Leftover Night

When I was a kid, I remember having Leftover Night. All week, my mom would save the extra food from dinner. A spoonful or two of corn, half of a pork chop, an extra baked potato…everything. Then, one night we’d ask, “What’s for dinner?” and the answer was “Leftovers”. It was like a poor man’s buffet. No one’s plate looked quite the same and there was plenty to choose from, although not too much of any one item.

I know that my mom did this to economize. We got a complete meal out of 6 days’ worth of leftovers. There was no need to throw that food away; it was perfectly good. There just wasn’t much of it. It also gave my mom an idea of our preferences. If she served lima beans one night and there were a lot left over, it was a good indicator that lima beans were not a popular item.

But probably most importantly, the refrigerator got cleaned out every week. By serving all the bits and pieces from past meals, Mom freed up space in the refrigerator for the next week’s groceries (at that time moms shopped once a week because stores weren’t open at night or on Sundays…but that’s another story for another day!). It also cut down on the amount of food that spoiled and had to be thrown away.

As part of your organizing efforts, try using the Leftover Night strategy on your medicine cabinet or personal care products. Pull everything out and notice how many partially used bottles of shampoo, mouthwash, body wash or medicines you have. Now ask yourself – why did I stop using this product? If it was because you didn’t like it or it didn’t do the job right, why did you keep it? If your answer is because it’s perfectly good and you might use it someday, I refer you back to your answer to my first question – Why did you stop using it? The solution is really quite simple – you have 3 options:

1. Put the item back where you found it and worry about it another day (hint – this isn’t the right answer)
2. Use it, even if it’s not your favorite, and commit not to buy another one (shampoo, body wash, cold medicine…) until all of the partially used ones are gone.
3. Throw it away! If you didn’t like it when you bought it and you still don’t like it now, what makes you think you’ll suddenly like it 2-3 months from now?

If you chose Option 2 or 3, congratulations! You’re on your way! If you're interested in more ideas like this, register for my FREE webinar, "Traction to Action: Stop Spinning Your Wheels and Get Organized".

One final thought. As you become aware of how many products you purchase and don’t use, become more discerning in what you do buy. You’ll save space (fewer products makes it easier to find the ones you do use) and the frustration of pouring money down the drain!

Share your best Leftover Night purge here!

What do church and Jewish delis have in common?

They used to be the only things open on Sundays!

I can remember a time when nothing was open on Sundays. No grocery shopping, no hanging out at the mall, no running to the hardware store. If you needed it on Sunday and you didn't have it, that was your tough luck. Many stores weren't open past five or six o'clock on weekdays and banks closed even earlier (remember banker's hours?). There were no ATMs, no on-line shopping and no home shopping networks on TV. How did we survive?

We planned ahead, that's how. Working mothers got up early on Saturday and did the grocery shopping and other errands rather than running to the store every day on the way home from work. People cashed their paychecks on Friday afternoons (the banks stayed open "late" on Fridays) so they'd have cash for the weekend and following week. When the money was gone, the money was gone. Meals were planned and shopping lists reflected that planning. Cookies in the cart and fast-food meals were an occasional treat, not a regular part of our day.

The pendulum began to swing when department stores started to open for limited hours on Sundays and other businesses soon followed suit. Not long after, the first 24-hour convenience stores opened. From there we got 24-hour banking, shopping, eating...even 24-hour fitness centers (does anyone really workout at 2:00 am?).

So why the history lesson? Because it seems to me that our society has become TOO convenient. We can easily act on our impulses to shop, eat, and workout (yeah, I'm sure that happens a lot!). The result? A population of overweight people with more stuff than they need who are drowning in debt. Hmmm? As the Church Lady used to say, "How convenient!"

So how can we combat a 24/7 society?

• Use a good old-fashioned shopping list. Keep it on the fridge and write down things you NEED as they occur to you.


• Avoid running out to the store everytime you run out of something. Run out of milk or 7-Up? Add it to the list and drink water instead. See a cool new workout DVD on TV? Add it to the list rather than ordering it right away. Run out of diapers...well, OK, maybe it's OK to run to the store for this one!


• Plan your shopping trips. When will you shop? Saturday morning? Thursday nights? Doesn't matter when but limit yourself to one trip per week. And buy only what's on your list.


• Have a wating period for big ticket items and impulse buys. Do you really NEED it or are you letting the emotion-filled marketing techniques suck you in? How many gadgets do you have at home that seemed like a good idea at the time you bought them? Wait a week (or more) and see if you still feel the same about the item.

What 24/7 convenience tempts you and how do you control it? Share your challenges and success stories here.

When 1 + 1 = 8!

Each year in January, professional organizers from across the country celebrate Get Organized (or GO) Month. This year, six members of the Ohio Chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers (http://www.napo-ohio.com/) spent one day at the home of the McGhee family who, in June 2010, became the parents of sextuplets!

Due to a generous outpouring of community support, the family received donations of diapers, wipes, clothing, and other necessary baby supplies. Needless to say, the McGhees have been a bit busy and the donations had begun to pile up in the loft above the garage.

Enter six professional organizers with over 25 years of combined organizing experience and a bag full of sandwiches from Panera Bread! Below is what we accomplished in 5 hours on a cold day in January.

By the time we left, shelving was in place and the McGhees can now easily access their large inventory of diapers (sorted by size), baby products (sorted by type), and clothing (also sorted by size).

Many thanks to the McGhee family for allowing us access to their home and for letting us koochi-koo all six of their beautiful babies!

The "Duh-ha" Moment

I've come up with a new phrase - the "Duh-ha" moment. A duh-ha moment is a hybrid of an Ah-ha moment and a Duh! It's when you suddenly come up with the solution (Ah-ha!) only to realize that, duh, it was so obvious that you can't believe you didn't see it before.

Here was my most recent organizing duh-ha moment. Several months ago I threw into a basket some items that needed to be mended. I also put my sewing basket in there to remind me why I'd put those other items in the basket. I left the basket on the floor in my bedroom near a small dresser where I keep my yoga clothes. I'm a yoga teacher as well as a practioner, so I access the clothing in that dresser on a daily basis.

The result of having the basket on the floor is that I've been unable to open the bottom drawer without first moving the basket. So every day, without thinking, I'd open the drawer part way, only to have it ram into the basket. I'd sigh and think to myself, "I really need to finish the mending so this basket won't be in the way!" (are you beginning to smell the duh-ha moment?)

Last night I had an Ah-ha moment - why not move the basket to another location in the room or perhaps to another room? Now, I know what you're thinking..."Well, duh, how obvious is that?" But that's the reality of the Duh-ha moment. It's both brilliant ("Ah-ha! I figured it out") and humiliating ("Duh! That was so obvious!) at the same time.

Needless to say, rather than finish the mending, which I still need to do, I did move the basket. It's a small thing but how nice it was this morning to have full access to the drawer without having to move that basket.

As you move through your day at home or at the office, look for potential duh-ha opportunities. I'm willing to bet that you'll find some along the way. If you do, please share them here.

Perfectionism Sucks!

Are you like me? Do you have lots of great business or home improvement ideas that go unfulfilled? Do many of your sentences start with "As soon as I ... then I'll..."? If so, read on!

Perfectionism sucks! It sounds like a good thing (as in "Perfectionists do everything perfectly!") but it's not. In fact, perfectionism is like a huge glass wall covered with sticky notes that say "I'll do this as soon as I...". Between the sticky notes one can still see the original goal, but it gets harder and harder to focus on with every darned sticky note. For instance, I revised the previous three sentences several times and I'm still not satisfied. But you know what, I'm going to leave it that way! And that's really hard for me to do! (and I lied - I actually went back and revised it again!)

Perfectionism can paralyze your best efforts, making it impossible to reach your goals. Case in point. Since the time I began this blog (back in 2009) I've had hundreds of ideas for postings. For those of you keeping track, only 7 (this one makes 8) have actually been published. Why? Because every time I thought about a great blog post, I said to myself, "Wow! As soon as I...I'm going to write that in my blog". To paraphrase Pink Floyd, all in all it's just another note on the wall!

Well, 2011 will be different! I'm going to make regular posts (one per month at least, hopefully more) even if I don't think that the verbiage is perfect or that I've perfectly captured the original idea.

Are you a perfectionist? How do you deal with the paralysis? Leave a comment below or drop me an e-mail.

Attitude Matters!

I spent the Labor Day weekend with my parents in Florida, where they live in a retirement community. They are quite popular because, among other things, they still drive :-) Mom stays active with yoga, water aerobics, and Zumba (that's right, ZUMBA!) and Dad still swings a mean golf club and helps other seniors each spring with their tax returns. I am blessed that they are in relatively good health and have carefully planned for their golden years.

At the tender ages of 76 and 80, they are the "kids" in the community. During my visit I met several men and women in their 80s and 90s, as well as one woman who is 105 and helps care for her 96 year old "gentleman friend"! How cute is that? What's the secret to living to such a ripe old age? I'm not sure but I'm convinced that attitude does indeed matter.

Most of the people I met greet each day with a smile and a positive spirit. While the heat may be oppressive (90s and humid) they're happy to live in a community with air conditioning. At a time when the cost of living is skyrocketing, they are grateful for the affordable meals in the Ice Cream Shop ($2.79 for a sandwich, add cheese for 20 cents!). While many use walkers and electric scooters, it doesn't stop them from making their way to the dining room, the fitness center, or the communal living room for an organ concert of Big Band era songs. They smile and laugh and make the most of every day in their lives.

There are, of course, exceptions, who seem to thrive on complaints. For these folks, nothing is good enough and they don't seem to have anything positive to say! They don't even say "Hello" or "Good Morning" - they just launch into the complaint du jour, whining about everything from the food in the dining room to the landscapers. Rather than seeing happy people sharing a meal and pleasant conversation they see food that isn't as good as they would prepare. They don't see the beautiful blue sky or flowering bushes, only the bald spots in the grass and algae on the pond. Not surprisingly, these people either dine alone or with others who share their negative attitude.

As my golden years approach, I have seen the fork in the road, the paths from which I can choose. I can greet each day in misery, looking only for the negative, or I can embrace each day as though it were my last, thankful for everything and everyone in my life. Hmmm! That won't take much thought. What should I do with the rest of my evening?

What about you? Which path will you choose? And why wait until our lives are coming to an end? Let's start now!

The Yoga of Getting Organized

How can yoga help you get organized?

Much of the clutter in our homes and offices is the result of postponed decisions. We're busy people with a lot on our minds. Things come into our lives that we don't know what to do with - read it? toss it? keep it for later? give it to someone else? Rather than making a decision, we put down the item/paper and promise ourselves that we'll deal with it later.

The reality is that "later" never seems to come. The longer the item sits, the more guilt we feel about not having made a decision. Rather than face the guilt, we re-promise ourselves that we'll deal with it later. This decision eases the guilt - for now! But guilt has a way of returning ... with a vengeance!

So how can yoga help? In yoga there is a focus on quieting the mind. Through movement, breath, and meditation, the swirling thoughts (called vrittis in sanskrit) begin to slow and settle, like sand settles to the floor of the ocean. When the vrittis are quiet, there's room in the mind for clear thought and decision making is easier. When we make decisions more easily, papers and other items move through our homes to their next destination rather than log jamming.

As the amount of clutter lessens, we feel better about our homes and ourselves. This reduces our level of stress resulting in fewer vrittis and easier decision making. What a great upward spiral to create! Give it a try - take a yoga class today!