Creatively Organized Spaces
When I searched for the term “Backsliding: A slippery slope” a lot of websites about Christian faith came up and that surprised me a bit. I’m not here to preach anything to you but I do want to talk about this common pitfall. Whether you are Christian, Buddhist, Jewish or don’t affiliate with any faith, in particular, I think you will still be able to relate to this.
To relapse into bad habits, behavior, or undesirable activities. (via dictionary.com)
What does it take to be organized? Curiosity, Creativity, Commitment-being open to these are the key to getting and staying organized.
It takes a bit of Curiosity, a bit of Creativity and a Commitment to make lasting changes.
Here’s a little secret, wink, wink…
If your curious how it might feel to be more organized, keep reading…
Last week I wrote about how to downsize and purge with your family and this week I want to continue with that process and talk about sentimental saving.
I think the last two items can be the most tricky. Times have changed and what is valuable to one person or generation might not be as valuable to later generations. This is where having a good chat with your family about what you love, find joyful memories of and want to save can help you feel less burdened. If you have heirlooms you love, use them in your daily life! Display them (like the piece above), break out the good china or crystal or silver, let them bring you joy by seeing and using them often!
But what about mom’s who save every little thing from their children’s childhood? I come across this a lot! Since I don’t have children of my own I can’t share what my personal experience is with this other than reflecting on what my parents saved for me. Even though I do offer suggestions on how to best save items and keep them stored using archival methods I do not tell my clients what they should keep. My best advice is LESS IS MORE! Keep the best of each category, favorite artwork, favorite decorative items and take photo’s of the rest! If you feel the compelling urge to keep more than the minimum than store in bins by year and category. Don’t mix papers with textiles-they will damage one another in long term storage (crumple, discolor etc). After a few years you might realize that you don’t need so much.
Ask yourself why you are keeping things. Do you want to pass them on to your children? Once they are old enough (8-10) start talking to them and showing them what you are keeping. This will be a great way to learn about their “saving style” and they might share what they feel most joyful about keeping and what they don’t really care about. Find ways to honor and integrate their interests, accomplishments etc into daily life (like the ribbons above). As they go through “phases” gently say goodbye with gratitude and pack up the “best of”.
If your parents never talked with you about this topic, if you still have them around perhaps they are holding onto “sentimental” items they have saved. Generally most parents ask their children to take things once they move off after college but some parents keep things forever. If you have “stuff” left behind at your parents and don’t even remember what it is, take some time to ask them about it, look through it and take what you want. Offer to go ahead and donate or sell what you don’t want sooner rather than later so that your stuff doesn’t become a burden to them or other family members, now or later. Addressing the reason we hold onto our sentimental stuff can help release us from the need to keep the actual things.
Just remember that to do so you might not have to hold onto the sentimental stuff! Sentimental saving can be a beautiful way to honor our memories! Never hold onto things that don’t bring you joy. Find stillness with your stuff and honor the moment to remember and to decide to keep or let go of the mementos.
How often are you asked to Give? Of your time, your expertise, advice, wisdom or money? When I left my corporate career and started my work as an organizer I discovered the gift of giving to others through the services that I offered. With each project I work on I am rewarded abundantly by seeing the joy that is created by sharing my gifts!
My grandparents greatly influenced me in their gifts of service and taught me the value of giving back to others. I give back to my community with regularity and frequency and have established what I think will be a lifelong dedication to giving back to my community. Yesterday here in the Lowcountry there was a huge “campaign” that many local non-profit organizations participated in to ask their supporters to give generously and have their funds matched.
Several weeks ago I decided, in the spirit of Lowcountry Giving day, to select one non-profit organization to give a gift of my services to. After speaking with individuals at several worthy non-profit’s I selected the one that I felt was not only appreciative but also really needed my services and was willing to work with me over the coming months to implement some (hopefully) positive changes!
The Preservation Society of Charleston is dedicated to recognizing, protecting and advocating for the Lowcountry’s historic places. I am excited to begin work with them this month and over the next several. It will be an opportunity for me to share my gift and to learn about the gift that they give back to our community.
I’d love to hear about how you give back to your community. Do you share your gifts and passions with groups and individuals that you feel personally connected with?
I’ve been thinking a lot about the word authentic lately. It seems to have become a trendy business marketing term which makes me want to shun the use in that context. On the one hand I love the idea that we might be entering a period in business and society that accepts more diversity and wants people to truly be uniquely themselves…on the other hand I look at some of the businesses, coaches and organizations who throw this term around and I just want to roll my eyes because all I really see them doing is the same thing as the next guy/gal in their category of business. Am I being a total skeptic?
We have one definition that says to be authentic you are in some way imitating “the original”-but who is that in the context of your authenticity?
What does authenticity mean in terms of business, in terms of spiritual practice, in terms of self?
Can we use authenticity to check in with ourselves and not as a basis for comparing ourselves to “others” in our personal, spiritual or business practices?
I’ve been thinking a lot about this as I’ve been facilitating a weekly gathering with artists reading Walking in This World by Julia Cameron. So many triggers have been discussed, jealousy, comparison, guilt, fears etc…None of them directly (so far) identify with or dive into the topic of authenticity but it’s been a buzz word flying around my head that I’ve been swatting away at until I read my friend Carrie’s latest post on this topic (here).
Carrie brings up the issue of being “triggered” by other peoples version of authenticity and that made me realize I am kind of missing the whole point of being authentic! Being authentic means you can accept when others ideas, visions, words and ideals don’t align with your own. You get triggered when something they say brings up a little resistance in you, perhaps a subject or topic that you need to do some personal deep investigation of. I have long been guilty of identifying myself in comparison to others. For some years now I have worked to undo this tangled web. I find this spider a mighty quick weaver, often before I realize it she has re-spun the web and I am caught up once again!
We do not become authentic by imitating others. We do not become authentic by imitating others best qualities! None of us can authentically imitate anyone else. When we can reflect who we know our best selves to be, then we become the authentic version of ourselves. (Click to Tweet!)
Maybe it’s just a word I am hung up on (are you?) and that’s okay because it’s really made me examine my reaction to how it’s used. Our awareness of exactly what triggers our reactions is the real gift. Someone else’s authentic isn’t your authentic! (Click to Tweet) Worry about your own authenticity but please, don’t go throwing this word around lightly! One of the fundamental principals of my organizing business is to help people find successful results on their own terms, not by trying to recreate what “organized” looks like for someone else. In every aspect of our lives we can look for authenticity and try to better understand what we can do to break the comparison/imitation habits that are instilled in many of us from an early age.