All in Musings
Like the author, Jessica Lamb Shapiro, who wrote the recently released book Promised Land about her delve into the self help literature, I also spent some time immersed in self help books in my 20's. I have to say many of the self improvement books of the mid to late 90's had intoxicating titles. They seemed to hold so much... well, promise.
I have a time problem. There's not enough of it. The same thing goes for my clients. It might be surprising to know most of my clients are actually very organized, type A, ambitious and energetic folks. But the time problem affects us all.
On March 15, I had my very first workshop in a local community bookstore three blocks from my apartment. It was so gratifying an experience that I was walking on air for 48 hours. As a person who has always felt more comfortable behind the scenes, being on a tiny platform with 15 people listening to me talk about the too much stuff problem was... well let's just say it was both really hard and really worth it.
I was talking with a friend recently and she was sharing that she was tired of her job and ready for another kind of work. Later that night, it occurred to me that I hadn't asked myself that since the start of my business two years ago. Back then, I thought this work would be a natural fit, but whether I'd get tired of it remained to be seen.
Projects. We all have them. At work, the value of projects completed is quantified, your salary against how much you get done. At home, we don't have to complete projects in a timely way because... no one is paying us to do it.
Just a short note about fighting the good fight against the kid's mess in our home (sticker covered, grease spots on the couch, mangy walled, tattered furniture, trail of crumbs in every hallway, parents around the world, you feel me?). Aim high. Aim for clean floors and clear counters smudge and free light switch plates. Clorox commercial clean. Yes, I'm serious.
I'm going out on a limb here because I have been pushing against a writer's block for a month. What does writer's block look like in my world? A large, broken hunk of concrete with rusty twisted rebar jutting out. While that image may not be pleasant, that's what's sitting in front of my creative outlet these days.
How did we get this way? The-too-much-stuff problem. The clutter problem. The trillion tote bag problem. The six pairs of jeans and only one fits problem. The every family member over the age of 60 living in various stages of hoarding problem. The wasted food problem.
So often, in the realm of organizing, either self or professionally imposed, there are insurmountable hurdles. These hurdles take the shape of an unavoidable pile on the floor, resembling nothing like an elephant except for in size.
“Good habits are worth being fanatical about.” - John Irving Fanaticism acts as cement. It hardens your best habits into a discipline which then becomes, simply, who you are. Fanaticism about certain habits prevents me from being lazy, which I am, inherently.
All the messy types of the world just got a get out of jail free card with this recent New York Times article. I mean, we all know genius has no time to attend to hair.
Hello. I'm back. I was away for bit, two months to be exact. A very long pause. My whole family went up to the northern Catskills for the summer. It was sublime.
I have been reading picture books to my kids nearly every day for the past six years. What have I got to say for it that relates to Tame Space?
I inherited quite a few cookbooks from my mother and grandmother when they downsized homes. So I have been lugging them around from apartment to apartment the last twelve years.
In the past 15 years, more and more people have joined the lifestyle movement known as minimalism. It's amazing really. My favorite minimalists are Graham Hill and The Minimalists.
