How do I downsize my life?

Q: I've been laid off, I need to move to a smaller place and I'm depressed and overwhelmed. Where do I start and how long will it take?

A: Well, first, it sounds like you need to stop and take a breath... do something to give yourself a break from feeling overwhelmed. Take your notebook and head to a nearby coffee shop or a park, sit for a while and formulate a plan. If you can, call a friend and have them join you.

For me, having a plan in writing gives a feeling of control. I start by writing down everything that comes into my head about the situation, in any order it shows up. Then I start organizing the thoughts into an outline and then I elaborate on each item until I feel I have actions to take that will get me to where I want to go. Action items get put on my calendar and time is blocked out to deal with them.

When I start working on a space, I start with the things I know I can get out of the way quickly. If I walk into a room with stuff all over the place I look for the most like things and separate them from the others. For example, I just sorted and packed a spare room for a client.

I began by separating paper from "stuff". Boxes with papers, books and photos went to one side of the room while stuff went to the other side. Then I boxed like items of stuff together - clothes, ceramics, decorative items, gifts for others, wrapping paper, office supplies, etc.

What's in this room?


Paper on one side of the room and "stuff" on the other.


Now we can deal with one box at time, going through them one at a time and deciding what to keep and what to give away. Breaking the job down into smaller pieces gives you a sense of control.

How long it will takes depends on you - how quickly can you make a decision and how much time you can devote to the project. Ultimately, your attitude is going to determine your success with this project. Find a way to stay positive. Think of what you are gaining, not what you think you are losing.

Downshifting to the slow lane

Yes, I have to admit that I am still working too hard on slowing my life down. Coming from the mid-west and having been raised to work hard and then work harder, it has taken me a long time to wrap my brain around the concept of slowing it all down.

But adjusting to the new economy, and the new norm of "less is more", has become something for me to practice as well as preach. So, I've been investigating the slow living movement and I can tell you about some of the things I've found...

Rightsizing, downshifting, downsizing, slow living, and simple living are terms most often used to describe the idea and process. Amazon carries a heap of books with these titles. I've a read a few. Or more actually, browsed a few - who has time to read a WHOLE book? Real Simple leads the pack of subscription magazines. But I've given up magazines in favor of computerized reading.

I've scoured the internet and come up with a few interesting sites and blogs, but I find that blogs start and then drift off never to be posted to again. My favorite so far is Simpleorganizedlife.com . There are plenty of organizing blogs, but this one covers more than just being organized.

If you've found anything interesting on these subjects, let me know and I'll check them out and report back, as soon as I get a minute...

Kitchen drawers

It's perfectly okay to use drawers in the kitchen as you would a pantry shelf. This kitchen has more drawers than cupboards and no pantry area at all. So using the drawers for food storage makes sense.

To keep like items together and bags of grains from spilling, I used plastic containers as drawer dividers. An airtight container is used to hold crackers and cookies that would get stale if left out in the air.

Cars + summer heat = danger

Tragically, last week a four month old child was accidentally forgotten in the back seat of a car all day and died from heat exhaustion. Last month a police officer left his police dog in a car for a few hours and sadly, the dog died. We simply can't say this often enough, but cars and heat are a terrible mix for any living thing left inside, even with windows left slightly open.

Apparently child deaths have increased since front air bags were introduced and children had to be put in the back seats of cars. Here are some suggestions for reminding yourself that your child is in the back:

1. Put the child's toy in the front seat next to you as a reminder they are in the car.

2. Put your purse, briefcase or jacket in the back seat of the car so that you have to go back there before you lock the car up.

3. Tie a ribbon to your steering wheel.

4. Take a photo of your child and sticky back it and put it on the dashboard whenever the child is in the car.

Don't take your dog in the car with you on errands in the summer.

Bathroom clutter

Q: Help! My bathroom is a cluttered mess. Too many products and not enough space for them all. I am especially unhappy with the way the top of the toilet looks with stuff all over it. Can you offer any suggestions?

A: Yes, I can! I have mentioned bathrooms before and how I deal with them as both a private and a public space - as in a one bathroom home (see 12/15/07 post under home living + staging). It is important that you be comfortable in your own bathroom, but equally important that your guests feel comfortable there. So, I'll break this question down and deal with it in separate posts. First let's tackle the top of the toilet.




Personally, I've never been a fan of using the top of the toilet for storage. However, I've come to terms with it in my own bathroom. Depending on the type of lid you have on the toilet, you may or may not be able to use it - some lids are not flat or they have the flushing button in the middle of the them. If you can use your lid, then I highly recommend using an attractive tray or basket to contain all the items and products that must live there.

In addition, I try and use only products with attractive bottles and labels whenever I possibly can. You could also transfer products into attractive bottles, pump or spray containers purchased from Bed, Bath and Beyond or The Container Store. Just be sure to put a label on the bottle so everyone knows what's inside.

Elfa closet installation

Last month I had the fun of designing and installing an Elfa closet system (The Container Store's product) for my recently married clients. They are in the process of blending their households and this wonderfully huge walk in closet, which had only belonged to her, now has to be shared by the two of them.




The first step was the decision to use the closet for clothes, related clothing items and their extensive library of reference materials. The second step was about finding new homes in the house for everything else that was living in the closet and no longer would belong there. They decided to only redo two walls of the closet right now, so with a somewhat blank canvas, I came up with a closet design using the Elfa system. I knew she wanted to get her shoes off the floor and he needed drawers to put tee shirts and socks in, besides a rod hanging his suits.





As this project involved ripping out two of the high wooden shelves which had bowed under the weight of the books, I had a handyman take care of that portion and hang the Elfa tracks. I then set about building the rest of the system based on my plan. There are certain tricks to installing an Elfa system, which I've learned from all my previous installations, and it's labor intensive, but it's a well thought out system and the results are spectacular.



After the system was up I went about organizing her shoes and books. The rest of the closet is his...




And they lived happily ever after!!

Where is the fuse box?

Last week I worked with a family moving into their new home. When it came time for the phones to be installed they discovered that they had no idea where the phone boxes were. In fact, when they thought about, they never asked the basic questions about where any of the important connection boxes were. So, here's a list of questions to ask the previous owners of your new house:

1. Where is the electrical outlet (fuse) box?
2. Where is the phone box/connection? Is the house wired for internet connections through the phone lines?
3. How many lines is the house wired for?
4. Where are the cable TV hookups outside the house? Is the house wired for internet connections through cable?
5. Where is the water shut off?
6. How do the timers on the outside sprinklers work and where's the timer box?
7. How do all the pool controls/timers/auto systems work?
8. Where do lines from the street run into your yard and to the house?
9. Where is the property line?
10. What switches in the house control what?
11. How do the electric skylight windows work?
12. How do remotes to fans and blinds work?
13. What keys go to what?
14. How does the auto garage door control work? Who installed it and how old is it?

If you are selling your house, it would be extremely helpful if you prepared a sheet for your buyers with the answers to these questions to leave in the house for them.