Entries Tagged with personal organizer
April 17th, 2006
Well, while my personal mental crisis was going on, Sunny and her friend Queer Eye came over Saturday to begin the assault on the living room. (I did take before pictures which I’ll post here in a few days in another photo-spective.)
Just so you know, I had begun the assult on the living room back in December when I came back from New Mexico. I started with the bookshelves and purged books from the monstrocity bookcase and a long window-high retro-shelf and a third bookshelf I have in the room. I then gave the retro-shelf to KH for her daughter, eliminating some of the wall-to-wall furniture. I have hopes of getting rid of some of the bookshelves upstairs and moving one of the bookshelves remaining in the living room up there.
But that had been where I left off and the living room had fell back into darkness and dispair when I’d collapsed back into despression after the funeral in February.
It wasn’t pretty.
So, we had a lot to do on Saturday.
Now, that said, remember how Sunny described her friend as a combination of all the guys of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy? I never realized how mean they are. He really was mean. “Hate this.” “This is ugly.” ‘You can’t possibly like this.” “No, really, this is ugly.” “We’ll just put this aside to be put in a box for when you have a house.” — the last is what he did with the things he really thought were ugly that I wouldn’t give up.
He also made me purge books again.
Plus, he took down some of my art, including my clay sun and my copper gecko I brought back from Mexico. He really hates my Mexican art, which is the style I was going for in the living room. Even Sunny told me I could put my gecko back up when she was leaving.
Basically he told me that my walls were too busy and my knick knacks were too everywhere and that his eyes just didn’t know where to focus. He thought that maybe part of why I was feeling so overwhelmed and oppressed was because of all the visual clutter, not just the trash clutter.
O.K. I’ll never admit it to him, but sitting in my living room yesterday, looking around at how he’d arranged the few knick knacks he’d let me keep on my shelves and stuff on the side of the room he’d arranged…it was very nice looking…classy even…maybe even…calming.
Though I think I’m going to hang my gecko back up tonight.
When I was talking to my mom about it, she did point out that I was after all paying these people to tell me this stuff and give me this advice. She’s right of course. *sigh*
He does have this cool suggestion though about putting my piano in the center of the back wall of the living room and then kind of “wallpapering” the wall around it with hanging pictures, my art, mostly my Ruth Thompson art. Then doing the same on the wall with the sofa. Then we would leave the wall with the entertainment center and the windows blank (except that there are some shelves hanging between the windows).
Anyway, he’s still mean.
He also didn’t like my tablecloth, my piano runner, the piano seatcover my mother made, any of the fairy figurines because they were made in China, any of the handmade figurines because they looked cheesy, my coffeetable books, most of my candles and votives, my quilt rack, and the handpainted Mexican cats my mother got me in Mexico… *thibbit*
Anyway, I was probably feeling extra sensitive already from the long nasty talk with N2 the night before anyway.
Sunny doesn’t come back until Saturday and then for only 3 hours. I want her to help me in the bedroom, so I’m trying to get the upstairs bathroom done before then. My plan is to get the upstairs bathroom and the bedroom done before Pugly comes and shut off the office. Then Sunny and Queer Eye can come back and a more leisurely pace to do the office and finishing touches to the apartment.
Meanwhile, I’m sore as heck and the bedroom is going to be a nightmare. My mom keeps saying, “Wait till she she sees all those shoes!” but it’s the clothes that’s the real nightmare…and since I’ve already lost 15lbs since the beginning of March, I really don’t want to give any of the lower sizes up now.
Tags: personal organizer, Clean Sweep, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
April 14th, 2006
I really need a pat-myself-on-the-back moment right now. (I’ll explain later in another more lengthy post).
I’ve been mening to make of list of recenent sucesses and accomplishments as far as pulling myself out of this last big depressive episode. That way they’re all in one big place.
- Started making to-do lists on my Palm Pilot and maintaining them daily. I’ve divided them into Home, Personal, Financial, PBeM, and Work. Each one has 1 to 3 things that are the top priority for the day and I have given myself permission to be able to move them to tomorrow if they can’t be accomplished today. I’ve set up recurring items like laundry, taking out the trash, the litterboxes, posting on the pbem, etc. so they automatically show back up on the next due date.
- I’ve started getting up between 6am and 6:45am at my leisure and I try to do one little chore during that time, plus answer any PBeM emails I owe before getting ready for work — not to mention make coffee.
- Working with the personal organizer has been very theraputic and is helping me set up new systems to get through the daily. Plus, clean kitchen and hall!
- I’ve even lost a few more pounds since I saw the doctor a few weeks ago.
I’ve been working hard in that Cognitive Therapy class. While I’m having trouble decifering the “evidence” chapter, I’m looking forward to the chapter on balancing thoughts. I have great hope that somehow this therapy class will be of significant help in teaching me to deal with these rampant out-of-control automatic thoughts that seem to poison and overwhelm me sometimes on a day-to-day basis. Maybe I’ll never think like normal people, but maybe I can counter my brain’s runaway train thoughts somehow and fake it out. - I’ve been buying bright shiny colored things for the apartment and sitting in the sun and enjoying it.
- I’ve been smiling a lot more and up until Tuesday night was in a very good mood. I even told my mother that I was feeling better.
- I’m very excited about the puppy.
- I’ve been working with my mother with some success to delve into memories of my childhood to try to figure out what makes me tick, what went wrong way back when.
- I’ve been getting out of the house fairly regularly to go to the Sunday write-ins, even if I haven’t always been writing.
The shrink says that I should worry less about what hasn’t been accomplished and be proud of what has so there’s my list of accomplishments for the last month or so and it’s not so bad at all.
N2 rudely told me that she thought I was getting worse the other day, but I think she’s wrong. I think maybe my life is a little more chaotic right now because I’m trying to pull myself out of the bog and I’m trying to find a place for the things I love — sometimes when you’re sorting out something, it looks a little messier before things clean up, you know?
Tags: anxiety, depression, wellness, therapy, personal organizer, PBeM
April 13th, 2006
About 45 minutes into the first session with Sunny it occurred to us that we should really have taken before photos. It’s too bad you didn’t see what the kitchen really looked like before we started because then you’d realize what a brave woman Sunny is. 
Let’s just say that there wasn’t an uncovered surface in the kitchen when we started and I tried to get Sunny to wear a gas mask as she approached the kitchen counters and sink.
In this picture below, you can kind of see the corner of the cube cabinet that is of much contraversy. It comes up many times in conversation as to wear it’s going. It’s supposedly not staying in the kitchen at the moment.
Four generation of Maternal Mallory’s are represented on top of those cabinets — Great Gramma’s good dishes, gramma’s silver, mom’s counter containers from the New Orleans house, and my knick knacks.
You know the old saying that it has to get worse before it gets better, right?
Here are some ‘tween pictures.
O.K. So keep in mind that this is a work in progress as Sunny says. We are pretty much done with the major work in the kitchen and front hall now but we’ll be tweaking as we go to get the system perfected so that it works perfect for me so that nothing is awkward.
Those are new red dish towels and pot holders to replace all the ones she threw out. Apparently burnt ones aren’t attractive. Huh. She did let me keept the one that my mom made when I was a kid that looks like an animal with ears and eyes.
Notice that most of the appliances are gone from the counters. Only the ones I use daily or almost daily remain. It’s all about “white space,” baby!
That little table on the right needs a new home elsewhere in the apartment. Right now it’s hanging out right there until either she talks me out of it or it finds a better place. I think it’s a perfect place for my purse, but apparently it’s all about “white space,” baby!
The microwave no longer lives on the cube cabinet and now lives on the counter. Also check out my cat coasters in the drying rack which apparently can’t live in the kitchen anymore. I’m told they have to live in the living room so they can be on display.
Sunny can’t claim the coffee mug organization. I did that when I moved to Maine to display my collection. However, Sunny is very proud of the drinking glass and Magic Bullet configuration in these cabinets. (If you happen to see little glass 40z Coca-Cola juice glasses like those in the cabinet, I need 4 more…)
Just showing off my casserole and serving dish cabinet arrangement. Sunny’s put my Japanese dishes and non-displayed chopstick collection up there on the top shelf where they can’t be injured. My mother’s old canisters are up on top there for display and there’s two discontinued Tuperware containers that I collected.
Sunny really wants me to get another Lazy Susan for above the stove for the oils and smoothie stuff. Check out my pared down Mixing Bowls and measuring cups too.
I never would have thought of putting the giant Pampered Chef Simple Additions Serving Bowl and Condiments bowls up on top, but it works; plus, there’s that Lazy Susan configuration that Sunny thought of for the spices and teas. It really works wonderfully. I can find everything so much easier! Though I’m annoyed that my coffee filters are stuck up in there but where else am I going to put them?
Despite what anyone (my mom) tells you, I had seriously cut down on my plasticware addiction last year when I bought those sit & spin containers. Still Sunny made me get rid of even more. I couldn’t believe it. She got in there and seriously got it organized so it’s all easy to grab and go and put away and keep up with though.
And here’s where the weekend appliances went.
Almost $1000-worth of cookware looks like this:
This is the utility closet that’s in the kitchen. Well, this is the upper part. It’s what Sunny calls “Prime Real Estate”. She also calls it wasted — in closests, it’s not about the “white space.” There’s a lot of space above the washer and dryer that she says we can use that elfa shelving she’s so hot on to turn it into a pantry plus hold all that stuff that’s on that weak-ass shelf. Of course, in the meantime, I’ve ordered two Whitney Design Over Washer Storage Shelves to attach to the washer and dryer. Obviously they won’t make a pantry, but they will hold the Tide and the Dryell.
The other thought is to use the elfa storage system to create some sort of laundry-drying system solution. I like to air-dry more than 50% of my clothes and it’s a pain in the ass as the only place to do so is my shower, which means that in the morning they have to be moved to the towel racks and back again.
Sunny does not like my Baker’s Rack or the fact that my Soneware is on display there. She wants it to go in a closet somewhere and be hidden. I think a Baker’s Rack is the perfect place for my baking-ware. She also thinks it’s too big a piece of furniture, which might be true for this apartment, but I always wanted one and I put it together and I like it.
More “Prime Real Estate” being under utilized. Sunny was trying to figure out if the Baker’s Rack or the Pantry could fit in there.
And here’s the hallway we took back last night from the piles of various everything from paper to magazine to mail to laundry to crafty things to car stuff to coats to oy. If you look close you can just make out on the very edge of the left of the picture the edge of the pantry at the bottom of the stairs.
Tags: personal organizer
April 11th, 2006
I spent five hours working with Sunny on Monday. That’s not to say that I didn’t spend a gazillion hours on my own over the weekend sorting and cleaning here and there on my own, but nothing like the serious business she and I do when she’s there. Though I might try my hand at that this weekend some.
Oh and she laughed at my poor excuse of a strainer. I admit it’s sad. I have $1000 restaurant-quality pots and pans and really nice serving dishes and am particular about my utensils but I have this sad plastic pasta strainer. I really want one of those metal ones that stretches across the sink, but to be honest, the sad plastic one has held up for over 10 years and doesn’t look dingy and always comes clean and shows no signs of abuse so it’s hard to think of replacing it. So maybe I am still showing my particularness. I mean, if it can hold up to my standards of abuse despite having been bought fairly cheap by a college student who couldn’t afford any better, then it deserves to sit amongst the restaurant-quality types and hold it’s head up high. Heh.
Anyway, we are still not done with the kitchen, if you can believe it. We still have the baker’s rack, which is maybe 30 minutes to an hour’s worth of work. I may do that on my own and surprise her.
There are a couple of items that simply do not have homes at the moment. My hand cheese/chocolate grater simply does not fit in the shallow kitchen drawers and it used to live in the drawers in my cube-cabinet, which she is making me displace.
I guess I should explain about the cube cabinet. I bought these six modular wood cubes that’s some assortment of doored shelves, drawers, and open shelves. There’s four little legs. Peter and I put them together in a two wide by three high arrangement (read: I put them together and then Peter came over and re-did it right). I originally bought it to store my Pampered Chef Stoneware in my old apartment. The Stoneware is currently on my yet unorganized baker’s rack, which makes some sense.
Sunny (and my Mom) want it out of the kitchen, which is why Sunny worked oh-so hard to empty it. All it has in it now are the few items that still don’t have a home and some things that need to go in the office upstairs. I’ve talked her into letting me keep the piece of furniture and put it in the office; it will be replacing the plastic containers I currently use to sort my arts and crafts — well, the containers I bought to sort my arts and crafts that are still in boxes and such.
She and her friend Queer Eye are due over tomorrow night and she thought they might tackle the living room. We both agree (and so does my mom) that the living room has way too much furniture, even though I got rid of one of the bookshelves already. Sunny wants to move the baker’s rack to where the cube cabinet is and move my small cookbook bookshelf closer to the kitchen. I guess that makes sense and it’ll block less walkway going into the kichen and make doing the laundry easier.
I told her that I’ve already sorted and purged all of the books downstairs in the living room, but that the bookshelf by the piano probably could be moved upstairs and one or two of the upstairs shelves could go and that books from upstairs needed to be purged. The books on that downstairs shelf can go upstairs. That would get two sets of bookshelves out of that livingroom and make it look less crowded.
I’m hoping she and her friend can help me figure out a more feng shui way to set up the furniture in there. I hate the room set up. It just feels…institutional.
I’m also hoping I’m not too tired when I get home tonight and get everything else I get done. I want to frame a couple of pictures before they come over because I want her friend to help me figure out their placement. They’re all stuff I got from Ruth last fall and just didn’t get around to hanging and should have. (I see she’s finished Uriel now and it’s on sale. Hmmmm… I knew I shouldn’t have looked.)
Sunny is trying to talk me out of my pantry. It looks like this, but not so pretty. Basically, when you walk in my house, it’s immediately to your right and when you walk down my stairs it’s at the bottom of the stairs. I keep my food inside and my prized collection of tins on top. She wants me to replace it with a $300 hanging shelving system that she’ll install inside my utility closet above my washer and dryer. She said that the only part that will install into anything in the apartment will go into the ceiling and when I move in a year or so, it’ll go with me and be installable and adjustible to the new home. She swears I’ll love it.
I don’t know. I’m already paying her a lot of money, then there’s the cost of Pugly, plus the cost of fixing things up like new towels in the kitchen and bathroom and a new stool and lazy susans for the cabinets and a new cutting board and a nicer looking wine rack and new measuring cups and a drawer organizer plus cleaning supplies and dog toys and dog supplies and etc. I also ordered shelves to fit on top of the washer and dryer plus something for my curling iron and blow dryer.
And I guess I’ll leave you with this…Sunny and I have begun a running “argument” about my bedroom niche. My niche is about a chest of drawers wide and two chest of drawers deep. Since I moved in, I have used it to replace my storage unit that I used to rent back in New Orleans. I store my luggage and holiday decorations in there. I hung an extra off-white curtain across it to give the illusion that there’s a wall there. Sunny might not have noticed it on the inital tour, but the cats pulled it down the night before she arrived on the scene.
She keeps insisting that all of that stuff is going somewhere else and I keep insisting that there’s no reason to do so because what else is there to do with a niche anyway? It’s just a niche. It’s not big enough to do anything with but store things in.
Could be interesting once we get there.
Then again. Maybe she’ll be too distracted by the fact that there’s enough clothes in there for every refuge from the Gulf Coast…
Tags: personal organizer, Ruth Thompson
April 10th, 2006
If you even occassionally skim these entries you know I’m addicted to TLCs home invasion shows. You know the ones where they invade someone’s house and redo a room or two. I have huge crushes on Evan Farmer and that blonde carpenter Eric on Clean Sweep.
I was thinking this weeking while I was watching TLC since I’m experiencing my own home invasion of a personal organizer that you never see anyone on those shows accidently discover anything “untoward” or something the owners’ parents would be horrified to see on national t.v. You certainly never see them sorting through a box of sex toys when they’re organizing a bedroom on Clean Sweep. Is that one of the questions you have to answer do you suppose when you audition?
“Do you own sex toys?”
Or do you suppose there’s some sort of underground movement where people all over the country are secreting out boxes of porno mags and sex toys and Fredrick’s of Hollywood-wear before TLC arrives on the scene to their neighbor’s homes for safe keeping? And how do you think they broach the subject to the neighbors?
“Hey, do you mind holding on to my naughty stuff until TLC leaves? Hilde’s doing my house and I don’t want to come home and find dildos hot glued to my walls.”
And I think this may have been the most disturbing post I’ve ever written…
Tags: personal organizer, TLC, Clean Sweep, Evan Farmer, Trading Spaces, While You Were Out
April 9th, 2006
I’m already picking up a couple of lessons that Sunny obviously intended for me to learn without actually telling me to do them. Tricky and very sly.
For one thing she took away my dishpan. She filled it with the things that were under the sink. So now, there’s no way to just dump things in the dishpan to soak. I have to deal with it right then. Rinse it and put it in the dishwasher or wash it and put it in the dishdrain. This also means there’s no dilly-dallying with the dishwasher and dishdrain either. The dishwasher has to be run as soon as it’s full and both have to be empied as soon as things are dried. There’s no room for procrastination because there’s no dishpan.
The other little thing, and it’s such a little thing, I noticed that when she left last week, both times, Sunny put the coffee filter in my coffee pot. So the next morning it just just that much easier to make coffee. It doesn’t sound like that much, but it was. No fumbling half-asleep trying to get the filter open or separated from the other ones. It was just there. All I had to do was add coffee grinds and water. So, I’ve tried doing that before I go to bed too and it does make a difference.
Tags: personal organizer, Clean Sweep
April 7th, 2006
Oh. My. God.
I am so exhausted. I ache all over. Even my palms hurt. It’s all a good hurt, but still, I hurt.
We worked until 10:30pm last night and yet the kitchen is still not done. I’m beginning to think it’ll never be done. The cabinets above are done. They’re beautiful. I got rid of a few things, but not much. She made me whittle down my Corningware, made me pick a few choice pieces of the infamous white and blue set and get rid of the rest. I got rid of my old glass set that I thought I’d already gotten rid of. All my plastic cups went away — my mother would be so proud.
But when we got to the kitchen drawers…apparently normal people don’t have five or six spatulas or four or five slotted spoons or three laddles. I was o.k. getting rid of most of the knives. I only use a few. Heck, I don’t know what most of the knives in the drawer are for, honestly. Most of them came from grandparent’s homes and were thrust in my drawer by my mother. Meanwhile over the last few years I’ve carefully invested in a few knives I really like.
There was a small recurring battle about the fact that I have two garlic presses and that I refuse to give one up. It’s just not going to happen. On heavy cooking weekends, I do end up using both. One ends up in the dishwasher (they are a pain in the ass to clean) and I need the other. It just has to be that way.
I got rid of my Pampered Chef Apple Corer/Peeler/Slicer and stand — one of my male co-workers is currently playing with it and having great fun. The Corningware was also very quick to go. Actually, it was like a feeding frenzy over at my cubicle. I’ve enjoyed the giving away. Whatever’s left will go to Goodwill.
The funny part of all of this is that I now actually need to go shopping to buy some stuff. Believe it or not.
I had to go buy cable wraps/ties last night, which are pretty nifty things. Actually, I bought like a pack of 50 and Sunny says I’ll never run out. Good to be over-prepared I guess. Anyway, they’re like twist ties but velcro so you can wind up your cord and store it neatly in a corner or a cabinet or a drawer. What a awesome idea. Sunny sent me looking for them so I have to thank her.
She’s sending me on a shopping spree to Linen’s N’ Things and Bed, Bath & Beyond this weekend to replace my icky blue plastic step stool she made me throw out with a nice wooden one for the kitchen so I can reach the top shelf, particularly where my measuring bowls are now residing over the stove. Plus, I’m looking for hard to find exceptionally small 10″ lazy susans for my spice cabinets, which have been sorted but really could be more easily assessible.
We lined the upper cabinet shelves with self liner I’d previously bought for the purpose but ran out of in the process so I need to go buy more of that and liners for the drawers. I also need to keep an eye out for a silverware organizer in a style I actually like. Since I’ve only ever seen the one style I don’t believe Sunny that there are more out there. I hate the design as it doesn’t appear to be designed for people who actually have silverware.
Monday’s battles will be over the lower cabinets involving the plasticware, the FoodSaver, and the Pots and Pans, the Cubit Cabinet Peter and I built which stores the odds and ends and the all important coffee, and the baker’s rack which currently holds the Pampered Chef stoneware among other things. I think we should get to the utility closet as well, I hope.
Between now and then to surprise her, I’m going to try to get the laundry out of the downstairs and into the bedroom at least, even if it’s not put away. I’m going to really good clean all the litter boxes, vacuum, sweep and mop the tile floors downstairs, get all of the cans in the house picked up and at least bagged for recycling and try to figure out why my stereo’s rear speakers weren’t working. Seems reasonable enough, right?
Oh, and I’ve totally decided I’m going to tell my mother about Sunny after all. Sunny has already decided she wants to introduce me to this guy friend of hers. My mom would totally love her.
Tags: personal organizer, Clean Sweep
April 6th, 2006
Well, last night I met with my Personal Organizer for the first time. We’ll just call her Sunny. She’s just fantastic. Definitely no judgement, full of energy, and lots of fun. She just kind of dived in, which is definitely what I needed.
We started with the kitchen which was horrible. I lost the kitchen about a month ago. I’ve been eating take out that long. One of the discussions of course is appliances and what I actually use.
There was a battle over the crockpots and I put my foot down and managed to keep both of my crockpots. There’s just too many times that I have dueling crockpots going. I can’t not have both.
I also told her that my mother would hunt her down if she got rid of my coffeemaker. Actually, it was loverly to have fresh coffee this morning for the first time in ages — to actually to be able to get at the coffeemaker was a joy. I even cleaned up and tossed the coffee grounds when I was done making the coffee.
In the end, I parted with my toaster oven, which a co-worker snatched up, my mother’s old portable black & white t.v., and my egg steamer. I also had to part with one of my utensil holders and a oil burner. She also made me part with some plasticware and some chipped dishes.
Definitely good work.
Plus we did a lot of dish washing, counter cleaning, and scrubbed down the stove. We cleaned the microwave and swept the kitchen too. (I moped this morning before I left for work too. Aren’t you proud?)
Oh, and she’s rearranging where things go on my counter, trying to figure out a better system for me. Swapped the side the dishdrain is on. Don’t tell my mom, but she put the coffeemaker back where my mom had it. She did put the dish tub I like back in the sink and pitched the one my mom prefered. Hah!
She convinced me to pitch a really disgusting plastic step stool I’ve had since college. Now I’ll have to buy a new wooden one I’ve had an eye on. I’m also eyeing a bamboo cutting board for my counter to replace my old counting boards. And I just got a $25 gift certif from work as part of their employee appreciation week.
Tonight, everything comes out of the cabinets and drawers, sorted and purged and arranged and then the argument about the cubit cabinet and the baker’s rack will begin. I’ve already said that I’m willing to negotiate what goes on the baker’s rack, but just like my mom, she’s trying to get rid of my cubit cabinet.
I took pictures 45 minutes in and right when we finished last night but I’m saving them for when the first room is finished for before and after photos. Perhaps tonight or tomrrow morning if the room is finished, you’ll get phase I pictures.
We’re scheduled to work all day on Monday and then she and her gay friend (described as all the guys on Queer Eye For The Straight Guy) are coming next Wednesday night and then the schedule gets iffy. I guess we’ll see where we are by then. I think the upstairs is going to be the real nightmare. Oy.
She has a friend who cleans houses who I might hire to come in and do a deep clean when we’re done and then maybe to do maintenance twice a month or monthly.
Anyway, I think this is really a good thing for me, whether my parents approve or not. I see me growing from this experience and learning from it. Certainly it’d be good to go from being Oscar to Felix and embrace my inner neat freak.
Tags: personal organizer, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
April 3rd, 2006
Well, I made two promises last night. It looks like I can only keep one.
I promised PW that I would march down to the bridal shop and order my bridesmaid dress this morning as apparently she was a little miffed and stressed about the whole thing. Apparently brides don’t like it if you put that off. Procrastination is not the bridesmaid’s friend. Well, it turns out that the bridal shop is not open on Mondays. They also have a sign that says they are by appointment only. Plus, they don’t have an answering service. You have to call between the hours of 10am and 4pm Tuesday through Friday. Like I’m going to be able to remember that.
She is going to be so pissed off at me.
So I’ve got to make a big sign or something that forces me to call at 10:01am tomorrow morning.
Oy.
The other promise I made, I made to myself and I managed to keep it, though I kind of got stressed out doing so. Yesterday I blew a gasket realizing that I’m hopeless as far as getting anywhere with my house on my own. So I promised myself to call around today. It’s frustrating because have you ever googled “personal organizer”? By the way, I tried calling Merry Maids as my first choice but they told me that they could not help me. It’s horrible to be rejected by Merry Maids as too big a job. So, finally I found a personal organizer in my area and I agonized over calling her for a bit. She’s not cheap either, but I finally called her and explained my personal situation and I talked to her a bit and I really liked her. She’s got a sunny personality on the phone. She sounded understanding and she sounded like she knew exactly what I was looking for — not someone to do the task for me but someone to work with me and help me figure out how to organize along the way so I’ll be able to maintain it later. She was pleased to hear that I want to purge too — though I think we might have a fight when it comes to the clothes closet.
Anyway, it might take a good part of my savings but I think this is a positive move on my part.
The interesting coincidence is that as I was driving to work, I was thinking that PW was always the kind of friend who I could be myself around and never be ashamed to show how low I’d gone in my depressive states and she’d come over and help me clean up and she’d put on that annoying, loud pop music and roll up her sleeves and sing brightly and chat and we’d work together and it’d be done in no time and then I’d either cook us up something or I’d buy us dinner and we’d veg or something. Mind you, I’d done the same for her. We understood each other. It’s a rare friend you aren’t ashamed to show even your lowest moments to and who’s willing to roll up their sleeves and help you out.
O.K. 10:01am. It’s in my Palm Pilot. I’ve got stickies all over.
Tags: wedding, personal organizer, friendship, depression
