A Boost for the Winter

The recent car battery troubles of my neighbour, and our own car last month, gave me a chance to ponder the need for battery booster cables here in Canada.  As the car I drive often takes us out of the city and around the province, if not the country, we have booster cables that never leave the back of the car except to boost someone's battery.  We have a set for the second car which KLR drives but when that car was dry docked for a couple of months, the cables ended up in the garage.

After the neighbour's distress call came in from a few blocks away, complete with young son in the car and freezing rain on the dash, KLR was dispatched since he was already out and about and the car was out of dry dock.  The cables however, were still in the garage.  Yours truly headed out instead.

Lesson learned: regular checks of your winter box are a good way to stay organized and ensure that your car will be fully supplied when life throws the proverbial curve ball.  Items to carry in the box might include: booster cables, blanket, matches, candles, flashlight, first aid kit and hazard sign.

Merry Christmas

On behalf of the professional organizers at Wellrich Organizers, I would like to wish you all a very peaceful and joyful Christmas.  We wish you a day full of cheer and hope.

Carolyn, Chris and Jennie

Here Comes Winter!
Is it snowing in your part of the world like it is here in Toronto?  If you haven't done so yet, now is a great time to clear the garage and make room for the car - so it can overnight out of the snow.  Some quick tips:

• Check that the sports gear still fits e.g. no point in storing a bicycle that will be too small next spring;
• Put away the garden spades/shovels and put snow shovels close to where you will need them i.e. the side door to the pathway or the front door to the driveway;
• Hang up on hooks as many tools and toys as possible;
• Change to the snow tires and put away the all season tires;
• Make sure you have a snow brush, extra anti-freeze and a winter kit in your car for winter driving. That kit could include a candle, matches, blanket, hazard sign and first aid kit.

When Good Enough is Just Perfect

Organizing is about balance: enough stuff - not too little, not too much; enough stuff in your time available - not too little, not too much.  Its also about having the right stuff at the right time in balance with the priorities of your life.  As many of you know, I work with a significant number of hoarding clients.  Much of our work together involves helping them balance the stuff in their lives with other priorities.

So when one of my clients called to cancel our session this week in favour of supporting his family through his newborn grandson's critical state following a difficult delivery, I knew his priorities were in the right order.

The pictures we see of perfect, beautiful, organized rooms in magazines are exactly that: beautiful rooms designed to stimulate your creativity to apply colours, furniture, materials, tools and strategies in your own home.  As a professional organizer, I encourage my clients to see those pictures as inspiration - not a target.  We strive for good enough, not perfect.

The difference between perfect magazine pictures and a well organized home, are the wonderful priorities like new grandchildren that are so much more important than the stuff that can overwhelm our homes.  By getting a grip on the stuff, we make room for our other priorities; the grandchildren, the children, the friends.

I will keep my client's grandson and family in my prayers - his stuff can wait but will soon have to make room for that grandson to visit.

Happy Chanukkah

Today, the beginning of Chanukkah, we would like to wish all our Jewish readers a Happy Hanukkah.

Hoarders Among Us

People who hoard do not normally brag about their hoarding behaviour.  In fact, most of them are very private and often have not let anyone in their home for many years.


Professional organizers do not normally go public with the names of their clients ~ client confidentiality is a key ingredient and ethical imperative in the organizing business.


So this situation is really unusual.  I am currently working with Bruce Kirkland, senior entertainment writer for Sun Media.  Having been interviewed for an article on hoarding, the reporter, Rachel Sa approached Bruce about participating in a series of articles to publish our work in hopes that other people struggling with hoarding behaviour would see there is hope, and help, available.

I invite you to follow our work and Bruce's progress.  This is a very brave thing for Bruce and Rachel to do.

Unplug for the Holiday Season

I recently had an opportunity to appear on Breakfast Television (checkout photo #16) speaking on unplugging kids after the summer.  Many parents are increasingly aware of the amount of screen time their children have over the course of a day.  Think about it: TV, computer (in school, at home), IPOD, cell phone.  Add in there a movie or attempts to look up a reference at the library and a modern teenager could easily rack up over 6 hours of screen time without even trying (2 hours TV, 2 hours homework, 1 hour total IPOD, 1 hour total cell phone).  Considering the kids are only awake for 16 - 18 hours and are in school for 6.5 hours, that's a big chunk of their day.

Here are a couple of tips to get you started thinking about how to help your teenager control their screen time:

• As unpopular as it seems, turn off the email alerts and FB or other social media while they are doing homework.  Multitasking has been shown not to be effective and it will take them longer to get the homework done (more screen time).  Instead, encourage your teen to take regular breaks when they can check in on the pack.
• Insist that your teen take their cell phone out of their room at night and plug it in to charge elsewhere in the house.  This strategy is also helpful to get them up in the morning since that phone will give a snapshot of the pack status for the day as soon as they check their texts/BBM or whatever.
• If it isn't already, consider moving your family computer to a public place.  The worst place for a teen to use a computer is in their room.  They will stay up until all hours.  This is not a life skill worth learning.
• Help your younger teens book physical activity during the week that requires a disconnect from a screen.  Clearly this type of direction gets harder as the kids get older but once the pattern is set, and they have a habit of regular activity, they have learned a life skill that is worth hanging on to.