Birthday reflections

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

August is my birthday month, and this is year is a big one. I turn 30, and leave my twenties behind forever. While it feels like a big change, I know it will likely come as a relief to start a new decade of life. For many people, the twenties are a jumbled rush of momentous events as one transitions from academic life to adult life, often including major changes to jobs, relationships and living situations. Now that I'm married, have a child and a career, it feels like the coming years couldn't possibly hold as many unknowns. Of course, they probably will.

They say happier people think more about the present and the future than the past, but I think it's occasionally worth reflecting on the accomplishments and experiences of one's life. Thinking about all the stuff I managed to pack into the last ten years alone makes me a bit dizzy, but it gives me the strength to look forward and know I'll be able to thrive whatever comes my way. Birthdays are a time to celebrate simply being alive, and I'm looking forward to this one more than usual!

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by Jessica Diamond

Organized people are lazy

Laziness is underrated as a motivating factor. I'm a hard worker, but I'm lazy in the sense that I don't want to spend extra energy doing something that can be done more simply, more easily or more quickly. I think a lot of organized people are also lazy people in this same way. They know that if they have the elements of their lives as ordered and streamlined as they like, they can spend less time on the minutiae of life and more time doing the things that are important to them. I particularly think that organized people have an advantage over disorganized people in that they are not constantly reacting, not constantly bombarded by "emergencies" of their own making and are not caught up in a feeling that everything is urgent, because everything is behind where it needs to be.

When an emergency really does crop up, then an organized person has the flexibility to put other things in their life on hold and deal with it, without causing too much damage. This results in less clean-up, less work. For me, I don't want that extra work, so I get organized at the front end to avoid it. And it works most of the time. When I do get overwhelmed with stuff, the laziness factors in when I stop taking on new responsibilities for a little while in order to get back to my natural equilibrium. Once I'm back in my comfort zone, then life can speed up as it is bound to do. An outside person might call that laziness in a pejorative manner. I think it's common sense, being true to yourself and knowing what makes you comfortable and happy. If that's laziness, so be it.

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Labeling the salt

Last night my husband and I went through our apartment doing a basic de-clutter. We were looking at all of our possessions and asking ourselves if they still held a purpose in our lives. If they didn't, we put them in a bag to give away. A good by-product of de-cluttering with the person you share your living space with is that you learn things about each other and your space. For instance, I do most of the cooking, and it never occurred to me that some basic ingredients were invisible to my husband. He asked me, "So if I need salt, where is that?"

I pointed silently to the container of salt that sits next to the pepper and olive oil right next to the stove.

"That's the salt?" he clarified. Apparently it was hiding in plain sight.

"That's the salt," I assured him. Then I asked, "Would it help if I labeled it?"

He said yes. So I labeled the salt.

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Puzzles and patterns

I've been working on a puzzle. It's a 1000 piece panoramic puzzle of the Louvre museum, and as I've gone through the steps to complete it, it has occurred to me how very much putting together a puzzle has in common with organizing. Perhaps that's why I enjoy puzzles so much.

The first step I always take is to separate the edges from the rest of the pieces and assemble the outside edge of the picture. This is usually the easiest way to get started, as the edges are easily recognizable and it gives you a feeling of accomplishment to get the border complete. In organizing, sometimes going after low hanging fruit (maybe purging all those old newspapers and magazines or socks with holes in them) is the best way to start, so you can get your energy up and be ready to tackle the big picture.

Next, I generally spend some time sorting the pieces, putting broad categories of pieces together in individual boxes, such as all the sky pieces, all the browns, all the pieces that look like they belong to a certain building. I find sorting to be an immensely comforting task. I like finding patterns in objects and deciding how best to group them. With a puzzle, this is enacted at a very basic, soothing level. Because you can't look at any one piece too closely, you have to make quick judgements about color or pattern.

At the 2011 NAPO National Conference, Julie Morgenstern gave one of the keynote speeches. She said at one point that what differentiates organizers from other people is our ability to see patterns where others cannot. I think that is a key trait that organizers possess, and it is a valuable tool in so many situations.

Assembling a puzzle is often as much trial and error than anything else. When trying to find organizing solutions that work, trial and error is a well-used method. We also break down organizing projects into managable chunks, rather than trying to solve everything at once. A puzzle can only be put together one piece at a time. I'm going to stop with the analogy, as I think I've made my point. Plus, I have the rest of the sky to finish!

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. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.

Quote: the noble art of leaving things undone

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone.  The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.  ~Lin Yutang

This is something I  have to remind myself...getting lots of things done is not as important as getting the right things done. I love the phrase "elimination of non-essentials;" it reminds of me of Strunk and White: "Omit needless words."

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. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.

Organizing lessons from Harry Potter

Last week I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two. The final movie of the final book in that series was a lot of fun to watch, and also something of a relief, as all the hype can now die down and those who are interested can simply enjoy the books and movies at their leisure. I read all seven Harry Potter books several years ago and enjoyed the stories and characters very much. A couple of organizing insights hit me as I was watching the final film. **Mild spoilers ahead.**

I've always been fascinated by the Room of Requirement. The nifty plot device was used in several of the books. It is a room that appears when you need it, and once inside is presents you with objects you need, or simply an open space, if that is what you require. It is also the place where all those little things one loses, from socks to books, actually gather. People leave things there, old furniture for instance, and never have to think about them again. It's a remarkable idea, and very appealing. Who wouldn't want a room that's invisible most of the time to stow unwanted items, and also place to find lost and needed ones?

Toward the end of HPATDHP2, the Room of Requirement provides the location for something desperately needed by Harry, and then promptly gets set on fire and all those lost, unwanted items get consumed in a flash. My thought as an organizer, is how lovely for the room and the castle it lives in to get a fresh start, especially after the destruction due to the final battle of Hogwarts.

I was also thinking about the concept of horcruxes. In the Harry Potter universe, horcruxes are objects that have been imbued with pieces of Voldemort's soul using dark magic, with the intent that will it enable Voldemort to live forever. Destroying the horcruxes (things like a ring, a necklace and a book) also destroys part of Voldemort's soul and makes it easier to defeat him, which is of course, something that Harry is trying to do.

I think sometimes it can feel like our things do contain parts of our souls. A wedding band, for instance, is a powerful symbol and very meaningful, but things like a favorite t-shirt or a trinket we picked up on a favorite vacation can also seem to contain bits of ourselves. Feeling that way can make it very difficult to let go of something, such as when the t-shirt starts falling apart from wear or the trinket gets crowded off the shelf by newer, shinier souvenirs.

But thank goodness, our souls do not reside in things outside of us. Things are just things. We don't owe them anything. And they can't make us immortal. If they break, it might hurt a little, but we are still the same.

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. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.

Everything must go

The bookstore Borders is going through bankruptcy and is closing many of its Los Angeles locations. Saturday I stopped by the Hollywood location at Sunset and Vine. It was the second-to-last day of operation and the store was stripped, with a few books left on the shelves and everything, including the fixtures, for sale at a huge markdown. There were also a lot of customers, people with an eye for a bargain stocking up on books by the armful. I bought three paperback romances for five dollars, a better price even than buying used, but it made me a little sad to see a bookstore I used to browse now nearly empty and ravaged.

The people who walked out with many bags of books were lured by the steep discounts. 80% off a book's cover price is a tempting deal, but I'd argue it's worth it only if you wanted to own the book in the first place. How many of the books being bought that day were high on the new owner's to-read list? Did they buy out of desire for the book or the desire to "save" a lot of money on the book? Stuff that's on sale, just like stuff that's free, isn't always a great deal for the person buying. You still have to take home, store, use and then dispose of the thing you just spent actual money on.

I'm not saying sales aren't good things, or aren't fun. I didn't technically need two new Nora Roberts books, but I did buy them knowing I had a place to put them on my bookshelf, and can trade them in at my local used bookstore when I'm finished with them.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by scazon

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. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.

Busy is a four letter word

Being busy is a constant. The word means little due to overuse. We use busy to connote a full life, one that we can explain to other people with a shorthand term that everyone can understand. In today's world, over-saturated as it is with information, experiences, options, busy is practically not optional. And for many of us, busy is a good thing. Busy means jobs, school, family, life. It means we have something to show for ourselves. We might say to a friend, "Oh, I'm so busy," with a hint of regret, as if we wish things were different, but what we're really saying is that our lives are full and therefore not failures.

What would it mean to be not busy? Would we be not productive? Would we be failing at life? A part of me thinks that if you said you haven't actually been that busy lately, other people might judge you, as though you aren't making the most of your time or you aren't working hard enough. But that isn't true. Being busy doesn't automatically mean being successful, happy or fulfilled. And having free time doesn't mean you're lazy, apathetic or lack goals.

Though I too use the word busy as a shorthand to communicate to others that my life is full, I don't shy away from free time. I think free time is imperative to living a complete life, and I should probably be more vocal about its validity in my schedule. What are all our time-saving productivity tools about anyway, if not to create a chunk of real time that can be spent in idleness, or at least reading a trashy romance novel, instead of returning emails, getting the car washed or looking for your favorite lipstick.

I'm not going to strive to be busy. I'd rather strive to be complete.

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. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.

Ruminations: The problem with storage

We met some interesting people when they came buy to pick up the items we'd posted on Craigslist. One of the people who came stopped to talk awhile about his storage problems. He said he and his ex-wife own a huge, two-story warehouse filled with stuff! The stuff had been accumulated while they managed properties, things like bathtubs and sinks, plus personal items collected over both their lifetimes. He says he isn’t sure what they’ll ever do with it all, but for now the warehouse just sits there, draining resources, because they can’t figure out how to remove all that stuff from their lives.

Stories like this are common, and this one brings to mind two thoughts. One: if you think you have a ton of useless stuff and can’t imagine being able to get rid of it, there are people out there with even more than you do, which puts your task in perspective. Two: though he probably doesn’t see that warehouse and its contents every day, or even think about it every day, it is a very real drain on mental and physical resources (including cost of not using the warehouse for something profitable, property taxes, security risk, etc.). Letting a huge building full of things sit there won’t make it go away. This man also told me he has five children. What happens if he never does anything about that warehouse? The problem will eventually become a burden to them.

Sometimes the things weighing us down seem too big to face, but inaction is much more harmful than doing something about it, even if you take tiny steps. They'll add up to true change over time. Take action today!

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

Rumination: Regional Organizing-LA

The more I learn about organizing techniques, practices and theories, the more I’ve come to realize that there are definitely region-specific organizing problems and solutions. For instance, here in Los Angeles homeowners are likely to have a garage stuffed to the gills with bikes, skis, one or more cars and about a million other kinds of outdoors sporting equipment, but few of us have basements to hide paint cans, outdated computers and old refrigerators. Those of us who work in the entertainment industry might have massive DVD collections and a need to store electronics from high tech cameras to hard drives. Our homes have no such a thing as a mudroom. Spring cleaning doesn’t come naturally, since the weather is nice year round and we don’t have the disappearing snow to remind us to air out the linen closet. Beach dwellers deal with sand, corrosion and tar on a regular basis. Maintaining our cars and gardens means finding room for endless bottles, bags and tools. Apartment dwellers might have plenty of space for their stuff inside and nowhere to park outside, or they often live so far from where they work they spend hours out of their day in a car, a home away from home that can get cluttered fast.

Angelinos face unique organizing challenges and we’d do well to remember that when we’re attempting a home makeover or just trying to straighten our desks. The realities of our city and environment affect our organizational needs as much as our jobs, living situation and personal style.