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Help kids set goals with guidance

by Filed Under: Kids & Family Organizing, Organize, Systems & Techniques Leave a Comment

Whether you call them goal charts, chore charts or habit trackers, it’s never too early to cultivate good habits. Home is the perfect place to begin teaching kids to make decisions about setting and keeping goals. Kids learn by observation, so set great examples by sharing your goals with your kids.

Help Kids set Goals

What to know when you help kids set goals…

1. Goals direct attention and effort toward goal-relevant activities and away from goal-irrelevant activities.
2. Goals have an energizing function. Goals create efforts.
3. Goals effect persistence. Goals prolong effort.
4. Goals rally us to bring task-relevant knowledge and strategies to the problem at hand.
—Edwin Locke & Gary Latham

Your children’s age is the first factor in helping them to set goals. Age appropriate goals for kids can include chores, tasks and good habits you want to help them cultivate. Schools and classrooms use goals as a motivational tool to teach kids how to work consistently as individuals or as a team to accomplish a task.

When you help kids set goals (for chores, tasks and assignments) you reinforce behavior leading to the creation of positive habits. 

Work with your kids to get them motivated and excited about using a goal setting system. If your kids are excited about seeing their accomplishments and tracking the benefits then it will be easier to begin implementing a new system.

Another very important factor you help kids set goals is knowing how your child learns.

Are they visual and creative? If so create a vision board or goal sheet that is colorful and visually exciting.

Do they love electronic’s? Search for apps or “games” that help you and your children set goals and track them via tech tools you can both access.

Do they respond well to auditory cues? Set alarms or use sounds to reward or track progress.

All of these factors will be helpful when determining what kind of system to set up. Take into account your own preferences as well. If your child is very tech savvy but you don’t have the first clue, don’t set up a system you won’t be able to monitor. Help create a system will be successful for them in the long run. This may mean trying a couple things until you find the right strategy, don’t get discouraged, ask around, look online and keep working at it. Consistency is key to setting goals and forming new habits.

Types of Goal Tracking Systems

  • Chore Charts can be assigned as appropriate by age, starting small and working towards more complex chores around the house, at school etc. These can easily be created for small children who can’t read with picture graphics and check marks, stickers or magnets to keep track of chores by day or week.
  • Goal charts are great for tracking progress on school projects and keeping track of goals for personal growth. If you or your children prefer ‘progress chart’ is a good alternate term.
  • Habit trackers are great for teaching kids to be consistent when learning new habits like brushing teeth am/pm, making beds, drinking water etc.

Many of these terms are interchangeable and some households may prefer one term over another or a combination of these for different activities. The idea is to keep kids motivated and accountable to learning new habits, setting goals and doing what they are asked to do.

A Note about rewards…Some parents love to reward their kids with tangible praise by way of allowance or “Screen-time” like games and TV. Other parents prefer reward charts and coupons as an alternate way to track of goals, habits or chores with visual cues rather than tangible items. 

Help kids set goals that are SMART!

When kids are 9-12 yrs old (earlier if they are mature and it’s appropriate), you may want to introduce them to the concept of S.M.A.R.T. Goals to teach them how to set and successfully reach their goals with accountability.

S. pecific-What exactly is the goal or habit you want to track, change or set?

M. easurable-How will you know you have accomplished your new goal?

A. ctionable-What are the steps needed to achieve this goal?

R. ealistic-Do you have the skills, time and supplies needed to achieve your goal?

T. imely-What timeline or deadline do you have and how will you break the goal down into time chunks to accomplish it by the deadline? (school year, monthly, weekly etc)

Talk to your kids about how and why they set goals. Why does this matter? It will help them to understand how setting goals empowers them to create success by their own definition.

When we create keystone habits, they can become routine and no longer require as much effort. This process becomes a catalyst for other positive goals and automatic behavior. This is a simplification of forming habits, but if you’re interested in learning more, I recommend the book The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. 

Keep your kids charts for tracking goals and habits someplace easy to see, either in their room or incorporate them into your household Command Center. Check Pinterest for tons of free printable downloads or make your own on a whiteboard, blackboard or clipboard with printouts etc.

Goals are guidelines and should not be so rigid that they are make us unhappy so don’t forget to just enjoy life!Help kids set goals

Pursuing My Life’s Work

by Filed Under: Art, Art & Design, Creative process, Inspiration & Education, Uncategorized 3 Comments

In pursuing my MA, I’ve come to understand that the work I am doing is my life’s work! It’s exciting to be in a place in time when you realize that all paths have led you to this moment, the perfect experiences and guidance that will help lead you forward to pursue your vision and dream. That is truly how I feel about this process and I want to share the blurb that was included in a recent school newsletter, highlighting myself and one of my cohorts. Since I am only 1 1/2 semesters into my masters, I don’t yet have my thesis declared but think of it like this diagram-a three-legged stool, with my research focused on each of the ‘legs’.

My research stems from observing and interacting with artists as they craft a space known as the studio. In this space, the work of making crafted objects takes place through a universal and personal creative cycle of order and chaos. History and contemporary culture have much to say about the mess and order of the creative process. Having spent nearly ten years evaluating and co-producing these spaces to identify and construct systems that support organization of material culture and productivity, my curiosity led me to interview over fifty artists about how they construct these spaces, their habitus, their process of setting up their studio and their interaction with objects and materials in their space.

I am curious to learn more about the legacy of objects and spaces left behind by artists. How can individuals and institutions support craftspeople in establishing helpful working guidelines for maintaining legacies of material knowledge and material culture? By drawing upon research in the domestic and workspace design fields, I hope to gain a better understanding of how our identities are defined by the spaces we craft, in both domestic and public artists’ studios.

Successful paper sorting

by Filed Under: Organize, Paper management, Productivity, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources 1 Comment

A couple weeks ago, we identified three steps to get paper piles under control, this week we will create a simple paper sorting system! If you missed that post, please go back and spend about 30 min’s preparing for these next steps. To recap, we start by identifying what overwhelms us about paper piles and how or why things are so out of control. This is a mental step but feel free to journal about it if that helps! Next, we list the categories of files and papers we need to keep. Finally we create a working space or staging area where we can spread out with our supplies gathered.

paper sorting

Many people suggest the first step to paper sorting is to gather all your papers in one place. I don’t start with this because I believe before we dive into paper sorting, we need to identify how we got here and where we want to be! I’ve written about setting intentions in several past posts. This step can be easy to overlook and seem like it’s unimportant, but it can make all the difference in creating lasting change.

[bctt tweet=”Setting our intention is a valuable part of creating successful and lasting change. ” username=”hkpowerstudio”]

Now, we are ready to gather all our papers to our working area. If you have a lot of papers in an existing office, it might make sense to start in that area. Gather everything to a table or desk where you can go through your stacks (or files or bags) and begin paper sorting into categories. In a prior post, I go through several kinds of filing systems, including the Tickler, binders and color coding. Before you commit to one filing system, take a look at some alternatives. This paper sorting process will work for any type of filing system!

*A quick note about shredding and sensitive papers. If you have a lot of papers to process at once, hold off on shredding and put papers to be shredded into a LABELED bag or box. If a piece of paper only has your name and address, you might want one of these great ID Blocker stamps so you can mark out your info and recycle.

With all your supplies and your staging area set up, let’s begin paper sorting!

  • Gathering papers is like a treasure hunt, you probably have papers hanging around over the place. Don’t forget to look in the kitchen, bedroom (nightstand drawers or surfaces), dining room, office or den and your car!
  • With your list of categories nearby, put each of your categories on a sticky note. If you come across a category you don’t have, just add another sticky note! We will review later. Don’t forget an “Action or To-Do” category and a “Delegate or refer to someone else” category. Common filing mistakes I see are overly complicated or very vague systems. See this post to review your categories.
  • Pick up your first stack and begin to sort into recycle, shred or one of your categories. If you have a lot of categories it can help to set up hanging folders in an empty box or file drawer. I prefer to start with a blank slate and work through old systems and stacks, sorting into the newly created system.

Continue the paper sorting process for a set amount of time, taking breaks every 30-60 min’s. If you’re unsure about items, set them into an “undecided” area to look back through later. Though I can’t advise on what specific papers you will need to keep, a helpful retention guide is available on the IRS website. For anything related to taxes and finances, you may also want to check with your accountant.

Going digital might be a consideration for information you can access online. If you’re not comfortable but want to try it out, pick one category like “Utilities” and begin to convert each account to paperless and see how that goes! If you like it, consider other categories such as banking, investments and insurance.

Once your through the paper piles, that’s it! The only thing left to do is label your final categories and make sure your files are in the drawers, binders or the file box you want to keep them in. There are some downright gorgeous file cabinets in a variety of styles, check out my previous round up here. Now that you have an awesome system in place, maintain it daily or weekly so you don’t end up with a backload of piles ever again!

Piles of Paper and no system in sight?

by Filed Under: Organize, Organizing Projects, Paper management, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Does paperwork pile up around you at home and in the office? Piles of Paper everywhere and no system in sight…unopened mail, junk mail littering all your horizontal surfaces. There can be so many reasons that paperwork piles up but getting through your paper piles can be either overwhelming or totally rewarding! Today I share the first easy step you can take to Purge the Paper Piles in your home or office.

Piles of Paper can feel beyond our control but it doesn’t have to be this way!

A lot of organizers recommend gathering everything together first, but we are going to do this a little differently. Before you gather all the Piles of Paperwork it can be helpful to identify why and how you got to your current state of overwhelm. I don’t have all those answers for your situation but I can make some educated guesses based upon my observations with clients, friends and family.

  • A “Trigger Event”-such as an injury, death, move or birth put you off course. This event caused you to go totally off track and loose your system or maintenance of it.
  • Maybe you had a system started, but that system may not have been a good fit for you, not everyone works well with the same system.
  • You never learned how to create or maintain a paperwork system, it’s certainly not taught in school (in most cases)!

We all have our breaking points and for some of us there are more urgent things in life than dealing with a paper piles that seem so unimportant! We push them aside, figure we will have time later and we make a lot of excuses for not getting around to it, day after day, week after week and sometimes for years. When you get to this point, it’s certainly easy to understand why we are overwhelmed and don’t where to begin.

When we fall behind we tend to ignore what is present because we are worried about what is past.

Paperwork Piles

What do I mean? Instead of feeling like you need to go back through everything in the past to get started, start where you are. In my experience if you lost every single piece of paper in your house in a fire or other tragedy, there is very little paperwork that can’t be replaced. I’m not saying it’s something you want to happen just that so much of what we need to keep can be replaced with a few phone calls and emails.

First (before gathering everything in your home/office), sit down and open only your most current paper pile of mail, receipts etc (today or this week’s). Think about what you have coming in. What categories do they fit in? Here are some general and sub categories.

  • Household-Utilities, finances, insurance etc
  • Medical-You & your family members
  • Vehicles-loans, DMV/MVA info, insurance
  • Financial-Banking, credit cards, investments, taxes
  • Professional-continuing education, employment, resume etc

Next, list of YOUR categories, don’t think about what you had in the past or what you “think  you should have”…just start simple. As you go through what you have, consider going paperless with utilities and bank statements or anything you can easily access online. You may still need one general category for all utilities (to keep track of account numbers etc). By simplifying your incoming mail and what needs to be filed you will create a system that’s easier to maintain.

Simple systems work best, over-organized systems are cumbersome to maintain.

Before you get into purging past piles of paperwork, create a “Staging” area for this project and gather your supplies:

  • A file box or two depending on how much you have. I prefer the any that hold hanging folders and still close, like these. Bankers boxes will work, just don’t use the hanging files.*
  • File folders-new or used, different colors or one color…just don’t run out and buy them unless you need to.
  • Hanging folders are optional but they do make the job easier (used is fine).
  • Sticky notes for labeling categories, these will be temporary
  • Pens or pencils (pencils for starting, sharpies or labels for permanent labels)
  • Labels or a Label maker if you have one

The next step, pick up and sort through a pile to see how it fits into this new simple system. Depending on how long this first step took, you can estimate how much time you will need to sort and purge all your Paper Piles! If you don’t have a good system for your mail when it comes in the house, check out this post on Creating a Practical Command Center.

*Some people may prefer a flat filing system like the drawers below or binders, but for the purpose of purging I will focus on file boxes of some sort.

Paper Piles

Creating Intentional SPACE

by Filed Under: Organizing Projects, Paper management, Systems & Techniques 1 Comment

Creating Intentional SPACE is something that most Professional Organizers do regularly with their clients. Many of us use the SPACE system or something similar when helping clients with the organizing process. This system and the acronym was created by Professional Organizer and Author Julie Morgenstern and it’s a tried and true system that I follow with all my client organizing projects. I’m happy to share how what the acronym stands for below because I find it can be useful in understanding the steps and process that can help lead to a more organized and intentional SPACE.

Creating Space with Intention

Sort-This begins by gathering everything in one category together. By doing this you know what ALL you have and can move on to the next step.

Purge-Only when you know what you have can you start to make decisions about what to keep. Purging is really DECIDING what is needed or if you can get rid of it (donate, recycle, trash).

Assign-Now that you have decided what to keep, give it a home.

Contain-You know what you’ve got and where it will live, what would make keeping things in order easier? Do you need containers? Take measurements, make labels…commit these items to live in this space.

Equalize-What this really means is Evaluate…after living with your newly organized system, take the time after a week, a month and beyond to make adjustments as needed. This means setting an intention to maintain the system (and from time to time going back through the SPACE process).

Before you even begin this process, I believe it’s equally important and valuable to set your intention (my WORD for 2019) or reason/goal for the space! Most of us have heard the statement: nature abhors a vacuum (horror vacui) by Greek physicist-philosopher Parmenides that a void or vacuum, in nature, cannot exist, so be careful what you create, or what you leave open…which can quickly get filled with clutter (in your mind and your physical space).

Once you decide, set your intention and go through the SPACE process of implementing this system, use it to support your effort to succeed in maintaining as well! Organizing isn’t a one and done process but it is a Process that’s worth investing in and worth maintaining. How’s your SPACE? Will it be filled by something of your choosing or with clutter? Need help going through this process? Please fill out the “Help me Get Organized” form.

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Homing

by Filed Under: Art, Handmade, Home, Inspiration & Education, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Homing-an act of resistance in a fast-paced world.

What is home?

It a place where we can set our own pace.

What is home?

Homebodies make time and space to create a home through their senses.

What is home?

Home is the objects we carry with us.

What is home?

Ritual creates home-home is a relationship between bodies, spaces, and objects.

A collaborative video project between Heather K Powers & Sarah Kelly, created January 2020, Asheville NC during the MA Critical Craft Residency.

Envision Epic Achievements

by Filed Under: Art & Design, Inspiration & Education, Organize, Organizing Projects, Wellness & Mindset

As we embark on a month focused on Self Care I want to share a fun tool I use to set my intention and get going on the right footing for the new year (or at the start of new projects) to help me envision epic achievements! Anytime I get to pull out scissors, magazines etc it takes me back to my days as a designer. In both my Art classes and in my industry job I often found it helpful if not essential to create “mood boards” or gather creative ideas on paper (sketchbook or boards). If you’ve never done this, don’t worry…there is no wrong time or wrong way to create a vision board!

Envision Your Epic Achievements

As we head into the next month, I will be shifting focus towards spring cleaning, purging, de-cluttering, simplifying. This can be a great time to create a vision board for how you want your home to look and feel.  You might consider giving your vision board a boost by working with a word of the year.  It’s not essential to the process of creating a vision board but it can give you some guidance and focus. Your vision board can be as broad or as specific as you like.

Creating an Vision Board is something I started doing back in 2011. It’s one of the annual planning tools I have the most fun with!  Some people call these Vision Boards others call them Action boards (for those that feel the word “Vision” is to woo-woo).

Some people like to do a digital vision board, others prefer to use all images but I love to sit down with all these fonts, colors, words and phrases and just start allowing them to come together and create a flow of juxtaposition.  So much magic happens when I sit down to create my vision board…and the magic just keeps happening throughout the year.

Envision Epic Achievements

Vision boards can take a good bit of time. Give yourself a total of 3-8 hours to complete yours, from gathering ideas and supplies to getting everything in place. How much time it takes you will depend on how large your board is and how detailed you want to be.

  • Select a type of vision board (personal, creative, images, words, a hybrid of both) that will be a touchstone and inspiration for creative progress throughout 2017. Your focus can be on home life, creative life, career, pets, family etc-whatever is important to you and where you may want more guidance and support.
  • Gather a supply of magazines/resources to select from to embody your personal expression. This can include books, printed images, catalogs, scraps of paper or fabric, stickers, embellishments or anything else you like.
  • Gather other supplies, including poster board or foam core (my personal favorite is the kind with one sticky side!), scissors, a glue stick and tape. You may also want markers.
  • Set your intention for this board, you’ve decided on your “type” and your intention is a more focused way of deciding what you want to include or not. You may want to list words or images you would like to include.
  • Flip through your resources and tear or cut out images and words. You can do this while listening to music, watching movies, listening to podcasts, anytime really. At this stage you are looking for words and images that capture how you want to feel.
  • Start to lay out your images and words on your board. There’s no right way here but I’ve found that starting with the larger elements first can help. As you sort through everything you have cut out, be sure to include your most important ideas, set them aside and allow other ideas that don’t seem to fit to fall away. Deciding what NOT to include can be just as important as what you add.
  • Once you are happy with your arrangement overall (still not glued down-just loose), snap a picture with your phone and then start to remove each area and glue things down. You can work one area at a time or in layers. Having a picture to refer back to can be fun because it’s never going to be exactly the same but it give you a little “map” to follow for your puzzle.

There is really something incredibly powerful about “visioning” a rich and creative year (or anything) to come! It can be fun to do a quick vision on a small sheet to brainstorm smaller projects or time frames too!

Envision Epic Achievements

Finally, you may be asking how does this help you get organized?  If you feel there are areas in which you would like a different outcome in your life try creating a vision board to activate and attract what you want to accomplish and how you envision it in your ideal reality.  Use images and words that feel the way you want to feel about your space and your life.

However you want to create your board and whatever you call it, just know that by being very clear about what you want to manifest in your life and putting it down in a concrete way you are more likely to draw attention to theses aspects of yourself (actions, thoughts, etc).  It’s all about the law of attraction.  When I look back at the last years vision boards I’m truly amazed at the ways in which the specific wishes, desires, dreams and actions have been attracted into my life!

How do you envision the next quarter, year, project, career or home?  What do you want to attract and are you creating any type of vision board to activate the process? If so, please please share it with me on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook  with the hashtag #powervision17!

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GO-Month | Call Your Year to Order!

by Filed Under: Organize, Tips & Resources Leave a Comment

What is GO-Month? In NAPO‘s words:

“January is Get Organized & Be Productive (GO) Month, an annual initiative sponsored by the National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals (NAPO). This month-long event increases general public awareness of what NAPO is and how our members are drivers of change by providing unique services tailored to meet their individual client needs.

January is the ideal time for GO Month since “change” is a popular New Year’s resolution. During GO Month, NAPO professional organizers and productivity consultants across the country host events in their communities to empower individuals, families, businesses, and organizations to regain control over their surroundings, time and possessions.”

Professional organizers enhance the lives of clients by designing systems and processes using organizing principles and through transferring organizing skills. Getting organized is one of the top 5 (in fact it’s #2!) New Year’s resolutions, January is the perfect time to get started.

Make a commitment to get organized and call your new year to order! To find a professional organizer near you visit NAPO’s Professional Organizer and Productivity Consultants Directory to search for professional organizers or productivity consultants in your area. And of course if you are in Charleston or Camden, SC, and need some help getting organized, please send me an email and lets schedule a time to chat. Wishing all your organizing dreams come true with 2020 clarity this year!

Travel Tips for a Happier Holiday

by Filed Under: Organize, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources 1 Comment

More Tinsel Less Bristle-Travel Tips for a Happier Holiday!

travel tips for a happier holiday

All too often we hear about the chaos and stress of the holiday season. The holidays are an opportunity to spend quality time with family and friends, but between long road trips and TSA merriment is often overlooked. This season we’ve put together a list of travel tips for a happier holiday so that the only frosty part of your holiday is the snowman outside.

  1. Keep in mind who you are traveling with. With kids? Make sure you have extra games or activities and maybe a few healthy snacks – the more spill-proof the better. This will keep the little ones entertained and cut down on grumpy roadside snack stops.
  2. Invest in quality luggage. Nothing is more frustrating than dragging an oversized, tearing at the seams suitcase with a couple of busted wheels. If you are traveling by plane, double-check that your carryon or checked luggage is within size and weight restrictions.
  3. Pack light. You may be bringing things back, and you do not need 5 pairs of shoes for a 4 day stay. And don’t forget! If you are taking gifts with you by plane be sure to save the wrapping for after your arrival.
  4. Before you leave the house – tidy up things up a bit. After long hours on the road or in the air, the last thing you want to come home to is a mess.
  5. Before you drive – consider leaving in the early morning or late night hours when traffic is at its lowest, aim for 2-digit interstates which provide the most direct routes through cities, and make time to stop and stretch your legs which will keep your body from assuming constant chair pose and give your mind that much needed second wind.
  6. Before you fly – check in online ahead of time to save yourself from unnecessary kiosk lines and arrive early. During the holiday’s airports are packed and subject to cancellations or delays, so a minimum of two hours before boarding time is ideal particularly if you are flying into or out of airports like JFK, LGA, or O’Hare to name a few.
  7. Remember to breathe. While you are sitting in traffic or waiting in line at TSA take a moment to monitor your breath. Avoid getting caught up in the hectic energy that makes us feel like we are rushed. Unknit your brow, relax your shoulders, take a deep breath, and take your time.

Most importantly, remember to pack a good attitude. We all know plans don’t always go exactly as expected. Be ready to roll with the punches and if your patience begins to slip remember that in a few hours you’ll be surrounded by the ones you love so you can eat, drink, and be merry.

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Year-Ahead Planning Resources

by Filed Under: Organize, Paper management, Tips & Resources, Uncategorized 2 Comments

Schedule time for for yourself for a end-of- year review and year-ahead planning in the last weeks of the year.

Where I’m headed is a direct result of the ideas, goals, intentions and planning I create space for in my life.

year-ahead planning

I’ve come to love a few tools that I use over and over routinely and have included them here. I’ve also come across some new tools! Planning begins for me by selecting a planner. I went back to paper a few years ago and have used quite a few planners over the years, including the Franklin Covey system, Filofax, Danielle La Port and more!

With a desire to keep it simple but not go all out Bullet Journal, I use a Moleskin planner and customize it with categories and intentions, goals, tasks and events on a daily/weekly basis. I already have a regular habit of Journaling so I get a lot of ideas out and on paper during that process and can move more concrete ideas to my planner. This works for me, I’m always re-evaluating and making small adjustments but overall, I’m happy with this and can easily go back through my year to see my accomplishments. If you’re still searching for some great planning tools, the first few below are tools I’ve personally used and love! The last couple are new additions this year but I deeply trust the sources and can therefore recommend them both with full confidence you will find them helpful!

  • Susannah Conway guides us to reflect on your year in Photo’s (on Instagram) with December daily prompts—->>>Here and she has a beautiful tool called “Unravel your year”
  • The word of the year is a process that both Christine Kane and Susannah Conway (as well as others) share tools for discovering. I’ll be revealing mine soon, but 2019 has been guided by Intuition. I’ve been discovering how to hone my intuition through an exploration of the senses this year!
  • Ali Edwards has some beautiful tools for her One Little Word discovery and a year-long creative exploration you can join as well. She’s one of the first people I discovered the word of the year with!
  • Check out this free toolkit from Do What You Love
  • Moleskine Planners are my favorite and though I’ve tried digigtal planenrs and other newer planners, I just keep going back to this great staple that can be used in a variety of ways, comes in lovely colors and several sizes, and layouts.
  • Danielle Laporte offers her free Soulful Habit Tracker she also sells a gorgeous planner and other great tools and inspiration for planning, I’m a long time reader and fan of Danielle’s!
  • Vision boards! This is such a fun project/tool for creating a visionary map of what you want to create in your new year. It’s a practice I began about 7 years ago and I’ve continued to make them and teach them almost every year!

How do you plan for the year ahead and reflect on your accomplishments? I’d love to hear your favorite tools and routines in the comments below! I know there are a lot of options out there so I’m only sharing what I know, trust and have seen results from:) Happy, almost, 2020!

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