Archive for ‘Professional Organizing’ Category

How Professional Organizers (& Hair Stylists) Reverse Some Intolerable Problems

Posted on: September 19th, 2022 by Julie Bestry | 14 Comments

Kabarett der Komiker; Gisela Schlüter unter Friseurhaube by Willy Pragher (CC BY 3.0)

What’s annoying you today? What’s been annoying you so long that you almost don’t notice the annoyance until someone else mentions it?

Over Labor Day weekend, my air conditioner died. This was an acute problem, one that I noticed almost immediately (as the temperature was rising overnight instead of going down) and which led to much misery until the holiday weekend ended and the maintenance staff could address the problem fully.

(To be fair, they did bring a mobile A/C unit, which cooled my bedroom to a bearable temperature; unfortunately, it was so loud, I felt like I was sleeping adjacent to a jet engine. Sometimes, you trade one intolerable thing for another. That’s often what keeps you from seeking, or implementing a solution in the first place.)

That same weekend, I realized that my fridge was dying. Unlike the A/C unit, this was a less obvious thing to tolerate. The freezer was still working perfectly, and the contents of the fridge weren’t warm; they just weren’t entirely full-on chilly. Weeks earlier, the refrigerator had been making some moaning noises, but fiddling with the settings of the circa-1986 fridge seemed to stop the noise. And then I stopped noticing.

Two household problems, but one felt a lot more urgent than the other. But these weren’t the only problems.

Early in the pandemic, to ensure everyone’s safety, our complex had asked us to understand that they’d only be performing inside maintenance for emergencies. So, when we had torrential rains in the summer of 2020, the roof was repaired immediately; the ceiling, well, not so quickly.

When my hot water heater expired in the spring of 2021, I vacated my home and the nice gentlemen figured out the complexities of draining a water heater on the second floor to enable removal and installation of a new one. And later that summer, my smoke detector decided to start beeping in eight sequences of three loud bursts, every ten minutes, ALL.NIGHT.LONG. That was something I could not tolerate (and thankfully, the leasing office agreed).

However, there were other, smaller repairs where I managed DIY solutions or made do. It was easier to avoid contact during the pandemic for non-emergency issues. And then I just started tolerating some inconveniences.

WHAT YOU TOLERATE NEVER GOES AWAY

A few years ago, in Organize Away Frustration: Practice The Only Good Kind of “Intolerance,” we discussed how the first step to creating the kind of life you want is to start by identifying the unsatisfying things that you tolerate. Knowing what makes you unhappy helps you create a strategy for eliminating those “tolerations,” the obstacles to your happiness. (This is true with organizing tangible items, as well as dealing with things in your schedule, and even non-organizing things, like annoyances in our relationships and whether we live our true values.)

Knowing what makes you unhappy helps you create a strategy for eliminating those 'tolerations,' the obstacles to your happiness. Share on X

As I mentioned in that prior post, I see part of my role as a professional organizer and productivity expert as helping my clients identify the areas in which they’ve been tolerating inconveniences far too long. Recent client situations have included:

  • Carla* never could find gift certificates when she was ready to use them. They were always in drawers, or in the greeting cards with which they were given. We collected all of them and then separated restaurant gift certificates from shopping gift certificates. The former might be used on any given evening when she and her spouse were already out of the house and might drop in somewhere to eat, so we created a wallet for dining out cards. For the latter, given that Carla only shopped on Saturday, we clipped them together and put them in the Saturday slot of her tickler file. (Every new gift card or certificate went to one of those two places from then on.)
  • Joe always had trouble figuring out how to adjust the settings on his DVR. It didn’t help that his box of manuals included instructions for every gadget and device he’d owned since the early 1970s. We purged all of the manuals that applied to defunct gadgets, created folders in the “household” section of the Family Files with one folder for each type of technology (computers, entertainment, kitchen, etc.) But then we scanned the DVR instructions that plagued him as a PDF and put it in the Notes app on his phone so it was even easier to access (and enlarge).
  • Jenny’s pantry was crowded with ingredients, including a wide variety of items marked “gluten-free.” But nobody in Jenny’s household was avoiding gluten! It turns out that an occasional weekend houseguest cooked while visiting and she needed gluten-free ingredients. We rearranged the pantry so that the occasional guest had her own labeled shelf, and everyone was happier.
  • Patsy saw that when she’d click on a link, her browser would sometimes give her a “web kit error” or just a blank page. She’d been copying the link from one browser (Safari) to another (Chrome) where it would work just fine, but lately, she’d been having to do that more and more, increasing her frustration. Upgrading her operating system allowed her to upgrade her browser, and she no longer had to struggle.

* All names have been changed to protect client confidentiality.

Sometimes professional organizers are dealing with clutter, but all organizers end up dealing with obstacles to productivity. The problem is that we’re all more likely to ignore a problem that can’t be fixed immediately.

When we’re focused on the task at hand, whether that’s work or school or driving or parenting, the thing we’re doing is more likely to have a deadline or at least be time-based. We postpone removing the obstacle until such time as it becomes too large or problematic to withstand. This is what happens when people keep driving with the “Check engine” light glowing on their dash panel.

RECENT TOLERATIONS TACKLED

As I wrote about in Organize Away Frustration: Practice The Only Good Kind of “Intolerance,” many of the “intolerables” in our lives can be conquered with a little research and applying one of the following:

  • A product
  • A service
  • A change in behavior
  • A change in attitude

In that post, I shared how I was almost unrelievedly ecstatic to find a new kind of shower curtain hook that made changing out shower curtain liners much easier on my short-of-stature self. Today, I’d like to share just a few recent examples of how applying a combination of solutions have removed annoyances.

A Tale of Two TVs

Do you have any of those old, boxy CRT TVs in your home? I did. In fact, I had three, which is kind of ridiculous when you realize I’m a singleton. You see, I’d had a television in my living room and another in my bedroom. When the bedroom TV died (so long ago that I’m embarrassed to discuss the exact date), I moved the living room TV to the bedroom.

When I met a friend for lunch one day, she surprised me by having brought one of her old, boxy CRT TVs for my use! To this day, I’m flummoxed as to how she ever got it into her car, and though I recall basically rolling/sliding it up the carpeted stairs of my apartment, I’ve got no idea how I ever managed to get it from my car to my own front door. (Perhaps this is like how they claim women forget the pain of childbirth?)

Eventually, I got a modern flat-screen TV for my living room. But I also embraced the advice not to have screens in the bedroom (to avoid that sleep-stealing blue light) and got rid of cable in that room. Thus, I had a broken TV, a gifted (no longer used) TV, and an unused TV. All on the second floor of my home.

Did I mention these are big, heavy, boxy TVs?

Remember how I said I had my hot water heater replaced last year? Well, one of those TVs took up most of the empty space at the top of the staircase, and so even though our apartment complex had been pretty insistent that we were never to ask the maintenance men to carry or remove anything unrelated to their work, the guys decided that it would be to everyone’s benefit to get that one TV out. Yay! But that still left two.

To be fair, I wasn’t always just tolerating the annoyance of having two unused, dust-catching, space-hogging CRT TVs in my home. I had called the various junk haulers in town, but they wanted a frustratingly large fee for something that I could have done myself, had I only been stronger, had slightly longer arms to get fully around the TVs, and had been a bit taller (so I could have seen the stairs over the top of the TVs and not feared tumbling down).

Yes, even we professional organizers fall prey to those self-imposed obstacles. Had I thrown a little money at the problem, it would have been solved back then. 

I also called many non-profits, but nobody wanted donated CRTs.

Fast forward to late August, when I contacted Chattanooga’s Always Be Recycling. The owners, a couple who’d moved from Pennsylvania, opened their business here just at the start of the pandemic. I’d networked online with Leann Cinaglia to see how their services might dovetail with my clients’ needs. The last time we’d spoken, they weren’t able to handle CRTs because of the difficulty in recycling them, but on a day where the frustration had just gotten too high, I called to see if they might have any suggestions for other solutions. And that’s where the magic happened!

It turns out that annoyingly boxy 20″ CRT TVs have become popular with the retro gaming crowd! After one short phone call, Always Be Recycling’s co-owner Jamison Cinaglia and his associate Bret (pictured above) arrived on time the next day and quickly removed both TVs and oodles of old landline phones, cables, and cords as well — at no charge. (Had I lived significantly farther from their venue, there would have been a fee, but significantly less than the various junk haulers had quoted me.)

Throughout the entire interaction, they were professional, careful, friendly, and polite. This bodes well for knowing they’ll treat my clients, especially the elderly and/or delicate ones, with respect and compassion. 

So, this is a reminder that sometimes, the key is to continue to ask for input on solutions until the right one appears.

No Longer Hot Under the Collar

Not all intolerances are about excess or clutter. A major frustration in my life is heat. (And no, that’s not specific to the air conditioning and refrigerator woes.) I’m just always too hot. I hydrate. I wear temperature-appropriate clothing. But no matter what, even my head perspires and my hair frizzes and I end up looking like Art Garfunkel. (No offense, Art.)

And yes, I realize that a Buffalonian living in the Deep South might have found a more obvious solution to that problem over three-plus decades.

I’ve tried those evaporative cooling neck scarves and “chilly towels.”

N/A

Honestly, they just end up feeling damp and heavy. 

However, in addition to my own research, I’ve made it a habit of telling everyone I know, particularly people who participate in outdoor activities, that heat is the non-clutter bane of my existence. So, friends are on the lookout for solutions on my behalf.

Recently, Paper Mommy was at the hair salon and saw a stylist wearing something that looked like headphones around her neck. When my mom casually asked, the stylist enthused about this life-changing product, a fan that you wear around your neck. Paper Mommy bought me one (in pink) that very day!

N/A

Two days later, I received a Jisulife bladeless neck cooler. (Due to autocorrect, I accidentally praised it to my BFF as a “bloodless” neck cooler. Thankfully, it’s also that.)

You place it around your neck as if you’d just removed headphones, and the three-speed fan gently blows cooling air upward, along the neckline and up into your hairline (without causing any tangles or mess). I’ve used it several times to great effect at client locations where the combination of the kind of work we we’re doing and the actual temperature made the heat intolerable for me.

It’s battery operated and rechargeable via the included USB-C charging cable. The manufacturer notes that the 4000mAh large capacity batteries provide anywhere from 4-16 working hours of service, depending on which speed levels you use. 

There are a number of brands with similar styles, but this one ranges from $32-37 and comes in dark blue, dark green, grey, and pink. 

They Say Nothing Can Live in a Vacuum

Recently, my longtime hair stylist (hey, this continues a theme!) left the salon where I’ve been going for years and moved to her own location. In this new place, several providers (offering a wide variety of beauty services) have one collaborative location. All of them have their own private pods or units, about the size of a single or double dorm room. As I’m still wearing a mask whenever I’m inside anywhere, and trying to avoid being in close contact with strangers, I love this bright and cheery, but private space.

Terri Hart of RoseMary Beauty Company in a photo at her old salon

My fabulous stylist (shoutout, Terri!) has decorated her salon space to make it inviting. At my first visit, I applied my professional organizer curiosity (with her permission, of course) and marveled at all of the scaled-down storage and gadgets. There’s a cozy snack bar with a lovely little fridge and coffee maker, cabinets and cupboards, a tiny towel warmer, and all sorts of appealing products.

At one point, I looked toward the floor and saw what I jokingly guessed was a Doctor Who Dalek-adjacent gadget. OK, I assumed was either a Bluetooth speaker, humidifier, or some kind of air cleaner. But nope. 

It’s an EyeVac Home Touchless Vacuum. The prior salon had been designed with one of those in-wall central vacuum systems. When homes have central vacuum systems, you can usually plug a hose into the wall in any of a variety of spots and attach the appropriate devices. In the salon, it was a matter of sweeping hair clippings up to the edge of baseboard and shwooooop it would get sucked in and away to some mysterious central location. But that was a big salon specially built for the purpose.

Terri found her EyeVac Home Touchless Vacuum through a site for salon products. She simply sweeps clippings up to the front of this little robot-looking dude, and motion detectors sense the schmutz! (There are buttons on the top for manual control when you want it.) Debris is stored inside an environmentally-safe canister until you’re ready to empty it, at which point it’s much like emptying a shredder.

It comes in six colors (Designer White, Tuxedo Black, Matte Black, Silver, Rose Gold, and Sea Glass), measures 8″ long x 13″ wide by 18″ high, comes with a six-foot electrical cord, and uses dual HEPA filters. It’s available for $129 from EyeVac and Amazon, which is currently offering a $10 clickable coupon. 

Had Terri not found this nifty tool, I’m sure she would have figured out a sweeping/vacuuming, but by acquiring this up-front, she avoided having a frustrating, untenable “toleration.” She also never has to bend down or deal with a dustpan! The company doesn’t have a YouTube channel, but the late, lamented (and slightly resurrected) gadget site The Grommet shows it off to nice effect here:

Cooler still, in the days after seeing this EyeVac Home Touchless Vacuum in action, I’d been mentioning it (as well as the bladeless neck cooler) to clients. And with this, we have solved so many frustrations in household with babies and toddlers who drop food from their high chairs, cats who swoop bits of kitty litter all over the room, and crafters who drop bits of cuttings, sequins, and yarn-y bits, etc. 

Instead of schlepping out a full-size or handheld vacuum or having to bend or lug, a quick and simple swoop of a broom right up to the bottom edge of this little Dalek cousin and all of your schmutzy clutter will be exterminated!

HOW TO STOP TOLERATING THE INTOLERABLE

Nobody’s house or office or computer gets cluttered overnight. Ignoring or avoiding frustrations for weeks or months or years just allows those frustrations to be build. So, I leave you with an update of the advice I offered a little over two years ago:

  1. Google (or use your favorite search engine) to see who has created content about your problem, tweaking your search terms to find what you need. There are tricks to improve your searches on Google, on DuckDuckGo, and on Bing.
  2. Search on YouTube (which is ideal for solving “how to” problems, whether for plumbing repair, tying a tie, or fixing a stuck spacebar). A few years ago, someone stole my driver’s side mirror, yanking it from the electrical connections. (Who does that?!) A clear, concise YouTube video allowed me to purchase just the mirror and replace it myself, rather than having to take it to mechanic and pay for service.
  3. Search in an online forum like (the less dodgy parts of) Reddit, Facebook or community groups, or neighborhood groups. I’ve seen people ask for everything from how to get a car out of locked garage to how to get teenagers to respond to texts.
  4. Ask for suggestions on your social media pages. (I learned from TikTok that you’re not supposed to roll/fold modern sleeping bags before putting them in compression carrying bags; you’re supposed to smoosh them in. Who knew?)  
  5. Visit or call your local public library. Librarians are experts at finding information. (Let’s say your problem requires a tool, and you don’t want to buy a specialized tool. Did you know many cities have tool libraries?) You can also use the Library of Congress’ Ask A Librarian for general and specialized help solving those intolerable problems.
  6. Ask a professional organizer. We know stuff. (We professional organizers get asked all sorts of things. “How do I fold a fitted sheet?” “What’s the best label-maker?” “How do I pay off my mortgage faster?” “Where can I donate this random item that’s of no use to me but might make someone else’s life magical?” Ask your PO!

And, if we’ve learned anything this week, consider asking your hair stylist!

Paper Doll Picks: Organizing and Productivity Podcasts

Posted on: May 9th, 2022 by Julie Bestry | 21 Comments

FINDING THE RIGHT EXPERTS

I’m often the most tech-savvy person my clients know. One lovely client in her eighties often greets me at the door and just hands me her iPhone. “There’s a devil in it,” she half-jokes, and she’s happy to relinquish it to me for what is usually an easy fix.

Conversely, my college friends, mostly guys, laugh at the idea of me being technological. On the phone, I once fretted over having possibly failed to install memory in my computer because it didn’t “click.” After an hour of various difficulties culminating in the uncertainty over installing the memory, I groused, “Shouldn’t it click? Y’know, like how after I put on my lipstick, I close my compact and it makes a satisfying click?!” They’re still teasing me about that apparently “non-techy” description.

There’s an old expression: In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. Leaving aside the able-ist nature of the expression, I feel comfortable using this to explain that while some people feel that “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” I think that the more you know, the more you realize that you don’t know, and the more inspired you are to seek out experts.

As such, I’m starting a new feature, Paper Doll Picks, where I will occasionally provide links to bloggers, authors, and other experts to whom you can turn when you need a little extra help.

As a Certified Professional Organizer, I’m an organizing and productivity expert. As an Evernote Certified Expert (formerly Evernote Certified Consultant), I know more than your average user. And, as a former television executive and lifelong TV viewer, I can spot when an infinitesimally small clue (a cough, a camera shot resting an extra second on a wine glass, or a character’s lingering glance) means something and will be able to connect it with things that happen seven seasons later.

But in the kitchen, I’m a perpetual newbie and need to turn to Paper Mommy. (For a variety of life skills — cooking, addressing an invitation to an ambassador and spouse, medical stuff of all stripes, I turn to her. We call it Opening the Mommy Encyclopedia.) 

Nobody is expected to know and be able to do everything. Sometimes, that other old rubric is important: it’s not what you know, but whom you know!

Today, I want to introduce (or re-introduce you) to some excellent podcasts and podcasters.

THE APPEAL OF PODCASTS

If you don’t listen to podcasts, stick with me here. I admit, I don’t listen as often as many people seem to do. But when you’re walking or working out, when you’re stuck in a doctor’s office waiting room or waiting for a much-delayed flight (as Paper Mommy is doing, just as I’m writing this), podcasts have distinct advantages.

They’re as informative as blog posts and articles, but you can take it in while doing other tasks. Every try reading a blog post in the bath? You can’t read an article while driving, and if your commute is by train, subway, or car, audio is far less marred by bumps. (You won’t get carsick listening to an organizing podcast, but watching text bounce up and down may not be good for your equilibrium.)

Another nifty advantage to podcasts is that you can control the speed at which you listen to (or watch) podcasts! I listen to almost everything on 1.25x speed because I’m an impatient person. When a speaker talks at “normal” speed, I feel like I’m being held captive by Dory in Finding Nemo when she’s speaking Whale. Sooooooooo slowwwwwwww!

Conversely, when I’m trying to listen to podcasts in Italian, the language I’ve been diligently studying for 4 years, the organic speed of language just zips right past me, and I only get a handful of words. By the time I realize I understood anything, they’re onto the next topic. Listening at .75x helps me make out the words without going into Dory mode.

ORGANIZING AND PRODUCTIVITY PODCASTS

These are a few of my favorite podcasts in the realm of organizing and productivity.

NAPO Stand Out Podcast

The NAPO Stand Out Podcast — This official podcast of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals began in 2018 with an interview of its first guest, my stellar and stylish colleague Geralin Thomas of Metropolitan Organizing. Now, it’s just a few shows away from its 100th episode.

The NAPO Stand Out podcast offers up compelling interviews with NAPO members and subject matter experts (like author Gretchen Rubin, friend-of-the-blog Allison Task, whom I interviewed in Paper Doll Interviews Life Coach, Author, and Kid-Schlepper Allison Task, and Indistractable author Nir Eyal). 

For the first few years, the show was hosted by Sarah Karakaian of Nestrs. (You might know Sarah and her husband, a home improvement, design, staging, and short-term rental management team from HGTV, their Thanks for Visiting AirB&B podcast, or Instagram.) 

Now, the podcast is hosted by Canadian professional organizer and TV personality Clare Kumar, an all-around cool chick with a laugh that can draw in even the grinchiest of grinches. Clare specializes in helping Highly Sensitive Persons (HSPs) optimize their professional performance, and she has her own podcast, Happy Space with Clare Kumar, all about helping HSPs find their own happy spaces.

The NAPO Stand Out podcast invites organizers, productivity experts, and anyone interested in these fields to listen in as guests share their successes, challenges, best practices, proven strategies, industry developments, and fabulous anecdotes.

Take a peek at the most recent episode, Discover Your Organizing Style, where Clare interviews Cass Aarssen about how her own struggles with clutter led her to create the Clutterbug Organizing Styles.

Watch and listen to past episodes through the archives at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Stitcher, and elsewhere.

Smead’s Keeping Your Organized Podcast

Smead’s Keeping You Organized — It still breaks my heart a bit that this magnificent video and audio podcast, hosted by John Hunt, is no longer being produced. It was an amazing podcast designed to provide all manner of practical and philosophical organizing and productivity information to viewers. 

John is a delightful interviewer — you can see him being interviewed for an early episode of the NAPO Stand Out podcast, here — and all sorts of North American professional organizers got to share their expertise.

Happily, all 278 episodes of the show are still available, including the eight times I was the guest. You can listen or watch those here, or at the episode page:

041: Secrets to Organizing a Small Business

108: Fears that Keep You from Getting Organized

153: Paper vs. Digital Organizing Part 1

154: Paper vs. Digital Organizing Part 2

203: How to Get Organized When You Have an Extended or Chronic Illness – Part 1

204: How to Get Organized When You Have an Extended or Chronic Illness – Part 2

263: Essential Lists for Organized Travel – Part 1

264: Essential Lists for Organized Travel – Part 2

Sadly, all of my appearances were from before I had a decent video podcast background or lighting, so you may want to listen rather than watch (or risk being distracted by weird shadows and my often–weird hair).

The Productivity Lovers Podcast

The Productivity Lovers Podcast is hosted by two of my friends and colleagues, Certified Professional Organizers Cris Sgrott of Organizing Maniacs and Deb Lee of D. Allison Lee.

Both are organizers and productivity specialists; Cris is also a coach and speaker who specializes in senior move management and helping people with chronic disorganization and ADHD. Deb is a digital productivity coach and possesses one of the greatest analytical minds of anyone I know. (Deb’s my go-to for solving online platform kerfuffles, but also for making sense out of things that seem incomprehensible.)

Launched one year into the pandemic, Cris and Deb’s podcast was a balm for any lonely organizer’s (and organizing client’s) soul. Listening along when I get my 10,000 daily Fitbit steps in or watching the video version as if I were Zooming with them, I often find myself talking back to these ladies, forgetting that I’m not really part of the conversation — because they are that warm, friendly, funny, and honest.

At least once an episode, I laugh at how they make one another laugh, with much of the humor coming from their mismatched productivity styles. Deb is all-digital; Cris is hybrid but leans into her love of paper planners. Cris calls herself a Hot Potato Productivity person, while Deb is super-focused.

Cris and Deb cover all sorts of productivity issues, from paper planners to Inbox Zero, the Pomodoro Technique to how organizing is portrayed in the media. Every episode is a lighthearted  conversation between two friends, but the audience is never forgotten, as they invite our responses on their Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube pages.

Come for the conversation, stay for the detailed show notes and discussion points. Pick from the audio versions via your favorite podcast app or on the episode page; watch for the video version on YouTube a week or two later. Here’s a recent episode, to give you a taste.

Organize Your Stuff

Organize Your Stuff — My colleague, buddy, and fellow mastermind group member, Maria White of Enuff With the Stuff hosts this podcast, which invites people from all points along the organizing spectrum to help them see possibilities.

While Maria has been on hiatus for a bit, there are 37 episodes covering topics ranging from “Do You Trello?” (yes, dear readers, I do!) and “Organized Adulting” to “Finally Accomplish Goals Using the 48 Week Achievement Guide” (with our fellow masterminder, Karen Sprinkle) to “Drastic Downsizing for Tiny Living” (for folks eager to learn more about living in a tiny house). Maria accents self-compassion and realistic approaches as she interviews industry experts and provides her insights and tips on organizing.

Organize Your Stuff is audio-only, so feel free to take it with you wherever you go, whether via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or on the Organize Your Stuff episode page. Take a tiny taste of the show as we pull episode #14, Tickle Yourself Organized, out of the vault. As you may have guessed, she interviewed me, your own beloved Paper Doll!

Anything But Idle (and the Super-Friends)

Anything But Idle is hosted by Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud, and it would be one of my favorite podcasts even if these guys didn’t delight me by inviting me on the show on occasion.

Ray is the Ryan Seacrest of productivity podcasters; he’s everywhere! In addition to Anything But Idle, he currently hosts or has previously hosted oodles of productivity-adjacent podcasts, including:

  • The ProductivityCast with Augusto and regular contributors Francis Wade (about whom I’ve written several times, including at Paper Doll Shares Secrets from the Task Management and Time Blocking Summit), and Art Gelwicks. The show explores personal productivity and includes interviews with experts, reviews of both the scientific literature and mainstream media takes on productivity, and looks at technology’s role in, and effects upon, achieving what you set out to do.
  • Getting More Done with Evernote, where Ray talks about product updates, interviews Evernote experts (including staff of the big green elephant company), and answers submitted listener questions. The show has been on hiatus since last year, but Ray is re-launching soon, and I’m going to be a guest. Whoohoo!
  • Productivity Book Group — This is a quarterly book club and podcast rolled into one, and the archives include episodes dating back to 2013. You could create an entire productivity-themed reading list from the archives of this show, read the books, and then listen to the associated episodes to augment your understanding. The show isn’t limited to professional productivity; one recent episode focused on Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin’s The Home Edit.
  • ProdPod — Dating back to 2011, this might be the one that started Ray’s podcasting empire. In under two minutes, each podcast explores a productivity-related topic, like minimalism, procrastination, burnout, or indecision.

While I am a Certified Evernote Expert, Ray lives and breathes Evernote, and is one of two people (fellow organizer Stacey Harmon is the other) to whom I turn when an Evernote issue makes my hair hurt.

But back to Anything But Idle!

Ray partners with Augusto Pinaud, a bilingual productivity and technology sweetie pie of the highest order. His company, Productivity Voice, is the umbrella over Augusto’s coaching services, books, and podcasting work. In addition to co-hosting Anything But Idle and the ProductivityCast with Ray, Augusto has hosted Connecting Invisible Dots, a limited-run podcast focused on looking at the big issues, like personal definitions of time, achieving focus, and understanding priorities.

Wow, and all those shows don’t even include all of the podcasts represented by Anything But Idle’s regular guests. (Sometimes I think I may be the only guest they’ve ever had who doesn’t have a podcast!)

Anything But Idle bills itself as the “Productivity News Podcast.” Every week, Ray and Augusto introduce productivity and technology stories in the news and discuss their relevance. Guests are given the opportunity to read (and think about) the articles and editorials in advance, so listeners are treated to a lively, informed discussion. This opens up the floodgates for really wide-reaching, unexpected, extemporaneous chat; as a guest, I’ve felt supported, and as a viewer or listener, I always feel entertained and better informed.

Each week also includes a round-robin opportunity for each person to present a technology or productivity resource. There’s always at least one thing (and usually many) to make you go “hmmmmm.”

You can watch the podcast live or catch up on past video versions of the episodes at the show’s YouTube page; the show is live at 6 p.m. EST most Monday nights. (Click “Set a Reminder” on the show page to make sure you don’t forget.) If you prefer audio versions, you can peruse the Anything But Idle episodes archive, or subscribe and listen on your favorite podcast app at Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, Spotify, or Stitcher.

The most recent episode is up in all locations, but you might find it fun to watch their 100th episode. I was a guest, and a REALLY fun time was had by all.

Frank Buck: Productivity for Total Control & Peace of Mind

Frank Buck: Productivity for Total Control & Peace of Mind — Dr. Frank Buck is a longtime educator and educational administrator, as well as a fellow Evernote Certified Expert. (He’s also another familiar face on Ray and Augusto’s podcasts!) Frank is the author of several books, including the most recent, Get Organized Digitally! The Educator’s Guide to Time Management.

N/A

Frank’s podcast is full of warmth and patience, and you can see how his expertise as an educator  informs everything he discusses on his podcast, now starting its fifth year.

Whether you’re a novice in technology who bemoans the devil in your iPhone, or a more advanced user of technology and productivity methods, Frank will make you feel at ease. From email to notetaking, task management to creative procrastination, digital tools to financial oversight, Frank’s short podcasts are charming and wise. (I’m going to be a guest on one of his upcoming shows and we had such a great conversation planning it that I imagine his biggest podcasting challenge will be getting me to shut up!)

Listen to Dr. Frank Buck’s most recent podcast episode (below) and all shows at the episode page, on Spotify, or at any of your favorite podcast platforms.

 

 

  

 

 

A Plethora of Podcasts

The podcasts above are just some of my favorites for listening to and watching, and for sharing with my clients. Others I’ve shared in the past include:

Penny Zenker, Positive Productivity Podcast — Penny focuses on leadership and productivity, and has had an amazing array of guests over the past several years. You can see my two episodes with Penny here:

The Productivityist — Mike Vardy needs no introduction; he’s been featured on the pages of the Paper Doll blog many times. With 421 shows completed, Mike is a veteran podcast host (and a popular guest), and he never talks down to his audience. You could grab one of those episodes and find compelling interviews and insightful commentary. You might want to start off with episode 418, where Mike interviews minimalism expert Joshua Becker on “Things That Matter.”

The Productivity Show by Asian Efficiency — Thanh Pham and (longtime friend-of-the-blog) Brooks Duncan host this popular podcast. I often find the episode titles to be provocative and fun, like “Are You a Jerk If You Use Calendly?” (to schedule appointments) or “Are GTD Contexts Useless? Is Productivity Hurting Young People?”

And if my own favorites aren’t enough, you might want to check out Feedspot’s list of the 35 Best Organizing and Decluttering Podcasts to Listen to in 2022, and their 60 Best Productivity Podcasts to Listen to in 2022.

Are you a podcast person? Do you have a favorite among the shows listed above? What organizing and productivity podcasts do you never miss? Please share in the comments!

If you do listen to podcasts, please remember to like, subscribe, and share, just like you comment on and share blogs (like this one!) on your social media feeds. Showing the love helps podcasters and bloggers grow their audiences, help more people, and (in the case of those with sponsors or advertisers), afford to keep going.

Also, why don’t I have a podcast?

Paper Doll Carries On About Everyday Carry: What’s In Your Bag?

Posted on: March 14th, 2022 by Julie Bestry | 18 Comments

Are you familiar with Everyday Carry? Yes, it sounds more like a branding title for a line of messenger bags than an entire movement that ranges from “the things you schlep each day” to a massive platform for self-identification. But it is both the latter and, to a less dangerous degree than some political affiliations, very much the former.

WHAT IS EVERYDAY CARRY (EDC)?

When I first heard of the term “everyday carry” about a decade ago, I was reading Kevin Kelly’s superb Cool Tools blog. The blog is really aptly named, as it’s a smörgasbord of, well, really cool — and usually inexpensive — tools for solving life’s problems. It’s like having a circle of really resourceful friends writing about their latest finds. 

I’d happened upon the blog via one or another random newsletters that had mentioned Kelly’s “What’s In My Bag?” section of his blog, which often hinged on average people (or possibly semi-famous people I didn’t recognize) talking about their organizing-related products and systems.

The above term “bag” should be taken loosely. For example, a recent post by writer and photographer Nicole Harkin answered, “What’s In My Drawer,”  with a variety of oddities in her kitchen drawer. Sometimes, the bag is a larger space, like Chris Askwith’s “What’s In My Workshop?” 

And another subset of the kinds of cool tools list appearing on the blog would be “everday carry” pocket tools: small pens, tiny versions of flashlights, pocket knives, itty-bitty compasses and levels, pry bars, battery chargers, multitools, carabiners, S-biners, miniature lighters, and all manner of things that good scouts might carry to be prepared.

It seemed quaint when I first noticed these occasional posts, but the more I surfed the “technology bro” corners of the web over the years (as productivity and technology realms often overlap), the closer a look I got at some of the trends in this area. 

A tech friend who spends a lot of time on his bike told me that outdoorsy types (already, a category of human unlikely to cross paths with indoorsy Paper Doll) who biked, hiked, camped, and did similar activities where bugs and crawling/biting things live, tended to hang out in online forums to talk about the stuff they “carried” daily.

As in, things they carried every day when they were taking the subway or getting cake in the break room or flying to conferences in Pittsburgh or Dubuque, generally indoors, where they had no need to start life-saving fires, send an SOS, or rig a floatation device out of their cargo pants!

In the summer of 2019, before the pandemic meant that we were all at home and didn’t need to carry anything a greater distance than from the couch to the kitchen, Vox‘s Stephen T. Wright (not to be confused with the comedian Stephen Wright, who would likely have a bizarre field day with the topic) wrote, Meet the Men Obsessed with Carrying All the Right Stuff. 

For some people, EDC (as those in the know apparently call it) is all about being prepared for any and every eventuality, in a scoutmaster-approved manner. But for others, it can become a realm of competition; instead of buying the fanciest car or the newest phone, some folks seek out the teeniest, weeniest “thing” that can do the most stuff. Hence, for example, all the different types of multitools.

I’ll leave you to the Vox article to explore the EDC subcultures, which tends to be predominantly male, knife-heavy, and painted in black or camouflage-adjacent colors; less often, they are miniaturized and as geeky as possible. In some corners of the web, GQ-friendly stylings are also popular. If you want to explore the concept, you can visit:

 


 

WHAT’S MISSING FROM THE EDC ARENA?

Over the past decade, I’ve seen the references to everyday carry expand to the point that many of the design and technology blogs and accounts I read have regular everyday carry features. What do they all have in common? I note three things:

  1. A focus on tiny metal objects
  2. A focus on efficiency and preparedness at all costs
  3. A focus on the needs (and wants) of dudes

Before you tell me that women need the same things on a daily basis as men, I’ll stop you. All of us who grew up on 1970s television shows, boys and girls, expected that at some point we’d have to save ourselves from quicksand. We were prepared equally. But for the reality of our modern lives? 

Yes, men and women have similar survival needs for making it through a day of hiking or white water rafting. But a day in the workplace? A walk through a parking garage at night? Not so much.

How many men do you know who carry pepper spray, a rape whistle, or one of those doohickeys where you pull out a tab and a horrendous, high-pitched alarm goes off? 

When you look around, whom do you generally see carrying diaper bags? Who is blowing the noses of tiny humans with their inexhaustible supply of tissues? Who is prepared for rest rooms that have no soap or toilet paper? 

Who is carrying the aspirin and tummy meds, the bandaids, the emery boards (for snagged nails), the extra masks, not just for ourselves, but because they’re are more likely to be the guardians of not only their own kids, but their kids’ friends and even random strangers?

The not-dudes.

My point isn’t that the male-centric EDC communities are bad, just that the competitive, posturing nature of some sub-groups can be a bit silly.

Preparedness is good. There just don’t seem to be many communities where the people coming together to talk about women’s EDC needs are discussed.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t resources. I’ve gathered some EDC articles written especially for women. These pieces have great tips for hiding your cash (in places dude-thieves are definitely not going to look), dealing with hygiene emergencies, and protecting personal safety, as well as coping with the universal 21st-century problems like a dead phone battery or the need for an itty-bitty flashlight.

Primal Survivor’s Women’s EDC Checklist: 17 Survival Items to Carry Every Day

Pew Pew Tactical’s Best Everyday Carry (EDC) Items List For Women

Tactical.com’s EDC Gear Women Should Never Leave Home Without

Everyday Carry Experts’ These EDC Items Should Be In Any Woman’s Purse

WHAT ABOUT THE EVERYDAY EVERYDAY CARRY?

So, let’s move beyond the emergent and urgent needs of so-called everyday carry. What about the plain old quotidian things we actually need to carry?

I’ll be honest, I can’t figure out why Paper Mommy‘s purse is so heavy. She’s been searching for the perfect purse since the Eisenhower administration, and I’ve accompanied her on a variety of purse-shopping adventures, so I know her requirements for inside and outside zippered compartments, pockets, and divided sections. What I can’t figure out is why it weighs more than my friend’s toddler (when he’s wearing a full-on snowsuit and boots).

Baggallini Cross-Body Bag

(After this Baggalini cross-body purse got me through two weeks in Italy, I realized that it was the ideal bag for everyday living. BTW, to nobody’s surprise, Paper Mommy picked it out.) 

My own personal everyday carry is probably typical for a woman sans tiny humans, and doesn’t involve most of the things recommended in the articles above. I keep my phone charged, trust my car charger, and have my AAA card in my wallet and the app on my phone. 

I probably can’t MacGyver much, but with the exception of the time Paper Mommy dropped her keys down the elevator shaft and we had to call upon the ingenuity of someone with rare Earth magnets and an approximation of a fishing pole, I’ve rarely needed much more to survive a typical day than the items in my purse, catalogued just now as:

  • Cell phone
  • Wallet
  • Keys
  • Business card case
  • Compact (e.g., face powder, for the younger readers)
  • 2 lipsticks
  • Eyeglass case
  • Hair scrunchie
  • KN95 mask
  • Stack of Starbucks gift cards (because people keep giving them to me as gifts and I almost never go there, so I give them to unhoused persons when it seems someone could really use a hot beverage or a meal)
  • Individually-packaged antibacterial hand wipes (which I carried pre-pandemic) 
  • Tiny satin cosmetic bag for corralling hand sanitizer (and ensuring it doesn’t leak into my purse), ear buds for my phone, half a stack of pink Post-it® Notes, and a pen (so I don’t have to touch the pen at the reception desk in the doctor’s office or when signing a credit card slip).

My purse is a fairly light, but I’m no minimalist. I check a bag for every flight, and plan multiple outfits of every day of any vacation. When I was younger, I tried going out with just an ATM card and driver’s license tucked into my business card case, a lipstick in my pocket, and keys on a coiled bracelet. I felt naked.

WHAT ABOUT A PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZER’S EVERYDAY CARRY?

Ah, now there you’ve got me. My everyday carry for my in-person work with clients is a masterwork of precision. It’s the perfect combination of bag and contents.

When I first read Geralin Thomas‘ post ZÜCA Takes The Lug Out of Luggage, I was intrigued by her dazzling review ZÜCA‘s products. (Rolling suitcases with drawers and a built-in seat? Sign me up!)

The next time I saw Geralin, she was stopping traffic at the NAPO conference expo with her gorgeous ZÜCA Business Backpack.

Within weeks, I owned one too, and it looks and works pretty much as it did 13 years ago. If anything (heaven forbid) ever happened to it, I’d get another one exactly like it without a second thought.

So, what makes the ZÜCA Business Backback so nifty as an everyday carry (for all my EDC essentials)?

 

A lower-front zipped portion that, once unzipped, opens toward the user, like a glove compartment or an oven door.  It’s suitable for small gadgets, but ideal for hardcover or paperback books you’ve selected to read on the plane or train. It’s also the perfect size and shape to stow your ticket, itinerary and other travel documents.

For my everyday carry, it’s stocked with my ancient Brother P-Touch PT-65 label-maker (20 years old and it keeps on ticking, but nowadays you’d want the PTD210) and some 12mm black-on-white label maker tape.

That compartment usually holds index cards and sticky notes for helping temporarily label client’s sorted paper piles, a small toiletry kit with a toothbrush, mini-toothpaste, and other hygiene tiems, and my Anker PowerCore5000 Portable Charger. 

N/A

It’s about the size of a HoHo or Twinkie, comes in it’s own carrying case, and can charge my phone, tablet, or anything USB-ish. (Yes, one of these days, I’ll have to replace it with a USB-C charger, but today is not that day.) There’s usually a Nature Valley protein bar hidden away in there, as well. Organizing is hungry-making work!

Two side zipped compartments on the left (as you’re looking at at the bag; you can see the zippers in the first ZÜCA photo above) are ideal for multiple uses. For me, the lower, square compartment holds measuring tape, a mini-stapler and staple remover, paper clips, and other paper-specific organizing tools.

The upper compartment is cut on the diagonal. I used to use it for electronic cords and cables (now made unnecessary due to Bluetooth) so it houses my diabetes glucose meter, ensuring quick and easy access.

A right side “door” panel opens revealing oodles of space. The outer side has a mesh pocket suitable for a mini-umbrella or a bottle of water. The interior has two mesh compartments and is padded so you could use it for office essentials or for items that need a bit more TLC, like a stash of thumb drives or an external hard drive.

 

The side “wall” of the backpack, exposed by the opening of the “door” has compartments for pens as well as credit, loyalty, and identification cards. There’s a detachable keychain, so you never have to worry about losing keys in the dark recesses of the bag.

The interior is cordoned off into sections.  From back to front, it has:

  • A padded laptop sleeve—Suitable for a laptop or table, this section measures 10″ x 14″ x 2″ and is positioned firmly along the rear of the backback, so you’ve got no lumps or bumps against your spine. The padded sleeve also has a Velcro closure, so even if you stand on your head (or your backpack takes a tumble from the passenger seat to the floorboard of the car), your laptop should stay securely in place. I use this section for my iPad and Bluetooth keyboard, which is great when I’m helping clients organize documents in the cloud.
  • A zippered mesh compartment on the front of the padded laptop sleeve, is a great way to hide away small documents like a passport or receipts. I use it for when clients give me “precious” items to research, like ancient photos or recently, a 1959 junior prom dance card!
  • The middle interior portion is surprisingly wide enough to hold file folders “sideways,” as if they were within hanging folders. While I generally carry folders vertically in the backpack, it’s nice to have flexibility.
  • There are padded sections attached to the interior front wall of the pack. While the width of these sections does not accommodate files in the normal fashion, they can easily be turned upright. They are also the perfect size to securely hold catalogs, magazines, legal pads, notebooks, and any other papers required by a mobile professional. I use the sections for my 7-ring Emily Ley paper daily planner (yes, I’m retro!),
N/A

my tickler file,

N/A

 and my purple (they call it “orchid”) Roaring Spring legal pads.

N/A

The ZÜCA Business Backpack is light and comfortable enough for everyday carry. It has padded shoulder straps as well as padded sections on the reverse for shoulder blade and ribcage comfort.

I’m a fan of the lean architecture and flat bottom, so that no matter how much it’s stuffed, it won’t fall over. If you’re planning on using it for travel, note that there’s a hard handle for carrying it (like a bucket of water) and horizontal straps to attach it to a rolling bag’s telescoped handle.

Obviously, this is the perfect everyday carry for me, a professional organizer who focuses on client’s paper and information. I will admit, I used to carry one nifty tool, a girly, purple, flowered hammer with lots of miniature screwdrivers nested in the handle (similar to this one).

N/A

However, when I reported for Grand Jury Duty, the courthouse guards deemed it a weapon and told me I could either return it to the car or toss it in their trash. It was over 95° that day and I was parked seven blocks from the courthouse. You do the math. I’ve yet to replace it. That was more than five years ago, and I haven’t needed it. Nor have I needed a multi-tool, pocket knife, pry bar, or miniature lighter. But my iPhone does have flashlight, compass, and level apps, and thus far, that’s been plenty.

While I work with all sorts of residential, home office, and business clients, I’m not doing packing for relocations or installing shelving units, as some of my other colleagues might do. For the best everyday carry options for that kind of work, you’ll want to visit the March Productivity and Organizing Blog Carnival, which will go live on Wednesday, March 16, 2022.

Do you have anything surprising in your everyday carry? What’s in your bag (or cargo pockets) that you can’t live without?

A Professional Organizer’s Take on National Library Card Sign-up Month

Posted on: September 27th, 2021 by Julie Bestry | 18 Comments

September is National Library Card Sign-up Month, and I want to make the case that library cards are your passport to a better and more organized life.

WHY PAPER DOLL LOVES LIBRARIES

I love libraries. My first real job, from my sixteenth birthday until I left for college, was as a page at the Clearfield Branch of the Erie County (New York) Public Library. My job involved helping patrons find books (back when we had paper card catalogs and no computers) and checking books out (back when the system involved using an overhead camera to take a photo of someone’s paper library card and the “borrow” card for the book).

However, the bulk of my job involved shelving books and “reading” shelves. The latter involved starting at the beginning of a section (for example, non-fiction) and making sure each book belonged after the one before it and before the one after it, per the Library of Congress classification system. I often think that this was the ideal training to become a professional organizer.

Back then, local public libraries had relatively few types of holdings: books, maps, record albums, and a truly dinky collection of audio cassettes. Libraries have come a long way, baby!

I marvel at systems I learned then, which I now use professionally, like organizing toddler books in dishpans, with book covers facing outward (record store-style) so that little hands can flip each book forward or backward without destroying a bookshelf. Because toddlers can’t read, they have no use for the spines of books, but a series of dishpans (filled with vertically arrayed, face-out books) allows tiny humans to recognize and access their favorite titles.

 

I have seen many beautiful libraries in cities all over the world, but my favorite is the A.D. White Library at my alma mater, Cornell University.

For most of history, libraries were closely guarded bastions of knowledge, and access was limited to those whose religious, academic, or financial positions allowed them to be considered worthy, but few libraries of significance were truly open to the public. In general, most libraries were subscription-based, where one paid for access, similar to how we use Netflix and Audible these days.

And even though public libraries had to close their doors to the public for much of the first year of the COVID pandemic, they did not turn their backs on their patrons. Most libraries offered curbside pickup; you could reserve your books online and then call (or, if your library was really fancy, use an app) to alert the staff of which pick-up parking space you were using, and diligent, masked librarians would verify your card, check you out over the phone, and deliver your “borrows” to your car’s trunk or hatchback. Most libraries also continued to offer programming for students, seniors, and other constituencies virtually.

To my mind, one of the greatest benefits of modern society is access to tax-supported public library systems. I consider my library card, my voter registration card, and my driver’s license as three keys to my sense of freedom (of intellect, of democracy, and the ability to work, play, and have an empowered life).

I consider my library card, my voter registration card, and my driver's license as three keys to my sense of freedom (of intellect, of democracy, and the ability to work, play, and have an empowered life). Share on X

But that’s me. You’re probably wondering why you should care about libraries, and more importantly, what this has to do with organzing.

WHAT CAN A LIBRARY CARD OFFER YOU?

So, what magical powers does your library card bestow? Your library card, what bibliophiles and library peeps like to call “the smartest card in your wallet,” grants access to a vast array of offerings.

Items to borrow

Although some special collections and reference materials can only be read in-house, the majority of tangible items at libraries circulate. This means they can be borrowed and taken home for at least a week, and sometimes up to a month, including:

  • Printed materials (and no, it’s not just books and magazines anymore, though libraries still have huge collections of those):
    • print books (including large-print books for the visually impaired)
    • audio books
    • books on CD
    • books in Braille
    • magazines
    • trade journals
    • graphic novels/comic books
    • sheet music

You can reserve materials that are currently out (or at another branch). In most cases, if your library is able to send you a digital notification of a reserved item’s availability, there will be no charge; for older libraries still using postcard systems, your reservation may be about the cost of a postage stamp.

Also, your library is likely to be a member of one or more systems through which you can request an interlibrary loan. That means that even if your library system doesn’t have a resource you want or need, you should be able to have them request it from a different system, possibly even across the country! (See? Libraries are cool!)

  • Electronic entertainment and educational materials
    • vinyl phonograph/record albums (though these are often in library system archives, the hipster appeal of vinyl has librarians bringing these out for display)
    • CDs (whether music, language CDs, or books on CD)
    • DVDs (including movies, courses, exercise, and how-to videos
  • Digital materials — Your library likely gives you access to a variety of digital downloadable services through the web or a free app. So, whether you want to satisfy your insatiable desire for mystery audiobooks while you’re getting your 10,000 steps a day or suddenly need to borrow a stress-reduction video while you’re stuck in the airport when your flight is delayed, all you need is your library card number, digital device, and some decent WiFi. Not all libraries have the same services, though these seem to be the most widespread:
    • OverDrive offers an absolutely massive collection of premium audiobooks, ebooks, and music that can be downloaded to your smartphone, Kindle, tablet, or computer via your browser or the Libby app. 
    • Hoopla has collections of thousands of ebooks, audiobooks, graphic novels/comic books, movies, television shows, and music. You can download content to your device or stream it, and it works with computers, tablets, and phones. (Personal note: I downloaded Frommer’s and Fodor’s guidebooks to Italy and the UK to use when traveling, and it was amazing to have thousand-page guidebooks at the ready with no extra schlepping.)
    • Kanopy-affiliated library patrons can download or stream a wide variety of movies, including modern flicks, documentaries, foreign films, classic cinema, independent films, and educational videos.
    • Less common library offerings include AcornTV (classic and modern UK television shows and movies), IndieFlix (part of the library-friendly RB Media offerings) for independent films, and other services.

As with print resources, you can usually put ebooks and audiobooks on hold if there isn’t an immediate availability. You might be wondering why, if it’s digital, there’s not endless access. That’s because libraries purchase licenses to electronic media, much the same way you purchase an individual ebook or audiobook. Buying a license for each copy of a digital work ensures (or at least tries to ensure) that authors and creators get their fair share.

  • Digital educational platforms — While every library has different offerings, there are some particularly common and popular ones, including:
    • LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com) normally requires a paid LinkedIn membership, but if you’ve got a library card at a system associated with LinkedIn Learning, you won’t have to pony up any money for the technology and creative courses offered for current and aspiring professionals. Learn a language, gain computer skills, or study project management or leadership development, all from your digital device.
    • Infobase has collections of how-to and documentary programming, newsreels and archival films, speciality educational films in business and economics, social sciences, arts and humanities, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), and health and wellness. Infobase also has career skill resources for creating resumes, interviewing, and finding jobs.
    • Language education  — While my library system uses Transparent Language, your public library may offer Mango, Rosetta Stone, or any of a variety of other platforms to help you separate your Ciao from your Shalom.
    • Academic and career preparation resources — My library system uses the Peterson’s prep materials for standardized tests and college and career searches. You may have access to other resources for the high schoolers and job searchers in your life.
    • Database Access — Public libraries subscribe to an amazing array of financial, medical, legal, and other databases (including LexisNexis, PsychInfo, EBSCO — even the Chilton Auto Repair Database!) which are made available to patrons. 
    • Genealogical support — I don’t know much about genealogical research. (That’s why I wrote Paper Doll Interviews the Genealogy Organizers.) But libraries have everything from maps and directories to digital access to resources like Ancestry.com’s Library Edition and state archives.

It doesn’t stop there, though. Just a sampling of some of the other things you may be able to borrow from your public library system, either for circulation or in-library use, include:

  • Museum passes — Call ahead to see what museum passes your library maintains and ascertain whether you’ll need to make reservations to borrow them.
  • Eclipse glasses — During the last solar eclipse on August 21, 2017, I was surprised to find that my library had arranged for loans of eclipses glasses. The next solar eclipse visible in North America will be April 8, 2024, so check with your library well before then to make sure you put a hold on yours!
  • Board games
  • Classic games, like chess, checkers and backgammon
  • Computer and video games
  • Video game controllers
  • Headphones — Because it’s easy to forget your ear buds before an impromptu library trip and nobody wants to wear borrowed ear buds (ew), so go old-school with the over-the-ear kind.
  • Tools — Over the last few decades, more and more public library systems have started a lending library of tools, ranging from socket wrench sets to power sanders, saws to stud finders, cordless drills to hedge trimmers. Take a peek at the visual tool catalog of what I can borrow from the downtown branch of my library. 

Free (and almost free) library services

Computer Access — Almost all public libraries offer computer access for free; you’ll only pay for pages you choose to print.

Wi-Fi and Wired Internet Access — Not everyone has high speed internet access. In addition to there being a huge economic divide between those who can and cannot afford internet access, there are also infrastructure issues. Many rural areas of North America lack dependable internet and even cell service.

Because of these issues, during the pandemic students were often attending their remote classes in the parking lots of schools and libraries (which remained shuttered, but there were employees inside, keeping the WiFi going). Remote workers also had a tough time accessing essential tools. Libraries are an inexpensive alternative to setting up your workspace at the coffee house.

Tech Support — Many libraries offer free courses in basic computer and web skills. Also, some librarians are able to provide guidance on common computer issues.

Homework Help — Librarians won’t do your children’s homework, but they’re fonts of information regarding selection of the appropriate resources. Many public libraries also have homework assistance hot-lines and online homework help.

Tax Prep Assistance — Libraries don’t supply tax advice directly, but AARP and other community organizations provide volunteer, pro-bono tax preparation assistance at most branches. And even though many people file digitally now, tax forms are usually made available to patrons who want to noodle the math with paper and pencil.

Delivery — Not everyone is able to get to the library. Elderly, housebound or disabled patrons can often request to have library materials delivered to them. Contact your local library for available resources and review the offerings of the National Library Service for the Blind and Handicapped.

Children’s Entertainment — Public libraries have story hours, magic shows, movies, puppet shows, arts and craft activities, and other events to keep children engaged while giving parents some breathing space.

Quiet Spaces — OK, this isn’t a service, per se. But sometimes, you need a place to go to center yourself, read, or just disconnect. Libraries are safe, temperature-controlled, and, unless you’re sitting right next to the children’s area, fairly serene. Obviously, this is more difficult when we’re in pandemic mode, but libraries were known for their shhhh-iness long before quiet cars on rail transportation existed.

Low-cost Services

In addition to free services, libraries provide a number of services are supplied at at limited cost. These include:

  • Printing
  • Photocopying
  • Faxing — Stop laughing. It’s shocking how often something like this crosses my Twitter feed:

  • Scanning
  • Notary Services — Call your library branch in advance to find out if and when the services of a notary public will be available. If a member of the library staff is a notary, you may not even be charged.
  • Passport Services — New and renewal applications for passports can be confusing. Many libraries provide assistance with applications and photo services by appointment.
  • Meeting rooms — Libraries maintain private rooms for not-for-profit endeavors, and the cost is usually limited to making sure the room bookings are serious. Rooms may be booked for:
    • Book Clubs
    • Game Groups for children and adults. (Pokémon card trading clubs having been going strong for decades!)
    • Community Meetings
    • Guest Lectures and Classes — Years ago, Paper Doll took courses in origami and in how to use the library’s electronic book borrowing systems to transfer books to Kindle and Nook. (I remain more proficient at the latter than the former. Folding cranes is hard!) I’ve also taught classes and workshops on organizing at public libraries, and chances are good that you can find one of my colleagues teaching similar workshops wherever you are.

Libraries around the country lend Santa suits and prom dresses, cake pans and artwork, knitting needles and selfie sticks:

18 Weird Things You Can Borrow from Your Public Library

200 Things You Can Check Out of a Library Besides Books

The downtown branch of my own public library has an entire floor set aside as a “maker space” with 3D printers, laser cutters, an HTC Vive virtual reality booth, a sewing lab, a soldering bench, Agile co-working spaces with white boards and projectors, a photography studio — and a state of the art recording studio!!!

This is not Marian the Librarian’s public library, and Chattanooga is not even a big city. It’s just one that values libraries. Check out (pun intended) what your own library system has to offer.

SO HOW DOES GETTING A LIBRARY CARD HELP YOU GET AND STAY ORGANIZED?

Maybe I have convinced you that libraries are the bees’ knees, but you still don’t get what it has to do with organizing?

Self-decluttering

From a professional organizer’s perspective, the best thing about libraries is the opportunity to allow yourself to trust that you need not maintain the entire world at your house.

Those four hundred issues of National Geographic making your guest room floor buckle, but which you never approach except to dust? The library has them, too, for whenever you want to learn about the mating habits of the elephants of the Serengeti, but you’ll never have to dust them. (The Nat Geos, I mean, not the elephants. Well, those too.)

Of course, I’m not saying to give up purchasing books and magazines, but understand that there’s an alternative to becoming an accidental collector of books you’ll never read (or never read again).

If you are overwhelmed by clutter in your space, but have a voracious hunger to read (or listen to music, or watch movies), check your public library’s collections first before running off to Amazon or your local indie bookseller. (But do support your local indie booksellers when you find things you want to own. This has been a hard time for them, OK? OK!)

Having a library means you can have access to any printed book, ebook, or audiobook, or tangible item (DVD, CD, graphic novel, magazine) without it permanently taking up residence in your home. Clutter often develops because we have too much stuff and no place to permanently store it, and we keep it forever because we don’t have the time or inclination to deal with it.

Library resources come with a built-in decluttering mechanism: due dates! Sure, you can renew things online, but in general, things need to be returned to the library. You don’t have to make the difficult decision as to whether it should stay or go because it’s not yours! It belongs to the library.

Or, if you prefer, think of it as yours, but stored (and dusted, repaired, and maintained) by the nice folks at the free (with your tax dollars) self-storage location called The Public Library!

And you don’t have to worry about digital items you borrow. Ebooks, audiobooks, movies, and music all “return themselves” automagically.

Just make sure you develop a system for keeping track of the tangible items you borrow. I recommend having one bookshelf or counter in your house where you keep all library items. If you have kids, help them get in the habit of returning items to that shelf or space when they’re not using them. (Oh, and let your kids help you get in the same habit. Kids love “catching” parents neglect an organizing task, and it helps reinforce the standards you’re trying to teach them.)

Money-saving

Rather than spending lots of money for books you’ll only read once, or perhaps not even finish, or for accessing any of a huge variety of tangible and digital resources, you can take advantage of the benefits of the public library.

Adore a book or piece of music beyond measure? Consider the library experience to be your free ice cream taste test; then purchase it with the knowledge that it’s something you love and will keep forever and share with others. But you don’t have to shell out money for entertainment and educational experiences you’re not sure are the right fit. And you don’t have to feel guilty, because you know the authors and creators will still be getting paid through the system of library licenses.

Still not sure about the benefits? How about saving and organizing those little green pieces of paper in your wallet? This simple form will automatically calculate the financial value of your library card in terms of annual savings. (Of course, the cognitive, emotional, and societal values are priceless.)

SO GET YOUR LIBRARY CARD

I always ask new clients a variety of questions to make sure they have life essentials: “Do you have a calendar? A file system? A will? A fire extinguisher?” On the advice of my friend, internet-famous librarian extraordinaire Jessamyn West, I also ask, “Do you have a library card?”

I’ve even been known to drag friends to sign up for a library card when I visit them in their new cities. (Shoutout: Hey, Chris, I’m looking at you!)

National Library Card Sign-Up Month is the perfect time to get a card for yourself or your kids. 

1) Locate your public library.

2) Fill out an application, available at your branch or on most library web sites.

3) Show valid ID with your current address. If you’re new to town and don’t yet have a photo ID bearing your address, most libraries will accept two items showing your name and street address (but not PO box), such as current utility bills (e.g., telephone, gas, electric or cable), voter registration cards, or other mail with postmarks from the past 30 days.

4) Use your new library card often. Plan a weekly visit with your family and explore your library’s offerings. Develop a ritual for going to the library and your children will grow up appreciating all that libraries have to offer. Let your kids help you mark down due-dates for returning tangible items.

5) Set up a library shelf in your house where all the items you borrow from the public library “live” when they’re not being read or used. Having a set location where library items belong when not in use prevents them from going missing and assures you’ll be able to return them on time. 

Happy National Library Card Sign-Up Month!

Paper Doll, Media Darling — or Expert Organizing Advice and How to Get It

Posted on: May 10th, 2021 by Julie Bestry | 16 Comments

Who are the experts in your life?

We turn to doctors, lawyers, accountants, professional organizers… In my family, when I need advice about cooking or want to know if a booboo requires medical attention or is just one of those weird things, we refer to it as “opening the Mommy Encyclopedia” and I call Paper Mommy.

Sometimes, I get to be expert.

Real Simple and Photographs

Because I’m a professional organizer, I often get asked to share my expertise with the media. Sometimes, it’s an organizing or productivity topic that’s right in my wheelhouse. Other times, I need to do a little research, confer with colleagues, or make a referral to someone better-versed in the topic. 

Back in January, Senior Editor Rachel Sylvester interviewed me about organizing and managing family photographs for the May 2021 issue of Real Simple. 

Longtime readers of this blog know that while brevity may be the soul of wit, longwindedness is the backbone of Paper Doll. I had a LOT to say about organizing family photos. Share on X

Longtime readers of this blog know that while brevity may be the soul of wit, longwindedness is the backbone of Paper Doll. I had a lot to say about organizing family photos, like:

  • how and where to locate all the print and digital copies
  • how to gather all your photos together so you can see the big picture (no pun intended) 
  • how to automate your backup (because you know I’m all about the belt-and-suspenders approach, using a local external backup drive and a backup in the cloud, like Backblaze)
  • how to identify and eliminate duplicates

Eliminate fussy backgrounds or jerky ex-boyfriends with apps like Remove or Slazzer, or the built-in background remover in Canva Pro. (Sadly, these apps only remove jerky ex-boyfriends from photos, not from your memory.) Share on X

Of course, organizing your photos only starts with these steps. Beyond the basics, you may want photo organizing and editing software, as well as a wide-variety of ever-changing photo storage options beyond your own Dropbox or local drives. 

For example, while longtime free, effective June 1, 2021, Google Photos is capping free photo storage at 15 GB; after that, you’ll need a Google One account for $1.99/month for 100 GB. Other solutions include:

Apple iCloud Photo Library – Built into iOS devices, it’s 5GB for free, $0.99/month for 50GB, $3/month for 200GB, or $10/month for 2TB storage.
 
Forever – With a wide variety of storage options from 2GB (free) to 10GB up to 1TB, ranging from $13.30-$489.30/month. (Obviously, those mega-dollars are for professional-level storage.)

Flickr – Store one thousand photos for free, then consider $7/month or $60/year for unlimited storage.

Photobucket – Selections range from Beginner level for $6/month for 25GB, Intermediate for $8/month for 250GB, or Expert level at $13/month unlimited storage. (Note: You can only store uncompressed photos at the Expert level.)

When I work with clients, I bring my expertise on the first set of topics. We work together to gather photos (and slides – there are always slides!), plow through to eliminate most of the seventy-three shots of the front lawn of the new house the day they moved in (and yes, we eliminate some jerky boyfriend photos, too), and discuss storage options.

If clients want to digitize photos, we discuss their DIY options, but it’s not a service I provide. (You really can’t be an expert at everything.) Instead, I often send clients to my Atlanta-based colleague Jiffy Page of Pixorium, and I can tell you that her people treat my client photos with as much respect as (and often more than) families give their own old snapshots!

If clients have more complicated photo organizing needs, or they are far off from my service area and the project isn’t suitable for my virtual services, I recommend my colleagues. You can find superior photo organizers in two places:

The National Association of Professional Organizers – Use the geographic search from your zip code to find service providers who specialize in photo organizing. (After doing the zip code radius search, select “photography/memorabilia/collections” from the Residential Organizing and Productivity Categories drop-down.)

The Photo Managers (previously, the Association of Personal Photo Organizers, or APPO) – Search geographically and by a wide variety of photo-related services, including related areas, like backup solutions, data recovery, photo restoration, family history research, and more.

When I need advice on a photo organizing topic, I have my own experts to whom I turn, including:

Andi Willis of Good Life Photo Solutions in Georgia

Hazel Thornton of Organized For Life in New Mexico

Jill Yesko of Discover Organizing in Pennsylvania

Isabelle Dervaux Photo Organizer and Visual Storyteller in New York

And for those who want a grounding in photo organizing concepts for DIY projects, I recommend the book written by Cathi Nelson, the founder of The Photo Managers, Photo Organizing Made Easy: Going from Overwhelmed to Overjoyed.

N/A

Advice Among Other Professional Organizers

No man is an island, and no professional organizer operates in a vacuum, which is why you’ll often see us sharing one another’s advice and guidance. 

Recently, Margarita Ibbott of Downshifting Pro published 15+ Great Professional Organizers to Follow and Read. I’m proud to have been listed among this group, and the post includes:

  • 4 Canadian professional organizing bloggers
  • 12 American professional organizing bloggers
  • 1 Belgian professional organizing blogger
  • links to the blogs of each
  • links to the most popular post by each of us

And just last week, Melanie Summers of I Speak Organized published a post called Ask the Experts – Professional Organizing Trends and Industry Changes. Yep, Melanie quoted me (can you see a trend running through my post today?), and I held forth on the importance of continuing education in the professional organizing and productivity fields.

Many of the other nine veteran organizers interviewed for the piece are those you’ve seen me quote here and share on my social media, and they talked about finding your niche, the fact that Instagram-worthy spaces aren’t necessarily functionally organized spaces, and the ultimate fact that organizing needs to focus on the individual and not what’s trendy. 

I encourage you to read Melanie’s post and click through all of the names linked at the bottom to read the extended interviews.

Hometown Girl Makes Good

In another media coup (well, it feels like it’s worthy of celebration), I was interviewed by Mary Fortune, Editor of the Chattanooga Times-Free Press Edge Magazine. It’s a digital magazine that focuses on business topics in my area; go ahead and click through to pages 28 and 29 to see my interview, but consider reading the other pieces, as the magazine covers a lot of ground in my 23-year adopted city.

If you’re a subscriber (hey, Chattanoogans!), then you can go directly to the interview without having to flip through the digital magazine pages; if you’re not, you may or may not get to see the entire interview. (Sometimes, it’s behind a paywall, sometimes it’s visible. The mysteries of modern media!)

Yes, it’s a bit of a provocative headline, but I don’t think you’ll be shocked by what I have to say about the barriers to getting organized, the benefits of a more organized life, and some tips you can put into practice to be more productive right away.

An International Footprint

Recently, I was interviewed by Victor Lang, the Chief Operating Officer of gini, a global business data analysis company, for a piece called SMEs on COVID Relief. (No, I didn’t know what SME stood for, either.)

So, at 9 o’clock Chattanooga-time one evening, I was interviewed by an American gentleman in Hong Kong for gini, a company based in Australia and New Zealand! If that’s not worldly, what is?

Ostensibly, the discussion was on how business leaders of small and medium-sized enterprises felt vaccinations would impact profits. However, topics did run farther afield, including discussion of the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of business owners interviewed. As a professional organizer, I’ve learned (and taught my clients) that there’s a difference between having a positive attitude and ignoring the importance of self-care and mental health, so you know I didn’t pull any punches.

They interviewed owners of 500 small and medium businesses around the world (in English-speaking countries), and it was interesting (but not surprising) to see how the availability of a national social safety net, the relative size of the companies represented, and the actual impact (in terms of COVID cases and the economy) led to the projections made. Feel free to read the article, including my quotes. (I guarantee you, I never imagined I’d ever be interviewed in an article on the projections of global business leaders.) Or, skip my part and surf the infographic gini developed from the article:

gini | SMEs on COVID relief infographicPlease include attribution to https://www.gini.co/ with this graphic.

Wrapping Up

While the point of this post may seem like an opportunity to give Paper Mommy something to kvell (Yiddish for brag) about, there is a larger point. Often, organizing and productivity clients feel guilty about seeking advice or help. They think (or others in their lives think) that they should be able to handle everything on their own.

In general (at least when we’re not in a pandemic), we don’t cut our own hair. We don’t set our own broken bones or determine our own optical prescriptions. We don’t code our own websites or home-school our kids in Advanced Placement physics. We don’t build our own houses or rebuild our own carburetors, and if we’re wise, we don’t just limit our mental health care to our own self-therapy. We can watch videos or read books on how to do yoga, but getting guidance from an expert determines we won’t tweak our backs doing a pose incorrectly.

We professional organizers and productivity specialists don’t have all the right answers, but we’re comfortable formulating the right questions. It’s OK to seek help.

Who are your experts?

« Older Entries Newer Entries »