Heather K Powers

Nothing’s worth anything…your sticky stuff

August 10, 2015 by Heather Filed Under: Organize, Systems & Techniques Leave a Comment

I hate to break it to you but your possessions have no value unless they sell! This is true for anything you create or acquire (clothes, household items, electronics etc). Lets really think about this a minute okay? We don’t give much thought to the VALUE of STUFF until we are ready to part with it or part with money to acquire it. Sometimes though, certain things resonate with us so deeply that it isn’t about the money at all and we attach an emotional value to things.

When we do this our stuff becomes sticky. It sticks to us, maybe longer than we would like! It becomes harder to part with, we justify the amount of money we spent, we connect with the feelings attached and we can’t let go…so then what do we do when we feel that nudge to finally let go?

We might think that taking items to consignment, trying to sell them via ebay or a yard sale will ease the separation anxiety…it might, it might not.

Here’s an extreme example; I recently worked with a client who had the contents of her entire home damaged by water, mold and construction debris…together we created an inventory of everything in her home-actually 3 homes, and this list was used to assign replacement value for her insurance claim. In the end I’m not sure if it was worth the time it took to unpack, list, photograph, research and provide documentation but the tragic circumstances made this person feel they had to do something and surely they couldn’t sit back and let the insurance company assign value to their stuff-or could they have? Would it have been much different? Maybe it was an important part of the process for this person to really see their stuff for what it was, just stuff…in the end almost everything was damaged out and replaced. Most stuff is replaceable or not needed to begin with.

I’m often asked to take things to consignment, having first scrutinized them for any imperfections, considering brand, age, wear, and style, only to have them sell for practically nothing. Same goes for the effort of selling on e-bay or a yard sale, it’s usually not worth your time (or what you might pay someone else) to sell these things. But if you really LOVE having yard sales, do it because you love connecting people with the treasures they are out to score, and give them a great deal, it will make their day! Usually though, when we dig deeper there is usually some type of lack mindset lurking beneath the surface.

I never tell someone what to do with items they want to get rid of but I do ask them to consider the value of their time when choosing how to release stuff. When we are really clear about why we bought something it might help us break the cycle.

When considering if you want to consign/sell or donate something I hope you will think about the joy that item might bring someone if you just give it away freely with no strings attached. Release things from a place of abundance and you will surely find the joy in sharing and your stuff will carry on that legacy!

A Playful Makeover Monday

August 3, 2015 by Heather Filed Under: Organize, Organizing Projects, Systems & Techniques Leave a Comment

I love to work with kids toy spaces and create storage systems that are fun to look at and fun to play with! So many families I work with have a great room space (open) where the kids can play while food is being prepared in the kitchen and other household activities are going on. This is great for keeping an eye on the kids and letting everyone share time together but it can be frustrating to have toys strewn everywhere from the kitchen counter to the hallway, dining room and family room. For this family we were able to start with a small but designated area where toys could be stored and we found the right type of storage to fit the toys that needed to live in the space.

Kids Playroom Makeover

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When starting a job like this follow a few simple steps.

Take “inventory” of what containers the client has and look things over to decided what needs to be stored in the space.
Pull all the toys out and sort them by types (music toys, books, puzzles, cars, blocks etc) removing any damaged or unwanted items.
Take measurements of the space; shelves, drawers, cabinets etc with width, height and depth.
Identify types of storage containers needed (if any) and locate them (I love Amazon, Container store and Ikea).
Purchase necessary storage pieces (and schedule for delivery) by your next appointment or work session (DIY or with an Organizer).
Contain toys by category (containers and shelves).
The finishing touch-Label, both on the shelves and the containers, so that parents, kids and anyone else helping with child care or cleanup will know where things belong. A common mistake

I find is that people don’t label because they think they will remember but if you have a housekeeper, nanny, babysitter or family members who come regularly they will not know where things go unless you make it simple and clear.

*Quick tip-schedule your organizing time, put it on your calender!

I have a variety of “go-to” favorite containers that I find work well for a variety of needs but we will also take into account what the client likes and if storage will be visible we look for more decorative containers that fit in with the clients decor. In this case we found cute canvas Toy Chest for larger storage under the stairs at 3 Sprouts. This job also required re-thinking the built in storage and making some changes to fit the needs of the space.

We created a “parking garage” for all the larger cars and trucks under the stairs (just simple shelves that were large enough to accommodate the largest vehicles). Other changes such as removing a dangerous cabinet door (pinched fingers-no good!), fitting bottom boards into lower shelves that were missing and adjusting existing built in shelves to fit the containers were made by a local cabinet maker. We stored “less messy” toys including books, puzzles and music instruments in the family room on both sides of the lower book shelves. Anything that requires more play space or the table (like blocks, cars etc) went into the cabinets by the stairs.

I love how this space turned out, it’s both beautiful and functional and it gives the kids the freedom to have fun in their space but makes it super easy to clean up when needed. Do you have a space that serves multiple functions? If you find these kinds of spaces challenging or need help with set up, I’d love to help you! Visit my contact page and we can schedule a time for a free”get to know your organizing needs” call.

Friday Fieldtrip::East Coast Adventures Part I

July 31, 2015 by Heather Filed Under: Inspiration & Education, Museums & Galleries, Photography Leave a Comment

I spent the better part of late June and early July in the car and adventuring up and down along the east coast (PA>MD>SC>FL>GA). I spent a grand total of 64 hrs at home over a four week period! The adventures began outside of Philly with a long weekend packed with family fun! In 3 days we had a memorial service for my husband’s late and wonderful grandmother, followed tby a cousins family reunion and we rounded the weekend out with a celebration of my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary! When we left Charleston temps were in the triple digits and for the duration of our trip to PA & MD it was in the 70, what a relief from the heat! Fun times were had by all, despite pouring rain and the intensity of so much family for a sustained period. We had a lot of laughs, reconnecting with family we don’t get to see often and meeting new members of the family. We took in a Phillies game (die hard fans can’t be stopped) and we ate our way through hoagies and cheese steaks. On our final day in PA we took a trip to Longwood Gardens, long on my list of places to visit and I was not disappointed.

Longwood Gardens

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The rest of my east coast adventures included a visit to see my family in MD, where we spent the 4th of July, a trip to FL to help my grandparents prepare for a move and a trip to GA for a business symposium. While I was in Atlanta I had a chance to visit two incredible fiber art exhibits which I’ll share with you on the next Friday Fieldtrip. I have an album of even more pictures from Longwood here if you care to spend a bit more time looking at details of this spectacular garden. It was a long day of walking and there was so much visual stimulation I left feeling completely inspired and filled up by natures beauty. I find I often need to escape and recharge someplace tranquil following being surrounded by lots of people, no matter how much I may love them! What do you do to recharge after intense time around a lot of people, or does that fill you up? What are some of your favorite “Field Trips” or vacation plans?

Tuesday Quick Tech Tip!

July 7, 2015 by Heather Filed Under: Digital Organizing, Organize, Organizing Projects, Tips & Resources Leave a Comment

I come across a lot of digital files that need purging and organizing and though I’d share this Quick Tech Tip…

I’ve been working with a client recently who use to own several art galleries and is in preparation for re-launching her career. Anytime we want to share our “stuff” with our “peeps” we need to gather those peeps into a list…so for this client list-building meant reaching back into the archives of her old gallery and customers to retrieve their info.

Part of what I LOVE to about what I do is researching new/better solutions and systems for maximizing our efforts. In this case with just a bit of research I found this portable floppy drive that plugs into a USB port so we can retrieve all those old files quickly and easily.

This little device is only about $10-15. Floppy disc’s contain such a small amount of info compared to what we store today. It takes practically no time to copy this stuff onto a new hard drive or just quickly scan the files and determine if you need anything.

I’m really happy with this small tech tool! Now I have an easy solution to help you part with all those old floppy discs sitting around that may or may not have important info! Yes, there are services you can send your disc’s to to retrieve your info but some people are not comfortable with sending personal info to strangers (not unreasonable in the age of ID Theft!). I’ve established my clients trust and this solution gives me the method to solve this for my clients quickly and without getting a third party involved.

Once you have what you need, find the best solution for recycling these floppy discs and get rid of them! This is an easy project you can do for yourself. Do you have old floppy discs sitting around?

Textile Tuesday::Mill Village Mandala’s

June 16, 2015 by Heather Filed Under: Art, Inspiration & Education, Textiles & Pattern 5 Comments

I’ve been pretty inconsistent about blogging lately and I’m not sure if I should be blogging about my art, my organizing, organizing tips, project’s I’ve been working on, the direction I’m headed (Organizing for artists!) or what??? So many questions and I’ve been super busy so I’ve just fallen silent. I will figure this out, it will emerge and hopefully my customers and readers can help me figure it out! Tell me what you want to see and hear.

In the meantime I’ll share something I’ve been really excited to be working on. I was selected to be an Installation Artist for Enough Pie Awakening III:Solstice event in Charleston this coming Saturday. Here’s a little about the pieces I’ll be installing on site for the event, how they came to be and why I gave them the name Mill Village Mandala (s) (Detailed views below).

In my current work I spend a great deal of time helping clients find order where there has been chaos. I look around their personal universe for patterns and clues, noticing areas of chaos and order. I use the information that I gather in their universe to help them re-define a new sense of order in their space and life.

In essence I help transform chaos to order with them and for them.

Helping clients through the cathartic proc

ess of releasing things is essential to the work we do together. These wire hangers symbolize the release of excess “stuff”, the waste and neglect of our valuable resources in our lives. As the idea to use them emerged, they began to quite literally represent a tangled past and what beauty can emerge when we begin to re-vision our future with more order.

The mandala is a beautiful and sacred example of how form and pattern can emerge from all the microcosms of the universe. My vision for sharing this mandala installation is to create a metaphorical gateway for our community to come together through place making and creative expression. Tapping my “eye” for creating patterns, I used recycled materials – cast off from the bi-products of the textile industry like hangers, recycled tee shirts and natural indigo dye – to realize this artistic vision.

The Mill Village is a reference to the history of the textiles industry which migrated from New England to South Carolina after the industrial revolution. In these Villages the ‘Patterns of life’ were dictated by the mill owners including the currency used, religious practice and places of residence and business.

I hope to ‘let the sun shine in’ on our wasteful appetite for textiles and share the beautiful patterns these cast off materials can create as a metaphor for how we can re-envision just about anything to transform it from overlooked to beautiful and useful.