Who am I and why am I doing this?

I’m a 30-something stay at home mom of two boys, a teenager and a baby! For the last decade I've also helped people get their homes and lives organized and simplified as a Professional Organizer and Life Simplification Strategist. I am the wife of a 40-something year old man who recently decided to take up skateboarding. (I’m still searching for full-body padding otherwise I will be encasing him in bubble wrap.)

My husband and I have been married for just two years -- we each were married previously. Getting together later in life we apparently defied all odds and at our ages created a honeymoon baby! We met through the use of the personals, which is really the way to meet people these days. After all, it takes a lot of luck to just happen to run into the man of your dreams while grocery shopping. They say to meet a man at the grocery store you have to show up dressed nicely, hair done, make-up, etc. and put “single” items in your cart such as frozen entrees, individual servings, etc. It seems to me to really meet a man I should have filled my cart with beer and condoms and it would have been mission accomplished! Of course, nothing says "I'm single" quite like a Saturday night in the Express line at Safeway with a stack of magazines, a frozen pizza and a pint of Ben & Jerry's. Anyway, my approach was to try the personals and let me tell you-- what a cast of characters I met!

They say the most common thing for women to lie about in her personals profile is her weight. Apparently the most common thing for men to lie about is their height, followed closely by whether or not they have hair on their heads. Okay, so I had a height requirement, I felt it necessary to have a man be at least a tad taller than myself. Since I am 5'7" I did not feel this was unreasonable, so I generally aimed for men of at least 5'9" or taller---unfortunately it seems 5'9" was the fake “default height” for all men who were actually about 5'6" and below. When we’d meet for coffee and I towered over them it was clear there had been some inaccuracy in their description. Of course there were those who never made it to the coffee date stage, the guys who, in their 40’s, lived with their mothers, were stock boys for home improvement warehouses, or whose photo on their profile included their last girlfriend! One guy had just filed for divorce from his wife and was still in the process of moving his things out of the house! There were also the extreme sport/hobby types—those who were so “into” their thing that it was all consuming. Now I enjoy a bike ride now and then, but 100 miles? I don’t think so. There’s not a bike seat made that’s padded enough to get me on that adventure. Then there’s my hubby---the only slight inaccuracy in his profile was eye color. He said green and when I saw him I thought more hazel. (Actually they are those marvelous eyes that change color according to what you wear.) It has become our little joke now that when he wears a green sweater I’ll tell him that his eyes match and he’ll reply; “Oh, so this is a hazel sweater?”

So here I am, a wife and stay and home mom who’s just trying to do all she needs to do to keep up with the daily ins and outs of life. My life experience and career have given me insights into the daily clutter, chaos and complexity that surround us all and resulted in my developing “game plans” for how to deal with it which I use myself and have taught my clients. I am not perfect and don’t always have it all together, but when push comes to shove I know how to get it all together and with some effort, keep it that way. (This is not to say that this always happens all the time!) In fact it was my nature to keep clutter, procrastinate and generally have and do too much that got me into my business in the first place. I decided that if I, a person who was not by nature an organized one, could “figure it out” and teach others then that was truly my life’s calling. So I developed action plans for various aspects of daily life and putting together customized action plans for others became my job. Of course it’s always easier to do something for someone else than for yourself. It’s like the old adage that the painter’s house always needs painting!

Living in an age and society that promotes the general concept of “the more we have and do the happier we'll be” has resulted in homes and lives filled with clutter, disorganization and stress! The truth is the more we have the more we have to worry about! That’s why my motto is: “Have in your home and life only things that provide necessary function, add true beauty, or bring genuine happiness. If something is more stressful than joyful, find a way to simplify it or eliminate it.”

I hope you enjoy reading my blog!