When travelling, everyone wants to be comfortable and well-stocked, but no one wants to look frumpy once they arrive. So avoid undereye bags, dry hands, oily skin & hair, and try these products to look FABULOUS when you travel!

• Crabtree & Evelyn Rosewater Soap Leaves, $4. These paper-thin soaps pass airport security and are perfect for freshening up while traveling.
• Lush Jungle Hair Conditioner Bar, $9.95 and Squeaky Green Solid Shampoo, $7.95: a solid bar means no leaks.
• Pond’s Clean Sweep Age Defying Cleansing Towelettes, $3.99: handy makeup removers.
• Under eye cream (reduces puffiness & dryness when traveling)
• Bronzer – always look healthy & rested
• Lip balm keeps lips from chapping
• Hand cream (less than 3 oz. size)
• Wear a cashmere wrap or pashmina! They’re warm, chic & comfortable.
• Ted Gibson Hairsheet Styling Sheets: to soak up hair oils and add polish to your hairdo
• Downy Wrinkle Releaser (Travel Size) $2.99
• Place a couple dryer sheets in your luggage to keep clothes smelling fresh

I used to pack 4 suitcases everytime I went somewhere, even just for the weekend. I had two bags for clothes (I dress for my mood and not knowing what mood I’d be in, I packed almost all my clothes), one bag just for shoes (I love shoes!), and one large bag for toiletries. Oh yeah, and I always took my own pillow. And my purse. It was a nightmare going anywhere, and forget looking suave going through airport security!

So here are some tips I’ve learned over the years to make travelling a little easier:

1. Rethink whether you need an item altogether
2. Downsize
3. Use all-in-one products
4. Never unpack
5. Know the rules for airport security

RETHINK:
First, create a list of everything you’d like to take. Lay it all out on the bed. Then take away what the hotel will supply. Of what’s left, reduce it by HALF! Here’s how:

DOWNSIZE:
Can’t live without your own brand of shampoo? Get a small plastic travel bottle found in most megamarts travel aisles and fill it. The rule for airport compliance is less than 3 ounces.

USE ALL IN ONE PRODUCTS: Makeups like the Bare Minerals Starter Kit line take up very little space and replaced $250 worth of my own separate cosmetics. They have SPF and act as a sunscreen, foundation, concealer, powder, eyeshadow base, and blush.
Their Buxom lipgloss has SPF and a lip plumper already built in too! I love the color "Dolly" for a natural look that's kicked up a notch (the picture here looks brownish, but it's actually a shade darker than a blushing natural summer lip).

NEVER UNPACK:

Whether it's a pre-packed weekend bag, or your toiletries, keep them packed! My makeup organizer holds all my essentials and hangs on a hook behind my bathroom door at all times. It keeps my countertops clear and easy to clean, and I just roll it up and snap it closed when I'm ready to travel. Find one with a hook, a built in mirror, and both clear and zipper compartments. I like ones like the one to the right from the Container Store. Also keep a small, clear baggie pre-packed with a sewing kit, feminie hygiene products, and travel meds like tylenol, airborne, and mylanta or pepto chewables. You can put it together once and have it on standby for when you travel.

Get a purse organizer. I love the Purse Brite. Not only will it make switching handbags easier, but it holds a lot everyday so there's less packing to do when you travel. I keep mine stocked with a comb, lip gloss/balm, tylenol, a nail file, loose change, pens, etc.

Another tip: keep your daytime makeup & lipstick in your daytime bag, and your evening makeup in your evening bag and never take them out so they’re there for the next time.

AIRPORT SECURITY:
For getting through airport security, use the 3-1-1 rule if travelling with liquids in a carry-on bag:

Consolidate small bottles into one bag and X-ray separately to speed up the screening process.

As for clothing, try to eliminate belts and wear shoes that are easy to slip on and off. Try to always wear socks on travel days (or pack a pair in your purse or carry on so you don’t have to walk on the dirty floor). One interesting tidbit: Airport security will confiscate gel shoe inserts like Dr. Sholl’s so don’t wear them through a checkpoint and pack them in your checked baggage instead. Otherwise you’ll end up embarrassed AND uncomfortable!

And if you don’t want to be rushed while going through security, most airports now have a Family Lane. It’s available for use even if you’re not travelling with children.

Don’t let a dirty car interior ruin another Saturday! Keep it clean, keep the kids happy, and get things done while you drive by creating a mobile office or “mommy station” in your vehicle.

Here’s a checklist of things you’ll need:

 Soft-sided nylon organizer, preferably with a handle or adjustable compartments. I like soft-sided because they squish into almost any space no matter what you drive. Most megamarts carry things you can use like:

Car organizers, Soft-sided sewing organizers, Soft-sided tackle box
Trunk, CD & Glove Box Organizers
Soft-sided trash containers & Catch-Alls

 Industrial strength Velcro (to keep everything in place)
 Hand sanitizer
 Trash or grocery bags
 All purpose wipes & glass wipes
 Febreeze
 Pens
 Lip Balm/Gloss
 Hand lotion
 Gum
 Travel tissues
 Notebook
 Mail station (accordian file with stamps, blank cards & envelopes, and a contact list)

For a mobile office, you can also fill your organizer with:
 Business cards
 Bank deposit slips
 Mileage notebook
 Office supplies like paperclips, binder clips, small stapler, business card holders, calculator
 Accordion file with client literature, vendor info, intake forms, bank forms, tax forms, place to collect receipts

For a “Mommy Station”, you can also fill your organizer with:
 Paper towels
 Diapers
 Burp cloth & pacifier
 One change of clothes for each child
 Things to keep kids occupied like coloring books, crayons, toys, DVDs
 Juice boxes, bottled water, granola bars & snacks
 First aid kit
 Behind the seat organizer or bin for kids toys
 School & Sports calendar

Once your Mobile, here are some tips for keeping the car clean:

• Keep a trash bag open at all times to prevent pitching trash to the floor. If you have a minivan or SUV, hang a trash bag in every row. Empty it when you’re pumping gas.
• Ask kids for help to clean up their toys and put them in the back-of-the-seat organizer or toy bin before they get out of the car.
• Wipe down your dash and windshield at long red lights to keep them dirt-free.
• Spray Febreeze before you head into the mall, grocery store, or Megamart. Chances are you’ll be there a while and it’ll give the upholstery a chance to dry before you get back into your fresh smelling vehicle.

If the thought of getting on the treadmill AGAIN makes you cringe, try these fun tips for staying motivated during your workouts. They keep your mind moving forward even when you’re walking in place.

• Find something interesting to listen to like podcasts, foreign language CDs or a book on tape. Audible.com has lots of good stuff to download to your iPod.
• Compile a 30 minute mix of dance or techno music that starts and ends with a song with slower beat for your warm up and cool down, and crank everthing in between with pumping beats that you can fall in step with and will keep you at your target heart rate.
• Time your workout with your favorite TV show so you know your mind will be occupied and entertained.
• Tune to a TV show that caters to short attention spans. The News or Hollywood gossip shows are great for this because there’s a new topic to distract you every 15 seconds.
• Mute a cheap TV show and play dance music instead. I like to do this with shows that I’d never understand anyway like Spanish soap operas (because I don’t speak Spanish), or TV shows like “Cops”, “Cheaters” or “The Steve Wilcos Show”. You’ll be amazed how you can still glean what’s going on and playing music will keep your pace up!
• Watch a movie. It can span one long workout or several smaller ones and give you something to look forward to.
• Watch a Musical or Workout show. Seeing other healthy bodies in motion will keep you focused and keep your body moving! Movies like “Chicago” and “Moulin Rouge” have great soundtracks and constant changes in scenery and anything on FitTV will make you strive for better glutes.

I had decided not to come up with any resolutions this year. With the economy creating a general malaise, and life’s dramas seeming so amplified this year, I’d decided to give myself a break.

But I realized I’d chosen to not come up with one because I was procrastinating. I actually had one in mind but it was going to be hard and lifechanging and requires short term emotional pain, so I was postponing it for “someday.” Someday I’ll have the energy to take it on. Someday I’ll have the strength.

And how did I think I was going to get that strength? That it would just happen? One day I’d just wake up strong? No, it doesn’t happen that way. Life gives you tests over and over until you learn from them, and through them, you become strong. Oprah always says that first life gives you a tap on the shoulder. When you don’t respond, you get a frying pan to the head. Well, this is my frying pan.

So I’m making a different decision. I’m going to lead by example. I’m going to be brave and face my resolution now instead of later. My resolution: OWN MY POWER.

I’m going to stop giving control of my life to others in an effort to make them happy while sacrificing my own needs. How am I going to do this? One step at a time. I’ll celebrate my small successes and I’ll give myself permission to forgive my failures when they happen.

Being a service-oriented and empathetic person by nature, I have a tendency to go out of my way to make others happy even if it means putting my needs last. I realized that at times I felt lost or empty because I hadn’t even thought about what I wanted in so long that I wasn’t doing much to feed my own soul. I had convinced myself I was content to try to make others happy and pretended that was enough for me.

So I sat down and concentrated on what I was most pleased with in my life recently, and it was overcoming my fears and taking the risk of starting my own business. And at that moment I realized I’d already taken the first step to owning my power earlier this year.

Feeling like I have a jumpstart already, I’m now motivated to reclaim my power in other areas, starting with my relationships. And here’s my action plan:

- First, I’m reconnecting with old friends. I’d shut them out so I could focus all my attention on just one person and that hurt me, that person, and my friends. Luckily, my friends are true and unconditional, and instantly forgave me. It helped me realize I don’t have to face things alone and there are people who care about my happiness even when I’m not being true to it myself.

- Second, I’m making new friends. I’ve met some very kind people this year and I’m making an effort to overcome my shyness and get to know them better. It’s exciting to learn about them and have some new energy infused into my life.

- Third, I’m going to limit my exposure to toxic relationships. This is the toughy. Some have been there so long it’ll be like amputating a part of my own body, but it’s in all our best interests. I’m going to work to find new ways to react to people who spew their poisons on me because they don’t have another way of behaving, and I’m going to forgive myself for feeling guilty if they’re unhappy. Their behaviors and their happiness are their own responsibility and it’s not up to me to fill them up inside. And vice versa.

Now that doesn’t mean that I won’t be a kind or caring person anymore. But it does mean that I will refuse to accept disrespect from others. I have to respect myself first before anyone else will, and those who don’t show respect just won’t be allowed in my life anymore.

It won’t be easy. But it will make me stronger. And it will lay a new foundation for my life that leads to a long path of very good things. So enough with the frying pan already.

What are your tough resolutions? What makes them so difficult to face? What’s actions will you take to accomplish them?

With a little set up and some patience to get caught up if your backlogged, keeping your emails organized and your inbox clean can be easy with these tips:

• Block off time for checking email. Checking emails as they come in can become compulsive and can chew up productive time, so block off 20-30 minutes at the beginning, middle, and end of each day to manage your emails.
• Create folders. Create folders based on topic or client so incoming emails have a place to be filed. Two main categories are “Administrative” (for personal items, corporate communications, vendors, and financial info) and “Clients” with subfolders by client name. Create additional subfolders if needed.
• Process immediately. During your blocked off email time, keep your inbox clean by processing an email as soon as you read it instead of letting it sit in your inbox to “do something about” later. Immediately:
  1. Delete unusable emails
  2. File informational emails
  3. Color code actionable emails
• Your inbox is your to-do list. Use your inbox like a to-do list and only keep open actionable items there. When an action is complete, file the email in the appropriate folder.
• Prioritize by color. Use flags or create rules to color code and prioritize incoming emails.
  1. Red for urgent or “must be done today”
  2. Green for “need to follow up”
  3. Black for normal priority action items
• Forward with “Task” in the subject. If an email subject doesn’t clearly identify or remind you what your action item is, forward the email to yourself and change the Subject like to TASK: (enter to-do item here) so you can quickly scan your inbox and not have to re-read an email to know why you saved it.
• Drag & Drop. If using Outlook, you can drag and drop an email onto a task list or calendar icon to quickly create a task list or meeting.
• Preview your emails. Use a preview pane or reading pane so emails are viewable without having to double-click on them.
• Hide unused icons. Shrink or hide any unused email functions so the icons don’t clutter up your screen.
• Sort by date. Sort emails by date so the newest incoming items are at the top and you can quickly see how many you need to process.

Remember, when you’re starting out and have a thousand emails in your inbox, be patient. It will take a little time at first to get caught up on existing emails while new ones are still coming in, but it will happen. And from then on, your inbox will stay clean and your task list will be manageable!

So it’s time to hear all your juciest secrets….I want to know, what’s the strangest thing you’ve ever “hoarded?”

For me, it was my hair.

Not in a gross way. I didn’t keep it in a jar or anything. But for most of my life (until I started my organizing business, actually) I had very long hair and kept the length somewhere between my bra strap and my bottom. I felt it was feminine and pretty, but the truth is, I don’t spend a lot of time on beauty and I didn’t condition or cut it as often as I should, so it would get greasy at the top, fried in the middle, and dry with split ends on the bottom. And as I got older and decided not to waste my time styling it since it took so long to dry, I’d began just washing it and pulling it back into a floppy bun. I even went to work this way. But I didn’t realize how that aged me because I thought as long as my hair was long and feminine, I looked good, even if it was in a knot on my head.

The truth is, I was hiding behind my hair. Literallly. It was long enough that I could let it down and it would cover my shoulders and arms, so it was like a warm jacket. But I already had jackets, so I decided it was time for a makeover.

I cut off my hair and LOVED it! In less than 10 minutes I can have hair that’s now more stylish. I decided to take this new freedom a step further and do a face makeover, and apparantly I was just in time. I told an Ulta store clerk my age and she gasped an “OH!” in that way people do when they find out someone’s just died, and said, “Honey, come with me!” She introduced me to another clerk and they shoved me into a chair and began dabbing me with gooey cotton balls & stingy toners, dusting me with powders, and dabbing on all kinds of shimmery glossy things. It was a whirlwind, but I felt like Cindy Crawford when I walked out of there. Well, Cindy Crawford with $200 worth of beauty products.

But it was worth it. So now I want to know, what’s the strangest thing you’ve held on to and why? What have you let go of that made you feel free?

I was chatting with friends this weekend about some of their “stuff” issues. One wanted to know about how to help her husband (who’s starting to some tendencies of his hoarding father), and the other wanted to know how to better deal with the emotional side of purging some of belongings that reminded her of her deceased mother. What I found interesting is how many people consider themselves “hoarders” just because they have a hard time letting go.

There’s a big difference between having clutter, being a packrat, and hoarding.

Clutter happens when people are busy doing other things, or have inadequate storage, or are postponing making decisions about what to do with certain items and stuff piles up. With a little elbow grease, clutter can usually be cleared quickly and storage solutions can be put in place so everything has a home moving forward. However, clutter can sometimes be a symptom of a larger issue like chronic disorganization, ADD, depression, or feeling a lack of control.

Being a packrat means that people pile things up because they like being surrounded by it and they don’t want to throw things away unless they’re forced to. The clutter in this case has some perceived value to it, and packrats usually hold on to things because they “may need it” someday and can usually tell me several things that item could be used for. It’s creative thinking, but it makes for unhappy surroundings because those items continue to pile up even if there is ample storage because there’s just too much of it, and the owners don’t perceive the items as being in the way. Putting things in perspective generally helps here. For example, asking, “How long have you had this item and when’s the last time you used it?” Or, “Tell me a date you plan on using this item” generally help people let go if it’s something they haven’t touched in a while. Another good question to ask is, “What’s more important, keeping this item or having a functional space?” For example, “Is it more important to keep those boxes of old papers in the living room or have a space your baby can safely crawl & play?” People will usually make the right call.

Hoarding is very different and goes much deeper than having too much stuff. The National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization (NSGCD) grades 5 levels of hoarding. There are lots of reasons for hoarding and true hoarders usually require the help of a therapist, an organizer, and other teams such as mold and pest control specialists. True hoarding can be dangerous to the health of the hoarder and their family and this is the real difference between “packratism” and hoarding. Here’s an interesting article about The Hoarding Syndrome.

An organizer can help get to the root cause of any of these and put organizing systems and teams in place to create organized spaces and organized minds.

What I want to know is, how many of you consider yourself a hoarder and why?

The fireplace. The focal point of the room. Supposedly.

If your fireplace doesn’t spark your interest or isn’t the first thing you notice when you walk in the room, here are some tips for staging it.

But remember that redesign is different from home selling. Redesign is customizing the look to fit your personal style, and staging for home selling is neutralizing your style altogether. Either way, here are some tips they share:

• First, clear the clutter off the mantle and remove furniture, plants, toys, papers, and general clutter from in front of the fireplace. Start with a blank slate.
• Next, if you have a wood burning fireplace, clean it! Scoop out all ashes ,and if you have dirty brick, use soap & warm water to scrub it (and possibly a wire brush if it’s really dirty).
• Does the wall the fireplace is on draw your eye immediately? If not, think about painting the wall 2 shades darker than your existing wall color, or a contrasting tone on the color wheel. You can also pull a favorite color from accessories like pillows which will tie the whole room together when you’re done. Usually a quart of paint will be plenty for at least 2 coats with some left over for touch ups later. If you have exposed brick and it’s dating the room, paint it! Light, creamy, earthy tones are hot right now and will make the room feel larger.
• If you have a brass fireplace grate, your room will automatically look dated. Disconnect it, and for a $5 can of black heat-resistant spray paint used for grills, you’ll have a more modern look.
• Does your mantle fit the scale of the fireplace? If not bulk it up with some 2x4s or some decorative trim. Paint it to match the existing trim in your room.
• Next step is to choose one large item to place over the mantle, usually some cool artwork or a mirror. In general, I love mirrors, but when they’re hung over a fireplace, they’re really too high to reflect the room and end up showing off a white ceiling or boring ceiling fan, which is not good. If you do use a mirror, try something in a round or oval shape to offset the squareness of the fireplace. If using artwork, fit the scale of the wall. In most cases, a 24×36 will work nicely.
• Now accessorize. If you like symmetry, get 2 of the same decoration to place on the each end of the mantle, or use decorations with a similar size or color. If you like asymmetry, keep balance in mind. Your accessories don’t have to be matchy-matchy, but they should balance visually. So mix a large, light colored item with a small dark object on one side (or a collection of mid-toned items like similar colored pottery), and a single large dark item on the other.
• Family photos. Here’s where the redesign vs. home staging differs. If you’re selling the home, eliminate all family photos. People want to picture their own family in the space, not yours. If you’re just redesigning, feel free to use photos, but paint the frames to be the same color so it’s soothing to the eye and less distracting. All black or all metal look very modern.
• Use a plant or small lamp to give your mantle some life. Greenery & light energize a space. If using candles, be sure they’re lit for an open house.
• Now that your fireplace is gorgeous, it’s time to make sure people see it when they walk in. Treat the fireplace as if it’s another piece of furniture in your home and arrange existing seating around it. If you think of the fireplace as part of a wall, you’ll be more likely to cover it up. If you have a corner fireplace, try angling the sofa perpendicular to it and lining up a coffee table like a runway leading to it.
• For an open house, be sure the fireplace is lit! It draws the eye, and conveys a coziness that will make everyone want to snuggle up. The only time this is a bad idea is when it’s over 80 degrees outside, or no one will be in the home for several hours after it’s shown.

I’d love to see some pictures of your rooms and hear your design tips!

If the stacks of business cards you’ve collected are beginning to look like the mountain in Close Encounters, or your wallet rivals George Castanza’s, oh yes, it’s time to do something. But who’s got time to key in all that info to your contact database, or scan & categorize all those receipts? Wish you could just hand the stack to someone and for less than dinner out one night, it’s all taken care of? YOU’RE IN LUCK!

My favorite service for this is Shoeboxed.com and they’ll scan, automatically categorize & send back or recycle your receipts (depending on your tier). It works like Netflix where you get an envelope that you stuff full and mail back (postage is already taken care of) and they send you a new envelope for your next wad.

They recently added business card scanning to their list of services too!

After they scan, everything is downloadable to Quicken, Excel, PDF, or CSV so you can import to your contact database or financial system. The IRS now accepts scanned receipts for tax purposes, and if ever there’s a dispute, you can click on a full size picture of the original receipt.

They’ve also have a great reporting tool so you can see spending charts to get a handle on your budget.

So if you want to clear the stacks of cards and be able to sit without leaning because your wallet’s too fat, click here to learn more or sign up.

I want to know, what do you keep in your wallet? Is it fat or skinny? What are your essentials for leaving the house?