Organize as You Go by Marie Ricks

Yep, it’s confession time again. I’ve had Marie Ricks’ book, Project: Organization, on my “to read” list for a long time. I never got organized enough to order it. Or something.

When her newest book, Organize as You Go arrived in my mailbox a tiny portion of my brain was excited. The rest was tired, a little scatter brained, (see that last post about my deadline) and a wee bit skeptical. I think I’ve mentioned before that I tend to be a bit of a self-help/DIY book junky. I think they’re fun to read and see what I can come away with to stress my husband. ;) So, I’ve read a few organization books in my time, some good, some not-so-good, and I’m still my same ADD self.

Here’s what happened as I read.

My first happy moment arrived when I realized how long the chapters were: never more than a few pages. Whoopee! That was totally do-able for my feeble and taxed brain.

My second came when I recognized some of the techniques I’ve used in the past to put myself in order. It was pretty self affirming. Organize as You Go seemed to be on my wave-length, picking out the best of a plethora of organizing tips available. I’m a big fan of the 10-minute, 30-minute, and 90-minute approach to life and I have absolutely no qualms about putting myself in time-out when I need to. It works for me in most things. Still, it wasn’t all things I have heard before, I had quite a few “ah-ha!” moments as I was reading. I am sooo taking duct tape on my next vacation.

There was another emotion going on as well. I was getting a little frustrated as I read. You see, Marie kept suggesting areas of my home or life that could probably use some attention, but wasn’t big on giving many specifics. I found myself whining, “But how?” I wanted more than what was there.

Then, a few days later I picked up a women’s magazine that promised to help me get organized. A flip through the pages and I discovered what usually happens. 98% of what they gave me as “real organization solutions” were totally impractical for me and my lifestyle. I could suddenly see the wisdom in the way Marie coached organization in her book. She kindly suggests where the problems probably are, a few things to think about, then encourages you to find your own solutions.

I did find a little bit of an answer to my whining though. Marie Ricks has a website. If you want something more specific about what you’re reading, I bet you can find some help there. I also got the impression from both the book and website that if I were to open my chaotic life to a professional organizer it would be someone like Marie. Her writing felt very non-judgmental and encouraging. There were no three-page rants on how my stuff is weighing me down and I’m stupid for hanging on to it.

Also, don’t expect the book to just focus on, um, stuff. Marie makes a good effort at pointing out that every aspect of our life has an affect on every other. She offers thoughts on how to organize stuff, schedules, crowded minds, families, etc.

There were the typical amount of copy problems, nothing that completely threw me off, and not more than I’d expect, but might be more than a language “purist” would be willing to read. (Okay, there are obvious copy problems with that sentence, so who am I to judge. :)

All and all, Organize as You Go is worth the read. It’s like a therapeutic talk with a wise friend. But, don’t expect it to solve all your problems. That’s doesn’t seem to be its purpose. Instead is just gives you gentle encouragement and points you in the right direction.

Preparedness Principles by Barbara Salsbury

I just cleaned off several books from my reference shelf and replaced them with Preparedness Principles by Barbara Salsbury. I found that Preparedness Principles covers a lot of the same material I’d gone to other books for, but in a more concise manner. Barbara Salsbury has a no nonsense way of saying, “Here’s what you need to know and here’s what you need to do” for a variety of difficult situations we may be faced with. The fun part is, you get to use this reference for little things and big things, plus you don’t really mind picking it up for no good reason at all. It’s interesting bathroom material that makes you say, “huh, I never thought of that before” and happening to “think” about it might be more important than you ever “thought”.

Preparedness Principles stresses assessing your own situation and preparing for those things you are most likely to face, but it also cautions not to feel you are immune to difficulties. Covered topics include food storage, disaster preparedness, financial security, basic survival principles as well as how to do all those everyday things we don’t think about until we can’t do them, like: washing your clothes and finding clean water or a bathroom when there isn’t one.

There is realistic information about those “staple” foods many LDS people use as their food storage, never touching it and ignoring what they really eat on a daily basis. Ms. Salsbury discusses where to start with this “bare bones” type of food storage and how much you need, but she doesn’t leave it at that. She also tells you exactly what you can expect from that type of storage and where to begin supplementing it. Preparedness Principles offers reasonable and realistic plans and motivators for all of our basic survival needs as well as practical advice on how, when and where to begin. Plus, she includes basic recipes for basic items and a substitution reference that rivals my Fanny Farmer and Amish cookbooks.

It also covers practical storage tips, like what is safe to store food in and what is not, and what to do with all those bugs and other nasties that seem to appear overnight and ruin your hard work. Preparedness Principles also includes basic outlines for building practical storage options within your own home and placing storage items in all of those fun “creative” places you can ever imagine.

I loved that in her discussion about alternative heat sources, she provides gentle suggestions that warmth and heat are comfort items serving as more than a means to survival. I appreciate her suggestions to not only have a supply of firewood on hand (if you choose a wood burning stove) but to also tuck away a few “morale boosters” in the form of familiar scents that can be released through the heat. (Think homemade potpourri and air fresheners concepts.) This is just one aspect of other such suggestions throughout the book. Ms. Salsbury is very mindful of the stress any emergency situation can bring and tries to provide helpful items to think about making available for these times. Heaven forbid you evacuate your home without the favorite binky, blanky, or bear.

For every facet of preparing for things that are beyond our control by storing away security in many forms, Barbara Salsbury makes planning for an uncertain future easy to understand and manageable. Now, if she could only infuse a little motivation into the book that would seep from the pages, through my fingers and into my brain so I could put all of her good advice to use I’d be in good shape. But I guess that’s another plus in this book’s favor. Ms. Salsbury doesn’t give the impression that you must do everything in the book and do it now; she walks with you on whatever level you’re at to make the most of what you can do. Perhaps it’s one Family Home Evening a month or one Saturday a month when you can choose a section and just see what you can do with it.

Any way it goes, I have put away a few of those thicker reference books that I never referred to and replaced it with one book, Preparedness Principles by Barbara Salsbury. She seems to understand me better than a lot of those other extremists.

Want a taste of what Barbara Salsbury can do for you? I’ve found her blog and website to also be a great place to turn for quick food for thought.

Return to the Neighborhood

The Tooth Fairy

The tooth fairy assigned to our house is totally incompetent! Oh, we used to have a good one years ago when my older children were wandering around toothless, but there must have been some lay-offs in the poor economy so that the fairies could still afford the rising cost of teeth. The current tooth fairy seems to be fairly over-worked and more than a little scatterbrained.

So here’s the deal. My son lost a tooth Thursday. He put it in the designated tooth fairy spot (you can’t put things under his pillow because he “nests” under and beside his bed with a huge pile of blankets and pillows). Yep, you guessed it—it was still there in the morning.

The accepted excuse for this occurrence is that the child must have pulled out the tooth early and the Tooth Fairy didn’t have them on the schedule for that night. Yes, this has happened several times before. I mentioned her incompetence, didn’t I? The procedure is repeated for a second night and usually the Tooth Fairy gets her act together and takes care of things. To help the process along, I suggested the child draw a couple of pictures for his door and window asking her to please stop by. He found this a very embarrassing solution. Huh. It made perfect sense to me. Well, without a posted reminder this time the old gal didn’t remember she had something to do until last night—Saturday.

She looked around. No tooth. She dug around. No tooth. She shifted all of the covers and miscellaneous implements of sleep around the boy. No tooth. It was very frustrating, but I guess this particular child had given up any trust and faith he had left for the Tooth Fairy because the little bugger simply wasn’t there.

She left him a note and all, paying him but insisting he leave his tooth for her to pick up the next time she had to fly through his neighborhood. Yes, she covered her tracks this time.

The child quietly brought me the note this morning. I asked him where the tooth was if he hadn’t left if for the Tooth Fairy.

“I dunno.”

Great. Now what? Are there Tooth Fairy bandits out there that go sneaking off with the porcelain treasures before the real Tooth Fairy can even, ahem, remember to pick it up?

Mourning Back Burner Projects

Ok, like many authors I have more projects in my poor little brain than my hands could possibly type in a lifetime. So here's the problem. Last year I wrote the story for a cute little picture book that just wouldn't leave me alone until I got it on electronic "paper" so to speak. At least that's what I think I did. I can remember writing it, but I can't remember *how* I wrote it. Or where for that matter.

There in lies the problem. After writing the story, I didn't have a ready market for it. I was in the middle of a tight deadline for another project, leaving me without a window of time to research a home to send it out to. I tucked it away.

After listening to the agent who attended the LDStorymakers conference last weekend, I thought it might be worth sending it to her. I came home all prepared to take it out, brush it up and send it off. And I can't find it! I've checked all three computers I write on. I've checked all of my current note-taking notebooks. I've dug through a pile of loose notes on the back of my desk and it's totally gone.

I'm taking comfort in the fact that it was a storybook, making it easier to recreate. That aside, I guess the moral of the story is:

When you are inspired, follow it through- all the way through.
Oh, and try to be a little less scatterbrained than I am and keep better track of your back burner projects.

Sigh. Back to the drawing board.