“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” ~ Albert Camus Autumn has finally arrived. It is hard not to feel the changes that are so palpable in the air: Summer humidity is giving way to crisp breezes; fall clothing and crunching leaves are beginning to paint the landscape with vibrant colors; fresh apples, ciders and pies are appearing at farm stands…
A year ago, the Pew Research Center estimated that 84 percent of American households own a computer. As a matter of fact, anyone reading this article is reading it on a computer as the Chadds Ford Live has been released in an online-only format for more than six years now. Information is at our fingertips; all day, every day. And, whether we use a computer…
The zip-top plastic bag is the best invention ever. There, I said it. Well, it’s at least a close second to ice cream or the Internet. At a conference I attended for professional organizers a few years ago, this was the item most voted for when asked “What organizing tool would you want with you if you were stranded on a desert island.” Zip-top baggies…
I find it both bewildering and entertaining when so many of my clients’ homes are peppered with a random array of socks. They are mostly clean socks. Seldom are they attached to their mate. And they are everywhere. Dozens and dozens of them. Dealing with socks can be a test of patience. They are useless unless you have a pair so finding the correct mate…
“The Sound of Music” marked its Golden Anniversary this year. As I hum the familiar tunes in my head, it occurs to me how different the sounds around us are today, 50 years later, many of them bursting into our day from once unexpected places like pockets and purses. And, while I still do appreciate the wonders of raindrops on roses, some of our modern…
Here we are, knee deep in tax season and before the water rises above our wastes I thought I would offer a few words of encouragement for those of you who are still finding it hard to even glance at the first document, let alone entire piles of papers. It’s not easy to manage paperwork when it’s scattered everywhere and you can’t find (or don’t…
Giving up the ghost. An expression, in so far as I have found, dating back to the 1500s. To ‘give up the ghost’ was primarily used in bible translations and refers still to the idea of dying — releasing one’s animating spirit from the body. I am one of the younger of a large troop of siblings and cousins. As such, I was familiar with…
The word “inventory” traditionally has brought to mind long, boring checklists of warehouse supplies waiting to be identified, counted and reordered. Inventory season can be a dreaded time of year by those in retail who would prefer time working with customers to late nights spent checking off columns on lists in stock rooms. In recent years, inventories have begun wandering out of the confinement of…
The school year is upon us and parents everywhere are trembling with both joy and fear. Joy both for the chance to regain what little control they can in their homes and for the long anticipated silence that will resound through their daytime household. Fear for the onslaught of school meetings they will have to attend, second only to the children actually being in school…
Sale flyers arrived at my house this week advertising Back-to-School savings. As office supplies are integral to my job, sales like this catch my attention. Back-to-school shopping was also one of my daughter’s favorite activities of the year when she was little and, I must admit, it is also nostalgia and habit from those years that attract me to these ads. In staring at the…
Once you have decided that getting organized is in order, sorting through your belongings will be a key part of the process. Sometimes we can look at the same items over and over and not really know how to make a decision about what to do with them. This list of thirty-seven questions should help you in that decision-making process. Check down the list when…