHO CARES about what people are doing?" (logo shown is from Twitter's website)
I decided to try it. These guys over at Common Craft have done another cool video (like their one explaining RSS) that explains Twitter and why it matters. Here's why I like it: I really believe that you have more joy in your life when you express gratitude and just capture that joy and celebrate it. There are so many joyful things in my life that are small and I wanted to have a place to share those, like making a new friend, seeing the first bluebonnets of the season, and other little things that are too small to tell anyone about by themselves, but added up and collected sure do make me happy when I read them. So it doesn't really matter to me if anyone "cares" what I saw or did today, it's really something I am writing for myself to celebrate life's little joys. And hopefully, someone does care and wants to celebrate those things too.
It just takes a few seconds to text-message a quick thought to Twitter from my phone, and it makes me remember what I loved about my day. I hope you think it's cool too and that you will soon be twitterpated over Twitter!
Last night I went bowling. Frankly, I had a really rotten day, and I was glad it was our "family night" because I didn't need to worry about dinner. It was my son's turn to choose where we went, and we had a great time visiting the "300" bowling place here in Austin.
Now, I don't bowl well (unlike our team member Yvette who is practically a pro!!). When I throw a gutter ball, it's just part of the deal and I really don't sweat it. Last night it really struck me that, after the gutter ball, you get a fresh new frame on your next turn. The pins are reset and you have a whole new chance!
I realized that we can have these "Gutter Ball Days" like the one I had yesterday, but the next morning we get a fresh new chance at another day. You just pick right back up. It's no big deal! That really helped me to have a better time last night and a better day today. I wanted to share this insight with our readers, because so many of us are trying to get organized and trying to improve and achieve, and you can certainly have a discouraging day now and then. Treat those days like the insignificant "gutter balls" that they are, and don't let them ruin the other, fresh new days in the future.
Move on forward!
Hi everybody! I'll be the guest tomorrow, Thursday 3/6/08, on Lifehack Live's show on BlogTalkRadio.
The show is at noon Central time, which is 10 Pacific, 11 Mountain, and 1 Eastern. The call-in number is (347) 838-8244.
The show will be about 45 minutes long. Come join us!
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