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I thank all of you, my friends and blog readers.  The All Things Home™ blog can now be found on my website at http://allthingshome.com/blog/ .  I hope you will all continue reading and commenting.  Please say hello when you get there...

Your projects or your life...

I've been working with an east bay Realtor, organizing and filing masses of paper that got tossed into boxes during a recent move.  Needless to say, most of the stuff in the boxes was pitched when she really got to look at it.  She's amazed at how much useless paper had accumulated.

Of the paper that is left, a great deal of it is projects.  The business cards to scan into the computer" project, the "read over the notes from a class she took 2 years ago" project, the "create a new brochure" project, the "photo album" project, etc., etc.

When I asked her if she realized she was trading the last moments of her life for these projects, she was a bit stunned.  But in fact, that's the truth.  Every time you add a project to your list, you are choosing what you will do with the precious hours of your life. Projects are a necessary part of both our work and personal lives, however, some of us take on more projects than we have lifetimes to complete. 


Remember the bumper sticker "I'd rather be sailing"?  Well, I always use that question to measure against any project I start to think about taking on...

Fortuna Major...

Passwords have been around for a long time.  Every kid who has a "box fort", tree house or other such secret meeting space, knows that you needed a password to enter.  Even the boy wizard at Hogwarts needed a password to get passed the "fat lady" portraits in the house of Gryffindor.

Last week I wrote about my dear friend Beverly, who passed away unexpectedly.  While Beverly and I had her paper files in order, her computer files were totally under her control.  Sure enough, no one has been able to figure out the passwords to her most important financial documents kept on line.  This means a headache for her children, more work for the attorneys, and a longer time before her estate will be settled.

Of course, if they can find a 12 year old who knows how to hack the system, they'll be in business. For most of us, that 12 year is busy doing other things.  So, it's important that someone know your computer passwords, or know how to find them in case of an emergency.

I thought I had devised an ingenious system for keeping the 47 (yes, that number is correct) different accounts I have with passwords.  Then I discovered quite accidentally one day that using the word "password" in my secret password locator, meant that anyone could find the data by entering "password" into finder on my computer.  Not what I had in mind.

There are whole companies devoted to assigning and keeping passwords and there are password books, similar to address books, and I am sure many other methods devised for keeping passwords - I am open to suggestions here.  Just find some method of giving that information to the most important people in your life.

With a heavy heart...

As a professional organizer, I've had the privilege of working with many, many wonderful people through the years.  But every so often a client comes along who becomes a good and trusted friend.  Such was the case with Beverly Wunderlich, a fantastic woman I moved into a senior community a number of years ago.  Beverly has just left us, and I will dearly miss her.

Beverly had a "thing" about paper.  Once a piece of paper crossed the threshold of her door, it was nearly impossible to get it out.  Our monthly sessions were often an arm wrestling match over some bit of paper or another.  No matter what system I devised for organizing her paper, she would find a way around it.  Though interestingly enough, she felt that she was making progress with her paper addiction, and I have many an email from her describing how helpful she felt working with me was for her.

Beverly lived at the beautiful Cardinal Point, in Alameda.  She would always schedule our sessions so that we ended with lunch in their beautiful dining room.  We would hash over the goings on at CP, discuss politics, and she would often give me excellent business advice.  She introduced me to her children and would include me at celebratory events.

Beverly and I shared a love of good chocolate and ice cream.  I will think of her whenever I order a hot fudge sundae!  Thank you, Beverly, for being my friend.