Canavan

Here are five quick tips:
1. Clear out the clutter. (Shocker.) This will help create new energy in the room.

2. Balance your bed by adding bedside tables to both sides, even if you don’t have a sleeping partner. Opt for wall-mounted lighting if you have crowded bedside tables.

3. Add “fire” colors to your bedding with cranberry or orange pillows or a duvet cover.

4. Have art in your bedroom that encourages partnership. Ditch the image of a woman waiting at a table alone.

5. Move workout equipment or your office out of the bedroom to encourage restful sleeping and a relationship that is not “hard work.”

Bedroom bliss: Ask the experts
Source: Carolanne McKirnan, owner of McKirnan Bed and Bath, 2460 Canyon Blvd., suite L2, Boulder, 720-406-8651.
Cred: Been in business since 2004.

When you walk into a bedroom and it’s properly made, there is a sensuality there that is established immediately. Especially for women, when you see a man with a great bedroom, it’s like seeing him in a nice Italian suit.

For temperature-regulated, natural sleep that is loaded with sensual textures, choose a silk filled silk duvet. That means the outside is silk and the inside is filled with silk, too. Yum!

Look for sheets in sateen (looks and feels more like silk, but it’s cotton) or a percale texture. Both can have a sensual feeling. With neutral white or cream sheets, make your duvet, blanket or throw pillows a rich color.

Source: Gary Hendrickson, Feng Shui Design International in Boulder, www.fengshuidesign.net, 720-936-6009.
Cred: Been studying 12 schools of feng shui for more than 22 years.

Five tips for bedroom changes to increase love:
1. Have a small treasure chest (or lovely container of any kind) in the far back corner of the room (the relationships area). Write down dreams you have of how you want to behave in your relationships and place them in the container. Do the same for what you desire from your partner. Review these nightly to make those intentions come true.

2. Include photos of you and your love in your bedroom. Keep photos of your kids or family out of the bedroom.

3. Add drapes to your windows to increase the yin (softer) energy of the room. Having only blinds increases the yang, or harder energy. Having both blinds and multiple layers of drapes adds thermal, as well as acoustic value and balance to the room.

4. Stack a few books on tantra or other tantalizing, relationship-focused books on your bedside tables. (Note: Bedside tables should be of equal size to promote equality.)

5. Too much red/pink/orange in a bedroom can be damaging to the “male energy” of the house — particularly if your bedroom faces west. Metallic colors (silver, gold, bronze) can mimic the romance-fire effect because they are reflective, without damaging the male energy, which can decrease financial abundance. If you would like to try a color in your room, throw a blanket on the bed to see how you react to the vibration of the “fire” color.

— By Liz Canavan
Canavan, of Boulder, is a professional organizer with Alchemy of Order and the marketing director of the National Association of Professional Organizers.

Because we love you!
Liz Canavan is offering free, 30-minute, in-home consultations for Women’s Magazine readers who live in Boulder County. Contact her at 303-641-4760, liz@alchemyoforder.com or www.alchemyoforder.blogspot.com.

My sister had to warn my fiancé about what I like to give for “gifts,” and he wasn’t into it.

He asked me to never give him chickens that would actually be donated to someone else. My cousins seem to tolerate my unusual gift exchange. I do wonder if they feel shorted in some way when they give me gloves, and I give them a card informing them of a donation I made in their honor.

For many reasons, I like to give gifts from Heifer International (www.heiferinternational.com). To put it simply, I give the gift of bees, a chicken, pig or part of an ox to someone I will never know, who lives in a rural area and needs farm animals for their family’s livelihood. My friends and family receive a card saying this animal (or part of one) was given in their honor.

They don’t get the animal, but they receive the good feeling of donating something useful to someone in need.

Lots of people I love don’t dig this idea. They want to know where their “stuff” is.

We give each other disposable, wasteful, cheap stuff. And again this year, I am making a stand against it. Why? Because I’m obsessed with stuff — what we need, what we buy, what we keep, what we use, how things are made, how things are disposed of, theories of consumerism, realities of our fragile environment, the psychology of stuff and gifts and how twisted our displays of “love” have become.

Reasons I like donations instead of gifts:
1. No one ends up with stuff they don’t want: No clutter.
1. No trips to The Mall to exchange an item (exhausting, crowded, cold walk from a big parking lot, careless, encouraging over-consumerism).
2. No guilt-storage of an item you will eventually throw in a landfill 20 years later because it’s obsolete, broken and can’t be donated.
3. No guilt-wearing of items (bad sweaters, ugly scarves) that make us feel bad.
2. Minimal waste: Heifer has optional, printable cards. No harm to the Earth.
3. The gift goes on. Someone else will benefit from this gift, in a way that is teaching them to “fish” instead of giving them a fish.

This is not a sales pitch so you, too, give from Heifer. I don’t own Heifer International or benefit in any way from it. Instead, I want you to find a charity that you believe in as strongly as I do Heifer. Something that is meaningful to you or your family. I’m advocating the idea of giving “no-thing” this holiday season.

I know I must sound like a Grinch, but my motivation comes from a deep desire to live with less and feel more. Give thoughtfully and from a meaningful place. That is a gift I’d dig.

Special offer for Women’s Magazine readers
E-mail me your anonymous photos of the worst or best gift ever received and/or your favorite gift to give — and why. And I’ll post these entries on my blog the week before Christmas.

For every entry, I will give you an in-home assessment and let you know how I can help with your clutter problems. Boulder County residents only.

— By Liz Canavan
Canavan, a professional organizer in Boulder, will be sitting alone at her Christmas celebration this year. To contact her or ask her advice on how to clear out your own clutter from holidays — past or present — e-mail liz@alchemyoforder.com. Check out www.alchemyoforder.blogspot.com.

Out of all the reasons to keep something, “I might use it one day” irritates me the most. Sure, you might but you also might not — and is it worth keeping in the meantime? Anything can fall into this category, which can justify keeping it all. And, as organizational expert Peter Walsh, host of TLC’s Clean Sweep, aptly titled his anti-clutter book, “It’s all too much.”

Photo by Flickr user sindesign.

Working recently with a smart and successful business owner, I noticed her collection of 20-plus spare, mismatched, paper folders.

“Why are we keeping these?” I asked.
(You guessed it.) “I might use them one day.”

“Do you find yourself using them now?”

“No, they’re worn and tired looking.”

“Is that going to change? Are they going to refresh their shape as the years go on, making them useful to you?”

She got my point, and we gave them to the Salvation Army.

My client had been storing these folders, moved at least once with them — all to realize they were not being or going to be used.

I invite you to look at the true cost of clutter. There are many emotional, psychological, even physiological costs associated with clutter (depression, ADD, arthritis, fatigue syndromes, substance abuse), but let’s talk about the dollars and cents.

Clutter takes up 50 percent of your storage space, according to the National Association of Professional Organizers.

ReMax reports that in Boulder County, a square foot of basement space can range in value from $25 to $100. Above-ground space, every square foot can range in value from $75 to $300. Of the stuff you’re storing, 50 percent of it is clutter  (a postponed decision on something that you really don’t love, need or use).

For example: We have a 1000-square-foot basement. Following the stats, let’s say half of that is clutter (500 square feet). If we live in an “average” house in Boulder County and the price per square foot is $62.50 (the mathematical average of the range $25 to $100 per square foot), we are paying (or financing) $31,250 for that unused, cluttered space. (Jaw drops here.)

Now put this example in an above-ground space, like using our living room or guest room. The price jumps to $187.50 per square foot, or $93,750.

In other words, it’s possible that someone in Boulder has paid $93,750 for 500 square feet of living space, but uses it for clutter.

Storage space costs
The closest storage facility to our home costs $81 per month for a 5-by-10 unit, or 500 square feet if the whole volume of the unit is filled. The people I know who are paying for extra storage space would be better off making the decisions to get rid of the stuff, rather than putting it in storage, which is simply postponing the decisions.

They never touch it, don’t know what’s in there, and panic when they think they have to find something inside. No wonder — it would stink to have to wedge something out of your storage unit when you really need it. The average person holds onto a storage unit for a minimum of two years, according to a New York City self-storage firm, making the $81 per month charge grow to $1,944.

Other costs of clutter:

Replacement items — When you can’t find it, you buy another one.

Cleaning time — The more stuff you have, the harder and longer it takes to clean. Time is money.

“Searching” time — The average CEO wastes six weeks per year searching for lost documents lost in clutter, according The Wall Street Journal.

Energy drain — With clutter reminding you daily to deal with it, your energy is noticeably drained.

As we enter fall this year, I welcome you to take a good look at your storage spaces and clean them out. Banish clutter and live a richer life.

Your Women’s Magazine bonus this month is a free assessment of your storage spaces. Know how long it will take you to organize after I share with you Julie Morgenstern’s equation on time and clearing out clutter.

— By Liz Canavan
Canavan, of Boulder, is a professional organizer with Alchemy of Order and the marketing director of the National Association of Professional Organizers. Got questions on how to simplify your life? Contact her at 303-641-4760, liz@alchemyoforder.com or www.alchemyoforder.blogspot.com.

I’m talking about the “We’re announcing our engagement” kind of love. It’s been tender to watch and sweet to be around. Mushy words of unbridled affection and constant (excessive) flattery.

With this new love, she needs some new space; he’s moving in as fast as he can install his flat screen. To help out, my sister and I drove to St. Louis for the adventure of clearing out my mom’s clutter.

Many of us have parents who need to downsize their homes for one reason or another. If we’re lucky, they work with us while they still can. If not, the burden of cleaning up after our parents also comes with decisions that we’re not sure about. Or worse, having to make these decisions after they’ve passed away, at a time when we’re filled with grief and loss; we keep everything because it all seems too important or sentimental.

Here are some tips on how to clear out your parents’ home:

1. Depending on how long ago you lived there, make sure to get your stuff out first (i.e. 13 years of yearbooks, framed diplomas and a pair of colorful wool socks that should have stayed in year 1996). If you’ve already done this over the years, count yourself ahead of the game.

2. Coach your parents on what to pass onto someone else. Do they love it, use it or need it? If yes, keep it. If no, pass it on. Challenge them on this step, because they might want to keep a lot more than they’ll ever take care of or use.

3. Remove the stuff. Here are ways how:

• Bring it home with you. When my sister and I took something, our mom felt great about letting it go. It not only had a home, but one that was in the family. Our mom knew now we’d make sure to do the right thing with it. Maybe.

• Have an estate-sale professional come over and evaluate your “give away” pile for expensive items. We invited one over after we had a huge pile sorted in “not valuable” and “possibly valuable.” We asked her if she would like to buy anything for her next sale. She did. Mom was paid and the stuff was gone.

• We’re lucky because Boulder has a few consignment shops for all the valuable items your parents can part with, and trust me, your parents will feel better about giving up the family chest if they’re getting cash for it. Do note that you’ll need to either have a good photo (of heavy furniture) or bring in the item (family silver) for any of the below shops’ approval, before they’ll agree to sell the item.
Feather Thy Nest, 1825 Pearl St.
No Place Like Home, 3550 Arapahoe Ave. (furniture only)
Clutter, 1909 Ninth St., suite 130

In St. Louis, we found a similar shop, The Little Shop Around the Corner, that “paid” you with a tax write-off instead of check in the mail.

• Schedule a pick up from a thrift store, such as the Salvation Army, Goodwill or ARC. You already have enough to do, so make this step easy. Call to schedule a pick up, and a thrift store worker will bring a truck to you and load it. Check out www.satruck.com. Tip: Make sure to be explicit about the volume of items.

• Put items on Craiglist.org or Freecycle.org. The downside: Trying to coordinate meetings with people. I suggest you say on the ad, “Come by Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon if you want to see this item.” Set a time so you’re not scheduling Joe Smith to see your old TV 6 p.m. Tuesday, but then he calls to reschedule. Or set items on your porch or driveway for free: “Free TV on my driveway. Here’s my address, come and get it.”
With any Internet posting, make sure to take it down immediately after the item is sold or taken. It’s highly annoying to have people show up when the item has been sold.

On our last day of cleaning out my mom’s place, a family friend showed up with a gift for my sister and me: two Princeton yearbooks from the year our dad graduated. He said he acquired the books for genealogy work he was doing.

When he passed these heirlooms to us he said, “Don’t let me find this at The Little Shop tomorrow.” He knows me too well!

Get some help
Throughout the month of September, Liz Canavan will offer Women’s Magazine readers a free, one-hour, in-home assessment of your parents’ home.

— By Liz Canavan
Canavan, of Boulder, is a professional organizer with Alchemy of Order and the marketing director of the National Association of Professional Organizers. Got questions on how to simplify your life? Contact her at 303-641-4760, liz@alchemyoforder.com or www.alchemyoforder.blogspot.com.

Physiologically, I see how that’s true. After lifting weights, we’re supposed to have “rest” days so our muscles can grow back together (much, much stronger, please!).

I thought of his words in terms of mourning the loss of someone (death, miscarriage, break-up), and then I wondered how this connected to clutter and the organizing process.

After helping someone reorganize their life, it’s common for them to say that they feel “lighter.” I joke that organizing allows you to lose 100 pounds in a day without dieting. (Goodbye, stuff!)

After working with one local man named Jeff last week — a full-day of organizing an office-spilled-to-living-room — he said he felt like he had completed a marathon.

“I feel physically exhausted, but so proud and happy,” he said.

I feel the same way after a big day on the job; proud and excited — and pretty wiped.

Which again brings me to the acupuncturist’s quote. Jeff, like three out of four Americans, has clutter that is on his mind every day; it “speaks” to him constantly. The clutter stares you down and says, “When are you going to tackle me?”

I don’t know about you, but I can’t rest — truly rest — when I have major clutter. And vice versa, after a day of clarifying what I want and need and getting rid of the rest, I feel focused and uplifted. Clearing out your clutter connects with deep rest, and then one step further, healing.

Maybe it’s your last summer commitment to your family or yourself. Truly rejuvenate this summer; tackle your clutter. Rest. And then let the healing begin.

Get ready for fall
Canavan is offering free assessments to Women’s Magazine readers to help you organize your life for the fall — whether that means being the CEO of your home or the CEO of a business. Contact her at 303-641-4760.
— By Liz Canavan
Canavan, of Boulder, is a professional organizer with Alchemy of Order and the marketing director of the National Association of Professional Organizers. Got questions on how to simplify your life? Contact her at 303-641-4760, liz@alchemyoforder.com or www.alchemyoforder.blogspot.com.

I have turned down social invitations because I was purging my closet or washing my car. Why? Because I love to order and taking exquisite care of what I own. I’ve made a commitment to some “thing” and I’m honoring it.

Am I this way all the time? No way.

Many times I have let my home disheveled because something has come up that I just can’t miss. The last-minute weekend trip or my neighbor needing help with something (like drinking wine or watching a French movie) are excellent reasons to say “I’m there,” leaving the dishes in the sink.

So I guess the question is: “When to let it go and when to tidy it up?” How can we be organized enough to find what we need when we need it, yet remember that organizing isn’t about having everything perfect?

In Greek mythology, Chaos is the goddess of emptiness and confusion, a shapeless void who gave birth to the universe. Chaos gives us the opportunity for growth and change and creativity. It’s fertile and alive.

Order is the opposite of chaos: sterile and inanimate. If we always choose to stay home and organize, our lives would be dull. Life is not intended to be controlled, boxed, labeled and put on a shelf.

In contrast, cleaning out is a pleasure to some of us. Before I start working, I need to clear off my desk to feel the literal and figurative “space” to create. Without that peace of mind, my energy is drained thinking about what still needs to be tended to.

As with all things in life, and my friend constantly reminds me of this, the answer is in finding a balance between chaos and perfect order. A home without sticky fingerprints is missing a child’s hug; a home without dirty socks lacks bike rides in the foothills. In all life there is evidence of living, and sometimes that evidence looks like clutter. But sometimes it looks like a reason to be grateful for all the abundance in your home.

So before you start attacking every mess, yelling at your family, and forgetting to look out the window you’re so intent on cleaning, ask yourself: Is your home is filled with clutter — or abundance?

— By Liz Canavan
Canavan, of Boulder, is a professional organizer with Alchemy of Order and the marketing director of the National Association of Professional Organizers. Got questions on how to simplify your life? Contact her at 303-641-4760, liz@alchemyoforder.com or www.alchemyoforder.blogspot.com.

It’s a dirty thing and we all have it.

If you don’t, your husband, partner or child does. It lives with you. It sneaks up and then it feels monstrous.

We’re talking about clutter, and it can become a big problem. To what degree you suffer with it determines how stuck your life becomes.

Here are some questions to ask yourself (or another clutter-captain) for a rescue from cluttered space:

What’s working?

For example, “I like how I’ve created pathways so I can walk in my room” or “I like the colors in my room; they make me feel good.”

What’s not working?

For example, “My closet is missing a rod and needs shelving” or “My clothes are all over my floor, and I never put anything away.”

How would your life be better if this space were in order?

Maybe it’s “I would want to do my homework,” or “I could focus more time on my crafts.”

These questions will help you validate the systems you have, consider the systems you need to improve and deeply connect to the reason you’re getting organized.

Canavan, of Boulder, is a professional organizer with Alchemy of Order. Got questions on how to simplify your life? Contact her at 303-641-4760, liz@alchemyoforder.com or www.alchemyoforder/blogspot.com.

For those days you forget deodorant, and it’s painful for you to sit with yourself. Or the surprise date where you’re without mints. Shoe shine, anyone? Got it.

We’ve all had the kinds of emergencies this kit takes care of. It includes earring backs, lint remover, double-sided tape, clear nail polish, stain remover and nail clippers, for starters. What a great thing to have in your glove compartment and top desk drawer at work.

Available at www.thewishingfish.com for $20.

Dear Liz,

My kitchen is a freaking wreck. I have too many pots and pans and when I try to stash them under the oven, that nice flimsy little metal pull-out drawer makes the loudest noise and always falls because it’s too heavy. So I store a lot of pans inside the oven, which is horrible when I forget and turn it on to pre-heat it and then almost burn the house down. I don’t have a ton of cabinet space, and anyway my cabinets are not big enough for pans.

Can you help save me?

— Dining Out

Dear Dining Out,

Many people have the same struggle: not enough room, too many pans, pots and lids. Before you burn your house down the next time you warm the oven, try some quick tips to see if there is still hope for your culinary future.

1. Purge: Remove all your pots, pans and lids from respective cabinets, drawers, oven innards, under the couch or wherever else you are hiding them.

2. Sort: Categorize items on your counter or even floor (for more space). Pots go here, pans go there, lids go here. Note: The sanitation department might suggest putting a clean sheet down first.

3. Assess: Ask yourself, “What do I really use?” Keep only what you really use. Prioritize by “A,” “B” and “C,” based on what you use most. Garage storage is “C” space; cabinets are “A.” If you must keep that family bunt cake pan but you use it only for the holidays, move it out of your prime “A” space.

4. Replace: Sort either by usage, that is what you use most frequently, or by item, storing all pans together, pots together, lids together.

5. Organize: Consider what space works best for pans. Maybe it’s a drawer instead of a cabinet. Re-organize for easy access. Also consider mountain an overhead pot and pan rack; using wall space for a peg board rack; and installing a simple towel rack on the inside of a cabinet door to tuck lids away while having easy access to them.

Bonus tips:

When nesting non-stick pans, place a dish towel between layers to prevent chipping of the non-stick chemical. You really don’t want that in your body.

If you buy a lid sorting rack, get one with simple pegs instead of a solid divider. The divider can interfere with knobs on the lids.

Canavan, of Boulder, is a professional organizer with Alchemy of Order. Got questions on how to simplify your life? Contact her at 303-641-4760, liz@alchemyoforder.com or www.alchemyoforder/blogspot.com.

Check this out: Shelf Genie, a member of NAPO-Colorado, can transform any drawer to an OCD heaven. Fabulous pull-out lid and cookie sheet storage.

The Container Store, $39.99.

The Simplehuman Narrow Pull-Out Cabinet Organizer helps organize baking pans, cutting boards or pot lids, especially in smaller cabinets, $39.99. Find it at The Container Store. Photo courtesy of The Container Store.