The Happiness Project

One of my favorite personal-improvement bloggers, Alex Shalman, recently had a series of posts that he called The Happiness Project. Basically, he asked several of his favorite bloggers and authors to answer a few questions related to their happiness. Then he posted their answers over the course of the month. I found the interviews to be thought-provoking and uplifting. So, when Alex invited his readers to join in, I jumped at the chance.

See my thoughts about happiness below, and visit The Happiness Project to learn more about Alex and his provocative ideas regarding self-improvement.


How do you define happiness?

Happiness for me is a present sense of satisfaction as well as a feeling of hope for the future. Happiness can range from a warm sense of well-being to a glowing feeling of euphoria.

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your happiness now, versus when you were a child?

I would rate my happiness as a child and as an adult around an 8 or 9. I've always been a happy person, which is highly improbable given my genes and the way my life started. My mother, my maternal grandmother, and my maternal grandfather all suffered from depression. My mother committed suicide when I was three years old.

Luckily, I seem to be hard-wired to be happy. I attribute a great deal of my propensity towards happiness to a healthy, positive upbringing with my father. He discovered the power of positive thinking and affirmations in the seventies and taught me those life skills as he was learning them. Then he married a very funny woman who is one of my best friends today. There was a LOT of laughter in my house growing up.

The only time that I've experienced the sense of helplessness and despair faced by my mother and her parents was when I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 38. But I bounced back quickly from that bombshell once I had a plan of action to conquer the disease. In fact, the diagnosis later helped me re-prioritize my life plans, and I started my Professional Organizing business soon after I completed cancer treatments.

What do you do on a daily basis that brings you happiness, and how consistent is the feeling of happiness throughout your day?

I am consistently happy throughout the day. I really enjoy being busy and having routines and productive habits. I like to rise before 6:00 a.m., eat a healthy breakfast, exercise, pull out my ACTION folder, and plan my day.

I get immense pleasure from teaching people how to be better organized and more focused. It's great fun to grow a business by providing a service that so many people need. I can honestly say that I love to help people sort through their clutter, develop filing systems, and color-coordinate their closets. Yep, I'm weird that way. Only another neat freak would understand.

In my "down time," I enjoy laughing with friends, riding my bicycle, reading non-fiction (history, business, personal development), or surfing the web in the office I share with my husband. But the best part of each day is when I curl up in bed with a book and my sweet dog, Ruby, jumps up on the bed and lays her head on my feet. It happens every night, and it never ceases to put a smile on my face.

What things take away from your happiness? What can be done to lessen their impact or remove them from your life?

The things that take away from my happiness include not scheduling enough time for exercise, and saying "Yes" to too many commitments at once. I also get frustrated when I don't schedule enough time to write. I've recently said "No" to some commitments in order to help me carve out that time for exercising and writing. I'm also hiring people to do more things for me so that I can focus on the most important (or fun) tasks.

Oh, and I try not to dwell on the whole cancer thing. It happened, it's over, I'm healthy now. Next!

What do you plan on doing in the future that will bring you even more happiness?

I plan on writing more because it enables me to help more people at once. For the same reason, I want to do more motivational speaking. Public speaking is something that I really enjoy (another one of my freakish qualities). There's a great high that comes from making people laugh while you're helping them learn new skills.

And for the really long term, my husband and I are quickly becoming debt-free and are saving as much money as possible so that we'll be able to retire in our 50's. I personally love to work, but I want the option of only doing work I love and then only working when I want to. Now, that's my idea of happiness and personal freedom!

Spice Things Up!

While organizing a client's kitchen recently, I came across some pretty sad looking herbs and spices. The dried parsley and oregano that were once green were now a dull shade of gray, and a couple of the spices were lumpy and odorless (so you can bet they were also flavorless).

"How old do you think these spices are?" I asked the client who doesn't do much cooking. She didn't have a clue and, in fact, couldn't recall how a couple of them had managed to sneak into her cupboard.

I did a little research on McCormick's web site and came across some guidelines to help you decide when it's best to send your old spices to the garbage.

• Spices, ground: 2-3 years shelf life
• Spices, whole: 3-4 years shelf life
• Seasoning blends: 1-2 years shelf life
  
• Herbs: 1-2 years shelf life
  
• Extracts: 4 years, except pure vanilla which lasts indefinitely

Granted, you may be able to squeeze a little more life out of your spices than the recommendations above, but you'll get more flavor for your buck if you keep your spice rack current.

Here are a few more tips I cooked up:

• Rub or crush the spice or herb in your hand. If the aromoa is weak and the flavor is not apparent, it's time to replace it.
• Store herbs and spices in a tightly capped container, and keep away from heat, moisture, and direct sunlight.
  
• To minimize moisture and caking, use a dry measuring spoon and avoid sprinkling directly into a steaming pot.
• For McCormick brand spices, check the freshness date on the bottom or right side of the bottle. Note that the labels with Baltimore, MD on them are at least 15 years old.
• Except for black pepper, McCormick spices in rectangular tins are also at least 15 years old.
• Write the month and year purchased on the labels of your spices when you first put them into your spice rack.

Your homework for this week: Take a quick inventory of your spice collection and toss out the faded herbs and expired spices. If you cook frequently and need to replace what you are throwing out, go ahead and add the items to your next grocery shopping list. Otherwise, hold off replacing the herb or spice until you're preparing a recipe that calls for it.

If you have other tips and tricks for spicing things up, let us know!

When Bad Things Happen to Organized People

A couple of weeks ago, I was dining with a group of friends before we all headed to the Van Halen concert. (So shoot me..I LOVE 80's rock.) Right before we were all about to squeeze into one SUV and drive to the show, my buddy and organizing client Joe got a phone call from his burglar alarm company saying that his home alarm was going off. Since we were dining close to his house, we all rushed over to see what the deal was.

Upon arrival, we found that the would-be burglars had busted out one of Joe's french doors. Luckily, the alarm went off immediately and scared the hoodlums off before they had a chance to steal anything. We had a bunch of handy fellows along (that's them in the photo) and everybody jumped into action cleaning up the glass and securing the door.

Because Joe and I had recently finished organizing his basement, he knew immediately where to find the plywood, saw, screws, screwdriver, etc. From the time we arrived at scene of the crime to when we were en route to the concert was only about 30 minutes. Joe was so pleased that he knew right where to find everything he needed to fix the damage. And the rest of the gang was happy because we'd paid a pretty penny for those concert tickets and we didn't have to miss a minute of the show.

The moral of this story is that being organized can make a potentially chaotic situation much more manageable. Knowing where to find the tools you need in an emergency can save you stress, or even save your life. A great book about this very topic was written by my friend Judith Kolberg. The book is called "Organize for Disaster" and it's full of tips to prepare you for both natural and unnatural disasters.

And in case you were wondering, Van Halen ROCKED that night!

Sentimental Collectors

Yesterday, I was thinking about "collectors." I'm not talking about the extreme hoarding cases you may have recently seen on television. I'm referring more to the people who have a few boxes and files of sentimental old stuff that they've hung onto over the years.

People hang onto to old stuff for a lot of reasons. Sometimes it's because they believe the objects may be useful "one day." Other times, they have guilt over throwing away something that still has a little bit of life left in it (even if the person hanging onto the thing may NEVER be the one to squeeze out that last bit of life). Still others keep old unwanted gifts simply because they feel too guilty to get rid of them.


Then there are the folks that I lovingly call the "sentimental collectors." Many of my clients have boxes, chests, and drawers full of items that they keep because of the fond memories the items evoke. I totally relate to these folks because I have my own boxes of old treasures. There's the box containing the 1950's Barbie doll with the totally cool outfits that my grandmother sewed and crocheted for her. There's the high school trophies and yearbooks. Why, just last week I pulled out my senior yearbook to reminisce with an school chum I've reconnected with.

And yesterday I was reminded of my personal favorite keepsake treasures: the cards my father has given me over the years. Every Valentine's day that I can recall, I've received a card from my father, and I've kept them all. Just yesterday he emailed me a card that I printed out and have sitting on my desk. You see, I'm a 'daddy's girl' in a big way.

Turns out, dad's a sentimental collector too. I didn't realize this until I recently visited my parents in their newly renovated home. Dad, recently retired, now has his art studio in the finished attic of their house which sits right on the Cartecay river in north Georgia. While showing me around his new sanctuary, I noticed one corner wall that was covered in old cards and pictures I'd given him over the years. I had no idea that he had saved all that stuff. And now it had earned a special spot in his favorite hangout. My heart swells just thinking about it.

So, even though I'm a pretty prolific purger by nature, I understand that some stuff is just too special, too sweet, to throw away. But some people go too far in that direction. They feel that, just because the item once belonged to a loved one, it's worth keeping. The thing to remember is that many of items that people leave behind may have meant NOTHING to the previous owner. Perhaps they just hadn't gotten around to donating or throwing the darn thing away.

Don't save stuff just because it once sat in the dusty basement of a person you cared about. Save it because of the personal, warm memories you have of the item. Make sure it's earned the right to take up valuable space in your world.

Mom's Favorite Organizer

This is the time of year when many of you pick out a new calendar or organizer to help you plan your days, weeks and months. Wait, let me rephrase that. This is when the paper calendar lovers pick up a new calendar. Amongst my Professional Organizing clients, I've found that there are old-school paper calendar fans and there are electronic calendar fans. I'm one of the technology converts (some call us geeks) who keeps my schedule on my hand held iPhone and Google calendar.

If you like to use a non-electronic, paper organizer and you're a mom with kids, let me recommend a calendar created just for moms by moms. The Mom Agenda is a unique calendar that begins in August 2007 (the month school starts for most kids) and runs through December 2008. It features pages for planning your month, and pages for planning your week. But best of all, it has separate spaces for each kid and even has a place to plan each day's menu. Plus it comes in the cutest colors and has the prettiest fonts. If I ever ditch the iPhone (AS IF!!!), I'd use this calendar even though I don't have wee ones. I'd just use the bottom section for biz-related stuff and the top for my personal life.

The Mom Agenda is on sale right now at See Jane Work for $31.50, a savings of over ten bucks.

What calendar do you love and why? Leave us a comment to spread the word on your fave.

Put Your Mailbox On A Diet

Want to lighten the load of junk mail that lands in your mailbox every week? I think I've found a great solution at www.catalogchoice.org. Catalog Choice is a free service that allows you to decide what catalogs get delivered to you.

Sponsored by the Ecology Center, the service has been endorsed by the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Defense Council. According to their web site, Catalog Choice's mission is to reduce the number of repeat and unsolicited catalog mailings, and to promote the adoption of sustainable industry best practices.

Here's how it works:

• You go to www.catalogchoice.org and sign up for a free account.
• You'll be directed to a list of paper catalogs commonly sent to consumers. Check off the ones you no longer wish to receive. If you don't see a particular catalog, click on the "Suggest a Catalog" link.
  
• Catalog Choice notifies these merchants to take you off their mailing list. Many of these merchants are happy to do so because it reduces their costs.
  
• Within a couple of months you'll see a reduction in the number of catalogs you receive.
  

I signed up in November with a big stack of holiday catalogs in front of me. Since then, the number of catalogs landing in my recycling bin has drastically gone down.

There are couple of reasons why I love this service. First, over three million tons of trees are consumed each year in the production of paper catalogs not to mention the additional resources that are then used to mail these wish books to our houses and businesses.

Secondly, if you're like me, you probably get way too many catalogs from the same companies throughout the year, especially during the holidays. There are very few of these catalogs that I even open. I do most of my shopping online so many of these companies are wasting their money sending me all these catalogs because I'm already a loyal customer! I just do my browsing on the computer instead of by flipping pages.

Finally, I've organized, recycled, and contained a crazy amount of catalogs for my clients over the years. Through this process, I've discovered that unread catalogs haunt many people because they fear they may be missing out on items that they "need." So, the catalogs accumulate and, for some, the debt rises as they do, indeed, find tempting treasures in those glossy pages. I suspect that they would spend less if they weren't barraged with images from their daily catalog deliveries.

I challenge you to go on a catalog diet. Join the 450,000 consumers and businesses that have cut down on their paper, time and financial clutter by signing up for Catalog Choice.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Article

Check out Saturday's (January 12, 2008) Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Buyer's Edge section for an article by Patti Ghezzi on "Clutter Busters: Learn to let go of stuff with the help of a professional organizer." Yours truly shares a tip about calendars in the article. Lots of my esteemed Atlanta colleagues have contributed as well.

January is the National Association of Professional Organizers' Get Organized Month. Since getting organized is always in the top 3 or 4 on people's New Year's resolutions lists, it's the time when many Professional Organizer's phones ring off the hook and our email boxes begin to fill. This year is no exception for my business. I kind of liken it to the rush to the gym that occurs in January. To accommodate the rush, I've enlisted the assistance of a couple of colleagues who can help you get organized if I'm already booked. If you're in the Atlanta area and you're
ready to get better organized, send us an email at suellen@creativeorder.com and we can set up a free Discovery Assessment.

Happy Organizing!!