What would you grab…

Last night, around 11pm, I heard a popping sound outside. Carter jumped up to see what it was and yelled “oh my God, the woods are on fire.” His reaction was so frightening that I immediately jumped into emergency mode. We live on a wooded hillside, surrounded by pine trees and pine straw, and if you live in NC, you know it’s been a little dry around here for the past year. All I could think of was the brush fires of California and how fire sweeps quickly down a hillside. I truly thought “this is it, the house is a goner.”

The fire trucks were already there and more were on their way. I called 911 nonetheless, hoping they’d send someone to shoot water from our side of the fire. I then grabbed my kids (and woke my sister-in-law and her daughter who are visiting), my cat, my wedding ring and the backup drive for my computer and put everyone/thing in the car. I don’t know where I thought we were going, but I just wanted to get far away from the fire, and fast.

Fortunately, the fire was put out, and this morning, upon assessment, it was further from our house than it looked (tall flames engulfing trees look really big and scary at 11pm at night!). I didn’t sleep much last night–I kept getting up to make sure the fire was out. And in fact, this morning, it was still burning and looks to have taken a house/structure with it. I’ve spent most of the day thinking about fire and disasters and how I reacted. I certainly knew the important stuff to grab (kids and cat). Everything else is replaceable. As an organizer, I know how important it is to think about disaster preparation and knowing what you need to take in an emergency. Admittedly, I’ve never put a “kit” together for my family. I love our home, and a lot of the things in it. But last night, all I cared about was sitting in our Nissan, ready to move on to safety.

What would you grab in an emergency? If you have a good list, share it here!

Crank up the tunes and GO (get organized)!

My friend Geralin just wrote a post over at Clever Parents about music that helps you get organized. I love this topic, because I really do believe that having a “theme song” can help you get your groove on. When I talk about maintaining organization, I always recommend this to audiences–find a song that you love, that makes you want to move, and tell everyone that it’s your organizing song. When it’s playing, you’re in the organizing zone and they’d better back off, or start helping!

Here are a few of my favorite songs/albums/artists to organize by:

Anything by the Black Eyed Peas (my kids love this music, too, although they’re now old enough to repeat the lyrics so I have to edit for content)

The Juno Soundtrack (my newest favorite, although also requires a little editing with the kiddos)

Green Day’s “American Idiot”

Regina Spektor’s “That Time” (just because it talks about finding a human tooth, and I have to say, I’ve found a few of those when working with clients before!). Her whole album “Begin to Hope” is fun.

Bela Fleck’s “Shocktime” — I dare you to keep up with the beat.

Bounce of the Sugar Plum Fairies by Don Byron (off “Bug Music”) will keep you tapping your toes as you put your stuff in it’s spot.

C+C Music Factories “Everybody Dance Now” for a flashback to college/the early 90’s.

Madeleine Peyroux’s “Careless Love” album for when you need to get a little sappy (like finally deciding you can part with 20 years worth of love letters from an old flame)

“Clocks” by Coldplay (I like it off the live album–close your eyes, pretend you have an audience, and rock out)

The B-52’s (pretty much anything), but I’m partial to “Love Shack”

Dan Zanes when I need to get the kids involved but don’t feel like keeping one hand on the volume to edit out bad words (I saw him live last year and my whole family wore our pajamas to what we thought was a Dan Zanes PJ party, but we were mistaken and were the ONLY ones in our jammies–still a hilarious memory!).

The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” and Modest Mouse’s “Float On”…good pick-me-up songs…

Wow…realizing I could go on and on. Load up your iPod, tune out the world, and get busy! Let me know if you have other favorites that motivate you to GO!

Is Neat-freakiness next to Godliness?

MSNBC.com posted an article today about this very topic, and yours truly is quoted. I air all of my dirty laundry (yes, I was voted “neatest” in the 1988 graduating class of Asheboro High School, and yes, I did carry around an “imaginary friend” named Wrinkles when I was 4–it was a tie sorter). Like all things (food, alcohol, money, sex), one can argue that moderation is best. I couldn’t agree more when it comes to organization and clutter.

Prior to having children, I was a bit over the top. I once pulled out the vacuum cleaner 20 seconds after Christmas presents were opened, because my wonderful, dear, amazing Father-in-Law had decorated all of his gifts to us with glitter, and I just couldn’t stand seeing all of that sparkly stuff all over my recently mopped wood floors. Looking back, I know I was a bit of a freak. Now that I have children, I’m not about to spend every day following my children around with a rag and a bucket of soapy water. Our house is very much lived in, and as I’ve admitted before, I only clean up our playroom once a week. It’s a playroom, afterall!

If you find yourself at one end of the spectrum or the other (total slob with clutter out the ying-yang, or obsessive neatener who can’t stand a pillow to be out of place), get some help. Live a little. Ask yourself how you want things to be different, and do whatever it takes to make that your reality.

Check out the article and let me know what you think. Do I make myself out to be less “neat” and more “freak?”

Shutting Doors

I just took a month off from my blog. It wasn’t a conscious decision, but just something I kept putting off and putting off. I only like to write when I feel that I have something worth saying (although I’m sure I could easily find examples of blog posts that prove otherwise), and the spirit just hasn’t been moving me lately.

I think this whole idea of a sabbatical from things that don’t inspire you is actually a great idea. I encourage my clients to know when to say “no”, otherwise, they’ll overcommit themselves to things that aren’t in line with their goals and they’ll find they don’t have time to do the things that really matter. Sometimes I’m pretty good at following this advice and other times, I stink.

The New York Times just posted an interesting article about this very topic. The article refers to Dan Ariely’s new book, “Predictably Irrational”, which discusses how human beings are notorious for keeping too many options open. Ariely goes on to discuss an experiment he did at MIT that illustrated how students prefer to keep their options open rather than eliminating choices. I’d love to be able to replicate this experiment in a time management talk–because I think it’s something we all struggle with in this day and age when we are bombarded by information, opportunities and choices.

So my mantra for spring is going to be “shut the door”–when I’m asked to join a committee, attend a meeting, or various other tasks that don’t line up with my goals, I’m going to practice the simple one word sentence, “No.” That doesn’t mean I won’t occasionally jump through a window if something really cool comes along…but at least I’m trying.