I am an “organize junkie”

After twenty years my husband still can’t believe my love of browsing stores such as kitchen supply, office supply and general organizing supply stores.  I’m also an avid collector of actual paper catalogues that offer organizational types of products.  Even though I already have all sorts of organizing systems and methods, I’m still in search of that perfect “organizing product or system”.  And each spring seems to be the time that this eccentricity in me to re-organize cupboards, closets, pantry and every other storage area in our house comes to the surface. Steve, my husband, usually hides until I get it out of my system.

Recently, I took a trip to the Container Store.  There wasn’t anything in particular that I was looking for, but knew that I would find just that perfect solution to one of my organizing projects.  I found a better organizing system for my jewelry; plus I found a few other items just for fun.  I’m particularly drawn to small gadgets either for the kitchen or office.  Things that I never knew that I needed; but when I see them, they make perfect sense. 

Having managed two trans-Atlantic moves, I’m rigorous about not having any extra items in our house.  I’m quite firm about the rule that if it isn’t used within a year, it should be donated or thrown out.  This is a totally foreign concept to my husband, who is a hoarder and his filing system consists of stacking papers, yet he always knows where everything is.  I have to admit that it is probably pretty ruthless on my part but since he is a scientist, he sees the logic in my rule. 

Here are just some of my routine de-cluttering projects:

Kitchen cupboards: Since I’m an avid coupon user, I usually have to buy more than one of any item. This means that we have 3-4 tins or packages of one item in our cupboards. I’m constantly trying to check the labels to make sure that I move the older items to the front so that we use those first.  Extras that don’t fit into the cupboards go on to shelves in our garage.

Closets: I go through our closets twice a year and donate items that we haven’t worn (at least those items from my husband that I can sneak out of the closet or those that I can pry away from him.)

Bookcases: This is one that I agonize over only because reading is a passion for me and I go through books quite quickly.  I don’t read them more than once but I just don’t take the time, as I should, to go through our books and donate the ones that we’ve read.  This is one of my projects for the next few weeks. Last year, a friend was sending books to troops who were recovering from injuries from the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan so I sent two big boxes of books to them. I can’t think of a better way to clean out my bookcases!

Bathroom: I try and get through our bathroom cupboard and drawers a couple of times a year – especially my makeup drawer.  Why do I always end up with at least 2-3 tubes of lipstick that’s the same color but I never wear?

Office: Here’s where I really love my little gadgets!  I have a USB hub, lots of colored post its and colored highlighters, tabs, folders, you name it and I have it.  I love color coordinating all of my projects. And I’ve recently found some cable tidy devices that hopefully will help keep my cat from chewing on my computer cables.

Garage: This is an area where my husband and I don’t agree.  I’d love to have a perfectly neat and tidy garage while still being able to keep my car with room to get out.  At the moment, my car fits perfectly, as does his when we switch (big difference in size).  But I’d really love a whole wall of pegboard to hang “stuff” that always accumulates in a garage. This is one of my goals for this spring.

Declutting, throwing out or donating unused items and reorganizing gives me a sense of order in my life – a sense of control and achievement!

Do you need to have a “declutter” session or reorganize any area of your home?  Take it a step at a time but make it a priority.  It will lift your spirits and give you a sense of accomplishment.

Good luck with your organization endeavors!

Flowers – a Common Bond Across Nationalities and Ages

Spring is officially here although the weather in Maryland this past winter has seemed like we’ve been having spring since November.  Along with the warm weather has been the early arrival of flowers and budding trees.  I love them all – everything from the daffodils along the motorways to the flowers that are adorning my postage stamp garden.  The colors and scents are leaving me in a better mood and happier. In anticipation of planting my containers; I’m beginning my plans for a deck and patio filled to overflowing with flowers this summer.

To begin my spring fling with flowers this year, I visited the Philadelphia International Flower Show.  For those who haven’t been to a flower show but love plants and flowers, it’s an experience that I’d highly recommend; however, a show as large as the one in Philadelphia can be overwhelming.  When you first walk in, it’s hard to know where to begin.

I started my tour through the show with one of my favorite flowers, the orchids. There were so many varieties in gorgeous colors; it reminded me of the orchid gardens that we visited in Kuala Lumpur a few years back.  The Kuala Lumpur Orchid Garden is located at the highest point in the Lake Garden and is filled with flowers and enchanting butterflies. It’s one of the most beautiful and serene gardens that I’ve visited. 

From the orchids, we proceeded on to the masses of tulips.  These displays reminded me of our visits to the Keukenhof Gardens in The Netherlands.  There was even a display there from the Keukenhof. We’ve been lucky enough to visit at the height of the spring blooming season when in addition to the thousands and thousands of tulips, there’s an abundance of colors and fragrances from other spring flowers. It was so stunning that we had to go back a couple of times.

One of my favorite areas was the Ikebana displays.  Ikebana is the art of Japanese flower arranging and the show presented several different styles of arrangements.  I studied Ikebana with a Japanese Master while living in London so seeing these displays prompted me to attend one of the workshops while at the show.  During the workshop, the Master prepared 7 different arrangements, which has inspired me to get out my kenzans and study my text books.  I want to see if I can still follow all the rules and disciplines of my favorite style.

This week, on the spur of the moment my husband and I decided to visit the cherry blossoms in Washington DC.  They were at their peak and the blossoms were the fullest that I’ve ever seen them.  We wandered around the entire tidal basin taking in the glorious blossoms.  It was also fun to hear all the various languages spoken by the other visitors.  People were happily chatting and enjoying spending time together while enjoying the beautiful scenery.

Flowers have always been a huge part of my life.  As a little girl, my mother had several flower gardens that she tended enthusiastically. I’d wander through them and if I thought I could get away with it, I’d pick some to take into the house with me. I’ve since visited gardens in many countries and have found that plants and flowers have the same affect on people regardless of their nationalities, bringing them happiness and boosting their moods.  I hadn’t realized that March 12^th was “plant a flower day”. I missed it but I’m sure that any day will work.  If you love flowers, I encourage you to take the time today to find a way to enjoy them!

 Happy Spring!! 

“Flowers are love's truest language” - Park Benjamin

Happiness is to hold flowers in both hands. - Japanese Proverb

 

An Endless Supply of Candy

During the week leading up to Valentines Day, I was shopping from store to store to find craft materials so that my grandsons and I could design and make our own valentines and gift bags (to hold the cookies and candy that it’s my privilege as grandmother to provide).  I was also desperate to find a gift for my gadget-passionate husband but that’s a whole other story.  When I entered one store, I found the entire entrance filled with bathing suits, beach towels and straw hats.  These displays were enhanced by a huge display of sunscreen and lotions.  Now I know that a lot of people do go to sunny destinations during the winter but this  all seemed like overkill for just those few who get away to sun and sand for a week. 

This led me to thinking about last summer when it was 90+ outside and I gladly escaped to a store where they had the air conditioning turned to 60 degrees.  To complement the chilly environment, I was hit with Halloween costumes, spiders, witches, monsters and tons of candy.  A couple of weeks later, I went back and saw parents shopping for “back to school” necessities and found the Christmas decorations a couple of aisles away from school supplies. Again there was loads of candy.  Then just before Christmas, the valentine cards, and again loads of candy, made an appearance.  This past week, I found that the valentine supplies were almost overshadowed by the Easter bunnies and eggs and guess what? HEAPS OF CANDY! 

Once July 4^th is over, it seems that we are hit with a whole string of holidays.  We have Halloween, “back to school”, Thanksgiving and now we not only have Black Friday but it seems Cyber Monday has taken over as the ultimate retail conclusion of the year.  It seems that we can’t possibly ignore this onslaught because retailers will remind us every time we enter their stores. 

Time seems to be slipping by so fast and the world just keeps going faster and faster. Whatever happened to just enjoying the time that we are in now and enjoying the moment?  I’m not advocating that we can’t have the joy of anticipating holidays but if each of the holidays are blurring into the next one, is this really “living”?  If we see Christmas trees, Santa, or the Menorah for four months out of twelve, isn’t it hard to get excited when it’s actually time for them to be celebrated?

I also know that the rush to push each holiday comes down to the stores that are into the commercialization of those holidays. But where does it end?  Will the stores be displaying chocolate Santas next to the Easter eggs in a couple of years?  It’s pretty close to that now. If we buy into this false commercialization we might just see all of the holiday decorations – and candy – out all year!

Have you noticed how much candy is devoted to each of the holidays?  I hadn’t really thought about it until this post. Any bets on when we’ll see the first packages of Halloween candy on the shelves this year?

We are always getting ready to live but never living. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. Buddha

Navidad en Mexico -- Christmas in Mexico

My husband and I will be leaving on the 19th for Mexico so we’ll be spending Christmas on our own in Mazathlan – a first for on our own and a first for Matzatlan. The children are adults with children of their own so they want to build their own family traditions. I’m all for this! I absolutely believe that they should be creating their own customs and they have my full support. We had a family get together today, which was chaos but a fun, lovely chaos.

I’ve been so very lucky to have spent Christmas, or some time in the month of Christmas in different countries so have sampled some fabulous traditions. Fo many years, I had Christmas in the UK with Christmas pudding and mince pies (niether are to my liking but my husband adores both!), crackers (filled with little silly jokes, toys and hats) and boxing day celebrations. Every year we would visit an outdoor market in Bath where the aroma of mulled wine mixed with cedar, woodburning fires and other holiday smells filled me with a true welcoming sense that Christmas was almost here. These little stalls filled with fasinating handicraft and traditional items were set against the beautiful backdrop of the Bath Abbey. Often there were choral groups performing a whole medley of Christmas songs. It’s an experience that’s hard to beat.

I’ve also been in Copenhagen and visited the open air handicraft stalls in Tivoli Gardens with twinkling lights filling the park and making it a fantasy land. We also watched the changing of the guard at Amalienborg Castle, the Royal Residence, during a light snow fall and then warmed up in a local pub with grog (warmed, spiced wine) and pepper nuts (the worlds best small spiced cookies). There was also a business trip to Stuttgart where I spent an afternoon wandering through outdoor handicraft stalls and again, the smells filling the air just gave me a sense of what an old fashioned Christmas must have been like before the days of Black Friday at the malls and shopping on-line.

One year, my husband and I were traveling through Paris at Christmas time when our flight was cancelled. We didn’t consider this a hardship at all because Paris during the Christmas season is a fantasy of lights and I think it’s actually known as the “City of Lights”, although they do celebrate Bonne année (happy new year) more than Christmas. We took the train into the heart of Paris for dinner and we were lucky in that there was snow and ice so The Avenue des Champs-Élysées had been transformed into a Winter Wonderland. The trees that lined this beautiful street were covered in strings of lights making it incredibly romantic.

I do really miss the outdoor markets found in Europe because they are all so special but my husband and I are forming new traditions now that we are living in the US. Visiting the beautiful Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania is definitely one that we’ll keep. I guess that it was all of the poinsettias there this past week that really got me into the Navidad en Mexico spirit. And now, I’m looking forward to Christmas in Mexico. It’s a land of fiestas (festivals) and Posadas (processions) leading up to Christmas and I’m excited to see and learn about new customs and traditions.

There are probably as many Christmas traditions as there are families. Whatever your traditions are, I hope that you fulfill them and have a happy and wonderful holiday.

Please send me some of your own traditions – I’m interested to learn how you celebrate the holidays.

Whatever you do to celebrate – have a very wonderful holiday and enjoy the time with family.

Experience the wonder of Christmas through common courtesy

How many times have you been leaving a store or restaurant and hold the door for people coming in or leaving behind you only for them to walk through the door without acknowledging that you are even there, let alone noticing that you’ve held the door open for them. Where has this attitude of entitlement and lack of common courtesy come from? Even though this happens on a regular basis, I’m still amazed that these individuals weren’t given a better lesson as they were growing up. I know that I’m old-fashioned and grew up in an era when respect and honoring another individual was very important but have things changed so much that people today can’t utter a simple “thank you”?

Having just spent two weeks in Japan where courtesy is highly important, I’m now finding it difficult to tolerate these self-absorbed, read – rude and arrogant people as they breeze through doors. The Japanese culture is filled with so many ingrained habits including things such as an enthusiastic greeting from the store clerks as you enter a shop, bowing in a correct way, speaking to someone in an appropriate manner and the removal of your shoes when entering a room is so that visitors quickly get used to these courtesies. Japanese students learn at a very early age that a lazy greeting is regarded with disdain. So is simply walking off without saying anything. When parting, instead of saying goodbye, it’s common for the Japanese to make a wish to meet again.

As the franticness of the holiday season escalates, can we try and remain outside our own heads and be aware of other people within our close proximity and treat others, as we would like to be treated? This means that we don’t have our phones glued to our ear or that we are so busy texting that we don’t realize that there are others around us. Imagine making a sales clerk’s day a little bit more pleasant by making a point of thanking them while looking them in the eye and if they are wearing a nametag, include their name in the thank you. And while you are at it, try looking your family members in the eye as you speak to them too. A simple please and thank you to those whom you love the most might make their day too. It doesn’t take a lot of effort or time but it will help make their day a happier one. Try it – you’ll probably see a smile that might not have been there before.

See how many people you can thank this week and let me know if it’s made your week a happier one.

“A little kindness from person to person is better than a vast love for all humankind.”
Richard Dehmel Poet, Playwright (1863-1920)