k|kick: jewelry's friends

last wednesday, oct 20 ... i attended the maiden voyage of kit's clean your closet, change your life (CYCCYL) the basics 101. later this evening at 6:00, oct 28, is kind of like the (re)voyage - similar principles and according to kit, ...

"... material on this call WILL BE DIFFERENT - more refined, less swearing (although i will likely say "crap" a lot), more focused and may give you additional insight."

i'm looking forward to this evening's call EVEN THOUGH it is game 2 of the world series here in SF. (by the way, kit didn't swear that much - and if/when she did, it was the petite, lady-like swearing.)

my cyccyl prelude ... meanwhile, the little area i tackled before last week's call as part of my SHEDn was what i thought would be a relatively effortless - my jewelry.

my game plan ... pretty straightforward - SEE, SEPARATE, SORT, and STYLE. to start off, i collected jewelry related items by placing them in not more than 3 areas for actually SEEING what i have - placed them on a leather trunk trunk, dresser surface, and night stand surface. here is where i collected items that i placed on top of my trunk.
SEE what i have ... jewelry organizers, gift boxes, containers, loose jewelry (found in other places of my home and purses!) ... and while seeing what i had (or at least knew i had), it became VERY OBVIOUS that what i thought was going to be fairly quick to handle - maybe spanning not more than 3 hour - was involving a little more than i'd planned. i envisioned i'd collect my jewelry and organize them on my dresser and in my drawers/organizers. not so.

jewelry's friends ... turns out, in my life, jewelry hangs out with other non-jewelry items - in the same area or general vicinity of where i stored jewelry. i came across fragrances, souvenirs, cards, and STUFF stored along with necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and rings. there were non-jewelry items i have called ...

• pretty-me-up non-jewelry - fragrances, hair accessories, some make-up, small containers, gift boxes, etc.
• why is this here? non-jewelry - small household items, buttons, coupons, pictures, paper clips, ziploc bags, etc.

SEPARATING and SORTING ... i combined these two activities to streamline (ha!) my figuring out what groups to place my jewelry and non-jewelry. i started separating and found myself sorting at the same time - considering groups of items such as chokers, pendants, pins, brooches, macrame bracelets ... THEN i started considering the material - pearls, gems, semi-precious, stones, gold, fossils, silver, plastic, brass ... THEN whether faux/costume or not ... THEN organizers, containers, displays ... THEN earring backs, solo earrings, broken clasps ... and THEN shoe clips (shoe clips??? yes, shoe clips! what the ... ?) ... THEN i finally ended up with 3 areas to begin figuring out what/where/how to store my jewelry.

jewelry brought back memories ... i didn't think it would happen, but silly me. of course it would. jewelry from my parents for my college graduation, gifts from friends i love, vintage finds while vacationing, ... and that gold cross i received as a christmas gift in 1984 from my college boyfriend at the time. really?! that last one survived more than 25 years and 6 different places since college? yes, it did. (donate.)

next up?
STYLING
(and mashing up CYCCYLn and SHEDn)

hipmtfn: un-do-looping with my pencil holder ...

last sunday i declared that i am moving past the do-loops. i've been SHED'n and CYCCYL'n ... and having crazy fun with renewing myself, reconnecting with others, and seeing what pops up around the corner.

meanwhile, i'll soon post* about my pencil holder
(which currently sits in cubeopolis).

my little, wooden, square,
more than 15 years old, 4-inch-ish tall pencil holder.
MINE.
the one i fished out of a box-o-stuff the
day after a CYCCYL moment with kit.
(shhhh. our secret, for now ... of course, kit didn't know that back then.)
MINE.

* thanks, kit, for the inspiration!

hipmtfn (shed): prepping for my (re)point of entry

(re)SHEDn ... i started SHED a l'il while ago and am (re)SHEDn. to (re)start, i must identify my theme and then my point of entry around my home.

(re)figuring out my theme ... because of a 1994 epiphany i had and of being introduced to a book - your heart's desire (YHD) - back in 1999, figuring out a lean, manicured theme was a bit of a jaunt. so i did the obvious went back to my roots - my epiphany of '94 and YHD. earlier this year when i began SHED, my theme was "healthy self-expression of servant leadership through creativity", however, after re-reading the 3 rules to consider - broad, simple, actual - i realize that servant leadership is a kind of what i want to do and be, and not necessarily express and feel. therefore, stated a little differently ...

authentic and healthy self-expression through creativity

i thought of a few variations on the theme ... authentic self-expression, health self-expression, creative self-expression, or even authentic self-expression through creativity, etc., and in the end, i'm sticking with what i have. it resonates with me.

finding the point of entry ... basically, j.morg defines three realms for finding clutter - physical, schedule, and habit. this starts with walking around my home and finding such clutter.

how does j.morg define these 3 realms? physical clutter is that tangible thing taking up space, being unused, are unloved. schedule clutter is the measurable activity (or inactivity) that may have at one point been how i wanted to spend my time, but now, rather than energize me, the activity may be a little draining. and habit clutter is the behavior that produces schedule clutter.

my point of entry inventory earlier this year ... i identified several physical, schedule, and habit clutter areas:

• physical - my bathroom, purses, shoes, jewelry, mail/family room, business office, home office, patio storage area, guest room closet, business office annex, my closet/clothes, room entry, guest room/gift area, room nightstands, guest bathroom, home office storage, living room bench/table, dining room buffet, CDs, gifts to mail, kitchen counter tops/cupboards, car trunk, picture frames, business archives/garage, ... so far
  
• schedule - p2p, biwkly az, saturday brunch, after work happy hour, monthly work mtgs, wkly work wrap-up, blogging, visit dad, evening t.v./movies, farmers market, daily journaling, peet's anchor morning, chiro appointments, yoga at home, weekly prof development, weekly m|v|v refresher, reading books, biweekly , ... so far
• habit - bookstore visits, @work/email, list-making for projects, mail confirmation, @personal/email, scoping/planning project, friend check-in, office org, mindless t.v. escapes, avoidance work chunks, procrastination, walk/exercise, ... so far

size, percent obsolete, and level of attachment ... for each point of entry, i'm suppose to figure out how much it occupies, how much may be obsolete, and what my level of attachment is. well, as i'm looking over the physical and habit point of entry, i can see that those have higher % obsolete than schedule. AND i can see that i've chipped away at several physical areas. (go me!) nevertheless ...

still time to (re)idetinfy my point of entry

hiptmfn: stop the train - i've got (re)SHEDn to do ...

SHED ... is from julie morgenstern's book (over here), "SHED your stuff, change your life: a four-step guide to getting unstuck" - Separate the treasures, Heave the trash, Embrace your identify, Drive yourself forward.

side note: i started j.morg's SHED before learning about my friend kit's effort for clean your closet, change your life (aka CYCCYL, over here). for my CYCCYL-specific activities, i'm posting under the kitkick label.

as a result, i'm mashing-up SHED and CYCCYL as best i can, because my SHED train has been chugging along - albeit a little chug here and there but a chug, nonetheless. so i'm slowing down that chug and heading back to the depot to re-do my "getting started" exercise. for my SHED-specific activities, i'm posting under the shed label.

(re)SHED-ing preparation ... i took the SHED assessment on j.morg's site over here. my results for the four areas as follows:

Separate: need improvement
Heave: smooth sailing
Embrace: smooth sailing
Drive: smooth sailing

time to (re)identify my point of entry areas in my home.

hipmtfn: moving past the do-loops and on to ...

... healthy self-expression
of servant leadership
through creativity

spillover? ... perhaps a spillover from the good ol' days when i did weekly staff meetings (when i was the only staff person in my firm), monthly invoicing, quarterly check-ins (including payments), semi-annual check-ins, and annual meetings (for fun and for recordkeeping) ... or a spillover from my your heart's desire practice, my year 2008 self-diagnosed (right or wrong) scanner from refuse to choose (here and there), and/or the endless 2009 do-loop between weeks 3/4 & 6 of apartment therapy.

regardless of the reason(s) ... over the past month, my feeling of transition has been like a (re)awakening from a bit of a haze. questions that have been swirling around in my noggin are being answered by family, friends, colleagues, and strangers in snippets of overheard conversations, glimpses of images at random places, and unanticipated diatribes.

this year's future spillover ... i loves me my j.morgenstern! back in 2004, i picked up her book organizing from the inside out. i became a fan of j/morg and have since recommended that people at least take the little self-eval (e.g., identify technical errors, external realities, and psychological obstacles) and go from there. (found a fellow's handy book notes over here that is pretty much the core pieces of her message). that self-eval is woven directly or indirectly into other j/morg's books.

fast-forward to earlier this year ... i picked-up j/morg's recent book - SHED your stuff, change your life: a four-step guide to getting unstuck (over here). i got as far part 1, chapter 3 (of 5 parts with a total of 15 chapters) where i totally identified my points of entry (first step!), and then i got side-tracked somehow (or felt a bit frozen) and didn't move forward.

fast-forward to ~ a week ago (09/16) and my new girl-crush! ... my friend shared with me her website CYCCYL - clean your closet, change your life (for which i then peed my pants out of excitement because this IS who she is for herself and others!). the next day we had a couple of text exchanges - with one culminating in her encouragement and direction -

"... but we need to work on your manifestation"

- what i SPECIFICALLY want, in ONE sentence that is TIME and DATE specific.

resurrecting my excitement and pensive moments ... so this got me to thinking and remembering all the other previous efforts that i had started, have put on-hold, and/or have taken to heart. in no special order, here is the laundry list of several books (lots of woo-woo stuff) that came to mind during my 09/18 saturday morning brainstorming (and a bit of hyperlink-hell for more info)

• j/morg's SHED (book here)
  
• apartment therapy by maxwell gillingham-ryan (book here)
  
• use what you have decorating by lauri ward(book here)
• your heart's desire by sonia choquette (book here)
• former r|cat journals (mine)
  
• refuse to choose by babara sher (book here)
• big vision, small business by james s. walters (book here)
• letter response from r.bolles who is author of "what color is your parachute?" and "how to find your mission in life" (books here and here)
• bird by bird: some instructions on writing and life by ann lamott (book here)
• original post-corporate tracing papers (mine)
  
• anyway and do it anyway: finding personal meaning and deep happiness by living the paradoxical commandments by kent m. keith (books here and here; website here)
• the four agreement by don miguel ruiz (book here; website here)
• if life is a game, these are the rules by cherie carter-scott (book here; website here ... and thanks to jen for mentioning)
• legacy: a step-by-step guide to writing personal history by linda spence (book here)
• what should i do with my life? the true story of people who answered the ultimate question by po bronson (book here; website here)
• take this job and shove it by tyler tervooren (ebook here; website here ... and thanks to pho queen for passing this along)
• synchronicity: the inner path of leadership by joseph jaworski (book here)

will end here for now, get back to my physical point of entry areas in my bedroom and tackle my closet!

saying "no" to do-loops!