Books!

Why do so many of us have a love affair with books that tends to take over our space?  

When I was a child, we moved about every three years.  This, I suspect, led, as least in part, to my relationship with books.  Unlike friends I made along the way, they came with me everywhere and, to some extent, became the friends I could count on being there.

Most of my clients have substantial and unwieldy book collections that take up huge amounts of space in their environments.  So, I though perhaps we should look at that today.

As I have gotten older, I have gotten better about keeping books.  Ask yourself, truthfully, are you going to read a particular book again?  Really?  If so, then keep it.  How many books are in your collection that you have NEVER read?  That should tell you something, too.

If you are concerned that you will forget what you have read, maybe you could keep a list (say on a spreadsheet).   This is especially useful when we are working our way through an author's entire collection.  Such as Tony Hillerman, Janet Evanovich, Anne McCaffrey.  When authors are prolific it is easy to forget which books we have read, and which we've not yet.

Think of it as going green.  Once you have read a book, pass it on, trade it in for credit at a used book store, sell it.  Just don't let them take over the house or office!!!

Have a mindful day.

Laziness

As Michael Douglas's character in the movie Wall Street said (even though I disagree with HIS statement), laziness is GOOD!  

I believe that one of the best benefits of getting and staying organized is that it is for lazy people (like me!).  I personally do not want to spend one more minute than I have to doing things I don't want or like to do.  The best way I know of to reduce the amount of time we spend tending to the tedium of everyday life is to be organized.  The set up will be a bit time consuming, but maintenance is a breeze.  Ideally, we want to set up our environments so that the tools we need to complete the task at hand are all within easy reach.  For example, when working with paper, a shredder, recycle box, trash can, and appropriate files should all be in reach of where you are sitting.  That way you deal with the paper pretty much only one time.  If you have a small set of files on your work surface for organizing the papers for action, that will also help reduce the amount of time you spend with them.  Examples might be such things as: Bills to Pay; Things to Schedule; Calls to Make and so on.

Have a lazy weekend, and feel to write me with any questions you may have.

Organizers and Stuff

I am often asked if I am going to make a client "get rid of things". My response to that question is this: It is not my job to make you get rid of anything; it is my job to assist you in making decisions that are consistent with your goals.

The reality is we have a limited amount of space, not just physical space, but emotional and mental space as well. You can keep anything you want as long as you are willing to pay the price for keeping it. We often have emotional attachments to objects that usually have nothing to do with the objects themselves, but what they represent. As part of the process of organizing, it is not unusual to revisit these connections and determine what is currently relevant, and what has been moved past. In working with clients, we will frequently come up with ways of preserving and honoring the meaning of the things without necessarily keeping the things themselves.

For example, I kept many of my favorite children's books so that I could pass them on to my niece and nephew. It took me a while to recognize, and recover from the disappointment that, they were never going to relate to them the same way I did, and that they would never resonate with them the same way. The world had become a different place since my childhood and what had/has meaning for me, may or may not for them.

That was a hard pill to swallow, but it did provide me with more useful options for what to do with these things. Some of them did end up going to my niece and nephew (a few), but most were sent to places where they could be appreciated as I had appreciated them. Some I even kept just to remind myself of who I was way back then.

What do you think?