Just put it down

I just read a fantastic post by Jeri Danksy of Jeri's Organizing and Decluttering News, titled Not Every Book is Worth Finishing. She quotes a number of writers and readers who give their cutoffs for when to put a book down. The main thing is to give yourself permission to stop a reading a book, and then give yourself permission to not finish it. I have a category I created just for these types of books on my Goodreads profile, since I do it so often. I love to read, and I just don't have time to finish books that aren't doing it for me.

Thanks, Jeri, for the wonderful reminder that not every book is worth finishing.

March reading list

I just finished reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, in case I get a chance to go see the movie. I usually prefer to read the book before seeing the movie, and it seems like one of those movies everyone is going to see. Plus, I'm trying to go to the movies as much as I can before I give birth, after which, all bets seem to be off.

Because of that impending newborn, I'm also reading Caring for Infants with Respect by Magda Gerber, and finding its simple approach to interacting with babies very appealing. We'll see how it works in practice soon!

Also on the reading list, The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber, which is the NAPO-LA book club pick for April, and one of those business books I've been meaning to read forever. This month I read Moneyball for my other book club, and though it's not exactly a book about business, it has some pretty amazing insights about looking at data and the reality of situations versus seeing what you want to see when it comes to people's performance. I thought Moneyball was fascinating and highly entertaining, and really recommend it, unless you couldn't care less about baseball, in which case it might not be for you.

What are you reading today?

Follow me on Goodreads.

In my reading pile

As you know, I'm a couple of book clubs. Here are the books I've got on deck:

Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi - I'm looking forward to reading this popular tome about networking.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum - I've never read this, and it's free for the Kindle and iBook apps.
Moneyball by Michael Lewis - We'll be reading the book and comparing it to the recent movie. I really like Michael Lewis's writing style, so I'm looking forward to this. I've also heard that it's a great book about management, so it kind of crosses over between my two book clubs.

Need a professional organizer?

Call Lelah at 818.269.6671

or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Get Lelah's News

Keeping ahead of your health

**This post was originally published in my monthly e-newsletter, Lelah's News. Don't subscribe? Sign up here!

Last month I went to the optometrist for the first time in a decade. I've always appreciated having excellent vision, but the hours I spend on the computer and reading apparently take a toll. The eye doctor recommended a mild prescription to help my eyes retain their flexibility when focusing on words on the computer screen and when reading books. It took some getting used to, this idea that I am suddenly a glasses-wearing person. However, wearing them does relax my eyes and make it more pleasant to do my normal activities. The most important take-away from this experience is that by not waiting until I had a problem, I improved my quality of life. I went in for a check-up and have now been given a tool to extend my healthy eyesight for as long as possible.

Sometimes being organized is about solving problems, and sometimes it is about preventing them. We've all heard the saying an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It's obvious that washing one's hands and eating a balanced diet are preventative measures that are worth far more than cough drops or prescription medication. Being proactive about health matters, getting regular check-ups, going to doctors for wellness visits, getting one's teeth cleaned regularly are all things that can seem like unnecessary chores, but as part of a healthy lifestyle can keep us healthier and reduce time and money spent on treating ailments.

Do you need help getting on top of your appointments?

Call Lelah at 818.269.6671

or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Get Lelah's News

News fasting

I spend a lot of time reading newspaper articles online and listening to the news on the radio. I like to know what is going on in the world, and I have some particular interests that I enjoy following in the news (movie news and box office returns, politics to some extent, Los Angeles arts and culture, etc.).

I spend a lot of time in the car, travelling to clients and I usually turn in to public radio shows like The Madeleine Brand Show, The World, Marketplace and All Things Considered whenever I'm in the car. I also just got an iPad, and the LA Times iPad app makes it super easy to read article after article with the flick of your finger.

It's gotten to a point where I check the LA Times website at least three or four times a day, just to make sure I'm not missing something important.

The time I spend on consuming news is probably not more than an hour a day...but that hour a day really adds up. It feels like I spend much more time and energy thinking about the stuff that I hear about and read about, and it doesn't always seem like time or energy well spent. There's so much negative news, and I'm a very action-oriented person. I don't like to feel like I can't do anything about an issue; I know I can't do something about every issue.

I'm going to try out a news fast. I don't know if I can give up my car radio news connection--at least not cold-turkey. But I'm going to skip the news websites for a while, and see what else I find to fill up that time. I have a feeling I'm already gaining some time and energy to spend creating something positive in my life (my fiction writing, cooking healthy meals) rather than just consuming information that I ultimately can do very little with.

Have you ever tried a news fast? What worked for you and what didn't?

Need a professional to help you get organized?

Call Lelah at 818.269.6671

or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Get Lelah's News

End of the year reading list

I've got a few books piling up to read. I'm in the middle of The Great Reset by Richard Florida. It's about the current recession and recent financial crash and how it sets us up as a society to make big changes to our economic way of life. Apparently the times after the similar financial crashes of the 1870s and 1930s were periods of huge advances and growth. It's interesting to think about the low points as enabling us to actually reboot our entire system.

The PR people promoting the book Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider sent me a review copy, so I'm looking forward to reading that and sharing my thoughts on it. I received as a Christmas gift the last book in the Nora Roberts Bride Quartet called Happy Ever After, which will be a fun treat. My bookclub is reading and watching The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo in January, so I will try to fit that in as well. I hear it's great, but I'm going to keep my expectations low.

What's on your reading list?

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Paring down Google Reader

You all know how much I love Google Reader. I check it nearly every day to stay on top of my favorite blogs. I have a folder titled organizing that I use to compile the feeds to every regularly-updated organizing blog I come across. I know there are many more that I haven't seen and added yet, but so far the number of blogs in this folder is 154. That's a lot. It can take me quite a while to scroll through the dozens of additions every day. I do this because I like to stay on top of what's going on in my industry, and I learn something new from my colleagues all the time. Plus, since I have an organizing blog, I like to be involved in the larger online conversation by reading and commenting on other blogs.

However.

I do find myself skipping over posts more and more, trying to get to those blogs that reliably have the most relevant information for me, and trying to glean the best posts from usually at least 60 new posts a day is extremely time consuming. It's not a good use of my time. So, I've pared down, and shuttled the majority of the blogs in the organizing folder to a second folder. They are still there if I ever want access to them, and I can still add blogs to that folder just to keep track of them, but I'm putting only a few of my favorites in the primary folder which I will continue to check daily. I'm hoping this will keep my time focused on the high quality posts that are really valuable for me to read.

A few of the blogs staying in my organizing folder:

• D.E.C.I.D.E. to be Organized! by Lisa Montanaro. Lisa Montanaro, a former lawyer, always has an interesting perspective on the organizing industry and approaches to organizing.
• Jeri's Organizing & Decluttering News by Jeri Dansky. This blog has some of the most original organizing products out there, but I really love Jeri's book reviews and posts about organizing challenges.
• Clutter Coach by Claire Tompkins. This blog always has well-written and interesting posts about everyday organizing problems and solutions.

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

My reading list: Summer 2010

I talk about books a lot on this blog, books I'm reading, book reviews, how to organize books. Forgive me, I like to read.

I'm in the middle of a fascinating book on change called Switch: How to change things when change is hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. I first heard about this book from Lorie Marrero at The Clutter Diet blog. Anyone who has every failed at breaking a bad habit, gotten discouraged over some huge problem like world poverty, or simply wanted to change something in their life and didn't know how to go about it should read this book. I'm only on the third chapter and I have about ten a-ha moments every page.

My family knows me well, and I received two early birthday presents in the form of cookbooks. One is The French Laundry by Thomas Keller. The book is stunning, and the recipes are so unique and interesting. The only problem is it makes one want to eat at the French Laundry all the time, not an option for most of us. The second is The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters. The book is chock full of good cooking techniques and elegantly simple takes on common dishes like onion tart (five ingredients) and roast duck (one ingredient: the duck).

Finally, for fiction lovers, this month in my book club we read Memoirs of a Geisha, which was a lovely story full of beautiful details. I wasn't terribly excited about reading it, but in the end I really liked it and it made me think about visiting Japan, which is a country I've never been particularly interested in traveling to. August's pick is The Time Traveler's Wife, which I read last year and thought was amazing. Audrey Niffenegger's follow up, Her Fearful Symmetry, was really enjoyable as well.

Got any recommendations for me? What have you been reading this summer?


Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com
Note: The links on the book titles will take you to Amazon.com; if you buy something, I will receive a small percentage in affiliate fees.

Post #100

This is my hundredth post to this blog. I started helping you organize about eleven months ago as a way to share things I learned through the course of being a professional organizer with a wider audience. It's been a pleasure to explore my own organizing theories and discuss the theories of other pros in this forum. From time to time, lists about oneself get popular and float around email and Facebook, so here's a list of 14 things (my favorite number) about me to celebrate this blogging milestone.

1. I finally got a label maker for free by redeeming otherwise unusable United mileage points. I haven't used it yet.
2. I love good smelling things like candles and incense and baking cookies.
3. I'm getting married in 22 days. I'm sitting here trying not to hyperventilate at how small that number is.
4. My favorite thing to organize is my bathroom cupboards. I absolutely love throwing out expired/never going to be used/wrong colored stuff.
5. The best thing about owning my own business is being able to take full responsibility for and pride in the work that I do.
6. My three least favorite chores: dishes, dusting, cleaning floors.
7. My three favorite chores: laundry, putting away groceries, putting away dishes. (Probably because everything has somewhere to go!)
8. Best organizing-related book I've read this year so far...this is tough...Throw Out Fifty Things by Gail Blanke.
8. Best non-organizing-related book I've read this year so far...Chocolat.
9. I've made progress on three out of four of my 2010 resolutions.
10. Consumable gifts that are always welcome in my house: soap, cut flowers, Champagne and fruit.
11. I love to dance, bike ride, swim and hike.
12. Publications to which I subscribe: Real Simple, Los Angeles Magazine, Rolling Stone.
13. Three favorite professional organizers at the moment: Brooks Palmer, Monica Ricci, Lisa Montanaro
14. I'm attending two reunions this year: my 10 year high school reunion and (technically not a reunion year for me, as it'll be my 6th, but my fiance's 5th) college reunion. Two more big milestones in a year full of them.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by norwichnuts

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com 

My reading list

I just got three books from the library that I’m very excited about reading. One is the highly popular and well-reviewed 2009 book Throw Out Fifty Things by Gail Blanke. I’ve read a lot about this book and the way it has inspired people, even professional organizers, to get rid of some things in their life that have been weighing them down.  I’m can't wait to read this book as it is sure to be inspirational.

The second book on my shelf at the moment is ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life by Judith Kolberg and Kathleen Nadeau, Ph.D. Judith Kolberg is a professional organizer and Kathleen Nadeau is a psychologist and ADD specialist. I have been encountering more and more clients and potential clients who have some form of ADD. This disorder can lead to chronic disorganization and pose some unique challenges. I am really looking forward to expanding my knowledge base on this subject.

Last on the list is Chocolat, by Joanne Harris. That’s the February selection of my book club, and I have to read the book, then watch the movie based on it. We’ll discuss both works and compare them at our monthly meeting. It should be a fun read and I remember enjoying the movie when it first came out.

I'll share my thoughts on Throw Out Fifty Things and ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life soon!

Creative Commons photo posted to flickr by heliosphan

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Tips and tools: Magazine management

I love to read and stay current in a few fields like music, movies and design. I also like to make collages out of colorful images and text. Magazines are a fun way to accomplish both tasks. However, between subscribing to them and also getting free alumni magazines, AAA and Costco publications, interesting catalogs and the Sunday paper's magazines, it can be easy to get overrun with so many magazines that you can't keep up with them anymore and they just pile up, a glossy pile of reproach.

Tip 1: Don't get them
The best way to solve this is to let your subscriptions to the magazines you don't read run out and request to be taken off mailing lists. I have only subscribed to one magazine every year since I turned 16, a biweekly magazine that I actually do read cover to cover (eventually). While buying magazines at the newsstands is hardly cost effective if you'll be reading a certain title every month, you can get so much information and so many of the articles online, there's really no reason to spend money and valuable coffee table space on more than your most beloved publications.

Tip 2: Contain them
If you do have more than one subscription, which is not uncommon (one member of my household has three separate car magazine subscriptions), you might be at a loss for what to do with the magazines before you have a chance to sit down and page through them. I recommend a sturdy, shallow basket or tray placed near where you go through your mail. The magazines collect there, and when that tray fills up, you're signaled that you need to read, recycle, or archive the contents.


Tip 3: Archive them
The same person who has three car magazines delivered to our home every month has every one of those magazines from the past fifteen years archived. He uses plain white magazine holders from Ikea, with cute labels pasted to the front made from the subscription cards that are stuck into the pages of the magazines to identify which title is stored in each holder.

If you must keep your magazines, I suggest you do something similar, if you have the space on shelves. Shallow plastic storage boxes area also a good option. The smaller the better, as a large plastic box filled to the brim with magazines becomes very heavy.

Tip 4: Reuse and recycle
Personally, I like to read the magazines, put them in a single magazine holder and when that fills up, make a project of flipping through them. I save a few notable issues every year, and the rest get turned into scraps for my collage projects and recycled. You can also pass on interesting magazines to friends, sometimes donate them to libraries or get rid of them on Freecycle. Magazines make great art project supplies, so ask at your local elementary school as well.

Don't feel guilt or anxiety at your unread magazine pile. Simply contain them and peruse them when it makes sense. No one will berate you for not reading the latest issue of Westways magazine, so just recycle it and be done (you can read back issues online anyway!).

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com